Twelve ways Russell M. Nelson made me a better father, husband and Christian
While feeling personally grateful, I’ve been feeling sad for those who missed out on the influence of this special witness of Christ. But it’s not too late to be changed by his remarkable witness!
President Russell M. Nelson, the 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sits with his counselors, President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor, left, and President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor, right, at a press conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
This week, as we laid to rest President Russell M. Nelson as a faith, I’ve been feeling so grateful I lived in a time where I felt his influence.
One of the richest parts of my life has been knowing so many wonderful people who see the world differently than I do. For so many of these friends, I want to help people who know me understand why I’ve appreciated this individual—and what kind of an impact he’s had on my life.
Like millions of other Latter-day Saints throughout the world, I believe in living prophets and apostles—called by God in our day to help expand our understanding in a world full of constraining, distracting, and even enslaving influences.
I know from experience that this isn’t always so easy for other people to understand. I remember being surprised in graduate school at my classmates’ reactions when I shared something about prophets with them. With seemingly little to compare from their own life experiences, it’s like they couldn’t help but see my faith as somehow analogous to creepy cults looking to “Dear Leader” with dangerous devotion.
Well, see for yourself these teachings and what you think of their impact. I’ve been gathering some of his words that had the most influence on my life, motivated to show others how and why they expanded my mind and heart so much.
Simply put, in a world full of mounting anger, despair and anxiety—this wonderful man consistently filled me with peace, joy, and growing kindness.
Even more than what he said, I was so often moved at how he spoke and the feeling it conveyed. Many times I felt God speaking to me directly through his words. Many other times, I simply thought, “Wow, it’s possible for a human being to feel this right now with everything else going on around us!”
I’ve been so lifted by this humble man that I’ve been grieving somewhat at friends and family that never had a chance to experience him—or turned away before they really could.
You can’t know what you don’t know. But the good news is that you can still be influenced by him. As President Nelson’s funeral services approached their conclusion, President Dallin H. Oaks remarked that “his writings and his influence and his example live on.”
Rather than just share this conviction abstractly, I wanted to illustrate how and why I think all this matters. And there’s no better tribute I can give than summarizing this humble disciple’s words and teachings that keep lifting and changing me today. Although the examples below represent only a small fraction of what this man has taught over a lifetime of ministry, it’s my best attempt to ‘map out’ the themes that have touched me and resounded in my heart.
To my friends of other faiths who also love Jesus Christ, I hope you’ll see more evidence below that our faith in the Savior is genuine and overlapping with your own. And to my friends who see Christ more like Santa Claus, I hope you’ll see below how different they really are.
Throughout, I provide links to the video where you can opt to watch the whole message. I hope you might feel comforted and uplifted by these same messages. If you’d like to access this as a PDF download, here it is:
Of course, I will always relish friends even if they see the world completely different than I do. But if you have sincere questions and want to talk about any of this, I’d love to. Just send me a note in the comments or send me an email here: jzhess@gmail.com. There’s absolutely nothing more important to me than this.
1. God really does want my heart
In 2020, President Nelson taught that “one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is ‘let God prevail.’ Thus the very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life”—adding, “That concept stirs my soul!”
“The question for each of us … is the same,” he continued:“Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?”
Offered during the global pandemic, this 2020 talk “Let God Prevail” is one of my favorites:
President Nelson would continue to touch on this theme in later talks; for instance, he taught in 2022 that “Overcoming the world means growing to love God and His Beloved Son more than you love anyone or anything else.”
“Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence, and joy,” President Nelson also wrote in 2022.
During a 2024 talk, he likewise called on us “to make our discipleship our highest priority,” adding, “I have learned that the most crucial question we each must answer is this: To whom or to what will I give my life?”
2. God really does want us to learn to be loving and kind
In 2021, months before Russia attacked Ukraine, President Nelson stated: “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul. Imagine how quickly the devastating conflicts throughout the world—and those in our individual lives—would be resolved if we all chose to follow Jesus Christ and heed His teachings.”
In 2022, President Nelson referred to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, along with the general atmosphere of hostility in the U.S., declaring that “the gospel of Jesus Christ has never been needed more than it is today. Contention violates everything the Savior stood for and taught. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and testify that His gospel is the only enduring solution for peace. His gospel is a gospel of peace.”
President Nelson said at the same conference, “I plead with you to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives.” He later reiterated his suggestion to “end conflict in your personal life” saying, “I repeat my call to end the conflicts in your life. Exercise the humility, courage, and strength required both to forgive and to seek forgiveness.”
In 2023, President Nelson again raised even more urgent concern regarding the “venomous contention that infects our civic dialogue and too many personal relationships today”—saying, “Too many pundits, politicians, entertainers, and other influencers throw insults constantly. I am greatly concerned that so many people seem to believe that it is completely acceptable to condemn, malign, and vilify anyone who does not agree with them.”
“My dear brothers and sisters, this should not be,” he emphasized. “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to be examples of how to interact with others—especially when we have differences of opinion. One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people.”
“Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions,” he continued. “The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers.”
This 2023 talk “Peacemakers Needed” will always be dear to me, as a reflection of something I love, believe and try (falteringly) to follow:
In 2025, President Nelson touched again on this encouragement, saying: “The present hostility in public dialogue and on social media is alarming… . As followers of Jesus Christ, we should lead the way as peacemakers… . Charity is the foundation of a godly character.”
Christ comforting Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazarus (see whole video here).
3. Since we all get stuck in different ways, the possibility of changing in mighty, inspired (and often gradual) ways is a joyful one, not something that should fill us with fear.
In 2019, President Nelson taught, “Too many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances”—something he labeled as a misunderstanding that prevents people from “looking to Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us.”
‘The joy of daily repentance’
“The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo,” he explained, with the prefix meta- meaning “change,” while the suffix -noeo was “related to Greek words that mean ‘mind,’ ‘knowledge,’ ‘spirit,’ and ‘breath.’ Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to ‘repent,’ He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.”
Does this sound ominous or burdensome? It shouldn’t, President Nelson continued: “Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance”—going on to plead with us to “Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance—of doing and being a little better each day.”
“When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!”
This 2019 talk, “We Can Do Better and Be Better” changed how many of us think about repentance:
This was something he wouldn’t let us forget, as he kept reminding us over subsequent years:
In 2019, President Nelson again said, “may each of us signify by our actions that we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we renovate our lives through our faith and trust in Him. May we access the power of His Atonement by our repentance each day.”
In 2020, he described the importance of “striving daily to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we do that as we repent daily and receive His cleansing, healing, and strengthening power.”
In 2020, President Nelson, taught that “We are here on earth to be tested, to see if we will choose to follow Jesus Christ, to repent regularly, to learn, and to progress. Our spirits long to progress.” He concluded that session saying, “I bless you with a desire to repent and become a little more like Him each day.”
In 2021, he spoke specifically of “the need for each of us to remove, with the Savior’s help, the old debris in our lives”—reassuring that ours is a gospel of “hope, of healing, and of progress”—and ultimately, of joy. “Our spirits rejoice with every small step forward we take” (Isn’t that great! It’s how it feels inside for me with even incremental progress forward).
In 2022, President Nelson repeated the call to “discover the joy of daily repentance” as part of finding more “positive spiritual momentum”—something he emphasized years earlier in 2018 when expressing hope that young people would “experience the joy that true repentance always brings.”
