Peter was the first apostle Jesus chose. He had so many people to choose from, but he chose Peter first. Right away, that tells you something about Peter. Peter was the first to offer some important testimonies that Jesus was the Christ, even at the times when other people didn’t seem to understand who He was. Peter tried to defend Jesus against the people who came to arrest Him by cutting off the ear of one of them. Jesus made him stop and told him not to interfere because this had to be done, but either way, we could see how much Peter loved him and how prepared he was to risk his life for the Savior. It’s pretty risky to attack someone when you’re surrounded by soldiers.

When Jesus was gone, Peter was in charge. He’d only been a member of the Church for three years, and he was in charge of the whole thing. That must have been scary. Jesus had been different—not just an ordinary church president. There wasn’t an exact model for Peter to follow. Most people still didn’t understand the gospel very well and all the procedures weren’t in place—things changed from time to time. It was up to Peter to keep the little church running, spread it around the world, and settle all the arguments and try to fix the apostasies. He performed miracles and raised Tabitha from the dead.

That is a great bio for any leader. Still, too many articles about Peter don’t focus on those things. They focus on the mistakes: Peter lost faith while trying to walk on water and fell in. Peter denied Jesus three times. A lot of times we forget to notice what Peter did after he made a mistake–and what Jesus did.

We don’t know exactly what Peter thought about each of those times; we do know Jesus forgave him and told him that he, Peter, would be in charge of the church when Jesus died. Even though Jesus knew Peter would make mistakes, even knew the denials would happen, he didn’t take away Peter’s chosen destiny.

Peter repented. We read that after the denials, he went off and cried. We can be sure he repented during that time and did whatever he had to do to get back on track. And then what? Did he sit around feeling sorry for himself, deciding God would never love Him again, feeling he could never change? No, after he repented, he started over. When Jesus was gone, he called a meeting and got a new apostle called to replace Judas. He went out and did missionary work. He made executive decisions concerning how the church would run. He opened himself to revelation from God.

He moved on. God forgives us completely when we repent. We have a responsibility to forgive ourselves too. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to get God’s work done. The next time you make a mistake, repent and move on.

Well, it probably does. As a teenager, you’ve already decided how you feel about yourself and your body, but you are also making new decisions on these subjects and you have more control over what you wear. These attitudes you’re developing started shaping when you were younger and they’re affecting how you live your life and how you look at yourself right now. It also affects how other people see you.

One group of researchers showed adults pictures of  girls. The people who looked at these pictures assumed the girls who were dressed immodestly were less intelligent and less competent. Now, that might not seem fair to you and your answer might be that people shouldn’t judge you that way. You’re probably right, but that isn’t really the point. The point is that you don’t get to choose how other people see you. They’re going to see whatever they decide to see and you’re going to pay the price for it.

Whether you like it or not, there are times it will matter to you how other people see you. You don’t want your teachers to see you as less intelligent, for instance. If your grade is on the border between two grades, the teacher will decide whether to give you the higher or lower grade and you want to be seen as intelligent and competent. Their opinion of you might impact how they grade a paper. If you have a job, you want your boss to see you that as a competent person as well. For that matter, you would probably want everyone to know you’re smart and good at things.

Girls who wear immodest clothing are also at a higher risk for eating disorders and poor body image. They train themselves to think their job in life is to be physically appealing to men, and not in an appropriate way. It’s important for girls to understand their personalities, their character, and their intelligence are what are important about them. These are the parts of themselves they need to spend the most time developing. While it’s important to be neat and to take care of the body you were given, it is not really who you are. You don’t want people thinking your body is all there is to you.

When one of my daughters was a preteen, she had an eighteen-year-old teacher at church just for the summer. The teacher would be going off to college in the fall, but in the meantime, she had a big impact on those kids she taught. She was pretty and really smart. She had been a cheerleader and homecoming queen. She told the class she had never found it necessary to dress immodestly to be popular. She wanted people to like her for who she was inside. She wore fashionable clothes and had pretty hairstyles and nice makeup, but her hair, clothes, and makeup were modest and not attention-grabbing. She had a huge amount of self-esteem because she knew people liked her for all the right reasons. She put her energy into being a moral, kind, and friendly person, not a sexy one and people loved her. She was very popular with her own peers, but also with teachers, other adults, and children.

Grace, who is 13, says dressing modestly makes her feel comfortable. She doesn’t have to worry that she is showing parts of her that shouldn’t be showing. Like a lot of teens today, she echoes the popular phrase, “Modest is hottest!”

Lila (17) says she dresses modestly because it’s uncomfortable to be immodest. “It makes me feel like people respect me.”

