“Simplicity That Is in Christ” | Steven D. Shumway | February 3, 2026

If I could give my younger self one

piece of advice, if I were sitting in

your seat again, something that would

bless my family, influence my career,

and shape my disciplehip, it would be

this.

Learn to simplify.

We are so happy for the blessing of

being with you today. And for those of

you who may remember my general

conference talk, I wanted to introduce

you to the three scoop ice cream girl,

Heidi.

And uh in fact, if it would be okay with

you, I would love it if uh we could have

a testimony from her. She didn't know

this, but have a testimony for That's

not a good marriage tactic.

I just realized that after I said it. Uh

I'd love to hear a testimony from her uh

first um in large part because Heidi

sounds a whole lot like the Holy Ghost.

So would you share your testimony?

>> Yes.

I always love to share testimony um very

briefly.

What would I share? I think that it

would be

my witness that the plan or God the

Father's plan of salvation, of

happiness, of eternal joy for us, for

each of his children

is perfect.

And the pivotal part of that plan is his

son Jesus Christ.

And because of him and his atonement,

the father's plan won't fail.

So even though we live in a world that

is far from perfect,

it's messy,

we can trust in Jesus Christ. I testify

that he's the way, the truth, the light.

I testify that by following him in his

ways,

we can return to our heavenly home.

I know these truths. I know that he

walks with us

in this moral journey that is far from

perfect.

But I know that the example that he

leads that he has given us and that the

teachings that he gives us are real and

true and that they are perfect.

We belong in our heavenly home and I

testify that following Jesus Christ will

lead us there. That is my witness. It's

my testimony and I say that in the name

of Jesus Christ. Amen.

>> Amen.

Can I begin just by saying thank you? Uh

thank you to the choir that set a

perfect tone with your beautiful voices.

Thank you to family and friends that are

here in person and and not in person

that we love so very much and are so

grateful for. I'm grateful for

uh brother Vorink and his team that have

done a magnificent job helping us to set

this up and for others at the church

Melissa and Karen that have been so

helpful in in making this happen.

I remember hearing President Holland

saying second only in importance to

bearing witness of Jesus Christ are

expressions of gratitude. So before go

on can I just say thank you to you. I

have a responsibility over the young

adults of the church. Being with you

today is a filling experience for me. In

one of President Nelson's final meetings

with the 70, he warned that the work of

God's kingdom, building God's kingdom,

will become increasingly challenging.

And then he paused in this meeting and

he pensively told us that in response to

that mounting task, the Lord is sending

brighter souls. Being with you today, I

feel the reality of that prophetic

truth. The Lord has immense confidence

in you. As Isaiah prophesied, you will

do a mighty work to dispel the gross

darkness that is covering this earth.

Flying home from Houston recently, I sat

by two of you BYU students and I asked

them what stood out most to them about

President and Sister Ree. Without

hesitation, they replied, "They are both

just so approachable."

We may not think of approachability as a

Christlike attribute, but the Savior's

approachability is what gives the sinner

comfort and the timid confidence to come

unto him and receive the blessings of

the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Shane and Wendy Ree possess this

Christlike attribute. I've seen this for

myself. Their genuine love creates a

wide and welcoming circle where people

feel seen and valued and where hearts

are directed not to the Reese's but to

the savior.

Leadership in God's kingdom is never

about being seen but about helping

others see the savior. As you lead in

God's kingdom,

and you are, and you will, I invite you

to be approachable to the outcast, the

lonely, the sin laden, and the hopeless.

Then, like President and Sister Ree,

point them to Jesus Christ where they

can find healing and hope and strength.

As just mentioned by President Ree, next

week you're going to have this profound

privilege of learning from President

Oaks. No one on this earth points us

more to the Savior than he does. I wish

today that somehow I could convey to you

how much he loves you.

