Paul Pulsipher

2021-01-20 13:33:49 -

Because I couldn’t do the video on this platform

On the morning of January 18, I was listening to a talk that I had posted about on my Facebook by D Todd Christofferson about what it means to have a sustainable society. After listening to this and having some quiet time just to myself, I came to a realization with the aid of the Holy Ghost about something He told me that was echoed by my father in a priesthood blessing I received before I started working here in Utah.

Before I had moved back down here to the States, I was worried that a lesser amount of opposition than I had come up against in Canada would make it more difficult to keep my spiritual senses sharp by always needing to adjust my proverbial sails, sometimes hourly or even every minute. I remember one day shortly after I had moved to Orem when the Holy Ghost told me “oh, the trials aren’t over, you still have lots of opposition to overcome, you don’t need to worry about that. It hasn’t stopped, it’s only going to change form”

I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant at first. My first year here I was meeting tons of awesome people for my podcast and other connections as a result of that. Then I met my precious wife, and I was sealed (remarried) for eternity in the Payson temple. I had a good job, awesome friends, was developing new skills, I had tons of friends who are focused on Christ and had a wife and home centered on Christ, so my thought was how is this a trial? Bit by bit over time I began to feel uneasy as I saw many friends in Utah talking so much about controversial issues in ways that only served to distract those participating from the servants of Christ (apostles and prophets), their example and their counsel.

I saw so many conversations arguing about whether or not vaccines are good, Trump and the assault on the capital, masks, COVID mandates and more. I began to see people in several Latter-Day Saint groups sewing seeds of doubt regarding President Nelson and church leadership. I noticed people expressing disdain about President Nelson’s positive comments regarding a COVID vaccine. I was saddened to see many comments complaining about new temple policies requiring wearing masks during temple endowments as the first few reopened for proxy endowments. I am saddened to see a few of my new friends using old prophets quotes out of context, using them against President Nelson to claim that he is beginning to lead the Lord’s church astray because of these and other matters.

Now buckle up Utah, because this is about to get really candid.

The type of opposition I faced in Canada was from people who absolutely did not have a clear gospel perspective on life‘s problems. One time when I was getting groceries for Lorraine and I, I was having a short conversation with a nurse and telling her how much I admired the grit and tenacity it takes to work as a nurse in a healthcare system such as they have. The nurse responded to me with some thing that shocked me. She said, “it indeed can be very difficult to put off your own values and morals for the sake of someone else’s,” indicating that she thought that was a crucial part of being a good nurse. I didn’t even know what to say and after I got home that day I wished I had been able to come up with a kind way to tell her that that was a form of self abuse.

No, I don’t face that kind of opposition anymore. I no longer suffer the trauma of watching a loved one suffer and die at the hands of medical professionals whose hands are tied by a careless, destructive and negligent healthcare system. Now the trials I face are similar to the one I wrote about in a historical fiction I wrote called the Stripling Warrior when I was in Canada.

There’s a part of that book where a Lamanite family who had just migrated with Ammon and his brothers to the Nephites nation was shocked at the level of faithlessness and disobedience to God’s Commandments in a society where they supposed they would see a culture saturated by Christ centered values. The main character’s grandfather is Abish’s father, the one who had seen a vision before Ammon and his brothers ever arrived in the Lamanite nation in The Book Of Mormon. He was especially disappointed that there were so many people locally who made excuses to disregard Alma‘s teachings and their covenants.

The more I notice conversations among people in the state of Utah online, especially those who have particularly strong opinions about many of these controversial subjects, the more I am disappointed by how many seem to have forgotten that the standard God Himself has set for temple worthiness includes sustaining His servants, the prophets. As we have studied in Come Follow Me already this year, Jesus himself said “whether by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same”. I have seen many people more innocently questioning why the prophet is saying and doing what he is, honestly looking for answers, and I certainly have my own resolved answers and feelings about many of those questions. I am happy to discuss them with whoever is interested in them.

But this is the trial I now face. It is the trial of watching friends and even some family stray from their covenants and their faith in the Lord‘s promise to never allow his prophets to lead us astray. Personally, I have seen far too many miracles and extremely joyful, sacred experiences result from unflinchingly sustaining the Lords prophets for me to want to go the same route. I’m hoping to release a book that talks more in detail about that soon, titled after my podcast, Stepping Into Freedom.

The blessing I mentioned earlier that my father gave me before I began work in Utah reminded me that just because I am surrounded by the highest concentration of members of God’s church in the world doesn’t mean that everybody is automatically going to be wonderful and kind and good disciples of Christ. I can now see firsthand what he meant.

