Repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation are part of a disciple’s daily walk with the Lord and path to joy and holiness, Elder Gerrit W. Gong taught at October 2024 general conference on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Elder Gong related the story of a young woman who during her high school years was in a dark place. “I felt like God wasn’t there for me,” she said.
A friend asked her in a text message if she had ever read Alma 36, where Book of Mormon prophet Alma describes his personal experience of going from vile sinner to devout believer.
As the girl read the scriptural account, she was “overcome with peace and love.”
“I felt like I was being given this big hug,” she said. “I knew Heavenly Father saw me and knew exactly how I was feeling.”
Later in his remarks, Elder Gong told about a daughter who struggled in her relationship with her father. Their wife/mother acted as a liaison between them until she died. One day, the daughter felt the Holy Spirit tell her to invite her father to attend the temple. That was the beginning of a twice-a-month date for father and daughter to the house of the Lord that reconciled their relationship.
“Spending time in the house of the Lord has healed us,” the daughter said. “My mom could not help us on earth. It took her being on the other side of the veil to help mend what was broken.”
Elder Gong said: “Ours is a gospel of joy and holiness in everyday life. ... To help us become holy, the Lord invites us to walk with Him.”
Elder Gong was one of several Church leaders whose messages shared themes of repentance and forgiveness during the first day of October 2024 general conference.
In the Saturday afternoon session, Elder D. Martin Goury, a General Authority Seventy, taught that repentance is a foundational principle of the gospel, essential for a person’s spiritual development.
“Through repentance, our burdens of guilt are lifted and replaced by a sense of peace and tranquility,” he said. “As we repent earnestly, we are sanctified through the Savior’s blood, increasing our sensitivity to the promptings and influences of the Holy Ghost.”
In the Saturday evening session, Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, said that “repenting allows us to feel God’s love and to know and love Him in ways we would never otherwise know.”
Sister Yee related an experience from a decade ago when she felt impressed to paint a portrait of the Savior. After great work and effort, she accidentally applied varnish too soon while the painting was still wet and felt she had destroyed the painting. She prayed and pleaded for help and painted through the night to repair the damage. The next morning, the painting looked better than it had before. The experience taught her about the Lord’s love and power to save from mistakes, weaknesses and sins.
“Just as the depth of my gratitude for the Savior grew as He mercifully helped me to repair the ‘unrepairable’ painting, so has my personal love and gratitude for my Savior grown as I’ve sought to work with Him on my weaknesses and to be forgiven of my mistakes,” she said. “I will forever be grateful to my Savior that I can change and be cleansed.”
Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder, said Joseph Smith’s First Vision experience in the Sacred Grove gave him confidence to ask for forgiveness and direction for the rest of his life.
“Joseph’s life of regular repentance gives me confidence to ‘come boldly unto the throne of grace, that [I] may obtain mercy’ (Hebrews 4:16),” he said. “I have learned that Jesus Christ truly is ‘of a forgiving disposition.’ It is neither His mission nor His nature to condemn. He came to save.”
Elder Jorge M. Alvarado, also a General Authority Seventy, titled his remarks “Embrace the Lord’s Gift of Repentance.” He shared the true account of a thief who stole a woman’s purse that contained a copy of the Book of Mormon. A few days later, the thief asked the woman for forgiveness. Through sincere repentance and the Savior’s power, he changed his life.
“I testify of God and of the infinite power of His Son’s Atonement,” he said. “We can feel it profoundly as we sincerely and wholeheartedly repent.”