I've witnessed that love personally

myself. Can I share with you one brief

experience? On occasion, mission leaders

can postpone serving due to business or

family concerns. When Heidi and I were

called as mission leaders, we discussed

that if we were given that option, we

would delay going for one year because

this change could be a significant

struggle for our daughter, who is going

to be a senior in high school.

We weren't even sure that this daughter

would go with us on the mission. With

that understanding as background, we met

with President Oaks. And as we walked

into his office, he said, "I've been

studying about you and asking the Lord

two questions. First, does he want you

to serve? And second, if he does, when

would he want you to serve?" He

continued, "I have felt impressions

about those two questions. But before I

share my feelings, I'd like to know

yours."

Now, I have felt pressure before in my

life, but this was low-key next level.

Gratefully, he turned to Heidi first.

I don't know the answer to the first

question, she said, but about the timing

of when we should go, I think we should

go now.

My jaw hit the floor. I turned to Heidi

and I whispered, "What did you say? I I

I thought we talked about this. And she

whispered back, "I I know. I'm sorry."

To which I replied, "Well, that's just

not going to cut it." President Oaks

began to be amused at this and chuckle

with his shoulders shrugging. Finally,

he said, "Well, my feelings align with

Sister Shamways.

Now, I felt about 2 in tall, but I found

the courage to express our concern for

our daughter. President Oaks tenderly

replied, "I understand.

I'd like to visit with her."

We were stunned

with President Oak's busy schedule. How

would he ever manage this?

Still, we set up this meeting with two

of our daughters where President Oaks

again asked us to share our feelings.

Heidi and I went first, followed by our

younger daughter, Sophie.

Then President Oaks turned to Calie

and she began to cry. It was difficult

for her to say anything.

President Oaks lovingly said, "Oh, sweet

Kelly, I have all the time in the world

for you. When you are ready, we can

chat." And then he patiently waited and

kindly listened to Kelly.

Did President Oaks have all the time in

the world? No. And yet, he took time to

love and minister to the one. He blessed

me. He blessed my daughters. He blessed

our family. And now as God's living

prophet, he blesses the entire world.

Yes, President Oaks is the Lord's voice

unto the ends of the earth. And to

accomplish the mighty work of dispelling

darkness I spoke of earlier, you will

need to know this troop deeply for

yourself.

But I also hope you know that President

Oaks is a loving and compassionate

disciple of Jesus Christ who is

personally interested in helping each

one of us return to live with God.

I saw this truth with our Cali who did

decide to join us on the mission field

and had a life-changing experience.

Watching President Oaks make time for my

daughter and then seeing President and

Sister Ree find time to love and draw

people to Christ has compelled me to ask

a very hard question.

Why do their lives feel so calm, so

available,

so interruptible? While mine at times

has felt hurried and overcrowded,

the answer I've come to believe is found

in their deliberate efforts to simplify

and to foster first each day what

matters most.

Today I speak about the abundant life we

find in Jesus Christ when we simplify

and put first each day the things of

eternity.

The picture showing now was taken the

year before Heidi and I graduated from

BYU.

I've always been smitten by Heidi's

beauty, but her greatest influence on me

comes from her unwavering ability to

focus on what matters most, that's

people and her relationship with Jesus

Christ. When I attended this university,

I had great ambitions. I loved God. I

wanted to please him. But I often became

overextended with good endeavors that

distracted me from the essential ones.

Now, I'm sure that has never been a

challenge for any of you. And I assumed

that life would become simpler after

graduation,

it did not. So 30 years later, if I

could give my younger self one piece of

advice, if I were sitting in your seat

again, something that would bless my

family, influence my career, and shape

my disciplehip, it would be this.

Learn to simplify

by sacrificing lesser endeavors and

consecrating time at the beginning of

each day to what is essential. And by

essential, I mean eternal. Listen to

Sister Holland's wise counsel on this

matter.

>> As I look back at my life, and if I

could leave live any part of it over

again, I would do one thing differently,

very differently.

Simplify.

It seems to me that everything is better

when it is simplified.