What repentance looks and feels like—composite images of Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas morning
Overcoming the world can make life easier
In a related vein, President Nelson shared later in 2022 about his own grief for those who step away from faith out of a conclusion it “requires too much of them,”saying, “They have not yet discovered that making and keeping covenants actually makes life easier!”
“The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power,” he said. “Power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.”
“Entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier,” he later said.
Then, after citing Jesus’ words about overcoming the world—and wanting us to do the same—President Nelson said powerfully: “Dear brothers and sisters, my message to you today is that because Jesus Christ overcame this fallen world, and because He atoned for each of us, you too can overcome this sin-saturated, self-centered, and often exhausting world….You can overcome the spiritually and emotionally exhausting plagues of the world, including arrogance, pride, anger, immorality, hatred, greed, jealousy, and fear. Despite the distractions and distortions that swirl around us, you can find true rest—meaning relief and peace—even amid your most vexing problems.”
Then he added: “For those who felt this felt more like work than rest, here is the grand truth: while the world insists that power, possessions, popularity, and pleasures of the flesh bring happiness, they do not! They cannot! What they do produce is nothing but a hollow substitute for “the blessed and happy state of those [who] keep the commandments of God.” The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it!”
That 2022 talk, “Overcome the World and Find Rest” is a gem:
The joy of becoming “increasingly pure”
One of the biggest challenges for men and women seeking to follow Jesus Christ in the world today is becoming sexually pure. In 2016, President Nelson described one man who yearned for the “joy of finally being clean and right with the Lord—the joy of being freed from guilt and shame—and the joy of having peace of mind.” That prompted confession and reaching out for support to overcome his addiction so he could regain the confidence and trust of his family.
Likewise, he recounted “a young woman focused on the joy of staying sexually pure to help her endure the mocking of friends as she walked away from a popular and provocative, but spiritually dangerous, situation.”
Gentle encouragement for others to not give up in seeking the gift of similar purity—truly a wonderful gift from God—showed up regularly in his ministry:
In 2017, President Nelson taught, “Covenant-keeping men and women seek for ways to keep themselves unspotted from the world so there will be nothing blocking their access to the Savior’s power.”
In 2018, he expressed concern for those who would “rather satisfy their own selfish desires and appetites than use the power of God to bless His children” (which probably includes all of us sometimes!)
In 2019, he taught: “The Lord does not expect perfection from us at this point in our eternal progression. But He does expect us to become increasingly pure. Daily repentance is the pathway to purity, and purity brings power.”
In a 2023 talk on lifting our minds to a higher plane, President Nelson taught: “As you think celestial, you will find yourself avoiding anything that robs you of your agency. Any addiction—be it gaming, gambling, debt, drugs, alcohol, anger, pornography, sex, or even food—offends God. Why? Because your obsession becomes your god. You look to it rather than to Him for solace….Please do not let an obsession rob you of your freedom to follow God’s fabulous plan.” He added, “The power to create life is the one privilege of godhood that Heavenly Father allows His mortal children to exercise. Thus, God set clear guidelines for the use of this living, divine power.”
In 2024, he shared, “My heart aches for those who are mired in sin and don’t know how to get out. I weep for those who struggle spiritually or who carry heavy burdens alone because they do not understand what Jesus Christ did for them.”
In 2025, where he encouraged us to “take intentional steps to grow in your confidence before the Lord,” President Nelson also taught: “as the world grows more wicked, we need to grow increasingly pure. Our thoughts, words, and actions need to be unfailingly virtuous and filled with the pure love of Jesus Christ towards all men.”
Seeking to follow invitations like this has been life-changing for me, personally. Everything changes when we can leave behind the distractions and nonsense (and darkness) of sin to center our hearts on God.
‘I will heal you’
In 2023, President Nelson invited us to study again the account of the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites in the Americas, as recorded in 3 Nephi—where the voice of the Savior was initially heard among the people: “Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?… Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive.”
Jesus Christ Appears in the Ancient Americas | 3 Nephi 8–11
“Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ extends that same invitation to you today,” President Nelson said. “I plead with you to come unto Him so that He can heal you! He will heal you from sin as you repent. He will heal you from sadness and fear. He will heal you from the wounds of this world.”
“Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Learn more about His Atonement, His love, His mercy, His doctrine, and His restored gospel of healing and progression. Turn to Him! Follow Him!”
4. We are becoming different kinds of human beings here on earth
In his 2022 talk, “Choices for Eternity,” President Nelson referenced the New Testament in teaching that it’s precisely because God loves all His children that his house has “many mansions.” He quoted President Dallin H. Oaks as teaching that “all the children of God”—with the fewest exceptions—will wind up in a kingdom of glory.”
“This life really is the time when you get to decide what kind of life you want to live forever,” President Nelson continued. “During this life we get to choose which laws we are willing to obey—those of the celestial kingdom, or the terrestrial, or the telestial—and, therefore, in which kingdom of glory we will live forever.”
This echoes remarks from 2017 where he noted that “God, our Heavenly Father wants you to choose to come home to Him” before teaching that “His plan of eternal progression is not complicated, and it honors your agency. You are free to choose who you will be—and with whom you will be—in the world to come!”
In 2023, President Nelson reiterated: “Far too many people live as though this life is all there is. However, your choices today will determine three things: where you will live throughout all eternity, the kind of body with which you will be resurrected, and those with whom you will live forever.”
“So, my dear brothers and sisters, how and where and with whom do you want to live forever? You get to choose.”
In that earlier 2022 address, he reassured: “righteous choices in mortality will pay unimaginable dividends eternally. If you choose to make covenants with God and are faithful to those covenants, you have the promise of “glory added upon [your head] for ever and ever.”
“These truths ought to prompt your ultimate sense of FOMO—or fear of missing out.” He taught a year later: “You have the potential to reach the celestial kingdom. The ultimate FOMO would be missing out on the celestial kingdom, settling for a lesser kingdom because here on earth you chose only to live the laws of a lesser kingdom.”
But more than fear, it’s joy and excitement President Nelson so often emphasized, “I have learned that Heavenly Father’s plan for us is fabulous, that what we do in this life really matters, and that the Savior’s Atonement is what makes our Father’s plan possible.”
His whole 2023 talk, Think Celestial is another treasure:
Oh, by the way: for those unsure who (and where) they want to be, President Nelson taught in 2024, “time in the temple will help you to think celestial and to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become, and the kind of life you can have forever.”
‘It won’t be the same without you’
But what about people that aren’t ‘feeling it’ spiritually? President Nelson shared with young people in 2018: “Please do not stay off the covenant path one more minute. Please come back through true repentance, now. We need you with us … It just won’t be the same without you!”
In 2019, he acknowledged “the anguish of my heart is that many people whom I love, whom I admire, and whom I respect decline His invitation …when He beckons, ‘Come, follow me.’”
“I weep for such friends and relatives,” he admitted. “They are wonderful men and women, devoted to their family and civic responsibilities. They give generously of their time, energy, and resources. And the world is better for their efforts. But they have chosen not to make covenants with God.”
“I’ve wondered what I could possibly say so they would feel how much the Savior loves them and know how much I love them and come to recognize how covenant-keeping women and men can receive a ‘fulness of joy.’”
“They need to understand that while there is a place for them hereafter—with wonderful men and women who also chose not to make covenants with God—that is not the place where families will be reunited and be given the privilege to live and progress forever. That is not the kingdom where they will experience the fullness of joy—of never-ending progression and happiness.”
