Welcome to Closer to Christ Through Conference, where two friends share our own approach to
studying conference.
Hey, Abby, how are you?
I'm good.
Hey, Amy.
Hi, guys.
We're so happy you're here with us today.
We are nearing the end of this, and we're looking forward to October conference.
Today we're going to talk about Call Don't Fall, and it's by Elder Taylor G. Godoy.
Now just for a summary, Elder Godoy acknowledges that we live in a world of uncertainty, pain,
disappointment, and heartbreak, and we might feel inclined to rely more on personal abilities
and preferences, as well as the knowledge and security that come from the world.
Now he says that this could cause us to put in the background the real source of succor
and support that can counter the challenges of this life.
He'll make the point that it should come as our last resort to call on him in prayer,
because the one we are praying to knows us and knows how to answer in a very perfect
and personalized way.
Abby, let's jump in.
Let's do it.
I love this talk.
He spent some time in a hospital, and he sees this sign that says, Call Don't Fall.
It's in places all around the hospital, repeated so many times, so many places.
And even when the light goes off, there's a shining light on the ceiling that says,
Call Don't Fall.
And then I heard that.
Do you remember Barbara Thompson's talk called Mind the Gap?
Yes.
And it had an impact on me.
And so I was like, how long ago was that?
It was so many years ago.
Like I wrote it down somewhere.
It's just 2009 here.
Yeah, it was.
Okay.
Where did I put that?
I don't know, but I read it.
Awesome.
Yes, I love that.
Because I was like, that came to mind so clearly.
And then when I looked up how long ago it was, I was like, when you make a catchy phrase
like that, then it sticks with you.
The only problem is that Mind the Gap related to like instances when you have like a subway
system.
Right, in the UK, that's what they say.
There's a gap there.
And so Mind the Gap, like anytime that you're going to be riding a subway, which for some
people would be just a daily experience, that would be a great message.
I'm like, well, I don't really ride subways a lot.
So it's not something that I've got to really think a lot on.
But it was still so catchy that I remembered it from so many years before.
So this one resonated with me because I spend quite a bit of time around hospitals and hospitals.
And so I thought it's going to be great.
Like, I'm sure that I'll see it soon and I'll be like, oh, that's a great little message.
And furthermore, like going forward.
So I mean, the fall rates, that's a big deal in the hospital systems.
I do some volunteer work at the hospital here.
And I know that they even track this for the government.
They have to tell how many falls happen on our hospital premises monthly.
And we're doing risk assessments for people if they're elderly or on certain medications
or they've had a surgery, like you know that their fall risk is going to be higher.
And so, yeah, just like Elder Godoy is mentioning, we pay a lot of attention to something that
we care a ton about too.
So I love how he helps us take this call them fall message and he thinks of a way to link
that to a gospel principle.
Okay.
So how does Elder Godoy link this message to the prayer?
It seems like that was the overarching thing.
It was definitely a talk on prayer, which is definitely not the first one we've seen
in this conference, right?
No.
So he talks about how pain in life can come in lots of ways.
Physical pain, sometimes it's caused by others, sometimes it's our own choices on and on.
But when we rely on our Savior and we pray to our Heavenly Father through our Savior,
Jesus Christ, we have been promised that when we ask, it shall be given.
When we seek, we shall find, when we knock or call, and kind of took some license with
that word, it shall be opened unto us.
Prayer is the mean of communications with our Heavenly Father that allows us to call
and not fall.
So just to reiterate, like especially after you had a surgery or something, you're not
real safe to just hop up and get out of bed and just do whatever.
And so they're really asking you to rely on people around you, push that call button and
protect yourself from getting further hurt.
You're already injured.
You've repaired an injury maybe with the surgery, but you're not in the best shape.
You're not feeling great.
And so then if you fall trying to get out of bed and do something on your own, then
you're just adding to that injury.
You're having an insult to injury.
So imagine if you're in the hospital and you push the call button and the nurse doesn't
immediately run into the room.
Would it be a good idea to hop out of bed and take care of your own needs yourself?
Still no.
So it's just a reminder to us as we see that sign, as we think on this, that it's important
to make that first step and reach out and make that call, but then don't immediately
jump into a situation that's going to cause more problem and harm.
Like stop and reflect and decide which direction I'm going to go.
So good.
I love that.
When circumstances in which we might think that the call hasn't been heard because we
didn't receive an immediate response or one according to our expectations, that's I think
when we steer off the path, when we potentially cause more harm to ourselves.