How would it affect your life if you know people liked you just for who you were? Would the friends you have today and the boys you date still feel the same way about you if you wore modest clothes, or suddenly became poor and couldn’t afford the latest fashions? Would they still care about you if your standards were really high and you didn’t want to do some of the things they did because of it? What if you had an accident and it affected how you look? Would your friends stick around?

Mormon teens are taught to be modest in their clothing. That includes not wearing clothing that has sexy sayings or that is too tight or emphasizes the wrong things. It isn’t only about covering up. One speaker told teens if you’re dressed properly, people will notice your face first (assuming it isn’t because you’re wearing too much makeup or something.)

Being dressed modestly tells the world you feel confident about yourself and that you don’t need to show off your body to get attention. You’re worthy of attention just because of the amazing person you are.

Of course, modesty isn’t just for girls. The article I’m writing about was about girls, so that is where I’m focused today, but the same principle applies to boys. Everyone benefits from being dressed modestly.

Take a look at this quote from Silvia H. Allred. Notice what she says about the example God set for us:

The doctrine behind modesty begins with our knowledge that we are children of God, created in His image (see Moses 2:27). Our bodies are sacred gifts from Heavenly Father and have specific purposes that He has planned. As grateful recipients, we acknowledge this gift by treating our bodies as He has asked us to (see D&C 88:33). We learn to train, control, and bridle our bodies and their physical uses to become like Heavenly Father.

From the beginning, the Lord has asked His children to cover their bodies. After Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they became aware that they were naked. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with simple aprons made of fig leaves. But the aprons were not enough, so the Lord made them more modest coats of skins. (See Genesis 3:7, 21.)

God had a higher standard then, just as He does now. His standards are not those of the world.” (See Silvia H. Allred, “Modesty: A Timeless Principle for All,” Ensign, Jul 2009, 28–32.)

Modesty isn’t about people trying to control you or about being ashamed of your body. It actually shows more pride in your body because when you know your body was created by Heavenly Father in His image, and you are proud of who you are, you don’t want to treat it in a disrespectful way. You don’t have any desire to invite other people to view your body in a disrespectful way, either. You are content to use it for the exact purposes for which God created it. You honor and respect yourself and you work to enhance your personality, your character, your spirit, and your talents because you know you are a child of God.

Ammon, a missionary, was serving the king for a while as a shepherd. At the same time, Abish worked at the castle as well. She had converted to Christianity after her father had a vision, but no one else in her community or in that castle (or whatever the king lived in) was Christian. It wasn’t like it is today, so she had to keep quiet about her beliefs.

It can be pretty hard to live a good Christian life when you have friends and family around you who share your beliefs. It is even harder when you’re doing it all alone, privately and without anyone to encourage you. She couldn’t even go to church to get a dose of strength each week. She wouldn’t have had scriptures to read either. Her religion was whatever was in her head. In spite of all of that, she held on to her testimony and kept growing it stronger and stronger.

Ammon saved the king’s flocks from enemy attackers and the king was so impressed he asked to see Ammon. Ammon, being the good missionary he was, managed to work things so the king let him teach the gospel. The Holy Ghost became so strong in the room during this unexpected missionary lesson that the king passed out. He stayed unconscious for several days and in fact, most people thought he was dead. Only his wife, who knew him best, believed he was still alive. She called Ammon to come see her and she told him she was sure he was still alive because he didn’t stink yet. She asked Ammon to check it out.

Ammon went to the king and he agreed. The king was not dead. He prophesied that the king would, in fact, wake up the next day and then he asked the queen if she believed him. She said she did. She hadn’t been a Christian (or what would be known as a Christian someday), but at that moment she gained a testimony of prophets and of God. Ammon praised her for this. Again, the Holy Spirit became really, really strong. This time the queen and even Ammon passed out. (Passing out is not a normal reaction to feeling the Holy Spirit. These were unusual circumstances.)

Now we get to Abish and her moment of fame—the decision that put her in the history book. Remember, Abish already believed in God. She knew the reason people were passing out was because of the power of the Holy Ghost, which she, as a believer, could feel. She sensed that miracles were about to happen. Because she had so much faith, she wanted other people to see the miracles. This was a great moment. It might convert other people!

She ran and spread the word to everyone she could find. But things didn’t go quite the way she planned. People did gather but they started yelling nasty things about Ammon, calling him a Nephite monster. Calling people names is a popular way to get people to ignore truth or to think about an issue and it was as common then as it is now.

Abish was heartbroken. She cried, hating that they were calling this good man of God names and that they were there to do it because of her. She went to the queen and took her hand, hoping the queen would wake up. This worked. The queen, filled with her new testimony, called on Jesus Christ to have mercy on her wicked people. Then she took her husband’s hand and woke him up also. The king, a brand new convert, began to teach his people what Ammon had taught him.

