Living Faith

Here’s what Church leaders and others taught during ‘Christ Daily’ talks at young single adult conference

The 30-minute TED Talk-style messages were given by a variety of Latter-day Saints such as Elder Kevin W. Pearson, Sister Kristin M. Yee and former Utah congresswoman Mia Love

By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Joel Randall, Ryker Eggenberger and Jessica Lawrence Aug 20, 2023 11:45 a.m. EDT

Living Faith

Here’s what Church leaders and others taught during ‘Christ Daily’ talks at young single adult conference

The 30-minute TED Talk-style messages were given by a variety of Latter-day Saints such as Elder Kevin W. Pearson, Sister Kristin M. Yee and former Utah congresswoman Mia Love

By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Joel Randall, Ryker Eggenberger and Jessica Lawrence Aug 20, 2023 11:45 a.m. EDT

Leaders and professionals from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave spiritual counsel and insight to thousands of young single adults during the Gather Together Conference on Aug. 19.

The conference, held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, was the main event of the 2023 Utah Area Young Single Adult Conference, which featured different activities for young adults each weekend throughout the month of August.

Included in the Gather Together Conference were 30-minute TED Talk-style messages called “Christ Daily,” given by Latter-day Saint leaders, professionals and public figures. The messages — which followed the keynote address for the conference offered by Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson — each addressed the theme, “Together In Christ.”

Seek living water, let Jesus Christ ‘mind the gap,’ President Johnson tells young single adults

Following are summaries of some of the “Christ Daily” messages:

A man in a suit walks on a stage in front of a crowd of young people in a dark auditorium.

Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Elder Kevin W. Pearson, a General Authority Seventy and Utah Area president, testified to young single adults about staying faithful.

In his talk, titled “Why I Stay,” Elder Pearson shared lessons he has learned throughout his life that have helped him to stay as a member of the Church and stay true to his covenants.

“Staying is an intentional choice,” he said. “I did not stay by accident, default, or because it was easy. I stayed because I knew it was true.”

He shared that after receiving a call to serve as mission president of the Washington Tacoma Mission, he explained to the senior executives of his company that he would need time off to serve a mission.

“They were incredulous as to why I would walk away from my career at that time and asked when I had made the decision to do so,” he said. “It came powerfully to my mind that I actually made that decision when I was a 19-year-old boy in a temple 30 years earlier. Those covenants have shaped my life.”

He encouraged the young single adults to stay faithful to their covenants and keep an eternal perspective.

“An eternal perspective teaches us to take the long view on life and helps us to avoid sacrificing things of eternal worth and a fullness of joy for some other kind of short-term, selfish pleasure or pursuit,” he said.

Elder Pearson ended his talk by testifying of the reasons why he stays, saying, “I stay because I know Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the Savior and Redeemer of mankind.”

“I did not stay by accident, default, or because it was easy. I stayed because I knew it was true.”

He also said his identity as a son of God helps him to stay, and continued to testify of heavenly relationships.

“Each of us is infinitely more capable than we believe,” he said. “We are sons and daughters of the almighty God. We may share the physical attributes of our earthly parents, but we also share the divine spiritual attributes of heavenly parents.”

Katie Henrie, a YSA from Lehi, Utah, said that hearing Elder Pearson speak was special for her. When Katie was serving a full-time mission in Australia, she heard Elder Pearson, who was then the president of the Pacific Area, testify to Australian Latter-day Saints about the importance for parents to show good examples of marriage to their children, which Henrie said has helped her in her dating life.

“I still remember it to this day, and that stake conference was a long time ago,” she said. “He’s been a really special person to me ever since.”

A man in a suit holds an open set of scriptures on a stage in front of a crowd of young people.

Elder Brian K. Taylor

Elder Brian K. Taylor, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Utah Area presidency, showed the audience a rock coated with mud and dirt.

“As we pass through life, sometimes we’re soiled by the dirt and the mud of mortality,” he said. The dirt and mud could represent difficulties, trials, temptations, sins, or addictions, he said.

