We had a wonderful experience this past weekend. We had video broadcast stake conference from Salt Lake City, prepared for 61 stakes in Washington and Alaska. We had the usual adult meeting with the stake on Saturday night, then our Sunday session was broadcast. Our speakers included Bro. Larry Gibson of the YM Presidency, Elder Paul Pieper of the Quorum of Seventy, Elder Russell M. Nelsen of the Quorum of the Twelve, and President Monson. What a treat it was to hear from each of them. I have pondered what to share in this brief message and keep returning to Bro. Gibson's message.
He grew up on a small town in southern Nevada, never named in the talk. His love was to chase, capture, and study any of the wild life, particularly the arthropods and reptiles of the area. He told of having captured several different scorpions, turtles, snakes, and a variety of lizards. His greatest desire was to capture a Gila monster, a venomous lizard of the region. At about age twelve, he was out hunting for the lizard of his dreams, and located a large one. Armed with his forked stick, burlap sack and rope, together with his father's flashlight, he followed the lizard to the entrance of a long abandoned mine. Ignoring the frequent warnings about entering abandoned mine shafts, he followed the monster into the mine, following the rusty tracks of the ore car rails. Eventually, he arrived in a large cavern, which had three outlets. The tracks went to the far right hand tunnel. He decided to leave that one for last, and entered the left hand tunnel. Soon after he entered, the flashlight began to dim, then suddenly, went out. He was in the dark, deep in the mine, and there was a large Gila monster someplace. He said the darkness was so thick, he could feel it. Suddenly, understanding of the darkness at the time of the Savior's death took on new meaning for him. He felt around and found a wall, and started to walk, thinking it was the way out. He arrived at a dead end. After a time, he lost contact with all walls. It was then he remembered to pray. He resumed moving, crawling, feeling ahead of himself. He found the old, rusty track and followed it for some distance before it ended, still in the dark. He had crawled the wrong direction. He did the only thing possible, turned around, and crawled the other direction. Eventually, he saw in the distance a tiny speck of light that grew and grew until he could stand and walk out of the mine. He didn't encounter the Gila monster while in the mine, and didn't say if he ever managed to catch one.
He shared five lessons from the mine:
1. Always follow the Light, not the monster.
2. Pray when all else fails. Even better, pray before all else fails.
3. When you are lost, look to family and faithful friends for council.
4. Look to the fifteen men sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators. They will lead us to the fruit we need.
5. Keep our eye single to the Light - the Savior - the Light of the World
Have a great week. Don't chase the monsters, follow the Light.
Love, Mom
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