I was saddened to see there were so few of the younger generation at the first Cardston installment. Mostly, it seems as if it is the women and the older folk who feel that something is amiss. I had one old fellow (probably 80 or 85 years old) in the front row who, after presenting the first few phrases of the "show", blurted out "We are in the last three years". He didn't say so much as a peep for the rest of the evening, and I was not able to sit down and quiz him as to how he arrived at that conclusion.
There is a reason that most of us do not think we are remotely close:
“The greatest events spoken of by the Holy Prophets will come along so naturally as the consequences of certain causes, that unless our eyes are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and the spirit of revelation rests upon us, we will fail to see that these are the events predicted by the Holy Prophets.” (George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 21, p. 264)
“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion. (Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, November, 1980. Emphasis added.)
And regarding that second quote, there was an older (80ish) visionary there who said that what Spencer spoke of happening in SLC, will happen in Cardston. No one will be immune. All locations are in need of a purging.
I've found that the same thing is similar with both testimony and apostasy, they frequently happen gradually, bit by bit, and incrementally. Almost more so with testimony. Being a rational thinker and not prone to emotional responses to various stimuli (the spirit, bouts of revelation, etc) the development of testimony and a recognition of a spiritual witness sometimes does not manifest itself until something happens that calls for a defense of truth. Then wham, look out for the defender of the galaxy to stand and be counted. Then it's like "Oh, I guess I have been receptive to the spirit." I don't know if that's fairly common among the rationalist truth seeking crowd or not; but it transcends just plain apologetics, which can sometimes seem like an exercise in "please believe me because I believe me."
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