Below are the quotes that were used in the video.
President Henry B. Eyring: “The years pass, we teach the doctrine the best we can, and yet some still do not respond. There is sorrow in that. But there is hope in the scriptural record of families. Think of Alma the Younger and Enos. In their moments of crisis, they remembered the words of their fathers, words of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. It saved them. Your teaching of that sacred doctrine will be remembered.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1999, 96; or Ensign, May 1999, 74)
President Boyd K. Packer: “It is a great challenge to raise a family in the darkening mists of our moral environment.
“We emphasize that the greatest work you will do will be within the walls of your home (see Harold B. Lee, Ensign, July 1973, p. 98), and that “no other success can compensate for failure in the home” (David O. McKay, Improvement Era, June 1964, p. 445).
“The measure of our success as parents, however, will not rest solely on how our children turn out. That judgment would be just only if we could raise our families in a perfectly moral environment, and that now is not possible.
“It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose one of their children, for a time, to influences over which they have no control. They agonize over rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over why they are so helpless when they have tried so hard to do what they should.
“It is my conviction that those wicked influences one day will be overruled.
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught a more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity.
Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.’ (Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929, p. 110) ...
“… When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them. President Brigham Young said:
“Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., 2:90–91.) (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1992/04/our-moral-environment)
Elder Sterling W. Sill: “A young man came to Socrates one time and said, ‘Mr. Socrates, I have come 1,600 miles to talk to you about wisdom and learning.’ He said, ‘You are a man of wisdom and learning, … and I would like to have you teach me how to be a man of wisdom and learning.’ Socrates said, ‘Come follow me,’ and he led the way down to the seashore. They waded out into the water up to their waists, and then Socrates turned on his friend and held his head under the water. His friend struggled and kicked and bucked and tried to get away, but Socrates held him down. … And after this man had stopped struggling, Socrates laid him out on the bank to dry, and he went back to the market place.”
“After the young man had dried out a little bit, he came back to Socrates to find the reason for this rather unusual behavior. Socrates said to him, ‘When your head was under the water what was the one thing you wanted more than anything else?’ And the man said, ‘More than anything else, I wanted air.’ Socrates said, ‘All right, when you want wisdom and learning like you wanted air, you won’t have to ask anybody to give it to you.'” (“The Five Fingers of Leadership Success,” in Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [9 Feb. 1965], 9).
How to get an ‘A’ in prayer
Bishop H. Burke Peterson: As you feel the need to confide in the Lord or to improve the quality of your visits with him‑‑ to pray‑‑may I suggest a process to follow:
Now, picture him in your mind’s eye. Think to whom you are speaking, control your thoughts‑‑don’t let them wander, address him as your Father and your friend. Now tell him things you really feel to tell him‑‑ not trite phrases that have little meaning, but have a sincere, heartfelt conversation with him. Confide in him, ask him for forgiveness, plead with him, enjoy him, thank him, express your love to him, and then listen for his answers.
Listening is an essential part of praying. Answers from the Lord come quietly‑‑ever so quietly. In fact, few hear his answers audibly with their ears. We must be listening so carefully or we will never recognize them. Most answers from the Lord are felt in our heart as a warm comfortable expression, or they may come as thoughts to our mind. They come to those who are prepared and who are patient. (Adversity and Prayer, General Conference Report, October 1973, p. 13)
What words did Enos use to describe his prayers?
C.S. Lewis: “The best thing, where possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of prayer . . . encourage him to [use] the parrot-like prayers of his childhood . . The prayer of silence is exactly the sort of prayer we want [and] the clever and the lazy can be taken in by it . . . At the very least, persuade them to [believe] that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers.” “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out!” (The Screwtape Letters, p.24-28)
How Do I Know When I Am Forgiven?
Elder Tad R. Callister: Will our guilt ever go away? The promise of the Lord is certain in that regard. To the righteous, the Lord said that the time would come when “there shall be no more … sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4; emphasis added).
I do not know if we will forget our sins, but the time will come when those who repent will no longer be troubled by their sins. Such was the case with Enos, whose “guilt was swept away” (Enos 1:6), and the converted Lamanites, who witnessed that the Lord had “taken away the guilt from our hearts” (Alma 24:10), and with Alma, who exclaimed, “I could remember my pains no more” (Alma 36:19; emphasis added).
In the meantime, until that final drop of guilt is removed, if we feel the Lord’s Spirit we can proceed with confidence that we have been cleansed or that the cleansing process is working its divine miracle in our life. The promise is certain—if we do our best to repent, we will be cleansed of our sins and our guilt will eventually be swept away, because the Savior’s Atonement descended not only below our sins but also our guilt. Then we will be at perfect peace with ourselves and with God. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2012/08/how-do-i-know-when-i-am-forgiven?lang=eng)
President Thomas S. Monson: “Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended upon you” (Come unto Him in Prayer and Faith
Ensign March 2009).
President Jeffrey R. Holland: “Each of us is to come to Christ with … uncompromised commitment to His gospel. … In the vernacular of today’s youth, we are to declare ourselves “all in.” (“The Greatest Possession,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 8)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed! (“Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness,” Ensign, May 1995, 68)
Ideas for teaching:
President Boyd K. Packer: “It is a great challenge to raise a family in the darkening mists of our moral environment.
“We emphasize that the greatest work you will do will be within the walls of your home (see Harold B. Lee, Ensign, July 1973, p. 98), and that “no other success can compensate for failure in the home” (David O. McKay, Improvement Era, June 1964, p. 445).
