August 22, 2024 • 31 mins
I testify that our Heavenly Father hears your tearful pleadings and will always respond in perfect wisdom.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/46taylor?lang=eng#title1
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(00:00):
Welcome to Closer to Christ through Conference.
(00:07):
We're two friends who love Jesus sharing our own approach to conference.
Welcome, welcome today, Abby.
Happy to have you.
It's good to be here.
We're happy that everyone's here with us today.
We're going to talk about swallowed up in the joy of Christ, and this is by Elder Brian
K. Taylor of the 70.
Okay, we felt sad for him that he had to go right after elder Kieran for like five seconds
(00:30):
and then his talk was so amazing.
So good for like, no, he was fine.
It's fine.
He had to follow that.
So I loved it.
Elder Taylor takes us to the New Testament and he shares three different stories with
three unique experiences and then leaves us with his witness that even though they all
look different, a living heavenly father hears our tearful pleadings and will always respond
(00:51):
in perfect wisdom.
I loved it because he is teaching with these three stories that we're going to talk about,
he's teaching principles that can be applied anywhere.
And so that's why it's good to look at them and just see how and when they can apply to
your life.
Yeah, all of us face such like unique complex challenges, different timings and like just
the scenario around them are so complex that to podcast about that and how you would face
(01:14):
that isn't as effective as knowing that these stories rest in the New Testament and based
on the situation you're going through that you can go right to the scriptures and find
the true nature of how prayer can work or how healing can take place.
These spelled it out really well.
He only spent a minute on this part of the talk.
(01:35):
I feel like for us, this is going to be kind of the meat of the podcast on this particular
talk today.
Because the take home is something that our listeners can just think on based on whatever
particular trial they're going through in that moment or years from now, whatever that
trial looks like.
So the first example that he gave to us was of Bartimaeus and that this isn't the first
(01:55):
time we've heard Bartimaeus in this conference.
If you guys remember back to episode nine in Rice E. Colithee, this was an amazing opportunity
to learn about how this blind man shed his baker's coat.
He knew that the blessing of healing was going to come and we're hoping for him that'd be
immediately because it'd be sure hard to support himself if it hadn't been so immediate.
(02:17):
But Elder Taylor uses this as the example of a person that has to only ask one time
and immediately the blessing is granted.
Oh, that's great.
It is great, but I just think there was so much experience in that blind man's life that
just because it looks like he asked for one prayer and got immediate healing, do you feel
like that sums up the message from this story?
(02:40):
I feel like this would be like the consummate act of healing.
He had done things before.
He had gone to God in prayer and done all the work that he needed to do between him
and the Lord and this was a final thing.
It was kind of like the Lord did only what he could do.
You've exhibited your faith in me and you're absolutely ready for this healing.
You know exactly what to do with it.
(03:01):
And he said it is finished at that moment.
You know what I mean?
Like we had talked about, was that just the last episode?
Like knowing when the work is done.
Obviously being able to see and you being a blind man asking to be healed with your
sight.
Yeah, you would know.
That blessing was granted.
But I love the deeper dive we took into this back in episode nine because as that one phrase
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comes up, it's like it was not the first time that I'd heard of this man.
Now all of a sudden and now because months have gone by since that initial hearing and
then the deeper study of it, it resonates differently because I think all of that work
that part of me has to put into it to demonstrate what like living with his challenge for all
of those years looked like, knowing what that life looked like and then knowing in what
(03:45):
way and when was the appropriate time to ask for that blessing of healing.
So that was that one.
The next one was an occasion where a man of Basadia longed for healing and Elder Taylor
uses this one to contrast that the blessing didn't come after the first ask, but rather
he asked twice to be restored.
Do you have any comment on that scripture story?
Yeah.
(04:06):
So do you want me to go through the story real quick or do you want...
I didn't know enough about this story to just jump into it.
I think it might be helpful.
Okay.
So it says, and I don't remember where we are especially.
I think we were in Matthew.
Okay.
You can reference that in the talk when you listen back to it, but I cut and pasted some
scriptures.
Can you see?
So verse 22 says, and he cometh to...
(04:27):
And you said, Bethsaedia?
Sure, but I'm guessing.
Okay.
Bethsaedia.
And they bring a blind man unto him and beslaught him to touch him.
And then 23, and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked if he saw.
And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking.
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And after that, he put his hands upon his eyes and made him look up and he was restored.
And the man saw clearly.
And he saw every man clearly.
So I remember being in when I was going through cancer treatments and I remember receiving
a priesthood blessing.
And in it, the Lord asked me to go through all of the scriptures because at the time
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we were reading the New Testament, so there were all of these miracles and all these things
happening, go through and find the common thread.
And I was so excited to find the common thread that was healing for all of these because
I was seeking healing of my own, right?
So now sometimes I couldn't do this because my mind wasn't very clear and I was busy
with just being alive.
(05:30):
But when I did do it, one time my mom called me and she asked me all these questions.
And I said, Mom, I have to hang up.
I am concentrating on just being alive.
And we hung up.
Anyways, as I saw, as I kept reading over and over and I was kind of writing down all
the things that I was like kind of let down for a second because I was like, wait, this
one says this, this one says that, this one says, you know, wash in the river this many
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times.
This one is mud placed on his eyes.
This one, they were all different.
Very unique.
Yes.
To the person that the trial was being faced by.
Exactly.
So at first when I was kind of like bummed that I had messed up this challenge because
there wasn't a thread that I saw, all of a sudden I was like, oh, the thread is you
go to the Lord yourself.
(06:15):
It's very individual and whatever He says for you to do to heal you, that's what you
do.
And as long as you follow that, then healing comes, right?
Now in His own way and in His own time.
Clearly the ones we're seeing right now happen immediately because Jesus is there in person
and we don't know the backstory.
Like for example of Bartimaeus, we don't know the backstory of that, but that's what
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it was.
And so I feel like that's a really good thing for me because I don't know what other people
are going through.
I don't know where they are in their path.
Only the Lord knows that.
So truly healing comes from Him and we just follow that.
So what was the short answer?
The common thread between the stories are that?
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Back to heaven and follow whatever that is for you.
And sometimes it's a combination of all the things, right?
It's a combination of maybe medicine, maybe surgery, maybe all the different things.
He has to know the limits of what we're willing to try.
Like if He's like, you got to, yeah, He knows us.
The combination.
It's a heavenly combination.
That's a good way to say it.
(07:21):
So Elder Taylor is using this to say like, okay, this man asked twice and so the healing
was partially restored.
He could see like men as though they were trees and then a second blessing made it so
like he could see him clear as day.
But I thought the lesson is actually somewhere in the fact that sometimes we're asking for
a blessing and we're ready for a piece of that healing or a piece of that to be answered,
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but maybe not the whole answer can't come to fruition right in that moment.
So even though it looks immediate here in this scripture, I feel like me, for me, the
take home message was we may get a piece of that blessing, recognize that He's granted
that partial piece of the blessing and that in His wisdom, for whatever reason, the second
part of that healing hasn't come, but that it will come.
(08:03):
So great.
That's a thought.
The two times.
Yeah.
And mine was a little bit off in that because this is considered the two degrees of it,
you could say.
I mean, I feel like what you shared was exactly on the point of saying like that you're coming
to Him willing to accept whatever part of healing that He's ready for you to have.
(08:27):
I love what you shared.
So the third example was apostle Paul.
It said this, that he besought the Lord thrice in his affliction and yet to our knowledge,
his earnest application was not granted.
This just works well with the talk that he's saying, look, he asked for one, he asked one
time and he got blessed.
This guy asked twice and this guy's thrice.
There's no way that the apostle Paul asked three times for that blessing, only three
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times.
And there's scenarios where like every day you're praying for this relief or this thing,
this help that you're needing.
Right, through years.
Right.
And so we know the apostle Paul, he was no stranger to the Lord.
He was walking with him.
He was abiding with him.
And so we would say, you know, somebody so close to the Savior asks for, like has a request
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and it's not granted, even though we know it's completely within the power of our Savior
to fix whatever this problem was.
It's vague.
We don't know exactly what Paul was dealing with, but in his wisdom, he doesn't allow
that thing to be fixed in Paul.
So for me, I thought back to a couple of talks.
(09:35):
Elder Holland's talk in episode two, emotions of a hidden fire.
Sometimes we don't know where to pray, so we're just supposed to start somewhere.
I felt like sometimes this process of not having our prayer answered is because we are
in that moment developing a relationship with him, learning how and what to pray for.
How to approach him and how to align our will with his will.
(09:58):
Maybe the thing, maybe the miracle that we're asking for, like it doesn't exist yet, but
it will.
And so like that continued open prayer asking for that thing continues to show him that
we have faith in him.
As long as that you don't get discouraged and depressed by like the timeliness, like
how long is it going to take to be answered?
Also thought of episode 21 Sister Porter's talk, Pray He Is There, where she prayed for
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this blessing for her father to join the church and it took an entire lifetime.
Her father even passed away and they did his temple work and she felt that confirming spirit
that yes, he's accepted the gospel.
So the thing that she'd been praying for took her entire lifetime to be witnessed, but that
didn't mean that she was any less grateful for the answer to the prayer or that she was
like, well, it was nice that you answered it.
Why didn't you answer it so many years ago?
(10:43):
I don't know.
There's just a lesson in there for me.
There's a lot, there's a, I think in a lifetime, most of us will or have had an experience
where you pray for something and immediately the help comes and maybe it's just a small
thing and it's like, you know, the lesson is that you just learned, turn to me and I
can help you with this thing.
And then we've had those experiences where it's taken a couple of thought, some thought
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on it, a couple of prayers.
And eventually that things come to, especially if we look back on it, we're like, oh, he
gave me a piece of that and it sustained me until this bigger thing finally came to, and
I was able to have that.
I'm thinking of healing.
I'm thinking of trials.
I'm thinking of, you know, just questions that are on our heart.
We don't know the answer to.
And then unfortunately, I think there's a lot of growth that happens when we be sought,
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we be sought, be seekh, is that the word?
Is it present tense?
I want to be like in the past.
Well, actually it could be in the present.
When we are constantly in prayer for this blessing that we're looking for to come that
we know he can grant, but it just doesn't feel like it's coming.
People will say that he doesn't hear me and he doesn't answer my prayers.
I think a lot of times that's the knee-jerk reaction to say that he doesn't hear me.
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He doesn't answer my prayers.
When in reality, like there's refining.
There's a refining that's happening in the weight and the person that you become in that
patience and giving that time for that blessing to finally come about makes you a completely
different person.
You couldn't have become any other way.
(12:14):
No.
Okay, Abby, this is making me think of something.
So if we're looking at like a lifetime of healing and waiting for pieces and then waiting
for the next piece, waiting for the next piece.
So I've had, I've struggled with fibromyalgia pretty much my whole life.
And at the beginning, well, I had a problem with it.
Like during my mission, different medications, yada, yada, came home and I was sitting with
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a doctor that he was supposed to be the one that was going to like be able to figure everything
out.
And then I sat across the desk from him and he said, um, he listened to everything.
And then he, he slid me a pamphlet of opioids and said, this is for you, you know, like,
and I can't, I can't treat the root of this, but essentially pain.
Yes.
And so I, I, I heard in my mind that is not for you.
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And so what I understood was heavenly father knew better than the doctors that I was going
to and that he had me in his hand.
So I didn't take those, which I'm glad I didn't because later I did need them and just for
a small amount of time and they probably wouldn't have worked.
So what I said, what my prayer was to heavenly father at that point was this heavenly father,
I know that, you know, the timeline of this, I know that, you know, what is best for me.
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So I'm just going to keep living my life and I'm going to do the best I can.
Like I would, I would exercise and I would try to do all the things I could to make my
body healthy.
And then I just said this, when there's something that lets, you know, proverbial,
proverbial, I can't talk crosses my desk that has to do with this, please let me know
because there are so many times when people who are well, I mean, you know, with your
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kids and, and, um, the things that you go through, there are so many people that things
have worked for them and they want to work for you as well.
So they say, try this, what about this?
What about that?
And that's not against anyone else.
It's just saying the Lord knows me best.
So I would been able to, um, synthesize all the information coming at you.
(14:05):
Yes.
Okay.
Am I putting words into your mouth?
If I say this is like the inklings, this is the beginning of the, of the faith journal
that you started probably was there.
There's a piece of that, that it's like, you've done these little things all along
your path and none of them have quite worked, but then you list it out and you say somewhere
the answer is in here, some combination of these particular treatments.
(14:26):
Yes.
And then five years later, something would happen.
It would be like, my mom would just say, Hey, I came across this.
I'm like, that's it.
She's like, why did you jump on it so quickly?
I said, cause I knew.
And then five years down the road, this is it.
And so many times I was like, why didn't I find this 10 years ago?
Why didn't I know about this 20 years ago?
And I just feel like the cold hard facts are, is that's part of the refiner's fire.
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And he knows, he knows at what point I am and when things will work and when they won't
work.
I don't want to put thoughts into Alexis reporter's mouth, but I was just thinking
on her lifetime of praying for her father to be a member of the church and thinking,
if you open that prayer and like every day that her dad didn't join the church while
he was in this mortal state, if she had that prayer that he would be so, what do you think
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that made the interactions with him look like?
Much softer, right?
Like much more tender, like not saying the wrong thing.
Like why don't you just open your eyes and look at this thing?
Rather, she probably lived her life in a way that just mirrored like the life that she
was experiencing because of the covenant she'd made.
And I just, I can only imagine just good things, just good soft things.
(15:29):
Yes.
Meaning that her dad still had to be introduced to the gospel on the other side of the veil
and still had to accept it for himself or not, for her to feel that confirming witness,
you know, through the temple experience that they had that he had accepted it.
And I'm only sharing this because I have absolutely felt names I've taken to the temple acknowledged
to me that they were willing and ready and waiting to have that experience.
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I don't know their backstory.
I didn't interact with them in life.
I couldn't have said the wrong thing to them because they were hundreds of years before
me.