Also when we have our own idea of what it should look like.
So we miss everything, right?
Like it says, according to our expectations.
Like we put a prayer out there, but we're like, he's going to have to answer it this
way for me to be satisfied.
I'm sure I've done that in my own life.
So I like how Elder Godoy likens the Book of Mormon and Nephi on this process of building
a ship, just the same way that it was like a matter of finding the ore and making the
tools and then just one thing after the next to do something that he's never done before.
He didn't lay out this whole grand plan.
He did one thing at a time.
We do things line upon line.
He tutors us line upon line.
And too often we want to know the full picture.
We want to know the answer right from the beginning.
And so it leads us to anxiety and sadness and disappointment.
But Nephi is a perfect example for us to refer back to time and time again on what it looks
like to have faith in the Lord.
Nephi's response in this situation is, how is it that he cannot instruct me that I should
build a ship?
Now I ask you, how is it the Lord cannot instruct you that you do not fall?
And they love it.
It just is a matter of being patient enough to know that those answers are going to come
line upon line.
Right.
A little slower than maybe our earthly.
I think it's always slower.
Yeah, our earthly bodies are happy to accept.
I agree with that.
Accepting God's answers implies accepting that his ways are not our ways and that all
things must come to pass in their time.
It's hard to get on his timeline.
It is.
But I've always found that his timeline is the best when it's all said and done.
He has a better idea of when the right time is.
In hindsight, yeah.
It's so true.
And then also in hindsight, it really isn't that long.
Even if it feels like it.
If I want something in 30 seconds and it takes a minute, I'm like, man, that's twice as long
as I wanted to, but in the end of the day, I'm like, well, it's only a minute.
When I say a minute, I'm talking maybe weeks and years that some prayers have been answered.
But all I'm saying is I've really tried to remind myself he's not answering my prayer.
He's answering it in his way and his time.
And it's better than my way and my time.
Yes.
And also things need to happen in the interim.
Imagine if we take a step back and look at us as parents, what if for Lucy or one of
your kids who's very, very young, you just keep handing them things.
First they get a lollipop and then they get a scooter and then two minutes later you give
them a horse.
You know what I mean?
That's not how it works.
That's not the natural thing.
She would need to learn things.
She would need to grow and experience.
And those things are probably best happening years apart.
Absolutely.
That's a good analogy.
Ways and God's answers implies that accepting that his ways are not our ways and that all
things must come to pass in their time.
I wanted to repeat that just because I thought that's something to definitely sit and think
on.
His timeline is the best timeline.
Once we acknowledge that we accept that truth, I do feel like it has a way of making the
weight in between answers to things not really feel so burdensome.
Agreed.
I feel like too, this just came to my mind, but like a daily affirmation type of thing
when you're reading your scriptures or you're washing the dishes or whatever, but just to
say out loud, God is answering my prayers.
It's happening.
The spirit told me the same thing in the same moment.
Stop.
Yes.
Because what I said was when I pray for something, I said, it's as good as it's happened.
Exactly.
It's as good as done.
I don't know when, but I'm totally fine waiting for whenever he says that it's a good time.
Thanks for that thing.
When I hear somebody be like, he doesn't hear me, doesn't answer me, I'm like, he's answering.
It's just not in your timeline, but it's never not an answer.
That's how I feel, Abby.
I'm getting there.
We're getting there.
We are getting there.
Okay.
We've talked a lot about the nature of God.
It's something that you've studied.
It's something that I'm trying to be more aware of as I'm studying these talks also
because you reminded me the prophets asked us to do this thing and it's making a difference.
But knowing the nature of God, how can we be certain that he will answer us when we
call?
Well, experiences in smaller things that don't have a lot of eternal bearing, like a lot
of weight on them, is a good way that he shows us, like he demonstrates that he can answer
things.
Love that.
It's a principle.
And the more of those little experiences that we gather in our lifetime, the more ability
that we have to trust him.
And that kind of goes back to the talk that you have.
He's not let me down before.
Why would he let me down?
Right.
And if I build him a ship, right?
Yeah.
If he show me how to build a ship, then why would he not deliver me for my brother and
when they want to kill me, when we finally get there?
Yep.
Providing a way for him to get the plates.
Oh yeah.
Having some wives ready for them to get there.
Like lots of little faith promoting steps to make him sure that the Lord will fulfill
his promises to him.