Now Abish was getting her miracle. Some of the people—not all, but some—stopped yelling and actually listened. Of course, some people didn’t want to be converted and they left, but the others stayed and some were converted. The newly converted people also began to teach the gospel. Those who were converted asked to be baptized.

Many people were converted that day, all because a young servant girl had kept her testimony all those years when it wasn’t easy and because she had enough faith to bring people to witness the miracles and hear the preaching. Not many people pay attention to Abish. She’s a quiet hero, not quite as noticeable as Ammon, but none of the people would have been converted if it hadn’t been for Abish, a quiet hero.

In what ways are you a quiet hero for Jesus Christ?

Read the story of Abish in the Book of Mormon.

Nephi subdues his brothers in the Book of Mormon.

When I was in drama classes, everyone tried out for the starring roles. No one wanted to have a small walk on role with no lines to say. However, every writer knows that every character in a story is absolutely important to the story. Writers never put anyone into a story who doesn’t have an important job to do. Leave out the smallest character and the entire book can fall apart. The same is true for the scriptures.

The same is true for real life.

Let’s look at one Book of Mormon person who had a small part to play in the stories told and see if we can learn some things that will apply to our own lives, especially if we’re the quiet type and not the flashy hero type.

The Book of Mormon begins with a teenager named Nephi. Nephi is pretty much your typical hero type of teenager. He’s probably about fourteen when the Book of Mormon story starts and he was the first author. He didn’t write about his life until he was much older, but it’s mostly from his point of view. He was tall for his age, a good hunter, athletic, strong, self-confident…you know the type, right?

Nephi was the youngest of four brothers. His two oldest brothers were brats. They had a bad habit of beating up Nephi and his next oldest brother Sam. Later, as adults, they’d even try to kill them. But Nephi, sometimes with the help of angels, always wins out over them.

But Nephi isn’t the star of this article. In this article we’re dealing with Sam, who is mentioned only a few times in the entire story of Nephi’s life. What do we know about him? He was a middle child—the third of the boys. There were some sisters too, but we think they were already married and living elsewhere by the time the story begins. Like Nephi, he was righteous, which means he tried to do what God wanted him to do. He obeyed his parents, was nice to his younger brother…that’s pretty much all we have in the way of facts. But if we read between the lines, we might see that Sam is a quiet hero.

Here’s some background information on the story, in case you haven’t read it. The father of these boys was Lehi and he was pretty rich. The kids had good lives because of that. But then Lehi got called to be a prophet and after that, things got pretty complicated. People got mad at Lehi for telling them to repent and they wanted to kill him. This was in Jerusalem just before it fell. You can read about the fall of Jerusalem in the Bible.

Once things got too dangerous, God told Lehi to take his family and only the things they really needed and get out of Jerusalem forever. They weren’t even suppose to take their gold and silver or any fun possessions. Laman and Lemuel, the two bad brothers, were pretty mad at leaving their comfortable life and heading off on a permanent camping trip. Wealthy to homeless—on purpose. Nope, not their style.

Nephi and Sam, though, trusted their dad when he said this was what God wanted, and they went without complaint. That’s the first sign of a hero—doing the hard stuff without whining, and in the scriptures (and in modern life), a sign of a hero is doing what God wants you to do without whining. So far, Sam qualifies.

After they’d been traveling for a while, God told Lehi to send the boys back to Jerusalem alone. In those days only a few people had copies of the parts of the Bible that had been written so far. Lehi didn’t have one, but his wicked relative Laban did.  The boys were to convince Laban to give them his copy, which also included their family history.

How did each boy react to being sent on this long trip for a book?

Laman and Lemuel whined. It was too far, too hard, too scary. (Laban was really wicked.) No heroes here.

Nephi gave a rousing speech to his father, in which he said he’d go because he knew God would never give them a commandment unless He prepared a way for them to keep it. It’s a great, hero-worthy speech and there have been songs written about it.

Sam…just went. That’s all. He didn’t whine and he didn’t give a speech. He just packed his bags and headed off. Okay, that doesn’t sound too exciting and no one has ever written a song about Sam doing that. But here’s what I think—and this is my own interpretation of it. I think Sam was a teenager who was used to doing the right thing all the time, or at least most of the time. I think he’d worked hard to become obedient and now he didn’t need to think about it or give speeches about it. He was a little older than Nephi so he’d had more practice doing hard things quietly, whereas Nephi, being younger, was still pretty excited to realize he liked obeying God and his parents. Nephi was learning the kind of person he was and so he needed to talk about it. Sam already knew. He didn’t need to announce it to anyone. That’s the first thing that tells me Sam is a quiet hero.

