Elder Boyd K. Packer and a Story on Gospel Learning

I was reading Elder Packer’s book Teach Ye Diligently yesterday and I ran across a story that I felt has some important things to say.

“When I was a mission president, my assistants and I occasionally checked apartments. Missionaries sometimes have the tendency not to keep their apartments clean, and so every few months we would stop and make some inspections. (This procedure had an interesting side effect. Through the missionary “grapevine,” word would be passed on, and though we personally inspected only one or two apartments, all were cleaned up!)

In St. Johnsury, Vermont, I was surprised one morning at about ten o’clock to find that when we knocked at a door, expecting to make contact with the landlord, an elder answered. He and his companion should have been out tracting.

            I said, “Where’s your companion?”

            “He’s studying in the bedroom.”

            His companion was reading The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. I had read the book, so I commented on it to him, asking, “How will it help you in missionary work?”

            He replied something to the effect that the more you know, the better you can teach. I asked how many other books he had read. He was sitting on an old, high, four-poster New England bed. He reached down, took hold of the bedspread, and lifted it up so I could see several boxes of books under the bed. He had read them all.

            “Where did you get all these books?” I inquired. He indicated that he had a relative who was in the publishing business and that he automatically received all of the books that came off the press relating to the Church. After some conversation I instructed him to box up all the books and send them home. I also instructed him to write to his relative and tell him to send him no more books. For the rest of his mission he would need only the scriptures and one or two other books we prescribed.

            He vigorously protested, insisting that he was learning the gospel and that the more he read, the more he’d be able to teach. I tried to reason with him and finally, with some impatience, I said, “Elder, if you keep on this course, I’ll tell you what will happen to you. You will come to know about many things relating to the gospel and much of it will be useless to you. You will be the kind of individual who goes to a Sunday School class to disturb the class and irritate the teacher by demonstrating your ‘much knowledge.’

            “You will have more factual knowledge than most of the teachers you will meet in the Church. You will want to correct them in every class. If ever a mistake is made, whether it be by a Sunday School teacher, a bishop, a counselor, or a quorum officer, you will correct it. Many mistakes will be made, because in the Church we are all learning as we grow. You will not be called to positions because of your arrogant, know-it-all attitude will disqualify you. You will go through life wondering why you were passed over, blaming the Church and those in it, and eventually shriveling up spiritually.

            “Your problem is selfishness. You are more interested in what will happen to you on your mission than what you can do for others. You already know far more than you need to know to introduce investigators to the gospel and bring them to the point where conversion can take place. Remember, elder, this is not your mission. It is His mission. You will never gain the most important eternal things by the course you are following. You and your companion need to be out now knocking on doors, imparting the milk of the gospel. The meat can come later, and you can learn it later.”

            The elder recognized what he had been doing and sent the books home. There would be time for that kind of study later in life, and I assume that he is now somewhere in the Church possessing an ever-greater knowledge of the factual things concerning the Church and its doctrines, imparting in a gentle way the basic principles to lift many around him.” (p188-190)

I was very much struck by Elder Packer’s ability to predict what would happen to this missionary. The missionary wanted to learn in order to teach, so it would follow that the elder would use what he learned at every opportunity to correct errors. And of course there would be many errors.  But this missionary’s desire to teach wasn’t necessarily out of a desire to benefit others or he would have been out doing missionary work already. It was a desire to look knowledgeable in front of others, a desire to build himself up at others’ expense. That was the selfishness. And at that time, he couldn’t bear to teach and be rejected by investigators, since he knew he would be rejected often, so he was hiding from the prospect of rejection that reading and learning, while claiming it would make him a better teacher. He was afraid to trust the Spirit.

Something else also struck me about Elder Packer’s correction. In his prediction, he says to the missionary near the beginning, “Elder, if you keep on this course….You will come to know about many things relating to the gospel and much of it will be useless to you.”  Ouch.

If we enjoy reading about the gospel and learning much, this challenges us to think carefully about how it’s useful to us.  How does it inspire us to demonstrate greater faith in Christ?  How does it inspire us to change?  How does it help us become better?  

