Sometime I will have to write out all my thoughts about our Elder’s Quorum Lesson today. For now, suffice it to say that President Eyring came to teach us as I had arranged before being released. He did not talk about the Law of Increasing Returns as I had requested but chose instead to answer questions. It was very enlightening into his personality and into the life of the apostles.
Let me start with my notes of the questions that were asked and the basic answers that were given.
- How do we make sure that when we receive a life-changing prompting that it really is from the Lord and not something that we just want ourselves? (Jeff May) We should be very careful about how we talk and act when we feel that the Lord has revealed something to us. Announcing that it has been revealed to you can cut off the conversation with others. “If it really matters God will give you clarity.” “When it really matters you won’t have to guess.”
- How do we do the best we can when what we are trying to accomplish depends on someone else as well as ourselves? (Denny Daughters – talking about raising his daughter in a way that she will not be adversely affected by his divorce.) Be patient and “if you are sincerely trying to make it work as you say you are the Lord will step in and make it work out the best it can.” (“The best it can” clearly meaning that it may not be the best we can imagine.)
- How do we appreciate Sunday as a day of rest when we are so busy with meetings and assignments? (Jake Perry) Just keep going and it will get better. Things that weren’t attractive to you will become attractive. When you know that it is right you just keep pressing forward even before you have a particular confirmation or before it is pleasant (referring to President Uchtdorf’s “Waiting on the Road to Damascus”).
- What is unique about an apostolic testimony? (Alan Wilbur) “I’ve always been wary of claiming to give an apostolic testimony.” It will mean different things to different apostles but each apostle knows that there is a God, that Christ is the Savior who paid the price for our sins, and that this is His church.
I talked for more than an hour with Laura about our quorum meeting today after I got home from home teaching. I told her how President Eyring had us each introduce ourselves and what we were doing in the church right now (callings). He introduced himself last as “Hal Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency.” I told her how he referenced how differently different members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve saw things based on the various experiences. I came to realize how much each of those apostles operate independently most of the time. They are not as chummy as I had previously imagined them – good friends with a shared bond in Christ.
Of course they do love and respect each other and they do share a special bond with Christ and a special level of responsibility within His kingdom on the earth but President Eyring specifically said that he did not know Elder Bednar very well. Elder Bednar has been an apostle for nearly a decade which goes to show how much they are so busy each operating independently that they do not necessarily get to spend time associating and getting to know each other. They are, in a sense, lonely even with that shared responsibility.
President Eyring said that in the presiding counsels there are those who often talk of things being revealed to them such that they have little ground to discuss the ideas being presented because nobody wants to question a revelation or discount the inspiration of another. He talked about the fact that working with others who have different perspectives sometimes is difficult but that if they are all patient the Lord can soften the heart of one or more of them so that they are able to work together in unity.
When asked about the apostolic witness it was as if he were asking the question I asked him almost three years ago when he last taught in Elder’s Quorum. This time he went into more detail. He said that people have asked if he had ever seen the Savior. He did not answer that question directly but he said clearly that the problem with that question is that it assumes that seeing the Savior would somehow magically make a person’s faith unshakable. He reminded us that there were various people in the early church who did see the Savior and later fell away. He reminded us that the three witnesses all fell away.
Another thing he mentioned was that each apostle has a unique witness even though there are those few basic things that must be common to any apostle’s testimony. He said that at least one of the current members of the twelve had said that he had never felt a burning in his bosom. (I seem to recall Elder Oaks saying that in a talk a few conferences ago.) President Eyring told us that he had felt that. He went into great detail about it as it related to his meeting and marrying his wife. He also said that while we are often told that the voice of the spirit is rarely a voice but generally a feeling, he has heard a voice on various occasions. One related to marrying his wife and another specific example he gave was when he was called to be president of Ricks College. He noted that the voice did not tell him what to do when he was called to lead Ricks, it simply said that “that is My school.” He emphasized that the statement was in the first person and that after hearing that statement it was easy to decide to give up his position at Stanford and take the call to Ricks.
As I talked to Laura this afternoon I found myself wondering how my knowledge of Heavenly Father and Christ and the fact that this is His church has come to be as it is. I can feel that it is qualitatively different that it was a few short years ago and yet I cannot identify why or when it would have changed in that time.
This evening I had a very good interchange with Isaac. Earlier in the afternoon he had told Laura that I had whispered something in his ear contradicting everything we had been telling him. When I was talking to him after bedtime he told me that Laura had whispered something in his ear that was contrary to what he is always told. I told him that “when Mom or I whisper things in your ears it is Satan pretending to be us.” A few seconds later he told me that he had been kidding about Laura whispering in his ear and I told him that kind of teasing was Satan’s kind of teasing. Isaac replied that “Jesus doesn’t tease, only Satan teases.” I thought that was very insightful and I added that Jesus can have fun, but that he does not tease.
A couple of minutes later Isaac lied to me when I asked him about taking care of some dirty clothes. When I caught him in the lie and told him that he had lied to me he countered that he was just teasing. I asked him where teasing came from. He pointed to the ground. I then asked him where lying came from and he again pointed down. I then told him “that’s right, lying and teasing both come from Satan and so lying and teasing are mostly the same thing.”
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