I'm pretty sure you've all figured out by now that I'm a college student. If you haven't figured that out (and even if you have), here's the rundown: I'm in my first semester at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, currently studying Civil Engineering. Now, BYU is a Mormon school. And because of that, students here take almost enough religion credits to get a minor in it at pretty much any other school. One of the classes I'm in this semester is called Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon. For this class, I have to pick a Book of Mormon scripture each week for three weeks, and work on the principle taught in it. Another thing you've probably figured out by now is that I have trouble thinking a thing through if I don't write it down. And so, to help me figure out what I'm supposed to work on and how I'm supposed to do it, I'm going to write it down. And you're getting the opportunity to be along for the ride. So that's the set up. The thought process is as follows: quite possibly my favorite chapter in all of scripture is Mosiah 18. In this chapter, the recently-escaped-and-still-technically-in-hiding Alma the Elder collects all the people who have been willing to listen and learned to love his words -- the words he collected from the late, courageous Abinadi -- at the place called Mormon, and founds the Church of God. It's a story of innocent hopefulness and righteous courage, and I think that it's the pivotal moment of the Book of Mormon. The verses contained within it are full of love and our most basic principles of baptism, pure doctrine, and holiness. It's the ancient version of our own Restoration, and I love it quite deeply. If you ask me, it's the only chapter one ever needs. One of our most quoted scriptures is in this chapter. The verse is as follows: "Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life." (This is often quoted in conjunction with the verse directly preceding and the one that directly follows.) However, I think that the line right before is the best: "and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light." This is the principle I have opted to focus on this week. This is such an important and Christlike sentiment. We have been commanded over and over to love one another, and I think that helping them through their trials, being willing to hold some of the instruments in what shouldn't be a one-man-band, is a fundamental example of that. I think that the key word in this is "willing." Not just bearing burdens, but being willing to do so. Maybe you aren't always in a position to help, maybe you have no one you can help, but at least you are willing. I think it's better to be unable to help yet wanting to than to be resenting the fact that you are. So this week, not only will I be asking "What can I do to help?" I will be asking "Can I help?" Because just like everything when it comes to the church, it's most important to be trying, no matter how much you succeed.
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I'm Audrey, a college student and existential rambler.
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February 2021
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