And I'm gathering those in my own life.
Right.
We all have those, right?
I love that Abby.
This kind of ties like the way the pillars and rights talk that Elder Dushku taught us.
It's like if we can create this, it doesn't have to necessarily be a list, but if we can
have this attitude of just being able to easily gather like some of the low lying fruit, some
of the memories that we have of like, oh, P answer me in this little way and this little
way and this little way, then we kind of put those into a nice little ball, like a ball.
And we say, okay, this is a bigger thing, but I still know he's going to answer it.
Because it's a bigger thing, I can accept that it's maybe going to take a little bit
longer.
Yep.
Love that.
So I loved, I bolded this part of the talk.
The certainty of knowing that we are children of a loving and merciful heavenly father should
be the motivation to call and devout prayer with an attitude of praying always and not
fainting.
That our performance may be for the welfare of our souls.
Bolded this.
In the fillings of heavenly father, when in each prayer we make a supplication in the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, what power and tenderness I believe are displayed when
we do so.
Such a good, such a good mental picture.
I love it.
Yes.
So we did talk about the example we get from Nephi in the scriptures.
I love that we have multiple scripture accounts.
Agreed.
Abraham to Moses to Helaman, they all call on him and they're certainly sustained from
their individual trials that they're going through.
Elder Godoy shared a personal experience from like 30 years earlier.
I love this one.
And he learned with certainty that the Lord hears his prayers.
Do you want to summarize that?
I will.
He's got good genetics because he doesn't even look 30.
And this was 30 years ago that you got married.
I'm like, how old were you when you got married?
Doesn't matter.
It's business.
Okay.
I love this story.
Should we like, let's talk about it.
Okay.
So it was 30 years before and he and his wife, they live in Peru.
And so it's pretty standard to marry civilly and then you get to make arrangements for
your temple marriage.
And so they had that like figured out, lined out and come to find out they weren't going
to be able to get their licenses for their civil marriages because of a strike.
And this comes just three days before their ceremony.
So it's really going to throw things off.
And they felt distressed and doubtful that they would even get married as planned.
So they're like kind of reconfiguring their life, what they're going to do.
So they follow his advice.
They call instead of following, he and his fiance both pour out their souls to God in
prayer.
And then they hear from somebody that there's a small town on the outskirts of the city
where an acquaintance was the mayor.
So they don't even hesitate.
They pack up, they move over to that town.
Let's make it legal to get the license there.
But they would have to get the certificate in that specific city and then get the documents
to them.
And the deadline was noon the next day.
It's way tight schedule.
But then, I mean, obviously that's going to help them keep their three day plan.
Right?
So it's sad that it's tight space, but it is good in the way that it's going to keep
them on track.
Also, let's just take a quick moment.
They moved to this small town.
You can show up.
Yeah, this is showing serious dedication and not just like, Hey, Heavenly Father, help
us out here.
Like they were putting forth all the effort.
I hope they were living a real minimalist life.
We're talking like a few Tupperwares of things because I was like overwhelmed thinking about
this.
They're not even had started their life together and they're making a move to another town
to make this happen.
So they go to this police station to request the documents that they need.
And the officer said that he's not going to give them to him.
Too many young couples have been running away from their families to get married secretly.
They weren't doing this.
They definitely had a plan.
There was nothing secret about it.
But again, you know, can't blame them for like just trying to keep things above board
in their town.
So it's natural sadness and fear starts overtaking them again.
So this time they're silently praying to their father so they won't fall.
He gets a clear impression to pull out his temple recommend.
And so he does that.
And the officer is like, his fiance is kind of like, what are you doing?
And the officer is like, hey, I know.
Why don't you tell me you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I know your church well.
What a neat thing.
All of the people that have encountered this man that have identified themselves or he's
asked them to know what a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, kind
of paved a pathway and set a standard.
Right.
Like before.
I love that.
And that it didn't look in any way like just like a quick elopement and without parents
permission.
Like this gave him the confidence that recommend, made him recommended for more than just the
temple of the Lord.
And gave him some cred.
Yeah.
Street cred.
He's like, I know your church well.
And so he starts preparing the documents.
Then he leaves the station.
50 minutes later, they're like inching along.
It's 1155.
Remember, they have like five minutes to get to where they need to go.
Guy comes back.
He's got the papers done, but he's also brought along a beautiful puppy as a wedding gift.
Do you remember hearing this wedding conference?
