Sunday, December 14, 2008

"A man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book."

Today in mission prep we were talking about the Book of Mormon and it all sounded rather familiar...and then I realized it was because we had gone over the same chapter of Preach My Gospel in mission prep in my singles ward back home over the summer...and that reminded me of how our teacher had challenged us to write out some "questions of the soul" and then to go and see what answers we could find in the Book of Mormon. It was a neat little experiment. I wrote out maybe five or six questions and within twenty minutes had found specific, thorough answers to each of them in more than one place. I had expected to find answers, of course, but I hadn't realized it would be so easy...I ought to keep that in mind.
Then, just as I was thinking about the Book of Mormon in general, I remembered one night where I had been reading, and it really hit me how real it all is to me. I know that all the people mentioned in it really lived, and I love them! I love Captain Moroni's strength and tenacity. I love Pahoran's amazing example of forgiveness and not taking offense. I love Nephi's obedience and humility. I love King Benjamin's leadership. I can't wait to meet these people when I die.

And I should've raised my hand and said all that when the teacher asked if we had any thoughts on the Book of Mormon, but I didn't.
So I'm sharing it in the blogosphere.

Happy Sunday everyone.

3 comments:

Vae Gannon said...

Thank's for your testimony, Katie, and your willingness to share it on such a public forum.

Ash said...

Okay. So I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Especially about how real they all are. Like the people? Everyone? It's all so real! Whereas before when I was younger it was like... not. They weren't really people, but characters.
I was reading yesterday about Ammon and Aaron and their brothers, and how Ammon was talking about how much they'd done, how many people had been converted, and how great it all was, and I just had to laugh when Aaron "rebuked" him. They argued! :) Two great men in the book of mormon, brothers, argued! :) Isn't that so like two brothers? Course, their argument is like, "oh kind brother, I'm afraid you're boasting" but hey. It's an argument. :P Haha. THey're human!
Anyway. I thought it was funny.

Yeah Anyway. Stupid, I know. But I liked it.

Katya said...

haha no, i totally know what you mean! or the part where moroni sends that super angry letter to pahoran being like "why aren't you helping me out here?! you have neglected to do this, this, and this and our people are dying for it! you are a traitor!" and then pahoran writes back being like, "oh well, the government's just been taken over and i had to flee...you really let it all out on me, but i'm not mad, i rejoice because of the greatness of your heart!" haha, i just love that. i would've been so mad at moroni and wanted to be like, "you have no idea what I'VE had to put up with here! how dare you say that to me!" but pahoran's like, "oh, moroni. how he cares for his people!" haha i don't know, it just makes me smile. i love these people. :)