College Life

Another poem: Apparently I like writing longer poems. This one was also written the same as "This Path of Life" for an investigator on my mission who liked poetry:

A mother's love
For her child
Is unlike any other
Or so I've been told

Once I knew a story
Of a Father wise and pure
They say He loves His children
More perfect that a mother (Isaiah 49:15-16)

As we all know, children grow
And oft times go astray
But whenever they wish to come back
We always help them find their way

This Father that I spoke of before
Is mine and yours in heav'n above
But where is He? And why are we
Here on this Earth with pain and grief?

Well here is where the story continues
Our Father raised us, til our spirits grew
But still we lacked a few things
A body like His and our "Master's Degree"

Here on this Earth is college life
Where we have to learn all on our own
A place to learn to be
All that we can and learn to grow

But we haven't been left
With nothing to help
He's given us a few
Very special tools

A Bible and a Book of Mormon
Serve together as textbooks
And prophets today that know
Our needs are our professors.

But this is not all
We have been given
We have two more tools
More special than these


Any time we need to call
And ask for help or guidance
All we have to really do is
Get on our knees and pray

The Holy Ghost He's sent
To answer us, and act
As a tutor in anything
That we might need.

And with all these tools
We cannot fail for One
Has come before us
Christ our Savior.

He's taken all our courses
Knows the answers all by heart
And when we need that extra help
He's always there to guide us.

Now sometimes, by chance or fault
We may hurt another
We aim to please but sometimes fail
To show others how much we really care

But even as a mother
When once child hurts another
You may feel sad, to see one hurt
But still you love them both

And so it is with our Father above
When we by chance mess up and fail
His love is still there, perfect and pure
And to those we may hurt He cares for them
Just as He does for you and me.

While on this path of college life
We make mistakes to learn and grow
But when we pass, no matter how long
He's waiting for you with arms open wide

This Path of Life

A poem I found that I had written on my mission, we had an investigator who liked poetry so we wrote poems to put together for her:

This path of life
Is full of strife
Dark clouds can blind
And confuse our mind

Over rocks and boulders
We may stumble
"Oh why this heavy burden on my shoulders?"
I oft times hear myself mumble

Oh why can't I
Find peace? I cry
I can't go on anymore
This life has made me much too sore

And just when life seems at its blackest
Something registers within my soul
"Come unto me and I'll give you rest"
If only rest could be my goal

I fall to my knees
And then I see
This path I've led
Is paved ahead

Someone must have walked before
I look around to see behind me
My Savior stood there and here He bore
Me up and carried me from hence to thee

In all my times of darkest trial
My Savior walked the extra mile
He waited to rejoice in all I could do
Before He picked me up and made me like new

So do I regret these times of affliction?
And why He waited so long to come save me?
Not at all, for my life is not fiction
I learned and I grew to be all I can be

Aaronic Priesthood

I used to used "Mormon Doctrine" by Bruce R. McConkie as doctrine. Then later I realized some discrepancies between it and other writings of other apostles. To start off, the publisher's note at the very beginning says of the book, "It is a valuable tool but should not be considered an official statement of doctrine." Nowhere does it have any seal of the First Presidency, declaring it as doctrine. In Bruce R. McConkie's own words in the Preface, "For the work itself, I assume sole and full responsibility."

With that, I decided I would slowly, gradually start studying Mormon Doctrine, maybe not on a regular basis, but trying to compare it to the scriptures and other things that have been declared as doctrine.

When it describes the Aaronic Priesthood it talks about how the Aaronical or Levitical Priesthood was conferred by lineage, solely by lineage within the tribe of Levi. In my New Testament class last week someone actually asked then why do all boys receive the Aaronic Priesthood at the age of 12 in the Church? I guess before I address that question I'll tell you what McConkie thinks, "Few members of the tribe of Levi gathered with the fold of Israel in the meridian of time; few have come back to the fold of their fathers in this dispensation; and there were none among the Nephites to whom our Lord ministered. Consequently, beginning in the day of the primitive Church the lesser priesthood was spread out among the body of the people and was no longer confined exclusively to the chosen lineage."

The Bible Dictionary says, "As part of his rationale that the law of Moses was fulfilled, Paul makes a point of the contrast between the lineal requirement of the lesser priesthood and the nonlineal Melchizedek Priesthood, which was not confined to those of one tribe (see JST Heb. 7:1-3; Heb 7:11-14) The lineal restrictions of that Aaronic (Levitical) Priesthood were lifted when the law of Moses was fulfilled, and thereafter the offices of the priesthood were conferred upon worthy men without limitation to the tribe of Levi."

