Obeying those chosen by God to lead

I've been thinking a lot recently about the heated debates going on all around the country regarding California and the proposed amendment to its state constitution which would define marriage as being only between a man and a woman in that state. This is one of the few political issues in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gotten very involved, because of how important the outcome of this essentially moral decision will be.

I've been surprised to see just how many people around me, who are members of the Church and who profess to believe in a living prophet who speaks with God, who disagree with and don't want to support the proposed amendment as he asks them to. It's kinda sad that they say they believe in a prophet, but as soon as he says something they disagree with, they claim that it must not be from God, because it doesn't fit in with what they think the truth is.

This has reminded me of the early days of the Church and the trials that many of the members went through that tested their faith. The prophet told them to pick up everything and move west, for example, and some chose not to follow. Some decided that this was too hard and that God wouldn't ask them to do such a difficult thing. I thought of the current Prop 8 issue in light of this. We are given our own trials and tough decisions to make and the Lord expects us to do what He asks, to sacrifice our will and accept His, regardless of the difficulty.

Refusing to follow God's chosen servants because they say something that we think may be wrong shows a lack of faith, in my opinion. We should stand strong in supporting God and the men He has chosen to lead us and not allow "the fear of persecution and the cares of the world [to cause us] to reject the word" (D&C 40:2).

Gathering to Conference

Last weekend I got to go up to Salt Lake City to attend the General Conference of our church. General Conference is a conference held twice a year when every member of our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) gets together, either in person or by satellite, and listens to leaders of the church speak. The really cool thing is that all of our leaders are called by God and that we have a prophet alive on the earth today and twelve apostles too. The prophet's name is Thomas Monson and he's a prophet, just like the prophets in the Bible, like Moses, Noah, Isaiah, etc., were prophets. And the twelve apostles are just like the twelve apostles of Christ's time. All these men were chosen by Christ and the things that they say and teach us are what Christ Himself would say and teach to us if He were here right now. It's amazing. Before I came to BYU I had never gotten to go to the conference in person (because I'm from Texas), so it's a pretty thrilling and unique experience for me to get to go now that I'm living in Utah for a little while.
While I was there listening to the word of God spoken by His chosen prophets I looked around at the sea of faces around me and had a thought. In my Doctrine and Covenants class we had recently talked about how the people back in the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were commanded to all gather together. Back then they had to gather together physically in the same place. The first place that they were all commanded to go wasn't Utah, but it was Ohio, and because the Lord told them to do it, they did it. In verse 32 of the 38th section of the Doctrine and Covenants it says, "Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high;" They were told to gather together to receive God's law and spiritual power.
Today we don't all gather together in the same geographical location anymore, but we gather in Spirit, especially for meetings like General Conference. I thought of all the people all over the country and all over the world who were watching that confernce at the same time as me, hearing those same words. It's an amazing thing to have a prophet of God alive on the earth today and it's even greater to be able to listen to him. I've listened to General Conference while I was in Texas and when I lived in Italy and it's amazing how the Lord has blessed us with technology so that everyone can hear His voice through His prophets. We all still gather together today to hear God's word. I love it.