I died inside.
It's not even funny to me.
That's like one of those I was like, oh, I would have like blood pulsing out of my eyeballs.
I'd be so angry about it.
As the story keeps going, find out this is a piece of the miracle.
But in the moment I was like, oh, just bite your tongue.
Just accept that gift.
There must have been a feeling of peace that accompanied it.
Like he didn't.
Oh shoot.
But it's like, how am I going to get there?
Yeah.
So anyway, they have to run obviously.
Five minutes with the puppy.
They see the official's vehicle coming towards them.
The officials already left the office.
As the vehicle stopped, they see the secretary and she's like, sorry, I told you you had
to tell me and I have to go on another errand.
And then this is his words, I humbled myself in silence, calling with all my heart to my
heavenly father.
So we can see multiple prayers along the way, multiple communication.
I think it's giving him a minute to like, you know, what the next move is going to be.
What's the next move going to be and then feeling peace in the things that he decides.
So he says a silent prayer, asking for help again to not fall.
And then he says this, suddenly the miracle happened.
The secretary says, what a beautiful dog.
Where could I find one like that for my son?
So this is where I wanted to stop because I highlighted that.
I want to suggest that this isn't where the miracle happened.
Do you agree?
I agree.
I think if we look at this story piece by piece, that the miracle happened way before
this moment.
The miracle happened when the friend told them about the town on the outskirts that
was issuing licenses.
I think that the miracle happened when he heard the impression to reveal his temple
recommend.
I think the miracle happened when, man, he got that dog.
That was pretty lucky.
And just these small things all kind of accumulated until we get to the end of the story that
goes like this.
He says to the lady, this is for you.
The secretary looked at us with surprise.
Okay, let's go to the office, make the arrangements.
And two days later, he and his wife were married civilly as planned.
They were sealed in the Lima Pru temple.
And I love that.
So it's awesome that this experience gave him the opportunity to see that the Lord will
fulfill his promise to give them we ask, find when we seek and open to us when we knock.
I love that, Abby.
So really quick, you know, suddenly the miracle happened, just like you said, that's not when
the miracle happened.
I think a better phrase would be suddenly I realized it was all a miracle.
You know what I mean?
Because that's the moment he realized why the heck do I have this dog?
It's his story.
He's totally allowed to say it however he wants.
But we've all been there, right?
It's like that's when we realized, oh, this is a bigger picture.
Things are coming together.
And now I know it's a miracle.
Yes.
And that's the message for us to take home that it's like the there are so many pieces
to miracles happening when the full thing doesn't just manifest like right in front
of your face.
It's because the little things are happening in the background.
And it's so cool when you stop and you take a second to record something like this that
you can see his hand so much more involved and integrated.
And the Holy Ghost brings to your remembrance little things that happens and makes like
perfect connections where you're like you might not have even seen everything before.
So I love that part too.
I love how this talk emphasizes the point that prayer is a matter of faith.
How do you view prayer as a matter of faith things?
So even just in this story, I love this because he literally could have said, I felt so deeply
in my heart that this was going to come to pass.
I was going to be able to marry my fiance, who's now my wife, that I just sat in the
place where I got a blessing or what that I prayed or whatever.
And I just knew it was going to happen.
He didn't say that.
He, multiple times you can see all the different things he did.
He called the office, he tried several different things.
He moved to a new town, he got a dog, he ran this way and that, and he prayed along the
way.
I feel like that is what's most important.
We've heard before the Lord can't drive a parked car and I feel like he modeled that
perfectly.
Just a perfect little story that encompasses exactly how it works.
We give all of our effort and we pray along the way.
As I was opening this talk, I was like, oh, I don't want to give the impression of, because
I was relating it in a hospital room.
You've just had a surgery and then you know that you're still coming off the anesthetic
or whatever.
So then if you push the call button, the nurse doesn't come racing in that you're going to
get up and you're going to help yourself.
It kind of contradicts the actual feeling of what the point of that was is allow the
nurse to come and assist and guide you as you know the next step is you still do need
to get out of bed, but you allow that assistance.
And so what this talk emphasizes for us is that there, like you said, there is the prayer.
That's the act of faith that you know that he's going to come through and he's going
to provide whatever we need to propel us and get us going in the next thing.
And us actively taking those steps, even if we don't know what the next one's going to
be after that, that peace that he must be filling as he's moving along, I think it calmed
like a storm in him as he's like, okay, we can't get the marriage license here.
