A plan provided
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Many people are becoming more confused about the purpose of life as technology facilitates the broadcast of so many conflicting messages, said Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve.
But, he declared during the Sunday morning session, "Our eternal Father did not send us to earth on an aimless, meaningless journey. He provided for us a plan. He is the Author of that plan. It is designed for man's progress and ultimate salvation and exaltation."
Reviewing the plan, Elder Perry spoke of pre-earth life and the council in heaven.
He said, "Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, became the leader in advocating the plan designed by the Father, and we accepted the plan and its conditions. With that choice, we earned the right to come to earth and enter our second estate."
Elder Perry told of the creation of Adam and Eve who, confronted with the choice of remaining in the Garden of Eden or partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, chose to experience mortality.
"We are now being tested and tried to see if we will do all the things the Lord has commanded us to do," Elder Perry said. "These commandments are the principles and ordinances of the gospel, and they constitute the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Mortality provides the opportunity to receive a physical body and gain experience. He called the Savior "the centerpiece of the eternal plan of the Father," providing blessings for those who strive to do what is right and overcoming death through the resurrection. "Death must be viewed as a portal to a new and better life," he said.
He continued with accounts of the apostasy and the Reformation.
Finally, Elder Perry told of the Restoration: "Following the glorious event of the First Vision, the sacred record of the Book of Mormon was delivered to the Prophet Joseph Smith. This brought a new witness of our Lord and Savior and His mission to the peoples of the earth.
"Thus we see in the eternal plan of our Father that His love has no bounds. Every one of His children is included. All men have the same origin and equal possibility to fulfill their eternal destiny."
Elder Perry declared, "Let us be no more tossed to and fro by every worldly wind and doctrine of man (See Ephesians 4:14). We declare to the world that the heavens are open and the truth of God's eternal plan has again been made known to mankind. We live in a day when we have the witness through the scriptures of the great plan the Lord has given to His children from the beginning of time down to this present and last dispensation. The evidence is so well documented; we are not left alone to wander through mortality without knowing the master plan which the Lord has designed for His children."
