The Liahona

          Lehi and his family were traveling in the woods towards the promised land. As anyone who has ever been in the woods knows, everything looks exactly the same. Who knows what direction one is supposed to go. The Lord promised to take Lehi and his family to the promised land, and he fulfilled the means of doing that by providing this family with the Liahona. The Liahona was a little golden sphere with spindles on it that provided the direction that Lehi and his family were supposed to go while traveling. It was basically like a magic compass that doesn’t point north, but instead points the way to the fertile parts of the land and ultimately how to get to the promised land. I’m sure all of us would love a compass with such awesome capabilities, and the truth is, we have one. 

Today in our lives we struggle knowing what to do at times. We have to pick out what we want to study in school. We have to pick our career, our spouse, where to live, etc. We make many important choices in life, and sometimes we wish we had a guide like the Liahona to help us. A loving Heavenly Father has provided us, his children, something called the Holy Ghost, who gives us guidance as the Liahona did for Lehi and his family. The Lord desperately wants to help us get to the promised land of Eternal Life, and he has given us a great gift to find the right way. But as with Lehi, this guide only works according to our diligence in heeding to it’s words. If we choose to ignore what the Holy Ghost tells us, the guidance will begin to dwindle. But as we are worthy and seek to follow the Holy Ghost, we will find that we will be guided to the promised land. 

As the Last Blog entry, I’ve created a survey, and I would appreciate any responses. The survey is a short questionnaire on some of your feelings about the Book of Mormon. 

Here is the link. 

https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eVB492ZSql9w5M1

Hastening the Work of the Lord

      Missionary work has been a popular topic for the Church of Jesus Christ, and here in the Latter-days, it has become an even greater effort with almost 80,000 full-time missionaries preaching the gospel two by two. Although full of many wonderful experiences and opportunities, the mission can be very difficult. Many missionaries become victims of taunting, insults, and even graver crimes like robbery or assault. Sometimes missionaries may feel the want to return home where they were comfortable and free from these kind of adversities. But the missionaries here and now aren’t the only ones who have felt that way.

     In the book of Alma we read of many miraculous stories of missionaries preaching the “Good News.” But they had to go through hard times in order to see success. In Alma 26, Ammon speaks of his missionaries journeys. He had gone through some tough times. People had mocked him and rejected him. He says that he was about to return home from his labors when he received comfort from the Lord, that if he would be patient in enduring his afflictions, the Lord would give him success. Ammon followed this counsel and returned back to work, preaching the Gospel. After working diligently Ammon asked if there were fruits to be seen from their labor? And indeed there were. The Lord fulfilled his promise that if Ammon would patiently work through the tough times, they would see success. He was an instrument in the Lord’s hands bringing to pass the conversion of thousands. 

Likewise missionaries in our day can take comfort that this promise still applies today. If missionaries will be patient and diligent in the mission field, despite opposition from others, the Lord will give them success. They may not baptize as many or have as many converts as Ammon, but they can be rest assured that the Lord will give them success in His own timing and His own way. 

To read more about current missionary experiences and miracles, check out:

http://mormonmission.blogspot.com/

General Conference in Days of Old

Although this is the 183rd Semiannual General Conference of the restored church, 124 years before the birth of Christ, an amazing general conference was held in the ancient Americas. King Benjamin, a prophet and great leader was soon going to pass on to the next life, and had some final words to say to his people. The people were called to gather around the temple with their families and relatives, and all had their tent doors facing the temple. Because of the multitude, King Benjamin built a high tower where he could speak to all, and had his words distributed among the people who couldn’t hear him. He spoke amazing things to the people, teaching them how to receive revelation from his address; They needed to open their ears so that they might hear, their hearts that they might understand, and their minds that the mysteries of God would be revealed to them. He talked to them about finding happiness through obedience, serving their fellow man, and many other important counsel on how to live their lives. 

