There I sat on the couch of the Washington Kennewick Mission home. Before me sat my parents for the next two years. President and Sister Greer, my mission President and his sweet wife. I had only known them for a few hours at the most. In this short time of being within President Greers presence you just new he was a man with a great gift. I wasn’t sure what it was, but within a matter of minutes I had found out.
His ability to bring to life the scriptures and their teachings was something Elder Holland would even appreciate. I was about to be taught a lesson I thought I was prepared to teach as a new missionary. The first vision as I previously had known it.
President Greer shared with us the first vision as told by Joseph Smith. “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me….. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing o the other- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
I had heard this a million times. Then President Greer asked if what Joseph describes was really a vision. I was taken back, what else could it have been. Ya he saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. It was a vision… I thought.
President Greer took us deeper into Josephs words. “I SAW a pillar of light…. I SAW two Personages, they SPAKE unto me.” Joseph didn’t just imagine this, he experienced it. He was visited personally. It was a visitation of the Father and Son, not something he just dreamed up.
That night I was taken deeper into the scriptures and church history. The first vision is now the First Visitation for me. All because of a few words being magnified in a different perspective.
