Dear family,
I told Mom I'd write
about the devotionals on Sunday, February 16. I've been meaning to but haven't
gotten around to it so I'll write it today. You can share this or put it on the
blog or whatever you want. This is just an extra email; I'll send another about
my week.
So that Sunday, two
General Authorities came. First in Relief Society, Sister Oscarson, the General
Young Women President, came and talked to us. She talked about missionary work,
huge surprise, and shared some stories from her family which was cool. The main
point I got from it was to work hard and I'll never be happier. I need to
remember why I'm here and put my shoulder to the wheel. Also, we're the most
blessed when we go the extra mile. As I'm obedient, I'll receive help from the
other side. My mission is my time to make God my partner so I need to turn my
will over to His. I took more than a page of notes, it was so good!
Next was the Sunday
night devotional. This time is was President Matthew S. Holland, President of
UVU. And his dad, Elder Holland came. It was so cool. I decided to join the
choir that day because I knew he might be coming and because we were singing my
favorite hymn, "Praise to the Man." As soon as he came in, we all
stood up and didn't sit down until he did. We sang "Happy Birthday"
to Sister Holland, Elder Holland's wife. Elder Holland got up to speak just to
introduce his son but it was so cool to hear and see him. I know I saw him once
before when I was in "A Brand New Year," but I wasn't aware of how
cool it was at the time. Anyway, his son gave a rocking talk. I loved it. He
talked about Joseph Smith which is my favorite subject.
Joseph Smith had a hard
life. His dad started his own little business of some sorts. I don't remember
what he did, but he sold lots of things and for payment his customers promised
to pay him when the harvest came. However, the crops failed that year and so he
lost a ton of money. Also lots of men were dishonest from the start and cheated
him of his money. Throughout the years, he tried many times to make it work by
farming but year after year the crops failed from early snow or whatever. They
moved from place to place but never had any luck.
The Smiths lived in
Vermont when the whole family got typhoid fever which nearly killed Joseph.
After they recovered, Joseph developed a pain in his leg. I think it started
somewhere else and eventually travelled there but it got to the point where
Hyrum would have to sit and squeeze the leg between his hands to relieve some
of the pain. They found one of the best surgeons in town to help out. He wanted
to amputate Joseph's leg but his mother wouldn't allow it. He then decided to
do a procedure that he'd never done before. He would cut open the leg and saw
off the infected part of the bone. And then we all know the story of how they
offered Joseph alcohol to make it a bit easier but he refused and asked that
his father hold him and that his mother leave the room. His mother heard
Joseph's anguished screams during the surgery and ran inside and recorded later
that there was blood everywhere and that Joseph's face was pale white. It took
Joseph 3 years to recover.
When the Smith's crops
failed once again, the family was forced to move away from their family and
friends in Vermont and go to New York to buy a cheap piece of farm land in
hopes of a better future. The father, Joseph Smith Sr., went ahead of
everyone to secure the land. Then his mother, Lucy, took their 11 children.
They had to move during a really harsh winter and Joseph was still on his
crutch from his recent surgery (he was 7 or 8). They hired a man to help them
make the trip and he ended up doing more harm than good. He abused Joseph and
his siblings and mother. At one point he tossed Joseph off of the wagon and
wouldn't allow him to ride. Joseph had to walk on his crutch and hurt, bloodied
leg 40 miles a day in the snow to keep up. It took them a couple months
to travel and when they were only a few miles from New York, Joseph collapsed
in the snow and couldn't go on. A kind stranger found Joseph and carried him
the rest of the way to New York. When Lucy and her children finally arrived at
the farm, she fell into her husband's arms and sobbed.
Now it makes sense why
in Joseph Smith History 1:20 he wrote, "It seems as though the adversary
was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a
disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness
combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me,
almost in my infancy?" Someone at the MTC had said that that seems a
little over dramatic and I replied that he had the leg surgery but this just
adds so much more. He had a really hard childhood and life. Many of his
children died, he was mocked, tormented, persecuted, imprisoned, and he had a
lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Look at the words of "A Poor
Wayfaring Man of Grief" and try to imagine why Joseph would want that sung
to him right before he knew he was going to die.
A couple weeks before
God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to the 14 year old Joseph Smith, Lucy
Smith recorded in her journal that one day Joseph walked out through the front
door and a bullet whizzed right in front of Joseph's face, missing him by
inches, and buried itself in the neck of a cow. Lucy wrote in her journal that
they found the place the assassin had been, behind a wagon, but that they
didn't know who or why someone wanted to kill him. Also, Joseph's grandfather
had often said or prophesied before Joseph was born that there would be a great
prophet in his family and someone who would change the history of the world.
