The full time missionaries for our church stopped by for a visit this week. They are both new to the area and are introducing themselves to each family in our church congregation. One of the missionaries is waiting for his visa to France, where he was originally called to serve. We chatted for a few minutes in French, and he has done surprisingly well in learning the language, and in keeping it for the months he has been assigned to Portland, Oregon, a bastion of “Le monde francophone”.
As part of their visit, they asked me about my most influential scripture in the Book of Mormon. That of course changes for me depending on need and circumstance: King Benjamin, stories of the 2000 stripling warriors, the conversion of Alma the Younger, the Christ visiting the Nephites; and numerous other accounts in the Book of Mormon vie for my favorite. For the last few months, I have been contemplating the story of the Ammonites, or the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi who laid down their swords in advance of their fellow Lamanites bent on their utter destruction. They were cut down in the very act of supplicating the God who created them, and from Whom they were granted forgiveness and peace. They had no idea that their sacrifice would inspire thousands of their brethren to lay down their swords, and that their story would reverberate through the ages.
Whether scriptural, historical or personal accounts, we have all been touched by such stories. I am sure that the surviving members of the Willie and Martin hand cart companies were wondering why the Lord would require such sacrifice of them and were not thinking of the hundreds of thousands who would retrace their steps and emulate their faithfulness in the decades and centuries to come. The personal suffering and examples set during my wife’s passing have and continue to inspire her descendants, her relations and numerous friends and acquaintances.
In the years to come, we will face unprecedented persecution and hardship. The years leading up to His first coming as described in the Book of Mormon are but a type of the events that precede His second. The Lord, in His perfect wisdom and power, will transform each of the tragedies we suffer in His name to triumph. Not all however, will be suffering. As described in Alma 50, “But behold, there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni”. This was the same Moroni who organized the people in a prolonged war for their very existence.
World events now transpiring will test the hearts and strength of even the very elect. The joy we feel personally depends solely on how we rejoice in Christ.
Latter-Day Saints 