“Love Thy Neighbour” and “We Are His Children”

Posted on by Mitch Peterson

Last updated on March 10th, 2024 at 10:53 pm

General Conference Applied

S2 E22 – Sunday, March 3, 2024 | “Love Thy Neighbour” by Elder Ian S. Ardern and “We Are His Children” by Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier; October 2023 General Conference

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Podcast Episode Social Media Posts

Corresponding Talk Outline: “Love Thy Neighbour” and “We Are His Children“

Announcement: Please read this article in the March 2024 Liahona: “Our General Conference ‘Walk and Talk’“. This article is an adaptation of an interview with Elder David A. Bednar in episode 24 of the Church News Podcast. Here is a powerful quote from the article:

  • “If people appropriately are seeking for the spiritual gift of faith in the Lord, they need to act in accordance with His teachings. Invitations are key because faith in the Savior is a principle of action and power. And as His servant, I strive to extend invitations that can help people strengthen their faith in and devotion to Him.

    “Many times in our Church service we may say things such as, ‘I challenge you to do X.’ But I do not find such language in the ministry of the Savior, in the scriptures, or in the teachings of Church leaders. The Savior did, and Church leaders should, invite, entice, encourage, and promise blessings—a more Christlike approach to helping individuals and families.”

Podcast Episode Outline

REMEMBER THIS

If you remember nothing else from this podcast episode, remember this:

  • Elder Ardern has invited us to look to the well-being of others and Elder Giraud-Carrier has invited us to love others like Jesus loves them.

Introduction

Doctrines, Principles, and Christlike Attributes

As we have discussed in previous episodes of General Conference Applied, it is important to identify the fundamental doctrine, principle, and Christlike attribute of each General Conference address. In “Love Thy Neighbour,” I identified Commandments as the fundamental doctrine, Charity as the fundamental principle, and Charity and Love as the fundamental Christlike attribute. In “We Are His Children,” I identified Commandments as the fundamental doctrine, Our Heavenly Family as the fundamental principle, and Charity and Love as the fundamental Christlike attribute. I have included a detailed breakdown of this doctrine, principle, and Christlike attribute in the talk outlines (“Love Thy Neighbour” and “We Are His Children“), but I will share additional insights during this podcast episode.

In each episode of General Conference Applied, we are attempting to answer two questions:

  1. What is the speaker inviting me to do?
  2. How might I consider taking action?

What is the speaker inviting me to do?

Invitations

1: “May we be forever looking to the well-being of others and show in word and deed that we ‘are willing to bear one another’s burdens’ (Mosiah 18:8), to ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Doctrine and Covenants 138:42), and to keep Christ’s second great commandment to ‘love thy neighbour’ (Mark 12:31).” (“Love Thy Neighbour”)

  • What This Means (in 6 words or less): Look to the well-being of others.

1: “I pray that, like [Jesus Christ], we may love others because that is the right thing to do, not because they are doing the right thing or fitting the ‘right’ mold.” (“We Are His Children”)

  • What This Means (in 6 words or less): Love others like Jesus loves them.

Overview

Bio
Elder Ian S. Ardern

“Elder Ian S. Ardern was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 2, 2011. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Eighth Quorum of the Seventy in the Pacific Area. He is currently serving as President of the Pacific Area.

“Elder Ardern has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in France and Belgium (this is the 3rd podcast episode in a row where the speaker served a mission in Belgium as a young man!), stake Young Men president, high councilor, counselor in a bishopric, bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, president of the Fiji Suva Mission, and Area Seventy.

“Elder Ardern received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1982 and a master’s degree in education from the University of Waikato in New Zealand in 1994. In 1981 he joined the Church Educational System as a teacher and later was principal of the Church College of New Zealand. In 2004 he became director of the Church Educational System in the Pacific Area and later worked as the institute director and seminary coordinator for the Church Educational System in New Zealand.

“Ian Sidney Ardern was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand, on February 28, 1954. He married Paula Ann Judd in January 1976. They are the parents of four children.”

Learn more about Elder Ian S. Ardern

  • “A couple of experiences while on his mission would have a lasting impact on Elder Ardern.

