Writing it Down

      In the Book of Mormon we have the blessing of reading the words of a great prophet named Samuel, and specifically a prophecy he made that when Christ is resurrected, many of the dead would rise from their graves and minister unto the living.  Later we are able to read that this prophecy was fulfilled, however this would not have been possible had Christ not come to the Americas.  In 3 Nephi 23:9 Christ inquires of his disciples, "I commanded my servant Samuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were many saints who should arise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. And he said unto them: Was it not so?". The disciples confirmed the truthfulness of this claim, and then Christ asked, “How be it that ye have not written this thing…?” (3 Nephi 23:11).  It says that in that moment Nephi remembered that he hadn’t written it down, and under Christ’s direct command, those things were written. 

     I feel like every person should imagine themselves in the shoes of Nephi.  When we die, we will go to judgement before Christ.  What detail of your life might he ask you about?  I asked myself this question and recalled when a friend shared her testimony and it was extremely powerful to me.  It was exactly what I needed to hear, and it was as if Heavenly Father was talking directly to me through her.  I could imagine Christ saying, “I commanded her that she should speak this words and they pierced you to the very soul.  Was it not so?”  I would undeniably confirm his claim, and then I thought about the question that would come after.  “How be it that ye have not written this thing?”  I could only imagine the shame, the self disappointment that I would feel in that position, and so from that moment of reflection I resolved to be better about keeping a journal, and doing it right.

     A journal should not be a collection of gossip, but a collection of testimony, showing the marvelous works of God in your life each day.  This journal will come to be a strength to you in your own life, and may very well be a strength to your posterity.  On this subject, President Spencer W. Kimball said the following: “Those who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity.”

     I hope we can all begin this wonderful practice.

Who Come Unto Me

 

When Christ appeared in the America’s he shared many amazing teachings and performed many miracles because of the great faith found among the people.  One section of his teachings was quite similar, actually almost identical, to the Sermon on the Mount as found in the Bible in Saint Matthew chapters 5-7.  There are however some differences between the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon at the Temple given in the Americas.  Some of these differences come because the Lord adapts his teaching to different regions of the world, some come because of the timing of the sermons, one being before the Lord’s death, and the other coming after.  And then there are differences that come because the Bible has been translated so many times that details may have fallen through the gaps.  There is one detail in particular found in the third verse of Matthew 5 and the third verse of 3 Nephi 12.  In the Bible this verse reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The Book of Mormon’s equivalent reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The difference is found in four words.  “Who come unto me…” These four words make a world of difference.

            I have in my long life of twenty years meditated upon what characteristics I want in a future wife.  Never has the thought come to me, “I want a wife who is poor in spirit.”  Quite the contrary, I want a wife who is spiritually powerful. A wife who knows the scriptures, who loves God, who is actively participating in church assignments and activities.  I want a spiritually rich wife, and I want to be a spiritually rich husband and father.  I am certain that this is what God and Christ want as well.  Christ wants us to be spiritual giants but there is only one way to achieve that: humbling ourselves and allowing ourselves to be strengthened in Christ.  Then and only then will we become candidates for the kingdom of heaven. 

            A person who is poor in spirit is someone who has weaknesses and recognizes them.  This is good, and preferable over the all too common sin of pride, but a Book of Mormon prophet teaches us what happens when, after we are poor in spirit, we go to the Lord.  Ether 12:27 reads, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”  From this verse we can learn what kind of person someone who goes unto Christ is.  They are not spiritually poor, or weak.  They are strong.  Not strong in their own strength, but strong in God.  That is what Christ wanted for us, that we can find wealth, spiritual wealth, and that we can recognize the only source of that wealth is Christ himself. 

          We can all go unto Christ by making and keeping sacred covenants with him.  We will then find that as we honor those covenants we will find ourselves closer to Christ, and spiritually enriched. 

