www.davidburnell.com - This is a speaking engagement to over 200 youth in Utah. In order to not only survive, but thrive in hard times the keys are to see the needs in others, and seek the inspiration from God. Then hear his words, act upon them and finally share the story with others to inspire, uplift and make a difference in this world!
www.davidburnell.com - This is a speaking engagement to over 200 youth in Utah. In order to not only survive, but thrive in hard times the keys are to see the needs in others, and seek the inspiration from God. Then hear his words, act upon them and finally share the story with others to inspire, uplift and make a difference in this world!
And we're going to talk about four specific things inside of everything I say.
Speaker 2:And those four things
Speaker 1:Are real basic, real fundamental, but they're essential seeking, hearing,
Speaker 2:Doing and sharing is what mortality is all about. And inside of there,
Speaker 1:There's a couple of key principles, obedience being the very first law of heaven and all blessings are predicated upon it all rights and privileges
Speaker 2:Come through it. And the atonement,
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ being infinite and eternal in its nature
Speaker 2:And more available
Speaker 1:To us. Then sometimes we really want to believe I love Paul because Paul really kinda got it, I think. And he talks about it all the time when he talks about the savior, because he was his friend. Paul was also very wayward, a very stubborn and had to be taught a very hard lesson and he had to be forced and compelled to seek
Speaker 2:And then to here and then because of what he saw and heard he did and he shared, and that's why,
Speaker 1:And one of my iconic heroes in the scriptures as is Alma, same story with Alma. Um, have you ever asked yourself
Speaker 2:What your mission is?
Speaker 1:Many of you might, many of you, especially now with everything going on, maybe you struggle with, what is it going to be? Everything's changed? How can I accomplish those goals that I previously had? You know, a thought that I had as I was preparing for this, there was two things. One of them was that father in heaven loves you immensely. I felt that by the power of the Holy ghost repeatedly, since I first talked to brother Brad,
Speaker 2:And it
Speaker 1:Was intense today, as I sought the spirit to help me know what I could say to take the diverse experiences that I've had in to crystallize them into not about me, but about you and about the master himself and about those four things. But one of the things that really was evident to me is that mortality has gravity. It has weight,
Speaker 2:It is difficult. It is designed.
Speaker 1:I find to be hard. And sometimes when we're being taught to seek, we are forced
Speaker 2:To our knees by events.
Speaker 1:And this is one of those times and it kind of rolls into this other principle, which is that this is the season, according to Luke 21, where men's hearts can fell them. And men means men and women. And in fact, um, president Nelson, our profits here, Revelator give a nice short message on that, where he talked about that very thing in Luke 21, and he gave us some great three minutes and 21 second counsel, um, that told us how we can, uh, uh, endure and not only in Durban thrive during times that are difficult. Um, I'm going to paraphrase it a couple of things on a look 21 real quick. And I'm going to tell you a real quick story when you shall hear of Wars and commotions, be not terrified for these things must come first, come to pass and great earthquake quite shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilences. And we could add to this couldn't we mask and locus in strange lands. And I mean, come on earthquakes in Utah, all kinds of things we could add to this, all of us have our lists and we see it all on social media and we feel the fire hose of these events. And that can be really challenging for people. And this is one of the reasons why men's hearts can fill them in these last days, because we let the stimulus, which comes through the brainstem and works its way to the frontal cortex, passing the amygdala, which is the memory part of our brain. And it overwhelms our five physical senses of sight sound, taste, touch, and smell. And because of that, if we don't put on the whole armor of God and bone up our spirituality and seek him and hear him and then do and share, we crumble and we fell, I've been asked many times, how have you, uh, continued to, to, uh, go and do missions and why? Um, and that's a very difficult question. I've never been able to really perfectly answer, but I'm getting closer as I get older. And I think one of the reasons is
Speaker 3:We
