Hank Smith:                      00:00                   Coming up in this episode on followHIM.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     00:04                   Our wallets were really thin. We didn’t have much money. We just had a lot on our plate. We were both working full-time and Christmas was coming. You just wanna buy the right present and you wanna have Christmas and it’s your first Christmas. I honestly do not remember what I got Derek, but I will never forget what he gave me.

Hank Smith:                      00:27                   Merry Christmas from followHIM. My name is Hank Smith and I am your host. I am here with my matchless co-host John Bytheway. John, you are the best co-host I’ve ever had on followHIM. You are matchless.

John Bytheway:               00:45                   Of all the things you’ve ever said to me, Hank, that’s one of them. Yeah, that is.

Hank Smith:                      00:52                    John, Merry Christmas. Tell me about Christmas in the Bytheway home. Tell me what comes to mind.

John Bytheway:               00:58                   You remember how when Samuel the Lamanite prophesied and there was the death of Christ on the other side of the planet, they could feel the vapor of darkness. I feel like on the opposite end with Christmas, it’s almost a palpable feeling in the air. There’s this joy of Christ in the air and you can almost feel it. That’s what I think of now in my old age is just can you feel that Christmas spirit everywhere?

Hank Smith:                      01:23                   I love that John. We are privileged today to have with us President Bonnie H. Cordon. John she had the title of President earlier when she was in the General Young Women’s. Now she’s president again. President Cordon again out at Southern Virginia University. President Cordon, thank you for taking time for us. Thank you for being here.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     01:48                   It’s wonderful to be here. I’m just honored to be with both of you.

Hank Smith:                      01:51                   Oh, we are excited. We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Sister Cordon, if it’s okay, I’m gonna call you Bonnie for our episode. Would that be okay?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     02:01                   I think that’d be a great idea.

Hank Smith:                      02:02                   Bonnie, tell us about Christmas and what you want to do today. Where do we want to go?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     02:08                   How do you have Christmas without Christ? I love the fact that for this Christmas study we get to talk a little bit about the Living Christ. I’m hoping to hear from you what does Christmas and what does Christ look like in your world and maybe walk through some of the things that help us to understand him a little bit better through our time together.

Hank Smith:                      02:31                   I may be incriminating myself here, but I think it’s every year that I get to the new year and think I could have focused on Christ more. Seems to happen to me every January. You’d think that I’d improve and maybe I do a little bit every year. John, I’m sure all of our listeners know President Cordon, but let’s give a bio anyway.

John Bytheway:               02:51                   Yes, I’d love to. President Bonnie H. Cordon, she was the Young Women General President 2018 to 2023. You were navigating that during COVID, which must have been fascinating. Then in October of 2023 became the president of Southern Virginia University, the Knights, did I get that right?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     03:13                   We are the Knights.

John Bytheway:               03:15                   And there’s a founding family of the Knights that are out there at Southern Virginia University. She grew up on an 80 acre farm in Idaho Falls. The best talks I’ve ever heard in my life start with, I was raised on a farm. To her father is Harold G. Hillam and her mother, Carol Rasmussen. Bonnie also served as a full-time missionary in Portugal, Lisbon mission, and then later served with her husband Derek as president of the Brazil Coritiba mission from 2010 to 2013. She’s currently coming to us from Southern Virginia University, so we’re so glad you joined us.

Hank Smith:                      03:56                   John. I’ve talked about this before, but I have a very, very special place in my heart for Southern Virginia University, the Knight family. I’ve known them my entire life. I spent time out there back in the 19 hundreds when the school just opened. John, you talked about the feeling of Christmas that you can feel it in the air. Same thing at SVU. You can feel it when you walk around campus. There’s a feeling.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     04:23                   There’s a great gathering going on.

John Bytheway:               04:25                   Yeah. Hank, I have to add on a personal note. One time, I don’t remember when it was, maybe after a Christmas concert at the Conference Center or something, I ran into President Cordon and mentioned I had a daughter serving a mission in Tahiti and the next thing I knew my daughter Natalie, tells me she got this beautiful email from the president of the young women, what that meant to her. A few years ago, I got a picture of my son who served in the Charleston West Virginia mission and served at SVU. I thank you for keeping in touch that meant so much to me and to my children as well. Thank you.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     05:09                   Well, we’re grateful that the Bytheway children are changing the world from Tahiti to Buena Vista. That’s pretty good.

John Bytheway:               05:16                   That’s a good stretch.

Hank Smith:                      05:18                   John, I never told you I don’t think, that my nephew Braxton, who I just adore, served out there as well. It’s a special place. It really is, and it’s not Buena Vista, it’s Buena Vista.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     05:31                   Yeah. I had his niece that served in this mission. She served on the campus of Buena Vista, knew a lot more about it than I did long, long ago. It’s neat to see, in fact, our missionaries that walk on the campus now, I think what a great mission you have. They just had two baptisms, one on Saturday and one on Sunday and it’s just remarkable to see the gathering. The young adults were the ones that are gathering each other as they teach each other what the Savior looks like on a college campus.

