Hey
all!
That’s
awesome BSU won!! Meeting w/ Elder
Bednar was amazing. He shared an interesting story of a man he once gave a
blessing to. This man had returned home from his mission getting married soon
after, and a few months later was diagnosed w/ a bone cancer that gave him an
80 percent chance to die in the next 6 months. He asked to see Elder Bednar and
so Elder Bednar, as an apostle, came to speak w/ the man. Bednar said after
talking to the man for awhile, and having been asked to give him a blessing,
asked a question that he'd never asked before which was, "Do you have the
faith not to be healed?" The man pondered a moment and then asked to speak
w/ his wife for a few minutes. They called Elder Bednar back into the room and
said, we feel I need to live still. (this man was healed in three weeks,but
years later the man was diagnosed again w/ the cancer and elder bednar would
not tell us the rest of the story to try and get his main point across). One
note I wrote down about this question was that we must know the Lord
"can" heal us and we need not worry so much about what Gods will for
us is. Elder Bednar said we can know that the Lord's will be done if we honor
our covenants. of course we can change the course of things like ending our
life early b/c of choices we make, but if we are honoring our covenants to the
best of our ability we can have the faith and trust that the Lord's will is
being done. He also asked us to stop some foolish traditions that mormons in
general tend to do. One example is taking notes. He said, "why do we take
notes word by word when we're not going to remember it the next day, won't
study it either b/c we don't care to much or b/c eventually we lose it. How
stupid is that!?" So he said don't write anything down that he or anyone
else said, but only what the spirit prompts you to do. He also said it makes no
sense that when people pray in sacrament they say, "and bless those who
did not make it this week, that they'll make it next week." Those prayers
have no faith, so he said he wants someone to go up and say something like
this, "Father in Heaven we are so grateful for this Sabbath day. We are
grateful to have been able to partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants
w/ thee. Now Father we each know someone that's not here that needs to be here,
and we aren't going to pray that they'll come next week. Im sure the bishop is
getting a little nervous right now and he may even stand up and ask me to end
my prayer, but we know you'll help us go and find these people that need to
come to church. Please bless us w/ the courage to go right now after we end
this prayer and help these people who need to come to church next week. We're
going to do it. We also ask that you'll bless us w/ the spirit so that we don't
all go to the same house. Amen"
I'm
going to do that in my next sacrament prayer, and if anyone confronts me about
it I'll get to say an apostle asked me to say that. I love you all. Have a
great week
Elder
Hatfield
