The Crandall Museum

This week, instead of attending class as normal, we attended a tour at the Crandall Printing Museum. The really cool thing about this museum is that it has exact replicas of old printing presses. The guides don't just tell you how the presses were used and made, but we actually got to participate in using the press to print a sheet.

Another interesting thing is how small the museum is, there are only three rooms in the tour. The first room has a Gutenberg printing press in it, set up just like Gutenberg's printing press would have been. The tour guide, dressed in printers garb, explained how the printing press was invented. He explained how Gutenberg had to create unique inks and metals to accomplish what was needed to actually make the press.

The next room was dedicated to the Declaration of Independance. The room had a slightly more modern press, though it was essentially the same. The guide in this room described how the printing press helped the American Revolution occur.

The last room was designed to look just like the place that the Book of Mormon was printed in. The tour guide explained the miraculous series of events that allowed so many copies of the Book of Mormon to be printed at the same time. The location of the restoration, the completion of the Erie canal, and the newer steel printing press all came together at just the right time and place for the printing of one of the most important books in my life. I just think it's pretty cool.

Joseph's Teachings

This week's blog prompt asked us to explain why some of Joseph Smith's teachings became scripture. After thinking about this for a while, I realized that I don't really know. After thinking about it for quite a while longer I determined I definitely don't know, but I do have several ideas. Please keep in mind that these are only my ideas.

The majority of the Doctrine and Covenants are revelations from God given to Joseph that have been written down. However, near the end of the Doctrine and Covenants, many of the sections are letters or teachings of the Prophet. This change instigates two questions in me. The first is the one relating to the prompt, why were Joseph's teachings turned into scripture. The second question I have is why do there seem to be fewer revelations at this point. Fortunately for me, the second question was answered in class this week. The first question, if it was answered, I either didn't notice or didn't understand.

Anyways, here are my interpretations of the answers. The main reason that the number of revelations decreased was because all the big questions that needed answering had been answered. The saints didn't need specific instruction anymore. The reason I think that the teachings of Joseph Smith were placed into the scriptures is because of how universal the topics he was teaching are. He took answers found in revelations earlier in the Doctrine and Covenants and expounded upon them so that the saints could understand them better. Since these teachings help so many people and explain such important topics, it makes sense for these teachings to be published so that all the saints could see them.

Reflections

For this weeks prompt, we were asked to reflect on our examination of pages 381 and 639-649 of the Joseph Smith Papers. As unusual as it may seem, I took a lot more interest in page 381 than in the large section of pages we were supposed to read. Pages 639-649 were rather interesting, just not attention grabbing. At least not for me. These pages had the minutes from a meeting in which the high counsel of the church was organized. I understand the importance behind this meeting, but it had a very political feeling to it, and I have difficulty thinking through things politically.

Page 381 had a very different style. The part that we were supposed to be examining was the statement at the top of the page stating that the High Counsel had been organized that day. This is interesting because it wasn't until nearly 300 pages later that they places the information from that meeting into the revelation books. The rest of the page is what really stuck out to me though. It was one of those doom's day sort of revelations where it talks about the civil war that would soon break out and the famine and natural disasters that would occur before Christ came again. Maybe it's just my depressed attitude lately, or maybe it's because of all the stuff going on in the world as earthquakes destroy cities, but for some reason this portion of the page that I wasn't supposed to be focusing on really hit me. The revelation ends with "Wherefore, stand ye in holy places and be not moved until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly." The way the revelation ends just hit me really hard. It talks of death and destruction and fear, but it ends with a simple message of how to deal with all of it.

Museum of Art

For class this past week, instead of having a normal class period the class took a tour of one of the exhibits at the schools Museum or Art. We toured the exhibit Types and Intimations, which is filled with works that depict Christ and the Atonement in some way. We also attended this exhibit last semester. I happened to write a very long blog post then on what was, at the time, my favorite painting in the exhibit. I'm not sure if it is still my favorite or not. I still really like the painting and it still means a lot to me, but my life since then has developed in ways I didn't expect.

If you would like to read a long post on my experiences at the exhibit last time, it was published November of 2009, feel free to read it. This post is going to be a bit different though. Unlike most prompts, this one had no word limit. So it's going to be much shorter than the other posts. For once, I don't really want to tell the world want I think, because I stopped thinking and finally let myself respond to the work through feeling.

My eyes were opened, I recognized vital truths in life that I've always known but have a tendency to forget. Everyone suffers, we all have hard lives. Most people spend all day trying just to make it through. However, if we stop and give just a bit of time to something else, to someone else, we are giving more than our time. To make that small sacrifice and to give up something for another person means that we are giving ourselves fully to Christ. We are showing him that we love him in the only way we can, by doing what He asks us.

88

For this weeks reading assignment, we were asked to read pages 293-310 of the Joseph Smith Papers. The Joseph Smith Papers is a series of books that have copies of the original manuscripts of the revelations the revelations that Jospeh Smith received as well as journals and letters that he wrote. The first book in the series contains Revelation books 1 and 2, which contain many of the revelations that are now included in the Doctrine and Covenants. These specific pages correspond with section 88 in the Doctrine and Covenants. We were asked to write about what we learned while reading through and examining this material. Due to the length of the reading, I'm simply going to focus on what stuck out to me most, which is basically the first page and a half.

First- a little background on the section. The Doctrine and Covenants section header states that this section is titled "The Olive Leaf" revelation. Joseph states that it was "The Lord's message of peace to us." I certainly agree with this statement. Upon reading it, I felt and immediate sense of peace and hope despite the horrible semester I've been having. I was reminded, just in the first page and a half, that my God, my Heavenly Father, loves me.

There are two main ideas that the first page and a half focus on. The first is that the Saints who are faithful and obey his commandments will be given the Comforter. The section then explains that in this context, the Comforter refers to the promise that the Lord gives us of eternal life and celestial glory. What stuck out to me most right now was the use of the word Comforter. He doesn't just say that he sends a promise, He says that He will send us something to comfort us. The section then focuses on the light of Christ and how it governs everything. This portion is absolutely beautiful. It mentions the light of the moon and the sun and the stars and the power that created all of them as well as the earth. The revelation then goes on to say that this light is from Christ and that it is from the same source as the light that enlightens people and helps them to understand. This is the light that governs everything. My favorite sentence, the last sentence reads "The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of everything."