Hank Smith:                      06:00                   Wow, that’s wonderful. President Cordon, if you don’t mind, there’s people listening who think what is Southern Virginia University? Can you give us a brief summary of what it is and how it came to be?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     06:13                   Southern Virginia University is private. It’s a private university. As far as its mission, young people that come to the campus are primarily members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the mission is based on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, so it’s not owned by the church, but is private and it’s remarkable to be in classrooms where you have a professor speak bilingual, he can speak chemistry in Christ, philosophy and faith. It’s remarkable to watch these young people come. They have great abilities to communicate, to think critically and I thought, now why is it? Why is it that you’re developing such soft skills that are so transferable and I realize it’s because they get to study in a Socratic type of learning where it’s a smaller, more tailored education. People know your name, the professor knows you as you walk into class. They know whether you’re there or not and but more than anything they get to hear your perspective and your understanding, so it really is in a remarkable space to learn. It’s been fun to walk the halls and to hear the stories of these young adults.

Hank Smith:                      07:27                   I’ll tell you John, I work BYU in Provo and we have a beautiful campus, but if you go to SVU, go about the middle of October, you’ll think you’re in the Celestial kingdom. You might be.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     07:41                   Yeah, you might be. I think that’s what the Celestial Kingdom will look like. When we have a football game, our stadium just looks over the Blue Ridge Mountains and I have to remember, look down, watch the game. Don’t look at all of the beautiful parts of the campus. It’s remarkable.

Hank Smith:                      07:58                   If you have a high school senior in your home, it might be time to take a look, at svu.edu. Let’s jump into the Come, Follow Me lesson for this week. I’m gonna read through the Come Follow Me manual and then Bonnie, let’s hand it over to you. We can walk through the Living Christ. We can talk about Christmas. Let’s do what you wanna do. Here’s how the Come, Follow Me manual starts. The prophet Joseph Smith declared the fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ that he died was buried and rose again the third day and ascended into heaven and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. Over 160 years later, this statement inspired the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to publish the Living Christ, the testimony of the apostles in honor of the 2000th anniversary of the Savior’s birth. As Latter-day Saints, we rejoice in the blessing of continuing revelation through modern prophets and apostles. We are thankful for their inspired words of counsel, warning and encouragement, but most of all, we are blessed by their powerful testimonies of Jesus Christ at Christmastime, of course, and throughout the year. These are more than just stirring words of skilled writers or public speakers or insights from scripture experts. They are the words of God’s chosen, called and authorized special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world. How wonderful. Bonnie, what do you wanna do today? Where should we start?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     09:31                   Well, when you just bring up the Living Christ in such power, we might wanna start there. As I looked at it, even the first line just makes me pause. It says, as we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, it’s interesting, I was in the cafeteria at Southern Virginia University and I read it to a few of the students and I said, tell me what you know about the Living Christ, the document, the Living Christ. They all had some great insights, but then they realized that it was written before they were even born. All of a sudden I thought, oh, I’m kind of old. I said, when were you born? And you know it was 2003, 2007. It was fun to hear what it meant to them, but as we started with, as we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, I said, tell me about your Christmas traditions, and it was fun to see how they commemorate. What does commemorate look like to them and what does it look like in their home? I guess I would ask you, Hank and John, what does commemorate look like to you as the prophet so boldly declared? What does it look like to us to commemorate the birth of the Savior?

John Bytheway:               10:40                   I have to give a shout out to my wife Kimberly, who brought home a really beautiful nativity scene once from Costco. It’s beautiful, it’s tall. Then my mother-in-law had this idea of putting a spread of Christmas lights underneath and putting kind of a cloth over it and then a Nativity scene on top of it. We want that to rival the beauty of the Christmas tree to make that the part of the room that you see when you come in is that nativity scene. That’s one of the things that I really appreciate my wife and my in-laws teach me is make that the focal point when you walk into the room, not the stuff under the tree, but that that glowing nativity scene.

Hank Smith:                      11:32                   In the Bible dictionary under the heading of Miracles, it says that miracles are the natural result of the Messiah’s presence. I read that once and I think it was around Christmastime that I read it. I thought, there are more miracles this time of year. There’s more hearts softened, there’s more relationships healed. People are kinder, they give more, they donate more, they’re more generous. It hit me that it’s probably because we have His name up, we have His name up in our homes and in stores and just His name indicates his presence. If you watch the moment we start taking those signs down or we put ’em in the closet and we put our nativity sets away, we kinda lose that sense of power that comes from his presence. I always look forward to that. And then the other one is spending time with my children and my wife being able to sit by the Christmas tree and enjoy their goodness. We don’t have a perfect family. I don’t want anyone out there going, oh, I wish I could enjoy my children. It’s stressful and busy, but there are some calm, quiet moments where you can just enjoy your family.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     12:46                   I love Christmas. Christmas for me is very traditional. One of the things that we do and a lot of families do this is do the nativity play. I have been part of the nativity play since the first Christmas of my birth. My parents did the nativity play and at nine months old I was baby Jesus according to my mother. Then the second year, apparently I was baby Jesus again at 18 months and mom said that we used to practice and I would toddle over, get in the little wicker basket, lay down quietly and shut my eyes. My sister at that time I guess was Mary. As far as back as I can remember I was always, that Christmas Eve I was always Mary. We did that typical costumes that never changed. I always had a white crochet shawl that was around my, either around my head in the pictures or around my shoulders. My brothers wore bathrobes. We had angels with tinsels. Shepherds were carrying wrapping paper tubes as their staffs. It was charmingly, chaotic and very much homemade for me. My biggest moment right after the narrator read those very familiar words and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. So that was my cue and I would take my big breath and I still remember being nervous.