I have great worth though I am nothing

 

Wednesday in my Book of Mormon class we studied Helaman 12 where Mormon pauses from the narrative to remind us of our nothingness. “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.” -Helaman 12:7-8  It is a lengthy and strongly worded sermon and a wonderful lesson on the importance of humility. But there was a concern raised about going too far: becoming “humble” to the point where we become self-deprecating.  This concern and the discussion following has stayed with me and I wanted to try and decipher the secret a little more for myself and hopefully for anyone who reads this.

            The first key I thought of is perspective.  In Doctrine and Covenants section 4 God describes one of the important characteristics that we should strive for is to have an eye single to his glory.  Often I have found myself meditating on what exactly that means.  Through much study I have come to believe that it means that we see the same way he does, or come to have a single eye with him.  We need to adopt God’s perspective.  In the case of our nothingness we need to have his perspective in two ways.  First, how does God see us in comparison to him? In a sermon given by one of the leaders of the LDS church Dieter F. Uchtdorf, he spoke of how God sees us like toddlers still learning how to walk.  This should be humbling to us.  We need to understand that compared to God we are completely powerless.  At the same time this perspective can help us avoid self-deprecation.  Do we get mad at a baby who can’t walk? Of course not. In the same way we need to have God’s perspective and see that we are so very young.  We will fall, but God doesn’t get angry with us.  He will encourage us to get up and try again.

            We also need to adopt God’s perspective in seeing ourselves in comparison to others.  We had a great lesson on this subject in church on Sunday.  They brought three people to the front of the room.  Two of them stood shoulder to shoulder and the teacher asked who was taller.  It wasn’t hard to see.  Then he had the third person stand on a table and look straight down on the two girls.  The teacher asked which was taller and the man on the table observed that from his perspective, it wasn’t possible to tell.  This reminded me of a great talk in an LDS conference by church leader Dale G. Renlund.  In this talk Elder Renlund shares the following anecdote:

Some years ago a wonderful young man named Curtis was called to serve a mission. He was the kind of missionary every mission president prays for. He was focused and worked hard. At one point he was assigned a missionary companion who was immature, socially awkward, and not particularly enthusiastic about getting the work done.

One day, while they were riding their bicycles, Curtis looked back and saw that his companion had inexplicably gotten off his bike and was walking. Silently, Curtis expressed his frustration to God; what a chore it was to be saddled with a companion he had to drag around in order to accomplish anything. Moments later, Curtis had a profound impression, as if God were saying to him, “You know, Curtis, compared to me, the two of you aren’t all that different.”

I love that quote, “Compared to me, the two of you aren’t all that different.”  It is a constant reminder that life isn’t a competition with other people! We can’t become proud because we understand that God isn’t comparing those “worse” than us to us.  And we can’t become self-deprecating because God isn’t comparing those who are “better” than us, to us.  We must always maintain God’s perspective.

The second key is much more simple and yet we often find it difficult to do.  The key is turning outward.  All problems of pride or self-deprecation come because we are thinking too much about ourselves.  To heal our bodies we must turn inward with medicine and surgery, but to heal our spirits we must turn outward with charity and service. 

I know that by following these rules, we can all be humble followers of Christ, and we can remember our nothingness as taught by Mormon, as well as our self-worth and great value in the sight of God.

Don't be a sore loser

 

The Book of Helaman (in the Book of Mormon) opens with an election for a new chief judge. In this election there are three candidates: Pahoran, Pacumeni, and Paanchi.  These three are brothers, and sons of the former chief judge.  The people are divided about which son should inherit the judgement seat at the time of their father’s death.  It doesn’t give much insight into the discussion or campaigning of this election but it is safe to deduce that there were debates, warm disputes, and many strong opinions, much like a presidential election in the United States today.  The votes were cast and tallied, and the majority vote fell to Pahoran.  He was placed in the judgement seat and began his rule.  I want to reflect just a bit on the reaction of each of his brothers. First was his brother Pacumeni.  In Helaman 1:6 we read the following:

“And it came to pass that Pacumeni, when he saw that he could not obtain the judgement-seat, he did unite with the voice of the people.” 

