Be Ready and Be There

This weekend, Dustin and I went to Bear Lake. His parents were at his grandparents lake house for memorial day to tie together loose ends with the siblings, etc. (Both of Dustin's grandparents died this last year). We went to spend time with them, and to see his grandparents grave. On Sunday, we went to church in Laketown which is a tiny little town right by bear lake. There is only one ward in LakeTown, but they hold two sacrament meetings during holidays and all summer because of all the visitors. We were sitting in the overflow area with the video screen because of all the visitors. When the bishop got up to open the meeting he casually said, "We would like to recognize Elder Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles on the stand. He will be presiding at our meeting today." Dustin and I looked at each other and Dustin said, "Let's go find a seat in the chapel." We went and sure enough there were some seats left. It was neat to be there, and hear from Elder Cook, and shake his hand afterwards. Spencer was really excited about the experience and when we got home, he wanted to "use some tape" and put his picture of the apostles on his wall right by his bed. He even pointed out Elder Cook to us without any help. It was neat.

I learned a couple of lessons from this little experience. First, I felt different being in a sacrament meeting with an Apostle. I wanted to be more reverent and listen better, and realized I need to be that way every week. I was reminded of the importance of sacrament meeting, and wanted to be more prepared for the meeting.

Next, I was impressed by the Spirit that our experience related to the parable of the ten virgins. We were the only members of the family that went to church that day. We didn't expect to be able to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. I have always associated the parable of the ten virgins with being ready, and not being there. I realized that being there is part of being ready. Be ready when He comes, and Be where He is. It is like the righteous Nephites who were around the temple when the Savior came. Dustin reminded me that it was like mom always says, "Just be where you are supposed to be." Who will be there next time? It was a good experience for me.

Elder Cook talked about taking a group of the top leaders of Evangelical faiths through the Oquirreh Mountain Temple Open House. He said that is was an eye opening experience for their leaders because they were able to understand better our Faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said that one of their greatest criticisms of our church is that we only focus on works and neglect the great sacrifice of the Savior. He said they also feel that because we don't display crosses, we neglect the suffering of the Savior on the cross and only focus on the Garden of Gethsemene. He made mention of Elder Holland's talk from April conference and that it so beautifully teaches that we do indeed remember and recognize the Savior's full Atonement including His suffering on the cross. He said that there are terrible things that take place in our world, abused children, etc., but that because of what the Savior did, He can and does stand as our advocate with the Father. This helped me understand that being our advocate is more than just releasing us from our sins when we repent. He is our advocate in our suffering, in judgement, etc. It was a sweet message. I am going to post two different "Mormon Messages" videos that we watched tonight for Home Evening.

By the way, there is a Mormon Messages channel on YouTube and the videos are awesome! One of the comments on Elder Hollands video was from a woman who said something like "Thank you, I no longer feel alone." Then in parenthesis she wrote, "Is he really and apostle?" He is!! It is amazing!
Love you all!