The title of my message tonight is “Reflection
and Resolution,” for indeed this is a time
for reflection on activities of the past,
and for resolution pertaining to the future.
This evening is a real milestone—the first
Sabbath day of new semester, of a new year,
and of a new decade.
We are pleased to be accompanied by several
members of our family, including my father.
We had my father, Marion C. Nelson, seated
on the stand.
Then he felt a little immodest about doing
that, so he preferred to sit by the family.
But I’d like my father to stand.
I want you to know that in four days we will,
as a family, celebrate his ninety-third birthday.
We enjoy the blessings of both his reflections
and his resolutions.
Speaking of age, I’ll relate a spoof attributed
to an elderly person who was not as sharp
as my father.
This gentleman, who was a bit absentminded,
quipped that “old age isn’t all bad; your
forgetfulness allows you to greet new friends
every day, and you can even hide your own
Easter eggs.”
But tonight we should not speak much of age.
You are young, and life’s exciting challenges
are yet before you.
Sister Nelson and I reflect on times when
we were young.
We met during our university days.
Dantzel was a campus queen when I fell in
love with her.
I proposed to her while we were picking peas
in a pea patch.
Then and there we made a resolution that temple
marriage was a must for us.
By the time I entered medical school we had
become very good friends.
Often, after I had spent a morning in the
anatomy lab with its pungent aroma of formaldehyde,
we ate our sack lunches together on the campus
lawn.
She always preferred for me to sit downwind
from her.
We were married when she was a senior and
I had graduated, but I was being recycled—as
a sophomore once again, this time in medical
school.
We were so young that my father even had to
sign my marriage certificate.
Early married life on the campus was wonderful.
With our limited means, we could only afford
to share a can of soup for lunch.
We really worked hard.
She received her baccalaureate degree at age
twenty, and I became a doctor of medicine
at twenty-two.
I thought I knew so much.
My parents thought I knew so little.
We traveled east for what we thought was to
be one year of internship.
That year expanded to many years of postdoctoral
education, research, and military service.
My academic appointments took us to major
cities of the central and eastern sectors
of the United States as President Taylor has
mentioned.
In all, more than twelve years elapsed from
the time I received my doctor of medicine
degree until I was finally able to enter private
practice.
By then we had six children.
But never through that long period of study
did Sister Nelson murmur about the lack of
material possessions.
Oh yes, there was one exception.
I remember a night in Boston when we were
walking down Boylston street.
She pressed her nose against the windowpane
of a furniture store and asked, “Do you
think we will ever be able to afford a lamp?”
As you’ve been told, our family grew to
include nine
daughters and
one son.
Our son has applied for admission to BYU,
well aware of the fact that competition is
keen for scarce seats here and that enrollment
at BYU is a great privilege available only
to a fortunate and steadily diminishing percentage
of the youth of the Church.
To each of you I feel a special debt of gratitude.
In my apostolic calling I speak with rulers,
magistrates, and ministers of many countries.
My assignments in 1989, for example, took
me to twenty-one different nations.
Wherever I go, BYU has a remarkable reputation,
for which I thank you.
It is known for good among many nations.
Truly, the world is your campus.
Now, if I had the wish of my heart, I would
welcome a private hour with each of you.
I would like to hear your own reflections
and then listen to your resolutions for this
new year and for this new decade.
Somehow I don’t see you as a vast and faceless
congregation.
I see you as an assembly of individuals, each
one a person with unique talents, hopes, challenges,
and a powerful potential beyond even your
fondest dreams.
I would like to share with you a vision of
what each of you can become in your own special
way.
A proverb of warning applies just as much
to you as it did to me in the surgical operating
room: “Where there is no vision, the people
perish."
I would like to provide such vision.
So let’s follow the pattern of the Lord,
who often chose to instruct his disciples
on a high mountain.
He also took Moses to a mountain to see the
scope of the work that was ahead.
To another high mountain the Lord later took
Peter, James, and John.
There, power and authority, vision and purpose
were given to them to qualify them for the
work.
I would like to share a similar vision with
each of you.
Let us imagine that you and I are alone together
on a mountaintop.
William, let’s start with you.
We reflect first on your accomplishments that
have brought you here.
I met you initially as a handsome and bright
elder on your mission.
You rendered such wonderful service.
Many people now understand the gospel because
of you.
Some have even joined the Church.
They and their posterity will always hold
your name dear to their hearts.
Reflections on your mission should always
give you a sense of deep satisfaction.