As you can imagine, this trip doesn’t go too well. The brothers politely ask Laban for the records and he threatens to kill them. They even offer to buy them—all that gold and silver they abandoned is still hanging around. Laban takes the money and tries to have them killed without giving them the records. The two older brothers get mad and decide to take it out on Nephi and Sam, seeing as how they were younger and obedient. The beating gets so bad an angel has to show up to rescue them. The angel tells the older brothers to behave and warns them that someday, Nephi is going to be the head of the family, lead the church and rule over them.

Hey, wait a minute! Laman and Lemuel don’t like that one bit. In those days, the oldest son always became the leader when the father died. There is no way they want their baby brother taking over what they thought should be Laman’s job. (Can you imagine the church being led by Laman?)

I’m sure you can understand why God was going to skip over Laman and Lemuel. But he also skipped right over Sam, who was every bit as righteous as Nephi. Why did He do that? We don’t know and chances are, Sam didn’t know either. It would have been pretty understandable if he’d gotten as upset as his older brothers. In fact, he had more right to get upset, since he was worthy of the job. But you know what? He didn’t. Nephi wrote about the reactions Laman and Lemuel had to this, but he doesn’t say one word about Sam’s reaction, which means it was so quiet Nephi didn’t give it much thought. Later, when Nephi is the leader, he has to take his followers to live somewhere else because Laman and Lemuel want to kill him. Sam goes with Nephi.

Throughout the rest of the story, the few times Sam is mentioned he is always following the leader, either his father or Nephi. We don’t know if he went home and prayed to know why he wasn’t chosen. All we know is that however he might have felt inside at first—and it would be natural to be a little sad over it—he didn’t use it as an excuse to rebel. He just went about his life doing the right thing, just as he always had.

Sam was a quiet hero. Maybe you are too. Maybe no one will write books or songs about your life, but that doesn’t mean you don’t matter. Sam is in the story for a reason. God wanted him there to remind us that you don’t have to be the leader or the star to make a difference in the world. Nephi depended on Sam’s loving loyalty during the hard years ahead. God depended on it, too.

And God is depending on you too. Quiet heroes are as important as the stars of the show.

Read about Sam and his family in the Book of Mormon.

The story of Sam, to be read between the lines.

The Bible promises us that if we ask God for wisdom, God will tell us what we want to know. That scripture, found in James 1:5, is the one that prompted Joseph Smith to pray for an answer, but the promise is for all of us. Anyone can go to God and ask which church to join and to find out what is true. However, we probably won’t get a personal visit from God or Jesus Christ. So how do we pray and what will probably happen when we do?

When I was young, I was taught to recite prayers that were written by someone else. When I started looking into Mormonism, the teachers, my new friends, and the missionaries taught me that prayer should be a conversation from my heart. They suggested I just talk to God. They did offer a pattern for prayer that I should follow, but the exact words of the body of my prayer were to be what was in my heart.

The basic pattern is very simple. You begin as you would begin any conversation—greet God by name and title. “Dear Heavenly Father” or “My beloved Father in Heaven” or some other respectful greeting will do just fine.

Next, take some time to think about all the blessings God has given you. Thank him for those things, naming them specifically. This is not only courteous and thoughtful but it helps us realize God is really in our lives, involved and paying attention to our needs.

Now it’s time to ask your questions or to request help, if you have any questions or requests. (If not, just skip this step.) It’s here that you will ask God about which church to join. There are some things you need to do first though. God likes us to take some responsibility for the things we need. So in your first prayer, you might want to instead ask God to help you find resources for the information you need or to be led to the right churches to research. Then, after you’ve researched some churches, regularly praying to be alert to truth, choose one you think might be right. Explain to God why you’ve chosen that church and ask Him to confirm or correct your choice.

When you close your prayer, end by saying, “I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” Prayers come to God through Jesus.

Okay, now is the hard part. Most people finish up their prayer and then jump up and go to bed or run off to do something else. What’s wrong with that? When you talk to someone, how do you feel if they talk and talk and then run off without letting you say a single word? You get pretty mad, right? It’s rude and, if they were asking you a question, it is pretty silly not to stop and listen for your answer.

You don’t want to be rude to God and if you want Him to answer your prayer, you have to wait for His answer. You have to act like a person who has faith, who trusts God to answer. Not waiting for an answer suggests you didn’t really expect one. Some people think they can ask that question and then a member of the true church will immediately walk up to them and start telling them about their church and they can accept that as their answer.

That does happen sometimes, but usually it doesn’t. Instead, you have to stay on your knees and wait for an answer.