    “One was meeting President Spencer W. Kimball, then serving as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. It was in 1973, at the time of the Church’s Area Conference in Munich, Germany. Visiting Brussels, Belgium, President Kimball was greeting missionaries individually.

    “‘We were to say our name, where we were from and how long we had been serving,’ Elder Ardern recalled. ‘He got to me and shook my hand. I said, ‘I’m Elder Ardern from Te Aroha, New Zealand.’ He pulled me back and asked, ‘Where did you say you were from?’ I thought he must have been struggling with the name, so I said the nearest big city, which was Hamilton. And then he asked, ‘Elder, do you know why you are here?’

    “‘With a bit of anxiety, I said, ‘To serve a mission.’ But here’s the important part of the story. He pulled me down [President Kimball was short in stature], and he whispered in my ear, ‘Elder, you’re here because the Lord wanted you here.”

    “He has found that to be true repeatedly. ‘The Lord puts us where he needs us,’ he said. ‘Sister Ardern and I have been asked to do a lot of different callings in the Church. As Sunday School teacher, institute director, family history specialist, mission president, whatever the calling is, I’ve come to understand you’re there because the Lord wants you there. And so we’ve tried not to say no, because we know where the call comes from.'”
Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier

“Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the April 2023 general conference. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a stake president.

“Elder Giraud-Carrier has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in the Canada Montreal Mission, bishop, high councilor, president of the France Lyon Mission, and stake president.

“Elder Giraud-Carrier received a bachelor of science degree in 1991, a master of science degree in 1993, and a doctorate degree in 1994, all from Brigham Young University in the field of computer science. He has worked as a senior lecturer for the University of Bristol, as a senior manager for ELCA Informatique, and as a professor of computer science at Brigham Young University.

“Christophe Gérard Giraud-Carrier was born in Lyon, France, on January 21, 1966. He married Isabelle Sophie Mauclair in 1988. They are the parents of eight children.”

Connection

Elder Ardern has delivered three General Conference addresses. His first address was delivered in the October 2009 General Conference (“A Time to Prepare“), and he spoke again in the October 2017 General Conference (“Seek Ye Out of the Best Books“).

  • “A Time to Prepare” invitation: “I invite us to identify the time-wasting distractions in our lives that may need to be figuratively ground into dust.”
  • “Seek Ye Out of the Best Books” invitation: “As we study from the best books, we protect ourselves against the menacing jaws of those that seek to gnaw at our spiritual roots.”

This was Elder Giraud-Carrier’s first General Conference address.

How might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “May we be forever looking to the well-being of others and show in word and deed that we ‘are willing to bear one another’s burdens’ (Mosiah 18:8), to ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Doctrine and Covenants 138:42), and to keep Christ’s second great commandment to ‘love thy neighbour’ (Mark 12:31).” (“Love Thy Neighbour”)

  • What This Means (in 6 words or less): Look to the well-being of others.
  • “All those months ago, we found the hungry and the afflicted on a dry and dusty plain and were witnesses to their pleading eyes for help. In our own way, we groaned in the spirit and were troubled (see John 11:33), and yet those feelings were tempered as we saw the compassion of Church members at work as the hungry were fed, the widows were provided for, and the afflicted were comforted and their tears dried up.”
    • Because there is opposition in all things, our lowest lows can lead to our highest highs. The worst things in life are actually the best things.
    • “Found the hungry” … “witnesses to their pleading” … “saw the compassion”. The invitation is not to think about the well-being of others. The invitation is to look to the well-being of others. When we find those in need, don’t ignore them. Feed them, provide for them, comfort them, and dry their tears.
    • Charity and Love (Christlike Attribute): “The prophet Mormon taught, ‘Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love’ (Moroni 7:48). As you pray to have charity fill your heart, you will taste of God’s love. Your love for people will increase, and you will come to feel a sincere concern for their eternal happiness. You will see them as children of God with the potential of becoming like Him, and you will labor in their behalf.

      “As you pray for the gift of charity, you will be less inclined to dwell on negative feelings such as anger or envy. You will become less likely to judge or criticize others. You will have more desire to try to understand them and their points of view. You will become more patient and try to help people when they are struggling or discouraged. (See Moroni 7:45.)

      “Charity, like faith, leads to action. You strengthen it as you serve others and give of yourself.

