On a Saturday evening in March, Brother Quebbeman, the stake executive secretary, called to inform me that President Chadwick wanted to come see me Sunday at 3:00.  Such an announcement is attention-getting, and designed to keep one from sleeping.  It flashed through my mind just why he was coming.  As I awaited his arrival after church the next day it was impossible to sit.  I could only pace, and watch for his car to come up the road.

Once the calling to be a patriarch had been issued, my overriding feeling was terror.  I remained terrified until a week later when I was sustained in stake priesthood meeting, and President Chadwick sat me down in a chair and laid his hands on my head.  As he ordained me, three waves of peace went through me, and I knew that everything would be all right.  I relaxed, and I’m happy to report that I’m going to be able to function in this “revelatory position,” as my training materials call it.  I have now given eight patriarchal blessings, and can report that the system works!

The Holy Ghost is the most marvelous gift imaginable.  It told me what was going to happen, it administered comfort and peace, and it is enabling me to function in my calling.

Joseph Smith came to Brigham Young after his death and told Brigham to “Tell the people to be humble and faithful, and be sure to keep the spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right.  Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach you what to do and where to go.”  (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1845-1847, 529).

Brigham Young came to Wilford Woodruff two years after his death and told Wilford to “Tell the people to get the Spirit of the Lord and keep it with them.”  (Ensign, August 1981, 13).

I suspect that these prophets, in coming back from the dead, were passing on the most important message that they could possibly give.  The message was, “Get the Spirit.”

As baptized members of the Church we have each been given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Authorized hands were placed on each of our heads, and the words, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” were spoken.  The Holy Ghost may or may not have come to us at that moment.  In all likelihood the Holy Ghost was already with us as we were being baptized.  The words, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” were an admonition for us to be worthy, and to stay worthy,  of that holy companionship.  Those words were an admonition for us to learn how to hear and to heed the Spirit’s directives.

Just imagine the magnitude of this gift.  If we keep the commandments, we have a member of the Godhead as our constant companion!  It’s hugely useful, and hugely comforting, and any baptized member of the Church can have it.  It requires a lifetime of practice for each of us to learn how to hear and respond to that small, still voice.  The Holy Ghost never shouts, and is rarely even a voice at all.  Rather, that small, still voice comes as a thought or a feeling, and the oftener we respond to those promptings, the oftener the Holy Ghost speaks.

I could cite numerous times when my wife has become uneasy about one of our children, and has either gone herself, or sent me, to retrieve the kid from some pending trouble.  Sometimes we learn what the trouble was, and sometimes we don’t.  The important thing is that we respond.

Our son was a student at Eastern Oregon University.  One day he asked, “Where in the works of Shakespeare does it say, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse?’  My professor says he’ll give five extra points to anyone who can tell him.”

We had the complete works of Shakespeare.  We thought it would be easy to find the quotation.  All we’d have to do is to find a story about a king.  The works of Shakespeare occupy three thick volumes of small print.  In looking through them we discovered that Shakespeare wrote lots of stories about kings, so in just a few minutes we gave up the search.  It was going to be an impossible task.

The next morning I got up early to prepare my seminary lesson.  There on the floor beside the couch were those three books.  I said a prayer.  I said, “Heavenly Father, Matt needs to know where this quotation can be found.  Thou knowest.  If this is important, please show me where to look.”  I studied the pile, and thoughtfully selected the middle volume.  I opened it randomly, and began reading a page.  It was a story about king Richard III.  I found him on foot in the midst of a battle.  His horse had just been shot out from under him.  I turned the page and he shouted, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

That evening at the dinner table I related my experience to my family.  My oldest son said, “I’m surprised that He reads that stuff.”

I asked, “Who?  The professor?”

“No, Heavenly Father.”

There are several lessons to be learned here.  One is that there is nothing that the Lord does not know.  Another is that He is interested in the details of our lives.  No matter is too small.  A third is that He has lots of things that He’s anxious to tell us, but waits for us to ask.  He could just automatically give us information, but then we wouldn’t know its source and be grateful for it.  Is anything repeated more in the scriptures than the phrase, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened?”  Why would He repeat that over and over and over if He didn’t mean it?  What else is He wanting to tell me?  What else is He wanting to tell you?

My youngest son is an artist.  In high school he was taking art lessons.  He borrowed a book from his instructor and took it home.  Thanksgiving happened, and dozens of people circulated through our house, including a score of little children.  On the morning of his next art lesson as he was getting ready to catch the bus for school, he went looking for the book, which he’d need that afternoon.  He couldn’t find it.  He asked us to find it and bring it to him before the class.

I went looking for the book.  I thoroughly searched his room.  I expanded the search to include the whole house.  I looked in every bookcase and under every bed.  The book was nowhere to be found.  I gave up.

But it gnawed at me.  That afternoon I made another attempt.  I went through the entire house.  The book was simply not there.  It wasn’t anywhere.

I was standing in my son’s room when I realized the search was impossible.  I’d tried everything but praying.  So I knelt down beside his bed and I said, “Heavenly Father, we can’t find Paul’s book.  Eli needs it this afternoon.  Thou knowest where it is.  Would’st thou please show me?”

I stood up, walked around the end of his bed, idlely took hold of a picture of Christ that was leaned up against the wall on top of his dresser, pulled it toward me, and there was the book leaned up behind it!  It all happened just that fast!  I replaced the picture, went back to the bed, knelt to thank Heavenly Father for the blessing, and burst into tears.  I sobbed.  He knew me!  He heard me.  He answered me immediately.  Why hadn’t I asked sooner?

