You can watch or read Elder Renlund’s talk here.

Elder Renlund began by relating the story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by the Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter. After 5 years of unsuccessfully searching for the tomb they eventually found it below their base camp.

What lessons did you learn from this story?

During those years of ineffectual searching, Carter and Carnarvon had overlooked what was literally under their feet. Some five centuries before the Savior’s birth, the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob referred to taking for granted or undervaluing what is nearby as “looking beyond the mark.” Jacob foresaw that the people of Jerusalem would not recognize the promised Messiah when He came. Jacob prophesied that they would be a “people [who] despised the words of plainness … and [would seek] for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness [would come] by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall.” In other words, they would stumble.

Jacob’s prediction proved accurate. During Jesus’s mortal ministry, many looked beyond the mark, beyond Him. They looked past the Savior of the world. Instead of recognizing His role in fulfilling Heavenly Father’s plan, they condemned and crucified Him. They looked and waited for someone else to bring them salvation.

The term ‘mark’ is believed to relate to archery and is the target. If you aim beyond the target you will miss it. How might people look beyond the mark today?

Like those people in Jerusalem, and like Carter and Carnarvon, we too can be prone to look beyond the mark. We need to guard against this tendency lest we miss Jesus Christ in our lives and fail to recognize the many blessings He offers us. We need Him. We are counseled to rely “wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.”

He is our mark. If we incorrectly imagine that there is a need for something beyond what He offers, we deny or diminish the scope and power He can have in our lives. He has claimed the rights of mercy and extends that mercy to us. He is the ultimate “source [to whom we should] look for a remission of [our] sins.” He is our Advocate with the Father and champions what the Father has wanted all along: for us to return to Him as inheritors in His kingdom. We need to, in the words of the prophet Alma, “cast about [our] eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for [our] sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection.”  Jesus Christ is our treasure.

What is an advocate? What does it mean to have Jesus Christ as our advocate with the Father? (See https://latterdaybloke.home.blog/2022/10/03/our-advocate-with-the-father-3/ )

The Savior has given us many ways to focus on Him intentionally, including the daily opportunity to repent. Sometimes we undervalue how great this offered blessing is. When I was eight years old, I was baptized by my father. Afterward, I held his hand as we were going to cross a busy street. I was not paying attention and stepped from the curb just as a big truck came rumbling by. My father jerked me back, out of the street and onto the curb. Had he not done so, I would have been hit by the truck. Knowing my own mischievous nature, I thought, “Maybe it would have been better for me to be killed by the truck because I’ll never be as clean as I am now right after my baptism.”

As an eight-year-old, I had mistakenly presumed that the water of baptism washed away sins. Not so. In the years since my baptism, I have learned that sins are cleansed by the power of Jesus Christ through His atoning sacrifice as we make and keep the baptismal covenant. Then, through the gift of repentance, we can remain clean. I have also learned that the sacrament brings a powerful virtuous cycle into our lives, enabling us to retain a remission of our sins.

The Church News reported on Elder Bednar’s talk at the New Mission Leaders’ Seminar in June 2023:

‘To illustrate the impact a seemingly slight deviation from gospel truth can have, Elder Bednar noted that in many instances far greater emphasis is placed on the ordinance of baptism than on the ordinances of confirmation (receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost) and the sacrament. Those who have received the ordinances of baptism and confirmation, and who prepare for and worthily participate in the sacrament, are promised that they may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with them.

“And by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we can always retain a remission of our sins. Thus, the gospel of Jesus Christ provides second, and third, and fourth, and endless opportunities to retain a remission of our sins,” Elder Bednar said.

Imagine friends and young children more eager to prepare for and participate in the sacrament on Sunday than they were to be baptized. “Surely such individuals would stand on strong spiritual foundations and be blessed with a firmness of heart, mind, might and strength.”’

