Editor’s note: To support elders quorum and Relief Society classes, Church News publishes teaching materials on messages from October 2024 General Conference. These are intended as a starting point and not as a strict lesson plan.
About this conversation
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of Elder Gong’s message here.
Overview
- During a Gong family reunion, an artificial intelligence cousin asked for a dad joke in the style of Elder Gong. There are opportunities everywhere to laugh, enjoy and look with grateful eyes.
- Holiness sets things apart for a sacred purpose and invites an infusion of everyday life with the sacred. Those who walk with the Lord must become holy. “Your stories of holiness before the Lord in daily life inspire us.”
- Those with spiritual devotion tend to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than those without. Holiness before the Lord involves becoming your truest, best self by following Him by faith.
- A young woman demonstrated holiness before the Lord in her daily life by finding peace in the scriptures, living the commandment of tithing, and remaining steadfast in her faith. Her husband also demonstrated his commitment to holiness when he left college baseball to serve a mission.
- The father of a Latter-day Saint wanted him to get a college education and not serve a mission. After the father died at the age of 47, this son saw his father in a dream and saw that he was happy with his son’s decision to serve.
- A young returned missionary blessed someone who was very sick, and he learned to pray not for what he wanted, but for what the Lord knew that person needed. He blessed the brother with peace and comfort, and he later died peacefully.
- An administrator of a major university feels support from people who pray for him. A sister whose husband was unfaithful wondered: “What’s the point?” and felt a tender voice assure her: ‘Your connection is with me.’
- A sister who longed for a relationship with her father was prompted to go to the temple with him. Spending time together in the house of the Lord has strengthened their family bond.
- In early 2024, Jean Gong, Elder Gong’s mother, passed on to the next life. Baptized at the age of 15, the only member of her large family, she provides Elder Gong with a courageous example of everyday holiness before the Lord.
- Sanctification to the Lord in daily life includes temple attendance more often. Three friends went to the open day of the Bangkok Thailand Temple and discovered it to be a place of healing and spiritual power.
- Holiness to the Lord makes daily life holy and draws people closer to Him. Heavenly Father loves His children, and they can feel His love through their holiness before the Lord.
Discussion questions
What makes the Savior’s gospel “a gospel of joy and holiness in daily life”?
Why can spiritual devotion help us become happier, healthier, and more fulfilled?
How has someone’s example of everyday holiness before the Lord strengthened you in your efforts?
What role do covenants in holiness play in our daily lives?
How can we make sanctification to the Lord a daily effort?
Notable quotes
- “All around us there are opportunities to laugh, enjoy and look with grateful eyes. Our gospel is a gospel of joy and holiness in daily life.”
- “Your stories of holiness before the Lord in daily life inspire us. You live seven Cs: fellowship with God, fellowship and compassion for one another, commitment and covenant with God, family and friends – centered in Jesus Christ.”
- “Increasing evidence highlights this striking fact: religious believers are, on average, happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than those without spiritual commitment or connection. Happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, even financial and material stability – by every measure, religious practitioners thrive.”
Key texts
- “For I am the Lord your God; therefore you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy; for I am holy; neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
- “Therefore stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.”
- “Behold, my Spirit is upon you, therefore will I justify all your words; and the mountains will flee from you, and the rivers will turn from their courses; and you will abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.”
Invitations and promises
- “Holiness sets things apart for a holy purpose. But holiness also invites us to infuse daily life with the sacred—to rejoice in daily bread among the thistles and thorns of this world. To walk with the Lord, we must become holy, for He is holy, and to help us become holy, the Lord invites us to walk with Him.”
- “Holiness to the Lord says no to the profane, no to snarky cleverness at the expense of others, no to algorithms that monetize anger and polarization. Holiness toward the Lord says yes to what is holy and revered, yes to becoming our freest, happiest, most authentic, and best selves as we follow Him in faith.”
- “Holiness to the Lord makes daily life holy. It brings us closer and happier to the Lord and each other, and prepares us for life with God our Father, Jesus Christ, and our loved ones.”
Stories
- A young woman was in a dark place in high school, but was overcome with peace and love through reading Alma 36. Later, before she was married, she struggled to gain a testimony of tithing, but she found blessings by obeying this commandment. The young woman often left class frustrated or crying because of negativity toward her beliefs, but her testimony has grown as she remained strong in her faith. Her husband also demonstrated daily holiness by putting aside offers to play college baseball to serve a mission. When he returned home, he expected a difficult transition, but instead faced greater skill and more offers to play baseball, including from his dream college.
- For fifty years, the only daughter in a family longed for a relationship with her father, especially after her mother died. One day she heard a voice say, “Invite your father and take him to the temple.” Thus began twice-monthly father-daughter visits to the temple, and spending time together in the Lord’s house has strengthened their family bond.
- Jean Gong, Elder Gong’s mother, passed into the next life in early 2024. She was baptized at the age of fifteen and was the only member of her large family. When Elder Gong once asked her what decisions had most shaped her life, she said she was baptized and moved from Hawaii to the mainland, where she met her husband. Elder Gong misses his mother, but he knows she is not gone; she’s just not here right now. He honors her as a courageous example of everyday holiness before the Lord.
Notable footnotes
- 7. Some of our most faithful and courageous members of the Church, sisters and brothers, are faced with situations they never expected or chose. These true saints continue day in and day out, often waiting on the Lord. The Lord is aware of everyone and, as this example tenderly shows, wants to encourage and strengthen each of us in his time and in his way.
- 8. There is a lot of desire for relationships with parents and children. I am deeply grateful for any situation in which, even after many years, reconciliation, forgiveness and connection are achieved or restored. This good sister doesn’t want anyone to think bad about her father. She says, “He is a wonderful and faithful leader and a good father.”
- 9. A paradox of parenting is that children are profoundly shaped by the way they are raised, but they usually remember little of the early years when their mother was a tireless and selfless mother. Words cannot express the truth that my understanding, love and appreciation for my father and mother grew greater and deeper as I became a husband, parent and grandparent. Reflecting the generational nature of the plan of happiness, we can see ourselves in temple mirrors of eternity as mother, grandmother, great-grandmother in one direction and as daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter in the other.
Additional Resources
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Recent Conference Talks on Holiness
Who is Elder Gong?
- Elder Gerrit W. Gong was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on March 31, 2018, and has served as a General Seventy since April 2010. He received a master’s degree (1979) and a doctorate (1981) in international relations from the University of Oxford.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, leave after the Sunday morning meeting of the 194th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Salt Lake City Conference Center on Sunday October 6, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Desert News 
Elder Dale G. Renlund and Elder Gerrit W. Gong, both members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, speak prior to the Saturday afternoon session of the 194th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Salt Lake Conference Center City on Saturday October 5, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Desert News