This morning, I invite you to join with me on an African journey.

You won’t see any lions, zebras, or elephants,

but perhaps by journey's end, you will see how thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are responding to Christ’s second great commandment to love thy neighbor.

Imagine for a moment the rural red dirt of Africa.

You see from the parched and barren earth that rain has not fallen in any measurable quantity for too many years.

The few cattle which cross your path are more bones than flesh

and are being driven by a blanket- covered curmudgeon herdsman who, with saddled feet, trudges on in hope of finding vegetation and water.

As you navigate the rough and rocky road,

you see several groups of beautiful children and wonder why they are not in school. The children smile and you wave.

The children smile and wave and you wave back with a tear and a smile.

92% of the youngest children you see on this journey live in food poverty.

Your heart groans with anguish.

Ahead, you see a mother carrying a carefully balanced five-gallon container of water on her head and another in her hand. She represents one of every two households in this area where women, young and old, walk more than 30 minutes each way each day to a source of water for their family. A wave of sorrow washes over you.

Two hours pass and you arrive at a secluded, shady clearing.

The meeting place is not a hall or even a tent, but rather under a few large trees providing shelter from the sweltering sun. In this place, you notice there's no running water,

no electricity, no flush toilets.

You look around and know you are amongst people who love God and you instantly feel God's love for them.

They have gathered to receive help and hope,

and you have arrived to share it.

Such was the journey of Sister Arden and I in the company of Sister Camille Johnson, our general Relief Society president, and her husband Doug, and Sister Sharon Eubank, director of the Church’s humanitarian services, as we traveled in Uganda, a country of 47 million people in central Africa.

On that day, under the shade of the trees,

we visited a community health project that is jointly funded by the Church Humanitarian Services, Unicef, and the Ministry of Health of the Ugandan government.

These are trusted organizations, carefully selected to ensure the donated humanitarian funds

from members of the Church are prudently used.

As heart wrenching as it was to see malnourished children and the effects of tuberculosis, malaria, and incessant diarrhea.

There came to each of us

an increase of hope for a better tomorrow for those we meet.

That hope came in part through the kindness of Church members from around the world who donate time and money to the Church humanitarian effort.

As I saw the sick and the afflicted being helped and lifted, I bowed my head in gratitude.

At that moment, I better understood what was meant by the King of Kings who said, Come ye blessed of my Father,

inherit the kingdom prepared for you, for I was an hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in.

Our Savior's plea is to let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In that far flung corner of the earth,

your good works brighten the lives and lighten the load of a people in desperate need. And God was glorified. On that hot and dusty day,

I wished you could have heard their prayers of praise and gratitude to God.

They would have me say to you in their native Karamajong: “Alakara.”

Thank you. Our journey reminded me of the parable of the good Samaritan whose journey took him on a dusty road not unlike the one I described, a road that went from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This ministering Samaritan teaches us what it means to love thy neighbor.

He saw a certain man who fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. The Samaritan had compassion on him.

Compassion is an attribute of Christ.

It is born of love for others and knows no boundaries.

Jesus, the Savior of the world, is the epitome of compassion.

When we read that Jesus wept, we are witnesses, as were Mary and Martha, of His compassion, which caused Him first to groan in the Spirit and be troubled. In a Book of Mormon example of Christ’s compassion,

Jesus appeared to a multitude and said,

Have you any that are lame or blind or halt or that are deaf or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you. And He did heal every one.

Despite our every effort, you and I won't heal everyone.

But each of us can be the one who can make a difference for good in the life of someone. It was just one lad,

a mere boy who offered the five loaves and the two fishes that fed the 5,000.

We may ask of our offering as Andrew the disciple did, of the loaves and fishes. What are they among so many?

I assure you it is sufficient to give or to do what you are able, and then to allow Christ to magnify your effort on this point.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland invited us, rich or poor, to do what we can when others are in need.

He then testified, as I do,

that God will help you and guide you in your compassionate acts of discipleship.

In that distant land, on that unforgettable day,

I stood then and stand now as a witness of the soul-stirring

and life-changing compassion of members of the Church, both rich and poor.

The parable of the good Samaritan continues as he bound up the man's wounds and took care of him.

Our Church humanitarian efforts find us quickly responding to natural disasters and binding up the world's widening wounds of disease, hunger, infant mortality, malnutrition, displacement, and the often unseen wounds of discouragement, disappointment, and despair.

The Samaritan then took two pence and gave them to the host,

and he said unto him, Take care of him.

As a church, we're grateful to collaborate with other hosts or organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, UNICEF,

and Red Cross and Red Crescent to assist in our humanitarian endeavors.

We are equally grateful for your two pence, or two euros, two pesos, or two shillings that are easing the burden that too many around the world are having to bear.

It is unlikely you will know the recipients of your time, dollars, and dimes. But compassion does not require us to know them. It only requires us to love them.

Thank you, President Nelson, for reminding us that when we love God with all our hearts, He turns our hearts to the well-being of others.

I testify that each of us will have an increase of joy, peace, humility, and love as we respond to President Nelson’s call to turn our hearts to the well-being of others and to Joseph Smith's plea to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide for the widow, dry up the tear of the orphan, and comfort the afflicted.

Whether in this church or any other, or in no church at all, wherever we find them. All those months ago,

we found the hungry and the afflicted on a dry and dusty plain,

and were witnesses to their pleading eyes for help.

In our own way, we groaned in the Spirit and were troubled. And yet those feelings were tempered as we saw the compassion of Church members at work. As the hungry were fed, the widows were provided for, and the afflicted were comforted, and their tears dried up.

May we be forever looking to the well-being of others and show in word and deed that we are willing to bear one another's burdens, to bind up the broken hearted, and to keep Christ’s second great commandment to love thy neighbor. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.