Saying Goodbye: A Scottish Proverb

I had an okay day today. We were up until 2:00 this morning getting back from helping the Work Crew strike the stage. We probably only worked until 1:30, though, if that. And so we were kind of tired this morning. We attended sacrament meeting in town, and it was really good. The speakers consisted of a whole family. The daughter talked about personal progress, the son about Duty to God, the mother about Stripling Warriors and trying to raise some, and the Father talked about tithing. And it was a really good meeting. After that, we had an amazing brunch back at our apartment, courtesy of Mindy Davis, Shanti Rose, and Fr. Thomas Szydlik. We had a fantastic white sauce and chicken pasta with broccoli and sautéed peppers, a summer salad (recipe courtesy of Zion’s Mercantile in town), and a roast with potatoes and carrots. AND THEN, courtesy of Father Szydlik (yes, courtesy of a Catholic Father), we had ‘Mormon Tiramisu,’ which was fantastic. The recipe involves ladyfinger cookies and something lemony...
Anyway, after that, I tried to do some missionary work on my computer (email some people who I filled out referral cards for so I could get their information) and I ended up getting rejected, twice, though politely both times, and felt shattered. I had a very hard time recovering, and felt like I had lost the spirit for several hours, just because of one of the rejections. I’m not exactly sure of the reasons it was so hard for me to stay afloat, as it were. We decided to watch the sunset on the Mississippi River at the end of Parley Street (which was beautiful), and then we drove to the pageant stage and talked about what we had learned from our time in Nauvoo. 3 core cast members, one family cast member, my family and I, and the Father were all there, and we had a good experience talking about what we had learned and feeling the spirit (though I was still devastated and devoid of the spirit, at least, that’s how I felt), and then we decided to go to the other side of the river and look at the temple from there in the evening. We got some great views, and on the way back, I finally opened my mouth and let off some steam and expressed my feelings. After doing so, I felt much better. I feel that I was helped extremely by he people who were in that car, and I only hope I have helped them, somehow. There’s a show put on by the Core Cast, which is basically the plan of salvation smattered with Broadway musical pieces (it’s absolutely amazing). One of the lines from this performance is an old Scottish proverb, which is basically the focus of my post this evening, and which I hope I have been on the giving end of:

“Thee lift me, and I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascend together.”

I hope I have helped others in their lives and their goals. I know they have lifted me. We will ascend together.

Nauvoo Pageant Part 3

I haven’t been blogging for a few days, but I had a few thoughts I wanted to talk about, and some lines in the Pageant that emphasize some important principles I’ve been thinking about.

During the pageant, Parley P. Pratt, referring to the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, says: “To give what was needed, we gave all we had....And to give more than we had, we gave of ourselves.” That’s a principle that we felt as members of the cast and crew, and a principle that I’m sure others feel and have felt. The pageant cast and crew gives it their all. They spend anywhere from 1-6 weeks (sometimes more) here in Nauvoo and focus, if at all possible, on nothing but the Pageant. A dedicated member of the cast, as I see it, will spend little to no time checking social networking tools while they are here, and spend no time watching movies and playing computer games. They will dedicate their time in service of the Lord, and when they cannot serve, they will prepare to serve and make sure that they are ready to work when the opportunity arises. It’s taken me 4 years to learn that, and it is a principle I have yet to perfect. Pageant cast and crew give all they have to the work while they are here. They give their focus and their time and their effort to the pageant. But even that can be only enough to put on a show, and the pageant is something more than that.

The second part of Parley’s line was on the back of the Work Crew’s shirts last year: “To give more than we had, we gave of ourselves.” This is a principle that is so important for each individual to recognize, simply because of its implications: If you have been called to the Pageant, you are there for a reason. Many people apply, but only so many get in; about 750 total in the family cast. The pageant staff spends much time pondering and praying to know which families should come. And they follow those promptings. That means to me, that those families are needed at the pageant. Not that a group of 5 people is needed, not even that a husband, a wife, 2 sons and a daughter are needed, or any other family configuration. But that those PEOPLE are needed. Take, for instance, a hypothetical family called the Fishers. James, Catherine, Morgan, and Chris; Father, Mother, Sister and Brother, respectively. There is a reason, not that a family of four was in the Pageant, but a reason that James Fisher was in the Pageant. A reason that Catherine Fisher was in the Pageant. A reason that Morgan Fisher was in the Pageant. A reason that Chris Fisher was in the Pageant. They each had something to bring, because they were who they were. This, to me, is the essence of Parley’s line. “To give more than [what we possess], we [give of who we are].”

