people sometimes asked, "Elder Gong,

how many people live in the Asia Area of the Church?"

I said, "Half the world's population--3.6 billion

people."

Someone asked, "Is it hard to remember all their names?"

[LAUGHTER] Remembering--and forgetting--are part

of everyday life.

For example, once, after looking everywhere

for her new mobile phone, my wife

finally decided to call it from another phone.

When she heard her phone ring, my wife thought,

"Who could be calling me?

I haven't given that number to anyone!"

[LAUGHTER] Remembering--and forgetting--are also part

of our eternal journey.

Time, agency, and memory help us learn, grow,

and increase in faith.

In the words of a favorite hymn:

"We'll sing all hail to Jesus' name,

And praise and honor give. ...

Ye Saints, partake and testify

Ye do remember him."

Each week, in partaking of the sacrament,

we covenant to always remember Him.

Drawing on a few of the more than 400 scripture references

to the word remember, here are six ways

we can always remember Him.

First, we can always remember Him

by having confidence in His covenants, promises,

and assurances.

The Lord remembers His everlasting covenants--from

Adam's time to the day Adam's posterity "shall embrace

the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward,

and all the heavens shall shake with gladness,

and the earth shall tremble with joy."

The Lord remembers His promises, including promises

to gather scattered Israel through the Book of Mormon:

Another Testament of Jesus Christ,

and promises given to every member and missionary who

remembers the worth of souls.

The Lord remembers and assures nations and peoples.

In these days of motion and commotion,

"some trust in horses, some in chariots,

but we will remember the name of the Lord our God,"

who guides "the future as he has the past."

In "perilous times," we "remember

that it is not the work of God that is frustrated,

but the work of men."

Second, we can always remember Him

by gratefully acknowledging His hand throughout our lives.

The Lord's hand is often clearest in our lives

in hindsight.

As Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put it,

"Life must be understood backward.

But ... it must be lived forward."

My dear mother recently celebrated her 90th birthday.

She gratefully testified of God's blessing

at each major junction in her life.

Family histories, family traditions, and family ties

help us savor remembrance of things

past while providing future patterns and hope.

Priesthood lines of authority and patriarchal blessings

witness God's hand across generations.

Have you ever thought of yourself

as your own living book of remembrance, reflecting what

and how you choose to remember?

For example, when I was younger, I really

wanted to play school basketball.

I practiced and practiced.

One day the coach pointed to our 6-foot-4 all-state center

and our 6-foot-2 all-star forward and said to me,

"I can put you on the team, but you'll likely never play."

I remember how kindly he then encouraged, "Why not

try out for soccer?

You'd be good."

My family cheered when I scored my first goal.

We can remember those who give us

a chance, and a second chance, with honesty, kindness,

patience, and encouragement.

And we can become someone others remember

when they most needed help.

Gratefully remembering the assistance of others

and the Spirit's guiding influence

is a way we remember Him.

It is a way we count our many blessings

and see what God hath done.

Third, we can always remember Him

by trusting when the Lord assures us "he who has repented

of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord,

remember them no more."

When we fully repent, including by confessing and forsaking

our sins, we ask with Enos, as our guilt is swept away,

"Lord, how is it done?" and hear the answer, "Because

of thy faith in Christ" and His invitation

to "put me in remembrance."

Once we repent and priesthood leaders declare us worthy,

we need not continue to confess and confess these past sins.

To be worthy does not mean to be perfect.

His plan of happiness invites us to be

humbly at peace on our life's journey to someday

become perfected in Christ, not constantly worried, frustrated,

or unhappy in our imperfections today.

Remember, He knows all the things we don't want anyone

else to know about us--and loves us still.

Sometimes life tests our trust in Christ's mercy, justice,

and judgment, and in His liberating invitation

to allow His Atonement to heal us as we

forgive others and ourselves.

A young woman in another country applied

to work as a journalist, but the official who assigned jobs

was merciless.

