At the Feet of an Apostle of the Lord

Family Home Evening with
Apostle Richard G. Scott

Elder Claudio Costa

of the Seventy

23 August 2010

We just came home from having a special Family Home Evening with Elder Richard G. Scott of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Acosta of the Presidency of the Seventy.

The Chile Area Presidency Secretary, Elder Heaton and his wife arranged the meeting, and asked me to organize a special number. I decided we’d sing “Help me Teach with Inspiration”. Sisters Lyon and Burke to sing soprano, Sister Walton, alto, Elders Day and Walton – tenor, and Elders Burke and Runquist on bass. We started out with two other singers, me for one, and a different accompanist. Our first rehearsal wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel quite right (a week ago). Today I got a phone call that the Limburg’s were sick, so I took over the piano for Sister Limburg and we reduced our 3 basses to 2. Now we had 4 men and three women. They looked beautiful together, the heights were perfect, the blend was splendid and it felt exactly right.

Elder Acosta spoke to all the (young) missionaries (and those of us seniors who are proselyting) on Saturday morning - it was soooo inspiring, but tonight he also told us a story about a senior couple who did work in a Spanish mission where he was president - neither of the couple knew any spanish - but they ended up starting a branch where there wasn’t one, and then it split and then split again – all with limited or only essential Spanish.

Tonight it was a treat to have Elder Scott speak to forty of us senior missionaries for an hour and a half. We sat in a circle around him - we were very close to him - at his knee, so to speak. The first thing he said was that we needed to be obedient. It really struck me what he said. Elder Acosta had said the very same thing, the first thing, in our meeting on Saturday morning – that we needed to be exactly obedience. It is the first law of the Lord.

(An aside) Last month in the temple I realized that the first law that God gave to Adam and Eve was the law of obedience. Then I realized why. Because without obedience, why would the Lord give us any more laws, which would result in blessings, if we would not first be obedient! Earthly laws are made to keep order and to keep us safe. It is this way with the temporal laws of the land. If humanity will keep the laws, we can all be safe and happy. Likewise, the Lord never gives a law without it being tied to a blessing we will receive, if obedient to the law.

Elder Scott made some marvelous promises to us, including that our families would be safe and some of our children would be brought back into the church and blessed because of our service. He invoked the gift of tongues upon us. But then, he told the women they did not need to worry about that, because we have a special sensitivity that made it so we could communicate just fine. I was disappointed he "qualified" the gift of tongues to the men, but I believe after thinking about it on the way home on the bus, I feel much less pressure to speak well, and no longer afraid to try to speak from my heart and rely even more on the spirit to help me. The biggest benefit of all is to know that the feelings I've had in speaking with other women - that is, of feeling that I knew exactly what they were talking about, even though I did not know but a few key words they said, the feelings I had were actually valid and I did understand. Also that in my limited Spanish, I could convey an answer - I have felt this to be true - but didn't trust my own intuition. Now I actually feel a lifting of the burden of the language. He told us to ask the Lord what he would have us do - in a way that was very impactful to me.

Elder Scott is a very kind man, he asked us questions, about our experience on the mission, and was very patient in listening to those who shared experiences. Then he told us about the first presidency and how “well balanced” they were as a presidency in their strengths, he also spoke about Elder Packer, how he has a special, well developed gift of being a seer and can see trends far in advance of when they become manifest and how valuable he was in that area. He also talked about mission calls, and how the committee of apostles and the first presidency have a meeting where they are looking at a computer that shows the missions and the requested needs of the missions around the world, and how they go about matching the missionary applications to the needs. He said the Lord truly directs them in the work. They have to do a lot of work on their own, but when it doesn’t feel right they go back and look again, make a change, and finally have the feeling of peace that the match is correct. See this interesting article in the Liahona for a front row seat in seeing how missionaries are called to serve by the presiding authorities. (A talk by Elder Rasband; Liahona May 2010 Conference Issue – The Divine Call of a Missionary. Cut and paste into your browser:

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=29bede009da38210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Elder Scott then bore a strong testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ, and that He directs the work of His Church. He also spoke to us of His love which he has felt and how tangible it is for him, and of his inability to adequately describe it, but that it is very real.

We felt enriched, loved and adequate as missionaries after being taught by Elder Scott. He shook hands with each of us before we parted. This is one of the many great blessings we are receiving while on our mission.