Speaker 1:That have been given much have much to give it's one of the things we're taught and it's not some kind of tagline or cliche for me, it's actually a personal mission statement. So when I ask you, what is your mission? Do you know what it is? I have several I've had them in the military. I've had them in rescue. I've had them in business. I've had them with family and church and our missions will vary over time and they will change depending upon what the Lord wants us to accomplish. But in order for that to happen, we need to hear him. Um, there's basically, uh, in, in South Dakota several years ago, uh, I was on a trail and I had my radio with me. So I was an instructor for dive rescue international, but I was on the local dive team in Mount Rushmore. And we had a lot of bodies of water up there. And I was on this trail doing a 12 mile section and my radio went off and then my pager went off and I was dehydrated and I was tired. And it was with a friend of mine who was not on the dive team, but I happened to be an instructor and the vice president of the dive team, which is relevant to the story cause there's a lot of pressure ended up happening. What ended up happening in Sheridan like, um, outside of rapid city on the web to Mount Rushmore, it was April and the ice was about two feet thick, but it wasn't real for mice. And some boys to 19 year old, 18, 19 year old twin brothers were jumping pressure ridges with their dune buggy REL you know, the rail that doesn't have any sides on it. You see them out in Moab and they jumped a pressure Ridge and went in the ice. It was about three miles from where I was at the time and half our dive team was out of town. So I, um, ran back to my vehicle. Um, and I was dehydrated when I got there, which is relevant to what happened and going to cut this real short, make it real short. If you th th I have this recorded on my website at, uh, David brunel.com. That's not a pinch to sell you anything, but that's where you get the full story. Cause I don't have time or desire to share it all right now, but there's a real meaningful part of this story that has to do with those principles. We're talking about here in resilience, because I failed in my mission this day,
Speaker 2:We
Speaker 1:Learned a lot more from those moments than we learn from being on the podium, receiving a medal around our neck and everybody going, Ooh, ah, we learned so much more from those moments of mortality where we feel the weight of gravity. We feel the pressure of decision and we almost think we're going to break.
Speaker 2:So this day one of the boys was down for four minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Dieting was in route the dive team didn't get together in rolling until about almost 55 minutes into this incident. For those of you medical people out there. And the sound of my voice, the old days, uh, you know, an hour was pretty much it for recovery or rescue operations. Um, and then we would shift to what's called recovery mode where we don't try to risk divers to bring them up to the service. We kind of slow down a little bit, which didn't happen this day. Since half the dive team was out of town. When I got on scene, I saw a scout troop making the human chain from the side of the ice, out to the hole and grabbing one of the boys who had popped through the surface of the ice. After four minutes, he lived his brother didn't, his brother was found, um, in the middle of this story upside down underneath the vehicle seatbelted in, in zero visibility, water, black water with a tree tangled up inside the vehicle around the vehicle. And, um, when I got on scene, I had to make a critical decision, which we do at some times in our lives. We have to make them under great duress right now. It's one of those times. And I would recommend you don't make any real big decisions during this time. We wait until things slow down a little bit in your life, at least, unless you have the power of the Holy ghost with you. And then it can guide you to make decisions in the middle of a firefight. But outside of that, it's very dangerous to make important decisions when there's too much going on around you too much stimulus. Um, we're likely to make the wrong decision. The decision I had to make this day was since I was like a leader on the dive team and all of our senior instructors were out of town, uh, do I dive or do I stand on the surface with a clipboard and monitor the divers? And since there were not very many operational divers, we had a couple of new guys that were with me. I chose to dive. Um, the first guy went into the ice at about 55 minutes. Um, and he was down for quite some time. We have a headset on a helmet, not a helmet and full face mask and has communications in it and a dry suit, which often is not dry because it's so exciting under there, but it was supposed to be dry. Um, and they leak often and it's dangerous when they leak because you can get hypothermia and you don't even know you're wet and you burn a lot of oxygen on the ice. Under the ice diving is one of the most dangerous forms of diving in the world. It's called overhead diving. Even cave diving is dangerous like that, but under the ice, if there was any visibility from the sunlight
Speaker 2:It's gone. So it's literally
Speaker 1:Complete and utter blackness, it's called the abyss, even if it's only 60 feet deep, because it doesn't take very much when there's two feet of ice between you and breathable air to get you a little bit,
Speaker 2:Sign it. So the first one