      “Charity is transformative. Heavenly Father bestows it ‘upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; … that when he shall appear we shall be like him, … that we may be purified even as he is pure’ (Moroni 7:48).”
Directives (“an official or authoritative instruction”)
  1. “Respond to President Nelson’s call to turn our hearts to the well-being of others and to Joseph Smith’s plea to ‘feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide for the widow, dry up the tear of the orphan, [and] comfort the afflicted, whether in this Church, or any other, or in no church at all, wherever [we find] them’ (“Editor’s Reply to a Letter from Richard Savary,” Times and Seasons, Mar. 15, 1842, 732).”
    • Journal Prompt: “The invitation is to look to the well-being of others. Analyze my life – are the financial, physical, and spiritual choices I’m making each day putting me in a better or worse position to look to the well-being of others? What is a simple way I might change this week?”
    • Elder Ardern’s promise as we take action on this directive: “Each of us will have an increase of joy, peace, humility, and love.”
Insights
  1. “Our journey reminded me of the parable of the good Samaritan, whose journey took him on a dusty road, not unlike the one I described, a road that went from Jerusalem to Jericho. This ministering Samaritan teaches us what it means to ‘love thy neighbour.'”
    • Notes from a 2/25/2024 Sacrament Meeting address delivered by a brother in my ward: “‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Think about how much we love ourselves – we’re in our own head, we see everything from our own perspective. Good Samaritan: there’s a difference between being willing and actually taking action.”
  2. “Despite our every effort, you and I won’t heal everyone, but each of us can be the one who can make a difference for good in the life of someone. It was just one lad, a mere boy, who offered the five loaves and two fishes that fed the five thousand. We may ask of our offering, as Andrew the disciple did of the loaves and fishes, ‘What are they among so many?’ (John 6:9). I assure you: it is sufficient to give or to do what you are able and then to allow Christ to magnify your effort.”
    • *The Magic Doubling Penny:

      Would you rather have a penny, which will double every day for 31 days, or $5 million today?

      Day 7: $0.64
      Day 14: $81.92
      Day 21: $10,485.76
      Day 28: $1,342,177.28
      Day 31: $10,737,418.24

      Observation 1: Alma 37:6 – “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”

      Observation 2: $5 million spiritual experiences (i.e., seeing an angel) don’t lead to conversion.

      Observation 3: A penny is NOT nothing… it is something (i.e., you can’t double nothing).
    • While serving as a Stake President, my Mission President shared how he would make just one more visit before returning home on Sunday after Church meetings.

Invitations

1: “I pray that, like [Jesus Christ], we may love others because that is the right thing to do, not because they are doing the right thing or fitting the ‘right’ mold.” (“We Are His Children”)

  • What This Means (in 6 words or less): Love others like Jesus loves them.
  • Bluffdale Independence Stake Conference, Saturday, March 6 – Sunday, March 7, 2021, Bishop L. Todd Budge (Presiding Bishopric): “Focus on what people are doing well. As you do, the Holy Ghost will teach them what they can do better. *This is the key to motivating people.”
  • “Doctrine of Inclusion“, Elder M. Russell Ballard, October 2001 General Conference (my wife, Morgan, was assigned to speak on this talk in her 2/25/2024 Sacrament Meeting address and did a fantastic job): “That is our doctrine—a doctrine of inclusion. That is what we believe. That is what we have been taught. Of all people on this earth, we should be the most loving, the kindest, and the most tolerant because of that doctrine.

    “May I suggest three simple things we can do to avoid making others in our neighborhoods feel excluded?

    “First, get to know your neighbors. Learn about their families, their work, their views. Get together with them, if they are willing, and do so without being pushy and without any ulterior motives. Friendship should never be offered as a means to an end; it can and should be an end unto itself. I received a letter from a woman who recently moved to Utah, a small part of which I quote: ‘I must tell you, Elder Ballard, that when I greet my neighbors, or if I wave to them, they do not acknowledge my greeting. If I pass them while taking my morning or evening walk, my salutation is not returned. Other people of color consistently express similar negative responses to friendly gestures.’ If members of the Church are among her neighbors, surely they must know that this should not happen. Let us cultivate meaningful relationships of mutual trust and understanding with people from different backgrounds and beliefs.

