The Publishing of the Scriptures

We didn't have Doctrine and Covenants this past week because 1)there was a holiday and 2)he gave us a day to visit the Crandall Printing Museum. I didn't visit the museum because I already had for his class last year. It is extremely interesting and I encourage anyone who can to go and check it out. They take you through the history of the printing press, beginning with the Gutenberg press, up until the present time. I had never realized how detailed a process it was to create the printing press in the begining--what with the casting of the letters and getting them to face the correct direction, the consistency of the ink, and the organization of the letters into pages, etc. Having grown up with printers hooked into computers I never appreciated the process of printing before. Aside from the invention of the printing press in all its complexity, it also never occured to me how perfectly everything worked out for the printing of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Covenants. The church was lucky to have access to a printing press in the the places where it was needed in order to bring forth the scriptures. Because of the invention of the printing press, people all over the world have been able to read the words of the prophets, old and new. It made access to the scriptures affordable to the common person. Without it, the gospel would not have spread as it has and there would be people all over the world who would not have the joys associated with reading the scriptures.

Enduring Life's Trials

This past week we studied the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants where Joseph is in Liberty Jail. Unfortunately I wasn't actually able to make it to either of the class periods when we talked about it, and I feel like I really needed it. However, I did read the sections and I gleaned one great comfort: No matter how hard my life is, there are those who have endured much worse. Before sitting down to write this I had been extremely stressed out from forgetting to take a test for one of my classes and not knowing if I could make it up--even partially. I came to the realization that I had forgotten it in the middle of a BYU basketball game and immediately started feeling sick and had to leave the game so I could try to deal with it. I came home crying from all the stress. But when I sat down to write this it all came into perspective. I've never had to deal with any trials that even compare to what Joseph Smith and others have had to deal with. They've been torn away from everything they value and they still lived their lives diligently. I can find comfort in my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ just as they did.

The Pattern of Cleanliness

As I talked about in a previous blog, we have to become clean--and continue in that cleanliness in order to receive our divine inheritance. In our class this week we talked about the temple and some of the ordinances done in the temple. Having never been through the temple I haven't witnessed or received any of the ordinances which take place there, but from what I have learned about them I can see that many of them are representative of Christ's ministry to the people in his time. He baptized people, washed their feet, and pronounced them clean--along with many other things during His time. Many of the accounts describe people being made clean and/or whole through their faith in Him. The great thing about the temple, at least in my opinion, is that we can still have the same cleansing relationship with Him even though He is not currently here in a bodily form. We can still follow Him and receive the blessings He gave during His lifetime.

Zion

In Doctrine and Covenants last week we covered the concept of Zion or the New Jerusalem. Joseph Smith and the early saints began to establish this New Jerusalem in Missouri, but they were driven out. Why? There is no single answer, but a great part of it is simply that they were not living a Zion-like life. Zion is a place where the people are united in their hearts and minds and don't sin. Members began pouring into Jackson County--contrary to the directions of the Prophet--and instead of putting all their efforts into building up the house of the Lord once they themselves had been settled enough, they worked towards their own personal (and unnecessary) gain. They were not united, in heart and mind, with the wishes and directions of God and so God allowed them to be persecuted and driven out of the land. Zion is meant to be a place where everyone can live in happiness, but we are the ones who are going to have to make it that way. It won't happen over night, but it will come if we unite ourselves with the will of our Heavenly Father. When we worry about pleasing Him first, he will take care of us and help us reach this state.