Brothers and sisters, we welcome you from the campus of Utah Valley University to this worldwide devotional for young adults. We especially want to welcome those who are joining for the very first time. We hope that these devotionals will strengthen and enrich your lives. I'm Michael May. I serve as the president of the Orem Utah Young Single Adult Second Stake. Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presides here this evening. He is accompanied by his wife, Kathy. We are thrilled to be able to hear from both of them this evening. We recognize and welcome Elder Craig C. Christensen, Utah Area President, and his wife, Debbie. Elder Paul V. Johnson, Church Commissioner of Education, and his wife, Jill, are also on the stand. We wish to express our appreciation to Utah Valley University for providing the venue for the broadcast. We recognize Astrid Tuminez, president of Utah Valley University, and her husband, Jeffrey Tolk, with us on the stand. Also seated on the stand are members of the Seventy, some of the local young single adult stake presidents, and administrators from the Church Educational System. They are accompanied by their spouses. We are grateful for their service and leadership to all of us. We'll begin with the congregation singing "Hark, All Ye Nations!" hymn number 264 in the English hymnbook. We appreciate the assistance of Sister Melinda [INAUDIBLE] of the Orem Young Single Adult 20th Ward, who will conduct the music, and Sister Ellen Amatangelo, who will be our accompanist. After the hymn, Ashley [INAUDIBLE] of the Orem Young Single Adult 18th Ward will offer the invocation.

[MUSIC - "HARK, ALL YE NATIONS!"]

Hark, all ye nations! Hear heaven's voice Thru ev'ry land that all may rejoice! Angels of glory shout the refrain: Truth is restored again! Oh, how glorious from the throne above Shines the gospel light of truth and love! Bright as the sun, this heavenly ray Lights ev'ry land today. Searching in darkness, nations have wept; Watching for dawn, their vigil they've kept. All now rejoice; the long night is o'er. Truth is on earth once more!

Oh, how glorious from the throne above Shines the gospel light of truth and love! Bright as the sun, this heavenly ray Lights ev'ry land today.

Chosen by God to serve him below, To ev'ry land and people we'll go, Standing for truth with fervent accord, Teaching his holy word. Oh, how glorious from the throne above Shines the gospel light of truth and love! Bright as the sun, this heavenly ray Lights ev'ry land today.

Our dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we get to gather together for this worldwide devotional tonight. We are incredibly grateful for Elder and Sister Christofferson and their willingness to be with us tonight and to guide us and teach us. We ask that Thy Spirit will be with us, that we will be able to understand the things that Thou would have us know. We are grateful to be here at UVU, and we love Thee very much. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

This evening we are joined by the Utah Valley Institute choir, who will sing "Our Prayer to Thee." They are directed by Brother Ryan Eggett and accompanied by Sister Ellen Amatangelo on the organ and Brother [INAUDIBLE] on the piano. After the musical number, we'll be pleased to hear from Sister Kathy Christofferson. She will then be followed by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. At the conclusion of their remarks, the choir will sing "Testimony." They will be directed by Brother Eggett and accompanied by Sister Amatangelo. The benediction will then be offered by Nick [INAUDIBLE] of the Orem Young Single Adult 19th Ward. Elder D. Todd Christofferson was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 5, 2008. At the time of his calling, he was serving in the Presidency of the Seventy. Prior to his call to serve as full-time General Authority of the Church, Elder Christofferson was an attorney. Sister Kathy Christofferson is a graduate of Brigham Young University. She and Elder Christofferson have been married 51 years and are the parents of 5 children and grandparents of 17. The choir will now sing "Our Prayer to Thee."

[MUSIC - "OUR PRAYER TO THEE"]

We pray to Thee, our Heav'nly Father, With grateful hearts and fond emotion. We thank Thee for our great Exemplar-- Thy beloved and atoning Son--

Who gave Himself as sacred ransom, That we could live again with Thee! Our joy is full, our song so gladsome; Renew our faith and hope in Thee.

We pray to Thee, our Heav'nly Father, With thankful hearts and adoration. We thank Thee for our loving Savior, Who redeemed us from death and sin; Who gave to us His truth to brighten Our path, to help us walk His way, To love and serve, to lift and lighten The lives of all who will obey.

