For the past several weeks, I've been reading President Monson's biography "To The Rescue". Two weeks ago, I read about how he was in a stake conference, when he was called upon (without an interview beforehand, which is normal) to become a mission president over the Eastern Canada mission. Acting in faith he excepted the calling. When I read this part that I laughed to myself and thought about how nice it was that this type of situation didn't happen anymore in the Church. Well the very next Sunday, the bishop of my ward, Bishop Wagner, called my name and had me sustained to two callings for which he hadn't really interviewed me. This is one of the many times, that I know that the Lord truly does have a sense of humor.
The following week I was released from my calling of being assistant ward clerk. It was almost 9 months to the day that I'd had that calling. It was interesting because as much work and despite the many long Sundays that this calling had required, I'd really come to love it. For about 9 months, I'd been able to work with my bishopric on a weekly basis. I can tell you that they are just as human as you or I are. They have jobs, families, and worries like other middle-aged men. But I can also testify that these humble men are inspired of God. They have given callings to young adults that they barely know and yet those people have been ideal for those callings. They ask these same young people to give talks every week, and the talks that they give are inspired often despite their speaking abilities. To be honest, there are many Sundays when I feel blessed to be a member of the Lord's true church.
These last few weeks, I've done a lot of scripture reading, listened to a quite a few devotionals, and I've even been blessed to listen to an Apostle, Elder L. Tom Perry come speak at my university. Needless to say, it was rather difficult for me to come up with an idea as to my spiritual thought to share. I know someone reading this post will say that I've already shared one but that wasn't entirely intentional. In the last few weeks, I will say that I've had an epiphany. If you don't know what that word means or are too lazy to look it up on Dictionary.com then I'll try to explain what I understand it to be. For me, it was like I'd been struck by lightening and I suddenly understand something. Growing up, I'd always heard the phrase that "The Book of Mormon" had been written for our day but I had always figured that this was more of a figurative meaning rather than literal. Well during the past few weeks, my little brother Aaron wrote a post about his political views about a certain subject. This sparked a conversation and I ended up reading some articles posted up by uncle Chris that were written by Orson Scott Card. I want to remind my readers that he is the author of my favorite series "The Tales of Alvin Maker". Anyways, I was reading one of the articles by Brother Card when I had my epiphany. The Spirit made it perfectly clear to me that was a correlation between what HAD happened in the Book of Mormon and what we are experiencing TODAY. Earlier I read this scripture written by Nephi to the Gentiles (or non-Jews) where he writes "for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them." (2 Nephi 25:8) It was a moment that changed my life and, at the time, sent chills down my spine. Now I can testify as did President Benson that "The Book of Mormon... was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us." (Emphasis added)
I hope that those of you, my dear readers, who have read the Book of Mormon will try looking for how the Book of Mormon relates to our day. If you're having trouble with it, ask the Lord to help you see it and I promise you that He will help you to see how it relates. To those of you, my readers, who haven't read the Book of Mormon. I challenge you to get a copy of it; they are sold at many different places or you get them for free from some LDS missionaries. I ask you to read it. I want you to know that I know that this book was written by prophets inspired by God and that it was written for us. If you ask God about it's truthfulness, He will tell you in your heart. Then if you decide to follow the Lord, it will change your life as it has mine.
For any of those who have forgotten, my dear nephew Nikolai was born just two days ago.
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