Gospel Cogitations

In case any of you were not aware, there was a devotional last night in Salt Lake City with Elder and Sis. Uchtdorf.  They spoke about "the adventure of mortality" with reference to young adults.  I had the privilege of attending the devotional live, and I certainly felt the Spirit.  I would encourage all young adults reading this (and older adults if you want to) to go listen to/watch this devotional.  Even if you have already seen it, you will benefit from studying it again. Some of you may know that I enjoy learning about historical and literary evidences for the Book of Mormon.  I believe that, just as it is important to listen to the Spirit when finding a testimony, we should also use our powers of reasoning and deduction to find truth.  One of the more convincing evidences for the Book of Mormon that has come to light in recent years is the Hebrew literary structure called chiasmus. A chiasmus is a way of emphasizing an idea through reverse parallelism.  According t

In light of the recent passing of Pres. Monson, I thought it would be appropriate to speak a little about the way the next president of the church is chosen.  Pres. Monson was an amazing servant of God, who will be remembered for, among many things, his changing of the age for missionary service, and his great example of service to others.  But now we will experience something like what happened when Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire - the mantle of prophet fell to Elisha.  The mantle of president of the church will fall on another.  The priesthood will never again be taken from the earth, that is the promise , so we will always have a prophet . One more note about Pres. Monson:  In the Oct 2015 conference, Elder Bednar told of an experience he had with Elder Hales, whose health was failing.  Elder Hales told Elder Bednar that “When you cannot do what you have always done, then you only do what matters most.”  If that is true, we should carefully examine the last me