Gonna Need a Map

Jared was asked to speak in church today at his deployed location. He sent me a copy of the talk and I loved it so much I wanted to share it. Enjoy!

In my line of work, I need to be able to read a map, use it and be able to navigate with it.  Luckily for me, this is something I learned at a young age in Boy Scouts and then as I got older built upon in the military.  Now when someone mentions “Land Nav” or Land Navigation, I actually get pretty excited to use the skills I have developed over my lifetime.  There are a few important things on a Map and I would like to explain a few of them to you.

First, a map needs to have the 4 main cardinal directions; North, South, East, and West.  North is the top and South is the bottom.  West is to the left and East is to the right.  Pretty basic stuff really.

Second, a map needs a scale.  Something to be able to relate to or measure distance.  It’s kind of important to know how far you need to go or how long it is going to take

Third, there are symbols on the maps.  These represent real-world things like buildings, trails, roads and rivers

Fourth, and maybe most important is the Map Legend.  This will list all of the symbols and explain what each one means.  Because if you don’t know what the symbols mean, how will you know what is on the map?

The bottom line, to get where you are going, you’re gonna need a map!

Luckily for us, the Lord has also given us a helpful Legend to navigate this map we call life. 

Romans 15:4

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

The Lord has given us the Map Legend for this life.  The Scriptures.

When you look on LDS.org you will see two different sections under the “Scriptures and Study” tab.  

First, a list of the canonized volumes of scriptures that we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints use.  Namely, the Holy Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.  We carry these with us in hard copy or now, simply our devices. 

Second, there is a tab for “Prophetic Teachings”.  Under this tab, it has General Conference, Teachings of the Presidents, and Living Prophets and Church Leaders.

These two areas of Scripture and Study go hand in hand.  You cannot get the most out of either one source without using them together.  

Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated the following:

“Because of our belief in continuing revelation, we Latter-day Saints maintain that the canon (the authoritative body) of scriptures is open. In fact, the scriptural canon is open in several ways, and continuing revelation is crucial to each of them.

First, we believe that God will guide his children by giving new additions to the existing body of scriptures through the prophet and the established procedures of his Church. The Book of Mormon is such an addition. So are the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, including sections 137 and 138 [D&C 137; D&C 138], which were added in our lifetime.

Second, we believe that God will give new revelations on the meaning of scriptures previously canonized, meanings that were not evident in earlier times. These new revelations are of two types: public and private.”

Imagine sitting on the Hill as Jesus taught the Beatitudes. Or Pitching our tents in the fields as King Benjamin gave his final address.  Listening to Samuel the Lamanite deliver his message from the wall.  How about listening to Joseph Smith teach in the school of prophets?  Imagine, sitting and listening to our prophet today teach us about things that are affecting our lives today.

So, invitation number 1…General Conference is almost here.  We get to do this!  We get to hear the “new revelations” Elder Oaks speaks of.  And with technology and print, we get to study them for the next 6 months and longer.  Try to get the most out of all sessions of conference (to include the women’s session).  Treat this like living scripture specifically designed for you.  Go into conference this year with a question you want to be answered and prayerfully seek that answer.  You have been promised that you will receive it. 

Now to study the scriptures, you need to appreciate them.  With the technology and the ease of being able to hold them today, you would think that we would have the greatest amount of knowledge and understanding of the doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ embedded in our minds and hearts.  While the knowledge is as easily accessible as it has ever been, I am feeling like our strength in these doctrines might be weakening.  Maybe it’s easier to google it than learn it?

There is an importance to learning the scriptures and imprinting them on your heart.  I give you the story of Brother Francesca, an Italian Protestant Minister in the early 1900s, as an example:

As I think back to the events in my life leading to a cold morning in New York City in February 1910, I cannot escape the feeling that God had been mindful of my existence. That morning the caretaker of the Italian chapel delivered a note to me from the pastor. He was ill in bed and wished me to come to his house, as he had important matters to discuss regarding the affairs of the parish.

As I walked down Broadway, the strong wind from the open sea moved the pages of a book lying on a barrel full of ashes. The form of the pages and the binding gave me the idea that it was a religious book. Curiosity pushed me to approach it. I picked it up and beat it against the barrel to knock off the ashes. It was printed in the English idiom, but when I looked to the frontispiece, I found it was torn away.

