Temple Bound
God's children are searching in greater numbers for answers and hoping for miracles as they look to Jesus Christ for relief. On 'Temple Bound,' hosted by Will Humphreys, explore how temples offer not just solace but also powerful tools for navigating these turbulent times through faith in Jesus Christ.
Tune in every Monday to hear Will Humphreys engage with guests who bring inspiring stories, profound teachings, and insights into accessing divine guidance through temple service.
Each episode promises to enrich your understanding and strengthen your connection to the Savior in unique and transformative ways.
Whether you're seeking answers, yearning for peace, or in need of a miracle, 'Temple Bound' is your weekly spiritual refuge, helping you anchor your soul to the Savior. Join us on this sacred journey to deepen your faith and discover the blessings of temple worship.
Temple Bound
Lessons from 2025 General Conference with Brad Farr
We're so excited to share a truly special discussion today. Our repeat guest, the ever-insightful Brad Farr, has diligently combed through the April 2025 General Conference talks, meticulously extracting every paragraph that speaks of temples and covenants. He and I will be humbly exploring these sacred words, discussing how these profound messages can guide our path and strengthen our resolve in the coming six months. If your heart yearns for a deeper understanding of the Lord's holy house and the sacred covenants we make, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Prepare to feel the Spirit and draw closer to Him.
Key Takeaways/Insights:
- President Nelson's Urgent Call to "See What is Happening Right Before Our Eyes"
- The Temple: Our Fortress Against Deception and a Source of Eternal Perspective
- Embracing Christ's Atonement Through Temple Covenants.
- The "Crew Member" Blessing: Receiving Compensation for Our Diligent Service.
- Reverence as the Pathway to Revelation and Covenant Confidence.
- The Lord's Promises Manifested: Experiencing Mercy and Healing in His Holy House.
- An Invitation to Intentional Temple Worship and Personal Revelation
We encourage you, dear listeners, to prayerfully consider what specific commitments you can make to increase your temple worship and covenant keeping in the coming months. What promptings have you received today? Please share your personal insights, experiences, or questions about the temple and covenants by leaving a comment on our episode page or sending us a message on Instagram @TempleBoundPodcast.
Welcome back to Temple Bound. Our guest today is a repeat guest. This is Brad Farr. We have a completely new episode, something different that we've never done before. Brad went through the April 2025 General Conference talks and found every paragraph where temples are mentioned, and he and I are going to be reading the best of the best quotes about the temple from that general conference and having a discussion as to how we think that applies for the next six months here in the latter days. So if you would like to get the highest level discussion on the most important talks on temples and family history, this is the episode for you. Enjoy the show, brad. So excited to have you back your last episode. What a special moment in time. That was Just so. You know, I had Alex listen to it on his mission and he was just like oh, that's so cool and that meant a lot to me, since you were such a powerful leader for him. And so today's a little bit of a different agenda. Why don't you explain to the audience what we're doing today?
Speaker 2:Uh, you invited us, uh, you invited me to come back on, so appreciate that. And then, um, you decide, you asked me to review some of the temple and covenants, um podcasts or talks that that we could maybe talk about together. And with general conference coming up, I thought that it would be a really nice thing for myself and then maybe turn it into an opportunity here to just focus on what General Conference says about the temple and about covenants.
Speaker 1:And so I proposed that to you and you graciously agreed, and so it's been a great opportunity for me to focus on temples and covenants and through this last conference, Well, yeah, and the thing about this is, I am, I know you, you're an incredible researcher, you study things really intently, so it was a very selfish way for me to have you do work for me, because you created this document that has all the excerpts from the general conference that is divided by temples and covenants. So it's cool because you can read back to back all those elements about the temple. And that's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 1:We're going to start at the beginning with Elder Rasband's talk and just discuss the different quotes, what they're saying about the temple, because, as we all know, this is becoming an increasing focus from our leaders and that means it's an increased focus from God, and so, as we're sitting here, going, okay, so what is it for the next six months we need to focus on as it pertains to temples? Well, this is the episode we're going to jump right in. We're going to see how far we get Because, honestly, this might take us into some directions that we're open to, but, at the end of the day, we're just going to go talk by talk that mentions the temple Not every talk does, but many do, yes, and we'll have a chance to go through it. So, yeah, let's kick it right off with Elder Rasman's talk. What was your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2:Let's do it. I love this talk. I love kicking it off with this because he wants. His talk is right before our eyes and basically he's referencing President Nelson's talk from October 2024. Okay, and in October 2024, president Nelson said my dear brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening right before our eyes? So this is right after he announced I think it was like 17 temples or something Sure. And he says I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment. The Lord is hastening his work, so kind of going off of that, elder Rasband's going to talk about temples and do we recognize what is happening right now right before our eyes? Yes, and so I love that and in fact, it reminds me of a feeling I had recently.
Speaker 2:I listened to A Rough Stone Rolling which is about the Prophet Joseph Smith's life and it goes into detail about not only the experiences that Joseph Smith had, but the people around him were having him, were having when he, as he's receiving these revelation sorry, he's having the first vision, he's having the second vision with Moroni, he's getting the plates, he's receiving the priesthood, you know all of these things that are happening and I just there was this excitement that was that they had. I mean, can you imagine? You know Joseph Smith's trying to hide these plates from the people that are trying to get them from him and everybody's helping out and it's all just. I can't imagine the excitement that's going on. It's also terrifying. You know that people are going to try to steal from him.
