Lemarque wrote: ↑January 26th, 2022, 10:12 am
Some really inspiring, uplifting stuff here.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2 ... het-240778
Sorry for the length; it's a long podcast and a lot of really interesting quotes with interesting implications.
Here's the "best" of the whole interview:
[President Nelson] has been wrestling with difficult decisions. Can you imagine what he and the other brethren have been through to bring forth these over 90 adjustments and corrections that the Lord wanted to have happen? So he’s wrestling with difficult decisions all the time. I never know what the decisions are until after everybody else knows, you know, the wife is indeed the last to know. But I love it when President Nelson says, “I’m on call with the Lord 24 hours a day.”
And then I love it when he does the necessary work to receive the instruction from the Lord on whatever topic it is. But I love when sometimes he will say, “The Lord showed me exactly.” And that phrase caught my attention the very first time he used it, because just the day before, I had been studying from the life and teachings of President Wilford Woodruff and President Woodruff used the very same phrase. He said, “The Lord showed me exactly.” Now, again, I don’t know what the issue was or is when my husband wrestles, nor when he says, “The Lord showed me exactly,” but the rest of the sentence for my husband sometimes is then, “The Lord showed me exactly how to proceed,” “The Lord showed me exactly what to do or say,” “The Lord showed me exactly what would happen if a certain course were followed.”
So, again, I never know what the Lord has instructed him to do, but I love to hear him say those words.
He's good at following instructions "from the Lord":
... my husband is really quick to respond to the Lord’s instructions. For example, when people thank President Nelson for an adjustment and policy or procedure that has just blessed their lives immensely, he will turn to me after they walk away and say, “I was only following instructions from the Lord. I do know how to follow instructions.” So there is a prophet in the land and his name is President Russell Marion Nelson. If we go to wrestling with difficult decisions related to people that he knows, or perhaps when we read in the news of the latest trend in how to break a covenant or commandment with the Lord, with deep compassion, absolutely zero judgment, but with deep compassion, he will say, “I wonder how they will explain that to the Lord when they report in.” So, President Nelson really wants to help people prepare for their personal interview with the Savior.
He's very forward looking:
My husband is always looking forward. I think of the day, it was only a day after general conference one year, when someone thanked him for his message and really for the entire conference. He turned to me after they walked away and said, “That’s ancient history.” So, while the rest of us are learning from and reviewing recent words of President Nelson from a recent general conference, he’s always and already on to the next topic. He just has to be. There are so many projects that are on the move, and so much that needs to be done, and that the Lord needs him to do.
Here’s something different that I’ve noticed about his future orientation lately. He now looks 50 to 100 years ahead. That’s new to me. One day he recently said to me, “Oh, I wish I could tell you one of the decisions we made today, it will be thrilling.” I said, “Well, when will I know?” “Oh, you’ll know in about 50 years.”
Her thoughts on prospering (my emphasis at the end, not healing, but great medical care):
You can prosper with ideas, with insights, with personal revelation, you can prosper with associates that the Lord raises up to help you. You can prosper with your health, maybe even prosper with ideas to increase your health or with being led to great medical care when you have a health challenge.
She's really fun to be married to:
But I remember, oh, several years into the marriage, thinking one day, “Just a minute. I have a husband that makes me laugh,” and actually I do the same for him. In fact, from time to time, I’ll say to him, “Did you ever think it would be this much fun to be married to me?”
The interviewer thanked her on our behalf:
Well, Sister Nelson, all I can say is, from me and 17 million other people worldwide: Thank you so much for the care you’re giving President Nelson, and thank you for taking care of yourself.
Sister Nelson admits to being a germaphobe:
It’s scary out there with COVID and all of its variants, and I’m hyper vigilant about keeping President Nelson COVID-free. I’ve always been a germaphobe, and it’s only been heightened now with COVID and all these various variants. Several of our friends have had parents and siblings die or be on ventilators and be really, really ill, which brings me back to my need to be so vigilant about him and me. So we’ve followed the COVID protocol with exactness and actually, we have never been healthier.
She's confused by choices others make:
Some things, I’d say, in the last four years have been confusing, like the choices we’ve watched some loved ones make, and some things have never been clearer, like how to have joy, how to have peace, how to have love.
My personal favorite quote, in reference to Zoom meetings:
I say to my husband every time: “A good time was had by all. No refreshments were served, and no COVID variants were shared.”