Now, William, what will your resolutions include
as you begin a new semester, a new year, and
a new decade?
What would you like to be?
Have you gone to a quiet, secluded spot to
be all alone?
Have you found your own “Sacred Grove”
equivalent, where you can pour out the secret
longings of your soul in prayer to your Father
in Heaven?
Have you really conversed with God as one
man speaks to another?
Have you really declared your allegiance to
him and your availability to him, without
any reservation?
Have you said, “Here I am Lord!
Use me!”?
Have you pleaded with him, and as you did,
have you put behind any counterfeit clichés
that may have been part of your prayers in
the past?
Have you cleanly and completely declared your
commitment to be a saint, an elder, a righteous
disciple through good times and bad?
Such a resounding resolution would bring joy
to your Heavenly Father.
Now I see Mary—beautiful Mary.
You and your future husband plan to be sealed
in the temple.
I reflect on days when you were small and
so full of fun.
Now you are a woman, mature and wise.
What will you resolve in your heart to be?
You will surely help your husband honor his
priesthood as you share its blessings together.
I already know of your commitment to chastity.
It is the powerful protector of virile manhood
and the crown of beautiful womanhood.
You will continue in your resolve to be clean—to
avoid flirtatious or flippant behavior unbecoming
a lovely daughter of God.
You and your companion should resolve never,
never to make uncomplimentary comments about
one another to anyone at anytime.
Good habit patterns are best established during
your courtship.
Never stoop to demeaning words that hurt.
Together, resolve now to make of your home
a place of prayer.
Make it a sanctuary of faith where servants
of the Lord are always welcome and where scriptures
are read and discussed together.
You will both want to grow in true spiritual
symmetry.
Remember, Mary, your partner’s feelings
about paying tithing will be in a large measure
shaped by your attitude.
Words of encouragement from you will help
him feel confident in his commitment to tithe,
especially during your early years together
when pocketbooks are so thin.
Plan to introduce yourselves to your new bishop
with resolution to help build the kingdom
in the fraction of the frontier where you
are called upon to live.
Calls in the Church are not only opportunities
to help others, but they will bless your lives,
too.
The Lord said, “Thy duty is unto the church
forever, and this because of thy family."
Now is the time to make that resolution to
continue to serve the Lord.
God bless you, Mary and your partner, and
may you always remain best friends.
Next I would like to visit with Natasha.
Your last name is usually mispronounced because
of its roots in eastern Europe.
Think of what has happened in that part of
the world during the historic year of 1989.
Surely your reflections include gratitude
for recent events, not only in your country
but in neighboring nations as well.
In 1989 ground was broken for a new Latter-day
Saint chapel in Warsaw, Poland.
The foundation is now in place.
Throughout Poland our missionaries are doing
well.
During 1989 our missionaries entered the German
Democratic Republic.
Hundreds of grateful converts of the Church
have since been baptized.
New chapels are bulging with faithful Saints
who have made covenants to come unto Christ.
Also in 1989, native sons from the German
Democratic Republic entered the mission field
to serve in England, Canada, Argentina, Chile,
and the United States of America.
The holy temple in the German Democratic Republic,
dedicated in 1985, has become a beacon of
faith, blessing that country and its neighboring
nations.
In Hungary, the first LDS chapel was dedicated
less than three months ago.
There, too, missionaries have been remarkably
successful.
In calendar year 1989, the following countries
have abolished constitutional guarantee of
communist supremacy and have legalized a multiparty
system with free elections: Lithuania (one
of fifteen Soviet Republics), Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria,
and Romania.
Freedom to vote is closely related to freedom
of worship.
Both will be doubly welcomed by people who
have waited so long.
The year 1989 was one of enabling.
The year of 1990 will be one of implementing.
Apostolic blessings and dedicatory prayers
were offered in many other countries—all
evidences of the growth of the Church, not
only in your area but in other parts of the
world as well.
The year 1989 was truly remarkable.
Church membership has just passed the seven
million mark.
Conservative projections indicate that by
the year 2000, the Church will have doubled
in size.
Its membership will then number at least fourteen
million.
While we now have 1,730 stakes, by the end
of the decade there will be more than 3,600
stakes and many more temples.
We will be precisely on course in fulfillment
of scriptural prophecy that this work will
eventually and literally fill the earth.
Can you possibly imagine what could happen
in ten more years like this last one?
The next decade could have Pentecostal potential.
Truly the hand of the Lord is apparent.
