President Nelson’s last conference talk, “Confidence in the Presence of God,” prompted some self-reflection I didn’t expect. At first, I was unsure of his meaning. Was President Nelson encouraging me to prepare to come into God’s presence with confidence when I die? No. He clarified: “When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do.”

How do we obtain this level of confidence to come into the presence of God, right now? Joseph Smith made the foundational statement: “The first principle of the Gospel [is] to know for a certainty the character of God…. I want you all to know Him, and to be familiar with Him, [to have} a correct idea of his … perfections, and attributes’ and an admiration for ‘the excellency of [His] character”.

When we know more about who God is, we learn to approach Him with greater love, respect, fidelity, honor, and humility. The prophet Alma said: “All things denote there is a God… and do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44). We know He is omniscient, all-knowing; He is omnipresent, always aware, and omnipotent, all-powerful. He is more intelligent, more merciful, more talented than all of us put together (Abraham 3:19). In the temple, we watch Him as the Presiding Officer, the Planner, the Organizer, the Sovereign. This is the God President Nelson wants us to have confidence in and to connect with.

Approaching God in prayer begins with His name. “Dear Father in Heaven,” or simply: “Heavenly Father.” We can feel the holiness of His name weekly in the first words of the sacrament prayers, “O God, the Eternal Father.”

After sacredly addressing the heavenly throne, Satan can disrupt and confuse. You know he did this to Joseph Smith. After kneeling and calling upon God, Satan interrupted and put dark, fearful, doubting, evil thoughts into Joseph’s mind, so he could not speak. As thick darkness gathered around him, he felt “doomed to sudden destruction.” Then, at the very moment he was ready to sink into despair and abandon himself to destruction, he exerted all his powers to call upon God (Joseph Smith-History 1:16). That is how fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith overcame evil. He increased the intensity of his prayer—fervently, earnestly, and desperately. Joseph did exactly what the Apostle Paul admonished: “Cast not away therefore your confidence,” (Hebrews 10:35).

If that were the extent of President Nelson’s final message, I could work on knowing God and improving my connection with Him for the rest of my live. But there is more. President Nelson said that when we pray with that understanding and that confidence, God will send angels to be with us and those we love. Are you wondering who these angels could be? He could be referring to pre-mortal or post-mortal spirits or resurrected beings. But I think it is more probable that these angels are living among us who are prompted to help us.

And there is still more. President Nelson gives the reason God sends angels. Angels are sent to help us reach our potential. This is astounding.

I, like most of you, have received a patriarchal blessing, personal revelation to help me reach my potential. Like you, I hold my patriarchal blessing close to my heart. But to understand what I am about to share, you need to know that my blessing emphasizes two concepts: words and teaching.

Because of President Nelson’s talk, I thought about how I have been blessed by earthly angels to reach the potential spoken of in my patriarchal blessing.

Richard and I were living in San Jose, California, in 1969. We had three children under three. I was in the kitchen, cleaning up dinner dishes. Suddenly, in my mind I saw a children’s book. I saw a couple of pages turn. It was an illustrated alphabet book with definitions of gospel words. I walked into Richard’s office where he was preparing his lesson for the next day. I told him what I had seen in my mind. He immediately pushed his lesson aside, got out a notebook, and said: “You are going to write that book. Let’s start making a list of the words.” He could have said, “Well, you just had a baby. You have three little children. Write about that experience in your journal, and in a few years, when things calm down, you can think about writing that book.” But he didn’t. A little over a year later, that book was in print.

One day in 1999, a good friend who was serving as a docent, a museum teacher, in the Church History Museum, said to me, “Why don’t you apply to be a docent in the museum. They are taking applications. So, I did and stayed for twenty years. One of my frequent assignments in the museum was to tell about the translation of the Book of Mormon. Specifically, I liked explaining how Oliver Cowdery handwrote the Book of Mormon two times. The first time as Joseph dictated the words, and a second time so Joseph would have a backup copy to take to E. B. Grandin, the printer.

One day in 2013, I said to Richard, “I want to have an Oliver Cowdery experience and handwrite the Book of Mormon. He could have said, “Why would you want to do that? It seems like a waste of time.” But he encouraged me. And two more books came out of that experience.

In 2022, because of severe osteoporosis, I began breaking vertebrae. I had three surgeries. I was still on painkillers and oxygen when my Relief Society president came to visit. I knew, because my recovery time would be at least a year, that I would be released as a Relief Society teacher. The Relief Society president said, “I talked to the bishop about an impression I had while I was mowing my lawn. The thought was, ‘Ask Marilynne to teach a Book of Mormon class on Zoom.’ The bishop thinks it’s a good idea. I looked at her dazed. How could I ever do it? For over two years, I taught a weekly Book of Mormon class on Zoom.

In 2024, our new Relief Society president said, “I’m sending you an application to be an Institute teacher with BYU-Pathway. You will be teaching on Zoom. Long story short, I am now teaching my fourth term on Zoom. I have taught the gospel to students in Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Jamaica.

You can see the connections. But this is what I haven’t told you. In every one of these situations in which earthly angels were helping me reach my potential, I had to pray not to cast away my confidence.

When I had three little children under three, writing a book took time I didn’t have. I had never written a book. The learning curve was steep. I wanted to give up. The only thing that kept my confidence was that I had seen the finished book in my mind.

When I was in the three-month training to become a docent in the museum, I found out that I could not use notes to help me tell visitors about the art and history of the Church. I didn’t have the talent to talk without notes. I wanted to give up. It took study, practice, and prayer to continue.

When I started to handwrite the Book of Mormon, I found out that I had carpal tunnel and could not write it, but I could type it. When I started typing, I was slow and made many errors. I corrected them. I wanted it to be accurate, even though no one would ever see it but me. It took me exactly 565 days, which is 500 days longer than it took Joseph Smith to dictate it to Oliver Cowdery. I persevered with confidence because earthly angels were encouraging me.

When my Relief Society president asked me to teach on Zoom, I knew almost nothing about Zoom, let alone how to host a meeting. I didn’t know how to make a PowerPoint presentation. Because of the pain, I prepared my lessons lying down with my laptop on my bent knees. Many, many times I wanted to quit. But prayer sustained me. It also helped immensely that my kind friends and family joined the class each week.

When my new Relief Society president made me aware of the BYU-Pathway opportunity, I had to attend seven weeks of training. I had to learn another computer program, Canvas. It was difficult. And a weekly preparation is demanding and draining. I wanted to quit. But again, confidence in my Father in Heaven is making it possible. It also helps that I was set apart by my stake president with priesthood authority.

President Nelson, in his so-to-speak last lecture, promised that Heavenly Father loves you more than you can comprehend, that He yearns to help you reach your potential, and that he will send angels to help you. With that promise, you and I can approach God’s presence right now and cast not away therefore our confidence.