you find God touching the heart of your child

For parents with children who have strayed, take heart! Instead of wondering why an angel does not come to help your child repent, know that the Lord has placed a mortal angel in his or her path: the bishop, another Church leader, or a ministering brother or sister. If you keep fasting and praying, if you do not set a timetable or a deadline for God, and if you trust that He is stretching forth His hand to help, then—sooner or later—you find God touching the heart of your child when your child chooses to listen. This is so because Christ is joy—Christ is hope; He is the promise “of good things to come.” So trust Jesus Christ with your child, for He is the strength of every parent and every child.

I. Raymond Egbo

"Focus on Jesus Christ and His Gospel" General Conference 2024

seek to understand temple covenants and ordinances

And to each of you who has made temple covenants, I plead with you to seek—prayerfully and consistently—to understand temple covenants and ordinances. Spiritual doors will open. You will learn how to part the veil between heaven and earth, how to ask for God’s angels to attend you, and how better to receive direction from heaven. Your diligent efforts to do so will reinforce and strengthen your spiritual foundation.

Russell M. Nelson

"The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation" General Conference October 2024

See also Ronald A. Rasband “Behold I Am the Light Which Ye Shall Hold Up” General Conference October 2024

confidence before God

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. I am referring to having confidence that He loves us more than we can comprehend, that He sends angels to be with us and with those we love. I am referring to having confidence that He yearns to help each of us reach our highest potential.

Now, how do we gain such confidence? The Lord answers this question with these words: “Let thy bowels … be full of charity towards all men, … and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.”

There’s the key! In the Lord’s own words, charity and virtue open the way to having confidence before God! Brothers and sisters, we can do this! Our confidence can truly wax strong in the presence of God, right now!

Russell M. Nelson

"Confidence in the Presence of God", General Conference April 2025

the errand of angels

The remarkable pioneer woman Emily H. Woodmansee penned the text of the hymn “As Sisters in Zion.” She correctly asserts that the “errand of angels is given to women.” (“As Sisters in Zion,” Hymns, no. 309) This has been described as “nothing less than to do the direct and immediate bidding of our Father in Heaven, and ‘this is a gift that … sisters … claim.’” (Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-Day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages, rev. ed. (2009), 338–39)

Quentin L. Cook, "LDS Women Are Incredible!" April 2011 General Conference

may be considered angels

Men are made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but when men are clothed with the holy Priesthood and sent forth to minister the word of life, the comparison between them and the angels is somewhat different. And of his angels he saith, “Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire”. While in the act of ministering the gospel, the servants of God may be considered angels… The servants of God are angels in one sense, sent forth to gather the house of Israel from the four corners of the earth…


Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, Vol. X. p.103 as found in Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl. Deseret Book. 1965. p.41, 42

I would like to say a word about the ministering of angels. In ancient and modern times angels have appeared and given instruction, warnings, and direction, which benefited the people they visited. We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives. President Joseph F. Smith said, "In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh." Many of us feel that we have had this experience. Their ministry has been and is an important part of the gospel. Angels ministered to Joseph Smith as he reestablished the gospel in its fulness.

Alma the Younger had a personal experience with ministering angels. As a young man, he was numbered among the unbelievers and "led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities." One day, "while he was going about to destroy the church of God" in company with the sons of Mosiah, an "angel of the Lord appeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a cloud; and he spake as it were with a voice
of thunder, which caused the earth to shake." The angel then cried out, "Alma, arise and stand forth, for why persecutest thou the church of God?"

Alma was so overcome by this experience that he fainted and had to be carried to his father. Only after his father and others had fasted and prayed for two days was Alma restored to full health and strength. He then stood up and declared, "I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit." Alma went on to become one of the greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon. Yet in all his many years of missionary service, he never spoke of the
angel's visit. Instead, he chose to testify that the truth had been made known to him by the Holy Spirit of God.

To be instructed by an angel would be a great blessing. However, as Alma taught us, his final and lasting conversion came only after he had "fasted and prayed many days." His complete conversion came from the Holy Ghost, which is available to all of us if we are worthy.


President James E. Faust , "A Royal Priesthood" April 2006 General Conference