There’s one other aspect of giving in the Pageant I want to point out: As my family and I have been here, participating in the Nauvoo Pageant has felt quite different. We do not go to morning rehearsals, we do not need to stay up until midnight to do our duty as cast members every evening, and we basically have all the time we want. Some might consider this to be a good thing, and it does indeed seem so at first glance, but there is an experience that has been lost with the loss of our cast membership: When a family is accepted to the cast, before they leave, they are set apart by their bishop as ‘special representatives of the church...” this is something like the setting apart of a missionary before he leaves for the MTC and his mission. And my family and I believe that a great mantle falls on those who are set apart; that is, with the responsibility that they have been asked to shoulder, the capacity to fulfill it comes. We are not cast members this year, and so we have not had to experience the hardships of the cast, but neither have we felt that feeling of being lifted and sustained as we have in the past. I think the absence of that feeling has made us realize that we had it before. See, though we worked so hard in those weeks that we were cast members, and worked beyond our normal capacity, somehow we made it through. We would wake up in the morning, and so long as we used our time as we knew we should (that is, so long as we did not waste it) we would feel rested enough to move through the day. If we really needed something, it was provided. If we needed a nap, there was time for it, and we were still able to keep up with our responsibilities. Not only were we physically sustained and magnified, but I believe that we were also magnified spiritually, and that our ability to share what we had to offer as individuals was increased. I think that it became easier for me to share my thoughts and feelings and be myself with fellow cast and crew and to follow the spirit. I want to share a quote from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith that I found while reading today:

“Brethren, you are on the pathway to eternal fame, and immortal glory; and inasmuch as you feel interested for the covenant people of the Lord, the God of their fathers shall bless you. Do not be discouraged on account of the greatness of the work; only be humble and faithful...He who scattered Israel has promised to gather them; therefore inasmuch as you are to be instrumental in this great work, He will endow you with power, wisdom, might and intelligence, and every qualification necessary; while your minds will expand wider and wider, until you can circumscribe the earth and the heavens, reach forth into eternity, and contemplate the mighty acts of Jehovah in all their variety and glory.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 163, italics and underline added)

I think that we have been blessed as we have been members of the Pageant, and believe that with our calling came the capacity to fulfill it. I also believe that the principles in Parley’s lines can be applied not only in building a temple, not only in participating in the pageant, but in living from day to day and being the best people we can be; I believe that the Lord requires us to ‘”[give] all we [have],” and I think that when that is not enough, we can “[give] of ourselves.” And I believe that when we fall short even then, Christ will sustain us, and help us to reach our perceived potential and surpass it, that we might do that which he has asked us to do, and grow in the process. I encourage each of you to come and see the Pageant next year, or, if you can, to apply to be in it. It is a great experience, and one that you will remember for years to come.

I don’t know exactly when the Pageant will be playing next year, but I assume that it will be something like July 3-28, or July 10-August 4. I’m banking on the former. The Frontier Country Fair starts at 7:00 PM just west of the Pageant stage, and the show starts at 8:30 PM. I urge you to go the fair. It is such an important part of the pageant, and especially fun for kids. It’s a medley of all sorts of pioneer activities you and your children (if you have them) can participate in. From Stickpull to finding your geneology in Nauvoo; from log-sawing to parlor games; from balancing on stilts to dancing your heart out. You can find out more at http://www.nauvoopageant.org/. It’s all free, too. Please come if you can. :)

Nauvoo Pageant Part 2

Today, I learned about one of my most recent shortcomings. We were talking to one of the cast members today, asking her what she had learned this year in Nauvoo. She talked about (at least, as I understood it) how she felt like, since she had been a part of the pageant before, this year there was nothing left to learn. She wasn’t receiving much attention from the directors and such, because the newer cast members (the ones who hadn’t been before) needed it. And I realized that that has been my problem recently.

