Alan R. Walker | The Gospel Light of Truth and Love | General Conference April 2021 | Faith To Act
Channel: Faith to Act
Date: 2021-05-05

The Gospel Light of Truth and Love
By Elder Alan R. Walker

Of the Seventy

I testify that the gospel light of truth and love shines brightly throughout the earth today.

The beautiful Latter-day Saint hymn “Hark, All Ye Nations!” unmistakably captures the enthusiasm and exhilaration of the fulness of the gospel going to all the world. In this hymn we sing:

Hark, all ye nations! Hear heaven’s voice

Thru ev’ry land that all may rejoice!

Angels of glory shout the refrain:

Truth is restored again!1

Louis F. Mönch, the author of this jubilant text, was a German convert who wrote the inspired words for the hymn while living in Switzerland during his full-time missionary service in Europe.2 The joy that springs from witnessing the global impact of the Restoration is clearly articulated in the following words of the hymn:

Searching in darkness, nations have wept;

Watching for dawn, their vigil they’ve kept.

All now rejoice; the long night is o’er.

Truth is on earth once more!3

Thanks to the commencing of the ongoing Restoration just over 200 years ago, “the gospel light of truth and love”4 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.”5

Shortly after the organization of the Church in this last dispensation, the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith and manifested His abounding love for us when He said:

“Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments; …

“That mine everlasting covenant might be established;

“That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world.”6

Soon after this revelation was received, missionaries began to be called and sent to many nations of the world. Just as the prophet Nephi anticipated, the message of the restored gospel began to be preached “among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.”7

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was formally organized in a small log cabin in upstate New York in 1830.

“It took 117 years—until 1947—for the Church to grow from the initial six members to one million. Missionaries were a feature of the Church from its earliest days, fanning out to Native American lands, to Canada and, in 1837, beyond the North American continent to England. Not long after, missionaries were working on the European continent and as far away as India and the Pacific Islands.

“The two-million-member mark was reached just 16 years later, in 1963, and the three-million mark in eight years more.”8

Highlighting the rapid growth of the Church, President Russell M. Nelson recently said: “Today, the Lord’s work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is moving forward at an accelerated pace. The Church will have an unprecedented, unparalleled future.”9

The Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the organization of the Lord’s living Church on the earth again, and its remarkable growth since then have made the blessings of the priesthood available throughout the earth. Sacred ordinances and covenants that bind us to God and set us on the covenant path clearly manifest “the power of godliness.”10 As we participate in these sacred ordinances for the living and for the dead, we gather Israel on both sides of the veil and prepare the earth for the Second Coming of the Savior.

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.

Flight
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.

General Conference Sunday Afternoon Session April 2021

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