But I ended up just thinking a lot about Jesus.

Joseph and Sidney saw this vision, this glorious vision about… like, everything. Where did we come from. Why are we here. Where are we going. All the “big questions”.

And yet, the very first thing they did while writing down the vision was to testify that they saw Jesus.

They saw Him in vision.

That’s what they shared first.

They beheld His glory.

They saw the angels worshipping Him.

And then, Joseph and Sidney took time to officially bear their testimony of the Savior.

They bore a personal testimony that Jesus Christ, who was killed, lives today.

He is sitting right next to our Heavenly Father.

He created this world that we live on now, and He has created other worlds.

And after listing all these magnificent and powerful qualities of the Savior of the world?

A sweet reminder that we are Children of God, too.

Joseph and Sidney then continued to record the rest of their vision that brought so much new understanding to the Plan of Happiness.

(Which also totally revolves around Jesus, see my post from Monday, cuz this really has been on my mind all week!)

But they felt compelled to accentuate their narration of the vision with their own personal feelings and knowledge about the Savior.

He is real.

He lives and has created so much.

And He also loves us personally.

And if it’s tough to really believe this still, then we can borrow from Joseph and Sidney’s powerful joint testimony.

I know that my redeemer lives.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post He lives! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were doing great work.

Day in and day out, they worked in John and Elsa Johnson’s home in Hiram, Ohio, translating the Bible.

They were truly the example of being anxiously engaged in a good cause.

But then…

Ezra Booth was causing problems.

He had become disaffected with Joseph on their journey from Missouri to Ohio a few months previously, and even though all of the other men had forgiven each other and moved past it, Ezra did not.

He left the church and began writing pretty malicious letters about Joseph and the church, and publishing them in local newspapers.

And now, a lot of their neighbors in Ohio, who really had been welcoming and totally fine with the saints’ presence thus far, were starting to worry about who these church members really were, and who this Joseph really was.

So, the Lord told Joseph and Sidney, these two men who were working on a great, eternally important project to stop “for the space of a season” and preach the gospel around in Ohio.

They had to stop the good thing they were doing in order to put out the urgent fire of discord that was spreading in Ohio.

I wonder if Joseph or Sidney ever felt annoyed.

Or frustrated.

They had to stop their good work to go put out the consequences of someone else’s bad decisions.

But they did it anyways.

They spent about a month traveling around Ohio, preaching true doctrine and showing the people in Ohio who they really were.

And guess what?

It worked. The people in Ohio calmed down and a lot of rumors were squashed.

And in Section 73, we get to see the other end of this.

The Lord tells Joseph and Sidney that “it is expedient to translate again”.

Sometimes, we have to stop doing really good things that we are doing.

We have to put life on pause to deal with a medical emergency. We have to stop cooking dinner to deal with a frustrated child. We have to stop our normal routines to help a friend in need.

Sometimes, we need to put out the urgent fire for just a season, and then we can get back to the good things we had planned.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Pausing the good things first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I mean, I had gone to BYU for 4 years, earned my education degree, and then taught full-time for 4 years, and now I was just quitting?!

But I knew I needed to do it.

I had just given birth to my first daughter, and I felt strongly to quit my job, despite my previous plans to continue working.

But even though I felt terrified…

I remember on those final few days of work, I was actually filled with excitement for the future.

I felt this weight of anticipation.

I knew that something amazing was about to happen.

Maybe I was going to open a piano studio that would influence tons of kids’ lives.

Maybe I would fall in love with online teaching and dive into that.

Maybe there was something else I was going to discover.

I even told my husband: “I feel like something really great is going to happen in my life after I quit teaching, and I’m so excited to figure out what it is.”

In Doctrine and Covenants 35:3-4, the Lord is telling Sidney Rigdon, who just effectively quit his former preaching job and trekked across a few states to completely turn his life around, that:

“I have… prepared thee for a greater work. Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things.”

What an unforgettable blessing!

Most of us are not being asked to quit our job or stop our schooling or move across the country on a moment’s notice right now.

But I do think the promise is still extended to us.

There is something greater in store for you.

Do you feel that excitement?

There is more that the Lord wants you to do in order to help gather Israel in a way that only you can.

It might look really small to the world, or it might leave a huge mark, but there is something greater that you can do.

I feel like there’s more in store for me, too, and it keeps me motivated every day.

I have been prepared for a greater work, and I have full faith that the Lord will help me discover and create it, with His tender guidance and my agency working together.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Something greater first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.