He said, “I will hasten my work," and that time of hastening is upon
us.
In light of these reflections, Natasha, what
will be your New Year’s resolutions?
Keep your eye on this big picture.
But while you survey large fields, cultivate
small ones.
Prepare to serve.
Take full advantage of your opportunity for
an education; it will be invaluable to you.
I don’t think it matters much whether you
study to become a librarian, a lawyer, or
a musician.
Complete the course you have begun, and then
God can use you to bless people with the fruits
of your education.
Next, I would like to visit with Peter.
As a relatively recent convert to the Church,
you are so happy with the truths of the gospel
that have expanded your mind.
As you reflect on your past, Peter, remember
that before you found the Church, you had
many doubts.
But your confusion departed when you discovered
the fulness of the gospel.
Ignorance was replaced by information, and
then by conviction.
Next came repentance.
You became converted—changed—never to
return to the ways of the spiritual skeptic
who is devoid of faith.
Your choice of a career is yet a bit uncertain.
That can be frustrating at times.
But much more important than what you do is
what you are.
To be your best, will you quietly and personally
resolve to remain a believer?
Will you continue to nurture your faith in
God?
Keep your faith strong enough to defend attacks
upon your religious conversion?
Beware!
Wherever you go, there will be clever destroyers
of faith, many even masquerading as fellow
believers.
Your love for research is a great gift.
Cultivate it.
As you continue your advanced studies in this
university, and perhaps elsewhere, resolve
now, Peter, to know what you will do when
confronted with ideas contrary to established
doctrines of the Lord.
Resolve now how you will react to those who
stir up contention and contest the teachings
of the prophets.
Prepare now for the possibility that people
of prominent status will deny their own Creator.
Their skeptical teachings try to diminish
the divinity of the mission of the Savior
and even try to nullify the doctrine of the
Atonement.
Resolve now to be steadfast.
Be like Nephi of old, who did “liken all
scriptures unto [himself]."
Resolve now never to compartmentalize your
faith.
Faith is not to be separated from your works
but is to be an integral part of your works.
May I share with you some reflections of my
own?
Years ago, in my research career in a scientific
discipline I helped to develop, I found success
by applying truths gleaned from the scriptures.
Let me explain.
When I first started medical school, we were
taught that one must not touch the heart,
for if one did, it would stop beating.
But later I pondered the scripture that tells
us that “all kingdoms have a law given;
. . . and unto every kingdom is given a law;
and unto every law there are certain bounds
also and conditions."
I also pondered the scripture that certifies
“when we obtain any blessing from God, it
is by obedience to that law upon which it
is predicated."
With these scriptures in mind, I concentrated
on the “kingdom” of and the blessings
of the beating heart.
I knew that the function of even this vital
organ was predicated upon law.
I reasoned that if laws applicable could be
understood and controlled, perhaps they could
be harnessed ultimately for the healing of
the sick.
To me, this meant that if we worked, studied,
and asked the proper questions in our scientific
experiments, we would be blessed to learn
the laws that govern the beating of the heart.
In 1949 our team of researchers presented
at the American College of Surgeons the report
of the first successful use of an artificial
heart-lung machine.
It had sustained the life of an animal for
thirty minutes without the animal’s own
heart powering its circulation.
In the decade of the 1950s, successes in the
laboratory with animals were extended to human
beings.
Today, many of those laws governing the heart
have been learned.
As a result, delicate repairs are performed
on damaged valves and vessels.
The heartbeat can be temporarily turned off
and then turned on again—provided the laws
are obeyed upon which that blessing is predicated.
Hundreds of thousands of open-heart operations
are now performed throughout the world every
year, thereby extending life for many.
But you should know that it was through understanding
gained from study of the scriptures, and “likening”
them to this area of my interest, that I was
able to make the advances I did in the field
of heart surgery.
But more about that later.
Bless you, Peter, in your desire for excellence
in scientific research.
Liken the scriptures to the kingdoms that
pertain to your own studies.
Quietly effect a warm fusion of your faith
with your scholarship.
Then you will have power, even the power of
God, which will bless you and enlighten your
way.
In the next concourse I see Dorothy.
And I think I can see Dave seated beside her.
You don’t have plans for marriage at the
moment.
That day seems far, far in the future.
Meanwhile, your reflections contain a mixture
of both sweet and sour memories.
Sweet are the happy times of your youth, but
sour are the deeds of “friends” who weren’t
really friends after all.
Some placed sordid temptations before you
for which you were ill-prepared at the time.
