Letter to the Class

image Brothers and sisters,  The dream of Nebakanezer is on where revelation happened first and Interpretation second. Daniel was told, "Tell me my dream and then it's interpretation." We are in a world where we are asked to privately interpret the scriptures one verse at a time, having to know the book, chapter and verse. How about knowing the scriptures as God knows them. Jesus didn't quote chapter and verse but the words and intents of the verse from revelation. The Spirit works with us on a individual bases and collectively as a church through prophets so that scriptures can have a fist full of meanings that apply to us as God children but also in those quiet moments as a child of God. The hymn says, "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus proffer me." Do you know what that means? The term proffer vs offer, is a subtle one. One, I hold the offering and you take it (offer), the other I put the offering in your hand (proffer) an you either accept...

image Brothers and sisters, It's the Christmas season and the same time of year when my family celebrates my son's birthday. My son was born in Virginia when we lived there. My wife at the time had wonderful friends who marveled at the faith, hope, and charity she exhibited with joy in her countenance. She impressed her non-LDS friends with her knowledge of the scriptures and willingness to watch and teach her friend's children at their own church. My wife, Shelly, shared her time and talents with her Baptist friends in their church as it was a place for the children to play and the faithful Baptists to gather on a Wednesday.  Shelly spent time with the children while her friends would listen to a sermon by a preacher in the next room. She would share the blessing of the Old Testament with the children, and I learned how the children would pull themselves away from the tots and playground to hear her stories of Daniel, Noah, and Jonah, just to name a few. When t...

image Brothers and sisters, We are asked to invite the Spirit, entice the Spirit, and persuade others to do good because we know the Spirit, because it's from God (Moroni 7:13). Some times it seems like it is asking us to row in a storm with title waves in a canoe or kayak. Hang on. Others see your strength and go from mocking it to admiring it to wanting it to. Moroni spent his life reflecting on the Spirit that his dad had and saw how it changed others. Then when he became a adult no one wanted what he wanted. Yeah it was rough but he cleaved to that Spirit, to that message. When we are asked to cleave and lay hold (or sieze), your not just grabbing it but using it and sharing it (Moroni 7:28). Part of me I thought of the word siege, where we surround the desire and close in on it. Well, when that's the Spirit, he can be slippery and we don't want it to leave and our imperfections get in the way. What can we do to keep him in our lives? The relationship you ha...

image “As a great Christian writer (George MacDonald) pointed out,” Lewis references, “every father is pleased at the baby's first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, he said, 'God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.”   We cannot just start and expect the start of a journey and think that it is the end just because you left heavens door and say, "yep done." In two talks by Elder Utdorff I found that the darkest times is when we shine the brightest . Moroni was alone for a long time attempting to finish his father's work. He had no idea how it was going to end or who would read his father's work. All he had was faith that the message of the Book of Mormon would get to the listener that needed it. Should he had seen how the message was going to rest a thousand plus years or would written in his home language and that language was going to be lost and u...

Neal A Maxwell has told us, “God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability” (“It's Service, Not Status, That Counts,” Ensign July 1975). Moroni was worried about his weakness when he said... "Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;  And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, ...

image Faith and Reason CS Lewis wrote... "In getting a dog out of a trap, in extracting a thorn from a child’s finger, in teaching a boy to swim or rescuing one who can’t, in getting a frightened beginner over a nasty place on the mountain, the one fatal obstacle may be their distrust.... We ask them to believe that what is painful will relieve their pain, and that which looks dangerous is their only safety. We ask them to accept apparent impossibilities: that moving the paw farther back into the trap is the way to get it out—that hurting the finger very much more will stop the finger from hurting, that water which is obviously permeable will resist and support the body… that to go higher and onto an exposed ledge is the way not to fall." God asks that we use our faith to combat the reason that incorporates our fear to cause that internal wrestle, do we trust God or our senses? Martin Harris wrestled with his faith and he taught proof over and over again but it wa...