Project 10 and the Influences and Testimonies of My Peers

For this project I read some of my fellow classmate's responses. It was great to see the testimonies of my peers, and to know that I am not the only one who struggles with my faith. You can tell from a lot of their responses that they are good, faithful members of the church, and they are good examples for me. One of the entries reminded me not to judge people. I have had a problem with this for a long time, as I'm sure many other people have, and I am trying to make a new goal to except people for their quirks, because I know I have mine and people are still able to tolerate me. I was reminded to encourage young men to remain worthy to hold the priesthood so that they may serve a mission. I was also reminded of the power of fasting, something that I haven't really thought of in a while, but I was able to remember the testimony I have of its power. I think it's a good idea to read the projects of the other students; we get to read the testimonies of people our own age. Although we are taught to trust and believe in the words of the prophets and apostles, it is always great to hear the testimonies or our peers, for they are the people that are more on the same maturity level as we are. I can learn from the other students, and if I have an open heart, my testimony should be able to be strengthened through theirs. I am grateful for the good comments I get to hear in my class, and I know that some, if not all, of the guys in there are going to be great missionaries. I was reminded of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for us, and I hope that I will be able to live with Them again.

Compasses and Covenants

I read an article titled Of Compasses and Covenants by Lance B. Wickam of the Seventy, that appeared in the Jun 1996 Ensign. It talked about how the Book of Mormon shows that the way back to our Father in Heaven is through making and keeping sacred covenants with Him, which we mentioned towards the end of class today. He says that we have to do more than just make covenants, but that we have to keep them, and live diligently following the words and teachings of Christ. Elder Wickam compares covenants to compasses, that they point out the sure and direct way back to our Heavenly Father. As people lost in the wilderness must rely on a compass to return safely home, we must rely on our covenants to outline what we must do to return to Heavenly Father.

We have been taught that in Nephi's vision of the Tree of Life, the rod of iron symbolized the word of God. In this article, Elder Wickam says that this broadly means 'the teachings and commandments,' but that in a more specific sense it is 'the sacred covenants between God and man.' So, holding fast to the rod of iron means that we make and keep covenants with God. By living our covenants, and renewing them weekly by partaking of the sacrament, we will be able to receive celestial glory for time and all eternity. We must be careful not to become prideful like the Nephites did, though, for then we are not living the covenants the way that we are supposed to be; there is a prophesy in the Book of Mormon that an angel spoke to Nephi about the Christ's Church in our day:

"[T]here are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations.” 38 Nephi then “beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few.” 39 That this “church of the Lamb” refers to those who both make and keep sacred covenants is indicated by the following passage:
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory."

We must be sure that we are those strong and few in the last days. We must live and keep our covenants that we have made with God, for he will surely keep the ones He has made with us as long as we uphold our end of the bargain. In the end, it is our eternal salvation that is at stake, and the chance to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for all of eternity. Let us strive to be able to fulfil these goals everyday.

Men are worth less than dirt...

I memorized Helaman 12:7; this is the scripture that talks about how men are more insignificant that the "dust of the earth." It is important to remember that we were created by our Father in Heaven, and that everything good comes from Him. Sometimes we get caught up in our lives, and we don't take the time to stop and thing about the blessings that God has given us, and we get a little prideful until God chastises us, or when we suffer afflictions and we return back to Him with a newly-humbled heart. We must withhold from being prideful in ourselves, for we are nothing; God is no respector of man. We are His creations, so would not everything that happens to us come from Him as well? We must not think that we are so cool, or that we generate our own success, because that is a lie. We should always remember to thank God in our prayers for what we have been given, and must remain humble in heart and contrite in spirit so that we will always remember Him, so we may have the chance to live with Him again.

Sanctification

I read the references and comments about Helaman 1-7. A lot of it wasn't anything too extraordinarily new, just reiterating things I've heard in the past. I think the newest commentary I read were those about the "principles of sanctification." It says that sanctification 'is a process whereby fallen man is enabled to become pure, holy, and eventually free from sin.' It also says that this is done by the Holy Ghost, that it makes us want to be better. It says that '[h]ow much the Spirit cleanses or purifies depends on the obedience of the person.' We have to fast and pray, become more humble, become more faithful to God, and yield our hearts unto Him in order to be sanctified.

This reminds me of one of the talks we were supposed to read at the beginning of the semester, that said something along the lines that we wanted to have a change of heart, that we should want to become better than what we are. We are always needing to become better, because we aren't perfect. There will always be things we will need to work on to become a better disciple of Christ. But we will always have this option ready and open for us, because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to succeed; They want us to come unto Them and to obey the commandments so that we can live with Them again. We are so fortunate to have a God that loves us and wants us to succeed. I have been realizing the love that Heavenly Father has for us more and more this semester, and I noticed it again this week. He is so willing to help us, that it would stupid for us not to take advantage of the Atonement. We should strive to make sure that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain, that it was for a great purpose. But we can only make sure of this if we are willing to sanctify ourselves unto the Lord.