Tonight, on the milestone of this Sabbath
evening, what will each of you resolve to
be?
Now is the time to shape your behavior to
your hopes.
It is not always easy.
I can empathize with you.
Years ago, while I served as a young intern
in a large medical center, I attended a Christmas
party.
The host was the chief of surgery.
I had made a major commitment to work for
and be loyal to him and his world-famous institution,
which had produced many of the great surgeons,
scholars, and researchers of our generation.
At the party, the chief’s head resident
offered alcoholic beverages to Sister Nelson
and me.
Of course, we politely declined.
Minutes later he returned with a more persuasive
pitch: “Take a drink,” he said, “or
the chief will be offended.”
Again we declined.
Our refusal infuriated the head resident.
Red-faced and indignant, he said, “Nelson,
you take this drink or I’ll make life around
here mighty miserable for you!”
I simply replied, “You do what you must,
doctor, but I will do what I must.”
I fulfilled my promise, and he fulfilled his.
He saw to it that I had no vacation that year.
His responsibility to prepare the schedule
of assignments and on-call duty bore the stamp
of his vitriolic vengeance against me.
But now, as I reflect on this matter some
forty years later, I would not trade places
with him today, or ever.
Dorothy—and you too, Dave—remember that
decisions are best made before the time of
testing, whether those resolutions concern
forsaking drugs, alcohol, and other addicting
substances, or pornography, which can become
an addiction of the mind.
Resist any temptations of lust disguised as
love.
Instead of vice, let virtue garnish your thoughts.
To all the Dorothys and Daves here, I urge
you to choose companions well and cherish
those friends who lift you and make you better
in their presence.
And be such friends to one another.
In the next section I see Richard.
Reflect upon your parents.
They sacrificed much so you could be here.
I met them both in a stake conference a long
distance away.
A little unrealistically but very hopefully
they said, “When you go to BYU, look for
our son, Richard.
We are so proud of him.”
So Richard, I bring regards from your parents.
What will you resolve to be?
If I can read your thoughts correctly, you
are committed to strive for personal righteousness.
That is a wonderful goal.
But it is a little more difficult to measure
than a goal to shed ten pounds of unwanted
weight, or to run or to swim a measured distance.
Come with me to the high mountain, and I’ll
suggest some ways in which you can measure
your progress toward personal righteousness.
To begin, ask yourself, “What do I think
of when I partake of the sacrament?
Do I really concentrate on the atonement of
Jesus Christ?
Do I comprehend the magnitude of his sacrifice
and the magnificence of my future as I take
upon myself the name of Jesus Christ and resolve
to keep his commandments?
As his witness, do I worthily partake of the
broken bread in remembrance of his broken
body?
Do I worthily partake of the water, blessed
and sanctified to the souls of all those who
drink of it, in remembrance of his blood shed
for us?
You can recognize progress each week as you
thoughtfully, regularly, and worthily partake
of the sacrament.
Here’s another spiritual yardstick: How
do you feel about the Sabbath day?
I’ll share some of my personal reflections
with you.
When I was your age, I wondered just what
activities were appropriate for the Sabbath.
I read lists of do’s and don’ts, all compiled
by others.
But now I have a much better understanding,
which I gained from two Old Testament scriptures.
One is from the book of Exodus:
The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
. . . my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is
a sign between me and you throughout your
generations; that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you.
A similar message is in the book of Ezekiel:
I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between
me and them, that they might know that I am
the Lord that sanctify them.
I am the Lord your God; . . .
. . . hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be
a sign between me and you, that ye may know
that I am the Lord your God.
Pondering these scriptures has helped me to
understand.
My behavior on the Sabbath constitutes my
sign to the Lord of my regard for him and
for my covenants with him.
If, on the one hand, my interests on the Sabbath
day are turned to activities such as pro football
games or worldly movies, the sign from me
to him would clearly be that my devotions
do not favor him.
If, on the other hand, my Sabbath interests
are focused on the Lord and his teachings,
on the family, or on folks who are sick or
poor or needy, that sign would likewise be
evident to God.
I have concluded that our activities on the
Sabbath will be appropriate when we honestly
consider them to be our personal sign of our
commitment to the Lord.
Next, Richard, prepare to do work of real
worth for your fellowmen.
This is one of the fundamental reasons for
enrollment at this institution of higher learning.
The critical difference between your just
hoping for good things for mankind and your
being able to do good things for mankind is
education.
I’ll share another personal reflection.