In stark contrast to this we have Paanchi.  Helaman 1:7 says the following of his reaction:

“But behold, Paanchi, and that part of the people that were desirous that he should be their governor, was exceedingly wroth; therefore, he was about to flatter away those people to rise up in rebellion against their brethren.”

So here we have someone who is such a sore loser that he wants to start a rebellion against HIS OWN BROTHER!

What exactly did this little act of pride bring about? I’ll tell you.  *spoiler alert if you haven’t finished the Book of Mormon yet.

Because Paanchi was a sore loser, he caused his people to be sore losers and upset about Pahoran’s power.  This led them to form a secret organization to take away his power, they end up killing Pahoran, but they still don’t get power because Pacumeni ends up with the throne. So a guy named Gadianton steps up among the secret organization, says he’ll help them get rule over all the Nephites, they start civil wars, and eventually bring the extinction of an entire civilization.

This example may be extravagant, but the principles are applicable to us.  How do we react when we lose? What consequences can we have on people around us? Maybe we aren’t in enough power to persuade the nation to a civil war, but do we ever cause fighting within our families? In church? At school? 

Christ has commanded us to be peacemakers.  We need to support our leaders whether they be religious, political, or in our family--The fifth commandment is to honor thy father and thy mother; how are we doing with that?

I want to note here that we can only assume that Pahoran was a good man.  We know that the people at this time were righteous and the majority vote would have been for a good man, my intent is not to say that we have to mindlessly submit ourselves to every dictator or tyrant that comes along.  My intent is that we need to beware of hurt pride.  If you don’t win a talent competition, it doesn’t give you the right to criticize everyone else’s talent.  If you a girl/guy you like dates someone else, how do you react? Do you speak poorly of the other person? Even if it’s not vocal, are your thoughts hateful and critical?

There are thousands of examples where this lesson can be applied and each person will have a different scenario whether it’s striving to be valdectorian and falling short, or trying to get a job and not getting it.  Let us accept what falls before us and with bravery and humility explore the path’s we are given.

Defend the Family, not the straight dude.

I defend traditional marriage.  I know what most of you are thinking already, but this post is not going to talk about homosexuality.  I address this post to all the hate filled hypocrites who have so rudely filled up my Facebook feed.  I try to avoid such boldness normally, but since you are so bold against gay marriage, I will be bold against all sins that are degrading the family.

1. If you are a heterosexual living with your partner, but are not legally bound as husband and wife, you are sinning and need to repent.  

2. If you are sexually active and not married, you are sinning and need to repent.

3. If you are married, but look lustfully at other people that are not your spouse, you are sinning severely, and need to repent.

4. If you, in your marriage, are able to have children, but make the decision to not have children, or with no search for revelation make a decision to have just one child because it will be less of a burden for you, then you are undermining the very purpose of the marriage institution, and you are going against God’s will, which is also known as sinning, and you need to repent.

If you want to defend the family, then defend it.  But please know what that entails.  Many have adopted ignorantly the title of defender of the family, but they are actually just a hater of the homosexual.  I cringe every time I see your posts on Facebook, because when the homosexual community tells me that people who share my views, or even people of my own creed and faith, are bigots and hateful, I can only agree with them.  We often make the debate to be pro-gay marriage, or anti-gay marriage, but I take no side on that issue.  I AM PRO FAMILY and I am against everything that puts family values in jeopardy.  What are the family values? Read them in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  Don’t stop when it says “between a man and a woman” but continue.  Read about the gravity of sexual relations outside of marriage, read about the love and respect that MUST exist in a marriage and even more importantly the loyalty.  Don’t become an anti-gay expert, become a pro-family expert, and please think before you post things on Facebook.  You make us all look bad.

