Light

Pres. Thomas S. Monson. Love this guy.

Today President Monson delivered the devotional address at 11am in the Marriott Center. Everyone was really excited to hear him speak and some people even camped out in front of the Marriott and stayed the night! I think that their effort was worthwhile because his talk was incredible. Pres. Monson spoke about being a light to the world through our good examples. He shared three powerful stories that illustrated his point and effectively used pathos to evoke strong feelings in his audience. Yeah, I just applied what we learned in Writing 150. I went there. The first story was about a church member who despite his rigorous academic schedule as a Rhodes Scholar studying at Oxford, took an hour every night to read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of its truthfulness. I think this story was really applicable for college students and I know it spoke to me. I’m not even close to being as smart as this guy (I changed my major just to avoid taking economics classes, and here he is majoring in some economics major that should take a normal person three years and only took him two! Not to mention the fact that I am not a Rhodes Scholar and he is), but I’m a student with homework and I sometimes feel too busy to read my scriptures. After hearing Pres. Monson’s talk, however, I feel like I should make scripture study a higher priority. Pres. Monson did not even ask us to read them for an hour a night, but just to set aside some time during our day to do so, and I plan to start doing that. The second story was about a Catholic woman from Utah who used to feel animosity toward the LDS church but after witnessing the faith and compassion of two church members changed her perspective. I liked this story because it shows the importance of simply being an example and practicing what you believe. The final story was a very touching story about a missionary in Canada who was hospitalized and had to undergo complicated surgery. Nonetheless, he maintained a positive spirit and continued to teach the gospel by sharing his belief with his fellow patients, who were so moved that they fasted for him during his surgery. Heavenly Father blessed his missionary by guiding the surgeon, who acknowledged that a higher power directed his work and did not charge the missionary’s family for the surgery. I liked this story a lot and I thought about the love that missionaries have toward the people around them and how much Heavenly Father cares about missionaries. It reminded me of my two favorite cousins who are currently serving in Paris and Singapore. This was an awesome devotional and I am grateful to attend a college that values our spirituality enough to set aside time in our schedules and provide weekly devotionals.

photo: news.byu.edu