a general conference plug

one of my all time favorite books is "le petit prince" (the little prince) by antoine de saint-exupéry. it is only a short childrens story, but i have always been attracted to and love its humor and message. mostly, i guess i have always enjoyed how it addresses a number of social and personal issues from the innocent vantage point of a child. each time i read it i find myself being amused at the authors wit and creativity.
anyway, one of the talks that i really enjoyed this last conference was from Elder Gérald Caussé of the seventy. he talked about how gaining spiritual knowledge is only most effective when we open our hearts to that spiritual knowledge and allow for it to become personally valuable to us. in illustrating this point he actually shared a small portion from the story of "the little prince". already being a pretty big fan of the story, i thought that it was pretty cool that he mentioned it in his talk. anyway, i just got done reading elder causse's talk again and thought i'd post post the portion of it where he talks about the little prince. hopefully youll enjoy reading it...and more importantly...it will motivate you to read a sweet little childrens book from france!

In his philosophical short story The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry describes the confusion of a little boy who, on discovering a field of roses, perceives that the flower he has, which he has tended with such love, is not unique but very ordinary. Then he comes to the realization that the thing that makes his rose unique is not its outward appearance but the time and the love he has consecrated to taking care of it. He exclaims:
“Men . . . raise five thousand roses in the same garden—and they do not find in it what they are looking for. . . .
“And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water. . . .
“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart” ([1943], 79).
In the same way, our knowledge of God does not depend on the amount of information we accumulate. After all, all the knowledge of the gospel which is meaningful for our salvation can be summarized in a few points of doctrine, principles, and essential commandments, which are already there in the missionary lessons we receive before baptism. Knowing God is a matter of opening our hearts to gain a spiritual understanding and a fervent testimony of the truth of these few fundamental points of doctrine. Knowing God is having a testimony of His existence and feeling in one’s heart that He loves us. It is accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and having a fervent desire to follow His example. In serving God and our neighbor, we witness of Christ and allow those around us to get to know Him better.
...I pray that we will know how to open our hearts like a little child and take pleasure in hearing and practicing the word of God in all the power of its simplicity. I bear testimony that if we do this, we will gain the knowledge of the “mysteries [of God] and [the] peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal” (D&C 42:61). In the name of Jesus Christ, amen