September 9, 2025 was the 101st birthday of Dr. Russell M. Nelson, making him 101 when he died on September 27, 2025. Born in 1924, Dr. Nelson lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War (during which he was a Lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps and operated on soldiers injured in combat), the Vietnam War, stagflation, the birth and end of the Cold War, the 90’s technology boom, the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks in New York, the Great Recession of 2008, and the Covid-19 lockdowns. He was a pioneering surgeon, part of the team that developed the first machine that allowed for true open heart surgery, a world traveling medical instructor, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah. To top it off, he has a massive family with 10 children, 57 grandchildren, and over 100 great-grandchildren.
In over a century of living, Dr. Nelson had the kind of challenging, adventurous, and amazing life that many write movies, books, and plays about. In all that time, he accumulated a wealth of knowledge and wisdom through study and experience that would enlighten the lives of any who chose to listen to what he has to share. But there is another, more important and powerful reason than experience that should motivate you and I to listen to the wisdom and insights that Dr. Nelson had to share. He was not just a wise man filled with years of hard won wisdom. He was not just a highly educated doctor with a wide ranging mind that studied multiple fields of knowledge. He was not just a successful father who had shepherded an ever-growing family through the minefield of modern life.
Russell M. Nelson was also and Apostle of Jesus Christ and the Prophet of God. As President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Nelson was the mouthpiece of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Earth and the channel by and through which the Savior directed His church today. In other words, like most of us, President Nelson talked to God. Unlike most of us, God talks directly back to President Nelson. His wife, Wendy Nelson, shared examples in this video of times she has seen the Lord communicate to her husband:
During his speech at the tribute to President Nelson’s ministry and life that the church produced, Apostle Henry B. Eyring also talked about having this self same experience with President Nelson’s prophetic leadership. Except, instead of being there when the Lord communicated to His prophet, President Eyring was there when the Prophet communicated to him the revelations of God that he had received the night previously:
Today, we do it best remembering his sweet counsel on revelation in the Church. Countless times, he would come from his president’s office to begin the meeting of the First Presidency. He would, at times, hold out a sheet of paper and say, “I woke up at 2:30 this morning, got up, and wrote this down. Read it. What do you think about it?” I never knew an instance of our making any suggestion. I felt again the quiet and clear assurance that the Lord leads His Church by revelation to His prophets.
President Nelson’s wisdom goes beyond the wisdom which any man could accumulate in any number of years. As and Apostle and Prophet, President Nelson was the recipient of and channel through which the wisdom, knowledge, and revelations of God Himself have been given to the Earth. As you study the apostolic and prophetic teachings of President Nelson you will be privy to one of the greatest gifts man can be given, access to the word of God.
In celebration of his long life of wisdom and revelation, I want to share ten of his teachings that have spoken to me, that have communicated to me the mind and will of God. As I have lived these teachings, I have been transformed. The Holy Spirit has entered more powerfully into my life, my relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ has become far more personal, I have come to know God more directly as my Heavenly Father, I have become a better patriarch to my family, a greater husband to my wife, and have gained greater peace and joy in my life even as the world seemingly becomes a madder place every day. If you study and follow the teachings of President Nelson you too can and will have all these blessings, plus many more. I will divide the ten evenly into two groups, Apostolic Teachings from his time as an Apostle and Prophetic Teachings will be things he has taught since becoming President of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Apostolic Teachings
Here at the outset you must understand that because President Nelson’s Apostolic ministry stretched for over 30 years, the best that I can do is provide a small sampling of the pearls of great price found therein. These are some of my favorites. I highly suggest you carry out your own study of his teachings from these decades and discover the many treasures that I have not even been able to mention in this article.
