"Our Heavenly Guidance System" - General Conference Applied

Last updated on August 17th, 2025 at 07:36 am

General Conference Applied

S5 E38 – Thursday, August 14, 2025 | “Our Heavenly Guidance System,” by Elder Sergio R. Vargas; April 2025 General Conference

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Podcast Episode Outline

Introduction

As we begin this podcast episode, if you have not recently listened to or read Elder Vargas’s April 2025 General Conference address, please pause this podcast episode and go review his address.

Bio

“Elder Sergio R. Vargas was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the April 2024 general conference. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Ninth Quorum of the Seventy in the South America South Area.

“Elder Vargas has served in a number of Church callings, including high councilor, branch president, and stake president. Elder Vargas is an aquaculture engineer and received a bachelor of science degree in marine resources from Los Lagos University in 1999 and a diploma in business administration from the Austral University in 2002. He also earned a diploma in business administration from the University of Concepcion, a certificate in sustainable business strategy from Harvard Business School Online, and a certificate in professional skills from Brigham Young University PathwayConnect.

“He has worked in several positions in the Chilean aquaculture industry, including operations manager assistant, operations deputy manager, farming deputy manager, and operations and infrastructure manager, all for Aquachile. Most recently, he worked as production and operational manager for Ventisqueros, a member of the German Schörghuber Corporate Group.

“Sergio Rodrigo Vargas Barría was born in Puerto Varas, Chile, on November 2, 1976. He married Andrea Ana Sánchez Maragaño in 2003. They are the parents of three children.”
This was Elder Vargas’s first general conference address.

