8-16-10 "Some of My Favorite David's"

Today's e-mail will mostly be about yesterday because it was just a plain good day. So let's begin at the beginning. Before stake conference, Elder Bednar asked to have a special session with just recent converts and current investigators, but missionaries were invited to attend as well. That was a blessing because we weren't invited to the Saturday night session and we would have to watch the general session in our own chapel, not the building where Elder Bednar was. Not that being in the same building matters, and I know I have been overly blessed in my life to be in the presence of apostles much more than most people, but still, we were excited. During that session, Elder Bednar first addressed the recent converts. He asked them to stand up and asked a few of them how they came into contact with the church. One woman had been a cruise ship performer and some of her fellow performers were members. A young man standing right behind us had been studying at a theological school for years, but eventually could not deny that he had found more truth. Amazing to think that someone could accept the restored gospel even after having studied theology. He then spoke a little bit to the investigators. He was teaching them the first lesson, about Christ setting up a church and the great Apostasy or falling away and the need for a Restoration. It was amazing to hear him teach that, especially to people that I know personally and desire to come unto Christ, but even as he was saying it, I had the thought come to me, "He doesn't teach it that much different from the way you teach it. You both teach it the same way." It made me think of a story President Packer tells about when he was called to be an apostle and they asked him to bear his testimony. He said he bore it the same way he would in sacrament meeting, but they seemed to be satisfied with it, so being an apostle doesn't take anything different from being a regular member of the church. As a missionary, I teach the first lesson much the same way an apostle would. I hope that doesn't sound disrespectful or sacreligious. Anyway, he did a few more things like asking new members what words were confusing to them: "Sunbeam," "ward," "stake," and even told a few stories about how some new members had confused the Aaronic priesthood with the "ironic" priesthood and temple officiators with "fish eaters." His basic point was that old time members are terrible at helping with this and new members are bad at asking for help.

Skipping to the next session, first the stake president gave a wonderful address about always examining our lives and not procrastinating the day of our repentance. He used the questions from Alma 5, and as he was talking kept inserting questions of his own. Two members of the stake bore testimonies, one a woman with an autistic son who had just gone through a difficult divorce, and a member who joined in Vermont while her husband was going through cancer treatments and subsequently moved to Houston. Two youth were spontaneously called on to bear their testimonies. And then Elder Bednar spoke for about an hour, but his sermon contained about a year's worth of teachings. He started by dissecting the stake president's talk and reemphasizing the things he taught. He said, "Alma spoke in your stake today. Your stake president is Alma." He said that when he calls a new stake president, he gives him just these two pieces of counsel: "You are Alma in this stake, so study Mosiah 18 to about Alma 40, and your job is to shepherd people to the temple." He then shared a story/parable. He had a friend who wanted to buy a four-wheel drive truck, but his wife kept telling them they couldn't afford it and didn't need it. He bought it anyway, and in order to justify it to his wife, went into the mountains to chop some firewood. As he got higher and higher, there was a lot of snow, but he wasn't worried because he had four wheel drive. Eventually he got bogged down, and the truck was stuck. He decided to chop the firewood anyway since he was up there, and after he packed it in the bed of the truck wide and deep, the truck was able to get out. The difference was the load. Sometimes the load makes all the difference. It is essential to getting us home. We are stuck without it. He also taught that some elements of our load are unnecessary--he called them our weapons of rebellion, comparing them to the swords of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in Alma 24. We need to abandon those, but some parts of our load are absolutely necessary and essential. I'm being a bit redundant here, but the teaching was really profound. He shared a brief anecdote about home teaching. He said that one of the members of the twelve has a secretary who is a single older lady. Once at the end of the month, a pipe burst in her home and she was in her waders trying to clean it up when her home teachers came over. This was their reaction: "We can see that this isn't a good time." He said that the purpose of home teaching isn't to get in the door, but to "be with, watch over, and strengthen" and that when members realize that, home teaching will become much more powerful. He also told a story about he and one of his sons went to visit some families his son had taught on his mission in Bolivia. At first, when they entered the very modest home, Elder Bednar felt sorry for them at first, thinking "What can we do to help them?" But after he saw the children being so nice to one another and content with one piece of candy and only wanting to share more with others, he saw a scenario in his head. He imagined the couple coming to America and driving around, observing all the things we do to occupy our time, things like soccer and violin lessons and all the rest, which are nice and good, but that we use as excuses for not being consistent with family scripture study and prayer. He could see that couple getting together at the end of such a trip and thinking to themselves, "What can we do to help them? How can we help them realize that all those things don't really matter?"

That's just a sampling of his amazing teachings, but I cannot believe I was so blessed to be serving in this area at this time. But then again, I can, because the Lord's tender mercies are all over it. For instance, having Elder Bednar here this weekend forced me to reflect on the fact that Bishop/President Lindsay who interviewed me to come on my mission at one point was actually mission companions with Elder Bednar on their own full-time missions. And as we sang the closing hymn during the general session yesterday, "How Firm a Foundation," Elder Bednar requested that we sing the seventh verse. I almost instantly recalled a moment from my final days in the MTC. Sister Folkman said that "How Firm a Foundation" was her favorite hymn and she specifically sang that verse to us on one of our final days there. I had almost forgotten that moment, but the Spirit brought it to my rememberance in that moment. So in some ways, I am beginning to sense that the end of my mission is near because the strings from the beginning are starting to get tied up here at the end. I know I still have much left to do, but much of what I was sent to do has already been accomplished.

Last story. Last night the ward had a member missionary fireside. Both Sister Layton and I spoke for a few minutes, followed by a member of the ward who just moved from a ward that had incredible missionary experiences. After the speaking was over, we had refreshments. There is a cute family in the ward with three little boys, Matthew, David and Ethan. David is about three or four, and he was running around the gym. I was telling him what a good runner he was, and from then on, he kept telling us to sit down and watch him run. He would do laps around the gym and then we would clap for him and cheer him on. If he ever found us standing up, he would tell us to sit down again. I love little boys. Seriously. Eli was the first one, but since then there has been Cade and Jace and Max and Cameron and so many others. This is just the latest. I'm glad everything went well with Jace's tonsils.

Thanks for the stories about Relief Society, Mom. It really is amazing to be part of such a great sisterhood. And I love the idea of a "heart that hears." Hearts are the most important symbol and indicator of our conversion and dedication to the Lord. If our hearts are hard, we cannot feel or receive the Lord's counsel, but when are hearts are soft and still enough to hear, we can receive every blessing of mortality and eternity.

Love you all,

Sister Whitney Mikell Sorensen

PS Please shine!