The Voice of God's Servants

This was a remarkable Conference weekend.  I'm not sure that I could even begin to describe just how many times I felt that one of the Conference talks was given just for me.  As I listened to the voices of God's servants, I found answers over and over and over again throughout this Conference.  Since almost all of these answers were related to questions of a personal nature, I really don't have much to share in terms of my thoughts, other than to say that this weekend was a reminder of the truth that God hears and answers our prayers and that He speaks to us through living Prophets and Apostles.

At the end of the Conference, I began to think about what my life would be like if I did not know that there are Prophets, Seers, and Revelators upon the earth today.  To be perfectly honest, I don't know what I would do were such the case.  We are so profoundly blessed with the words and teachings of living prophets.  Indeed, we are blessed with such teachings as no other people in the history of the world have ever been blessed.  Living in an internet age, our access to these words seems to grow ever larger.

Here are just a few examples of the resources we have access to:

BYU maintains a website that allows you to find every time a specific verse (or set of verses) was ever used in one of the Conference Talks or by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Over the last few years, this website has been invaluable to me as I have taught Sunday School, Priesthood, and Institute lessons.  I have come across wonderful quotations for lessons using it.

The Joseph Smith Papers Project website allows us to view scans of some of the Church's most important founding documents, complete with transcriptions to enable readability, at the click of a button.  I imagine that most of you are like myself and don't have $75,000 to spend on a 1st Edition of the Book of Mormon or $400,000 to spend on a copy of the 1833 Book of Commandments.  These scans allow us to have copies of these documents which witness to the truth of the Restoration.  Additionally, there are priceless letters, revelations, diaries, and other documents that make the words of the Prophet of the Restoration more accessible to us.

The Church History Library recently scanned and made available (for free) all of the Conference Reports from 1880 to the present in pdf format.  Hence, we have access to the recorded and printed words of Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, from John Taylor to President Monson.

Finally, just this week, the Church posted video and audio files for Conference talks back to 1994.  By June, they will have video and audio files for all of the Conference talks back to 1971, allowing us to be further blessed by the ability to see and hear the words of Prophets from President Joseph Fielding Smith to President Monson.  Today as I watched Elder Neal A. Maxwell's majestic discourse "Apply the Atoning Blood of Christ" online I remembered how moved I had been when he first gave that talk in 1997, and was once again moved by the power of this special testimony.  It struck me that in this way, this dispensation's Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, are "speaking out of the dust" (Moroni 10:27) "as...one that hath a familiar spirit" (Isaiah 29:4), with the power to touch the coming generations with the same power that they touched those of us who heard their living witnesses.  In this way, they will live on, becoming like unto Nephi, Alma, and Moroni, whom we now hail as old familiar friends because we are blessed with their words.

While our immediate attention must always be given to the voices and counsels of our living Prophets, I pray that we will take advantage of these great blessings and be continually blessed by the voice of God's servants in these latter days.

Brett