What I regret most is that in my youth,

I didn't see the simple beauty of the

gospel.

I even made the gospel too complex. I

felt it was too overwhelming,

too difficult, and sometimes too

mysterious.

It seems to me that even as a young

adult, I had to climb a mountain of

righteousness,

go through a fiery furnace of

purification,

and unravel every doctrinal controversy

known to mankind.

I thought I had to do all these things

to be acceptable before God.

He wants us to know that the gospel is

beautifully simple and simply beautiful.

Such wise counsel from a remarkable

woman.

Among the lessons of great worth that I

find in Zenus's allegory of the olive

tree is a pattern for building an

uncompromising relationship with the

Savior by simply simplifying and

prioritizing our lives around what

matters most. For our purposes today, we

will consider three symbols in the

allegory that could be likened to us

learning and living this pattern. First,

the tree could represent our individual

lives. In the allegory, the Lord says,

"I will liken thee unto a tame olive

tree." The Lord repeatedly expresses

sorrow over the tree, saying, "It

grieveth me that I should lose this tree

or a child." Heavenly Father's concern

for saving his children is so deep that

it causes him to weep. The second

symbol, the branches could represent our

pursuits and responsibilities like

school and work, callings, sports,

hobbies, and so forth, which may or may

not provide good fruit depending on

their connection to the roots. And

that's the third symbol. The roots could

represent our covenant relationship with

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This

is the source of our strength that keeps

our tree alive and stable to withstand

the storms of life.

The allegory teaches that the

reoccurring problem with the tree is

imbalance.

Seeing this imbalance, the lord of the

vineyard wept, and he asked, "Who has

corrupted my vineyard?" The servant

replied, "Is it not the loftiness of thy

vineyard? Have not the branches thereof

overcome the roots which are good? And

because the branches have overcome the

roots thereof, behold, they grew faster

than the strength of the roots, taking

strength unto themselves. Behold, I say,

is not this the cause, that the trees of

thy vineyard have become corrupted. The

tree perishes when the branches take

strength unto themselves, and grow

faster than the strength of the roots.

The tree becomes topheavy and root poor.

So it collapses under the weight of its

own complexity.

To restore balance, the Lord instructs

the servant to keep the root and the top

thereof equal in strength by pruning the

branches and strengthening the roots. So

what do we learn from this allegory

about how to simplify and prioritize our

lives? Lesson number one, both pruning,

which I liken to the law of sacrifice,

and grafting in, which we can liken to

the law of consecration, are necessary

to simplifying our lives. In Zenus's

allegory, trimming, pruning, and

clearing away branches are necessary to

the productivity and the preservation of

the tree. In our lives, we become more

productive when we intentionally prune

away or sacrifice the unnecessary or

distracting branches.

And then we cultivate the abundant life

as we graft in or consecrate that time

towards a nobler pursuit.

The scriptures teach this.

lay aside the things of the world to

seek for the things of a better.

It's important to understand that the

timing of when we graft in those better

things is important to the Lord and

helps us to simplify. Listen to this

quote from President Irene. A morning

prayer and an early search in the

scriptures to know what we should do for

the Lord can set the course of a day. We

can know which task of all those we

might choose matters most to God and

therefore to us.

Those who daily seek first the kingdom

of God discover President Benson's

imperative truth to simplifying our

lives. Quote, "When we put God first,

all of the things fall into their proper

place or they drop out of our lives."

You may recall that some ancient

sacrificial offerings had to be the

firstborn and the unblenmished.

If time is our modern-day offering that

we are giving to God

during the firstborn and unblasmished

hours, what do you give

as we begin each day? What does your

offering of time say about what you

value most? As we give God the

firstlings of time each day, he gives us

power to simplify and focus on what

matters most.

Lesson two,

even good branches, good pursuits of

life can become problematic if they take

strength unto themselves by not being

grafted to the root of Jesus Christ and

heavenly father. In the allegory, some

branches that were once fruitful became

corrupted because they lost their

connection to the roots. When good

activities become the focus of your

growth and the source of your worth, we

become topheavy and root poor. We lose

what Paul calls the simplicity that is

in Christ, and we begin to perish under

the weight of our many complex

endeavors.

