My Dear Brothers And Sisters I Am...

My dear brothers and sisters, I am grateful to have this opportunity of meeting with you on this inspiring occasion. I bring you greetings from the seven mission presidents and the members of the Church and missionaries of South America, and since these proceedings are being beamed to distant places, I send greetings to all of you, everywhere. ¶

Several years ago I was in Banff, Alberta, Canada, eating at a restaurant in company with my wife. As we went to pay the bill, the Greek proprietor commented on what he called her "classic Grecian profile" and engaged us in conversation. Learning that I was a churchman, he suggested a bargain. ¶

"I will pay for your dinner," he said, "if you can tell me what is the greatest thing in the world." I counseled with my wife and replied, "Love is the greatest thing in the world." "You pay for the dinner, my friend," he said. "Love is not the greatest thing in the world. ¶

It is hope." ¶

Then briefly he related how he had lost his business, his money, his friends, his family, everything that he loved; all that he had left was hope. Hope had saved him and sustained him when all else had been lost. ¶

For the past fourteen months we have lived in South America in the midst, as it were, of great turmoil and trouble. ¶

We have seen frequent political and factional upheavals. In my travels up and down that broad land, I have contacted literally thousands of people who live without sufficient to eat or wear, whose lives are equally spiritually starved and worse still, who live without hope. ¶

However, I know a man who is different. He has hope. He is typical of a remnant of over 25,000 other members of the Church in South America. I shall call him Juan Fulano. He lives in a little modest home with his aged father and mother and his wife and five small children. He is a mechanic by trade and works in a garage six days a week for ten hours a day. ¶

It has been interesting to note how great world politics affect his whole existence, his country, his home, his job, his children. Juan used to be like so many of his countrymen. He worked and ate and drank and slept and lived without hope of anything better. He attended church only seldom, if ever; though his wife went more frequently. ¶

He had no faith in God or man and was intemperate in his habits. He worried about the possibility of war, was upset by the turmoil in his government, and had little use for his fellow men. ¶

However, in Juan Fulano, I saw peace take root and grow. No longer is peace an abstraction to me. Juan Fulano's whole life has changed, his home, his job, his children, he, himself. Juan now has faith. He has drawn close to his Heavenly Father. He prays now and finds not only comfort and solace, but also answers to his worthy petitions. He has repented, changed. He is now sensitive to the spiritual values in life. ¶

Juan has been baptized by immersion for the remission of his sins by those who hold authority and has had hands laid upon his head to confer upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost which is leading and will lead him into all truth. ¶

In addition he has received the priesthood of God and has been ordained an elder. He now not only attends church regularly but is the presiding authority in his local church branch. He is releasing the potential he has for leadership and service. He is not the same man that he was eight months ago when two servants of the Lord found him and taught him the gospel. ¶

The gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to bring peace to the earth. To many this may seem only an idle dream — impossible, Utopian. Others have good cause to say, "But Christianity has failed. We have not had peace in nineteen hundred years. Instead the church has even waged so-called 'holy wars.' " ¶

May I remind you, however, that these churches have not been the Church of Jesus Christ. He is the head of none of these man-made churches. ¶

His authority to administer his gospel was lost to the earth shortly after the second century AD according both to prophecy and to fact. It was necessary for God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ to appear in the year 1820 to Joseph Smith and restore the true knowledge of God and to call him to be a prophet. It was necessary to establish and empower The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to teach and administer the ordinances of his gospel. ¶

Since 1830 this Church has grown in strength and power for righteousness in the earth. It can and will achieve its ultimate purpose of bringing peace. ¶

But peace is not easily obtained because peace is rooted in righteousness! ¶

It grows not in the soil of sin or in indifference to the Spirit of God. It occurs not by edict or force. It comes by voluntary change in the heart of man. ¶

Obedience to divine law and righteousness precede, not follow peace. Peace comes not as an endowment or gift. Like happiness it is ultimately obtained not by working or seeking for it, per se, but rather it comes as an outgrowth, a byproduct, as it were, of righteousness. It comes as a blessing to those who are righteous. ¶

The fear of such things as an atomic war is a misunderstanding of the destructive force which causes war. It did not take nuclear physics to destroy the Nephites who lived on this continent fifteen hundred years ago. The destructive power was sin and disobedience to divine law. The weapons used were bows and arrows. Today the destructive power is sin and disobedience to divine law. The weapons differ somewhat but accomplish exactly the same end. ¶

If we are wicked, we have cause to fear every weapon. If we are righteous, we need fear nothing. ¶

Juan Fulano has peace in his heart today, not because he sought for peace but because he sought to obey divine law; because he obeyed the fundamental principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it is with all men, if they would have peace. It begins with, first, faith in and acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ; second, repentance and a firm resolution to keep the commandments God has given to his children; third, baptism by immersion for the remission of his sins; and fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. ¶

Acceptance of and conformance to these simple basic requirements opened the door for Juan Fulano and started him on his way to perfection and peace, and so it will do for every man: the John Does, the Hans Nelsons, the Taki Yomomatos, the Ivan Moscovitches, and the Benny Tall-Mountains. ¶

If this formula seems too simple to establish peace, may I remind you that this very gospel, the observance of these basic, identical principles have brought righteousness and peace to the earth in times past. ¶

The Book of Mormon, a sacred volume of scripture, records the visit and the teachings of Jesus Christ on this the American continent. I quote briefly from this record: ¶

". . . and behold the disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about. And as many as did come unto them, and did truly repent of their sins, were baptized in the name of Jesus; and they did also receive the Holy Ghost. ¶

"And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. ¶

"And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift. . . . ¶

"And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. . . . ¶

"And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; . . ." for some one hundred and sixty years. (See 4 Nephi 1:1-3, 16, 18.) Thus they did have peace, but I repeat again, based upon obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, by obedience to the words of the living prophets and apostles. ¶

I bear testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that President David O. McKay is the prophet to the world today, in the name of Jesus Christ. ¶

Amen. ¶