Fast forward more than 2,000 years, and the principles are still the same. All the people are gathered around the temple at the conference center, many have their TV’s turned toward conference. For those who cannot hear the word, the Ensign is distributed containing the words spoken, and today we still receive counsel and revelation from the prophets on how to live our lives and find happiness. All we need to do to receive this revelation, is open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the word of God, and the mysteries of our Heavenly Father will be revealed to us. 

Never Going Back

Many have heard the story in the bible of Lot and his wife. The moral of the story is to never look back at what God has commanded us to leave. We find a similar story in the Book of Mormon that teaches us to trust in God, and to go forward in faith. 

In the first book of Nephi, we hear the story of a family fathered by a man named Lehi. Lehi was a great prophet and a faithful servant of God. God told Lehi that he and his family needed to depart from the land of Jerusalem because of the great wickedness of the city, and it’s certain destruction. At this time, Lehi was the father of four sons, two faithful, and two a little bit lazy. Nephi and Sam were the faithful sons, and fully respected the will of the Lord to leave everything behind to go to the promised land that the Lord and provided for them. Many of us resemble Nephi and Sam as we are willing to leave everything behind and do what the Lord would have us to.

Unfortunately, the natural man can overpower us at times as cause us to resemble the attitude of Lehi’s other sons, Laman and Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel’s biggest downfall was their lack of faith, and their constant complaining. They didn’t believe it was necessary to leave Jerusalem, that such a city could never be destroyed. They thought, “Why should we leave our home, our possessions, and our friends when everything is going just fine?” They frequently murmured and always wanted to go back to Jerusalem.

We too sometimes have those tendencies. At times in life, we feel that all is well in Zion. We are grateful for our possessions, our relationships, and the many things which we enjoy. But sometimes the Lord has better plans for us which we often don’t see. We see our life going in a new direction, and may complain that we just want to go back to “Jerusalem.” We just want things to be the way they used to be. But if Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon would have looked ahead to the day when they were in the promised land, maybe they wouldn’t have complained so much. If we could see the future and see the different paths that the Lord has set for us, would we be sad to leave “Jerusalem” behind? Or would we rather shout for joy and run down the path swiftly?

The Lord has a plan for everyone, and even though we might not understand why our lives are going in a certain direction, and why we have to deal with hard times, we can be rest assured that if we are faithful, we will soon arrive to the promised land, wherein, we will never want to go back to “Jerusalem.”

The Tempests of Life

Latter-day Saints place a great emphasis on the Book of Mormon and study it daily. They are told to liken the scriptures to themselves. What exactly does that mean? The purpose of this blog is to take a look into individual stories and experiences of The Book of Mormon and examine how exactly we can “liken” the scriptures for our own personal benefit. Scriptures are the word of God, and God wouldn’t go through all the trouble of making sure it was in the scriptures if it wasn’t important. 

Near the end of the Book of Mormon, we read an account of a people who came from the Tower of Babel. The Lord in his mercy and because of the faith of a good people chose not to confound the language of a certain group led by a man known as the Brother of Jared. The Lord promised this people that because of their faithfulness they would be taken to a promised land where they could prosper a live happily. The only catch was, the people had to find away to cross the great waters before them to make it to this promised land. 

We as Latter-day Saints, and millions of other people on the earth are seeking the “promised land” or that of returning to live with God. But we behold ahead of us a vast expanse of waters with great waves and an ocean full of creatures, rocks and other things that could surely destroy our barges or make the journey seem impossible. We hope so much to make it to the promised land, but we are unsure if it’s plausible or not. The people of the brother of Jared had a similar concern, and may have been a little hesitant to cross in such circumstances. But the Lord responded to their concerns in a very comforting way. He assured them that although they would be tossed around by the waves, and even sometimes brought low into the water, He, the Lord, would bring them back up out of the water and continue to steer them towards the promised land. 

It is a surety that in this life we will face storms and tempests. Sometimes the waves will crash over us as we deal with sickness, injury, death of loved ones, financial struggles, and many other adversities. But we can always take comfort knowing that although we may be under the water and our barge may be out of control at times, the Lord knows where the promised land is, and is steering us toward it, where we can soon enough rest from all our sorrows and cares.