CC #20 (Holland - Motions of a Hidden Fire)

The speaker talks about the importance of having a living prophet and the impact of listening to and applying the Lord's teachings through them. They share their personal experience of watching a conference session and discuss Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk. They highlight his sense of humor, his love for his wife, and his near-death experience. The speaker also discusses Elder Holland's teachings on prayer, including the power of group prayer, God hearing and answering every prayer according to His plan, and prayers not always being answered in the way we hope. Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have a living prophet today. Brothers and sisters, the Savior declared, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. Welcome to Conference Chronicles, where we systematically take one conference talk per week from the previous conference and dissect it and learn from it. I'm your host, Taylor Lithgow, and I firmly believe that as we listen to and apply the Lord's teachings through His living prophets, we will fulfill the full measure of our creation and we will be prepared for the Lord at His second coming. So please join with me each week as we take this quest called Conference Chronicles. Hey, brothers and sisters, and welcome on in to this week's episode of Conference Chronicles. We just had an amazing, beautiful general conference weekend last weekend, last Saturday and Sunday. I will say, I thought I was going to miss the whole conference. I was traveling to southern Utah, St. George, on a work trip, and we had things lined up for all day on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. and ending late into the night, around 10 or 11 at night. It just so happened that the schedule that we had planned for the morning time kind of fell through and fizzled out. And so we had the wonderful opportunity, me and Cassidy and my friend Alex, you've heard from him before on some of the Discuss With Friends episodes. We got to watch conference on Saturday morning, the Saturday morning session. We missed the rest of the sessions on Saturday because of the plans that we had had on our work trip, but then we got to listen to almost all of Sunday. I think maybe we missed one or two talks. We were driving home back to California from St. George, and we got to listen to all the talks as we drove. And I am just so grateful that I was able to tune in live to the talks that I was able to because that Saturday morning session was so impactful to me, and I'm sure I'll talk more about it, you know, as the weeks go on. But the opening speaker, as we all know, was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He had missed the last couple of General Conference sessions due to health concerns, and he talked a lot about those health concerns and many more things. So I'm kind of excited to dive in and discuss his talk. The title of his talk is Motions of a Hidden Fire, and I'll start by just pointing out a few observations that I picked up on. First of all, he always has a great sense of humor. He started his talk by saying, you know, I learned a tough lesson that if you don't give an acceptable talk, you could be banned for a few conferences. He's like, you know, you see me up here, I'm the first speaker to go, but what you don't see is that I'm standing on a trap door with a very delicate latch, he says. And he's like, you know, if this talk doesn't go well, you might not see me for a few other conferences. So he started with some humor, and that was great to see. The other thing I picked up on is his countenance seemed very bright and almost fiery, like his talk. His talk is Motions of a Hidden Fire. He seemed bright. His eyes seemed like they were glowing, and the tone and content of his talk certainly followed the same tone as his countenance. The other thing I noticed that I'm sure all of you picked up on as well is Elder Holland kind of put a timetable to his life. He made this comment, against the backdrop of Christ's victory over death and his recent gift to me of a few more weeks or months in mortality. He said that Christ gifted him a few more weeks or months in mortality. If I'm reading this literally, my guess is that will mean he won't live for any more than 23 more months. And maybe you read it differently than that, but he didn't say years in mortality. I would say that 23 months still falls under the month category, if we're taking this literally. But the spirit of it kind of felt shorter than that, even. Less than a year is kind of the feeling that I got as he said that. But it is interesting to me that he seems to have a pretty good idea on how much longer the Lord needs him in mortality before he can join with his wife. And that brings me to the next observation that I noticed, and this was very clear. Just how much Elder Holland loves his wife and how much he misses her. He said this, The most personal and painful of all these recent experiences has been the passing of my beloved wife. She was the greatest woman I have ever known, a perfect wife and mother, to say nothing of her purity, her gift of expression, her spirituality. She gave a talk once titled, Fulfilling the Measure of Your Creation. It seems to me that she fulfilled the measure of her creation more successfully than anyone