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"I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it" (Joseph Smith)

It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure  a boy , of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily  b labor , should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter  c persecution  and  d reviling . But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself. However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a  a vision . I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was  b mad ; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality

Of Regrets and Resolutions (Uchtdorf)

When it comes to living the gospel, we should not be like the boy who dipped his toe in the water and then claimed he went swimming. As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we are capable of so much more. For that, good intentions are not enough. We must do. Even more important, we must become what Heavenly Father wants us to be...  Discipleship is the pursuit of holiness and happiness. It is the path to our best and happiest self... The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness, the less likely we will be on a path to regrets. The more we rely on the Savior’s grace, the more we will feel that we are on the track our Father in Heaven has intended for us.  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (2012 October General Conference, Of Regrets and Resolutions, Sat. Morning Session) http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

our Father (Brigham Young)

"If any of us could now see the God we are striving to serve—if we could see our Father who dwells in the heavens, we should learn that we are as well acquainted with him as we are with our earthly father; and he would be as familiar to us in the expression of his countenance, and we should be ready to embrace him and fall upon his neck and kiss him, if we had the privilege. And still we, unless the vision of the Spirit is opened to us, know nothing about God. You know much about him, if you did but realize it. And there is no other one item that will so much astound you, when your eyes are opened in eternity, as to think that you were so stupid in the body." President Brigham Young J.D. 8:30

building Zion (Brigham Young)

 "When we conclude to make a Zion," said Brigham Young, "we will make it, and this work commences in the heart of each person" ( JD  9:283). "I have Zion in my view constantly," he said. "We are not going to wait for angels, or for Enoch. . . to come and build [it], but we are going to build it [ourselves]" ( JD  9:284). quoted by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, BYU Devotional, September 11, 1984 http://speeches.byu.edu/?act= viewitem&id=858

the ministry of angels as taught in the Book of Mormon (Holland)

One of the things that will become more important in our lives the longer we live is the reality of angels, their work and their ministry.  I refer here not alone to the angel Moroni but also to those more personal ministering angels who are with us and around us, empowered to help us and who do exactly that (see 3 Ne. 7:18; Moro. 7:29-32, 37; D&C 107:20)...  I believe we need to speak of and believe in and bear testimony to the ministry of angels more than we sometimes do.  They constitute one of God’s great methods of witnessing through the veil, and no document in all this world teaches that principle so clearly and so powerfully as does the Book of Mormon.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "For a Wise Purpose,” Ensign , January, 1996, 16-17