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

If I were a bishop or stake president today, what would I do? I think that I would try to put my major efforts on building the spirituality of the people. I would work as hard as I knew how to work in building their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in God our Eternal Father, in the Prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration of this work and what it means and what it is all about. I would encourage my people to read the scriptures, to read the Book of Mormon, to read the New Testament. I would urge them with all the capacity I have to read quietly and thoughtfully and introspectively, if you please. I would urge them to read the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith." - From priesthood leadership meeting, first session, Eugene Oregon Regional Conference, Sept. 14, 1996

CONVERSION

Some individuals have been baptized only, they have not been fellowshipped, and in two or three months they say goodbye. It is so important, my brethren and sisters, to see that they are converted, that they have in their hearts a conviction concerning this great work. It is not a matter of the head only. It is a matter of the heart and its being touched by the Holy Spirit until they know that this work is true, that Joseph Smith was verily a prophet of God, that God lives and that Jesus Christ lives and that they appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the priesthood is here with all of its gifts and blessings. I just cannot emphasize this too strongly. - From missionary meeting, Colombia Bogota North, South and Missionary Training Center, Nov. 8, 1996

EFFECT OF THE RIGHTEOUS

I think we stand in this dispensation like the righteous in the days of the cities of the plains when perhaps the Lord might spare the wicked, some of them, because of the righteous. That places upon us a great and significant burden. That's why we are here, to make of ourselves more effective instruments, truer warriors under the direction of the Almighty to save His sons and daughters from those things which will destroy them in time and for eternity unless they turn their lives around. - From priesthood leadership meeting, first session, Eugene Oregon Regional Conference, Sept. 14, 1996

FAITH OF THE PIONEERS

Why did they do it? They did it because of their faith. They counted the costs. They knew they would be heavy. They knew they were facing extreme hazards. I stood on the Liverpool docks a while ago, from which place they left to come here. They gathered from Scandinavia and Britain and assembled there and boarded their ships and came across the seas in sailing vessels. They traveled up the Mississippi or from Boston to Iowa City, where they were fitted out. They went on to Winter Quarters and made the long march to this valley. They knew that many of them would die along the way. More than 4,000 of them did die, gave their lives as a testimony of their belief in the cause which they had undertaken. - From interview with Lee Groberg, Nov. 4, 1996

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Under the plan of heaven, the husband and the wife walk side by side as companions, neither one ahead of the other, but a daughter of God and a son of God walking side by side. Let your families be families of love and peace and happiness. Gather your children around you and have your family home evenings, teach your children the ways of the Lord, read to them from the scriptures, and let them come to know the great truths of the eternal gospel as set forth in these words of the Almighty. - From member fireside, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 12, 1996

MISSIONARY CHARGE

You are His messengers. You are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never forget that. You do not have the responsibility just to go out and give missionary lessons, that is, you do not have that alone. You are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. He has given you His right, His power, His authority to teach people the truth that will save them, that will turn their lives around and give them opportunity and growth. Will you please see that every convert who comes into the Church while you are here on this mission is so taught that he or she will grow in faith and that a year after baptism he or she will be ready to get a temple recommend, and as soon as the temple is completed will be eligible to go to the house of the Lord? - From Bolivia Cochabamba missionary meeting, Nov. 10, 1996

SECULARIZATION OF SOCIETY

My great concern, my great interest, is that we preserve for the generations to come those wondrous elements of our society and manner of living that will bequeath to them the strengths and the goodness of which we have been the beneficiaries. But I worry as I see some of the signs of sickness of which I have spoken. I believe that a significant factor in the decay we observe about us comes of a forsaking of the God whom our fathers knew, loved, worshiped and looked to for strength. There is a plainly discernable secularization that is occurring. Its consequences are a deterioration of family life, a weakening of self-discipline, a scoffing at the thought of accountability unto the Almighty, and an unbecoming arrogance for any people who have been so richly blessed through the goodness of a generous Providence as we have been." - From Provo City Community Centennial Service, Aug. 4, 1996

TEMPLE ATTENDANCE

I hope that everyone gets to the temple on a regular basis. I hope your children over 12 years of age have the opportunity of going to the temple to be baptized for the dead. If we are a temple-going people, we will be a better people, we will be better fathers and husbands, we will be better wives and mothers. I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the House of the Lord, you will be blessed, life will be better for you. Now, please, please, my beloved brethren and sisters, avail yourselves of the great opportunity to go to the Lord's house and thereby partake of all of the marvelous blessings that are yours to be received there. - From member fireside, first session, Lima, Peru, Nov. 9, 1996