Don’t give up knowing for yourself
Speaking to wavering hearts directly in that same 2019 talk, President Nelson entreated: “Pour out your heart to God. Ask Him if these things are true. Make time to study His words. Really study! If you truly love your family and if you desire to be exalted with them throughout eternity, pay the price now—through serious study and fervent prayer—to know these eternal truths and then to abide by them.”
“If you are not sure you even believe in God, start there. Understand that in the absence of experiences with God, one can doubt the existence of God. So, put yourself in a position to begin having experiences with Him. Humble yourself. Pray to have eyes to see God’s hand in your life and in the world around you. Ask Him to tell you if He is really there—if He knows you. Ask Him how He feels about you. And then listen.”
A year earlier, President Nelson likewise shared with a young audience: “I promise you—not the person sitting next to you, but you—that, wherever you are in the world, wherever you are on the covenant path—even if, at this moment, you are not centered on the path—I promise you that if you will sincerely and persistently do the spiritual work needed to develop the crucial, spiritual skill of learning how to hear the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, you will have all the direction you will ever need in your life.”
“You will be given answers to your questions in the Lord’s own way and in His own time. And don’t forget the counsel of your parents and Church leaders. They are also seeking revelation in your behalf.”
President Nelson then reassured: “When you know your life is being directed by God, regardless of the challenges and disappointments that may and will come, you will feel joy and peace.”
Living in a way that brings joy
“Anything that opposes Christ or His doctrine will interrupt our joy,” President Nelson cautioned in 2016. “That includes the philosophies of men, so abundant online and in the blogosphere, which do exactly what Korihor did.”
“If we look to the world and follow its formulas for happiness, we will never know joy,” he added. “The unrighteous may experience any number of emotions and sensations, but they will never experience joy! Joy is a gift for the faithful. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ.”
So much depends on our own choices and where we align our heart and mind. President Nelson made this clear: “When we choose Heavenly Father to be our God and when we can feel the Savior’s Atonement working in our lives, we will be filled with joy. Every time we nurture our spouse and guide our children, every time we forgive someone or ask for forgiveness, we can feel joy.”
“Every day that you and I choose to live celestial laws, every day that we keep our covenants and help others to do the same, joy will be ours,” he continued, citing the Psalmist as saying, “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. … In [His] presence is fulness of joy.”
The more we receive this truth “embedded in our hearts, he encouraged, “each and every day can be a day of joy and gladness. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ.”
A family photo of President Russell M. Nelson on a swing. Taken from “Insights from a Prophet’s Life,” Deseret Book
5. It really matters how we see ourselves and what you call yourself
In 2022, President Nelson shared with an audience of young adults: “I believe that if the Lord were speaking to you directly tonight, the first thing He would make sure you understand is your true identity. My dear friends, you are literally spirit children of God. You have sung this truth since you learned the words to ‘I Am a Child of God.’ But is that eternal truth imprinted upon your heart?”
“The way you think about who you really are affects almost every decision you will ever make,” he continued, before responding to the question“Who are you?” with three statements:
“First and foremost, you are a child of God. Second, as a member of the Church, you are a child of the covenant. And third, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
Then President Nelson shared something I wish every young (and old) person around the world could hear deeply: “Tonight, I plead with you not to replace these three paramount and unchanging identifiers with any others, because doing so could stymie your progress or pigeonhole you in a stereotype that could potentially thwart your eternal progression.”
Later, he reiterated that “Labels can be fun and indicate your support for any number of positive things. Many labels will change for you with the passage of time. And not all labels are of equal value. But if any label replaces your most important identifiers, the results can be spiritually suffocating.”
Along with his 2019 teaching about the balance between “the Love and Laws of God,” I can hardly imagine more prophetic and powerful guidance for so many people trying to find their way in a confusing world than this 2022 talk, “Choices for Eternity”:
Call us by our name, please
And by the way, this emphasis on embracing divine identity over limiting labels aligns with President Nelson’s 2018 encouragement that we as a people move away from the name “Mormon,” which had been used by enemies from the very beginning to portray our people as strange and non-Christian. As he summarized: “In the early days of the restored Church, terms such as Mormon Church and Mormons were often used as epithets—as cruel terms, abusive terms.”
So many of the nicknames people use for the Church, including the “LDS Church,” the “Mormon Church,” or the “Church of the Latter-day Saints,” President Nelson continued, share one thing in common: “the absence of the Savior’s name.”
“When we discard the Savior’s name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us—even His Atonement….When we omit His name from His Church, we are inadvertently removing Him as the central focus of our lives.”
At the conclusion of that conference, he called on us to “honor the Lord Jesus Christ every time” we refer to the church.
We took that to heart as a people. And honestly, compared with 7 years ago, that word “Mormon” feels strange and foreign when people mention it. It doesn’t fit anymore!
Two years later in 2020, President Nelson reminded us that “this is not the church of Joseph Smith, nor is it the church of Mormon. This is the Church of Jesus Christ ….When we remove the Lord’s name from the name of His Church, we inadvertently remove Him as the central focus of our worship and our lives.”
In that same talk, he introduced a new visual symbol for the church involving a representation of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s marble statue of the Christus. That incredible work of art portrays the resurrected, living Lord emerging from the tomb and reaching out to embrace all who will come unto Him. “It will remind all,” President Nelson said, that “all we do as members of His Church centers on Jesus Christ and His gospel.”
6. The return of Jesus Christ can be something to rejoice in, not fear
Both Christians and non-Christians typically see the “end of the world” or the “second coming of Christ” as primarily a time of fear and turmoil. By contrast, I’ve been struck by how much hope and excitement this prophet consistently shared with us about this future day.
“These are the latter days, so none of us should be surprised when we see prophecy fulfilled, President Nelson taught in 2016. “A host of prophets, including Isaiah, Paul, Nephi, and Mormon, foresaw that perilous times would come, that in our day the whole world would be in commotion.”
Yet he continued: “Saints can be happy under every circumstance. We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year! My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”
Joy no matter what
The reality of a joy that transcends even piercing difficulty was an emphasis of his ministry; when not shared in words, it was shared in his bright countenance, no matter what was taking place.. “When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives,” President Nelson continued in 2016: “Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. We feel it at Christmastime when we sing, ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come.’ And we can feel it all year round. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!”
“That is why our missionaries leave their homes to preach His gospel.” Rather than simply to increase church numbers, President Nelson insisted that “our missionaries teach and baptize to bring joy to the people of the world!”
“How, then, can we claim that joy?’ he asked. “We can start by ‘looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith’ ‘in every thought.’...As our Savior becomes more and more real to us and as we plead for His joy to be given to us, our joy will increase.” (I love this line! Read it to my boys recently, asking them: Is the Savior really real to us? As real as Lebron James?)
President Nelson then pointed out that like in everything else, Jesus is our example in this–“who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,” citing the book of Hebrews.
“Think of that! In order for Him to endure the most excruciating experience ever endured on earth, our Savior focused on joy! And what was the joy that was set before Him? Surely it included the joy of cleansing, healing, and strengthening us.”
“If we focus on the joy that will come to us, or to those we love, what can we endure that presently seems overwhelming, painful, scary, unfair, or simply impossible?” he asked.
“What will you and I be able to endure as we focus on the joy that is ‘set before’ us? What repenting will then be possible? What weakness will become a strength? What chastening will become a blessing? What disappointments, even tragedies, will turn to our good?”
