Farewell Talk

How Do We Obtain Personal Revelation:

            Unfortunately, the system of submission, editing, and re-writing of talks that exists for General Authorities speaking in Conference does not seem to function for Ward Sacrament Meeting. On that note, if this talk is a little more disjointed, confusing, or Doctrinally Unsound then many you hear in early April and October, please forgive me, and feel free to report mistakes to the Bishopric and Stake President.

In times of doubt, fear, or loss, the first places people often turn to are ceremony, superstition, or ritual. We have been taught, many of us for our whole lives, that the true answer is religion, and in the end, Christ. While it is also taught that we turn should to Christ and the Atonement before things get bad, this is sufficient for The Lord and his ways.

 In turning to Christ, many people seek immediate, divine help. The expectation is that some sort of divine intervention, or Personal Revelation, will be sent our way, as assistance, or confirmation of our faith, or even just to make our day feel a little less…disappointing. While the answers to our prayers are often conveyed through means that none of us can anticipate, on some occasion the Holy Ghost speaks to us directly, providing deep feelings of right or wrong, and guiding us in the ways of The Lord.

In September 1981, Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave an address, as part of a BYU devotional, entitled “8 ways God can speak to you.” In the address he discussed 8 different ways, or purposes, that God will commune with converse you, or in other words, when and why God will give you Personal Revelation. The ways or reasons that he listed off are:

1)    As a testimony from the Holy Ghost of Jesus the Christ

2)    As a source of Prophecy

3)    To Comfort

4)    To Uplift

5)    To Inform

6)    To Restrain

7)    To Confirm

8)    To Impel

While I do not necessarily have experience in all of these 8 areas, I will discuss:

1)    Prophecy

2)    Comforting

3)    Confirming

On the subject of prophecy, Elder Oaks said: “Speaking under the influence of the Holy Ghost and within the limits of his or her responsibility, a person may be inspired to predict what will come to pass in the future.”

Doctrine and Covenants section 8: 2-3 reads:  “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation;”

The first office, or calling, that I think of after hearing the term “Prophecy” is that of the Patriarch. Gifted with the ability to receive a very real, very applicable form of personal revelation that many of us present have received. I have a very special testimony of my own blessing, which I actually typed up the same day that I began working on this talk.

One of my favorite lines in my Patriarchal Blessing is on the subject of my mission, and it reads: “As you answer the call of the Prophet, you will find that you will be sent to a people who have already been prepared for you.” I know without a doubt that this is true. But I also know, that in the most unexpected way, I have been prepared for the German people as well. For though of you hearing this part of the story for the 3^rd or 4^th time, I apologize.

            About the age of 10 I was very, very interested in history, particularly with the Mongolian peoples. While this does not immediately connect to the Germans…it will. When my family was visiting a temple visitor’s center—I forget which—we decided that each of the kids could buy one copy of the Book of Mormon in a language of their choosing. I of course, chose Mongolian, but because with the Chinese and Turkish characters running up and down each page I had little hope of ever comprehending the book, my parents also let me choose one other copy. I chose the German version. I have that book with me still. Close to a decade later, whether by sheer coincidence, or by some little push of the spirit, I am one step closer to Germany.

           

I also had the opportunity to take a language class in High School. Most of us did, most of us took Spanish, and most of us hated it. I, however, insisted on taking German. Close to 6 years ago, I insisted to my parents that I did not want to take Spanish; I didn’t think Spanish was useful at all. So instead, I waited to take German, and not only that, my junior year I did not take a math class, I skipped AP Calculus, to take German 2. I did not know why then, but I do now: the Lord had a work for me to do. He was preparing me for the German people, just as they were, and maybe still are, preparing for me.

            While none of this constitutes prophecy in the form of scriptural teachings or revealing works of the written word, for me it represented a special kind of prophecy. Christ gave me a peak of what my future would hold, while helping me prepare for it. It was a unique kind of prophecy that while it did not alter the course of the lives of thousands or predict a major event, strengthened my testimony immensely. A tender mercy, many would say. The Holy Ghost, the spirit of prophecy, dwelled in my heart, helping to direct me decisions and actions in a way beneficial to my own development.

            Next, the Spirit comforts us.

In my own experience, limited as it is, one of the most comforting, uplifting, and re-moralizing symbols and objects in the human mind is flame. That is an interesting thought, flame destroys, flame kills, and flame spreads fear throughout the world. Fear of loss, pain, and of death. And yet, what do thousands of boy scouts crave to create the second they are more then 2 miles outside of home? What entrances millions who sit around a small ring of stones, what warms the inside of millions of homes against the bitter wind and cold of the night? What gives us our light that we might learn from the scriptures at any time that we choose?  -----------------Pull out candle--------

One of my most fond memories is that of a best of EFY address where we sang a song.

Some of my friends and youth leaders here might remember it:

I’ve got a little Candlelight, I’m gunna let it shine…

I’ve got a little Candlelight,, I’m gunna let it shine…

I’ve got a little Candlelight, I’m gunna let it shine…

Let is shine, all the time, let it shine.

And so I have been comforted, and reminded of who I am, and what I need to do, in several times when I couldn’t seem to continue on by myself. When the going got tough, I have always got my little candle. Fake as it is, it is a symbol of the light I hope to have inside, so that others may see it, and maybe, they might take strength.

Back in his BYU address, Elder Oaks stated: “Another type of comforting revelation is the assurance received that a sin has been forgiven. This revelation, which comes when a person has completed all the steps of repentance, gives assurance that the price has been paid, that God has heard the repentant sinner, and that his or her sins are forgiven.”

Is baptism by fire not our repentance? And so, is fire, in its warmth, and its cleaning, one of the greatest symbols of comfort that we have?

            Another source of great comfort to many comes in connection to being strengthened. The idea of agency, of some small control over your situation, the power to change, is what gives us strength. It is a divine power, a gift from our Heavenly Father, and one of the few measure of our lives that cannot be taken away from us. The first of two poems I will read to you, written by William Ernest Henley, talks of this measure of control, the agency given to us by our Heavenly Father, and the resilience of the soul, particularly when strengthened by the Holy Ghost:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

            To reinforce this principle, Christ, giving the closing remarks of the Sermon on the Mount, said:

 13 ¶Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

(Mathew 7:14)

The final of the 3 reasons that I will focus on is when the Spirit confirms your actions. That is actually the very reason that I am here this morning. It is the reason that 50-odd members of my high school, young men and young women, are leaving this summer and fall, into the next year, and it is the reason that we will be speaking numerous different languages, including English, German, Spanish, lots of Spanish, Portuguese, Samoan, Korean, and Russian, everywhere from Denver Colorado, Mesa Arizona, and Juarez Mexico, to Seoul Korea, Lima Peru, and Moscow Russia. We all chose to explore this path, to begin our journey towards and through our missions, and have had this course of action confirmed to us, and continued on.

 Elder Bruce R. McConkie said this of the confirming power of The Spirit: “We’re expected to use the gifts and talents and abilities, the sense and judgment and agency with which we are endowed. … We’re expected to do everything in our power that we can, and then to seek an answer from the Lord, a confirming seal that we’ve reached the right conclusion.”

His one of his more famous poems, Robert Frost mentions the impetus, the force, the call to duty that many of us feel, for various reasons. In my favorite poem of his, he writes:

 Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

                                               

I know in whose woods I walk. I know that I cannot falter now, that I am at the moment to keep my promises, to The Lord and to myself. It is not yet time to sleep, it is time to Serve. And So I have been comforted and strengthened, guided and directed by the Holy Spirit.

Bear Testimony 

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