On Testifying (D&C 62:2-3)

(2-3) You haven’t done everything I expect of you yet, but the way you’ve testified of me, in actions and in words, resounds in the heavens and brings joy to those who came before you and those who will come after. Continue to work, renewed, knowing that you are blessed, and your sins are forgiven.

3 And verily mine eyes are upon those who have not as yet gone up unto the land ofZion; wherefore your mission is not yet full.

4 Nevertheless, ye are blessed for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon, and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgive you.

For When You Don't Know What to Do (D&C 58:26-29)

(26) Look, I’m not always going to tell you what to do, and wanting me to is lazy. I want you to become like me, and you can only do that by making decisions.

(27) So go choose something good to throw yourself into. Wear out your life in pursuit of it. Try lots of different things, make mistakes, and do good where ever you go, whoever you meet, whatever you try.

(28) You are an eternal being, carved out of intelligence, given agency and a body so that you can effect the world around you. I fought the war in heaven so that you would be able to exercise that agency. Don’t neglect the gift. Don’t shy away from it by being a perfectionist. Go, learn, become more.

(29) You think that the only way to get into trouble is by doing bad things—but you dishonor me equally by failing to try, by waiting for my go ahead before you do anything. Trying is a kind of faith. It’s a way of receiving me in the best parts of yourself.

26 For behold, iti s not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

Wait, What Are Translations? A Brief Explanation, Because Apparently Not Everyone Is Obsessed With Adam Miller

Adam Miller, the patron saint of this blog, wrote in my favorite of his books, Letters to a Young Mormon, “You and I must translate these books again. Word by word, line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, God wants the whole thing translated once more, and this time he wants it translated into your native tongue, inflected by your native concerns, and written in your native flesh.”

Translating has become one of my favorite ways of studying the scriptures. I take the words in the scriptures and write them the way that I would if God had given them to me, now, instead of a prophet hundreds of years ago. This means I have to wrestle with them, to study and decide what I think meekness means, or what is charity if I don’t let myself hide behind the word itself?

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On Illness (D&C 42:43-52)

(43) If you’re sick and you don’t have the faith to be healed, (48) or I have appointed this time in your life to illness or death, so you can’t be healed, then it’s the job of everyone around you to dedicate resources and time to taking care of you with tenderness and without judgement. (44) When you’re sick, call for people with the priesthood to lay their hands on your head and invoke my name on your behalf, and whatever happens after that happens according to my will. If you die, then your death is an act of consecration; if you live, then your life must be an act of consecration too.

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On Taking Care of the Poor (D&C 42:30-33)

(30) Literally, one of the things I talked most about during my mortal ministry was poverty—people who are suffering from it are always your kuleana. I’m not going to tell you how to take care of them, but I am going to tell you that to truly be my disciples, you must support them and give up those things you think that you’ve earned (which, to be clear, I’ve actually given you) to take care of them. This is a covenant between you and me, and I do not release you from that covenants nor will I ever.

(31-32) When you give to people who have less than you, you are giving to me. You’ll give it to my representatives, and they’ll consult with me and give it out to the people who need it. You are not an owner of anything, you are a steward, and I give you charge over the people around you. Keep what you need to take care of your family, and then be generous.

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D&C 10

(1) You gave away the holiness you obtained in your stewardship, so I took away your stewardship and the gifts by which you executed it, (2) and you had to remember what it was to not feel me with you, to fear that you were no longer a part of my work.

(3) But look: I’ve given your stewardship back to you, so be faithful. (4) Persevere, but don’t try to do more than you can. Allow yourself to be what and where you are—I don’t need speed, I need steadiness.

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D&C 4

(1) It’s coming. It’s almost here! The final days are upon us, and God will again pour out revelations, will bestow the priesthood upon us, one last time (2) Come and be part of it! Throw all of yourself in it, so that when you die and go before our makers, you can tell them that you did everything you could.

(3) If you want to be chosen, then you are. If you want to be a part of this work, then you are called to it. (4) The time has come to work miracles, to preach the Lord’s word, to bind up the broken hearted and heal the suffering, to build temples and make covenants.

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D&C 3:1-10

You and I must translate these books again. Word by word, line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, God wants the whole thing translated once more, and this time he wants it translated into your native tongue, inflected by your native concerns, and written in your native flesh.

—Adam Miller, Letters to a Young Mormon

It’s a different thing to translate the Doctrine and Covenants. The other books of scripture were written in languages I don’t speak or read (Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, some pidgin developed in the Americas) and they were written thousands of years ago by people who have long since met their maker.

The D&C was written in English. The words I read on a page didn’t cross through hundreds of years of abridgers and translators. They didn’t have men of God, scholars, generals, and kings making decisions about which meaning of each word to prioritize; I read them as they were scrawled by a prophet of God not quite two hundred years ago in my own language.

What, then, is the purpose of Miller-ish translating when the scriptures are already in my “native tongue"? Honestly, it’s much more for me than for you. When I translate the scriptures, I have to think more deeply about what they mean. I chase down rabbit holes after the etymology of “grace,” the evolution of roads as a scriptural metaphor. I comb through wikipedia pages, old dictionaries, theological articles to trying to figure out what these words could mean to me, today, one hundred and ninety years after they were first written.

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