He that hath ears

[hethathathears]

When I was on my mission, one night my companion and I went to a vaudeville show with an investigation. It was about the 10th year that this type of show was put on to raise money for the needy. However, as we went this year, we noticed that the excitement was gone. The audience had the attitude of, here we are again, it will be the same old people doing the same old dumb skits and songs. Suddenly, the master of ceremonies came out and in a voice of warning said, "May I please have your attention. A fire has broken out back stage, now there is no need to panic, but if we can all just please get up and leave in an orderly fashion, I know that we can all get out safely.

A hush came over the audience and nobody moved. People began to whisper amoungst themselft in amazement, "There not going to do the same old show this year. They have come up with something different, something origional." And still, nobody moved.

Again, the master of ceremonies came back. "Please, please, there truly is a fire back stage, and if you can just get up and leave in an orderly fashion, I know that we can all leave in safety."

As he said this, the audiance gave him a round of applause. I mean he acting ability was so convincing. It was almost as if there truly was a fire back stage and there was real danger.

Again, the master of ceremonies pled, "Please, this is not a show. This is real." With that, smoke started pooring under the curtian followed by a bright flash as the curtains burst into flames. In awe and amazement, the audience arose and gave the master of ceremonies a standing ovation. I mean, never had such special effects been so spectacular and convincing at a vaudeville show.

Fleeing from the heat and smoke the master of ceremonies jumped down off the stage. He gave it one last effect. "I ask you with all the energy of my soul, please, please, leave this auditorium before it is too late.

But now, the smoke started flooding the hall. People began coughing and gasping for air. The smoke began stinging their eyes. It suddenly became apparent, that this was no show, it was real.

I think the same holds true with our Prophet. It is true that we will sing, "I thank thee oh God for a Prophet," but wouldn't the real test of our graditude be to follow his council. In some respect, the church does a pretty good job, however, in other respects, we are truly foolish.

A couple of years ago I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. I was given an open slate, that is to say, I could speak on anything. I was given 3 weeks to prepare. Now in the beginning, I decided that I would talk on missionary work. I would give the poam Daddy's Day (posted in the Shared section) and make everyone cry, but hopefully it would inspire members to be better missionaries. Now after about a week of preparing, I felt the strong impression that I was to speak on prepardness instead. I fought the Spirit on this impression because I really love missionary work and I think that it would have been a very powerful talk, not to mention the fact that speaking on food storage and prepardness was in my opinion a fairly lame subject. The closer I got to the date of my talk, the more I knew my assignment from the Lord was on prepardness and food storage. When the day finally came, I spoke for 30 minutes, and I'm pleased to say, the Spirit was very strong during the meeting.

Members began coming up to me afterwards asking various questions and making comments. One brother claimed that they were going to sell off their food storage as they felt that they would never need it. Another lady asked how much food storage she should have, one week or two.

That was over two years ago, and since that time I have studied all I can about the issues of the world and the ecconomy. The thing that has amazed me is that as a church, there are only between 15 - 20 percent of the people that are truly prepared for any kind of major desaster. I didn't really beleive that when I first heard that, so I went around a talked to the majority of my ward and others, and I found that on average, the people in our stake have two weeks of food and supplies It is for this reason that I even signed up to start Bloging in the first place. Truth be known, I'm not cosmicly computor literate, and my dance card is always full, but the fact is we're just not ready for what is coming.

About a year ago, and ex-Bishop came into the High Priest quarom and stood in front of the brothern and said, the Stake President is concerned, he just recieved an E-mail from Salt Lake that said, "It is urgent that everyone in your stake is prepared both temprolally and spiritually!!!"
The news of that statement filtered through the stake and people started to panic. Many came to me and asked if I had heard. I just laughed. It was nothing new. My family was prepared. We had our water, our food, our toilet paper, etc. My crew was totally prepared, and peace filled my soul, while others were going around panicing, even to the point of going out and shopping on Sundays.

The next day someone called Salt Lake and it was discovered that the whole internet thing was just made up. The stake felt relief. It's as if they didn't have to prepare today, they could always do it another day.

My sight name is He that hath ears, let him hear. It was a statement that the Savior used on a number of occasions. It is my prayer that our Prophet is so important to us that we will follow his council.