This is a global work.
Whenever I am comfortably situated in my home,
I'm in the wrong place.
I need to be where the people are.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
If you think the Church has been fully restored,
you're just seeing the beginning.
There is much more to come.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is as though he's been unleashed.
I cannot get him to act his age.
In fact, I'm highly suspicious of his birth certificate.
He was foreordained to be the prophet of God on the earth
today.
He is uniquely fit and lively.
And I think he just made the decision, "We're going to go."
And the people responded.
It was faith-promoting for me and surely
was faith-promoting for the people who experienced it.
I think it was faith-promoting for President Nelson.
He's going to go to all of the world.
He's going to make more of these trips.
To be with President Nelson is like being with an old friend.
I mean, he is so genuinely engaging.
It's like he could be your grandfather or your father.
You could just--
You can just talk to him.
Just talk to him.
And he very much reaches out to people,
which is, I think, just disarming them.
He makes you feel so comfortable.
The people, their warmth, their love,
their love of the Lord--so they welcome you in ways that
you've never been welcomed before.
They're saying, "President Nelson, we welcome you home."
I know some of them.
And I know their parents.
And I know their grandparents.
They feel like I'm part of the family.
And I do.
I mean, I love these people.
Families lined up on both sides of the street, waving
and with posters and ribbons and banners.
President Nelson would reach out,
and Sister Nelson would reach out
of the window and wave to them.
You could see the squeals of delight.
It was such a tender human tie that the Lord's prophet
was waving to them and reaching to them and pointing to them.
"Hi, President.
Hi, President.
Hi, Nelson."
It was really quite a thrill.
To see the faithful members who come early--they sit.
They wait.
They're showing such respect for the prophet and the Lord.
Those dignified Tongan Saints, they
were there in the rain for two hours,
waiting to see the prophet and hear
what he had to say to them.
And that was just lovely.
I love it in these venues, where he said, "Is it all right
if I speak with you in Spanish?"
And these huge smiles, and then leaning forward in their seats,
and then just completely absorbed.
That has been incredible.
They blossom.
They just blossom.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
[APPLAUSE]
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
There is something very personal about seeing the prophet
and having him speak in your own country.
And I think when he's there and when they come prepared,
the Holy Ghost helps them to have something
very special happen with them.
And when that happens, what could
be more precious than that?
To have a witness from the Spirit
that this is the Lord's prophet?
That's very special.
I think it's a sign of how much he
loves the members in this international Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He wants to be with them, travel to them,
see them the way he has.
Beautiful example.
Everything we do--it is all about the Lord.
It's always about, where does the Lord need us to go?
What does the Lord need us to do?
When we travel, I think of a statement by President Kimball:
"I should come and see this country
sometime when I come back."
Yes.
It's not about sightseeing.
It is about Saint-seeing.
We have to realize that these are not generally
Christian countries.
And they don't know what we're talking
about when we say that God lives,
because they don't know God.
And they don't know Jesus Christ.
And these dear souls who are searching for happiness,
searching for joy, searching for meaning in life,
don't know where to turn.
And so our responsibility is to teach and to testify
that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, and that He's not dead.
He's not an icon on a cross.
He's the resurrected Lord.
And He directs the work of His Church.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is a faithful evening.
And I have been assigned the task to introduce and present
a brother of another mother, a different faith tradition,
and of a different race.
Mr. President--
Hello, Amos.
Good to see you again.
How are you, dear friend?
I'm doing fine.
Good, good.
I'd like you to meet my wife, Wendy.
Oh, indeed.
How are you?
Nice to meet you.
We had a most cordial, unforgettable experience
with His Holiness.
He was most gracious and warm and welcoming
to President Ballard and me.
I told him we were going to meet with hundreds
of his Italian youth tonight.
He said, "You teach them to love their grandparents."
The moment when President Nelson actually embraced the Pope
as we left was everything.
I do believe that when you see the prophet in person,
you feel something--his personalization,
talking about their families, and then talking about
the families in their country, and then talking about the poor
and the needy and those who need humanitarian care.
And they leave having felt like they were with a prophet.
Our time together was marked by a feeling
of mutual respect and a desire to link
arms to see if we could capitalize
on our respective strengths and help more people by working
together.
Simply stated, we strive to build bridges of cooperation
rather than walls of segregation.
President Nelson is a leader.
He brings the love of God.
He says strong families make strong communities.
Strong communities make strong countries.
Well, I've seen more perfectly how it's done,
or how it's done more perfectly.
The President has a gift for that.
And I think all of us can cultivate that gift of caring
and of the pure love of Christ in our lives.
And I think that's what I want to have in my life,
is a constant caring, a consistent way of ministering.
Well, we don't look alike.
But the things that we have in common
are much more important than the differences that we may have.
So wherever the people are, they're God's children.
And they're our brothers and sisters,
regardless of nationality, race, color.
When I learned more about President Nelson's background,
I saw some incredible similarities.
How are things in San Francisco?
And then our two national hymns, "Lift Up Your Voice and Sing"
and "Come, Come, Ye Saints."
