BRILLIANT!!

"My beloved brothers and sisters, today I would like to speak about one of the most significant gifts given to the world in modern times. The gift I am thinking of is more important than any of the inventions that have come out of the industrial and technological revolutions. This is the gift of great value to mankind than even the many wonderful advances we have seen in modern medicine. It is of greater worth to mankind than the development of flight or space travel. I speak of the gift of the Book of Mormon..." --President Ezra Taft Benson

So I finished reading the October Ensign. Yes, the conference editions are always my favorite and I save them--when they are not given away--but October's Ensign I have to say was amazing cover to cover!!!
New insights to scriptures stories! Inspiried council! Testimonies from different members all over the world. Time and time again I found the spirit cementing the truths yet again in my heart. I feel like buying 10 copies just so that my future posterity can surely have one! The issue is that BRILLIANT!!!

Just a few of my favorite quotes from it's pages:

In the scriptures " we find principles of truth that will resolve every confusion and every problem and every dilemma that will face the human family" (Teaching, No Greater Call).
-
...we who are privileged to have the Book of Mormon, to be members of the Lord's Church, to have His gospel, and to keep His commandments know something of God's infinite love. pg 14
-
I realized that I had been limiting the power of God by assuming He could not use me in any way He saw fit. pg 14
-
The Book of Mormon is an incomparable treasure and the instrument of conversion that the Lord has designed and provided for our dispensation. pg 30
-
Thus, the birth, life, and atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ are the greatest manifestations of God's love for His children. pg 33
-
What, then, is the difference between clinging and holding fast to the rod of iron? Let me suggest that holding fast to the iron rod entails, in large measure, the prayerful, consistent, and earnest use of the holy scriptures as a sure source of revealed truth and as a reliable guide for the journey along the strait and narrow path to the tree of life--even to the Lord Jesus Christ. pg 36
-
We need our own secure and settled faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need help in strengthening our families so that this faith flows into the hearts of our children and grandchildren. Faith in Jesus Christ, when solidly anchored in our souls, brings true conversion, and in its wake come repentance, honest discipleship, miracles, spiritual gifts, and enduring righteousness. pg 41
-
There is nothing more important to share with another than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings understanding to the challenges of this life, happiness amid difficulty, and eternal life in the world to come. pg 45

My list could go on and on because my notes are thick!!

I LOVE the Book of Mormon! It truly brings one and their heart to Jesus Christ. What can reading the Book of Mormon do for you?! Just change your life!!!!!!!!!! If you would like a free copy- click here. Ezra Taft Benson said about the Book of Mormon:

There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called "the words of life: (see D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in great and greater abundance.

I feel these words from Richard G. Scott could be my own for I say AMEN to them!

"What does the Book of Mormon mean to you? Has it been a source of inspiration and power in your life? Will it continue to be?
"If you have not yet drunk deeply form this fountain of pure truth, with all of my soul I encourage you to do so now. Don't let the consistent study of the Book of Mormon be one of the things that you intend to do but never quite accomplish. Begin today."

There were so many things from the Oct Ensign that touched me...! I seriously could write a few pages on this--but I particularly felt the spirit while reading this account.

I Felt a Fire Inside

Claudia Williams, Florida, USA

I grew up attending Sunday School at a church next door to my childhood home in Michigan, USA. I had a wonderful teacher who filled me with a love for Jesus Christ.

Each week she passed out cards illustrating events from the Savior’s mortal ministry, including principles He taught and miracles He performed. Each week I pasted the cards into a scrapbook and reread the stories in the Bible. As I grew older, I continued to study the Gospels in the New Testament.

Years later, during the summer of 1968, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited the home of a family member. She declined the elders’ invitation to learn about the Church but sent them to my home.

At our first meeting the missionaries taught me that “a falling away” had occurred from the Church that Jesus Christ had established (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). What they taught coincided with my personal study, so when they asked if they could visit me again, I agreed.

During their next visit, I had a list of questions. Did Latter-day Saints baptize by immersion? Did they believe in priesthood authority? Did they believe in the healing of the sick? Their answers supported what I had studied in the New Testament. At the end of the visit, they left me with a book they said testified of Jesus Christ.

I set the book on top of the TV and went to bed. But in the middle of the night, I was awakened by a strong feeling I later recognized as the Holy Ghost. I felt prompted to start reading, so I read for an hour and a half before returning to bed. A short time later, I reawakened with the same feeling, so I read some more.

This pattern continued for the next two nights. I loved what I was reading and recognized that the Book of Mormon testified of Jesus Christ.

I decided to ask God for direction. For the first time since I was a little girl, I knelt to pray. I asked Heavenly Father to help me know what to do with the fire I felt inside of me. When I finished my prayer, I felt prompted to revisit the account of the Lamanites’ conversion in 3 Nephi 9. I read that they “were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (verse 20).

The phrase “they knew it not” spoke to me. The thought came to me: “The Church of Jesus Christ really is on the earth!” I was eager to talk to the missionaries about what I had read and what I now knew. But when they responded to my questions with an invitation to be baptized, I told them I couldn’t. My husband wouldn’t understand.

As I continued to think about that verse, however, I realized that it contained clear direction for me to offer the sacrifice of “a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” I prayed and asked my Father in Heaven to help me, which He did. After my husband took the missionary discussions, he gave his consent for me to be baptized.

How grateful I am to a loving Heavenly Father for that precious and powerful experience I had as a young mother in reading the Book of Mormon. It led me to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, the influence of the Holy Ghost I felt those nights in 1968 is now a constant gift—something that has guided me during my more than 40 years as a member of the Church.

The Book of Mormon has changed my life!!!!! And continues to do so! I am pretty sure I have read through it at least 20+ times on my own and that is probably an under estimate, and yet I find new verses, deep truths, renewed desires to becoming like Christ. I LOVE THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the Oct Ensign for confirming everything that is already in my heart!!!

Brilliant!!

May your love affair with the scriptures start TODAY!!!!!! (President Hinckley always used to talk about having a love affair with the scriptures--and I can testify that I DO!!!!!!!!!! And if you haven't had such a relationship with the sacred volume, YOU CAN!!)

BRILLIANT!!