An afternoon with Elder Holland
I was very honored to spend the weekend with Elder Jeffrey R Holland and Elder Lynn G Robbins. It was a weekend that changed me forever, and will have a direct influence on my life and church service. I took copious notes of the teachings, and my feelings, and will plan to teach from them often. However, three quick thoughts to share here:
First, These men (pictured above) are dedicated to the work for all the right and pure reasons. When you shake their hand and look them in the eye, there is no hypocrisy or guile to be found. Elder Holland mentioned that he nearly lost his beloved Pat Holland recently, and yet here he was on assignment for 12 days to teach and bless. His sense of duty is pure without ulterior motive.
Second, A side project of mine for the last couple years is documenting the experience of receiving a call to the Quorum of the Twelve. I’ve compiled many accounts from those who have shared in the past. It was an honor and awakening to hear Elder Holland share his own experience. “I’m not sure it’s supposed to be a personal hell when you receive this Apostolic calling but each of us went through that. I’m not sure why. We don’t talk about it much with each other. Elder Faust put his arm around me and said “My boy, I know what you’re going through and there is not a thing I can do for you.”
Third, there are so many posts on social media and in life about having questions in the Gospel (which is ok) and even having doubts (which is also ok.) But there’s not enough conversation to establish that it’s also ok to not have either. We should do better with that. I’ve never felt forgotten by my Savior. I’ve never had a promise unkept when I did my part. With exacting effort, I prepared myself for a month for this weekend and I received all that for which I asked. It has always been the case and I believe always will be the case. How could I doubt now?