Boyd K. Packer

1. Boyd K. Packer “Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality.” (Ensign, May 1987, p. 24)

2. Melvin J. Ballard “No man goes away from this Church and becomes an apostate in a week, not in a month. It is a very slow process. The one thing that would make for the safety of every man and woman would be to appear at the sacrament table every Sabbath day. We would not get very far away in one week --not so far that, by the process of self-investigation, we could not rectify the wrongs we have done… The road to the sacrament table is the path of safety for the Latter-day Saints.” (Improvement Era, October 1919, p. 1028)

3. Dallin H. Oaks “According to this meaning, when we witness our willingness to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, we are signifying our commitment to do all that we can to achieve eternal life in the kingdom of our Father. We are expressing our candidacy—our determination to strive for—exaltation in the celestial kingdom….there is something beyond these familiar meanings, because what we witness is not that we take upon us his name but that we are willing to do so. In this sense, our witness relates to some future event or status whose attainment is not self-assumed, but depends on the authority or initiative of the Savior himself.” (Ensign, May 1985, p. 83)

4. Moroni 6:7 “Blotted out” refers to excommunication. Why are people excommunicated? When a person joins the church he or she makes covenants with God. Obedience to covenants brings blessings. Breaking of covenants brings consequences. If a person repeatedly breaks his or her covenants they incur those consequences. As an act of love people are removed from the covenant relationship through excommunication until they can get their lives in order so that the covenant will bring to them blessings instead of the cursings (consequences) that result from breaking the covenant.

5. Joseph Smith (1) Dear Brother Phelps I must say that it is with no ordinary feelings I endeavour to write a few lines to you in answer to yours of the 29th Ultimo, at the same time I am rejoiced at the priveledge granted me. You may in some measure realise what my feelings, as well as EIder Rigdon's & Bro Hyrum's were when we read your letter, truly our hearts were melted into tenderness and compassion when we assertained your resolves &c. I can assure you I feel a disposition to act on your case in a manner that will meet the approbation of Jehovah (whose servant I am) and agreeably to the principles of truth and righteousness which have been revealed and inasmuch as long-suffering patience and mercy have ever characterized the dealings of our heavenly Father towards the humble and penitent, I feel disposed to copy the example and cherish the same principles, by so doing be a Savior of my fellow men.

6. Joseph Smith (2) It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior the cup of gall already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us: One with whom we had oft taken sweet council together, and enjoyed many refreshing seasons from the Lord….However the Cup has been drunk, the will of our heavenly Father has been done, and we are yet alive for which we thank the Lord… Believing your confession to be real and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal. Your letter was read to the Saints last Sunday and an expression of their feeling was taken, when it was unanimously resolved that W. W. Phelps should be received into fellowship. "Come on dear Brother since the war is past, For friends at first are friends again at last."