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  • Dear brothers and sisters, when I served in Asia,

  • people sometimes asked, "Elder Gong,

  • how many people live in the Asia Area of the Church?"

  • I said, "Half the world's population--3.6 billion

  • people."

  • Someone asked, "Is it hard to remember all their names?"

  • [LAUGHTER] Remembering--and forgetting--are part

  • of everyday life.

  • For example, once, after looking everywhere

  • for her new mobile phone, my wife

  • finally decided to call it from another phone.

  • When she heard her phone ring, my wife thought,

  • "Who could be calling me?

  • I haven't given that number to anyone!"

  • [LAUGHTER] Remembering--and forgetting--are also part

  • of our eternal journey.

  • Time, agency, and memory help us learn, grow,

  • and increase in faith.

  • In the words of a favorite hymn:

  • "We'll sing all hail to Jesus' name,

  • And praise and honor give. ...

  • Ye Saints, partake and testify

  • Ye do remember him."

  • Each week, in partaking of the sacrament,

  • we covenant to always remember Him.

  • Drawing on a few of the more than 400 scripture references

  • to the word remember, here are six ways

  • we can always remember Him.

  • First, we can always remember Him

  • by having confidence in His covenants, promises,

  • and assurances.

  • The Lord remembers His everlasting covenants--from

  • Adam's time to the day Adam's posterity "shall embrace

  • the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward,

  • and all the heavens shall shake with gladness,

  • and the earth shall tremble with joy."

  • The Lord remembers His promises, including promises

  • to gather scattered Israel through the Book of Mormon:

  • Another Testament of Jesus Christ,

  • and promises given to every member and missionary who

  • remembers the worth of souls.

  • The Lord remembers and assures nations and peoples.

  • In these days of motion and commotion,

  • "some trust in horses, some in chariots,

  • but we will remember the name of the Lord our God,"

  • who guides "the future as he has the past."

  • In "perilous times," we "remember

  • that it is not the work of God that is frustrated,

  • but the work of men."

  • Second, we can always remember Him

  • by gratefully acknowledging His hand throughout our lives.

  • The Lord's hand is often clearest in our lives

  • in hindsight.

  • As Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put it,

  • "Life must be understood backward.

  • But ... it must be lived forward."

  • My dear mother recently celebrated her 90th birthday.

  • She gratefully testified of God's blessing

  • at each major junction in her life.

  • Family histories, family traditions, and family ties

  • help us savor remembrance of things

  • past while providing future patterns and hope.

  • Priesthood lines of authority and patriarchal blessings

  • witness God's hand across generations.

  • Have you ever thought of yourself

  • as your own living book of remembrance, reflecting what

  • and how you choose to remember?

  • For example, when I was younger, I really

  • wanted to play school basketball.

  • I practiced and practiced.

  • One day the coach pointed to our 6-foot-4 all-state center

  • and our 6-foot-2 all-star forward and said to me,

  • "I can put you on the team, but you'll likely never play."

  • I remember how kindly he then encouraged, "Why not

  • try out for soccer?

  • You'd be good."

  • My family cheered when I scored my first goal.

  • We can remember those who give us

  • a chance, and a second chance, with honesty, kindness,

  • patience, and encouragement.

  • And we can become someone others remember

  • when they most needed help.

  • Gratefully remembering the assistance of others

  • and the Spirit's guiding influence

  • is a way we remember Him.

  • It is a way we count our many blessings

  • and see what God hath done.

  • Third, we can always remember Him

  • by trusting when the Lord assures us "he who has repented

  • of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord,

  • remember them no more."

  • When we fully repent, including by confessing and forsaking

  • our sins, we ask with Enos, as our guilt is swept away,

  • "Lord, how is it done?" and hear the answer, "Because

  • of thy faith in Christ" and His invitation

  • to "put me in remembrance."

  • Once we repent and priesthood leaders declare us worthy,

  • we need not continue to confess and confess these past sins.

  • To be worthy does not mean to be perfect.

  • His plan of happiness invites us to be

  • humbly at peace on our life's journey to someday

  • become perfected in Christ, not constantly worried, frustrated,

  • or unhappy in our imperfections today.

  • Remember, He knows all the things we don't want anyone

  • else to know about us--and loves us still.

  • Sometimes life tests our trust in Christ's mercy, justice,

  • and judgment, and in His liberating invitation

  • to allow His Atonement to heal us as we

  • forgive others and ourselves.

  • A young woman in another country applied

  • to work as a journalist, but the official who assigned jobs

  • was merciless.