While there definitely are many more people who earnestly try to make Christ the center of their life, I am also seeing how much easier it is for people to be persuaded by carefully crafted deception packaged in a way that makes it feel so “right“ to them. So much so that they begin to rely on close friends and acquaintances and online communities of “like-minded people” more than the man on the watch tower, our prophets and apostles and the Man who guides them, The Lord Jesus Christ.

Elder Christofferson warned about this very thing in the talk I mentioned at the beginning of this. He warned about people who set themselves up as leaders about a certain subject matter and gain a following that contradicts the counsel of our prophets. And because they get a lot of followers, they end up like Korihor, who himself even admitted that he continued to believe the lies the devil fed him because of the success he had, leading him to believe that those lies were true.

Am I saying that I believe there aren’t secret combinations somewhere behind the pandemic? Am I saying that there aren’t some legitimate questions that need to be thoroughly asked and investigated by the medical community about vaccines? Am I saying that our freedoms are not being eroded, especially religious freedoms, because of Covid policies? Am I saying that it’s not a hard thing to be asked to wear masks in the temple during an endowment session? The answer to all of these is no.

But those who dismiss something outrightly because it seems difficult to our perception and challenges our way of thinking that feels so comfortable to us are walking dangerous ground, especially if they allow that discomfort to influence their loyalty to their covenants and to their God and their behavior surrounding politics and religion in public and online.

If President Nelson asked me to do something that I felt uncomfortable with, I would do it anyways because I understand the value of putting my own emotions about something on the back burner when God speaks through His prophet.

If this ruffles your feathers, I beg you, please, even just for a few minutes, open up your mind and heart and just consider this. Jesus didn’t say by their roots ye shall know them but by their fruits. What are the fruits of the church and the prophets? Civility, peace, reconciliation, diplomacy, love, inclusion, justice, freedom, forgiveness, humility, power, faith in Christ and more.

Yet another important part of the Come Follow Me curriculum this year has been when the Lord called His church true and LIVING. Living things of the mortal sphere, of necessity, change as we do. The Lord knows this and as I wish I could have told someone who got very rude and snarky about the church in a recent conversation with me, while God doesn’t change, the constantly changing nature of mankind, the world, and the social, political and religious climate of the world requires that we adapt as He asks us to, not as our friends suggest. They are not our Savior and they are not His prophet.

I was promised in my patriarchal blessing that my decision to follow the prophet and the main body of the church would bring rich rewards into my life. I know the same can happen for you as well.

