Finding Desire

    I was reading the other day a talk written by Elder Dallin H. Oaks entitled "Desire." I have been wondering lately how we can have the right desires or desire the things that God wants us to desire. The desires we have shape what we do and what we will become. Elder Oaks said, "I hope each of us will search our hearts to determine what we really desire and how we rank our most important desires. Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."

    As human beings we have physical needs, and strong desires that want to fill those needs. When we are hungry we have a want to fill that need or when we are tired we will do anything to lie down and sleep. Those needs can be overridden for a time though with stronger desires to do other things. "Readjusting our desires to give highest priority to the things of eternity is not easy. We are all tempted to desire that worldly quartet of property, prominence, pride, and power. We might desire these, but we should not fix them as our highest priorities." A desire each of us should have is to come closer to God and His son Jesus Christ and follow their commands. Many of us have that desire but sometimes our priorities get mixed up and we tend to focus on things not as important.

    "How do we develop desires? Few will have the kind of crisis that motivated Aron Ralston,³ but his experience provides a valuable lesson about developing desires. While Ralston was hiking in a remote canyon in southern Utah, an 800-pound (360 kg) rock shifted suddenly and trapped his right arm. For five lonely days he struggled to free himself. When he was about to give up and accept death, he had a vision of a three-year-old boy running toward him and being scooped up with his left arm. Understanding this as a vision of his future son and an assurance that he could still live, Ralston summoned the courage and took drastic action to save his life before his strength ran out. He broke the two bones in his trapped right arm and then used the knife in his multi-tool to cut off that arm. He then summoned the strength to hike five miles (8 km) for help.⁴ What an example of the power of an overwhelming desire! When we have a vision of what we can become, our desire and our power to act increase enormously."

    As a missionary I go out and teach people about the church and invite them to read the Book of Mormon. Then to pray and ask God if it is true. That is a desire that I try to help others grow; really wanting to know the Book of Mormon is true. Wanting to know if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the lords church. To grow this desire I would say, First, we need to block out every desire we have of sin. Second, pray and ask God for help in gaining this desire. And third, read from the Book of Mormon while the desire grows within us. I know that as we do these steps God will be pleased with our efforts and he will bless us with the knowledge that we need to return to him one day.

What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?

   "Two ministers of one of the largest and most powerful Protestant denominations came to a Latter-day Saint conference to hear me preach.

   After the meeting I had a private conversation with them, in which I said they could each gain a testimony that Joseph Smith was the prophet through whom the Lord had restored the fulness of the gospel for our day and for our time.

   I told them they should read the Book of Mormon, ponder its great and eternal truths, and pray to the Father in the name of Christ, in faith, and he would reveal the truth of the book to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.

   As every gospel scholar knows, the Book of Mormon proves that Joseph Smith was called of God to minister in the prophetic office and to restore the truths of salvation in plainness and perfection.

   The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It contains a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. It is another testament of Jesus Christ.

It contains the fulness of the gospel, meaning that it is a record of the Lord’s dealings with a people who had the fulness of the gospel, and meaning also that in it is found a summary and a recitation of what all men must believe and do to gain an inheritance in the heavenly kingdom reserved for the Saints.

   As the teachings and testimonies of Moses and Isaiah and Peter find place in the Bible, so the parallel preaching and the same Spirit-guided testimonies of Nephi and Alma and Moroni have come down to us in the Book of Mormon.

   All of this I explained to my two Protestant friends. One of them, a congenial and decent sort of fellow, said somewhat casually that he would read the Book of Mormon. The other minister, manifesting a bitter spirit, said: 'I won’t read it. We have experts who have read the Book of Mormon, and I have read what our experts have to say about it.'

   This account dramatizes one of our problems in presenting the message of the Book of Mormon to the world. There are sincere and devout people everywhere who have heard what other people say about this volume of holy writ, and so they do not read it themselves.

   Instead of drinking from that fountain from whence clear streams of living water flow, they prefer to go downstream and drink from the roily, muddy, poison-filled streams of the world.

   The plain fact is that salvation itself is at stake in this matter. If the Book of Mormon is true—if it is a volume of holy scripture, if it contains the mind and will and voice of the Lord to all men, if it is a divine witness of the prophetic call of Joseph Smith—then to accept it and believe its doctrines is to be saved, and to reject it and walk contrary to its teachings is to be damned."

                 Bruce R. McConkie - What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?

   I love this story from Bruce R. McConkie! One of the greatest struggles for me is to get others to read this wonderful, uplifting book! I have found much joy from reading from the Book of Mormon, and my desire is to have others feel that same joy. To feel that same direction from God that I have received. But many people turn down my invitation to read and to pray! Its like tasting a pie that is so so so good and then taking it to everyone that you see and asking them to taste it and they won't! I know the Book of Mormon is true. Anyone who reads and then sincerely prays, will receive an answer from God that the book is true. It will change any ones life like it has changed mine.

Easy Street = A DEAD END!

     "Many of us want the simple way—the process that will not require serious work and sacrifice. Well, I once thought I found it. Driving in the back of a verdant valley above the city of Honolulu, I looked up, and there it was—Easy Street! As I was dreaming of the life-changing benefits of my discovery, I took out my camera to record the blissful moment. As I looked through the viewfinder, however, my focus literally and figuratively became clear. A large yellow sign returned me to reality—Easy Street was a dead end!"

           -Elder Donald L. Hallstrom  -  Do It Now!

      How funny, but true, this statement is. It is natural for us to want the easy way to everything, especially if that means making our life easier to live. In this talk, Elder Hallstrom talks of procrastinating our repentance till the end. He speaks of what it does for us to procrastinate and what things we will accomplish. In the most simple of terms we will not accomplish anything.

   "Many of us place ourselves in circumstances far more consequential than embarrassment because of our procrastination to become fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know what is right, but we delay full spiritual involvement because of laziness, fear, rationalization, or lack of faith. We convince ourselves that “someday I’m going to do it.” However, for many “someday” never comes, and even for others who eventually do make a change, there is an irretrievable loss of progress and surely regression."

       Today is that day for us to prepare to meet God! It is hard to not procrastinate but it will be even harder to deal with everything at the last day. Christ invites us all to change and to do it now. To live the way he has asked us to live so that we can be happy during this life. Choose to follow Jesus Christ and do it now! :)