Real Life Answers

By J. Gaz

“Who Do You Think You Are?” is a television program broadcast during the past couple of years helping celebrities, like Ashley Judd, trace their ancestors.  It is also a very intriguing question being asked lately by more and more people.  We live in a transient world where families no longer stay in one location for generations.  Without extended families, we can easily lose our roots and our sense of belonging.  We ask ourselves, “Who am I?”  “Where did I come from?”

I am no different.  I have five brothers and we eventually all left our ancestral home in Utah and spread out from Hawaii to New England.  We only remain close by vacationing with each other every other year, rarely talking or emailing each other.  Our next generation does better.  They have the enormously popular social media to help them stay in touch.  But for many, including myself, that is not enough.

I starting researching my family’s genealogy about fifteen years ago and it opened a fascinating history to me.  It was not JUST a history – it was MY history.  It was so much more than just names and dates.  It is about remarkable people and their remarkable stories.   I learned that I have three major genealogical lines here in Massachusetts in the 1600s.  One lived in Salem starting in 1630.  Did his family participate in the witch trials?  Another settled in Boston and was a linen draper, which was part of a family business based in London.  Yet another settled in Watertown and had his farm somewhere in the middle of Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

I have also been lucky to find journals or writings by some of these ancestors.  One of my favorites comes from my great-great-grandmother Alvira Smith.  Alvira was born in Ohio after her parents join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She traveled with her family to Missouri where her father and older brother were killed in a mob raid on their camp.  Her twin brother had half of his hip shot away in that raid and was miraculously healed by the Lord.   As soon as her twin, Alma, was able to travel they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.

While she was there, she states that she worked hard, earning $1.25 per week.  Her family was saving all the money they could to make the trek west to Utah.  With her money she bought several pairs of shoes, because she didn’t want to walk barefoot across the plains.  Alvira didn’t write much, just a couple of pages when she was old.  But what she did write is priceless to me.  I particularly like her description of crossing the plains, which is not your Hollywood version of pioneering.

“We crossed the plains in the year 1850 and I was then 18 years old.  There were twelve in our family and everything we owned on this earth was put into two wagons.  I guess I walked over halfway across the plains to Utah.  We left in May and we didn’t get to Utah until September.  There was a large company of us, but we divided ourselves into smaller companies of about twelve to nineteen wagons each.  Some men would ride ahead and let us know a good place where we could get grass and water.  These things we had to have.  We didn’t have any trouble coming across the plains.  The buffaloes didn’t bother us at all, and sometimes Indians would come up to us and laugh and then go away again.  We crossed the Mississippi River in a little skiff with oars.  We came right to Salt Lake City.”

To truly answer the question “Who do you think you are?” I feel that you need to go further than just finding the names, dates, and places of your ancestors.  It is the stories that bring them to life. Think about your family.  Do you have an older member who has stories to tell?  Why not call and find out.  If you wait too long, that older family member might not still be here and those stories will be lost.  Once you get those stories, write them down.  If you choose to take this journey, you will discover a true sense of who you are and that you belong, because their stories are your stories.

The Church of Jesus Christ can help you in your journey, feel free to contact them or start your search online at familysearch.org.

By Cherie G.

It’s a tough question.  The way I see it, each of us is a student in God’s gigantic classroom.  We’ve each been given an intricate and powerful machine called “eternity”, and we’re all here to learn how it works so that one day, we can become like God and create our own worlds and children, just like him. Eternity functions when all eternal laws (i.e. physics, marriage, math, agency, families, etc.) are understood and are being used properly.  Just like the with laws of motion, if the user of eternity doesn’t perfectly understand or obey all of those eternal laws, then the machine will crash, and the type and violence of the crash depends on the severity and type of the law overlooked/disobeyed.  Because this life is a learning process and eternity is VERY complex, we can be great students of the laws and still experience crashes and explosions in our lives that lead to difficult and painful experiences.

While we are each dealing with our own crashes and explosions, there is another dynamic to this classroom. Every time a machine blows up or breaks down, there’s collateral damage. The really big explosions often severely injure those in close proximity.  To us, it appears chaotic and brutal, but there’s one more thing to keep in mind. The Lord is omniscient. Since time and space do not bind his perception, he can know whose machine is going to explode, when, and why. With that knowledge, the Lord organizes his classroom.