“How many of us sometimes feel like just a big old rock that’s been soiled in the mud?” he asked.

He then cleaned the rock in a container of water to reveal that, under the layers of dirt and mud, the rock was, in fact, a replica of a diamond.

“Was this diamond worth anything less when it was caked in the mud and soil and dirt? ... Why would we think we’re worthless?” he asked.

Elder Taylor then read one of the sacrament prayers, reminding the young single adults that Jesus Christ’s Atonement is the water that can wash the dirt and mud of mortality away from them, revealing their true worth.

“You may often not feel like a jewel,” he said, “but just like this diamond was not worth one penny less when it was soiled, I witness to you that neither are we as children.”

Attendees at the Gather Together Conference, riding up and down escalators.

Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt

Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt, a General Authority Seventy, taught how the Book of Mormon models faith in Jesus Christ “in a uniquely powerful way.”

Alma 5:15 asks two questions, Elder Corbitt said. The first is, “Do you exercise faith in the redemption of Him who created you?”

The second question is more complex. Elder Corbitt broke it into parts: “Do you look forward with an eye of faith and view this body raised in immortality, and this body raised with incorruption? Do you see yourself resurrected, standing before God to be judged according to the deeds you’ve done in your mortal body?”

In essence, Alma is asking each person to look and learn, Elder Corbitt said. That’s why it’s important to look forward and not get stuck looking in the wrong direction.

Even when looking forward, individuals can look “beyond the mark,” Elder Corbitt continued. For instance, someone might become casual about Church attendance or scripture study. Although they’re technically looking in the right direction, the Spirit isn’t fully sinking into their heart.

But every person on earth chose Heavenly Father’s plan in the premortal life, Elder Corbitt said, and he believes that every person can choose Heavenly Father’s plan again.

“You trusted in our Heavenly Father and in Jehovah and in Their promises, and that is your heritage,” he said. “As you acquire faith in this life … you are awakening, activating, reengaging an immense power that you already used once successfully against our common adversary here on this earth. God bless you to be able to do that again.”

Attendees listen to keynote speaker Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson at the Gather Together Conference, part of the Utah Area YSA Conference, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023.

Sister Kristin M. Yee

When a person graduates college, they might hang up their degree or sell their textbooks, signaling the end of that period of their life.

In contrast, after making temple covenants, “we are not done learning about covenants and priesthood power,” said Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency.

Sister Yee said when someone is bound to God through covenants, they will never exhaust His patience, and He will never stop trying to help them.

No matter a person’s background or marital status, the Lord desires to partner with them, she said.

“As a sister who has not yet married, this loving and merciful covenant relationship with my Father in Heaven and the Savior has a powerful place in my life,” Sister Yee said. “It has been and is my greatest source of relief and peace. It brings me unspeakable comfort and a deep, abiding assurance that I am loved as His daughter and that I belong to His eternal family.”

Sister Yee also shared a story of hiking in southern Utah. While there, she noticed a dark and bumpy crust around the trails, which she later learned is called biological soil crust. It contains cyanobacteria that’s dormant when dry; but when wet, the bacteria leaves behind fibers that join soil particles together, making it resistant to erosion and storing water that allows organisms to grow.

Together, the bacteria and the organisms create a continuous living crust that supports desert life in a place where there should be no life, Sister Yee said.

“Just as this continuous living crust sustains life … our covenant relationship with God creates a personal, life-giving ecosystem that can nourish us and those around us in the dry deserts of our lives,” she said.

Sister Browning in a green-and-white dress speaking on a stage.

Sister Tracy Y. Browning

Sister Tracy Y. Browning, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, gave an address titled “Leaning Into the Light of Jesus Christ.”

A few weeks ago, at a cruise ship’s restaurant, her family enjoyed a pleasant hour of conversation. They finished their meal and were about to leave when a nearby couple told Sister Browning’s 17-year-old son they were proud of him for how he enjoyed talking and laughing with his family.