Speaker 2:They murdered each other kind of a lot back then, yeah, exactly, but the moment that's the moment that how exciting it would have been to have Revelation again, that how exciting it would have been to have revelation again and the Lord speaking to, to his children again and to new scriptures and all of the and priesthood and all the, all the things that are being restored, how exciting. And I just felt that in the moment when I was listening to that. But also I get that feeling as I contemplate now how many temples are being built and announced and it's crazy.
Speaker 1:You know, it's so powerful, like the whole thing about it, the excitement. It's such a neat thing. And again, when you're living life and you're just trying to get through your day, you forget, like, what the bigger picture is. And that's why going to the temple, as we know, is so vital, because it gives us that higher perspective. And the bigger perspective is that this life is temporary. It's this eternal existence that matters, and every time a temple gets built, heaven and earth get closer together. So here we are, in a decade that we there's never been, and more temples being built than they are being right now. It's unbelievable, and so, yeah, it's neat that he brings this up as kind of like hey, are you guys even seeing this?
Speaker 2:yeah, are we recognizing this exciting? This is exactly, and you bring that up, and president nelson has talked um often about how, in 1924, when he was born, yeah, there were six operating temples, and in his lifetime it's gone up to well. Elder Rasband says 367, but then President Nelson announced however many more, so now there's 382 either announced or in some sort of and that's crazy it. And if you look back to 2018, when President Nelson first became the Prophet, at that time there were 160, so he's doubled the amount of just recently came, became a prophet.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, this is not like 10 years ago, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is in 2018, when he became prophet. Between then and now, he's doubled the amount of of temples that are on the, on the, on the on the earth. So, so cool, it's so great and what an amazing time to be alive, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I love that. And, as he says here, you know, the temple opens the way to the highest blessings our Holy Father has for each one of us. We are hastening our holiness. We are hastening our holiness as we live temple worthy, as we worship in the house of the Lord and as we make covenants with God for ourselves and behalf of our ancestors on the other side of the veil. So it's like we're basically, like you know, thinking, I think about like this, when I read that, it's like Christmas. It's like, as kids you know, they're so excited for Christmas. All these, all these gifts are coming and they just are going to be having so much fun with these gifts.
Speaker 1:These gifts are different, of course, but every time a temple is built, we are able to access more children of God, are able to access more blessings. So, like for us living so close to the Gilbert temple, like, what blessings have you and I experienced Because we can go to the temple so fast that it can be an hour experience if we're doing initiatories Not that we're rushing, but just saying it, like the ease of it opens the door to where we're just able to go so much more. And every time we go, our ancestors are celebrating, which means they become angels on the other side to help serve us and our kids. It's just, it's unbelievable, the miracles we have access to because of these temples.
Speaker 2:It really is. It is, it's amazing, and I and he goes on to quote President Nelson saying the assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially in intensity and variety, so our need to be in the temple on a regular basis has never been greater. I plead with you to take a prayerful look at how you spend your time. You mentioned time. Just, we can, in an hour's time, literally get ready to go to the temple, go to the temple, do an ordinance and come within an hour and so it's. That's an amazing, uh opportunity for us and those that are close.
Speaker 2:Um, but it's interesting that the that over time, the endowment session has even kind of been compressed a little bit for sure to make it, and I think that it's so that we can get there and and let's do that and let's, let's spend the time and it's interest I I underlined here how you spend your time. Yeah, because president nelson wants us to look at that. He wants us to look at how we're spending our time and that that concept of how we're spending our time came up several times throughout conference. Um, because it really is important. It really is important for us to look at that. How do we spend our time, how are we prioritizing not just temple going but being covenant keepers Right and and what that looks like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a talk or one of our podcast episodes. We were talking to Brandon Nielsen and he was talking about how literally every decision we make for the for the most part I mean he said every decision but it was like either brings light in or brings darkness in in terms of how we're investing our time. So if we looked at time like money, if every second was a dollar and we were putting that money in various, there's many ways to spend that money and we're putting that money in various there's many ways to spend that money. But where we put it is either going to invite light in or darkness in, depending on the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the things that we do. I don't know if that's totally true when it comes to eating cereal, but I think there's a lot to be said, for where we're spending our time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I love that emphasis, the most important of which would be in the temples temples of our lives, because I don't think it's just temples here, right, it's like the temples of our home. Yeah, you know the, the temples that we spend taking care of our, our personal temple, our body. Yeah, like that time we spent caring for, worshiping, showing reverence to, is an opportunity to bring more light and knowledge in, and it's because and it's almost funny because, as exciting as it is, all these temples are coming in, it's scary to think about how the adversaries attack are tripling in nature and getting more variety. I mean, it's exciting and it's almost like, and you really need to get there to avoid these horrible things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure we've both seen that and all of us have seen that how there's just a much wider variety of ways that that can suck up our time. Yeah, and and and. Maybe they're not all bad, maybe they're not all terrible, but are they? Are they the best way?
Speaker 1:Good, better, best yeah.
Speaker 2:That's. I love that talk.
Speaker 1:You know good, better, best and how can we focus our lives and our attention and our you know just who we are on the best things, yeah the adversary is so intelligent, I get the strong impression that if he can't pull us completely out of the light, he's going to try to limit any degree of light that he can. So, for example, yeah, maybe it's not like bad to play video games right For a degree of time, but you know at what point could you have been doing something different with that time? And again, there's a there's a time and place for relaxation and recreation. I'm not bagging on any of it, but anything in excess or like in the adversary's case.
