Q&A with Elder David A. Bednar

brothers and sisters it's a rare occasion when we can be taught by a member of the Quorum of the twelve and as you can see our devotional format is going to be a little different today Elder Bednar will not be giving a formal prepared message rather we'll be having a conversation amongst sister cush and me and Elder Bednar when we conclude the benediction will be offered by Benjamin rothler a student from Zurich Switzerland and following the benediction we would just ask that you remain in your places while we while we leave the stage now in

keeping with our devotional tradition and engaged learning at the college let's show that we've come prepared today to be taught by the spirit thank you very much so Elder bedner you and I first met on the 18th of March 2002. in Rexburg Idaho in my final interview for a faculty position at BYU Idaho and that was the beginning of what we consider really a cherished friendship and service over the years with you and and with sister bedner that now spans over two decades which is hard to believe uh that first interview as you described it

was going to be a conversation amongst friends and that's what we're going to do today um and as we were reviewing this too we uh we think this is the first time that you've had an official assignment to come to Ensign College uh to speak during your ministry as a member of the Quorum of the twelfth so I think that makes your visit today rather historic I think they finally trust me to come and not create a mess well um truly our our relationship with with you has been been a cherished cherished experience and uh

so you left comfortable circumstances in Arkansas and a great position at the university University of Arkansas to respond to the call of a prophet to go to Rexburg Idaho and preside overworks college at the time that meant change for you Alinda and I had the opportunity to leave Northern California and also go to Rexburg Idaho for a season and it meant change for us too um would you just teach us about change I mean willing to change you led a transition uh historic transition from Rick's College to BYU Idaho people had to learn to change

you had to help people understand change we've had a little bit of experience about changing things here at Ensign college too so what would you teach us about change I'm assuming that most or all of you are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and if you don't like change I recommend you join another church I'm not trying to be silly or sarcastic we are to come unto the Savior we are to follow him and we are to be born again we are to experience the mighty change of heart repentance is change

learning and education produces change the essence of our mortal experience is to not remain the same oftentimes people will say oh just leave me alone I like the way things are well God doesn't like things the way they are in US I'm not saying that in a negative way it's not that he's unhappy but we are not here in this Mortal existence to just stay the same so we're blessed with remarkable spiritual gifts the restoration of the Gospel teaches us our Eternal purpose and Destiny and you don't achieve that Destiny by just hunkering down and

staying the same the natural man and the natural woman hates change the man and woman of Christ learns to love change and the lessons that are learned in the process so I think that's one of the fundamental aspects of overcoming the natural man in the Natural Woman is not resisting change but embracing change and learning from it in Rexburg for a period of time yeah um when the opportunity came for you how did she feel about it and how did she come to love being able to move someplace where she never lived well I won't

take a long time but there's a little bit of a back story if Susan were here she would tell you that one of the hopes that she had for many many years is that when I finished my graduate work we would end up in the West well we were in the midwest in Arkansas she had a desire to live closer to her family so that our children would know their grandparents and so she prayed for that didn't demand didn't insist but she just prayed that we'd be closer to her parents and her family 20 years

later the prayer was answered in the invitation to come to Rexburg Idaho so that aspect of it was very exciting we were well embedded in the community in Fayetteville we loved it there so leaving was challenging and very hard we I had never been to Rexburg I had never been to Rick's College I didn't know one thing about it so I said okay let's go and we just learned as we got there but for Susan it was coming back closer to home and she was thrilled about that beautiful that's that's great well yeah we've uh

we've come to appreciate change too as we left California for Idaho and then Idaho for Mexico and then Mexico back to Idaho and and Idaho to Salt Lake City yeah and uh we wouldn't change the opportunities to change for anything in the world it's been a real blessing for us um so you didn't know anything about Rexburg before you got there no in fact I was interviewed by Elder eyring and Elder Perry and they said brother bedner what would you do what would be some of your major objectives if you became the president of Rick's

college and I had no idea I've never been there I don't know one thing about it I think it would be very presumptuous to say well here's what I would do so I'd have to kind of find out what's going on before I could answer your question I'm sure that was the right answer I said I said this is over I mean we're not going any place with this and uh you you were willing to leave something very significant there too in the situation that you had at the University and was that hard or was

