Face to Face: President Eyring and Elder Holland
On Saturday, March 4th, President Eyring and Elder Holland sat down with youth from all over the world for a Face to Face broadcast from Palmyra, New York.
“Most youth of the Church across the world will never have the chance to visit Palmyra, New York, in person, but I hope that participating in this event will help some of them feel as if they are there,” said President Eyring before the event began.
Question were submitted via social media channels prior to the event, and through youth groups live-streaming from Johannesburg, South Africa, and Plymouth, England.
The apostles spent an hour and a half discussing revelation, prayer, patriarchal blessings, and how to be an example of Christ to those in our life. Focusing on the 2017 Mutual theme, “Ask”, President Henry B. Eyring invited the youth to come to their own understanding of the truth of the doctrines of the gospel.
“While this challenge may seem like a simple invitation, I promise you it may take significant effort,” President Eyring said. “I cannot promise that your answers will come in a day, or in a week, but I can promise that God will speak to you in His own way and in His own time if you ask in faith.”
Elder Holland offered advice for those who consistently feel like they’re constantly missing the mark.
“Nobody in the world has ever been perfect, except for Jesus,” Elder Holland said. “Don’t beat yourself up for not being perfect.”
Elder Holland also spoke of the gospel, “This is not a cunningly devised fable. This is God’s truth. … I want all of you here and afar to know that I know that this is the work and kingdom of God on earth. I am more certain of that than anything I know, anything I have seen, anything I have ever heard and anything I hope to embrace in the future. I am absolutely certain that the Father and the Son appeared to a boy just a few yards away from here and that that began the great and last, final dispensation. Uninterrupted by apostasy, not unencumbered by difficulty or opposition, but nevertheless, destined to succeed.”
View the full broadcast on the LDS Youth YouTube Channel.
Groundbreaking For Two South American Temples
Latter-day Saints in Peru and Brazil are one step closer to being blessed with new temples.
Brazil Area president, Elder Claudio M. Costa, and his second counselor — Elder Mark W. Basset of the Seventy — presided over the groundbreaking for the future Rio de Janeiro Temple on March 4th. The Rio de Janeiro Temple, announced in August 2013, will be Brazil’s eighth temple.
“Today is a historic day for the Church in this city and in Brazil,” Elder Costa remarked. “Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful city, a city that welcomes all with open arms like the Christ Statue. I am grateful to live in a country which champions religious freedom. We love our brothers of other faiths and we participate with them in humanitarian projects. We have good friends here.”
To the west, Saints in Peru attended the ground breaking for the Arequipa Peru Temple. Elder Carlos Godoy, South America Northwest Area president, presided over the groundbreaking alongside Elders Enrique R. Falabella and Hugo Montoya.
Nearly 569,000 Latter-day Saints call Peru home. Church members in Arequipa attend temple services 500 miles away in Lima — the construction of this new temple will bring sacred ordinances closer to home.
“A temple is a place of hope; it is a place where our young people can attend. Members of the Church come here and they find peace, serenity, answers and revelation, ” said Elder Montoya, addressing the youth.
The Church currently has 155 dedicated temples worldwide.
Read more at Mormon Newsroom.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks: A Changing Climate
In a commencement address to BYU-Hawaii graduates on February 25th, Elder Dallin H.Oaks pointed his audiences attention to some of the lesser discussed trials of our time: global warming and the Trump administration.
“Seacoast cities are concerned with the rising level of the ocean, which will bring ocean tides to their doorsteps or over their thresholds,” said Oaks. “Global warming is also affecting agriculture and wildlife.”
Though Oaks did not place the blame of climate change upon the shoulders of mankind, he did point out another threat to human welfare. Without mentioning him by name, Elder Oaks noted that the new president’s way of handling things has struck a chord of anxiety across nations.
“We are even challenged by the politics of conflict,” he said, “and the uncertainties sponsored by the aggressive new presidential administration in the world’s most powerful nation.”
Oaks counseled the new graduates to “push back against that part of the world’s values and practices that draw us away from the Lord’s teachings and our covenant obligations.”
“We should take a position, make it known, and in a respectful way attempt to persuade others of its merit, at least for us,” he said. “Positive action is essential to our responsibility to push back against the world.”
Read Oaks’s full speech.
Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune.