Invitations

“As we focus our lives on Jesus Christ, we will find our way home, enduring to the end and rejoicing to the end. … I invite all of us today to center our lives on Jesus Christ and His teachings. Doing so will help us avoid biting the hooks of temptation, offense, and self-pity. We will stand as temples—holy, firm, and constant. We will weather the storms, and we will make it home, enduring to the end and rejoicing to the end.”
- In our own words: Center our lives on Jesus Christ and His teachings.
- Application Idea 1: Read President Jeffrey R. Holland’s book “Witness for His Names“
- Application Idea 2: We can and must study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ to know Him, but there’s risk of Jesus being little more than a personal hobby study topic if we don’t recall and apply his words to everything. Put reminder triggers all around your environments, some obvious, some more subtle and personal. Large artwork or words in your home. Small desk mementos or figurines. Phone home screen. Maybe something in your mission language (bonus points for obscure languages or dialects). Jewelry. Music. Put a sign inside the door of your mailbox that you (and your mail carrier) will see each day.
Focus on Jesus Christ and not on the situation. [Remember] “President Russell M. Nelson taught that ‘the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.'”
- In our own words: Focus on Jesus Christ, not your situation. Joy isn’t dependent on your circumstances.
- Application Idea 1: Study President Russell M. Nelson’s October 2016 General Conference address “Joy and Spiritual Survival“.
- Application Idea 2: Meditation practitioners are constantly, gently reminded to let go of their thoughts and return focus to their breath. Very calming. Do something similar by noticing without judgment when your mind slips into stress over a situation. Then bring back your thoughts to the Savior and what He can teach you from the experience.
“At that very moment, a concerned priesthood holder stood in front of me. He lovingly invited me to focus on Christ and not on the situation we had experienced in class. As I looked back on the experience with him, he shared with me that he heard a voice tell him, ‘Go after him; he is important to me.'”
- In our own words: Lovingly invite others to focus on Jesus Christ, and follow spiritual promptings to be led to those in need.
- Application Idea 1: When was the last time you had a meaningful gospel-centered conversation with a family to whom you serve as a ministering brother or a ministering sister? If it has been awhile, prioritize having a meaningful conversation soon.
- Application Idea 2: Have empathy for your brothers and sisters at church. Be kind without needing spiritual promptings first, but heed the spirit and act immediately if prompted to help someone.
- Mitch Application: I will prioritize having a meaningful gospel-centered conversation soon with the families to whom I am serving as a ministering brother.
“Just as salmon need to be nourished in the ocean to grow, we also need to nourish ourselves spiritually to avoid dying of spiritual malnutrition. Prayer, the scriptures, the temple, and our regular attendance at Sunday meetings are vital in our spiritual menu.”
- In our own words: Avoid spiritual malnutrition through prayer, scripture study, temple attendance, and regular Sunday church attendance.
- Application Idea 1: Read James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones“. In particular, chapter 16 (“How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day”). “Perhaps the best way to measure your progress is with a habit tracker. A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit. The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine.”
- Application Idea 2: Work to be more constant and less sporadic in devotion to God. This week, I had a couple days in a row where I studied a ton in multiple church resources, then I got to the end of the next day and found I’d let myself get busy and distracted without any study. I felt the difference. Set routines and systems to avoid gospel floods and draughts. You could also study the lyrics to hymn 185, Reverently and Meekly Now to learn about being constant:
  - “At the throne I intercede; For thee ever do I plead. I have loved thee as thy friend, With a love that cannot end. Be obedient, I implore, Prayerful, watchful evermore, And be constant unto me, That thy Savior I may be.”
“The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that ‘a man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.'”
- In our own words: Evidence your conversion and love of God by blessing the whole world.
- Application Idea 1: Study the following two resources and then journal about how your talents and your work can “bless the whole human race”: 1) Elder Dale G. Renlund, “Personal Preparation to Meet the Savior“, April 2025 General Conference (see also General Conference Applied S5 E14). 2) Alma 34:20 – “[20] Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.”
- Application Idea 2: Share your experiences taking action on general conference invitations as a guest on GCA or at a minimum, write us an email with your permission to share it for you.
  - Someone pointed out that our audience is the size of a ward. We’re grateful for each individual listener and have more work to do, miracles to pray for, and your help to enlist so together we can bless far more people and increase light. Let’s avoid the Bystander Effect!
    - The Bystander Effect – we often don’t feel personal obligation to act when in a crowd because we erroneously think someone else will do it. Everyone else often has the same thought so nobody acts. This has often been observed in dangerous situations like a person getting mugged, screaming “someone help me!” They’ve found that “someone” is too vague so if you’re ever in a dire situation in front of a crowd, you should be decisive and point to specific individuals, “you in the pink coat! Call 911! You in the cowboy boots, help me apply pressure to the wound!” I see the same thing in less traumatic circumstances like if my kids are watching tv and I say, “somebody feed the dog.” They won’t emerge from their trance until I assign a kid by name. Consider this your individual call-out to share your insights with GCA. We’re not talking to other people, we’re talking to you doing the dishes, and you mowing the lawn, and you half-heartedly exercising, and you weighed down with concern, and you who just stumbled across our channel for the first time, and you who’ve listened for years, and you preparing a lesson for church, and “you and you and you.” 🙂
- Clay Application: It is no longer difficult to reach the whole world. The trick is getting the world’s attention. The quickest way in 2025 to range through the whole world and bless the human race is social media. I’ve signed up for a course to learn how to make more engaging video content. I plan to start that course and practice what I learn to extend the reach of General Conference Applied. I’ll commit to posting one short-form video before the Return & Report episode on Elder Vargas’ talk.
“Ask for help. Jesus Christ understands and is always eager to share our burdens. Remember that He is known as ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.’ The Savior taught, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'”
- In our own words: Ask for help.
- Application Idea 1: Review President Henry B. Eyring’s July 16, 2023, Facebook post, and then determine how you need to organize yourself to receive a “constantly renewed stream” of revelation. (“We all know that human judgment and logical thinking will not be enough to get answers to the questions that matter most in life. We need revelation from God. And we will need not just one revelation in a time of stress, but we need a constantly renewed stream. Heavenly Father hears your prayers. He loves you. He knows your name. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and our Redeemer. I promise that He pours out revelation upon all of us through the Holy Ghost as we seek His guidance.”)
- Application Idea 2: Yes, ask in prayer for help, but also speak up and ask people around you for the help you need. That’s probably how God would answer your prayers anyway.
“We may not totally forget our sins as part of our mortal learning so we will remember not to repeat them. Instead, we will remember Him as we take the sacrament at church every Sunday. This ordinance is an essential part of worship and spiritual development. Joy comes when we understand that this is not just another day. ‘The sabbath was made for man’ with the intention of giving us rest from the world and renewing our body and spirit.”
- In our own words: Take the sacrament each week to remember Jesus. Seek to understand and honor the Sabbath to receive joy.
- Application Idea 1: Ponder and then journal about this statement from Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s April 2025 General Conference address “Worship“: “For the penitent, partaking of the sacrament is the highlight of Sabbath worship.” (See also General Conference Applied S5 E9)
- Application Idea 2: Consider a digital sabbath to obtain rest from the world and renewal.
“Go to the temple – the house of the Lord. Temples give us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ as the center of the covenant that leads us to eternal life.”
- In our own words: Go to the temple – the house of the Lord
- Application Idea 1: Watch the following Instagram reel: true.millennials, June 29, 2025: “So what exactly has the Prophet taught us since that first conference in 2018 on how we can have the constant influence of the Holy Ghost? Well, I went back and read all of his talks, and among many important points, there was one recurring counsel that stood out to me as most repetitive and most urgent.” President Russell M. Nelson, “Hear Him“, April 2020 General Conference: “The house of the Lord is a house of learning. There the Lord teaches in His own way. There each ordinance teaches about the Savior. There we learn how to part the veil and communicate more clearly with heaven. There we learn how to rebuke the adversary and draw upon the Lord’s priesthood power to strengthen us and those we love. How eager each of us should be to seek refuge there.”
- Application Idea 2: In the temple, pay attention to how Jesus is central to every ordinance.

