Listening to the Spirit

 D&c 84:46 listening to the spirit

We had a lesson in Sunday school this week. During the discussion a number of the participants shared incidents in their lives. That got me to thinking about times in my life when I had promptings from the Holy Ghost. There have been a number which I feel are not to be shared publicly. Today I would like to share one. It illustrates a two way interaction of the spiritual prompting.

My wife and I were just home from our mission to the Europe East area in Frankfurt in 2000. We were staying in an apartment in Canyon Road Towers just up the street from the conference center. We had people living in our home in Lander while we were on our mission and they had not yet moved so we could not go home.

That July there had been a change in the area presidency and Elder Ronald Rasband was assigned to the Europe Central area presidency. We had come home before we had met him.

We were still living in the apartment at the time of October general conference. We did not have tickets to attend, but wanted to go. We were standing in the line to gain entrance to the meeting for those who didn’t have tickets. As we were standing on the sidewalk across the street from the conference center Elder Rasband came along shaking the people’s hands. As he approached I had the impression as if a voice. “He has tickets,ask him.” I thought, I think that would be presumptuous. I am not going to ask him. He went down the line and then when he came back, he stopped in front of us and asked us if we would like tickets. I do not think he knew who we were, but he listened to the spirit and gave us the tickets. This was the Sunday morning session when President Hinckley dedicated the conference center.

I didn’t act on the prompting of the spirit, but Elder Rasband did.

Some times we may realize that we are getting messages from a loving Father, but we fail to act as in my case. Not often will things turn out as they did in this case.

The best advice that grandpa can offer is to learn to listen and when the impression comes act without hesitation.

Love,
Grandpa