Given at General Priesthood Meeting
My wife, Lanta, and I just returned from a 12 day vacation to Newfoundland Canada. Newfoundland is the northernmost province in Canada. It is a big island that sits out in the North Atlantic northeast of Nova Scotia. You might wonder why anyone would vacation in Newfoundland! It is mostly surrounded by big cliffs. The few beaches are just rocky stretches. The water is so cold you can only stand in it for a few seconds before you have to jump out. And it is always cold and windy!!
Well, Lanta’s parents were both born and raised in Newfoundland. They joined the church as young adults, met in the small branch, and then moved to Utah and got married and raised 5 beautiful girls. Over the years, I have done a lot of family history research on Lanta’s family in Newfoundland. For the most part we can’t trace her ancestors back to Europe. They were some of the earliest settlers in Newfoundland and the record keeping was pretty non-existent because everything was so remote. A priest or pastor might come around once a year to do some baptisms but if you were out fishing that day, your kids didn’t get baptized and there was no record of them. Fishing was the primary method of earning a living and surviving in the small villages that dotted the coastline around Newfoundland so it was essential.
Lanta last visited Newfoundland right after she graduated High School. She stayed with her grandparents for about a month and met many of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some have visited Utah over the years but we have always wanted to go back and see Newfoundland. We were finally able to do that. Lanta’s sister, her husband, and Lanta’s mom came with us. There were so many incredible experiences but I would like to share with you just two things that were meaningful to me.
As I said, I have done a lot of research and really wanted to see for myself all the places I read about. I wanted to see where these small fishing villages were, how remote they were, and get a feel for living in that area. I feel a real bond with these people who are Lanta’s ancestors, not mine. What has impressed me over time and especially while I was in Newfoundland, is how the Sealing ordinance truly binds us together here on earth as well as in heaven. When I met Lanta’s cousins, I felt like I was meeting my own. I know that through the sealing ordinance of our marriage that my heart is turned to them. The “Spirit of Elijah” as we sometimes say is very real. I feel as committed to researching Lanta’s family as I do my own. We traveled to several small villages where we knew we had family. There are small cemeteries dotted along the road and we stopped at each one. I would wander through the cemetery looking for familiar last names. As I found them I took pictures with my Billion Graves app. I took about 400 pictures so I have a ton of stuff to sort through and see if I can find some additional names we can take to the temple. They are all related in some way but finding the connections may be hard.
The other interesting thing happened when we visited a place called Cabot Tower. It sits on top of a big hill overlooking the entrance to the harbor in St. John’s. St. John’s is the capital city of Newfoundland and by far the most populated area of the island. It is situated on the far eastern shore and is where all of Lanta’s relatives now live. I learned some interesting history at Cabot Tower. In 1901, the famed inventor and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, was trying to prove some of his theories on long distance wireless communications. His goal was to send a wireless transmission across the Atlantic Ocean. He found a spot in Cornwall, England where he would transmit the message. On this side of the Atlantic he picked Signal Hill where Cabot Tower is located as the point to receive the transmission. Since St John’s is the easternmost point in North America, that would be the shortest distance but still transAtlantic. In December 1901 at the prearranged time they began transmitting from England. It had been decided that the simple transmission would just be the letter “S”. In Morse code the letter “S” is 3 consecutive dots, or short sounds. It was believed that if you could hear three distinct sounds together over all the static and other noise that you could be sure it was the transmission you were picking up and not just random noise from the atmosphere or whatever. Marconi records that on that day he heard the three distinct sounds on three separate occasions and announced to the world that he had accomplished a transAtlantic wireless transmission that would change communications forever.
Well, the telegraph companies of the day had invested a lot of money in laying cables across the Atlantic to implement wired communications. This was of course a threat to them so they went to great lengths to try and dispute Marconi’s claims. They offered alternative explanations for what he heard or tried to convince others that he had not really heard what he claims to have heard. Marconi was not dissuaded and pursued his theories that have ultimately led to the world as we know it today where wireless communications and transmissions of all sorts are so commonplace we don’t even think about it.
As I was standing in Cabot’s Tower reading this amazing story on the big plaques posted there, I was struck by how similar this story is to our ability to listen to still small voices over the noise and static of the world. Just as Marconi had to try and filter out the static and noise that surrounded him in order to hear the message he was looking for, we have to filter out the static and noise of this world in order to hear messages from the Holy Ghost. And if we are successful then we can be sure of the messages we are receiving. I also think there might be times when we question our faith or let the world try to tell us we didn’t hear the things we thought we heard, or they offer alternate explanations to cause us to question if we really did feel those impressions and hear the still small voice. But we can follow the example of Marconi, or listen to the same truth as revealed by the Lord. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning this matter?” You can be confident in the feelings you had when you heard the still small voice. You can know what is true and forge ahead with courage and confidence.
I hope that you will strive to hear truth as it is revealed to you by the Holy Ghost and cling to that truth when the noise of the world might be saying otherwise. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
