Education Week with Rob Ferrell

I went to Education Week for one day this last week. The best class I attended was the first one given by a guy named Robert Ferrell. He does a good job giving great motivational talks with lots of interesting videos. The talk on this day was about facing our Goliaths such as fear, pain, and disappointment.

He started out the class sharing a video of a song called "Wish You Pain" The video was about the things people had learned from the hard parts of their lives shown in short sentences while the singer Andy Grammer is singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYjP85DQtqE

Then he showed a video you have probably seen that was some version of "Choose Your Hard." It goes something like, "Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Choose wisely." And other such comparisons. Here's a similar video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxsuq9xvEb8

He talked about Malcolm Gladwell's book, David and Goliath, which talks about how David chose 5 stones to try to kill Goliath which was a much different approach than the typical warrior who would have used a sword and armor. The teacher then shared his own personal story. His father died at age 53 shortly after he had returned home from his mission and started BYU. He had to leave for the funeral and then when he came back, he to make up an Organic Chemistry test and he only had 2 days. He was already not doing well in the class but he decided to study really hard and God would help him. He took the test and failed with 42 percent. He was really frustrated that God had not bailed him out because he believed in a counterfeit gospel--the prosperity gospel where God will help you prosper in every way you desire if you keep the commandments. His bishop had counseled him to pray when he had challenging emotions as he processed the death of his father. So he prayed his heart out and felt nothing. But then he saw a picture of Christ in Gethsemane hanging in his room and as he continued to pray he felt Christ with him.

He then showed a video of a little boy with spina bifida who couldn't walk without a walker being coached by his dad to do something really hard. The father won't do it for him but continues to encourage him and be really loving. It's a very sweet video done by Chase and Bubba Cashman but I couldn't find the actual video.

He told us how the number 5 (remember the 5 stones that David picked up) is significant in Hebrew. The number 5 stands for atonement, grace, and mercy. It stands for Jesus Christ. Mercy is when we don't receive what we deserve (punishment) while Grace is when we receive what we do not deserve. He recommended the book Original Grace by Adam Miller.

Then he discussed the scripture Ether 12:27 which is the scripture about the Lord showing us our weakness when we come to him. His interpretation is that our common weakness is the natural man. It's any time we try to do something without Jesus Christ.

The important thing is that we have to be patient with ourselves. We have to love our enemies which is so frequently ourselves.

He talked about how, so often, when we have a spiritual connection with God, we start to recognize our weakness and we fall into contention with ourselves.

Then he told the story of how he got called onto a mission to the Dominican Republic even though he really did not want to learn a foreign language and had prayed not to go foreign. School was very hard for him and he also had to overcome a speech impediment. Things did not go well. In fact, for at least the first three months of his mission, his Spanish was so bad that everyone, especially the natives, called him Elder Bruto. Bruto in Spanish means idiot. When he finally learned what it meant he felt horrible. He felt like he never really learned Spanish. At the end of the mission when his president asked him to pray about whether his offering was acceptable, he prayed and asked what he did wrong. The Lord told him, I gave you this weakness so that you would constantly be calling on me. Instead of learning Spanish he had learned to have a relationship with God.

He got home and felt inspired to apply to be an MTC teacher which he did not want to do. But he passed the test which was to give the first discussion in Spanish. This is how he met his wife who was one of his students. When she returned, they got married. She loved Spanish and wanted to speak it with him but he didn't want to. She told him you should practice but he didn't. Later he got called to be a mission president to Peru. His wife could speak the language but he couldn't and once again everyone gave him a really hard time about it. He decided to make a nametag for himself that said, "Elder Bruto." He kept it on his desk to remind him to be humble. He's convinced he would have been very arrogant if he had gone to an English-speaking mission.

Next, he showed us a video of President Holland speaking in a small group setting where a woman tells him that she doesn't feel like God loves her because of all her trials. He tells her, Don't fall into that trap of thinking that God must not love me if I suffer. The scriptures are full of people suffering. Christ suffered more than anyone. Suffering is exalting. You have to trust in the Lord.

He said, How do we gain the trust of Jesus Christ? He answered, it is by learning from our struggles. Then he showed this pretty funny video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmeBMvGhf1g

He says, the questions we ask after our mistakes help us learn from our sins.

The next video he showed was Kenneth Rooks winning the steeplechase at nationals after falling. It's a pretty remarkable race (it's a long video, you can skip the first half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0On387vs8Eg

Kenneth Rooks fell but he had a plan for failure. We all fail and we just have to keep going by focusing on Christ.