Elder Dallin H. Oaks

As I'm sitting here, snuggled under my covers on my bed, on a beautiful sunday afternoon waiting for my lunch to cook, my heart is going to burst if I don't take some time and write about today. Today I shook hands with an Apostle of the Lord! I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning.

I have known that Elder Dallin H. Oaks was going to come to our Stake Conference here in Denton, TX for about 6 weeks. I have been going to choir practice at the Institute for that meeting. I enjoy singing and I figured I would be saved a seat at the conference that was sure to be packed if I was in the choir.

I stayed out late last night and as I was setting my alarm I thought "maybe I don't really want to get up and go to Stake Conference in the morning". I decided that if I woke up when the alarm went off then I would go. When I woke to my alarm this morning I had the same thought and considered staying home in bed. I decided to get up and shower and then make a decision. Even as I gathered my things to leave this morning, as I was opening my door to walk to the car, the thought's of skipping the meeting persisted, but I went.


I got to the Stake Center early because the choir was going to practice, which we did. After the practice, as I sat on the stand visiting with some of my friends I noticed that Elder Oaks had just entered the chapel. My heart skipped a beat. There was still and hour until the meeting was to begin but there he was. He began to work his way through the chapel shaking hands with each member of the congregation. It was so fun to watch people's expressions as they looked up to see who they were shaking hands with and were startled to see Elder Oaks. I couldn't take my eyes off him. My heart was full and I knew that I was in the presence of an Apostle. It was awesome! He came up and shook hands with each of us in the choir. As he took my hand he paused for just a second and looked my right in the eye as he greeted me. We wished each other a good morning and he moved on to the next person. He hugged the guys in the choir saying he was happy to give hugs as long as it wasn't to pretty girls. :)

The meeting began, the speakers were good. There were some humorous stories told and lessons shared. There were congregational hymns and the choir performed one of our prepared selections. Finally, Elder Oaks was at the pulpit. He began by testifying to the truthfulness of the previous speakers messages. He then spoke to the youth about the messages they choose to have up in their rooms and look at often, giving them a suggestion for what they might put up and look at instead. Then came the part of the talk that was just for me. He read from a letter that a sister had written him after she had heard him speak in a conference. He prefaced the letter by saying that it was from a single sister, one of the tens of thousands of women in the church eager to find the person they can spend all eternity with. He said he wished the "cowboys" would hurry up and get on with marrying. :) He blamed the men, which got more then a few chuckles out of the audience. He read from the letter that this sister had been pondering on the teachings he had shared from Mosiah 24:13-15 about how sometimes God does not remove our burdens when we pray to Him. Sometimes He helps carry them so the load is lighter and sometimes He makes us stronger so we can carry it. She had been pouring her heart out to the Lord sharing with Him that the deepest desire of her heart was to be a wife and mother when she was struck with the undeniable feeling that her desires were wrong. At this point in the talk Elder Oaks said he was shocked when he got to that part of the letter. He said, "How could it be wrong for a woman's deepest desire of her heart to be a wife and a mother?" The letter went on to explain that she was impressed that her deepest desire needed to be to be a disciple of Christ and then second to be a wife and a mother. Elder Oaks taught us that we need to first focus on following Christ, be as good as we can be in our callings right now and have faith in the Lord and His timing. My heart was full and I knew that what he said was true. He shared some other things with us and then the choir stood to sing the closing hymn. When we got to the climax of the number, and our choir director (Brother Ritchie) got choked up and teary, the thought came to me "I almost missed this. I almost didn't come." At that point I knew that the promptings to skip the meeting were from the adversary. He didn't want me to come. He didn't want me to hear those messages that day. Then my tears came as I realized how grateful I was for the love of the Lord and his divine hand in guiding an Apostle of the Lord in sharing the exact message I needed to hear.

I rushed home to get these things written down while they were still so fresh. As my stomach grumbles I am at peace. Today I shook hands with an Apostle of the Lord! It was AMAZING!!!!

- On the go post from my iPhone