October 2026 General Conference › Lessons › Elder Quentin L. Cook › Adults

30-minute lesson · Adults · Relief Society, elders quorum, Sunday School, or home

Act Well Thy Part: The Road to Real Happiness

From “Integrity and Virtue Lead to Happiness,” by Elder Quentin L. Cook · Sunday morning session, October 2026 General Conference

Watch the talkRead the full talk

The big idea

In Heavenly Father’s plan, a life of integrity and virtue, kept honest by daily repentance, leads to true happiness and the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

Objective

Learners will explain in their own words how integrity, virtue and happiness are linked, and will choose one specific place in their week where they will live more fully what they believe.

Before you teach

  • Read Elder Cook’s talk, marking paragraphs T24.04–T24.10 and T24.22–T24.25.
  • Write on the board: “WHAT-E’ER THOU ART ACT WELL THY PART.”
  • Bring paper and pens for each person.
  • Write three group assignments on slips of paper (see segment 3).
  • Pray for the people you teach by name. Some carry private burdens about honesty, habits or regret; teach with hope.

Lesson plan

Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.

4 min0–4

What do we chase?

  1. Begin with prayer. Write the word happiness in the middle of the board.
  2. Ask pairs to take one minute: Where do the people around us look for happiness? Take four or five quick answers and write them around the word.
  3. Read the first key quote aloud (T24.10). Explain that Elder Cook taught that the link between virtue and happiness is not as well understood today as it was in the past.
  4. Tell the class that today they will test that link against their own experience.
Ask
  • When has doing the right thing, even at a cost, left you happier than the easier choice would have?
6 min4–10

The stone above the door

  1. Point to the inscription on the board. Retell the account briefly: as a new missionary in Scotland, Elder David O. McKay passed a building with these words carved in the stone above the doorway. Elder Cook said the message stayed with him as a missionary and for the rest of his life.
  2. Read the key quote from T24.05 about what he determined to do.
  3. Explain that Elder Cook drew a further lesson: some conduct that is not inherently evil can keep us from spiritual matters that would bless us now and forever.
  4. Give everyone one minute of silent writing: List the parts you hold right now (disciple, spouse, parent, friend, employee, minister, neighbor). Put a star by the one where you most want to do your very best.
  5. Invite two or three to share what they starred, if they wish.
Ask
  • What is something good, or at least harmless, that can quietly crowd out the things that matter most?
  • What does acting well your part look like when no one is watching?
8 min10–18

Three small groups, three words

  1. Divide into three groups and hand out the slips. Give them four minutes to read and prepare a one-minute report.
  2. Group 1, integrity: Read Doctrine and Covenants 124:20 and Luke 6:46. Then read President Kimball’s definition of integrity (aligned quote). Report: What does it mean to be someone the Lord can trust?
  3. Group 2, virtue: Read Doctrine and Covenants 121:45–46 and Philippians 4:8. Elder Cook said virtue includes a strong personal moral compass and also cleanliness, modesty, goodness, holiness, and reverence for the sacred. Report: Which of these does our day most need, and why?
  4. Group 3, our words: Elder Cook warned that much conduct and language in society and on social media is coarse and crude, and that we can strive to be a peaceable people. Read Elder Kyungu’s words (aligned quote). Report: What would a peacemaker do differently online and at home this week?
  5. Hear the three reports. After each, ask the whole class the question below.
Ask
  • What would this look like on an ordinary Tuesday?
6 min18–24

Repentance is part of integrity

  1. Say that a lesson on integrity can leave some of us feeling we fall short. Elder Cook answered that feeling directly. Read the key quote from T24.23.
  2. Retell his missionary experience faithfully: in the British Mission he taught a man who had served on a battleship in the European theater in World War II, 16 years earlier. When the man learned about repentance he was overcome with emotion. He compared it to arriving back in England, leaving the ship, and feeling the earth of his island home under his feet; he had fallen to his knees in appreciation.
  3. Add the detail that just before his baptism the man prayed that he could give others the same joy, and added, “Especially my family.”
  4. Allow a quiet half minute before discussing.
Ask
  • Why is admitting our faults to the Lord an act of integrity rather than a sign that we lack it?
  • When has repentance felt to you like solid ground under your feet?
4 min24–28

The reward

  1. Read the key quote from T24.22 about the ultimate reward of integrity and virtue. Remind the class that President McKay taught, as Elder Cook quoted, that happiness is the purpose and design of existence.
  2. Check for understanding: ask each person to turn to a neighbor and finish this sentence in their own words: Integrity and virtue lead to happiness because…
  3. Invite one or two to share what their neighbor said.
Ask
  • How have you noticed the Holy Ghost more when your private life and your beliefs matched?
2 min28–30

Choose and act

  1. Elder Cook did not give a list of assignments, so invite each person to ask the Lord what to do with what they felt. Show the ideas under Act this week and ask them to write one choice on their paper, next to the part they starred.
  2. Point them to the promise Elder Cook did give: if we dedicate some time every day to the scriptures and spiritual renewal, we will be deeply blessed.
  3. Bear your testimony of the Father’s plan of happiness and of the Savior. Tell the class you will open next week by asking what they noticed. Next week, begin with: Where did you act well your part, and what did you feel?

Key passages from the talk

“In the Father’s plan, integrity, virtue, and happiness are intrinsically linked.”

Elder Cook’s talk, paragraph 10

“He determined that whatever responsibility he had, he would do his very best.”

Elder Cook’s talk, paragraph 5

“Part of having integrity is acknowledging our faults to the Lord and repenting of transgressions.”

Elder Cook’s talk, paragraph 23

“The ultimate reward of integrity and virtue is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.”

Elder Cook’s talk, paragraph 22

Scriptures

  • Doctrine and Covenants 124:20 Group 1 reads it to see why the Lord said a servant could be trusted; ask what earns that trust today.
  • Luke 6:46 Group 1 reads it with D&C 124:20. Ask: Where is the gap between what I say and what I do?
  • Doctrine and Covenants 121:45–46 Group 2 reads both verses and lists the blessings promised to those whose thoughts are filled with virtue.
  • Philippians 4:8 Group 2 reads it as a test for what we watch, read, post and say.

Other voices that agree

“integrity (the willingness and ability to live by our beliefs and commitments) is one of the foundation stones of good character”

President Spencer W. Kimball, quoted in this talk (paragraph 9)

“Let us use the language that uplifts, edifies, comforts, and brings people together.”

Elder Kyungu · Using the Language of Peacemakers, paragraph 16

Three things to remember

  • Happiness is the fruit of integrity and virtue, not a separate goal.
  • Whatever part I hold, I can do my very best in it.
  • Daily repentance is part of integrity and brings the Holy Ghost.

Ways to act this week

  • Choose one part you starred and do one concrete thing this week to act it well.
  • Set aside a fixed time each day for the scriptures and spiritual renewal, even ten minutes.
  • Before you post, reply or speak in frustration, run it past Philippians 4:8.
  • Each night, tell the Lord honestly about one fault and ask for His help to change.

Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.

Music

  • Do What Is Right
  • Choose the Right

Adapting the lesson

  • At home or with fewer than six people: skip the groups and read the three sets of passages together, one question each.
  • Large class: form groups by rows and let two groups share each assignment; take only one report per topic.
  • Short on time: keep segments 2, 4 and 6, and send the group passages home as personal study.

This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.