Doctrine & Covenants Lesson # 36
“The Desert
Shall Rejoice, and Blossom as the Rose”
Introduction
On the weeks I am not teaching, at least for this year, I
will just post some thoughts on the lesson and links to the additional reading
material.
The first link is to a video about Brigham and the Salt
Lake Temple and Tabernacle. As Brigham saw the temple in vision, each time he
looked at the land it would eventually stand on, I wonder if Pres. Monson had looked
at the ruins of the Provo Tabernacle and seen the wonderful temple it would
become as he announced its construction.
Soon after I joined the Church, we put on a Road Show
called “Brother Brigham Says.” Road Shows just don’t seem to be as popular as
they once were, but maybe it was because we were in Germany (in an
English-speaking ward). But I remember all the songs that went with it, one of
which had the line “make the desert blossom like a rose.” I think Brigham meant
this spiritually as well as physically. And I believe that being in the temple,
doing work for ourselves and others, helps us blossom and make progress towards
being what the Lord would want us to be.
The readings from Our Heritage are instructive and
poignant. Can you imagine cheerfully going to Church one Sunday and have the
Bishop tell you that you and your family are to move to Siberia to teach the
Gospel? Tomorrow!
Not long after I joined the Church, I had a letter in the
mail, seemingly from the Mission Office in Frankfurt, telling me I had been
called to serve a mission in Holland and was to report to the Frankfurt Chapel
that Thursday evening. I went through a huge amount of soul searching—my job,
my finances, my home. How could I do this? Thankfully, reason took over and I
saw that it did not come from the First Presidency, was obviously photocopied
and, although not a hoax per se, did not mean I had to make that decision. It
was a ward missionary activity. Would I have obeyed that call if it were real?
I do not know. However, the principle is one of obedience.
Elder L. Tom Perry said,
Surely there could not be any doctrine
more strongly expressed in the scriptures than the Lord’s unchanging
commandments and their connection to our happiness and well-being as
individuals, as families, and as a society. There are moral absolutes.
Disobedience to the Lord’s commandments will always deprive us of His
blessings. These things do not change.
In a world where the moral compass of
society is faltering, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ never wavers, nor
should its stakes and wards, its families, or its individual members. We must
not pick and choose which commandments we think are important to keep but
acknowledge all of God’s commandments. We must stand firm and steadfast, having
perfect confidence in the Lord’s consistency and perfect trust in His promises.[1]
The lesson talks about foundations, and once again I am
drawn to Elder Stevenson’s talk during our regional meeting where he gave us
the acronym H O V, humility, obedience, virtue. Surely these three Christlike
attributes are a good foundation from which we can blossom like a rose!
Additional resources for this lesson
- “Ministry
of Brigham Young: The Master Builder”: This two-minute video
introduces some key building and colonization projects led by Brigham
Young.
- Mormon Pioneer Overland
Travel Database: This database allows people to search for individual
pioneers and find out more about them.
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