Remarks and Discussions: Elder and Sister Kearon and Young Adults
Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Elder Patrick Kearon: It’s wonderful to be here with all of you tonight to celebrate 100 years of institute and to think of all the lives transformed by seminary and institute through those decades. It’s been wonderful to see you coming in tonight. And I was going to say that this is sort of cozy in the most gargantuan and enormous sort of way. I hope you’ve noticed we’ve got bistro lights just to enhance the cozy feeling down here.
It’s wonderful to be with you, and we look forward to this time with you and thank you for coming. We understand some of you ran into a traffic jam, and nobly, you’re here anyway.
Sister Jennifer C. Kearon: Yeah, we’re so grateful for the buzz that we feel here tonight, and we love looking out on the faces of those of you who are joining us in person tonight. But we are also trying to envision those of you who are gathered in chapels or in homes or somewhere privately on your own to watch this evening as well—as you seek a closer bond with your Savior. We love you all, and we’re so grateful to be with you.
A couple of weeks ago, we had the amazing opportunity to meet with two different groups of your peers—and in fact, some of them are here tonight—and we just sat and had a conversation with them. We chatted for about an hour or so with these two different groups. They came with some questions, and we gave them some responses. They represented five different nations: young adults from the United States, from Mexico, from Norway, from the Caribbean island of Curacao, and from the Republic of the Congo.
Elder Kearon: So what we’re going to do now is review five of those questions that were asked on video. And then we will probably offer a comment or two between each one. So let’s take that first video.
Recognize and Overcome Roadblocks
Young Adult: What are some of the most significant roadblocks that you’ve seen that maybe YSAs have put ourselves in our own path that block us from the love of God or maybe becoming something that God wants us to be?
Elder Kearon: When I think of the kind of roadblocks that young adults have, I think of the idea that this is set up to be a test in the way that you’re experiencing in your studies—a test that is on some kind of impossible curve. I don’t know. But I think it’s that sort of mindset that can be an impediment to our approach to our time in mortality and eternal life.
I’ll give you a favorite quote from President Henry B. Eyring: “The Lord doesn’t put us through this test … to give us a grade; He does it because the process will change us.”
We’re not being tested like you are in your students—we’re being given opportunities to stretch and to learn. Not because someone’s keeping some great eternal score card, but because we need to grow and develop and understand and come to an understanding of who we are. So it’s not about roadblocks. It’s actually about the way being paved for us, sometimes with fabulous experiences that are beautiful, and sometimes with experiences that are very hard and very stretching.
Sister Kearon: What about the roadblock of self-doubt and fear? What about that inner voice in your mind? That can really be a roadblock. Voices of discouragement. Voices that tell you that you’re a failure. Voices that tell you you just are not measuring up. And there are a lot of reasons for that: Maybe you didn’t get the job. Maybe you didn’t pass the test. Maybe you have a desire to be married and you’re still not married. Maybe you are divorced. Perhaps you’re struggling with the same struggle, the same sin, the same problem, that you’ve had for a long time. And so these voices tell you, “I’m just not good enough, I’ll never be good enough, I’ll never measure up, and I can’t possibly be what God wants me to be.” I think that’s a roadblock. And sometimes I hear those voices myself.
What does the Savior’s voice in your head sound like? It sounds very different to what I’ve been describing, to voices of cynicism and criticism and shame, voices of hopelessness. Listen to what the Savior tells us in John chapter 10. I love this.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
“But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
“… The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
“… He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
“And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”
Sometimes you have a stranger’s voice in your head, a thief’s and a robber’s voice, and so do I. Me too. The voice of one who doesn’t know you, who doesn’t care about you, and in fact, who is bent on destroying you. We must not listen to those voices, the voices of strangers, thieves, and robbers, but instead listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd, who is always encouraging, always loving, always hopeful. Yes, He calls us to be better. Yes, He calls us to repentance if need be. But His voice is always one of a person—of a Savior who loves us, who has paid the ultimate price for us, and in fact, who is bound by covenant to each one of us. So feast upon the words of Christ, not the words of a stranger.
Okay, let’s watch the next video.
Help Those Who Walk Away
Young Adult: There are different stages in life where I keep the commandments according to how I feel God expects me to keep them, but how do you help a friend that you see is slowly moving away from Church activity or from feeling the Spirit on a daily basis? How do you help them and not tell them, basically, that they’re wrong in a way?
