Biographical information from Church website

Brother David J. Wunderli was sustained as First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 5, 2025. He began serving on August 1, 2025.

His previous Church assignments have included member of the Young Men general advisory council, president of the Cape Verde Praia Mission (2020–23), stake president, bishop, counselor in a missionary training center branch presidency, high councilor, ward Young Men president, and full-time missionary in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro mission.

Professional Life

Brother Wunderli received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in accounting with a minor in Portuguese. He worked as a senior executive at Easton Sports and as president of OGIO International. Brother Wunderli has served on several corporate and philanthropic boards and was chairman of the board for ORI Inc.

Personal Life

David John Wunderli was born on June 22, 1961, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He and his wife, Diane, have four children.

Summary

Brother Wunderli’s talk focused on the truth that discipleship does not make life heavier—it brings divine help, strength, and peace. Using the story of his young son carrying a backpack full of rocks and refusing to remove a picture of Jesus Christ, Brother Wunderli taught that removing the Saviour from our lives never lightens our load. Rather, Christ is the One who helps us carry life’s burdens. He invited listeners—especially youth—to “abide with” the Saviour through daily prayer, repentance, scripture study, and covenant keeping.

Key quotes

‘ …please remember that taking Jesus Christ out of your life is not the answer. Removing Him will not lighten your load.’ (Paragraph 10)

’The enemy of happiness wants to separate you from Jesus Christ. He will tempt you to remove the Savior from your life, enticing you to think that the road would be easier without Him, that the weight of His commandments is too great, that the path back is too long, that repentance is too hard. Know this: Satan is a liar. Jesus Christ is not the weight; He is the relief.’ (Paragraph 11)

‘Keeping Jesus Christ with you requires intentional, daily worship.’ (Paragraph 15)

‘You keep Him with you as you reverently, with real intent, kneel and pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.’ (Paragraph 16)

‘Abiding with Him eases your burdens. Walking with Him shapes your character and helps you become even as He is. It brings you real and lasting joy.’ (Paragraph 21)

‘When we feel that we are alone, when the weight of life’s challenges sends us backward, may we hold strong to our resolve to keep Him with us.’ (Paragraph 24)

Questions to discuss or ponder

What do you take from the story of Brother Wunderli’s son and the backpack? (Paragraphs 1-6)

What do abiding in Christ and walking with Him mean to you? (Paragraphs 8, 21 and 24)

In what ways has Jesus Christ brought you relief? (Paragraph 9)

What “rocks” am I currently carrying in my backpack of life? (Paragraph 10)

How does Satan try to separate us from Jesus Christ? (Paragraph 11)

How can we make sure Jesus Christ is with us each morning? (Paragraph 14)

Invitations and application

‘Each morning as you begin your daily walk, please make sure that Jesus Christ is with you.’ (Paragraph 14)

Brother Wunderli invited us to intentionally keep Jesus Christ with us through:

• Daily prayer (Paragraph 16)
• Scripture study, especially the Book of Mormon (Paragraph 17)
• Daily repentance (Paragraph 18)
• Covenant keeping and sacrament worship (Paragraph 19)

Additional thoughts

‘We can draw nearer to the Lord in our prayers. These can become conversations of thanksgiving. I can never fully understand how the Great God of the Universe, the Almighty, invites us as His children to speak with Him individually. How precious an opportunity is this. How wonderful that it actually happens. I testify that our prayers, offered in humility and sincerity, are heard and answered. It is a miraculous thing, but it is real.’ (Teachings of Gordon B Hinckley, Chapter 6)

‘The word abide denotes remaining fixed or stable and enduring without yielding. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explained that “abiding” as an action means “‘[to] stay—but [to] stay forever.’ That is the call of the gospel message to … everyone … in the world. Come, but come to remain. Come with conviction and endurance. Come permanently, for your sake and the sake of all the generations who must follow you.” Thus, we abide in Christ as we are firm and steadfast in our devotion to the Redeemer and His holy purposes, in times both good and bad.’ (Elder David A Bednar, General Conference, April 2023)

The songwriter Colin Vearncombe (also known as Black) sang: ‘It’s a cold hard road and we walk it alone.’ But we don’t need to walk it alone! 

The writer of Ecclesiastes said:

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” (Ecclesiastes 4 :9-10)

Our Saviour will help us up.

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You can watch Brother Wunderli’s talk here.