by byustudent | Apr 24, 2013 | Mormon Reflections
The people of the Book of Mormon teach us many important lessons through their experiences. One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to help us discover and learn from the mistakes of these people in ancient America.
In Mormon 5:18, the fallen Nephite people teach us a very important lesson. They show us that when we forsake God and neglect to follow His commandments, we fall under Satan’s power. When we fall under Satan’s power, we have no foundation or guiding light. Satan does not love his followers. He does not care about their lives nor does he try to guide them like our loving Heavenly Father does. The path of wickedness is one of loneliness and confusion.
When the Nephites decided not to follow God’s commandments, they made the decision to take this path. The scriptures say they became “as a vessel…without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her.” Choosing wickedness meant giving up their rights to surety and the power to direct their lives. So it is with us today. Satan persuades people to choose wickedness by advertising ideas of absolute freedom and self-government with no rules or restrictions. But this is false advertising. When we choose Satan’s way, we choose the way of bondage and unhappiness. We choose to be tied down with guilt, loneliness and, often, addictive behaviors. (more…)
by byustudent | Apr 24, 2013 | Mormon Reflections
Many times, and more so now in college than in any other time of my life, the people around me are constantly inviting me to YOLO or live according to the motto “You Only Live Once”. They, and often I too, think that happiness can be found in a brief moment of thrill or excitement.This instantaneous rush leads them to act on impaired judgment and sudden impulses. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but often leads to pursuing the “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16).
John teaches in his first epistle that these things are “of the world.” He goes on to teach that we must “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him… And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:15). My New Testament teacher had us think back on a time when our parents left us at home for a while with a list of chores to do, and more specifically, of a time when we didn’t obey. Try it. Remember how it felt? What did you do when you heard the garage door open when they got home? Run and hide? Now, compare that with a time when you did do all the chores, and maybe you even surprised them and did extra. How did you feel when you heard that garage door open this time? Even so will it be when we are brought back to the presence of our Heavenly Father. (more…)
by byustudent | Apr 24, 2013 | About Mormons
This is part of an email I wrote to my brother who, as far as I know, has not read the scriptures in a pretty long time.
I have been taking a New Testament class, and today we read and talked about the book of James. As you probably know, this is the book that has the famous verses that Joseph Smith Jr. looked at which brought about the restoration of the gospel and the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When we talked about the book of James as a whole, my professor mentioned how many good little pieces of advice can be found there. And this is true; there are dozens and dozens.
However, after we talked about that, I thought about how all scripture can have just as many good bits of advice as the book of James has, even if it is not as obvious. We can all have experiences like Joseph Smith’s where we come across a piece of scripture, and it changes our lives. Of course, it probably will not be as dramatic as having Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ themselves come down to talk with us, as they did with Joseph Smith. Even in the war chapters of the Book of Mormon, or the really confusing verses of Isaiah, we can find ways to relate something to our lives and have it teach us something important. (more…)
by Terrie Lynn Bittner | Apr 24, 2013 | About Mormons
More than half of the students at Brigham Young University Hawaii are from outside the United States, making it the most diverse undergraduate school in the United States. Although the school has just 2700 students, seventy countries are currently represented in the student body. Preference is given to students from outside the country in order to encourage the diversity that is considered an essential part of the school’s learning experience.
The dream of this school began in the 1950s, when David O. McKay, a church leader was visiting Laie, where the school is now located. He watched as a group of ethnically diverse children participated in a flag ceremony and began to envision an environment in which people from all over the world could come together and learn about each other. They could then return home to use the wisdom they gained from the experience in business, in government, and in church service. (more…)
![Earth Day: Celebrating God’s Creation]()
by Keith L. Brown | Apr 22, 2013 | About Mormons
Each year, 22 April is set aside as the day for the observance of Earth Day, a day on which people around the world through different events and venues demonstarte their support for environmental protection. Earth Day is celebrated in more than 192 countries, and is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. Individuals view the significance of this day, and celebrate the day in various ways. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently referred to by the media and others as the Mormon Church), Earth day becomes another day to celebrate God’s magnificent creation.
History of Earth Day
The following information was obtained from Wikipedia.
The date of 22 April was officially designated as International Mother Earth Day by a consensus resolution in 2009 which was adopted by the United Nations.
The name and concept of Earth Day, however, is credited to John McConnell who pioneered the idea in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, California. He proposed that the 21 March 1970, the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere that year, to be designated as Earth Day. A month later another Earth Day, first held on 22 April 1970, was founded as an environmental teach-in by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson. Although the United States was the focus of this 22 April Earth Day, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it to an entirely different level. In 1990 the observance of Earth became an international event in 141 nations. (more…)
