Mighty Change of Heart: Intro

I've never thought much about the phrase. It always seemed pretty self-explanatory to me. But now, my testimony is so much stronger because of this phrase. It means so much more than when I took it at face value.

I moved into this new ward pretty much just for practical reasons. I needed a place to live for 2 months, and then I'm off to Washington. I found the cheapest option I could and bought the girls contract for just the Spring term. Little did I know that I was moving into the self-proclaimed "best ward ever".

Now I can't speak for the greatness of the ward compared to other wards, but it is pretty great. My reasoning for this is not because of the social life aspect of the ward (although, it is pretty dang social) but because of the gospel philosophy of the ward.

When you are trying to learn something new, you usually have a tutor. Some tutors are better than others, and some tutors just speak your language. They answer all of your questions right when they appear in your mind, and sometimes even before you vocalize them. They understand your thought process and are always on the same page as you. They teach in an order and manner that you completely understand. This is how Bishop Rasmussen is.

On the first Sunday in the ward, Bishop Rasmussen announced that for all new members of the ward, there was a special Sunday School lesson for us in a separate room from the Gospel Doctrine and Marriage and Family classes. I thought this was odd, because I didn't know that different classes could be made up. This class was basically an initiation into the what I call, the "ward's testimony". Now, it makes sense for a specific person to have a testimony, but what does it mean for a ward to have a testimony? Bishop Rasmussen has a set of gospel topics that he regularly discusses with the ward, and often refers back to in other lessons and talks. He also writes out gospel study guides with analyses of gospel doctrines and principles, scripture references, action items, and promises. He updates the study guides monthly and he uploads them to the ward facebook page and encourages everyone in the ward to study the guides. It's kind of like a giant religion class. The really cool effect of this is that everyone in the ward is learning these gospel principles in a similar setting and we all get to learn together. It sort of inadvertently unifies the ward in a spiritual sense. People in the ward often refer to the gospel principles emphasized in the study guides as "The Mighty Change of Heart".

The mighty change of heart is a gospel principle that Bishop Rasmussen focuses on. The study guides that he has written so far, are: Repentance, Faith, The Holy Ghost, and Ordinances and Covenants.

In the lesson the Bishop gave an introduction to the Repentance study guide and introduced us to what the mighty change of heart is all about. I will post about each of these study guides individually as I finish them.

I've noticed that as I go through life, I usually have questions about the gospel. Some are small, and can be answered relatively quickly and by pretty much any of my church leaders. Other questions require a lot of thought, pondering, prayer, and discussion with many different leaders until I find the right answer.

Near the beginning of the year, I noticed that I had stopped studying my scriptures as well as I have done in the past. Last Fall semester, I had set up a good system for studying my scriptures for at least a couple of days a week. But now, I was completely avoiding it altogether. I thought, "This isn't like me. I want to be good. I want to do what Heavenly Father wants me to do. Then why don't I want to read my scriptures?" I'm a pretty logical person, so I thought, well, why does Heavenly Father want me to read my scriptures and to pray? 

This question was on my mind for the entire semester. I would go to Sunday School and Institute and I would hear nice stories of how saying prayers works, and how people would read the scriptures and everything else in their life would fall into place. I thought, "Maybe that's it, maybe we read our scriptures so that we can have everything in our lives fall into place." or "We read scriptures to get blessings". But none of it made sense to me.

When I came to the first Sunday School lesson in my current ward, my bishop talked about a process he calls the mighty change of heart. This lesson really answered a lot of the questions I had about the gospel, and it laid out our purpose here on earth so clearly. I felt like the bishop understood things like I did, and I knew that he would be the one to answer my question. I walked up to the bishop afterwards and sincerely thanked him for the lesson. I immediately went to the executive secretary and scheduled an appointment with the bishop that following Tuesday. 

I met with the bishop and thanked him again for the wonderful lesson. I told him that he answered a lot of questions that I had about the gospel. We talked about the mighty change of heart and how great it is. Then I asked him my question. 

It seemed a little silly to ask, "Why do we pray?" because of the simplicity of the question. I reassured the bishop that I had a testimony and that I was an active member of the church, but that I just needed to reaffirm the why of some of the gospel practices. I wanted to be able to have an absolute, resolute definition of what prayer and scripture study is, and why we do it.

His answer was something to the effect of this: "The only reason we study the scriptures is because God commanded us to. All other reasons are residual blessings that come after we have exercised our faith. In Moses 5:6, it says, "And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me." We need to trust in the Lord's commandments. The purpose of prayer is to learn and understand God’s will for us." 

Exactly what I needed. I love this answer! This answer withstands any doubt that I had previously. The things that I thought were "reasons" for praying previously, were just the blessings that come from prayer. Not the reason that we pray.

He also cited 2 Nephi 32:3-5:

3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.

This was it! I finally received my answer! Now it is time to act on it. As I read the study guides and solidify my personal gospel study regimen, I will be able to more fully analyze this principle and the ones outlined in the mighty change of heart study guides.