Day 357

  • Principle: Saving ordinances have been around as long as children have been on earth.

  • Book of Mormon Reading: Moroni 1:1 - 5:2

  • The first six chapters cover the ordinances in Moroni’s day.  As you read these verses think about church through the ages.  

  • Susan W. Tanner said:

    • “I realize that many of us also at times feel without friends and alone in a wicked world. Some of us feel we have not ‘whither to go’ as we face our trials. But you and I can not only survive but prevail, as did Moroni, in our efforts to stand for truth in perilous times. What did he do when facing a lonely and hostile world? He, in faithful obedience to his father’s direction, finished the record on the gold plates. He became familiar with the writings of the prophets. Above all, he fought his way out of his discouragement by clinging to the Lord’s promises for the future. He clung to the covenants that God had made with the house of Israel to bless them forever” (“Glad Tidings from Cumorah,” Ensign, May 2005, 105).

  • Joseph Smith said:

    • “This book [the Book of Mormon] also tells us that our Savior made His appearance upon this continent after His resurrection; … that they had Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists; the same order, the same priesthood, the same ordinances, gifts, powers, and blessings, as were enjoyed on the eastern continent” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:538).

  • Joseph Fielding Smith said:

    • “While in every instance the Nephite Twelve are spoken of as disciples, the fact remains that they had been endowed with divine authority to be special witnesses for Christ among their own people. Therefore, they were virtually apostles to the Nephite race” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:158; see also Mormon 9:18).

  • Boyd K Packer taught:

    • “Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1987, 27; or Ensign, May 1987, 24).

    • “Good conduct without the ordinances of the gospel will neither redeem nor exalt mankind; covenants and the ordinances are essential” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 105; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 82).

  • Dallin H. Oaks said:

    • The ultimate Latter-day Saint priorities are twofold: First, we seek to understand our relationship to God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to secure that relationship by obtaining their saving ordinances and by keeping our personal covenants. Second, we seek to understand our relationship to our family members and to secure those relationships by the ordinances … and by keeping the covenants we make. … These relationships, secured in the way I have explained, provide eternal blessings available in no other way. No combination of science, success, property, pride, prominence, or power can provide these eternal blessings!” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2001, 110; or Ensign, May 2001, 84).

  • David A. Bednar said:

    • “Through the ordinance of the sacrament we renew our baptismal covenant and can receive and retain a remission of our sins (see Mosiah 4:12, 26). In addition, we are reminded on a weekly basis of the promise that we may always have His Spirit to be with us. As we then strive to keep ourselves clean and unspotted from the world, we become worthy vessels in whom the Spirit of the Lord can always dwell” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2006, 32; or Ensign, May 2006, 31).

  • Additional Study: