Remembering Joseph by Mark L. McConkie

8/10

I read this at least a decade ago. It's a book containing tons of stories and experiences from family, friends, and others who had personal encounters with Joseph Smith. The book is organized by topic and has several lesser known stories that I found interesting.

My favorite topic was actually concerning the transfiguration of Brigham Young. The section contains tons of personal accounts of individuals who were watching Brigham Young speak when he suddenly looked and sounded like the recently martyred Prophet Joseph. It was cool reading so many different accounts from those who witnessed this event. Reading this book is a great way to get to know who Joseph Smith was and what kind of man he was. A very intelligent, courageous, and faithful servant of the Lord who remained true to his calling.

There are several good stories that I could share for the blog but I forced myself to limit the amount. I will relate three:

1. George A. Smith shares a story about a time when a Campbellite preacher came to Joseph Smith and said he would be dedicated to the church if he found it to be true. Joseph began teaching him and he said he wanted a miracle to prove that the restored gospel taught by the Prophet was true. "'Well,' said Joseph, 'what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done.'" The preacher said this was not the kind of miracle he wanted. Joseph then told him that he reminded him of the very first person the ask the Savior to perform a miracle which was Satan who came to Christ while he fasted in the desert. George A. Smith then says, "But the poor preacher had so much faith in the power of the Prophet that he daren't risk being struck blind, lame, dumb, or having one hand withered, or anything of the kind."

2. This one is more known, but I like it. "[In the winter of 1856 Emma] remarked of her husband Joseph's limited education while he was translating the Book of Mormon, and she was scribe at the time, 'He could not pronounce the word Sariah.' And one time while translating, where it speaks of the walls of Jerusalem, he stopped and said, 'Emma, did Jerusalem have walls surrounding it?' When I informed him that it had, he replied, 'O, I thought I was deceived.'"

3. Philo Dibble shares a story of a time when Joseph was preaching in Kirtland in 1833 and stated "Forty days shall not pass, and the stars shall fall from heaven." A skeptic wrote the words down and intended it to be a proof that Joseph was a false prophet once such an improbable occurrence fails to happen. After 39 days, this guy shows it to a member of the church named Joseph Hancock and asked him what he thought of his Prophet now. Joseph Hancock remarked that there was still one night left so certainly it would still come to pass. That night "[t]he whole heavens were lit up with the falling meteors" and the prophecy was fulfilled. The book also contains accounts from others who also witnessed this occurrence stating "I noticed in the sky numbers of stars falling from the heavens" among other descriptions. The book also quotes the 'Little Rock Gazette' newspaper on December 11, 1833 which writes of this as follows: "The Falling Stars - The meteoric phenomenon witnessed here on the morning of the 13th ult. was general throughout the United States. The Washington, Baltimore,   Philadelphia, and New York papers, give the same description of it, as those who witnessed it in this region, and to the north and south of us."

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

7/10

I read this about a decade ago, give or take. It is the final book in the Narnia series and probably has the heaviest symbolism out of all the books which makes it fascinating. Some of the symbolism involves a false Aslan being set up, a last Armageddon-style battle, and a final judgment where all are judged by Aslan, among many other symbolic moments. It's a good book and a good way to finish off the series. I plan on reading this Narnia series to my daughter coming up pretty soon.

I will now officially rank the Narnia books in order from my favorite to least favorite:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. The Silver Chair
3. The Last Battle
4. The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'
5. Prince Caspian
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Horse and His Boy

I will end with two quotes:

"They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."

"[A]ll find what they truly seek."

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

6/10

I finished reading this five days ago. For those who have read some of my other blog post entries, you may know that poetry isn't my favorite. So why would you read Walt Whitman, you ask? To be honest, I don't really know. But I do know that I was determined to read this book with a positive attitude and attempt to not get bothered when I ran into seemingly pointless poems. I actually didn't mind the book too much, but wish the length was cut in about half.

Walt Whitman seems like an interesting fellow. I bet he was an interesting guy to talk to. His Leaves of Grass is like the anthem of his life. He was such an optimist and loved nature, the United States, and life in general. A line in his poem 'To Think of Time' sums his attitude up: "What will be will be well, for what is is well." It reminds me of that time many years ago when I texted the following to a friend back when Utah Jazz version Deron Williams was dominating a particular game: "D Will will will us to victory." It's true.

Anyway, every now and then I would come across a poem that I really liked. My hands down favorite is 'Prayer of Columbus'. It is slightly too long for me to post here, but if you want to read it you can go to this website: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/waltwhitman/13394 It is worth a read in my opinion.

I will now post my next favorite poem titled 'O Living Always, Always Dying':

"O living always, always dying!
O the burials of me past and present,
O me while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever;
O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;)
O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at where I cast them,
To pass on, (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind."

What Do Mormons Believe? by Rex E. Lee

6/10

I saw this book at a used book store while on my mission. At first from the title of the book I thought it was going to be an anti book. Which is funny because this book ended up playing a role in an anti experience later on during my mission. I ended up purchasing the book with some hesitation because I felt like maybe I should leave it on the shelf for some curious non-mormon to purchase and read. But I selfishly purchased it because during my mission I liked reading any kind of church book I could get my hands on.

I read the book and it was ok. Nothing too amazing. Just some basic and foundational principles. Which seemed to confirm that I should have left the book for someone else. It wasn't until about my last or second to last month of my mission when this family we were teaching showed us some anti mormon stuff someone gave them. It was more of a "look at this silly stuff someone gave us" kind of encounter and not a "is this really what you believe?" one. But nonetheless, they showed me this part of it which contained a quote from a church authority. The quote was something ridiculous which was actually the opposite of what we believe. I noticed the classic "..." contained in the quote indicating that they left something out. I pointed out that this is a common trick by the anti mormon posse as a way to leave out true and accurate context. I looked at the source of the quote and it came from a book called "What Do Mormons Believe?" I was like, I have that book and don't remember reading that part which is totally contrary to what we actually believe. I was able to look up the quote and it was the most shameful and dishonest portrayal possible. It removed the middle of a sentence which made the edited sentence appear to say the opposite of what the full sentence was saying. I was able to show the family the actual quote from the book and they couldn't believe it either. It actually helped their investigation of the church which was quite the backfire by the loser anti trickster.

And that is the story I always think of when I see this book on my shelf. I don't remember much of anything in it but I remember that it helped overcome some silly anti.

There is this informational quote in the book which actually comes from a Statement of the First Presidency on the Equal Rights Amendment back in October 1976:

"In Utah, where our Church is headquartered, women received the right to vote in 1870, fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution granted the right nationally."