This afternoon I watched a portion of a previous edition of the Mormon Tabernacle’s weekly broadcast “Music and the Spoken Word.” In Lloyd Newell’s “spoken word” message, he told of an article about the great Joshua Bell playing some of the best classical music ever written on a $3 million Stradivarius violin in a Washington, D.C. subway. During about 40 minutes of playing, he received little attention, and a little over $32 in donations from passers-by. Lloyd Newell concluded “The writer, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his article about the unheard violinist, summarized the experience with these words: `If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that—then what else are we missing?’ Indeed, the world offers us daily moments of beauty that can enrich our lives—if we open our eyes and open our hearts.” After hearing this message, I greatly enjoyed reading a transcript of a National Public Radio story on the article, as well as the actual article that won the Pulitzer Prize.
Earlier in the day, in Sunday School class, Brother Mark Jarman played a video excerpt from last Tuesday evening’s devotional at the Missionary Training Center of the LDS Church. The speakers were Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife Melanie Rasband. Earlier in their lives he served as president of the New York, New York North mission. Sister Rasband told of a young missionary who had looked forward to having his shoes shined at one of New York’s shoe shine stands, but had not served where one could find such stands. With one week left in his mission, he was out on the street and heard a man around the street corner yelling “Shoe shine, who wants their shoes shined?” The missionary jumped at the opportunity. The shoe shine man did not have a stand. The missionary asked how much the shine would cost, and the man said as much as the missionary wanted. The missionary thought he’d be able to pay one dollar, he could get anything for a dollar in the Bronx. The man began shining the missionary’s shoes, and as he did so the missionary began to notice the disheveled appearance of the man. The man polished his shoes using liquid polish from a small can, and rubbed in the polish with his fingers. As he observed the man kneeling at his feet, humbly polishing his shoes, the missionary could envision Jesus Christ humbly washing someone’s feet, and then Jesus Christ polishing our souls as he takes our sins upon him, as this man hands were taking on the stain of polish from the missionary’s shoes. When it came time to pay, the missionary gave the man all the money he had with him, as well as money from the missionary’s companion. Brother Jarman had been discussing Mosiah 28:1-3 from the Book of Mormon, and how the sons of Mosiah had turned from sinners to zealous missionaries after having been forgiven of their own sins through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and he asked what motivates us to share with others the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
P.S. (5:45 pm) Well, these are not really stories, but my home teacher Spencer Fowers shared an excellent 1989 General Conference talk on understanding answers to prayer by Elder Richard G. Scott, and on byutv.org I saw a fine talk on personal revelation given at BYU Hawaii by Elder Tad L. Callister.
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