Description
In the Moment
On the last night of the Savior’s mortality, He taught His disciples many things vital to their forthcoming mission. And then, recognizing that they would not be able to remember it all, He said: “These things I have spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:25-26.) If that remarkable promise was true then—is it so now?
My friend, Connor Stephenson, shared the following experience with me.
In the course of his work, he went to a potential client’s home where he noticed an extensive library of books about the Lord Jesus Christ. When Connor asked him if he practiced any particular denomination of Christianity, the man replied that he did. He was not a Latter-day Saint. In fact, he had some rather strong opinions about the “Mormons”, as he called them, and Connor let him talk.
Finally, when Connor did share that he was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the man began to backtrack and apologize if he said anything offensive. Connor graciously assured him that he had not. Then Connor decided to teach the man about the proper name of the Church.
“The way I explained and educated him on the proper name of our church came from a conference talk that I thought I had just heard in conference a week or so before. The way I approached it was verbatim what I heard in the conference talk. I asked him first if he knew who Mormon was. He confirmed that he did not. I shared with him that the prophet Mormon, was a prophet in the Book of Mormon that existed about 350 AD and that Mormon was the prophet that abridged and compiled all the books that consisted of the Gold Plates that Joseph Smith was lead to some 1500 years or so later. I told him that while I was proud to be associated with the prophet Mormon, Mormon was not my savior. He did not atone for me or die for me. Jesus Christ did those things in my behalf. Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I then told him the correct name of our Church and let him know that the right way to refer to us is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
The man received the instruction well and was quite excited. Connor ended up sending him a copy of the Book of Mormon and other material.
About a month later, Connor shared that experience in a fast and testimony meeting. That same evening he received a text from a sister in the ward asking who it was in the last conference that had given that talk. He went to the Gospel Library app and began searching the last conference. To his consternation, it was not there.
Finally, he typed in the exact phrases from the talk that were so fresh in his mind. Sure enough, he found the talk, and yes, it did indeed have the exact phrases that he had quoted, but the talk had been given two years earlier by Elder Neil L. Anderson. Had he recently listened to that talk? Was that why it was so familiar? Connor checked his search history. He had not reviewed that talk. In fact, it seemed evident that he had only heard the talk once—two years before—and yet he recalled the phrases from the talk with exactness.
Connor said:
“I got chills down my body when I realized that the Holy Ghost had brought to my remembrance what I needed in the moment. It was not premeditated. And how I could recall what was said in a talk that I had only listened to once in my life that [was] 2 years old, had to have been the Spirit. There’s no way I could have or should have remembered what came to my mind. I know the Spirit is real. I know that Christ lives and is our Savior and Redeemer. The Holy Ghost will bring to our remembrance those things that we need in the time we need them if it is expedient that He should do so.”
And so He will. This promise is unto us—still!
Source:
Connor Stephenson
