A Personal Lesson Learned From The Book of Mormon

Have you ever felt like the scriptures were speaking directly to you while reading or hearing someone read a passage of scripture?  I have experienced this on a few occasions throughout my life.

One of the first times I can remember having this feeling was when I was serving as a full time missionary in Hammond, Indiana in 1978.  At the time I had been serving as a missionary for less than one week.  My companion was Elder Brian Judy from Salt Lake City.  Elder Judy and I were in the home of a young married couple who had invited the missionaries to teach them more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  On this particular day we were teaching them what happens after death.  Elder Judy quoted two verses out of the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon, Chapter 11:43-44:

43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.

 44 Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. Alma 11:43-44

I know I had read those verses previously.  I know I had heard them read to me as well.  But on that occasion it felt as if I were hearing it for the first time.  And what was I hearing?   All men, everyone of us, will be resurrected and will received a perfected body.  Even the smallest imperfection in our earthly body will be gone.  But beyond that knowledge and understanding came the feeling that I knew this principle to be true.  It became the foundation of my testimony of the resurrection of Christ and that all of us will live beyond the grave.

Over the course of the two years as a full time missionary I taught this lesson many times.  As a way to help explain the passage of scripture I would explain to people that a scar my on my right thumb would be gone when I am resurrected.  That scar came as a result of my thumb being caught in the door way of a car door being shut when I was five years old.  I will live with it throughout my life but in the eternities it will be gone.  As a 19 year old I really thought that was a good object lesson to help teach this principle.  Now in retrospect this example is trivial and insignificant. 

I really don't care if that scar stays with me for the eternities or not.  Instead the resurrection means so much more to me.  Having children who are mentally handicapped due to an imperfection in their chromosomes has caused me to view my scar as irrelevant.  Instead, to me personally, the resurrection has taken on a whole new, and much greater appreciation and anticipation.  I look forward with great anticipation to the day when my children will be resurrected and I will get to know them as they truly are.  To be able to hold a conversation with them that has meaning.  To be able to find out their real opinions and to get a true sense of the depth of their knowledge, understanding, and testimonies that they have already developed is something that I eagerly await.  For them verse 44 of Alma chapter 11 could be rewritten to say "not so much as a single chromosome shall be imperfect, but everything shall be restored to function perfectly."

I am grateful that Christ broke the bands of death by being resurrected and that he prepared the way for each of us to experience that wonderful event.


Submitted by:  James Tanner