SALT LAKE CITY ? Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Wendy L. Watson were married today in the Salt Lake Temple. This is the second marriage for Elder Nelson and the first for Wendy Watson.

5. The troublesome belief that sounds like this: "My past, which was filled with wrongdoing, predicts and determines my future. I am not worthy to lay hold upon any good thing, let alone every good thing, because I am bad, tainted, unclean, beyond hope!" Does that sound familiar? For far too many women, it does.

This constraining belief needs to be laid on the altar of repentance. The guilt and grief you feel are a good sign, an indication of your continued goodness, in spite of your sins. Congratulate yourself on still being able to feel guilty! The light is still there! Guilt has had a lot of bad press in the past, yet for most of us, guilt, if used well, is exactly the help most of us need to stop sinning and start toward full repentance.

Let the guilt start you on the path of the sincere, heartfelt, and therefore heart-changing process of laying down your sins, even giving away your sins to know the Lord (Alma 22:18). And as you come to know him, and come unto him, you will also come to know the real you, unshackled and free from your past.

The Savior and your ecclesiastical leaders will lead you along. The Savior really did mean it when he said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

"A deep and abiding relationship with the Savior is indeed the only way to achieve true intimacy in our relationships with others. And because intimacy requires the involvement of both parties, each person in a truly intimate relationship must have a connection with the Savior, a connection that is strong and vibrant and growing. True intimacy requires that both parties' offerings of love are embedded within an intimate relationship with Him. All else will feel like a sorry substitute."

"I believe that the Lord blesses spouses who love each other purely. I believe He blesses spouses whose passions and appetites have been influenced by the Holy Ghost. We were given the gift of the Holy Ghost for exactly such a time as this. Is it difficult to believe that the Holy Ghost will help you express your love physically? He will. Pray for it."

"As we increase our understandings of these truths, we will never worry that increased purity might decrease our God-given passions. Those natural passions will be increased, purified, and adapted to their lawful use. Spirit-magnified and spirit-purified passion will always be greater than lust. The ability to have our passions magnified, purified, and adapted seems to be something very worthy of prayer or even of fasting."

"As you strive and work with your loved ones for an increasingly intimate relationship that is blessed by the presence of the Spirit, the distinction between the Lord's truth about intimacy and the adversary's lies will become increasingly clear. For truly, if there is anything impure, defiling, of an illicit nature, or obscene, the adversary seeks to generate these things and seeks to convince us that these things are normal, good, and part of intimacy. They are not!

"When we are seeking increased understanding about physical intimacy, which is so sacred, so powerful, we need wide-angle eternal vision and Spirit-enhanced depth perception. If our understanding of physical intimacy is presently based on a picture that is taken, developed, and framed by none other than the father of all lies himself, our experiences with physical intimacy will be deadly. We must mediate our understanding by the death-defying power in the Savior's atonement."

"Have we been careless? Have we drifted far too much in the direction of the world's view, which is so saturated with Lucifer's lies about physical intimacy? It is indeed time to rise up and be careful! Careful about everything that comes into our hearts, minds, and homes which pertains to physical intimacy. Could the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith apply to how in times past we have carelessly thought about, and talked about, physical intimacy? Joseph said: "How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending." We must be very careful with our language and our conversations about everything related to this sacred physical endowment."

"We need to be bold in exposing Lucifer and his lies. We need to rise up, and with ever increasing clarity point out his counterfeits, his deceptions, his trickery. I believe that all satanically influenced presentations about physical intimacy should be stamped "More Lies! To protect our minds and hearts, our homes and families from the intrusions of the devil's devices, perhaps we need big, bold warning signs on every book, magazine, videotape, audiotape, TV sitcom, movie, play, and so forth, which is coproduced by the adversary himself. Warning signs that would reveal his works for what they really are: angry protests against God and persistent, power-hungry efforts to obliterate the truth."

"Lucifer loves good women and is poised and ready to intrude his lies into good women's lives. He's swift. He's very effective. He knows if he can take down a good woman, he can take down a whole family in one fell swoop. Talk about the economy of Lucifer. The devil's domino effect in action! Sisters, it's time to make certain that Satan does not have a grip on our hearts, minds, homes, and families. If we find any evidence of his blatantly obvious or even his covertly subtle presence, we need to cast him out. We need to do more than just loosen his grip; we need to cast him out so that we can be taught by the Spirit the grand eternal truths about physical intimacy and teach them to our families."

"And what if the person asking you to engage in something defiling is your husband, whom you love? President Boyd K. Packer anticipated this attack on personal purity from within marriage. He counseled: "A married couple may be tempted to introduce things into their relationship which are unworthy. Do not, as the scriptures warn, 'change the natural use into that which is against nature'. If you do, The Tempter will drive a wedge between you." Anything that offends the Spirit will allow The Tempter to drive a wedge between husbands and wives."

"'I was talked out of my feelings.' Those are the haunting words of a woman whose husband on their wedding night had introduced her to the consummation of their love in a manner that offended her spirit. For years they carried on the illusion of a marriage. That was the best they could do, for a woman who felt numb and a man who felt rejected."

"We, as spirit daughters of heavenly parents, need to ensure that Satan is continually cast out of our hearts, minds, homes, and families. We, as women of Christ, need to forge intimate relationships with others that involve Him. We, as daughters of Eve, need to distinguish good from evil and partake of physical intimacy only within the sacred ordinance of marriage. And as we do we will co-create intimate relationships that are truly out of this world!" - "Personal Purity and Intimacy" by Sister Wendy Watson, 1999 Women's Conference