    “Second, I believe it would be good if we eliminated a couple of phrases from our vocabulary: ‘nonmember’ and ‘non-Mormon.’ Such phrases can be demeaning and even belittling. Personally, I don’t consider myself to be a ‘non-Catholic’ or a ‘non-Jew.’ I am a Christian. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is how I prefer to be identified—for who and what I am, as opposed to being identified for what I am not. Let us extend that same courtesy to those who live among us. If a collective description is needed, then ‘neighbors’ seems to work well in most cases.

    “And third, if neighbors become testy or frustrated because of some disagreement with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or with some law we support for moral reasons, please don’t suggest to them—even in a humorous way—that they consider moving someplace else. I cannot comprehend how any member of our Church can even think such a thing! Our pioneer ancestors were driven from place to place by uninformed and intolerant neighbors. They experienced extraordinary hardship and persecution because they thought, acted, and believed differently from others. If our history teaches us nothing else, it should teach us to respect the rights of all people to peacefully coexist with one another.”
Directives (“an official or authoritative instruction”)
  1. “May we likewise not let our eyes, our ears, or our fears mislead us but open our hearts and minds and minister freely to those around us as He did.”
    • The invitation of this General Conference address is to love others as Jesus loves them. Jesus looks on the heart, not on someone’s outward appearance, and he sees others for who they can become.
    • “In every case, the Lord saw these individuals for who they were and accordingly ministered to each one.”
      • “Faith to Act and Become“, Elder Ciro Schmeil, October 2021 General Conference:

        “Shortly after I was called to serve as a General Authority Seventy, I had the opportunity to visit with President Russell M. Nelson for a few minutes. It was an unplanned encounter in the cafeteria, and he was so kind to invite Elder S. Mark Palmer and me to sit and enjoy lunch with him.

        “‘What do we talk about during lunch with the prophet?’ was the thought that came to my mind. So I decided to ask President Nelson if he had any counsel or guidance for me since I was just starting my calling. His answer was very simple and direct; he looked at me and said, ‘Elder Schmeil, you are called for what you can become.’ I walked away from that experience pondering about what the Lord wants me to become. As I thought about this, I realized that He wants me to become a better husband, father, and son and a better servant. I then realized that all of this could be accomplished as I worked to become a better disciple of the Savior Jesus Christ.”
  2. “‘First and foremost,’ as President Nelson reminded us, I am a ‘child of God.’ So are you, and so are all other people around us. I pray that we may come to a greater appreciation of this wonderful truth. It changes everything!”
    • The invitation of this General Conference address is to love others as Jesus loves them. The next time you’re about to criticize someone, instead choose to verbally say: ‘They are my brother / sister. I will find a way to respect them rather than criticize them.’
    • Study President Nelson’s Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults: “Choices for Eternity“
    • Write your thoughts about this quote in your journal: “Brothers and Sisters in Christ“, Elder Ulisses Soares, October 2023 General Conference: “I have deep compassion for those who have been mistreated, belittled, or persecuted by unfeeling and thoughtless people, because, in the course of my life, I have seen firsthand the pain good people suffer from being judged or dismissed because they happened to speak, look, or live differently. I also feel genuine sorrow in my heart for those whose minds remain darkened, whose vision is limited, and whose hearts remain hardened by the belief in the inferiority of those who are different from them. Their limited view of others actually obstructs their ability to see who they are as children of God.”
  3. “Indeed, we follow our dear prophet’s invitation: ‘My dear brothers and sisters, how we treat each other really matters! How we speak to and about others at home, at church, at work, and online really matters. Today, I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way.'”
    • The invitation of this General Conference address is to love others as Jesus loves them. See the ideas I shared in General Conference Applied season 1 episode 1, which was my deep-dive into President Nelson’s “Peacemakers Needed” address.
    • Creating Communities of Unity and Belonging Void of Contention, Discrimination or Division
      • “Racism is a violation of the first two great commandments.”
      • “All individuals are children of God and part of His divine family … the commandment to love our neighbor transcends ethnic, cultural, and religious differences.”
      • “If we intend to build Zion, which we do, such behaviors and thought patterns must be completely eradicated. They can have no place among us.”
      • “It is high-time we stop excluding anyone and start including everyone. Standing by without saying or doing anything is not an option either for true disciples of the Lord. We can respond with kindness, but we must respond as we protect those who are being unfairly treated.”
      • “We invite families to counsel together in family councils and home evenings about the importance of being one in Christ, of treating all people around us with kindness, and the blessings of doing so. Teach your children not to exclude anyone, and make specific family plans about handling bullying over race or differences of appearance, language, or ability. Discuss how to stand for truth and right, exhibit charity, and speak out for those who are bullied or treated unkindly. Invite your children to embrace the commitment of: ‘It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.'”
      • “We invite all organizations, classes, quorums, ward and stake councils to study the prophetic calls to love God and our neighbor better, aimed explicitly at welcoming all into our congregations, classes, schools, and communities. Teach members and leaders not to exclude or overlook anyone. Discuss specific actions to end all forms of racism at school, Church, or wherever we may be. Invite members to embrace the commitment of: ‘It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.'”
Insights
  1. “Some years ago, my wife, Isabelle, received an unusual ministering assignment. She was asked to visit an elderly widow in our ward, a sister with health challenges and whose loneliness had brought bitterness into her life. Her curtains were drawn; her apartment was stuffy; she did not want to be visited and made it clear that ‘there is nothing I can do for anyone.’ Undeterred, Isabelle responded, ‘Yes, there is! You can do something for us by allowing us to come and visit you.’ And so Isabelle went, faithfully.

