Franklin D. Richards

1. Franklin D. Richards Some members of the Church possess powerful and unfaltering testimonies, while others possess less forceful testimonies. It should be recognized that testimonies can be acquired, testimonies can be kept, and testimonies can be lost.… "Many thousands have received a testimony, a conviction of the truthfulness of the restored gospel, by following the formula: study, pray, and attend church. They have thus been able to better interpret the scriptures and find their place in the eternal scheme of things. "To those of you who feel that you have a firm testimony, remember: a testimony is never static; a testimony can be lost. To keep it alive, it must be fed. Continue to study, pray, attend church and be involved. This will not only keep your testimony alive, but it will also expand and become more meaningful in your life."

2. Neal A. Maxwell on Unheralded Heroes"So it is that the real but unheralded heroes and heroines of our time are the men and women of the earth who uncommonly resist the world's common temptations, who surmount the common tribulations of the world and continue to the very end in righteousness, arriving home battered slightly, yet much bettered. Such individuals may get little mortal applause or recognition, but there is real rejoicing elsewhere by those who really know what a good performance is!"

3. Quynn Tebbs was a sophomore guard on the University of Arizona basketball team. He's also LDS and a served a mission to Brazil. He had a promising future on the respected Wildcats team, but when his grandfather in Utah was diagnosed with terminal leukemia, he quit the team to move back home: "There are some things in life that are more important than basketball,” Tebbs said from his home in Utah Thursday. "He's always been one of the most important people in my life. He's always been there for me and now I need to be there for him."

5. Elder L. Lionel KendrickOf the First Quorum of the Seventy • It has been from the beginning and it will be till the end that the natural man will have a tendency to rationalize and to blame his behaviors on others or on certain circumstances. When we attempt to place responsibility for our choices on others, we are responding in a less than Christlike manner. Blaming is an unrighteous form of communication.

6. When ten-year-old Truman was asked what he wanted for his birthday, he only looked puzzled for a minute before he answered, "I'll watch TV, and then I'll tell you • It's hard to rear Zion's children when they are constantly bombarded by Babylon. One mother confessed, "I spent hours putting together a family home evening about the plan of salvation, and the same day my children saw cartoons. Later when I asked them what they remembered about the lesson, their faces were blank, but they knew every word from the 30 second advertising spots they had heard."

7. Wilford Woodruff "I feel that of all people under heaven we ought to be the most grateful to our God; and that we ought to remember to keep our covenants, and humble ourselves before him, and labor with all our hearts discharge faithfully the responsibilities which devolve upon us, and the duties which are required at our hands. For we can afford to do anything which God requires of us; but none of us can afford to do wrong. It would cost far more than this world with all its wealth is worth for the Latter-day Saints to do wrong and come under the disfavor of Almighty God. (_Journal of Discourses_ 22:148 - 149, April 3, 1881)

8. "Let us, every one, resolve within ourselves to arise to a new opportunity, a new sense of responsibility, a new shouldering of obligation to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters throughout the earth.” (President Hinckley; missionary fireside)