This pass weekend
was a pretty big weekend for me! I spoke in church. I decided to surprise Riley
and not tell him I was speaking… which is a HUGE DEAL and milestone. Every time
I have to give a talk or public speak it always is a downward spiral of stress
and anxiety. I try to coax Riley to do my talks for me and get sooo sick to my
stomach over speaking. He truly becomes my psychiatrist and coach for the last half dozen talks.
BUTTT… I decided
not to tell him and then they announced it and he turned to me and was like
“What! Did you know??! Are you prepared?!” His face was pretty classic… but I pulled out my written talk and notes and then started to CRY hahhaa… all my built-up anxiety came up at that moment. (We don't sit on the stand when we speak in our ward, just in audience and then go up).
Luckily, I had a speaker ahead of me to regain my composure and focus on my message and ask for divine assistance in speaking and for the spirit.
Luckily, I had a speaker ahead of me to regain my composure and focus on my message and ask for divine assistance in speaking and for the spirit.
It was a blessing
my topic was so good!! The importance of the BOOK OF MORMON:
I wanted to start
my talk with a story about my little brother who recently returned home from
his mission in Australia a couple months ago. These are his words:
Elder Caden Moncur
About a year into my mission I found myself living in a
small town of Australia known as Townsville. This place was known for its
blistering hot temperatures and the great views from its beaches and crocodiles.
I had been in this area for about 6 months with my companion and we had worked
very hard to build up this small branch of the church in which we were a part
of.
One day, in the middle of the transfer, I received a
random phone call from the mission president. He informed me that the Lord had
a special assignment for me. I was to pack my bags immediately and go jump on
an airplane bound for a place named Thursday Island. I did so right away. The
last time missionaries served in this area was the before the 1990s. After
traveling on 2 airplanes, a bus, and a boat, I arrived to my destination.
Thursday Island is a tiny little island located in a small
group of islands known as the Torres Straight Islands just above Australia and
right below Papa New Guinea. The sun was blazing, the air was humid, and the
sights were breathtaking. The whole island is 3 1/2 square kilometers or
1.4 square miles. I walked up the Boat dock and met my new companion who
had arrived on the island not long before me. He had already secured a place
for us to stay in a small apartment. It was no bigger than the size of 2
parking spots put together. It was small, but it was all that we needed.
We immediately went straight to work. Success fell from
heaven like a fire hydrant with no nozzle restraining the water. It wasn't long
before everyone on the Island knew who we were. The word gets around fast on an
island where you can run the entire perimeter in 30 minutes. Because of travel
regulations we were not able to much luggage with us. The small amount of
supplies we brought was quickly depleted.
We had investigators that we were teaching, but we didn't
even have a Book of Mormon to give them to read. This was a problem. We spoke
with the mission office and asked for them to mail us a box of supplies.
The answer we received was not to our liking. Because of
our location being almost 4,000 kilometers away from the mission office and
president, the supplies would not arrive on the this remote Island for 3
weeks.
Teaching without Book of Mormons was hard. We would tell
the islanders all about this wonderful candy of a book the Book of Mormon was,
and then we would have to deny their requesting to get one because we didn't
have any to give out.
We knew that the Lord had sent us here though and had to
keep moving forward and prayed that we would be able too.
On one particular day my companion and I were riding some
borrowed bikes down the street. We had met an older man earlier in the week and
went back to help him in the yard.
He was not a member but very nice, he had asked us to go
through an old shed in his backyard and clean it out with him. We would slowly
pull items out one by one and he would distinguish what would be kept and what
would be thrown away. When we were about halfway through clearing out the
packed full shed of mostly junk, my companion and I stumbled across a wooden
box.
When the man saw the box he had a look of surprise on his
face. He had never seen this item in his life, and he had lived there his
entire life! We pulled it out and set the box on the table and dusted off the
top of it. It was made of wood and had old rusty silver latches on it.
The man told us to open it and see what was inside. We
undid the latches and came to find the box was completely full of Book of
Mormons. The man was confused. He had never heard of this book before. Meanwhile
my companion and I were freaking out!! Do we know how the Book of Mormons got there?
No, but we know that the Lord has something to do with it.