                                           14:11                   I had to sing the solo Away in the Manger, my little voice away in the manger, no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. And it was anything but polished. It was messy. But every year it was interesting. There was something sacred that settled over all this little cast of homemade shepherds and angels. We didn’t really understand it, but I realized as I look back on all those Christmases, that Christmas became my own sacred grove. We’ve heard that statement many times that there’s events or times when we can come have our sacred grove. It wasn’t trees or I wasn’t in the woods, but it was in the living room filled with people that I loved reenacting a night that changed eternity. It was interesting for me ’cause it was year after year we retold the story and I realized I wasn’t just playing Mary.

                                           15:14                   After a while I realized I was learning more about the Savior, line upon line, verse after verse each song. So we would sing a song, say a few verses, sing another song, and it was all of that mixed together where I first learned that Jesus was born and then it was interesting, I learned he lived and then eventually I understood deep in my heart that Jesus is the Christ and I thought it was really interesting that Christmas became my classroom. Those simple traditions became a temple where I understood more about the Savior. To be honest with you, I think I played Mary until I was married and that crocheted shawl that I used, it was definitely tattered and worn. Truly looking back the traditions of my parents helped me understand the plan of heavenly Father every December and obviously throughout the year, but my spiritual roots got deeper and deeper because of those experiences and I thought, you know, you don’t have to play Mary for 20 years or plus more, but to have the Savior part of your story ’cause that really is the miracle of Christmas, isn’t it?

                                           16:27                   That the baby in the manger grows to be the Christ who invites us to walk with him. I’m always amazed at how traditions are so powerful. Derek and I have been pondering this and one time Derek and I were just studying, we noticed something that we hadn’t noticed before that traditions can either anchor us to Christ or they can pull us quietly away from him. About a month ago, Derek and I were reading in Helaman and we learned that phrase that we hear a lot that says they dwindled in unbelief because of the traditions of their fathers. Two chapters later in third Nephi, we met a different kind of people. This people, they were watching steadfastly for the Christ coming. There it said something interesting it said their traditions gave them strength. When the unbelievers said a specific day to execute all the people who still believed.

                                           17:26                   I thought it was interesting in that narrative in 3 Nephi, it says when it came to pass that he Nephi the prophet went out and bowed himself down upon the earth and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people. Yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the traditions of their fathers, two chapters between each other. One, they were dwindling in unbelief because of the traditions of their fathers and this one at the time of the birth they were going to be destroyed because of their faith in the traditions of their fathers, because they believed in Jesus Christ and it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day and behold the voice of the Lord came unto him saying, lift up your head and be of good cheer. For behold, the time is at hand and on this night shall the sign be given and on the morrow come I into the world to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I was caused to be spoken by the mouth of the holy prophets.

                                           18:30                   When you asked about traditions, I thought, you know it’s interesting what traditions draw me to the Savior and what traditions are President Oaks good, better, best? We have a tradition in our family right now for Christmas, in fact, my little grandkids called me and said, grandma, are we going to have pancakes and pajamas? When are you coming home? Pancakes and pajamas was started when I was General Young Women President. I was trying to figure out another gathering that we could have that could connect us and Sister Craig, my counselor, she’s the ultimate tradition grandma. She shared that she does this pancakes and pajamas. Now, every Christmas season our grandkids receive their pajamas or Christmas pajamas and we all match everyone from great grandma all the way down to the littlest one. So it’s fun, it’s cozy, it’s noisy. We’ve made it ours. After we read those scriptures, Derek and I looked at each other and we said, how does this tradition connect us to Christ?

                                           19:36                   We thought, well there are some traditions, we gather as a family, we’re praying, we’re laughing, and those are all things that bring us to Christ. Derek so wisely said, is there something we could do to make it more intentional? I thought, yeah, what could we do for pancakes and pajamas this year? We’re gonna try something new. We’re gonna have little numbers that is attached to nativity sets that we have from all over the world and we’ll let them unwrap the nativity set and organize it how they want in the house anywhere from the 4-year-old to the 10-year-old, so we only have little grandkids. We’ll see. It may be a mess, but then we’ll allow them to say, what did baby Jesus, what did Jesus do for you? What has our Savior of the world done for you this year or something that stands out, so we’ll see. I’ll return and report if this tradition brings us to Christ or if it’s a mess. It’s interesting, the power of a tradition.

Hank Smith:                      20:27                   Yeah, that’s wonderful. We have some traditions I think we could tweak just a little bit. You don’t have to throw it out like you did and say, well, let’s get rid of pancakes forever. No, let’s tweak this a little bit. I love it.

John Bytheway:               20:40                   We do conference and crepes. We always have crepes at general conference. Now I’m thinking conference crepes in Christ, we should add okay, what are you hoping to learn today? That’s a wonderful insight. Traditions can take us this way. Traditions can take us this way, dwindling or growing. Thank you for that.