Discussion Questions

What is the Lord, through Elder Vargas, inviting us to do? And how do we intend to take action?
How is the epic migration of salmon from their place of freshwater birth, to the ocean, and back a useful metaphor for the plan of salvation? Did the salmon need to leave the headwaters in the first place? Why or why not?
Elder Vargas taught, “Brothers and sisters, the hooks of mortality are real. They are often enticing, but they seek only one target: to pull us out of the course of living waters that lead to the Father and eternal life.” What are some “hooks of mortality” we might face?
Have a fisherman describe how fishing lures and hooks work. Which are most effective and why? Which type of hooks are hardest for the fish to escape?
Elder Vargas told us to “Ask for help.” We can of course ask in prayer. Who else could we ask for help? Why are we often uncomfortable asking for help? Whom would we be willing to help if they just asked? If in a group setting, consider committing to help one another so each person there may feel more comfortable seeking help.

External Resources Referenced In This Episode

Who is Elder Sergio R. Vargas, General Authority Seventy? – Church News
Elder Vargas’ Linkedin profile
Jeffrey R. Holland, “Remember Lot’s Wife”
Hymn 185, Reverently and Meekly Now
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist: A Modern Classic of Magic and Mysticism (Perennial Classics)
Hymn 1037
President Holland Witness for His Names
General Conference+ episodes
Idaho Falls Temple visitors center
Elder Stevenson April 2025 address
President Nelson mentally rigorous to look to Jesus Christ
President Monson regretted not following a spiritual prompting to leave a meeting to visit someone
Hymn 185
President Holland consistently prayed with Sister Holland
Duo Lingo
Fridge calendar magnets
Elder Renlund April 2025 address
Alma 34:20
Beauty and the Beast Be Our Guest
The bystander effect
President Kimball usually through another person God meets our needs
Elder Christofferson April 2025 address and GCA episode
24/6 Tiffany Shlain
How to Break Up With Your Phone
true.millennials on Instagram
Journaling Teachings of Wilford Woodruff
Videography course
President Oaks October 2021 address
President Eyring 50% of people are in dire need
Plan of Salvation
Heavenly Parents

What will you do?

How will you take action on the invitations extended in this General Conference address?

Conclusion

The focus of our next podcast episode will be the July 2025 General Conference+ Part One resources that were delivered by members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

As we conclude this episode, we would invite you to refer to the podcast episode details for this podcast episode where we have provided important information for connecting with us and further supporting the General Conference Applied Podcast. The best ways to help us are to like and subscribe to the podcast, to share the podcast with others, to like and share our content on social media, to share your own experiences with us on social media, and especially to contact us on our website.

Please remember that General Conference Applied is meant to be a supplement for your review of General Conference Addresses. We promise that you will get more out of each General Conference Applied episode when you study the General Conference address first.

Thank you for joining us in this effort to become doers of the word and to take action on general conference invitations.