The Devil's Angels

 

In my Book of Mormon class one of my peers made an observation that really made me think.  It was a comment concerning Alma 30 verse 53.  The chapter of Alma 30 talks about a man named Korihor who is an anti-Christ. He teaches the people that there will be no Christ and that they are all allowing themselves to be manipulated by self serving church leaders.  He preaches this message to many cities; in some cities he has much success, and in other cities he has less.  Eventually he is bound by the righteous believers and taken before the high priest, Alma.  Alma confronts Korihor and Korihor repeatedly denies the existence of a God and demands a sign if there is one.  God grants Korihor's request and strikes him dumb.  Then he obtains a tablet to write upon and scribbles out a tearful confession that God lives, and that Christ will come.  In the fifty-third verse he tells his story, how he fell from being a believer to being an anti-Christ, and it reads like this.

53 But behold, the devil hath deceived me; for he appeared unto me in the form of an angel, and said unto me: Go and reclaim this people, for they have all gone astray after an unknown God. And he said unto me: There is no God; yea, and he taught me that which I should say. And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind; and I taught them, even until I had much success, insomuch that I verily believed that they were true; and for this cause I withstood the truth, even until I have brought this great curse upon me.

My peer's observation was about "he appeared unto me in the form of an angel".  He said that he understood that this meant that the devil probably did not appear to Korihor face to face, but he used someone, a person that may have been very dear to Korihor- a friend, relative, teacher, etc.  I meditated on that thought a lot.  Does the devil ever appear to us today? I believe that it is a far more frequent occurrence than we believe.  In Doctrine and Covenants 1:38 the Lord teaches us that if a servant of God speaks, it is as if God himself is speaking.  Could not this same logic be applied to the enemy? If a servant of the devil speaks, it is as if the devil himself is speaking, which would make Korihor's statement still true, even if it was the voice of another that he heard. 

I will not share any details from personal experiences for the sake of my personal privacy as well as the privacy of people I love, but I can speak on this topic as one having experience and so I wish to describe some of the devil's angels that we may face in our lives.  One key characteristic is that they will typically be attractive and intelligent people.  Isaiah prophesied that Christ would have no physical appeal so that his followers would have sincere hearts, loving the Gospel and not the flesh.  Satan on the other hand doesn't care a lick.  He is fighting to gather in followers in any way and seems to have the market on attractive, rich, famous people.  I find that celebrities and athletes can have an amazing impact for bad in peoples lives.  They won't come out and say that there is no God, but they will teach slide in subtle statements that detract from God's importance.  They will glorify things such as money, riches, and beauty, encouraging young obsessed fans to put such things above God. 

I know this next statement will be strong for some, but I have seen that boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, can be some of the devil's most effective angels.  They are people with whom we have a unique and special bond.  Society teaches us well that they are people for whom we must sacrifice, BUT there is a line.  We come to the question of who comes first, them or God.  The famous latino musician Prince Royce doesn't think twice of this issue in his hit song "Darte un Beso" (Give you a kiss), as he blatantly states that "even my religion I would change" in his serenade.  He does not stand alone as many sacrifice core values for love.  Please don't misunderstand me, those significant people in our lives should take an exalted role, and we should be willing to sacrifice much for them, however they must always take second place to God.   I must also clarify that a sincere study of religion accompanied by personal revelation that brings about a change in our beliefs is not evil.  Likely every one of us has some religious misconception and blatantly false understanding of some aspect of God.  Learning is eternal, and we will always be growing in knowledge, what I believe to be the work of the devil is when he brings us to sacrifice what we do believe for things that are, as Korihor put it, "pleasing to the carnal mind.".  The two great commandments were given by Christ in order of importance.  FIRST we love God, and then our fellow man.

Many stories are shared of college professors who openly deny the existence of a God.  We mostly hear these stories ending with a brave student standing up, challenging the professor, followed by a beautiful series of events that shocks the professor and reaffirms the students faith.  These stories are relatively few however to the number of instances where a professor denies the existence of a God, nobody challenges him, and several students lose their faith.  Out of the three examples I will give this is the most diabolical.  Though celebrities and loved ones may distract us from the things of God rarely will they intentionally try to destroy our faith.  Many learned men however have made it their mission to assure that they persuade as many as possible from faith in God.  They believe it is their contribution to society, when truly it is their contribution to the devil's kingdom.  I make no disclaimers on their part.  They are as the Book of Mormon describes, full of "vainnes... frailties... and foolishness.". "They think they are wise and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves.". (2 Nephi 9:28 Book of Mormon page 75)  Korihor could have been directly quoting any one of these educated men, and that may very well have been the case.