Things on it for a second.
He's had said a quick little prayer and then he's impressed to pack up his belongings and
get to that town.
Right.
In there, the peace comes in the action.
He's like, yep, this is the right thing.
Maybe you would have started packing.
It's like, no, that's not what you should be doing.
You would have felt uneasy about that.
And he would have put the brakes on it.
That wouldn't have been the next piece of his story.
Love that.
So it's just one piece at a time.
Right.
But the prayer itself was the initial act of faith that got him going in the right direction.
So Abby, what action items do you have for us as far as this talk goes?
It's going to still write from Elder Godoy.
He gave us a few things.
He said, always think of the Lord as your first option for help.
What a smart thing.
Because even if you have a friend that's an expert in that, the Lord will help you recall
or come to mind which friend is the right one for that.
Oh yeah.
Also, the Lord knows all of the inner workings.
He knows like, it's like the inside of a watch or whatever.
He knows everything that's going on where the other person, they know their experience,
but he, the Lord knows you, your experience and all that's going on.
So yeah, he is the best.
The go-to guy.
Speed dial, number one.
Re-emphasize the name of the talk, call don't fall, turn to God in sincere prayer.
Then after praying, do all you can to obtain the blessings you prayed for.
This is the take home that we pray.
We like let that feeling of peace distill over us.
We recall those times when he hasn't let us down before and we use that to propel confidence
in the actions that we're going to take next.
Then we're going to humble ourselves to accept the answer in his time and his way.
That's a hard one to do.
We're trying to get better at that.
We're getting more successful in being patient knowing that he hasn't let us down so far.
We get lots of practice in it too.
So much practice.
Then he says, don't stop.
Keep moving forward on the covenant path while you wait for an answer.
That was another thing about this talk.
Everything that he was doing was trying to get him to that civil marriage, to get him
to the temple, to make more covenants with Heavenly Father.
So of course he's going to be nothing but successful as he's moving directionally.
Right.
And success just equals he got it done in the end.
It doesn't matter about all the roadblocks that happened in between, right?
So he ends this talk with the song, Did You Think To Pray?
And rather than repeating it, I do suggest taking the time to consider that as you listen
back to this talk.
Fine upon each line of that song does something for us, but I'm going to leave that to you
to listen to it.
And I think I'd just like to close with my testimony on prayer.
Maybe you want to close with your testimony on prayer too.
Whatever sounds good.
But I am finding the more time and effort that I put into it, the less that I tried
to do redundant, rote prayers.
The more personal that I make it, the more that I visualize my Father in heaven, the
more that I understand him and know that he wants to bless me with everything that he
can, gives me more confidence in the things that I'm praying for and more patience in
waiting for the right time for that to be answered, if it's like a bigger thing.
And also finding confidence in praying for those around me in my circles and those that
ask me to join with them in prayer.
I've seen the benefits of that unity in praying for others and I look forward to a blessing
that I received about that confidence that I'll have in prayer.
I think that's the blessing that everybody can have.
The more that we do it and the more that we recognize that we really are praying to somebody
who really does have our best interest in mind, the better we'll be at calling rather
than falling going forward.
I love that, Abby.
I just want to share one quick thing.
This was back at the beginning of 2023 when the temple, what is the word?
The announcement?
Oh, instructional video?
Yes, instructional video.
Thank you.
When that changed, I went and I watched and I listened and I cried all the way through
it and I loved how the instructional video incorporated more visuals of Jesus.
There were so many pictures of Him and I just felt very, very close to Jesus through the
whole thing and I loved it.
And then I also felt so close to Heavenly Father through the whole thing and I loved
it and I couldn't wait to get back home.
This is funny, but I couldn't wait to get back home.
When I was praying to Heavenly Father, I said, Hey, I saw you today.
I felt of your spirit and I felt your spirit more deeply there.
I just couldn't wait to have that conversation.
That was more of a father-to-daughter conversation rather than one.
Sometimes I do prayers that are more formal, but I loved that.
There was just a feeling that I felt from Him of happiness.
I'm so glad you saw me there.
Yeah, happiness and thank you for receiving me because I did put that out there and I'm
glad you picked it up.
I just really love Heavenly Father and I love prayer and it's truly a gift if we just receive
Him and receive all that He has to give us.
I love it.
All right.
Abby, thanks so much for this.
We will catch you guys later.
Catch you next time, guys.
Thank you.