What will the answer look like? There are several ways an answer might come to you. Most of the time, if you offered God the correct choice, you’ll feel peace and security, perhaps a warmth in your heart, a feeling of rightness. Some people will try to tell you that you can’t pray to know what is true because you won’t know who answered you—God or Satan. But remember, God promised He would answer our prayers. I trust God to keep His promises. I also believe God can do anything at all, so I believe He can answer my prayers in a way I can recognize.

Satan cannot bring true peace or joy, so if you’re feeling those things, you know they are from God. If you pray and you feel confused or uneasy, it is likely you are on the wrong track and should keep looking for the true church.

Another way you might get an answer is to feel an answer in your mind. Thoughts will come clearly in your mind and you will understand they are from the Holy Ghost and not from yourself. This can be harder to recognize and it can take time and practice to know the difference between your own thoughts and the teachings of the Holy Ghost. The more often you pray and the more often you try to listen for promptings from the Holy Ghost, the better you will get at recognizing the Holy Ghost’s “voice.” (Remember, this is not an actual voice, just an impression in your mind.)

Finally, once in a great while, you’ll hear an actual voice. Usually this is because it’s an emergency. For instance, once I was driving my children to a class when a voice said, “Pull off the road right now.” I immediately pulled over and at that moment a semi truck swerved into my lane without warning, right where I would have been. A voice was needed then to make sure I paid attention, since there was no time for me to decide it was the Holy Ghost. Normally, however, it is the feeling or the thought that gives us our answer.

Why doesn’t God just use a regular voice so we’d be sure of the answer? The Old Testament shows us it isn’t how God does it. He wants us to be quiet and listen. Read the story of Elijah, who needed to listen to God:

“11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” (See 1 Kings 19.)

So what you’re listening for is that still, small voice, because that’s where Elijah found God.

God loves you with all His heart. He wants you to find the truth—it is part of the quest He sent you on when He sent you to earth. While you have to do the legwork yourself, He is standing by waiting for you to come to Him with your decision and to tell you if you’re on the right track or if you need to switch to a new path. He is ready to guide you during the search.

So, as you start your quest, take some time to explain to God what you’re doing and why. Ask Him to help you out so the true church comes into your path during the quest. While you’re searching, ask Him to keep the Holy Spirit with you so you’ll know whether or not you’re hearing truth.

To have the Holy Spirit with you, you must be living a moral life. He can’t be where sin is. It’s true, of course, that you may not entirely know what is moral and what isn’t yet, but the Holy Spirit can even help you with that. When you do something, take a moment to see how things feel. If you feel a sense of evil or immorality around you, stop or leave. If you feel peaceful and spiritual, even in a fun secular setting, you’re on the right track.

Listen to good music. Wear modest clothing. Don’t get into immoral situations with your dates. Obey your parents. Be kind and don’t listen to hate-filled speech from others. All these things can help you to keep the spirit around you.

Next, we’ll find out how to investigate a religion you’re interested in. Then we’ll talk about what to do if you pray and don’t get an answer right away. In the meantime, start talking to God and getting to know Him better.

Finding a church to join is like a quest. You can just guess which church is true, but that’s pretty dangerous. If you’re going to commit to a religion, you want to be sure it’s the right one. The only way to know for sure which church is the true church is to ask God.

Today, we’re going to learn about a  teenager who did just that. We’ve talked about him before, but we’re talking about him today as an ordinary teenager who wanted some answers. He was fourteen when he started to worry about which church to join. He wasn’t alone in this, though. All around him, people were worrying about which church they ought to join. His area was suddenly filled with ministers and pastors holding revivals and competing for new converts. Everyone was talking about religion, arguing about it, worrying about it. People went from one revival to another, trying to figure out which church they liked best.

Joseph Smith, the teenager in our story, was just like the others. His mother and siblings were all attending these revivals and he went with them. His father didn’t attend, not believing that was the best way to choose a church. He preferred to study quietly at home for now.

Joseph went and his family seemed to be deciding on one particular religion, but Joseph just couldn’t be sure. He thought that religion sounded pretty good, but he felt like it was such an important decision and he didn’t want to make the wrong choice.

The problem was that every minister said he was teaching God’s truth and yet, each minister taught something different. Sometimes it was just little differences, but sometimes they were big differences. Joseph Smith felt that God would have one set of truths, not lots of conflicting ones. After all, the Bible says, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33, King James translation of the Holy Bible.) Conflicting information was confusing.

But how was a person, especially a teenager, supposed to figure out who was right? While he was trying to decide, he started reading the Bible. One day he found a verse that caused him to stop what he was doing and to think about the problem in a whole new way. This verse was in the New Testament and was written by James, whom some people think is Jesus’ half-brother. The verse says:

5 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.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:5-6.)

