After the Manner of Chemish

In a recent podcast , Dr. John Hilton III discussed the similarities between Jonah and Jesus. The Savior Himself made the comparison: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jesus was in the tomb three days just like Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, and both came out alive. But there are more similarities than this one. Dr. Hilton quoted a Christian author Timothy Keller who said this: “Both Jesus and Jonah are in a boat. Both are in storms described in similar terms. Both boats are filled with others who are terrified of death. Both groups wake the sleeping prophets angrily rebuking them. Both storms are miraculously calmed and the companion saved. And both stories conclude with the men in the boats more terrified after the storm is stilled than they were before. Every feature is the same  with one rather large apparent exception. Jonah is s

To my son,                 In September of 1989, a boy scout troop went on a camping trip at the Hidden Treasure Mine in the Oquirrh Mountains. The scoutmaster Terry had a ten-year-old boy Josh whom he brought along, and on Friday evening they went into the mine to explore. But soon one of the scouts needed to turn back, and Terry turned around to take him out. Josh said he would stick with the other scouts and went in further to catch up. His father exited one direction—with their flashlight—and Josh went in following the other scouts who didn’t realize he was coming behind them. Josh never found them, and soon he was in total darkness with no idea how to get out of the mine. What followed was a massive search for this young boy lost in the mine, but he was nowhere to be found. On Saturday and Sunday dozens of rescue crew endlessly scoured the mine. A Tooele resident named John Skinner soon heard about this little boy lost in the mine, and he wanted to help. He had grown up explorin

Elder Gong taught in the most recent general conference , “As the Golden Rule teaches, a sanctifying symmetry in repentance and forgiveness invites us each to offer others that which we ourselves need and desire.” I have never thought of the Golden Rule applying to how we forgive each other, but certainly forgiving others as we want to be forgiven fits well this teaching of the Savior: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). One thing that we hope that men will do to us is to forgive us and so we ought to forgive them in that way. Elder Gong continued, “Sometimes our willingness to forgive someone else enables both them and us to believe we can repent and be forgiven. Sometimes a willingness to repent and an ability to forgive come at different times. Our Savior is our Mediator with God, but He also helps bring us to ourselves and each other as we come to Him. Especially when hur

Many years ago in general conference President Nelson told a story of a rafting trip he took with his family on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. On the second day when they reached Horn Creek rapids he recounted, “I was terrified. Floating on a rubber raft, our precious family was about to plunge over a waterfall! Instinctively I put one arm around my wife and the other around our youngest daughter. To protect them, I tried to hold them close to me. But as we reached the precipice, the bended raft became a giant sling and shot me into the air. I landed into the roiling rapids of the river. I had a hard time coming up. Each time I tried to find air, I hit the underside of the raft. My family couldn’t see me, but I could hear them shouting, ‘Daddy! Where’s Daddy?’” Eventually he found his way around the underside of the raft and his family pulled him out of the water. And so after that experience, when they reached an even more treacherous point on the water, Lava Falls, he