But I'm saying this is a special thing to think about.
When a prayer doesn't look like it's being answered, maybe the answer in the prayer was
that you were able to show that person like the love that heavenly father would have shown
them so that it seemed like it was awfully easy for him to accept it with whatever barriers
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that he had in this moral existence.
It was like short order, like after he passed it, it was like, oh, yep.
And he accepted.
So interesting.
And then in these covenants and just more in the immediate, like you were saying with
a health challenge that we're facing, that article that came out was like new and cutting
edge that your mom shared with you.
But that information didn't exist.
Somebody hadn't put that in trial and test.
(16:36):
And so because you had this part to be like, I don't want this fibromyalgia to affect
my life and like control my life and rule my life.
And I don't want to just cover the pain with opioids.
You were opening the windows of heaven to say, in this trial, I'm inviting you into
this heavenly father.
And when you can share with me the things that will help me in this trial, send them
my way.
So you're what that did, opening your prayer in that way, even though it says some, it
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might look like your prayer is not being answered.
What it did is it opened you to that revelation that in the time that it was shared with you,
you grabbed onto it.
And I've seen you suggest to people, like sometimes we've tried something.
I'm not trying to put like any name of a trial in your life.
This is just like a skill to develop.
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You're experiencing a challenge and this is where you would put down the things that you
know, not like the faith journal, but just like, let's take it back to health.
That's an easier one to go over.
So for your fibromyalgia, you tried A, B, C, and D, and E, and F, and G, and H, all
the way through the alphabet.
And that somebody would say, oh, you should try this.
And you would look at your list and be like, I've totally already tried that.
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There's something to listing the options and heavenly father knowing what you're willing
to do to overcome this thing.
And a prayer that you've suggested people make is, is there a combination of these things
that I haven't tapped into before?
So that's an easy way to look at it, like on a health thing that might say, oh, if I
pair A with D and Z, then that combination of things is totally different.
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It may be a diet change and it may be, I don't know, like I don't even know what led you
to the health.
Yeah, the health you have, but it doesn't matter like anybody else that's going through
that particular trial.
It's not going to be like, oh, I have this problem and A, D, and D fixed me.
It doesn't matter.
What matters is that you invited the Lord into that process and then you considered
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the things that you had done or were willing to do to get past that.
And then just thinking about, that's easier to talk about a health trial, right?
Rather than like a faith crisis, a faith trial or whatever.
But the same process can apply to that.
Totally.
And that's where the faith journal comes in.
The principle.
Yeah.
That you're like, I'm struggling with this thing, but these are the things that I know
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are true.
Help me identify which piece on the things that I know to be true will help me reconcile
this thing for me.
And then you'll settle that.
It'll be a combination of a few things you have a testimony of to enlighten and enlarge
your testimony of this new thing.
And anyway, I thought there was so much to be learned from those three-
They're so good, Abby.
... scripture stories.
And hopefully, one of those will come to mind, like particularly if you are in the middle
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of a trial right now that you're thinking that you're not getting answers to questions.
Maybe you can find yourself in one of those stories and then apply what you've learned
as you've studied those.
Something just came to mind.
It's really interesting.
So back again, when I was going through cancer, a member of our congregation came to our house
and he said, you know, I just can't shake this feeling.
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He said, I really feel like, and he's one of our friends, like we loved him.
He's wonderful.
He said, I've done this before.
I have a certain gift and he said, I just feel like I need to come and pronounce a gift
of healing on you.
So we were like, okay.
You know, he said, I feel really weird saying it, like just the whole thing.
And I was like, you know what?
I just love that you got an impression that you have a particular gift and that you're
(19:57):
willing to share it.
You know what?
We're just going to go with that.
Right.
So I received the blessing and it would have been awesome if I would have like stood up
from there and a hundred percent would have been great.
Right.
He pronounced the blessing of healing.
Then I think it was another month later, Garrett had the thought to pronounce like immediate
healing on me.
And I thought I would stand up and walk as well.
Didn't happen.
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And I just, I didn't lose hope in any way, but it just felt very much like this was kind
of like, I don't know, maybe someone following a prompting and acting on that right then
and using all the faith that they had.
Right.
And I accepted all of that.
It just felt like it was more gradual than that.
That's the feeling that I kept getting because I was waiting for it to be immediate.
Like why not?
(20:39):
It happens in the scriptures.
Right.
So then a little while down the road, I was contemplating on this and I was reading the
DNC.
Don't remember where it is right now, but it talks about that spiritual matter is finer
than physical.
And so you were like spiritually healed before your physical body could catch up with.
It was done spiritually, but my body needed to, it is very dense and things like, you
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know, like healing work through it at a slower, slower, slower rate.
I wish it was a lot faster than it was, but I was spiritually healed and I was just kind
of like when, when the earth was created, it was created spiritually and then it was
created physically.
So I loved that.
And I, cause at first I was like, heavenly father, why didn't that stuff work?
It's not that it didn't work.
It was a process.
I heard the word process through my cancer treatment so many times.
(21:28):
I almost wanted to throw up.
I was tired of the process, but at the end of it, when I looked back, that process was
exactly the refining process that I needed.
And I'm a different person because of it.
So looking back, I can say that like, I get the three times, I get the three times asking
or the 300 times asking for healing and it is incremental and all of it matters.
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Would you agree with elder Whitney's quote?
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.
It ministers to our education.
All that we patiently endure builds up our character, purifies our heart, expands our
souls and makes us more tender and charitable.
It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation that we gain the education that
we come here to acquire and which it will make us more like our heavenly parents.
(22:13):
Yes.
I found that quote during cancer and it was the top of my journal.
I could read it like every time I'd come back to it and just felt like it would almost
be a travesty if the healing had been so immediate because of I watched me reading that quote.
I watched your emotions and you processing some of those unique experiences that happened
over the course of many months, accumulating into at least a year of time.
(22:36):
It made you a different person.
I think you know that.
I think that that doesn't come as a surprise to you, but like if it had just been as quick
as you knew you were going to, you knew from the beginning, you are the one that identified
the cancer in your situation.
You're like, I'm pretty sure I've been told I've got cancer, but I'll be healed from it.
You already knew the end from the beginning, but to have these experiences with the blessings
that you had and to rely on him as you were getting the information you needed to get
(23:01):
the medical care and do the treatments that you needed to, what a refining process you
have definitely used to help other people and not that you've given them the answer
of like, oh, I had cancer and this is what I did in it, A, B, and C, and then you're
going to be fixed.
So not you don't, you don't put that on people.
You say, I do have some suggestions if you're open to them.
Yes, I'm open to them.
These are some things that I've done.
(23:21):
You've, you've shared with me a few things that you've done for healing and I've taken
parts and pieces of them, put that into my arsenal of things that I'm willing to do.
And then, you know, they've, then I've worked with the Lord to say like, is this, this is
going to work for me?
And he's like, yep, you can go that route or you're going to need to have the, you know,
loop the medical professionals in on this one.
And you did that same thing.
You had a combination of so many different things.
(23:42):
So anyway, that quote, I was like, that's, that sums up what Amy learned from her cancer
journey, for sure.
