12 September 2021

Pace, you are light years ahead of where I was when I was eight years old.  I only have one memory from that age, and it is very vivid in my mind.  I was out walking in a field by my house, and was having some very deep thoughts for an 8-year-old.  My mother had told me about God and Jesus and about prophets and about the Bible.  I was pondering upon those things, and I had lots of questions.

The big one was, are God and Jesus one Being or two?  And what are they?  Are they people or a sort of spirit or a power like gravity or a cloud or some such essence as that?

And how about prophets?  If there were prophets who talked to God thousands of years ago, why aren't there prophets now?  Could I be a prophet?  Could I talk to God?  Could I do wonderful things for mankind like Jesus did?

I couldn't sort any of those things out in my 8-year-old mind.  The answers were probably in the Bible, but I couldn't understand the Bible.  In my teenage years I picked up the Bible three different times with the intention of reading it all the way through, but put it right back down again because I couldn't understand it.

There was no way for me to get answers to my questions.  I couldn't ask my mother, because she didn't know.  I couldn't go to a minister or a pastor of any church, because they didn't know, either.  Not even the pope knows whether the Father and the Son are one being or two, or if the Father is a man, or why there aren't prophets now like there were anciently.

But you do!  Eight-year-old you is light years ahead of the pope or of the pastor of any Protestant church.

Are the Father and the Son one being or two?  (Two)

Are they men?  (Yes!)

How do you know that?  (Because Joseph Smith saw Them)

What was Joseph Smith?  (A prophet)

Do we have prophets today?  (Yes)

Have you read the Book of Mormon all the way through?  (Yes)

Do you know that it's true?  (Yes)

Are you reading it again?  (Yes)

How far are you?  (I just finished 1^st Nephi)

You're light years ahead of just about everyone else in the world, and God is going to use you.  He has a plan for you.  Today is the formal beginning of that plan.  Today you're demonstrating that you're willing to do whatever the Lord asks, and to follow Him.

He said that, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”  (John 3:5).

You're following that first commandment by repenting and by being baptized.  And then a few minutes later you're going to be born of the Spirit when hands are placed on your head to give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Because you'll have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and because you have the desire to be good and to keep the commandments, and because you pray and read the scriptures every day, you're going to avoid committing tons of sins that other people commit.  And you're going to know how to quickly repent of the sins that you do commit.

You're light years ahead of nearly everyone else in the world.

I went through my teenage years feeling dirty.  I didn't know anything about repentance.  I didn't know anything about Jesus Christ.  I didn't know that He had already paid for my sins and that He could take them away and make me clean and happy.

And then a wonderful thing happened.  When I was 19 a girl that I deeply admired gave me a Book of Mormon.  As I read it I could feel light coming into my head.  I couldn't have told you that my head was full of darkness; but as I read the book, light came into the front of my head and pushed the darkness to the back.  All I wanted to do was to read that book because of the feelings and the light that I was experiencing.

I was halfway through the Book of Mormon when the girl sent me a pamphlet entitled “Joseph Smith's Testimony.”  Joseph told of going to the woods to pray to know which church was true.  He was a boy with questions just like I was.  Two brilliant Beings appeared to him.  One pointed to the other and said, “This is My Beloved Son.  Hear Him!”  (Joseph Smith—History 1:17).

Just imagine my excitement at that moment.  There were the answers to all of my questions!  The Father and the Son were people!  They were separate Beings!  They were glorious resurrected Beings.  I could become a glorious resurrected man, too!  They had called a prophet in our day and time!  They had reestablished the same church that Jesus established when He had been on earth!  There were prophets and apostles again!

And another wonderful thing happened.  After finishing the Book of Mormon I read the Doctrine and Covenants.  Then I tackled the New Testament, and lo and behold, it was perfectly plain and understandable!  I've read the Bible through and through many times, both the Old and the New Testaments, and I love them.  The Bible and the Book of Mormon are in perfect harmony, and testify of one another.

I asked my girl friend's father what I needed to do to be baptized.  He told me that I'd have to take the missionary discussions.  I found where the missionaries lived, and knocked on their door.  I had a little speech memorized.  I said, “Hi, my name is James Kerns, and I'd like to hear your discussions.  I promise not to give you any trouble because I've already read the Book of Mormon and know that it's true.”

My girl friend came home from BYU to play the piano at my baptism.  My future father-in-law baptized me.  Then my girl friend took me back to their house where I cried like a baby.  I hadn't cried like that for years.  I was clean!

Even Jesus was baptized.  He didn't have any sins to get rid of like I did, but He showed that everyone has to be baptized.

He made what was probably a several-days' walk down to a place called Bethabara on the Jordan River so that John could baptize Him.  Why didn't He just go to one of the rabbis?

It's because they had no authority.  John did.  So does your dad.  He can trace his priesthood line of authority right back through Joseph Smith, and John the Baptist, who ordained Joseph, and to Jesus Christ in a dozen or less steps.

You are a lucky, blessed boy.  You're not going to have to play catch-up like some of the rest of us.  All you have to do is to be good, to keep repenting, and to make yourself available for whatever the Lord has for you to do.  You're now on your way to a life of happiness and of great usefulness.  The Lord needs you, and He's going to use you.