Hank Smith:                      21:00                   As you were describing yourself as baby Jesus, it’s very cute. I thought of first Nephi, it’s chapter 11, the angel shows Nephi. He says, what do you see? I see Mary. Then he says, knowest thou the condescension of God? I don’t think Nephi knows because he said, well, I know that he loves us but I don’t know the meaning of all things. I’ve always told my students, if you don’t know what to put on an exam, just put that, I don’t know this, but I know God loves me. I’ve tried to think, what does the angel mean? Knowest thou the condescension of God? In my mind he’s saying, look at that baby Nephi, do you have any idea who that is? And then here in the second paragraph, he was the great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New, the creator of the earth. And he chose this to become completely dependent on parents to experience pain and sickness and infirmity. Do you have any idea who that is and the condescension, like the person that he was, the being, the God that he was choosing to become this little baby is almost, I think even the angel is a little bit in awe.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     22:25                   Tad Callister says the same thing you’re saying when he says that night, God, the Son traded his heavenly home with all of its celestial adornment for a mortal abode with all its primitive trappings. He, the king of heaven, the Lord omnipotent who reigneth left a throne to inherit a manger. He exchanged the dominion of a God for the dependence of a babe. He gave up the wealth, power, dominion and the fullness of his glory for what? For taunting, mocking, humiliation and subjection. It was a trade of unparalleled dimension, a condescension of incredible proportions, a descent of incalculable depth. And so the great Jehovah, creator of the worlds without number, infinite in virtue and power made his entry into this world in swaddling clothes and a manger. It is interesting as you brought that up. We know that our Savior, one of the things I love that in Moses 4:2, the Savior said, when the plan was laid out, Father thy will be done and the glory be thine forever.

                                           23:40                   In the beginning, Jesus Christ was willing to submit to the Father. He wanted to come down not to seek his own glory, but to the glory of the Father and fulfill the divine plan. I love that. As he came down later, he testified in John 6:38, I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And then of course the Book of Mormon says the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father. But I think it’s interesting, so when we think about this through Christmas season, I think it’s tender and actually quite profound, that heavenly Father chose Mary to be the mother of His Son. He wanted to choose a woman that had a heart that was equally aligned with his divine will. When the angel Gabriel came to her, her response revealed complete submission to God’s plan. When she says, and we know this in Luke 1:38, behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. The Lord prepares us to do the specific things that we need to do on this earth. And of course the Savior of the world, when he came down, he was going to learn line upon line but much faster. I mean we know who he was, but he had a mother who was completely aligned with the Father to teach and walk those steps with him.

John Bytheway:               25:07                   I love that you mentioned that he was constantly reminding us that he was doing the Father’s will and that he was going to bring us back to the Father. One of my favorite Joseph Smith translation additions is that when Jesus who chose the time of his death, they didn’t really kill him. He gave his life as a willing sacrifice. When he said, it is finished, the JST adds thy will is done. I was like, oh, it’s not my suffering is done, it is thy will from the start at the very end, thy will is done was the last thing that he said according to the JST. When he came in third nephi, what does he say? I’m the light and life of the world. I have done the will of the Father from the beginning. It just reminds us of what a obedient son he was and gives us an example of that same thing

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     26:05                   As I was thinking about this podcast yesterday, I canceled a meeting or two to ponder what are we gonna talk about? What does the Living Christ look like? And I just needed a little bit of time for myself and I had a lot of other things on my mind and I couldn’t get settled. At Southern Virginia, we have these bells, they’re computerized and they play different songs, you know, you hear on the hour. I was amazed because all of a sudden those bells started to ring and they started to ring How Great Thou Art. I love this hymn. In fact, I’ve instructed people that I want this to be sung at my funeral. So it has a great calming effect on me. When I was going to BYU I taught at the MTC when there were times when I was stretched thin or I didn’t feel like I could get on top of things, I would always find an empty piano at the MTC.

                                           26:59                   I’d sit and play How Great Thou Art. Now I don’t play the piano, so I plunked out the melody with my clumsy fingers, but it really truly brought a peace to what was going on and I thought about the Lord. He came to do the will of the Father and one of the greatest things about what our Savior does through His Atonement is he allows us to walk with him in such a way that peace comes. There is a peace like no other. So when I heard those, I thought the Lord knew precisely what would calm my heart. He knew what song would remind me of Him. I just wanna testify that the Lord lives, he is so aware of us and he knows what will bring us peace. He knows the language of our hearts, whether you’re teaching Portuguese or whether you’re plunking on the piano keys or even the chime of campus bells and sometimes he uses even computerized bells to whisper. I am here. I just, how great, we have a Savior. And I think that song, How Great Thou Art is remarkable of what it means to have the Savior in our lives.

Hank Smith:                      28:09                   And as you think about what He gave to come here, you think how great thou art.

John Bytheway:               28:17                   The idea of God being aware of us. It reminds me of all the Christmases that I’ve had. They kind of blend into one and they’re all wonderful, but there’s one that stands out for me and that was in the Philippines on my mission. I love and will always love the Philippines. I met someone just this morning who had served there. It was so fun to talk about the fact that when I was there, there were four missions and one temple under construction. Now there’s 22, 23 missions and about 13 temples announced. That’s how old I am. When me and Wilford Woodruff went down there. No, that’s an exaggeration, but it reminds me of when I was in the Philippines watching snowfall. No, it wasn’t an unusual weather phenomenon. I was watching Mr. Krueger’s Christmas with the rest of the mission. I’m from Salt Lake City and that was part of something we often did is go down to see the lights on Temple Square.

