Post # 189 – Come, Follow Me -- Week # 13 --March 23–29 -- Enos–Words of Mormon -- He Works in Me to Do His Will
Dear
Family and Friends
I
hope that none of you or your family members and friends have been affected by
the corona virus. I have been listening to the news about it and I hope that we
can get it contained before anyone else is infected with the virus. I am quite
certain that I am not the only person that watches out for these things because
of a medical condition or other health concerns. I have not been in a
quarantine situation, but my prayers are with those who are.
I
can only imagine how you are feeling. Just remember that no matter what
happens, keep your faith in Jesus Christ, put your trust in Him and He will be
with you during your times of distress and illnesses😊
If you have access to someone who is a
member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they hold the
Priesthood you should ask them to give you a priesthood blessing. This Priesthood
blessing by one who has the authority to act in the name of the Lord will help
you through whatever you may be facing at this time in your lives.
Our lesson today will be covering Enos and the
Words of Mormon. The following suggestions comes directly from our Come, Follow
Me for Individuals and Families manual: As you read Enos through Words of
Mormon,
look for messages that will be valuable to you or your family.
It may work well for you to assign your
family members and friends to read one of the chapters from Enos–Words
of Mormon.
After they have finished their reading
you could ask them to suggest verses from their reading that they feel you
family study group should discuss together😊
Write down their ideas to add to yours
on a piece of poster board, next to these verses you could write down why each
family member and / or friend through your family study group should discuss
those passages😊
Let’s move on to the introduction from
the Come. Follow Me for Individuals and Families manual:
Enos
went to the forest to hunt beasts, but he ended up staying there to pray “all
the day long … and when the night came” (Enos 1:3–4). Because his soul
was truly hungry to receive a remission of his sins, Enos was willing to pray
as long as necessary and even to “wrestle” before God (Enos 1:2).
That’s what
sincere prayer is: not so much asking for anything we want but a sincere effort
to commune with God and align our will to His.
When you pray in this way, when
your voice has “reached the heavens,” you discover as Enos did that God hears
you, and He truly cares about you, your loved ones, and even your enemies
(see Enos 1:4–17).
In those
moments, God can make His will known to you, and you’ll be more willing and
able to do His will because you are in harmony with Him. Like Mormon, you may
“not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things … [and] he worketh in
[you] to do according to his will” (Words of
Mormon 1:7).
We can receive forgiveness of our sins as we exercise faith in Jesus
Christ.
You may want to have everyone ponder and
discuss the following questions:
What do we learn from Enos’s
experiences about receiving a remission of our sins? How did Enos demonstrate
his faith in Jesus Christ? How did this experience affect Enos and how he
viewed himself and others?
1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my
father that he was a
just man—for he taught me in his
language, and also in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my God for it—
2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which
I had before God, before I received a remission of
my sins.
3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the
words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and
the joy of the
saints, sunk deep into
my heart.
4 And my soul hungered;
and I kneeled down
before my Maker, and I cried unto
him in mighty prayer and
supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea,
and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the
heavens.
5 And there came a voice unto
me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee,
and thou shalt be blessed.
7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?
8 And he said unto me: Because of
thy faith in
Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away
before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath
made thee whole.
9 Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these
words I began to feel a desire for
the welfare of
my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did pour out my
whole soul unto God for them.
10 And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold,
the voice of the Lord came into my mind again,
saying: I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my
commandments. I have given unto them
this land, and it is a holy land; and I curse it not
save it be for the cause of iniquity; wherefore, I will visit thy brethren
according as I have said; and their transgressions will
I bring down with sorrow upon their own heads.
11 And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began
to be unshaken in
the Lord; and I prayed unto
him with many long strugglings for my
brethren, the Lamanites.
12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and
labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee
according to thy desires,
because of thy faith.
14 For at the present our strugglings were vain in
restoring them to the true faith. And they swore in their wrath that, if it
were possible, they would destroy our
records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers.
15 Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able
to preserve our
records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever
thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of
Christ, ye shall receive it.
16 And I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he
would preserve the records;
and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth
unto the Lamanites in his own due time.