We then explained to this man that this is the whole
reason that we were there serving missions on this little island in the the
middle of no where, where the church virtually did not exist at all prior to
our arrival.
We are here to share this book about Jesus Christ with
everyone. It was pretty crazy, he took it as a sign he needs to join the church
and start by reading this book.
This story gives me goose-bumps every time I read
it!
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the Book of Mormon is “the
keystone of our religion” On another occasion he stated: “Take away the Book of
Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none”
I loved the talks from this
past general conference! We had some great ones about the importance of the
Book of Mormon. President
Russell M. Nelson stated:
I testify that the Book of
Mormon is truly the word of God. It contains the answers to life’s most
compelling questions. It teaches the doctrine of Christ.5 It expands and clarifies many of the
“plain and precious”6 truths that were lost through centuries
of time and numerous translations of the Bible.
The Book of Mormon provides
the fullest and most authoritative understanding of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ to be found anywhere. It teaches what it really means to be born again.
From the Book of Mormon we learn about the gathering of scattered Israel. We
know why we are here on earth. These and other truths are more powerfully and
persuasively taught in the Book of Mormon than in any other book. The full
power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is contained in the Book of Mormon.
Period." Close Quote.
In 1938 there was a New York
City Book Club event, Brother William E. Berrett shared this account:
"It was the New York City
Book Club. Their speaker was the Honorable Henry A. Wallace, then Secretary of
Agriculture. His subject was “Good Books of the Nineteenth Century.” In the
course of his remarks he said,
“The greatest book
published in the nineteenth century in the field of religion was the Book of
Mormon. Although this book was read by less than one percent of Americans, it
affected that one percent so powerfully as to change the history of the
nation.”
Brother Berrett states
further, “It is a book that has aroused a storm of protest. It has done what
the Prophet Joseph said it would do. It has divided men into two camps—those
who are for it and those who are against it. There have [possibly] been more
books written against it than against any book ever published in America. … On
the shelves of the Church Library in the Church Office Building there are more
than 1,500 [anti-Mormon] books, each of which, in a portion of its pages, makes an attack on the Book of Mormon.
Fifteen hundred volumes by fifteen hundred separate authors. ” Close
quote.
That story and data are from 1938...., which
is such a long time ago! Today we have the internet at our fingertips and in a
google search access to literally millions of anti-mormon literature and
attacks on our religion and especially The Book of Mormon. There is a huge
broadway production called the BOOK OF MORMON MUSICAL that is completly ir-reverent,
vulgar and profane.
I served my mission in New York, there was
billboards and buses lined with ads for the musical. At the same time the
church put out the "I am a Mormon Campaign."
The Church made the following statement in
regards to the musical:
“The production may attempt to entertain audiences
for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as
a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them
closer to Christ.”
I loved that. We never protested
back, as a religion, about the musical but instead proclaimed that "I AM A
MORMON" and encouraged people to instead actually read the book and really
find out what it is really about.
Why do you think
there is so many attacks on this Book? Why has Satan gone through such effort?
Or personally for me, Why is there so many distractions to keep me from making
time to read and study the Book of Mormon? Because it is true and so important!
We need it!! Every day.
In the Book of Mormon
there is a story of the Lehi's dream about the tree of life. In the vision
there is a mist of darkness that arises and the view to the tree and fruit is
obscured from the travelers. One of the principles points of the story is that
the successful partakers of the fruit withstood distractions and didn’t listen
to the tauts from the great and spacious building. They "pressed forward
continually holding fast to the iron rod that runs unfailing along the course
of the true path" to the tree of life.
The iron rod is
symbolic for the word of God. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. We need
it. I want to close with more from President Russell M Nelsons talk:
When I think of the
Book of Mormon, I think of the word power. The truths of the
Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore,
succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.
My dear brothers and sisters,
I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you
will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder
what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers
to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you
daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the
evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other
mind-numbing addictions.
Whenever I hear anyone,
including myself, say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” I want to exclaim,
“That’s nice, but it is not enough!” We need to feel, deep in “the inmost part”
of our hearts,12 that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally
the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live
even one day without it. I might paraphrase President Brigham Young in saying,
“I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people”13 to the truth and power of the Book of
Mormon.
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