This week at the lunches there was
this little baby chicken wandering around the floor. While we ate it pecked our
legs and shoes and kept biting the scabs of one of the sisters. It was a pretty
funny lunch.
Another day we were getting on a bus
to head back to our area from the food and this guy started going off on us
about how all prophets just want money and all leaders are corrupt and he went
on and on about nothing. While on the bus we were standing up in the isles
holding on to the rails because there were no seats and he sat up a few rows
from us and he kept periodically turning around and angrily saying stuff
swearing and flipping us off. We both just kind of chuckled and never said
anything because the guy was drunk. But it must have looked really strange on
the bus because no one was saying anything except for this guy every once and a
while blurting out angrily at us. On his way out he turned around and set a
curse on us and on God. It was a pretty interesting way to wrap up the day.
Later in the week we had a lesson
from President Chavez. He started out by
giving us a scenario where we were going to die this weekend and we had to
write a letter to our families in our notes with our last words. He then had
someone hand them their letter and he was going to read it to us. He made a
comment on the bad hand writing and uninterestedly read through it, said that
this is garbage to me, threw it on the floor and asked for the letter of
someone else. He read the letter of a sister but with a nice voice and with
pauses.
He then said that the first one was
actually good and there wasn’t anything wrong with it, it was the guy leaving
an assignment for his siblings to find medicine for his sick mom. He then
related that to the Book of Mormon. He said it contains the pure and deep
feelings of the prophets and often times we as members or missionaries treat
their words like the president treated the first letter he read.
He said to more appreciate the Book
of Mormon we have to understand how the book came to be. How it came to be in
our hands. How much work was done, how much sacrifice was made, and how much
blood shed to get the book to you.
Nephi had two plates, not referring to
the plates that he took from Laban. When he got to America the lord commanded
him to make some plates. He had the larger plates and the smaller plates. The
larger plates had to do more with the governance and the history than with the
things of God. They were resumed by Mormon and stuck into the golden plates by Mormon.
The smaller plates which come first
(Nephi to Omni) are the revelations and spiritual things. And they were
inserted in the gold plates. Then later came the plates of Ether. And they were
resumed and inserted by Moroni in golden plates. The plates of Ether came from
24 other plates of gold from the history of a destroyed people. The seal in the
golden plates was in the last part and covered much of the plates of Ether. From
the testimonies of the people who saw the plates of gold that Joseph Smith had
estimated different amounts sealed off so we aren’t sure how much is sealed. After
Joseph Smith, the plates of gold were taken by angel Moroni.
He then talked about the book of Lehi.
It was in the larger plates at first then moved to the smaller plates by Mormon.
They initially had lots of temporal info so for that reason they were in the
larger plates.
He then told the story of the 116
pages and how martin Harris was given the translations and he lost them. And
how Joseph Smith lost his right to revelation for around two months. In 1 Nephi
1:4, it starts telling story of Lehi because the lord knew that the pages would
be lost and he told Nephi to write the most important stuff. So the book of Lehi
is resumed in the first eight chapters.
The Book of Mormon has the answer to
everything in the fullness of the gospel. If we don’t know why we have rules
like the ones we do, it is because we aren’t reading the Book of Mormon like we
should. He pointed out that we don’t really have that many rules other missions
have giant binders of rules. He said that is how it should be. Less rules.
We should be more aligned and in tune
with the spirit to not have to refer to lists. He said he thinks that in the millennium
the Ten Commandments are going to cease to be because we will be closer and
more aligned with the will of God. In other missions, they have tons of rules
because of worse behavior. The fewer rules we have assigned to us the more
righteous we are. Because we are anxiously engaged in the doing the right and
not because we are told to but because we want to.
Before the restoration Satan ruled
the world. It was his kingdom underneath his control. So the minute that Joseph
Smith opened his mouth saying he had seen God, Satan threw everything he had at
him. Joseph Smith didn’t have just any golden plates, he carried the salvation
of millions. The life changing tool.
What if he would have let the
opposition against him impede him from getting the job done, what if he just
used excuses. Satan would still be reining over the world. There were no
excuses, he went and did what he needed to do. And because of that, we have the
Book of Mormon today. Satan doesn't rule anymore. Knowing this we should put a
little more effort in when reading or teaching about it.
Love Elder Blanchard
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