Last 6 Month's High Council Talk

This one I changed each time but the following composites them all with an alternate one I gave in a Ward.

President Uchtdorf’s talk in the Priesthood session was titled: “A Matter of a Few Degrees.”

Story of the Plane Crashing Into the Mountain
It was a great message he began by telling the story of a passenger jet with 257 people that left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to the Antarctica. The pilots had not made this trip before and didn’t realize that somebody had programmed their flight coordinates 2 degrees off. By the time they reached their destination they were 28 miles east of where they should have been.
This doesn’t seem like it would have not been too bad of a mistake (you’ll have to ask Curtis how bad) except that as the pilots descended to a lower altitude so the passengers could get a better look at the landscape there was a mountain in their way. As bad as that sounds it seems like even it could have been overcome except that the snow covered mountain peeks blended with the white clouds above and the pilots thought they were traveling over flat ground until they crashed into the side of the mountain killing everyone aboard.

The point of President Uchtdorf’s story was that this was a very terrible tragedy brought on by a minor error – as he put it – “a matter of a few degrees.” He then made the point:

“Through years of serving the Lord and in countless interviews, I have learned that the difference between happiness and misery in individuals, in marriages, and families often comes down to an error of only a few degrees.”

I’ve thought about this many times since listening to it in conference and even more since my assignment to speak about it and I’ve remembered many times in my life where this principle rings true.

Trillion to Billion – a few zero’s off
One example I thought of that puts the concept into perspective happened many years ago when I was doing an analysis of a water utility. In that study I needed to represent the total value of all the utility assets.

The financial people gave me the value of $1 Trillion. This was 20+ years ago and the number startled me. Back then the total estimated value of everyone in America’s possessions, savings and investments was only $20 Trillion. So I questioned them about it.

The answer I received was revealing. They explained that they had an amazing amount of infrastructure that all added up but the big thing was water rights. To them they were priceless so they put a very large value on them. But as I pushed them to backup their number with detail, they could see I wasn’t quite buying the $1 Trillion so they told me to just drop a few zero’s and make it $1 Billion; still a big number.

That floored me even more. I asked them if they understood the impact of what they just did and they said they did and it was only a matter of subtracting a couple of zero’s at the end of their first number. So I did a few quick calculations and to demonstrate the reality of what just happened I gave them – and I give you – this analogy:

Let’s say you were waiting for something very, very, important. The person sending it to you told you it would take 1 million seconds for it to get to you. (I don’t know why anyone would do that but let’s say they were an accountant and so it meant something to them to do it this way.) Do you know how long you will have to wait?

11½ days.

Not too bad, though if it was really, really important, it may seem like forever.
But let’s say the 11½ days came and went and you didn’t get this very valuable thing you were waiting for and the person sending it said they goofed up and instead of a million seconds they needed to take a couple of zero’s on the end and it was going to take 1 billion seconds instead. How long would you wait now?

32 years.

That’s a little while longer isn’t it? You might not be too happy about that.
Now let’s say that the person sending this extremely valuable item to you said instead of a billion seconds it was going to take 1 trillion seconds to get to you. Just a few extra zero’s mind you. How long do you sit by the door waiting now?

31,700 years.

Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? If you were waiting for something extremely important and the sender kept adding just a couple zero’s to the time it would take to get to you, I’m not sure if any of us would be all that happy about it.

If we liken this cavalier attitude of a few zero’s to the gospel message of President Uchtdorf’s, his words make more and more sense when he said:
Small errors and minor drifts away from the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring sorrowful consequences into our lives. It is therefore of critical importance that we become self-disciplined enough to make early and decisive corrections to get back on the right track and not wait or hope that errors will somehow correct themselves.

Lehonti & the Mountain
There are many great examples of this principle in the Book of Mormon. In Alma 47 we read about the experience of Amalickiah and Lehonti (Lee-hon-tie.)
Both were commanders of Lamanite armies but Lehonti commanded a group of Lamanites who were tired of fighting and refused to obey their King when he ordered them to battle again. The King was angry and told Amalickiah to take the rest of the Lamanite armies and compel Lehonti and the others to fight.
Amalickiah was described as “being a very subtle man to do evil” (47:4) (ever known anyone like that?) and determined to take advantage of this situation and use treachery to become King himself.

He had a problem though. Lehonti had gathered all the conscientious objectors “upon the top of the mount which he called Antipas.” (47:7)

Here they were determined to make a stand and never go to war again. Since they were up on this mount, they had the high ground – the good defensive ground – and were well dug in and supplied, and chances were they could hold out and prevail against anyone trying to force them back into a battle they refused to fight.

