For those of you who could not make it to my talk yesterday, here is a copy. It's more or less what I said ;)
To those of you who were able to make it, thank you so much for your love, support, well wishes, and contributions. I appreciate it, and I love you all!! It means so much to me!
Good afternoon
Brothers and Sisters. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Whitney
Springer. I have lived in Lehi for 20 years. My parents are Jerry and Patrice
Springer. I have one younger brother, Jayden, and an older sister, Kiera. She is
married to Jerry Fox and they have an adorable daughter named Kalli.
Just to tell you a
few things about me: I love and cherish my family and friends. I graduated last
december from UVU with a Bachelor’s in Biology. I love everything about the
outdoors; the ocean, the mountains. I love to hike and camp and just spend time
enjoying God’s creations. I also have a deep love of learning. When I return
from my mission, I plan to pursue a Masters in Marine Biology. Which is just
one reason why my call to Micronesia Guam is so perfect!
Faith
The
scripture I chose to be my mission scripture is: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in
God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right
hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men,
which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being
led to glorify God.”(Ether 12:4)
Before
I go into why I chose that scripture, I have a question for you. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins, and then was resurrected so
that we could have Eternal life and live with Heavenly Father again? Now I ask
you this: Do you have the faith that this same Atonement applies specifically
to you? That it applies to the little things you’ve done, but that it also
applies to the big things you’ve done, too?
Do
you have faith that, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how far maybe you
have fallen, Christ suffered for you,
and for you specifically, and all your sins, because He loved you more than we
know, and He wanted you to return home. He wanted you to live with Him and
Heavenly Father in the mansions he has “prepared for you” (D&C98:18).
Many of you may have answered yes to the first question, but
no to the second. Why is that? Why is it that we are so hard on ourselves, that
we say and we supposedly “know” that Christ suffered and died for God’s
children so they could return and live with Him again, but when it comes to our
personal mistakes, our personal sins, we think we’ve gone too far. We tell
ourselves that we have gone past the point of no return, and there is no hope
for us.
Don H Staheli said, “For some reason, we find it easy to
have faith in the general application of the Atonement, but have a hard time
believing that it can save someone like us. Our hearts are usually soft and
tender for others, but sometimes hardened toward ourselves.”
Why is that? Is it because, even though we see the power of
the Atonement working in other people’s lives, and hear their testimonies of
it, we do not believe that it could
also work for us? We could not, for whatever reason, begin to hope that, no
matter what we have done, there is still a way back to Heaven for us. We think,
“For everyone else, yes. But not for me.”
Elder Holland said, “… you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible
for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”
We have to have the faith and the hope that Christ’s Atonement applies to us, personally. Let
me read my mission scripture again.
“Wherefore, whoso believeth
in God might with surety hope for a
better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor
to the souls of men, which would make them sure
and steadfast, always abounding in good
works, being led to glorify
God.”(Ether 12:4)
Believe in God. Then begin to hope, hope that you can make
it back to live with him. This hope comes of your faith. Then that hope can be
“an anchor to your soul”, so you cannot drift astray, no matter the storms that
combine their powers against you. This anchor gives you the strength to then
lift others, “always abounding in good works.”
Just
after this scripture, Moroni says, “Faith is things which are hoped for and not
seen.”(Ether 12:6) We all, I think, at one time or another may struggle to know
that the Atonement works for us. Or, maybe it’s something else that maybe we
don’t fully understand right now. Maybe it’s a trial, maybe it’s a temptation
we face, maybe it’s some principles about the Gospel that don’t make any sense
to us.
In
1820, there was a fourteen year old boy who did not understand what God wanted
him to do; what church, if any, was God’s church, and taught the laws and
commandments of God. So, he did what James instructs, he went and “asked of
God”.
Prayer
Prayer
is a very powerful thing, when done with a sincere heart. We have been blessed with the ability to
communicate with a Heavenly Being, and that communication goes both ways if we
allow it to.
Hank Smith said, “God is anxiously waiting to answer your
prayers and fulfill your dreams; but He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t
if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.”
It’s important to pray every day, and to continually have a
prayer in your heart. Sometimes, though, with some questions, I think it’s
important to go to a place that you feel closer to God.