it just part of the consecrated life of David and Susan Bednar the answer is I'll give a couple of words to describe it but not in any particular order it was absolutely energizing now I know enough about the world of higher education that I never wanted to be a president of a university I never wanted to be a Dean I never wanted to do any of that stuff which was my only qualification to do it anybody who wants to be a Dean by definition is unqualified anybody who aspires to be a university president I don't

think would be a very good one so the only qualification I had was it came out of nowhere I knew nothing about the school and I didn't really want to do it but how do you tell president Hinckley no if I I know this is being streamed in all regrets saying this but one Elder iron called me about coming to Salt Lake for the interview I was thinking have you ever kind of something that happens just in a moment but it seems like a really long time I'm listening to him invite me to come for

the interview and I'm going how do I tell them no I don't want to do this you tell a member of the car on the 12th no and so he says and we need you here just in the next couple of days and I'm going oh sure and that was it so it was demanding I wouldn't say it was hard it was demanding and I remember with Betty Oldham who was my secretary at the time just before the Public Announcement was made the executive team was all getting ready for the next day and she said

president Bednar are you scared and I said if I thought we had to do this transition I would be terrified but this is a part of the church educational system the Lord is in charge of this and knowing that we have his help yeah I'm a little apprehensive but no I'm not scared so it was demanding energizing it wasn't scary but you you clearly wondered have we got what it takes to pull this off because this hasn't ever been done before yeah well clearly you did and clearly the Lord was with you every step of

the way well and the other thing is that it was a remarkable example of counseling in Council you may remember those crazy meetings where we had all of the various leaders from the entire campus academic and non-academic and we'd get into the Taylor Building in that one large classroom and the president's Council would simply say we don't really know how to do this but we think the first two steps are this and then we say so what happens to all these other departments on the campus if we do these two things and these were pretty

wild and crazy conversations and we'd come back two weeks later and we just kept doing that for months and it's it's inaccurate to give any person or series of people credit for what took place the vast majority almost every person on that campus was anxiously engaged in seeking inspiration to know how to do that that's why it worked yeah that's great well I remember you teaching about light and it being able to take a few steps into the darkness when you can just see the sun barely coming or in the fog and that had to

have been kind of what it was like we we can see enough into the future to say if we do this we think it will work and then we can move on and move on sometimes people will say that well this person has a gift of discernment and they can see through walls or they can see around corners well part of the way you see around a corner is you keep moving your feet it's not like you're Superman or Superwoman with x-ray vision and you just burn through the wall but as you keep your feet

moving each time you take a step your view around the corner is expanded and that's how the whole transition of Rick's College to BYU Idaho occurred line upon line from time to time precept upon precept quite an important lesson for all of us that's the way that's the way we should be living Our Lives relying on the Lord and keeping our feet moving and asking and continuing to move well and if you'll take come follow me and that instructional material in the church you know I've been a member of the corner of 12 for 18

and a half years and people think oh I'm sure glad president Nelson kind of cooked that up when he became the president of the church that has been in process for years there have been few occasions in the time that I've served that we haven't been focused on those kinds of issues and they're developed and they mature and they're refined line upon line precept upon precept I think that's a great way to transition into some more discussion and deeper discussion on Revelation personal revelation clearly we know the church is is run in an inspired way

and through through Revelation that comes to Prophet series and revelators but maybe we can talk a little bit about personal revelation okay and um you know there's always the question of well I've had this thought is it me is it the Holy Ghost is it the Lord is it just a thought um should I follow it how do I know uh what should I do okay are you all buckled up here we go I'm not going to suggest that there's one answer to this there are lots of different ways to think about the answer to

this question let me suggest a way that maybe you haven't thought about in the culture of the church and in the language of the church we seem to put a primary focus on gearing up and preparing to receive Revelation when it comes and that's accurate but you're living in it instead of thinking about oh every once in a while I have to get spiritually supercharged so I'm sure to recognize it that we may always have his Spirit to be with us if you are a good girl if you are a good boy you don't have

to be perfect but if you are honoring your covenants and pressing forward with faith in the Savior excuse me then you're living in Revelation it doesn't just come once in a while and the vast majority of the time you are being influenced by the power of the Holy Ghost and you have no idea that it's happening we have the expectation that we have to be consciously aware in the moment that we are receiving Revelation and that is not true in fact I would suggest much Revelation is occurring as we are simply pressing forward being good

