by minouye

As Mormonism continues to develop internationally, so too does the field of Mormon studies. More and more foreign scholars are looking to do work in the area, but often lack the requisite resources. The International Mormon Studies Book Project is a new effort to provide critical resources for developing Mormon studies internationally by purchasing books to form a base Mormon studies collection at institutions where scholars have demonstrated a keen interest in doing research on Mormonism. Currently, institutions interested in partnering with the IMS Book Project span the globe, from Asia to Australia to Europe. The first two IMS Book Project collections are slated for donation to Jianghan University（江汉大学) in Wuhan, China, and the newly formed French Institute for Research on Mormonism (Institut Français pour la Recherche sur le Mormonisme) in Bordeaux, France. In the coming months and years we hope to place as many IMS Book Project collections as continued donations will allow and as interested recipient institutions can be found.

I love the opening quote of this lesson. “Do not expect to become perfect at once. If you do, you will be disappointed. Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.” Too often we get bogged down in not being perfect right now, and feel guilty for not being good enough. The lesson itself acknowledge this at the end when it says “President Snow acknowledged that the command to be perfect causes concern for some Latter-day Saints. As you study this chapter, look for counsel that might comfort someone who is troubled by the command to be perfect.” I would love it if this lesson focused on making people feel good about their progress and hopeful for success. So here is what I find comforting; I hope some of it is useful to others.

What Does Perfect Mean?

There was a time (way back when I was attending BYU) when I was engaged to married.  It didn’t work out.  The end came suddenly and I was stunned and heartbroken. When I asked my boyfriend why he was leaving, the response was simply:  ”I prayed about it and felt it was not right.”  I was too young, too inexperienced, and too sad to explore further.  God said no and that was that.

As I look back on the experience I think that perhaps Mike did feel uncomfortable the situation, but I’m not sure his discomfort came from heaven. We had a short and speedy courtship and while that was not uncommon with our peers, it was still short and speedy – and that alone is cause for anxiety. We had some tangled friendships. And, among other things, were far from sorting out a financial situation that would work well for our future.  Whether his feels of unease came from heaven or in response to these uncomfortable circumstances, I still think he made the right choice, so does it really matter?

Since that time I’ve heard similar stories about how God led individuals in to or away from marriage. And I wonder.  Inspiration? Just a positive set of circumstances and a little bit of courage? Both? Neither?

My brother-in-law, Tim, claims that he did not pray about his choice to marry my sister.  He says: “God gave me a brain and I used it.” He says that he dated Lisa (my sister) and was impressed with her, they fell in love, he felt good about the whole process, thought it through and could see no reason not to propose – so he did.  He’s still in the family 15 years (and 5 children) later to tell the tale.

We are taught in church to pray about this big decision and be sure of our spiritual confirmations, but Tim’s approach seems very reasonable and plausible.  So how does it work? Is it inspiration? Is it a good choice? Both? Can inspiration, so hard to understand, be wrong? Can our brain, full of hormons and infatuation, be wrong?

For Christmas we got a gift certificate to a book store, and my husband and I split the money. I bought a book on writing Kanji and “Survival Japanese.” My Husband bought a book called “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. He isn’t especially interested in having a high powered career, but he has heard lots of good things about the book and was interested in what it had to say.

I was curious about the book, though I have a hard time taking self-proclaimed “Productivity Guru’s” seriously. When he used the word “workaday” in the first paragraph I nearly put the book down and never looked back. I also can’t read the title without adding “With Dolores” to the end of it, surely I can’t be the only one with this affliction.

Anyways, while most of the books advice is geared towards high powered individuals trying to get a handle on their careers I found that it has a fair amount of rather practical advice.

I don’t have pretty eyes.  Well, actually, both of my eyes are pretty individually but together the effect is not good.  My eyes look crossed.

This abnormality has no health effects for me whatsoever.  Some people with cross-eyes have double vision.  In such cases, surgical correction resolves the problem.  Not me. My resourceful brain looks out through my weird eyes without seeing double. In fact, ophthalmologists have informed me that if I did surgically alter my eyes, I would ruin my vision.  Since it is an ophthalmologist’s job to make people see better, not to make them prettier, ophthalmologists have universally advised me against any intervention.

