The Real Celebrity

It's not everyday that you get to be in the presence of one of the 12 apostles. I had this privilege yesterday at our stake conference. Elder Russell M. Nelson was in attendance and spoke to us. We got there almost an hour early, but still had to sit about four to five rows back in the cultural hall. But, nonetheless, it was an awesome experience. Elder Nelson has always been my favorite apostle. I like him because he is a heart surgeon and likes to use medical references when he speaks. So, needless to say, he didn't disappoint. He explained to us the word origin of religion. Re meaning and again and ligion being derived from ligate meaning to tie or bind. He made a reference that all the surgeons in the room would know that ligate means for example to tie a blood vessel off. So I thought that was cool. He mostly talked about temples and Temple work. We were also lucky enough to have Elder Brinckerhoff speak to us. He is a member of the quorum of the seventy. Lisa did a much better job in her blog of explaining what was said, so if you would like to read her blog you may get more information. But what I do want to mention is that I find it quite interesting, for lack of a better word, that to most people in the world Elder Nelson is just another man. There was no fanfare, no paparazzi, no huge multitudes thronging to see him. There was no mention on the local news, of his visit. Yet, he is one of the Lord's 12 apostles. It was just a regular stake conference. If Brad Pitt, or Britney Spears, or any so-called celebrity, would have come to the Seattle area to visit it would have been all over the news, there would have been much fanfare and paparazzi and so forth. And who are they? People who act in movies and sing, who don't appear to have very good moral values, and are not good examples for people to emulate. I mean really, how messed up is that? That's my two cents.