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The week of September 10th
was spent in Obidos, Portugal. Obidos is about an hour north of Lisbon on the
coast. We stayed at a beautiful property where we enjoyed sunshine, blue skies
and good food. The highlight of the seminar was that Elder and Sister Holland
were there with us for a day and a half. He is just the sweetest man alive!
Every time he would enter the room, we would stand and he would have a fit and
blow us loving kisses and have us sit down. For the first half hour that he was
with us, he just told us how loved we all were. He told us that President
Monson is feeling like a 91? year old man would feel, and that he didn’t know
why the Lord was having him linger. He visited with him on his birthday, he was
up and dressed and joking with them, but tired out very quickly. He doesn’t
know whether or not he will attend conference, it will be a game day decision.
He referred to the prophet once as TSM. I loved it.
He taught us “the parable
of the box and the pearl’, and begged us not to miss the pearl because we are
concentrating on the box. He wanted us to feel the joy of serving 24/7. He got
out a white board and marker and taught us the doctrine of the Fall in fifteen
minutes. Can you imagine having Sunday School with Elder Holland teaching? He
said, “Whatever the question, whatever the problem, this is the answer. The
Atonement of Jesus Christ.” By the year 2020, they project we will have 100,000
missionaries serving. He taught about how we do not appreciate the gift of the
Holy Ghost. That it is the literal gift “of a God”. He taught us beautifully and then he left us with an
apostolic blessing. He said that that was like having his hands placed on each
of our heads. That if we had time, he would give each one of us a blessing, but
since we did not have the time, this was how it was done. He blessed us that
through our service, our children and grandchildren would be blessed. (What
more motivation do Jon and I need to be faithful in this capacity?) By the time
he was finished, I didn’t want to move or to speak or to sing or to pray. I
just wanted to sit in the feeling of the Spirit of God and never leave. It is
one of those moments I will never forget. The feelings and the people and the
love were all pure. He quickly left and our seminar was over. About thirty
minutes later, everyone’s cell phones were ringing with the serious problems of
the day, and the cloud of glory we had been on was beginning to fade. After we
got home, Jon kept asking me all day Saturday…so how is that feeling now?...do
you still have it? Isn’t it sad that the reality of life so quickly moves in
and pushes the spiritual aside. Even when you are serving 24/7? I wish I could
share every detail, but I have waited too long to write it down. I hope you can
feel a little of what I felt as you read.
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