In class my teacher brought up that there was no Aaronic Priesthood before Moses, not as was restricted to only the Levites. The restriction came after that because the people as a whole were not ready for the fulness of the gospel, so they were given lesser laws, and a lesser Priesthood. So if Adam and Noah and Abraham had the gospel then isn't it possible that there was a form of Aaronic Priesthood before that wasn't restricted to lineage? And with the scattering of Israel, isn't it possible that even if the lineal restrictions weren't lifted when the law of Moses was fulfilled that the Levites have intermixed with the other tribes?

The last paragraph in the Bible Dictionary continues though and correlates with two scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants. "Although the Aaronic Priesthood is conferred in the Church today without restriction to the lineage of Aaron, the keys of this priesthood rightly belong to the firstborn of the seed of Aaron, and in the restoration of all things the office of bishop (president of the priests) will once again be conferred on one of that lineage, as it is designated by revelation to the president of the Church (D&C 84:14-21; 107:13-17"

D&C 107:13-17, "The second priesthood is called the Priesthood of Aaron, because it was conferred upon Aaron and his seed, through all their generations... The bishopric is the presidency of this priesthood, and holds the keys or authority of the same. No man has a legal right to this office, to hold the keys of this priesthood, except he be a literal descendant of Aaron. But as a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices, he may officiate in all the lesser offices, he may officiate in the office of bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, provided he is called and set apart and ordained unto this power by the hands of the Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood."

So the rights belonging to the tribe of Levi and also Aaron have not been done away with, the keys rightfully belong to them, but unless one is found, a member of the Melchizedek Priesthood is allowed to officiate in the offices of Bishop- an office belonging rightfully to Aaron and his descendants.

Boyd K. Packer's talk October 2010 General Conference

Alright, so there has been a lot of controversy concerning Boyd K Packer's recent talk. I want to start out by saying the Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. Let's review some basics. God is our Heavenly Father. He loves us. He wants us to be happy and wants what is best for us. Because of that He calls Prophets. We'll expound on this later. But the fact is, God is unchangeable. He is the same yesterday, today and forever- that seems to be a widely accepted Christian doctrine, and I think Jewish people also believe that. I know that they still have a lot of their traditions (and I think that's great but I think that shows that they also believe God is unchanging). So, God calls prophets to be His mouthpiece on the Earth, and throughout time we see (especially in the Old Testament) times where the people stop listening to their prophets and for awhile there is chaos and no prophetic records of anything. And then another prophet is called- surprise surprise- God STILL cares and STILL calls prophets. As members of the Church we believe in a Great Apostasy. That after Jesus Christ truths were lost because people stopped listening to what the Apostles had to say and decided THEY knew best. In Acts chapter 20 Paul is talking to a group of Elders (in the church) in Ephesus and in verse 30 tells them, "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Men in the church were going to speak perverse things or false doctrine and lead others away too. And as members of the Church we believe that all the MANY different sects of Christianity are a result of this. I mean we see that there was the Catholic Church, then comes Martin Luther, he comes up with his points that he feels aren't consistent with the scriptures- inspired yes. But God didn't call him to be a prophet. And Martin Luther wasn't trying to set up a church- a group of others convinced him he was their leader and then formed a church. Then there were other churches and other break offs, people deciding things should be a certain way- some of them may have even been right, I'm not the judge. BUT then we have Joseph Smith. What makes our Church different from other Christian churches is we believe God called a Prophet in the latter-days to guide us, just like He called prophets in times of old and that a Prophet leads and guides us today. That is what makes us different- we believe we are following a Prophet of God who speaks DIRECTLY FOR God and that the doctrines are His and NOT ours or what we want them to be.

So now back to prophets. What and who are they? For Bible scholars there is Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Joseph Smith Translation, which I believe is safe to say all members of the Church at least believe in clarifies and says that it would be "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, UNTIL he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." The Lord uses prophets to guide us. He did not flood the Earth until he warned the people of a flood and gave them a chance to escape. He did not even free his chosen House of Israel from bondage in Egypt UNTIL he had warned the Pharoah. All the Old Testament stories would follow this pattern and we believe it is still the same today.