This made complete sense to Joseph Smith. People might lie to him or they might be mistaken, but God knew what was true and he wouldn’t lie. Joseph Smith had been raised to trust God, so he felt this was the solution to his problem.

He decided to go into the woods near his home and put this promise to the test. He wanted to be alone and he lived in a typical small home filled with parents and siblings. He also wanted to pray aloud, something he’d never done before. He went into the woods and knelt down and prayed.

Now, if you decide to put this to the test yourself, you probably aren’t going to get the results he did, but this was a special situation because God had plans for Joseph, so His answer had to be bigger than usual. First I’ll tell you what happened to Joseph. Then I’ll tell you what you will probably experience when you give your own prayer.

When Joseph prayed, Satan tried to stop him from continuing. Satan, like God, knew the plan and didn’t want it to happen. Once that ended, a light appeared in the air above Joseph. He saw two personages in the light. One was God and one was Jesus. He knew this only because God pointed to the other personage and said it was His Son, Jesus Christ, and that Joseph must listen to Him.

Jesus explained that Joseph Smith must not join any of the churches then in existence because none of them completely taught the truth. They had pieces of the truth, but none of them had the entire truth or the authority to carry out the complete program.

Why not? After Jesus died, His apostles ran the Church, but they eventually died or were killed. Because most of the people were more anxious to kill Jesus’ leaders than to listen to them, God withdrew His authority from the earth for a time. The small number of Christians remaining were very brave and did their best to keep things going but it’s hard to keep things going in a straight line without a prophet.

Even before the apostles died, various church groups were falling into apostasy. The apostles wrote many letters trying to straighten out false doctrine that developed. When they were gone, there was no one with that authority. And to make it worse, sometimes new issues came up and there was no way to find out what God wanted them to do about those things, so they had to guess. Over time, people didn’t agree on those guesses and they’d break away and start a new Christian church. Eventually there were a lot of churches all teaching different things and none of them held the whole truth because they’d all pieced together doctrine from other religions or what they thought the Bible meant.

God told Joseph to wait, so he did. Eventually, an angel named Moroni was sent to help prepare Joseph to restore the Church to what Jesus had established.

In the meantime, though, Joseph was a teenager trying to decide what church to join. The solution he chose is the same one you can choose, because that promise from James wasn’t just for Joseph. It was also for you.

Next post, I’ll tell you how to pray, in case you don’t yet know how, and what to expect from your prayer, since God and Jesus probably won’t come visit you in person.

That last choice might seem like the last thing you’d ever want to do, but that’s exactly what Jonathon did in the Old Testament. The story of David and Jonathon is one of the greatest friendship stories in the Bible. Both of them were teens who made a difference.

In the last post we learned that David, a shepherd, was the only person brave enough to battle the giant Philistine Goliath. He did this with nothing but a slingshot and a lot of faith. The Philistines were so shocked and scared to realize a teenager could kill their hero that they ran away. Saul, the king, had promised that anyone who had the courage to fight Goliath would be given great riches. He would even get to marry the king’s daughter.

David became an instant hero to the people of Israel. Everyone told and retold the tale of the teenaged giant killer. Saul took David to live in his home. He and Saul’s son Jonathon became best friends. The Bible tells us “that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” Do you have a friend like that? What would you be willing to sacrifice for that friend?

At first, everything was wonderful. Jonathon gave David his robe and armor and sword. Saul was thrilled to have this new hero in his home and put David—still only a teenager—in charge of the entire army. Everyone loved David…and that was part of the problem. When Saul came out among the people, the women would gather to play music and sing, as usual, but now they were singing that Saul had killed thousands, but David had killed ten thousands. Saul was furious. He figured the only thing left at this point was for David to take his kingdom away.

Well, God had decided David was going to be next in line for the throne, but Saul didn’t know that. He was just jealous that people loved David more than they loved him, and that they thought David was greater. He decided to kill David, but twice, David managed to avoid him.

Saul was starting to get scared. In the past, Saul had had God’s support, but his wicked choices had caused God to favor someone else now. Saul could see God was on David’s side of things. And to make things worse, David always behaved with wisdom, which also frightened Saul. So he came up with a new plan. He didn’t dare kill David himself if God was on David’s side. But there were all those Philistines, the enemy of God’s people. If David went to war against them, one of them was sure to kill David.

Saul went to David and offered to let him marry his oldest daughter, Merab. That had been part of the promise for killing Goliath, after all. But in exchange, he wanted David to promise to only fight for God’s army and to only be valiant for the king. David modestly asked who he was that he should be the king’s son-in-law? Saul, though, wasn’t a very nice person these days, so after getting the promise, he gave his daughter to another man.