and trying to get better with God's help the 80th section of the Doctrine and Covenants is a revelation to somebody named Stephen Burnett and it's not very long have you ever wondered why are Revelations like this one to Stephen Burnett in the Doctrine and Covenants who cares about Stephen Burnett it's a mission call he receives his call he's given a companion and then the Lord says go to the north go to the South go to the east go to the West didn't matter if not unto me the Lord is not saying I don't care where

you go he said get going move your feet and in essence I think the Lord is suggesting I'm going to get you where you need to be without violating your agency but you got to be moving for that to happen I think too many times we pray and we sit there and we wait for something to happen which means nothing's going to happen when we act in faith when we ask in faith then when we say Amen we get to work on the thing we've been praying about and we're guided in ways that most of

the time we don't even recognize now that may sound bizarre to you and we won't take the time to describe it but if I were to ask president sister cush did you ever think you'd end up in Rexburg Idaho did you think you would ever end up in Salt Lake City as the president of the LDS business college when it becomes Ensign College they would have said you're nuts to even suggest that I used to write books About Management stuff and career planning and it's all baloney if you are a member of the church and

you're trying to honor your covenants and be good and do good God will help you be where you're supposed to be so I don't want to sand Cavalier but don't spend too much time worrying about if this thought is from the holy ghost or is it me if it's inviting and enticing you to be good to do good to keep the Commandments to follow the Savior to come under him of course it's coming from him if it's inviting and enticing you to do something contrary to the gospel or in violation of The Commandments you can

know it's coming from an unworthy source so if you're brushing your teeth early in the morning and while you're brushing your teeth you remember oh I didn't pray is that you were the Holy Ghost who cares just pray because it's the right thing and what you're being invited enticed to do is the right thing or maybe your mom while you were growing up would repeatedly tell you be sure to pray this morning before you go get going well you're brushing your teeth you're an adult and all of a sudden you have a remembrance of your

mom telling you to pray on a day when you forgot to pray was that just a thought or is that the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost brings all things to your remembrance doesn't it make sense that the Holy Ghost would bring back a memory of your angel mother telling you and teaching you and reminding you to pray instead of sending Moroni it makes sense to me so be good and go you're living in Revelation it shouldn't be the rare event did that make any sense now if you're not being good you can't be perfect so

don't stress about that but if you're not being good then you can't have that confidence that you're going to be guided so if there's something in your life presently that inhibits the holy ghost from Guiding you then repent and do it soon and do whatever you need to do so that you can again wax strong in the presence of God that his Spirit can be indeed your constant companion and you can have the assurance that you're going to get where you need to be so you can do what you need to do last comment on

this and then you can follow up in any way you want most of your answers won't be what you want or when you want people pray and they it's like they're shopping at a store heavenly father I need this and this and this and this and deliver it by this time and if you don't get this and this and this and this by the time well God wasn't listening to my prayers yes he was you're not listening to the answers so don't expect him just to provide a delivery service you don't pray to tell God

what you want or what you need you pray to find out what God wants for you big difference that will change the way you pray forever and many times what he wants for us because it involves change in what we are and what we do it's not something that we readily want to hear or accept that's one of the ways you know it's coming from heaven if all of your answers are exactly what you want you're giving yourself some of those answers so he's not interested in making our life hard but to become what we

are destined to become as his sons and daughters doesn't come by staying the same and it doesn't come by not having to deal with some demanding difficult things thank you so the Covenant that makes perfect sense not perfect well almost perfect okay so um covenants that we make in this life help us along the path to become what God wants wants us to become and I'd like to read a a quote from your April 2022 General Conference address but we heeded them not where you teach about covenants and Covenant making you said living and loving

