The Lamanite Mission

 This week I was asked to be the Sunday School teacher for teens age 17-18.  This new calling has made me begin to think about how I would present sections of the Doctrine and Covenants to that age group.  When I was given the assignment the bishop of our ward suggested that the focus in our congregation for teaching youth is to help them learn how to find answers to their questions, instead of just answering their questions. So what questions might teenagers ask about the reading this week?

I think they would probably ask the same thing I ask myself every time I read the Doctrine and Covenants.  Why does the Lord tell the Saints to do something, knowing they will not actually be able to accomplish it?  

In section 32 the Lord calls Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson to go with "Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the Lamanites" (v. 2).  History shows that these four men traveled in December and January through severe winter weather. After a very difficult journey, they were only able to talk with native people a couple of times before an agent for the US Indian Affairs gave them an order to stop proselyting. No native peoples joined the church through their efforts. 

Historians are quick to point out that on the way they stopped in to visit Sidney Rigdon who was the paster of a small Methodist congregation in Kirkland Ohio.  Sidney Rigdon was converted as were eventually 300 from the region.  The mission therefore tripled the numbers of members in the church and laid the foundation for the gathering of the saints in Kirkland and the building of the Kirkland Temple. 

So, why did the Lord tell Oliver Cowdery and the others to go find Sydney Rigdon, instead of telling them to go and preach to the Lamanites?  And what does that tactic tell us about God?

In other words, can we even have faith in God?  When he tells us to do something, can we believe what he says? 

I never answered this kind of complex question when I was 18.  I wasn't even mature enough in my theology to even ask it.  My faith at 18 was simple and fervent. I knew that if I kept the commandments the Lord would bless me and I would progress and eventually inherit eternal life. At 18 this seemed like a fairly easy and straight forward task to me.  I was already pretty good at keeping commandments. I kept the word of wisdom strictly.  I kept the 10 commandments.  I served a mission and applied to and attended BYU.  I was doing everything I knew how to do be an obedient daughter. 

Now at age 60, I look back on my life and see times when the Lord told me to metaphorically go to preach to the Indians, not so I could actually preach to the Indians, but meet up with and preach to Sidney Rigdon instead.  Going on and staying true under those kinds of circumstances, takes real faith. It is not only trusting the Lord, but trusting in the Lord.  It is believing that not matter what snow storms the Lord drags you through, it will all be for the best and for his greater glory. I think I am just getting to that place in my life, 43 years after I was the age of my new students. 

If you look at this section and section 29:6 the Lord doesn't actually say they are going to have success converting native peoples.  He said that Oliver had the power to "build up my church among the Lamanites."  Did Oliver have the power? I assume yes, since the Lord said he did.  Did he have the opportunity to exercise that power?  No. Where Oliver and Peter promised that they would have success among the native peopled? No.  They were told to go, and that as they went Jesus would be their advocate with the Father, and nothing would prevail against them (v. 3). You can argue that that happened.  None of them died, and many felt the Spirit of the Lord and were converted.  The outcome was just as God wanted, It blessed the missionaries and the Church, but it wasn't what they expected. 

The take-away from this lesson is that we can't become so tied down to our own expectations of what is going to happen, that we miss the miracles in our life that come unexpectedly from God. 

Did someone teach me this when I was 18?  They probably tried to, but I wasn't ready and humble enough to understand. I think the youth of today are more sophisticated than I was at 18. Maybe they will get it. 

One more thing. My family had a personal stake in this mission. Sidney Rigdon was a friend of the Oliver Snow family and first told them about Joseph Smith. Rosetta Pettibone Snow was the first member on either my or my husband's family line to join the church, and that happened as a result of the Lamanite Mission.