I had an amazingly awesome week! The highlight was definitely listening to Elder Bednar
and his wife speak at a stake conference this weekend. Wow! It was one of those powerful, spirit-took-over-the-building experiences. I even got to shake his hand. Elder Bednar is totally cool. He is so down to earth and blunt about things. He said this was his only chance to speak to us so he didn't have time to beat around the bush. He talked about agency and said that it isn't free agency and we should never call it that and that the scriptures never refer to free agency. It is always "moral agency". He said that if we look up agency in the Oxford English Dictionary that traces how a word has changed over time and go back to 1830, we will find that the word "choice" was not a part of that definition. He said, "You might say that (Bruce R. Mconckie?) referred to free agency in his book in 1956, and I would say, yes, but this is not 1956, this is 2008 and we have more light and knowledge now. The gospel is line upon line, precept upon precept. The doctrine doesn't change, there is just more clarification. Moral agency is not freedom to do whatever you want. It never has been that. Moral agency is the freedom to follow the commandments and keep covenants. It has never been about anything more than that.
He talked about "personal commandments". Ones that are just for us that don't apply to everyone. He quoted a scripture that said when we are crowned with glory we will have commandments not a few. He said if we are keeping commandments with a begrudging heart we are not worthy of being crowned with glory. We need to keep commandments with a joyful heart. We need to be open to the whisperings of the spirit so that we hear the personal commandments because that is the way to joy. I decided in my heart that I would seek out Father's will and follow it with joy even if it meant a sacrifice on my part of what I think is a fun, good life. I don't want a fun good life at the expense of better things. I want to do whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do. Elder Bednar talked about how our will is really the only thing we can give to Christ. I want to give it fully.
He talked about the plan of salvation and he said that many people think that there were two plans presented, one was Satan's plan and the other was Christ's. He said that wasn't scripturally accurate. There was always only one plan and it was created and presented by Heavenly Father. Jesus said, here am I, send me. Then Lucifer said here am I send me, but with a big but. He said we often think that Satan's goal was to get all of us back to Heavenly Father but it wasn't. He said Satan never cared about the welfare of any of us. He was always only in it for himself. Jesus was willing to offer himself as an infinite and eternal sacrifice to atone for our sins so that we could have moral agency. But Lucifer wanted to do away with moral agency because without moral agency there would be no need for an atonement and Lucifer would get the Father's glory without having to do anything to earn it. Elder Bednar said it was the first something for nothing scam. He asked us to think of how gullible we are when it comes to such scams on earth. He said 1/3 of Father's children bought into the scam. Scams like that never work. They don't work financially, emotionally, interpersonally, physically. If we want something we have to pay the price to get it.
He talked about how some parents are so sold on the idea of free agency that they stand around with their hands up and say, "I hope my son chooses to go on a mission. But if he doesn't what can I do? I can't force him." But that is ridiculous. Those parents are in serious danger of losing their children. Because Lucifer certainly isn't standing by with his hands in the air hoping that we will choose evil. So if we are going to combat those forces that are working on us and our children, we need to work just as hard as Satan does to entice, encourage, motivate, nurture, guide, etc. them into the right path. We do not force or coerce, but we do everything good in our power to help direct out children in paths of righteousness.
He talked about how we are in hard times, but hard times are relative. They mean different things to different people in different places. He talked about a lesson on fasting that he heard given by a woman in Africa. It was in a country where people aren't starving but it is normal for them to be hungry. Often they only have one meal a day. So the woman giving the lesson said that fasting is not just going without food because they do that all the time. Fasting is choosing not to eat when you have food available to eat. So they would go for three days without eating in order to fast two meals and they would do it without batting an eye. And we think we are in troubled times. Elder Bednar said we are the wealthiest of the wealthy. Troubled times are relative he said. We think high gas prices are troubled times and we don't really know what troubled times are. He said that no matter what kind of troubled times we face we can make it in the strength of the Lord.
He talked about the strength of the Lord, similar to another talk I have heard from him. He said we need to pray for strength to overcome our trials. Saying, I would like this trial to be removed and if it is Thy will please remove it, but if it isn't Thy will to remove it give me strength to bear it. He said if we pray with that attitude amazing things will happen. He counseled us to search the Book of Mormon and find all the times it says "in the strength of the Lord".
He gave an apostolic blessing that said as we do what he asked us to do by searching out the times in the Book of Mormon that say "in the strength of the Lord", we will hear things we haven't heard before, we will see things we haven't seen before, we will understand things we haven't understood before. He blessed us that if we face troubled times that we will be given strength to overcome them and that we will have the knowledge and the confidence that God will be with us and strengthen us and give us the power to make it through these times. He blessed us with other things but I can't remember them right now. But it was a very powerful blessing. I had tears in my heart. It felt so personal and powerful. I was very grateful to be there. When Elder Holland spoke in our stake conference 5 years ago he said that an apostolic blessing has the same power as if he was individually putting his hands on the head of each member of the audience. I felt that from Elder Holland and I definitely felt that from Elder Bednar. I was so lucky to be there. I was planning on going to my friends birthday Prom with a guy friend of mine. At the last minute he told me that he was going to have to miss out on Elder Bednar speaking at his Saturday evening session of stake conference. When he told me about it I decided to skip out on the Prom and go to the stake conference with him instead. I am so glad I did. It was incredible. And to think. . . we almost both missed it. I hope my friend will forgive me for missing her prom.
Then another wonderful thing that happened this week is that I found a GREAT hairstylist. I've been searching for a good stylist for the past 6 years since my old one moved away. So I was super happy to find one that I am pretty sure I will love. It's a guy and I've never been to a guy stylist before but I am happily converted. He is way cool. And his dad is my favorite obgyn. So he is practically like family. He is even the same age as me. It's like destiny has brought us together. (Settle down, I'm not talking in a romantic way, he is happily married and I'm not attracted to him that way.)
The only bad thing of this week is that not much homework happened (again). I am going to be up at a very early hour tomorrow to finish some major assignments. Now I've put unnecessary strain and stress on myself by procrastinating. But I do pretty well under pressure so I am hoping it will all work out.
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