Alma said “Humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto
him.” He constrained us to pray for our homes, our fields, our flocks, for
power over our enemies and over the devil. Then he said, “But this is not all;
ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in
your wilderness.”
For
me, that quiet place where I feel closer to God is in the mountains. Joseph
Smith went into the woods to pray. Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai. Christ
went into the wilderness to fast and pray before his Earthly ministry. Howard W
Hunter said, “The greatest task ever to be accomplished in this world lay
before him, and he needed divine strength.” (Nov 1976, Howard W Hunter, The
Temptations of Christ). When I go into the mountains, it’s like I am leaving
the worldly cares behind me, and stepping up on a higher plane to commune with
my Heavenly Father. There is just a peace there that I can only feel one other
place: the temple.
The
Temple—also called the “mountain of the Lord”—is also a place to go to seek
divine inspiration. Attending the temple regularly will help us be more open to
the Spirit and God’s answers to our prayers.
2Ne32:8-9 says:
“8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder
still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this
thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye
would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray,
but teacheth him that he must not pray.
9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not
faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place
ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate
thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy
soul.”
Like
Nephi says, we have to pray always if we want to know if we are doing what the
Lord wants us to be doing.
Also keep in mind,
the Lord remembers the prayers of the righteous. It’s easy for us to wonder if
we have been forgotten. Nephi writes:
“15
For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house
of Israel. 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (1Ne 21:15-16)
How could the Lord forget us, when he
has “graven [us] upon the palms of his hands”? Have we, instead, forgotten the
Lord? Are our hearts soft enough to have his name engraven on our hearts, to
have his countenance shine through us, to hear his council, his guidance, and
his answers to our prayers?
We need to soften our hearts so that we
can receive those answers to our prayers.
Scriptures
But
how does that council from Heavenly Father come?
The Spirit draws on what you already know, to teach you more
and guide you. The Spirit cannot draw on an empty well, so study the scriptures
and words of the Prophets.
2Ne32:3
reads: “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the
words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ;
for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”
Understanding the Answer When it Comes
How
do you know the answer, when it does come? First we have to learn to recognize
the Spirit, and how it speaks to us, personally.
Boyd K Packer said, ““You have been taught all of your lives
about the gift of the Holy Ghost, but teaching can only go so far. You can and,
in fact, you must go the rest of the way alone to discover within yourself how
the Holy Ghost can be a guiding and protective influence… Discovering how the
Holy Ghost operates in your life is the quest of a lifetime. Once you have made
that discovery for yourself, you can live in enemy territory and will not be
deceived or destroyed. No member of this Church—and that means each of you—will
ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the
Holy Ghost.”
Recognizing the Spirit
When we think of Powerful Spiritual experiences, we often
think of the stories from the scriptures: God telling Moses’ people to only
look at a staff and be healed if they were bitten by the snakes. God’s finger
touching the stones for the Brother of Jared, or Jesus healing the sick and the
blind. And sometimes the Spirit does speak to us in a more forceful, powerful manner.
Elder Packer also said: I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual
experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally
for our own edification, instruction, or correction.
However, the Spirit is rarely manifested as an
earth-shattering display of God’s power. Rather, it has often been described as
dew from heaven or as dawn dissipates the darkness of night. But that does not
take away from the power and effect the experience can have on you. Joseph
Smith said, “the Lord cannot always be known by the thunder of His voice, by
the display of His glory or by the manifestation of His power and those that
are the most anxious to see these things, are the least prepared to meet them.”
But how do we know the difference between our own thoughts
and those of the Spirit? “The voice of the Spirit is the kind of voice that
‘whispereth through and pierceth all things’. Yet it is a ‘pleasant
voice’.”(The Light Within, W. Jeffery Marsh)
Sometimes the Spirit isn’t a voice at all, but more of a
feeling or Impression.
Boyd K Packer said, “We do not have the words (even the
scriptures do not have the words) which perfectly describe the Spirit. The
scriptures generally use the word voice,
which does not exactly fit. These delicate, refined spiritual communications
are not seen with our eyes, nor heard with our ears. And even though it is
described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels, more than one hears.”
