Saturday night we had a most wonderful experience to be able to attend the special fireside for the YSA in 24 stakes given by Elder and Sister Bednar and Elder Snow of the Seventy! It was held at the Red Mountain Institute Building and it was packed and overflowing with people! All the classrooms were full and people were out in the halls! They were also overflowing in the McDowel building! That's how much everyone wanted to be there! It was amazing! You can imagine the noise level as everyone was visiting - happy to see each other, catch up on news, etc. At 5:45 Pres. Whimpey (sp?) asked everyone to please be seated and to stop talking and listen to the prelude so they could prepare themselves to listen to Elder Bednar and invite the spirit. It was the most amazing experience to hear silence! To ponder and then have the spirit wash over you before the meeting even began! That's what I yearn for! I want that to happen before Sacrament meeting! And I know it can happen because I experienced it! It was a wonderful night! We laughed and cried and shared. He opened it up to questions from the "kids". He prophesied that they would be guided by the spirit and that everyone would hear and feel the things they needed to by the spirit. Question were asked and answered, then he asked them to report back what they saw in this process and what they learned. Just a few things I learned - When we pray for guidence and inspiration, with faith, we should then press forward and not just stand still and wait. When we move forward we'll find that our steps have been guided, that we receive that inspiration. (Of course when we've been praying for something, we've been studying it out in our mind, weighing the pros and cons and if we're in tune with the spirit, our thinking, our feelings, our desires are guided as well I believe.) It was nice to be reminded that we need to ACT - faith without works is dead! I also learned something new. He talked about the tree of life in Lehi's vision. I had never thought of it this way - he said that the tree represents Christ and that the fruit represents the blessings of the atonement. He talked about how he received his witness that Jesus was the Savior long before his call to be an apostle - that it was independent of anyone elses testimony and that it transcends the five senses. Very powerful! I just looked up the word "transcend". It means: 1. go beyond limit: to go beyond a limit or range, e.g. of thought or belief 2. surpass something: to go beyond something in quality or achievement 3. be independent of world: to exist above and apart from the material world. I like to look up words sometimes to see what they really mean - not that I don't know what they mean, but it helps to actually see the definitions and helps me to better understand what is meant. He is a very powerful witness of Jesus Christ - you can feel his love for Him and the Holy Ghost tells you what he's saying is true. He also said that when we are truly converted we will "consistently" live true to the testimony or knowledge we have - in other words we are free of contradiction, or we are able to maintain a particular standard. And also when we are truly converted we will be willing to open our mouth and tell others! He told us "Don't you dare be afraid," move forward, plan for the future. He told us we were a very spoiled generation and we needed to learn to live more providently, frugal, simple. Someone asked her what quality she liked in Elder Bednar before he was her husband. She said it was the way he honored his priesthood. They were in a university ward together and she saw him pass the Sacrament with the right attitude, not like some of the men who felt it was beneath them to do what a deacon should be doing. He was asked who has had the most influence in his life and why, and he said "My wife" and she popped up and teasingly said, "And why?" It was very funny! He said he always wants to be a "good boy" and doesn't want to dissappoint her. She makes him want to be a better man. Isn't that true about our spouses? I think everyone that went heard something they needed to hear. The spirit was there and felt by everyone who wanted to feel it. It was so neat to see so many young people with hope, goodness and truth shining in their faces. He (they) taught by the spirit and we learned by the spirit. And even though he taught us that we don't need an apostle of the Lord to learn these things, it was still great to sit at his feet and learn them! He left an apostolic blessing in the form of the words to the closing song. He asked us to sing with real intent, to pay attention to the words for this was the blessing he was leaving on us. He also asked us to sing the last verse twice. We then sang "How Firm a Foundation" verses 1 - 3 and verse 7 (two times) which is my most favorite hymn and verse in the book. What an amazing experience! It's hard to describe the witness you received as you sang! What a powerful blessing! Then Clinton (my baby boy!) gave the closing prayer! How would you like to give the closing prayer after an experience like that? He gave a sweet, powerful prayer of thanks. And when he was done, he got to shake hands and even get a hug from Elder Bednar! How exciting and wonderful that was! I can't wait to see some blogs from people who went, to read their experiences! We talked all night and yesterday about it. And we'll continue to talk about it! It was wonderful - magnificent, superb, breathtaking, amazing, astonishing, fantastic, marvelous, delightful, pleasing, great, brilliant, perfect, ideal!