Speaker 1:And I went down, his name was Jerry. He never dove. After this day, he popped to the surface. After about five minutes, I was on communications with him. I was the third diver to go down. Number two, diver was in, what's called the standby position. We send one diver down, one diver on a chest harness with a rope we don't send to because of entanglement. This is rescue diving. This is not recreational diving. And when he popped the service, his eyes rolled back to his head and he was unconscious without a word. So we put them on a gurney and then on a four Wheeler hauled him about two miles across the ice to the waiting ambulance. Jerry never drove again. He retired as a battalion chief of the rapid city fire department years later, but he never went in the water again as a diver. The second guy who's named Rob and we love Rob Robinson, really great guy. And, uh, he had some kind of a deformity in his, his teeth. So we used to have to cut his mouthpiece off and just make it a hole so he could put it in his mouth. And he was just a real brave guy and would dive, you know, with these conditions, you know, with, with his teeth being all messed up, he was just an incredible man who had such courage. And he dove in an uncomfortable way, which I thought was a really interesting character quality that
Speaker 2:We had Rob, when he was down there said this now
Speaker 1:Diver to go the third diver to go in. So the second time the guy is going in next sits on the edge of the ice, holds the line in waits for a four signals, which means I'm in trouble, come and get me. Cause the communications only works. So
Speaker 2:By the time, so Rob
Speaker 1:Saying this it's no good. It's no good. It's no
Speaker 2:Good. And he terminated stuff came to the surface. Wouldn't talk about it. I'm thinking that the big monster
Speaker 1:That hasn't been discovered in this Lake has been found
Speaker 2:And it's there. Now,
Speaker 1:I'm going to get to go next and see if it's there. So as I started to descend into the water and here's where the relevant part of this comes in, I looked at everybody on the surface and by then the news media was there. I could see the surface personnel and the dive team, the fire depart local fire department who was helping out on the surface. It takes about five to one people on the surface for the diver and the water to support them.
Speaker 2:And I could see the ice
Speaker 1:Was like two feet thick. I was inside the hole that we had cut. We don't use the same hole. We come off about 30 feet, cut a new hall and we do patterns towards the other hole. Cause the other holes bad, they went through it. So we don't use that hole, even if we have good gear on. And as I started to descend, I saw the scout troop on the surface over here. If this was the ice right here, I saw them. I saw the news media there and I got a little bit upset. I got a little bit upset at these boys for putting me in these circumstances where, and this is not a great character quality, but I'm a very honest person. And I thought, why are you putting me in these services? I have five kids. Why didn't you decide to be dumb on the ice today? Because now I get to go risk my life because you were done on the ice today.
Speaker 2:And then
Speaker 1:After that, my mind shifted to the mission,
Speaker 2:Which
Speaker 1:Is relevant to the story and to the future part of this, our mission, what is it? And it was to get this kid out at one hour, we were supposed to call it. But the Navy seal, ER, doctor in rapid city said, Oh, let's go do an hour and a half of rescue mode. So that meant when I went down, we were still in rescue mode. A lot of pressure. As I descended, I saw the ice shelf passed through my face mask and it was, and I've been under the ice many, many times, but it was pitch black and it was horrific for me. Uh, I really was not enjoying my moment then. And I remember in being everybody on the surface and that's not very courageous. Isn't, that's not kind of like, Ooh, I thought you were going to come and tell us some really cool stories where you were like the Euro. No, that's not what this is about. This is about real life and life. Sometimes it's not easy, but the power of the Holy ghost and the influence of the master can change our lives and save our lives. And it did this day, as I descended, I couldn't see a thing and I could continue to descend. And then I finally paused and they're letting me descend from the rope. That's tied to my chest and I'm talking to them. And when I stopped, I wanted to look at my gauges. So I grabbed my gauges and I brought them up to my face mask. I grabbed my light and I put them right on the mask, right on the gauges. And I couldn't see a thing. I had no idea how much air I had. I had no idea how deep I was. I had no idea how long I'd been down three important pieces of data that we log and track to make sure we don't die
Speaker 2:At that moment.
Speaker 1:I S when I stopped, they were like, what are you doing? Keep going, what are you stopping for? And I'm kind of like, can you guys leave me alone for a minute? Having a moment under the eyes, two guys just quit. They're never going to dive again. I didn't know. And here I am knowing why. Now there is a boogie man down here, but you can't see him. It was a feeling of impending doom.
