"Occupy My Mind"

This is a story that I have submitted which will be used in our mission newsletter called "Illuminations."  It is a collection of stories from fellow missionaries talking about ways that they "Hear Him" or ways they have heard the spirit in their lives.

“Occupy Our Minds and Press Upon Our Feelings”

In a zone devotional in January of 2021, Elder David Higginson discussed several ways that the spirit can speak to us—ways that we “Hear Him.”  He shared that they were taken from a talk in April 1989 by Elder Jay Jensen.  One way that struck me was “The Spirit will occupy our minds and press upon our feelings.”  Elder Jensen quoted D&C 128:1, “As that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest.” Occupy my mind…it was so familiar to me even though I had never thought about it in these terms.  I have heard the spirit talk to me many times this way.

About 16 years ago, I was teaching Gospel Doctrine in my ward while we were studying the Doctrine and Covenants.  At this time in the Church there was a Sunday School lesson manual with more material than you could ever cover in the class period.  As I prepared I often focused on the identified objective of the lesson and tried to choose material and questions which would allow the ward members to gain that objective.

One week as I read the lesson on the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants which were directed at individuals, the lesson manual included the statement to ask class members what written direction have they ever received from Heavenly Father.  Of course, the answer was our patriarchal blessings.  This question was not related to the stated objective of the lesson nor was it a very interesting question.  It was a basic one with one answer which did not really lead to a discussion.  I decided to skip it.  However, in the days that followed, my mind was frequently drawn to that question and it certainly occupied my mind and pressed upon my feelings.  I could not forget it.  As a result, when I sat down to prepare the lesson, I reluctantly added it into my lesson outline.  It just did not fit with the rest of the lesson or seem to be that important to me.  Why waste the time in class?

Sunday morning as I reviewed my lesson plan, I again argued with myself about the question and I even thought that I would likely skip it during the lesson.  However, the question continued to “occupy my mind” during Sacrament Meeting and as I begun to teach my class.  So when it came to that point in the lesson with a bit of hesitation, I asked, “Have any of you received written directions from your Heavenly Father?” Quickly, the answer was given—"patriarchal blessing.”

But then a class member raised his hand to make an additional comment.  What unfolded was the most amazing discussion about patriarchal blessings that I have ever had in my life, before or since.  One comment led to another, appropriate experiences were shared, and ideas – amazing ideas of using your blessings in your daily lives- were given.  After about 10 minutes, I started to cry. I realized that this was exactly the lesson that should be given on this Sunday in our ward and I was so honored to have had a front row seat to that experience. I was grateful that I had “stepped aside” and let the spirit teach what was most important. It took the remaining 30 minutes of class. I ended the lesson saying “If you ask any members in another ward anywhere in the world what they talked about in Sunday School today, I would guess that none of them had a discussion about patriarchal blessings.  I testify that this was the lesson we were supposed to have…” and then shared my experience from the week. The blessing of that lesson did not end there as over the next few days and weeks, ward members shared with me their experiences with their patriarchal blessings as they tried to implement some of the suggestions or simply just reread their own blessings because of the discussion.

Truly, the Spirit can speak to us by “occupying our minds and pressing upon our feelings.”