Often, the Spirit has spoken to me in fleeting thoughts and
impressions. And, perhaps too often, I find myself pushing those thoughts away.
Sometimes it’s the sudden thought of a friend I hadn’t spoken to or seen in
awhile. Other times it’s the thought to do something, which at the time seems
silly. But usually, if I ignore it, I find out later why the impression came to
me, and I always regret not acting on it.
When I was 11 or 12 years old, my mouth was too crowded and
so they surgically removed one of my front teeth to make room for the one that
had been pushed behind. After I got home, I went upstairs to ask my mom for a
drink of water. She was on the phone or something, so I walked down the hall
towards the kitchen to get a drink myself. I was leaning against the wall. I
got to the top of the stairs, and blacked out.
At this time, my little brother (around 3 at the time) was
sleeping, so when I had come up the baby gate had been open. My sister had the
impression to shut the baby gate. That was silly, because Jayden was sleeping,
but she did anyway. So when I passed out, instead of falling down the stairs
onto the tile landing, I was caught by the baby gate. Next thing I knew, my mom
was holding me and asking if I was alright.
I was blessed enough to have a sister who was open to the
quiet, but strong, impression of the spirit that told her to shut the baby gate
even though my brother was sleeping. Without her obedience, I would have fallen
down the stairs when I passed out and maybe gotten seriously hurt.
Boyd K Packer also said about the Spirit:
“The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a
heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are
preoccupied we may not feel it at all… Occasionally it will press just firmly
enough for us to pay heed. But most of the time, if we do not heed the gentle
feeling the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening.”
If you are used to having the spirit with you, sometimes you
take it for granted, at least I know I do. But then when it is offended and
leaves, at least for me, I feel sick to my stomach, unhappy, dark.
·
Feelings not of the Spirit, but of the
Devil
- Hate
- Bitterness
- Worry, fear, anxiety
- Disgust
- darkness
·
Feelings of the Spirit
o
Always good
o
Peace, serenity, Joy, Love
o
“Sudden Stroke of intelligence” Joseph Smith
o
D&C
8:2-3 “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your
mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which
shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.”
o
Foreboding feelings that we should not
do something or take a certain path in life.
o
Thoughts that occupy your mind can be
the Spirit. W. Jeffery Marsh said, “Learning
to listen to Spirit-prompted feelings that press themselves upon us (feelings
of urgency or impressions to do or to refrain from doing something) and
learning to pay attention to the thoughts that come suddenly to our minds are
ways of learning to hear the voice of the Spirit”
Trust
Another part of understanding the Spirit and the answers you
may receive, or the lack thereof, is trust. We have to learn to trust our
Heavenly Father. He doesn’t enjoy seeing us suffer, but sometimes that is the
only way we can learn and grow, as well as come to know Him and ourselves
better.
God doesn’t always take away your burdens and trials. But
for me, when I have relied on God through my trials, I look back and they don’t
look as hard as it seemed during the trial. I know that’s because my Savior was
there every step of the way, helping me along, and even carrying me through.
Isaiah says, speaking for the Lord, ““For a small moment have I
forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.” (Isa54:7) He has not forgotten us. He
never will. Either we are not really listening for the answer, or he is holding
back to allow us to stretch and grow, and to learn to trust Him more.
That being said, it’s hard to trust God sometimes. Some
trials I look back, and do say, “That was hard. That was really hard.” But, it
was possible because I trusted in God.
Many of you know of the trial my family went through earlier
this year. One night that my mom was in the hospital, my dad called me at work.
Through tears, he said if there was any way I could get off, to come to the
hospital. I remember one thing he said, ”It’s critical”. I left shortly after
and hurried home to get my brother. I will never forget the drive home. I was
pleading with God, not to take my mom. I needed her. I just kept repeating that
out loud. Guardian angels must’ve been helping me drive home, because I could
hardly see through the tears. “Please,” I said, “please don’t take her from me.
I need her.”
