BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
Let us know if you’d like to receive your own digital copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
Mormon Thoughts: Being Humble
Letter to Ryan about my Arizona trip
Hey Ryan,
What’s up, bro? I want to share an experience I had last week. So Joey and I went down to Arizona over the weekend with Mariah. It was a pretty long drive. I never want to do that again. It was really cool, though, and while I was there I called one of my missionary friends who was actually my companion for two transfers. He had told me that he lived close to Aaron McDade’s ward (McDade is serving in the Tempe Arizona Mission). So when I called him, he said that he was going to feed the missionaries that night with some of the other young single adults from his ward. And so I got a hold of Elder McDade, and it turned out that he was on an exchange with the missionary that was going to that dinner. So I went and picked up Aaron and his companion from their house and took them to the appointment. It was so cool. He has changed a ton but he is still the same in a lot of ways. I miss him a lot. He comes home in about a week and a half. But he is completely different from before. As you can probably remember, I was with him while he was in the Missionary Training Center, and he had never even read like the Book of Mormon. He said,“ I don’t know how I’m going to teach about this book. I don’t know anything about it.” He was very scared. But, anyway, after the dinner when we were together the missionaries shared scriptures. Aaron chose a scripture that was actually in my Book of Mormon reading last week. He read Helaman 12:7-8.
“O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.
For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.”
Then he talked about how it was humbling for him to read this and think how weak we are and how prideful and wicked we can be. He talked about the importance of repentance and keeping God’s commandments. It was so cool. I really loved reading this chapter. Ryan, you should read it. It is very humbling. Don’t forget about Heavenly Father and how much he has blessed you and your family. I love you, bro. Be safe. Stay strong! See you soon.
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