Alma 47:6 described them as “fixed in their minds with a determined resolution that they would not be subjected to go against the Nephites.” (47:6) Notice the lengths Mormon uses to show how set in their minds and heart that they would not fight anymore. He could have just said they really, really didn’t want to fight anymore but instead he said they were: fixed, determined, and resolute. Nothing was going to drag them back into this fight.

Now let’s pause and ask ourselves this question?

Are we camped up on the top of our spiritual mountain with our families; fixed and determined and resolved to not play Satan’s games anymore?

Are we confident that we will be safe in this very good place in life; having taken every precaution and put up very good defenses?

You know what’s going to happen, right? You know if it wouldn’t be too disruptive I’d pull out my Ipod and play some dissonant background music at this point because you know that inevitably Satan will try to invite us down from our good defensive place so that he can put us in his bondage, right? You know that Amalickiah is going to try to get Lehonti to come down from his safe place on the mountain because he knows he can’t get to him up on the high ground, right?

Amalickiah sent word three times to Lehonti to “come down and converse with him.” And three times Lehonti said, “No Way!” I’m sure Amalickiah badgered him the second and third time: “What’s wrong with talking? That’s just statesmanlike and friendly.” “All I want to do is have a little lunch and chat.” “So could you please come – down the mountain of course – because that would be very neighborly and Christian.”

But remember, Lehonti was fixed and resolute. He would not come down for any reason. (47:11) Lehonti was a righteous and determined man along with the others.

Since that was not working, Amalachiah went up the mountain a ways and then told Lehonti if he would just come down part of the way, and bring his guards with him so he would be safe and in control of the situation, he had a proposition he just had to hear.

Can you hear it? “You’re still in control. I only want to talk. You will have your guards with you and you only have to now come just a little ways down the mountain; only a few yard; only a few degrees.”

Lehonti, feeling secure in this situation now made a fatal mistake – and it was a doozy. One we can all easily make if we are not diligent and self-disciplined at all times.

Lehonti, who was so safe and secure on the impenetrable mountain, descended a little ways down from the heights of his spiritual defenses, taking every caution possible to ensure safety, and did it because he knew he maintained control the entire time.

As the two leaders talked, a deal was reached between them that if Lehonti could bring all of his soldiers down from the mountain at nighttime and Amalickiah would allow him to surround his men and then Amalichiah would surrender them up.

What were we taught at Stake Conference a couple of weeks ago – if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is?

In exchange for surrendering his armies, all Amalickiah wanted was to humbly be put second in command to Lehonti of all the Lamanaite. What a great deal! Lehonti keeps control, is in command of all the Lamanite armies and Amalickiah, wins the day and doesn’t have to even stay up on the mountain anymore.

So he came down from the mountain and carried out this plan in textbook fashion.

Isn’t this the way Satan always works against us - when we are at the top of our spiritual mountains and in safety that cannot be reached - he needs us down with him and his minions and will stop at nothing to get us there.
And the fatal fallacy every single time is when we give in to this the very first time and decide that we can go down the mountain just a little ways - if only to talk- then we make the biggest mistake by giving up our fixed and determined resolution to stay safe and never give in, by going just a little ways further down the mountain because, after all, you are totally confident in the situation, and you are in control and in a situation that you cannot foresee any way you might possibly lose control.

But you don’t realize you already have lost control because you already gave in and moved just a few degrees away from where you should be. You’ve already dropped a couple of zero’s off from the time you spend on the important things you should be doing.

It was only a short time in the Book of Mormon until we all see the full tragedy of Lehonti’s costly mistake.

Once down the mountain and assimilated with all the other soldiers, Amalickiah “caused that one of his servants should administer poisen by degrees to Lehonti, that he died.” (47:18)

Here again is another moral of that story: that once we are off our mountain, it is a simple matter for our enemy to use this same exact concept to bring us down: to poison us just a little – just a few degrees – so slowly that you don’t even notice and are unaware of your decline.

Lehonti died thinking he was still in control and could not be harmed or forced to do something against his will. Remember he was fixed, determined, and resolute to the end. All he ever did was go a few yards down the mountain and take a meeting. Then he won what he thought was a bloodless and easy victory by going a few yards more down the mountain – a victory that was too good to pass up.

It is in the scriptures that we are introduced to the concept of “dwindling” in unbelief. Not jumping in wholeheartedly and giving up all we have been taught and know to be true to become evil. The devil leads us down to destruction little by little, a few degrees here and a adding a zero or two there. Truly a “dwindling” of our time and resources – and the good, safe ground we are on.

So the question is, what can we do to stay “fixed and determined” to remain true to our predetermined convictions?