Covenant commitment creates a connection with the Lord that is deeply personal and spiritually powerful as we honor the conditions of sacred covenants and ordinances we gradually and incrementally are drawn closer to him and experience the impact of his divinity and living reality in our lives Jesus then becomes much more than the central character in scripture stories his example and teachings influence our every desire thought and action now when you when you taught that in conference I think that statement was referring to all of the covenants that we make but I wonder if you might comment

about how what you taught relates specifically to Temple covenants and how Temple covenants bind us to God first of all do you remember president Nelson said we shouldn't speak of the atonement and disconnect it from the savior the atonement is not a standalone thing sometimes people will say well the atonement did this for me no the atonement didn't do anything for you Christ did it's the atonement of Jesus Christ I would suggest we need to do precisely the same thing when we talk about covenants and ordinances covenants don't do anything neither do the ordinances it's

how they connect us to the father and his plan and the son and his infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice I use the word connection simply because I I don't like the word relationship in connection with the godhead the only way any of us can ever understand relationship is in human terms you know I have a relationship with you over years I have a relationship with my wife that's helpful I'm not suggesting that's wrong we are connected by Covenant with the father and the son we become children of the Covenant the Savior says come unto me

all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I shall give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light the invitation to come unto him how do you do that in a very practical way how do you come unto him we exercise our moral agency to learn about his teachings and his Doctrine to accept the ordinances and Covenants of his gospel and I would suggest that in that process of coming to understand and accept the covenants and the ordinances that's how we receive the Yoke of Christ whenever Enoch was called To

His holy responsibility he was absolutely overwhelmed Blown Away in the languages today I'm but alad I'm slow of speech and all the people hate me and the response by the Lord is if you abide in me I will abide in you therefore walk with me now the Covenant path that takes us to the presence of the father and the son has a sequence in a series of Covenants first we were baptized and confirmed you can think of that as a an ordinance of adoption into the family of the father and the son as we continue

to press forward now don't take this don't make a clean little dividing line okay so this is this and this is this it's not that simple but that's where we begin to press forward on the Covenant path you might think about that promise to Enoch therefore walk with me Temple Covenants not only do we come unto him but we walk with him because through the covenants that we enter into in the temple we in essence as it describes in the Book of Mormon give our whole soul unto him it's the ultimate outcome of the mighty

change of heart we have no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually to turn out what does the natural man and natural woman focused on me self-centered and selfish what is the man or woman of Christ as they go through this transformation by the power of the Holy Ghost through the covenants and the ordinances they turn out to love bless and serve other people so we're in the yoke as we are baptized and accept those first covenants but think of being yoked and now walking with him that to me is a glorious

image of knowing that we are never alone we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost but we are also yoked to and with the resurrected and the living Christ by Covenant thank you there's a question that Linda and I have been asked often I know it's a question that you have been asked often I was asked it regularly as the stake president I was asking it regularly as a mission president and it's the balance question and how do I balance everything that I've got to do in life how do I manage School how do I

manage work how do I manage a relationship how do I find someone to have a relationship with how do I do all this keep my Covenants magnify a calling in my ward and how do I do it all well you're going to think my answer to almost everything is quit worrying about it foreign balance is bogus there's no such thing it you're going to pursue this outcome that can never be achieved there's no such thing as balance you can only do one thing in one given moment I'm here right now am I neglecting my wife

am I neglecting my responsibilities serving in the church can't do it all in the same moment people stress over and over oh I'm doing this but I should be doing that well you're not doing either one very well so whatever it is you're doing do it if you're at home be at home you can be at home but not be at home does that make sense so for example when I was a graduate student the demands of that in my early professional career you can bring a lot of stuff home and you're still at the

office you're not really home you got to learn over time how to be where you are in the moment that you're in that place so if you're at church and you're worrying about everything else you're not really at church and you can only do one of those things at a time and many people will have way too many things that they're trying to do all at the same time and I did a social media post on this you may have seen it if not go look it up on Instagram if you've ever seen acrobats they

do this trick where they get a stick and they put a plate on the top of the stick and they spin it and it's like they put one on their elbow and the plate is spinning and then they put their head back and they put one on their forehead and they do this you ever seen this trick done okay do you ever have all the plates spinning at exactly the same revolutions per minute no it's impossible I would suggest that's what people are suggesting with balance you get all the plates spinning at exactly the same

speed he can't what do you have to do you got to get to the plate it's going to be the one that's going to fall off first because it needs to spin so you got to spend the personal development plate not in this order the service in the church plate the family plate I don't know how many plates you can spin but I'm doing pretty good if I can do three or four and that's about it when you get to five six seven eight you're guaranteeing that you're not going to spend any of the plates