We pray to Thee, our Heav'nly Father, With gratitude and deep devotion, For loving faith and endless splendor-- Eternal glory--bound as one! We pray for mercy and forgiveness And hope to know Thy holy will.

We yearn for Thee, we plead in meekness, Thy trust in us may we fulfill. We yearn for Thee, we plead in meekness, Thy trust in us may we fulfill, we fulfill.

Thank you, choir, for that beautiful number. That's a favorite of ours. Thank you for singing so beautifully. My dear brothers and sisters, I'm so happy to be able to speak to you this evening. I have pondered a lot lately on those things that have strengthened my faith throughout my life. One thing I have come to know is that our Father in Heaven really does help us, especially when we are trying to do all we can to keep His commandments and build up His kingdom here on the earth. The prophet Nephi demonstrated his faith throughout his life. Although he suffered many afflictions in opposition, he always remained steadfast and always thanked God for his blessings. He said this after eight years of wandering in a desolate desert: "If ... the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness" (close quote). I know this principle is true. Let me share a story from Church history. In the late 1830s, most of the members of the Church gathered to the state of Missouri, where they hoped to establish Zion. But in 1839, mobs forced them to leave the state. With their houses destroyed and livestock and household goods stolen, they traveled northeast to Illinois, where they settled on swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River. They drained the swamp and established the fine city they called Nauvoo. But negative sentiment against the Church persisted. And the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred along with his brother Hyrum just five years later. With their temple barely completed, the Saints were forced out again in February of 1846, fleeing across the Mississippi River in the dead of winter. Among them was a man named Benjamin F. Johnson, my great-great-grandfather, with his family of young children. He described that time in his autobiography: "Now here we were starting in midwinter without a dollar on a journey without any knowledge of its length or the time it would occupy with only provisions enough to sustain us for a few weeks at most and with poor health, which for the last year or more had been exceedingly precarious. "I often suffered with acute, cutting pain in my stomach, which at times would cause the sweat to start from every pore. This along with other digestive problems made me unfit for arduous labors. The duties alone of caring for the teams and other camp duties looked great indeed to me. After being a few days in camp, some commenced to complain of hardship and poor fare. "But President Brigham Young roared upon them like a lion and told them that all who could not then commence to live upon boiled beans and corn should trust in God and be grateful for what they did get, or they ought to start back at once, for the camp of the Saints would be a poor place for them. "This came to me as the word of the Lord, but what was I to do? For a long time, I had been unable to eat corn bread or beans, as they gave me those unbearable stomach pains. How could I then go, for the most we had for food was corn and beans? I felt it was a subject of life or death to me" (close quote). I break here from the story to say that not many years before, his 22-year-old sister died of similar stomach problems. So he was probably not exaggerating his fears. He went on to say: "I talked the matter over with my family. I told them I was there to trust in the Lord. And if He was not with us, He certainly was not behind us. And I should not go back. I was willing to eat such food as we had and be grateful for it. And if the Lord did not take care of us now, the sooner we were all dead the better, for we would not be able to care for ourselves or protect our lives upon this journey" (close quote). A month later he reported this in his journal: "The beans, formerly inedible by me, I could eat with relish. And from that time, the old effect did not return to me on the journey. I had told the Lord what His servant had said, that by His help I would fulfill every requirement. And if it was His will that I should live to be His servant, He must cause my food to assimilate to the condition of my stomach, which I know He did" (close quote). The faith of my ancestors and the example of the prophets have strengthened me in my life and helped me to trust in the Lord even in difficult times. I remember the time early in our marriage when our finances were especially tight. We had two small children during the three years that Elder Christofferson was in graduate school. We had decided that after we had started a family, I would not work outside the home. So I tried to do what I could at home to earn a little money to help support us. My husband also had a couple of part-time jobs and summer employment, which provided the major portion of our income. Still, we didn't have much. We had a saying that if it wasn't food, rent, or gas for our old car, we didn't need to buy it. One Sunday just a couple of months, maybe two or three before Elder Christofferson's graduation, our bishop presented a building fund plan to renovate our aging chapel. It would require each family paying an assessment to cover the costs. Now, we no longer have building fund assessments. But in those days, wards and stakes helped pay part of the costs of building or renovating chapels above and beyond tithing donations, which we also paid. As with the other ward members, we sat down with the bishop to discuss what we might donate based on our income. Now, our suggested assessment was not high, but then we had very little money left. Some graduate students who were in our situation and leaving soon didn't think it was fair to have to pay into the building fund since they wouldn't be around when the renovations were completed. Still, we decided to pay the donation to the building fund even though we didn't know how we would make it to the end of the school year. Now, you might think that we could just get out the credit card and charge our monthly expenses and pay those over time. But we came from a different era. In those days, you couldn't get a credit card--believe this--you couldn't get a credit card unless you had proof of full-time employment, and your income had to be at a certain level. So we couldn't qualify for a credit card. Now, that may seem harsh, but a bit stricter policy on who can obtain a credit card today might save many people from the woes of debt they now experience. Anyway, just a couple of weeks after that, we were driving down a quiet road one night and stopped at a stop sign. Just then we heard behind us the squeal of brakes, and the rear of our old car was hit. Elder Christofferson got out to investigate while I stayed in the car. After some time, he got back in the car, and I asked him what happened. He said that only the bumper was damaged. The man who hit us was a traveling salesman and lived in another city. He realized he had bad brakes but didn't know that they were that bad. He needed his car for work and hoped that he could settle with us privately so that he wouldn't incur any increase in his car insurance and would not be given a ticket he would also have to pay. After all, no one was hurt. I think he was on a fairly strict budget himself. He said if we would get an estimate in writing on the repair cost and bring it to his motel room on the edge of town, he would pay us himself. Now, I wasn't born yesterday.