Because I couldn’t do the video on this platform On the morning of January 18, I was listening to a talk that I had posted about on my Facebook by D Todd Christofferson about what it means to have a sustainable society. After listening to this and having some quiet time just to myself, I came to a realization with the aid of the Holy Ghost about something He told me that was echoed by my father in a priesthood blessing I received before I started working here in Utah. Before I had moved back down here to the States, I was worried that a lesser amount of opposition than I had come up against in Canada would make it more difficult to keep my spiritual senses sharp by always needing to adjust my proverbial sails, sometimes hourly or even every minute. I remember one day shortly after I had moved to Orem when the Holy Ghost told me “oh, the trials aren’t over, you still have lots of opposition to overcome, you don’t need to worry about that. It hasn’t stopped, it’s only going to change form” I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant at first. My first year here I was meeting tons of awesome people for my podcast and other connections as a result of that. Then I met my precious wife, and I was sealed (remarried) for eternity in the Payson temple. I had a good job, awesome friends, was developing new skills, I had tons of friends who are focused on Christ and had a wife and home centered on Christ, so my thought was how is this a trial? Bit by bit over time I began to feel uneasy as I saw many friends in Utah talking so much about controversial issues in ways that only served to distract those participating from the servants of Christ (apostles and prophets), their example and their counsel. I saw so many conversations arguing about whether or not vaccines are good, Trump and the assault on the capital, masks, COVID mandates and more. I began to see people in several Latter-Day Saint groups sewing seeds of doubt regarding President Nelson and church leadership. I noticed people expressing disdain about President Nelson’s positive comments regarding a COVID vaccine. I was saddened to see many comments complaining about new temple policies requiring wearing masks during temple endowments as the first few reopened for proxy endowments. I am saddened to see a few of my new friends using old prophets quotes out of context, using them against President Nelson to claim that he is beginning to lead the Lord’s church astray because of these and other matters. Now buckle up Utah, because this is about to get really candid. The type of opposition I faced in Canada was from people who absolutely did not have a clear gospel perspective on life‘s problems. One time when I was getting groceries for Lorraine and I, I was having a short conversation with a nurse and telling her how much I admired the grit and tenacity it takes to work as a nurse in a healthcare system such as they have. The nurse responded to me with some thing that shocked me. She said, “it indeed can be very difficult to put off your own values and morals for the sake of someone else’s,” indicating that she thought that was a crucial part of being a good nurse. I didn’t even know what to say and after I got home that day I wished I had been able to come up with a kind way to tell her that that was a form of self abuse. No, I don’t face that kind of opposition anymore. I no longer suffer the trauma of watching a loved one suffer and die at the hands of medical professionals whose hands are tied by a careless, destructive and negligent healthcare system. Now the trials I face are similar to the one I wrote about in a historical fiction I wrote called the Stripling Warrior when I was in Canada. There’s a part of that book where a Lamanite family who had just migrated with Ammon and his brothers to the Nephites nation was shocked at the level of faithlessness and disobedience to God’s Commandments in a society where they supposed they would see a culture saturated by Christ centered values. The main character’s grandfather is Abish’s father, the one who had seen a vision before Ammon and his brothers ever arrived in the Lamanite nation in The Book Of Mormon. He was especially disappointed that there were so many people locally who made excuses to disregard Alma‘s teachings and their covenants. The more I notice conversations among people in the state of Utah online, especially those who have particularly strong opinions about many of these controversial subjects, the more I am disappointed by how many seem to have forgotten that the standard God Himself has set for temple worthiness includes sustaining His servants, the prophets. As we have studied in Come Follow Me already this year, Jesus himself said “whether by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same”. I have seen many people more innocently questioning why the prophet is saying and doing what he is, honestly looking for answers, and I certainly have my own resolved answers and feelings about many of those questions. I am happy to discuss them with whoever is interested in them. But this is the trial I now face. It is the trial of watching friends and even some family stray from their covenants and their faith in the Lord‘s promise to never allow his prophets to lead us astray. Personally, I have seen far too many miracles and extremely joyful, sacred experiences result from unflinchingly sustaining the Lords prophets for me to want to go the same route. I’m hoping to release a book that talks more in detail about that soon, titled after my podcast, Stepping Into Freedom. The blessing I mentioned earlier that my father gave me before I began work in Utah reminded me that just because I am surrounded by the highest concentration of members of God’s church in the world doesn’t mean that everybody is automatically going to be wonderful and kind and good disciples of Christ. I can now see firsthand what he meant. While there definitely are many more people who earnestly try to make Christ the center of their life, I am also seeing how much easier it is for people to be persuaded by carefully crafted deception packaged in a way that makes it feel so “right“ to them. So much so that they begin to rely on close friends and acquaintances and online communities of “like-minded people” more than the man on the watch tower, our prophets and apostles and the Man who guides them, The Lord Jesus Christ. Elder Christofferson warned about this very thing in the talk I mentioned at the beginning of this. He warned about people who set themselves up as leaders about a certain subject matter and gain a following that contradicts the counsel of our prophets. And because they get a lot of followers, they end up like Korihor, who himself even admitted that he continued to believe the lies the devil fed him because of the success he had, leading him to believe that those lies were true. Am I saying that I believe there aren’t secret combinations somewhere behind the pandemic? Am I saying that there aren’t some legitimate questions that need to be thoroughly asked and investigated by the medical community about vaccines? Am I saying that our freedoms are not being eroded, especially religious freedoms, because of Covid policies? Am I saying that it’s not a hard thing to be asked to wear masks in the temple during an endowment session? The answer to all of these is no. But those who dismiss something outrightly because it seems difficult to our perception and challenges our way of thinking that feels so comfortable to us are walking dangerous ground, especially if they allow that discomfort to influence their loyalty to their covenants and to their God and their behavior surrounding politics and religion in public and online. If President Nelson asked me to do something that I felt uncomfortable with, I would do it anyways because I understand the value of putting my own emotions about something on the back burner when God speaks through His prophet. If this ruffles your feathers, I beg you, please, even just for a few minutes, open up your mind and heart and just consider this. Jesus didn’t say by their roots ye shall know them but by their fruits. What are the fruits of the church and the prophets? Civility, peace, reconciliation, diplomacy, love, inclusion, justice, freedom, forgiveness, humility, power, faith in Christ and more. Yet another important part of the Come Follow Me curriculum this year has been when the Lord called His church true and LIVING. Living things of the mortal sphere, of necessity, change as we do. The Lord knows this and as I wish I could have told someone who got very rude and snarky about the church in a recent conversation with me, while God doesn’t change, the constantly changing nature of mankind, the world, and the social, political and religious climate of the world requires that we adapt as He asks us to, not as our friends suggest. They are not our Savior and they are not His prophet. I was promised in my patriarchal blessing that my decision to follow the prophet and the main body of the church would bring rich rewards into my life. I know the same can happen for you as well.

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