However, it happened that her younger sister, Michal, was head over heels in love with David. Saul decided to make good use of that, so he told David he could marry Michal if he killed one hundred Philistines. He was pretty sure David’s luck couldn’t hold out that long and he wouldn’t have to follow through. However, David had God on his side and God had a plan for David’s descendents, which meant David had to stay alive to get married. David also liked the idea of being the king’s son-in-law, so he agreed. He killed the Philistines and brought back proof. The king had no choice this time but to let David marry his daughter, and Michal got her dream husband. If this were a fairy tale, everyone would live happily ever after, but since it’s a true story, there were more problems to come.

Now we get back to the friendship between David and Jonathon. Now that David was married to Jonathon’s sister, they were not just best friends, but family.

Saul was family too, but he wasn’t all that happy about it. He still wanted David dead, but clearly the Philistines weren’t going to be able to do it for him. He gathered up his servants and his son Jonathon and ordered them to kill David for him. Well, that wasn’t a very bright idea, because, you remember, Jonathon was best friends with David and loved him. There was no way he was going to kill his best friend.

Instead, he warned David to go and hide. Then he went to his father and stayed with him during the hunt. He went to work trying to talk the king out of killing David. He reminded his father that since David had only done good to the king, it would be a terrible sin for Saul to kill David. You couldn’t kill someone for no reason, especially not someone who had God on his side.

Saul agreed and David was able to return home, but the trials weren’t over yet. Saul again tried to kill David and was saved by his wife, Michal. Saul retaliated by forcing her to divorce David and marry another man. Then Jonathon again defied his father and helped David escape by lying to his father about where David was. This time, David was unable to return. He left the city, forced to live among the Philistines. He had lost his wife and his best friend and his family, because he had been forced to send them away for their own safety.

Even though they were separated, David and Jonathon’s friendship has lived on through history to serve as an example to us of the value of good friendships. Friends can support and comfort each other in the hardest times and help each other to live God’s commandments, even when it is terribly hard.

When they parted, Jonathon’s last words were a promise to David: “Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever.” They vowed to be best friends…forever.

After they were finished he hid them in the Hill Cumorah in New York State. Once they were hidden the second time—he came back and wrote more once-we don’t have any more record of him until long after his death.

The story of Moroni is one of an amazing teenager who changed history. Moroni’s story after death involves another teenager who would go on to change the world with Moroni’s help.

Joseph Smith was fourteen years old and living in upstate New York, in the town where Moroni had hidden the records of his people. Where he lived, people were pretty excited about religion. They were holding a lot of revivals (religious gatherings) meant to get people to join the church holding the revival. Joseph, his mother, and his siblings, attended many of them. His father preferred to worship privately at that time.

Most people, including some of his family, began choosing religions or changing religions based on what they learned at the different revivals and church services, but Joseph found they only confused him. His parents allowed him to make his own choice, so he listened carefully, but he was very intelligent and tended to think about the things he was being taught. The more he listened, the more questions he had and the more confused he became. How was someone supposed to know which church God wanted him to join? Every church claimed to be the true church of God, but they all taught conflicting doctrine. Truth was truth and they couldn’t all be right if they disagreed with each other.

One day he was reading in his Bible when he came across a scripture that gave him the answer to this complicated question. He was reading in the King James version of the Bible and found James 1:5, which is in the New Testament. It said,

“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 was amazed. Of course! This was the answer he’d been looking for. God knew which church was true and was the only person who could give him the answer he wanted. Everyone around him had answers, but only God’s was certain to be right. He went to the woods near his home and knelt down. For the first time in his life, he prayed out loud in the privacy of the woods.

Satan panicked at this turn of events. He tried to stop it from happening, but after a short time, Joseph saw a light in the sky coming toward him. In the light were Jesus and God, appearing above him. He was introduced to them and then invited to ask his question. He explained that he didn’t know which church to join. Jesus Christ asked him not to join any of them because none were entirely correct.

He accepted this answer and went on with his life. Since he mistakenly thought people would be excited to receive an official answer to the questions they’d all been asking, he talked to people about his experience, only to discover people were angry with him. Those who led other churches were especially angry. His teen years became a bit complicated at that point.

Later, he would pray to find out what God wanted him to do. He was now a young adult, and Moroni came to him. Moroni was now an angel and God had given him the privilege of preparing Joseph to restore the complete gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph would be shown the plates Moroni had once hidden away, but not allowed to take them. First, he had a lot of learning to do and a lot of growing up to do.

Being given a chance to change the world with God’s help is exciting, but if we don’t do it properly, we’re wasting the opportunity. We have to be mature and responsible. Joseph would face many trials and temptations once his work began. He had to learn wisdom and responsibility and Moroni served as his private tutor. Several years of hard work began before Joseph was allowed to take the plates and begin to translate them into English, since of course, Moroni hadn’t written them in English.