My first example comes from an address that Elder Nelson gave March 31, 1985 at the Salt Lake Institute of Religion and titled A Call To Serve. Elder Nelson is explaining how he knew to call a specific man to be a stake patriarch. The story illustrates not only how inspiration and revelation comes to the Apostles, but shows how Elder Nelson was receiving revelation from God in the exact manner that his wife Wendy testifies to experiencing, except this example is from over 20 years before they married. This, therefore, is an early example of how Elder Nelson specifically is a visionary man. I placed the images, taken directly from the pdf available from the Church History Catalog in a two page slideshow below:
The second example comes from the April 1985 General Conference address titled Reverence For Life. Elder Nelson starts the talk by labeling abortion a war on the defenseless and unborn and then proceeds in a point by point intellectual and spiritual dismantling of the justifications for abortion. He culminates the talk by proclaiming:
Now, as a servant of the Lord, I dutifully warn those who advocate and practice abortion that they incur the wrath of Almighty God, who declared, “If men … hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, … he shall be surely punished.” (Ex. 21:22.)
Of those who shed innocent blood, a prophet declared: “The judgments which [God] shall exercise … in his wrath [shall] be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.” (Alma 14:11.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has consistently opposed the practice of abortion. One hundred years ago the First Presidency wrote: “And we again take this opportunity of warning the Latter-day Saints against those … practices of foeticide and infanticide.”
From the very start of his ministry, Elder Nelson has drawn a line in the sand and made it clear that abortion is a horrific practice which has slaughtered more than all the wars in modern history. Those that practice it stand condemned before God and will face the wrath of His justice for the evil of killing an innocent child. Human life is infinitely valuable, every person is great in the eyes of God and it must be the same with us, especially those who claim membership in the Kingdom of God.
This third example comes from Elder Nelson’s April 1990 General Conference address, “Thus Shall My Church Be Called.” The talk demonstrates that long before he became President of the Church, Elder Nelson cared deeply about the names of the church and we as a people. This address also demonstrates Elder Nelson’s deep love of language and his deep understanding of why it is important. Therein, Elder Nelson teaches us to reject the names “Mormon” and “Mormon Church” for the names that Jesus Christ Himself has given us, Latter-day Saints and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Nelson provides a deep examination of the meaning of the name of the church and why it matters so much that we call it and ourselves by the sacred names given to us by God.
I quote here in part from the section of the talk where he explains what it means to be a saint:
A saint is a believer in Christ and knows of His perfect love. The giving saint shares in a true spirit of that love, and the receiving saint accepts in a true spirit of gratitude. A saint serves others, knowing that the more one serves, the greater the opportunity for the Spirit to sanctify and purify.
A saint is tolerant and is attentive to the pleadings of other human beings, not only to spoken messages but to unspoken messages as well. A saint is different from an individual whose response to a concern might be a selfish “What do I care” attitude. A real saint responds, “What? I do care!” Do is an action verb, and it becomes the driving force in the reply of one who will care for another in need (see 1 Cor. 12:25–27; 2 Cor. 7:12).
…A saint resolves any differences with others honorably and peacefully and is constant in courtesy—even in traffic at the rush hour.
A saint shuns that which is unclean or degrading and avoids excess even of that which is good.
Perhaps above all, a saint is reverent. Reverence for the Lord, for the earth He created, for leaders, for the dignity of others, for the law, for the sanctity of life, and for chapels and other buildings are all evidences of saintly attitudes (see Lev. 19:30; Alma 47:22; D&C 107:4; 134:7).
Jesus Christ did not name us Mormons. He did not even name us Christians. In fact, the phrase Christian seems to have arisen in the same manner as the name Mormon did, as a means for those outside of the Church of Jesus Christ to derisively refer to those within it. Christ has called us His holy ones, His saints, and that is who and what we should be. In these Last Days, the latter-days before His Second Coming, the Lord has referred to us as His Latter-day Saints and that is the only name we should use for ourselves and the only title we should accept from others. Understanding that we are saints and what it means to be a saint, as seen in the teachings of Elder Nelson above, is the understand what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed.
My fourth example comes from Elder Nelson’s October 2013 General Conference address, Decisions For Eternity. It contains a magisterial explanation of how living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ expands our personal freedom and gives us greater liberty. rather than being rules which bind us down, the commandments of Jesus Christ are the instructions on how to gain maximal liberty for individuals and societies:
A pivotal spiritual attribute is that of self-mastery—the strength to place reason over appetite. Self-mastery builds a strong conscience. And your conscience determines your moral responses in difficult, tempting, and trying situations. Fasting helps your spirit to develop dominance over your physical appetites. Fasting also increases your access to heaven’s help, as it intensifies your prayers. Why the need for self-mastery? God implanted strong appetites within us for nourishment and love, vital for the human family to be perpetuated. When we master our appetites within the bounds of God’s laws, we can enjoy longer life, greater love, and consummate joy.
