Mike's Talk

 "The Golden Plates lay hidden,

Deep in the mountainside.

Until God found one faithful in whom He could confide.

A record made by Nephi,

A godly man of old.

Now in the Book of Mormon the story is retold."

Remember that Primary song?  One of my favorites

Mike spoke in church today.

He was asked to speak on the conversion power of the Book of Mormon.

Click on:  Adrianne's blog  for the details.

For our family journal here is the text:

Good morning brothers and sisters, I have been asked to speak today on the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. When I received my assignment I thought, “Well, awesome, there are tons of conversion stories—this talk will be easy. After a little study, I realized that perhaps my assignment was meant to discuss the power of the Book of Mormon to convert us on a daily basis. Elder Perry has taught that conversion depends upon our feeling the Spirit. He states, “The words of the Book of Mormon invite the Holy Ghost. There is great converting power in the word of God.” Alma taught us that the word of God was “more powerful … than the sword, or anything else” in changing people’s hearts. My first thought was, while that is true, the challenges that we face today are so extreme and the writers of the Book of Mormon were teaching the people of their day, while we can liken the scriptures to our lives, they really weren’t written for us in our day so why is the reading of the Book of Mormon so important to us today? Of course it is, because this thought of mine is factually wrong—it is precisely because the major writers of the Book of Mormon fully understood that their writings were primarily for the people of a future generation rather than for the people of their own generation. Moroni wrote to our generation, “I speak unto you as if ye were present” (Morm. 8:35). The prophet Nephi stated: “Wherefore, for this cause hath the Lord God promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation, that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph, that his seed should never perish as long as the earth should stand.” In Mormon we read, “And no one need say [these records] shall not come, for they surely shall, for the Lord hath spoken it; for out of the earth shall they come, by the hand of the Lord, and none can stay it; and it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away; and it shall come even as if one should speak from the dead.” And it shall come in a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness. Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be heard of fires, and tempests, and vapors of smoke in foreign lands; And there shall also be heard of wars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the earth; there shall be murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the Lord will uphold such at the last day. But wo unto such, for they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity” (Morm. 8:26). President Ezra Taft Benson reaffirmed the fact that the Book of Mormon is of particular value to our time when he said: “The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of the book. It is a record of a fallen people, compiled by inspired men for our blessing today. Those people never had the book—it was meant for us. Mormon, the ancient prophet after whom the book is named, abridged centuries of records. God, who knows the end from the beginning, told him what to include in his abridgment that we would need for our day.”

Of the Book of Mormon and its power President Hinckley has eloquently taught: “Its appeal is as timeless as truth, as universal as mankind. It is the only book that contains within its covers a promise that by divine power the reader may know with certainty of its truth. Its origin is miraculous; when the story of that origin is first told to one unfamiliar with it, it is almost unbelievable. But the book is here to be felt and handled and read. No one can dispute its presence. …No other written testament so clearly illustrates the fact that when men [and women] and nations walk in the fear of God and in obedience to His commandments, they prosper and grow, but when they disregard Him and His word, there comes a decay that, unless arrested by righteousness, leads to impotence and death.”


We have been promised that reading the Book of Mormon will bring power to resist temptation or produce feelings of love within our families. President Benson said it this way, and the promise is sure: “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called ‘the words of life’ (see D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance. These promises—increased love and harmony in the home, greater respect between parent and child, increased spirituality and righteousness—these are not idle promises, but exactly what the Prophet Joseph Smith meant when he said the Book of Mormon will help us draw nearer to God.”


Brothers and sisters, I have an exceptional mother who, when she learned of the topic of my talk, e-mailed me this story about the power of the Book of Mormon to convert us and bless our lives. It is in the meridian magazine and the title of the article is Standing Approved by Reading the Book of Mormon. Sister Peterson is relating a story that happened in her stake 20 years prior to President Hinckley’s challenge in 2005. The story follows:


A young man in our stake, Clay Ure, decided to read the Book of Mormon that year. President Ezra Taft Benson had repeatedly asked Church members to read the Book of Mormon and Clay wanted to follow his counsel. That shouldn’t have been too much of a problem for Clay, who was in his mid-twenties—except he had Down Syndrome and he had never been able to read at all. Because he was susceptible to infection and sick most of his childhood, his attendance at school was sporadic. No special education programs for the handicapped existed in his school at the time. Though his mother, Betty, also tried many times to teach him, Clay just couldn’t learn to read. Nevertheless, she felt that she had to find a way to help him.