Sister Kearon: It’s hard because you don’t want to come across judgmental. You don’t want to come across as, you know, saying, “Oh, well, the way I live the gospel is a much better way or is the right way.” It always boils down to love and time, I think. Your friends need to feel your love and need to know that you are prepared to give them the time they need.
And maybe your friends are in a stage where they need to discuss some of the things going on in their own minds and hearts. And you can give them the message—the clear message—that you are a safe place, you are someone who will love them and respect them and care for them and help them no matter what they’re going through. You may not agree with them, you may not choose what they’re choosing, but it really makes a difference for struggling friends to have a safe place to land and to have someone they feel confident cares about them.
It helps, I think, to talk about times when, perhaps, they were feeling the Spirit more strongly than they are now or times when they were living the gospel more faithfully than they are now. And talk to them about what life was like for them then and the differences they notice.
And so honest, heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit conversations where you don’t give them the message that, “Oh, well, you’re not saying what I expected you to say or you’re not giving me the answer I want to hear and therefore I’m closing down this conversation.” I think that’s really important.
And this is a principle that applies in all of our relationships. It’s a principle that applies in parenting. It’s a principle that applies as, you know, we talk to our loved ones in any situation.
Elder Kearon: Yes. And I think depending on where they are—Carl was talking about friends who may be drifting—depending on where they are, we should try and help them remain engaged in—we talk about Church activity. We talk about being active in the Church. It’s a very interesting phrase to a convert to hear that word. But I think we want to do everything we can to keep them engaged, to keep them active, to help them to help others. If they have a calling, to respond to that call and engage with it. To teach, to minister, and to look out for those others who may be struggling. I think it’s so apt that the Book of Mormon starts with Lehi and his family—with Nephi going and doing—and we are a people who go and do. And I think there’s great power in that. It keeps our faith alive. And if our faith has drifted a little bit, it can draw us back. I love what President Monson said about the Savior. He said that the Savior was always up and doing. I think we can wonderfully follow that model.
Let’s see the next video.
Feel Peace Despite Anxiety
Young Adult: I just—as an anxious person, sometimes it’s hard for me to be happy when I’m worried all the time. And I was wondering if you guys had any insights about how to feel more peace in the Savior so that joy can make its way in more?
Elder Kearon: It’s a great question because we all have fear and anxiety at some times. Some of us are more burdened with those than others. Some of us need help dealing with our fear and anxiety. For some of us it gets into the realms of the medical, and fortunately, we’re getting better at helping each or getting help medically with fear and anxiety.
If you look to scripture, as far as I can tell, the individual in scripture who talks about being anxious and my “great anxiety” more than anybody else is Jacob. And it’s interesting, because his anxiety is quite different to my own, in many respects anyway. His anxiety is turned outwards. His anxiety is for his people and their well-being. My anxiety far too much of the time is about me and how I’m doing and did I make a mess of that and that kind of thing. Something I’ve learned over and over again—have to keep learning and relearning—is that if I think of somebody else, my anxiety lifts. I just have to think about somebody else’s well-being, and my anxiety starts to lift. In fact, it’s gone. Often, it just goes. And if I do something nice for somebody else, there’s just huge power in that. So I’d like to be more like Jacob and have my anxiety much more outwardly focused. And I think there’s huge—I know there’s huge healing.
Sister Kearon: I think we’re—in this modern age, we’re used to feeling discomfort or pain and we immediately want it gone. We’re just so used to immediate gratification. Think about standing in the shower and the water’s a little bit too cold, so I just tweak the knob just a tiny bit to the left, and it’s warmer, you know. Or whatever. And we’re just so used to being comfortable. We want to be comfortable. Human beings want to be comfortable—we don’t want to feel discomfort.
When we feel worry about the future because it’s uncertain and it’s unknown, that’s very natural. And I think we have to accept that part of being human, part of living in this world, is accepting moments of discomfort and accepting maybe even periods of discomfort and being OK with uncertainty. You might expect to have a few days or a few weeks or even a few months where you’re a little bit unsettled or you’re a little bit, even, blue. We need happy and sad. We need joy and sorrow. And those experiences, those emotions, it’s what makes life so exciting and so beautiful.