That is not the case with everyone else in the world.

We have had some interesting discussions about temple recommend questions here at the Exponent. How much disclosure does it take to be considered honest in your dealings? Is it appropriate for men to ask women about their undergarments? Should women and youths discuss their personal chastity alone with a man? Should someone who admits to lacking a testimony of any of the items in questions 1-3 be kept out of the temple even if they meet all of the behavioral requirements? Does that affiliate question make any sense at all?

My story starts like this: I was very excited when the Church released Daughters in my Kingdom, the new history of the Relief Society. But months went by, and despite my best intentions, I didn’t read it. I know. I suck. Yet I felt a bit frustrated that the book was not incorporated into Church curriculum. At the very least it seems like it should be studied in Relief Society itself.

Meanwhile, it came to my attention that a few women in our ward were struggling with their English. In another lifetime I taught English as a second language and so I mentioned to our ward’s welfare specialist, Carrie, that I’d be happy to help them. This is where things got tricky.  There are procedures and handbooks and certain members of the ward council who feel they needed to be involved in Every. Single. Decision. So while Carrie thought it would be very helpful to have such a group, it might take ages to set up and then would be controlled by well meaning leaders who just can’t keep their fingers out of other people’s pies. No me gusta.

So I cut out the hierarchy. I started a group on my own, just as friends. If it’s not a calling, then I’m under nobody’s jurisdiction (can you tell I have issues with micromanagement?).  As soon as I made that decision I felt so good about it. I invited a few women, found a time that worked, and tried to come up with a study plan. What these women really need is to just talk. But we needed a text to read monthly as our springboard, something that would be interesting but also spiritual.  And as I pondered this last September at the Exponent Women’s Retreat, it hit me—DIMK was the perfect solution.

It’s not an easy text for a non-native to read, but I don’t regret my choice.  A couple of the women are recent converts and I’m proud to have them learn about the early sisters and how kick butt they were. We’ve had fascinating discussions about polygamy (“yes, Joseph did indeed have multiple wives”), the temple, how RS was disbanded and started again. And of course the big cliché is true: I swear I am learning more from these women than they are learning from me. I usually end up crying at some point because I am overcome by the strength and determination of these sisters who are all pioneers.

Let me share what happened this month and then I’ll stop my gushing over my Haitian/Nepalese/Dominican sisters.  As is the case with many wards, if you are not on time to ours, you will sit in the foyer. My 13 year old loves when we’re late on Fast Sunday because we get to play “Name that Testimony.” We were on the couch and hear a woman bearing her testimony. I’m usually really good at it. But this time I was stumped. I sat there, entranced by the lovely testimony, and when I stood up to peak in the chapel, I could not believe my eyes. There was Yvette, my shyest, quietest, least fluent friend up there being articulate and totally proficient. I just cried. After sacrament the entire ward was atwitter about the dramatic change in Yvette.

We had our meeting that night. We were reading Chapter 4 and there’s this part where Eliza Snow is encouraging women to speak up: Some women felt reluctant and unprepared to speak in public. Sister Snow gave the following counsel to such sisters: “Do not let your president have to say all. … Has not God endowed you with the gift of speech? … If you are endowed with the Spirit of God, no matter how simple your thoughts may be, they will be edifying to those who hear you.”  When I finished reading that out loud, I told Yvette how proud I was that she spoken in front of the entire ward, that that is no small thing. Yvette smiled coyly and said she had been reading the assignment the night before. When she read that passage, she felt as if Sister Smith was speaking directly to her and she knew she had to get up and share her testimony on Sunday, no matter what. She really was endowed with “the gift of speech.”  Is she miraculously fluent now? Is she reciting the Gettysburg Address? No.  But something is different. She’s more confident and is striking up conversations.  I’d love to take the credit, but it’s the Spirit of God and more specifically, the Spirit of Eliza. God bless you President Snow.  You do good work.

Have you read DIMK? What do you think? How would you like to see if used in the Church?