                                           29:18                   I’m watching that old movie getting a little bit homesick. I was actually sitting next to Elder Andrew. We went to the same high school. We were friends. We ended up being companions, which was really fun. We were both looking at each other like, I don’t know about this. This is hard to see this right now. See snow falling on Temple Square. We had a wonderful Christmas conference and after said goodbye to everybody, we went back to our areas. We spent Christmas Day doing what we normally did. Back in the area I was in Binalonan, down in the lowlands, nice and hot and humid walking around on Christmas. Something happened that Christmas weekend that I will never forget. My companion and I came walking around down a road there. There was a tree that was just aglow with fireflies. There was a ring of people standing around it.

                                           30:15                   It was almost like they were reverent. They were speaking in hushed tones like they had never seen anything like this before. I had never seen anything like that before. I remember just thinking, is this a Christmas card from Heavenly Father? As I’m sure my folks were praying for their son in the Philippines and here was this treat glowing like anything on Temple Square. Then I had this battle in my mind of did God do that for me? No, no, no, you’re not that important. But wait, I’m supposed to acknowledge his hand in all things. Which one is this? I decided, I don’t know, but I’ll take it. I just like to think Heavenly Father was aware of me and my companion and we got to see a little touch of Temple Square in a barrio in the Philippines.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     31:07                   That’s tender John. It’s interesting how many little things the Lord puts in our path, people in our path just to let us know that he’s there. Our heavenly Father truly wants us to know that the most important thing is us and us returning home, and so that’s why He gave His Son Jesus Christ to come to this earth and it’s amazing that we realize that our Heavenly Father’s here to help us return to His presence and if it’s fireflies to help us know that hey, we’re important that we matter or if it’s bells.

Hank Smith:                      31:41                   One thing I love about being part of this work is seeing what you both described there is the Lord continuing His ministry. You read the gospels and it was very much a one by one. He went and talked to Nicodemus and he talked to the woman at the well and the woman who touched his garment and the blind man and the leper. These very one by one experiences and what you both described there is almost a continuation of His one by one ministry. I have a little story here that someone shared with me. I collect these stories. I love little gifts almost like they come from Christ, so we can call ’em Christmas gifts. One woman sent me this little story, she said, when I was little, my mom was known as the neighborhood nurse. Whenever anyone had a question they would call Audrey down the street.

                                           32:34                   I knew she loved me because she took such good care of us. When we got sick or needed anything, she knew just what to do to comfort us and help us get better. Well, mom passed away a couple of years ago and I have no doubt she is my guardian angel. She said, last week I went in for a nerve conduction study on my leg. My doctor who recommended the study made it sound like it’s not a big deal. They measured the time it takes for an impulse to travel along different nerves. They hook up leads along my leg, kind of like an EKG. Here’s what she said. The word painful didn’t enter my mind, but the actual test felt more like Dr. Frankenstein’s torture survival day camp than an EKG. I asked the doctor conducting the test, do you ever have patients in tears?

                                           33:21                   Her response was, sometimes. I’ve only had one patient who actually liked the part of poking needles in the 30 years I’ve been doing this. After 45 minutes, my nerves were frayed and I was wishing I could talk to my mom. When I got home there was a voicemail from my good friend Carolyn. I had not heard from her in a long time. She said, I was walking through Costco after work and there was a lady who reminded me of your mom as she passed by. I got really emotional for some reason and I thought, I hope you are okay, so I guess I just called to let you know your mom is watching over you.

John Bytheway:               34:02                   Love it.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     34:03                   I love that.

Hank Smith:                      34:04                   One by one.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     34:05                   One by one. When you read in the Living Christ, he went about doing good. He’s still going about doing good to make sure that we know that we are loved and he uses all of us, doesn’t he? This last year our men’s volleyball team won the NCAA Division three championship. It was a big thing on campus. It was exciting, but I think what made it really big, which actually touched me, was to watch them throughout the year. Now, these men had been with each other for a number of years. Every year they had this goal, national championship and they’d fall just a little bit short in the tournament, but this last year I noticed something different. They would go and they were the front row for everyone else’s sporting event. They were there for the theater event. They were cheering people on for their choir concert.

