SALT LAKE CITY – A church leader on Sunday counseled Mormons to look for opportunities to exemplify the Christian values of love and forgiveness in their daily lives.
"Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and thought," said President Henry B. Eyring, a counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "The joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. And the sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love."
Eyring's counsel to faithful Latter-day Saints came on the second day of the faith's fall semiannual general conference.
Mormons gather in April and October to hear words of inspiration and direction from top church leaders. The two-day event draws more than 100,000 members to the church's downtown Salt Lake City international headquarters.
On Saturday, the 13 million-member church announced plans to build five new temples — two in the U.S. and three abroad. The temples will be built in Brigham City, Utah; Concepcion, Chile; Fortaleza, Brazil; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Sapporo, Japan.
Latter-day Saints consider temples their most sacred buildings. The towering, white buildings — most topped with a trumpet-blowing golden angel — used for religious rituals including proxy baptisms and marriage ceremonies.
Temples are only open to church members who are tithing 10 percent of their incomes and have met other standards of worthiness as determined in interviews with their local church leaders.
The church already has 130 operating temples worldwide and another 16 are either planned or under construction.
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