Jesus blessed the people one by one.

By A. D.

This past weekend was General Conference, a meeting held every six months during which the modern prophet and twelve apostles--along with other church authorities, such as members of the quorums of seventy--address the world and testify of the divinity, love, and mission of Jesus Christ.

Elder Carlos H. Amado testified of Christ in this beautiful talk, Christ the Redeemer. From the talk (emphasis mine):

From lds.org.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born and died in unique circumstances. He lived and grew up in humble conditions, without material things. He said of Himself, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). 

He never received honors, favors, recognition, nor preferred treatment from the political leaders of the earth or from the religious leaders of His day. Neither did He sit in the highest seats of the synagogues. 

His preaching was simple, and even though multitudes followed after Him, His ministry always consisted of blessing people one by one. He performed innumerable miracles among those who accepted Him as the One sent from God.

 That one line in particular stood out to me. Jesus was followed by thousands but in the end He blessed the people one by one. Jesus manages to be there for everyone in the world, for the multitudes, and yet still minister to each of us on a deeply, deeply personal level.

I know for myself that this is true. As I have kept the commandments, I have begun to learn what it means to have Jesus as a friend. I have felt His love for me and I know that He ministers to me personally--even as He ministers to you personally and to all of us personally as we invite Him into our hearts, so that He can change our hearts.

Elder Amado's talk is a beautiful overview of Christ's life and mission. He concludes with this testimony:

I testify that Christ will return in a way very different from His first coming. He will come in power and glory with all the just and faithful Saints. He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, as the Prince of Peace, the promised Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer, to judge the living and the dead. I love and serve Him with all my heart, and I plead that we may serve with joy and dedication and that we may remain faithful to Him until the end. In His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

I also know that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer, and that He will return to us some day in power and glory. We are so blessed to live at a time when the fullness of His Gospel has been restored!

My grandmother's faith was beautifully simple and simply beautiful.

By M.A.

I learned prayer from my maternal grandmother.

My grandmother had a 6th grade education, never left her birthplace, had a wonderful family, survived the great depression, a world war, and had gone blind in her early 20s. I was in my teens before I realized she was blind. I knew she could not see, but regarding her as blind, a word I associated with disability, never occurred to me. After all, she cooked the meals, sang songs, and ran the family budget. I asked her once why she handled the money instead of Grandpap. She laughed and said, "if he managed the money we would never have a savings." Then she gave me a lesson in mental math since of course she had no paper accounts.

I had the privilege of being her biographer and learning how she accomplished this with such grace. The answer was prayer. She prayed for a minimum of one hour a day, on her knees, her entire adult life. During those prayers she asked the Lord how to do what needed done.

She prayed and put out a stove fire before the fire department arrived.

She prayed and knew when her child needed a doctor.

She prayed and was a beloved wife.

She prayed and became an excellent cook.

In her mid-90’s, her son heard her moving about during the night. She was kneeling beside the bed at 4:00 am. Her son asked why she was up so early. She replied, "I thought it was morning so I was beginning my day." Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, family, and friends all learned to ask Grandma to pray for them. She prayed for us by name and often called to tell us the results of her prayers. She had a direct line to Heaven and shared it with anyone in need. When she died I felt a measure of virtue leave my life.

Her testimony was as an apostle has summarized: the gospel of Jesus Christ is beautifully simple and simply beautiful.

To me, science and religion are like a living soul.

By M. A.

The first time I weighed an electron I had tears in my eyes.

I had tears when I saw my first cell and first beating heart.

In today’s world many people think that science and religion are opposing forces with each set on destroying the other. To me, science and religion are like a living soul. The soul of man is defined by the Lord as the union of spirit and body. When viewed together, science (the temporal) and religion (the spiritual) help us understand the soul of God. The Lord has created all things both spiritual and temporal and we are told that the temporal is in the likeness of the spiritual.

When I weighed the electron I glimpsed one of the fundamental units of creation. When I saw my first human cell I saw the fundamental unit of human life and I was awed at its complexity.

As Pres. Kimball once said, we are truly Gods in embryo. My first beating heart humbled me with it perfection. I remembered that the Savior has commanded us to become as perfect and to learn of Him. For me, science and religion are woven together so tightly that each tells the story of the other.

To weigh an electron is to glimpse the infinite intelligence of our Creator.

To hold a newborn, whose beginning was a single cell, is to learn the purpose of God in giving us eternal families.

And to sit quietly, while holding the hand of a beloved family member when the heart stops beating, is to see the Face of God.