If our readings and learning doesn’t point us toward faith in Christ and personal change, it’s useless to us. And if the readings are pointing us in the right direction, if we don’t decide to do anything about what we’ve learned, we’re only reading for entertainment, not for growth.

Elder Packer also warned the elder, ”You will not be called to positions because your arrogant, know-it-all attitude will disqualify you.”  What’s the principle? Arrogance, know-it-all-ness, (and correcting everybody) is a disqualification for positions.    

I think this hit me particularly hard because I have been (and probably still am) guilty of that arrogance and know-it-all-ness. And I have been stupidly ambitious for position too. I’m less ambitious now than I was because I’ve now had one small leadership position, and I’ve learned how it is all about service and not self-aggrandizement.  But I still recognize some of that rotten ambition in myself. (Bleah)

Why does that stupid part of me think I need position?  It’s because some part of me feels like I need something to validate my importance and worth and thinks position will do that.  But it doesn’t and it won’t, no matter how big the position. 

So why do I think I need something to validate me?  Because somehow I haven’t quite internalized that I am a child of God yet. I know it in my head, but it hasn’t hit my soul.  Obviously, I need to work on remembering that. (Hmm, I think there was a conference talk on that in April…)

[insert struggling noises as I work to internalize my divine nature]

After thinking more about this, it seems to me that I, as a daughter of God, should be learning as much as I can about the gospel, but that I should also work to let it change me. A daughter of God looks for opportunities to serve wherever she is, and sees position as merely a different way to serve. A daughter of God shares knowledge and wisdom to inspire and encourage others. A daughter of God trusts the Holy Ghost to teach and convert. A daughter of God acknowledges what is right in other people’s viewpoints. A daughter of God recognizes others will know much she does not and tries to learn as much as she can from them.

Okay, I’m going to try to be like that.

I think I can learn a lot about what I should do by asking myself, “What would a daughter of God do?”  It goes right along with asking “What would Jesus do?”

God gives light

For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding. (2 Nephi 31:3)

This verse has helped me a lot in life. So often it helped me in my studies as I worked to understand things. It helped me whenever I’d run into things I couldn’t understand, helping me trust that either there would be a way to understand it if I learned more, or it was something worthless trying to cover that up with a pretense of obscurity. It has helped me value teachers for their ability to make difficult subjects clear, beautiful, and harmonious.

It also shows me just how involved revelation is in learning. Every insight, every realization, every epiphany is a gift from God and brings us closer to Him.

I think the scripture also teaches what a brilliant linguist God is. If He speaks to all of us according to our understanding, He must know all our languages. Not only does God condescend to speak, but to adapt His message to our level of understanding, meaning He knows the level we’re at. (I suspect He sometimes pitches His messages at a slightly higher level to motivate us to stretch a little bit so we can also grow spiritually.) He understands us perfectly, and how He must yearn for us to understand Him. And yet, here we are, with our limited mortal perspective hopefully widened a little with our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. How much we must trust Him!

When Callings Feel Hard

I remember the first time a calling started to feel difficult for me.  It was my first year at BYU. I and another boy in my ward were called to be leaders in a family home evening group of other college students.  We pretty much were to make sure family home evenings happened for our group and to coordinate time and place to meet.

I tended to be the driving force behind our group meeting. I don’t know why that was. Maybe my partner didn’t have regular family home evenings growing up and so didn’t feel strongly about it.  Or maybe he had a heavy load of coursework and it weighed on him such that he didn’t feel as urgently about having family home evening. 

Whatever the reason, I was usually the one calling him to plan what we were going to do.  Once we figured that out, I was the one calling members of our group to let them know meeting details.  (This was before cell phones started to become more ubiquitous, and before texting capability, so there was no sending a group text.)

I remember late one Monday afternoon sitting on my bed, eying the phone with distaste, knowing that I was going to have to push together another family home evening when I wanted nothing more than to relax and be the one pulled for a change.

I knew I needed some motivation, so in desperation I reached for my scriptures and flipped it open to some random page and started reading.  Here is the verse that caught my eye:

And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received. (Alma 7:22)

That verse gave me a jolt, like an awakening. It seemed to speak to my situation. What was my duty to God?  It was to make sure FHE happened. 

