BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
Let us know if you’d like to receive your own digital copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
About Mormons: Things WILL Work Out
Samuel the Lamanite is one of my favorite Book of Mormon heroes. The Lord asked a lot of Samuel as a teacher of the gospel. Samuel was constantly rejected because the Nephites were SO wicked that they refused to listen to his message. After trying to preach repentance unto the people, Samuel was kicked out of the city and told to never come back. Now Samuel could have easily said, “Heavenly Father, I give up. These people won’t listen to me and there is no point in trying again.” Instead, Samuel prayed continually to the Lord, and the Lord promised Samuel that He would touch his heart with the things that he needed to say to these people.
This story typically applies to serving a mission and being rejected in that way. However, since I’m not going on a mission, I have tried really hard to apply this to my own life right now, today. As humans, the Lord expects a lot of us. He will require us to go through trials like Samuel to make us stronger and to grow closer to Him. Lately I have been having a really hard time finding out what I want to do with my life. All of my friends are going on missions, and I just don’t think a mission is the right thing for me to be doing at this point in my life. There have been times when I have prayed and, similar to how Samuel felt, I want to say to the Lord, “Heavenly Father, I give up.” Luckily, I know that God has a plan for me. If I am patient and just keep doing the very best I can, things will work out how they need to, just like they did for Samuel.
It is so important that we learn to be patient with the Lord and His timing. Even though the people weren’t ready to listen to Samuel the first time, many people came to the gospel as Samuel continued in faith to keep trying and preaching to the people. It won’t always make sense why some things feel like they take so long or why things are timed in ways we don’t understand. But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and come unto the Lord, things WILL work out.
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