Speaker 2:And as a dive
Speaker 1:Rescue international structure, we teach divers as part of our doctrine. When you have a feeling of impending doom, you do not dive. You don't do it because it's the spirit we know as latter day saints telling you your life is in danger. It's that feeling, and you should not participate. I pushed down more. And then I had, what's called a free-flow condition to my mask, ice crystals built up in the bladders on the side of my mask. And it started going like this
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Air is just pouring out of my mask. And I'm like, this is not good today. And I stopped again and they said, what's going on? Why are you stopping? Cause we're in rescue mode, all this pressure. And I said, just give me a minute in a banging on my mask, trying to get it to stop at breaking up the ice crystals. Right? The good news about scuba gear is it's positive. It doesn't just cut your air off. It's free flows like that. And so I'm losing air the rule under the United States, you come up with a thousand pounds of air. You go down with 3000. I didn't know where I was. And then all of a sudden, as I started to push down, it happened. I thought about the boy. I wasn't mad any longer. I was, I was sad. I thought about my family. I thought about this mission. I didn't say, why are you doing this, David? Why do you do this for a living? Why, why are you involved? None of that happened. I knew why I was there. I knew what my mission was knew. I wanted, I wanted to be there. The spirit came to me and it said to me in a very audible way, get out.
Speaker 2:It wasn't
Speaker 1:Loud like that. That's brother Bruno's voice. It was soft, but clear and penetrating. And it said, get out. And I ignored it. I'm a dive rescue, international instructor. I'm the vice-president of the di team. All the other divers are out of town. Can you hear the language we speak to ourselves? My wife's favorite phrase. One of them from a book that she's taught me so much is is that the stories we tell ourselves, we validate our story by the things that we choose to believe in. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I'm all these things I can't really get out because those are the stories I'm telling myself. The second time the spirit came to me and said the same exact thing within a fraction of time. I don't know how long, because there was no light. I couldn't see. I could only hear, I could only feel barely cause I had big, thick, rubber gloves on. And I remember at that point in time, I started apologizing to my family because I thought I was going to die. I really believed I did not have the courage to exit the ice. And if anybody really truly knows me here, like my sweetheart does some of my closest friends, they know that my stubbornness is legendary. And my stubbornness was in full tilt this day. I'm vice president of dive team, yada yada, yada, all these that are pressure. You talked to world war II veterans. You know what they say? The biggest fear they had, there was a saw combat, same thing with modern veterans. Most of them, their greatest fear is to let their mates down,
Speaker 2:Not dying. It's letting people down.
Speaker 1:Third time, the spirit came to me after I started apologizing. And it said, I will not come
Speaker 2:Tell you a third time.
Speaker 1:Well, I called to the surface and I said, please recover the diver. I use third person language, hoping it would be so personal. And they were like, what, what the same thing I wish I would have found out who was on the radio. Cause
Speaker 2:Y Y we're in rescue mode. And
Speaker 1:There's so many lessons inside of that as an instructor and as a dive rescue guy that we can glean from future operations. What we don't do because the guy who in the early gal, who's in the middle of a mix and mortality, or in this call for example, gets to make the call with as much valid information as possible. And with the force multiplier of the power of the Holy ghost saying three times, get out, I had pretty good information.
Speaker 2:I heard him third time, stop it. And I acted upon it. Then I did. And now I'm sharing it with you. Is there experience happening in your life
Speaker 1:Or that's happening in your life? That's really hard that you, rhetorical questions, no raise of hands needed or no commentary because yeah,
Speaker 2:We all have them. Is there a
Speaker 1:Reason it's happened so that you might be able to do something one day to share something one day with somebody else to make a difference or to understand the purposes and the will and the might've father?
Speaker 2:I think of
Speaker 1:The power. I've seen tsunamis in Japan, right after Japan. I recovered bodies for a couple of weeks and you should know Maki and own. The gala
Speaker 2:Went up there alone. The hardest scenario, why I had a dream and I saw the power of the tsunami.
Speaker 1:I was in Alabama for the tornadoes. I saw the power of a tornado, uproot trees. I was talking to my wife about that on the way down here, trees over a hundred years old,
Speaker 2:At least a hundred greens on him. The roots are way up out of the ground. I'm thinking
Speaker 1:I saw a semi-truck bent around a tree that the metal like I-beams they used to build buildings. They built the semis with bent around a tree, the power of father, the savior, and his omnipotence is amazing. And I'm not saying he causes those things or did those things, but I'm saying he has that power. He created all things. So as I got out of the ice, I'm the fourth guy to go down, was my friend named Mark Kirk Hessler. Uh, I'll say his last name because he was successful. He went down and found the kid, uh, underneath the vehicle with a seatbelt still on. He was dead. We couldn't resuscitate him. He blew his lung on the way down. And um, but Mark came to the service. He had made three critical errors under the ice that day he disconnected himself. It just several things. It was a very precarious circumstance. And I was the first face he saw when he came out of the ice because that's not what happened to me when I got out of the ice. And I knew that I wanted to give to Mark what I didn't get. I wanted to be there for him.