“that ye may walk blameless before him” – I envisioned Judgment day and how I would feel happy if I could look back and say I had done my duty.  And after all, it looking at it from a distant perspective, my duty didn’t seem so hard after all.  A few phone calls. 

That gave me the motivation to go pick up that phone and start.

I look back at that now and I shake my head at how silly I was.  But at the time I was young and it was a big deal. I had a lot of growing to do.

Here are some other scriptures I like that are closely related—good motivators for callings…

Holiness and foreordination

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (1 Timothy 1:9)

This scripture is probably talking about “holy calling” in the sense of being brought into the church, but I think it also applies to church callings too. They come by revelation. If you are like me, you probably have raised your eyebrows at some callings you’ve been given and thought, I have no idea why I have been asked to do this; there are people who could do a better job than me at this.  That’s when you know Heavenly Father has His own purposes, and the calling didn’t come because of anything we’ve done to deserve it. There’s foreordination in it, and it’s part of the Lord’s plan.

Case in point: I have no idea how my being in charge of that FHE group at BYU fit in the Lord’s plan or what its purpose was, but I have faith that it fulfilled its purpose.  It was the first time I had to push through an aspect of my calling that was hard.

Some of my callings I’ve said to myself, This has to be revelation, because I would not have chosen this. This is not the kind of thing I like.  There was one calling that I was mad about receiving, but I accepted anyway, and it turned out to be a big blessing.  I look back at it now and I see it as evidence that Heavenly Father knew me better than I knew myself. He knew I would love it, and He knew it would stretch me where I needed stretching.

Example: Stripling warriors

And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. (Alma 53:20)

This is about the stripling warriors, but I want that to be about me in my callings. I want to be valiant for courage, be strong, be active, and be true at all times to whatsoever thing has been entrusted to me.

Learning, action, diligence

99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen. (D&C 107:99-100)

Two principles there: 1) learning our duty and 2) acting with diligence. If we don’t know what we’re supposed to do, we need to get training and get help until we know what we need to do.  Once we know, we need to do it.  Consistently.

Sometimes diligence is our big test.  Maybe we can pull off the big production once, but it is the tasks that must be done over and over and over again that can become a problem for us because we get so tired of them.  Or maybe we’re more into the calling when it is new and strange, but when it is old we might get a little slack at it.  When my callings feel old, I know I’m being trained to be diligent.

All are Needed to Keep the System Perfect

109 Therefore, let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling; and let not the head say unto the feet it hath no need of the feet; for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?

110 Also the body hath need of every member, that all may be edified together, that the system may be kept perfect. (D&C 84:109-110)

To me this one says there are no unimportant callings and each one is needed.  The image of the head dismissing the need for the feet teaches by negative analogy that leaders should not dismiss as unimportant the members who have the less-visible callings, because if those less-visible callings were eliminated, there would be hurt somewhere.  (“without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?”) 

By the way, I’ve noticed so many church leaders that are so good at thanking people who put together an event. I used to wonder why they took time for all those thank yous, but now I know that they understand this principle that every person’s contribution is important.

In the abstract, callings are a grouping of tasks that have to be done, but from the spiritual perspective, they are opportunities to practice charity and service for others.  They exist because there is work to be done to build the kingdom of God and to keep it running smoothly.  If we don’t think a particular calling is needed, we only need to think about what would be lost if it didn’t exist.

I also like that v110 says that with every member, all may be edified and the system is kept perfect. We all keep the system perfect!  We all edify each other!

Keep it up, Soldier!

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 2:3)

Sometimes callings are just hard, and we have to endure it. Good soldiers have to endure nasty conditions, and good Saints will too on occasion. 

What scriptures have helped you keep on with your callings?

For when scripture study feels stale

From time to time I find myself at a stage when it is hard to find new things to learn in the scriptures and then it becomes hard to get myself to read the scriptures.  You may experience this from time to time too.

I feel very lucky that I got advice from my mom about this.  I mentioned to her my problem some years ago, and it turned out that she was the perfect person to help because she was very diligent at scripture study. She had been doing it a lot longer than I had. 