Also, no, nobody can doubt what our prophet gained in his experience with, with his own,
with his own pain and suffering.
When he fell, right?
He did fall.
(24:03):
And so then he was out.
We missed him for some time.
He didn't make it to conference and he'd been like, I mean, he's been such a healthy man
his entire life.
Right.
I don't think that he's ever been, he's never been able to view the atonement, like through
the eyes of like somebody that is physically burdened.
True.
Right?
That's a whole different point of view.
He's like, you're going to be skiing until I physically tell you you're not allowed to
(24:24):
ski.
Not because you couldn't ski.
I can get you off the ski hill.
So he physically could do those things.
But this back injury was like such a unique opportunity for him from his own mouth.
He verbalized how he gained a deeper understanding of the atonement of the savior.
If anybody deserved an immediate blessing like Bartimaeus, wouldn't our prophet be the
(24:44):
one that would deserve if we're talking about deserving something?
There was so many lessons that he learned.
Like you can tell there was something that he's been talking about clear back to 2011,
something like this.
If we look at all things with eternal perspective, it will significantly lighten our load.
And I'm like, oh, that would have been in the Think Celestial talk that was just barely.
But in fact, as I studied into like where these thoughts come from, back to 2011, and
(25:08):
then so many leaders from that time have amplified and echoed that thought until it kind of
cumulated into this amazing talk from last conference titled Think Celestial.
And it changed so many things, the way that I think about so many things.
And it's funny because I'm like, it's not like it's the first time that he said it.
It was the first time that I was ready to really lock into the idea of looking at things,
(25:32):
like looking at a trial, looking at an experience that I'm experiencing my life and thinking
like, what's this doing for my growth and my readiness for that?
Not for when I get to the Celestial Kingdom, how to make it celestial now?
How can I refine this and make this for my good right in this moment?
So I thought that was amazing.
I think it would be a shame if we didn't touch on one example that Elder Taylor shared
(25:55):
in his talk, and it was Holly and Rick Porter.
I summed up, I will get too emotional if I think too long on this, but they lost their
12-year-old son, Trey, in a tragic fire.
And Holly attempted to save her son, but in the process, her hands and her feet were badly
burned.
So she was in a sacrament meeting testifying of the great peace and joy the Lord had poured
out upon their family and their anguish using words like miraculous, incredible, and amazing.
(26:20):
She says, my hands are not the hands that save.
Those hands belong to the Savior.
Instead of looking at my scars as a reminder of what I was not able to do, I remember the
scars my Savior bears.
And what a powerful witness she is to the Prophet's promise that as we think celestial,
our trials and opposition are viewed in a totally different light.
(26:43):
So Elder Taylor had the opportunity to remark at the sacrament meeting, and he was like,
what could I say?
What words could I share?
And the thoughts came to him, use the Savior's words, which healeth the wounded soul, come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot
(27:03):
feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage, that ye may know of a surety
that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
And I just don't think we can say it better than how comforting is it to think those words
coming from our Savior.
Danielle Pletka Truly, the words of the Savior, you're the
best way to put it.
Danielle Pletka Elder Christopherson says, I believe the challenge
(27:25):
of overcoming and growing from adversity appealed to us when God presented His plan of redemption
in the pre-mortal world.
I highlighted that because I was like, I had to have.
It resonates with me now just because as I think about people, examples in my life of
people that have definitely been faced with adversity and they choose to operate in this
fashion thinking celestially and totally utilizing the Lord and the Atonement in their lives
(27:51):
to weather that, they are different people.
They do testify Him just like every breath that they take, every time that they testify
of their experience and knowing that all of it's going to work out for the good, it strengthens
me.
And maybe it's because I do agree with Elder Christopherson that there's something about
overcoming challenges and the growth that we experience when we face adversity.
(28:12):
We must have been excited that the prospect of the people that we become, for all those
challenges that we would be faced with.
I'll say this talk touched on at least 10 of the talks that we've deep dived into.
And so I have no shortage of notes, but for the sake of time, I would just say maybe you
(28:35):
can approach this talk as you really listen to this talk, not just our words, but as you
go back through and listen, maybe stop and reflect on what truth that you have cumulatively
gained line upon line from this conference as you have made this decision to take another
deeper look at conference talks and see if you agree with us that this talk summarized
so many of those feelings that we've had as we've been going through.
(28:59):
I will say he kind of gave us some action items as we're considering these challenges
that we're going to face.
He suggests that we put Christ first, which ties back to episode 11, Christ at the center
of our lives.
He talks about an action item of saying brighter hopes come through envisioning our eternal
destiny, which nods back to episode 12, all things for our good.
(29:21):
And then a third action item, greater power comes from focusing on joy, which nods back
to episode 19, a higher joy.
So I mean, I've got notes like this crazy all over the place.
I was just like, you nailed it.
You didn't know what everybody else was going to talk about.
And yours was kind of like the spark notes version of conference for me.
I was like, I love that.
But I mean, I don't think it would have meant as much to me if we hadn't put the time and
(29:44):
effort into deep diving into each of those talks individually till it comes to this one
that you're just like, yep, you're amazing.
I agree.
It's like meeting an old friend.
You're like, I know this.
I remember this.
I know this truth.
It gave me a chance to be like, yes, that's resonating then and it's resonating now.
Can I end with his testimony?
Yes, please.
He said, with joyful reverence, I witness our Savior lives and his promises are sure,
(30:05):
especially for you who are troubled and who are afflicted in any manner.
I testify that our Heavenly Father hears your tearful pleadings and will always respond
in perfect wisdom.
May God grant unto you, as he has done for our family in times of great need, that your
burdens may be light, even swallowed up in the joy of Christ in the holy name of Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
(30:25):
That reminds me though, I can't really say amen to this.
I do totally say amen to that, but I do have to remind, remember how he kind of did a deep
dive into the phrase swallowed up?
Oh yes.
He must speak Spanish.
I don't know.
Anyway, that was the first one he said in Spanish, swallowed up translates to consumed.
In German, it's devoured and in Chinese, it's engulfed.
(30:46):
So in reality, he changed the title of his talk.
One theory is swallowed up in the joy of Christ, but with that beautiful layering of the meaning
that different words can come to us in different languages, it says this, when life's challenges
are most painful and overwhelming, I remember the Lord's promise that we should suffer no
(31:07):
manner of afflictions, save it be swallowed up, consumed, devoured and engulfed in the
joy of Jesus Christ.
And then I should have ended with his awesome testimony about the Savior.
But we'll add our own.
Amen.
So good.
Thank you so much for tuning in and being with us.
We are quickly coming to an end on these conference talks.
(31:28):
We'll be done with them shortly, gearing up for another session.
And so that's just kind of on my mind, just thinking like how grateful that we have been
for this opportunity to take a deep look.
Thank you for learning with us.
We're learning as we go and we're happy that you're here with us.
All right, guys, we'll catch you next time.
Catch you next time.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to Closer to Christ through Conference.
(00:07):
We're two friends who love Jesus sharing our own approach to conference.
