My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 46-48 in a lesson titled “Seek Ye Earnestly the Best Gifts.” It was introduced by the following information.
As Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, and Peter
Whitmer Jr. left Kirtland and moved on to continue preaching the gospel,
they left more than 100 new members of the Church who had plenty of zeal but
little experience or direction. They had no instructional handbooks, no
leadership training meetings, no broadcasts of general conference—in fact, they
didn’t even have enough copies of the Book of Mormon to go around. Many of
these new believers had been drawn to the restored gospel by the promise of
marvelous manifestations of the Spirit, especially those described in the New
Testament (see, for example, 1 Corinthians
12:1–11). But many found it hard to identify true manifestations of
the Spirit. Seeing the confusion, Joseph Smith prayed for help. The Lord’s
answer is valuable today, when people often deny or ignore the things of the
Spirit. He reaffirmed that spiritual manifestations are real. He also clarified
what they are: gifts from a loving Heavenly Father, “given for the benefit of
those who love [Him] and keep all [His] commandments, and him that seeketh so
to do” (Doctrine and Covenants
46:9).
This scripture block contain several principles, including (1) The Savior
welcomes all who want to worship in His Church (Doctrine and Covenants 46:1-7),
(2) Heavenly Father gives me spiritual gifts to bless others (Doctrine and
Covenants 46:7-33), (3) The Lord wants His Church to keep a history (Doctrine
and Covenants 47), and (4) The Holy Ghost can direct me as I fulfill my calling
(Doctrine and Covenants 47). This essay will discuss principle #3 “The Lord
wants His Church to keep a history” taught in Doctrine and Covenants 47.
John Whitmer was the first Church historian in this dispensation, and he
was charged to keep a history of the Church. In doing so, he continued in a
long tradition of record keepers among God’s people. Here are a few references
about record keeping.
1 Behold, it is
expedient in me that my servant John should write and keep a regular history…
(Doctrine and Covenants 47). (Emphasis added.)
11 For I command all men,
both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in
the islands of the sea, that they shall write the
words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written
I will judge the
world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.
12 For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and
they shall write it;
and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it;
and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I
have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations
of the earth and they shall write it (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 19:11-12).
(Emphasis added.)
28 But I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology running back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, which I hold unto this present time.
31 But the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs,
concerning the right of Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own
hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of
the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the
fathers, have I kept even unto this day, and I shall endeavor to write some
of these things upon this record, for the
benefit of my posterity that shall come after me (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham
1:28, 31).
The
Lord commanded His Church and His disciples to keep records. Current Church
members are blessed by the records kept in previous generations. Children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are blessed when parents, grandparents,
and great-grandparents keep personal records and do family history work. You
can also work on your family history at FamilySearch.org. Find your family. Free
Genealogy Archives
The
following is an excerpt from the personal history of my father, and this small
story has been used in many lessons and talks by his posterity. My parents
married on October 2, 1929, just weeks prior to the crash of the stock market
and the beginning of the Great Depression.
We
lived our first winter on the farm, living in the old granary. It was cold. If
we hadn’t cuddled up together, we would have froze. We lived on love and
potatoes, canned peaches and the cream check from one red cow. We had to haul
our water in a fifty gallon barrel for half a mile on a drag pulled by one
horse.
There
was no work; that was the fall of the big depression.
Father
had given me a small stack of hay for helping on the farm. It came the end of
the year and tithing settlement. We had only a few dollars but we decided to
pay it for tithing. The very next day
down our lane came a car. In it were Brother and Sister ___ _______. They said,
“We heard you had some hay for sale.” They paid us $115.00 for our hay. I met
Roy in the temple recently. I said to him, “Do you remember that stack of hay
you bought from us when we were first married?” He said, “I sure do.” I said
that saved our lives; he said, “And that hay saved ours.”
Elder
Henry B. Eyring spoke about keeping personal records in his address at the
October 2007 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. In his talk titled “O Remember, Remember,” he taught the following: O
Remember, Remember
When
our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what
happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from
a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us,
surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a
load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work
clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream
below us up to our property.
He
smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with
his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing
for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind – not in my own voice
– these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them
down.”
I
went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper
and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my
mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future,
how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do
what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done
it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of
Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that
my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.
I
wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how
tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would
write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out
to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began
to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what
God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the
day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to
remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.
More
than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more
certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more
gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of
the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can
bring all things to our remembrance – even things we did not notice or pay
attention to when they happened.
The
years have gone by. My boys are grown men. And now and then one of them will
surprise me by saying, “Dad, I was reading in my copy of the journal about when
…” and then he will tell me about how reading of what happened long ago helped
him notice something God had done in his day.
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