Clay’s father, Harold, had given him a blessing a year earlier in which Clay was promised he would be able to read. During that year, Betty used flash cards and early readers and felt they were making slow progress. Then on January 1, 1986, she received the impression to use the Book of Mormon to teach Clay to read. Not exactly an easy reader, the Book of Mormon, Betty nevertheless felt, would benefit her son more than any other book could.


Thus mother and son began 1 Nephi 1:1. Before each reading session, Betty prayed for guidance. Her goal at first was to read one verse a day word by word, but Clay began to need less help as they progressed through First and Second Nephi, Jacob, and Enos. Betty was astonished at how her son was actually reading the

Book of Mormon. On December 20, not quite a year after Clay began “I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents . . .,” he completed “And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.”


At our stake conference a month later, President O. Brent Black introduced Clay and asked him to read his favorite passage. Clay chose Moroni 10:4–5. President Black then said, “If Clay can read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, so can the rest of us.”[2]


President Joseph Fielding Smith once said, “No member of this Church can stand approved in the presence of God who has not seriously and carefully read the Book of Mormon.”


As I began preparing for this talk I was fortunate to be able to have a conversation with a good friend of mine who once again strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon was written for us and has the power to convert members and non-members alike. My friend’s name is John. He gave me permission to tell his conversion story. I met John at work shortly after returning from my mission. We struck up a friendship and in that vein discussed religion many times. I remember when I asked him to come to church when he found out it was three hours long every Sunday he told me he would never come because that was just way too much. A couple of years later a woman was hired by the company and John and began a relationship with her. I came to find out that she was an inactive member of the church whose family life had disintegrated through divorce and infidelity and caused her to leave the church she had once held dear. She had been inactive for years and years. We had some conversations about the church and she once told me eventually she would like to go to church, but nothing ever happened. In time, she and John were married and started a family of their own. John’s bride developed the feeling that she wanted her children to be raised with the gospel and started going to church. This took a lot of courage as it was done with no support from my friend. As her life began to change and the children began to learn the gospel their relationship became very strained. My friend would fight with her about the children spending equal time at his church. Needless to say, many fights occurred and much angst was felt—they even considered divorce on a few occasions. John refused even to step foot in the church because of the things he had been told about it by his friends and the church he attended. John and I had not spoken in probably a little over two years at this point, as our company had been sold and we had each taken jobs at different companies. One day he called me out of the blue almost in tears and told me that his oldest son all of 10 years old had just asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and if he thought that the family could be together after they die. John asked me, “Mike, is this really something the church believes?” I answered his question and we had a nice discussion. John told me that the primary Christmas program was the next week and the kids wanted him to go but he was scared. He ended up going and left after sacrament meeting. I remember he called me and said, “Duffy, that wasn’t what I thought it would be.” He asked me if I would come and go with him to the whole meeting the next week. We went to church and had a long discussion about the myths he had been told and about some of the things that the church believes. John started meeting with the missionaries very reservedly. When they asked him to read the Book of Mormon he refused and said they could read it to him and he would see what he thought. Thank goodness missionaries are a patient bunch. John would call me periodically and give me updates and ask questions. He began reading the Book of Mormon and continued meeting with the missionaries. But he could not take the next step. A couple of weeks later, John called me almost frantic. He said, “Duffy, I am driving home and I turned off the radio and asked God if the Book of Mormon and the Church are true. I have this feeling so strong Mike that I had to pull over on the side of the road because I am afraid I would crash. It really is true isn’t it?” I told John, “Yes my friend, it is true,” and he just kept repeating that he wanted to be baptized.


I was able to baptize my friend a year ago, January. The end of this story is the reason for my telling it. Life hit John hard. John had been out of work for almost two years due to the economy and shortly after his baptism financial trouble still lingered. He still could not find employment and entered into a little depression about it. John stopped going to church and stopped reading the Book of Mormon and told me he was just giving up on the church and everything. Life was just too hard and the church would just have to be put on the back burner. One day the missionaries stopped by with a good brother in the ward and John related what was happening and this good brother offered to give him a blessing. John told me, “Mike, the first thing I was told in the blessing was to read the Book of Mormon.” That night John said fine and picked up the book of Mormon for the first time in months. John opened to the story of Nephi being bound by his brothers. John said it struck him that Nephi never lost faith. His brothers were going to put him to death and he never gave up. John told me that the same feeling he had received in his car that night returned again and he could not contain his emotions or deny what he was feeling. With a restored faith, John returned again to the church. My friend John will be receiving the Melchezedick Priesthood today in his ward. He begins taking temple prep classes next week and in February it will be my honor to escort him as he receives his endowment and his family is sealed to each other.