Speaker 1:Well, if you can't get me to do things that are going to go against my values and my covenants, maybe I can get will to be so busy doing these other things Sometimes. Maybe it's work, maybe it's you know what I mean Like good things just to keep me out of doing the best things Right. So it's interesting that he talks about just being thoughtful and not over you know, you know beating ourselves up about it but just being intentional about where we spend our time paying attention and, like he says, prayerfully, look at how we spend our time and then we can go from there okay, love it.
Speaker 1:So Elder Rasband check let's go so, after Elder Rasband, you have here Elder Cook. The atonement of Jesus Christ provides the ultimate rescue, alright, so what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:on this one. I just want to focus on this line from his. You know he brings up a lot of great things, but this line that I highlighted the temple provides a continuing remembrance of the Savior's atonement and what it overcomes, and I've just asked myself, and I'll bring it up for both of us to talk about but why would that be so important? To understand what the atonement of Jesus Christ overcomes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so specific, right, yeah. So I guess, what have your thoughts been on?
Speaker 2:that, yeah, as I've thought about it is you know, each of us is going to run into trials. We're going to run into hiccups in our lives, into trials. We're going to run into hiccups in our lives, whatever those problems might be. And as we go to the temple, we can understand Christ's atonement better and we can understand that his atonement can help us overcome each of those things. And I think as we go more we can understand better what it is that we're going through and then also make that connection to oh, christ's atonement can help me with this and I love that concept.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it reminds me of the condescension of Christ, like when we can really consider that he's descended below all things and if we can be really mindful of that, then it gives us that faith of like. Well then he could relate to me. If he can relate to the worst or the least of all of these, then even me he can connect with. And I think that that's the whole point of like. Walking that covenant path is that you know we need the savior to get through those difficult times. But it's about becoming like the savior because we're walking with him. But it starts with understanding. Maybe in my mind I'm just processing out loud, but the idea that maybe that's the reason we're supposed to really focus on what he has overcome, so that we feel connected to the fact that he could relate to us and give us hope that we can too, with his help.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, gosh, I agree with that a hundred whole, and it's beautiful. I love any time that President Nelson is quoted. I really like that too, and he quotes President Nelson in here too. At our last conference, president Nelson emphasized this principle and added temple blessings help to repair people who will help prepare the world for the second coming of the Lord, and I think that that's great. I mean, that's just such a beautiful concept and idea that we can help the world be ready for his return, and that's exactly what the temple blessings are all about.
Speaker 1:You know what I have been thinking about nonstop since the last general conference was the quote about the cruise ship or the talk on cruise ships and how we are Wilcox. I love Brad Wilcox.
Speaker 1:I that idea has. I literally think about this every day, like I don't, I'm obsessed and I think it's because, um, I get tired all the time and I'm just like, what am I doing? I'm like, well, it's okay, I'm on the cruise ship, like I'm working on the cruise ship, and so the idea that the temple's blessings help prepare people who will help prepare the world, that's a degree of work, meaning that there's extra effort that's being done there. And I think sometimes, as Latter-day Saints, we get to the place where we're just tired. We're like, wow, I've been doing all these things. And even when our heart is in the right place, there's a fatigue. That's normal.
Speaker 1:But I think comes into place that we're like, wow, what? We go back to this thing, like why am I doing this again? And I think it's so great to remember the why that we are the people who will prepare the world for the second coming. So we're being prepared in the temple to prepare others, and I don't know there's something really cool about that. I think it'll be, you know, if we do our job and we get to that second coming and we're there and it's evident in a way that, like, christ can just come and honor that piece of it. That's got to be the coolest thing in the world.
Speaker 2:I like that. I've thought about that talk too a lot since. I've thought about that talk too a lot since. And the line that stuck out to me after I reread it, because when I, when I first listened to it, I'm like I think I'd rather be a passenger.
Speaker 1:I literally thought like or I could eat ice cream, yeah.
Speaker 2:Be ice cream, go on my excursions and not have to worry about it, you know. But the the the line that stuck out to me is he's what do the crew members have? That the? That the passengers don't, and that is compensation. Yeah, and, and we will be compensated for the. You know the effort that we put into it and I and I really like that, yeah in fact I think I I want to go down. It's just since we're talking about the compensation part. It's bishop cossette. Uh, cossette, cossette, bishop cossette I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1:Oh our french bishop yeah, I love that guy yeah, who's just being released.
Speaker 2:he talks about how, um, compensating blessings is the name of his talk yeah, but, um, like the cruise ship crew members have compensation and that's what distinguishes them.
Speaker 2:They're going to all the ports. I was lucky enough we went on a cruise and we talked to a guy that was our server and he would go out and he'd go on into the ports and do things if he wanted to, and so he got that fun part of it, but he also gets compensation. But here, bishop Cossé I'm probably not saying that right, but I'll just read what he says here the loving service we offer in holy temples reminds us that the Savior's grace extends beyond this life. In the life to come, we may be given new opportunities to accomplish what we could not do in this mortal life. And then he quotes president lorenzo snow as saying there is no latter-day saint who dies after having lived a faithful life, who will lose anything because of having failed to do certain things when opportunities were not furnished him or her amazing yeah and so, um, they will have all the blessings, exaltation and glory that any man or woman will have who had this opportunity.