17 And I, Enos, knew it would
be according to the covenant which he had made; wherefore my soul did rest.
·
Ideas for Personal Scripture Study
A parent’s words can have a lasting influence.
What messages do these
verses have for parents and for children?
Book of Mormon videos about Enos.
Find videos that depict
accounts from the book of Enos in the Book of Mormon Videos collection on ChurchofJesusChrist.org or the Gospel Library app.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/enos-1?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/inspiration/latter-day-saints-channel/watch/series/book-of-mormon-stories/chapter-11-enos?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/enos-1?lang=eng
Our heartfelt prayers will be answered.
·
You might want to consider dividing your
family members and friends into pairs or small groups, [if you have enough in
your family study group old enough to read].
·
·
Then you should ask each pair or group to
teach the rest of your family study group something that their group learned
about prayer from their passage.
Make
sure that every pair or group gets a chance to give their answer😊
Of course, you can always study these verses together with your family members
and friends and then discuss each of the passages together😊
·
·
You could ask your family members and
friends to listed for/ look for words and phrases that describe how Enos
prayed😊
I
think we can learn from how Enos prayed but we can also learn a lot from the
things that Enos prayed for. Have them listen for / look for what Enos
prayed for. You could even go a step further and ask your family members and
friends to identify who or what Enos prayed for in Enos 1:4–17.
After you have finished
your search you could answer the following questions: According to these
verses, why did Enos desire to pray for others? What other truths about prayer
do we learn from Enos?
Ideas for Personal Scripture Study
My heartfelt prayers will be answered.
Enos’s experience with prayer is one of the most memorable
in scripture.
Your experiences may be less dramatic, but they don’t have to be
less meaningful. Enos’s experiences might reveal ways to improve your prayers.
Here are some questions to ponder:
·
What words describe
Enos’s efforts as he prayed?
·
What did Enos
initially pray for? (see Enos 1:4). What can you learn from Enos’s response after he received an answer?
(see Enos 1:5–7).
·
How did Enos act on
the answers he received?
·
If we keep the commandments, we will prosper.
·
In this section we are covering Jarom and
Omni.
If you notice during your individual study of these readings you see that
Jarom and those who wrote Omni all wrote about the Nephite nation, but their
messages also apply to individuals.
Do you think you may be an individual that
these messages apply to? It may be fun to brainstorm with your family members
and friends about ways you can apply these messages in your lives😊
·
·
Here is a question for you and your
family members and friends to answer together: You may need to look up the word
prosperity before you pose this question to your family members and friends😊
·
·
Use a dictionary and the scriptures😊
to find your definition. You can guide your little study group to Alma 37:13;
48:15 for a start then go to a dictionary.
After you have finished this you can
ask your family members and friends the following questions: How does the
world’s definition compare to the Lord’s definition? How does the Lord help His
people prosper?
·
·
Our latter-day prophets teach us about
the commandments just as the Nephite prophets worked hard to teach the
commandments to their people all those years ago😊 Read
Jarom 1:9–12 with
your family members and friends😊
·
·
You may want to review the most recent
conference messages for this activity. Or you could read through the For the Strength of Youth and review with your
family members and friends the standards that are discussed in that book😊
You could set some family goals as to how you plan to apply what you have
learned about keeping the commandments. If it is needful you may want to
consider reading through the messages in the following articles:
General conference messages about keeping the
commandments.
·
How does obedience to the commandments help us “prosper” in our
lives?
Ideas for Personal Scripture Study
·
The
Lord will bless me when I keep the commandments.
·
One of God’s most
repeated promises in the Book of Mormon is that if the Nephites kept the
commandments, they would prosper (see 2 Nephi 1:20; Jarom 1:9–12; Omni 1:6). The books of Jarom and Omni show a few ways in which this promise was fulfilled. What do you
learn from these accounts that can help you “prosper in the land”?
·
The Lord brought many people to the promised land.