When they were translated, they became The Book of Mormon, named in honor of Moroni’s father, who had started the process of condensing the records. The newly restored church started with only six people, but today, millions of people have read the Book of Mormon and changed their lives. Mormons around the world are changing the world with their humanitarian work and teachings about God.

Moroni changed the world as a teenager because he had the courage to face terrible trials with faith and to continue God’s work while coping with extraordinary grief. After his death, he came to another young man, whose life had changed because, as a teenager, he set out to learn and do God’s will, to help him prepare for the next step. Does it make you feel special that God started preparing clear back in Moroni’s day to give you an amazing gift? What do you learn from the fact that he used teenagers for this important work?

You might not be left in charge of sacred records or restoring the gospel, but God has a plan for you. He intends for you to change the world in large or small ways. It doesn’t matter if it’s as small as helping a seven-year-old with a learning disability master reading or as big as starting a world-wide organization. Every act of world-changing you get involved in matters to God.

Before you can change the world, though, you have to prepare yourself. Don’t wait for an angel. You can do this on your own. Become the kind of person God can trust with His work.

This is what happened to a teenager named Moroni. His instructions came through his father, the prophet Mormon, who started the project, but who was murdered before he could finish it. Knowing he would be killed, he passed along the assignment to his son.

This was his assignment: Since his people had come to the Americas, the prophets had kept records of the history of the people and had recorded God’s instructions and interactions. These records were not given to their own people, however. The prophets were instructed to record only those things which would be of value to people in a time no one could even imagine.

However, over the centuries the records had become too large. Mormon was told by God to condense them, which means to take out anything that wasn’t important or that was repeated too often. The entire record needed to fit onto one set of metal plates, since they didn’t have paper books then.

Mormon’s people were called the Nephites. Their ancestor, Nephi, had been a prophet, receiving his first revelations when he was just a teenager. His older brothers, however, were nasty people and were mad that an angel had told them Nephi would one day rule over them. They were so mad, they regularly beat him, tied him up, and even tried to kill him. Can you imagine being part of that family? Eventually, after the boys grew up and the parents died, they split into two groups. Nephi’s group became known as the Nephites and they were usually, but not always, the people who obeyed God. His brother’s group was called the Lamanites, after the oldest brother, Laman. They were mostly as mean as Laman. In time, both groups became giant civilizations, but they were always at war. Just like their ancestors, the Lamanites wanted to do away with all the Nephites.

God promised the Nephite prophets that if their people did what they were supposed to and obeyed and loved God, He wouldn’t let them be completely destroyed. Unfortunately, by the time Mormon was a prophet, the Nephites had pretty much stopped caring about God. Since they weren’t making good choices, they lost God’s protection and the Lamanites started a terrible war against them. Almost all the Nephites were killed. As the numbers got smaller and smaller, Mormon and Moroni spent a lot of time taking care of the survivors, but eventually Mormon died. Since the record doesn’t mention Moroni’s mother or siblings, we can assume they died earlier in the battles. Moroni mentioned he no longer had any family or friends.

Moroni was only a teenager when all this happened. He had already been a soldier in the wars. He had buried his entire family and seen all his friends die. Now he cared for the remaining survivors until they were also killed.

Moroni couldn’t leave, though. His work still wasn’t done. He went into hiding and took out the records his father had been working on. He finished creating the shortened version and added more information of his own. Try to imagine being hidden away, perhaps in a cave, all alone. You have to sneak out at night to find your food, because everyone who is left alive wants to murder you. Sometimes angels pay you a visit and take care of you in ways you can’t do yourself, but mostly you’re alone, missing your family and friends, wanting to have fun…and not being able to do anything but your work.

What did Moroni think about in those hours? Did he look at the book and wonder why it was so important to go through this terrible trial just for a book? He wrote that he felt like he knew all of us because God had shown our day to him. We became his friends, even though we lived in very different times. His entire reason for living was to give us an extraordinary gift that would change millions of lives.

He wrote that once the record was done, he didn’t know if God would allow him to continue living or not, or where he could go, but that he was so lonely, he didn’t care. What mattered was to finish God’s work. When it was done, he placed it in a box and secretly buried it in a hill in what is now New York State. Then he slipped away. We don’t know where he went during that time, but eventually, he secretly slipped back into the area to discover he was still being hunted, that people still wanted to kill him. He dug the book back up and wrote more of God’s instructions, mentioning that he was surprised he was still alive.

Then he hid the book one last time and went away in the dark of the night. We don’t know what happened to him during the rest of his life or even if he got out of town safely. We do know what happened to him long after he died.

The next article will tell you about that.