She told me, “Satan would like you to think that it is boring so that you stop doing it. But it just means you need to find a new way to study that excites you.”  This had a great impact on me, and I still think about it from time to time. 

She also shared with me different ways that she had studied the scriptures. At one point she was very focused on studying by topic.  At another point, her study consisted of meticulously copying down in full in a notebook every single scripture listed in the Topical Guide about Christ.  (It took her months and months. I remember seeing her working on that, and it was special to see my mother take her study so seriously in order to learn more.)

While I wasn’t particularly interested in trying those particular methods, hearing about them helped me see that there were potentially a bunch of different ways to study the scriptures.  Of course, I felt at sea at first because I didn’t know 1) how to find a new method or 2) how to know if I would like a new study method.  I was a little worried that it would take me a long time to find my next method.

Since then, I’ve also learned that finding process sometimes it takes some time. I think I'm a little more comfortable with those transition points now. I have to try different things. It helps to follow my curiosity. It helps to seek out resources and books.  (I suspect that one of the useful things about scripture commentaries is simply how they may offer a different perspective that can make the scriptures new and help us find new study methods.)

Two things I would always do, no matter my method: 1) pray to be edified before starting and 2) write what I learn in a scripture journal.

I didn’t use to pray before reading, but someone I trusted and respected recommended it, so I decided to experiment with that. (I just wish I could remember who told me so I could thank them.) Anyway, it really made a difference. There have been times that I’ve forgotten to pray first, but I can say for sure that every single time I remembered, the Lord always answered my prayer. 

I didn’t use to write when I discovered something cool in the scriptures. But at some point, I felt like I was learning such cool stuff I didn’t want to forget it. That drove me to write it down somewhere.   So I wrote it in my personal journal.  Those types of journal entries started to increase to the point that it started to feel like they were crowding out life-event stuff.  Finally, a seminary pre-service class I took had an assignment to write down scripture insights every day in a notebook. I loved that assignment so much that I continued it after that class ended, and that’s how I realized it was permissible and desirable for me to have a scripture journal as well as a personal journal.

What do you do when you’re trying to find a new way to study the scriptures?  What practices stay the same for you?

Some observations on Jared the usurper and his daughter

I was reading about Jared, the man who usurps the Jaredite kingdom from his father Omer, and I thought it was interesting to read these versus again about his reaction once his brothers take back the kingdom for their father and mercifully let him live.

7 And now Jared became exceedingly sorrowful because of the loss of the kingdom, for he had set his heart upon the kingdom and upon the glory of the world.

8 Now the daughter of Jared being exceedingly expert, and seeing the sorrows of her father, thought to devise a plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom unto her father. (Ether 8:7-8)

It sounds to me like Jared became deeply depressed. And it seems to be a situational depression, probably a feeling of having lost everything he ever wanted and being frustrated in his desires.   The verse tells us he had set his heart on the kingdom and the world’s glory.

Jared, born as a prince, was in a pretty high status anyway, and it makes me think about what there might be for a prince to aspire to, if not gaining the kingdom.  IT may have seemed to Jared that there was nothing else.  Eternal salvation and serving to build and improve the kingdom wasn’t on his radar.  Or maybe he thought being king was the best way to improve things.. 

It’s not really clear whether he usurped the kingdom in the first place to forestall competing with other brothers for the crown, or whether he would have inherited anyway and he just wanted to hurry it along.

Anyway, Jared’s depression over his drop in status in the kingdom teaches us it is important to pay attention to what our aspirations are.  Aspirations can drive us, but they can also cause us grief when we are frustrated in them or when they are gained and then lost.  Are they good aspirations?   What are we willing to do to obtain them?  Will we do anything, or will we pursue them in a lawful way?

We are all princes and princesses in God’s kingdom, but it is worth asking what our aspirations are.  Do we simply aspire to rule over everyone, or do we want to build up the kingdom?   Do we sometimes get the feeling we are “demoted” from callings of authority, and does that depress us?

Let’s move on to the verses about the daughter of Jared.  Ignoring all the awfulness that follows from the particular plan the daughter of Jared comes up with, there are some neat things about her in the verse that I want to point out.