Speaker 2:And basically, he uh sums it up by saying this message of hope and comfort is for all of us, children of God. None of us can escape the challenges and limitations of mortality. After all, we are all born with an inherent incapacity to save ourselves. Yet we have a loving Savior and we know that by his grace we are saved, are saved, and so you know, no, none of the blessings that, uh, that could be ours will be kept from us. If we're faithful, if we're a faithful member of that crew, then none of those blessings will be kept from us. I really like that.
Speaker 1:I love that and it reminds me what we're promised in the temple. We're promised all the lord has, like you. So like we think about this, like really infinitely small time that we spend on this planet and how, if we're just doing our best cause, like you know, it's not perfection, it's progress, right, and so if we can just do our best, we're given this massive compensation. For me, I'll tell you very directly, brad, you know a lot of my motivation to do what I do is blessings for my kids. I honestly don't know I think I'm a very selfish person If I didn't have kids.
Speaker 1:I don't know if these things would resonate the same, because for me it's like, yeah, I could eat ice cream and go on excursions, but for me it's like no, I want to work Because compensation for me looks. It's like no, I want to work because compensation for me looks like blessings for them, and there's nothing like blessings that we get from the temple that go to our posterity, which is what started me on this whole journey in the first place with this podcast. It's like I'm really doing this podcast for my kids and as I'm doing this, I'm recognizing and learning who I need to become more like in the savior, in order to be the dad that they need on the earth. So it's a powerful thing about compensation. In the end, I think when we're done with this life, we'll look back and go wow, that was minimal effort for the amount of compensation we received.
Speaker 2:For how much we've received. It's crazy how little that we put into that and I agree, awesome. So Elder Renlund is next and he's a personal favorite of mine. I just love his talks, and there were a couple of talks that talked about the 10 Virgin.
Speaker 1:Yes, this was a major theme last conference. It was.
Speaker 2:And about this spiritual preparation that is required. And so he touches on that and he talks about how the temple relates to that, and in that he says the Savior warned take heed that no man deceive you. And then he states we can also avoid deception by worshiping regularly in the temple. This helps us maintain an eternal perspective and protects us from influences that might distract or divert us from the covenant path. And so personally, as I've gone to the temple, one of the things that I find most powerful for me personally, is perspective, and I can kind of avoid thinking too deeply about the problems or issues or distractions of this life because of the perspective that I've received in the temple. How has the temple helped you avoid deception? Oh thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I love that. It's very clear to me that the adversary loves to use half-truths to throw us off, and it's nothing, especially raising boys in the bubble of Gilbert. When they start breaking free of that, they start getting. They really want to kind of dive into what the bubble doesn't show. So they want to know. At least in my world I've had this experience of them wanting to know more of those arguments that are made against the doctrine. They want to hear those different perspectives and and, hey, look like I think there's a time and place to understand all these perspectives, but, like you, can be deceived when you're not getting the full picture. And so to me that perspective helps keep the picture in in check, because I am reminded that maybe not everything is going to be totally answered in this life for me in terms of understanding different elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the things that matter most, the things that bring me closest to the Savior at the end of the day. When I go to the temple regularly, brad, I'm reminded of one concept that the only thing that really matters is my relationship to the Savior. That's it. Yeah, I mean, the temple helps boil it down so cleanly yes, and I tell my boys this I would do, I will do anything to get closer to the savior. The reason I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, it's because there's nothing that's helped me come even closer. And I've looked, I've explored. I came from a family where my parents were converts and this is is where I find in the temple. There's nowhere even close to where I feel more connected to my Savior and understand his nature than understanding those covenants we make. So, yeah, that's how I think it helps me. I don't know.
Speaker 1:But there's also the secondary thing. Brad, I'm going on a tangent, but there's a second thing about the more we go, the more our spirits, in my opinion, start to distill and change. I spirits, in my opinion, start to distill and change. I've said this before in the podcast, but I love to joke around and my one of my great weaknesses has been that I've been willing to joke around with just about anything. Honestly, I in the past I've just kind of lost that desire to joke inappropriately and I am so proud of that because that's not me, that's the savior. It's like he has just by by never giving up imperfectly and trying to go as much as I can. So it's. It's preventing me from being deceived by my from my own self as well, for my inherent weaknesses, because the changes that are made in the temple. It's powerful. Yeah, that's powerful, that's awesome. Yeah, I love this talk. I think it's such a powerful thing with the, the virgins, of how, the 10 virgins, how it just that perspective protects us, Perspective protects us. What a powerful concept.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I love that. There's definitely more if you go into the talk. But I think, as far as the temple, I think that's one of his biggest points about the temple is that how it can protect us that way. Keep us on the covenant path by so that we're not deceived. Love that, elder James Rasband. Keep us on the covenant path so that we're not deceived. Love that, elder James Rasband. This isn't Elder Rasband. The Apostle gave a cool talk about his personal journey kind of thing. Studying Section 109 like.
Speaker 2:President Nelson asked us to do, and so he sums it up, as this is a plan of mercy. Uh, he finds that there's a lot of mercy, Joseph Smith seeking for mercy, Um, but one of the things that he says is um once endowed the, they meaning this is he's talking about?
Speaker 2:missionaries, newly called missionaries yep, they may serve as temple workers, uh, before they begin missionary service. I don't know about you, when I went on my mission I went to the temple. Yeah, I was endowed, and so I went then, and maybe I went another time before my mission, but I don't think I did, I think I just went out on my mission, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, luckily there was a, there was a temple right right there in santiago where I landed, and so we did a session, and then I didn't do another session, for I don't know yeah, for a long time and then, so you know, over those three years I probably went three or four times right, whereas I see in the temple now familiar faces of kids that have recently been called, that are now working in the temple and they're spending hours in the temple receiving that strength, receiving that endowment of power before they even go out on their mission.
