Earthly Angels

Elder Godoy spoke about earthly “angels” in his most recent conference talk as he told of those who helped him when he first joined the Church. He quoted Elder Holland’s description of angels on this side of the veil: “When we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. … Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.” Elder Godoy invited us to be those kinds of angels to others around us: “Brothers and sisters, would you be willing to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands? Would you be willing to be one of these angels? To be an emissary, sent from God, from this side of the veil, for someone He is worried about? He needs you. They need you…. If you look around carefully, you will find many in need of an angel’s help…. I promise that if we are willing to serve, the Lord will give us opportunities to be ministering angels. He knows who needs angelic help, and He will put them in our path. The Lord puts those who need angelic help in our path daily.” Surely the Savior is the perfect example of one who gave that kind of help to so many who were in His path each day. And, if we are to follow Him, we must find ways to seek out and help those whom the Lord puts in our lives each day.

                Two scriptures in particular in the Book of Mormon help us to see what it might mean to be an earthly angel as Elder Godoy invited us. First, Nephi suggested that after we receive the Holy Ghost we “could speak with the tongue of angels,” giving credence to the idea of us being able to act like angels. He then explained, “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:2-3). So to be an earthly angel, we need to strive to say the things that Jesus would say. Through the help of the Holy Ghost, we must seek to speak the words of Christ to those around us. Second, Mormon taught about the role of angels to the righteous in his day: “They are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness. And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord” (Moroni 7:30-31). Here again Mormon suggested that angels are to declare “the word of Christ,” and in particular they are to “call men unto repentance” with those words. Angels also are to “minister according to the word of [Christ’s] command.” In other words, they are to do those things that He asks. To put it simply, to be an earthly angel is to strive to say and do those things that Christ would say and do.

                We have one example of this with heavenly angels who did just what the Savior would do in the New Testament. As Mary mourned at the Savior’s tomb, she saw “two angels in white” who said unto her: “Woman, why weepest thou?” They were there to comfort her, to help her see past her grief to the glorious truth of the resurrection. And what they said was followed almost immediately by the same declaration of Jesus Himself: “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?” (John 20:12-15) The angels had literally said what Jesus would say because He came and repeated their words of comfort. They had come to build her faith and Jesus followed with the same intention. Of course angels aren’t always accompanied by the Savior Himself, but this story shows us that the key to being an earthly angel as Elder Godoy invited is to strive to speak the words and do the actions that Jesus would do to bless and comfort those around us.