Power, blessings and miracles now
The positivity and hope of this man’s vision of the future was palpable and filled my soul. For instance, President Nelson taught in 2018: “Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory.”
Compare that to the doom and gloom of commentators everywhere these days. President Nelson wasn’t naïve, however, adding: “But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
In 2018, he likewise spoke of the Lord’s desire to “pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen.”
This expands on something he said earlier in 2020, about living in the day when we have “front-row seats to witness live what earlier prophets only in vision—including Nephi’s vision that “the power of the Lamb of God” would descend “upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.”
This is a verse President Nelson kept coming back to, including in 2023, when he cited Nephi in teaching: “I know that His power is descending upon His covenant-keeping people, who are ‘armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.’”
Hope, faith and excitement for what is coming
Amidst the pandemic in 2020, President Nelson taught: “Despite the world’s commotion, the Lord would have us look forward to the future ‘with joyful anticipation.’”
“Have you grown closer to the Lord, or do you feel further away from Him?” he asked about our experience with the pandemic to date. “And how have current events made you feel about the future?” Then he encouraged: “Let us not just endure this current season. Let us embrace the future with faith! Turbulent times are opportunities for us to thrive spiritually.”
Acknowledging again the sobering prophecies that “peace [would] be taken from the earth” in the last days, he reiterated the “vision of how remarkable this dispensation is”—quoting the Prophet Joseph Smith who declared that “the work of … these last days, is one of vast magnitude. … Its glories are past description, and its grandeur unsurpassable.”
In 2021, President Nelson likewise taught that “The future is bright for God’s covenant-keeping people.” And in 2022, he reiterated his statement from four years earlier: “so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns ‘with power and great glory,’ He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.”
In one of his final messages in 2025, President Nelson taught: “We do not know the day or the hour of His coming. But I do know that the Lord is prompting me to urge us to get ready for that ‘great and dreadful day.”
‘The best is yet to come’
But it was 2024 when President Nelson taught most powerfully about this exciting future. After acknowledging a world “filled with dizzying distractions,” he said, “now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.”
But rather than do so with fear, President Nelson cited Isaiah’s words that when Jesus Christ returns, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” with a new government centered on one called “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
“My dear brothers and sisters, in a coming day, Jesus Christ will return to the earth as the millennial Messiah,” he continued. “So today I call upon you to rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ. I call upon you to help gather scattered Israel and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. I call upon you to talk of Christ, testify of Christ, have faith in Christ, and rejoice in Christ! Come unto Christ and “offer your whole [soul]” to Him. This is the secret to a life of joy!”
Again, his positivity was infectious: “My dear brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening right before our eyes? I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment!”
“The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again! The best is yet to come because the Lord is hastening His work. The best is yet to come as we fully turn our hearts and our lives to Jesus Christ.”
His whole 2024 talk, “The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again” is so great:
7. Spending time alone with God really matters!
As the pandemic continued to impact life in 2021, President Nelson remarked how the global turmoil demonstrated the impact of circumstances beyond our control. “However, there are many things we can control,” he added. “We set our own priorities and determine how we use our energy, time, and means. We decide how we will treat each other. We choose those to whom we will turn for truth and guidance.”
Acknowledging the “engaging and numerous” voices and pressures around—including voices that were “deceptive (and) seductive,” and leading to “inevitable heartbreak,” he plead with listeners to “counter the lure of the world by making time for the Lord in your life—each and every day.”
“If most of the information you get comes from social or other media, your ability to hear the whisperings of the Spirit will be diminished,” he cautioned. “If you are not also seeking the Lord through daily prayer and gospel study, you leave yourself vulnerable to philosophies that may be intriguing but are not true.”
This talk led me to seriously consider my own ratio of online news consumption compared with time in sacred scripture. Before the talk was over, President Nelson repeated his plea twice more, the final time with an additional promise:
“My brothers and sisters, I plead with you to make time for the Lord!”
“He will lead and guide you in your personal life if you will make time for Him in your life—each and every day.”
Time in His words
In 2016, President Nelson asked, “Are you willing to search the scriptures and feast on the words of Christ—to study earnestly in order to have more power?” He added to an audience of men, “If you want to see your wife’s heart melt, let her find you on the Internet studying the doctrine of Christ or reading your scriptures!”
In 2017, President Nelson described his own deeper, more focused study that he had done on the words of Jesus Christ in the scriptures. When finished, he recalled his wife asking what impact it had on her. He told her: “I am a different man!”
“It is impossible for [us] to be saved in ignorance,” he then shared, quoting the prophet Joseph Smith: “The more we know about the Savior’s ministry and mission—the more we understand His doctrine and what He did for us—the more we know that He can provide the power that we need for our lives.”
President Nelson then encouraged everyone else to try a similar experiment, including a more focused study of “The Living Christ,” an apostolic testimony commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of the Lord’s birth.
In 2020, President Nelson encouraged us to turn to the scriptures rather than loud voices online as a way to hear God’s quiet voice in our lives. The scriptures, he said, “teach us about Jesus Christ and His gospel, the magnitude of His Atonement, and our Father’s great plan of happiness and redemption. Daily immersion in the word of God is crucial for spiritual survival, especially in these days of increasing upheaval.”
“The more you learn about the Savior, the easier it will be to trust in His mercy, His infinite love, and His strengthening, healing, and redeeming power,” he added in 2021.
In 2022, President Nelson said, “With frightening speed, a testimony that is not nourished daily ‘by the good word of God’ can crumble.” Thus, he said, the “antidote” is clear: “we need daily experiences worshipping the Lord and studying His gospel. I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time.”
Joking that same year that “you may have had days when you wished you could don your pajamas, curl up in a ball, and ask someone to awaken you when the turmoil is over,” he reiterated that “experiencing Their love is vital, as it seems that we are accosted daily by an onslaught of sobering news.”
In 2024, President Nelson again encouraged, “I urge you to devote time each week—for the rest of your life—to increase your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
A woman in Ecuador pointing at a highlighted verse in the scriptures.
Knowing Jesus (even better) through another testament
In 2017, President Nelson recounted meeting an African tribal king who was a serious student of the Bible. This king asked the apostle: “What can you teach me about Jesus Christ?”
He then recounted the Savior’s visit to ancient Americans as recorded in 3 Nephi chapter 11 in the Book of Mormon, and read to him some of His words—presenting him with a copy of the whole Book of Mormon. The king responded, “you could have given me diamonds or rubies, but nothing is more precious to me than this additional knowledge about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I hope everyone understands how much we truly love and relish the Bible. Anyone who says otherwise is simply not being honest. But we really do have special affection for this additional testament of the Savior. In that same talk, President Nelson added his witness that the Book of Mormon “contains the answers to life’s most compelling questions.”:
The Book of Mormon “expands and clarifies many of the ‘plain and precious’ truths that were lost through centuries of time and numerous translations of the Bible.”
It “provides the fullest and most authoritative understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be found anywhere.”
“It teaches what it really means to be born again.”
“The Book of Mormon both illuminates the teachings of the Master and exposes the tactics of the adversary”—including “shatter(ing) the false beliefs that happiness can be found in wickedness and that individual goodness is all that is required to return to the presence of God.”
“It abolishes forever the false concepts that revelation ended with the Bible and that the heavens are sealed today.”