Speaker 1:It's bizarre in a cool way. My nephew, elder Bell, was on the show last month and it was cool that his mission president in Sweden gave him permission to be on the show and we talked specifically about what that was like for him to be a temple worker and he said it completely opened up his understanding about the gospel of Jesus Christ and it kind of blew my mind. I'm like, oh, my goodness, what a wonderful thing that we're not letting that opportunity slide for newly called missionaries to really understand the temple, because in our world, in this gospel of Jesus Christ, there's nothing that can bring us closer than temple attendance. So it's a very powerful thing to think of that they have that. Yeah, I love this. He says it right here. Right, what a blessing for our children and grandchildren to have this opportunity. Myself and many of my friends went to the temple two or three times. Oh, this is your language. Are those your words? Yeah, that's my own. Oh, I thought I was quoting James Rasband. I was like this sounds like Brad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. What a blessing it is, though it's awesome. He also finds in his study of section 109, you know just some additional insights which I think are cool. But he said he says how must Joseph have felt when, one week later, after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, he is in the Kirtland Temple and the Savior appears to him in Oliver Cowdery and says I have accepted this house and my name shall be here and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house? And then he reiterates that promise by quoting President Nelson, who said this promise also applies to every dedicated temple today. Wow, and that's what a powerful thought that, as we um go to the temple, that the Lord will manifest himself to us. I mean, that's a very powerful promise from our prophet.
Speaker 1:Have you had an experience or do you? Can you talk to me about what that means to have him? You know this promise of mercy specifically Like has. Have you had? How has that like shown up for you at your temple attendance?
Speaker 2:Well, in our last podcast, the last time we got to talk, we talked about how the Book of Mormon and remembering and how that's talked about in the Book of Mormon, and one of the main things that the Book of Mormon wants us to remember is His mercy, how merciful the Lord has been, and I find that that's true. As I attend the temple, my mind is opened up to the ways that I've seen him in my life, the blessings I've received, and I think in that way, that's how I have found mercy as I've attended the temple is seeing him in my life.
Speaker 2:Whereas I don't know if I would. Maybe. Maybe I don't take the time or maybe I. Maybe I just don't not in the right mindset or something. But there in the temple I can, I have the time and I'm in the mindset to be open to see his merciful hand in my life.
Speaker 1:I love that answer. Um, hank Humphries, my brother, was on the show and he talked about he coined the phrase temple mindset and I think that's part of what that temple mindset is. When we go to the temple, it's a, it's conditioning, in a sense, cause you go into a similar. It's like McDonald's, right, they have these very controlled physical environments to help promote happy meals and slides as kids that when we're older and we're sad, we want to go be happy at McDonald's, but in this case it's truth and light and not burgers, because we go there to be reminded of the Savior's purpose, and in the endowment session in particular.
Speaker 1:One thing that's become really evident over the years for me is that Heavenly Father and Jesus, they're not angrily correcting Adam and Eve, they're just so filled with love and like, oh, why did this happen? Oh well, this is going to happen, but don't worry, I'm going to send my son as a savior that we've talked about from the beginning, like, there's just, it's nothing, but like this, like oh. So when I talk about mercy, I think it's part of that, that, that the, the, the antidote to the, to the adversaries, call of like, no, you've been bad, you've been wrong. The shaming that he does right. It's like no, I love you. It's okay, you're going to figure this out. Don't give up.
Speaker 2:And also it was meant to be this way almost right. Right, this is the plan. This is the plan. It's not a backup plan. I can't remember who talked about that Repentance. You know, repentance is the backup plan. It is the plan. Right, You're going to come. It's good. You're in a struggle, things are going to be difficult, but that's okay because we've made provision enough, plenty of provision for you to for everything to be okay. Yeah, and I, I do like that. I like that, that uh perspective. It's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you shared that Brad.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So wonderful, we got to hear two Razz bands and now we're onto finding the mercy in the house of the Lord.
Speaker 2:He does talk about how, um in the temple, we find mercy in the covenants we make those covenants in addition to the baptismal covenant, bind us to the father and the son and give us increased access to what president Nelson has taught is a special kind of love and mercy, called H? Hesed in Hebrew, and I highlighted that because of I love President Nelson's focus on this. Yes, and he talks about how, you know, we have this increased access to love. Loving kindness essentially is what it is the love and the kindness of our father. And, uh, we find that in the temple and I found that to be true.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What's interesting, how, like the distinction from what we just talked about is, he talks about in the covenants, you know, and again it makes sense we promise to do these things and the abundance of blessings that are bestowed upon us is so disproportionate that we can't help but see his mercy, His abundant ability to over exchange with us as we're trying to do the little that we can. So I love that and that's why it's called the plan of salvation. As he says later is because we also call it the plan of mercy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of the names of it, and it also helps us see, also, as crew you have. That's part of the compensation. I guess, too, is that feeling of love that we can have from him and and acknowledge that it comes from him, acknowledge that we are on his side, yeah, and, and this is all part of the plan of mercy.
Speaker 1:That's so true. There's an extra measure of support, there's more work, for sure, if you're on the crew, but there's this added blessing, this compensation that occurs in real time. It's almost like there's two different types of compensation. There's the compensation that happens during the cruise, which is extra love and support along the way, because we're constantly in source, with the, with the, the captain, which is our savior. But then, when we're docked and the cruise is over, this experience called life, we have all that. He has Talk about wonderful blessings, awesome, I love that. All right, so now we'll go on to elder.
