“Evidences of the Heart”, Rodger Sorensen, BYU Devotional,  July 29, 2008

The Seating Area--Elder Carlos H. Amado spoke of service. He said:

Those who serve with devotion, even when things don’t turn out the way they would like, are not easily discouraged, fatigued, or frustrated because the promise of peace of mind and the companionship of the Holy Spirit will never abandon them.  (Carlos H. Amado, “Service, a Divine Quality,” Ensign, May 2008, 37.)

There is something in service and sacrifice, especially in the face of adversity, that prepares the heart for hearing the Holy Spirit.

Seven years ago I was standing at the crest of the Hill Cumorah. It was before the sets were up and before the cast arrived, and I was visiting with a group of tourists. One of them asked where the audience would sit. I pointed to the empty field at the foot of the hill where, in two weeks, 8,000 chairs would be arranged. Looking closely, I noticed something I had not seen before: there was a pattern on the field showing where the seats go—the aisles in between subtly imprinted in the grass. Later I talked to Brother Paine, who, year after year, was in charge of marking out the location of the chairs and supervising their setup. I asked if he had noticed that the grass in the aisles was darker and hardier than the grass where the seats were located. He told me the grass in the aisles was so distinct he could almost mark the field for the chairs without measuring.

On the day it is marked and the cast members set up the 8,000 chairs, the field is lush and green. During the run of the pageant, thousands and thousands of feet tramp down those aisles. Eleven days later, when those same chairs are placed back into their storage trailers, the field is a modified checkerboard of long green grass where the chairs have been sitting and 10-foot-wide strips of either matted, brown, seemingly dead grass in dry years or muddy bogs in wet years. It grows back stronger every year.

I believe service and sacrifice, especially when performed in the arms of adversity, strengthen our souls and soften our hearts. Mighty struggle prepares us to hear and follow promptings and enlarges our capacity to follow Christ. We experience peace of mind and the assurance that the Holy Spirit will be our constant companion.