Last updated on August 18th, 2024 at 07:52 am
August 11, 2024
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
- [Sarah Jane Weaver] “President Hinckley sat by me on the couch, and Sister Hinckley sat in a chair right next to me. And I was so awestruck. I’d never been in the same room as a Prophet before. And we had not been there very long, when I was asked if I had any questions for President Hinckley. Now, I’m a Church News reporter, this is the President of the Church; I should have had a very, very long list of questions. And I got so nervous, I could not think of anything. I remember feeling my face turn red hot. I tried to think of a question. I felt a little dizzy. I finally just gave in and looked at the Prophet and said, ‘No, I don’t have any questions.’
“And President Hinckley looked at me with great empathy. He obviously knew a good reporter would have a question too. And he said to me, ‘Would you like to know about my family’s history at Cove Fort?’ And that is how the interview continued, with President Hinckley both asking and then answering the questions. ‘Would you like to know about this?’ And it went on for about 10 minutes. And then he said, ‘That ought to do it.’ And, talk about kindness. I remember that it wasn’t too long that President Hinckley went out and spoke to thousands. It was the largest crowd ever convened at Cove Fort. And all I could think about as he talked to all those people was that he also cared about the one. …
“When I got to [President Monson’s] office, a lot was going on. And that interview got delayed and delayed and delayed and didn’t start for more than an hour after it was supposed to start. And I went in, and we did the interview.
“And when the interview was just winding up, a Church security guy came in, and he said, ‘We’re going to lock the front door of the Administration Building. Would you mind exiting through the parking garage in the basement?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely. That is not a problem at all.’ And when that security guy left, President Monson turned to me and said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ Now, I know this is crazy, but I was not accustomed to talking about myself. And I suddenly had this wave of insecurity come over me. And I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not good enough to be sitting in this chair interviewing a Prophet.’ And I didn’t know how to talk about myself.
“I said, ‘Well, I went to BYU, and I majored in journalism.’ And he said, ‘Are you married?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I’m married.’ And he said, ‘Do you have children?’ And I started to almost cry because I didn’t know how to tell the Prophet that I was a working mother and that my husband and I had made a choice for a lot of reasons that I would work outside the home. And we had a daughter, and I started to say, ‘Yes, I’m a working mother. But my husband and I try and work different schedules, and we’re doing the best we can.’ And he held up his hand, and he called security and said, ‘You are going to need to open the front door of the Administration Building.’ And there was a pause, and then I heard him say, ‘Because she is a mother.’
“And when he hung up the phone that day, he said to me, ‘Never put a disclaimer on that important role. When someone asks you if you are a mother, the answer is, ‘Yes, I am a mother.” …
“For me personally, the thing [President Nelson] did that changed my life was ask each of us to be in the temple as often as we could. That’s not an invitation that was unique to me; he offered it to every single covenanted Latter-day Saint.
“And I wasn’t sure that I had time to do that. I wasn’t sure that I really believed that that could actually help me. But he made a promise; he said, ‘It will bless your life like nothing else can.’ And he talked about us being able to make better decisions if we spent more time in the temple. And I was tired and busy and had family responsibilities and Church responsibilities and aging parents, and I had work responsibilities that felt sometimes overwhelming and had gone back to school to do some graduate studies. And I felt like I just was desperate for more blessings in my life. So I remember saying, ‘OK, he wants me to be in the temple. He said it will change my life and influence my life in a way nothing else can.’
“And so, as the pandemic [restrictions] ended and we were able to make appointments, I made a commitment to go to the temple at least once a week. And sometimes when I’ve traveled, that meant going in other locations. Sometimes that meant going two times in a week because I had to miss a week. But I have felt the fulfillment of those promises in a way that I can’t really articulate, other than to say I believe that President Russell M. Nelson is a Prophet and that those promises are sure. I think nothing has helped me in recent years like more time in the temple.”
Eye.
Elder Holland – August 5, 2024 – Instagram:
- “As a young missionary I had the chance to work with President N. Eldon Tanner for a while. I was driving him to a meeting and he was sound asleep, and out of nowhere he woke up. He just woke up with a snap and he looked over at me and said, ‘Elder Holland, don’t you ever give a talk – don’t you ever give a talk – that you don’t refer to at least one scripture.’ And he went back to sleep. …
“I don’t know whether he was hearing that I hadn’t used a scripture or whether he was just being patient and sensitive with me. But I’ve never forgotten that. And as I look back on his life, I don’t think he ever gave a little talk in Great Britain or anywhere else I heard him that he didn’t refer to at least one scripture. It was often ‘Seek ye [first] the kingdom of God.’ That was his favorite verse. …
“Use the scriptures. Love the scriptures. Have them [be] a part of your heart and your head so that people see where you go. Where do you go for hope? And where do you go for faith?”
Read.
“God Will Support and Preserve Us“, Elder Dale G. Renlund, August 2024 Liahona:
- “In 2004, I visited Elder Maxwell in his hospital room not long before he died. He was so kind to everyone who visited or helped him. Health-care workers went into his room and came out weeping. I said to him, ‘Elder Maxwell, this is really hard.’ He chuckled and said, ‘Oh, Dale, we are eternal beings living in a mortal world. We are out of our element, like fish out of water. It is only when we have an eternal perspective that any of this will make any sense.’
“We should never lose sight of the large composite of our divine nature and eternal destiny and the diabolical forces that oppose us. Correctly understanding Heavenly Father’s plan will motivate us to keep fighting for our eternal salvation and for our freedom from spiritual bondage.”
💡
Instead of releasing two General Conference Applied episodes per week starting the week of Sunday, August 25, 2024, I will instead release one episode on Thursday and one episode on Sunday each week until the October 2024 General Conference.
- Here is the updated podcast episode schedule: General Conference Applied Podcast