Just like the treasure that was under the feet of Carter and Carnarvon, the treasured blessings of the sacrament are available to us each time we attend sacrament meeting. We are promised that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion if we approach the sacrament the way a new convert approaches baptism and confirmation, with a broken heart and contrite spirit and a determination to live up to that baptismal covenant. The Holy Ghost blesses us with His sanctifying power so that we can always retain a remission of our sins, week in and week out.

How could you better prepare for the sacrament each week?

Our spiritual foundation is strengthened through repentance and by conscientiously preparing for and worthily partaking of the sacrament. Only with a robust spiritual foundation can we handle the metaphorical rain, wind, and floods that confront us in our lives. Conversely, our spiritual foundation is weakened when we voluntarily skip sacrament meeting or when we do not focus on the Savior during the sacrament. We may unintentionally “withdraw [ourselves] from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in [us] to guide [us] in wisdom’s paths that [we] may be blessed, prospered, and preserved.”

When we have the Holy Ghost with us, we will be inspired and guided to make and keep other covenants, such as those we make in temples. Doing so deepens our relationship with God. You may have noticed that many new temples have been announced in recent years, bringing temples ever closer to members. Paradoxically, as temples become more accessible, it may be easier for us to become more casual about temple attendance. When temples are distant, we plan our time and resources to travel to the temple to worship there. We prioritize these journeys.

We often think of the temple as a place where we carry our ordinances for the dead. This is true and is important but the temple is not just for the dead but also for the living. I am talking not only about the ordinances performed for the living which enable us to return to live with our Heavenly Father but also to the spiritually uplifting, strengthening influence in individual lives that results from regular temple attendance.

The temple truly is the House of the Lord and if we go there in the right spirit we can find him there. Temple work helps us to focus our thoughts on the Father and on His Son. When we attend the temple regularly we find that we draw closer to Heavenly Father and to the Saviour.

With a temple close at hand, it can be easy to let little things get in the way of attending, saying to ourselves, “Well, I’ll just go another time.” Living close to a temple does bring greater flexibility in scheduling time in the temple, but that very flexibility can make it easier to take the temple for granted. When we do, we “miss the mark,” undervaluing the opportunity to draw closer to the Savior in His holy house. Our commitment to attend should be at least as strong when the temple is nearby as when it is distant.

President Howard W Hunter said: ‘Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. We should hasten to the temple as frequently, yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow. We should go not only for our kindred dead but also for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety that are within those hallowed and consecrated walls. As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make the temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience.’

After Carter and Carnarvon excavated elsewhere in the Valley of the Kings looking for Tutankhamun’s tomb, they realized their oversight. We do not need to labor unsuccessfully, as they did for a time, to find our treasure. Nor need we seek counsel from exotic sources, prizing the novelty of the source and thinking such counsel will be more enlightened than that which we can receive from a humble prophet of God.

What are the sources we should use to find our treasure?

As recorded in the Old Testament, when Naaman sought a cure for his leprosy, he was indignant at being asked to dip himself seven times in a nearby ordinary river. But he was persuaded to follow the prophet Elisha’s counsel rather than rely on his own preconceived notions of how the miracle should occur. As a result, Naaman was healed. When we trust God’s prophet on the earth today and act on his counsel, we will find happiness, and we too can be healed. We need to look no further.

What are President Nelson’s key messages to us?

Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to remember and always focus on Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer, the “mark” to whom we should look, and our greatest treasure. As you come to Him, you will be rewarded with strength to face life’s challenges, courage to do what is right, and the ability to fulfill your mission in mortality. Treasure the opportunity to repent, the privilege of partaking of the sacrament, the blessing of making and keeping temple covenants, the delight of worshipping in the temple, and the joy of having a living prophet.

I bear my solemn and sure witness that God, the Eternal Father, is our Heavenly Father and that He lives; Jesus is the Christ; He is our kind, wise heavenly Friend; and this is His restored Church. Thank you for your faith and faithfulness. I pray that you will be blessed, prospered, and preserved, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

What have you learned from Elder Renlund’s talk?

NB: All passages in italics are direct quotes from Elder Renlund’s talk.