                                           34:59                   They were helping tutor for biochem. Those volleyball men became quite a force on campus, but they were gathering each other. They were gathering them for the things that was important to each other. When we came down to the final game, by luck, it was already set to be in Roanoke, which is only about 40 minutes from our campus. What happened was every student wanted to come. Yes, it was a cool game they wanted to come because the volleyball team had become their friends. Everyone on the volleyball team had in one way or another pointed them to Christ and made sure they knew they mattered. As they came in, when the final spike hit, everyone felt like they had won the game, that their best friend was the one because they had become their best friend. The power of the Savior when he went about doing good and his gospel was a message of peace and goodwill, like it says in the Living Christ, He entreated all to follow His example. Of course, we can’t raise the dead or cause the blind to see, but we can help people along the way to understand who the Christ is. I’m just grateful for the Savior’s example at Christmastime, don’t you love Christmas? It just feels happy. People are kinder. The the porcupines have lists

Hank Smith:                      36:31                   Quills.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     36:31                   Sharp edges. It truly is electrifying. When I think about the Savior coming and it says so much in the Living Christ of who He is and what He does, you know, submitting His will to the Father. When those 15 men tell about the Savior, I want to receive Him. I want to have the Savior in my life. The power of receiving is an interesting thing. Derek and I were about to celebrate our first Christmas together, our very first Christmas as husband and wife, but if that wasn’t enough, we were also expecting our first baby. Now, we hadn’t planned on having a honeymoon baby, ready or not, this little guy was gonna come to our family. Now we were still full-time students at BYU. We were both finishing our senior year. We were trying to scrap together enough money to think about paying for diapers and textbooks and tuition.

                                           37:29                   We were working. We were trying to figure out how to be married. All the while I woke up with morning sickness and I think I should have called it morning, afternoon, and evening sickness because it just never stopped on that first one. Our wallets were really thin. We didn’t have much money. We just had a lot on our plate. We were both working full-time and Christmas was coming. You just wanna buy the right present and you wanna have Christmas and it’s your first Christmas. I honestly do not remember what I got Derek, but I will never forget what he gave me. Before I was pregnant one of my greatest joys was running. Running is how I prayed. Running is one of the ways that I spend time with the Lord and I receive a lot of revelation is I just have great conversations with the Lord running.

                                           38:19                   I love lacing up running shoes and letting everything else slip away. Derek knew this about me. He had watched me run. We used to run together when we were engaged. He told me after we got married that he actually doesn’t like running. So he no longer was my running partner. He knew why it mattered to me and his kind thoughtful heart, he wanted to give me something that I loved. He saved his money and with his limited money, he bought me new running shoes. Now that is beautiful, thoughtful, perfect gift. Running shoes. But on Christmas morning, I was eight months pregnant. My body hurt. I was insecure. I couldn’t sleep. I could barely walk up the hill to campus, let alone run anywhere. I was exhausted emotionally and overwhelmed. The fears of motherhood and graduation and what are we going to do with this baby?

                                           39:22                   When I opened the box and I saw shoes, I didn’t receive the gift. Least not very well. Instead of feeling loved, I actually felt exposed. I wondered if Derek thought I needed to get in shape, if he thought I wasn’t enough. If he thought that the gift was about fixing me. The truth is, the problem wasn’t the gift. The problem was how I received it. Derek had offered me love and I received it as criticism. My response hurt him. It hurt both of us actually because the joy he had hoped to give me was all tangled up in my insecurities. It wasn’t the first time I’ve ever struggled receiving a gift, but it was one of the most important. Last night I was watching Southern Virginia basketball. We had an exciting win, but something I noticed was how active receiving was. When they would throw a pass just out of nowhere, the person who was receiving it, I mean all eyes, all hands, feet, body focused on that ball.

                                           40:31                   They were receiving rebounds. They were even receiving directions from the coach. I noticed that when they were all in, they were all in. Receiving is a whole body experience. I thought receiving the Lord’s gift requires the same readiness, I guess. So I thought, okay, what does it require of us to receive. Eyes on him, you think of all the things it says in the scriptures, an open heart, feet planted, hands open. We really do need a heart that doesn’t push away the gift because of fears or insecurities. In 1 Nephi 11, I love this, Nephi hears the angel ask, believest thou the word which thy father has spoken? When you think about receiving Nephi answered, yea, I believe all the words of my father. Then the Spirit cried with loud voice saying, Hosanna. The Spirit doesn’t, is usually whispering. Pretty quiet. Doesn’t often shout, but when someone receives truth heaven I think rejoices loudly. Receiving is holy, receiving brings joy. I think receiving brings transformation as we receive the Savior. I love the end of Living Christ when it says God be thanked for the matchless gift of his Divine Son, and I thought, I hope this gift, the power of this gift is never measured by the giver, but measured by the receiver. Christ is the greatest gift ever given. I always ask, do I even receive him? What does that look like? What does it look like to receive this great gift?

Hank Smith:                      42:08                   That’s a very impactful story. The Savior is offering us so much. How we receive is critical to what we experience.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     42:19                   Bethlehem is God’s offering, don’t you think? And the Atonement is God’s giving, but discipleship is us receiving all of that.

John Bytheway:               42:28                   I like the line from Joy to the World. Let earth receive her King. What a vulnerable story. Boy, thanks for sharing that. Here’s the Lord offering us this gift of repentance. He doesn’t want us to hide from that. He wants us to repent. He wants to forgive. That’s what’s so amazing. He’s offering and wants us to forgive and receive that gift of His mercy. That’s a beautiful way to put it.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     42:55                   I’m just always amazed at what it looks like at Christmastime to receive. Have you ever received something fully that has just been a joy for you or received something that you think, I didn’t receive that so well?

