A Fellow Soldier

     While I was in the military, I had the opportunity to spend some time serving in overseas.  While I was there, I wasn’t needed for any critical missions.  My job was to make sure our dining facility was kept safe for the soldiers and civilians that ate there.  Yet it was necessary for me to be prepared for the worst possible situations, such as being in a convey that was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED).  So, like everybody else in my unit, I went through three months of training for possibilities.

     As often happens when a unit is deployed, our unit needed some people from other companies to be fully ready for the mission we were supposed to have.  I was a part of the headquarters group, and many in this group had been sent on a deployment shortly before this mission.  So they were not required to go.  Nearly half of our headquarters group was replaced with people from other units because of this. 

       One of the new members of the unit was a married man about my age who seemed to delight in ignoring and breaking as many rules as possible.  Once he learned I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he also took great pleasure in trying to persuade me many of our beliefs could not possibly be true.  Most of these attempts I pointedly ignored.  I love my religion with all my heart, and I love discussing it.  But I didn’t want to get into an argument with this man over it.  So I just ignored his attempts to get me to argue with him.

     Then came the day we were supposed to fly to our assigned station overseas.  It was late, all of us were tired, and I wanted nothing more than to have some peace and quiet until we had to get on the plane that would take us there.  But there was a program on the television talking about the “Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith”.  This happened to be the other man’s favorite point of dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he seemed to absolutely need to argue with me about the details of Joseph Smith brought up by this program.  So he naturally kept interrupting my peace and quiet.

     I finally got fed up with it and decided to start arguing with him.  He made a point against the possibility Joseph Smith could have been a prophet.  I countered it.  I can’t remember what the point was or what my response was.  But I do remember that I failed to argue well because the Spirit of God doesn’t dwell with a contentious heart.  That is exactly what I had at that moment, so I didn’t have the help of the Lord God in defending the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Instead I sounded like a bumbling idiot, and my fellow soldier and I both knew it.

     He made his next argument and I feebly attempted to counter it.  This went on for ten minutes or so before I witnessed what I consider a miracle.  He had made an argument against Joseph Smith and I was beginning to counter it.  But he stopped me and said, “It has to be true, doesn’t it?”  I didn’t know what he meant and I didn’t want to agree with something I believed to be wrong.  So I asked him what he just decided was true.  He said, “Joseph Smith had to be a prophet, didn’t he?”

     I knew then, every bit as much as I know now, that Joseph Smith was indeed the prophet of God ordained by the Almighty to restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But I had no idea how he had suddenly come to the point of completely changing his opinion about Joseph Smith.  So I responded, “Of course it’s true.  But why do you suddenly believe that?”  The truth was I suspected he was trying to trick me.

     Yet I was surprised by the response I received.  He said, “Nobody could make up The Book of Mormon.  So it has to be true.  And if it’s true, then the rest of it (meaning the First Vision of Joseph Smith, the fact he was called by God as prophet, and the validity of all he had testified of) has to be true.”

     Over time I’ve come to recognize that this man wasn’t arguing just because he wanted to be obnoxious as I had so incorrectly assumed.  He was actually interested in the subject matter.  Unfortunately I was being too selfish to be able to have the help of the Spirit in speaking on these matters with him.  But the Lord God didn’t need me in order to be able to touch the heart of this man and testify through the Holy Spirit that the Joseph Smith was His prophet.  All God needed was the setting that allowed this man to accept it.  In spite of me, He set that stage.  He provided the circumstances that would allow this man’s heart to be receptive.  And the Holy Spirit bore witness to him that The Book of Mormon:  Another Testament of Jesus Christ was true.  By this means God bore witness to him that Joseph Smith was called by God as His prophet.

     This man went on to change the course of his life.  Because he came to have faith that Joseph Smith was the prophet of God, he developed faith in the Atoning Son, Jesus Christ.  This led him to stop shirking duties, stop kicking back against the rules, and ultimately become instrumental in developing a new system the military could use in its operations overseas. 

     Now the truth is I’m not really sure what lesson you’re supposed to be hearing in this blog entry.  So, as much as I want to leave you with some closing argument, I don’t have one.  But I do testify that I know Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have a testimony that his work on this earth was ordained by God, and Jesus Christ the Son helped Joseph fulfill his mission on earth.  I know The Book of Mormon:  Another Testament of Jesus Christ is the word of God and has been sent to testify of the Prince of Peace, along with the Holy Bible.  Most importantly, I have a testimony that Jesus is the Messiah and that He lives. Of this I testify in His Name, Jesus Christ.  Amen.