and some of them are going to fall down and break so you got to be real clear about what matters most and once you get clear about that then it's a never-ending rotation among those fewer things of the highest priorities spinning the plate so that it never Falls where do we find the courage to make those choices when you really know what matters most it's not hard Elder Hales was my neighbor Robert D Hales his wife just recently passed away and he was our neighbor and when he was struggling with some of his health challenges

if I were home on a Sunday I'd go spend time with him so his wife could go teach her Relief Society lesson and one day I said Elder Hales you were a fighter pilot you were a great baseball player a phenomenal golfer you've been physically robust and active your whole life and now you can barely move and he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair I said what have you learned going from that state of being so physically vibrant to now you're almost incapacitated and he looked at me he said David when you can't

do what you've always done then you only do what matters most I hope you young people will burn that into your brain and heart we all get caught up in doing a myriad of things that absolutely don't matter if you were constrained if you were restricted if you were inhibited and you didn't have all the capacities that you have now would you be able to Clearly say this stuff doesn't matter you don't have to be incapacitated to get Real Clear Vision about what matters most so don't wait to do that until you physically or in

some other way may be limited you can do that now and the Holy Ghost will help you and once you do that it's not like you do it once and it's done you're constantly refreshing and renewing your understanding of what matters most when you do that it's just in my judgment it's not hard in my come follow me uh reading this week and reading about the savior's experience of fasting for 40 days and then being tempted by the devil and all of those various things that he was tempted with in every case and I suppose

this is no surprise given who he was but in every case he looked to God he looked to his father as the primary the primary motivation the primary thing that mattered most to him and I think that's what you're suggesting he knew and understood who he was you can go to the first chapter of Moses in the pearl of great price he's confronted by the devil and what's his response he's just come from an experience where he's seen deity he says I can tell the difference between you and who I was just with I'm a

Son of God I'm not doing what you're telling me that's an instructive lesson about how important it is to know who we are and the Covenant connection we have with the father and the son thank you well Elder Bednar it's uh just about time for us to be wrapping up I first want to tell you how much a London I love you and how grateful we are for the association that we've had with you and sister Bednar for now a long long time and we could spend a long time just reminiscing about the wonderful things

we've learned from you and the experiences we've had but we will forever be grateful for today and for what you've taught us and we'd be pleased to turn the remainder of the meeting to you to share your your thoughts as we conclude thank you well thank you I love both of you very much I hope you won't remember one thing that was said today I'm serious if if you've taken notes about what's been said don't use them I hope the Holy Ghost has brought thoughts to your mind and feelings to your heart it had nothing

to do with what was being said I don't want you to listen to me I want you to pay attention to the thoughts that come to your mind and the feelings that come to your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost you may have been reassured by the Holy Ghost during this time you may have thought there's something where you were woefully deficient and maybe the Holy Ghost let you know you're better than you think there may be an area where you are filled with pride and you're not nearly as good as you think

you are and the Holy Ghost has helped you to see that and you know that you need to repent I hope that's what you remember and what you act upon so I really hope that in some future day you can't remember one word of what was said but I pray you will never forget what you may have felt by the power of the Holy Ghost you're living in Revelation be a good boy be a good girl don't expect it to just show up periodically and you kind of have to spiritually supercharge to be ready just

be good and go and I promise you will be guided not in ways that you anticipate there'll be surprises there'll be disappointments but you can always trust in the Lord's influence in your life and in his timing what I do now I do joyfully I witness that God the Eternal Father is our father and he lives I witness that Jesus the Christ is his only begotten and beloved Son and I witness that he lives the tomb is empty and he lives I witness that the father and the son appeared to Joseph Smith I wasn't there

when that happened I wouldn't know any better if I had been there that it occurred remember the core a horse said the only way you know is by seeing Alma taught that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen which are true I witness that all of those things are true and I witness that the restoration is ongoing I left a meeting of the Quorum The Twelve Apostles just before I came to be here with you I witness the restoration is ongoing my beloved brothers and sisters I witness that

all of these things are true and I invoke the simplest of blessings upon you that you may know that the truths we have attempted to describe today that hopefully have assisted you in receiving promptings from the Holy Ghost they're valid they are true they are efficacious they will bless you in every aspect of your life now in the future and forever in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ amen