They Saved the Best for Last

In essays, and in speeches, quotes are used for a number of reasons. The use of quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the strength of an argument. Beginning or desperate writers sometimes use quotes to fill space. But that's not what I intend to do this evening. This evening, I would like to quote Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's concluding talk from the April 2016 General Conference, in its entirety, for the third reason writers use quotes in their essays: because the writers of those essays could not possibly say what the person whom they are quoting has said any better than the way the person whom they are quoting had said it.

Of course, I am not going to copy and paste Elder Holland's entire talk. It would be a great disservice to you if I did. You need to hear it. I will give you a link to his talk, in case you would like to read it, but reading this talk is not the best way to experience it. Also on that page to which I just gave you a link, you can watch the video recording of his talk or listen to the audio recording of it. I would highly recommend doing one of those things. In case neither of those work, here is a link to the Youtube video through which I listened to the talk. And in case that doesn't work either, I am downloading the video and will attempt to embed it here. It is worth watching.

Now, I must warn you that the talk is twenty minutes long. Some of you may not have that kind of time. If that's your case, then perhaps you might still be able to listen to the talk while engaging in other pursuits. If that's not possible, either, then you can at least read these few, short quotes from that talk, even though these quotes sound much better the way he says them than they could ever look on a screen.

Here you are, there you are, hour after hour, in your Sunday best, being your best. You sing and you pray. You listen and you believe. You are the miracle of this Church. And we love you.

. . . 

With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed.

. . .

Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going. If you fall, summon His strength. Call out like Alma, “O Jesus, … have mercy on me.”⁷ He will help you get back up. He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek.

. . .

My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength.

. . .

President George Q. Cannon once taught: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. … He will [always] stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them.”

. . .

So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.

Here is the video. I hope it works. I hope you watch it. This talk is really, really good.