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Conference this year was a new experience

• Watching with in-laws
• Reminded me a lot of watching it as a kid all huddled around the TV listening to the prophet speak, although growing up we never had a 52" tv

My Comments come from Elder Terence M Vinson's talk "Drawing Closer to God"

A young boy was trying to smooth out the dirt area behind his house so he could play there with his cars. There was a large rock obstructing his work. The boy pushed and pulled with all his might, but no matter how hard he tried, the rock wouldn’t budge.

His father watched for a while, then came to his son and said, “You need to use all your strength to move a rock this large.”

The boy responded, “I have used all my strength!”

His father corrected him: “No you haven’t. You haven’t had my help yet!”

They then bent down together and moved the rock easily.

How often are we the same way? How often do we try to just go it on our own

How do we draw closer to god?

• In no particular order here are some things I pulled from Elder Vinson's talk with a few thoughts of my own.

Serve god

• Mosiah said

  For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?
  --Mosiah 5:13

• One of my favorite hymns is a perfect example of service

  A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief

  1. A poor, wayfaring Man of grief
     Hath often crossed me on my way,
     Who sued so humbly for relief
     That I could never answer nay.
     I had not pow'r to ask his name,
     Whereto he went, or whence he came;
     Yet there was something in his eye
     That won my love; I knew not why.

  2. Once, when my scanty meal was spread,
     He entered; not a word he spake,
     Just perishing for want of bread.
     I gave him all; he blessed it, brake,
     And ate, but gave me part again.
     Mine was an angel's portion then,
     For while I fed with eager haste,
     The crust was manna to my taste.

  3. In pris'n I saw him next, condemned
     To meet a traitor's doom at morn.
     The tide of lying tongues I stemmed,
     And honored him 'mid shame and scorn.
     My friendship's utmost zeal to try,
     He asked if I for him would die.
     The flesh was weak; my blood ran chill,
     But my free spirit cried, "I will!"

  4. Then in a moment to my view
     The stranger started from disguise.
     The tokens in his hands I knew;
     The Savior stood before mine eyes.
     He spake, and my poor name he named,
     "Of me thou hast not been ashamed.
     These deeds shall thy memorial be;
     Fear not, thou didst them unto me."

• In the end it is not who we serve, but how. Do we serve with all of our heart might mind and strength? Or do we just skate by with the minimum.
  • It is when we give our all, that the service no longer becomes a burden, and we find instead the ultimate reward

Pray

• Joseph Smith as a young man wanted to know which church was true
  • He studied, researched, and listened…

    If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
    But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
    --James 1:5-6

  • He took this guidance and went out to a quite place on his own and prayed. In his own words…

    At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

    So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

    After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.
    …
    I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

    It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
    --JS History 1:13-17

• I do not have much of a long term memory, and have few memories of my childhood
  • However one of the few things I do remember was one evening after hearing the story of Joseph Smith kneeling in my bed praying
  • I was hoping for something grand and glorious like JS got, however what I got was even better for me
  • It felt like a warm blanket wrapping me up, and from then on there was one thing I have always known, God knew who I was and that he loved me.
• However as I have gotten older and started asking for "bigger" things I started to feel that my prayers were unanswered.
  • I am not much of a country fan, however one song I do like, always reminds me that it is not that the prayer is unanswered, it is just that we are not praying for the right thing, and or not listening for the right answer.

    Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
    Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
    That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
    Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
    --Garth Brooks

Read scriptures

• One of the best ways to get answers to our prayers is through reading the scriptures

  Have you ever heard the old saying that people who get lost tend to walk in circles?
  Jan L. Souman, a German psychologist, wanted to determine scientifically if this was true. He took participants of an experiment to a large forest area and to the Sahara desert and used a global positioning system to track where they went. They had no compass or any other device. Instructions to them were simple: walk in a straight line in the direction indicated. Dr. Souman later described what happened. “[Some] of them walked on a cloudy day, with the sun hidden behind the clouds [and with no reference points in view]. . . . [They] all walked in circles, with [several] of them repeatedly crossing their own path without noticing it.” Other participants walked while the sun was shining, with faraway reference points in view. “These . . . followed an almost perfectly straight course.”
  --President Uchtdorf, June 2013 ensign

• How often do you find yourself walking in circles.
  • Reading scriptures is always a challenge, so many other things to do and needing to be done
  • Does not need to be a huge amount every day, in fact the times I personally tend to do best is when I focus on just 5-10 minutes, or even just one page a day

Remember to follow his commandments

• From the talk

  Our son Ben, when he was 16 and speaking in stake conference, asked the question, “How would you feel if someone promised you something every week and never kept the promise?” He continued, “Do we take seriously the promise we make when we partake of the sacrament and covenant to keep His commandments and always remember Him?”
  Elder Vinson

• I am sure you have had many experiences something like what I run into at work all the time.
  • "really you do not drink???" or something else like that, We are a very strange and peculiar people!
  • This opens up many an opportunity to explain a little about my faith and share a little bit about why. Rarely go into details, but people still know
  • Highschool service in the library
    • Volunteered there for 3 years, every week
    • Never anything huge, just little things, but it was noticed
    • Years later as I was coming home from my mission I got a letter from one of the ladies I worked with. She had been a member and gone inactive. It was through my example of serving and following commandments that she was reactivated and her husband baptized.

Endure to the end

• While we endure though remember that we are not alone
  • C.S. Lewis “I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless it is good for us to wait.
  • This does not mean that waiting is fun!
  • Joseph Smith expressed his angst of having to wait:

    O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?
    My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
    --D&C 121:1 & 7

• For me the hardest wait of my life was the one to find Shawna
  • There were several other possibilities I could have taken.
    • Married someone who was untrue to her temple covenants
    • Given up and not not tried to get married, I was very close but decided to stick it out
  • In the end I am glad I found some patience and endured to find her.

In closing Elder Vinson said:

He is always near, especially in sacred places and in times of need; and sometimes, when I least expect, I feel almost like He taps me on the shoulder to let me know He loves me. I can return that love in my own imperfect way by giving Him my heart

I leave this as my testimony, As we draw closer to him, he will draw closer to us and we will be able to better feel of his ever eternal love for each of us.