SALT LAKE CITY — Millions of Mormons grew up singing "Choose the Right" and wearing CTR rings.
On Sunday, LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson modified the faith's famous phrase during a brief sermon that began the final day of its 186th Annual General Conference.
"May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong," he said.
Speaking from the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City to a worldwide audience of millions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 88-year-old leader said he's been thinking about choices lately.
A number of the 27 other conference speakers shared poignant and powerful examples of people who made courageous, hopeful choices to rebuild after their lives or faith crumbled.
"It matters not how completely ruined our lives may seem," said President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency. "There is no life so shattered that it cannot be restored."
In his four-minute talk, President Monson urged Latter-day Saints to remember that the gift of agency is a heavenly gift.
"Our goal is to obtain celestial glory," he said, "and the choices we make will, in large part, determine whether or not we reach our goal."
Therefore, they must have the courage to defy the consensus.
"If we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice," he said. That choice requires action and can build real, powerful, sustaining faith to carry them through adversity.
President Uchtdorf provided a stark example, comparing the scars left by poor choices to the World War II destruction of the German city of Dresden, which had been known as the Jewel Box.
If people can take the ruins, rubble and remains of a broken city and rebuild the awe-inspiring Church of Our Lady in Dresden, he asked, "how much more capable is our Almighty Father to restore his children who have fallen, struggled or become lost."
"It matters not how scarlet our sins," he added, "how deep our bitterness, how lonely, abandoned or broken our hearts may be. Even those who are without hope, who live in despair, who have betrayed trust, surrendered their integrity or turned away from God, can be rebuilt."
Another striking story described the turnaround of the Hatfield family, who for more than 50 years harbored resentment toward the church and President Russell M. Nelson, president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Two of the family's young daughters died from congenital heart disease despite operations performed by President Nelson, a heart surgeon prior to his call to the Twelve.
Last summer, President Nelson visited the now-88-year-old father and his son and told them he'd felt the girls' desire to be sealed in an LDS temple to their family. President Nelson explained that it would take time and effort for them to be ready and worthy to enter the temple.
"I have marveled at Jimmy and Shawn and what they were willing to do," President Nelson said Saturday evening during the priesthood session. "They have become heroes to me. If I could have the wish of my heart, it would be that each man and young man in this church would demonstrate the courage, strength and humility of this father and son. They were willing to forgive and let go of old hurts and habits. They were submit to guidance from their priesthood leaders so that the Atonement of Jesus Christ could purify and magnify them."
He expressed fear that many priesthood bearers have done little or nothing to develop their access to priesthood power. The price of developing faith and priesthood power, he said, is willingness to develop spiritual gifts.
"Are you willing to pray to know how to pray for more power?" he asked. "The Lord will teach you... Are you willing to worship in the temple regularly? ... Are you willing to follow President Monson's example of serving others?"
Satan's proposal to ban agency would have ensured perfect equality, said Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Twelve, but his opposition to Heavenly Father's plan "actually facilitated it, because it is opposition that enables choice, and it is the opportunity of making the right choices that leads to the growth that is the purpose of the Father’s plan."
Multiple speakers stated clearly that all church members will face opposition.
"All of us have had our faith tested," President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, said Saturday, "by precious blessings delayed, vicious attacks of those who wanted to destroy our faith, temptations to sin, and selfish interests that reduced our efforts to cultivate and soften the spiritual depths of our hearts."
On Sunday, Elder Oaks echoed the sentiment:
"All of us experience oppositions that test us. Some of these tests are temptations to sin. Some are mortal challenges apart from personal sin. Some are very great. Some are minor. Some are continuous, and some are mere episodes. None of us is exempt. Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become."
Some of the opposition even comes from church members, Elder Oaks said.
"Some who use personal reasoning or wisdom to resist prophetic direction give themselves a label borrowed from elected bodies — 'the loyal opposition.' How ever appropriate for a democracy, there is no warrant for this concept in the government of God’s kingdom, where questions are honored but opposition is not."
Some use the basis of early LDS history as a basis for opposition, he said.
"The church is making great efforts to be transparent with the records we have, but after all we can publish our members are sometimes left with basic questions that cannot be resolved by study. That is the church history version of 'opposition in all things.' Some things can only be learned by faith. Our ultimate reliance must be faith in the witness we have received from the Holy Ghost."
The Holy Ghost honors the principle of agency, said Elder Robert B. Hales of the Twelve.
"Some of us unwisely seek the Holy Ghost’s direction on every minor decision in our lives," he said. "This trivializes His sacred role. ... He speaks to our minds and our hearts gently about matters of consequence."
Elder Dale G. Renlund also said all should expect adversity.
"Jesus did not say if rain descends, if floods come, and if winds blow, but when," Elder Renlund said Saturday. "No one is immune from life’s challenges; we all need the safety that comes from partaking of the sacrament."
He said the more people distance themselves from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the more entitled they feel. To close that distance, he said church members should choose to "prepare conscientiously and partake worthily of the sacrament each week to close that distance."
Then, "natural tendencies to childish whining, disgruntled entitlement and derisive skepticism will dissipate," he said. "Those sentiments will be replaced by feelings of greater love and gratitude for Heavenly Father’s gift of His Son. As we draw closer to God, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will come into our lives."
Believers make a daily choice to choose faith over doubt, said Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, the Young Women General President.
She told the story of a 2-year-old boy with pneumonia who was transported by helicopter to a Utah hospital. His mother could see four temples during the flight and asked herself, "Do you believe it or not?"
Michele Carnesecca recognized that she did. She prayed, thanking the Father for her son and the Savior who would make a Resurrection reunion possible if Ethan were to die. Ethan recovered, but Sister Oscarson warned church members against being complacent about what she called the blessings of membership in a church that makes profound claims about being the restored church of Jesus Christ.
"If these things are true," she said, "then we have the greatest message of hope and help that the world has ever known. Believing them is a matter of eternal significance for us and for those we love."
The world's vast refugee crisis requires church members to make a choice, said Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy and the president of the church's Europe Area, where 1.25 million refugees have arrived in the past year. There, the LDS Church is working with 75 organizations in 17 countries to provide relief.
The estimate that there are 60 million refugees means 1-in-122 humans has been forced to flee their homes, half of them children. He described the new refugee relief effort, "I Was a Stranger," by women of the church.
"We must take a stand against intolerance and advocate respect and understanding across cultures and traditions," he said. "Meeting refugee families and hearing their stories with your own ears, and not from a screen or newspaper, will change you. Real friendships will develop, and will foster compassion and successful integration."
The Christ child was a refugee in Egypt, and Mormons were 19th-century refugees in America, he said.
"We have found refuge. Let us come out from our safe places and share with them — from our abundance — hope for a brighter future, faith in God and in our fellow man, and love that sees beyond cultural and ideological differences to the glorious truth that we are all children of our Heavenly Father."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Twelve closed the conference Sunday afternoon with a plea to choose not to give up.
"The gospel, the church and these wonderful semi-annual gatherings are intended to give hope and inspiration, not discouragement," he said. "Only the adversary, the enemy of us all, would try to convince us that the ideals outlined in general conference are depressingly unrealistic, that people don’t really improve, that no one really progresses."
"The Lord blesses those who want to improve," he added, "who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christ-like virtues and strive to acquire them."
That desire may be imperfect and stumbling and interrupted by others and temptation, but that is not a reason to surrender it.
"If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone," he said. "The Savior is there to help you keep going. If you fall, summon his strength to get back up. Then repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek."
Email: twalch@deseretnews.com