·
You know when you are studying the Book
of Mormon you will notice if you haven’t already that it contains a complex
history and it is somewhat difficult keeping track of the different groups of
people are described in any given chapter. Something that could be very helpful
in this area may be for you to get out your poster board and make a chart about
it😊
·
·
Then together with your family members
and friends you could fill in the chart
that you made😊 You can continue adding information to
your chart about each of the various groups of people as you are studying the
Book of Mormon throughout this year😊 To begin with your chart may look a bit like
the following:
·
Group name
|
When and how they arrived
|
What happened to them
|
Nephites
|
·
|
·
|
Lamanites
|
·
|
|
People of Zarahemla
|
·
|
·
|
·
·
After you have your chart made and filled
in, you may want to ask and discuss with your
family members and friends the following question: why is it helpful to understand the
things you learned about each group? If you
need extra help filling your chart -- these
entries in the Guide to the Scriptures (scriptures.ChurchofJesusChrist.org) can help: “Coriantumr,” “Jaredites,” “Lamanites,” “Mulek,” “Nephites,” and “Zarahemla.”
·
Ideas for Personal Scripture Study
Who were the people of Zarahemla?
After the Nephites
fled the land of Nephi, they discovered a numerous people living in a place
called Zarahemla. The people of Zarahemla were descendants of a group of
Israelites who, like Lehi’s family, had left Jerusalem and were led by God to
the promised land. Among that group was Mulek, one of the sons of Zedekiah, the
king of Judah who was captured by the Babylonians in about 587 BC
(see Jeremiah 52:1–11; Mosiah 25:2; Helaman 8:21).
After the people of
Zarahemla arrived in the promised land, they met Coriantumr (see Omni 1:21), the last known survivor of the Jaredites, whose story is
told in the book of Ether.
God will work through us if we follow His guidance.
·
In preparation for a discussion with your family members and
friends of the Words of Mormon, you should read through
the following resources: Words of Mormon and other
resources, such as Doctrine and Covenants 10:8–19, 39–45; this week’s outline in Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families; and chapter 5 of Saints, volume 1. As you are studying these materials don’t
forget to include relevant details about the loss of the 116 pages of
the Book of Mormon manuscript and why the small plates were needed to replace
the lost pages.
·
·
Now for a few questions: Why was Mormon inspired to include the
small plates (1 Nephi–Omni) in the Book of Mormon. What truths do you and
your family members and friends learn from this about how the Lord works
through man? What do you and your family member and friends find in Words of Mormon 1:1–8 that inspires each
one of you to follow direction from God even when you do not have a full
understanding of the reasons?
·
·
Do you realize that Mormon blessed millions of lives because he
followed the Spirit’s promptings about the small plates (see Words of Mormon 1:7). It’s time for a couple
of questions for you and your family members and friends to answer:
Can you think
of some ways that you can help your family members and friends understand that each
one of them can also bless others as they seek to be instruments in God’s hands
and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. How did God work through Mormon?
·
·
And here are just a few more questions for you and your family
members and friends to answer: What have you and your family members and
friends seen the Lord do through them or others as each one of you have heeded
the Spirit and sought to do God’s will? In the following story about President
Thomas S. Monson provides an example that might help you and your family
members and friends think of examples from their own lives.
“Shake the hand of every child.”
While President Thomas S. Monson was serving as a member of
the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he spoke to a gathering of Primary children
in a Samoan village. Afterward, he was prompted to personally greet each of the
247 children who attended. However, he realized he would not have time; he
tried to put the thought of greeting the children out of his mind but could
not.
He finally turned to the children’s teacher and said, “I would
so much like to shake the hand of each boy and each girl. Would this be
possible?”
The teacher smiled and spoke to the children in Samoan. They
nodded their heads eagerly in response. The teacher then told Elder Monson that
when he had learned that one of the Twelve Apostles was to visit Samoa, he had
promised the children that if they would pray sincerely and have faith, Elder
Monson would visit their village and would be prompted by the Holy Ghost to
shake the hand of every child (see Thomas S. Monson, “Friend to Friend: Talofa Lava,” Friend, May 1972, 12–13).
Ideas for Personal Scripture Study
·
What
is Words of Mormon?
·
Words of Mormon serves as a bridge between the two sets of plates
that make up the Book of Mormon. Here Mormon gives an explanation of these two
records, and his words teach an important message about trusting the Lord, even
when we don’t fully understand His direction.
