From April 2024 General Conference Talk By President Mark L. Pace, Sunday School General President

 

How would you like the windows of heaven to open for you, and receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life?

"In every dispensation, we have seen a familiar pattern. God restores or reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ through His prophets. The people follow the prophets and are greatly blessed. However, over time, some people stop heeding the words of the prophets and distance themselves from the Lord and His gospel. This is what we call apostasy. The gospel was first revealed to Adam, but some of the children of Adam and Eve turned away from the Lord in apostasy.⁵ We see a pattern of restoration and apostasy repeated in the dispensations of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others.

Now, today, we live in the dispensation of the fulness of times.⁶ This is the only dispensation that will not end in an apostasy.⁷ It is this dispensation that will usher in the Second Coming of the Savior Jesus Christ and His millennial reign.

So, what’s different about this dispensation? What has the Lord provided us today, especially for our time, that will help us draw near to the Savior and never leave Him?

One answer that comes to my mind is the scriptures—and particularly the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

While God has promised there will never be another general apostasy, we need to be mindful and careful to avoid a personal apostasy—remembering, as President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “We are each responsible for our individual spiritual growth.”⁸ Studying the Book of Mormon, as we are doing this year, always brings us closer to the Savior—and helps us stay close to Him.

We call it “study,” and that’s good because it implies effort. But we don’t always need to learn some new fact. Sometimes reading the Book of Mormon is just about feeling connected to God today—nourishing the soul, being strengthened spiritually before heading out to face the world, or finding healing after a rough day out in the world.

We study the scriptures so the Holy Ghost, the great teacher, can deepen our conversion to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and help us become more like Them.⁹

With these thoughts in mind, we could consider, “What has the Holy Ghost taught us this week during our study of the Book of Mormon?” and “How does this bring us closer to the Savior?”

These are good questions for our scripture study at home. They are also excellent questions to start a Sunday class at church. We improve our teaching at church on Sunday by improving our learning at home during the week. Thus, in our Sunday classes, “he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together.”¹⁰

...Nephi said it right. It was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry the scriptures with us throughout our lives. The Book of Mormon is the “keystone” that makes this dispensation different from all previous dispensations. As we study the Book of Mormon and follow the living prophet, there will be no personal apostasy in our lives.¹⁸

The invitation to come to the tree of life by holding fast to the word of God is not just an invitation from Lehi to his family, and it is not just an invitation from my mother for me to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It is also an invitation from our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, to each one of us.

“I promise,” he said, “that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life.”¹⁹

It is my prayer that reading the Book of Mormon this year will be a joy and a blessing for each of us and will draw us ever nearer to the Savior."

As I study the Book of Mormon daily, I've been able to make better decisions myself.  And I feel I've been drawing nearer to the Savior more and more. Being able to share my thoughts and feelings here on my blog daily is such a great blessing because I've been able to express myself more than ever before. Grateful for this talk of President Pace during the General Conference last week. That's why I decided to share it here as part of this blog. What he said motivates me more to keep studying the Book of Mormon. This book is truly written for our day. I did receive answers to my questions through my study of this book before. And I know I will continue to receive answers to my questions as I continue to study this scripture.