the Moore 4

Working for the Church has so far brought with it some great benefits. We were finally able to purchase a home that fits our needs. We have been blessed to be able to spend more quality time together as a family with less stress. I have had many opportunities to hear from our leaders and be in their presence.

Today, I had an awesome and humbling experience that is most likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime one. Our group held our second annual Design Review today. It’s a little get together where we review the work we’ve done individually and collectively over the past year. Last year’s event started with a keynote by David Warner, director of the Church’s Music and Cultural Arts division. He spoke about the Creation and how we are all endowed with the special talents of creation in our own lives. It was an excellent talk and I have gone back to it again and again to inspire me in my work.

This year, we began in the Church History Library and Archives in the east wing of the Church Office Building. There we met as a group and listened to Richard Turley, the the assistant historian and recorder, as he showed us several rare and precious artifacts from the archives. Now, I have never been much of a Church History buff; nor any kind of history buff for that matter. But as we saw some of the books, documents, and papers of our past prophets and apostles, I truly felt the spirit bear witness to me that these items were real and what they claimed to be. The most awesome of the bunch was a page of the original manuscript from the translation of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith. We viewed a tattered, faded, and worn piece of old parchment that contained the first ever transcription of the words of the prophet Nephi found in 1 Nephi 3:7. We also were able to see Joseph Smith’s first journal, as well as journals of Wilford Woodruff and Brigham Young.

For the first time ever, I felt a desire to know more history; to truly study the past and gain an understanding for all that our forebears did so that we might have the blessings we so freely enjoy today. Brother Turley said, “It’s important that we know and understand the past so that we might be better prepared for the future.” He also said it is better to learn from joy than to learn from sorrow. The latter is “the school of hard knocks”, while the former is learning from the mistakes of others so we don’t have to suffer the same things.

I am grateful for those who came before and hope to learn more about them in the coming year. I know that I gained a greater appreciation for the history of the Church today.

Posted by Rick