Welcome, welcome today, Abby.
Happy to have you.
It's good to be here.
We're happy that everyone's here with us today.
We're going to talk about swallowed up in the joy of Christ, and this is by Elder Brian
K. Taylor of the 70.
Okay, we felt sad for him that he had to go right after elder Kieran for like five seconds
(00:30):
and then his talk was so amazing.
So good for like, no, he was fine.
It's fine.
He had to follow that.
So I loved it.
Elder Taylor takes us to the New Testament and he shares three different stories with
three unique experiences and then leaves us with his witness that even though they all
look different, a living heavenly father hears our tearful pleadings and will always respond
(00:51):
in perfect wisdom.
I loved it because he is teaching with these three stories that we're going to talk about,
he's teaching principles that can be applied anywhere.
And so that's why it's good to look at them and just see how and when they can apply to
your life.
Yeah, all of us face such like unique complex challenges, different timings and like just
the scenario around them are so complex that to podcast about that and how you would face
(01:14):
that isn't as effective as knowing that these stories rest in the New Testament and based
on the situation you're going through that you can go right to the scriptures and find
the true nature of how prayer can work or how healing can take place.
These spelled it out really well.
He only spent a minute on this part of the talk.
(01:35):
I feel like for us, this is going to be kind of the meat of the podcast on this particular
talk today.
Because the take home is something that our listeners can just think on based on whatever
particular trial they're going through in that moment or years from now, whatever that
trial looks like.
So the first example that he gave to us was of Bartimaeus and that this isn't the first
(01:55):
time we've heard Bartimaeus in this conference.
If you guys remember back to episode nine in Rice E. Colithee, this was an amazing opportunity
to learn about how this blind man shed his baker's coat.
He knew that the blessing of healing was going to come and we're hoping for him that'd be
immediately because it'd be sure hard to support himself if it hadn't been so immediate.
(02:17):
But Elder Taylor uses this as the example of a person that has to only ask one time
and immediately the blessing is granted.
Oh, that's great.
It is great, but I just think there was so much experience in that blind man's life that
just because it looks like he asked for one prayer and got immediate healing, do you feel
like that sums up the message from this story?
(02:40):
I feel like this would be like the consummate act of healing.
He had done things before.
He had gone to God in prayer and done all the work that he needed to do between him
and the Lord and this was a final thing.
It was kind of like the Lord did only what he could do.
You've exhibited your faith in me and you're absolutely ready for this healing.
You know exactly what to do with it.
(03:01):
And he said it is finished at that moment.
You know what I mean?
Like we had talked about, was that just the last episode?
Like knowing when the work is done.
Obviously being able to see and you being a blind man asking to be healed with your
sight.
Yeah, you would know.
That blessing was granted.
But I love the deeper dive we took into this back in episode nine because as that one phrase
(03:22):
comes up, it's like it was not the first time that I'd heard of this man.
Now all of a sudden and now because months have gone by since that initial hearing and
then the deeper study of it, it resonates differently because I think all of that work
that part of me has to put into it to demonstrate what like living with his challenge for all
of those years looked like, knowing what that life looked like and then knowing in what
(03:45):
way and when was the appropriate time to ask for that blessing of healing.
So that was that one.
The next one was an occasion where a man of Basadia longed for healing and Elder Taylor
uses this one to contrast that the blessing didn't come after the first ask, but rather
he asked twice to be restored.
Do you have any comment on that scripture story?
Yeah.
(04:06):
So do you want me to go through the story real quick or do you want...
I didn't know enough about this story to just jump into it.
I think it might be helpful.
Okay.
So it says, and I don't remember where we are especially.
I think we were in Matthew.
Okay.
You can reference that in the talk when you listen back to it, but I cut and pasted some
scriptures.
Can you see?
So verse 22 says, and he cometh to...
(04:27):
And you said, Bethsaedia?
Sure, but I'm guessing.
Okay.
Bethsaedia.
And they bring a blind man unto him and beslaught him to touch him.
And then 23, and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked if he saw.
And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking.
(04:49):
And after that, he put his hands upon his eyes and made him look up and he was restored.
And the man saw clearly.
And he saw every man clearly.
So I remember being in when I was going through cancer treatments and I remember receiving
a priesthood blessing.
And in it, the Lord asked me to go through all of the scriptures because at the time
(05:10):
we were reading the New Testament, so there were all of these miracles and all these things
happening, go through and find the common thread.
And I was so excited to find the common thread that was healing for all of these because
I was seeking healing of my own, right?
So now sometimes I couldn't do this because my mind wasn't very clear and I was busy
with just being alive.
(05:30):
But when I did do it, one time my mom called me and she asked me all these questions.
And I said, Mom, I have to hang up.
I am concentrating on just being alive.
And we hung up.
Anyways, as I saw, as I kept reading over and over and I was kind of writing down all
the things that I was like kind of let down for a second because I was like, wait, this
one says this, this one says that, this one says, you know, wash in the river this many
(05:54):
times.
This one is mud placed on his eyes.
This one, they were all different.
Very unique.
Yes.
To the person that the trial was being faced by.
Exactly.
So at first when I was kind of like bummed that I had messed up this challenge because
there wasn't a thread that I saw, all of a sudden I was like, oh, the thread is you
go to the Lord yourself.
(06:15):
It's very individual and whatever He says for you to do to heal you, that's what you
do.
And as long as you follow that, then healing comes, right?
Now in His own way and in His own time.
Clearly the ones we're seeing right now happen immediately because Jesus is there in person
and we don't know the backstory.
Like for example of Bartimaeus, we don't know the backstory of that, but that's what
(06:38):
it was.
And so I feel like that's a really good thing for me because I don't know what other people
are going through.
I don't know where they are in their path.
Only the Lord knows that.
So truly healing comes from Him and we just follow that.
So what was the short answer?
The common thread between the stories are that?
(06:59):
Back to heaven and follow whatever that is for you.
And sometimes it's a combination of all the things, right?
It's a combination of maybe medicine, maybe surgery, maybe all the different things.
He has to know the limits of what we're willing to try.
Like if He's like, you got to, yeah, He knows us.
The combination.
It's a heavenly combination.
That's a good way to say it.
(07:21):
So Elder Taylor is using this to say like, okay, this man asked twice and so the healing
was partially restored.
He could see like men as though they were trees and then a second blessing made it so
like he could see him clear as day.
But I thought the lesson is actually somewhere in the fact that sometimes we're asking for
a blessing and we're ready for a piece of that healing or a piece of that to be answered,
(07:43):
but maybe not the whole answer can't come to fruition right in that moment.
So even though it looks immediate here in this scripture, I feel like me, for me, the
take home message was we may get a piece of that blessing, recognize that He's granted
that partial piece of the blessing and that in His wisdom, for whatever reason, the second
part of that healing hasn't come, but that it will come.
(08:03):
So great.
That's a thought.
The two times.
Yeah.
And mine was a little bit off in that because this is considered the two degrees of it,
you could say.
I mean, I feel like what you shared was exactly on the point of saying like that you're coming
to Him willing to accept whatever part of healing that He's ready for you to have.
