 |
We have a smartphone so that's weird!!
|
This week Sister Feinga and I had so much fun! We walked a lot and
biked a lot and FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER WE TOOK THE CITY BUS
DOWNTOWN.... and we sure did meet some interesting people.
Elect? Maybe not. I just have to say that I love Little Rock. It's the
greatest little city. Picture this, Little Rock is a big ol' pot of
gumbo but the people are the veggies, various meats and ingredients
and the city itself is the pot. The first experience I'd like to share
from this week happened on Tuesday. Sister Feinga and I were walking
down the street in the afternoon and it started raining. Well, a man
pulled up beside us and asked us if he could help. He had just barely
moved to America and barely spoke English. We had to decline because
we can't accept rides from men without another woman in the car. We
did however ask him for his info and we gave him our card. We got his
phone number and sent him a text later in the week with a link to a
Mormon message. We also invited him to attend church with us. Well you
know what? He showed up! Tender mercy! Our other investigators,
Melissa and her two daughters, also came to church yesterday which we
were really happy about because they hadn't been able to come for the
past two weeks. They are doing well, considering all of the trials
they are dealing with right now, and are preparing for baptism on the
7th of October.
It's true that satan works really hard to prevent
people from doing something good. This week I felt strongly that I
needed to study Joseph Smith History to be able to help Michelle and
her daughters as they've been facing one trial after another. I
learned so much and gained a great perspective on trials, light and
darkness, and missionary work. In the history of his experiences,
Joseph Smith begins by describing his family and also the beginning of
his struggle to know which church he should join. He says,
"During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious
reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and
often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties,
though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would
permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the
Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so
great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations,
that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so
unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion
who was right and who was wrong" (v. 8).
From this verse I learned that at this time, before having the first vision,
Joseph Smith was really doing to best that he could according to the light that he
had been given. He was attending different churches, pondering and
reflecting on what was taught, and he even began to lean towards the
Methodists. He wasn't sitting around half-heartedly desiring to know
which church was true. He was actively searching. This helped me to
realize that there are good people who are doing the best that they
can and, "are only kept from the truth because they know not where to
find it" (D&C 123:12).
Also, when Joseph Smith says, "it was impossible for a person
young as I was, and so unacquainted
with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who
was wrong" really struck me, because the matter of which doctrine is
correct really doesn't involve being "acquainted with men and things",
which Joseph Smith eventually came to discover as he had a revelatory
experience with God the Father and the Son without being a "man" at
all (he was only 14 years old), and especially not a man of high rank
or education. Jospeh Smith goes on to say, "My mind at times was
greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The
Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists,
and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their
errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On
the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally
zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all
others" (verse 9). This is noteworthy because it's something that is
still happening today. How frustrating that some people and
organizations only find worth and create credibility by tearing others down.
As we know, Joseph Smith turned to the scriptures for answers
and came across James 1:5 which says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him". Joseph said, "Never did any passage of
scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at
this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every
feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that
if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not
know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would
never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects
understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy
all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible. At
length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness
and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of
God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding
that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give
liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture. So, in accordance with
this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make
the attempt.." (verses 12-14). Again, he was actively engaged in
finding an answer to his question. He studied the Bible and when he
felt the power of a specific verse of scripture, he acted upon it.
The next thing he did was pray. He went into a grove of trees near his
house and knelt down and began to "offer up the desires of his heart".
What a great example of the pattern we can all follow to receive
personal revelation. Personal revelation is real. God is our Heavenly
Father and He loves us. He is not an impersonal and obscure being who
is unknowable. We can actually go to Him with our questions and He
will actually listen and answer. Of his experience inquiring of the
Lord, Joseph Smith said, "..It was on the morning of a beautiful,
clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was
the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst
all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.
After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to
go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down
and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely
done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which
entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as
to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered
around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to
sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to
deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me,
and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and
abandon myself to destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the
power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such
marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at this
moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head,
above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it
fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from
the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two
Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing
above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and
said, pointing to the other--This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (v.15-17).
First of all, I can tell you that this is true and that it
really happened. Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus
Christ. They actually spoke to him. At this time he was instructed by
Jesus Christ to join none of the churches because they were all
corrupt, they taught as doctrine the "commandments of men". The
churches all had a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof.
But, I want to talk about what happened to Joseph Smith almost
immediately after he began to pray. It says he was seized upon by a
power of darkness, an actual being from the unseen world, which almost
completely overcame him. Why? Wasn't he doing something good? He chose
to act on the scripture he had read. He chose to kneel down and pray.
So why was he overcome and surrounded by darkness? Our investigators
are doing something good. They have chosen to be baptized. They are
trying to change their lives. So why are bad things happening to them?
I think there are a lot of possible answers, but I feel that a large
part of it is a symbol for our lives. First of all, even if and when
we choose to follow the Lord and make good choices, darkness will
still come. Trials will still come. Life will never be a walk in the
park because that's not the plan. The plan is to be tested and
refined. There must be opposition in ALL things. Secondly, I know that
satan knew long before Joseph knelt down to pray in that grove of
trees what was going to occur thereafter. The restoration of the
fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was really going to mess with
satan's plan to destroy us all. So, he did all that he could to
prevent it from happening. However, he did not succeed. Light will
always overpower darkness and good will always win in the fight
against evil. Satan knows that our investigators are going to do so
much good by being baptized and becoming members of Christ's church,
so he is doing all that he can to stop them. However, I have faith in
God and faith that good things will come.
I know that light will overrule the darkness for our investigators to be baptized
just as it did for the restoration of the gospel to come forth. The true church
of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. Jesus is the Christ
and the head of His church. Joseph Smith was a prophet and you can't
know that without praying about it, so if you don't agree I invite you
to pray and ask God. At the end of his experience, Joseph Smith says,
"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?" (v. 20). My invitation to you today is to be an annoyer of
satan's kingdom. "Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let
earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock,
they cannot prevail" (D&C 6:34).
P.s. I almost forgot, on Wednesday I got hit by a car while riding my bike!!!!
*a note from Mom Guthrie regarding Sister Guthrie being hit by a car, Bailey is fine. She was not broken or permanently damaged. I think the most painful part of it all, is the driver did not stop to see if she was ok.
 |
When target doesn't have the notebook you wanted
|
 |
My cute comp sister Feinga
|
