Full transcript of “Your Patriarchal Blessing: A Liahona of Light”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:02 my dear brothers and sisters I've been pondering a curious question have you ever cleaned an attic or rummaged through an old stor room one discovers a bit of history and a whole lot of sentiment a few weeks ago we cleaned out and literally emptied the attic of our mountain cabin 70 years of treasures each with its own special memory passed in review leading the parade was an old wooden high chair with iron Wheels it was followed by glass milk bottles that once had pasteboard
0:49 Cs and then came an issue of Life Magazine from World War II featured in the magazine was the account of a proud airplane a once Mighty bomber that had been found years after the war rather well preserved in an isolated corner of the vast Sahara Desert the bomber and its crew had participated during the war in the famed Air Raids over Romania's plesi oil fields the anti-aircraft fire was accurate and a shell burst struck The Craft completely destroying its navigational and its Communications
1:35 equipment the limping plane headed for the safety of its desert Landing field but in route a sudden desert Sandstorm erupted which obliterated every point of reference and shrouded in sand the airport the runway and the lights which were to guide the plane to safety on and on it droned deep into the vast stretches of the Forbidden Desert settling at last on the Sahara never to fly again every member of the crew perished home and the Safety and Security there to be found had been
2:22 forever denied Victory hopes dreams all had been swallowed by the Stillness of the desert dust centuries earlier a righteous and faithful father by the name of Lehi took his family into this same desert Wilderness he however traveled in response to the voice of the Lord and the Lord did not decree that his flight would be undertaken without Heavenly help the words of Nephi describe how that help was provided on the morning of their departure into the desert and it came to pass that as my
3:08 father arose in the morning and went forth to the tent door to his great astonishment he beheld on the ground a round ball of curious workmanship and it was of fine brass and within the ball were two spindles and one of them pointed the direction we should go into the Wilderness now war and man-made means of Destruction could not confuse or destroy that curious Compass neither could the sudden desert sandstorms render useless its navigational power as the prophet Alma explained this liahona as it was
3:56 called was a compass and it worked for them according to their faith and pointed the way they should go now just as the Lord provided a liahona to Lehi that same Lord provides for you and for me a rare and Priceless gift it will give direction to our lives it will point out the hazards in our journey it will chart our course and give us safe Passage message to our Heavenly Home the gift to which I refer is your patriarchal blessing your blessing
4:42 yours and yours alone it will be as a liahona to point you to your heavenly home it is available to every worthy member of the church patriarchal blessings wrote the first presidency in a letter to State presidents contemplate an inspired Declaration of the lineage of the recipient and when motivated by the spirit a prophetic and inspired statement of the life's mission of the recipient together with such promises cautions admonitions which would be helpful in the Fulfillment of that life's Mission it being understood
5:30 that all promises are conditioned on obedience to the gospel of the Lord whose servant the patriarch is who is a patriarch who is this man blessed with such sear ship and prophetic Powers how is he called the Council of the twel Apostles has a special responsibility in the calling of Patriarchs from my experience in that Quorum I declare that Patriarchs are called of God by prophecy how else would our heavenly father reveal those to whom such prophetic powers are to be
6:16 given Patriarchs occupy an office in the mezc priesthood the patriarchal office is one of blessing and not one of administration I declare Sol ly that I have never called a patriarch but what I have felt the directional guidance of our heavenly father let me share with you just one treasured experience years ago I received an assignment to a conference in Logan Utah a patriarch was to be called as I arrived and met with the priesthood leadership I knew the man who should be named as that patriarch I wrote his name on a slip of white paper placed it in my
7:03 scriptures and went forward with the Affairs of the conference I discovered that an ordained patriarch from one of the stakes in Idaho had moved to Logan he was sustained to give blessings in that stake and no additional patriarch was needed and none was called I think it must have been 10 or 11 years later that I received another assignment to attend a conference in Logan again a patriarch was to be called for some Curious reason I opened my briefcase prior to my journey to Logan and remov the set of scriptures the new set which I had been using and instead turned to my bookcase shelf and took an old set of scriptures not used for years
7:50 put them in the briefcase made my journey to Logan there with the state presidency I pondered the requirements of a patriarch a beloved man a blameless servant of the Lord I took my Bible from the briefcase to read to the Brethren the Epistle of Paul to Timothy outlining the duties and qualifications of a bishop as I did so I noticed that white slip of paper with the name written on it Cecil B Kenner I said to the state presidency by chance does Cecil B Kenner live in this area the members of the presidency smiled they said brother Monson Cecil be Kenner