The fury of the wind turned the pages, and I hastily read Alma, Mosiah, Mormon, Moroni, Isaiah, Lamanites—except for Isaiah, all were names I had never before heard. I wrapped the book in a newspaper I had bought nearby and continued my walk toward the pastor’s house.

After a few words of comfort there, I took accord of what I should do for him. On the way home, I wondered who the people with the strange names might be. And who was this Isaiah? Was he the one in the Bible or some other Isaiah?

At home, I seated myself before the window, anxious to know what was printed in the book. As I turned the torn pages and read the words of Isaiah, I was convinced that it was a religious book that talked of things to come. But unknown was the name of the church that taught such doctrine because the cover and frontispiece had been stripped off. The declaration of the witnesses gave me confidence that it was a true book.

I then bought twenty cents’ worth of denatured alcohol and some cotton at the neighborhood drugstore and began cleaning the pages. For several hours I read the remainder of the pages, which gave me light and knowledge and left me charmed to think of the source from which this fresh revelation had come. I read and reread, twice and twice again, and I found it fit to say that the book was a fifth gospel of the Redeemer.

At the end of the day, I locked the door of my room, knelt with the book in my hands, and read chapter ten of the book of Moroni. I prayed to God, the Eternal Father, in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, to tell me if the book were of God, if it were good and true, and if I should mix its words with the words of the four gospels in my preaching.

I felt my body become cold as the wind from the sea. Then my heart began to palpitate, and a feeling of gladness, as of finding something precious and extraordinary, bore consolation to my soul and left me with a joy that human language cannot find words to describe. I had received the assurance that God had answered my prayer and that the book was of greatest benefit to me and to all who would listen to its words.

I continued my services in the parish, but my preaching was tinged with the new words of the book. The members of my congregation were so interested that they became dissatisfied with my colleagues’ sermons. When members began leaving the chapel during their sermons and remained when I occupied the pulpit, my colleagues became angry with me.

The beginning of real discord began Christmas Eve, 1910. In my sermon that evening, I told the story of the birth and mission of Jesus Christ as given in my new book. When I had finished, some of my colleagues publicly contradicted all I had said. They denounced me and turned me over to the Committee of Censure for disciplinary action.

When I appeared before this committee, the members gave what they supposed to be fatherly advice. They counseled me to burn the book, which they said was of the devil since it had caused so much trouble and had destroyed the harmony of the pastoral brothers. I replied, “I will not burn the book because of the fear of God. I have asked him if it were true, and my prayer was answered affirmatively and absolutely, which I feel again in my soul as I defend his cause now.” I felt then that the day would come when the book would be no more unknown to me and I would be able to enjoy the effects of the faith that led me to solemnly resist the Committee of Censure.

Not until 1914 was I once again brought before the council. The vice venerable spoke in a friendly tone, suggesting that the sharp words at the previous hearing may have provoked me, which was regrettable since they all loved me. However, he said, I must remember that obedience is the rule and that I must burn the book.

I could not deny the words of the book nor burn it since in so doing I would offend God. I said that I looked forward with joy to the time when the church to which the book belonged would be made known to me and I could become part of it. “Enough! Enough!” the vice venerable cried. He then read the decision, which was backed by the supreme synod three weeks later: I was to be stripped of my position as a pastor of the church and of every right and privilege I had previously enjoyed.

In November 1914, I was called into the Italian army and saw action in France. Once I related to some men in my company the story of the people of Ammon—how they had refused to shed the blood of their brothers and had buried their arms rather than be guilty of such great crimes. The chaplain reported me to the colonel, and the next day I was escorted to the colonel’s office. He asked me to tell him the story I had related. Then he asked how I had come into possession of the book. I received as punishment a ten-day sentence of bread and water, with the order that I was to speak no more of the book.

After the end of the war, I returned to New York, where I met an old friend, a pastor of my former church. He interceded for me with the synod, and I was finally admitted to the congregation as a lay member. As an experiment, it was agreed that I should accompany one of the pastors on a mission to New Zealand and Australia.