Often, God doesn’t answer prayers in the way we expect him
to, or in the way we want him to. Needless to say, thanks to countless
blessings, prayers, fasting, and good doctors, my mom is still with us. It was
a hard, long, and a terrifying trial. But, my family is stronger because of it:
I am stronger because of it.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto
thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct
thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) Trust in God. Even if right now, you don’t understand
the why, even if you don’t ever understand the why in this life, trust him. Be
grateful and recognize his hand in your life, and he will direct you down the
path to salvation and exhaltation.
When No Answer Comes
What if no answer comes?
The Spirit will never lead us down the wrong path. Sometimes, if an
answer doesn’t come, the best we can do is pray for wisdom and guidance, then
make a decision and act on it. If it was the wrong decision, the Spirit will
let us know as long as we remain open to revelation.
Boyd K Packer said: “Sometimes
you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer. What could be wrong? It
may be that you are not doing anything wrong. It may be that you have not done
the right things long enough. Remember, you cannot force spiritual things.
Sometimes we are confused simply because we won’t take no for an answer… Put
difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives. Ponder
and pray quietly and persistently about them. The answer may not come as a lightning
bolt. It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there. ‘line upon
line precept upon precept’. Some answers will come from reading the scriptures,
some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it is important, some will
come by very direct and powerful inspiration. The promptings will be clear and
unmistakable.”
Sometimes you may have a decision to make between two, or many good
things. This job or that one? What career path should I take? Finish up school
or go on a mission?
Not long ago, I was asking myself, and my Heavenly Father, this very
question. It was in the back of my mind for awhile, until I received the strong
impression to go on a mission. But now I was faced with a decision.
I knew that God wanted me to go,
there is no denying that. But, I only had one semester left in school. I wasn’t
sure what to do. So I prayed, I talked to my bishop, I prayed some more. I read
my Patriarchal blessing. And I prayed again, and again. But it didn’t seem like
I was getting a definite answer. So I decided it would be best to finish
school, and then go on a mission. So I did, and I felt, and feel, at peace with
that decision.
But something still didn’t feel right. At first, I thought it was just
because I wanted to have some money saved up. So I got a good paying job. A
loved one asked me, “What are you waiting for?” I told her it was kind of
money, but even then it didn’t feel like that was the whole reason.
Then my mom got sick at the end of February. I knew later that was why
I didn’t feel right about leaving yet. While she was recovering I was able to
finish up my mission papers and get them submitted. This time, I felt right
about the timing, too. And maybe there was another reason, too. But I know that
the Lord’s timing is the best timing, and as long as I stay worthy and am in
tune to hear the quiet whisperings of the Spirit, I can align my will with His,
and become the person God wants me to become.
Elder John Groberg said, “[The Lord] generally does not point and say,
‘Open that door and go twelve yards in that direction; then turn right and go
two miles’ But if it is wrong, he will let us know—we will feel it for sure. I
am positive of that. So rather than saying, ‘I will not move until I have this
burning in my heart,’ let us turn it around and say, ‘I will move unless I feel
it is wrong; and if it is wrong, then I will not do it’. By eliminating all of
these wrong courses, very quickly you will find yourself going in the direction
that you ought to be going, and then you can receive the assurance: ’Yes, I am
going in the right direction’.
President Boyd K
Packer said: “Do not fear the future. Go forward with hope and faith. Remember
that supernal gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn to be taught by it. Learn to seek
it. Learn to live by it. Learn to pray always in the name of Jesus Christ (see
3 Nephi 18:19–20). The Spirit of the Lord will attend you, and you will be
blessed.”
I know that to be
true. I know that if we continue to diligently seek the guidance of the Spirit,
it will tell us “all things that we should do.”
I am so grateful
for the love and support of my family and my friends. Thank you all for your
continued love and support. It means so much to me, and I would not be where I
am without you.
I love my Savior. I
am so thankful for his Atoning sacrifice, that he loved me more than enough to
suffer, bleed, and die for me.
I love my Father in
Heaven. I am grateful for his guidance in my life, and for allowing me to learn
and grow in my trials. I am grateful for the opportunity he has given me to
serve his children in Micronesia.
And I am so excited
to serve them. I cannot wait to bring the joy this Gospel has given me to them.
I know this Gospel is true, and I love it.
I say these things
in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