Speaker 2:Vargas I really like elder Vargas is talk um about our heavenly guidance system. He, he uh holds a special place in my heart.
Speaker 2:He's from Chile which is where I serve my mission, and uh, but he talks about salmon and how they are born up river. You know, they go downstream to get the necessary nourishment and experience and then they travel back upstream and and then they that's where they have. Uh, the next generation happens, right, interesting. But he talks about how they because I think his work was in this area but he talks about how they, with with a crazy amount of precision, make it back to where they were born. They just go right back and that's that heavenly guidance system that he's talking about.
Speaker 2:And he talks about how the temples relate to that. He talks about how, you know, sometimes we might not forget some of the things that we've done wrong, some of our sins, but we can remember him and we can do that when we go to the temple. And he says temples give us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ as the center of the covenant that leads us to eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God, and um. And then he also states that let's see here, our covenants bring us closer to God, to the point of making the impossible possible, filling every space of darkness and doubt with light and peace.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's great that he brings those things up.
Speaker 1:I love that description too. That's great that he brings those things up. I love that description too. You know, a lot of times miracles get kind of thrown under people's feet because it's like it doesn't seem anything more than a coincidence to other people. But I don't know about you, brad, but I've had experiences with people that I love where a change of heart was the miracle. You know, sometimes a healed relationship is the most powerful miracle that we can experience in this life, and those are the types of miracles that you can't you know credit to science you can't really like, you can't like justify or explain it through through math or but when you experience it personally, there's no denying that this is a miracle when you can see how Heavenly Father can come in and support us in that way and that whole covenant piece bring us father can come in and support us in that way, and that whole covenant piece bringing us closer to God to make the impossible possible. Sometimes the most impossible things in a relationship become possible through the savior Absolutely, and I I'm.
Speaker 2:I get emails from Alex and from other young men in the ward and and they, a lot of them, talk about miracles in their mission in a way that I didn't really talk about it in my mission. Maybe I just saw it, as I'm not sure how I saw it, but the word miracle is used almost freely and they expect to see miracles, and I think it is in the way that you described it, in the relationships that they're having. And then they see these people change, change their heart, and what a miracle that that is, that they went from one way of being to a completely new person yes, totally and then and change their life and change everything about what their old life was to then accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ and wanting to follow him, and I think that that, of course, is a miracle. Why would not? Why would we not call that?
Speaker 1:a miracle. It's almost, you know. Thinking about childbirth, right? I love that you said that, because even childbirth there's nothing like out of the ordinary. That's a very like human experience type thing to go through is to have children.
Speaker 1:Yeah no-transcript, and he serves a mission and he gets married in the temple and like that's a miracle. Yeah, like you know, there wasn't this big change of heart and maybe there was to behind the scenes, whatever, but he was always this great example of, of charity and kindness and goodness and just such a great human being, someone who I love dearly and, and and that's a miracle. You know what a wonderful thing. I think sometimes half of the miracles just knowing that it's a miracle right Recognizing that it came from God and that it is a miracle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Instead of just some coincidence that that happened, or good thing that happened to be, it is a miracle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a good friend of mine who's this public speaker and he's incredibly amazing and, uh, his name is Chris Smith and he says this. He's like you know, there's two types of people in this world People who think that things are a coincidence, or people who think everything's a miracle. He goes which is more probable if we are eternal beings, if we are eternal beings with the same spiritual DNA as our father? You tell me what's more probable, coincidence or miracles? And it's like the temple helps us sort that truth out, and when we can see the miracles, how happy we become. That's part of the blessing of the temples, that perspective again, yeah, that knowing that miracles are happening to us and for us, and so when things happen around us, we have more of an ability to accept even the difficult, because surely this too must come from the Lord.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:For sure, all right. So now we're up to oh. Back to Bishop Cusay. I think we've covered, touched on that.
Speaker 2:Yep touched on that, and so then we'll go to Elder Suarez Sweet, who talks about reverence for sacred things, and he talked all about reverence and I don't know if you remember where he mentioned AI.
Speaker 1:Yes, he does. We had a podcast episode, we filmed one on that, and that to me, is the most interesting. Yeah, don't worry, we can go over it here, but like I'm still kind of mind blown around that, yeah. So tell me about your thoughts on that, Because I'm really like he talks a lot about AI.
Speaker 2:So talk to me about what you're going to say. Well, I didn't necessarily have anything down here to talk about it, but I do find that it's so interesting that it can. For example, bishop Boer I saw just on Facebook that he had posted this presentation that he had made and he's speaking Chinese in this presentation. Totally.
Speaker 2:And it 100% looks like Bishop Boer and the sound of his voice, everything looks like him, and even though I wouldn't put it past Bishop Boer to be able to speak Chinese, you know, and be able to present in multiple languages because he's amazing in many ways I was, I was like maybe he learned Chinese, I don't know when did he do this? And, yeah, he, he generated it with AI, and so I think that we had talked about being deceived before. Right, and I think that this is a way that we can be deceived is through AI, things that are generated with AI. They could I mean, they quite literally could have a talk by President Nelson that says things that are very close to what he's saying, but off, just enough, and have it look like it's him giving it, and and then, and as long as we don't really know, if we don't really have a clear understanding of what president Nelson teaches, we could be deceived easily, totally, and so that's, I think, where it gets interesting with the AI.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Yeah, it's so funny because I love that you tied it to the temple, because that was his whole point is that we have to use AI reverently, with reverence, which is such a for me a concept I would have never put together. But when you hear about that talk and he's referring to that's where he talks about Moses and taking his shoes off and preparing to meet with God and knowing his divine identity and the mountains always being compared to temples, right, that's where we go to take off our shoes and put on the white shoes and to remember who our identity is, is that it's through reverence, it's the foundational principle value that we must develop to receive revelation.
