[October General Conference quotes]

Updated General Conference quotes for our hallway bulletin board.

bulletin board

original bulletin board post

[let the Holy Spirit guide]

A story about following the promptings of The Holy Spirit. This was told by Elder Thomas S. Monson at the April 1985 General Conference. So many stories are shared about him following promptings and blessing countless lives because of it.

As a bishop, I worried about any members who were inactive, not attending, not serving. Such was my thought as I drove down the street where Ben and Emily lived. They were older—even in the twilight period of life. Aches and pains of advancing years caused them to withdraw from activity to the shelter of their home—isolated, detached, shut out from the mainstream of daily life and association.

I felt the unmistakable prompting to park my car and visit Ben and Emily, even though I was on the way to a meeting. It was a sunny weekday afternoon. I approached the door to their home and knocked. Emily answered. When she recognized me, her bishop, she exclaimed, “All day long I have waited for my phone to ring. It has been silent. I hoped that the postman would deliver a letter. He brought only bills. Bishop, how did you know today was my birthday?”

I answered, “God knows, Emily, for He loves you.”

In the quiet of the living room, I said to Ben and Emily, “I don’t know why I was directed here today, but our Heavenly Father knows. Let’s kneel in prayer and ask Him why.” This we did, and the answer came. Emily was asked to sing in the choir—even to provide a solo for the forthcoming ward conference. Ben was asked to speak to the Aaronic Priesthood young men and recount a special experience in his life when his safety was assured by responding to the promptings of the Spirit. She sang. He spoke. Hearts were gladdened by the return to activity of Ben and Emily. They rarely missed a sacrament meeting from that day to the time each was called home. The language of the Spirit had been spoken. It had been heard. It had been understood. Hearts were touched and lives saved.

And another one:

Stan, a dear friend of mine, was taken seriously ill and rendered partially paralyzed. He had been robust in health, athletic in build, and active in many pursuits. Now he was unable to walk or to stand. His wheelchair was his home. The finest of physicians had cared for him, and the prayers of family and friends had been offered in a spirit of hope and trust. Yet Stan continued to lie in the confinement of his bed at the university hospital. He despaired.

Late one afternoon I was swimming at the Deseret Gym, gazing at the ceiling while backstroking width after width. Silently, but ever so clearly, there came to my mind the thought: “Here you swim almost effortlessly, while your friend Stan languishes in his hospital bed, unable to move.” I felt the prompting: “Get to the hospital and give him a blessing.”

I ceased my swimming, dressed, and hurried to Stan’s room at the hospital. His bed was empty. A nurse said he was in his wheelchair at the swimming pool, preparing for therapy. I hurried to the area, and there was Stan, all alone, at the edge of the deeper portion of the pool. We greeted one another and returned to his room, where a priesthood blessing was provided.

Slowly but surely, strength and movement returned to Stan’s legs. First he could stand on faltering feet. Then he learned once again to walk—step by step. Today one would not know that Stan had lain so close to death and with no hope of recovery.

Frequently Stan speaks in Church meetings and tells of the goodness of the Lord to him. To some he reveals the dark thoughts of depression which engulfed him that afternoon as he sat in his wheelchair at the edge of the pool, sentenced, it seemed, to a life of despair. He tells how he pondered the alternative. It would be so easy to propel the hated wheelchair into the silent water of the deep pool. Life would then be over. But at that precise moment he saw me, his friend. That day Stan learned literally that we do not walk alone. I, too, learned a lesson that day: Never, never, never postpone following a prompting.

[Stop here!]

This story is from Jane Lassetter's BYU Devotional talk.

My late brother-in-law, Patrick Clarke, served a mission in Chile in the mid-1960s. One of his most memorable mission experiences happened during a two-week period when he and his companion traveled with the mission president and his wife and Elder Spencer W. Kimball and his wife, Camilla, on a 3,000-mile tour of Chile, holding branch and district conferences as they traveled.

They rode in a ’61 Chevrolet station wagon with three rows of seats along the Pan‑American Highway, which was then a narrow cement road with no shoulder or painted lines to identify lanes. Many rivers and deep canyons crisscrossed the path of the highway, necessitating bridges to span them. Most of these bridges were very narrow.

