Summary of the Sunday Morning Session

 
Individual Talk Summaries

• Elder D. Todd Christofferson: ‘Our Relationship With God’
• Sister Amy A. Wright: ‘Christ Heals That Which Is Broken’
• Elder Gary E. Stevenson: ‘Love, Share, Invite’
• Elder Michael T. Ringwood: ‘For God So Loved Us’
• Elder Ronald A. Rasband: ‘To Heal the World’
• Elder Hugo E. Martinez: ‘Teaching Self-Reliance to Children and Youth
• President Russell M. Nelson: ‘The Power of Spiritual Momentum’

Watch the full Sunday morning session now.

While decrying armed conflict as “a horrifying violation of everything the Lord Jesus Christ taught and stands for,” President Russell M. Nelson also pleaded with listeners during the Sunday morning session of April 2022 general conference “to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives.”

In the session’s concluding message Sunday morning, April 3, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offered five actions to build and maintain positive spiritual momentum that will result in peace, strength and unity.

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1. Get on the covenant path and stay there.
2. Discover the joy of daily repentance.
3. Learn about God and how He works.
4. Seek and expect miracles.
5. End conflict in your personal life.

“We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying,” President Nelson said.

President Nelson pleads for conflict to end, positive spiritual momentum to increase

“Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and armed hostilities. Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation.”

President Nelson was the last of the Sunday morning session’s seven speakers — three members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, two General Authority Seventies and a member of the Primary General Presidency.

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, conducted the session, held with a half-capacity congregation of about 10,000 in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the session’s opening speaker, taught about the faith, patience and refinement required to create a lasting relationship with God.

“Our repentance and obedience, our sacrifices and our good works do matter,” he said, adding, “In the midst of the refiner’s fire, rather than get angry with God, get close with God.”

In the end, “it is the blessing of a close and abiding relationship with the Father and the Son that we seek,” Elder Christofferson said. “It makes all the difference and is everlastingly worth the cost.”

Sister Amy A. Wright, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, testified of the healing power of the Savior.

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“There is nothing in your life that is broken that is beyond the curative, redeeming and enabling power of Jesus Christ,” she said.

Sister Wright underscored the importance of forgiving and of waiting upon the Lord. “Unburdening our hearts through forgiveness isn’t always easy, but through the enabling power of Jesus Christ, it is possible,” she said, adding that “waiting upon the Lord can be a sacred place — a place of polishing and refining where we can come to know the Savior in a deeply personal way.”

Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke on how the Savior’s great commission to preach the gospel can be accomplished through three simple principles: love, share and invite.

He expanded the list of three into actions:

• Show Christlike love towards one’s neighbors.
• Share what one loves about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Invite others to “come and see,” “come and serve,” and “come and belong.”

These three principles are, the Apostle said, “merely an extension of who we already are as disciples of Jesus Christ.”

 
Elder Michael T. Ringwood, a General Authority Seventy, taught about God’s love for His children and His personalized plan for each of them.

“We are the focus of our Heavenly Father’s plan and the reason for our Savior’s mission,” he said. “Each of us, individually, is Their work and Their glory.”

Why does Heavenly Father’s personalized plan for us, asked Elder Ringwood, include helping others return to Him? “Because that is how we become like Jesus Christ,” he answered.

Acknowledging attacks on religious freedom as a scourge sweeping the earth, Elder Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles invited all “to champion the cause of religious freedom.”

He listed four ways society and individuals benefit from religious freedom:

1. Believers can express devotion to God by worship of Him and willingness to serve His children.
2. Expressions of belief, hope and peace are fostered.
3. Believers perform simple and sometimes heroic acts of service.
4. It acts as a unifying and rallying force for shaping values and morality.

“The good of religion, its reach and the daily acts of love which religion inspires only multiply when we protect the freedom to express and act on core beliefs,” Elder Rasband said.

Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy, taught about the importance of self-reliance and how to teach it to children and youth.

“Self-reliance is a doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ and not a program,” he said. “It is a process that lasts a lifetime, not an event.”

Becoming self-reliant and teaching it to children and youth can best be done by:

• Being good examples of service to others.
• Living and teaching the doctrine and principles of self-reliance.
• Obeying the commandment to build self-reliance as part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder Shayne M. Bowen and Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, both General Authority Seventies, offered the session’s invocation and benediction, respectively.

With Mack Wilberg as director and Brian Mathias and Andrew Unsworth as organists, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performed two hymns during the Sunday morning session — “Press Forward, Saints” and “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” It also sang two selections — “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” and “It Is Well with My Soul.”

The congregation joined the choir to sing “How Firm a Foundation.”