Finding the Message in the Middle of Chaos

November 9, 2024

Finding the Message in the Middle of Chaos

Dear Elder Yu,

My Social Science Statistics instructor shared with the class an interesting experience he had during his recent family trip to New York City, which he has been looking forward to his entire life. New York City, is truly a fascinating place.

He shared with us one experience he had with her daughter. At one point in their visit, both were standing in the middle of Times Square. He shared with us, “If you have never been there, it is unlike anything I had ever seen before. Just a crazy mass of sound and lights and people.  It is like the Vegas Strip was squished into a 3-block area.”

While standing on that spot, he asked her daughter to tell him what she observed. Her daughter mentioned the bright billboards, the sound of traffic, and the mass of people. The music, and the strange people taking photos with the tourists.

Then my instructor pointed out a strange sound coming from under the sidewalk. Kind of like a bell ringing. He shared a clip somebody took at that same spot showing what he heard. Times Square (Neuhaus), often referred to as the Hum or the Times Square Hum is a permanent sound art installation created by Max Neuhaus in Times Square in New York City.

This was a piece of performance art placed there in the 1970's. No signs are pointing it out. The sound simply emanates from a grate over a steam vent. Neuhaus stated it is intended for the sound to be "plausible", dismissed as an "unusual machinery sound from below ground" and to be overlooked repeatedly until it is discovered by the viewer serendipitously.

The location in Times Square where the sound art installation emanates.

An image of Times Square in 1977, the year Times Square was first installed.

The subway grate where "Times Square" emanates.

The point that the artist wanted to make was specifically to point out that we can have a loud sound and yet have nobody notice it. Hundreds of thousands of people walk past this exact spot every day, and very few realize it is there.

Isn't that what the Spirit is like?

Clear messages are being sent to us every day by a loving Heavenly Father. Many people know what to look for and can hear them. Many people understand what to look for and can hear them. Many people are unaware that it exists. Perhaps many others know what the sound is like, but we are too preoccupied with other noises in our lives to listen.
But the sound is there, for those who know how to listen. Sometimes, I feel as if I have fallen into the category of “too preoccupied with other noises in my life to listen to the small and still voices.”

And, by so ‘ngam hor’ or co-incident, there is another insight that I learned from the Scripture Central YouTube Channel this week when studying Mormon Chapter 7, which I will share with you in the next email.

Lastly, want to share with you something that Elder Russell M. Nelson did years ago before he became the President of the Church. He delivered the Thanksgiving Devotional to the missionaries in Provo MTC.

He said a mission is an exercise in obedience training. “Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles,” he said.

President Russell M. Nelson teaches us to follow the Lord with exactness. The word exact leaves no question as to what degree we must follow the Lord. The definition of exact is: not approximated in any way; precise. It is easy to want, to pick and choose, to pat ourselves on the back for the things we do well, and to disregard the things that we do not want to do. The Lord’s way is not supposed to fit our lives, our lives are supposed to fit the Lord’s.

The best example of exactness is math. 2+2 always equals 4. It doesn’t sometimes, or most of the time, but always. As we adopt the attitude of ALWAYS following the Savior, when the calculus test comes along, we will be prepared because we pay close attention to all the mathematical details in our lives. That is how the impossible will be made possible in our lives.

Love,
Mommy