Satan promotes complexity in countless

ways and means. We have millions of

iTunes songs and smartphone apps at our

fingertips,

posts and websites galore, thousands of

TV channels, limitless video games, an

overabundance of activities and hobbies

seeking our attention. As one author

observed, you cannot overestimate the

unimportance of practically everything.

Hence the Savior warned, "It is the lust

of other things that enter into our

lives that may cause us to become

unfruitful."

No matter how good these other

endeavors, these other things may be if

our first and our primary focus is not

the Savior, Jesus Christ, it can be so

easy to waste away the days of our

probation. President Nelson taught it

this way. It is simple. You focus on the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will know how

to resolve every challenge you have.

The devil's unlikely to get you, a

valiant saint, to do something wicked.

Rather, for the disciple, distraction

away from Christ and onto lesser things

is the adversar's go-to tactic.

Look, it's not a bad thing to be a

go-getter.

But as Elder Maxwell warned, someday

when we look back on mortality, we will

see that so many of the things that seem

to matter so much at the moment will be

seen to not mattered at all. And the

eternal things will be seen to have

mattered even more than the most

faithful of saints imagined. So I invite

you to examine what branches in your

life have taken strength unto

themselves. What can you prune? What can

you graft back to the Savior? Where are

you spending your time? What has your

love, your loyalty?

Are the good endeavors of your life

connected to Christ? So that you can

experience the simplicity and the

abundance found only in him.

Lesson three,

decisions rooted in our covenant

relationship with God lead to a life of

clarity, abundance, and simplicity. When

our covenant relationship with God and

Jesus Christ is the prevailing

foundation from which our decisions are

made, God changes our natures. He

transforms our wild branches into tame

ones. Conversely, decisions based on a

secular value system or pragmatic

thinking only temporarily temporarily

affect our behavior.

Consider the uh following example of

this truth. As a parent, one of your

children spends an unhealthy amount of

time on social media or video games, a

potentially wild branch of a modern-day

tree. How do most parents attempt to fix

this?

They might take away the child's device

or delete an app.

Maybe some of you in this room have done

what I've done and tried that tactic for

yourself.

These pruning actions temporarily change

behavior because as soon as the app is

reinstalled or the device is returned,

what happens? The behavior returns.

On the other hand, as parents focus on

the roots by teaching their child about

covenants with God, that child learns to

connect to the powers of heaven, they

understand the why and the what they

need to prune by living the law of

sacrifice. And they understand what to

graft in through consecration.

They choose the covenant path for

themselves.

Once upon God changes their nature. As

parents and leaders, we should teach and

focus on the covenant path much more

than on the ordinance path. Ensuring

that our child children are more

knowledgeable and excited about baptism

or perhaps the temple ceiling

and this covenant relation with God than

they are the ordinance.

This would be a transformative change to

help all of God's children better access

his power to simplify and guide their

choices. The prevailing challenge though

to choosing a covenant relationship with

God is that the world overvalues what it

can see and it undervalues what is not

seen. Branches are seen. They have

temporary outward show which others use

to judge our abilities and our beauty.

So it's tempting to give an unhealthy

amount of time and effort to the

branches. In contrast, our covenant

relationship with God is eternal and

mostly unseen. It is nourished by secret

alms like prayer time in the Book of

Mormon and worshiping Jesus Christ

during sacrament and the temple.

When covenants are the basis of

decisions, we gain laserike clarity. We

discover this abundant life found by

simplifying on that which is as the

allegory states most precious above all

other.

May I offer a practical suggestion that

could help you to simplify and focus on

what matters most?

One of the greatest gifts and tools that

God's given us to help us simplify and

to prioritize is prayer. I learned this

truth from President Oaks.

