LDS college-age youths need to "hold to the iron rod" in order to stand strong against spiritual challenges, President Boyd K. Packer told Brigham Young University students in a campus devotional Tuesday.

He told students they live in a time of spiritual war.

"You have decisions almost every day as to whether you will follow or stray," said President Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "You have many tests ahead."

The spiritual tests that LDS youths in the beginning of their lives will face will be harder than for previous generations, he said.

In the Book of Mormon, an ancient prophet compares the word of God to an iron rod that believers are encouraged to hold to as a guide to make it back to heaven.

"(The concept) of the iron rod has everything a young Latter-day Saint needs to withstand the test of life," President Packer said, "If you hold to the iron rod, you can feel your way forward with the gift of the Holy Ghost."

He said his own "iron rod" has been the Book of Mormon, which kept him strong in the LDS faith during his time as a young man in the military. President Packer joined the Air Force after high school during World War II, where he served for four years, mostly as a bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater and was in Japanese-occupied territory for a year toward the end of the war.

It is after LDS youths accept Jesus Christ that their tests will come, President Packer said, warning students to not loosen their grip on the iron rod by relaxing their standards to those of the world's.

"You will be safe if you look like and groom like and act like an ordinary Latter-day Saint," President Packer said. "Dress modestly, attend your meetings, pay tithes, take the sacrament, honor the priesthood, honor your parents, follow your leaders, read the scriptures, study the Book of Mormon and pray, always pray. An unseen power will hold your hand as you hold to the iron rod."

His advice will reach a broad audience of 1,974,001 college-age youths in the church, a number President Packer said he asked the LDS Church records department for prior to speaking at BYU. And it isn't just a number.

"To you, the one of two million, I speak individually," he said.

As he finished, President Packer gave a few more words of encouragement and advice.

"You live in an interesting generation where trials will be constant in your life," he said. "Learn to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It is to be a shield, a protection and a teacher for you. Never be ashamed or embarrassed about the doctrines of the gospel or about the standards we teach in the church. You always, if you are faithful to this church, will be that much different from the world at large and you have the advantage of being sure of being inspired in all your decisions."

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