Teachers

14. I'm grateful for General Conference. I'm looking forward to looking into the faces of some people I really admire and feeling, once again, their strength and obedience and love for the Savior. It's inspiring and strengthens me. Some people I particularly admire are Elder Eyring, Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Scott, Sister Dalton, Sister Tanner, Sister Beck. Not that I really need to pick favorites; I left a bunch of people off this list who could also be there. But, I especially love the transparency these people bless us with, their willingness to hold up their light and teach, not only with words but with who they are. I wish I could talk with them on a daily basis, but I'll take what I can get. Some things I've learned from these people are:

Elder Eyring: His method of teaching seems very effective to me, and he has years and years of practice. I try to watch everything about the way he teaches, the way he phrases his words and his expression. To him I owe a story he shared about his father. His father was suffering, I think from bone cancer, and came to the church welfare farm one day to help weed. He crawled along row by row, pulling out weeds while resting on his elbows. After a couple hours, someone came by and said, "Those rows have been sprayed and the weeds will die anyway. You didn't need to pull those." Elder Eyring later asked his father about that, assuming he would be really disappointed. His father chuckled and said, "Hal, I wasn't there for the weeds." (This is all paraphrased but is in Elder Eyring's book, "Nearer to God.") That thought has stuck with me for a lot of years. He knew what really mattered and could filter out what didn't.

Elder Uchtdorf seems to me to be a person who can take what's put in his hands and make it golden. I like to watch him for his social talents - his way of putting people at ease, being real, and being uplifting. I have a lot more to learn about him.

Elder Scott: One thing I love about Elder Scott is his willingness to get right to the heart of something. He doesn't pretend, doesn't gloss over difficult areas. There are two things Elder Scott has said that have inspired me. The first is that after his wife died he went to the temple weekly, and that it's important to visit various parts of the temple. The second thing is the way he talks about his marriage and the way his wife was and must have treated him. She is an inspiration to me, and I'd like to learn more about her.

Sister Dalton and Sister Tanner: I love their saying, "I can do hard things."

Sister Beck: she is a wise woman who I want to learn more about and be more like.

Okay, that's all for  now! Happy Conference weekend! (Channel 5, 10am-noon and 2-4pm, Saturday and Sunday).