A Marvelous Work

"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men." Doctrine and Covenants 4:1

"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men." Doctrine and Covenants 6:1, 11:1, 12:1, 14:1

This week's blog is supposed to be in response to the first scripture. I have posted the second because it is very similar and helps to show how often this phrase was repeated. For me, the repetition is evidence of how important this concept is.

The statement "a great and marvelous work" is referring to the Book of Mormon. I do think that the Book of Mormon is a marvelous work. I find the teachings in it have a great impact on my life and I believe it to be an inspired work. I could go on forever about how great I think this book is and what it has done for me, and if you want to hear about that- let me know and I'll tell you more, but right now I want to focus on a different part of the above quotes.

This great and marvelous work is going to come unto the children of men. It isn't going to come to the Americans, or the English, or the people who speak English but are of some other nationality. It is going to come to the children of men, and this includes everyone. When Joseph Smith started to translate the Book of Mormon off of ancient records, he was unsure how he was going to afford to publish it and distribute it to the people of America, yet he was being told it would go out to the entire world. Today, the Book of Mormon is published in 74 languages, with several more in the process of translation. 74. I knew the Book of Mormon had been translated into lots of languages; but when I learned how many languages, and how many were in the process, I was amazed. This book is going to go to all the children of men, not just the children of the English speakers, or the Spanish speakers or any other common language. This book has been translated into Xhosa, Rarotongan, Igbo, and Fante. (And I'll be the first to admit that I've never heard of the last three and just spent several minutes searching the web to see where they were spoken). (Oh, and the only reason I've heard of the first is because the lady who translated it spoke in a fireside a few months ago. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a fireside is an evening meeting in which a guest speaker comes and speaks to a specific group of people, such as the youth, the unmarried members, or some other random group that the lesson is directed to). Anyways, back to the fact that the Book of Mormon is published in 74 languages; maybe it's because I have grown up loving my religion and wishing everyone in the world could experience the joy it has brought me, I just find it so amazing that so many people in the world have access to what I love.