My favorite sunday activity never

Guidance, comfort and confirmation of truth. We can find all three of these things in many different forms. We can be comforted by an amazing chocolate dessert. Guided by a gps ap on a smart phone telling us when to turn. And Snopes.com confirms all truth or lies. Right? Sure. Sometimes our need for truth, guidance and comfort extend beyond worldly measures, and for that how lucky are we to have the gift of the Holy Ghost?

Last October conference, Elder Craig C. Christensen gave a talk (that I will refer to throughout this talk) called, “An Unspeakable Gift from God,”where he describes who the Holy Ghost is,

“The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, and as such, like God the Father and Jesus Christ, He knows our thoughts and the intents of our hearts. The Holy Ghost loves us and wants us to be happy. Since He knows the challenges we will face, He can guide us and teach us all things we must do to return and live with our Heavenly Father once again.”

He goes on

“Unlike Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, who have glorified bodies of flesh and bones, the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit who communicates to our spirits through feelings and impressions. As a spirit being, He has the unique responsibility of being an agent through which personal revelation is received.”

The Holy Ghost is someone whose company we get to enjoy once we are baptized and are confirmed a member of this church and receive Him as a gift. Those who are not baptized may still feel the influence of the Holy Ghost from time to time, but when we are baptized we make promises to keep the commandments, take Christ’s name upon us and to always remember Him, and in return we will be blessed to ALWAYS have His Spirit with us. To have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost really is a special blessing. He can keep us safe, guide us to those we can help, allow our testimonies to grow as he confirms the things we are studying, pondering and praying about, bring us comfort when even that half a pan of brownies just doesn’t cut it (and even if it did at the time, it just makes us more sad later), and gives witness of God the Father and Jesus Christ, among other things. What better friend to keep around?

One of my first experiences I can remember in heeding the promptings of the Holy Ghost happened when I was about nine or ten. My family was friends with two other families in our ward who all had kids around the same age as my brothers and me. We spent one afternoon with all three of our families swimming together at one of their homes. When it was time to go my mom told me to go change out of my bathing suit and into my clothes in the bathroom. I went to the bathroom, locked the door behind me and something told me to not get undressed yet. I looked around. I couldn’t figure out why not. I stood there for a second, almost started changing, but then I felt so uncomfortable I stopped again to look around. The shower curtain was pulled so I went to it, and opened it, but there was nothing in the shower. It was quiet, and I couldn’t hear anything except the sounds of people getting ready to leave in the house. I still had the thought to not get undressed yet. I looked at the sink and noticed the cupboard underneath it, went to it and opened it.

Looking back at me was Joe (name has been changed) one of the older boys. I blinked at him and asked him what he was doing in there. He told me he thought David, my oldest brother would be coming in, and he was planning on scaring him when he came into the bathroom…but I came in instead. He crawled out, unlocked the door and left, and then I knew why I felt the way I did…and was glad I listened! That could have been really embarrassing.

There are other times when the spirit tells us things, and we don’t know what the outcome might have been if we hadn’t listened. When I was in high school I dropped my younger brother off at his school, and as I was driving to my school I felt that I shouldn’t go the way I always go. I wasn’t sure and I’ll probably never know why, and felt kind of weird changing my route. I always like to have a reason for things I do, but all I had was a feeling inside me that I shouldn’t go the way I normally go, and that had to be reason enough so I went an alternate way to school that day.

We should learn to recognize promptings of the spirit, and act on them when we receive them, even if we don’t know why and they seem insignificant so that we can continue to receive promptings that might turn out to be very significant either for us or someone who needs us.

In the same talk, Elder Christensen shared the story of when President Monson went to visit a member of his ward in the hospital to give her a blessing. There was another woman in the same room who covered her face as he approached the bed of the woman he came to visit. Before he left, he felt impressed to go see the woman who covered her face who turned out to be another woman in his ward who thought he had come to see her in response to her prayers but felt disappointed when she realized he had not come to see her. President Monson told her, “It does not matter that I didn’t know you were here. It is important, however, that our Heavenly Father knew and that you had prayed silently for a priesthood blessing. It was He who prompted me to intrude on your privacy.”

