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"The establishment of Zion should be the aim of every
member of this Church. It can be safely said: As we seek with all our hearts to bring forth and establish Zion, the
vexations of too little time will disappear. There are joys and blessings
by enlisting in this noble cause. One's personal life is transformed. The home
is no longer a hotel but a place of peace, security, and love. Society itself
changes. In Zion, contentions and disputations cease, class distinctions and
hatreds disappear, no one is poor—spiritually or temporally, and all manner of
wickedness is no more. As many have attested, 'Surely there could not be a
happier people among all the people . . . created by the hand of God' (Keith B.
McMullin, "Come to Zion! Come to Zion!" Ensign, Nov. 2002, 95).
"We may not yet be the Zion of which our prophets
foretold and toward which the poets and priests of Israel have pointed us, but
we long for it and we keep working toward it. I do not know whether a full
implementation of such a society can be realized until Christ comes, . . . but
I . . . know that the gospel of Jesus
Christ holds the answer to every social and political and economic problem this
world has ever faced. And I know we can each do something, however small that
act may seem to be" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Handful of Meal and a
Little Oil," Ensign, May 1996,
30-31).
"Zion can be built up only among those who are the pure
in heart, not a people torn by covetousness or greed, but a pure and selfless
people. Not a people who are pure in appearance, rather a people who are pure
in heart. Zion is to be in the world and not of the world, not dulled by a
sense of carnal security, nor paralyzed by materialism. No, Zion is not of the
lower, but of the higher order, things that exalt the mind and sanctify the
heart.
"Zion is 'every man seeking the interest of his
neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.'
(D&C 82:19.) As I understand these matters, Zion can be established only by
those who are pure in heart, and who labor for Zion, for 'the laborer in Zion
shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish.' (2 Nephi
26:31.)" (Spencer W. Kimball, "Becoming the Pure in Heart," Ensign, May 1978, 81).
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