President Boyd K. Packer: A voice felt, rather than heard
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Related stories from the 2011 Seminar for New Mission Presidents:
President Monson: 'Precious commodity entrusted to your care'
President Henry B. Eyring: Holy Spirit will help missionaries succeed
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: Presidents help missionaries reach their potential
Elder Russell M. Nelson: Learn, live and teach the doctrine of Christ
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Elder David A. Bednar: Becoming a 'Preach My Gospel' missionary
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Elder Richard G. Hinckley: Recent changes intended to encourage senior couples to serve missions
PROVO, UTAH
The voice that can be felt rather than heard was the focus of President Boyd K. Packer's address June 25 at the 2011 Seminar for New Mission Presidents.
President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve based that thought on the phrasing in 1 Nephi 17:45, where Nephi, in chastening his brothers, said, "Ye were past feeling that ye could not feel his words."
Though that might seem to some readers to be an error, President Packer said the only word that can describe what takes place when one receives inspiration through the Holy Ghost is "feeling."
"There's a thread that goes through all of the scriptures, but particularly in the Book of Mormon, about the 'still, small voice,'" President Packer observed. He cited the experience of Elijah in 1 Kings 19, where the Lord spoke to the prophet not in the thunder or in the wind but a still, small voice.
"We know what that is, " President Packer said. "We can interpret that."
He recounted the experience of the Prophet Joseph Smith when visiting U.S. President Martin Van Buren to seek redress of wrongs suffered by the Saints in Missouri. On that occasion, the president asked him what the difference is between the LDS Church and all the other churches.
"The Prophet answered him in five words: 'We have the Holy Ghost.' That is the difference," President Packer said.
The Prophet said on another occasion that he may as well baptize a sack of sand as baptize a man without giving him the Holy Ghost, President Packer recounted.
"Now that is individually given to everyone," he observed, in the ordinance of confirmation, associated with baptism, by which Melchizedek Priesthood holders lay hands on the head of the one receiving it.
"You have been given the keys of presidency for your mission," he said to the assembled mission presidents, "a remarkable gift, the keys to all things necessary to see you succeed in the work that you're called to do."
He said, "You don't have to know a lot of things the world places value on to succeed as a mission president and the wife of a mission president, but one essential you should know is that feeling."
President Packer related an incident that had been told to him by President Joseph Fielding Smith. President Heber J. Grant had been expected to name a counselor in the First Presidency, but general conference had come and gone without him doing so. When asked about it by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder Harold B. Lee, President Grant replied, "The man that is to be my counselor is not ready yet." He then said, "I know that voice when it speaks," and, pointing at each of the apostles, added, "I felt it when I called you, and I felt it when I called you."
At the next conference, President Packer said, J. Reuben Clark Jr. was called to fill the vacancy in the First Presidency. He soon learned that he was expected to speak boldly and directly in giving his opinion, and so he did. But President Clark said, "When President Grant would say, 'I feel this is the way we should go,' I stopped counseling because I knew the Lord had spoken."
He said, "You might wonder why you did something and think, 'That's a blunder; I hope the Brethren don't hear about it,' and later find out it that it was not a mistake. You won't make any mistake; you would have to overrule the Spirit to do that, and if the Spirit is right, then you go ahead."
The feeling of the Spirit can come anytime, President Packer said. "It could come in crowded places, in the temple sometimes. But seek the quiet and prayerfully prepare yourself for the direction you want, and it will come to you. It will come when you need it."
If missionaries can be taught to recognize that feeling, then their mission success will not be measured in the number of baptisms they have had but in what has happened to them personally, President Packer said.
"Sometimes, the mission is for the missionary, to shape him for future activities in life," he said.
He told of a young man who came to him and said he had been nearly a year in the mission field. He said, "I haven't succeeded; what's wrong with me?" President Packer said that after doing some probing, he determined that the missionary had not done anything wrong; rather he had not been doing the right things long enough.
"He sits here now, having been set apart as a mission president," President Packer said. "He needed to come of age in the mission field."