President Uchtdorf gives us 4 things we can do to stay the course:
1. Minor Decisions Lead to Major Consequences
“Be cautious… The Lord will help you to recognize and avoid … evils. It is the early recognition of danger and a clear course correction that will keep you in the light of the gospel. Minor decisions can lead to major consequences.

2. Responsibility of Self-Direction
“We … have the responsibility and the power of self-direction: “It is not meet that I should command in all things,” saith the Lord. “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.” (D&C 58:26–28)

3. Treasure the Words of Prophets
“The more we treasure the words of the prophets and apply them, the better we will recognize when we are drifting off course—even if only by a matter of a few degrees.”

4. The Way Back is Certain & Clear
“No matter how terribly off course you are, no matter how far you have strayed, the way back is certain and clear… If we confess and repent of our sins.”
Never give up Brothers and Sisters. Never give in regardless of the distance or the time or the confidence you feel you have in the situation. Get up to your spiritual mountain just like Lehonti did but on the fourth time you are tempted – stay fixed and determined. On the fifth time when you are presented a deal that is too good to be true – stay fixed and determined. Do not listen to Satan or his army when they persistently nag at you to come down from your spiritual defenses.

Spiritual Disaster
As President Uchtdorf reminded us:
No one wants his life to end in tragedy. But all too often, like the pilots and passengers of the sightseeing flight, we set out on what we hope will be an exciting journey only to realize too late that an error of a few degrees has set us on a course for spiritual disaster.

The gospel is true. There is safety in listening to the Prophet and your church leaders. The scriptures are true. There is safety in following the teachings found in the scriptures of our Heavenly Father especially those written for us in the latter days. And I bear you this testimony and do it in the name…

Alternate Version

One Vote Matters
Since this is an election year, and we vote in a couple of weeks, I’m sure you’ve heard the admonition that every vote counts. Someone was telling me yesterday they saw a movie that is out and the plot is about how the vote for the Presidency of the United States comes down to one man. The plot seamed a bit of a stretch as the movie was explained to me but consider a man named Henry Shoemaker and how the small thing of his one vote – a matter of a few degrees you could say - produced powerful results.

On a sweltering summer afternoon in 1842, Henry was out on his farm in Indiana laboring. All of the sudden the thought popped into his mind that it was Election Day. He’d forgotten all about it.

Town was quite a distance away from his farm and to get there he’d need to go clear back to his house (also a bit of a distance), clean up, saddle his horse, and make the several hour ride quickly in order to get to the polling place before it closed. For a minute Henry thought he could justify bagging it.

But he’d promised one of the candidates that he’d vote for him for state representative. It was a man named Madison Marsh. When Henry got to the polling place they had run out of printed ballots that listed all the candidates and weren’t very helpful with him as to what he should do. I guess they suggested he just take a partial ballot and vote for those on it. But the State Representative he promised wasn’t on any of those ballets. Henry had gone to all this effort to vote for this man and he was determined to follow through. So he took out his pocket knife and did an 1842 version of cut and paste and cut out the names of those he wanted to vote for from partial ballots and hooked them somehow on his ballot and caste his vote.

I guess he was a little disruptive as he did this so it was quite memorable for the poll workers. Later when counting the ballots, the voting inspector declared his improvised ballot as invalid and tossed it out. Without Henry’s ballot, the election for state representative ended in a tie vote. That in turn resulted in numerous court proceedings and hearings and lengthy testimony until it was ruled that Henry’s vote was valid and counted. The tie was broken and Madison Marsh was elected state representative for Indiana.

Bid deal, huh? Every vote counts, so what? Indiana State Representative, who cares?

Well, back then, state legislators elected the United State Senators and in January of 1843 when Madison Marsh and his fellow representatives met to elect the U.S. Senator from Indiana, they were deadlocked. How this worked is they would continue to caste ballots amongst themselves until finally one candidate got the majority of votes. Finally on the sixth ballot, and after a long day of campaigning, Madison Marsh changed his vote and so by one vote Edward Hannegan was elected to the United States Senate.

Every vote counts again, right, big deal, U.S. Senator from Indiana. Big deal.

Two yeas later, though, the United States Senate was completely deadlocked on the decision to declare war on Mexico. They couldn’t break the tie no matter what was said or how ever many times the issue was brought up for vote. But for some reason, Edward Hannegan was away on other business and hadn’t been able to vote on the issue. He was eventually tracked down, came to the Capital and caste his vote for war. So by one vote, the United States went to war with Mexico in 1846.

Again, big deal.