I just barely finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through again, and while I know that I have much to learn as far as the history goes (where events in the Book of Mormon can be found IN the Book of Mormon, where they are on a timeline, who the major/minor characters are, what they did, where they can be found, etc.), I feel like I have many of the principles down pat. When I stumble across a certain verse in the scriptures, I have a thought and take out my pencil to write it down in the margins, only to find that I put the thought there already during a previous reading. And I just start to wonder what I have to gain from going through the Book of Mormon again. I reason that I can start researching the other books in the Scriptures (Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) but then I remember that we have been asked to read the Book of Mormon every day, and that there are many people far older than me that read it consistently. At that point I cannot be so presumptuous as to say that I know everything there is to know about the principles in the Book of Mormon. I just feel like I’ve touched upon everything at face value, but now I must go deeper; I just don’t know if I have the tools to go deeper, or whether to venture deeper would be better for me, or worse. As I read the scriptures, I come up with ideas about what they are trying to teach me, but sometimes I feel like what I come up with has little bearing that I know of in the scriptures themselves, and I don’t want to write it, for fear that I, or someone else who reads my copy of the scriptures who knows little about the church or the gospel, will fall upon a phrase I have written and interpret it as something doctrinal. That, I think, is my biggest roadblock: coming up with ideas as to the doctrine being taught in a scripture, and presuming that they are correct. I suppose the best solution to that is simply to research the idea further in the scriptures; see if there is anything anywhere else in them that supports my claim. It’s just a little worrisome to me; like I’m going into deeper waters that could drown me if I’m not careful. But there’s a solution to my problem out there somewhere, I am confident. I just need to find it.

I’ve had a similar problem recently when it comes to watching the pageant. I have participated in the pageant with my family a total of 4 times: We were in the Green Cast in ’06, the Yellow Cast in ’07, the Green Cast in ’09, and my brother and I were on the Work Crew in ’10 while my mother and sister were in the Red Cast. We have been in the pageant so much that there was a point at which I think I could sit down and quote much of the pageant to someone, word for word. That time has passed, but I still feel as though I have extensive knowledge of the pageant and the doctrines it presents. So I feel as though I have nothing more to learn from it. As I thought about that tonight, I wondered if this was simply a stage in my life in which I had to learn a few things, and I had learned them now, so it was time to move on to something bigger which I did not know. A ‘Greater Pageant’ as it were; something new for me to experience and learn the gospel through. But again, the same arguments arise. There are cast members who are still involved with the Pageant who have been for many years already. It seems they have something more to learn, or at least something more to do. It’s just difficult when I have heard every line in the pageant over and over again. It feels so much when I listen to it like I know enough about it. But I feel like there’s got to be something more that I haven’t reached yet; that I don’t know enough about. Just like in the scriptures. I have read them many times, especially the first part of First Nephi, to the point where reading the words, “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents,” seems more like a chore than a blessing. But there must be something more there. There always is. It’s just waiting to be found, and I need to put in the effort to find it.

Again, if you haven’t seen the pageant yet, I recommend it with all my heart. There is something amazing about it. If you will come with an open mind, and an open heart, I do not think you will be disappointed. You will learn something, and you will feel something. I hope you can come; if not this year, the next year, or the next. It’s a great experience.

P. S. Forgive me if this post or the one before it has some grammatical errors, typos, or other mistakes. I've been a little tired, and I don't have to time to look over them just yet.

Nauvoo Pageant Part 1

As one watches the pageant, sometimes certain words said or principles displayed ring true to them. One significant aspect of my testimony came to me when I was in Nauvoo as part of the crew. But I want to talk about something I was thinking about tonight, as a member of the audience.

Often there are protests at the pageant. People come with big signs, like: “Jesus warned against false prophets,” and, “There is only one true God.” These principles, specifically, are sometimes things that I agree with. It is indeed true that Jesus warned against false prophets, and that there is only one true and living God. But these protestors are not here at the pageant to teach what I believe, but what they believe, and what they think we believe wrongly. I don’t understand them. But I wanted this evening to walk up to one of them, point at their sign and say, “That’s true. Jesus did warn against false prophets. I’m glad you know that,” or something to that effect. But I’ve heard stories of people approaching the protestors, and it usually doesn’t end well. So I decided to steer clear. But I was trying to think of ways to help them to understand that what we are doing is right. But, to be honest, I really don’t know if there is any way to crack tough nuts like that. ESPECIALLY in that setting, when they are already hostile, and that is their goal: to be hostile and aggressive. I don’t know how to communicate with them, and I really don’t want to. A person recently said in a Facebook post, “There's a story behind every person. There's a reason why they're the way they are. They aren't just like that because they want to [be]. Something in the past created them, and sometimes it's impossible to fix them.” I agree with that to a point. But I want to focus on the last part: “It’s impossible to fix them.” Yes. Yes, I agree with that completely. And I’ll tell you why: You just can’t ‘fix’ people. It’s not possible for you to ‘fix’ someone. Because unlike a broken machine or a broken toy or any number of broken objects, when it comes to the gospel, a person can only be ‘fixed’ or changed, when they WANT to be. You can’t make someone have a testimony.