When President Oaks called me and Heidi

as mission leaders, he asked us if we

had any questions. Well, yes, I said.

With your heavy load, how can you find

time to visit with my daughter? With the

many important things that you have to

do each day, how do you know what

matters most? He replied that the first

thing he does each day is offer prayer,

expressing his foremost desire to know

and do God's will.

He then goes on a walk. He pers the Lord

would have him do. He returns to pray

again for confirmation of his thoughts

and for further direction in dividing

the light from the darkness in that

day's decisions and endeavors.

The Bible dictionary states that prayer

is a form of work.

If you've ever planted a tree,

you know that you need to spend time on

your knees working to nourish the roots

and prune those sucker branches that

signal stress and suck away meaningful

growth. So I ask, how hard are you

working at your prayers?

There are many ways we can work at our

prayers, including our posture,

listening, recording, and acting on

impressions, and developing sincere

questions to take to the Lord and

counsel. It's worthwhile to consider

ways you can make your prayers more

meaningful and effective. But today, I'd

like to suggest one way to work at your

prayers. And that is this.

Work at patiently waiting upon the Lord.

When Christ fed the 5,000 plus women and

children,

one person in that massive gathering had

to be the last to eat.

And when 2500 people felt the

resurrected Savior's wound marks, one of

them was last in line. You can almost

hear that person's concerns and doubts.

What if the food runs out? Or what if

the Savior leaves before it's my turn?

Perhaps you've asked,

"Have my chances run out? Will I ever

receive the answers I seek? Is God

listening to me? Is he real?" Satan

wants us to believe that the bread is

going to run out before you're fed or

that the Savior's going to leave before

you have your chance to fill his wounds.

So, what do we do? We sometimes

metaphorically get up from our prayers

and walk away before the Savior shows up

with a miraculous loaf of bread prepared

just for you.

If you're pleading for a blessing,

work at being patient.

Jacob taught, "For the people of the

Lord are they who wait for him.

Christ is the bread of life who fed

thousands. He offers us more than we'll

ever need. He suffered and rose again so

that his grace is never out of our

reach.

Even in confusion, in stress, under

heavy expectations, swamped in

responsibilities,

Christ will never forget us. He stands

at the door ready and knocking. We just

have to choose to let him in. So

let him in by clearing away time for

meaningful prayer. Prayer helps us to

know what to trim and what to prune. It

helps us to know what to graft in so

that we can preserve what matters most.

Prayers that do not involve much work

will lack the power to help us simplify

and prioritize our lives.

When we work at our prayers, we are

promised in the scriptures that they

become an appointed means for obtaining

the highest of all blessings.

That is an astonishing promise. And

though I don't fully understand that

statement, I close by sharing one final

thought. In the first vision, Joseph

Smith knelt to pray seeking wisdom.

Before the answer came, darkness pressed

in.

It was so real and so heavy that he

feared he would be destroyed.

And in that moment of despair, Joseph

exerted all the power he possessed to

call upon God. And deliverance came,

light descended,

darkness fled, and Joseph found himself

in the presence of God the Father and

his son Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we speak about the first word

of the restoration being Joseph saying

the intimate nature of God. But perhaps

the first and the most sacred lesson of

the restoration is that when we kneel in

sincerity and call upon God,

he delivers.

Each of us will face moments when life

feels overwhelming, burdened by

responsibilities and expectations.

When the noise and the chaos and the

complexity of the world threaten to

drown out what matters most, in those

moments, Jesus Christ invites us to come

unto him in prayer, wherein he delivers

us, not always by removing the burden,

but by strengthening us and giving us

clarity and peace and power to move

forward with simplicity found in him.

I bear witness that Jesus Christ is the

source of the abundant life. He is the

strength of our roots,

the one who brings order and peace and

meaning out of complexity.

May we each find the quiet courage to

lay aside what is unnecessary,

choose what is eternal, and center our

lives more fully on Jesus Christ, who I

witness is the great deliverer. In the

name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

>> Amen.