And I thought my dear husband, in whom I fully trusted, was pretty gullible in this case.

Did he really think this guy would make good on his promise? What were the chances that this guy wouldn't skip town? Well, Elder Christofferson did get the estimate for the repair, and he did go to that motel and actually found the man. That man wrote a check for the amount. And guess what? The check didn't bounce. Now for the rest of the story. That check was almost the same amount as the building fund assessment we had paid. We could certainly wait until he had a steady paycheck to take care of the repair. And in the meantime, we could make ends meet, which we had been doubtful we could do. This was a witness to us that the Lord does, as Nephi said, "provide means whereby [we] can accomplish the thing which he has commanded." I've learned that faith often means stepping into the dark. But as we do, I know the Lord will light the way before us. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father, who watches over us and cares about us. I know this is His Church and that our Savior lives. I thank the Lord for the blessings the gospel has brought into our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I thank my Heavenly Father for the privilege to be with you all tonight. And I want to thank my wife for her remarks, gullible though I am.

And a special thank-you to this marvelous choir. They are one more proof of the value of institute. And I love institute. I hope all of you who have the opportunity are not only enrolled but attending and actively participating in institute. It's one of the best things we do in the Church. The number that the choir sang just a moment ago--some of you may know--is a hymn that was written by President Russell M. Nelson. The lyrics are his, and the feeling and the expression reaches my heart as I trust it does yours. And I express to you his love and his greeting. Several years ago, Elder L. Tom Perry and I were on an assignment together in New York City. And while there, we visited a historic synagogue in Brooklyn. The synagogue was a stately building in a neighborhood that had been and probably still was one of the more upscale sections of the borough. The woman who served as rabbi of the Jewish Reform congregation there greeted us cordially and showed us through the historic building. In its prime, it had been an elegant structure. But it was now clearly in need of significant repairs. The rabbi told us that her congregation had declined in numbers and that funds to maintain the synagogue and its programs, including a day school, were inadequate. As we chatted further, she noted that generally speaking, young adults were committed to their Jewish heritage. But for whatever reason, they were reluctant to join and become committed members of the synagogue. Despite that, they routinely scheduled the building for social activities. It was something of a gathering place for them. And periodically, they would make donations to help cover the costs of using the facilities. But few wanted to or were willing to become part of the congregation, members of the congregation that worshipped there. Elder Perry and I discussed with the rabbi why this might be so. She noted from her conversations with many of these young adults--most of them single--that they didn't put a high priority on religion in their lives. Others simply didn't want to make a commitment to this or any synagogue. Elder Perry wondered if it was a manifestation of the famous or infamous FOMO, "fear of missing out"--that if they committed to this, they might miss out on something else. And this is essentially the subject that I'd like to talk to you about this evening: choice and commitment. Let's observe, starting out, that fear of missing out is, up to a point, a quite rational feeling. Insofar as possible, we all want to experience the best things and reach for the best options in any aspect of life. But to delay, seemingly forever, making a choice or commitment because it might mean missing out on something else possibly better is not rational. Every choice forecloses other possibilities. If you choose to work or go to school in the morning, you can't stream a movie on Netflix at the same time. Or can you?