There’s a conversation in the pageant between two people, Parley P. Pratt and a sort of investigator of the church who plays a central role in the pageant, named Robert Laird. Robert speaks with Parley about how he’s interested in the church, but he doesn’t want to get pushed into anything. Parley responds that he should read the Book of Mormon, and Robert declines, saying that he has a bible. Parley goes on to explain that the Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ, and Robert Laird says he’ll consider it. Then the conversation goes something like this. Italicized words are the ones I think are relevant to this topic. (Robert refers to himself in the third person, trying to be ambiguous):

Robert: But you might as well know right now, yeah? This man, he does have a mind of his own.

Parley: Good. As do I. And you might tell him, if he will read the Book of Mormon, and ask God if it’s true, God will give him a witness all for himself.

Robert: I’ll tell him.

Parley: I hope you will.

This conversation represents two things which are very important pertaining to belief in the church. First, a person must have his/her own testimony. They must have received a witness all for themselves. You cannot really piggyback on someone else’s testimony and expect it to be effective. When you have felt for yourself the truth of the Book of Mormon; when you have attended church and felt something good there; when you have prayed to Heavenly Father and that same good feeling indicated to you that this church which you are investigating or have been born into is true, then you can know for yourself, and have the ability to not doubt the truth, for you have received a witness for yourself.

Second, that it has to be your decision, and that it is our decision to be members of the church. We members of the Church of Jesus Christ are not mindless drones. Yes, it is true: sometimes we go through the motions simply because we have been brought up that way, and sometimes we simply believe because others believe and we trust their testimony. But the majority of the time, especially in those members who are older, we have asked Heavenly Father about the truth of the Book of Mormon, or the Church, or asked Him whether Joseph Smith was a prophet, and we have received an answer. And THAT is why we believe. Because we have “had a feelin’,” as the pageant line goes. We have received a witness as to the truth of this church. And that is why we are a part of it.

I hope you can come out to see the pageant sometime in your life; hopefully soon the last show is this Saturday, it’s in Nauvoo, Illinois, and it runs every day until then at 8:45 in the evening, with a preshow beginning at 7 or 7:30. If you can’t come this year, maybe you can next year. It will change you.

We’re on our way... TO NAU-VOO!

Imagine that you’re in the middle of a desert.

You have not eaten or drunk from several days. Your stomach has shrunken and your tongue is swollen. You are burned and battered. Your hand was scorched recently when you placed it on a bit of hot metal protruding from the sand. You do not know where you are, you are completely disoriented, and your fighting spirit has surrendered to one of apathy. Still, you continue forward, albeit slowly. Crawling.

You suddenly find yourself in shade.

Your body begins to cool, and you are more satisfied and more encouraged. You are receiving respite from your long journey. You look around, and see trees; beautiful, tall trees, protecting you from the heat. You can stand now. You can walk instead of crawl. Your spirit is soothed and awakened. As you progress, you find yourself at an oasis.

Water.

You have reached water. The sustainer of human life. That thing which you have not had at its clearest in several days. You dip your hands into the water, and feel its coolness, its wetness, its purity, on your dirty, dry, hot hands. It soothes the wound on your one hand. You bring it to your lips, and you drink. It cools your innards, and it permeates throughout your entire body. You want to jump right into it, but you are, at the same time, satisfied with drinking. You know that drinking it, taking it in, and letting it flow through you will be best. You will benefit the most that way. When you have drunken your fill, you are pushed to move on by... something. Something urges you to move forward. Like a schedule. You will be late if you do not go on.

