Oh Hey!
So, here is it, Sunday! I love the sabbath day ... there is something special about it ... maybe it is the spirit about it.
I should be folding laundry ... I am in the middle of doing that ... There is just something that has me stuck ... I want to write about it ... but I am not sure I know how without sounding like a pig-headed snob. And so ... as you read this be prepared ... if I offend anyone please know it is not my purpose ... I am just a little bewildered ... I just had to get my feelings about it out.
Tonight R and I decided to watch "The Work and the Glory" ... I have loved this story from the beginning ... it was so well written that I felt like Joseph Smith could have been my best friend ... I haven't finished the book series yet ... only because I am deathly afraid of who might die ... therefore my advancement in those books have been on hold for about ... ummmm ... seven years ... yeaaaa. However, I did manage to get through the first five books ... which gave me the entitlement to watch the movie ... and I have ... many, many times! I really love them ... they had become a sabbath day special for me ... the ex-husband took all three in the divorce ... and so I have not seen them for almost four years ... so you can imagine that when I found them in the stockpile of movies at my in-laws I was super excited ... we are talking jumping up and down here ... obviously the only option was to borrow them ... and of course watch them immediately!
So ... well ... I absolutely LOVE my religion ... I have the strongest testimony about it ... I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that it is the true church ... I would shout it to the world if I could ... I have no qualms about answering questions or bearing my testimony to anyone who asks ... seriously ... ask me ... I dare you (if I don't know the answer I will get it for you)! This being said, I should now say that I was absolutely floored to learn that few to none of the actors in "The Work and the Glory" series are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (yes, I am so in love with my religion that it is fun and exciting for me to know who believes as I do ... yes, I searched the internet to find out who was and was not Mormon). I don't know why this struck me so hard ... I guess maybe because this story ... the story of Joseph Smith ... is so sacred and special to members of our faith ... but it is also one of the most controversial stories out there.
I guess therein lies the problem that I have with it ... when it comes to something that so many people have so much passion about how can people simply act it out. I don't get it. I mean ... to be an actor don't you fully immerse yourself in your character? If you do so ... I mean ... even if you just read the script ... the words spoken are phenomenally put together ... how could you not convert ... or drop out of the film because you don't believe.
Before you get the wrong idea ... it is not that the people are not LDS that bothers me ... I fully support any religion ... or even non-religion ... that any person claims themselves to. To each his own ... free speech ... right to choose ... I am for it all ... a person is a person ... they have every right to make their own decisions in life ... and no matter if I agree with choices or not I will support and love everyone ... that is the way I was raised ... that is the way my religion believes (if you don't believe that you should read our articles of faith ... we do believe it even if it doesn't seem it sometimes ... you should know that the gospel is perfect ... but the people are not ... I am not).
Away from that tangent ... back to my original ... I have so much passion and love for the Joseph Smith story ... for the work that came out of it ... for the life changing lesson that it taught me ... for the life changing word it brought to the world ... how could people portraying this story not share the same passion? How could they not watch their own movie and feel the spirit when Joseph Smith relays his story of a simple, unobtrusive fourteen year old self? How could you not be curious enough to read the book that Nathan so passionately asks Lydia to read? How could you not be excited when you hear that this church ... the church of Jesus Christ himself ... is to be reorganized? How would you not want to know for yourself? I guess I just don't get it. These actors don't know the debt and breath of passion behind this story ... how can the properly portray that passion without knowing it. It seems unfair to the people who do believe this story to have it presented by people who don't ... it actually seems even more unfair to the people who don't believe ... you are missing some of the passion.
I will leave you now with my Testimony ... hopefully that will help the lack that I now feel ... I want everyone to know that I believe with all my heart in the truth behind the story of Joseph Smith, I know that he was a prophet of God, that he restored the Christs church after the state of apostasy that happened when all of Christ's apostles had passed away. I know that Christ has appointed a prophet today, and that his name is Thomas S. Monson, that he has apostles as well. I know that this is the true Church of Christ. I know that I will be with my family and those I love for all eternity ... that Christ died for my sins which allows for that plan of happiness. I know that without this church I would be lost .... That even through my struggles I can count of the Lord and he will help carry me through. I love this gospel with all I am ... with every fiber of my being ... I know it to be true. It contains so much happiness within it ... so much happiness for me and my family ... and everyone who will seek it out and seek the truth.
Ok ... I'll end it with that ... sorry for the fragmented post ... but thank you for allowing me to get it out! Have a fantastic night my dear friends!
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