If you go to school and major in civil engineering or whatever, you'll miss majoring in history or art or anything else, unless you never leave school. If you travel to Victoria Falls in Africa now, you cannot travel anywhere else at the same moment and may miss other places you might want to visit. If you choose to serve a mission, you give up many social activities for that time. And so it goes. But unless you make a choice and commit to a certain direction, your life will be pretty erratic. And in the end, you will in fact miss out on most of the very best things. As my wife observes from time to time, you can't have everything. Where would you put it? We can't have everything that it would be nice to have. We can't do everything that it would be nice or interesting to do. Even if you restrict your choices only to things that are "of good report or praiseworthy," you still cannot have or experience everything. There's simply not enough time or means or space in any one life in mortality. And so we must commit to particular choices, knowing that by so doing, we necessarily forgo others, good though they may be. We should also bear in mind that unduly delaying a choice can itself constitute a choice. Marriage is a prime example. By choosing one partner, we forgo all others. The Lord says, "Thou shalt love thy wife with all my heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else." Because of the finality of the choice, some resist a commitment to someone they are very fond of, someone they love, with whom they could progress happily and eternally, worried that there may be an even more perfect soul mate somewhere that they wouldn't want to miss. I remember one such young man years ago in my acquaintance who rejected a wonderful potential partner because he thought she had too many dental fillings.

My reaction was "You want a perfection that does not exist. And by the way, if you stop to think, you're nowhere near being a perfect choice yourself."

This is a gathering of young adults. And for most of you, the emphasis is on adult. You have or are pursuing adult responsibilities, adult achievements, and adult contributions, as opposed to delaying adulthood and pursuing the perpetual party. Ten years ago, author and scholar Charles Murray spoke about the meaning of a life well lived. He said, "I'm talking about the kinds of things that we look back upon when we reach old age and [that] let us decide that we can be proud of who we have been and what we have done." Murray recalled speaking to an audience in Zurich about the deep satisfactions that come from a life well lived. He said: "After the speech, a few of the twenty-something members of the audience approached and said plainly that the phrase 'a life well-lived' did not have meaning for them. They were having a great time with their current sex partner and new BMW and the vacation home in Majorca, and saw no voids in their lives that needed filling. "It was fascinating," said Murray, "to hear it said to my face, but not surprising. ... That mentality goes something like this: Human beings are a collection of chemicals that activate and, after a period of time, deactivate. The purpose of life is to while away the intervening time as pleasantly as possible."

At the end of his remarks, Murray made this perceptive statement: "Age-old human wisdom has understood that a life well-lived requires engagement with those around us." True adults understand this. They recognize that personal pleasure never works as the focus of life and cannot suffice as the purpose of life. This truth underlies the two great commandments: to love God with all one's heart, soul, and mind and one's neighbor as oneself. As Jesus said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." The gospel covenant with its promise of eternal life rests on these two great commandments in the priority order given, first and second. Loyalty to these two great commandments defines a life well lived and what it means to be an adult. In the end, there is no neutral, uncommitted path to follow, at least when it comes to things of eternal consequence. Alma made this point when he taught that Christ, the Good Shepherd, calls us to follow Him in the path of discipleship and happiness: "Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd. And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold, I say unto you, that the devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold; and now, who can deny this?" Alma's teaching the reality that there are only two options and that Christ is the only good alternative. If you're not choosing Christ, you're automatically following a false god, an erroneous path, leading to eventual, even eternal disappointment, to say the least. So unless you follow the Savior, you're rejecting Him. Knowing this, we should feel no reluctance to commit to the Lord and seek to become one with Him, as He prayed at the Last Supper for His Apostles and all who would believe on their words: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." Isn't that where we want to be? Why then hesitate in becoming fully and unreservedly committed? Why hold back in taking His yoke upon us, knowing that His yoke is easy and His burden is light? Answering my own question, I can see that despite the logic and despite the pleadings of the Spirit as it strives with us, there are a couple of reasons that one might still feel some reluctance. One is a concern about our ability to keep such a far-reaching commitment. Can we really follow through? Would we be better off not committing if we might fail? This is an understandable concern. But in response, I would note that in a very important sense, you have already crossed that bridge when in the premortal world you chose to accept the plan of salvation and exaltation prepared by the Father and championed by the Son. You chose Christ. Your physical birth is testament to the fact you already committed. You kept your first estate. And now the question is, will you keep that commitment in this second estate and have glory added upon your heads for ever and ever? We should not be afraid to reaffirm our premortal commitment, especially when we consider how miserable the alternative is. And we need not live in fear of failure. We're not alone. We're not without help. Anyone who truly does commit to Christ, to full discipleship, cannot fail. If we're bound to Him who descended below all things, who overcame all things, and who now has all power, we cannot fail. Our Heavenly Father and Savior are not simply disinterested observers, curious to see if things will work out for us or not. Can you imagine Them looking down from heaven saying, "Ah, look at Sam. He messed up last time he faced a situation like this, and two bits says he'll do it again"?