Speaker 2:Um, when we,
Speaker 1:Well, I think I think of Deuteronomy. I think of ether, 12, Deuteronomy four and eight through 12, seek the Lord. Thou shalt find him. If thou seek him with all their heart and with all they soul, don't make father in heaven, put you under the finance to recover a boy who made bad decisions to find him that day,
Speaker 2:Break your scriptures
Speaker 1:Up and listen to great music. Watch comfort stocks, attend church, obey the commandments. And you will find him when you cause you're seeking him. Those activities are seeking him. The master being kind of small acts of kindness, gospel study this last couple of weeks, small and simple things, great things come to pass.
Speaker 2:Wow, love that. Um, either 12 now
Speaker 1:I commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written that the grace of God, the father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy goes with which birth record of them. Maybe in maybe in a bite in you forever. Amen. Second piece here, him Mosiah 18 seven, and it came to pass. After many days, there were a goodly number of gathered together in the place of Mormon to hear the words of Elmo yea and all were gathered together that they, that believed on his word to hear him. And he did teach them and preach unto them, repentance and redemption and faith on the Lord. The fundamental principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the most important principles along with obedience, I went to hear Alma. Sometimes we hear the Lord through his Oracles, his mouthpieces, his servants, our leaders, our parents, or brothers and sisters, our friends. He speaks sometimes so clearly through them that they don't even know if perhaps they're speaking through inspiration from the Holy ghost. Sometimes they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. The third to do.
Speaker 1:Twenty-five 37, very famous, popular scripture, right? I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded for. I know he gives no commandment unto the children of men. Say if he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish a thing, which he would
Speaker 2:Command though, what a blessing.
Speaker 1:If I shows that power, that's true. And then the fourth is to share, share your experience. And I'm in that. I want to close with this experience for the last 10 or 15 minutes, we have this experience in Japan was critical to this principle, but it starts with Alma 34 eight. It says this. And now behold, I will testify unto you of myself, that these things are true. I'm a developed a powerful witness of the Lord. Why? Because he struggled. He was a bad guy and he felt the redeeming love of Christ. And then he became one of the most powerful Oracles for the Lord in that generation and did miracles in missionary work. And so to the sons, behold, I say unto you that I do know that price shall come among the children of men to take upon him, the transgressions of his people and that he shall a tone for the sins of the world. For the Lord, God has spoken him. He heard him. And then he shared it. One of my favorite stories is the road to a mass where the Seder has been crucified. And, and um, these two travelers were walking down to the town of the mass or the road to a mass they're going to go eat. And this says, the savior comes up to them and they didn't recognize him. It says their eyes were holding and they did not know him. And he starts talking to him. I don't know if the savior had a great sense of humor. I don't know if he did or not, but he, they couldn't recognize him. And he was talking to them about, and they were asking what price have to suffer these things. So I think the reason he probably didn't reveal himself to him was because he wasn't trying to a sense of humor. And he was actually going to teach them and listen to them first. And as he opened the scriptures on to them and said, he taught them, they recognized him. They saw him, they heard him, they didn't know it was here. And then they went and did, after they recognized him, he departed. And as they, they invited him to go to dinner with him and stuff early on. And he said, no, I've got to go. And as they sat down in a may, as they said, this did not our hearts burn within us while he spoke to us by the wayside. And as he opened the scriptures on to it powerful. And when that happens, we need to share that it doesn't do a lot of good outside of, for your own self there's. Something that happens. I call them forced multipliers in the military, you know, their snipers aircraft, you know, night vision goggles. Those make you a more powerful, small force to a larger force in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of the Holy ghost is that when we testify and we act of service, something happens where we're multiplied and we make huge differences in small ways that we might even renew. What happened when, uh, the Japan tsunami hit. I was, um, I just come back from Haiti the year before I was in charge of security for Utah hospital task force, or I went on a mission for a little boy in guardian before the underground railroad knew who he was. Um, I was the first one to chase after him with another friend of mine for two weeks up in the mountains of Haiti, uh, no success. They still haven't found it. Bishop Marty is his dad. And it was a very challenging experience. And, uh, the underground railroad was doing amazing work out there, still in that country and elsewhere throughout the world. And I applaud them for what they're doing. So, but it was a very diverse mission. I was kind of burned out and kind of tired and kind of reeling from Haiti, uh, largest natural disaster in recorded history. Over 300,000 