Pope Francis Biographer Interviews Latter-day Saint President

"We, we've been anxious to meet with the people of South America. " "I believe it's because they understand the Book of Mormon so well. " "It's a record of the ministry of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ when he came to visit the people who were in the American hemisphere.

I find the people of South America, Central America, feel a closeness to the people of those ancestors. " "We appreciate the kindness of the Pope and the Vatican. They have been most gracious and welcoming to us.

" "I'm a father of 10 children and the grandfather of 57 grandchildren and I watch their excitement when they get their report from the doctor. And the first thing they want to know is, is it a boy or is it a girl? "Our doctrine teaches us that in that pre-mortal realm, we were spirit sons and spirit daughters of our Heavenly Parents.

" "And that gender is the same in the pre-mortal world as in the mortal world, as in the post mortal world. " "The Lord taught that we must be chaste. The adversary would tempt us to eat things we shouldn't eat and drink things we shouldn't drink and love as we should not love.

So, chastity is very important. Some people don't want to be chaste and that's regrettable because when they lose their chastity, they lose joy. " And so should the heterosexual man—they both should discipline themselves so that they can stand before the Lord and say, "I am clean.

" "That's right! You and I are brothers. If we go back far enough, we are related.

And we are in the process of creating a family tree pattern for the whole human race. " "Yes, we are growing exponentially. We have billions of people now for which we have their genealogical relationships.

"We teach the doctrine of self-reliance. Not only temporal self-reliance, but spiritual self-reliance. " "So you can pray to Heavenly Father and get your own answers to problems in life.

" "There's a lot of comfort in knowing that your spiritually self-reliant and temporally self-reliant. " "I think the religious element will continue to thrive and there will also be growth of the irreligious and hopefully we can learn to live together. " "There are countries that now do not allow religious freedom.

And some of those countries are thriving economically with big skyscrapers and fine highways. " "And as I meet with their government leaders, they say we need faith, we need values, we need high principles. We need stronger families.

Will you please help us? " "So I think there's going to be change. Countries without faith are going to want more faith.

" "I watched the countries of Eastern Europe under communism and they had complete religious intolerance. And when communism collapsed, the first thing they asked for, "Where can I go to church? " "What am I missing in life?

They are missing a knowledge of God, a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, And a conviction that there is absolute truth in the world. " "Thank you, very much, Dr Russell, and welcome to South America. " "Thank you, very much, Sergio.