I’ve spent my life being a farmer and rancher.  Farmers and ranchers start running early in the morning and keep going all day.  It’s often a race against time and the weather.

One morning I ran out the door with lots to do.  The Spirit said, “You forgot to have your prayer.”

I said, “I will—later.”

The first order of business was to unhook the baler from the tractor.  I needed the tractor.  As I climbed into the seat, the Spirit said, “You need to say your prayers.”

I said, “I will.  This just isn’t the time or the place.”

I drove down the road, and backed the baler into its place.  I disconnected the hydraulic hoses and pulled the hookup pin.  I climbed back into the tractor seat and the Spirit said, “You really ought to have your prayer.”

I said, “I will—right now.”

I got back down on the ground and knelt between the tractor and the baler.  As I prayed, the Spirit said, “You forgot to put the jack under the baler.  When you pull away, the tongue is going to crash to the ground and get bent.”

I didn’t have to open my eyes to know that was so.  I’d never in my life forgotten to put the jack down before unhooking.  I definitely was in too big a hurry.

As I continued my prayer, the Spirit said, “You know, you left a wrench on the tractor’s fender.  It’s going to fall off and be lost.”

Again, I didn’t have to open my eyes to know that was so.  The Spirit had brought these things to my remembrance.  Bringing all things to our remembrance is one of the purposes of the Holy Ghost.

And then the Spirit said, “Bishop (that’s what the Spirit called me back then), why don’t you tell the members of your ward about this experience?  A lot of them started their days today without prayer, too.”

President Heber J. Grant said that, “I have little or no concern about the young man or the young woman who conscientiously supplicates God twice a day for the guidance of His Spirit.  I know that when temptations come, they’ll have the power to resist them.  Prayer places around us a protective shield.”

Think of it.  If you had prayer this morning, you have a protective shield around you.  If you have prayer with your children in the morning, you send them out into the world with a protective shield around them.  What parent wouldn’t want that?

Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 says, “I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”  There’s your protective shield.

I really, really like the story President Eyring told about how his father used the Holy Ghost.  His father was on a business trip in Australia.  Sunday came, and he wanted to take the sacrament.  He was in a strange country and in a strange city, and could find no information about any meetings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“So he started walking.  He prayed at each intersection to know which way to turn.  After walking and making turns for an hour, he stopped to pray again.  He felt an impression to turn down a particular street.  Soon he began to hear singing coming from the ground floor of an apartment building close by.  He looked in at the window and saw a few people seated near a table covered with a white cloth and sacrament trays.”  (Ensign, November 2015, 105-6).  He slipped into the meeting, and was in time to take the sacrament.

A year after my baptism found me in Japan, a sailor aboard a ship which had been drydocked for repairs.  Our servicemen’s branch met in a little non-denominational chapel on the base.  I made it a point to be there early on Sunday mornings so that I could greet, befriend, and direct sailors that might come from the ships that were always pulling in.

One day as I was standing at the chapel door, a sailor came up to me and said, “How do you go about joining this Church?”  I told him that he would have to take the missionary discussions, which my friend and I could give him, and that he could then be baptized.  We gave him three discussions, and then his ship pulled out.  The sailor’s name was Bill.  I didn’t expect that I’d ever see Bill again, so I wiped him clear out of my mind.

Six months passed.  One night I went to bed on my ship, and started reading the Book of Mormon like I did every night before going to sleep.  Bill came into my mind.  I became quite agitated.  I couldn’t concentrate on my reading.  All I could think about was Bill, whom I hadn’t seen  or thought about in months.  I was so agitated that finally there was nothing that I could do but to get up, get dressed, and go see if his ship had come in.  I walked up and down the docks in the dark, and inspected each ship.  Sure enough, there his ship was.  I marched up the gangplank, saluted the sentry who was there, and requested permission to come aboard.

I then began asking everyone where I could find Bill.  I was directed to his bunk.  He wasn’t there.  I was directed to the engine room where he worked.  He wasn’t there.  I was directed to the galley.  He wasn’t there.  No one had seen him.  I then began a literal stem to stern search of that unfamiliar ship.  I wasn’t going to leave until I located him.

I finally found him.  He was down in the hold, clear up in the bow, in a cubbyhole where no one should have been.  He was filthy dirty, and greatly surprised to see me.

I said, “Bill, I went to bed a while ago, and the Spirit told me to get up and go find you.  Why am I here?”

“Well,” he said, “if you must know, I’m sitting here deciding on the best way to commit suicide.”

“Bill,” I said, “the fact that I’m here is evidence that your Father in Heaven knows what you’re thinking, and that He doesn’t want you to do that.”

We had a long, long talk.  I got him cheered up, and he promised that he’d never again entertain any thoughts of suicide.  I never heard from Bill again, but I assume that he’s still alive and well.

The Lord knows our thoughts.  He loves each of us.  Not one of us has descended so low that He has ceased to care about us.  In fact, when we’re low, I’m sure that He’s even nearer, and is anxious to help; but here, again, we have to ask.

I have this idea that the atmosphere is just filled with things that the Lord wants to tell us.  Those things come through the Holy Ghost.  Testimonies come through the Holy Ghost.  Inventions come through the Holy Ghost.  Thoughts of people who need our attention come through the Holy Ghost.  Inspired ideas come through the Holy Ghost.  The right words to speak at just the right moment come through the Holy Ghost.  Directions, and guidance, and comfort, and warnings come through the Holy Ghost.

But we have to ask for those things.  If we ask, then, in the Lord’s timing, they will come.  The important thing is that we ask, that we learn how to feel the Spirit, and then that we respond.