'Be of good cheer' — Speakers encourage LDS Church members

Minutes after his pronouncement of "conference is over" and the final strains of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's closing hymn of "God Be With You," President Thomas S. Monson halted his exit from the Conference Center to acknowledge the audience, his animated wave passing from right to left as if saluting each section individual and his arm stretching higher and higher as he repeated the pattern twice more to acknowledge the three-tiered crowd of 21,000.

Sunday's as-personal-as-possible parting gesture drew warm smiles and return waves, marking the end of the two-day 179th Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that drew the church's faithful to the center, the Tabernacle and the grounds of Temple Square.

The day's two sessions featured several recurring themes — several Easter-time messages and calls to turn to the temple — and President Monson's morning-meeting assurance for members to have faith and not fear.

However, the church president strongly cautioned in his afternoon address for Latter-day Saints to avoid the adversary's destructive means — such as evil uses of the Internet, particularly pornography.

"My brothers and sisters, involvement in such will literally destroy the spirit," he said. "Be strong. Be clean. Avoid such degrading and destructive types of content at all costs — wherever they may be. I sound this warning to everyone, everywhere. I add — particularly to the young people — that this includes pornographic images transmitted via cell phones."

President Monson asked for ongoing prayers — parents for their children and children for their parents as well as church members to pray for him and the church's other general authorities, just as he prays for the members.

Concluding the morning, President Monson encouraged members to "be of good cheer" rather than discouraged or cynical because of surrounding challenges.

He related three examples of individuals who prevailed with faith in the gospel and in the Savior — his own great-grandparents leaving Scotland in 1848 to cross the ocean and the plains, a blind man residing on a Pacific isle, and a widowed German mother losing her three children in the winter after World War II while seeking political refuge.

"I testify to you that our promised blessings are beyond measure," said President Monson, acknowledging the sustaining, comforting knowledge of the gospel and love for Heavenly Father and the Savior, coupled with keeping the commandments.

"There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith."