Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke during the Saturday evening session of October 2024 general conference. He spoke about living holiness to the Lord every day and shared stories of Church members doing just that. The following is a summary of what he said.
Elder Gong’s talk summary
“Ours is a gospel of joy and holiness in everyday life.” Holiness invites all to infuse daily living with the sacred.
Church members’ stories of everyday holiness are inspiring. “You live seven C’s: communion with God, community and compassion with each other, commitment and covenant with God, family and friends — centered in Jesus Christ.”
Examples of these stories include a recently married couple “sharing with authenticity and vulnerability gospel covenants, sacrifice and service in their unfolding lives.”
A sister, yearning for a better relationship with her father, felt impressed to take him to the temple with her. This began regular daddy-daughter trips to the temple. “Spending time in the house of the Lord has healed us,” she said.
Jean Gong, Elder Gong’s mother, died earlier this year. The decision to be baptized and join the Church at 15 years old is one that most shaped her life. “My mother had covenant faith and trust in the Lord that blessed her life and all our family generations.”
Everyday holiness to the Lord “includes coming more often to the Lord in His holy house.” Doing so “prepares us to live with God our Father, a Man of Holiness, Jesus Christ and our loved ones.”
See the full text of Elder Gong’s talk: ‘Holiness to the Lord in Everyday Life’
Notable quotes
“Ours is a gospel of joy and holiness in everyday life.”
“You live seven C’s: communion with God, community and compassion with each other, commitment and covenant with God, family and friends — centered in Jesus Christ.”
“Holiness to the Lord in everyday life includes coming more often to the Lord in His holy house.”
Who is Elder Gong?
- Elder Gerrit W. Gong was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on March 31, 2018, and had served as a General Authority Seventy since April 2010.
- His mother met the missionaries when she was a teenager in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father joined the Church after attending Stanford University, where Elder Gong’s parents met and dated.
- The first time Elder Gong met his wife, Susan Lindsay, was at an evening devotional he volunteered to give at the Provo Missionary Training Center to help missionaries learn more about Taiwan. They briefly met, but Elder Gong said in that moment, he “had a feeling this was somebody I’d always know.
What has Elder Gong done recently?
- In the April 2024 general conference, Elder Gong assured Saints that with faith, “trials and sacrifices we would never choose can bless us and others in ways never imagined.”
- In May, Elder Gong offered the dedicatory prayer on the Puebla Mexico Temple. He said, “May all who come be blessed with peace and joy, faith and testimony, guidance and inspiration.”
- To dedicate the Taylorsville Utah Temple in June, Elder Gong blessed the house of the Lord to be a “covenant place of generational sealing.”
- Elder Gong visited Saints and officials in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in June, one month after floodwaters covered the city for weeks amid unprecedented storms. “It is just tender and sacred to be reminded that in the hardest of times we are never alone,” he said.
Read more of Elder Gong’s general conference addresses, or follow him on Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter.