Jason got to hear from them three times. At the priesthood session he thought it was interesting that Elder Cook spent a portion of the meeting just answering questions from people!
That night Jason and I picked up our friend Sandi Collins for the adult session. It was amazing. The meeting was so quiet! It wasn't just that all the kids were missing either--it was like we were all concentrating so hard because we didn't want to miss a word that was said.
Here were some favorite parts from that meeting:
Los Angeles Temple president--Pres Brimhall said that our children will do what they see us do. He told this amazing story about his granddaughter Kate. When she was 3 years old, she suddenly became comatose. After several minutes at the emergency room, Kate came out of the coma and the first words out of her mouth were: "Yes on 8!" She had seen her parents standing on corners, trying to get the word out about Proposition 8 as they had things thrown at them. She told the doctor, "Yes on 8 means marriage." The doctor, with tears in his eyes, agreed with her.
Member of our stake Becky Hazel gave this amazing talk on forgiveness. The quote she gave--"A happy marriage is a union of two good forgivers"--rang in my head all weekend.
Elder Yamashita talked about temple work and missionary work. When he goes to the temple, he tries to imagine his family with him, and their future families, as he sits in the celestial room.
Elder Cook said he'd decided to talk about sacrifice. He first talked about the year 1837, when the Saints (and the world for that matter) were going through very hard economic times, much like today. Despite financial difficulties, missionary work was increased. He quoted verses in D&C 111 and 112. Elder Cook understood that we were far away from the LA temple, but he said that sacrifice brings unity, and we should go as often as we could. Then he treated us to the story of how he became an Apostle. He remembered going into President Hinckley's office and trying to make excuses for why he shouldn't be an Apostle, but Pres Hinckley held up his hand and stopped him, asking "Do you feel comfortable in bearing testimony of the divinity of Christ?" Elder Cook said he did, and accepted the call. He admitted he felt like a little man for such a big job, and went home and told his wife, "We've got a big problem!" I loved his sense of humor and his humility.
At the end of his talk, he left us with an Apostolic blessing. I am so glad we went to that meeting, because he only hinted at the blessing the following day in the general session. He blessed us to have the inspiration to raise our children in enemy territory, to have a desire to be generous with our fast offerings and help those in need, and to increase our faith in the Savior and focus on Him. It was so simple, and yet so powerful. The room was absolutely silent as we soaked those words in!
We lingered at the end, and all three of us got to shake Elder Cook's hand. And then when we were walking to the van, we saw our stake president and a couple others near our van. They were saying goodbye to Elder Cook and Elder Yamashita as they drove away in their little rental car. Again and again I felt the significance of the special spirit of these men and their humility. There weren't any bodyguards or limousines--just a little black 4-door two cars down from us!
Sunday's meeting was a bit of a blur for me. We picked up Howard and Sandi at 9:15, 45 minutes before the meeting started, hoping to get a seat near the front. We felt kind of silly when we got there and were told that the chapel had filled up at 7:30am. So we shuffled to halfway back in the gym! We're very grateful to Sandi, who encouraged Wade to go shake Elder Cook's hand as he was making his way up to the podium. Wade looked like this little puppy dog, very persistent in working his way through the crowd to get to him! He was so excited--that night he held out his hand to me and said, "This hand shook the hand of an Apostle!" Hopefully it will be a moment he'll never forget.
Our stake president talked about helping prospective elders (a big push in our stake). Pres Bull talked about having gospel-centered goals and priorities and not being fence sitters. Elder Yamashita spoke directly to the children, telling them this story about a lion cub raised among sheep. He asked the children, "Are you the child of a lion, or the child of sheep?" And then Elder Cook spoke and mainly talked about how prophets prepare us for the future. He remembered how Pres Hinckley had said that "stormy weather" was ahead financially, way back in Nov 1998. How Pres Grant talked about the Word of Wisdom, and how President McKay focused on families and said that divorce would be a terrible thing for children. Elder Cook encouraged us to pay attention to President Monson--his focus has always been on rescuing and reaching out to the one, and on family religious observance in the home. He is preparing us for things to come.
This is probably one of the longest posts I've ever done, but I wanted to make a record of that special weekend. Our testimonies were strengthened and we felt the Spirit. What a perfect way to get ready for General Conference next weekend!