In Australia, we met some Italian immigrants who asked questions about the errors in some Bible translations. They were not satisfied with my companion’s answers. When they asked me about it, I once again told the story of Christ’s appearance to the people of America. When they asked me where I had learned such teachings, I told them of the book I had found. The story was sweet to them but bitter for my colleague. He reported me to the synod, and once again they cut me off from the church.

I returned to Italy shortly after. Then, in May 1930, while seeking in a French dictionary for some information, I suddenly saw the entry “Mormon.” I read the words carefully and found that a Mormon Church had been established in 1830 and that this church operated a university at Provo. I wrote to the university president, asking for information about the book and its missing pages. I received an answer two weeks later telling me that my letter had been passed on to the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On June 16, 1930, President Heber J. Grant answered my letter and sent a copy of the Book of Mormon in Italian. He informed me that he would also give my request to Elder John A. Widtsoe, president of the European Mission, with headquarters in Liverpool. A few days later, Elder Widtsoe wrote to me, sending me a pamphlet that contained the story of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the gold plates, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. At long last, I had learned the rest of the story of the torn book I had found on top of a barrel of ashes.

On June 5, 1932, Elder Widtsoe came to Naples to baptize me, but a revolution between the Fascists and anti-Fascists had broken out in Sicily, and the police at Palermo refused to let me leave the island. When Elder Widtsoe was released as president of the mission in 1934, I started correspondence with Elder Joseph F. Merrill, who succeeded him. He arranged to send me the Millennial Star, which I received until 1940 when World War II interrupted the subscription.

In January 1937, Elder Richard R. Lyman, successor to President Merrill, wrote that he and Elder Hugh B. Brown would be in Rome on a certain day. I could meet them there and be baptized. However, the letter was delayed because of war conditions, and I did not receive it in time.

From 1940 until 1949, I was cut off from all news of the Church, but I remained a faithful follower and preached the gospel of the dispensation of the fulness of times. 

On February 13, 1949, I sent a letter to Elder Widtsoe at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. Elder Widtsoe answered my letter October 3, 1950, explaining that he had been in Norway. I sent him a long letter in reply in which I asked him to help me to be quickly baptized, because I felt that I had proven myself to be a faithful son and servant of God, observing the laws and commandments of his kingdom. Elder Widtsoe asked President Samuel E. Bringhurst of the Swiss-Austrian Mission to go to Sicily to baptize me.

On January 18, 1951, President Bringhurst arrived on the island and baptized me at Imerese. Apparently, this was the first baptism performed in Sicily.

When I came up out of the water, I said, “I have prayed daily for many years for this moment.” As President Bringhurst and his wife left, I shook their hands tenderly and told them, “My dear Brother and Sister Bringhurst—you can hardly imagine how sweet those words brother and sister are to me. I say them with a feeling of affection and appreciation that I have never before experienced, for I know that you have led me through the door that will eventually bring me back to my Heavenly Father if I am faithful.”

On April 28, 1956, I entered the temple at Bern and received my endowment. At last, to be in the presence of my Heavenly Father! I felt that God’s promise had been fully fulfilled—the day had come indeed when the book would be no more unknown to me and I would be able to enjoy the effects of my faith.

Just a note…Imerese is a little more than 2 hours away, just outside of Palermo.

This is the power that scriptures can have on us.  This is why it is important to search, ponder and pray.   

The words of this Primary song come to mind:

I love to read the holy scriptures,

And, ev’ry time I do,

I feel the Spirit start to grow within my heart-

A testimony that they’re true.

Search, ponder, and pray

Are the things that I must do.

The Spirit will guide, and, deep inside,

I’ll know the scriptures are true.

So, prayerfully I’ll read the scriptures

Each day my whole life through.

I’ll come to understand.

I’ll heed the Lord’s command

And live as he would have me do.

Search, ponder, and pray

Are the things that I must do.

The Spirit will guide, and, deep inside,

I’ll know the scriptures are true.

The Map Legends we are provided are the Scriptures, General Conference, church magazines, For Strength of Youth, etc. are designed for us and are here to help us reach our destination.  It will be up to us to navigate this life with the help of these tools or try to get to our destination without them.  So brethren…in this scenario, it is okay to ask for directions.