  • He said to her, "With my signature,

  • I guarantee you will not become a journalist

  • but will dig sewers."

  • Imagine being the only woman digging

  • sewers in a gang of men.

  • Years later, this woman became an official.

  • One day a man came in, needing her signature for a job.

  • She asked, "Do you remember me?"

  • He did not.

  • She said, "You do not remember me, but I remember you.

  • With your signature, you guaranteed

  • I never became a journalist.

  • With your signature, you sent me to dig sewers, the only woman

  • in a gang of men."

  • She told me, "I feel I should treat that man better

  • than he treated me, but I do not have that strength."

  • Sometimes that strength is not within us,

  • but it can be found in remembering the Atonement

  • of our Savior Jesus Christ.

  • When trust is betrayed, dreams broken,

  • hearts shattered and then broken again,

  • when we want justice and need mercy, when our fists clench

  • and our tears flow, when we need to know what to hold onto

  • and what to let go of, we can always remember Him.

  • Life is not as cruel as it can sometimes seem.

  • His infinite compassion can help us

  • find our way, truth, and life.

  • When we remember His words and example,

  • we will not give or take offense.

  • My friend's father worked as a mechanic.

  • His honest labor showed even in his carefully washed hands.

  • One day someone at a temple told my friend's father

  • he should clean his hands before serving there.

  • Instead of being offended, this good man

  • began to scrub the family dishes by hand with extra soapy water

  • before attending the temple.

  • He exemplifies those who "ascend into the hill of the Lord"

  • and "stand in his holy place" with the cleanest of hands

  • and the purest of hearts.

  • If we have unkind feelings, grudges, or resentments,

  • or if we have cause to ask forgiveness of others,

  • now is the time to do so.

  • Fourth, He invites us to remember that He always

  • welcomes us home.

  • We learn by asking and searching.

  • But please do not cease exploration until you

  • arrive--in the words of T.S. Eliot--"where [you] started

  • and know the place for the first time."

  • When you are ready, please open your heart

  • to the Book of Mormon, again, for the first time.

  • Please pray with real intent, again, for the first time.

  • Trust that early or faint memory.

  • Let it enlarge your faith.

  • With God, there is no point of no return.

  • Prophets ancient and modern implore us not to let human

  • foibles, faults, or weaknesses--others' or our

  • own--cause us to miss the truths, covenants,

  • and redeeming power in His restored gospel.

  • This is especially important in a church

  • where we each grow through our imperfect participation.

  • The Prophet Joseph said, "I never told you I was perfect;

  • but there is no error in the revelations which

  • I have taught."

  • Fifth, we can always remember Him on the Sabbath

  • through the sacrament.

  • At the end of His mortal ministry

  • and the beginning of His resurrected ministry,

  • both times, our Savior took bread and wine

  • and asked that we remember His body and blood,

  • "for as oft as ye do this ye will remember this hour that I

  • was with you."

  • In the ordinance of the sacrament,

  • we witness unto God the Father that we

  • are willing to take upon us the name of His Son

  • and always remember Him and keep His commandments, which

  • He has given us, that we may always

  • have His Spirit to be with us.

  • As Amulek teaches, we remember Him

  • when we pray over our fields, our flocks, and our households

  • and when we remember the needy, the naked, the sick,

  • and the afflicted.

  • Finally, sixth, our Savior invites us to always remember

  • Him as He always remembers us.

  • In the New World, our resurrected Savior

  • invited those present to come, one by one,

  • to thrust their hands into His side

  • and to feel the prints in His hands and in His feet.

  • The scriptures describe resurrection as "every limb

  • and joint shall be restored to ...

  • their proper and perfect frame," and "even a hair of the head

  • shall not be lost."

  • That being so, please consider how

  • it is that our Savior's perfect, resurrected body still

  • bears the wounds in His side and the nail prints in His hands

  • and feet.

  • At times in history, mortal men have

  • been executed by crucifixion.

  • But only our Savior, Jesus Christ,

  • embraces us still carrying the marks of His pure love.

  • Only He fulfills the prophecy of being lifted up upon the cross

  • that He might draw each of us, by name, to Him.

  • Our Savior declares:

  • "Yea, they may forget, yet [I will] not forget thee."

  • "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."

  • He testifies: "I am he who was lifted up.

  • I am Jesus that was crucified.

  • I am the Son of God."

  • I humbly testify and pray that we will always remember Him--in

  • all times, all things, and all places we may be in.

  • In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, when I served in Asia,

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