It is not surprising, then, that most temptations to stray from God’s plan of happiness come through the misuse of those essential, God-given appetites. Controlling our appetites is not always easy. Not one of us manages them perfectly. Mistakes happen. Errors are made. Sins are committed. What can we do then? We can learn from them. And we can truly repent.
We can change our behavior. Our very desires can change. How? There is only one way. True change—permanent change—can come only through the healing, cleansing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He loves you—each of you! He allows you to access His power as you keep His commandments, eagerly, earnestly, and exactly. It is that simple and certain. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of change!
A strong human spirit with control over appetites of the flesh is master over emotions and passions and not a slave to them. That kind of freedom is as vital to the spirit as oxygen is to the body! Freedom from self-slavery is true liberation!
You can not have liberty and sin. Sin enslaves individuals to their desires, their addictions, and their passions. Instead of controlling ourselves, we are controlled by our emotions and substances. Sex, drugs, money, food, etc. – all things from the commonest, “Sorry, I haven’t had my morning coffee yet,” to road rage ending in death are indications that we do not control ourselves but are instead controlled, enslaved, by something else. And people enslaved to sin create societies enslaved by law and ruled by fearful tyrants whose power is justified by the apparent wickedness of the masses. Slavery to substances and to self leads one not only to normalize tyranny, but to expect it from all others. Better to be part of the ruling tyranny than subject to it.
Therefore, liberty individually and politically can only be had in and through living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The commandments liberate us individually and we liberate the societies in which we live. The greater the adherence to the teachings of Jesus Christ in a community or nation, the freer the people will be and become. Likewise, the liberation that comes from Christ cannot be denied by any government. They may destroy the body, but Jesus has already ennobled your soul. He has overcome Death and Hell and if you follow Him then you can and will conquer all. Not only can you change and become better, but Christ can change human nature itself. He can make you like Him.
My fifth example comes from Elder Nelson’s October 2016 General Conference address Joy And Spiritual Survival. This talk is one of my favorite General Authority addresses ever because it lays out how to find and keep joy in our lives, even when times are trying and hardships seem to mount.
My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.
…Anything that opposes Christ or His doctrine will interrupt our joy. That includes the philosophies of men, so abundant online and in the blogosphere, which do exactly what Korihor did.
If we look to the world and follow its formulas for happiness, we will never know joy. The unrighteous may experience any number of emotions and sensations, but they will never experience joy! Joy is a gift for the faithful. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ.
He taught us how to have joy. When we choose Heavenly Father to be our God and when we can feel the Savior’s Atonement working in our lives, we will be filled with joy. Every time we nurture our spouse and guide our children, every time we forgive someone or ask for forgiveness, we can feel joy.
Every day that you and I choose to live celestial laws, every day that we keep our covenants and help others to do the same, joy will be ours.
Like liberty, joy is a gift that comes only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How we dress, speak, and act, what we believe, think, and do, really matter. The closer we adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives, the greater will be our joy in this life. And the fulness of joy in this life is logically found in the fulness of the Restored Gospel. Thus the importance of discipleship, of living as the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us to live. Repentance is not a dirty word or a fearful word. Rather, repentance is the pathway to joy as we transform our lives from lower ways of living to higher ways of living we will experience a rising tide of liberty, peace, and joy in our lives. The ordinances and covenants of the Restored Gospel are not constraints on our pleasure, but rather the sign posts for the road to travel down if you want to maximize your joy in this life.