    “Some time later, this good sister had surgery on her feet, which required her bandages to be changed every day, something she could not do for herself. For days, Isabelle went to her home, washed her feet, and changed her bandages. She never saw ugliness; she never smelled stench. She only ever saw a beautiful daughter of God in need of love and tender care.”
    • “The Good and Grateful Receiver“, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2012 First Presidency Christmas Devotional:

      “Every gift that is offered to us—especially a gift that comes from the heart—is an opportunity to build or strengthen a bond of love. When we are good and grateful receivers, we open a door to deepen our relationship with the giver of the gift. But when we fail to appreciate or even reject a gift, we not only hurt those who extend themselves to us, but in some way we harm ourselves as well.”
  2. “We may have been raised in different cultures; we may come from different socioeconomic circumstances; our mortal heritage, including our nationality, skin color, food preferences, political orientation, etc., may vary greatly. But we are His children, all of us, without exception. We have the same divine origin and the same limitless potential through the grace of Jesus Christ.

    “C. S. Lewis put it this way: ‘It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.'”
    • “The Invention of Yesterday” by Tamim Ansary: “People started enslaving people as soon as there were people to enslave. The Romans built an empire on it. The Rouse got rich selling Slavs to Muslims. Throughout most of history, codes of virtue governing how people ought to treat one another usually only applied to members of the group in question. Such codes kept the inner world in order, but didn’t apply to dealings with the outside. The codes saw nothing wrong with enslaving the other. The question was only: how to define the ‘other.’ How much otherness made a stranger fair game for enslavement? …

      “Anyone making that money needed to feel that capturing humans and working them to death didn’t necessarily mean they were bad people. How could these be parts of the same conceptual constellation? Racism provided the bridge. The race-based slave trade was the Minotaur chained in the basement of the European colonization of the Americas. The people feasting upstairs did their best to ignore its muffled roars and go on with their dinners. …

      “This is a striking development given that scientifically speaking there is no such thing as race. Yes, people inherit characteristics from their parents, and people who regularly intermarry form gene pools that intensify certain traits making one group look distinctly different from another. But, ‘regularly intermarry’ is the key phrase here. This is a pattern enforced by social norms, and reinforced by geography. If any two groups identified as different races were transported to a single island and intermarried randomly for a few generations, there would be no distinguishing one from the other. On this, biologists are virtually unanimous.”
  3. “I have come to realize that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the great equalizer. As we truly embrace it, ‘the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.’ This amazing truth frees us, and all labels and distinctions that may otherwise afflict us and our relationships to each other are simply ‘swallowed up in … Christ.’ It soon becomes clear that we, as well as others, ‘are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.'”
    • “Tithing: Opening the Windows of Heaven“, October 2023 General Conference, Elder Neil L. Andersen: “The only permanent solution to the poverty of this world is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
  4. “We belong to a group of people who all try to place the Savior and their covenants at the center of their lives and to live the gospel joyfully. Hence, rather than our seeing each other through the distorted lens of mortality, the gospel raises our sights and allows us to see each other through the flawless, unchanging lens of our sacred covenants. In so doing, we begin to eliminate our own natural prejudices and biases toward others, which in turn helps them minimize their prejudices and biases toward us, in a wonderful virtuous cycle.”
    • “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek: “I have a friend who is so focused on her Cause, it is as if she has forgotten that there are other points of view in the world besides her own. My friend, sadly, has labeled anyone who has a different opinion as wrong, stupid or morally corrupt. My friend suffers from Cause Blindness.