So you move on. You move through the shady forest. You see a table. Somehow, you know you are to sit there. You sit at the head of the table. After an initial period of pause, food begins to appear on the table; in great varieties and massive quantities. You find yourself reaching for anything and everything you can, putting it on your plate, but you cannot take a dish before another, or two more, appear where it was. You find it hard to focus on any one dish; you are trying to get them all. The feast goes on for an hour and your shrunken stomach cannot fit all the food you want it to inside. You cease consumption, even though you know how much you want to continue. A small respite follows, and you move to another place on the table. You find your place, and sit again. Your stomach seems to have grown a little, and emptied. Food appears again, and you consume. You notice that there are others around you eating, and you watch as they produce dishes themselves, seemingly from nowhere, for the benefit of other partakers at the table. You see an opportunity before you, medleys of ingredients, and you try to concoct something which is true to form, and which belongs on the table. As you pass it down, people take the dish, but you do not see if it is eaten. You continue to try and try to produce dishes which will be helpful to the starving on the table, using your knowledge to produce something which others will benefit from, but, seemingly, to no avail. You feel that you must leave. You must go on, out of the forest, and you will never know if the dishes will be eaten, or were eaten, or if they filled the bellies of the other eaters at the table. You exit the forest.

And you move on.

You have a journey to take. There will be more forests along the way.

Did you have fun? This was something like my experience going to a ward (group of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for those of you unfamiliar with our lingo) in St. Louis.

Perhaps an explanation is warranted.

My family and I are on the way to Nauvoo, Illinois, where we will (hopefully) participate in a pageant put on by members of our church. And by, ‘Pageant,’ we mean, ‘Play.’ We are not members of the cast this year, as we have been in other years, but we hope to be some assistance to those in the cast. We left Rexburg yesterday to take a flight from Idaho Falls, ID to Salt Lake City, UT, and then to Cincinnati, OH, and on to St. Louis, Missouri. We flew into St. Louis last night, checked into a hotel, and went to a great place called La Pizza for dinner and collected a few things we needed at Target, returning then to the hotel to watch Sahara playing on TBS, and hit the hay. The next morning, today, we attended church at a ward in St. Louis, and, metaphorically, everything above happened to me. I was rejuvenated. I do not know every reason that I was parched, burned, and exhausted (at least, I don’t know the reasons for my spiritual state, in that sense), but I know that to attend church helped immensely. So how did we navigate our way to a church in the middle of St. Louis? Well, to give even more credit to the church, the website mormon.org has a feature which allows anyone to find out where the closest church is, AND when each ward that attends that church has services. So we were able to find a church that met our scheduling needs and attend it. As I was looking for the church on that website, I kept having these mildly nightmarish ideas about the ward we were about to go to. I’m not sure why, but I just thought that it would be a negative experience.

I was wrong.

We went to the ward, made it just in time for the sacrament, and stayed for all three meetings. Though we were tempted to stay only for sacrament meeting and get back on the road, we felt like we could make it in time to Nauvoo even if we stayed for all three, and so we did. And I’m very glad that we did. The Gospel Principles class I attended was about the last day of Christ’s mortal life. The teacher put two columns on the chalkboard: “What happened to him [Jesus]?” and “What he did.” The distinctions were profound. The premise, as I understood it, was that Christ went through the worst trials that anyone could ever go through, so that he could understand us when we went through our own. And the second column just showed us that the Lord was the greatest example of endurance through those trials. Despite being scourged, mocked, and even deserted by his closest friends, despite being spat on and despite being without the companionship of his Father, even if only for a moment, Christ healed, and forgave, and accomplished his mission. It was a good lesson.

The last meeting I attended, Elder’s Quorum, the lesson was on desires. I think the greatest point was that desire, though righteous, can separate us from God if left out of control. The teacher related the concept that sometimes we use God and his will as a tool for reaching those things that we desire. You members of the church can understand: Sometimes we only keep the commandments and meet the requirements so we can enter the temple and be married to a spouse; so we can have our family be proud of us. Sometimes we keep the commandments so we can be worthy of a mission, so that we can earn the approval of our fellow members. What that Elder taught in the quorum meeting was the need for those positions to be reversed. We should be using our desires to come closer to the Lord. That’s what I got out of it, anyway.

I just want to testify of this principle: However initially uncomfortable I was being at a church meeting outside of my ward, as I stayed and searched for comfort, the spirit came. The same spirit I feel at my own church. The church is true everywhere. That is the principle I want to relay. The church is still true wherever you go, and you can find solace in a church meeting, whether it is in Rexburg, St. Louis, England, or Africa. The same spirit will still reside and preside. Don’t be afraid to go to church when in an unfamiliar setting.