It “gives purpose to life by urging us to ponder the potential of eternal life and ‘never-ending happiness.’”
“ I testify with my whole soul that in a most miraculous and singular way, the Book of Mormon teaches us of Jesus Christ and His gospel….The full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is contained in the Book of Mormon.”
“This is the book that will help to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.”
“The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls,” he concluded.
Sanctuary at home
In 2018, President Nelson presided over the development of a “new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum” that he taught, “has the potential to unleash the power of families, as each family follows through conscientiously and carefully to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith.”
“We have become accustomed to thinking of ‘church’ as something that happens in our meetinghouses, supported by what happens at home,” he explained. “We need an adjustment to this pattern. It is time for a home-centered Church, supported by what takes place inside our branch, ward, and stake buildings”—one that strikes “a new balance and connection between gospel instruction in the home and in the Church.”
“I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight,” he said. “Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior’s teachings, and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease. Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining.”
In 2019, he again said, “We hope and pray that each member’s home will become a true sanctuary of faith, where the Spirit of the Lord may dwell. Despite contention all around us, one’s home can become a heavenly place, where study, prayer, and faith can be merged with love.”
At the time this was introduced, none of us knew what was coming next …but God surely did, in providing advance guidance in prioritizing worship at home, prior to when we would be locked-in for so long.
Months into the pandemic in 2020, President Nelson concluded the conference saying, “Thank you for your desire to make your homes true sanctuaries of faith, where the Spirit of the Lord may dwell.” Referring to efforts to increase gospel study in many homes, he added: “Your consistent efforts in this endeavor—even during those moments when you feel that you are not being particularly successful—will change your life, that of your family, and the world.”
Later in the pandemic, he encouraged us again in 2020 “to create a home that is a place of security. …to which you can retreat.” And in 2021, after a year of the pandemic, he taught: “one of the holiest of places on earth is the home—yes, even your home.” He then added that God’s “power is available to you and your family in your own home as you keep the covenants you have made.”
For those feeling like “there is still more you need to do to make your home truly a sanctuary of faith,” he responded, “if so, please do it!...There are few pursuits more important than this. Between now and the time the Lord comes again, we all need our homes to be places of serenity and security.”
Even after social isolation ends, President Nelson emphasized: your commitment to make your home your primary sanctuary of faith should never end. As faith and holiness decrease in this fallen world, your need for holy places will increase. I urge you to continue to make your home a truly holy place.”
A ‘delightful’ Sabbath sanctuary and retreat
In 2015, then-Elder Nelson referenced the ancient prophet Isaiah as calling the Sabbath “a delight.”
“Yet I wonder, is the Sabbath really a delight for you and for me?” In various ways, he taught we can then experience what Isaiah also said: “Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.”
He described learning how his conduct and attitude on the Sabbath “constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father,” which supplanted his earlier focus on lists of dos and don’ts. When choosing how to use time on the Sabbath, he began asking himself: “What sign do I want to give to God?”
“That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear.”
8. We can all learn to hear God’s voice in our lives, but it may take some new personal stretching
In 2018, President Nelson taught in his first message something that had been repeatedly impressed on his mind since being called as President of the Church. This early message still thrills me personally, namely, “how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will” with “the privilege of receiving revelation … one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.”
After referencing Joseph Smith’s experience seeking more light, President Nelson asked, “what will your seeking open for you? What wisdom do you lack? What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand? Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph. Find a quiet place where you can regularly go. Humble yourself before God. Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. Turn to Him for answers and for comfort.”
“Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will ‘grow into the principle of revelation,’” he said, citing Joseph Smith.
President Nelson often acknowledged the surrounding noise and distraction we face, stating in that talk: “The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.”
To those who may be unsure about whether this is even possible in their own life, he said, “Does God really want to speak to you? Yes! … Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, ‘To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!’”
“You don’t have to wonder about what is true. You do not have to wonder whom you can safely trust. Through personal revelation, you can receive your own witness,” this prophet witnessed. Then he plead:
“I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that ‘if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.’”
This wonderful disciple, someone I believe to be a prophet of God, repeated: “My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. …Choose to do the spiritual work required to … hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.”
Though I had heard much of this throughout my life, this 2018 talk on “revelation for our lives” is one of the most important I had ever heard and really opened my eyes even more.
You really can ‘hear Him’!
Compared to loud, in-your-face messages online, President Nelson reiterated two years later in 2020 that God “communicates simply, quietly” and with “stunning plainness.” He went on to reference three specific instances Heavenly Father introduced his son Jesus Christ personally, including on the Mount of Transfiguration to Peter, James, and John, when God said, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.”
Likewise, to the Nephites: “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.”
And to Joseph Smith: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
Amidst the mounting pandemic, President Nelson taught: “Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son. Because when we seek to hear—truly hear—His Son, we will be guided to know what to do in any circumstance.”
This very admonition to “hear Him” is “for each of us,” he also taught. “We are to seek, in every way we can, to hear Jesus Christ, who speaks to us through the power and ministering of the Holy Ghost”—pointing to lifelong effects if “our hearts change and we commence a lifelong quest to hear Him.”
‘Do whatever it takes’
“Are you willing to pray to know how to pray for more power? The Lord will teach you” President Nelson taught in 2016—adding: “We need to pray from our hearts. Polite recitations of past and upcoming activities, punctuated with some requests for blessings, cannot constitute the kind of communing with God that brings enduring power.”
“As we seek to be disciples of Jesus Christ,” he encouraged in 2020, “our efforts to hear Him need to be ever more intentional,” adding again: “I renew my plea for you to do whatever it takes to increase your spiritual capacity to receive personal revelation.”
“It takes conscious and consistent effort to fill our daily lives with His words, His teachings, His truths,” President Nelson then acknowledged, before again cautioning: “We simply cannot rely upon information we bump into on social media. With billions of words online and in a marketing-saturated world constantly infiltrated by noisy, nefarious efforts of the adversary, where can we go to hear Him?
After encouraging people to “go to the scriptures” and the temple, too, as places to “hear Him,” President Nelson taught: “We also hear Him more clearly as we refine our ability to recognize the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. It has never been more imperative to know how the Spirit speaks to you than right now. In the Godhead, the Holy Ghost is the messenger. He will bring thoughts to your mind which the Father and Son want you to receive. He is the Comforter. He will bring a feeling of peace to your heart. He testifies of truth and will confirm what is true as you hear and read the word of the Lord.”
President Nelson concluded the 2020 conference, months into the pandemic, saying: “We pray that you will begin anew truly to hear, hearken to, and heed the words of the Savior. I promise that decreased fear and increased faith will follow.”
The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posed for an iconic photograph in the Rome Italy Temple visitors center in Rome, Italy on March 11, 2019. Front center are President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors in the First Presidency, President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring. Also included are members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: President M. Russell Ballard, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Elder David A. Bednar, Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Neil L. Andersen, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, Elder Dale G. Renlund, Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares. Credit: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Stillness will help you hear Him
In 2021, after a full pandemic year, President Nelson taught: “Commotion in the world will continue to increase. In contrast, the voice of the Lord is not ‘a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but … it [is] a still voice of perfect mildness, [like] a whisper, and it [pierces] even to the very soul,’” citing the Book of Mormon. “In order to hear this still voice, you too must be still!”