8:36 lives in this stake and had you asked us our nomination concerning who should be ordained a patriarch he would have been our nominee needless to say during that weekend Cecil B canner was interviewed sustained and ordained a patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I think of Patriarchs the thought goes through my mind time and time again patriarch they must be humble men they must be students of the scriptures they
9:22 stand before God as the means whereby the blessings of Heaven can flow from that Eternal source to the recipient on whose head rest the hands of the patriarch the patriarch may not be a man of letters a possessor of worldly wealth or a holder of distinguished office however he must be blessed with priesthood power and personal Purity to reach unto heaven for inspiration and guidance a patriarch must be a man of God and coupled with that a man of Faith a man filled with compassion a man of
10:09 integrity a man of prayer your patriarchal blessing is actually a personal revelation to you the recipient a white line right down the center of the road to motivate to inspire to encourage activity and faithfulness your patriarchal blessing contains chapters out of your book of Eternal possibilities I use the word Eternal advisedly for just as life is eternal so a patriarchal blessing is eternal those promises not fulfilled in this life may
10:55 well be fulfilled in the next we do not govern God's timetable remember the word of the Lord for my thoughts are higher than your thoughts and your ways are not my ways sayeth the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts your patriarchal blessing actually is not to be tucked away in a corner neatly folded it is not to be published it is not to be framed your blessing is to be
11:41 read it is to be cherished it is to be followed it may be short it may be long it may be simple it may be profound length and language do not a patriarchal blessing make it is the spirit of the blessing which provides the meaning your patriarchal blessing will protect you unlike that injured and crippled airplane of which I have spoken traveling to a direction it knew not when destroyed by the dust of the
12:28 desert the the Sands and the storms of life will not destroy you on your Eternal flight as I have indicated your patriarchal blessing will be a liahona to chart your course and to guide your way I love the writings of Lewis Carol that classic Alice in Wonderland you'll remember that Alice was traveling a pathway and then she came to an abrupt end and two Pathways diverged in opposite directions right at the crossroads she encountered the chesher cat of whom she asked which path
13:15 shall I follow the cat answers that depends where you want to go if you don't know where you want to go it doesn't really matter which path you follow we as latterday Saints know where we want to go and we know which path we must follow for the path we pursue in this life will surely lead to the path we shall travel in the next patience may be required as we watch and wait wonder and sometimes pray concerning the Fulfillment of our
14:01 promises in the patriarchal blessings we have received many years ago there sat in my office a wonderful and faithful patriarch as he sat next to my desk I noticed he had tears in his eyes he explained that he had just come back from the land of Poland where he had given patriarchal blessings to our worthy members in that Nation he paused and then added I gave patriarchal blessings to members of a Germans speaking family I made promises in those blessings which are impossible of
14:47 fulfillment I promised missions he said I promised Temple ceilings none of these things is available what shall I do do what can I say I tried to hold back those promises as they came to my mind and as they flowed from my lips but it was no use they tumbled out as I pronounced the blessings he was now sobbing I put my arm around his shoulder and said brother Fetzer you are a righteous patriarch you did not make those promises in and of yourself those promises were inspired by
15:35 almighty god let's you and I kneel down here on the carpet by the side of the desk and let's petition our heavenly father to bring to fulfillment in his own way the special promises he has prompted you to make we prayed years later to the astonishment of the Western World a pact was signed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the land of Poland which permitted german-speaking Nationals who had been trapped in Poland at the end of the war to change their residences to the western part of Germany this family to whom the blessings had been
16:21 given the KET family moved from Poland and settled in the city of ham in the area of Dortmund I had the opportunity to ordain brother conet a bishop and set him apart to preside in the H ward of the Dortmund stake not long after the family journeyed to that beautiful temple in zofen Switzerland and there within the walls of that magnificent building they dressed in clothing of spotless White they knelt at a sacred altar they awaited that special cealing ceremony which would unite mother and father Sons
17:09 and Daughters for all eternity as well as time he who was to perform that ceiling was the temple president of the Switzerland Temple but more than this it happened to be Percy K Fetzer the same man who as a patriarch years before had bestowed those special promises in the patriarchal blessings he had given Patriarchs are close to God promises which at that time seemed impossible of
17:55 fulfillment since Patriarchs are close to God and this patriarch particularly I thought of the words how far is heaven it's not very far when you live close to God it's right where you are your patriarchal blessing is your passport to peace in this life it is a liahona of light to guide you une inly to your heavenly home of these truths I testify in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord amen
