LDS Young Adult Fireside
Elder Robert S. Wood of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke Sunday night about imaginations and passions and how they affect lives. Nearly 5,400 young adults attended the fireside held in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Wood opened his talk to the USU students by sharing his thoughts about the present time period, “we live in the most decisive moment in all human history, and the destiny of the kingdom [of God] will soon be in your hands.”
He talked about happiness and its roots. He said Satan teaches that happiness depends on satisfying our passions which are magnified by passions but the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches something opposite.
“Happiness depends on knowing who you are, and acting in accord with that knowledge,” Elder Wood said.
Wood talked about how an acorn has potential to become a large tree if it is planted in the right soil and given nourishment. Wood then said the nature of the acorn is what defines it. If the acorn was planted in dry ground and struggled to survive then its potential would be stunted, he said. Wood related his example to individuals, having the nature of God inside of them and realizing their potential for happiness.
He then went on to talk about imagination. Elder Wood quoted a 19th Century Clergyman, Henry Ward Beecher, who wrote, “the soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.”
He suggested the idea that, “thinking is the talking of the soul to itself.”
Wood said if individuals fill their minds with good thoughts they will in return have good imaginations, but if they fill their minds with bad thoughts those will occupy the mind and return again and again.
“Imagination is a marvelous thing, imagination is an instrument for our edification and for happiness or not, it all depends on whether we understand what we’re doing with our imagination,” he said.
He suggested to those in attendance to “treasure up in (their) minds the truths of (the) gospel.”
Elder Wood talked about different careers and jobs and how they do not define a person.
“You do those things but they do not define you,” he said. “Never let the roles you play define you.”
Before Wood spoke, the Institute of Religion Student Council President Cam Lee encouraged all in attendance to “plug (themselves) into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and become who (they are) meant to be.”
He related his experience of the summer being a counselor for an international business camp where he worked with many young people. Lee said the students didn’t seem to have a purpose in life, and he already knew his purpose was to be an instrument of God. He gave the example of: just as a light is plugged into a wall and becomes an instrument to serve, he was connected to God to be an instrument to serve.
Lee said as he talked to the students that they found confidence in his message and peace in the principles he shared with them.
Joyce Albrecht, USU President Stan Albrect’s wife, was in attendance in place of Stan, who was gone on buisness.-ranae.bang@aggiemail.usu.edu