The Daily DeseretElder Andersen at BYU: What It Means to "Settle This in Your Hearts"
This page is our own summary. The original belongs to BYU Speeches; please read it there.
Elder Neil L. Andersen urges BYU students to make a deliberate, settled commitment to Jesus Christ, saying reason has a role but revelation has the last word.
On September 15, 2026, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a devotional address at Brigham Young University. This summary follows the transcript on the BYU Speeches page, and the full talk is embedded below.
The idea of "settling"
Elder Andersen builds on a verse in Joseph Smith's inspired revision of the New Testament, placed between Luke 14:27 and 14:28: "Settle this in your hearts, that ye will do the things which I shall teach, and command you." He defines settling as resolving something definitively, bringing it to rest and making it stable. For a Latter-day Saint, he says, it means weighing the blessings and sacrifices of following Christ and then choosing that path without going back and forth.
He says this rarely happens suddenly. It grows as faith and spiritual sensitivity increase, in contrast with the emptiness the world offers. He describes a modern setting of information and misinformation overload, and recalls President Oaks's warning that the adversary has become skilled at disguising truth.
Reason and revelation
A central point is that settling your heart does not require settling every question in your mind. Elder Andersen draws on President Oaks's writing on reason and revelation, which he sums up as "reason has the first word" and "revelation has the last word." Unanswered questions, he suggests, can go into a mental box labeled "Answers Forthcoming" while a person trusts what the heart and Spirit have confirmed.
Ten truths and two practices
He lists ten foundational truths, including that God is our Father, that Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son, that the gospel was restored through Joseph Smith, and that the Holy Ghost is needed at every moment. He then recommends two ways to gain strength: think more about the Savior, and embrace the Book of Mormon more fully, including reading it again from start to finish. He shares the conversion story of Robert E. Sackley, a wounded Australian commando who was given the Book of Mormon in hospital.
What follows
Once a person has settled the matter, Elder Andersen says, temptations lose their glamour, distractions are easier to spot and life gains purpose. He credits his wife, Kathy, whom he met at BYU in 1974, and closes with his testimony of Jesus Christ and a blessing for students beginning the school year.
This is our summary. For his exact words and citations, please read the full transcript at BYU Speeches.
How we wrote this: we read the source page linked above and summarized it in our own words, quoting at most a short line with attribution. We have not added facts from outside that source. If anything here differs from the original, the original is correct.