President Camille N. Johnson Encourages Young Adults to Study Prophet’s Words

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By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Church News

Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson recently spoke with a woman who expressed admiration for President Johnson’s conviction about Church President Russell M. Nelson. The woman then asked President Johnson how she could gain her own testimony of prophets, seers and revelators.

“I said to my new friend and I say to all of you, experiment upon their words,” President Johnson recounted. “Desire to believe that this is Jesus Christ’s restored Church, because it has been organized just the way the Savior organized His church when He was here on earth, with 12 apostles.”

President Johnson testified of the Church’s divinely organized leadership structure during a young single adult devotional at Brigham Young University–Idaho on Friday, November 15. The devotional was broadcast to meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the North America Central Area, roughly including from Northwest Territories and Alberta to Ontario, western Oregon and southern Idaho to Wisconsin and Illinois, and south to Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.

In addition to President Johnson, speakers included Elder Randall K. Bennett, a General Authority Seventy and North America Central Area president, and his wife, Sister Shelley Bennett; and BYU–Idaho President Alvin F. Meredith III and his wife, Sister Jennifer Meredith.

During her remarks, President Johnson invited young single adults to use the Gospel Library app’s study plans feature. One available study plan lists every general conference talk President Nelson has given since becoming the Prophet in 2018. It also includes a variety of his Church magazine articles and non-general conference talks.

President Johnson said her testimony that President Nelson is the Lord’s Prophet has been deepened most significantly by listening to him, studying his words and striving to follow his prophetic counsel.

“I’ve issued this invitation before to friends [and] congregations, inviting anyone in the sound of my voice to forge their own testimony of our Prophet by studying his words with me every day,” she said. “I received a text recently thanking me for the invitation and saying, ‘I feel better already.’ I know you will, too.”

Strengthen Your ‘Testimony Tree’

President Johnson continued that the Lord answers her questions through the Prophet, or gives her confidence about not knowing everything yet. However, she worries that individuals sometimes look for answers in unreliable sources or don’t draw from the best sources.

Contrast that mindset, President Johnson said, with President Nelson’s counsel to “think celestial” and with his warnings about the adversary’s deceptions.

“Spend your precious time deepening and strengthening the roots of your ‘testimony tree,’” President Johnson said. “Then, when you have a ‘leaf’ question, consider how it connects back to the ‘branch’ and then to the ‘trunk’ or core fundamental doctrine of the gospel. ...

“We need to pay the price to know that God’s prophets are His mouthpiece, that Jesus Christ is actively leading His church, and that we can trust Him with complete certainty. Even when we don’t understand completely, then the leaves draw context and spiritual insight from the trunk of the tree.”

The Joy of Covenants

Elder Bennett and Sister Bennett, who spoke together, also highlighted teachings from President Nelson, particularly emphasizing the importance of temple covenants.

Elder Bennett said keeping covenants is the primary focus of his and Sister Bennett’s marriage, which brings great joy to their family.

Neither of them is perfect, he continued, but President Nelson has promised that for those who make and keep covenants, life’s painful moments are temporary.

Elder Bennett compared covenants and ordinances to a capsule of prescribed medication. Ordinances are like the capsule itself: a vehicle for the medication to get where it’s most needed. Covenants are like the medication: it does the most good when it’s planted deeply.

When the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles occasionally modify the ways in which temple ordinances are performed, Elder Bennett said, it’s “so that God’s children can better understand the covenants they’re making with Him. Adjustments allow for covenants to be planted in the hearts of people living in different times and in different circumstances.”

Covenants and doctrines, however, are unchanging, Elder Bennett emphasized.

Sister Bennett noted some of the blessings of keeping covenants, as taught by President Nelson: peace, confidence, joy, enduring happiness and increased strength against temptations.

“When we choose to make and keep covenants with God, our relationship with Him becomes closer than it was before our covenant, and He blesses us with the extra measure of His mercy and love — a covenant love,” Sister Bennett said.

Begin With the End in Mind

President Meredith and Sister Meredith also spoke together and drew from President Nelson’s teachings.

In President Nelson’s first-ever address as prophet, he encouraged Latter-day Saints to “begin with the end in mind,” Sister Meredith noted.

President Meredith shared two blessings that can help young single adults begin with the end in mind: temple worship and patriarchal blessings.

Regarding temple worship, President Meredith quoted President Nelson’s promise that serving in the temple draws people closer to the Savior, guides them in solving their problems and shows them how to progress toward a celestial life.

President Meredith then invited young single adults to always keep a current temple recommend and to regularly worship in the temple.

“If you’ve never had a temple recommend, we invite you to work with your bishop to receive one,” he said. “If you’ve had a temple recommend that has expired, we invite you to work with your bishop to renew it. And when you have a temple recommend, we invite you to never let it expire.”

Regarding patriarchal blessings, Sister Meredith invited listeners to study their blessing often. For those who have not yet received theirs, she invited them to prepare for “that sacred experience.”

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