“The measure of our success as parents, however, will not rest solely on how our children turn out. That judgment would be just only if we could raise our families in a perfectly moral environment, and that now is not possible.
“It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose one of their children, for a time, to influences over which they have no control. They agonize over rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over why they are so helpless when they have tried so hard to do what they should.
“It is my conviction that those wicked influences one day will be overruled.
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught a more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity.
Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.’ (Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929, p. 110) ...
“… When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them. President Brigham Young said:
“Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., 2:90–91.) (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1992/04/our-moral-environment)
Elder Sterling W. Sill: “A young man came to Socrates one time and said, ‘Mr. Socrates, I have come 1,600 miles to talk to you about wisdom and learning.’ He said, ‘You are a man of wisdom and learning, … and I would like to have you teach me how to be a man of wisdom and learning.’ Socrates said, ‘Come follow me,’ and he led the way down to the seashore. They waded out into the water up to their waists, and then Socrates turned on his friend and held his head under the water. His friend struggled and kicked and bucked and tried to get away, but Socrates held him down. … And after this man had stopped struggling, Socrates laid him out on the bank to dry, and he went back to the market place.”
“After the young man had dried out a little bit, he came back to Socrates to find the reason for this rather unusual behavior. Socrates said to him, ‘When your head was under the water what was the one thing you wanted more than anything else?’ And the man said, ‘More than anything else, I wanted air.’ Socrates said, ‘All right, when you want wisdom and learning like you wanted air, you won’t have to ask anybody to give it to you.'” (“The Five Fingers of Leadership Success,” in Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [9 Feb. 1965], 9).
How to get an ‘A’ in prayer
- Alone – v. 3– 3 Nephi 13:5-6
- Aloud – v. 4 – D&C 19:28
- A lot – v.4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 16 – 2 Nephi 32:8-9
- Avoid vain repetition – v. 9 – 3 Nephi 13:7-8
- Ask for Answers – v. 15, – D&C 112:10
- Abide V. 4, 11 – “to wait patiently for, to await or remain”
- Appreciation- v. 17 – D&C 59:21
Bishop H. Burke Peterson: As you feel the need to confide in the Lord or to improve the quality of your visits with him‑‑ to pray‑‑may I suggest a process to follow:
- go where you can be alone,
- go where you can think,
- go where you can kneel,
- go where you can speak out loud to him . . .
Now, picture him in your mind’s eye. Think to whom you are speaking, control your thoughts‑‑don’t let them wander, address him as your Father and your friend. Now tell him things you really feel to tell him‑‑ not trite phrases that have little meaning, but have a sincere, heartfelt conversation with him. Confide in him, ask him for forgiveness, plead with him, enjoy him, thank him, express your love to him, and then listen for his answers.
Listening is an essential part of praying. Answers from the Lord come quietly‑‑ever so quietly. In fact, few hear his answers audibly with their ears. We must be listening so carefully or we will never recognize them. Most answers from the Lord are felt in our heart as a warm comfortable expression, or they may come as thoughts to our mind. They come to those who are prepared and who are patient. (Adversity and Prayer, General Conference Report, October 1973, p. 13)
What words did Enos use to describe his prayers?
- Own prayer (1-5): wrestled, cried, hungered, supplication,raised my voice.
- Nephites (9-10): pour out soul, feel desire, struggling . . .
- Lamanites (11-12): many long strugglings, labor w/all diligence,cried continually…
C.S. Lewis: “The best thing, where possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of prayer . . . encourage him to [use] the parrot-like prayers of his childhood . . The prayer of silence is exactly the sort of prayer we want [and] the clever and the lazy can be taken in by it . . . At the very least, persuade them to [believe] that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers.” “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out!” (The Screwtape Letters, p.24-28)
How Do I Know When I Am Forgiven?
Elder Tad R. Callister: Will our guilt ever go away? The promise of the Lord is certain in that regard. To the righteous, the Lord said that the time would come when “there shall be no more … sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4; emphasis added).
I do not know if we will forget our sins, but the time will come when those who repent will no longer be troubled by their sins. Such was the case with Enos, whose “guilt was swept away” (Enos 1:6), and the converted Lamanites, who witnessed that the Lord had “taken away the guilt from our hearts” (Alma 24:10), and with Alma, who exclaimed, “I could remember my pains no more” (Alma 36:19; emphasis added).
In the meantime, until that final drop of guilt is removed, if we feel the Lord’s Spirit we can proceed with confidence that we have been cleansed or that the cleansing process is working its divine miracle in our life. The promise is certain—if we do our best to repent, we will be cleansed of our sins and our guilt will eventually be swept away, because the Savior’s Atonement descended not only below our sins but also our guilt. Then we will be at perfect peace with ourselves and with God. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2012/08/how-do-i-know-when-i-am-forgiven?lang=eng)
President Thomas S. Monson: “Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended upon you” (Come unto Him in Prayer and Faith
Ensign March 2009).
President Jeffrey R. Holland: “Each of us is to come to Christ with … uncompromised commitment to His gospel. … In the vernacular of today’s youth, we are to declare ourselves “all in.” (“The Greatest Possession,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 8)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed! (“Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness,” Ensign, May 1995, 68)
Ideas for teaching:
- “Enos Club.”
- What phrase or words meant a lot to you as you read Enos?
- An emphasis on our communication with God.
- “Pray for your enemies…”
- “How do I know if I am forgiven?”
- Giving invitations that allow students to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and then act on those promptings.
- Use a Scripture Journal or Gospel Living App.