In May, I was in Antananarivo, Madagascar, where I saw a home that used to be a meeting place for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
There, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Kathy Christofferson, met with a pioneer member of the Church.
One of the members of the extended family in the home that night told Elder Christofferson that he was coming back to church after “taking a break.”
At that, Elder Christofferson turned from the translator, looked into the man’s eyes, smiled and gently teased, “I am glad you are no longer broken.”
I could not stop thinking about the words “break” and “broken.” I thought of how on the Sabbath day we eat the broken bread, symbolic of the body of Jesus Christ, who was bruised, broken and torn for us.
Then Helaman 5:12 came to my mind: “Remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation.”
Build versus break.
The verse continues, “that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds … it shall have no power over you. … Because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”
Another word that comes to mind is “bind.”
When we bind ourselves to the Lord through covenants and yoke ourselves with Him, we get increased power. President Russell M. Nelson has taught about the special kind of love and mercy that God feels for and extends to those who have made a covenant with Him. This is called “hesed.”
“Because God has hesed for those who have covenanted with Him, He will love them,” President Nelson said. “He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, He will help them find their way back to Him.”
Broken things can be mended and healed. The Savior is the Master Healer. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” He said in Matthew 11:28.
The man that night talked about coming back to church — about returning. During a devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center in October 2023, Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman asked the missionaries learning American Sign Language to make the sign for repentance. They showed how the fingers make the letter “r” and then the hands turn around each other.
“This is what repentance means, to turn again to Christ,” President Freeman said. “The Lord welcomes us back every time we repent — every time we turn again to Him.”
In 2023, I wrote about a family who returned to the covenant path. When the father was asked why he is back, he said, “Because I want to be close to God again.” A study from Brigham Young University published in Pastoral Psychology found that people returned to faith when they experienced a reconnection in their relationship to God.
In contrast, the Zoramites in Alma 31 were described as a people who “would not observe to keep the commandments of God. … Neither would they observe the performances of the church” (verses 9-10). A footnote on the word “performances” points to the word “ordinance” in the Topical Guide. Ordinances are sacred acts given by the Lord and performed by the authority of the priesthood.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in April 2022 general conference that “covenants and ordinances point us to and help us always remember our connection with the Lord Jesus Christ as we progress along the covenant path.”
The Savior suffered and died and then rose again for us. And therefore we can be made whole. Repenting and returning makes us whole. The priesthood keys, ordinances and covenants in His restored gospel are what allow us to have eternal life with our loved ones.
Elder Christofferson did not ask the man in Madagascar why he had left church activity in the first place; he did not shame him or question him further — he simply welcomed him back with the words “I am glad.” Such gladness and joy are found in Jesus Christ, a foundation whereon if we build we cannot fall.
— Mary Richards is a reporter for the Church News.
