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This has been an inspirational and historic conference.
We look to the future with enthusiasm.
We have been motivated to do better and to be better.
The marvelous messages delivered from this pulpit
by our General Authorities and General Officers
and the music have been sublime!
I urge you to study these messages, commencing this week.
They express the mind and the will of the Lord for His people
today.
The new home-centered, Church-supported
integrated curriculum has the potential
to unleash the power of families as each family follows
through conscientiously and carefully
to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith.
I promise that as you diligently work
to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning,
over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight.
Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior's
teachings, and the influence of the adversary in your life
and in your home will decrease.
Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining.
During this conference we have strengthened our resolve
to execute the essential effort to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ every time we refer to His Church.
I promise you that our rigorous attention
to use the correct name of the Savior's Church
and its members will lead to increased faith and access
to greater spiritual power for members of His Church.
Now let's turn to the topic of temples.
We know that our time in the temple
is crucial to our salvation and exaltation
and to that of our families.
After we receive our own temple ordinances
and make sacred covenants with God, each one of us
needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring
that is only possible in the house of the Lord.
And our ancestors need us to serve as proxy for them.
Consider the great mercy and fairness
of God, who, before the foundation of the world,
provided a way to give temple blessings to those
who died without a knowledge of the gospel.
These sacred temple rites are ancient.
To me that antiquity is thrilling and another evidence
of their authenticity.
My dear brothers and sisters, the assaults of the adversary
are increasing exponentially in intensity and in variety.
Our need to be in the temple on a regular basis
has never been greater.
I plead with you to take a prayerful look
at how you spend your time.
Invest time in your future and in that of your family.
If you have reasonable access to a temple,
I urge you to find a way to make an appointment regularly with
the Lord--to be in His holy house--and then keep that
appointment with exactness and joy.
I promise you that the Lord will bring
the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve
and worship in His temples.
Currently we have 159 dedicated temples.
The proper care and maintenance of those temples
is very important to us.
With the passage of time, temples
are inevitably in need of refreshing and renewal.
To that end, plans are now being made to renovate and update
the Salt Lake Temple and other pioneer-generation temples.
Details on these projects will be
shared as they are developed.
Today we are pleased to announce plans
to construct 12 more temples.
Those temples will be built in the following locations:
Mendoza, Argentina; Salvador, Brazil; Yuba City, California;
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Praia, Cape Verde;
Yigo, Guam; Puebla, Mexico; Auckland, New Zealand;
Lagos, Nigeria; Davao, Philippines; San Juan, Puerto
Rico; Washington County, Utah.
[LAUGHTER]
Building and maintaining temples may not change your life,
but spending your time in the temple surely will.
To those who have long been absent from the temple,
I encourage you to prepare and return as soon as possible.
Then I invite you to worship in the temple and pray
to feel deeply the Savior's infinite love for you,
that each of you may gain your own testimony that He directs
this sacred and ageless work.
Brothers and sisters, I thank you
for your faith and sustaining efforts.
I leave my love and blessing upon you,
that you may feast upon the word of the Lord
and apply His teachings in your personal lives.
I assure you that revelation continues in the Church
and will continue until "the purposes of God
shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah
shall say the work is done."
I bless you with increased faith in Him and in His holy work,
with faith and patience to endure your personal challenges
in life.
I bless you to become exemplary Latter-day Saints.
I so bless you and bear my testimony that God lives!
Jesus is the Christ!
This is His Church.
We are His people.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.