      “Cause Blindness is when we become so wrapped up in our Cause or so wrapped up in the ‘wrongness’ of the other player’s Cause, that we fail to recognize their strengths or our weaknesses. We falsely believe that they are unworthy of comparison simply because we disagree with them, don’t like them or find them morally repugnant. We are unable to see where they are in fact effective or better than we are at what we do and that we can actually learn from them.

      “Cause Blindness blunts humility and exaggerates arrogance, which in turn stunts innovation and reduces the flexibility we need to play the long game. Less able to engage in any kind of honest or productive practice of constant improvement, we end up repeating mistakes or continue to do many things poorly. Plus, hubris increases the chance that any weaknesses our organization may have are left open to exploitation by other players. All of which contributes to the draining of will and resources we need to stay in the game. Whenever I try to show my friend that those players she finds despicable are really good at certain things and she should respect them for that, she mocks me and thinks me a turncoat because I dare pay her competitor a compliment.”

Report on Prior Week’s Action Item

Last week I committed to reflecting upon my week, identifying the “worst” thing that happened to me, and then determining how I could remain grateful, not only despite that “worst” thing, but because of it.

Worst thing: Morgan’s car wouldn’t start on Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot of a distinguished fast food establishment. However, the gas light had turned on in my car the night before, and Morgan had broken down right near Costco where I needed to fill up anyway. Thus, I was able to successfully jump Morgan’s car (we learned some tricks to make this happen), I filled up, and my car wasn’t sitting on empty in the garage!

This Week’s Action Item

“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”

Karl Pearson, an early 20th-century British mathematician

“Those who measure their progress improve. Those who measure and report their progress improve exponentially.”

Dan Sullivan, founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc.

“Do something, do anything! But to start, just do ONE thing.”

Mitch Peterson

“We invite families to counsel together in family councils and home evenings about the importance of being one in Christ, of treating all people around us with kindness, and the blessings of doing so. Teach your children not to exclude anyone, and make specific family plans about handling bullying over race or differences of appearance, language, or ability. Discuss how to stand for truth and right, exhibit charity, and speak out for those who are bullied or treated unkindly. Invite your children to embrace the commitment of: ‘It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.'”

There is a lot there. This week, I commit to taking action on this sentence: “Teach your children not to exclude anyone, and make specific family plans about handling bullying over race or differences of appearance, language, or ability.” This will probably involve writing in my journal, putting thoughts on a whiteboard during a family home evening discussion, and perhaps even doing some role-playing with my children to help them better understand what is being taught.

Let Me Know

How will you take action on this General Conference address? Let me know on social media or email me.

REMEMBER THIS

If you remember nothing else from this podcast episode, remember this:

  • Elder Ardern has invited us to look to the well-being of others and Elder Giraud-Carrier has invited us to love others like Jesus loves them.

Tags

“Love Thy Neighbour”

Compassion | Humanitarian Aid | Love | Neighbors | Poverty

“We Are His Children”

Belonging | Divine Nature | Love | Ministering | Perspective | Prejudice

Additional Content

Previous Podcast Episode (“Do You Want to Be Happy?” by Elder Yoon Hwan Choi and “Hallmarks of Happiness” by Elder Gary B. Sabin)

Next Podcast Episode (“The Power of Jesus Christ in Our Lives Every Day” by Elder Joaquin E. Costa and “Bearing Witness of Jesus Christ in Word and Actions” by Elder Adilson de Paula Parrella)

All Podcast Episodes

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