As they furthered their conversation and got to know one another, Sister Browning told the man that they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The man then said, “Ah, that’s the reason why.”

“When Jesus Christ is at the center of our lives,” Sister Browning said to the audience of young single adults, “... we become filled with Christ’s light through the companionship of the Holy Spirit. And that light can become so bright within us that it is perceptible to others.”

Keeping covenants can allow others to see the glow of Christ through His disciples, she said, even in seemingly ordinary moments of life.

Choosing righteousness “allows me to gather light enough to share, because that potential to draw someone near to the Savior, even for a moment, is worth my effort to strive to keep my covenants,” she said.

Emma Ward from Blanding, Utah, loved Sister Browning’s insight about sharing the Savior’s light even through seemingly insignificant ways: “You don’t know what kind of a difference you’re making in other people’s lives. Just as long as you’re trying to be good, you still have the Light of Christ.”

Zach Pace from Farmington, Utah, agrees that sharing the Light of Christ starts in small and simple steps: “It doesn’t have to be anything big. ... It just has to be those little things that you keep treasured in your heart.”

A group of people standing next to a replica of a laver of water.

Sister J. Anette Dennis

While serving as a mission leader with her husband in the Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission, Sister J. Anette Dennis said they felt it was important to prepare their missionaries for an earthquake.

They prepared their missionaries for two years, she said.

Two years after beginning their preparation, an earthquake did strike the area of their mission. “Our entire mission was affected,” said Sister Dennis. “My husband and I were 300 miles away from the epicenter and it felt like the building we were in was going to collapse because the shaking was so strong.”

Roughly 80% of the city where the epicenter of the earthquake was had been destroyed. “And one third of our missionaries were in areas of greatest destruction. Buildings collapsed around them and there was great chaos, death and devastation,” she explained.

“But not one of our missionaries was hurt.”

Not only did their physical preparation for an earthquake bring them peace, but the missionaries also felt peace and strength because of their spiritual preparation and connection to Jesus Christ, said Sister Dennis.

“When your spiritual foundation is built solidly upon Jesus Christ, you really do have no need to fear the earthquakes that will come into your life — whether they be physical earthquakes, emotional earthquakes or spiritual earthquakes.”

Left to right, Rachel Handy and Maddie Rosenauer pour rice into a bag as part of the Million Meals service project at the Gather Together Conference, part of the Utah Area YSA Conference, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023.

Brad Pelo

Brad Pelo is a producer for “The Chosen,” a streaming series portraying the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He’s also a Latter-day Saint whose faith has helped him navigate everything from challenging conversations about the Church with other Christians to receiving a terminal cancer prognosis.

Pelo told the story of how, 20 years ago, his wife had just given birth to their 11th child when he underwent surgery to treat a cancerous tumor in his abdomen. Despite doctors’ efforts, Pelo was told he had only 12 to 18 months to live.

But six months later, Pelo’s doctors miraculously found no sign of cancer. The good news left him considering what God was trying to tell him with such a difficult “wake up call.”

Pelo said he resolved to treat people more like children of God and less like assets or detriments to his career. He also stopped believing that he couldn’t trust people — a lie he’d been telling himself since his youth.

Pelo said he’d been treating the Savior like “a stained glass Jesus;” he believed in the Savior but didn’t have a relationship with Him. So Pelo began considering what it meant to truly know Jesus Christ.

“I don’t want to earn salvation, I want to celebrate salvation,” he said. “I’m going to take upon myself the name of Jesus Christ. And I’m going to recognize that he pursues me. … It’s a love story.”

Mia Love

Former Utah congresswoman Mia Love also faced a terminal cancer diagnosis. A year and a half ago, after experiencing extreme head pain during a vacation, doctors discovered a brain tumor and gave her 10 to 15 months to live.

The prognosis was terrifying not only for Love, but for her husband, who had already lost his mother to brain cancer and a mother figure to Alzheimer’s disease.

After surgery and chemotherapy, Love put faith in her patriarchal blessing, which promised she would have a long, prosperous life.

