BYU Students Share Letters & Reflections on Scripture
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 copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
Mormon Reflections on the Word: A Walk in Mormon’s Shoes
Mormon was a great guy. He was righteous despite being completely surrounded by Satan’s influences. Eventually, the wicked Nephite people chose Mormon to be their leader for battles and wars against the also-wicked Lamanites. While he was leading them, he was able to see up close and personal the true intents of the hearts of the people. They sorrowed for their losses but did so with selfish hearts. They swore in the name of God but without really believing in Him. They were sorrowful and cursed God because He would not let them find happiness in sin. And so Mormon’s heart was heavy because he knew that they were lost and would not return. Yet, Mormon still prayed for them and preached unto them when the Lord commanded him. After thinking about it, I realized that Mormon’s situation is just like many situations today between ourselves and the Lord. We sin and continue sinning and end up miserable because of it. Yet the Lord continues to have a prayer in His heart that we will someday return to Him. He puts specific people in our lives to try to guide us home and never deserts us. Why do we wallow in our sin when we know that something so much grander is just patiently waiting for us? All we have to do is decide to make the switch. Then why should it be so hard? It shouldn’t, yet somehow it is. For some reason, the path to God and happiness is not always the easiest. But it will definitely be worth it in the end. We have people like Mormon in our lives, continuously praying for us and hoping that we will make the right choices. Let’s not let them down.
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