Speaker 1:There's this overlap between reverence and revelation and I'm going to read your quote here because I think this is a great segue to receive revelation. There's this overlap between reverence and revelation. Um and I, I'm going to read your quote here because I think this is a great segue.
Speaker 1:It says, brothers and sisters, we do not need to climb to the top of a mountain, like Moses did, to discover reverence for sacred things and convert our discipleship into deeper level spirituality and devotion. Ultimately, we can experience the spiritual change in our discipleship as we regularly worship in the mountain of the Lord's house, our holy temples, and strive to live with covenant confidence. Covenant confidence I love that phrase, especially when we face the trials of mortal life. And so, yeah, I think you know the temple, mountains are secure, they're safe. I go there, you know. I think about like in a storm, hiding within the protection of the mountain, and then I also think about how we go there to elevate, to be above the world, to see perspective. That perspective we talked about how that changes things. I'm kind of realizing this in real time as we're talking. But just the power of what temples are and how, and how they're so commonly compared to to mountains and how we must revere them through reverence, yeah, it's just a cool concept.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I love the. I love, uh going to the mountains. Um, my family does that often yeah.
Speaker 1:So you have, you actually have an RV or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we'll go up into the mountains with it and there's definitely. I find that there is a closeness with God through being outside in the mountains.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And, like I don't know, you just feel closer to him. I mean you literally, I guess, are through altitude.
Speaker 1:But I feel that way right. No, you can sense it. There's something about being in that environment that you can just sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love and like, like you said before, it's you know things we do so that our kids can benefit. That's kind of one of the things that I like to do so that my kids can benefit, so they feel that difference. It's different being up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it absolutely is, and I love that. I love that elders were as talk Um. That episode was really fun because we dive so deep into reverence, I don't know. I just that'll be a fun, fun one for you guys to hear.
Speaker 2:And you guys, uh, you talked about that, you talked, and then you um, I'm sure with Michelle, talked about the covenant confidence, right, like president Nelson talks about covenant confidence and elder Suarez did last time in his general conference talk talked about covenant confidence and there's definitely something to be said about the confidence that comes when you are on that up and you feel good about your relationship with your Savior. You definitely have that confidence and it's a beautiful thing. It is.
Speaker 1:There's an author of a book. His name is Dan Sullivan. He's written a bunch of books, but he has this whole book about how to develop confidence. And this is for your average leader. It's not a spiritual thing, but there's a parallel I want to make real quick. He talks about the way that we develop confidence first comes from making a commitment to something that maybe is outside of our comfort zone, and it requires courage. So commitment to the encourage the courage to like, try to stick with that commitment, and then through the effort, we develop capacity or capability, and then it's the increased capability and capacity that develops the courage or the confidence. And so I think about this in terms of covenant confidence, this idea that we make a commitment going through our endowment sessions, that then it's the courage it takes to stick to that thing that develops a capability. And I'd say that this way the capability isn't ours, it's a capability of trusting the Savior and leaning on him yes.
Speaker 1:And that's where that confidence comes. So it's fun to think about just the process of it. Because it is such a journey, I mean that's why it's called a path. Yeah, because it is such a journey, I mean that's why it's called a path. It's because a journey incorporates highs and lows, sunny days, rainy days. And I once heard a famous quote about how the degree of excitement of an adventure is directly proportionate to the degree of the unknown. And there's a lot of the unknown in the day-to-day, even though we have the eternal perspective of what's going to happen in the end, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, let's finish things up strong with Elder Tay or Ty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, elder Tay or Ty, I'm not sure. I can't remember which one it is. I really like his talk, though. He talks about the love of God here and he quotes President Nelson as saying President Nelson has invited us to remove, with the savior self, the old debris in our lives and lay aside bitterness. He has encouraged us to bolster our spiritual foundations through centering our lives on the savior and on the ordinances and covenants of his temple, and I think President Nelson does such a good job of focusing on what's important.
Speaker 1:I love President Nelson.
Speaker 2:He knows how to sift through things and let's not worry about all of it. Let's worry about this right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the States. It's so simple, but sometimes you have to go back and reread it to understand the profoundness of what that simple statement is.
Speaker 2:Yes, and and so you know, with the Savior's help, we can remove the old debris, we can remove bitterness from our lives and we can bolster our spiritual foundations, and and when you look at that and think about those three things, you can definitely see how that would improve your relationship with your Savior. That would give you more confidence to be in the temple, and he's just so good at focusing our lives and our attention on what's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. What a powerful concept.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing I want to talk about with this talk too and the first time I listened to it I didn't really feel the significance of what he said. But he shares that story about his um, a friend of his who was married, um, you know, had a good, had a good career path ahead of him, and then he gets sick and it just kind of takes everything from him as he ends up in a divorce. You know, work his work situation's no good and he talks about how this friend, um, you know, just upon hearing that his former spouse would be remarried and wanted a cancellation of their ceiling, was at an ultimate low. So he goes to the temple and he texts elder Ty afterwards saying I had an amazing experience in the temple last night.
