Spiritual Experiences

Yesterday we had a stake meeting with the presiding bishop of the Church, H. David Burton.  Before the stake meeting we had our Seminary and Institute inservice meeting and Bishop Burton attended it.  He made a comment that I have been pondering ever since.  He said most young people do not have spiritual experiences in their homes.  Most spiritual experiences take place in seminary, on their missions and in other settings but rarely at home.  It made me think - did I have spiritual experiences at home?  My first spiritual experience was in our home.  I was about 12 years old and my parents had the missionaries over to teach someone.  I remember feeling the spirit so strongly at the meeting that I could almost see it.  It is hard to describe, but I knew the Holy Spirit was there that day.  that triggered memories of so many others.  I would say the next most significant one was because of being thrown out of home evening.  One night I was presenting the Family Home evening.  At the end of it, I closed and said, Amen.  My Grandma Brugger told me to bear my testimony.  I told her I didn't have a testimony of that.  She told me to go to my room and not show my face until I could bear my testimony.  I think this is ironic now because she and Grandpa were living in our home at the time, but I went to my room and slammed the door.  It was fine with me if I never had to speak to her again.  A few minutes later my dad walked in with two paperback copies of the Book of Mormon.  He told me that just the two of us would read together until we finished the Book of Mormon.  By the time I read in 1 Nephi where Nephi says that he will do whatever the Lord tells him to do - he will do - I realized this was a book of scripture.  As I read those words with my father, he looked at me and hugged me saying, "Pretty exciting, isn't it."  I get that same wonderful feeling every time I read that section and finish the Book of Mormon - to this day.

I have had other spiritual experiences growing up and then with our daughters growing.  But I wonder, did we create an environment where others had spiritual experiences in our home.  I have had spiritual experiences in our daughters homes since they have married, but I am not teaching someone to have the experience now - I know how to experience it. 

The other thing that Bishop Burton said is that if a seminary class is taught well, the spiritual experiences there will be second only to a mission.  That is quite a responsibility.