The Gospel is Great!

I wrote this to my brother serving a mission and thought it would be cool to share with everyone else too!

Well, our cool experience for the week happened yesterday in church. We walked in and I had to go across the chapel to get a tithing envelope. I looked up at the stand and thought to myself, "Oh, I wonder who our visiting authority is?" I came back and sat with Shawn and the girls and soon after the meeting began. Brother Rasmussen announced that we were pleased to have sitting on the stand "D. Todd Christopherson"....(I thought, Oh yeah, that's who that is, a member of the seventy, cool!)...he continued to say, "of the quorum of the twelve apostles!" I was shocked!! I looked at Shawn and thought - HOLY COW! What's he doing here! I had forgot that they put him in as a member of the 12. It was way cool. He was there because Brad Johnson (do you know him?) was going on a mission and speaking. Elder Chrisopherson is his great uncle!! Crazy huh.

It was cool. He spoke at the end and gave a great analogy of the sacrament (that was the topic for the day) He shared a story of remembering when he was baptized and at the age of 8 he promised himself he would NEVER make a mistake. He didn't remember how many hours after his baptism, that he had made is mistake and was no longer clean and pure. He said he felt SO horrible and that life was hopeless. Then he learned about the sacrament. He learned that through the atonement of Christ after we have sincerely repented we could be clean and pure EACH Sunday and have at least that whole meeting (sacrament meeting) to be clean and pure. It was great.

He also shared an experience that Elder Faust told him once. Our ward does a missionary choir when everyone leaves and those who sing are any preparing missionaries and any recently returned missionaries and they sing Called to Serve. So, Elder Christopherson said he liked that tradition, but challenged the ward next time to sing without the sheet music. He said, "It will make you sing with more heart, and I am sure you know the song!" He then told about a time when Elder Faust and President Hinckley were at a regional conference and the opening song was a familiar one. Elder Faust out of habit, reached down, got a hymn book and turned to the song. Then President Hinckley said, "Jim, you ought to know the words by now!"

It was really funny. He shared another experience about President Hinckley, but I can't remember it. It was really neat to have him there, he was so human and normal like the rest of us. Anyways, we went to Sunday School and the teacher was like, "Holy Cow, I have been a nervous reck knowing there was a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles here today." So, I apologize, we will see what happens. He starts the lesson and 2-3 minutes into it, in walks Elder Christopherson and his wife. The teacher gets BIG eyes, looks at everyone with the expression of his face of HERE WE GO!! He did a great job though and the lesson was excellent. What was cool was he would ask for volunteers to read a section of scriptures and Elder Christopherson raised his hand and read and then commented. He was participating like everyone else, smiling, laughing and enjoying himself. It was really neat to see. I had made a comment about a recent experience and said something like, "We are close...well for 10 more days until we move to Georgia!" Afterwards, I got up and was going to RS and Elder Chrsipherson shook my hand and said, "You're moving to Georgia? What for? What Part?" Shawn and I replied at the same time, "For school, to the University of Georgia in Athens" His wife then said, "Oh, you will love it out there. We lived in Tenessee for so many years and North Carolina. Oh, it is beautiful and green...Humid, but beautiful." I said, "Thanks, I hope so, we are a little nervous but know it will be great!!" So, that was cool that we got to shake their hands and talk to them! They had to leave after that and didn't stay for the last hour, but was a neat experience.