The Lord knows which explosions would injure me in just the right way as to promote a better, more thorough and memorable understanding of eternal laws. Yes, I do believe that every injury from every indirect explosion (meaning, the consequence of someone else’s actions) or mistake is strategically meant to become an opportunity.  It’s an opportunity to learn something more about eternity, to become more capable than you ever could have managed having gone unscathed. Whether it’s losing your ability to walk because someone was a careless driver, enduring sexual abuse, or experiencing the death of a loved one, every explosion, of all sizes and shapes, is an opportunity for growth and improvement that extends beyond our previous capabilities. Some will have longer, and perhaps more painful/involved, healing times.  But I know even that process can be a refining one.  Long story short, we need to accept that the equation below, though popular, is some very bad math:

Injuries = suffering = misery = bad (avoid at all costs)

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to alleviate the suffering of others, or that we should seek out suffering, nor that suffering might somehow turn into a pleasant experience. I do believe suffering is inevitable and awful to endure, but is one of the most effective ways to teach love to selfish beings (and as we know love is a very big and very powerful eternal law).  I don’t think any human would ever be able to prevent all suffering. I also don’t believe any God ever would.

To answer the question more directly, I think the reason God does not protect us from one another’s explosions is because the open proximity, connection, and communication with your peers is essential to our eternal education.  That vulnerability is unquestionably necessary to really learn about love.  Think about the outpouring of love for those families in Connecticut, or how much better we are about loving our neighbors when we know they are struggling.  I think there’s a reason God creates circumstances that can result in suffering, and I believe those circumstances are intelligently designed to put us on the fast track to deeper, more truthful, understandings of eternity.  Whether that be a hurricane, an election, or a school shooting, the Lord is wise and knows how to get the greatest investment out of choice and circumstance (good and bad) without interfering with our agency.  Since agency is one of those laws God perfectly understands and wouldn’t revoke from his children, I figure the best way to deal with tragedy is rely on him to teach me what I can learn and how I can grow from it.

Bringing this back to my own life and experience with eternity, I do not, and will not doubt that the people in my life have been strategically placed there and that the experiences I’ve had were meant to augment my progression. I have a solid and strong testimony that the Lord knew which of my peers would be able to teach me the most about eternity at any given time.  He also knew which of my peers I might be able to assist most effectively.  This is probably where I’ve felt the most blessed in my life.  Even though I have my fair share of scars from friendly (or maybe not so friendly) fire, I know that I’ve learned more about love, God, and his children from those experiences than many, perhaps more pleasant, memories.

Some might ask why God doesn’t just give us all the answers, or work eternity for us so that we can avoid explosions.  First, I would refer them to the beginning of this post.  Eternity is not something to be mastered by simple memorization.  Just because you can recite the text doesn’t mean you have an understanding.  We learn by doing, and like it or not, it’s a long, arduous process.  Secondly, the Lord cannot choose for us because we are the one’s trying to figure out eternity, not him.  Sure, he would get a lot of appreciation if he just did it for everyone, but he also wouldn’t produce very capable students. I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point of this chaotic earthly classroom.

By Cherie G.

To address this, I will use the analogy of the classroom. There’s only one textbook written by the Lord himself, and it’s called the gospel. Just to prevent confusion, the gospel, is not the church, or any church. The gospel is the ultimate embodiment of all truth. It’s a perfectly accurate but infinitely dense textbook, written in the language of the Spirit, and can only be understood and communicated to students by the Spirit. Many students are still struggling to learn the language, and therefore constantly struggle to understand the textbook.

Because of this, the Lord organized a school to help us practice the language, discuss the textbook, learn it’s instructions, and make goals (covenants) to apply those lessons. He’s instructed certain students to write scriptures in their own language that can be utilized as a reference guide, and to this day is providing more reference materials as needed. He’s enlisted a few of his students as teachers assistants to not only write the reference materials, but to also help teach various sections of the classroom. He calls them prophets, and though they are still figuring out how eternity works themselves, the Lord endows them with a power that allows them to help guide the group while teaching what they know thus far. Other students are called on to lead, support, and serve smaller groups of peers, so that the curriculum can be effectively assimilated across the large classroom. Of course, because these peers are still learning, the Lord encourages all of his students to come to him so he can answer any questions or help clarify any difficult problems. Though filled with imperfect and fallible human beings, the organization continues to improve, and though it’s members still struggle with some rather debilitating aspects of humanity, the school as a whole is still moving forward and teaching/learning more and more truth.