Good luck out there!

Usefulness

I had planned on blogging on something else, but then I took a nap and woke up with no recollection of what it was. So I'm just going to talk about what's been happening to me this last week.
The BYU-I track system is such that I am still attending school. I go to two semesters per year, one in Winter and one in Spring. The track system is made of three regular portions and one smaller portion. Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer semesters. A student is assigned to two of the semesters, and that assignment is called a 'track.' You either go to school Fall and Winter semesters, Fall and Spring semesters, or Winter and Spring semesters. Every student has the opportunity of attending Summer semester, which is smaller, and in which it is highly unlikely that anyone would be able to manage as many credits as they would in a regular semester, since it's smaller and less classes are offered. A student can also choose to be on the fast track, if they can get accepted, and just attend every semester, consequently finishing with college within 3 years instead of in four, depending on the number of credits they take. IN ANY CASE, that explains why I'm still in school now. But I'm almost finished.
As I come to the close of my semester, I feel as though I've been able to leave behind a large burden. I haven't had as much to do, and I've been able to just relax a little (though, ironically, I happened to forget about much of my schoolwork and relaxed anyway. subsequently, I'll need to get up early tomorrow to finish some of it. I've learned in college that if you're not busy doing something, then you're probably doing something wrong. If you think you're finished with your schoolwork, then you've probably forgotten something). But in the end, though relaxing has been nice, and people around me have stressed the importance of getting 'recharged,' it's made me feel a little useless. When I attend school, there are often things which I think about, projects, endeavors, and the like, that I say I would do or accomplish IF ONLY I HAD MORE TIME. I've come to realize that when I do have time, those endeavors are not a thing on which I focus. I watch MacGyver, Phineas and Ferb, and other miscellaneous movies and TV shows through Netflix, and when I'm not doing that, I eat, and when I don't do those things, I sleep (it seems that sleep should be my first priority, considering the sleep debt I acquired this past semester, but it isn't. Silly me. I always focus on other, less important things).
I've been considering this over the past few days, and, in light of recent events and occurrences which will be elaborated on in the next paragraph, , I've come to what might be called a conclusion about modern, middle-class life. Let me know what you think.
I've been in a World Development class this semester and we've been learning about the living conditions of developing countries. And it's sort of awful what they have to go through. People have come up with some great, innovative ideas to improve conditions, but the people in those countries have nothing near the comforts that we have. Over the past weekend I found out that a person I know was the victim of a traumatizing crime, and it made me very angry. I wanted to mortally wound the person who had committed the crime. After a while, I simmered down and felt like the best thing to do would be to try to reason a solution to the problem; some sort of system of crime prevention. And that's what we're trying to do in developing world countries, is to try to find the root of the problem of certain conditions within their society, and find solutions to them. I feel like the comforts and conveniences we have in our lives are superfluous and not mandatory to our survival. So I wonder if we shouldn't do our best to turn those comforts into something valuable for people who have circumstances which we do not have the misfortune of living with; people who are the victims of crimes, people who do not have drinking water, people who not have suitable living conditions, or people who do not have enough to eat. If you clicked on the link above, you saw methods people have come up with to help people help themselves. And I would say that is the best way to do things, but in any case, I don't know if I feel comfortable with living with the abundance that I have while in the knowledge that other people don't even have basic hygiene, basic shelter, or basic nutrition. But at the same time, I have no idea what to do to help. Sometimes I feel that if the solution to a problem has not yet been found, then there's no way it will be in the near future. But that's a depressing thought, and obviously not true. People come up with new solutions every day.
So here's to finding solutions to the world's problems. Good luck to all of you. Make the world a better place. If you have an idea, voice it. Get some feedback. Who knows? Maybe you've come upon something brilliant. Thanks for reading.

What do you get when you run behind a car?

Alright, this is just an update, and I'm kind of cheating. I had a bucketload of homework this week, I have more to do tomorrow, I got up at 4 on Saturday morning, I have a big sleep debt anyway, and therefore, I am the answer to the joke in the title. This is a cop-out: I'm too tired to blog right now and I need to get to bed. But technically, I am blogging, right? So, I'm technically not breaking the promise of a post every 7 days. Anyway, I'll get one to you soon, but finals are coming up and I don't think I can really write right now.

