31 August 2025
The Times of Restitution of All Things
Sacrament Meeting Program
Presiding: Brother Alan Riker
Conducting: Brother Alan Riker
Opening Hymn: #304 - Teach Me to Walk in the Light
Invocation: By Invitation
Ward Business
Sacrament Hymn: #172 - In Humility, Our Savior
Administration of the Sacrament
Speaker: Shahnaz Miranda
Musical Number: Ward Choir
Speaker: Jamison Brandon
Closing Hymn: #1032 - Look unto Christ
Benediction: By Invitation
Messages From General Conference
The Times of Restitution of All Things
By Elder David A. Bendar
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized 195 years ago today, on April 6, 1830.
A small congregation of believers and friends gathered for this momentous and joyous occasion. A great outpouring of the Spirit blessed all in attendance as the ordinance of the sacrament was administered, the gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred, priesthood ordinations were performed, and truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ were preached.
In reestablishing His Church, the Lord designated by revelation 24-year-old Joseph Smith as its earthly leader: “a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ.”
I earnestly pray for the help of the Holy Ghost as we consider the importance and ongoing impact of this singular event in the history of the world.
The First Vision
The formal organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the culmination of a sequence of miraculous experiences. The first of these experiences occurred 10 years earlier in upstate New York.
In the spring of 1820, a young boy named Joseph Smith went into the woods near his home to pray. He had questions regarding the salvation of his soul, and he yearned “to know which of all the [churches] was right, that [he] might know which to join.” Joseph trusted that God would answer his prayer and direct him.
Please note that Joseph did not pray merely to know what was right. Rather, he prayed to know what was right so he could do what was right. Joseph asked in faith and was determined to act in accordance with the answers he received.
“In [response] to his [sincere] prayer, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph and inaugurated the ‘restitution of all things’ (Acts 3:21) as foretold in the Bible. In this vision, he learned that following the death of the original Apostles, Christ’s New Testament Church was lost from the earth.” Joseph Smith would be instrumental in restoring once again the doctrine, the authority, and the covenants and ordinances of the Savior’s ancient Church.
Joseph affirmed: “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
Through this vision and subsequent supernal experiences, Joseph Smith came to understand that God and Jesus Christ knew him as an individual, cared about his eternal salvation, and had a mission for him to perform. He also learned vital lessons about the attributes, character, and perfections of the Godhead—and that the Father and the Son are separate and distinct Beings. Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God in spirit and in the flesh.
Joseph Smith declared that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are corporeal beings. He said, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.”
I testify the visitation of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith was the initiating event in the grand “restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.”
Elder David A. Bednar
