Checkmate

"Who's the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi

“You don’t have any kids?” he questioned me with a hint of sarcastic surprise in his voice. Followed closely by “and come to think of it, you don’t even have any grand-kids!” I couldn't suppress the laughter that was bubbling inside of me and it began to slip out as I tried to remain focused and serious.

Then the first match ended almost before it began. I should have seen it coming. The first pawn of mine that was taken resulted in check-mate. So as suddenly as we started it was over. I don’t take losing easily and wasn't going to let that happen again, despite my lack of experience in playing chess, compared to the 72 year old retired English teacher with an Afro that was sitting across from me.

The Feelings In Their Hearts

Example #1: Character

In Mosiah 14, a man (Jesus Christ) bears "griefs and sorrows" and is hurt by others' actions. He took them without responding back.
Miranda had to bear grief and sorrow because of someone else's actions. She wanted to say things to them, but she only said them when she was alone at her house baking.

Example #2: Plot

In Mosiah 7, a young man (Ammon) has to goes on a mission (an assignment) with his friends to search for missing people. They have to travel to foreign lands, and communicate with people they've never met before (a speech to find the missing people from Zarahemla). They just want to find people.
Darren went on his own mission (an assignment) with a friend (to find the lost souls of Christ). He had to travel to a new land, though maybe not foreign but foreign to him. He had to communicate with people he had never met before (a speech about the restored Gospel).

Example #3: Narrative Point of View

Keegan went to Africa, and went to a funeral. Here, he encountered a group of people who were mourning the death of a loved one. He had to deal with death, and it was not the best sight. He thought about Jesus Christ, and he felt peace. He knew the people mourning probably didn't know they would see their son again.
In Mosiah 11, a group of people (King Noah's people) had to deal with the death of their loved ones as a rival group (the Lamanites) came in to murder them. Death was unfortunately a common thing during the time of this specific ruler's reign. The ruler (King Noah) is very prideful, and does not have his thoughts on the Lord. The narrator of this passage shows the desires of the ruler as he "placed his heart upon his riches" and he had fine work made for himself, and had all manner of concubines. His heart was not upon the right things.
When the ruler's people drove back the rival group (Lamanites), they boasted in their hearts. Even though the reflection of their (the people of King Noah) hearts is not about death, this example relates to Keegan as he considered the feelings of the African's hearts.

Getting Personal - President Packer

Not only does President Packer follow a specific format of rhetoric, he has drawn on similar themes and ideas. In his talks "The Witness" and "The Reason for Our Hope",  President Packer starts with a story. The story about his visit to Oxford and how he shared his testimony of the Savior with the Chaplin of Oxford gave him validity and laid a foundation for the rest of his talk. In the last conference session he opened up with a story about his first major spiritual experience in getting to know God in a personal way.

Knowing the Savior and gaining a personal testimony of him has been the major theme of these past to conference talks. In fact, He even uses the same scripture.

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

 

His words are powerful to me, not because of his tone or his style, but because of the use of scripture that highlights the points he makes. Those scriptures of the Savior create the greatest sense of Ethos in both talks.

He stresses the importance of knowing the Savior because he personally suffered for you. This truth evokes a great amount of emotional appeal (Pathos). This was illustrated by the story of the women, being upset by the tragedy and hardships that fell upon her exclaimed, "Someone must pay!" It was then that a voice came to her mind. "Someone already has."

Anecdotes illustrating a personal relationship with Jesus Christ make for a common theme among his talks. Similar and identical scriptures of Jesus Christ shows power in repetition.

Personal "Kairos" played a major role for me while I was experiencing his talk. I was with a friend high up in the mountains as I listened to his talk. I was in a much more personal setting than i am used to. The theme of a personal and individual Christ was amplified as I was in a place where I was not distracted by other cares of the world. It seems like President Packers old age is shaping the tone and theme of his talks. He has reflected on core personal beliefs as he knows that he is coming towards the end of his life.