OK OK so I know I posted already today, but I felt compelled to do it again after church, especially after speaking to my friend, Heather. It's the Holy Ghost at work! She gave a great lesson about Strengthening the Family and she's not married and has no children. (Sorry Heather! I'm not trying to rub it in.) But she asked, "Why should I care about strengthening families when I don't have one?" Well the sisters (women) in Relief Society (The LDS Church's women's organization) set her straight really quick. It comes down to this: Heather does have a family. She has parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, and so on. And perhaps, she'll be married in the temple one day? Who knows? Anyway, Heather said writing this is such a great way of journalling so I guess I needed to write about Sunday School.
Today, Jeff gave a lesson on the scriptures. We talked about what they are by definition and what they are by title. Now the Christian world knows the Holy Bible. The LDS Church uses the King James version. However, we (the LDS Church) have several more pieces of scripture. There's the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and what Jeff labeled as "Other". Well what's other? It's all the other stuff we've heard from prophets that isn't in the above mentioned books. It's talks from General Conference. It's articles from the Ensign magazine. It's other materials from the General Authorities of the Church. That's all scripture.
You see, we "Mormons" or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe we have a prophet on the earth today. As Jeff pointed out in class, with much sarcasm, things have changed a little bit since biblical times. Without the sarcasm, they've changed a LOT and with those changes, why would our Heavenly Father stop talking to us? Well, duh! He wouldn't! So we know we have current revelation and God lives and is as involved in our lives as we let Him.
Moving on... Jeff asked the class if anyone would share any spiritual, testimony building moments. Jeff shared about a choice he had to make on his mission and whether to swap out companions. John shared about when he was a boy. Wolfgang shared about some health trials he and his wife experience during one of her pregnancies. I wracked my brain and felt like the scriptures had never touched me, but once we defined the "Other" category, I realized I had been touched by the scriptures.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I don't read scriptures every day like I should and after today's lesson that's changing. I do know when I read, my day goes better. Nearly always. And if my day isn't a good one, I have strength and hope to get through it. Don't underestimate that power. It's important.
So my being touched by scripture came while live streaming October 2012's General Conference during the Saturday afternoon session. Elder Larry Echo Hawk of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke. His talk is called, "Come Unto Me, O Ye House of Israel". (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/come-unto-me-o-ye-house-of-israel?lang=eng) This talk made me cry and cry and blubber and cry some more. You see, Elder Echo Hawk is Pawnee and he's a convert to the Church. His story about being yelled at while in basic training for the Marine Corps reached into my heart and grabbed me. His exhortation for every person of Native American descent to read the Book of Mormon touched the very fabric of my soul. That day I made a pact to read the entire Book of Mormon. In fact, I challenged my younger sister, Andrea, to read it with me. We started on December 31st, 2012. Neither of us has finished it yet. I'm on Alma 15 and she's at 3 Nephi 6. On the bright side, both of us have read farther than we'd ever read before. She's actually about to come to the part where Christ visits the Nephites, a fact I learned today. (Thanks Jeff! I promise I was listening!)
I wanted to be sure I put my testimony down. I have a testimony that the scriptures are true. I have a testimony that the General Authorities are prophets, seers, and revelators in the modern day and they are here to guide us through these very troublesome times. I sustain them.
I am so glad to have heard Elder Echo Hawk's talk a year-and-a-half ago. I'm blessed to have received my endowments. Bishop, thank you for the "nudge" that was actually a shove!
I love this Gospel. It is truth.
These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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