Bringing the Book of Mormon to Life

Today the “Light the World” invitation was to pay tribute to a boss or teacher, and I’ve been thinking about those many teachers who have had a significant impact on me.  I can think of so many who made a real difference in my life, and I am particularly grateful for those professors of religion at Brigham Young University who taught me to really love and immerse myself in the scriptures.  One professor in particular, Byron Merrill, was especially influential on me and I still remember the way he taught certain passages from the scriptures and the experiences I had in his classes these many years later.  Since I can think of no better tribute to a teacher than to let them know that their teachings really stayed with one of their students, I thought I would highlight here some of the lessons I learned from my freshman days before my mission in his Book of Mormon classes.

               One of the first things that Brother Merrill required of us in his Book of Mormon courses was to read the entire text of the course (i.e. half of the Book of Mormon) in the first two weeks.  I remember him saying something to the effect, “I sometimes hear people say, ‘I haven’t read the whole Book of Mormon, but I know it is true.’ That’s nice, but it has little power.” His point was that if we really want to gain a witness of the scriptures, we should really get to know and understand the scriptures.  He knew that there would be people in his class who had never read the Book of Mormon despite growing up in the Church, and he was committed to helping us really come to understand what is in the scriptures which were written for us.  I distinctly remember him highlighting one particular verse from Moroni: “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35).  It was in his class that I came to understand that these writers of the scriptures knew us—and we should come to know them and the words they left us. 

               One day in particular in one of his classes stands out in my mind.  He was discussing Nephi and started to quote the famous passage 1 Nephi 3:7.  As if led by some unseen compelling force, most of us in the class in unison began to quote the verse by memory with him.  It was a powerful moment as we all stood there and let the impact of Nephi’s testimony sink in and the Spirit confirmed that we too would have great things ahead of us to do.  Brother Merrill helped us see that this was what we would need to do in the coming years and decades, to go and do whatever the Lord commanded.    

               Many other moments in his classes stand out in my mind as he opened the scriptures to us and helped me see them in a new light.  He helped me see how Abinadi brought Isaiah to stand next to him as a second witness as he testified so powerfully of the Savior.  I learned from Alma how God will always grant us our true desires as we pondered his famous statement: “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!” (Alma 29:1)  I have never forgotten the way Brother Merrill described Alma’s desires and how just maybe when Alma was taken home to God he was indeed handed his own trump to join the angels of heaven as he desired so much.  It was from Brother Merrill that I learned to see that the chapters in Helaman and early 3 Nephi before the Savior’s coming—with all their political intrigue and wars and Gadianton robbers and chief judges being murdered—act as a parallel to our unstable world today as we await the 2^nd Coming of the Savior.  He also helped me to see what an incredible man Mormon really was, and I’ve never forgotten his statement about that ancient prophet: “I’m never ashamed to be called a Mormon because I know who Mormon was.” 

               It was in one of Brother Merrill’s lessons that Ether 12 really came to take on a significant meaning for me.  I remember the way he described Moroni, alone in some cave trying to finish the record, throwing down his writing instrument in frustration and crying to the Lord for help in his overwhelming feeling of weakness and despair: “Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing” (Ether 12:23).  I could suddenly see in my mind and feel Moroni’s experience in a powerful way as Brother Merrill described it, and this was a chapter that I thought on over and over during my mission as I struggled to overcome my own weaknesses and face my challenges.  For a time I would read this chapter every day and picture in my mind a Moroni who similarly struggled to fulfill the mission God gave to him.  Moroni’s testament to us is that the Lord’s grace and power will help us overcome all things when we come unto Him: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me…. And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:27, 41).

I am so grateful for the way Brother Merrill opened the Book of Mormon to me in his classes those many years ago, and I still am blessed today for the things he taught me.  I wrote once in my journal after one of his classes, “He has a way of teaching that helps you understand the scriptures so much better and walk away feeling, ‘I need to be better.’”  I pay tribute to Brother Merrill for his unwearyingness in bringing to life the words of the scriptures and inspiring thousands of students like me to be better.