could have dreamed possible. She was a complete daughter of God, an exemplary woman of Christ. I was the most fortunate of men to spend sixty years of my life with her. Should I prove worthy? Our sealing means I can spend eternity with her. What a sweet message. I even get a lump in my throat right now as I read it. The way he talks about Pat is quite amazing, and I believe that he believes every word. Another thing I will highlight is the out of body, near death experience that Elder Holland shared with us. He said, Another experience began about forty-eight hours after my wife's burial. At that time, I was rushed to the hospital in an acute medical crisis. I spent the first four weeks of a six-week stay in and out of intensive care and in and out of consciousness. Virtually all my experience in the hospital during that first period is lost to my memory. What is not lost is my memory of a journey outside the hospital, out to what seemed the edge of eternity. I cannot speak fully of that experience here, but I can say that part of what I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word. I couldn't help but feel I was receiving my own personal version of a revelation given to the twelve nearly two hundred years ago. Thou shalt bear record of my name, and send forth my word unto the ends of the earth, morning by morning, and day after day let thy warning voice go forth, and when the night cometh, let not the inhabitants of the earth slumber because of thy speech. Arise, take up your cross, and follow me. The first thing I'll say is I feel very special that Elder Holland shared even a small portion of his experience at what he described as the edge of eternity. It sounds to me like he essentially died, or somewhat died. He definitely wasn't present in his mortal body, and he experienced, from what I can tell, many incredible spiritual experiences of which he does not share many with us, but gives us a general idea of what the Savior instructed him to do when he returned back to mortality. The other thing I'll point out is he said that he felt like he was receiving his own personal version of a revelation given to the twelve nearly two hundred years ago. Well, the verses that he quoted from Doctrine and Covenants are the Savior speaking. This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, Thou shalt bear record of my name, Savior speaking. He says, Arise, take up your cross, and follow me. If you pair this with what I already quoted from earlier when Elder Holland said that Christ gifted him a few more weeks or months in mortality, I think it's clear here that Elder Holland was greeted by the Lord Jesus Christ, that he conversed with him. And I want to share a brief testimony here that I know that we are led by prophets, seers, and revelators, men who are special witnesses of Jesus Christ on the earth, and oh how grateful I am for this truth. Elder Holland then spends pretty much the rest of his talk teaching us about prayer. Here are a few of the truths that I gathered from what he taught us about prayer. He taught us that there is power in group prayer. He expressed how grateful he was for the whole church fasting and praying for him and his beloved wife, Pat. He explains that he felt the power of these prayers. The other truth that I gleaned is that God hears every prayer. Elder Holland said, I testify that God hears every prayer we offer and responds to each of them according to the path he has outlined for our perfection. Interesting. So God has a path in his mind for us so that we can become perfected through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Every time we pray, he hears those prayers and he responds to each of them according to that path that will help us become perfected. That second truth is that God hears every prayer. The next truth that I picked up on from Elder Holland about prayer is that God answers all our prayers, even if they are not the exact answers we were hoping for. This kind of goes in line with the last truth that I just shared, but I'll also share this quote from Elder Holland. It is for reasons known only to God why prayers are answered differently than we hope, but I promise you they are heard and they are answered according to his unfailing love and cosmic timetable. According to his unfailing love and cosmic timetable. We all know this. Prayers are not answered on our time. Time is really a lot more arbitrary than we think it is. We measure time on this earth and the way God measures time is way different than the way we measure it. So it's important to point out here that Elder Holland was praying that his wife, Pat, would receive her health and continue to live in mortality. He made it clear that his prayers for his wife, Pat, were not answered in the way that he wanted. And I think that says something, right? He's an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and even his prayers are not answered in the way that he wanted them to be answered. But Heavenly Father knows better. He had a different plan for Pat, his wife. He knew what was next on her path to perfection, as we talked about earlier, and that's what ended up happening. The other truth that I picked up on is that we ought to pray always as the scriptures direct. The other truth is that if we're ever feeling like we don't want to pray or don't need to