40 Day Challenge

When I was TDY in Tampa Bay in 2007, they reorganized a stake. At the Saturday evening session, I remember Elder Zwick asking people to raise their hand to commit to his challenge.

The Challenge:  Prayerfully read every conference talk and come up with at least one action item as directed by the Spirit.

I did that and it was a sweet experience. Oftentimes, it didn't even matter what the person said in their talk, the Spirit would prompt me to do certain things and that challenge changed my life. As I was reading online the other day, I came across a similar challenge and decided to do the same thing again this year.

I invite anyone who would like to have a sweet experience to join me. What do you have to lose by trying this? Regardless of your opinion of the church, the leadership, or anything else, what do you have to lose by prayerfully reading each talk and asking the Lord to give you at least one action item? This would augment any other study of the gospel and will take less than 10 minutes a day.

I can confidently promise a sweet experience to anyone who does this. Are we so set in our opinions and ways that we won't try something new? We often invite people to be open-minded, yet sometimes we are as close-minded as those we are inviting to be open-minded.

For those who would like to join with me, this is a sample flow for the 40 day challenge:

Personal Revelation and the Temple

The primary people who these blog posts are written for are my children and their posterity. After two years, I compile the blog posts and publish them in a book that I distribute to my children and family for their libraries or records. These posts are the equivalent of the "small plates" for my children, grand-children, and great-grand-children.

On that note, I want to share with them an experience that applies to all of us, but became a personal revelation in the Las Vegas Temple.

About two weeks ago, I was in Las Vegas doing a seminar. While there, I attended the Las Vegas Temple (which is filled with so much symbolism...just look at the picture above) on a beautiful Spring evening.

After the session, I had the chance to sit in the Celestial Room for a little more than 30 minutes. It wasn't very long until everyone else had left, so it was just me and the temple worker. I thought to myself, "There are over 1,000,000 people in this valley right now and I have the chance to be in the Celestial Room alone."

I pondered and prayed while looking at a beautiful, large painting of the Savior. While pondering, a clear and distinct thought came to my mind. The thought was what the Savior told Peter in Luke 22:31, "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." The difference between the scripture and the temple, was that this was directed towards me! It all of a sudden became very personal.

The full thought was this: "Rob, you have a very important mission left to fill on earth. Be careful, guard yourself, because Satan desires to have thee and sift thee as wheat!"

I imagine the same thing could be said for many people, the difference was, this became very personal. This is the difference between revelation and personal revelation. It can be the same words, but it takes on another level of meaning when it is directed personally at you.

I love the Gospel. Temples are a holy and sacred place and I've had numerous personal experiences within the walls of the temple. We went to the Provo temple this morning, again it was beautiful to watch the sun crest the mountains in the background and beam light over the spire of the temple. I love the Savior. For my posterity, I want them to know that the veil is thin. The Spirit will whisper to us if we tune our hearts, minds, and soul.