This doesn’t mean our lives will be lives of ease. There will be struggles, sorrows, and hardship. By the time that Elder Nelson had given this talk he had already lost his first wife, Dantzel who died in his arms despite all his attempts to save her, and one of his daughters, Emily who died after a long struggle with a ravaging cancer. He knew what it meant to see and experience suffering and death. Yet, Elder Nelson can testify that thanks to the knowledge given to him by his testimony, the power that comes into his life from keeping his covenants with the Savior, and the peace that comes from living the Gospel, he has joy. Not because he hasn’t experienced pain, but joy in (and perhaps because of) those pains. The same has been true in my life as I have suffered the anxieties and sorrows of mortality and I know it will be true for your life. Mortality inevitably brings trial and pain. Thankfully, lasting joy is found as well when we choose God, Our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Prophetic Teachings
My sixth quotation comes form his October 2018 General Conference Address, The Correct Name of the Church. This talk builds upon the earlier talk about the meaning of the name of the church that I’ve quoted, but amplifies it exponentially:
It is the command of the Lord. …Thus, the name of the Church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of His Church should be and even precedes His declaration with, “Thus shall my church be called,” He is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, He is offended.
What’s in a name or, in this case, a nickname? When it comes to nicknames of the Church, such as the “LDS Church,” the “Mormon Church,” or the “Church of the Latter-day Saints,” the most important thing in those names is the absence of the Savior’s name. To remove the Lord’s name from the Lord’s Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior’s name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us—even His Atonement.
This talk is a powerful one and one that members of the church still struggle with. Too many of us have been too slavish to worldly culture, even those defend the church but can’t get it into their minds that the words the use matter. Language is incredibly powerful. Calling ourselves Mormons is to use the language of our persecutors, language they developed as propaganda to rob us of our Christianity and deny the truths of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should, we must use the language that Jesus Christ gave us because it sanctifies and exalts us as His people and this as His organization.
As a convert, I am not and never have been a Mormon. Jesus Christ Himself named me a Latter-day Saint. I am a member of His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That isn’t awkward. It is powerful. Watching people’s confusion about the name is great because it gives us an opportunity to be missionaries, to explain what we believe and testify to the leadership of Jesus Christ as the head of His church.
My seventh entry comes from President Nelson’s April 2019 General Conference Address, “Come Follow Me.” This quotation address the consequences of refusing to follow the Savior in contrast to the blessings of following Him:
The anguish of my heart is that many people whom I love, whom I admire, and whom I respect decline His invitation. They ignore the pleadings of Jesus Christ when He beckons, “Come, follow me.”
I understand why God weeps. I also weep for such friends and relatives. They are wonderful men and women, devoted to their family and civic responsibilities. They give generously of their time, energy, and resources. And the world is better for their efforts. But they have chosen not to make covenants with God. They have not received the ordinances that will exalt them with their families and bind them together forever.
How I wish I could visit with them and invite them to consider seriously the enabling laws of the Lord. I’ve wondered what I could possibly say so they would feel how much the Savior loves them and know how much I love them and come to recognize how covenant-keeping women and men can receive a “fulness of joy.”
They need to understand that while there is a place for them hereafter—with wonderful men and women who also chose not to make covenants with God—that is not the place where families will be reunited and be given the privilege to live and progress forever. That is not the kingdom where they will experience the fulness of joy—of never-ending progression and happiness. Those consummate blessings can come only by living in an exalted celestial realm with God, our Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and our wonderful, worthy, and qualified family members.
I am often asked why it isn’t good enough to just be a “good person” in order to get into Heaven. I respond that, first, every human being is vastly overestimating his and her innate “goodness.” We’re all liars, cheaters, thieves, and intentionally harm others in a multitude of ways. Good people don’t do those things, but you and I and everyone else do them every day. As the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, there has only ever been a single good man in human history and His name is Jesus the Christ. That would preclude all of us. Secondly, God isn’t very interested in just making you good. Human goodness is not good enough, falling infinitely below the qualifications in spiritual power and purity for us to be good enough to dwell in the “everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power,” of the Celestial Kingdom of God. (Joseph Smith, pg. 222.) You have to be holy in order to dwell in the presence of the Father.
