Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Listening to the Spirit

Since moving to Virginia (Aug 2007), I have been listening to General Conference talks on my iPod on my way to work. Because my commute is sometimes more than an hour each way, I've listened to the same talks many times. To mix things up, I recently decided to download last conference in Spanish. I will admit the reason was not so I could get more out of conference, but rather so I could brush up on Spanish.

What happened was that I really had to listen to the words very carefully to catch their meaning. I had to "open my ears." As I did that, the Spirit touched my heart as these great men and women of the Lord testified of Him and His gospel. Even though I had heard it all many times before, my testimony was renewed.

This small experience reinforced in my mind the importance of really listening to the Lord's voice in the scriptures, at church, and during General Conference. Doing so, I think, can renew our testimonies each day and keep the fire burning strong so that we can have, as President Eyring has taught, "more than a memory of the moment when the Spirit whispered to [our] minds and hearts that God lived, that Jesus was the Christ, and that Joseph was their prophet." (Elder Eyring, An Enduring Testimony of the Mission of the Prophet Joseph, Ensign, Nov. 2003)

I have felt especially blessed this last week to have been born in the gospel as they say. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and know it's true. I know there are prophets and apostle on the earth today. I hope I can follow them, even as they point away from themselves and toward the Savior whom they serve.

2 comments:

Sally said...

You are so sweet, brother! I miss you! I thought of you the other day when we took the kids to see the Joseph Smith movie...I cried so hard I had to cover my mouth, I thought I was going to sob out loud uncontrollably! I am doing a post about that later.

Autumn said...

You have such a good heart.