Or "Look, her friends have put Sandra in a real bind. It's going to be interesting to see if she can work her way out of this one"? Of course that's ridiculous. They are actively involved on our side, providing constant help, guidance, resources, and would probably give us more if we would accept it. I said earlier that when we honor the covenants that bind us to Christ and His power, we cannot fail. That's true in the end. But I acknowledge that at times all of us experience failures--our own mistakes and sins and the impact that the mistakes and sins of others sometimes have on us. But with the gifts of repentance and forgiveness, all of those failures and failings are at best temporary. None of them can deprive us of eternal life without our acquiescence. Why? Because when we do what we can to recover, we have access to the grace of Christ to resolve and repair anything that we cannot. Remember, the atoning power or grace of Christ not only takes away the guilt of sin and error; it also sanctifies and makes us holy beings capable of living in the presence of God. Now, I'm not saying that all this is easy. You know, as well as I do, life is full of struggles and some very hard things, even tragedies. And being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ is much easier said than done. It was far from easy for Jesus to be a disciple of His Father and to drink His bitter cup. But He did it. And He knows how to help us successfully walk the path of discipleship. In addition, the Savior has the power and the willingness to help. He will stay with us with as much help as we need and as long as it takes. He says, "Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me." "As often as my people repent." Fear of failure is no reason not to make a full and complete commitment to Christ. Just keep repenting, doing your best to be good, and that will be enough. I can think of one other reason that a person might be reluctant to answer the call of the Good Shepherd and join His fold. And that is fear of the sacrifice that may be entailed. You all remember the young man who asked Jesus in all sincerity, "What lack I yet [to qualify for eternal life]?" Mark tells us that "Jesus beholding him loved him"--I think that's significant--"and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." You remember the response. "He was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions." I hope that on reflection, this rich young man had a change of heart and later accepted the Savior's invitation. In any case, we all recognize that committing to Christ will involve sacrifice. One thing to be sacrificed will be the fear of missing out because we know we will in fact miss out on many things. So many options in life are incompatible with discipleship. And even many good things may be foreclosed by the demands that discipleship makes on our time and resources for things that are better or best. That earnest young adult that asked the Savior, "What lack I yet?" is dead. Whatever riches he had probably don't exist anymore. And in any case, he does not have them, nor does he have any use for them. As much a sacrifice as it may have seemed to him at the time, did he have a better option than accepting the Savior's invitation? Could anything he had or might have acquired with his riches compare with what the Lord was ultimately offering him? We know that anything the Savior asks of us, including our very lives, is trivial in comparison to exaltation. We can't even imagine. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." But rather than fear the sacrifices of discipleship, we should welcome the opportunity to grow in spiritual power, to experience deeper joy, and to find, each of us, real meaning in our life. Sacrifice, especially sacrifice in the cause of Christ, denotes seriousness. We truly are going to keep the two great commandments to love God and neighbor. Sacrifice means we really will do some good in the world. Loving our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son with heart, might, mind, and strength confirms to our souls what and who we are. That gives us the kind of security that enables us to stop focusing just on ourselves and to look outward to see others truly--their needs, the reality they face--with a desire to understand and help them. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite saw the wounded traveler on the side of the road. But they didn't really see him. Only the Samaritan truly saw the wounded stranger. And as a result, "he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds." So many feel persistent loneliness. Surely our sacrifices can make a difference.