Hank Smith:                      43:07                   Yeah. I hate to say this, but you told us this story so I can tell you I have yet to come to appreciate homemade gifts. When my kids would bring me, hey, I made this. Thanks. My wife would get after me. She’d say, you need to respond better than that, and I, oh, what am I gonna use this for? It’s a homemade gift. I’m gonna throw this thing away really quick. I really had to think through how to receive it. I really had to think, okay, let me envision my child doing this thing and really working hard and how excited they are to give it and it became easier. I hate to say that I was that guy for a little while.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     43:50                   Receiving’s an interesting thing. You know, you think about the birth of the Savior, what it was like to receive the message to go for the shepherds to leave your flocks. What’d you do with that message to receive? What does it look like to leave the flock and go and then you think about them after they saw the babe saw the Savior of the world, they went and told everyone. They didn’t go back up to the sheep. They held off those things of the world and they told the world about Him. It’s just so active. I pondered what does it look like to receive Him at Christmas.

Hank Smith:                      44:27                   Bonnie, this has been wonderful so far and thank you for that story. Let’s keep going. What do you wanna do next?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     44:34                   There’s a part of Living Christ that was really monumental for me. I was at an FSY over in Germany. We happened to be studying the Living Christ as part of the FSY experience. It was multilanguage. There was Armenian, there’s German, languages everywhere, and so everyone was studying the Living Christ in their own language, which made it a little bit difficult to have a discussion. It was really kind of a quiet study within yourself and so I was reading the Living Christ pondering and a part stood out to me and it’s the part where it says he taught the truths of eternity. The reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God and the life to come. All over the Living Christ, He taught the plan. He was so diligent in teaching the plan.

                                           45:30                   Two things that have stood out to me is one of the things of the plan that I think is really amazing is the opportunity to come to this earth. I had read earlier about here the Savior of the world who’s created worlds without number, who’s done so much comes down baby. But I wonder if he was really looking forward to that opportunity to come to this earth because he’s gonna receive a body. That is one of the greatest plans of our heavenly Father, is that we get to progress and actually have a physical body. I was studying in Doctrine and Covenants 138. Of course, they were talking about what was happening during the time of the Resurrection, the space of three days. What did he do? He went to the spirits in prison. What does that look like? He actually went to those and taught them so that they could go. Then the righteous could go and teach the spirits. But Doctrine and Covenants 32:50 is interesting. Maybe read 49, 50.

John Bytheway:               46:28                   Here’s Section 138 starting in verse 49. All these and many more. Even the prophets who dwelt among the Nephites and testified of the coming of the Son of God mingled in the vast assembly and waited for their deliverance. For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage. These, the Lord taught and gave them power to come forth after his resurrection from the dead to enter into his Father’s kingdom, there to be crowned with immortality and eternal life.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     46:59                   When you think of verse 50, tell me what comes to your mind.

John Bytheway:               47:03                   We are going to want our bodies back. They viewed their long absence as a bondage. We need it to progress, because of the Savior’s resurrection we’ll get our bodies back.

Hank Smith:                      47:17                   It sounds like it’s a gift that once you have it, you never really wanna be without it. I can’t find peace without it.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     47:25                   That’s great insight. One of the purposes here on earth obviously is to return to our Heavenly Father’s presence, but you think the importance of a body, it’s interesting, the adversary will never have a body. He attacks most abundantly the body. Something that he can’t have and I think it’s important for us to remember what a great principle and concept that is and a gift that we have to have this body. That’s why it’s so remarkable that part of that Atonement is the Resurrection that the Savior was resurrected, his body and his spirit came back together. When we stop and think about the power of our physical bodies and the importance of them, sometimes we underestimate taking care of them what it looks like. I was intrigued at the next, he says he instituted the sacrament as a symbol of his great atoning sacrifice and as you stop and think of that symbol of his great atoning sacrifice, everything that he did so that we could return back to the Father. What are the symbols of the sacrament?

John Bytheway:               48:28                   His body and blood.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     48:31                   Of all the things that they could have chosen to be a symbol for the sacrifice of the great Savior and Redeemer. I think it’s interesting that what was chosen for the symbols is the body and the blood. It’s a fascinating thing that we think about as we realize the great gifts that the Lord gives us coming to this earth. It is a joy regardless of what situations our body has that we actually get a body.

John Bytheway:               48:58                   Sometimes it’s easy to take it for granted when everything’s working okay, but when you’re sick or you’re injured, all of the sudden I am so thankful for my foot because this foot hurts right now, I want it back the way it was when it was working. We’ve all been through that where all of the sudden you’re like, can I just get back to normal? When your body’s functioning great boy, be grateful for it.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     49:26                   As we think about this Christmas season as a sweet little baby was born in a manger and Mary held the Savior of the world, you could probably put a Christmas song to every part of the Living Christ that would connect abundantly to any of the doctrines. In fact, it would be a fun thing to do is to read the Living Christ and then put a few songs in there, read another section and put a few songs in there. As the Son of God, he probably was thrilled to come to the next step to be able to possess this body. I’m grateful for the Savior, for him saying yes to that. I’m also grateful that his teachings are the same no matter what season. They’re always the same. Faith, repentance.

Hank Smith:                      50:12                   I had never thought about that before Bonnie, but we commemorate his body. We really do. We could commemorate an action or maybe a parable, but we focus in on the Savior’s body and it seems he cares about it. He redeemed his body. If he didn’t want his body, why redeem it in the first place? Why bring it back with him?

