A Night at the Stake Center

So last night I was at the Stake Center ostensibly to see and hear Elder Scott. What I didn't realize was how each and every one of the speakers would touch me.

My Stake President is a really fine man. I have only heard him speak twice now, but I have really enjoyed both times. He clearly speaks from the heart, he truly cares about the membership of his Stake, and he loves his Church a great deal. He spoke on many subjects, but one thing that really amazed me is that as he spoke of Missionary work it was as though he already knew what I was going to say. Without our having talked about it at all, he really put down the foundation upon which my talk could rest. I was touched by what he said and I am quite thankful to have him as my Stake President.

Then I gave my talk as I showed in my previous post.

Next up was one of my Stake Presidents' counselors. This was the same gentleman that conducted my interview for the Melchizedek Priesthood. He spoke of the people that had been brought there that were not members. It was an easy thing to put myself in their shoes because that is where I was not very long ago. His message was a good one and I think it was well received by anyone with an open heart.

Then, someone I had not expected (or known about) at all - a member of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke. He opened his talk in a language I actually did not recognize at all. I was quite impressed as he stated that he was obedient to his wife, that his wife had asked that he deliver a message, that the people that needed to receive the message had received it. Then he proceeded to talk about a great many things. His sincerity was obvious as he shared many stories with us all. One story that really affected me was his transition from asking Missionaries what they had learned each morning in studying the scripture to sharing with them what HE had learned each morning. We can teach so much by example that sometimes I think we forget and end up taking steps to try to force (or coerce) people into doing what we desire of them. The old saying about flies and honey springs to mind. His discussion of the Missionaries reaction to his teaching was good to hear. Another story he told that touched me personally was when he talked about his son speaking. His son reflected to the assembled people that one of the most powerful things that had affected him in his youth was when he would go upstairs and find his Father studying scripture.

Next up was Elder Scott. It was amazing in many many ways to see and hear him. His sense of humor, even in the face of adversity was striking! He had some difficulty with his computer for a while, and he made three or four comments during that time that really surprised me. One was something along the lines of "Switching computers is like meeting a new friend - you need to find common ground". Another was something like "I wish this computer wasn't from Argentina - their computers are masculine. If this computer was feminine, it would be a little more friendly to me." The actual words of his remarks were not as important to me as the very casual way he shared a positive minded thought while he truly struggled with the computer. From where I sat, I could see his actions - somehow the computer was trying to connect to the internet, and also he was in Photoshop. He kept trying to open the document he wanted and it wasn't there. I know Photoshop extremely well, and was just five feet from him. Being a computer person, on the one hand I was extremely tempted to try to help him, but something told me that there was a problem going on that I wouldn't be able to solve. On the one hand, I was thinking that I could look in his recent documents or even do a search of all photoshop files on his computer in an attempt to find what he was looking for. I even thought of searching for image files (like jpeg, tif or gif) in case that was what format his content was in. But again I received a prompting that I didn't know what he needed and I would only further delay his getting to the information he desired. This confused me because I really thought I should be able to help him.

Then, a little later, amid his continuing dialog, and after a computer reboot, he left Photoshop entirely, launched Wordperfect, and found his presentation there. It wasn't IN Photoshop at all. So no matter how many perfect searches I looked up on his computer, no matter how many file types I knew of, no matter HOW WELL I knew Photoshop, I wouldn't have been able to help him one bit.

Then he shared a new way to learn from the scripture. You begin with an establishing statement - something like "I can prepare myself to be closer to the Holy Ghost by". Then, as you read passages of scripture, you find evidence of things people have done or had evidenced to them to accomplish the establishing statement. One example he gave was Enos 1:10: "And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind again, saying: I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments." (Note that while there is more in that verse, what I have written here is all that he showed us on the projector). The moment he asked the question "What do we see here that addresses our foundational statement?" I saw it - the section stating "I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments." I raised my hand, but being behind him, he didn't see me. :) It was great to see an Apostle teach in such an open way, asking questions, having people respond. I think everyone learned more by his way of teaching than if he had simply "told us" what he wanted to say. By going through the steps, going through the motions, showing us by example, we all learned more I think.

Finally, his example of trying to hard to copy scripture notes from someone (I wish I could remember who - I think it was an Apostle, and I think it was while he was a Mission President) really touched me. The person whose scripture notes he was trying to copy (staying up until 4:30am copying them diligently, only getting through as far as Mormon) actually was so impressed that he had someone type up all of his notes. He sent them all to Elder Scott, who, I believe, copied them all into his own scriptures. Then Elder Scott said to us something like "If it was THAT important to them to share the notes they had in their scriptures with a young Mission President, then I decided it was pretty important to read the scripture. And I did, and have continued to."

A large portion of Elder Scott's message last night was about us reading scripture every day. I will certainly be making a great effort to do so.