One of Saturday's most emphatic sermons was given by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve, who lambasted the evils of sexual abuse and encouraged victims to seek help to overcome its devastating effects. (See related story on A1.)

How to gain and maintain a testimony was the Saturday afternoon topic for both Elders Dallin H. Oaks and Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve.

"People all over the world, of every creed and persuasion, search and struggle to know 'Who is God?' 'What is his relationship to Jesus Christ?' and 'What is our relationship with them?"' said Elder Hales. The search for answers to those questions constitutes the quest for a testimony.

"As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I testify of the truth of what is in the scriptures. What has been revealed to me may be revealed to you according to your obedience and desires," he said.

Elder Oaks defined a testimony as a "personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true. Such facts include the nature of the godhead and our relationship to its three members, the effectiveness of the atonement and the reality of the restoration." Acquiring such a testimony is not a passive thing, but a process in which seekers are expected to do something, he said.

He urged church members to speak out against those who revile LDS beliefs, "to clarify our doctrine and what we believe," but in an attitude of mildness and meekness.

In Saturday evening's priesthood session, President Uchtdorf drew on his experience as a pilot to warn priesthood holders against even small departures from church teachings. A pilot taking off at the equator to circumnavigate the globe, by deviating by just one degree, would find himself almost 500 miles off course when he returned to the longitude from which he had departed, he said.

"No one wants his life to end in tragedy. But all too often ... we set out on what we hope will be an exciting journey only to realize, too late, that an error of a few degrees has set us on a course for spiritual disaster."

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