When Joseph restored and organized the church in 1830, his grandfather
later said that he was satisfied that Joseph was the one he had talked about.
So that was President
Matthew S. Holland's talk which was great. After that was Sunday film night
where we had a choice of films or previous devotionals we can watch. My second
week I watched The Testaments and my first week I watched The Character of
Christ by Elder Bednar which was incredible. That Sunday I watched The Great
Apostasy by Tad R. Callister. I'll tell you what I wrote down from it. It was
super cool.
If the Church of Jesus
Christ had continued, the Bible would have continued instead of ending randomly
in 100 AD. The apostles went around teaching the gospel but then people
eventually started teaching the doctrine wrong just like if you're playing
telephone and the last person comes out with someone weird or off. Every time
this happened, they sent out another epistle that contained the true doctrine
to get them back on track. This is where the last books of the New Testament
come from. However, after a time the gospel got so distorted and the people got
so wicked that the Priesthood was taken off the Earth along with the true
gospel and there was no point of sending out more epistles since no one had the
full truth anymore so the Bible ended. Think about it. The Bible started with
the very beginning, Adam and Eve, and went on for centuries and millenniums. So
why would it all of a sudden stop? Because the prophets of God and the true
church were gone.
I wrote down
"Thomas Jefferson 'Cousins, In God We Trust, 156.'" In there,
Jefferson talked about how he knows that the true church isn't on the earth and
that he's waiting for it to be brought back. Look it up.
Christopher Columbus
said that he felt like God led him to the Americas. Which God did. He said it
wasn't his own thinking or mind but that he knew it was from God. Read 1 Nephi
13, especially verses 10 on. 10-12 is talking specifically about Columbus
coming to the Americas. And yes there's an actual quote somewhere from Columbus
saying this. Look that up too. (:
Next is baptism. The
baptism of infants is never mentioned in the Bible. Jesus only blessed the
children. What kind of God would come down and bless the children, knowing that
they're going to hell anyway because they haven't been sprinkled with water?
The sprinkling of water started because soon after the Great Apostasy began, an
old man who was crippled wanted to be baptized but couldn't be dunked in water
so they decided it would be ok to just sprinkle him with water and then the
practice continued. Baptism represents Christ dying, being buried, and rising
again. We're being reborn. You don't sprinkle people when they die, you bury
them. And then they'll rise again like Christ and be resurrected with perfect
bodies because of the Atonement.
If you're in a battle
and are trying to weaken the enemy, what's one of the first things you'd do?
Try to break their communication. And that's exactly what Satan did. He caused
men to alter prayer so that communication with God was corrupt. Of course God
still knows everyone and what they say and think, but he no longer answered
prayers because the prayers were distorted and not after the true order of
prayer. It's like trying to talk to someone with a broken phone or bad
connection. They can hear you but you can't hear them.
If the church of Jesus
Christ had continued, the Bible would've been made available to everyone
instead of only one person having it in Latin that few people could see. It
took so many good men and martyrs to make the Bible available to everyone and
in English or whichever language they knew.
No church was named
after Christ since the Apostasy until the 19th century. Even Martin Luther was
upset that they called his church the Lutheran church. He believed it should be
called after Jesus Christ. Christ didn't set up the Catholic, Baptist, or
Methodist church, he set up the Church of Jesus Christ.
God restored the church
as soon as he safely could. If you were flying an airplane and the engine went
out and you had to do an emergency landing, would you do it in a forest of
trees or wait until you reach a lake or clearing? You'd land as soon as you safely
could. It's the same with Christ's church. He couldn't restore it until the
United States was formed and religious freedom was granted in the constitution.
If He did it sooner then it would've been destroyed. Even in the 19th century,
so many evil men tried to overthrow it and they ended up killing Joseph Smith
just like they killed Jesus (though not in the same manner).
God didn't choose to
take the gospel away from the earth; it was because men chose not to believe
and to change or take away His doctrines like our pre-mortal life, eternal
marriage, and the nature of God.
Anyway, there was a bit
more but that's what I remember. I hope you enjoyed that. This church is true!
I know it's Christ's true church and that through the power of a God Joseph
Smith restored it.
Amos 8:11-12
11 Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
12 And they shall wander
from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro
to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
1 Timothy 4:1-3
1 Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in
hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry,
and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received
with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
Love, Sister Black
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