Even though the pandemic had made certain activities that “would normally fill our lives” impossible, this prophet again foresaw what was coming: “Soon we may be able to choose to fill that time again with the noise and commotion of the world. Or we can use our time to hear the voice of the Lord whispering His guidance, comfort, and peace. Quiet time is sacred time—time that will facilitate personal revelation and instill peace.”
“Discipline yourself to have time alone and with your loved ones. Open your heart to God in prayer. Take time to immerse yourself in the scriptures and worship in the temple.”
This 2020 talk “Hear Him” is another treasure to me and my family:
Getting away from the noise and nonsense
How can anyone find time amidst our constant sea of distractions? That’s a good question!
“Disengage from a constant reliance on social media by holding a seven-day fast from social media,” President Nelson encouraged young people in 2018. “I acknowledge that there are positives about social media. But if you are paying more attention to feeds from social media than you are to the whisperings of the Spirit, then you are putting yourself at spiritual risk—as well as the risk of experiencing intense loneliness and depression.”
“Another downside of social media is that it creates a false reality,” he added. “Everyone posts their most fun, adventurous, and exciting pictures, which create the erroneous impression that everyone except you is leading a fun, adventurous, and exciting life. Much of what appears in your various social media feeds is distorted, if not fake. So give yourself a seven-day break from fake!”
“Choose seven consecutive days and go for it! See if you notice any difference in how you feel and what you think, and even how you think, during those seven days.”
A few months later, President Nelson extended this same invitation to adults, likewise asking them: “What do you notice after taking a break from perspectives of the world that have been wounding your spirit? Is there a change in where you now want to spend your time and energy?”
“Worlds Without End” by Greg Olsen
Another proclamation to the world
In that same 2020 talk, on the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, President Nelson also announced a new declaration: “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World.” The text began with God’s love for his children through Jesus Christ, and then it detailed how the Father and Son came to Joseph Smith on a beautiful spring morning in 1820, followed by much more:
“There really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth,” President Nelson taught the next year in 2021. And he added in 2022, “God is the source of all truth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces all truth that God conveys to His children, whether learned in a scientific laboratory or received by direct revelation from Him.”
9. Far from controlling us, God wants to bring wonderful new power into our lives
I’m not the only one who has felt powerless in recent years, for so many reasons: chronic illness, corruption around us, deception online. But this humble disciple wouldn’t let me stop forgetting the power available to me … right now.
‘Reaching like a drowning person reaches for air’
In 2017, President Nelson sought to stretch our understanding of the power that could come into our lives from the Savior, when he encouraged us again to study His words more consistently, along with “choos(ing) to have faith in Him and follow Him.”
“Faith in Jesus Christ propels us to do things we otherwise would not do. Faith that motivates us to action gives us more access to His power,” he taught.
“There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples,” he acknowledged. “Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.”
He then encouraged us to “reach up to Him in faith” as a way to “(draw) the Savior’s power into our lives.” While admitting again that “such reaching requires diligent, focused effort.” This prophet then taught something I’ll never forget:
“When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do. When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you.”
This 2017 talk, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives” may be my favorite message that President Nelson has ever shared: Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives
Trust that he can do miracles in our lives
Power was not a one-off mention for President Nelson. It was a prominent theme of his ministry—power to women and to men, power through the Savior and his words and his covenants. In his 2021 talk, “Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains” he taught, “Faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of all belief and the conduit of divine power. …Everything good in life—every potential blessing of eternal significance—begins with faith.”
But acknowledging the overwhelm people often feel in considering the exercise of faith in a difficult life situation, he said, “The Lord does not require perfect faith for us to have access to His perfect power. But He does ask us to believe”—citing Jesus’s teaching about the mustard seed and Alma’s invitation to experiment upon the word and “exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if [we] can no more than desire to believe.”
Then President Nelson invited in his gentle manner: “My dear brothers and sisters, my call to you this Easter morning is to start today to increase your faith. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.”
“The Savior is never closer to you than when you are facing or climbing a mountain with faith,” he continued. “Moving your mountains may require a miracle. Learn about miracles. Miracles come according to your faith in the Lord. Central to that faith is trusting His will and timetable—how and when He will bless you with the miraculous help you desire. Only your unbelief will keep God from blessing you with miracles to move the mountains in your life.
“Faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest power available to us in this life. All things are possible to them that believe.”
My wife Monique loves this talk so much that she estimates having read or listened to it 100 times in the last couple of years. During this time, I’ve seen miracles in her life that are profound—miracles we could never have imagined possible.
In 2022, President Nelson repeated: “the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, ‘doubting nothing.’ Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith.”
“Our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, stand ready to help you,” he taught later in 2022. “I urge you to increase your efforts to seek Their help.”
10. Our own promises with God matter a lot - more than we realize
For our people, time in prayer and the words of scripture are very important. In addition, we believe participation in sacred ordinances can bring more of God’s power into our lives. No one helped me understand this better than President Nelson.
In 2017, he taught that we “increase the Savior’s power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision. Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power. As faithful disciples, we repent and follow Him into the waters of baptism.”
For our people, temples are special places where we gather to worship, learn and recommit ourselves to living in the Savior’s way. “Everything we believe and every promise God has made to His covenant people come together in the temple,” President Nelson said in 2021, adding: “The ultimate objective of the gathering of Israel is to bring the blessings of the temple to God’s faithful children.”
Earlier in 2016, he asked, “Are you willing to worship in the temple regularly? The Lord loves to do His own teaching in His holy house.” He later added, “If we will humbly present ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to teach us, He will show us how to increase our access to His power.”
“We can also hear Him in the temple. The house of the Lord is a house of learning. There the Lord teaches in His own way,” he shared in 2020. “Every minute of that time will bless you and your family in ways nothing else can. Take time to ponder what you hear and feel when you are there. Ask the Lord to teach you how to open the heavens to bless your life and the lives of those you love and serve.”
In 2018, he also encouraged us to “identify those things you can set aside so you can spend more time in the temple.” Then later in the year, President Nelson shared with an audience of women that “More regular time in the temple will allow the Lord to teach you how to draw upon His priesthood power with which you have been endowed in His temple.”
Even when not inside the temple, President Nelson encouraged: “seek to know more, to understand more, to feel more about temples than you ever have before.” In 2020, he encouraged us six months into the pandemic to “still draw upon the power of your temple covenants” even though these sanctuaries were all closed.
Bangkok Thailand Temple
All about Jesus
“Temples are a crowning part of the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” President Nelson also taught in 2020. “Because Jesus Christ is at the center of everything we do in the temple, as you think more about the temple you will be thinking more about Him.”
In 2021, he again taught that “the Savior and His doctrine are the very heart of the temple. Everything taught in the temple, through instruction and through the Spirit, increases our understanding of Jesus Christ.”
Then he added: “His essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.”
In 2023, President Nelson likewise taught, “Jesus Christ is the reason we build temples. Each is His holy house.”
Continuing an ancient pattern
“Temple ordinances and covenants are ancient,” President Nelson went on to explain in 2021: “The Lord instructed Adam and Eve to pray, make covenants, and offer sacrifices. Indeed, whenever the Lord has had a people on the earth who will obey His word, they have been commanded to build temples. The standard works are replete with references to temple teachings, clothing, language, and more.”
These promises have been provided “in every age” he emphasized—noting that “in the house of the Lord, we can make the same covenants with God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made. And we can receive the same blessings!”