pray, those thoughts are not coming from Heavenly Father. Elder Holland says this, If there be any time we feel not to pray, we can be sure that hesitancy does not come from God, who yearns to communicate with his children at any and all times. Indeed, some efforts to keep us from praying come directly from the adversary. That was a good reminder that the command is to pray always. And if I don't feel like it, it's most likely not coming from God. It's not coming from God. The last truth about prayer that I'll talk about here is that when it comes to prayer, our Savior Jesus Christ set the perfect example. Of course he did. He sets the perfect example in all things. And Elder Holland asks a couple times in a couple different ways, You know, if Jesus was perfect, why did he need to pray? Or at one point he says that the scripture says that he prays more earnestly. Wouldn't it be implied or assumed that all of his prayers were earnest? How could he have prayed more earnestly? For me, when I heard this, I immediately thought, well, the Savior learned line upon line, precept upon precept, like we all do. The other thing I thought of is that if Jesus did not pray, perhaps he would not have been perfect. Kind of like when he was baptized, right? He did not need to be cleansed from sin, for he had none. But he did need to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Those are some of the thoughts I had on Elder Holland's question. But coming back to the Savior setting the perfect example with prayer, I'll quote again from Elder Holland. He says, Time after time, he, the Savior, retreated from society to be alone before piercing heaven with his prayers. At other times he prayed in the company of a few companions. Then he would seek heaven on behalf of multitudes who would cover a hillside. Sometimes prayer glorified his clothing. Sometimes it glorified his countenance. Sometimes he stood to pray. Sometimes he knelt. And at least once he fell on his face in prayer. Oh how grateful I am for Jesus Christ and his perfect life and his atoning sacrifice for me as he fell on his face and suffered in the garden and then suffered again on the cross. The last thing that I will talk about in this episode is just the overarching feeling I had throughout all of Elder Holland's talk. I don't know about you guys, but I couldn't help but ask myself over and over again, what if I were called home today, right now? What if the Savior came again right now? Is there anything that I wished I would have done differently? Is there anything I could have done to be more prepared for that moment? I was asking myself this question over and over again and I'll ask it to you now. If you were called home right now or if the Savior came again right now, is there anything you wish you would have done differently? Would you do anything to be better prepared for that moment? So for me, the answer that kept coming into my mind as Elder Holland spoke is, I need to serve in the temple more. I need to get myself to the holy temple more often, more frequently. And it was quite amazing what happened after that. I don't know if you guys noticed this, maybe it was just me and it was just what I needed to hear, but there seemed to be so many talks after Elder Holland's in this conference about the temple, about temple service. Even our prophet, President Nelson, the last talk of conference on Sunday extended a very powerful admonition to serve in the temple more frequently. But even the next few talks, I'll say this, on that Saturday morning session, so Sister Annette Dennis spoke immediately after Elder Holland and she talked about covenants and our garments and the temple and the symbolism in the temple and how we learn about the Savior. And then two talks after that, Elder Ulysses Suarez gives a talk about the temple. And as I was listening to Elder Suarez's talk, I felt like I was on fire. I felt so strongly that I need to serve in the temple and I thought, perhaps I should ask my bishop to be a temple worker. I know that that's not completely his decision or my decision, I need to receive an interview with the temple president before that would happen. But I texted him immediately that day saying, hey, can I meet with you about possibly being a temple worker? And I actually have an appointment scheduled with him for this upcoming Sunday, well actually the day that this episode's being released. So today, in your guys' eyes, today I have an appointment with my bishop. So in summary, for me, what I received is that what I ought to be doing to be better prepared is I need to serve in the temple more. So I'll extend that same invitation to everyone listening that I strongly believe that the Lord wants us in his house more so he can come closer to us, so he can teach us about him and about his gospel. I bear my testimony that we are led by the Lord through his living prophets and apostles. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I close this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you for tuning in to this First Conference Chronicles episode after the April 2024 General Conference. Next episode will be the talk by Sister J. Annette Dennis entitled, Put Ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. I look forward to next week. Have a wonderful week, you guys, and I'll talk with you soon. Bye-bye.