November 8, 2025 – Oquirrh Temple Reflections
Excerpt
We all will experience illness, disappointment, temptation, and loss. These challenges can knock our self-confidence. However, disciples of Jesus Christ have access to a different kind of confidence — the confidence that comes from covenants, virtue, and the Spirit.
Intro
While I sat in the Celestial Room of the Oquirrh Temple, I heard a quiet assurance: “In due time.” It echoed the nudges I felt early Friday morning. I had come seeking peace, but what I received was perspective — that confidence before God comes not from circumstance, but from virtue and covenant faithfulness.
Notes from President Nelson (April 2025 General Conference)
From his talk “Confidence in the Presence of God”:
“We all will experience illness, disappointment, temptation, and loss. These challenges can knock our self-confidence. However, disciples of Jesus Christ have access to a different kind of confidence.”
“When we make and keep covenants with God, we can have confidence that is born of the Spirit. The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith that our confidence can ‘wax strong in the presence of God.’ Imagine the comfort of having confidence in the presence of God!”
President Nelson continued:
“When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do.”
He reminded us that confidence is the byproduct of charity and virtue.
“Let thy bowels be full of charity… and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.”
He also promised:
“Regular worship in the house of the Lord increases our capacity for both virtue and charity. Thus, time in the temple increases our confidence before the Lord. Increased time in the temple will help us prepare for the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
And finally:
“Then, as we go to our Heavenly Father with increasing confidence, we will be filled with more joy, and your faith in Jesus Christ will increase. We will begin to experience spiritual power that exceeds our greatest hopes.”
What Is Virtue?
This is what I learned in the Celestial Room of the Oquirrh Temple:
If you let virtue — morally clean and excellent thoughts, kindness, and all that is positive — fill your mind, then the bad actors on the stage of your mind like doubt, fear, and depression will evaporate.
Why? Because we control the stage of our mind.
We can divert our thoughts to virtue: our favorite Church talk, a meaningful scripture, or a motivating experience. These are our arsenal to protect the mind from intrusive darkness.
As Elder Boyd K. Packer taught:
“The mind is like a stage… There is always some act being performed. Virtue determines which act takes the spotlight.”
Darkness will never have power over light. When virtue becomes our daily focus, we begin to understand what it means to “garnish our thoughts unceasingly.”
Perspective
D&C 124 teaches, “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” To “garnish” means to arm or equip. Virtue, then, is our spiritual armor — the unseen force that steadies the mind and protects confidence.
In IT, confidence is also earned — through repetition, study, and mistakes turned into mastery. When knowledge becomes daily practice, it forms character; and character, in time, becomes wisdom — the quiet confidence that endures.
Practice
Virtue doesn’t silence thoughts; it trains them. It replaces anxious noise with light. It equips us to approach God not as strangers but as sons and daughters who trust His timing — His due time.
Final Reflection – Light in One of the Darkest Places
The photo above was taken at Joshua Tree National Park — one of the darkest places on earth. Out there, you can hardly see your own hands.
To capture the Milky Way, I did what years of practice taught me:
- Mounted my camera on a tripod
- Pointed the lens toward the brightest star in the Milky Way using the LCD screen
- Let the autofocus lock in until the stars were sharp
- Then switched both the 14–24mm f/2.8G lens from AF to M and the camera to Manual so the lens wouldn’t “hunt” in the dark
- Set the exposure to 30 seconds, f/11, ISO 2400
- Hit the 30-second timer and walked into the frame, shining a small LED flashlight toward the Milky Way
I became both the subject and the seeker — trusting the focus, the settings, and the process. The sky didn’t suddenly change; the Milky Way was there the whole time. The difference was confidence built from quiet, repeated attempts.
Faith works the same way. We may feel surrounded by darkness, but if we’ve prepared, practiced, filled our minds with virtue, and kept showing up in God’s house, the light eventually appears — and our confidence, in His presence, slowly waxes strong.
Pocket I’m Keeping
Virtue will free you from anxious, troublesome thoughts. In time, it becomes confidence — the kind that lets you stand in God’s presence without fear.
What I Hear Now
“In due time.”
“Charity and virtue open the way.”
Full talk: Confidence in the Presence of God – President Russell M. Nelson (April 2025)
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