“I had a promise in my hand,” Love said. “I said, ‘I choose my patriarchal blessing. I choose the promises that were made to me. I will remain faithful. I will do everything I can to put everything in the hands of Jesus Christ.’”

Through a series of miracles, Love became involved in a clinical trial at Duke University. Since beginning treatments in January, her tumor has shrunk and doctors believe they can eradicate her cancer.

“I testify that our God is a God of miracles,” Love said. “And if we do not see the Red Sea part, it is because we are not asking. There is nothing in your life that is too big for our Lord and Savior.”

Former Congresswoman Mia Love shares cancer diagnosis and miracles of science and faith

Attendees speed date at the Gather Together Conference, part of the Utah Area YSA Conference, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023.

Bennett and Becky Borden

Like many Latter-day Saint couples, Bennett and Becky Borden were married in the temple and value their covenants.

But unlike many Latter-day Saint couples, Bennett Borden is gay, Becky Borden is lesbian and they both spent 20 years in same-sex relationships.

The Bordens shared factors that influenced not only their return to Church, but their decision to enter a heterosexual marriage.

Key among those factors was the genuine love received from their families during the years they weren’t part of the Church, the Bordens said.

That’s why, instead of “love the sinner, hate the sin,” Becky Borden prefers to say, “Love the sinner, invite them to dinner.”

“To me, we’re all sinners and we all need to be in a place where the Spirit is present in order ... to be loved and included,” she said. “That’s how I got to the point of saying, ‘I will sacrifice everything that I have to be in a covenant relationship with my Father.’”

The Bordens emphasized that their journey is unique to them, and it’s not necessarily productive to hold them up as examples to LGBTQ+ friends and family members.

But they hope their experiences can help others be better “fellow journeyers” along life’s path.

“We are here to help everyone else on their journey, because that’s what our Heavenly Parents do,” Bennett Borden said.

Becky Borden added that the Savior has turned all of her choices into something beneficial.

“I want to bear you my testimony of ... the immeasurable and eternal and infinite Atonement that He performed for us,” she said. “I have a testimony that He did it for me and that He did it for you.”

A woman in a white suit coat stands in front of a purple curtain.

Liz Darger

Liz Darger, the senior associate athletic director at Brigham Young University, spoke at the Utah YSA conference about being bold.

“We can come boldly to God, not because we have it all figured out, but because of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice,” she testified. “We can come boldly even when we don’t feel so bold. Why? Because all that He asks is that we come with faith.”

She testified that with faith and hope, Christ will help us to obtain mercy and grace in times of need. Darger went on to share a personal story about when she was in college and struggling with a non-existent dating life while all her friends were getting married and starting families.

“I felt like a failure. I didn’t understand how the plan of salvation, the great plan of happiness, applied to me,” she said. “I was hurting and I felt alone.”

Darger explained that she distanced herself from her friends, family and gospel habits. Then, one day she realized that she needed peace after hearing the hymn “Where Can I Turn For Peace?”

“I was seeking comfort to calm my anguish,” she said. “I pleaded to understand what God’s plan was for me.”

This bold attempt to find God’s will for her helped Darger to understand that she “needed a greater focus on the covenants that [she had] already made,” rather than focus on the covenant of marriage that she had yet to make.

“When I did this, when I recommitted to my covenants, when I decided that I wanted more than anything else to seal my heart and my will to God — and I would do anything that he asked me and I would do it with full purpose of heart — that is when everything changed for me,” she said.

“There has been no looking back and looking forward with sadness because of what I don’t yet have. Instead, I focus on the present, on coming unto Christ and assisting God in His work of salvation and exaltation.”

An aerial view of a large crowd of young adults walking through a wide hallway.

Kate Lee

While she kept the details of the trial private, Kate Lee, popular Latter-day Saint painter, described the spiritual struggles her and her husband endured during a difficult experience.

She said that the hardship gave them an “opportunity to solidify [their] relationships with [their] Heavenly Father and [their] Savior.”

But, before the solidifying came, “It was a roller coaster of emotions for us,” she explained.

