Sister Sharon Eubank shares insights into each day of Holy Week; Sister Elaine Dalton teaches ‘great things await’

Editor’s note: “This week from the pulpit” highlights recent messages by General Authorities and General Officers of the Church.

While "the pulpit" outside of general conference continues to look a bit different than usual, Church leaders, past and present, continue to share their inspiring messages with the world.

Many of us take the opportunity of Holy Week to reflect on the final week of the Savior’s earthly ministry. This year, Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, invited us into her personal daily Easter reflections. On Palm Sunday, she wrote on Facebook, “Whether I wave a palm frond or a white handkerchief or some other symbol of joy, I am humbly trying to welcome the Messiah into my heart and life. Hosanna to the Most High God. I am waiting for Him to enter His kingdom, and I want to recognize Him however He appears.”

On Monday, she wrote of the Savior arriving at the temple, finding the money changers, and saying, “My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves,” (Luke 19:46). Applying that scripture to her personal life, Sister Eubank wrote, “I’ve spent a lot of time in my house during the pandemic and have thought about ways to make it a better house of prayer and healing and not a place where I tolerate corruption.”

On Tuesday, she pondered the question, “What think ye of Christ?” (Matthew 22:42). And on Wednesday, she wrote that while “the record doesn’t specifically state what Jesus did on Wednesday . . . many believe He likely stayed in Bethany. . . . I like to imagine He spent the day in Martha’s house, where He had always been welcomed and protected. He had the peace for solitary prayer with the Father and also time to share with His friends and disciples, who included the Twelve Apostles but also Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.” Sister Eubank said she wanted to look for ways this Easter to give evidence that she is a devoted friend to Jesus. “In what ways do you show your friendship to the Son of God? What makes you His loyal friend?” she asked her Facebook followers.

On Thursday, she spoke of how life was never the same after the Passover feast—the Last Supper—for the Savior's disciples. She reminded readers that likewise "He has forever changed me, and He will gladly receive anyone who comes to Him with a willingness to change." And on Friday, she explained that in Finnish, the language she spoke as a missionary, Good Friday is translated as "Long Friday." 

"It is a grief-filled day when the perfectly innocent Jesus is crucified for the sins of the world, and I'm sure every second of it was long," she taught.

Meanwhile, Sister Elaine Dalton, former Young Women General President, reminded students of BYU-Pathway Worldwide in the school’s weekly video devotional that “great things” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:62) await them. She told of an experience she had running with her husband when, halfway up a long, steep hill, feeling she was incapable of making it to the top, she told her husband she was going to turn around and run back to the car. She hadn’t gone far when she felt her husband’s hand on her shoulder. “Elaine, don’t you know that you never make a decision to turn around or give up when you are in the middle of a hill?” he asked. She promised the BYU-Pathway Worldwide students that great things await those who 1. Endure, 2. keep their covenants and 3. remain faithful.

“It may be hard and it may be uphill, but we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! Prepare well. Keep going. Don’t quit. Keep your covenants and remain faithful because I testify, ‘Great things await you,’” she promised.

Elder Ulisses Soares and Sister Rosana Soares also recently spoke to full-time missionaries in a virtual devotional on March 18. Sister Soares spoke of patience while we wait for answers. “I know that sometimes we have to change our expectations, be patient and have more hope and faith. . . . We may not have all the answers right now, but one day we will. We call it ‘living by faith,’” she said, Church News reported.

Elder Soares spoke of the missionaries who taught his family when he was just 5 years old.

“All of this started with those two humble missionaries who carried with them a special light,” Elder Soares said, becoming emotional. “When I look back and see all that has happened in my life since my parents’ conversion, I wonder whether those two missionaries ever imagined the impact they would have on the Soares family when they taught them the gospel.”

He went on to emphasize that obedience is the key to accessing and radiating this special light.

“If we choose not to be obedient, we will not be able to represent the Savior accordingly, nor will we have the Spirit of the Lord with us. Remember that Spirit I felt when the missionaries came into my home? In order to be a positive influence in the lives of individuals you teach, you must have the Spirit of the Lord with you,” he taught.

President Russell M. Nelson

President M. Russell Ballard

President Bonnie H. Cordon

Elder David A. Bednar

Sister Michelle D. Craig

Sister Reyna I. Aburto

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