The Father’s goal is to transform you into that kind of holy being by imparting His holiness to you, in you, and through you until your very nature is completely and utterly changed, until you go from being a human to being a god. (D&C 132:19-20) This is why His people are called Saints, which means holy ones. We are to become holy as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:15-17) It is through the power of the ordinances of the Restored Gospel we are bound by covenant to Jesus Christ and are filled with His grace, which sanctifies us, which makes us holy, and turns us into the divinities that Our Father in Heaven has for us to become. That this process begins here on Earth, that eternal life begins today and now, is how and why living the Restored Gospel brings us such joy that cannot be found anywhere else. We are merely experiencing the foretaste of the exaltation that is to come.
My eighth selection comes from President nelson’s October 202 General Conference address, Let God Prevail. The whole talk is about how to live a sanctified life that can and will be filled with the joy of God:
I have studied the gathering, prayed about it, feasted upon every related scripture, and asked the Lord to increase my understanding.
So imagine my delight when I was led recently to a new insight. With the help of two Hebrew scholars, I learned that one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is “let God prevail.” Thus the very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life. That concept stirs my soul!
The word willing is crucial to this interpretation of Israel. We all have our agency. We can choose to be of Israel, or not. We can choose to let God prevail in our lives, or not. We can choose to let God be the most powerful influence in our lives, or not.
…With the Hebraic definition of Israel in mind, we find that the gathering of Israel takes on added meaning. The Lord is gathering those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives. The Lord is gathering those who will choose to let God be the most important influence in their lives.
President Nelson’s translation of Israel is right on the money as, according to The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, the name was originally a verbal exhortation, a command meaning “Let God reign.” If we are to be Israel we must let God prevail, we must let God reign and rule our lives. To do that, God must be the most important influence in our lives. Not the government. Not politics. Not our friend. Not our families, Not our teachers, Not our online communities. Not the books we read or shows we watch. Not the music to which we listen. Not our hobbies and past times. Not our jobs.
God must be the singular and most powerful influence in our lives if we have any hope of calling upon the fulness of His power in our lives and experiencing the fulness of joy that comes from living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And understanding the meaning of Israel also helps us understand the work of the church. We are meant to be modern day Israel, the true children of the covenant who let God reign in their lives. We do this by rejecting the false philosophies of the world (whether they be nationalism, patriotism, Socialism, “wokeism” or anything else) and making the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Restored Covenant of God, the determiner of what we believe, the way we live, and how we fix the problems of the world. But that isn’t for everyone. Those who can’t or won’t may or may not leave the church, the wheat and tares grow together after all, but they won’t be Israel.
This ninth quotation comes from President Nelson’s April 2023 General Conference address, Peacemakers Needed. It is one of the boldest calls to Christian living issued in recent times, one so challenging that most members balk at living up to its call:
Today is Palm Sunday. We are preparing to commemorate the most important and transcendent event ever recorded on earth, which is the Atonement and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the best ways we can honor the Savior is to become a peacemaker.
The Savior’s Atonement made it possible for us to overcome all evil—including contention. Make no mistake about it: contention is evil! Jesus Christ declared that those who have “the spirit of contention” are not of Him but are “of the devil, who is the father of contention, and [the devil] stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.” Those who foster contention are taking a page out of Satan’s playbook, whether they realize it or not. “No man can serve two masters.” We cannot support Satan with our verbal assaults and then think that we can still serve God.
My dear brothers and sisters, how we treat each other really matters! How we speak to and about others at home, at church, at work, and online really matters. Today, I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way. Please listen carefully. “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy” that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.
…Contention drives away the Spirit—every time. Contention reinforces the false notion that confrontation is the way to resolve differences; but it never is. Contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to choose contention or reconciliation. I urge you to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always.
Brothers and sisters, we can literally change the world—one person and one interaction at a time.
Too many members see refusing to answer criticism for criticism, argument for argument, anger for anger, contention for contention as being weak. They confuse being angry and being loud and being aggressive for being useful when all they are being is foolish. Arguments do not convince people, the Holy Spirit does. Unless you are doing something invites the Holy Spirit, such as bearing testimony, then it doesn’t matter how factually correct you may be, no one will listen. These former missionaries should’ve learned that lesson when Bible bashing failed to win them converts.