·
As Nephi was writing
the record of his people, God directed him to create two sets of plates, called
the small plates and the large plates of Nephi. Nephi didn’t know why he was
commanded to create two sets of plates, but he trusted that the Lord had “a
wise purpose … , which purpose I know not” (1 Nephi 9:5; see also “A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon”).
·
Centuries later, as
Mormon was abridging Nephi’s large plates, he came across the small plates. The
small plates covered many of the same events described in the large plates that
Mormon had already abridged, but the small plates focused more on spiritual
matters and the ministry and teachings of the prophets. God inspired Mormon to
include the small plates of Nephi in his record in addition to the large
plates.
·
Like Nephi, Mormon
didn’t understand God’s purpose for having both sets of plates, but he trusted
that it was “for a wise purpose” (Words of Mormon 1:7).
·
Today we know what
God’s purpose was. In 1828, after Joseph Smith had translated part of Mormon’s
abridgment of Nephi’s large plates (116 manuscript pages), Martin Harris lost
those pages. God commanded Joseph not to retranslate this portion because evil
men would change the words and try to discredit Joseph (see Doctrine and Covenants 10, section heading; Doctrine and Covenants 10:14–19, 30–45). Thankfully, God had foreseen this
and provided the small plates, which covered the same history that was lost
with the 116 pages. The small plates compose the books that come before
Words of Mormon, and Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates begins after the
Words of Mormon.
·
With general conference and Easter are coming up in April, I
want to encourage you and your family members and friends to listen for any messages in which the members
of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles share their special
witness of Jesus Christ. You can also do this by reviewing old conference messages with your family members and friends as well looking for any messages in which the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles share their special witness of Jesus Christ.
Ideas for Family Scripture Study and Family Home Evening
As you read the
scriptures with your family, the Spirit can help you know what principles to
emphasize and discuss in order to meet the needs of your family. Here are some
ideas.
Enos 1:1–17
Your family could look at a picture of Enos praying
and search Enos 1:1–17 for phrases that could be used as a title for the picture. You could
also ask family members to draw pictures of Enos’s experience. What do we learn
from Enos about seeking forgiveness?
Jarom 1:2
How has our study of
the Book of Mormon “revealed the plan of salvation” to us?
Omni 1:12–22
What do these verses
teach about the importance of having the word of God in our lives?
Words of Mormon 1:3–9
How will we be blessed
by keeping personal and family records? How can we make our records more
focused on Christ?
As you are teaching your family
members and friends, I felt like I needed to add the following statement from
President Henry B. Eyring found at the end of this week’s lesson outline in the
Come, Follow Me for Individuals and Families manual:
Improving
Our Teaching
Gather together often. President
Henry B. Eyring taught: “Never miss a chance
to gather children together to learn of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Such
moments are so rare in comparison with the efforts of the enemy” (“The Power
of Teaching Doctrine,” Ensign, May
1999, 74).
Well,
what did you and your family members and friends learn about Jarom, Omni, in
this week’s lesson?
What is one verse you would like to remember from today’s lesson? How will you apply what you have learned into your daily lives? What was your favorite part of this lesson and why?
What part of this lesson will you share with someone else?
What is one verse you would like to remember from today’s lesson? How will you apply what you have learned into your daily lives? What was your favorite part of this lesson and why?
What part of this lesson will you share with someone else?
As always, please remember who you are!! you are each one a
child of God!!!
Remember to say your prayers morning and night😊 please continue to study
your scriptures with me – especially the Book of Mormon which we are studying all
of this year😊 Please hold family home evenings once a week in your home
for your family members😊
Remember to say your prayers morning and night😊 please continue to study
your scriptures with me – especially the Book of Mormon which we are studying all
of this year😊 Please hold family home evenings once a week in your home
for your family members😊
With friends only if you can keep the number down so as not
to get sick, with this corona virus going around☹Please, please be careful. Wash
your hands frequently. Follow the healthcare recommendations to prevent catching
and passing this virus around any further. Until my next post be careful and
stay healthy, take care of yourselves and your family members😊
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