The Gospel Light of Truth and Love

Interesting that he would have any memories of being sealed to his family at age 2.

He is the second speaker in a row to quote “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and they shall be my people.” Considering that his was prerecorded he couldn’t have known and thrown it in.

I love his use of the jubilant hymn Hark All Ye Nations.

Thanks to the commencing of the ongoing Restoration just over 200 years ago, “the gospel light of truth and love” now shines brightly throughout the earth. The Prophet Joseph learned in 1820, and millions more have since learned, that God “giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.”

“It took 117 years—until 1947—for the Church to grow from the initial six members to one million. …

“The two-million-member mark was reached just 16 years later, in 1963, and the three-million mark in eight years more.”

Our growth rate has tapered off significantly since then. Is that because we have found most of those who are ready to hear or because fewer of us are fully committed to sharing living and sharing the gospel in all aspects of our lives?

In April 1973, my parents and I traveled from our native Argentina to be sealed in the temple. Since there were no temples in all of Latin America at the time, we flew more than 6,000 miles (9,700 km) each way to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Although I was just two years of age at the time and do not recall the entirety of that special experience, three very distinct images from that trip were fixed in my mind and have remained ever since.

First, I recall being placed close to the airplane’s window and seeing the white clouds below.

Those beautiful, bright clouds endure in my mind as if they had been gigantic cotton balls.

Another image that has remained in my mind is that of a few funny-looking characters at an amusement park in the Los Angeles area. Those characters are hard to forget.

But of much greater importance is this brilliant and unforgettable image:

I clearly remember being in a sacred room of the Salt Lake Temple where sealings of couples and of families are performed for time and for all eternity. I remember the beautiful altar of the temple and recall the bright sunlight shining through the room’s exterior window. I felt then, and have continued to feel since, the warmth, safety, and solace of the gospel light of truth and love.

That clearly made an impression on his young mind. The fact that he has participated in 3 live seeing ordinances—sealed to his parents, sealed to his wife as they started their family, and sealed to the daughter they later adopted—means that he has a unique tie to this sealing power on earth.

In addressing the gathering of Israel in the last days, the Lord Jehovah said, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” I feel eternally grateful that from my young age, the law of the Lord started to be engraved deeply in my heart through sacred ordinances in His holy house. How fundamental it is to know that He is our God, that we are His people, and that whatever circumstances surround us, if we are faithful and obey the covenants we have entered into, we can be “encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.”

The ongoing Restoration has been marked by the building and dedication of temples at an augmented pace. As we gather on both sides of the veil, as we make sacrifices to serve and make the temple pivotal in our lives, the Lord is truly building us—He is building His covenant people.

I wonder if we have accelerated the gathering of Israel on the other side of the veil as much as it has decelerated on this side.

I testify that the gospel light of truth and love shines brightly throughout the earth today. The “marvellous work and a wonder” foretold by the prophet Isaiah and seen by Nephi is taking place at a hastened pace, even in these challenging times. As Joseph Smith prophetically declared, “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing … till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

Brothers and sisters, may we be willing and decide today to engage ourselves and our families in hearing heaven’s voice, even the voice of our Savior. May we make and keep covenants with God, which will secure us firmly in the path that leads back to His presence, and may we rejoice in the blessings of the glorious light and truth of His gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.