Indeed the Book of Mormon has the power to convert us and thereby enrich our lives. We live in a time of great peril. Spirituality is mocked and defiled; family members and friends are struggling with testimony; merely mentioning God in a public forum can lead to public scorn and ridicule. The world economy is in meltdown; we are in a deep and destructive recession whose effects have devastated lives for years to come. Our political leaders seem more interested in preserving their wealth and powers than they do in serving. Political systems are in chaos, we are fighting wars, there are earthquakes, volcanoes are erupting and on and on. It seems to me that the pace with which these events occur is so often, that chaos has become part of our lives. Seemingly we long for peace and we are in constant need of the promise that placing our trust in the Lord will make our burdens light. I am not sure about everyone else here but for most of my life I believe that I misinterpreted the statement that my burdens will be lightened. I often thought that this statement meant that I would not have any burdens or that there would be so few that it wouldn’t really matter. One thing that life has taught me is that at least for me there will still be burdens, many of them, and with burdens there will always been pain and suffering. I don’t believe that those things will always be taken away. I think that what the Lord has promised and what the Book of Mormon fulfills is that as we read and study the book we will feel the spirit, we will be converted and we will come to the knowledge of the love that the Father and the Son have for us. Armed with this knowledge our burdens will feel lightened and while there may yet still be days and days of pain we will be able to bear our burdens easier whether they are self imposed or otherwise. Coupled with prayer the Book of Mormon is the key to our constant conversion. I have come to this personal knowledge through much self-imposed hardship and offer my personal story of conversion through the Book of Mormon. I ask for your understanding if I become a little emotional.


There was a time in my life where little by little I had drifted away from the teachings I had grown up with and knew were true and all of a sudden found myself with that flaxen cord about my neck dragging me to that place of endless woe and misery. My family fasted and prayed repeatedly for me and about me; my life was in such chaos and I felt such misery but I had convinced myself that I was so lost that I couldn’t reverse course, that there was no way to return and so it was easier to say I didn’t care and become bitter about many things.


In 2005, President Gordon B. Hinckley issued every member of the church a challenge to read or re-read the Book of Mormon that year. He promised this: “If each of you will observe this simple program [to read or reread the Book of Mormon by the end of the year], regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God. Of course my parents were determined to do what the Prophet had asked; of course I was not. Faithfully the family would meet and read the Book of Mormon together. I would sit in the other room and make snide comments and generally try to disrupt the setting. Little by little I began to listen. Eventually, I moved into the same room as my family as they read but I would not participate and sometimes my tongue would get the better of me. Undeterred the family kept going. After some time, I would join the family and sit quietly as they read from this great work. Towards the end of the year, I was a full participant in the family reading of the Book of Mormon. I began attending sacrament meetings and began again to feel the spirit. I was ready to come back and told my family I would do whatever it takes to square myself with the Lord and asked for their continued support and love. After a time I was able to return to the temple and was with my Aunt as she received her endowment. Brothers and sisters, to my family and I this challenge from a prophet and the spirit that flows from the Book of Mormon were nothing short of a miracle—it quite literally saved my soul The Book of Mormon reconverted me. While the repentance process can be long and hard it is filled with love and feelings that are frankly hard to put into words. One of the things I think happens when we as members here stories like these it that we tend to think that because a miracle occurred it was an immediate thing, I wish to stress that the process took many years, it was painful not only to me but for my parents as well. For those who may find themselves in a similar situation I wish to plead with you to return, and to the families please stay strong continue to love and teach and live the gospel.


I am thankful that I had a family willing to listen to and hearken to the words of a prophet. Because of this I am able to stand before you today and bear my witness that the Book of Mormon is true, that it has power unto conversion and that, while life will inevitably bring with it times of struggle, pain, and suffering, as we study the book we will feel the spirit, we will feel the redeeming love of the Father and the Son and our burdens will indeed feel a little less strenuous. I leave you this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
 
Mike and Adrianne made their fajitas for dinner tonight.  Josh and Meredith came over after church.  She worked on homework, and we went down to see the Koelliker's for a bit since Grayson leaves for his mission in two days.  Meredith left for Sing Noel, as she is the executive assistant for the children's choir.  She has been up to her eyeballs in it all and tonight is the last performance.  I made a raspberry bread pudding for dessert.  We also attended tithing settlement this afternoon.