Scripture Study

I am currently at my grandmother's house in Provo. I've been trying to think of something to post all day, grabbing at little pieces of conversation, or thoughts that I have or ideas. But they mostly turned out to be negative or critical. In the last half-hour or so, a post idea sort of slapped me in the face, and I think you'll like it.

My grandmother has visited Jerusalem and Israel many times with her husband, my grandfather, and they were the directors of the BYU Jerusalem Center at one point. As such, she is friends with very many people from that land. We are visiting for the 4th of July, and she has 2 visitors from Jerusalem, one man who is named Yossi (I don't know if I spelled it right, but either way, it's pronounced Yo-see), and his wife, whose name I'm not sure I could pronounce, much less spell, phonetically or otherwise. They are both Jewish. Therefore, Yossi had a Bar Mitzvah when he was thirteen, and had to memorize a portion of the Torah (The first five books of Moses), and a portion of the teachings of one of the prophets. He chose Micah, and he has just, for the past half-hour, been teaching us about Micah and Isaiah.

Now, you members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I know you have studied your scriptures at least once or twice, and if you have continued to live the teachings of the church, you have continued to study. You have probably spent some time studying with others, learning their insights of the scriptures or teachings of the prophets. Currently on the table where my family is talking, there is a Hebrew copy of the Bible, 2 or 3 electronic copies of the scriptures as distributed by the church, and my copy of the scriptures. Does this seem strange to you? I can understand why. Churches seem to be habitually not accepting of other churches, and not just in the way they may act, but in the doctrines they may teach. Our church seems to be fairly accepting of other churches, at least, at its root; with our leaders. They do not adopt the doctrine of other churches, but they will conference with them. And I think that that is right. HOWEVER...

I personally do not read the Old Testament. Ever. Unless some manual directs me to a scripture there, and sometimes I will read Genesis; read the story of Adam and Eve. Other than that, it is something I do not read. It's a terrible attitude, but I think that my excuse is that "I have 3 other books to read (the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants)." Yossi has just shown us a piece of Micah: Chapter 6, verses 6-8. Our copy of the scriptures (which I still believe, and do not doubt, to be the most correct) reads:

6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

He said, as an aside, after verse 7, something to the effect of, "That is Abraham and Isaac." that blew me away. "The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul." It was cool to read that. And then he taught us that the crucial sentence in this set of scriptures is in verse 8: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" He taught us that the Lord does not WANT out burnt offerings, or our calves. He doesn't WANT our thousands of rams, our ten thousands of rivers of oil. He doesn't really need our sacrifices for Himself! He has everything! What we have already belongs to him (and I would submit that, he does want to know that we CAN give those things up, but he does not need the things themselves). BUT, that what he wants of us is to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with [our] God. It was an interesting thing to learn.

He also clarified something in Isaiah for us. He said that the phrase in Isaiah 9:12, "For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still," means that, though He is very angry, He still has the capacity to save Israel. And the context of the verse that he gave was interesting. But I didn't catch all of it, so I probably shouldn't say what I thought I heard, because I might be misquoting.

In any case, what I most want to share in this post is not these verses, and is not these insights, though I consider them valuable. It is this principle, which I believe to be true: My brother has said that there are people who are not members of the church, and who do not have, therefore, the fulness of the spirit, but who have, "maxed out on the light of Christ." I would submit that the stalwart members of Judaism know the Bible. They have studied it. We, as members of the church, know that every church has a portion of truth, at least, but that we have the fulness of the gospel. But honestly, I think that, even though we have the fulness of the gospel, and a great amount of scripture, I think it's safe to say that almost none of the members of the church understand all of it. This man who has taught us this evening understands the Bible to an extent I do not know that I have witnessed. And I am confident that there are others out there like him.

I do not know exactly what is right. And I do not know that we ought to associate, or that the Brethren would like us to associate, at least doctrinally, with other beliefs. But I think, perhaps, there are those out there who know more about many of our beliefs than we do. Because some of our beliefs are their beliefs, and they have studied and understand them. I admire this man for how he has studied, and what he knows about the words of the prophets of old. He knows the Bible. I admire his example. And I felt the spirit tonight, listening to Yossi.

Take that how you will. I felt that my time was well spent.