In 2018, President Nelson likewise taught: “These sacred temple rites are ancient. To me that antiquity is thrilling and another evidence of their authenticity”—inviting people who had been estranged to “worship in the temple and pray to feel deeply the Savior’s infinite love for you, that each of you may gain your own testimony that He directs this sacred and ageless work.”
President Nelson explained in 2024 how priesthood keys authorized them to “extend all of the blessings promised to Abraham to every covenant-keeping man and woman. Temple work makes these exquisite blessings available to all of God’s children, regardless of where or when they lived or now live.”
He repeated: “The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us, for the temple is the only place on earth where we may receive all of the blessings promised to Abraham.”
‘No need to fear … Angels ready to help’
Speaking directly to those struggling emotionally, President Nelson shared in 2021: “Please believe me when I say that when your spiritual foundation is built solidly upon Jesus Christ, you have no need to fear. As you are true to your covenants made in the temple, you will be strengthened by His power. Then, when spiritual earthquakes occur, you will be able to stand strong because your spiritual foundation is solid and immovable.”
Earlier in 2019, he taught that “every time you worthily serve and worship in the temple, you leave armed with God’s power and with His angels having ‘charge over’ you.”
President Nelson reminded us again in 2024 that all who worship in the temple will have the power of God and angels will have “charge over them.”
“How much does it increase your confidence to know that, as an endowed woman or man armed with the power of God, you do not have to face life alone?” he asked. “What courage does it give you to know that angels really will help you?”
Barranquilla Colombia Temple
‘The only way to enduring happiness’
“Life without God is a life filled with fear. Life with God is a life filled with peace,” President Nelson taught in 2020. In 2023, he likewise taught, “I testify that following Him is the only way to enduring happiness.”
In addition to the spiritual strength that can come through reading, meditating and praying, President Nelson clearly wanted us to understand the added expansion that can uniquely be found in temples:
In 2018, President Nelson taught, “each one of us needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring that is possible only in the house of the Lord.”
In 2021, he added, “Ordinances of the temple fill our lives with power and strength available in no other way.”
The temple is “His house,” he said in 2022. “It is filled with His power….I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your life in ways nothing else can.”
In 2023, he likewise taught, “Making covenants and receiving essential ordinances in the temple, as well as seeking to draw closer to (Christ) there, will bless your life in ways no other kind of worship can.”
‘I will myself manifest to my people’
In no message did the importance of temple worship come through more than in 2024 when President Nelson referenced an event Latter-day Saints believe took place in 1836 when the Lord appeared in the Kirtland Temple and promised the people: “I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.”
“This significant promise applies to every dedicated temple today,” he taught, saying, “I invite you to ponder what the Lord’s promise means for you personally.”
Then he said, “Regular temple worship will enhance the way you see yourself and how you fit into God’s magnificent plan. I promise you that.”
Then listen to this, something that my boy Sam quoted to all our congregation in a talk he gave: “My dear brothers and sisters, here is my promise. Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”
In 2024, President Nelson reiterated this in an even more potent way: “Here is my promise to you: Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple. You will feel His mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You will better comprehend the joy of His gospel.”
Brigham City Utah Temple
A special kind of relationship
God loves all his children, no matter what, as Jesus taught, making the “sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send(ing) rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Like in our own relationships today, there are different degrees of closeness, support and intimacy we can experience with God. This is something President Nelson taught with unique clarity.
In the same month in 2022 that President Nelson spoke about a “special kind of rest we can find in God, he published written remarks about a “special kind of love” we can also pursue: “All those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed (חֶסֶ).”
“Hesed has no adequate English equivalent,” he explained. “Translators of the King James Version of the Bible must have struggled with how to render hesed in English. They often chose ‘lovingkindness.’ This captures much but not all the meaning of hesed. Other translations were also rendered, such as ‘mercy’ and ‘goodness.’ Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other.”
“Because God has hesed for those who have covenanted with Him,” He added, “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.”
“Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us.”
In one of his final messages in 2025, President Nelson spoke about a “different kind of confidence” disciples of Christ can come to experience in God’s presence. “When I speak of having confidence before God,” he explained, “I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do. I am referring to having confidence that He loves us more than we can comprehend, that He sends angels to be with us and with those we love. I am referring to having confidence that He yearns to help each of us reach our highest potential.”
11. Ministering is a sacred and wonderful opportunity to be there for someone else
“A hallmark of the Lord’s true and living Church will always be an organized, directed effort to minister to individual children of God and their families,” President Nelson taught in a 2018 talk entitled, “Ministering with the Power and Authority of God.”
Why? Because “as His servants we will minister to the one, just as He did. We will minister in His name, with His power and authority, and with His loving-kindness.”
Despite this high purpose, it had become easy for some of us over the years to “check off their home teaching assignment as ‘done’ and move on to the next task,” President Nelson noted in a talk later that same year.
President Russell M. Nelson receives hugs from family members after he and his counselors held a press conference at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
‘A new era of ministering’
But earlier in 2018, President Nelson announced a “newer, holier approach to caring for and ministering to others”—referred to simply as “ministering.”
“There are doors we can open, priesthood blessings we can give, hearts we can heal, burdens we can lift, testimonies we can strengthen, lives we can save, and joy we can bring into the homes of the Latter-day Saints,” he encouraged.
President Nelson noted in a 2018 message to women in the church that their inspired example of ministering over the years in continuous and tender ways had “inspired our upward shift to ministering.”
He shared with men as well in 2018 that the Lord desires “that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” He wants all of His ordained sons to represent Him, to speak for Him, to act for Him, and to bless the lives of God’s children throughout the world, to the end “that faith also might increase in [all] the earth.”
President Nelson called this the “beginning of a new era of ministering”—reflecting inspired and “important adjustments in the way we care for each other,” which will lead us to “serve one another in a new, holier way.”
“The covenant path is a path of love—that incredible hesed, that compassionate caring for and reaching out to each other,” President Nelson wrote in 2022. “Feeling that love is liberating and uplifting. The greatest joy you will ever experience is when you are consumed with love for God and for all His children.”
The greatest work in the world
At a time when people (old and young) have been struggling mightily with a lack of meaning, purpose and worth, President Nelson asked teenagers in 2018: “Would you like to be a big part of the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth today?”
“My dear young brothers and sisters, these surely are the latter days, and the Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel,” he continued. “When we speak of the gathering, we are simply saying this fundamental truth: every one of our Heavenly Father’s children, on both sides of the veil, deserves to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They decide for themselves if they want to know more.”
He later repeated, “Every child of our Heavenly Father deserves the opportunity to choose to follow Jesus Christ, to accept and receive His gospel with all of its blessings—yes, all the blessings that God promised to the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who, as you know, is also known as Israel.”
“That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty. And if you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of it. You can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic!”
But how could they participate in something so vast? President Nelson kept things simple: “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that.”
“My dear extraordinary youth,” he continued, “you were sent to earth at this precise time, the most crucial time in the history of the world, to help gather Israel. There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing.”
“This gathering should mean everything to you. This is the mission for which you were sent to earth.”
President Nelson again reiterated this a few months later explaining that this gathering is “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth today!”
Turning our hearts outward
“When we love God with all our hearts, He turns our hearts to the well-being of others in a beautiful, virtuous cycle,” President Nelson said in 2019—as he surveyed the wide scope of humanitarian efforts the church makes to help alleviate poverty, hunger and sickness throughout the world. “Living that second great commandment is the key to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ.”