killed one day and over 2 million displaced, um, without getting too personal or gross, they were keeping people up in big piles and pouring gasoline to get rid of them. There was nowhere else to put it someplace. So Japan came and I didn't really want to go, but I, something happens here for me. And I don't know how it happens to you. Do you know your mission? If you know what your mission is, you, do you have a patriarchal blessing? Have you been given counsel? Have you prayed about it? Have you sought the Lord privately and quietly? Have you asked plain out in a prayer father? What's my mission. Will you please show it to me? Well, you opened my ears to hear my eyes, to see my mouth to speak so that I might know what I'm supposed to do on your behalf. Because when he's in charge, amazing doors open and miracles happen, I've seen it in Japan. I had a dream. I got called by an organization to go down as a bodyguard, to recover us citizens in Japan to get paid a lot of money. And I said, no, not going to go. I went to bed and I had a dream and I saw the women of Japan, welling, not crying, but wailing. And particularly I saw one woman who was enough white jacket and a white hat with a white mask on kind of like moment mass. Do you guys that they wear them all the time over there, I guess. And I knew I had to go and all my friends, like, you're crazy. Kind of like, why aren't you going down? And he'd be more friends that are just giving me garbage[inaudible] cause she was mountain down. There's a nuclear reactor. There's haven't you seen Chernobyl's like history and like, yeah, well, okay. I heard that, but I knew it's because of that dream, I'm supposed to go long story short. So I packed up my gear. I bought tickets to Japan, to Tokyo got on a seven 47 with three people on it, got into Tokyo and the United States Navy and I met them there and they were leaving. They said, what are you doing here, man? At 200 pounds of gear. They're like, what are you, what are you here for? I just bought a ticket. I want to help out. They're like, you're kind of weird and it pretty much thanks. Sums it up. And uh, so long story short, I got up to each Chanel, knocking down a gal. I took me several days to get up there. Uh, and I re you know, worked with the Mexico recovery team and I don't speak Japanese and I don't speak Spanish. Okay. And very much, I know how to tell you to put your hands up and my rank in Spanish, but that's it. But I don't speak real Spanish like Brad does. I think you speak Spanish. No, for the bread. Doesn't speak Spanish either. So if we go into those countries, we're in deep trouble. So no, no Spanish and no Japanese here I am in Northern Japan, you know, in the worst hit area. And the city's leveled. I have pictures on my wall. It's unbelievable. Looked like a nuclear war had went off and there's 4,000 people that are missing in this little town of Sonoma and the most little town this, between these two points of mountains, which is why the tsunami, when it came in at 120 feet or 120 meters, um, pushed through their, uh, physics, right? It got squeezed between two points and what happens. It gets more energy. So it went up into the mountains of the trains and everything up here, the nuclear reactor up there across Fukushima, twice on the land. And the way out I spent about an hour and a half and Fukushima felt like I was on fire. And I was really prayerful and hopeful and very grateful that my garments were on me then that I had some hopeful protection that might sound a little naive as to some of you are like little bit too, um, LDS lore, but it's not. It's gratitude for the, the fact that there are promises that are given of protection. And before I get to the point, that's really important here about sharing. I did not have one injury the entire two weeks in Japan. I didn't have one scratch on me. I could feel the prayers from home. It was amazing. So many people that were so gracious in giving up their prayers. Well, I'm up in Sendai. This is before I go up North further to each note that you send that as an ancient city. And in Sendai, I'm sitting there on my dear wedding for the Mexico recovery team to come down for some restaurant relaxation and to pick me up and I'm sitting on my gear on there for hours and this American kid comes out and this, this is crazy, but it's really truth is stranger than fiction. And he goes, excuse me, sir. Okay. I have a beard kind of like a seven day growth beard and a bunch of gear. And I'm kind of ratting I'm in the wings on, and I'm wearing a North face jacket with a ball cap. And you know, these big commando pants that hold medical supplies and you know, survival stuff. And so I can dig through, it's like, I wouldn't talk to me. So he walks up and he goes, are you LDS? And I'm like, that's not the question that I expected to hear today. Just let you know. And I go, what makes you say that? He goes, I just had a feeling. I said, yeah, well I am. Yeah. Are you? He goes, yeah. I said, what are you doing here? