Memorials and historical markers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should do more than preserve the memory of remarkable people and significant events.
Their ultimate purpose is to help people recognize the hand of the Lord and draw closer to Jesus Christ, Elder Kyle S. McKay told an audience in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building chapel during the 2026 Church History Symposium on Friday, Oct. 23.
“In all your remembering, always remember Him,” said Elder McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as the Church historian and recorder.
Elder McKay titled his remarks “That All the People of the Earth Might Know,” drawing on scriptural accounts of Joshua in the Old Testament and Alma in the Book of Mormon to explain how remembering the past can strengthen faith in the Savior.
The theme of this year’s symposium is “Memorials and Commemoration: How the Saints Remember and Celebrate History.”
Don’t stop short of the mark
Elder McKay began with the prophet Jacob’s warning about looking “beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14). He cautioned that people today may do the opposite — stop short of it.
“When we focus on remarkable people or miraculous events without acknowledging the One who made them remarkable or miraculous, we have stopped short of the mark,” he said.
Jesus Christ is the mark, Elder McKay said. If a memorial is an object, place or ceremony that keeps the memory of a person or historical event alive, then the Book of Mormon is “one of the greatest tangible memorials of Jesus Christ on earth today.”
Remembering the Lord’s mighty hand
Elder McKay said the Old Testament account of Israel crossing the Jordan River illustrates the purpose of memorials.
After the Israelites crossed on dry ground, the Lord directed Joshua to have 12 men retrieve stones from the riverbed. Those stones became a memorial that would invite future generations to ask what had happened there.
Beyond commemorating the miraculous crossing, Joshua identified the memorial’s greater purpose: “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty” (Joshua 4:24).
Elder McKay said Joshua’s declaration explains the purpose of memorials in the Church today.
The sacrament — which Elder McKay described as perhaps the Church’s most sacred memorial — illustrates the same principle more succinctly: “Always remember Him” (see Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79).
“Look at the bread, the water, the statue, the stones, the plaque, the monument, the building, the cloth and remember the event, the people, the circumstances,” he said. “But in all your remembering, always remember Him.”
Alma’s lesson in remembering
In the Book of Mormon, an angel appeared to Alma the Younger as he sought to destroy the Church. Before commanding Alma to stop, the angel instructed him to remember his fathers’ captivity and the great things the Lord had done to deliver them (see Mosiah 27:16).
During his suffering, Alma remembered his father’s teachings about Jesus Christ. He cried out to the Savior for mercy and received deliverance.
“In response, Jesus, who had delivered Alma’s fathers from their bondage, delivered Alma from his,” Elder McKay said.
The experience shaped Alma’s ministry. He repeatedly urged others to remember their ancestors’ captivity and the Lord’s power to save.
Elder McKay said this remembering fulfilled its purpose because Alma and those he taught looked beyond captivity and deliverance to “the Great Deliverer, Jesus Christ.”
From history to the Savior
Elder McKay concluded by asking listeners to consider whether Church historic sites and memorials remind them of Christ. His examples included Joseph Smith’s birthplace, the Kirtland Temple, Hawn’s Mill, the Red Brick Store, a Winter Quarters statue and memorials in England and Argentina.
Each commemorates people or events, he said, and each can also become a witness of the Savior.
“I pray that every memorial of every kind in this Church will connect all who encounter it to some significant person or event of the past, and that that historic person or event will, in turn, gently usher its viewers to Jesus Christ.”
Along with remembering the Savior, Elder McKay invited listeners to remember Heavenly Father.
“We remember Christ, we come unto Christ, because He is the only way back to the Father,” he said. “Just as He brought ancient Israel back to its promised land, Jesus Christ will bring us back to the Father, who is our home. Remember that.”
