Congratulations
Elder Christensen, President Eyring, and everyone watching, I join you in applauding each of these graduates today.
The world has changed since you began college. Those freshman worries about social distancing didn’t include facemasks as fashion accessories. You’ve walked to class bundled for snow and now your Zoom background transforms frosty Rexburg mornings into sunsets and beach fronts.
You’ve completed classes online, taken tests on the honor system, and had to choose how you would worship without meetings on Sundays. To the achievement of surviving statistics and mastering world history, you may now add the accomplishment of enduring a global black swan event.
You are participants
“You are participants—more than witnesses,” President Packer said. “Thank God that you are born in this era.” [1]
And it Came to Pass
The phrase “and it came to pass” occurs so often in the Book of Mormon that Mark Twain famously quipped that if it were left out, the book would have been only a pamphlet. [2]
We sometimes gloss over that phrase as if it were wasted scriptural words. There is no such thing. Multiple prophets have taught that the Lord tells us things before they come to pass, so that when they do come to pass, we will recognize His hand, and know and declare that He is God. [3] In addition to linguistic and historical insights, [4] that phrase “and it came to pass” is a quiet, frequent scriptural witness that God is God, that He knows you, His children, and that you may have confidence in tomorrow because of what He says today.
Like so many of you, our 17-year-old daughter, Annie, has a remarkably calm assurance that this pandemic will come to pass. “I heard the prophets and apostles say so in conference,” she says, and then quotes Elder Holland: “We still have hopes that have not yet been fulfilled . . . and we will [conquer this pandemic].” [5]
As you now leave college, the Savior and His prophets have told us what lies ahead as we prepare the world for His second coming. Besides commotion, [6] war, [7] and earthquakes in diverse places, [8]you will see the failure of men’s hearts, [9] fissures in faith, and earthquakes from choices which should not have been made.
But through both global and personal upheavals, we remember the Savior rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still.” And immediately “the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” after which the Savior seems to look at us as He searchingly asks His apostles, “Why are ye so fearful?” [10]
These words saved Nephi and should give us hope, “ And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm.” [11]
I add my personal witness, to your calm assurance, that notwithstanding this “virulent virus,” or “life’s personal trials [which will] stretch far beyond this pandemic,” if you and I will do as President Nelson implored us in conference and “fill our personal spiritual storehouses with faith, truth, and testimony,” [12] it shall be said of you that which was said of the righteous Nephites: “ And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.” [13]
I testify that Jesus Christ is the “high priest of good things to come,” [14] and that Heavenly Father’s plan is “the great and eternal plan of deliverance.” [15]
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Boyd K. Packer, “To Those Who Teach in Troubled Times,” Address to religious educators, Summer 1970.
[2] Mark Twain, Roughing It, Hartford, Conn,: American Publishing Co., 1901, p. 133.
[3] See 1 Nephi 20:1–6; Isaiah 48:1–6; John 13:19.
[4] See fairmormon.org/answers/Question:_Why_does_%22and_it_came_to_pass%22_appear_so_often_in_the_Book_of_Mormon%3F
See also byustudies.byu.edu/charts/134-it-came-pass-occurrences-book-mormon;
ChurchofJesusChrist.org/study/ensign/1992/12/i-have-a-question/why-is-the-phrase-and-it-came-to-pass-so-prevalent-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng.
[5] Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Perfect Brightness of Hope,” Ensign, May 2020.
[6] Doctrine and Covenants 45:26.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Mark 13:7–8.
[9] Doctrine and Covenants 45:26, 27.
[10] Mark 4:39–40.
[11] 1 Nephi 18:21.
[12] President Russell M. Nelson, “Opening Message,” Ensign, May 2020.
[13] 2 Nephi 5:27.
[14] Hebrews 9:11.
[15] 2 Nephi 11:5.