Elder Bednar Turns the Hearts of California Saints to the Temple

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By Joel Randall, Church News

Bringing with him the love of the First Presidency, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles testified to listeners in Corona, California, on June 9 that their Savior knows them individually.

“The Lord’s work is accomplished one by one.” Referring to the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount, he added, “He does not speak to a congregation; He speaks to a group of ‘ones’ seated on the hillside. He knows us by name.”

For Kate Hicken of the El Cerrito Ward, Sunday’s Corona California Stake conference was a personal witness that God cares for each of His children one by one.

“Throughout my membership in the Church, I have had confirmation after confirmation that the gospel is true and that this is the true Church,” she told the Church News. “And today, we were able to hear from a special witness of Christ in our own stake. The Spirit taught me today that what we heard from Elder Bednar was true.”

The Temple: a Reminder of the Lord Jesus Christ

Elder Bednar remembers the world in commotion when he was a youth. Having grown up near the start of the Cold War, he still remembers nuclear bomb drills at his elementary school and not knowing if he would live to get married and start a family.

Yet despite the chaos, his relief was anchored in the covenants and ordinances of his home state’s Oakland California Temple.

“The house of the Lord was a reminder of the Lord Jesus Christ and who He is and what He did. It provided perspective and power to do things that no boy growing up in that place at that time ever could have imagined.”

He continued, “All of the things that matter most in my life are centered in and on the Lord Jesus Christ because of what is available in His house.”

The Spirit reminded 16-year-old Donovan Avalos, from the El Cerrito Ward, of the peace he has felt in the house of the Lord. “It’s become a very big place of comfort for me whenever I’m struggling in life,” he said. “It’s amazing the peace that the temple brings.”

Daniel Finger of the Circle City Ward was reminded how precious temple covenants are to bind families together. “Especially with my family, we’re going to focus more on the temple and increasing our temple attendance and take advantage of what the temple has to offer,” he said.

Elder Bednar shared that in the early days of the Restoration, Latter-day Saints around the world would immigrate to Utah to find Zion. Then in the 1970s, President Spencer W. Kimball invited members to build up Zion wherever they were. In a similar vein, said Elder Bednar, attending the house of the Lord is an opportunity to take Zion back home.

“We do not go to the house of the Lord to escape,” said the Apostle. “We go there to be reminded, to be renewed, to be reinvigorated, so we can take what we learn there and bring it into our homes.”

Bearing Simple Testimony

The Apostle took the opportunity to bear simple witness of the Savior, saying: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid a debt He did not owe, because you and I owe a debt we cannot pay. That is the grace of Christ through His Atonement.”

Hearing the testimonies of speakers, Joshua Finger of the Circle City Ward recognized that in order to testify through the Holy Ghost, “our testimonies don’t have to be something elaborate; we just need to focus on what we know and strengthen that.”

Shandra Carlsen of the Citrus Hills Ward said that “it’s more about the connection we have with our Savior and our Heavenly Father,” such as through covenants, “and everything else is incidental to it.”

As a missionary from Brigham City, Utah, now serving in the California Riverside Mission, Elder Tyler Coburn received a renewed witness of the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“The gospel can be so complex,” he said, “but when we simplify it down to what it truly is — the four steps of faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost — if you keep it so simple, it doesn’t matter what your question is; it’ll be answered.”

‘We Live in a Remarkable Season’

Robin Hicken of the La Sierra Ward, Riverside California Stake, treasured Elder Bednar’s apostolic blessing to those in attendance. She said, “He invoked a blessing on us to feel peace and comfort in our lives during this time and to stay strong.”

Mark Lauritzen — a former resident of Riverside, California, who visited from Cedar City, Utah — felt a spiritual confirmation that peace is possible through Jesus Christ. “As we keep our covenants and are true and faithful, He will endow us with power and great glory, and will help us to endure to the end to return home to Him.”

Despite the great commotion in the world that seems to get more difficult, said Elder Bednar, it is also a time of miracles, and Saints can look to the Savior for hope, healing and strength.

“We live in a remarkable season in the history of the Lord’s restored Church,” said Elder Bednar. “In this grand season, as this acceleration of the work continues in all the world, please express your gratitude to be alive now.”

Learn more in this related Church News article ‘Go to Work With Urgency,’ President Holland Tells Church Leaders in California

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