The overarching commitment that guarantees joy here and hereafter is the commitment to God, our Eternal Father, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Omni we find this eloquent plea: "I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." The story is told of a father who put his little boy to bed and, as he left the bedroom, heard a thud. Going back, he saw his son on the floor and asked how he'd fallen out of bed. The boy replied, "I didn't get all the way in." Be sure, in your commitment to God, you get all the way in. You're part of the body of Christ. You belong. Be all in, giving and receiving freely. Truly see those around you. Be seen so that yours will be a life well lived, a life of ministering, blessing, and satisfaction, a life blessed and sanctified by the Savior, who has overcome all things. Last summer's Pioneer Day concert by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square featured the very talented Norwegian singer Sissel. The audience, myself included, was deeply moved by her reverent rendition of a song titled "Slow Down" that called to mind the scripture from Psalms, "Be still, and know that I am God." I'd like to play the video recording of Sissel singing on that occasion. And as you listen, I ask you to ponder the message that we can have complete trust in God and in His wondrous love and willingness to bless and sustain us, come what may. And ponder the sacredness of committing your life and yourself to Him, come what may.

[MUSIC - "SLOW DOWN"] In the midst of my confusion, In the time of desperate need, When I am thinking not too clearly, A gentle voice does intercede: "Slow down, slow down, be still.

Be still and wait on the Spirit of the Lord.

Slow down and hear His voice And know that He is God."

In the time of tribulation, When I'm feeling so unsure, When things are pressing in about me, Comes a gentle voice so still, so pure: "Slow down, slow down, be still, my child. Be still and wait on the Spirit of the Lord.

Slow down and hear His voice And know that He is God.

And know that He is God."

Slow down. Make up your mind and settle it in your heart that you choose God. Find the quiet time when you can kneel down in a private place and say to your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you are His, that you are committed body and soul to Him, His Son, and the gospel path. Then follow where He leads now and for the rest of your life. Don't hesitate or hold back any longer, but get on with your purpose and mission in life. Mortality is so short. Make this time count so that your eternity will be one of joy, not regret. Do you not feel the Spirit telling you that this is right? And go forward with confidence. I promise you that the Lord's reward for your giving all will be all that He has to give: "good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." The reality of His Resurrection is proof that He has all power, that He can deliver what He's promised, and that He does deliver. He's life. And He has come "that [we] might have life, and ... have it more abundantly." I tell you, as one who knows, that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Redeemer. That fact makes all the difference in the world and in eternity. I offer you His blessing and my witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

[MUSIC - "I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES"]

(SINGING) I know that my Redeemer lives.

What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, he lives, who once was dead, My ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love, To plead for me above.

He lives my hungry soul to feed, To bless in time of need.

He lives to grant me rich supply.

He lives to guide me with his eye. He lives to comfort me when faint, To hear my soul's complaint. He lives to silence all my fears, To wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart, All blessings to impart.

He lives, my kind, wise heav'nly Friend. He lives and loves me to the end. He lives, and while he lives, I'll sing, My Prophet, Priest, and King.

He lives and grants me daily breath, And I shall conquer death.

He lives my mansion to prepare, To bring me safely there.

He lives!

He lives! Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives. He lives! All glory to his name!

My Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: "I know that my Redeemer lives!"

He lives!

He lives!

Our dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank Thee very much for this beautiful Sabbath day that Thou hast given us. And we thank Thee very much for the opportunity to attend this wonderful devotional, both physically and through broadcast. We thank Thee very much for our beloved prophet and for Thy Apostles, especially at this time, for Elder Christofferson and for his wife, Sister Christofferson. We thank Thee very much for their wise words of advice and counsel. And we ask Thee to please bless us that we may remember the Spirit that we felt this day and remember this counsel, that we may be able to take it into our daily lives and make commitments with full purpose of heart and complete dedication. We ask Thee to please bless us that we may be a light to our family and friends and take the things we've learned today not only in our lives, but also in the lives of our friends and family, that they may benefit as well. Lord, we love Thee, and we love our Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for His Atonement and for His wonderful gospel. And we say this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]