“It was a wrestle with our testimonies, it was a wrestle with God, it was a wrestle with the Savior. The pain that we felt caused feelings of unworthiness and doubt and whether or not God was aware of the pain we were feeling.”

Lee and her husband had a choice — they could have given up during the difficulty, blamed God, and turned their back on Him; however, they knew they couldn’t do it on their own. “We knew we needed to seek their guidance.”

And through deep and earnest prayer they found their strength to continue moving forward. “We started to find peace in our pain.”

“We learned that with our Heavenly Father and with our Savior, Jesus Christ — His Atonement, our covenants, the gospel that they give to us — we can be stronger than the heartbreak and the pain that we’re feeling at that time. We learned that we can be made more because of this experience.”

She explained that the difficulty allowed them to more purely connect with God.

“Instead of turning your back on Him, turn to Him, and take His hand, and trust His lead,” Lee told the audience. “I promise that as you do that, you will come out better and brighter than you were before.”

Sharon Eubank

Sister Sharon Eubank spoke about what she learned about God after her friend’s daughter passed away.

Although God doesn’t prevent heartache, sin or injustices in the world, “He promises two things,” she said. “He promises He will never leave us alone.” And He promises that Jesus understands the pain and “will comfort us.”

“He will hold us while we suffer, and suffer with us.” Sister Eubank continued.

Sister Eubank promised the audience that the Lord would one day make right all the unfairness of life and injustices experienced. But until then, she asked them to trust that Christ is “kind, He’s patient and He will bring us the peace that we seek.”

God will never turn away somebody when they call on Him, she said. “That’s what faith in Jesus Christ means. You can call and He will answer.”

Stephen Sharp Nelson

“I want to talk about how God can turn messes into miracles,” Stephen Sharp Nelson said after playing a song on the cello and sharing a picture of his family.

He told a story of his performance with the Piano Guys at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was a sold out event and Nelson described how they felt “so much pressure” to do well.

“Everything went wrong at Carnegie Hall — even though we had said a prayer,” said Nelson. “The electric cello went out, the microphones went out, the lighting went out — everything was so bad.”

They had just signed a contract with Sony and they were worried about what the company would say about the performance after the concert ended.

And the head of Sony’s response to their failure?

“Stephen, that is the best concert I have ever been to. I have never felt more respect for any artist in my life,” he told Nelson. “I have seen artists walk — storm — off the stage for far less problems. I am feeling like we did the best thing signing a contract with you. We are in this with you to the end,”

With a laugh, Nelson said that is not how he would have set a miracle up. “I am so glad God is in charge,” he concluded.

“I want you to seek and expect miracles like this in your life, no matter where you are or what you are up to, because they will happen and they will come.”

A group of young people talking in pairs.

John and Michelle Schmidt

John and Michelle Schmidt had not always considered having John pursue a career in music. But after he made his first cassette tape and received direction from his mission president to continue to use his musical talent, John Schmidt began considering what he could do with the piano.

Michelle Schmidt said that they got better at relying on the Lord. “And, once we felt like we were giving our lives to God, we could trust that He would help us.”

The Schmidts told the audience to trust that God would help each of them, too.

Once they got into the music business, money and finances were difficult. As the Schmidts continued to seek God for help and assurance, they found miracles that helped move them forward and the blessings they needed to care for their family.

John Schmidt said he learned that no one can bother God too much. “It’s another opportunity to bond with Him,” he said.

So when the opportunity to work with Stephen Sharp Nelson and others in the Piano Guys came, they wanted to dedicate everything they did to God.

“None of us are perfect, but that is something that we share. And we decided to give our business to God, and to dedicate it to God.”

He challenged attendees to seek their personal, divine destiny. “Because everyone — everyone — comes to earth with specific missions to perform.”

Turning one’s life over to God looks different for everyone, Michelle Schmidt said.

She told the audience to continue to ask, pray and desire God’s help.

“We needed [God] to make a lot more out of our lives than we could,” she said.