President Nelson has immortalized himself by making a recording that's part of every temple dedication now, and it was "inspiration" (wish I knew the difference between inspiration and revelation):
He’s also recently been able to record a message that is now part of each new temple dedication. We are just thrilled about this. So, imagine: President Nelson can welcome the Saints to the temple dedication. He can bring them his love, the Lord’s love, he can bring a message, a blessing. We’re just thrilled with that idea that was totally inspiration.
She has a lot about truth and deception:
I started to wonder if God did have a bookstore on earth, how many of the things we love to read and talk about as though they’re true, would be shelved in God’s bookstore under fiction? When I listen to some people, it seems that COVID isolation and constraints have wreaked havoc with some people’s ability to discern what is true and what is pure fiction, pure nonsense.
if I go to the hypothetical “God’s bookstore,” there needs to be a section for silly, just ideas that are silly. And perhaps these days, we should be looking at the shelf in “God’s bookstore” that would be labeled “looking beyond the mark” because these are amazing days of personal revelation. Personal revelation is crucial so that we can discern truth from error, so we can continue to learn but we need to remember that it is personal. I remember a dear friend to me, teaching me this truth about truth one day and saying, “Just because it’s true, Wendy, doesn’t mean you should say it or write it.” So, there are some people right now who believe they have been taught truths, and I say, perhaps we all need to be like the mother of the Savior, we need to be like Mary, who kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
And then let’s talk about the quality of the information out there: All the half-truths, the bold-faced lies, the deceptions, all the silly ideas that are offered as truth.
So, the distractions when you’re seeking information on the internet are just overwhelming, and you can get tangled up just so easily.
And of course, how important it is to follow her husband:
In this war of words that rages all around us, I really think there’s only one way to keep ourselves safe, and that is to compare anything and everything we read, view or hear with the teachings of the prophets.
...when we follow the prophets, we can be safe. So, following the prophets is the key to safety. There’s all kinds of safety: Spiritual safety, to be sure, but maybe physical safety, your health, maybe emotional safety, because you don’t need to fear when you follow the prophets.
So to me, again, the way to have the questions of our hearts, the important questions in our lives answered is to say, “Well, what did the Prophet say?” ...I think the topic of following the prophets so that we can find truth is the most important thing we could do.
So I think there is a question we can use as a litmus test to discern what is true, what is not, and that question is, “What did the Prophet say?” I started to think, “How would our lives improve if we used prophetic words as our standard of truth?” And I started to think about — imagine if we did follow the prophets with exactness. Imagine if, for example, for 30 days, we put an exclamation mark after every statement from a prophet, and we put a question mark after everything else we read, see, or hear.
I love something else President Nelson said years ago, again, before he was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. He said this: “I never asked myself, ‘When does the Prophet speak as the Prophet, and when do they not?’ My interest has been, ‘How can I be more like him?’”
Sounds like he's a perfect husband:
...if I’m seeking his opinion on something that might be good for us to do, he uses it as an opportunity to let me know how much he trusts me. I’ll give you an example: I might say, “Honey, do you think it would be good if we—” and then he doesn’t even let me finish the sentence before he enthusiastically responds, “Yes.” And usually, when he did that, I said, “Oh, how can you say yes when you haven’t even heard of what I’m proposing?” His response was, and I love this: “Because I know you. I know you’ve thought it through, and if you think it’s a good idea, so do I.” So, he’s really easy to love.
Also, let me give you another example. You know, he loves me with his words. As soon as he walks in the door, he’ll kind of sing, “I’m home.” That’s exactly the pitch. Then we sit together for a few minutes before he changes out of his suit and I love watching him unwind right before my eyes. At that point, he says in the most warm and grateful tone, “I’m home.” That’s payday for me every day.
Also, imagine having a husband who, when we’re working or playing together, he’ll say, right out of the blue: “Have I told you adequately today how much I love you?” Or he’ll say, “Thanks for marrying me.” And I love when I ask my husband, anytime during the day, “How are you today,” dear?” He answers, “In love.” OK, that melts my heart every time
President Nelson never delays, he never puts off anything. I learned this early in our marriage. We would be drifting off to sleep, and I would think of something I needed his help with. I’d softly mention it to him as something that we might do on the weekend. And he would bolt up in bed and say enthusiastically, “So what’s wrong with now?” And suddenly, we would be in the garage looking for a hammer and nail to hang a picture.