Board Week -- 27 May 2013

No way. This transfer is almost over.

We worked hard this week. The area is struggling to be alive, but, I can feel something coming. A lot of something coming. Something wonderful.

The one experience that I really want to hit on happened early in the week. We had a lesson cancel on us, but we got a call shortly after the cancellation from the sister missionaries asking us if we were available "right now" to give a priesthood blessing. Well, of course we were, our appointment had just canceled. We rushed over, and met someone named M (and a few others, don't worry). She was feeling distanced from God, she felt He was very far away and she didn't know if He was really there. So, we took the opportunity to teach her about Henry B. Eyring's talk from October 2012

"In the depths of his anguish in Liberty Jail, the Prophet Joseph Smith cried out: “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?”¹ Many of us, in moments of personal anguish, feel that God is far from us. The pavilion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God but occasionally covers us. God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”² create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time.

"Our feelings of separation from God will diminish as we become more childlike before Him. That is not easy in a world where the opinions of other human beings can have such an effect on our motives. But it will help us recognize this truth: God is close to us and aware of us and never hides from His faithful children."

We in essence taught her these things, testified of truth and then gave her a blessing. When you give a priesthood blessing by the spirit, it feels like you are just watching it happen, and someone else is really doing the talking. You feel such incredible love for the one you are helping and your soul burns with the power of the spirit. Tears were flowing from my eyes and from hers as the blessing concluded and I knew that the Lord had touched her. Shortly after, we left. And she committed to come to church. I don't know if she did, but it is undeniable that the Lord touched her.

The priesthood is powerful. It is real. I know it works. I have felt it. Tad R. Callister related the following story in the April 2013 General Conference:

"In 1878 my great-grandfather George F. Richards was 17 years of age. As was sometimes the case in those days, he had already been ordained an elder. One Sunday his mother was groaning in intense pain. As his father was not available, the bishop and several others were invited to give her a blessing, but no relief came. Accordingly, she turned to her son George and asked him to lay hands on her head. He wrote in his diary, “In the midst of my tears for my mother’s suffering and the task of performing an administration such as I had never yet done, I retired to another room where I wept and prayed.”

"When he became composed, he laid his hands on her and gave her a very simple blessing. He later noted, “My mother ceased her groaning and received relief from her suffering while my hands were yet on her head.” He then recorded in his diary this most insightful observation. He said he had always felt that the reason his mother did not get relief from the bishop’s blessing was not because the Lord failed to honor the bishop’s blessing but because the Lord had reserved this blessing for a boy, to teach him a lesson that the priesthood in the boy is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man when exercised in righteousness."

Priesthood power is real, and it will work for all who live righteously and seek to magnify it. 

I know this Gospel is true. I love you all so much. Have an amazing week.

Peace, love and temple marriage. In that order.

Elder Taylor J. Hill