Let Doing Good Be Our Normal | Elder Rafael E. Pino | Oct 2022 General Conference | Faith To Act

Let Doing Good Be Our Normal
By Elder Rafael E. Pino

Of the Seventy

If we are steadfast and immovable in doing good, our customs will help us to stay on the covenant path.

I will always be grateful for my assignments in the Church that have taken me to live in different countries. We found in each one of these countries a great diversity and extraordinary people with different customs and traditions.

We all have customs and traditions that are personal, from our family, or from the community in which we live, and we hope to keep all those that align with the principles of the gospel. Edifying customs and traditions are fundamental to our efforts to stay on the covenant path, and those that are an obstacle, we ought to reject.

A custom is the practice or the frequent and habitual way of thinking for a person, culture, or tradition. Frequently, the things we think and do in a habitual way we recognize as normal.

Allow me to illustrate this: Patricia, my beloved wife, loves to drink coconut water and then to eat the coconut. During our first visit to Puebla, Mexico, we went to a place where we bought a coconut. After drinking the water, my wife asked them to cut the coconut and bring her the flesh to eat. When it came, it was reddish. They had sprinkled it with chili! Sweet coconut with chili! That seemed so strange to us. But later we learned that the strange ones were my wife and I, who did not eat coconut with chili. In Mexico, however, it is not rare; it is very normal.

On another occasion we were eating in Brazil with some friends, and they served us avocado. Just as we were about to sprinkle salt on it, our friends said to us, “What are you doing? We already put sugar on the avocado!” Avocado with sugar! That seemed so odd to us. But then we learned that the odd ones were my wife and I, who did not eat avocado with sugar. In Brazil, avocado sprinkled with sugar is normal.

What is normal for some may be odd for others, depending on their customs and traditions.

Which customs and traditions are normal in our lives?

President Russell M. Nelson has said: “Today we often hear about ‘a new normal.’ If you really want to embrace a new normal, I invite you to turn your heart, mind, and soul increasingly to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Let that be your new normal” (“A New Normal,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 118).

This invitation is for all. It does not matter whether we are poor or rich, educated or uneducated, old or young, sick or healthy. He invites us to let the normal things in our lives be those which help keep us on the covenant path.

No country contains the totality of what is good or admirable. Therefore, as Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (Articles of Faith 1:13).

“If there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Note that this is an exhortation, not merely a commentary.

I would like all of us to take a moment to meditate on our customs and the way they are influencing our families.

Among the marvelous habits that should be normal for members of the Church are these four:

Personal and family study of the scriptures. To become converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, each person is responsible for learning the gospel. Parents are responsible for teaching the gospel to their children (see Doctrine and Covenants 68:25; 93:40).

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This video was created by Kelly Egan.

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