BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
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A Fight Against Pride
A personal thought
For my reflection this week, I had a really cool experience with one of the people that I help at Horses For Healing, which is my favorite service experience so far after the mission. This family from Mexico just got into the program of Horses For Healing to help their little nephew (Felipe) that just barely got here from Mexico City; he has an acute case of autism . They were not very happy when they told them there was no riding helper that spoke Spanish. Apparently, they didn’t know I spoke Spanish, since I was close to the riding helper that got assigned to Felipe, I couldn’t avoid over hearing the words: he does not understand a word of English you need to tell him “no llores, todo estara bien” (Don’t cry, everything will be ok).
My fellow co-worker tried as much as he could and I had a really big impression that I should go and talk to Felipe and try to help, but for some reason I did not listen to that prompting. Sessions are normally of 45 minutes. 20 minutes went by and Felipe would not stop crying. He was not enjoying this amazing experience with the horses and I was still not helping him. Then for some reason the verse in 3 Nephi 6 came up to my mind and also how is that the devil works with our pride. Not letting us get help or even sometimes help others.
18 Now they did not sin ignorantly, for they knew the will of God concerning them, for it had been taught unto them; therefore they did willfully rebel against God.
When I read that part of they did willfully rebel against God, I remembered Mosiah 2:17:
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
After all this thinking and thinking, I went up to Felipe’s aunt and spoke to her in Spanish, asking her if I could do something to help. Her face was just glowing when she heard me speaking in Spanish. She couldn’t believe it. She told me to go talk to Felipe, that he was sad because his mom was not there with him. After talking to Felipe for at least 10 minutes, I started talking on how Jesus Christ came to earth leaving His father so we could be saved; a big change happened suddenly he was receptive and wanted to keep riding; he stopped moving and let me put him on the horse.
In moments like this, I really appreciate all the knowledge that the Book of Mormon has given me, not only in doctrinal topics but also in real life living. I know that Felipe knows that God loves him and that his mom will be fine if he is good like I told him; I could feel it and see it in his eyes.
When time was up, Felipe give his aunt and uncle a big hug; his aunt came up to me to thank me, and asked me if I was a member of the church. She is not a member but she will listen to the missionaries. Apparently she was listening to the things I was telling Felipe and loved the ideas that I had about the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. I know that if we really open our heart and we stop listening to those bad feelings that we sometimes do not realize that we have but that are the whisperings of the devil, we will not only help ourselves but we will bless other people lives.
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