Is there a particular General Authority of the Church that seems to speak to you in a way different from others? One that seems to reach your soul most easily and directly? Share who that is, provide a link to a favorite talk of yours by them, and tell us why that talk speaks to you and moves you so.
Full Citation for this Article: Editorial Board, SquareTwo Journal (2024) "Reader's Puzzle for Summer 2024," SquareTwo, Vol. 17 No. 2 (Summer 2024), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleReadersPuzzleSummer2024.html, accessed <give access date>.
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I. Rachel Zirkle
I love listening to Elder Holland speak. He has a passion and an urgency to the way he speaks and a poetic way of writing. I recently saw a reel posted on Instagram from a leadership meeting in the Dominican Republican where Elder Holland spoke. It was a beautiful message about dreaming dreams and seeing visions, a call to be part of this group that has the faith and creativity to see where the Church is headed and be part of it. Dream dreams, see visions. Be all in on the Lord's work. I find Elder Holland's words inspiring and motivating.
When I was in college attending BYU, Elder Holland came and gave a devotional address entitled "Remember Lot's Wife." It was such a timely message for me as a young college student living on the opposite side of the country from home for the first time while trying to figure out what I was doing with my life. He said,
To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11).
His words allowed me to glimpse for a moment how glorious the future really could be, how important it was to have faith that the Savior would help me get there. I still remember the Spirit I felt after hearing the talk for the first time. I'm grateful for Elder Holland's powerful testimony and witness of Jesus Christ and the impact it's had on my life!
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/remember-lots-wife/
_______________________________________________________________________II. V.H. Cassler
There are so, so many General Authorities whose talks have touched my heart, my mind, my soul. I think Elder Holland's talks have real power, and often move me to tears. His story of the two brothers and the cliff is a story I will never forget. President Oaks has given talks that have moved me more intellectually, clearing away fog from issues of the highest importance, such as whether Eve sinned or not in the Garden of Eden in partaking of the fruit (he says she didn't). But I must admit it is the sheer joy that radiates from the talks of Elder Uchtdorf that compels me to ponder, and ponder again, his talks. I hope one day Deseret Book puts out a volume of his best, brightest, most joyous talks to lift the hearts of us all. One of my favorites of his is the talk on the little forget-me-not flower, which never ceases to lift my spirits.
_______________________________________________________________________III. Ashley Alley
I find my eyes perk up every time Elder Renlund speaks. I am not entirely sure why his words always seems to resonant so deeply with me but I have loved many of his addresses. One of my favorites is “A Framework for Personal Revelation” (see https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10/14renlund?lang=eng). I appreciate how clear and simple his beautiful explanations of gospel principles and frameworks are in his addresses. Big fan!
_______________________________________________________________________IV. Holly Hamilton-Bleakley
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speaks to me in a different way from the other apostles and general authorities. I think this is because he speaks in a very direct way, cutting to the heart of his subject matter in a loving but unapologetic way. He speaks with a sense of urgency and intensity that makes sense to me given everything that is at stake in finding, believing, and living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, looking back over my life thus far, Elder Holland has probably had the most influence on me in growing my testimony of Jesus, except for perhaps the influence of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, who also spoke in a similar direct and urgent way. So much of what I understand about faith, about repentance, about steadfastness in the gospel, and about devotion and love for the Lord, are from hearing and studying the words of Elder Holland. I love how his love for Jesus shines through in everything he says and everything he does. I love his deep engagement with the New Testament, which has inspired me to come to know Jesus for myself by intensely studying this book of scripture. I grew up at a time when other Christian churches delighted in telling us that we were not Christians, and I believe that it is through the profoundly inspired words and example of Elder Holland that we as members of the Church were able develop a kind of language and mindset with which we could defend our Christianity to the world.
Every single one of his General Conference talks has had an important impact on me, but if I had to single one out, it would be his talk ‘The First Great Commandment’, from the April 2012 conference. Here, Elder Holland gives a discourse on Jesus’s question to Peter: ‘Peter, do you love me?’ , and as such, challenges us to think about what it means to really love the Lord. After recounting Peter’s answer, ‘Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee’, Elder Holland then goes on to ‘elaborate’ on Jesus’s response: ‘Then Peter … why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation?’ This very funny – and memorable - part of the talk has stuck with me ever since. The message I got from this talk was that loving the Lord means to continually progress toward Him; it means giving up the things that He may ask us to give up, and dedicating ourselves to being about His business, however He commands us to do that. Listening to Elder Holland always helps me to recommit to doing that very thing. Link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng#p1
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