Elder Kearon: I want to add a specific example from Jacob. I was talking about Jacob there, and Jacob 4 in verses 2 to 4, we can read:
“But we can write a few words upon plates, which will give our children, and also our beloved brethren, a small degree of knowledge concerning us, or concerning their fathers—
“Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon [the] plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow. …
“For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming.”
What I love about this is, again, Jacob always thinking of other people. Now, he was always thinking of people immediately around him, and here he’s thinking about people in generations to follow. He took it to that extent. What did that do for him? Well, it took him out of himself, it gave him great joy, and it brought the generations—right down to today—great joy to read of him.
Sister Kearon: I think one major source of anxiety for a lot of us is when we look out in the world and we see unrest, we see what’s happening on the news all around the world, and it is a cause of anxiety. And heartbreakingly, some of us are living in and through those periods of unrest and injustice, unfairness. And why does that cause us anxiety? Because our spirits are not meant for contention. Jesus teaches so clearly that “the spirit of contention is not of [Him].” Our spirits are meant for gentleness and meekness and love and forgiveness and peace. And so when we see fellow human beings experiencing unrest and the injustices of life that are all around us, it is very hard for our spirits. We don’t want to see that.
Now, what would the Savior say in response? We know that He said, “In the world,” yes, “ye shall have tribulation.” There will be unrest and injustice. There will be war, and there will be disaster. But in spite of that, Jesus said, “Be of good cheer.” Why? Because “I have overcome the world.” We need to make sure that we disconnect from our social media news feeds enough to connect with our Savior and to draw upon His peace that comes because He has overcome the world and already paid the price for all of the unfairness and all of the injustice that we see all around us. Take the wait and the worry off your chest and lay it on Him. He is strong enough to bear it.
Let’s watch the next video.
Find Joy in Uncertainty
Young Adult: How do you find joy as a young adult when you don’t really know what the future holds for you?
Sister Kearon: The answer to that would be grounded in—as so much else—faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His abundant, loving heart. He just has the most beautiful future for you—for each of us. The more we can trust in that, the more we can just allow ourselves to surrender and fall into His hands and live according to His will and the more we can trust in good things to come. I think that really helps us find joy. It gives us a sense of grounding and peace in our hearts—confidence before the Lord. We can’t help but be joyful when we increase faith and trust in Christ and His plan for us. That’s been my experience. And when rough stuff comes along, which it always does and it always will, we don’t need to be surprised by that, we don’t need to be knocked off course. We just can turn our hearts more fully to Him and ask Him, “OK, in this situation, what would You have me learn from it? What am I meant to do now?” with perfect confidence that He’ll lead you along.
Elder Kearon: I love that too. Sometimes as we worry about the future, it can be helpful to look back. And your life has likely been a mix of great times and challenging times in different proportions. I’ve heard people say, “We don’t know how high we’ve climbed until we look back down the mountain.” That’s a great bit of imagery for me. And of course, the mountain we have to climb always looks daunting, but when we look back and say, “Wow, I’ve come a long way,” that can give us confidence for the future.
Sister Kearon: It really helps to remember that “God [has] not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” You are in a period of life where you have so many decisions before you—so many possible forks in the road—and it is uncertain. It is uncertain, but it helps to remember that you, each one of you, has been foreordained. Before you came to this earth, when you were living with your heavenly family, you were foreordained for specific purposes and specific missions, and you were foreordained to succeed, foreordained for greatness, to help the Lord in His great work. When Jehovah is speaking to Moses, He says to Moses, “I have a work for thee, … my son.” And the same is true for each and every one of us. He has a work for you and for me, and we’ve been foreordained for greatness.
Elder Kearon: That’s quite a thought. And I think one of our invitations this evening is that we think more deeply about such a thing. For perhaps for some who have been raised with this knowledge the idea of being foreordained for greatness is something that’s there. But has it lost its value because it’s always been part of the kind of mood music of our existence? But it’s a real thing.
In simple terms, when we were engaged, a wise sage soul in our lives—in terms now of finding joy in an uncertain future—said to us, “Joy comes in spoonfuls.” In fact, she said, “teaspoonfuls.” And that’s a lovely image that stuck with us. She was meaning, you know, joy is a beautiful morning. Joy is just one little taste of something. Joy is a moment with a friend. Or whatever it may be. But joy comes in spoonfuls. That’s one.