Many years ago when I was a young intern,
we had a wonderful neighbor lady named Netta
Davis.
She had a serious heart condition—a diseased
mitral valve—destroyed in her youth by the
ravages of rheumatic fever.
Her husband, Don, was a fellow physician.
Because he and I were usually at the hospital,
Netta and my sweetheart, Dantzel, became very
close friends.
Sadly, as the years went by, Netta’s strength
ebbed.
Her congestive heart failure worsened.
Her little body finally died because of this
malfunctioning valve.
This was long before the advent of surgical
repairs within the heart.
Such was hardly dreamed of in those days.
But Netta’s passing changed my life.
I determined that her death was not to have
been in vain.
Then I joined forces with a small team of
researchers at a well-known university.
Together we embarked on a project to develop
an artificial heart-lung machine, as I mentioned
earlier.
The ultimate purpose of this effort was to
allow repairs to be made within the empty
heart while the circulation of the patient’s
blood was temporarily maintained by the apparatus
we were developing.
To make connectors for tubing, I learned quite
a bit about glassblowing.
And I learned how to operate lathes, drill
presses, and other machines required to make
pumps, valves, and cylinders.
With my associates, I also had to learn the
physiological requirements for oxygenation
of the blood and the requirements for blood
flow to and oxygen consumption of the tissues.
We had to learn how to anticoagulate the blood
and then reverse the anticoagulation so normal
clotting could again be restored.
And we learned the hard way that bacterial
contamination could destroy an otherwise successful
experiment.
Incidentally, the conquering of that problem
was the project for my Ph.D. thesis.
Long years elapsed before we were able to
graduate from the laboratory to practical
application in the operating room of a hospital.
But finally it happened in 1951.
The human heart could be opened.
In the years that followed, thanks also to
research in laboratories and clinics at many
other universities, defective valves and other
components could be repaired.
The pioneering road was long and rugged.
More than eight years elapsed from the time
I received my doctor of medicine degree before
I performed the first successful open-heart
operation in Utah in 1955.
Netta Davis did not die in vain.
Her desperate need motivated me as nothing
else could.
I thought of her the day I operated upon the
heart of President Spencer W. Kimball.
In a real sense, it was partially because
of Netta that I was able to perform that operation
President Kimball needed.
So, Richard, maintain your motivation and
perseverance to do work of worth.
It will be a measure of your individual righteousness.
No matter what your career may be, the long
hours of sacrifice and effort required to
achieve excellence are really worth it.
Meanwhile, in your quest for personal righteousness,
go periodically to the mountain of the Lord’s
house—his holy temple.
There, learn of him.
Covenant with him.
There and wherever you are, pray to our Heavenly
Father in the name of his Son.
Merge your faith with your scholarship to
give a spiritual depth of focus to all of
your righteous desires.
Richard, if you will do these things, you
will develop an “eye single to the glory
of God."
Then you will really have 20/20 vision!
As we all contemplate resolutions for a new
year, let us reflect on such a special behavioral
blueprint given by revelation to the Prophet
Joseph Smith during the Christmas-New Year
holiday season of 1832–33.
These verses from section 88 are worthy resolutions
equally applicable in our day for this new
year and for the next decade.
The Lord said:
Cease from all your light speeches, . . . from
all your lustful desires, from all your pride
and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked
doings.
. . .
See that ye love one another; cease to be
covetous; learn to impart one to another as
the gospel requires.
Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease
to find fault one with another; cease to sleep
longer than is needful; retire to thy bed
early, that ye may not be weary; arise early,
that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
And above all things, clothe yourselves with
the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which
is the bond of perfectness and peace.
Pray always, that ye may not faint, until
I come.
Behold, and lo, I will come . . . and receive
you unto myself.
Upon each of you, my beloved brothers, sisters,
and fellow students, I would like to invoke
a blessing as you commence this new decade
of your lives.
Learn from your personal reflections.
Let them help you understand who you are,
from where you have come, and what God expects
you to be.
Let your resolutions strengthen your future.
Cherish the privilege of education in this
institution.
Feast on the words of Christ.
Apply his teachings in your lives.
Then you will achieve your greatest potential
for good.
You have been reserved for this time and place
in order that the nations of the earth shall
be blessed through your efforts.
I testify to you that God lives, that Jesus
is the Christ, that this is his Church, that
Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God,
that each succeeding prophet has been a chosen
instrument in the hands of the Lord for preparing
his people for his second coming.
Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
