Sacrament Meeting Talks

[Traveler]

I was impressed with our Sacrament Meeting talks this week.  So I decided to start a thread where we can all highlight some of our favorite talks from ordinary members.  One of today's talks I will remember for a long time.  It was from the oldest member of our ward (somewhere in his upper 90's).  As a young boy fresh he joined the Airforce fresh out of high school to become a fighter piolet in WWII.  He was from a small Utah town and has remained a devoted Latter-day Saint (devoted to his covenants) all his life.  Becoming a fighter piolet was a passion that began when he was 6years old and was able to ride in a WWI biplane that came to town during the depression offering rides for a small price.

Because of his passion he became an accomplished piolet.  A P-51 aircraft had suffered a very bad crash but because of the shortage of aircraft the plane had been rebuilt.  Our old ward member was given the duty to test fly the plane before it was returned to operation.  For those that may not know the P-51 was the most powerful prop plane in WWII.  The powerful rotation of the propeller meant that when applying a heavy throttle the plane would turn to the left.  During takeoff it was standard to turn the control surfaces to the right to keep the plane under control.  However, as soon as the plane left the ground from takeoff the plane turned hard left despite his efforts.  Over his radio he heard the control tower yelling to turn right.  Everything was happening quickly and the plane rotated so far so quickly he could not eject - he was sure he was going to die.  He then heard (almost a voice) telling him to turn left.  He turned left and the plane leveled out and he was able to take control.  During the rebuild all the controls had been set up backwards.  He could only turn right by attempting to turn left and vice versa.  He testified this was the first time he recalled in his life that the Holy Ghost spoke to him directly.  He was surprised that the spirit spoke of flying and not religion but from that experience he learned to listen to the spirit.  

He recalled President Uchtdorf's talk from the last conference testifying that if we listen to the Holy Ghost that the L-rd will show us great and marvelous things.  And like Brother Uchtdorf - our ward member was a skilled fighter piolet that has experienced great and marvelous things listening to the Holy Ghost.

 

The Traveler

Edited March 15, 2021 by Traveler

[Fether]

55 minutes ago, Traveler said:

I was impressed with our Sacrament Meeting talks this week.  So I decided to start a thread where we can all highlight some of our favorite talks from ordinary members. 

We too had an impressive sacrament meeting.

One speaker, a youth preparing to serve a mission, shared his experience with Pornography and how he overcame it. 
 

Another speaker shared a lot of difficulties he had growing up. At a certain point, when he felt he had overcome and beat those trials, he moved to a new ward. Now that he was passed the trials of yesterday, he began to see that there were many in his new ward that were facing many of the same things he had overcome. He then made the observation that not only do we need to purify ourselves for the sake of salvation, but we have a duty to seek purity so that we can strengthen our brethren (Luke 22:32)

[laronius]

Not in sacrament meeting but in ward council our recently called young bishop gave a spiritual thought that gave a cool insight into the scriptures I hadn't before considered. He talked about the story of Nephi being tied to the mast of the ship and the physical suffering that must have attended that experience and then he talked about Nephi's previous experience of being tied up by his brothers. In the first instance he exercised great faith, called upon the Lord and was able to break free. But in the latter experience the Lord seems to have not heard the plea for deliverance that the story is silent on but almost surely happened. He had been delivered by the Lord once and now in very similar circumstances he likely felt the Lord would respond just like before, but no. This time he was called upon to just endure. Eventually deliverance came but only after great suffering. Our bishop then spoke about having faith not just in what the Lord can do but what also in what the Lord knows needs to be done or in this instance not done and just because something happens one way once that that will always be the case.

In fast and testimony meeting, we had stake conference last week, a woman talked about how the Lord revealed to her that she would receive something she greatly desired but then withheld that blessing until she actually asked for it even though the Lord had already promised it. I thought that was interesting.

Edited March 15, 2021 by laronius