So the question then is, how can I NOT follow in Korihor's footsteps.  The answer is simple; don't stop praying, don't stop reading the scriptures, don't stop going to church.  On each path to hell there comes a fork in the road.  One side allows us to U-turn, the other continues us on that path.  Korihor, though his journey may have begun in ignorance, at one point on his journey, made a very conscious decision that he would continue serving the devil.  If you aren't sure which road is which, turn to the scriptures.  They are the fountain of all truth.  If we hold fast to the word of God, we will not go astray.

 

Thoughts on Homosexuality From a Straight Mormon

           This subject has always been one I preferred to avoid, but it's been increasingly prevalent that it can't be avoided anymore.  The United States has become so focused on the issue of gay marriage, that everyone in their lifetime will be forced to address it.  The reason I do so right now, is because I just finished reading a very good blog by a young man who is gay and Mormon.  I highly recommend it:

         http://jimmyleehales.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-gay-mormon-coming-out-jimmy-hales.html

         I have an unwavering testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on Earth.  That means that I accept all it's doctrine, including the belief that marriage is a sacred bond that should only be shared between a man and a woman.  However, I find myself having to reconfirm this belief constantly.

        My 100% backing of the anti-homosexual idea was first shaken in 2008 during the Proposition 8 movement.  It was a very heated topic at Lancaster High School, as I'm sure it was throughout all of California and across the nation.  I was very well known as the Mormon kid in school- although I wasn't the only one- and since the LDS Church had taken such a firm position on the issue, I was thrust into the middle of debate quite often.  I argued relentlessly that gay was a choice.  People were not born with a gene that made them attracted to the same gender.  Such a concept was unfathomable.  Then one day at lunch, a group of students gathered on the outdoor stage holding high a "No on Prop 8" sign.  An LDS senior (I was a freshman at this time) pulled out of his back pack a "Yes on Prop 8" sign and we went to stand as a contrast to this first group.  While standing there, we gathered a small backing, and one young man that chose to stand behind us screamed, "F*** the gays!"  I cringed, and at the very moment my body tensed up a thought traveled up my spine and into my brain, a thought that scared me a little.  I knew that being gay was not a choice.  Nobody would choose to be the target of monsters like the young man behind me.  I had to make sure, I was standing behind the right sign.
         I continued to show my support for Proposition 8.  I would go stand on the corners, and I would continue to debate my friends at school, but I knew the debates were pointless. I was never was going to convince anybody to support Prop 8 if I wasn't even sure why I did.  But the season came and went.  The voting happened, Proposition 8 won, it was a victory for Christians everywhere.

       Although the issue never left my mind, it kinda took a back seat.  My sophomore year was not a great year for me, and I kind of blocked it out, I don't remember much of what happened that year, but I know that I wasn't politically vocal about the issue, although it hadn't lost focus in the media,  much was being done to reverse the vote of the people of California.  My junior year I caught a break, they put Marijuana on the ballot.  Now I could be politically vocal about a very heated topic, and not have to worry about my doubts.  But something funny happened.
         I started having an increasing amount of friends, coming out of the closet.  None of them came out to me, they were more of acquaintances, but they were people that I would talk to regularly, and they knew where I stood on the issue of gay marriage.  I thought, "Well, we can have civil discussions, and laugh together, so things are ok."  And my approach was to just kinda ignore the fact that they had same gender attraction.

