We were privileged on 16 September 2018 to attend a special gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Safeco Stadium in Seattle where President Henry B. Eyring, Wendy Watson Nelson, and President Russell M. Nelson were the speakers.  It was perhaps the largest gathering of Church members in one place at one time in the history of the Church.  I’ll have to check that statement, but the news the next morning was that it was the second largest crowd Safeco Stadium has ever had.  Only the “Wrestlemania” event in 2008 was larger.  49,089 people were in attendance to hear President Nelson.  It was historic.

As we were walking from the ferry to the stadium a man stopped our daughter-in-law, Leslie, and asked, “Where is everyone going?”

“We’re going to a meeting of our Church,” she replied.  “We’re going to listen to the prophet!”

“Well, have fun,” he said.

The newspaper, just before the event, reported that 48,000 Mormons were going to converge on Seattle’s baseball stadium to hear a 94-year-old man speak from 2nd base.

President Nelson announced in his talk that he had celebrated his 94th birthday just one week before.  He supposed that he had 94 lessons that he could teach the congregation, but limited himself to five.

I thought about that.  I’m 71.  I’ll bet that I have 71 lessons that I could pass on.  Perhaps I’ll write a book.  Four chapters sprang to mind last night in bed when the thought came to me.

First, I need to report on the meeting.

I’m afraid that President Eyring’s talk was lost on all of us.  His voice, the sound system, and an echo in the stadium made it so that I only got a gist, about a third, of his talk.  We had to really, really concentrate to understand anything at all.

The sound got fixed for Sister Nelson’s talk, however, and it was enlightening.  She told of how President Monson’s death last January affected them.  The mantle of the presidency was suddenly upon her husband.  At some point in the next two months, on two separate, but identical occasions, a special testimony was given to her through the Spirit that her husband was the prophet, called of God.

She told how President Nelson keeps a pen and a notebook beside his bed to record the messages that come to him in the quiet of the night.  He gets up, sits on the side of the bed, and writes what the Spirit has told him.

On one occasion she herself was awakened and told to leave the bedroom.  She went to their family history room where she spent the next two hours with her ancestors.

Two hours later President Nelson came looking for her.  He said to her, “You wouldn’t believe what I have been taught in the last two hours!”  He had it all recorded in his notebook, a notebook that is so sacred that she doesn’t touch it.

President Nelson’s first point in his talk was to “hold onto the raft.”  As a young father with nine daughters he and his wife decided that a vacation was in order to get the girls away from their boy friends and telephones.  A rafting trip down the Colorado River seemed perfect.

Everything was indeed perfect until the second or third day when they reached a rapid which was like going over a two-story-tall waterfall.  As they approached the brink Brother Nelson put one arm around his wife and the other around his young daughter.  That was a mistake.  As the raft went over the brink, it acted as a catapult, and launched Brother Nelson into the river.

“It was like being in a washing machine,” he said.  Every time he’d try to come to the surface to get a breath of air his head would bump into the bottom of the boat.  He could hear his daughters screaming, “Where’s Daddy?!”  He was running out of air.  Finally he managed to get to the side of the raft, get his head above water, and to take a breath.  His daughters pulled him back into the raft.

The next time they came to a rapid, Brother Nelson had their guide beach the raft so that they could pray.  “If I could have done so,” he said, “I would have bought my way out of there.”  That, however, was not an option, so he instructed his family to hold onto the raft, no matter what.

President Nelson exhorted the congregation to hold onto their ordinances and covenants like he and his family held onto the raft.

The second lesson President Nelson shared is that the Book of Mormon is true!

An aspect of holding onto the raft includes “prayerfully reading the Book of Mormon each day.”  The book was written for our day.  It mentions Jesus Christ more than 1,000 times.  It exposes the tactics of the adversary.  If you will make your study of the Book of Mormon a regular practice, and sincerely ask, the Lord will manifest the truth of the book to you.

President Nelson once worked with a doctor and a nurse who were a couple.  The woman asked him why he was different.  He replied that if he was different from other people, it was because of the Church.  He presented them with a copy of the Book of Mormon, and asked them to read it.  They said that they would.

A week later they brought the book back, handed it to him, and said, “Thanks a lot.”

“Thanks a lot?!” Brother Nelson said.  “That’s a totally inappropriate response.  You didn’t read the book.  Please take it back, read it, and then return it to me.”

They did so.  Their lives changed.  They were baptized, and hundreds of people are now members of the Church because of their conversion.

The third lesson President Nelson wants us to learn is that, if handled correctly, our problems will fade into oblivion.

He was making a flight from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah in a two-prop plane.  There were four passengers.  They were halfway through the flight when the right engine exploded and caught fire.  The plane went into a spiral nose dive.  A woman screamed.  Brother Nelson knew he was going to die.  His entire life flashed before him.  He was peaceful and calm.  He had received many honors in his lifetime, but they meant nothing.  All that mattered in that moment was that he was sealed, and that his ordinances and covenants were intact.

The spin of the airplane extinguished the flames.  The pilot was able to restart the left engine, and to land the plane in a farmer’s field.

“Some things have eternal significance,” President Nelson said.  “Wherever you are on this covenant path, repent.  Come back.  I plead with you to not be distracted by temptations.”

President Nelson’s fourth lesson was that you can accomplish the impossible.  The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible.

Elder Nelson had been an Apostle for 19 months when President Kimball passed away.  President Benson, his successor, assembled the Apostles, and gave each of them a specific charge.  Elder Nelson was charged with the responsibility of warning the nations of Eastern Europe, and of establishing the Church in each.  Religion, at that time, was strictly limited in all of those countries.  Elder Nelson had spent his life opening hearts, and now he was being charged with the impossible task of opening Communist countries to the preaching of the gospel.  His efforts were not well received.  He was tried and tested.  Scheduled appointments were delayed for days while temptations were placed in his way to see how he would react.  Agents were sent to get him to exchange money on the black market, and to do other unlawful things.

The Lord likes effort.  He sent Moses to the top of Mount Sinai.  He didn’t offer to meet him halfway.  He didn’t make Elder Nelson’s job easy, either, but in 1992 Elder Nelson was able to report that the Church was established in every country of Eastern Europe.

The Lord called a 14-year-old boy to initiate the Restoration of the gospel.  If we will hold onto that gospel (as hard as he held onto the raft’s ropes), the Lord will work miracles in our lives.

Lesson number five was that we are happiest when we are helping others.  This is why the Church is emphasizing ministering.  The Church is eager to build bridges of cooperation.  It is doing it by responding to needs around the world, working with the Red Cross and with Catholic and Islamic relief agencies.

Meanwhile the gathering of Israel is taking place in each country.  The message that the Church is sending out is that families can be sealed forever.

“Nothing is more important than the temple.”

“Since the beginning of time prophets have foreseen our day.”  Our message is simple and sincere.  We invite all of God’s children, on both sides of the veil, to come.  Jesus is the Christ.  This is His Church.  Great blessings will be ours if we feast upon and apply these teachings.  We will have joy here and forever.