Late one afternoon, after holding a conference in the most southern branch of the Church in Chile, they headed north along the Pan-American Highway. Patrick was driving. His companion was in the front passenger seat. The mission president and his wife were seated in the back row, and Elder and Sister Kimball were in the middle row.

As they drove along they approached a narrow bridge that crossed a deep canyon with a river gushing below. Elder Kimball suggested they pull over and stop.

Patrick questioned him, saying, “Do you want to stop here where there is no shoulder, or do you want to drive a ways and find a better place to stop?”

Elder Kimball repeated, “Stop here.”

Without further hesitation, Patrick pulled the car over and stopped. Then he realized a semitruck was approaching the opposite end of the bridge in front of them. As the truck moved onto the bridge, the front wheel came off, causing the truck to roll over. Patrick and his companion jumped out of their car and assisted the driver out of the wrecked semitruck.

After the truck was removed from the middle of the bridge and things settled down, they continued across the bridge and up the road. As they reflected on what had happened, it became obvious that if Elder Kimball had not told them to pull over, they would have arrived on the bridge at the same time the semitruck lost its wheel and rolled. They would have had nowhere to turn and would very likely have been killed in a collision.

Patrick asked Elder Kimball how he knew they were in harm’s way. Elder Kimball explained that the Holy Ghost had whispered to him, “Pull over. Pull over.” The young elders were impressed with his inspiration but also wondered why they had not been warned; after all, they were missionaries living close to the Lord. Elder Kimball explained to them that the Holy Ghost had not overlooked them but that they were not listening. They had not trained themselves to hear the still, small voice. Elder Kimball encouraged them to hone their senses to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

[help during a math test]

One of my favorite things is to hear stories of how The Holy Spirit has influenced people. Steven Baugh shared this in his BYU Devotional talk.

In Alma 34:20 we are invited to “cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks” (see also Alma 34:17–27). Thinking of fields and flocks reminds me of an experience I had recently while attending a sacrament meeting in a BYU Asian ward. A good Asian brother told of praying prior to taking a calculus test to be calm and to remember the things he had studied. He was doing pretty well until he came upon a problem that required him to convert feet into inches. He knew how to do the problem but could not complete it until he could make the conversion. However, he didn’t understand feet and inches because all of his schooling had been in the metric system. He prayed again, like the people of Alma who prayed silently and had their burdens lifted (see Mosiah 24:12–15). Then into his mind came the image of an advertisement he had seen recently of a foot-long sandwich; the ad said that it could be divided into two 6-inch sandwiches. Knowing that a foot is 12 inches, he was able to complete the problem.

The Lord knows when each sparrow falls. He knows each of us. He wants to be involved in the details of our lives, and the whispering of the Spirit is one of the ways He does this. Prayer is one way that we invite Him to give us this blessing.

Steven Baugh also shared this:

President Boyd K. Packer illustrated this principle with his story of the little girl who prayed that her brother would not catch birds in his trap. After she prayed, she told her mother that she was positive her brother wouldn’t catch any more birds. Her mother asked her how she knew. The little girl replied that after she prayed, she had gone out and kicked the trap to pieces (see “Prayer and Promptings,” Ensign, November 2009, 46).

[Have you ever wondered what happens after you die?]

Loved reading this BYU talk by Brent L. Top called "What is This Thing That Men Call Death? Latter-day Saint Teachings About the Spirit World." So many good scriptures and quotes compiled into one talk.

Death is not the end.

[you get to choose]

Found this quote while reading the book "Rise to the Divinity Within You", BYU Women's Conference 2006.

[love is a gift from God]

Recently I was frustrated with myself as I was struggling to overcome one of my many weaknesses. The answer came at church on Sunday as we studied Sister Neill F. Marriott's talk. I had been trying to overcome my weakness on my own. It just doesn't work very well at all. The Savior's Atonement is there to help us. Love and change of heart are gifts from God.

I should have known this by now as I have read Stephen E. Robinson's book "Believing Christ" which teaches that we often can't do it on our own no matter how hard we try. The Atonement is the only way. Somehow we still forget this important lesson.