Seeking Jesus

Trying to copy Grandma with the big eyes!

Sunday we only had an hour sacrament meeting and then people headed down to San Antonio to the Alamodome to hear the prophet speak.  We left at 2 and got there at 4:30.  Traffic was insane.  We had to park a ways a way and walk about 20 minutes.  Once inside we were way up in the nose bleed section and we were 45 minutes early.  We had Brother and Sister Ochoa, Elder and Sister Bednar, Sister Wendy Nelson and then President Nelson speak.  It was nice to be in the same space as the prophet but you can see from the picture he was just a little dot on the stage, we watched it mainly on the large screens that were projecting throughout the stadium.
The Ochoa's spoke a bit in Spanish and then they both focused on the importance of the Book of Mormon and Sis Ochoa joined at 17 because reading it.
Sis Bednar recounted some lessons she learned from her time living in Texas and most of them were very good but one bugged me so bad.    She starts her story off by saying her son was a student in Austin and they had their first baby.  She came to help.  She had a really nice hotel room with two bedrooms so she invited the couple to spend the night with her.  The baby cried and cried and they were concerned about the other guests in the hotel, so she stayed up most the night comforting the baby and keeping it from crying.  They both fell asleep in the early hours of the morning and woke with a start.  She realized that the continental breakfast was about to be over so she hurried and threw on some clothes and without fixing up hurried down in the lobby.  She felt sure no one would recognize her.  But to her horror, someone approached her and asked her if she was Sis Bednar.   She didn't want to admit that she was but she did.  Her lesson was that she knew she represented her husband who was president of BYU Idaho and she always needed her appearance to reflect that.  Who she should be worried about representing is Jesus Christ and by serving her son and daughter she did that.  Who cares that she wasn't picture perfect.  She had done what she should have been doing.   Anyway, it totally rubbed me wrong.  If I neglect to do service because maybe I am not picture perfect and someone might see me and judge me than I have got my priorities totally wrong.  Her other examples were good though.
Elder Bednar talked about being All In.  He used the quote from C.S. Lewis above that I really liked. He challenged us to live for the gospel and that we are not expected to be perfect but to continue to press forward.

Sis Nelson basically told us that she was a witness that her husband was a prophet of God and gave us some behind the scenes insight into their lives.  I loved how she always referred to him as my husband and not President Nelson or the prophet.  She was very endearing to me.

President Nelson talked about challenges in our lives and shared the scriptures in Ether about if men come unto me I will show them their weaknesses and later it states thou shalt be made strong.  He then recounted a story of Horacio Spafford who wrote the lyrics to It is well with my soul.

1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
   When sorrows like sea billows roll;
   Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well with my soul.
   • Refrain:
     It is well with my soul,
     It is well, it is well with my soul.
2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
   Let this blest assurance control,
   That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
   And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
3. My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
   My sin, not in part but the whole,
   Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
4. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
   If Jordan above me shall roll,
   No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
   Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
5. But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
   The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
   Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
   Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
6. And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
   The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
   The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
   Even so, it is well with my soul.

When you hear the story behind these lyrics, it makes them all the more beautiful.  Horacio had lost his son to scarlet fever and so to help soothe the family he sent his wife and four daughters to England on a boat.  He would join them there after he finished up some business.  On the way the ship crashed and his wife was the only survivor of his family.  He got the news and got on a boat to join his wife.  As he was crossing, the captain knew of his story and when they got to the place where his daughters and died, the captain told him the spot.  That night he penned these lyrics.  That is faith tested for sure and he believed in his Savior and because of this he had hope.