September 14, 2020
Two Evenings and an Afternoon with a General Authority
გამარჯობა ყველას!
So, we've gone through ups and downs this week. For a couple days, we thought Sister Mafi would be going down to Armenia. Well, she didn’t, and she won't until after the elections on Halloween. Remember the politics here are super weird. They have protests all the time about something or other. I never know. If I weren't leaving in 9 months, I might care a bit more.
The crowning event of the last couple weeks was the devotionals with Elder and Sister Bednar. We had three meetings with him. One with all the missionaries from the Eastern European Area, one for the branch leadership in the Armenia/Georgia Mission and one for general membership of the mission. In the last year, I've grown to love Elder Bednar and the way he teaches. In listening to his devotionals and reading his talks, I've come to recognize a number of principles that I associate with him. He touched on almost all of them in the missionary meeting and all the remaining ones in the other two meetings. Here is my list that I've come up with:
-conversion to the Lord vs. testimony
-the gift of discernment (+being quick to observe)
-person revelation (specifically "hearing what isn't
said")
-doctrine, principle, application
-meekness
-just being a good boy or a good girl
-faith in connection with other doctrines/principles
-effective teaching methods (always by example)
-the Character of Christ
He didn't explicitly speak on all of these and in fact he taught much more. I simply enjoy these themes a lot. That is one thing I've noticed is common among good teachers. They will always go back to their main themes. Brother Brad Wilcox, Brother Hugh Nibley, Elder McConkie, President Oaks, President Nelson, etc. They have material from decade to decade and you'll notice a cluster of common themes. The number of themes may not be small, but there's a noticeable focus. Not only does this site their passion and knowledge of the doctrines and principles, but it is a testament that what they teach is true. It doesn't become obsolete and there is always more to be taught. Is there better evidence of an eternal truth?
There isn't much else to say. Study the scriptures. Bye.
--Elder Fisher