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     50:37                   And the dead, even those that are there now, they look upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage. It’s an interesting opportunity. We realize, yes, the opportunity that we have to help those that are on the other side because we currently have bodies so we can do our temple work for them. Those things, we take it as, oh, we’re just gonna go to the temple and we’re gonna go do baptisms for our ancestors. We’re going to do their work. But the opportunity to have a body to be able to do that regardless of the natures of our bodies as they’re mortal right now, it’s messy with bodies, but really is a great thing. The opportunity to take care of this great body that we have and note that the Savior wants us to remember him each week when we take the sacrament and we’re remembering his Atonement. We do that through remembering his body and the blood that was spilled for us.

John Bytheway:               51:45                   Yeah. Hank, you mentioned the Bible Dictionary in that beautiful entry under miracles. If you look in your Bible Dictionary, the word Bethlehem means house of bread. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and as he grew up that great sermon in John chapter six, I just love the story ’cause he fed them with the loaves and the fishes. If you feed thousands of people loaves and fishes a free lunch, they’re gonna follow you. And they did to the other side of the lake. He said something like, you follow me not because you wanted to keep my sayings, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Then I’m paraphrasing, I could give you bread that if you ate it, you would never die. Wait, what? Yeah, evermore. Give us this bread and then I am the bread. It’s fun. I love to ask my returned missionary students, where did you serve and did they have bread? And it’s like everybody around the world had some sort of bread. Jesus used such a perfect symbol for that, for the sacrament to remember bread and you know that’s manna too as a breadlike substance that came down. I’m glad you brought that up ’cause then we can think of that every single Sunday as we take of the bread that this body is a gift. I love what you said. We can do things with our bodies. I mean, I’m wondering in the spirit world, can they say, Hey, let’s go to the temple. Oh wait, what are we gonna do there? Well, we’re just gonna watch those on earth and hope they do something for us. I mean, what are they gonna do there? It’s an interesting thing. We have a chance to do something for him.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     53:28                   We can do it. Really is interesting in Doctrine and Covenants 38, to your point, John, in 33 when the Savior visited there, he told them, what are you gonna teach the people? What are you gonna teach those that are in prison? I love in 33 it says, these were taught faith in God. Repentance from sin. What was the next thing that they taught?

John Bytheway:               53:55                   Vicarious baptism for the remission of sins. The gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, the word vicarious is in there because they couldn’t do it.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     54:05                   They couldn’t do it. So they’re not taught about how you’re gonna be baptized, but they are gonna be taught about you going to the temple because you are gonna do the work for those that have passed away. They’re gonna be taught that you are going to be doing that vicarious baptism for them. What’s the missionary purpose that the missionaries know dear to their hearts?

John Bytheway:               54:29                   It’s to bring people to Christ through faith, repentance, baptism. It’s the same first principles and ordinances.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     54:38                   So fourth Article of Faith.

Hank Smith:                      54:40                   Yep.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     54:40                   So he doesn’t ever change. I mean the way to come to Christ and to be able to receive the Savior in our lives when we say come to Christ, receive him. He’s the living Christ. He’s the bread, the life and the hope. He tells us the pattern of how to get there and it’s fun that he tells everyone the same things. In primary He tells you in the fourth Article of Faith, when you’re on a mission, he’s telling you in the missionary purpose and when you’re in the spirit world He does change that a little bit.

Hank Smith:                      55:09                   That’s interesting. Yeah. 3 Nephi 11, it’s the first thing he teaches. 3 Nephi 27, it’s the last thing he teaches before he goes. I’ve always thought that when the Savior comes again, if we’re not sure it’s him, just wait to see what he speaks on first. We’ll know when he says, I’d like to talk to you about faith.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     55:29                   Faith.

John Bytheway:               55:29                   Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      55:30                   Baptism. And we look at each other and think, it’s Him.

John Bytheway:               55:33                   That’s Him.

Hank Smith:                      55:34                   Yep.

John Bytheway:               55:36                   Hank, you’ve heard me joke before, that there’s just so many different principles and doctrines and teachings and concepts. If only somebody would come out and say, well, here’s the first principles and ordinances and somebody did.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     55:52                   I love the Living Christ when they said, we solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary because that same Jesus in the preexistence, in the pre-earth life was teaching faith, repentance because he was teaching the will of the Father. He did it while he was on this earth. He did it when he returned as the resurrected Savior in third Nephi. He even did it during the time between the death and the resurrection. He taught faith, repentance, vicarious baptism.

Hank Smith:                      56:31                   Someone pointed out to us earlier this year, Bonnie, that even Joseph Smith between 1820 and 1830 went through faith, the first vision, repentance.

John Bytheway:               56:41                   Repentance, losing the 116 pages. Richard Bennett wrote this article called Carefully Schooled in First Principles and talks about he didn’t just grab him out of the air, he experienced it.

Hank Smith:                      56:53                   Then baptism and then the Holy Ghost.

Pres. Bonnie Cordon:     56:56                   I love that. You know, really even in the first vision, he went with the hope to be forgiven of his sins. He was, had a repentant heart.