He said to her, "With my signature,

I guarantee you will not become a journalist

but will dig sewers."

Imagine being the only woman digging

sewers in a gang of men.

Years later, this woman became an official.

One day a man came in, needing her signature for a job.

She asked, "Do you remember me?"

He did not.

She said, "You do not remember me, but I remember you.

With your signature, you guaranteed

I never became a journalist.

With your signature, you sent me to dig sewers, the only woman

in a gang of men."

She told me, "I feel I should treat that man better

than he treated me, but I do not have that strength."

Sometimes that strength is not within us,

but it can be found in remembering the Atonement

of our Savior Jesus Christ.

When trust is betrayed, dreams broken,

hearts shattered and then broken again,

when we want justice and need mercy, when our fists clench

and our tears flow, when we need to know what to hold onto

and what to let go of, we can always remember Him.

Life is not as cruel as it can sometimes seem.

His infinite compassion can help us

find our way, truth, and life.

When we remember His words and example,

we will not give or take offense.

My friend's father worked as a mechanic.

His honest labor showed even in his carefully washed hands.

One day someone at a temple told my friend's father

he should clean his hands before serving there.

Instead of being offended, this good man

began to scrub the family dishes by hand with extra soapy water

before attending the temple.

He exemplifies those who "ascend into the hill of the Lord"

and "stand in his holy place" with the cleanest of hands

and the purest of hearts.

If we have unkind feelings, grudges, or resentments,

or if we have cause to ask forgiveness of others,

now is the time to do so.

Fourth, He invites us to remember that He always

welcomes us home.

We learn by asking and searching.

But please do not cease exploration until you

arrive--in the words of T.S. Eliot--"where [you] started

and know the place for the first time."

When you are ready, please open your heart

to the Book of Mormon, again, for the first time.

Please pray with real intent, again, for the first time.

Trust that early or faint memory.

Let it enlarge your faith.

With God, there is no point of no return.

Prophets ancient and modern implore us not to let human

foibles, faults, or weaknesses--others' or our

own--cause us to miss the truths, covenants,

and redeeming power in His restored gospel.

This is especially important in a church

where we each grow through our imperfect participation.

The Prophet Joseph said, "I never told you I was perfect;

but there is no error in the revelations which

I have taught."

Fifth, we can always remember Him on the Sabbath

through the sacrament.

At the end of His mortal ministry

and the beginning of His resurrected ministry,

both times, our Savior took bread and wine

and asked that we remember His body and blood,

"for as oft as ye do this ye will remember this hour that I

was with you."

In the ordinance of the sacrament,

we witness unto God the Father that we

are willing to take upon us the name of His Son

and always remember Him and keep His commandments, which

He has given us, that we may always

have His Spirit to be with us.

As Amulek teaches, we remember Him

when we pray over our fields, our flocks, and our households

and when we remember the needy, the naked, the sick,

and the afflicted.

Finally, sixth, our Savior invites us to always remember

Him as He always remembers us.

In the New World, our resurrected Savior

invited those present to come, one by one,

to thrust their hands into His side

and to feel the prints in His hands and in His feet.

The scriptures describe resurrection as "every limb

and joint shall be restored to ...

their proper and perfect frame," and "even a hair of the head

shall not be lost."

That being so, please consider how

it is that our Savior's perfect, resurrected body still

bears the wounds in His side and the nail prints in His hands

and feet.

At times in history, mortal men have

been executed by crucifixion.

But only our Savior, Jesus Christ,

embraces us still carrying the marks of His pure love.

Only He fulfills the prophecy of being lifted up upon the cross

that He might draw each of us, by name, to Him.

Our Savior declares:

"Yea, they may forget, yet [I will] not forget thee."

"Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."

He testifies: "I am he who was lifted up.

I am Jesus that was crucified.

I am the Son of God."

I humbly testify and pray that we will always remember Him--in

all times, all things, and all places we may be in.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.