That progression towards truth is why I choose to attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It constantly encourages the use of these TA’s, reference materials, my own prayers/studies, and ultimately, the textbook. I know the gospel is true, just like I know that I exist, and nobody could ever convince me otherwise. When I say I believe my church to be true, I’m saying it harbors, seeks, and teaches truth, not that it has a monopoly on truth. Rather, there is a lot of truth that can be learned from other sources—including other churches. That’s why members of the LDS Church are taught to learn from “the best books,” (D&C 88:118). That could be the Bible, Locke’s Two Treatises, or the Baghavad Gita—basically, we should be studying books that teach truth and ultimately enhances our understanding of the gospel. God has been revealing the gospel to men since they first lived on Earth, and considering the infinite size of the gospel and therefore truth, I think it would be arrogant and silly to claim any one church has a perfect understanding or claim on it.

I think different churches have different strengths, and that God uses these to teach his immeasurably diverse classroom. Their doctrines emphasize things differently, and because we each have our own learning styles, I don’t doubt that some people will learn truth better in, say, a Baptist church, or perhaps just doing self-study. The great thing is, the Lord knows where each of those individuals are in their understanding and just how much they can learn/teach in each group. The important thing is for us, as individuals, to work and progress in what we find to be true, so that God can direct us toward whatever path teaches us (and others) the most truth.

For instance, I once heard a devout man proclaim that he knew God wanted him to be Jewish. I felt a confirmation that he was right. And likewise, I felt the confirmation that God wanted me to be Mormon. I personally have no doubt that having that kind of relationship with God is going to be more fruitful than joining any particular church for any other reason. This is why people who investigate the LDS faith are told to study it out, pray about it, and decide if they feel like it’s the right place for them to be. Those prayers may not always be in the affirmative, but for many they are. Just like in the case of that Jewish man, I do think certain people are better placed in certain faiths. I’m pretty sure Mother Theresa was put on a Catholic path on purpose, or that C. S. Lewis would be better utilized in an Anglican group (though his writings do unwittingly support/promote a lot of Mormon doctrine). I have no doubt that both of those individuals had (and have) a fantastic understanding of the gospel because they searched, studied, worked, and prayed earnestly for that truth.

When I say the LDS Church is true, I’m not saying other churches are false. I’m saying that the whole purpose of our church is to teach eternal truths. I see the LDS Church as a school organized by God, meant to teach and distribute whatever degree of truth we are ready to learn. Because of our doctrine on personal and continuing revelation, every student is charged to search, ponder, and pray for truth themselves, and then teach it to others. After all, if you learned something about how eternity worked, wouldn’t you want to share it with others? That’s why Mormon’s are so gung-ho about missionary work. Ultimately, more and more truth will come to light as more people work to understand and obey eternal laws. And since all truth is good, the more truth we understand, the better off we are (and the more truth we want to learn).

I think this is why the more you learn about any science, art, or religion, the more you’ll understand the language of the Spirit, and therefore the gospel it teaches. The better you understand the gospel, the more you’ll love and understand others. The better you love and understand others, the more you’ll learn about the gospel. The more you learn about the gospel, the more enthusiastic you’ll be to learn more about science, art, and religion. All truth adds to, supports, and encourages other truth.

I would also like to mention that all truth supports and promotes faith, so make sure that whatever you believe to be true builds faith. If your beliefs create more doubt, fear, or anxiety (in yourself or others) than faith, I would take a step back and perhaps reassess those understandings. It’s a good way to gauge if what you’re learning (or what you’re teaching) is actually truth or just something you want to believe is truth. It’s a gauge I like to use and have had lots of positive experiences with.

I’ve also found that the more truth you have, the more peace you have. If you haven’t noticed, our modern world is obsessed with creating fear, controversy, and contradiction. The more truth I learn, the less I find myself troubled by any of those things. As you learn by faith, you start to see how science is not at odds with God, how two seemingly contradictory things can actually be complimentary, or how most religions are essentially saying the same thing, just in a different way. If you ask me, it adds richness to my testimony that God really knows what he’s doing. That no matter how good we are at mucking things up, he’s even better at recycling the muck into purposes that can lead to learning and progression.

So while you’re trying to figure out who God is to you, what path you pursue, or perhaps how you feel about all of this, remember, we’re in school to learn, so the more we invest in that task the better off we’ll be. Life is practice, not a performance. Certain lessons may be disasters and involve some painful experiences, but I have faith in Jesus Christ. With that faith I know that we can be healed, our mistakes can be fixed, hard lessons can be learned, and everlasting joy can be found.