(08:27):
I love what you shared.
So the third example was apostle Paul.
It said this, that he besought the Lord thrice in his affliction and yet to our knowledge,
his earnest application was not granted.
This just works well with the talk that he's saying, look, he asked for one, he asked one
time and he got blessed.
This guy asked twice and this guy's thrice.
There's no way that the apostle Paul asked three times for that blessing, only three
(08:48):
times.
And there's scenarios where like every day you're praying for this relief or this thing,
this help that you're needing.
Right, through years.
Right.
And so we know the apostle Paul, he was no stranger to the Lord.
He was walking with him.
He was abiding with him.
And so we would say, you know, somebody so close to the Savior asks for, like has a request
(09:11):
and it's not granted, even though we know it's completely within the power of our Savior
to fix whatever this problem was.
It's vague.
We don't know exactly what Paul was dealing with, but in his wisdom, he doesn't allow
that thing to be fixed in Paul.
So for me, I thought back to a couple of talks.
(09:35):
Elder Holland's talk in episode two, emotions of a hidden fire.
Sometimes we don't know where to pray, so we're just supposed to start somewhere.
I felt like sometimes this process of not having our prayer answered is because we are
in that moment developing a relationship with him, learning how and what to pray for.
How to approach him and how to align our will with his will.
(09:58):
Maybe the thing, maybe the miracle that we're asking for, like it doesn't exist yet, but
it will.
And so like that continued open prayer asking for that thing continues to show him that
we have faith in him.
As long as that you don't get discouraged and depressed by like the timeliness, like
how long is it going to take to be answered?
Also thought of episode 21 Sister Porter's talk, Pray He Is There, where she prayed for
(10:21):
this blessing for her father to join the church and it took an entire lifetime.
Her father even passed away and they did his temple work and she felt that confirming spirit
that yes, he's accepted the gospel.
So the thing that she'd been praying for took her entire lifetime to be witnessed, but that
didn't mean that she was any less grateful for the answer to the prayer or that she was
like, well, it was nice that you answered it.
Why didn't you answer it so many years ago?
(10:43):
I don't know.
There's just a lesson in there for me.
There's a lot, there's a, I think in a lifetime, most of us will or have had an experience
where you pray for something and immediately the help comes and maybe it's just a small
thing and it's like, you know, the lesson is that you just learned, turn to me and I
can help you with this thing.
And then we've had those experiences where it's taken a couple of thought, some thought
(11:05):
on it, a couple of prayers.
And eventually that things come to, especially if we look back on it, we're like, oh, he
gave me a piece of that and it sustained me until this bigger thing finally came to, and
I was able to have that.
I'm thinking of healing.
I'm thinking of trials.
I'm thinking of, you know, just questions that are on our heart.
We don't know the answer to.
And then unfortunately, I think there's a lot of growth that happens when we be sought,
(11:30):
we be sought, be seekh, is that the word?
Is it present tense?
I want to be like in the past.
Well, actually it could be in the present.
When we are constantly in prayer for this blessing that we're looking for to come that
we know he can grant, but it just doesn't feel like it's coming.
People will say that he doesn't hear me and he doesn't answer my prayers.
I think a lot of times that's the knee-jerk reaction to say that he doesn't hear me.
(11:53):
He doesn't answer my prayers.
When in reality, like there's refining.
There's a refining that's happening in the weight and the person that you become in that
patience and giving that time for that blessing to finally come about makes you a completely
different person.
You couldn't have become any other way.
(12:14):
No.
Okay, Abby, this is making me think of something.
So if we're looking at like a lifetime of healing and waiting for pieces and then waiting
for the next piece, waiting for the next piece.
So I've had, I've struggled with fibromyalgia pretty much my whole life.
And at the beginning, well, I had a problem with it.
Like during my mission, different medications, yada, yada, came home and I was sitting with
(12:37):
a doctor that he was supposed to be the one that was going to like be able to figure everything
out.
And then I sat across the desk from him and he said, um, he listened to everything.
And then he, he slid me a pamphlet of opioids and said, this is for you, you know, like,
and I can't, I can't treat the root of this, but essentially pain.
Yes.
And so I, I, I heard in my mind that is not for you.
(12:58):
And so what I understood was heavenly father knew better than the doctors that I was going
to and that he had me in his hand.
So I didn't take those, which I'm glad I didn't because later I did need them and just for
a small amount of time and they probably wouldn't have worked.
So what I said, what my prayer was to heavenly father at that point was this heavenly father,
I know that, you know, the timeline of this, I know that, you know, what is best for me.
(13:23):
So I'm just going to keep living my life and I'm going to do the best I can.
Like I would, I would exercise and I would try to do all the things I could to make my
body healthy.
And then I just said this, when there's something that lets, you know, proverbial,
proverbial, I can't talk crosses my desk that has to do with this, please let me know
because there are so many times when people who are well, I mean, you know, with your
(13:44):
kids and, and, um, the things that you go through, there are so many people that things
have worked for them and they want to work for you as well.
So they say, try this, what about this?
What about that?
And that's not against anyone else.
It's just saying the Lord knows me best.
So I would been able to, um, synthesize all the information coming at you.
(14:05):
Yes.
Okay.
Am I putting words into your mouth?
If I say this is like the inklings, this is the beginning of the, of the faith journal
that you started probably was there.
There's a piece of that, that it's like, you've done these little things all along
your path and none of them have quite worked, but then you list it out and you say somewhere
the answer is in here, some combination of these particular treatments.
(14:26):
Yes.
And then five years later, something would happen.
It would be like, my mom would just say, Hey, I came across this.
I'm like, that's it.
She's like, why did you jump on it so quickly?
I said, cause I knew.
And then five years down the road, this is it.
And so many times I was like, why didn't I find this 10 years ago?
Why didn't I know about this 20 years ago?
And I just feel like the cold hard facts are, is that's part of the refiner's fire.
(14:46):
And he knows, he knows at what point I am and when things will work and when they won't
work.
I don't want to put thoughts into Alexis reporter's mouth, but I was just thinking
on her lifetime of praying for her father to be a member of the church and thinking,
if you open that prayer and like every day that her dad didn't join the church while
he was in this mortal state, if she had that prayer that he would be so, what do you think
(15:08):
that made the interactions with him look like?
Much softer, right?
Like much more tender, like not saying the wrong thing.
Like why don't you just open your eyes and look at this thing?
Rather, she probably lived her life in a way that just mirrored like the life that she
was experiencing because of the covenant she'd made.
And I just, I can only imagine just good things, just good soft things.
(15:29):
Yes.
Meaning that her dad still had to be introduced to the gospel on the other side of the veil
and still had to accept it for himself or not, for her to feel that confirming witness,
you know, through the temple experience that they had that he had accepted it.
And I'm only sharing this because I have absolutely felt names I've taken to the temple acknowledged
to me that they were willing and ready and waiting to have that experience.
(15:52):
I don't know their backstory.
I didn't interact with them in life.
I couldn't have said the wrong thing to them because they were hundreds of years before
me.
But I'm saying this is a special thing to think about.
