A Work For Me To Do

 To my daughter, 

                In Sacrament Meeting today one of the speakers referred to the ninth symphony of Beethoven. It is considered one of the greatest achievements in the history of music and is over an hour long to perform. You are familiar with a small part of it because of the Ode To Joy melody that you have heard and played on the piano. What makes the writing of this powerful piece of music so incredible is that Beethoven was basically deaf when he wrote it. The first performance was in 1824 in Vienna and Beethoven was there helping conduct the symphony. As the story goes, at the end he was still conducting and so someone had to turn him around to see the audience cheering and giving him a standing ovation he could not hear. The speaker’s reason in telling us about Beethoven today was to point out that in the times of difficulty and hardship we can still do great things. Even in the midst of our challenges, we can focus on serving and fulfilling the mission that God has for us. I know that we each have a mission to accomplish here on earth, and like Beethoven we can fulfill it even when we face great challenges.

One of the things that Joseph described which the angel Moroni told him in 1823 was this: “That God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (JSH 1:33). Note that the Lord told him both that he had a mission here on earth and that it would be difficult—his name would be had for evil across the world and people would speak evil of him. And yet despite that, he chose to do exactly what the Lord called him to do. I believe we each have a work to do here on earth like Joseph, and I know that you have the potential to do great good in your life if you will seek with all your heart to do the things that the Lord wants for you. Like Oliver Cowdery, the Lord says to you: “If you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:8). I know that you can indeed do much good both now and in the future. One of my favorite phrases from Joseph Smith’s history is when he said this: “The adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom” (JSH 1:20). That is what we all should strive to be—a disturber and annoyer of the kingdom of the devil! We should seek to establish our lives in righteousness and help others to come unto the Savior, and we will weaken the kingdom of the devil. Even though you may face serious difficulties in your life, I hope you will never lose sight of the great things you can do—even when you have weaknesses—and like Beethoven work out your symphony for the world. 

 

Love,

Dad