And the other one I wanted to reflect on was finding joy takes practice. All of these things take practice, take some degree of work and effort. And I’d invite you—we’d invite you to make one hour a week a real focus for finding joy: that sacrament hour on Sunday. Let us make that the most joyful moment in the week that we can experience. And then we can hope that that joy will spread out from there. But imagine if we didn’t make that hour the most joyful in the week. What a loss that would be! And so an invitation to you is to make your sacrament hour wonderfully, wondrously joyful. And yes, there’ll be tears as you think about the Savior’s great atoning gift, but there must be joy as you think of Him bursting out of that tomb and everything that that represents and everything that He has taken away from you by way of burden.
Okay, one more video, I think.
Understand and Apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ
Young Adult: How can we be able to understand the Atonement better? How can we apply the Atonement in our lives?
Elder Kearon: I joined when I was 26. I go back to that and how hard it was for me to understand the Atonement at that time. I was astonished and couldn’t believe it. And so, as I think about that now, I think in terms of the plan: Heavenly Father, a loving Heavenly Father, who adores us, His children. And the purpose of us coming here—to learn, to grow, to interact, to love, to behave in faith. And the Atonement.
He knew that we would make mistakes, so He sent His precious Son to somehow—you know, you say, “You look and you weep; you think and you weep”—to somehow take our sins upon Him. How? Well, He’ll explain it one day, but we know that He did it. And so when I think about the Atonement like that, I think about the purpose of Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness for you and for me. And then with that context, I can begin to understand. But I don’t think any of us have anything approaching a perfect understanding of the Atonement here.
But when we understand that the plan and the Atonement can help us through any trial, any challenge, understand peace, understand love and joy, as well as the misdeeds and sins of others, well, I’m well on my way. And after the tears for me, comes the explosive joy. The absolutely overwhelming gratitude that He did take it all away. And that is the most beautiful realization after any tears, after any sorrow, after any pain—the rejoicing. It’s just, again, beyond my comprehension. But it is there, and it’s real, and it’s so beautiful. And I feel it now.
Sister Kearon: Any time I am given the strength to be just a little more patient than I would have been otherwise or just a little more temperate than I would have been otherwise or to make a better choice—every time I’m given strength or guidance or just a little nudge here or there to just become a little bit better—that for me is the power and strength of Jesus Christ that flows from His atoning sacrifice. That He has, you know, the rights of mercy. He has been given the rights of mercy and the power from the Father to be able to lend us His strength and His power by virtue of the fact that He suffered for you and for me in that garden and on that cross. And because He was willing to do that and because He followed through right to the end, He has the right and He has the power to grant you His strength and to grant you His love and to grant you His hope.
Sister Kearon: In Moses, we read that the creations of God are without number. There’s no way we could possibly number them. Yet He says in Moses 1, “They cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.” Tonight you are one in a million, but actually in the world, you’re one in eight billion, yet you are numbered to God. You are known by Him. You are known and loved, and He is aware of every detail of your life. He knows you by name, and He will “leave the ninety and nine” to go after the one. If that one is you, if that one is someone you love, 99 percent is not good enough for the Savior. He wants every single one, and His work will not be finished until all are safely gathered in.
Elder Kearon: And if we understand one other vital thing in relation to the Savior’s Atonement, it might be this from 2 Nephi chapter 9: “Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption.” I’m so grateful for Jesus Christ’s infinite Atonement and that we can all gather tonight with the faith, power, and understanding that flows from it.
Now we have a message—you have a message from President Dallin H. Oaks. And it’s very brief. It’s about a minute and a half. But as you listen to it, please listen to the promise that he extends to you.
President Dallin H. Oaks: My dear friends, one of the greatest opportunities to learn, gather, and lift others is found at institute.
We live in a day when noise and confusion are common. In contrast, at institute you will learn to distinguish truth from error, build your relationship with Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, find direction and discover answers to life’s greatest questions, meet others to help you along the covenant path, meet people whom you may choose to date and marry, and prepare to love and lead like the Savior.
My dear young adults, I invite you to consistently attend institute. I also encourage you to invite friends to share in these same blessings. I promise that your time in institute will bring the Savior’s peace, joy, and divine love. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.