- Excerpts from recent addresses by President Gordon B. Hinckley.

FAMILY PRAYER

If there be any among you who are not having family prayer, let that practice start now, to get on your knees together, if you can possibly do it, every morning and every evening, and speak to the Lord and express your thanks, invoke His blessings upon the needy of the earth and speak to Him concerning your own well-being. I believe that God our Eternal Father will hear our prayers and I urge you to have family prayers. Great blessings will come to your children if you will pray together, calling upon the Lord, expressing your thanks and presenting before Him the desire of your hearts. - From member fireside, Buenos Aires Argentina, Nov. 12, 1996.

GET A TEMPLE RECOMMEND

Now is the time to get your lives in order that you may be worthy to go to the House of the Lord. Get a temple recommend. Get it now. If every man and woman in this hall tonight would make that resolution and go to work to be worthy of a temple recommend, your lives would be blessed, your homes would be blessed, you would feel the Spirit of the Lord in your homes. - From member fireside, Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 8, 1996

JOSEPH SMITH

I did not know much about Joseph Smith when I was 12 but I had a feeling in my heart. Since then I have come to know Joseph Smith. I have read his experiences, I have read his testimony. I have read the Book of Mormon. I have seen the organization of this marvelous Church. I have seen the power of the priesthood. And I think I know Joseph Smith. "Great is his glory and endless his priesthood. Ever and ever the keys he will hold." (Hymns, No. 27.) He is God's prophet in the restoration of the gospel in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times. If we can only get that into our hearts, then we will know that this is truly the work of God. - From member fireside, second session, Lima, Peru, Nov. 9, 1996

LEHI'S CHILDREN

As I look into your faces, this large congregation, I think of Father Lehi, whose sons and daughters you are. I think he must be shedding tears this day, tears of love and tears of gratitude, as he looks down upon this congregation. This is but the beginning of what the future will be in this great nation of Peru. This work of the Almighty will grow and grow and grow. It will bless the lives of hundreds and thousands of the people. It is God's program for the happiness of His sons and daughters - From member fireside, first session, Lima, Peru, Nov. 9, 1996

MAKING CHOICES

We go along and think everything is going just right, and then we do some little thing, and it destroys us, it hurts us. It may be we act lazy about going to sacrament meeting and do not go. Before long we are not going at all. Or we get into some moral problem, a small problem that leads to a great disaster. It is not the big choices of our lives that destroy us. It is the small choices that we make from day to day; they are the things that cause us the real problems and lead to our downfall. - From Miami, Fla., member fireside, Nov. 17, 1996

MISSIONS

There are many boys in this choir and I hope that every one of them is planning on going on a mission. That will strengthen the work. Not only will you do good in teaching the gospel to others, but you will grow tremendously within yourselves and you will come back and become leaders of the Church here and do great good. May the Lord bless you with that desire to serve a mission. May the dreams of a mission come true for each of you. - From Manaus, Brazil, member fireside, Nov. 16, 1996

I have been looking at these little boys along the front row and thinking of when they will be missionaries. It will not take very many years before they are out preaching the gospel and that will be wonderful. Boys, be good! Do what is right at all times. Do not let anything at any time get in the way of your going on a mission. You will bless your own life, you will bless the home from which you go, and you will bless all who listen to your message as missionaries. So, be good. Choose the right at all times and the Lord will bless you and magnify you and use you to accomplish His purposes. - From Recife Brazil Member Fireside, Nov. 15, 1996.

ORDINANCES OF THE TEMPLE

The gospel is not complete, it is only partly here without the ordinances of the House of the Lord, and in order to complete our acceptance of the Church it is necessary that we have this holy house. Let every man and woman, let every boy and girl over 12 years of age, resolve that you will come to the House of the Lord - the boys and girls to do baptisms for the dead, and the men and women to receive their endowment, to be sealed in the Lord's holy house, and then to come back again and again and again. - From Recife Brazil Temple groundbreaking, Nov. 15, 1996

PRIESTHOOD

We are, in very deed, a royal priesthood. We do not receive the priesthood on the basis of wealth or standing in the community. We receive it on the basis of personal worthiness and every man is a potential priesthood holder. If there is any man here tonight who does not hold the priesthood of God, let him from this day forward put his life in order, live up to the high standards of the gospel and make himself worthy to receive His royal priesthood, to act in the name of God, to speak in His holy name in accomplishing His great and singular purposes. - From member fireside, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 12, 1996

TITHING

Tithing is not a matter of money so much as it is a matter of faith. We take the Lord at His word, and it is my testimony that He keeps His word. It is He who made the promise. That is not my promise. It is His promise that He will open the windows of heaven and pour down blessings upon you which you will not have room enough to receive. - From member fireside, Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 8, 1996