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Well, for my kids, my little kids, the best books are the Harry Potter books. They love it. If they were going to say, oh, the Lord wants us to study Harry Potter.

My little daughter Hank, sorry, when my daughter was little she was like eight and she read Harry Potter for the first time. We found a little sign that she put up in a room that said, read Harry Potter, it will change your life.

Well, if you, those of you who are Harry Potter fans, if you remember the order of the Phoenix, the order of the Phoenix was a special group picked out among people to fight against evil.

Do you not want me to worship? Do you not want me to read Harry Potter about order of Phoenix and change my life? And be part of the fight against evil.

This is another book in that genre is Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There, Stephen R. Covey talks about begin with the end in mind as the second habit.

there's a point in The Divine Comedy that Dante's divine comedy his this great master piece of Italian literature when he's leaving purgatory you know it takes his journey through a hell purgatory and he's going into paradise and the last thing he does as he leaves purgatory now he's gonna he's preparing to go into the presence of God and there are two rivers he waits through and drinks from the first river comes from great mythology it's Lathy which is the river of forgetfulness and when he drinks from the river Lathy he forgets all his sins all the negatives of his life he forgets them then he goes to a river that Dante invents is called the river of you know not you know but EU and OE and it means good memory or good mind and he drinks from that one and every good thing he ever did in his life all the good all the positives he remembers so now all sins all negatives all mistakes forgotten and all good remembered he is prepared now to enter into the presence of God

He had greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, and he became the dragon.

An appalling loneliness came over him. It was very dreary being a dragon. He shuddered whenever he caught sight of his own reflection. He was ashamed to be with others.

I was lying awake wondering what on earth would become of me when I looked up and saw a huge lion coming slowly toward me. It told me to follow it. It led me into the mountains. There was always light wherever the lion went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain and there was a garden there, trees and fruit and everything. And in the middle of it, there was a very big round bath with marble steps.

I thought if I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain. He's got a pain on his arm from one of the bracelets he had put on when he was a human and now being a dragon, it's really painful for him. But the lion told me before I could get down into this bath, I must undress first.

I thought dragons are snaky sort of things that can get rid of their skin. So I started scratching at myself and the scales began to come off. I scratched a little deeper and my whole skin started to peel off beautifully. I could see it there beside me looking rather nasty, but it was the most lovely feeling. I scratched and tore again and again and more skin peeled off beautifully.

we're in the book of Genesis and the book of Abraham. I think it's Genesis 12 through 17, Abraham 1 and 2.

Harry Potter, just volume one, just volume one, where we're doing some serious world building, right? Tolkien and J.K. Rowling build a world which would be required for the Book of Mormon. Harry Potter, volume one took six years.

You remember President Faust gave a talk based on that book, The Little Engine That Could.

It's from The Merchant of Venice. It's Shakespeare. And Shakespeare always has the ability to say beautifully what needs to be said.

The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes.

tis, meaning mercy, tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes the throne of monarch better than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power, the attribute to awe and majesty wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. But mercy is above this sceptered sway.

Therefore, though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice, none of us should see salvation. We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.

And it's been so gratifying to do things of eternal consequence. And along that path, I was really blessed to work with Elder Hales on Return and President Eyring and his biography.

Even as a child, I believed that when I died, the whole world of my existence would disappear with me. My world would last only as long as I did. I was convinced that I had arisen out of nothingness and in the final analysis, omnipotent nothingness was Lord of all creation. We have nothing to hope for beyond what we are capable of creating in the time we have allotted to us. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, all things crumble away into the nothingness, which is at the beginning and end of creation.

you might not think, John, that you can get a lot out of the book of numbers, but you'd be surprised.

So in the book of numbers, I wanted to focus in on one question. It comes from a verse, Numbers chapter 13, verse 33. Israelites are supposed to go in and take the promised land. And so Moses sends 12 spies in there and 10 of them come back and they're scared to death. They don't think they can do it.

They come back and they say to Moses, Moses, we can't do it. The people over there are giants. And then they say in verse 33, and we were in our own sight grasshoppers.

Now that's an interesting thing to see yourself as, right? That you look in the mirror and you see a grasshopper.

But I wrote down in my scriptures, how do you see yourself? And that can be different oftentimes than what the Lord sees.

Now notice, notice he doesn't say they don't believe in me. They believe in him. They just don't believe him.

I know that you've said all these wonderful things about me, but I just don't know if I believe you.

We want our listeners to be Joshua's and Caleb's in this world of grasshoppers, right? In a world of grasshopper, be a Joshua and a Caleb and say, no, I know who I am. I know the Lord sees greatness in me.

The book of Proverbs is made up of short little sayings. It's like the ancient world's Instagram where you can kind of scroll through and just get little quotes that you like and you can put up on your mirror.

Proverbs 3, 5, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 6, 27, Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Proverbs 4, 7, Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding.

Proverbs 14, verse 4, Where no oxen are, the crib is clean. but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Paul, I'm in verse one, a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, separated, look at this, unto the gospel of God. I think preach my gospel missionaries know this, that it is the gospel of God, the father. There aren't two plans. The one question was the father had wasn't how do I save humanity? The question was whom shall I send to fulfill the terms and conditions of the plan? It is the gospel of God. And then I love this verse three concerning his son, Jesus Christ, the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ, verse four, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. How? By the resurrection from the dead.

If there is no resurrection, he's not the son of God. He's not the Christ.

my parents gave me a book. I was 13 and it was called Goals. And there's a little story in there which had a big impact on me about looking up at those stars.

Well, we have a new General Authority 70 named Elder David L. Buckner. He was an EFY counselor with me back in the day.

And he tells this wonderful story.

Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was assigned to preside over and speak at a church conference in La Paz, Bolivia.

Elder Ballard, you are one of the Lord's apostles. My brethren and I would do whatever is required to be taught by you.

And you can just imagine how beautiful those soggy, wet, worn-out shoes looked to Elder Ballard.

It is recorded in the American Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica that I, David Whitmer, have denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon and that the other two witnesses, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, denied their testimony to that book.