This is the second of three posts about Elder Holland's talks in each of three sessions of our stake conference held March 19-20. I've decided to go next to his concluding talk, which included an apostolic blessing ... very special!
"The toughest thing I do is following my wife, the best speaker in the Church."
Elder Holland then went into a discussion of the interaction between Jesus Christ and Peter where Jesus asks Peter once, twice, and a third time: "Do you love me?"
Elder Holland's emphatic description of the message: "If you love me, this is forever. If you didn't get it before, do you get it now? (this following falling asleep at Gethsemane, denying Christ thrice before the cock crowed, and wondering what to do after Christ was gone ... return to fishing? --- answer: feed my sheep, now, tomorrow, every day forever)
"If you love God, nothing else matters. What does this mean in your life. What should it mean in your life. Could it make a difference here and everywhere?
"The things we (as apostles) do is bear testimony and bless.
"To you who love God in the LaVerkin stake, you can bless everyone you meet. (I am blessing you, you can share this blessing with those you meet). This is not of me, this is of the Savior.
"To the men (he included himself),
"I bless us to be worthy
"I bless us to realize the power of the priesthood. There is one order in our church (others have multiple orders) -- the holy priesthood after the order of the Son of God (I felt it was significant that Elder Holland chose in this instance to use the full name of the priesthood rather than the Melchizedek Priesthood used to avoid the too frequent repetition of our Lord's name)
"I bless us to think as Christ thinks and to talk as He talks. Our hearts must be close to Him.
"I bless us that we will honor our priesthood beginning in our marriage and in our home.
"If we need to learn patience to do this, I bless us with patience and any other of the virtues of Christ that we need to do this.
Elder Holland then blessed the women, and noted that the women "have carried the banner from the beginning. Mothers bring us to the church and encourage us to go on missions. Young women encourage us to go on missions." He paid tribute to his wife, "the one star in my heaven that never dims". He quoted the historian Wallace Stegner "The Mormon men were strong, but the Mormon women were incredible,"
He blessed the young people, saying "the brethren spend hours praying about, thinking about the youth." He said the single greatest event in the Book of Mormon involved children (3 Nephi 17).
He blessed with health those who are alone, those who suffer from infirmities of age.
"If some in this room have been away for awhile, I plead for you to come back. Make this conference a reason to come back and feel the hand of the Almighty in your life. Without the light of Christ this is a dark and dreary life.
"Come back. Come back. For your childrens sake, come back."
"To the investigators here. I testify this is the restoration. This is Christ's church. His priesthood. This is true. I didn't give my life to a fairy tale. This is not a cunningly devised fable. This is the truth."
"I love God. I love you. I bless us that every dream will be fulfilled tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousand fold. The Lord wants to bless you."
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So really. What else matters?
Sunday, April 3, 2011
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