Hello, again! I hope transfers went smoothly for all of you and y’all are enjoying your new companions (if applicable). Looking back, being transferred was a lot more beneficial than I initially thought. The mystery of how long I’d be in an area forced me out of my shell–especially in church meetings. When I know I’m going to be in a ward for a while, I tend not to make meeting people a priority. I should make it more of a priority lol. That’s actually what we talked about at FHE this week. Matt Townsend came to speak at a fireside at the SLCC institute building. He talked about how it’s a covenant that we’ve made to minister to our neighbors and our brothers and sisters, but we can’t really do that when we don’t know them. He talked about a lot more, but that’s mainly what I got out of it.. pretty sure there was some false doctrine somewhere in his hour long talk.. but all well I guess? Anyway, the next morning, when I was about to head off to work, I found a receipt on the windshield… or so I thought. Apparently the parking lot I parked in was an SLCC parking lot and not a SLCC INSTITUTE parking lot (they’re literally right next to each other), so I got a $10 ticket for not having a parking permit. WHAT!? SAVAGE!! At least it’s only $10… but still… das messed up!
Along with the $10 I payed for parking… I did some calculations this week and decided to get Adobe CC (Creative Cloud) for $240… for this year only. It’s a super good student discount! Without the student discount it was like $600/yr. I calculated that it would take approximately 10yrs of CC payments before reaching the equivalent of what I would have payed for for CS6.. assuming I get the student discount for all 10 of those years, but I don’t. Only one, I believe 🙁 But CC should keep me somewhat busy over the summer. I did some stuff with Premier Pro and After Effects in high school and I enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to doing some sweet projects. And I can finally learn how to use Photoshop! I also found out that my step-dad owns a green screen and a 1080/60p DSLR camera that he doesn’t really use.. so I’m pretty pumped. The only other things that would be super convenient to have are some studio lighting equipment, a mic stand, actions essentials 2 for AE, and a better video card on my computer. But y’all don’t need to know about all of that xD Sorry, got excited.
Honestly, that’s about all that happened this week. I got a lot of extra hours in at work and re-arranged/organized my room yesterday but that’s about it. Not too eventful! Oh yeah, I guess I had a meeting on Thursday night about Home Teaching/training on what all my calling entails for being a home teaching District Supervisor. It’s basically the same as a mission. Commit my district to do home teaching and hold them accountable to it. I’ve been trying to think of benefits to having a unified district and how we can help each other.
I have a big spiritual thought today.. hopefully I can write it in a way that makes sense to all of you xD I finished the book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon this week and I saw something I wanted to share. Previously when I’ve read the Book of Mormon, I’d annotate in some questions that I had for me to ponder. Sometimes, I never went back and answered them. I found some of those markings in Mormon 3. A little background, Mormon is made the leader of the Nephite armies and they go to battle a few times but then they come to a more “peaceful” time when the Lamanites and the Nephites aren’t battling. Mormon seeks to make the most of this time in preparing for the next battles. In verse 2 of ch 3, the Lord speaks to Mormon, “And it came to pass that the Lord did say unto me: Cry unto this people–Repent ye, and come unto me, and be ye baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.” What I found interesting was more in the next verse, “And I did cry unto this people, but it was in vain; and they did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them, and granted unto them a chance for repentance. And behold they did harden their hearts against the Lord their God.” My notation by this verse reads, “Why did the Lord command Mormon to preach to the Nephites if it was in vain?” Think about that for a second. If God KNEW they wouldn’t accept the gospel, why did He command Mormon to preach it? Let’s keep reading.
In the same chapter, they go to battle again and the Nephites win. Because the Nephites get cocky and prideful about their meaningless victory, Mormon refuses to lead them from that time on. I think verse 12 helps clarify why he did that. “Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and loved them according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts.” Put yourself in Mormon’s shoes. Has that ever happened to you? I know it has for me–when God has commanded me to preach to a people that don’t accept what I’m trying to tell them. I get frustrated! I put a lot of work into them, I tried teaching them, I’ve prayed for them out of a sincere love, and yet their hearts are so hard that it seems like they will never accept the gospel. They haven’t changed a bit since I started with them! I admit, at those times, I, too, lost faith in them and in my calling to the point of discouragement. I started to give up on them because all hope seemed to be lost.
Fast-forward a bit to Mormon 5:1 (the very next verse after Mormon recovered the plates) “And it came to pass that I did go forth among the Nephites, and did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them; and they gave me command again of their armies, for they looked upon me as though I could deliver them from their afflictions.” I can’t help but to think of the section “No Effort is Wasted” in PMG after reading that verse. “When people do not accept the gospel, do not be discouraged. You have raised a warning voice. You have given them a clear choice. Disciples of Christ feel sorrow when people choose not to repent, but they maintain a vision of who they are and what they are doing. They continue to diligently move forward.”
Perhaps this is a reason why and is what is meant when Moroni writes this in verse 31 of Mormon 9, “Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.”
Going back to the original question: “Why did the Lord command Mormon to preach to the Nephites if it was in vain?” While I don’t have a cannon answer for that question, I have a few suspicions. Assuming his “leading the army” was symbolic of him actually preaching the gospel, maybe Mormon was commanded to preach to them solely for this dispensation’s benefit and learning. We have someone we can now look to who WAS diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord when there really WAS no hope. How much more, then, should we be diligent in bringing our brothers and sisters into the fold when there is ABSOLUTELY hope! This is the last dispensation! The ending has been prophesied! We’ve been taught and understand that, in the end, this time the Lord will rein triumphant! We shouldn’t give up on such a glorious ending 🙂 Another possibility is simply to teach Mormon. Perhaps it was just God’s way of helping Mormon keep the covenant he made to “always remember [Jesus Christ]” amidst a world full of doubt and destruction. Perhaps all of these were reasons! Or maybe, there WAS hope for the Nephites to be saved in the end and things would have been different had Mormon prayed in faith. What do you think? No matter the reason, however, we can see that the Lord blessed him and his son for obeying.
Sorry for such a long email today haha. Hopefully it helps in some way shape or form.. assuming you’ve read it this far :O Have a FANtastic week! Y’all are in my prayers.
Cameron Crowther
(P.S. I met 2 of the sister’s investigators today. I’m REALLY hoping I can start going to lessons with them now. One of them seems pretty solid. He asked me a really hard question after Gospel Principles today that I couldn’t quite answer.. and he was completely understanding that I didn’t have an exact answer, too! Unlike some people..)