Marathon Completed

Last night I was privileged to sit in on another ward's Young Women group who were spending two full days of their Christmas vacation together reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover. They had readers scheduled to come in to read aloud for thirty minutes each so the girls could follow along. I read my section at 7:30 last night.

The portion I read was the last chapters of 3rd Nephi, the book of 4th Nephi and the beginning of Mormon. As I read I was struck with the thought that God really does fulfill His promises. He remembers His covenants with His people. I felt the Spirit in that room reaffirming to me this book was true and the lessons in it were for us and our time.

I hope the girls who participated felt that as well. I know that after that much reading your mind can get a little mushy and you start to get a little punchy. And that happened too, but the Spirit was still there and these girls had been soaking in it for two days. That has to have some kind of influence on them.

That book has a power that, if you have read it, you cannot deny.

On Christmas day a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door again. One of the ladies has stopped by several times and always visits with me about some sense of destruction and the end of the earth, and she seems to be trying to teach that God will be the only solution to these crises.

While I believe God will ultimately have his hand in the final hours of the earth's degeneration, I also know that the Gospel, as I understand it, is the hope that we can look to in order to not be obsessed with that gloom and doom mentality. The Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is one of hope and optimism and joy. Sure, troubles come and bad things can happen but the Lord is with His children and He will bless us too.

As this lady and her friend tried to teach me of the earth's destruction, on Christmas day no less, I testified to her that the end was not all to be feared. That Christ is the Redeemer and He has provided a way for us. I read to her the Lord's words to the Nephites the night before his birth in Bethlehem. I told her that this book was my gift to her and that I considered its teaching treasures given to me by a loving Heavenly Father. It was a companion to the prophesies of the Old Testament that she has readily shared with me, and another witness of the teaching given in the New Testament, where Jesus lived and taught and died and was resurrected.

She wouldn't take the copy of the Book of Mormon I offered her. Her explanation was that if she took it, she would not be believing what she already knew. I told her that was right. She would know so much more. I told her that we believe many things that are very similar. We know there is a God who is in control of the world. We know He gave the world prophets in the olden times. And that as a true and living God those prophesies will come to pass. All I was giving her was an extension of understanding to what she already had. She still wouldn't take the copy I offered her.

There is power in this book and she recognized that, in some way. I hope the Young Women in the 6th ward who participated in their Book of Mormon Readathon will recognize that power too and with any luck, that power will sink deep into their hearts and be the foundation of a stronger and deeper testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel on the earth today.