When a prayer doesn't look like it's being answered, maybe the answer in the prayer was
that you were able to show that person like the love that heavenly father would have shown
them so that it seemed like it was awfully easy for him to accept it with whatever barriers
(16:15):
that he had in this moral existence.
It was like short order, like after he passed it, it was like, oh, yep.
And he accepted.
So interesting.
And then in these covenants and just more in the immediate, like you were saying with
a health challenge that we're facing, that article that came out was like new and cutting
edge that your mom shared with you.
But that information didn't exist.
Somebody hadn't put that in trial and test.
(16:36):
And so because you had this part to be like, I don't want this fibromyalgia to affect
my life and like control my life and rule my life.
And I don't want to just cover the pain with opioids.
You were opening the windows of heaven to say, in this trial, I'm inviting you into
this heavenly father.
And when you can share with me the things that will help me in this trial, send them
my way.
So you're what that did, opening your prayer in that way, even though it says some, it
(16:59):
might look like your prayer is not being answered.
What it did is it opened you to that revelation that in the time that it was shared with you,
you grabbed onto it.
And I've seen you suggest to people, like sometimes we've tried something.
I'm not trying to put like any name of a trial in your life.
This is just like a skill to develop.
(17:20):
You're experiencing a challenge and this is where you would put down the things that you
know, not like the faith journal, but just like, let's take it back to health.
That's an easier one to go over.
So for your fibromyalgia, you tried A, B, C, and D, and E, and F, and G, and H, all
the way through the alphabet.
And that somebody would say, oh, you should try this.
And you would look at your list and be like, I've totally already tried that.
(17:43):
There's something to listing the options and heavenly father knowing what you're willing
to do to overcome this thing.
And a prayer that you've suggested people make is, is there a combination of these things
that I haven't tapped into before?
So that's an easy way to look at it, like on a health thing that might say, oh, if I
pair A with D and Z, then that combination of things is totally different.
(18:07):
It may be a diet change and it may be, I don't know, like I don't even know what led you
to the health.
Yeah, the health you have, but it doesn't matter like anybody else that's going through
that particular trial.
It's not going to be like, oh, I have this problem and A, D, and D fixed me.
It doesn't matter.
What matters is that you invited the Lord into that process and then you considered
(18:30):
the things that you had done or were willing to do to get past that.
And then just thinking about, that's easier to talk about a health trial, right?
Rather than like a faith crisis, a faith trial or whatever.
But the same process can apply to that.
Totally.
And that's where the faith journal comes in.
The principle.
Yeah.
That you're like, I'm struggling with this thing, but these are the things that I know
(18:50):
are true.
Help me identify which piece on the things that I know to be true will help me reconcile
this thing for me.
And then you'll settle that.
It'll be a combination of a few things you have a testimony of to enlighten and enlarge
your testimony of this new thing.
And anyway, I thought there was so much to be learned from those three-
They're so good, Abby.
... scripture stories.
And hopefully, one of those will come to mind, like particularly if you are in the middle
(19:15):
of a trial right now that you're thinking that you're not getting answers to questions.
Maybe you can find yourself in one of those stories and then apply what you've learned
as you've studied those.
Something just came to mind.
It's really interesting.
So back again, when I was going through cancer, a member of our congregation came to our house
and he said, you know, I just can't shake this feeling.
(19:35):
He said, I really feel like, and he's one of our friends, like we loved him.
He's wonderful.
He said, I've done this before.
I have a certain gift and he said, I just feel like I need to come and pronounce a gift
of healing on you.
So we were like, okay.
You know, he said, I feel really weird saying it, like just the whole thing.
And I was like, you know what?
I just love that you got an impression that you have a particular gift and that you're
(19:57):
willing to share it.
You know what?
We're just going to go with that.
Right.
So I received the blessing and it would have been awesome if I would have like stood up
from there and a hundred percent would have been great.
Right.
He pronounced the blessing of healing.
Then I think it was another month later, Garrett had the thought to pronounce like immediate
healing on me.
And I thought I would stand up and walk as well.
Didn't happen.
(20:19):
And I just, I didn't lose hope in any way, but it just felt very much like this was kind
of like, I don't know, maybe someone following a prompting and acting on that right then
and using all the faith that they had.
Right.
And I accepted all of that.
It just felt like it was more gradual than that.
That's the feeling that I kept getting because I was waiting for it to be immediate.
Like why not?
(20:39):
It happens in the scriptures.
Right.
So then a little while down the road, I was contemplating on this and I was reading the
DNC.
Don't remember where it is right now, but it talks about that spiritual matter is finer
than physical.
And so you were like spiritually healed before your physical body could catch up with.
It was done spiritually, but my body needed to, it is very dense and things like, you
(21:04):
know, like healing work through it at a slower, slower, slower rate.
I wish it was a lot faster than it was, but I was spiritually healed and I was just kind
of like when, when the earth was created, it was created spiritually and then it was
created physically.
So I loved that.
And I, cause at first I was like, heavenly father, why didn't that stuff work?
It's not that it didn't work.
It was a process.
I heard the word process through my cancer treatment so many times.
(21:28):
I almost wanted to throw up.
I was tired of the process, but at the end of it, when I looked back, that process was
exactly the refining process that I needed.
And I'm a different person because of it.
So looking back, I can say that like, I get the three times, I get the three times asking
or the 300 times asking for healing and it is incremental and all of it matters.
(21:49):
Would you agree with elder Whitney's quote?
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.
It ministers to our education.
All that we patiently endure builds up our character, purifies our heart, expands our
souls and makes us more tender and charitable.
It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation that we gain the education that
we come here to acquire and which it will make us more like our heavenly parents.
(22:13):
Yes.
I found that quote during cancer and it was the top of my journal.
I could read it like every time I'd come back to it and just felt like it would almost
be a travesty if the healing had been so immediate because of I watched me reading that quote.
I watched your emotions and you processing some of those unique experiences that happened
over the course of many months, accumulating into at least a year of time.
(22:36):
It made you a different person.
I think you know that.
I think that that doesn't come as a surprise to you, but like if it had just been as quick
as you knew you were going to, you knew from the beginning, you are the one that identified
the cancer in your situation.
You're like, I'm pretty sure I've been told I've got cancer, but I'll be healed from it.
You already knew the end from the beginning, but to have these experiences with the blessings
that you had and to rely on him as you were getting the information you needed to get
(23:01):
the medical care and do the treatments that you needed to, what a refining process you
have definitely used to help other people and not that you've given them the answer
of like, oh, I had cancer and this is what I did in it, A, B, and C, and then you're
going to be fixed.
So not you don't, you don't put that on people.
You say, I do have some suggestions if you're open to them.
Yes, I'm open to them.
These are some things that I've done.
(23:21):
You've, you've shared with me a few things that you've done for healing and I've taken
parts and pieces of them, put that into my arsenal of things that I'm willing to do.
And then, you know, they've, then I've worked with the Lord to say like, is this, this is
going to work for me?
And he's like, yep, you can go that route or you're going to need to have the, you know,
loop the medical professionals in on this one.
And you did that same thing.
