Elder Oaks visited our Stake Conference last sunday, and here are a few things that struck me. If you were in any of those sessions, or just want to make something up, feel free to add anything that struck you.
“Answer a question you don’t know with something you do know.” Take opportunities to testify to your children and pray with them. This teaches them spirtual self-sufficence.
He emphasized the need for a 3 month storage in the new pamphlet “All is Safely Gathered In”. I dont’ know about you, but 3 months sounds so much more doable than one year…
The church is a “hospital for sinners,” not a “retirement home for the righteous.”
Regarding senior missionary service, he told a story of a couple who served in eastern europe who wrote him to say, ‘We feel more a part of the church here than at home in our High Priest group of 85 where we just argue about nothing.’
Regarding non-member spouses or loved ones he says… “Remeber there is such a thing as spiritual growth outside of this church.” And stated that “patience” and “kindness” were the two greatest attributes that lead to their eventual church membership.
He talked at length about revelation, and shared a few experiences with this common theme: sometimes we need the revelation experience more than we need the revelation itself! This was brilliant to me. I had never considered that a personal revelation might come for the sole purpose of teaching us how to receive revelation, and not that the content of such a revelation is of great importance.
That man has some great stories, and with the shoulder-bouncing laugh, the man is charming. He’s wonderful. 🙂
One of my mission companions totally taught me the concept of revelation just to prove that you can receive it and act on it.
If you felt inspired to go somewhere and no one was home she called them “Knocks of Faith”. And that maybe Christ was on the other side of the door just to test you. And she would go “BEEEEEP this was only a test. If this had been an actual opportunity someone would have answered the door. Thank you!”
One of my fave teachings from Sunday was his quote from President Packer “It’s better to be a mile from hell headed away from it than 100 miles away headed towards it.”
I know your blog is about Elder Oaks, but I also liked Elder Fluckiger’s comments about the difference between receiving an earthly gift versus a heavenly gift and what do heavenly gifts mean to you and what do they require to receive them. Pretty thought provoking.
I loved everything he said! Sam, you really hit on a few of my favorite parts. And Alison, I also have been describing him by referencing his fabulous shoulder-bouncing laugh! What a jolly man! He really made this conference extra-special.
I really liked what Elder Oaks said about revelation too. He also said this that struck me: “We don’t know how long the game will last or what the final score will be but we do know what team wins.” As the kind of person who likes to read the last page first, this is extremely comforting to me.
And did I tell you I got to shake his hand? Why do we get so excited about that? I don’t know, anyways, I didn’t seek him out to shake his hand or anything, but I was talking to Erica and then turned around and he was just there. He’s one of my favorite apostles, so of course it showed on my face and I think my over-excitement startled him a bit. Sometimes I like to imagine that I’ll say something profound to an apostle that they will later reference in a general conference address, but all that ever comes out (it’s only ever happened twice), is “Hi”.
And I just really enjoyed seeing him laugh and crack himself up. It made me feel connected to him on a personal level and therefore everything he said meant more to me. I loved every minute of it.