But if it were not for this war, we here in this congregation today would have sang the hymns in Spanish and paid our tithing in Pesos. It was this war with Mexico that resulted in Utah, and our neighbors in Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to be included in the United States of America.
Henry Shoemaker had no idea what the effect of his vote was going to mean. Who knows how history would have turned out had Henry just stayed home that day and worked his farm? Or when he was hassled at the poll, had he given up and not cut and paste his votes on the ballot?

In just a matter of a few degrees, history changed, and that is why is it so important for us to be and stay on the right side of the gospel and to be in tune with our Church Leaders. When they tell us to get involved in the community and encourage us to be informed and participate in the government process by voting, they are just making it up. And if we haven’t seen it in the past, we will see it in the future that just a matter of a few degrees in our society, it can be the difference between freedom or slavery, great economic progress or crisis, morals and virtue or immorality and decadence. Decide today to make a small difference.

President Uchtdorf said many of things to bring home his point but specifically he tells us 4 things about “a few degrees” that are worth remembering:

1. Minor Decisions Lead to Major Consequences
“Be cautious… The Lord will help you to recognize and avoid … evils. It is the early recognition of danger and a clear course correction that will keep you in the light of the gospel. Minor decisions can lead to major consequences.

2. Responsibility of Self-Direction
“We … have the responsibility and the power of self-direction: “It is not meet that I should command in all things,” saith the Lord. “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.” (D&C 58:26–28)

3. Treasure the Words of Prophets
“The more we treasure the words of the prophets and apply them, the better we will recognize when we are drifting off course—even if only by a matter of a few degrees.”

4. The Way Back is Certain & Clear
“No matter how terribly off course you are, no matter how far you have strayed, the way back is certain and clear… If we confess and repent of our sins.”
Never give up Brothers and Sisters. Never give in regardless of the distance or the time or the confidence you feel you have in the situation. Get up to your spiritual mountain just like Lehonti did but on the fourth time you are tempted – stay fixed and determined. On the fifth time when you are presented a deal that is too good to be true – stay fixed and determined. Do not listen to Satan or his army when they persistently nag at you to come down from your spiritual defenses.

Spiritual Disaster
As President Uchtdorf reminded us:

No one wants his life to end in tragedy. But all too often, like the pilots and passengers of the sightseeing flight, we set out on what we hope will be an exciting journey only to realize too late that an error of a few degrees has set us on a course for spiritual disaster.

On Any Given Sunday
I want to end by repeating some words given by a fictional football coach to his team. Apparently this coaches personal life had been somewhat of a disaster and he was paying the price for recklessness. At the same time his team had some serious challenges on and off the field. So he spoke to them to try and get them motivated to become a better team and better people. I find them most fitting to the challenge that lies ahead.

On Any Given Sunday Football Speech

I don’t know what to say really.
Three minutes
Until the biggest battle
Of our professional lives.

And it all comes down to today!

Either we heal as a team
Or we’re gonna crumble.
Inch by inch; play by play;
‘Til we’re finished.

We’re in bad shape gentlemen – believe me!

And we can stay here.
Get the stuffing kicked out of us.
Or we can fight
Our way back into the light.

WE CAN CLIMB OUT OF OUR SITUATION ONE INCH AT A TIME!

Now I can’t do it for you – I’m too old.

You know when you get old in life

You find out life’s this game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game - life or football-
The margin for error is so small.

One half a step too late or too early
And you don’t quite make it.
One half a second too slow or too fast
And you don’t quite catch it.

The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They’re in every break of the game
Every minute; every second.
On this team we fight for that inch!

On this team we tear ourselves
And everyone else around us
To pieces for that inch.
We claw with our fingernails for that inch.

Because we know when we add up all those inches.
That’s gonna make the difference between
Winning and losing;
Between living and dying.

In any fight
It’s the guy who’s willing to die for that inch
Who’s gonna win that inch.

And I know if I’m going to have any life anymore
It’s because I’m still willing to
Fight and die for that inch.

Because that’s what living is:
The six inches in front of your face.

I can’t make you do it!

You gotta look at the person next to you;
Look into their eyes.
I think you’re gonna see a person
Who will go that inch with you.

You’re gonna see a person who will sacrifice their self for the team.
Because they know when it comes down to it
You’re gonna do the same for them.

That’s a team!

And either we heal now as a team
Or we will die as individuals

That’s all it is.

Now what are you gonna do?

What are YOU gonna do?

As we seek to live the gospel in these perilous times, may we all remember the message of how little things – as President Uchtdorf said, a matter of a few degrees – can have a profound on our lives.

May we all work together so that inch by inch, we may, as a team and as individuals, claw our way back to our Father in Heaven. In the name …