      Senior year was upon me.  It was a great year.  I loved my classes,  I got to play varsity volleyball, and I had made some extremely close bonds with amazing people. I was also taking piano lessons.  I had been doing this for some time, but now I was on home stretch.  I knew I'd be leaving for college right after the summer, and so I was preparing for my final piano recital.  I had developed a wonderful tradition of performing a duet at each recital, with my very dear friend Julia.  She was an amazing pianist, and I figured that if I played with her it would make me look better.  We were doing a particularly difficult piece for our final hurrah, and so we were practicing together a few times a week.  I had a question for her at school one day, and so I went to find her.  As I walked up to her hangout spot I was able to witness her being asked to prom.  The only thing was that she was asked by another female.  I suddenly had a knot in my stomach.  I wasn't going to be able to just shrug this one off.  Julia was a very dear friend, and someone I associated with regularly.  And yet, I had no idea what to do.

     I was at a church dance.  In the Lancaster/Palmdale area, there are 18 LDS dances each year.  It's a little overkill I think, but I still went to most.  At this dance I was hanging out with a group of friends.  One of them, a young man I'll call Jimmy, began to tell a story about scout camp.  He recounted how there was a scout in one of the other troops that acted like he was gay.  Jimmy told how this scout tried to talk to him, and the scout may have said some things that hinted even more toward his homosexuality.  Jimmy then let out a slur of derogatory comments, and while others in the group chuckled, I was filled with anger.
      This was another big development in my mental process, of figuring out how I really felt.  I truly believe that had I not been good friends with Julia, I might have been chuckling with the other insensitive jerks in the circle.

    One final experience I'd like to mention is the biggest one of all.  By this time I was a freshman at Brigham Young University.  I loved it there, but still had a lot of friends back home that I liked to keep in touch with.  One young woman in particular, I would talk to a lot.  We were skyping one night and the discussion of homosexuals came up.  I laid out my feelings on the issue and the next words she said were, "Don't hate me, but I have a girlfriend."  I almost cried.  Not because she was attracted to the same gender, but because she began with, "Don't hate me".  This was the defining moment for me.

     After all these experiences, I still stand by my faith.  I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman.  However, my goal is to create a circumstance where I can have that belief, without having my gay friends start a sentence with, "Don't hate me..."  It may not be possible to reach that fully, and I understand that.  It's not fair for me to say, "I think your relationship with the one you love is sinful, but don't hate me!" I have a wonderful friend Natalie who is very open minded.  I showed her a video that explained why I believe being vegetarian is better for you, and she disagreed. But instead of arguing with me, she decided to remove meat from her diet for a few weeks.  What a perfect example,  of walking a mile in someone else's shoes.  Sadly I can't be attracted to men for a few weeks.  There is no way to tell my homosexual friends that I fully understand their perspective.  I don't, and I never will.

    I am preparing to serve for two years as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  As a missionary, we have principles that we are supposed to teach .  The very first and most basic principle in the LDS faith, the one that is told to every missionary to be the foundation of our message, is that we have a loving Heavenly Father.  Truly thinking about that really astounds me.  I'm going to ask any readers that are not Mormon to pretend that you believe the LDS Church is true, therefore agreeing that our system of teaching is inspired by God.  So God told us that the very first principle we teach, the core of our message is that we have a loving Heavenly Father.  He didn't teach us that we have an all-powerful Heavenly Father, not that we have a perfect Heavenly Father, but that we have a LOVING Heavenly Father.  If our goal is to be perfect, and become like God, and He feels that his most important characteristic is that He's loving, then what does that say about how important it is for us?

     I can't recall everything I've ever said to my gay friends, I know I haven't hid my beliefs, but I want them to know that I love them.  I hope they know that, and I feel they do.  The couple stories I shared, I got permission to share, and they were more than happy to let me talk about them in this post.  It made me so happy.  They know what I believe, where I stand on the issue, but they did not doubt me one bit when I told them I was writing a blog post about homosexuality.  They were excited to see what I say, and I believe it's because they can somehow understand that I love them.  Like I said earlier, I know it's not possible to ask them to not hate me for my beliefs, because they have every reason to, and yet they don't hate me.  If they are able to love me as someone who so strongly condemns their love, then what excuse does any straight Mormon have for not loving homosexuals?  There is no excuse.

Mark 12: 28-31

28 ¶And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.