In 2021, after a year of the pandemic, this humble prophet also taught: “If you know of anyone who is alone, reach out—even if you feel alone too! You do not need to have a reason or a message or business to transact. Just say hello and show your love. Technology can help you. Pandemic or not, each precious child of God needs to know that he or she is not alone!”
President Nelson also taught in 2021 that “The Lord will increasingly call upon His servants who worthily hold the priesthood to bless, comfort, and strengthen mankind and to help prepare the world and its people for His Second Coming.”
12. Equal partnership between men and women is beautiful—let’s stop wasting time battling each other!
Human history is burdened by the oppression and abuse many have faced—and continue to face today. Even when the prospect for something better exists, however, too often the relationships between men and women are tainted by hostility, anger and resentment—as well as a degrading objectification that continues to take place.
Into this toxic swirl, President Nelson spoke with tenderness and love, much like I believe the Savior would if he were on earth:
‘Your unique influence cannot be duplicated’
In an early message to women in 2015 as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, President Nelson shared: “We, your brethren, need your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices. The kingdom of God is not and cannot be complete without women who make sacred covenants and then keep them, women who can speak with the power and authority of God!”
“Sisters, do you realize the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the Spirit?”
We need each married sister to speak as “a contributing and full partner” as you unite with your husband in governing your family. Married or single, you sisters possess distinctive capabilities and special intuition you have received as gifts from God. We brethren cannot duplicate your unique influence.”
“We know that the culminating act of all creation was the creation of woman! We need your strength!”
Acknowledging the many attacks on faith right now, President Nelson added, “We need women who can detect deception in all of its forms. We need women who know how to access the power that God makes available to covenant keepers and who express their beliefs with confidence and charity.”
“So today I plead with my sisters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to step forward! Take your rightful and needful place in your home, in your community, and in the kingdom of God—more than you ever have before.”
One year later, in 2016, President Nelson “urgently plead” with an audience of men to likewise rise to a higher standard, saying, “In a coming day, only those men who have taken their priesthood seriously, by diligently seeking to be taught by the Lord Himself, will be able to bless, guide, protect, strengthen, and heal others. Only a man who has paid the price for priesthood power will be able to bring miracles to those he loves and keep his marriage and family safe, now and throughout eternity.”
“May each one of us rise up as the man God foreordained us to be—ready to bear the priesthood of God bravely, eager to pay whatever price is required to increase his power in the priesthood. With that power, we can help prepare the world for the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
‘Oh, how we need your strength’
A few years later, in 2018, President Nelson shared with women in the church that “anytime I use the word mother, I am not talking only about women who have given birth or adopted children in this life. I am speaking about all of our Heavenly Parents’ adult daughters. Every woman is a mother by virtue of her eternal divine destiny.”
Referencing his own nine daughters, in 2018, President Nelson shared the following with women in the church: “I pray that you will sense how deeply I feel about you—about who you are and all the good you can do. No one can do what a righteous woman can do. …Men can and often do communicate the love of Heavenly Father and the Savior to others. But women have a special gift for it—a divine endowment. You have the capacity to sense what someone needs—and when he or she needs it. You can reach out, comfort, teach, and strengthen someone in his or her very moment of need. Women see things differently than men do, and oh, how we need your perspective!”
He concluded, “My dear sisters, we need you! We “need your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices.” We simply cannot gather Israel without you.”
President Nelson and Wendy Nelson with his living children.
‘Direct access to the power of God’
In 2018, President Nelson described seeing women “who understand the power inherent in their callings and in their endowment and other temple ordinances. These women know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen their husbands, their children, and others they love. These are spiritually strong women who lead, teach, and minister fearlessly in their callings with the power and authority of God!”
Likewise, he described seeing men who “lead and serve by sacrifice in the Lord’s way with love, kindness, and patience. They bless, guide, protect, and strengthen others by the power of the priesthood they hold. They bring miracles to those they serve while they keep their own marriages and families safe.”
“Effective ministering efforts are enabled by the innate gifts of the sisters and by the incomparable power of the priesthood,” he concluded. “Yet we live in a day when any distinction in role or power is automatically cast in some quarters as a sign of bias at worst, and despotic power-hungriness at worst.”
In 2019, President Nelson taught that because the priesthood has been restored, “both covenant-keeping women and men have access to ‘all the spiritual blessings of the church.’”
“Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants, and who participates worthily in priesthood ordinances, has direct access to the power of God,” he added—before underscoring: “The heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood.”
‘All people everywhere’
Without provoking culture war battles, President Nelson spoke directly to the broader cynicism regarding any situation where men have a unique role when, in a 2024 message on priesthood keys, he said, “I invite you to consider carefully the following three statements:
The gathering of Israel is evidence that God loves all of His children everywhere.
The gospel of Abraham is further evidence that God loves all of His children everywhere. He invites all to come unto Him—“black and white, bond and free, male and female; … all are alike unto God.”
The sealing power is supernal evidence of how much God loves all of His children everywhere and wants each of them to choose to return home to Him.
“Let us rejoice that priesthood keys are once again on the earth!” he declared. “Priesthood keys restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith make it possible for every covenant-keeping man and woman to enjoy incredible personal spiritual privileges.”
Bottom line: Don’t believe the cynical voices portraying all priesthood leadership in power-politics terms.
Time to join this wonderful gathering?
In 2020, President Nelson encouraged us to pray to “find those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives,” continuing: “We may be led to some who have never believed in God or Jesus Christ but who are now yearning to learn about Them and Their plan of happiness … . Some to whom we may be led may have always felt there was something missing in their lives. They too are longing for the wholeness and joy that come to those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives.”
“We can assist them by welcoming them with open arms and hearts.”
“Each of God’s children deserves the opportunity to hear and accept the healing, redeeming message of Jesus Christ.” He also said in 2021: “No other message is more vital to our happiness—now and forever. No other message is more filled with hope. No other message can eliminate contention in our society.”
In 2022, President Nelson shared: “The spiritual darkness in the world makes the light of Jesus Christ needed more than ever. Everyone deserves the chance to know about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Every person deserves to know where they can find the hope and peace that ‘[pass] all understanding.’”
“We have the sacred responsibility to share the power and peace of Jesus Christ with all who will listen and who will let God prevail in their lives.”
That’s why I share this with you all today. I unabashedly hope you will consider studying more, visiting our worship services and even joining the party. 🙂
I’m not joking. I can’t explain the peace, the joy and the love that has been in my life, despite so many other hard things. I’m grateful to feel the Lord’s work inside me, as I have sought to yield my heart (imperfectly, but sincerely) to God.
My experience makes me think of the Book of Mormon people who kept reaching, seeking and communing, until they did “wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.”
If you haven’t yet, may this be the time to yield your own heart a little more? And move towards letting God become the “most important influence” in your own life? As President Nelson had shared years before with the youth, he reiterated again in 2023 to the whole church: “the gathering of Israel is the most important work taking place on earth today. One crucial element of this gathering is preparing a people who are able, ready, and worthy to receive the Lord when He comes again, a people who have already chosen Jesus Christ over this fallen world, a people who rejoice in their agency to live the higher, holier laws of Jesus Christ.”
“I call upon you, my dear brothers and sisters, to become this righteous people,” he entreated. “Cherish and honor your covenants above all other commitments. As you let God prevail in your life, I promise you greater peace, confidence, joy, and yes, rest.”