First it is noted that she is “exceedingly expert.”  Our natural question might be “Expert in what?”  Since it doesn’t say, I am brought to the conclusion that she seems to have been expert in just about everything.  (Except.. being faithful to God.)  She seems to have dealt with her high status and the need for a driving aspiration in a different way from Jared her father.  She was granddaughter to a king, and in the time her father was king, she was a princess. Her aspiration seems to have been gaining every bit of learning and skill that she could. And she attained it, which may or may not say something about opportunities for women to learn in those days. I don’t know.   Is being “exceedingly expert” bad? Really, it depends on what use the expertise is put to.

Second, she saw the sorrows of her father, and she wanted to alleviate them.  This was a good desire, even if the manner of doing it was wrong-headed.  What parent wouldn’t want a child who would go to great lengths to help them pull out of a blue funk?

Third, she thought to devise a plan to help him, so she seems to have been pretty goal-oriented. You get the sense that she has made plans and executed them successfully in the past, based on her confidence in herself that she can pull off this admittedly ambitious project of redeeming the kingdom to her father.

Fourth, it is interesting that her project is called “redeeming the kingdom.”  You and I know that Moroni who is abridging this account would see through this terminology and know what she is doing. She’s trying to usurp the kingdom back for her father.  So it is likely this “redeeming” was language in the Jaredite account that Moroni allowed to pass through. It shows us the daughter of Jared was skilled at spinning the truth. “Redeeming the kingdom” sounds virtuous, whereas “usurping the kingdom” does not.  The lesson here is that projects need good names, but they have to be good projects, such that naming them doesn’t require lying to ourselves and others about their true nature.

Seeing these qualities in the daughter of Jared, I get the sense that she was a neat woman who began to make some very bad choices to help her father in a bad way.  She goes blithely into it with such naivety that I wonder if she had been making bad choices for a while and this was just another easy step for her.  How could she just do what she did with no regard for the consequences and the evil it would unleash upon the world? 

In the end, she turns into an object lesson illustrating the principle that when people are learned too often they think they are wise and then they don’t hearken to the counsels of God. All their learning becomes foolishness. To be learned is good if we hearken to God’s counsels.

Painting and life lessons

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Recently I got an idea to use a paint program called Procreate on my ipad to try to duplicate what Bob Ross painted on some of his videos, which are posted to Youtube. I thought if I could watch his videos and pause them from time to time I might have a chance of copying his technique.  

Truthfully, I went into it with pretty low expectations. I'd played with the program before, but I didn't know enough to do anything good.

Imagine my utter astonishment when I end up with something like this..

Or this...

Or this..

There are some neat things about painting on this ipad program that remind me of life lessons and the gospel.

First of all, I love that there is an Undo button.  Being able to undo mistakes on a painting means that I can learn and do a little experimenting when I’m not sure what will work best.  It reminds me how wonderful repentance is.  Just think what a mess our lives would be without repentance!

Second, it is so much easier to learn to paint when watching an example and trying to duplicate what the expert does. (Likely some particularly skilled painters will argue with my labeling Bob Ross and expert, but to my ignorance, he is.)  I feel like I picked up a whole bunch of skills that I never would have learned if I hadn’t been able to see them used and hear them explained.  The power of his example reinforces to me how neat it is that we have Christ’s example in the scriptures and the example of so many prophets explaining principles for us to live our lives better. 

When I’m watching an instructional video for a painting, I like to stop the video every few minutes to give me time to try to duplicate what was done in the example.  This reminds me a lot of that principle of line-upon-line, precept-upon-precept.  If I was trying to do it all perfectly, all at once, I would get overwhelmed. 

Paintings start out so rough and plain, but they gradually get more and more detailed.  They start with large sweeping strokes, and get smaller and gentler as time goes on.  That teaches me about gradual refinement. 

Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I have done an awesome job on a mountain in the background, frequently the next stage of the project requires me to be brave and paint something over part of what I’ve just worked so hard to do.  This has taught me something about sacrifice.  There are points in life when we have to sacrifice something we’ve worked hard on in order to progress. Sometimes it seems like the thing we’re sacrificing for is not going to be that great.  (The beginnings of my trees that I paint over my backgrounds don’t look nice to begin with.) But total commitment will eventually make something beautiful and wonderful of our lives.

