Ma's Place: The Book of Mormon is given to us

My niece posted this on FB and I borrowed it because it made me giggle. My week has been busy but not really rough. Still fighting colds and the stomach virus. We had a little lull last week but we made up for it this week. And as always the usual ailments and injuries that come along with 200 or so people: ankle sprains, toothaches, cuts, bruises, headaches, anxiety/depression, etc.

It has also been a delightful week of gustatory experiences. You know how I love to tell you all about my eating forays. (I really do work here even if it seems I don’t.) Monday evening at FHE Sister Lilly brought meatballs over rice with cheesecake for dessert.

Tuesday I had dinner with the sister training leaders and the sisters they exchanged with. We always laugh a lot. I totally enjoy these sisters. Made Olive Garden Copycat pasta e fagioli soup.

Sisters Bush, Dawson, Yu, Steninger

On Wednesday afternoon, two sisters stopped in unexpectedly to see me. I made them eat the left over soup from Tuesday’s dinner. After they left, I took a blood pressure cuff to a missionary in Brooklyn so while I was there I took the opportunity to get to know a new sister in our mission and her trainer. I asked them to pick a place to eat and they introduced me to Peaches, a classic American restaurant with a nod to the South. From their website: “Nestled in Stuyvesant Heights, an historic brownstone neighborhood in Brooklyn, Peaches features a contemporary Southern menu in a setting as comfortable as your grandmother’s dining room”.

Sister Williams found my leis

Dinner at Peaches with Sisters Felsted and Bingham

Salmon and desserts

Lunch guests Sisters Williams, Panoussi, and Wuthrich

One can order grits, collards, Southern fried chicken, and many other delicious foods. I had blackened salmon on spinach with artichoke hearts and Greek olives. For dessert we shared a French toast peach melba and a caramel pecan cheesecake.

Thursday I went to dinner with a couple of great elders. We went to the Cheesecake Factory.

Elders Williams and Mullen

We shared a tuxedo cheesecake.

Friday I went to Manhattan with a missionary. While there we picked up some chicken/lamb and rice from a street cart and brought it back to my apartment to eat.

Saturday I went to Flushing and took the Korean sister missionaries to a late lunch-early dinner. They chose BCD Tofu House. I have tried tofu before and didn’t care for it but I put on an enthusiastic face and found to my wonder, the food was awesome as was the company. I always learn a lot about the Korean culture when I spend time with these sisters. They claim I am Korean because I like kimchi.

Before the food is brought, we were served raw eggs, pickled, broccoli with sesame seeds, potato salad,
I don't know what the dark dish is called but it was some kind of vegetable, the small red pile was spicy
cooked octopus ( I liked it), kimchi, and a breaded fish I was leery of the fish but it was good too.

Sisters Hilliard and Kim

My soup was kimchi soon tofu with pork. It is served boiling hot in a stone bowl. You break the egg
into the soup and stir it until It is cooked. Only takes a minute or less.

My main course hot stone bibimbap combo. HOT!!! Also cooks the egg.

My companions had kimchi BBQ pork and fried tofu triangles with sweet mustard.

Nurungji

Sunday I introduced the missionaries to creamed cabbage. I had told them that my family likes creamed cabbage and we eat it often. They were skeptical but are now converts. We had roast chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed cabbage, corn, cranberry sauce and fruit salad. Brownies for dessert.

Now you have had a total rundown of my eating adventures.

I have talked to my family members at home and received pictures of my littles. They are growing so fast. I’m sure they will be up and running before I get home in August. I enjoy keeping in contact with friends and family on Face Book and appreciate your notes and comments.

Just want you to know that I really do missionary things here along with the eating. This week one day as I studied Alma 30, the study guide gave me some insight that I never really thought about in such depth before.

There had been a great war in the land but after the people of Ammon had settled in the land of Jershon and the Lamanites were driven out, they buried the dead. The numbers of Lamanites and Nephites that had been slain and buried were too numerous to count. For the next almost two years they lived in righteousness and peace.

The study guide asks: What kind of peace does obedience always bring? It goes on to answer: “Whenever a people live the gospel, whenever they live in harmony with the statutes and ordinances God has given them, whenever they follow the light of their consciences and subscribe to the rules and standards established for those of the household of faith, they come to know the peace of the Spirit. Keeping the commandments brings the quiet assurance that one’s course in life is pleasing in the sight of God, a consciousness of victory over self which we know as spirituality. “learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me’ (D&C 19:23)” McConkie and Millet, Doctinal Commentary

Near the end of the second year of peace, in Alma 30:6, “there came a man into the land of Zarahemla, and he was Anit-Christ, for he began to preach unto the people against the prophecies which had been spoken by the prophets, concerning the coming of Christ.” An antichrist is an opponent of Christ; he is one who is in opposition to the true gospel, the true Church, and the true plan of salvation.

I love this chapter in the Book of Mormon for the story and insight it brings to our day. . The Anti-Christ was named Korihor. He offered salvation to men on some other terms than those laid down by Christ.

Korihor was clever. He has his modern counterparts, especially in today’s settings in which so many people are especially free to choose for themselves. In his time (as in ours) there was no law against a man’s belief because it was strictly contrary to the commands of God. All men were on equal grounds. (Alma 30:7-9)

The study guide asks: What do Korihor’s teachings have in common with false teachings of our day? Gospel scholar Chauncey Riddle once explored how three of Korihor’s arguments seduce people today: “The first is that it is possible to know all truth through the senses—by experience and observation. The second is a humanist position that the solutions to our problems lie in sharp thinking and realistic approaches to life and success is defined in terms of wealth, social status, political power, and the glutting of the senses. A third argument is relativist: since so-called commandments and laws are but social conveniences to give power to priests, the only important thing in life is to do what you want to do—if you can get away with it.” (Rust, Feasting on the Word)

Korihor was offering the people freedom. He attempted to convince people that they were in bondage and that he could be their liberator or redeemer and set them free. His was a liberation movement. He was going to free them from the burden of commandments and gospel commitments. The gospel declares that the knowledge of revealed truths brings freedom, but Korihor contended that freedom really meant being without the constraints of righteousness.

I like what President Eyring says about this: “Korihor was arguing, as men and women have falsely argued from the beginning of time, that to take counsel from the servants of God is to surrender God-given rights of independence. But the argument is false because it misrepresents reality. When we reject the counsel which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence. We choose another influence.” (Eyring, Finding Safety in Counsel)

I have gone on long enough, but please read the 30thchapter in Alma. The story continues as Korihor seeks a sign to prove to him that there is a God. He is struck dumb and eventually suffers a horrible death.

The conclusion of the study of this chapter in the study guide poses a question: Why were the story, teachings, and fate of Korihor recorded in the Book of Mormon? Read Alma 30:60.

The Book of Mormon was written for our day. Later in his own book, Mormon says, “I speak unto you [latter-day readers] as if ye were present.” (Mormon 8:35). “We did not borrow the Book of Mormon from the ancients; they wrote it to us. We are the audience Mormon and Moroni addressed as they chose what was to be included in this scriptural record. They told us the story of Korihor because they knew that we would have our Korihors. The Korihor of the Book of Mormon story is but the prototype of our modern anti-Christs.” (McConkie and Millet, Sustaining and Defending the Faith)

I know that the Book of Mormon is given to us to show us the way we may follow to become Christ-like in our thoughts and actions and to provide teaching for us to know the things we must do to return to our Father in Heaven.

I love you my family and friends.