Peaceful.

If you know me, I love three things: my husband, my religion, and writing. So, since I've written plenty about my husband, you know where this is going. Now, I do have a lot of friends that don't know too much about my religion (or you do--because I've talked your ear off about it.) So why would a 24-year-old girl care so much about going to church on Sunday? 

So...the whole religion thing. Why would anyone want to believe in something, when you have to do more things when you belong to a church? There's got to be a reason to all of this crazy madness. 

Well, let me ask you a question. What do you think gives you peace? Now, really think about it. 

When was the last time you were peaceful? 

You're probably at work or watching TV reading this, but I want you to imagine you sitting right here on this bench, and asking yourself that question. Give yourself a minute.

My guess is that it has something to do with your family, your kids, or knowing that you are loved. Right?

Right. This is why I do all of this stuff for church. This is why I talk about it so much. I know my Father up in Heaven loves me. We are his literal DNA. We have some piece of Him that is in us, and it's up to us to figure out what that is. Once we do, we will work tirelessly for Him. Obviously, I still get tired--so I have a long way to go! But He loves you and I more than we can imagine. 

How far would you go to get peace? You guys--I'm talking constant peace. Not just when you go to church, or you're with your family. I have peace all the time. Even when things feel like they should be going wrong. This is why I'm so crazy about this.

It's not a secret anymore. The same church that Jesus Christ set-up when He was here on the earth, is now back on the earth. The SAME one, you guys! If you know Christ even a little bit, you know He is organized. If He is so organized, why would he have 55,538,021 (okay, made up number) churches that go back to Him? Yep, you're right, that doesn't make sense. It took one boy, Joseph Smith, to ask a simple question that's been in the Bible all along.

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not...and it shall be given him." -James 1:5

Joseph asked God a question in the same place as the above picture: The Sacred Grove. What he saw after he prayed was miraculous. He had begun the journey, and had started the ties from the past prophets, Peter, James, John, Moses, Adam...to now. Why do you think the Lord wanted it to be called, "The Church of Jesus Christ...of LATTER-DAY Saints?" 

Alright, I realize I'm starting to get on a soapbox, here. But do you get my point? Life is really good. And it's all because of Him. 24/7...it's good.

This post has been inspired by re-reading my old mission e-mails. I put them all on a blog so my family back home could read it, and mostly so I could put it all in one place. If you feel so inclined to read any of it, visit: www.sistermonicahawkes.wordpress.com.

We do not doubt.

Who knows if I've posted this before...I don't think it really matters. It's just like reading the scriptures, different things jump out at you at different points in your life, and I guess that's just what happened to me today. 

In the last part of Alma 56, Helaman is talking to his brother, Moroni. Now, to put it in context just a bit, there are a million things that Helaman could have said. There was a huge war going on against the Lamanites, and if I were him, I'd probably tell him my war strategies, maybe something funny that happened...I don't know! But look at what he immediately tells him:

"And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, may, not amongst all the Nephites." (v. 45)

He is referring to these two thousand little boys that are in his army. Okay, the only people that make up his army. He calls them "young" men throughout the chapter, and I really start to think of what he means by "young." Remember back then how it was normal for girls to have babies at age 14? And how you became a real person at age 12? I might be exaggerating, but probably not by much. Helaman keeps on commenting how extremely young these men are, and I figure that he would lightly dust over the topic if they were of a mature enough age. Apparently they weren't. Here's just one example:

"For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young)... 

And check this out, this is what they were thinking while in the middle of the war...no wonder God told us to be like little children:

"...even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth..." (v. 46)

Wow. All of them said that? Well, look at what else Helaman has to say about them. And another thing to remember...he really wants us to know this because he is not just typing this all out on a Word document, he is etching into brass/copper/gold with a hammer all of these letters one by one. You think they're important? Yeah. Anyway, check this out:

"Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death..." Whaatttt?! "...and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea..." and this is my favorite part, "they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."

The moral of the story is not that we should travel back in time and be like the two-thousand stripling warriors, it is that we still have time left to be those mothers and fathers they are talking about. Obviously, I think about this subject a lot! I am so excited to have my own family. I want to teach them principles like these from the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I want to give them life experiences that will help them grow farther than they ever thought possible, just like these very young strippling warriors. I know it will be challenging, and I'll won't be able to take one day off.

But from what I hear, it's worth it.

Eyewitness.

When Emma Smith felt the engravings on the plates of the ancient writings of the Book of Mormon through a thin cloth, she received a witness. When Lucy Mack Smith examined the Urim and Thummim through the same transparent thin cloth, she received the same witness. But when Mary Whitmer was shown the actual gold plates by Moroni himself, that's when she put all of her faith aside and had pure knowledge of The Work.

I put myself on this list this week.

On Monday, a few of us had the opportunity to walk over to the Library of Congress on our lunch break and see the original copy of the Book of Mormon. I knew it would be cool, but I didn't know how much of an impact it would have on me. As we walked into the "Rare Book Reading Room," it was a much smaller room than I thought. The two big double doors also made me want to make my own sort of entrance, but I refrained.

We had to fill out some paperwork and show our Staff ID's in order to even talk to the guys. After asking for the Book, the man asked if we were Mormon. He then brought out a couple more books he thought we'd be interested. OH YEAH.

The librarian set them down in front of us: the copy of the (March 26, 1830, E.B. Grandin, Palmyra, one-i've-been-talking-about-the-last-18-months) Book of Mormon, an original copy of the Book of Commandments, and the Book of Mormon translated in the language of Deseret.

Printed at E.B. Grandin's Bookstore in Palmyra, NY

Inside of the Book of Mormon

Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:4-5)

The Book of Commandments. This happens to be a portion of what is now
Doctrine and Covenants 6...the chapter that led me through my mission.

Book of Mormon in the language of Deseret.
(I'm really glad I don't have to speak this language.)

I freaked out way more than I thought I would. They didn't even have us wear cloth gloves, because turns out, it would ruin the book more over time. I went through the whole process of how the book was made in my head, and everything matched up. Everything that I've ever learned about the Book of Mormon...matched up with this copy.

But what came right down to it, surprisingly, was just seeing the signature of Martin Harris on the very last page. Thinking about the things that he went through, even through his own wife and the destruction of his crops, to testify of how true this Book is.

The cool thing about this signature, and probably not what a lot of people would ever pick up on, was that on the two pages behind it, there were marks where the signature bled through. That's when I thought, "this is real." Like I said, everything matched up, all of the facts that I've ever learned and read about...they're all true. I knew I had received something way more than any other member of the Church gets to see.

And just one more cool thing:

I may have had Joseph's DNA on me. WOW.