The Holy Ghost is also known as the Comforter. Moroni 8:26 reads: “…the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God.”

As most of you know, I work as an RN. I had one patient who, after I gave him his medications for the evening, began telling me about certain trials he was experiencing in his life. He asked me if I believed in God. I told him I did. He confided his increasing doubt, that he still had hope, but his prayers seemed to be fruitless. I felt strongly at that point that I should ask him if he would like to pray now. (I work at a 7^th day Adventist hospital…so it’s ok…praying is allowed, even encouraged which is one thing I love about working there). He told me that he wouldn’t know what to say, so I asked him if he would like me to say a prayer for him. He seemed thankful and said he would. I kept it fairly general, gave thanks for what we have been blessed with, and asked for a blessing of comfort and peace, and a few other things. I don’t know how it went for my patient, but I hope he was able to feel some of what I was feeling. I was overwhelmed with the feelings of the spirit and could feel the difference in the room as I left compared to how it felt when I first entered. When the prayer was over we just sat there quietly for a minute and I didn’t want to leave, but I had other patients I needed to take care of. That is a special kind of comfort that even Morphine, Dilaudid, or Ambien can’t bring.

The Holy Ghost witnesses of Jesus Christ, Heavenly father and confirms truth. Through him we are taught what we need to do to return to our Heavenly Father. Every testimony building experience I’ve had is reflective of the primary song that says, “I know my Father lives, and loves me too. The spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is true, and tells me it is true.” When I attend my church meetings, the spirit whispers that what I’m hearing is true. When I read my scriptures, I receive the same feelings. When I’m given a priesthood blessing, attended the temple, listen to appropriate Sunday music I recognize the feelings that I have experienced before with good things as I have grown up and continue to grow in the Gospel, and I know that those feelings come from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost.  It is because of the Holy Ghost that we are able to recognize truth and feel as good as we do.

Elder Christensen spoke about how the Holy Ghost speaks to us. He said, “We all have experiences with the Holy Ghost, even though we may not always recognize them. As inspired thoughts come into our minds, we know them to be true by the spiritual feelings that enter into our hearts”. Elder Christensen then quotes  President Boyd K. Packer who taught: ‘The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear….While we speak of ‘listening’ to the whisperings of the spirit, most often one describes a spiritual prompting by saying ‘I had a feeling…’ It is through these sacred feelings from the Holy Ghost that we come to know what God would have us do, for this, as stated in scripture, “is the spirit of revelation”.’

This is a time in our lives as young single adults when there are so many changes happening. There are so many decisions, choices and opportunities before us. We are in desperate need of guidance, truth, and comfort. And even though a pan of brownies, a gps ap and snopes.com might help us momentarily, it’s not anywhere near enough, or good enough as what we could and do have. It is through the Holy Ghost that we receive personal revelation. In order to ensure we are entitled to the companionship of the Holy Ghost and enjoy all the blessings that come with that companionship we should keep ourselves worthy of it. Like it said in Moroni 8:26, remission of sins brings meekness and lowliness of heart, which then brings the comforter.  If we honor our baptismal covenants, and make regular use of the atonement to repent where we fall short, we can have the help, comfort and companionship of the spirit to be with us not just today or this week, but always.

I have a testimony of the Holy Ghost that was confirmed to me to be true through the Holy Ghost. He’s that good. I am grateful for his companionship, the good feelings, guidance I receive and truth I am taught through him. If it wasn’t for the Holy Ghost, we wouldn’t know the things we know, or even really know who we are. Because of the Holy Ghost, I know that we are children of God, and that he loves us. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior, and because of him we can be happy, repent, and live with our Father again. I know this church is true, and I’m glad to be a part of it here.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.