These two songs are about a people
who, in spite of being oppressed, excel.
And I had a wild moment, when I reflected on the fact
that Mr. Clayton wrote "Come, Come, Ye Saints," which
tells the story of the struggles of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And in that song, they didn't get bitter.
They became better.
And they endured.
And they sang, "Come, come, ye Saints,
no toil nor labor fear."
And I love that phrase that says,
"Grace shall be as your day. ...
[So] gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake; and soon we'll have this tale
to tell--all is well!
All is well!"
It can be well in this nation when we lock arms
as I locked arms with President Nelson, not as black and white,
not as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Baptist,
but as children of God who are about loving
everybody and bringing hope, happiness, and good health
to all of God's children.
You know, young people come by the hundreds to these meetings,
take notes.
And they'll have better lives because of it.
They are just so spectacular.
When we've met with these smaller groups of youth,
they are absolutely anchored.
They're doing it.
They're having family home evening.
They're in the scriptures.
They're receiving their patriarchal blessings
and finding great joy.
It's incredible to see people from different places,
but with the same religion.
You will feel connected.
And it's incredible that the principle of our Church
is love everyone, because Heavenly Father loves everyone.
And that's the thing that affected me the most,
that makes me want to stay in church--stay with this big,
great family.
I feel that the Church is a safe haven
and that around us, there are a lot of people
who don't believe in God.
And they don't have that common belief for that.
And as I come to church, I'm able to interact with people
who have that common belief.
And then we're able to strengthen each other.
Seeing the different cultures come together,
you see that love that each and every one of us have,
and that we have that common theme that we're
children of our Heavenly Father and that we're
followers of Jesus Christ.
How are you doing?
I love you.
My parents--
OK, you kids all go to the meeting.
I'm going to--
I think it was a particularly significant message
at this point to have the President of the Church come
see a relatively small group and, by his presence,
say, "You matter.
You're in our hearts.
You're in our minds, in our prayers.
The Lord is mindful of you.
And we're mindful of you."
These youth are hungry for the words of the Lord.
They're lifting themselves up above the mediocrity.
They're real thrilled to be with Him.
I try to look in their eyes and see
what their mothers were like and what their fathers were like.
His personalization and connecting with them--I wish
that you could be sitting where I am and see all of the faces.
They light up like Christmas trees when he says that.
And then they lean forward in their seats.
And they listen very well.
We saw the rising generation last night--the youth that were
there, and 1,500 of them in the stake center,
but broadcast to thousands more.
And oh, they were so powerful, so strong, so grateful
to be in the presence of a prophet.
You know, they had their My Family booklets with them.
They had their Strength of Youth pamphlets.
These are really remarkable young people.
Just after hearing him speak--there's no way that you
can negate the things that you believe after hearing someone
like him testify to the truth of those things.
They are critical to the future.
They are pioneers.
And they have a particular place, I think, in his heart
and in his mind.
As these young people become parents and grandparents,
you can see the pyramid of posterity move forward.
No matter where the country is, what language they speak,
or what flag they wave, they become good citizens.
We get thanks for their good behavior.
Our message is applicable to people of every nation,
every kindred, tongue.
And it's an invitation to come unto Christ
and to let Him make life better for you.
[STRING MUSIC PLAYING]
I've just been so deeply touched at how the prophet of God
ministers to 10,000 people and a single family that's
grieving over the loss of their mother at the same time.
After all, the good is done in this world person to person.
It's not President to Pope.
It's one on one.
I want to get your name for you so I can pray for you.
Yes.
And your doctors.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It's very interesting to see that as you would expect,
President Nelson is the center of attention.
But he doesn't call attention to himself.
He's always sending the love and the concern back to the people.
And I think that's what they feel.
It's about the people.
In the end, it's all about people.
And if we can minister, our life will have meaning.
Tonight's visit, for example, Subandrio,
whom I've known for many years, introduced me
to his 86-year-old mother tonight.
And I asked her a question.
Of course, I was speaking English.
And she doesn't do English.
She said--
This is my son.
Oh, that's good.
He's a good boy.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Good boy.
Those are things that our columnists won't write about.
But we feel it because we know these people.
And we love them.
And we feel for them when they have pain.
And we rejoice with them when they have joy.
This is His work.
And He's directing it.
And we get to participate.
It's pretty exciting, really.
There is a sense of connection and of covenant belonging
together that makes each one feel as though this
is for them individually, for their families,
and for large groups, countries, at the same time.
That's a remarkable thing to feel and see.
I don't think the Lord's interested, really,
in how many members of the Church we have.
I don't think He cares whether we're a Church of 16 million
or 160 million.
What He cares about is, "How many of you
folks really want to come back home with me?"
We're helping to prepare the world for the Second Coming.
We're also hoping to prepare the people for their second coming
home.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We want to just say to the people that we love them.
We're glad you're members of the Church.
We're glad you love the Lord.
And we just want to be with you.
[APPLAUSE]
[MAN SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[CROWD SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]