I love friendship!
In the past couple years, I felt the strong influence of good friends in my life - both boy and girl. I believe that God has sent us some choice angels to be our best friends - to reach out to us, to love us, to know us, and to help us. I'm truly grateful for all those fantastic, odd, and completely amazing humans I call my friends.
Elder Ronald Rasbund said:
Though they did not see Him, Jesus stood by them. Aware of their plight and sympathetic to their hardship, it was His loving support that sustained them in their mission and brought hundreds and thousands of new converts into the Church. It was the Savior who said to His disciples, “Ye are my friends” (D&C 84:63). It was the Savior who taught, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). It was the Savior who beckoned, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28). In friendship, as in every other principle of the gospel, Jesus Christ is our Exemplar.
Now my dear young, new friends gathered throughout the world, I bear my testimony to you at this time that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I bear witness that a very important element of your experience in the gospel is the friends you make and the mentors you follow, just as I was promised in my patriarchal blessing at 19 years of age.
I close where I began, with the verse of scripture spoken by God to the Prophet Joseph when he was in Liberty Jail and suggest this could equally be spoken to you and to me in whatever condition we find ourselves at this time: “Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands” (D&C 121:9).
I reaffirm this promise given by the Lord in the early days of the Restoration of this Church. I pray that each of us will have the privilege of enjoying righteous friendships and mentoring relationships as we grow together in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your friends may not always be visible, but I promise you - above all - Chirst, your best friend, will always be there.
-Flame Team
"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself."
"Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue."
"Gems may be precious, but friends are priceless."
"In the rhythm of life, we sometime find ourselves out of tune. But as long as there are friends to provide the melody, the music plays on."
"I don't need words to express...I don't need tears to shed...I don't need to ask for a smile...Or a hand to hold me...All I need is to be your friend...forever."