You had a combination of so many different things.
(23:42):
So anyway, that quote, I was like, that's, that sums up what Amy learned from her cancer
journey, for sure.
Also, no, nobody can doubt what our prophet gained in his experience with, with his own,
with his own pain and suffering.
When he fell, right?
He did fall.
(24:03):
And so then he was out.
We missed him for some time.
He didn't make it to conference and he'd been like, I mean, he's been such a healthy man
his entire life.
Right.
I don't think that he's ever been, he's never been able to view the atonement, like through
the eyes of like somebody that is physically burdened.
True.
Right?
That's a whole different point of view.
He's like, you're going to be skiing until I physically tell you you're not allowed to
(24:24):
ski.
Not because you couldn't ski.
I can get you off the ski hill.
So he physically could do those things.
But this back injury was like such a unique opportunity for him from his own mouth.
He verbalized how he gained a deeper understanding of the atonement of the savior.
If anybody deserved an immediate blessing like Bartimaeus, wouldn't our prophet be the
(24:44):
one that would deserve if we're talking about deserving something?
There was so many lessons that he learned.
Like you can tell there was something that he's been talking about clear back to 2011,
something like this.
If we look at all things with eternal perspective, it will significantly lighten our load.
And I'm like, oh, that would have been in the Think Celestial talk that was just barely.
But in fact, as I studied into like where these thoughts come from, back to 2011, and
(25:08):
then so many leaders from that time have amplified and echoed that thought until it kind of
cumulated into this amazing talk from last conference titled Think Celestial.
And it changed so many things, the way that I think about so many things.
And it's funny because I'm like, it's not like it's the first time that he said it.
It was the first time that I was ready to really lock into the idea of looking at things,
(25:32):
like looking at a trial, looking at an experience that I'm experiencing my life and thinking
like, what's this doing for my growth and my readiness for that?
Not for when I get to the Celestial Kingdom, how to make it celestial now?
How can I refine this and make this for my good right in this moment?
So I thought that was amazing.
I think it would be a shame if we didn't touch on one example that Elder Taylor shared
(25:55):
in his talk, and it was Holly and Rick Porter.
I summed up, I will get too emotional if I think too long on this, but they lost their
12-year-old son, Trey, in a tragic fire.
And Holly attempted to save her son, but in the process, her hands and her feet were badly
burned.
So she was in a sacrament meeting testifying of the great peace and joy the Lord had poured
out upon their family and their anguish using words like miraculous, incredible, and amazing.
(26:20):
She says, my hands are not the hands that save.
Those hands belong to the Savior.
Instead of looking at my scars as a reminder of what I was not able to do, I remember the
scars my Savior bears.
And what a powerful witness she is to the Prophet's promise that as we think celestial,
our trials and opposition are viewed in a totally different light.
(26:43):
So Elder Taylor had the opportunity to remark at the sacrament meeting, and he was like,
what could I say?
What words could I share?
And the thoughts came to him, use the Savior's words, which healeth the wounded soul, come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot
(27:03):
feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage, that ye may know of a surety
that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
And I just don't think we can say it better than how comforting is it to think those words
coming from our Savior.
Danielle Pletka Truly, the words of the Savior, you're the
best way to put it.
Danielle Pletka Elder Christopherson says, I believe the challenge
(27:25):
of overcoming and growing from adversity appealed to us when God presented His plan of redemption
in the pre-mortal world.
I highlighted that because I was like, I had to have.
It resonates with me now just because as I think about people, examples in my life of
people that have definitely been faced with adversity and they choose to operate in this
fashion thinking celestially and totally utilizing the Lord and the Atonement in their lives
(27:51):
to weather that, they are different people.
They do testify Him just like every breath that they take, every time that they testify
of their experience and knowing that all of it's going to work out for the good, it strengthens
me.
And maybe it's because I do agree with Elder Christopherson that there's something about
overcoming challenges and the growth that we experience when we face adversity.
(28:12):
We must have been excited that the prospect of the people that we become, for all those
challenges that we would be faced with.
I'll say this talk touched on at least 10 of the talks that we've deep dived into.
And so I have no shortage of notes, but for the sake of time, I would just say maybe you
(28:35):
can approach this talk as you really listen to this talk, not just our words, but as you
go back through and listen, maybe stop and reflect on what truth that you have cumulatively
gained line upon line from this conference as you have made this decision to take another
deeper look at conference talks and see if you agree with us that this talk summarized
so many of those feelings that we've had as we've been going through.
(28:59):
I will say he kind of gave us some action items as we're considering these challenges
that we're going to face.
He suggests that we put Christ first, which ties back to episode 11, Christ at the center
of our lives.
He talks about an action item of saying brighter hopes come through envisioning our eternal
destiny, which nods back to episode 12, all things for our good.
(29:21):
And then a third action item, greater power comes from focusing on joy, which nods back
to episode 19, a higher joy.
So I mean, I've got notes like this crazy all over the place.
I was just like, you nailed it.
You didn't know what everybody else was going to talk about.
And yours was kind of like the spark notes version of conference for me.
I was like, I love that.
But I mean, I don't think it would have meant as much to me if we hadn't put the time and
(29:44):
effort into deep diving into each of those talks individually till it comes to this one
that you're just like, yep, you're amazing.
I agree.
It's like meeting an old friend.
You're like, I know this.
I remember this.
I know this truth.
It gave me a chance to be like, yes, that's resonating then and it's resonating now.
Can I end with his testimony?
Yes, please.
He said, with joyful reverence, I witness our Savior lives and his promises are sure,
(30:05):
especially for you who are troubled and who are afflicted in any manner.
I testify that our Heavenly Father hears your tearful pleadings and will always respond
in perfect wisdom.
May God grant unto you, as he has done for our family in times of great need, that your
burdens may be light, even swallowed up in the joy of Christ in the holy name of Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
(30:25):
That reminds me though, I can't really say amen to this.
I do totally say amen to that, but I do have to remind, remember how he kind of did a deep
dive into the phrase swallowed up?
Oh yes.
He must speak Spanish.
I don't know.
Anyway, that was the first one he said in Spanish, swallowed up translates to consumed.
In German, it's devoured and in Chinese, it's engulfed.
(30:46):
So in reality, he changed the title of his talk.
One theory is swallowed up in the joy of Christ, but with that beautiful layering of the meaning
that different words can come to us in different languages, it says this, when life's challenges
are most painful and overwhelming, I remember the Lord's promise that we should suffer no
(31:07):
manner of afflictions, save it be swallowed up, consumed, devoured and engulfed in the
joy of Jesus Christ.
And then I should have ended with his awesome testimony about the Savior.
But we'll add our own.
Amen.
So good.
Thank you so much for tuning in and being with us.
We are quickly coming to an end on these conference talks.
(31:28):
We'll be done with them shortly, gearing up for another session.
And so that's just kind of on my mind, just thinking like how grateful that we have been
for this opportunity to take a deep look.
Thank you for learning with us.
We're learning as we go and we're happy that you're here with us.
All right, guys, we'll catch you next time.
Catch you next time.
Thank you very much.
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