I had a most interesting experience yesterday. I am getting all the things ready for my garden for next year and was out procuring my secret ingredients. I called this fellow and my wife and I went over with our trailer. We buy in bulk with our 14,000lb dumper trailer - the best thing I have done in terms of the farm. At my age, shoveling is less and less appealing to the creaky bones.....
So, as we were getting to know our new friend, we talked some small talk at first and he asked us if we were LDS. There must have been something about us. He then said he had had the lessons and been to Church quite extensively. By many accounts, he seemed to know more doctrine than many half-asleep members. I wondered at one point if he were a former pastor and we had fallen into a trap....lol. My wife was with me and she is very kind and gentle and sweet, but she will not let anyone roll her. She is just flat scrappy in a doctrinal firefight. This good soul was not interested in fighting - just seemed to know a lot of the doctrine. We ended up getting 3 loads of our secret ingredients and each time we showed up, our conversation progressed.
On the second one, he mentioned a dream or vision he had been given a short while ago. He seemed hesitant to share it, not because he did not feel comfortable with it, but because it was hard for him to quantify it. He had been trying to get closer to the Lord lately - and this may have been his prize for that effort. He said that there was soon to come a dark time - a descent into a bad time where there were nuclear weapons used. There would be a period of several years - a time where it was bad, then light would come out of the darkness and the native Americans would play a larger role in a return to the land and becoming one with God. He then said that it would be time to return to his association with the things he had been taught while previously investigating the Church. I asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and he said he had read most of it. It is my hope that he will break it back out and re-establish what he had struggled with so long ago so that he can come back into Father's presence, overcoming some minor doctrinal questions, Word of Wisdom issues and having full fellowship with the Saints of God.
We are going to have him over for dinner in a week or two and get to know him better. Some people just feel like kindred spirits - and he was one of them. We all struggle with some things - and each person we meet, we need to say a quick silent prayer and ask ourselves why it is that the Lord put us in each other's path that day. Then seek to pass along the thing that that person needs and then to find the takeaway that the Lord has for us from them. God utilizes angels only when there are no mortals present to do His bidding among His children. We need to be that angel for our brothers and sisters each day.
God lives and truly is great and wonderful in that He condescends to each one of us to give us exactly what we need, when we need it.
Very Nice Story And Observation . I Really enjoy Your Blog A Nice Change From The Bs Of Ds And Many Of The Others Of His Kind Out In The Blog O Sphere .
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion that from about Mosiah 29 clear to 3 Nephi 11 is being replayed in front of us as American history. Well said President Benson that the Book of Mormon details a lot of conspiracy fact and NOT conspiracy theory.
ReplyDeleteI am setting up a timeline in my blog of the Book of Mormon comparing it to modern American history, complete with parallels, from Mosiah 29 to 3 Nephi 11. It is in my opinion now that we are in Helaman 16 going into 3 Nephi 1, and you will have the chance to see it there. But I'll give you a brief skinny:
Mosiah 29 Beginning of the rule of the judges and end of Nephite monarchy (Parallel: Establishment of the United States of America and Constitutional government).
Alma 43-62 Moroni's defense against the Lamanites (Parallel--Civil War. South fought for slavery, the North for freedom.)
Helaman 1: Secret combinations form among the Nephites (Tammany Hall etc after the Civil War)
Helaman 6 Gadiantons obtain complete control of the government (I argue this is FDR´s NEW DEAL though I could definitely see Woodrow Wilson and the creation of the FED in there as well).
Helaman 12-15 Samuel the Lamanite warns the people. (The warnings of Benson, Kimball, Hinckley, among other people).
Helaman 16 Nephi baptizes the converts who are confirmed in the covenant (this is happening now with the hastening of missionary work in my opinion).
3 Nephi 1 Signs of the Times (these are happening right now too though I think a more complete fulfillment will happen with the blood moon tetrad in a year or two).
3 Nephi 2-4 Gadiantons turn on the people, invasion and war. (if Armstrong is right on his timetable I see this happening after the blood moons 2015, or the George Albert Smith prophecy when Obama leaves office 2016-2017).
3 Nephi 5 Commentary on Israel to be formed--this will be the formation of Zion after the Gadiantons are destroyed in the Americas, plus the arrival of the Ten Tribes. I see this happening on this timetable around 2020.
3 Nephi 6-7 The judges are murdered and the Gadiantons once again take control of the kingdom. (I see this as the ministry and death of the two prophets in Jerusalem shortly before Christ comes again, along with the formation of the nations of Magog against Israel.) I see this happening late 2020s.
3 Nephi 8 Destruction. This will be the destruction of Gog after which Israel will be cleaning up after the battle.
3 Nephi 9-11 Christ is first heard talking to the survivors, and then comes in His glory. (Second coming in His glory). In my timetable this happens in the 2030s.
I'll have it up on my ldsprophetquotes.blogspot.com blog probably sometime after General Conference.
samizdat
I have the blog post down now detailing that history. It can be reached at: http://ldsprophetquotes.blogspot.mx/2013/10/random-rambling-timeline-of-book-of.html
ReplyDeleteDetails my timeline as implied in the first post with additions.
samizdat