'About His Father's business'
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Elder Robert D. Hales spoke of a recent "humbling experience" that had given him the opportunity to reflect with gratitude on the gift of life. He said that in the course of that experience he had "continually pondered my testimony of God, our Eternal Father, and His eldest Son, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and how I gained my testimony of the Father and the Son."
Elder Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve, speaking Saturday afternoon, continued: "I know with surety that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. The Atonement is real. God the Father and Jesus Christ are distinct, separate, immortal beings. They know us as individuals, and They hear and answer our sincere prayers."
After relating the account of the appearance of the Father and the Son to the 14-year-old Joseph Smith, Elder Hales said: "The young prophet learned the truth about our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, because he sought to know from the scriptures His Heavenly Father's will, and then he faithfully obeyed."
Elder Hales described the manner in which the Father introduced His Son on several occasions, including the baptism of the Savior and His appearance on the American continent. "It is of special significance that whenever Heavenly Father wants to introduce His son to us, He commands us to listen — to 'hear' the words of Jesus."
After asking, "Who is this Jesus?" Elder Hales said the Savior participated with His Father in the creation and "is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our mediator with the Father. He is the Savior who laid down His life for us and pleads for our cause with the Father. Therefore, we pray to Heavenly Father in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son, is not the same being as His Father, but He is like His Father. He, too, is a glorified being of power and authority."
Expressing how enlightening and touching to consider how Jesus talks to His Father, Elder Hales quoted parts of the Intercessory Prayer, found in John 17, including the Lord's words about His disciples, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.'
"Through the course of the Savior's ministry, the disciples did indeed become one, but not in their physical bodies. They became one in unity of purpose and love. This is the oneness of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, spoken of in the scriptures."
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior called "upon His Father, God Omnipotent, to sustain Him, to allow Him to do His Father's will; and His Father sent an angel 'from heaven, strengthening him'....
"From before the foundation of the world to the final moments on the cross, the Savior had been about His Father's business. He completed the work He had been sent to do."
As an apostle of Jesus Christ, Elder Hales said, "I testify of the truth of what is in the scriptures and what has been told to me and will be revealed to you."
