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We got an email from our daughter serving in the Berlin mission after General Conference, and I want to share something she wrote – since it’s easy to forget that we all have very different experiences, based on the time and condition of our lives at the time. Also, we often have no idea how specific talks hit specific people – or the apparent revelation / guidance that can prompt someone to attend a particular session. First, because of the time difference, they don’t watch the sessions straight through. They tape the ones that happen during the night and watch them over the course of that weekend and the next one (this weekend). I won’t list their schedule, but I will say that it isn’t “common sense”, per se. So, when she says the first session and the second session, she means the first ones that were broadcast there, not the first and second ones we watched on Saturday.
I don’t pretend to understand the following, and I won’t provide commentary. I just want to post it here for your consideration.
Anyway, the following is from her letter:
Quote:I just love being a missionary during General Conference. It is just so incredible that someone’s talk is given at exactly the right session for when the person could come to conference!
Examples:
First Session:
This past week, we met with a convert of 16 months, who had some major questions about tithing. He had a question about it and he’s been working with us with missionary work because he’s just awesome like that. He had a question. Met with him again on Saturday at 3pm (a few hours before Bednar’s talk) and we told him EXACTLY what Elder Bednar said. Like practically word for word even. It was sooo cool! This is great because of two reasons:
This member after talking with us felt the Spirit and received his answers he was searching for. He was excited for conference to see if what he had just felt a few hours ago would be confirmed. It was. He came to us afterwards and was like,
“That Elder Bednar. Wow, that was exactly what I needed to hear.”Second Session:
I called a less active member about 5 times Sunday morning, at first trying to get him to come to the Priesthood session. He didn’t show up. I called him for the Saturday afternoon session (so 2pm on Sunday for us) about 3 times and I wasn’t going to…because that’s kind of annoying… haha. Anyway, I felt like I needed to keep calling him. And he came. Afterwards, I asked him which talk helped him the most and he said, “Elder Holland’s! You promised me if I came, I would find help and answers!” He suffers from long-term depression, which is why he hadn’t showed up to Priesthood session. He was in one of his huge slumps and I had kept calling him to help him come.
He came to exactly the session he needed to be at, not the one I thought he needed to attend. Thanks Ray for sharing that. We all can hear what we need. Interest — we are all at different stages of development, have different life experiences that influence our thinking. I think I could’ve written that letter 25 years ago when I was on my mission. I know it’s an old saying that there is always at least one talk in conference directed at each individual. Frankly in the past I have always poo-pooed the idea and mostly have been unaffected by GC. There have been exceptions, of course, like BRM’s last talk. That talk for me this conference was Pres. Uchtdorf’s, and it’s the first time I can say that I thought a talk was directed at me. My daughter told me she felt like Elder Holland’s talk was it for her. Other members of my family haven’t shared (I doubt the teen boys had one), but thanks for reminding us Ray – conference is different for everyone. I think we can extend that beyond conference and say that SM is also different for everyone, as are SS, PH, and RS meetings. I often hear people say we hear what we want to hear, and I do believe that is true to an extent – we tune out what we don’t want to hear, and filter other stuff to fit what we do want to hear. There are messages that God wants each of us to hear, however, and I don’t believe those are tuned out or filtered. Thanks for that perspective Ray. Its easy to forget that in our complex faith journeys, the simple answers still help some. On a side note, my brother has recently arrived in the Berlin mission. Its always a small world in the church.
Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Tapatalk
Old-Timer wrote:I called a less active member about 5 times Sunday morning, at first trying to get him to come to the Priesthood session. He didn’t show up. I called him for the Saturday afternoon session (so 2pm on Sunday for us) about 3 times and I wasn’t going to…because that’s kind of annoying… haha. Anyway, I felt like I needed to keep calling him. And he came. Afterwards, I asked him which talk helped him the most and he said, “Elder Holland’s! You promised me if I came, I would find help and answers!” He suffers from long-term depression, which is why he hadn’t showed up to Priesthood session. He was in one of his huge slumps and I had kept calling him to help him come.
He came to exactly the session he needed to be at, not the one I thought he needed to attend. Thanks for passing her letter along. It’s good to be reminded that we might not understand the real reason for things we’re prompted to do.
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