I’ve done a few paintings that started with nearly black backgrounds and then had colors put on them.  The light colors show up so well, and the whites really zing.  This reminds me of how brightly good people can stand out in a dark world. 

Well, that’s enough for now. I imagine I’ll probably think of more points of similarity as I get better. 

True doctrine can end religious strife

22 And also they had peace in the seventy and eighth year, save it were a few contentions concerning the points of doctrine which had been laid down by the prophets.

23 And in the seventy and ninth year there began to be much strife. But it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi, and many of their brethren who knew concerning the true points of doctrine, having many revelations daily, therefore they did preach unto the people, insomuch that they did put an end to their strife in that same year. (Helaman 11:22-23)

There are several neat things in these verses. First, true doctrine preached puts an end to religious strife. We’ve seen elsewhere that it has more effect on the minds of the people than the sword or anything else. It dispels doubt and ignorance and can become a shield against deceptions of the devil. (Of course, when people are more determined to carry their point than to learn the truth, it is another story.)

Another neat thing is that Nephi and Lehi and many others who knew the true points of doctrine still had many revelations daily. Their strong foundational knowledge did not prevent them from learning more, and they were able to perform a great service with their knowledge by helping end strife over doctrine. I also suppose some of their revelations helped them settle the strife as well.

So a good question for us is, when there is religious controversy do we remember important applicable points of doctrine that can help us settle it? Can we think of verses of scripture on the topic? Can we find applicable scriptures? Are there words of the modern-day prophets on the matter? I suspect that if we haven’t consulted the scriptures or the prophets on the question then we haven’t yet done all we can do, whether we have questions or whether we’re trying to help someone else with questions.

Different ways of learning in the temple

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One of the things about going to the temple often is that it can be too easy to fall into a rut of thinking about the same old things, when the temple is meant to be a revelatory experience.

How can the temple be a revelatory experience when we do the same things over and over and hear the same words over and over?

My experience with scripture study over years of diligent reading has taught me that applying my own concerns and experience to what is done and said in the temple can bring interesting insight.  (I remember during a time I was taking an online class on selling, I went to the temple for an endowment session and noticed in the garden of Eden sequence Satan was a pretty wily salesman.)

Recently I went to the temple with my husband and we did a sealing session and I tried something I hadn’t tried before.  In addition to listening to the words as the sealer spoke them, I tried to imagine reading those words as if they were displayed on the wall.  (I did this because the reading process for me is very important to my ability to analyze and comprehend, and if I only hear the words I don’t get to do that.) 

Imagining seeing the words displayed as they were spoken took a lot of brainpower and I didn’t succeed fully in imagining all the words, but I succeeded enough that I noticed new things that I hadn’t noticed before.  Certain words jumped out at me with new significance, and I started to grasp linkages between phrases that I hadn’t found before.  I felt like the experience was profitable enough that I think I will try it during some of the other temple ordinances.

A few weeks before that, my husband and I had an opportunity to go through an endowment session presented with American Sign Language (ASL).  This was a fascinating experience too.  It was difficult because the sign for the words spoken was usually shown before or had slipped behind, but with as little ASL vocabulary as I had, I was able to catch some wonderful things.  It really stretched my brain as I tried to match the signs I had seen with the words said, and the signs I could match really augmented my sense of the meaning of those words.

When I took a film class at ASU, one of the principles talked about was mise en scene, which is the placing of the objects on the stage and the environment. (Yes, it is a French term, so good luck pronouncing it.) We learned that film directors often use the scenery and the objects in the frame to add meaning to the movie action.  With this in mind, I started watching the background of the endowment film to see if I could discern anything that added to the meaning of the dialogue and action.  And I was able to find a few things.  There was some symbolism there that I hadn’t noticed before.

Elder Scott had a talk from April 2009 conference called "Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need" which has some good things in it to think about while doing temple service.

So now I ask you, what skills have you applied to your temple experience to make it more meaningful?  What techniques and perspectives have helped you derive more meaning from it?  Will you share those, while still keeping sacred things sacred?