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm lost. And my girlfriend cheated on me when I got off my mission. And I'm here to try to find myself is what it came out to be. So I did what brother Brunel likes to do. And it's called the velvet hammer. I hit him really hard with a lot of love and some direct, common communication. I said, guess what? You're not going to find what you're looking for here. Go home reconcile with your family, your Bishop, your world. And when you find yourself, you're going to be better off helping other people. But until then, you're really going to kind of drag the whole program because you're not squared away. There's a priority. Sister, brothers, and sisters. He comes to us first, our mates second, and in hostage rescue, the hostages, third of the bad guy goes down. Well, how's that possible? That that works. Because if you're not squared away, you're no good to anybody else. If your main charge squared away, they can't contribute to the rescue. If you put the hostas first at all costs, in all cases, you're not going to have a second mission, even though you risked your life for that person. So the principle is true, and this is what I was teaching this boy, but it's a gospel principle to when our converted, what strengthened by brother. It's a true principle. That would be a really cool story if that was it. But about five minutes later, another American kid walks down the stairs and comes over and finds me. And I, he started talking to me and I said, did you talk to the other boy, a young man, 20 something years old? No. Why? I was just curious. He goes, um, aren't you LDTs? Or as what he said, we didn't have the full name of the church at the time where it's supposed to. I've said yes. And I said, so I'm not here to recover bodies in my father in Japan. No, you're not David. That's a long flight. It was reactors were pretty hot. I could have brought some baloney with me and nuked him while I was there. He had the same issue. Didn't like his vision LA blah, blah. One of the leave the church. Wasn't sure. Long story short. I had a longer talk with him. Really great talk. He wrote me about six months later told me he was trying to get into air force pararescue and turned his life around reconciled with, you know, whomever. And it was a good thing. And it was very short, quick communication at a very opportune time. Had I not been sitting on my gear in Sendai, waiting for the mission? Who knows what would've happened? Last part of the story is, as I was sitting on my guarantees, Boyce went back upstairs a couple of days later, by the way, when I was up North, I saw them going home. They both went home and sort of thinks out that's a great thing. I looked to my left and there was a lady walking across in front of me with a white jacket, a white rain hat on and a white mask. And I looked at her and she looked over at me and the Japanese were very shy and she walked towards me bowing the whole time saying I got Domo arigato, I think October. Thank you. Thank you. And my American flag on my vest, she knew I was a foreigner. I guess I didn't look like the locals either. So it helped to identify that. And she was saying, the formal version of thank you in Japanese is only to males is dumb a lot. He got though, and she was using that repeatedly and she gave me a huge hug and I embraced her. Then I went up North and did some hard things. And then I went home.
Speaker 4:I
Speaker 1:Have a testimony. The gospel is true. I have lived a very different life from people that I know, and that's not a badge or anything. That's kind of a liability in many ways. And I've told my wife a hundred times, I wish I was a banker. Somebody that was normal that had a normal job that could have normal evenings and nights. But at the same time, I wouldn't trade it for anything because as I've sought him and as I've heard him, tried to listen really intently, not just hearing, but listening and then attending, which is attending as the highest form of listening, where you're ever so quiet and you're listening so carefully for the spirit, whisper something to you. And then I have gone and done, which is really the most important part of that. For me, I haven't just had the experience and stayed home and opened the refrigerator, turned on the TV and watch Netflix, uh, pack my backs. And we need to do the same thing. Metaphorically speaking right now in this difficult time, there are so many opportunities. And I know most of you are probably doing things to reach out and extend yourself in a, just a simple phrase of respect and love and affirmation that somebody who's near you, don't be afraid to talk to people. Don't be afraid of if the person at the work at the restaurant or the person cutting your hair or doing your nails or whatever, it's important that we extend ourselves to them. Sometimes in this culture here, I'm not from here. And I've been here for 20 years. We're afraid to do that. And I know why we're afraid to do that where I grew up in LA, because it's dangerous, but here it's a lot safer. So I highly recommend we extend ourselves like that. I would like to bear my testimony. He brothers and sisters of the reality that I have in my soul, by the power of the Holy ghost, if Jesus Christ, that he is the son of a loving father who we know intimately, we know him. I have knowing that father has lives since I was a little lad, I was born with that knowledge doctor had come in and says that there's for some, it is given to know and others, it has given to believe on them that no. And I have been blessed with the knowledge of my father in heaven. I had to learn by way of testimony by revelation, from the power of the Holy ghost and through difficult, hard gravity oriented mortal experiences, that Jesus is the Christ. I had to be fortunate to my knees to understand that and to look up okay. And now my testimony is I believe that I would not recognize him by sight, but because of his immense love and his infinite mercy, more infinite that we can imagine that we judge ourselves so poorly. I think I could recognize the feeling of what he feels like and find him. I know he'll find me cause I'll be sticking out like a sore thumb in a great crowd like this, but I love him. And I'm grateful for the blessings he has given to me in my life. I love my sweet Carlene. I call her my Carlene and she calls Mike David.
