Messages offered during the Sunday morning session of the 189th Annual General Conference were defined by invitations by the prophet and other Church leaders to follow the Savior Jesus Christ, increase faith in Him and prepare for His Second Coming.
"Jesus Christ teaches the way back to our eternal home," President Russell M. Nelson said in the concluding address of the session.
As the President of His Church, President Nelson said, “I plead with you who have distanced yourselves from the Church and with you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s Church has been restored. Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out.”
God lives and Jesus is the Christ, he testified. “His Church and the fulness of His gospel have been restored to bless our lives with joy, here and hereafter.”
Three members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles also spoke during the session — Elders Dale G. Renlund, Quentin L. Cook and D. Todd Christofferson — as well as Sister Sharon Eubank of the Relief Society general presidency and Brother Tad R. Callister, who was released during the Saturday afternoon session as the Sunday School general president.
Elder Cook shared how charity plays a vital role in missionary work, temple and family history work, and teaching in the home. “When it comes to gathering Israel, we need to align our hearts with this kind of love (charity) and move away from feelings of mere responsibility or guilt to feelings of love and participation in the divine partnership of sharing the Savior’s message, ministry and mission with the world.”
Elder Christofferson similarly spoke of the need to participate in the gathering of Israel to help prepare for the Lord's Second Coming. "We can prepare ourselves as a people; we can gather the Lord’s covenant people; and we can help redeem the promise of salvation made to the fathers, our ancestors. All of this must occur in some substantial degree before the Lord comes again," he said.
Members must act in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to activate the blessings God wants to give to His children, said Elder Renlund. "Most blessings that God desires to give us require action on our part — action based on our faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in the Savior is a principle of action and of power. First we act in faith, then the power comes — according to God’s will and timing."
Sister Eubank testified that Christ is the source of light, healing and rest to those who feel paralyzed with grief, who are tired, who feel they don't fit the "traditional mold," who are splintering with questions or who feel they will never be good enough.
And Brother Callister in his last general conference address testified that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is "heaven's antidote to the obstacles and struggles of this world."
President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, conducted the session and Elder Bradley D. Foster, General Authority Seventy, and Sister Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society general president, offered prayers.
Music for the session was provided by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square under the direction of Mack Wilberg, with Andrew Unsworth and Brian Mathias playing the Conference Center organ.
