President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) testified that America is a land of liberty set apart for the Restoration of the gospel: “Our Father in Heaven planned the coming forth of the Founding Fathers and their form of government as the necessary great prologue leading to the restoration of the gospel. Recall what our Savior Jesus Christ said nearly two thousand years ago when He visited this promised land: ‘For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth’ (3 Nephi 21:4). America, the land of liberty, was to be the Lord’s latter-day base of operations for His restored church” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1987, 3; or Ensign, Nov. 1987, 4).
Elder Eduardo Ayala of the Seventy explained that the blessings of the gospel are now available wherever faithful members live: “The conditions of peoples and of nations change due to progress in the world; nevertheless, in many such places, be it in the frosty mountain heights, in the warm valleys, at the rivers’ edges, or in the desert places, wherever members of our church are found, there will always be those who live these basic principles, and by so doing they bless the rest of the people” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 39; or Ensign, May 1995, 30).