Speaker 2:And I love that. Um,
Speaker 1:I don't have a knuckle dragon commando rescue kind of bodyguard. Dude. That's a business guy and I have somebody who calls me my David. And I'm very grateful for that. I want her to know that brothers and sisters, we are in precarious times, but we are in the most beautiful times where the revelation of the Lord is just beginning to unfold. President Nelson was amazing to me to watch and to hear his messages and to feel the power of the Holy ghost ratify, what he says. There is nothing work right and full in my heart, then that we need not look at president of this or the president of United States or that country or this organization to find peace and solace and hope that doesn't mean don't vote. Start off responsibility to do that. It's our privilege if we do choose to or not, but it means we don't need to rely on that stress and pressure that everybody feels right now. We need to look to the servant, the mouthpiece of the Oracle, of our father in heaven. I testify that surely the Lord God will do nothing to save. He rebuild his wheel into a service. The profits, the scripture does not say reveal his willing to Google or any other organization out there that has a media channel. It is through the divine power of the Holy ghost and through the living Oracles that we receive and learn truth. In closing, we can not learn truth for our five physical senses or by the reasoning of men
Speaker 2:Or women. If we are
Speaker 1:To come to know the things of God, our mission, what is it? And it will change. And there will be many, one, not just one. We must learn it, the power of the Holy ghost as it reveals itself, as only it can to us as individuals. I feel that sir, perhaps differently than you do when you feel it differently than the next person next to you. And that was one of the most beautiful parts in my mind of the power of the Holy ghost. In order for us to do that, we must become still. Sometimes it's imposed upon us in a lockdown to be still. Sometimes it's under the ice, looking for a boy. You can't see where you have to be still. And then people are screaming at you, a lot of distractions out there, but that's when revelation happens, get out, go visit that person. Prop a loaf of bread, send brother Brunel, some brownies, cause he really likes them, especially with frosty, those kinds of things. As we do this brothers and sisters, I promise you, your life will be enriched to be blessed. You'll have joy in your trials. I have had some phenomenal experiences in Burma and Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and it was all about the people. It wasn't about the mission. Other places around the globe, as I've interacted with people and just love them and, and sought their love, but not their affirmation, not their approval, but their respect. The last of the last is this two words. It's just my, if I had a dying wish to tell you today, and tomorrow is my last day, please don't take that, uh, to the bank. You stay here for a little while. My wife currently depends on a concern. My David, I would say, eat last, what? Eat last. Yeah. Yeah. Haiti, the word made a meal for us. So we were all starving. Literally I lost 28 pounds in 10 days. Uh, and I came in off a mission trying to find that little boy garden up in the mountains. And there was a word, the word, the Haitian women were making beans arrives and there wasn't enough for everybody, but my buddy got the last plate and I looked at him and I looked at it and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, but I've never forgotten that. And I think for us youth, youth that are out here that are the kind of now generation where everything's at your fingertips, the fridge, the running water, the shower, the Facebook, Instagram, and technology. There's nothing wrong with eating last, putting people before you. And there's a great satisfaction at Thanksgiving when everybody goes to the line and you're wondering if there's anything we think left, but when you get there, it's a feast. I bear witness to you that these things are true. I have felt the spirit this day. I love you. I affirm you. I don't know that you know how great you really are. Maybe you do, but I do. And I testify that you are the chosen who had been sent here that was talked about in front of Moses and Jobe and many other great ones for this day. You're strong enough to be here and you're capable enough to not only be here to survive, but to thrive and to lead and to love in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.