Lessons Learned from the Sacred Grove

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