Speaker 2:I think it was obvious that I still held a bit of resentment. I knew that I must change and I've been praying all week to do so. Last night in the temple I literally felt the spirit remove the resentment from my heart. Wow, it was such a relief to be freed from it. An anonymous physical burden bearing down on me has been lifted, and what a powerful way that the temple can bless our lives. It's not always going to happen like that it hasn't happened like that for me many of times, but it definitely can happen where we can go to the temple with specific issues or specific problems or worries and the Lord can literally lift them and take them away. And I thought that I was so powerful as I read that again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love this so much because it reminds me of something a previous guest said by the name of Dennis Deaton. He said you know, yeah, we need to be willing to pray for things to be answered in the Lord's time, but with the faith that it could happen right now. His whole thing was like you know, people go to the temple oftentimes and say, yeah, I usually don't feel anything. It's like, well, then go with the intention to feel something. And I love that because we're trying to normalize it. For people who are newer and there's again, be patient, keep going. But for those of us who have been going for a while, who maybe have gotten routine around it, there's an opportunity to go there and go.
Speaker 1:No, I am going to go in there and intentionally develop more faith that this will be removed immediately, or change now and and be patient at the same time. It's not removed, I think it's, but I think it's about believing that it can cause it. Can it can, if the Lord wants it, it could be taken right then from you and have that immediate relief. Um, emily Bell Freeman talks in her talk about you know walking, you know the path of of Jesus in Israel, in Jerusalem, how sometimes it took eight years, you know, for for the Lord to heal. For others it was, you know, a couple of weeks and for some it was immediately yeah. So we got to show up with the faith of it, immediately, with the patients that it could be eight years.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, that's a weird thing. Yes, I, you know, I like that concept because it's the reality that we live in. The reality is is this life is is difficult. Yeah, this life is not meant to be anything other than that, and so sometimes things aren't going to be taken away right away, away, right away. And um, you know, it's interesting as and we don't have to get into all of it but the very uh first talk on Saturday morning by Camille and Johnson, oh, the talk the talk yeah.
Speaker 2:She talks about how we can be whole spiritually right now, while we wait for healing. You know, at some point, yeah. And that kind of goes along with what we're talking about and as we, you know, keep our commitments as we enter and make and keep covenants with God that we can be whole spiritually as we wait for healing and other, you know, physical healing. So I just thought that her talk was amazing.
Speaker 1:So amazing. Yeah Well, brad, this has been phenomenal. Yeah, I know there's more we could cover, but I think this has been such a great overview. I hope, as you guys have listened at home, that you're you're feeling what I do in terms of just kind of this, this completeness around at least having a foundational understanding of what was covered around the temple and covenants. I feel this theme of like the comparison of temples and mountains, this real strong theme around protection against deception, a real strong theme of getting empowered to overcome as we understand how the Savior is overcome Anything else.
Speaker 2:Perspective.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think that's the big one for me. I just the perspective that we gain going to the temple is is huge the knowledge, the power and you know recently, as I've studied about temples and about their importance and why President Nelson is announcing so many and why he's encouraging us to go so often, I've thought about, you know what if I were to really change the way that I see this and make more time to go to the temple, spend more time in there and like more purpose as I'm there, what could happen in my life if I actually did those things? There are so many things that are holding me back from that that I personally, you know I haven't. I have not done that yet. I want to do that. That's kind of my commitment to myself after studying all of this is make the commitment to do that and see what happens in my life, what changes can come into my life, what uh perspective can come into my life, how can my relationships be better and healed and improve and all the things that we've talked about today.
Speaker 1:I'm feeling inspired on that now. It's like this idea of testing, just testing, a, a, a, a commitment Like let's, let's try this out and be intentional about measuring the change. When people are looking to change something in their professional world or their personal world, with their health, what do they do? They take a baseline measurement and then they move forward. I don't know what I would measure, but I think I would start with like, how close do I feel to the Lord? How are the how's, the relationships that I have in my life with my family? What challenges do I sense? What do I struggle with?
Speaker 1:Kind of like journal those out and then go with that intentionality, go to the Mount and and prepare myself through reverence to receive and be open to, like, acting on whatever it is that comes, revelation, wise, and then, like I don't know, maybe two months, just take a look and see what it's like.
Speaker 2:And look back on and what happened in my life over the last two months. How can I see that this has been a blessing? How can I see these promises that president Nelson has made? Uh, you know he will. The Lord will manifest himself unto us in his house Right, and we're like did we see that? Did we notice that? And and I want to commit to that too Okay, well, I'm in hope you guys are in at home.
Speaker 1:And uh, brad, I love you. You were just such a great friend. I sure appreciate you. This has been a wonderful, wonderful experience, kind of revisiting the entire general conference. Again there's a sense of like I don't know, I'm just really happy. Yeah, just thinking about like wow, how it would have fun discussion, but also like such clarity around what we can get access to.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, thanks for having me and thanks for allowing me the opportunity to look through these things, cause it's been great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I can't thank you enough again for doing it for me.
Speaker 2:So if anyone wants these documents, let me know. I'll make sure to share it, if you're cool with it?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, of course, all right. Well, thanks again. Until next time. Thank you for listening to today's episode. We want to hear from you. What additional show ideas would you like to hear about? What questions do you have in your heart that we can help answer? Please leave those in the show notes of today's episode or over on Instagram. Thank you for your cooperation and helping make this show the best it can be. Until next time.