Yes, it is natural to be defensive, but the Natural Man (and all his inclinations) are the Enemy of God. (Mosiah 3:19) Acting “naturally” is to follow Satan, whose title means Enemy because he is the Enemy of God, which is why contention is of the Devil. (3 Nephi 11:29) Even Christ understood their were times to remain silent and refuse to answer your accusers. (Luke 23) If you cannot bring the Holy Spirit into the conversation, then perhaps you should keep your mouth shut. Nothing you say will matter. At best all you will do is cast your pearls before swine.
The problem seems to be a lack of vision. They are so used to doing things after the manner of the Princes of the Gentiles that they do not understand how anything else could build Zion. But, in a world continually and increasingly riven with strife, hatred, and murder, one of the things that will stand out about the disciples of Jesus Christ is that they entirely refuse to take part in such bitter caterwauling, swift judgments, acidic acrimony, and frequent violence. That we know how to stand still and be at peace, trusting in God’s hand, being struck on the cheek again and again without striking back, having evil after evil done to us only for us to respond in kindness, love and service – these are the things that will draw people to Zion in droves. This is what President Nelson understands and what he has called us to do and become in all aspects of our lives.
The tenth and final selection comes from President Nelson’s April 2024 General Conference address, Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys. In many ways it is a magnum opus, a culmination of a lifetime of wisdom and experience with how the power of Jesus Christ transforms those who serve Him. In this talk he explains how Christ’s grace is gained and how it changes the very nature of His disciples to not only make them fit for the Kingdom of God, but to become gods themselves.
Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple is a tutorial about how the temple spiritually empowers you and me to meet the challenges of life in these last days. I encourage you to study that prayer, recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 109. That dedicatory prayer, which was received by revelation, teaches that the temple is “a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.”
This list of attributes is much more than a description of a temple. It is a promise about what will happen to those who serve and worship in the house of the Lord. They can expect to receive answers to prayer, personal revelation, greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge, and increased power.
Time in the temple will help you to think celestial and to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become, and the kind of life you can have forever. Regular temple worship will enhance the way you see yourself and how you fit into God’s magnificent plan. I promise you that.
We are also promised that in the temple we may “receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost.” Imagine what that promise means in terms of having the heavens open for each earnest seeker of eternal truth.
We are instructed that all who worship in the temple will have the power of God and angels having “charge over them.” How much does it increase your confidence to know that, as an endowed woman or man armed with the power of God, you do not have to face life alone? What courage does it give you to know that angels really will help you?
Finally, we are promised that “no combination of wickedness” will prevail over those who worship in the house of the Lord.
Understanding the spiritual privileges made possible in the temple is vital to each of us today.
The temple is the House of the Lord. It is God’s house and those who worship in it will gain of His power as they do His work therein. That power will change them inside and out. Our bodies are not our own for Jesus brought them with the suffering and blood of His Atonement. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) When we receive His ordinances and follow His commandments, we become vessels for the Holy Spirit. We ourselves become temples of God, something reflected in the very nature of the sacred vestments we wear as garments under our clothes which are modeled after the veil of the temple itself. The goal is for us to become walking, talking, thinking, and acting temples of God.
As we worship in the temple and order our lives according to the discipline of Christ, then He transforms us and we become walking temples. Every attribute of the temple can and will be our own. Faith, glory, honor, learning, knowledge, power, and protection from the evils of the world will be ours. Even the very ways we think will be transformed as we obtain the mind and will of the Lord through the revelation(s) of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And this will all be but preparation, prologue, for the grand destiny of eternal life that lays before us.
Final Thoughts
I am grateful for the ministry of Russell M. Nelson. He was an exemplary man, honorable and good. Not because he himself was made of better clay than the rest of us, but because he has spent His life in the service of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And that kind of lifetime service transforms those who undertake it, turning them from the lead of mortality into the gold of eternity. President Nelson’s inspired and revelatory teachings have transformed me as I have heeded them because they come from the fount of all truth, Jesus Christ. Though I have never met President Nelson, for this reason I love him. At 101, I do not know how much longer he will be with us, but he has earned every blessing of peace that he enjoys in them. He has worn out his life in service to the Master and inspired in me the hope that I will be able to do likewise.