Journey of Faith Video Reflections

I have seen some of this movie in my other BOM class. I thought it was really interesting to note all of the proof that has been found over the years that supports what is in the BOM. Joseph Smith prophesied to someone that if they lived into the next century, they would see proof unfold that supported the BOM's content. There is just absolutely no way that Joseph Smith could have written this on his own. Everything, every detail, is so perfect, that a man with an eigth grade education could not have invented something like this in his wildest dreams. There were cities discovered that were mentioned in the BOM, cities that before had gone undiscovered. The Lord revealed these things in His own time.

I will admit, I fell asleep watching some of this movie; I had a very late night last night. But the video brings up things that I don't think we think about too often; they start to really talk about Lehi and Sariah and Nephi as actual people. I know that for me I don't always think of them as actual people; but they really, really talk about who they were. They talk about Nephi's interest in blacksmithing, and about how he took the time to comment on the detail and craftsmanship of Laban's sword. They talked about how Lehi would have looked to his sons Laman and Lemuel, and how crazy he must have seemed to them. I think one thing important to note is that the way Laman and Lemuel behave is very characteristic of people back in that time. Even though they disagreed with their father, they still left with him, because that was the custom of the family members in that time period. Every tiny detail is absolutely perfect, from the customs to the geography and the descriptions of different locations. Like the man in the video said, this is from God.

Project #3

For my project this week I decided to share what I'd learned with my roommate Kenzie and her friend, Jacob. I talked to them about what I had learned about repentance in class today. Although I didn't actually learn something while teaching them, class helped me clarify a confusion that I'd had before. I'd read somewhere that we aren't supposed to repent everyday, yet we were being told to repent always. I learned that we aren't always repenting of huge things, but that by keeping Christ and his Atonement in our hearts, we are daily repenting. We are remembering the sacrifice of Heavenly Father's Only Begotten Son so that we could return and live with him again. Although repentance is a painful process, the Lord is the one who experienced the real pain; he is the only one that can wash away our sins, and the Atonement and God's grace are the only ways we can come to live with Him again. It is amazing that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he died for us. Although I don't remember him from the pre-existence, he remembers me while I am here. He loved me enough to die for my sins, me who is so unworthy. He died so all of us could have salvation. Yet everyday I do things that insult his sacrifice for us; we all do. Thanks heavens for repentance. Without it, we would all be lost causes. I know there are things that I need to work on in my life. I am not perfect, and none of us are; sometimes it seems impossible to be as Heavenly Father is, for he commands us to be perfect even as He is perfect. Yet, we can still live with Him again, through His and Christ's sacrifice. Heavenly Father felt so much pain to sacrifice His Son, but He loved us enough to support this plan of salvation. I hope that I can appreciate it more in the future, and come to love my Heavenly Father and my Savior as much as they love me. I hope I can come to love my fellow man in the same way, too, and that I will be humble enough to do what I need to do to live with my Heavenly Father again. We must all remember that repentance is an everyday thing, and that we should not procrastinate repenting of our sins, because one day it will be too late, and we will be judged for our works. Let us all strive to be a better people, and come to love one another even as Christ and our Father in Heaven loves us.

Book of Mormon Project #4

For this project, I chose to memorize 3 Nephi 11:29, which reads: "For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." I was not so much learning something new by memorizing this scripture, but rather reinforcing a truth that I have heard before; however, it is one that is very important and one we should all remember. Sometimes we get to caught up in our daily lives that we don't stop to think of the little things we might say or do. We might have a bad morning, and snap at a roommate or loved one, or fight with that person, and think nothing of it. However, when we are doing things like this, the Spirit is leaving us and we are inviting Satan into our lives. I don't think that people really think about this, and I know I certaintly don't; this scripture has reawakened me to the truth that when we are contentious we are of the devil. It may seem harsh to say that, but that's the reality of the matter. Since I decided to memorize this scripture, hopefully I will be able to keep this truth in my mind as I go about my life now, and try to be as kind to my fellow man as I can. I know that I whine and groan about people, and even get into verbal fights with some people; I'd certaintly forgotten about this scripture up until I happened upon it when looking for one to memorize. However, maybe because of some things that have recently been happening, God wanted me to find this scripture, to reinforce this truth in my life. It is certaintly something that I can work on, being non-contentious, and I'm sure there will times when I will need to work on it further. However, because God is patient, He will allow me to work on it as much as I need to; hopefully I will take advantage of His patience and mercy and live my life according to the things Christ taught, so that I may return and live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again.