This missionary experience recently occurred to three Elders serving in my city. I learned of this experience through my bishop and it has been posted on our mission’s blog. The original was a letter from one missionary to President Albright. I have copied it as I received it. The bolding is mine for emphasis.

Dear President Albright,

Elder Davie, Elder Harper, and I were at church on Sunday two weeks ago. As we prepared to walk into the Mt. Vernon Ward sacrament meeting, a recent convert named Patrick Onoche, a Ghanaian, approached us with another man, also from Ghana. Patrick introduced us to the man as his uncle. As we discussed the gospel with this visitor, we discovered that he is actually a Prince from Ghana’s Ashanti Tribe. His name is Oheneba [Prince] Osa Kyme. Here are the interesting facts about this prince: The Ashanti Tribe, with over 3 million members, is the largest and most powerful tribe in Ghana. He and his family are the actual caretakers for the numerous idols and shrines owned by the King of the Ashanti. He was born into royalty and it has been his life-long duty to protect the King’s shrines and idols. He is now about 75 years old. He showed us photos of the idols and the King with his family. His passport also confirmed that he was a tribal leader.

Last month he was asked by the King of the Ashanti to come to America to purchase a new idol from the gold dealers and craftsmen in New York City. As he arrived at the meeting in New York to acquire the new items, he heard a voice tell him that “you will not find salvation by worshipping [sic] these idols.”

As he pondered on the words that had come into his mind, he remembered the warm and sacred feelings he had experienced when he had driven past the LDS Temple in Accra, Ghana. He recalled feeling that our Temple was a sacred and a holy place. He then remembered that his nephew Patrick Onoche had joined the LDS Church in Virginia last year (baptized by Elder Doman) so rather than continuing on with his meetings with the gold dealers, he felt a strong desire to fly to Virginia where he met with Patrick. Patrick immediately taught his uncle about the restoration of the gospel and brought him to attend Sacrament meeting the next day where we met him. After he came to church and learned more about the gospel he told us that he wanted to be baptized and that he would not return to Ghana until he was a member of the true Church.

We met with him every day last week to make sure he fully understood the covenants he will be making with God before he returns to his homeland. After he attended church for two weeks we held a special baptism for him on Jan. 9, 2011, just three days before he flew home to Ghana. He delayed his flight for several days to accommodate the instructions you provided that he attend church for at least two weeks before his baptism. Oheneba intends on resigning from his royal position as caretaker of the King’s idols upon returning home, so he can spread the Gospel among his people. We tried to persuade him that maybe he should just care for the idols as a custodian but not worship them. However, he was adamant that he wants to spread the gospel and give up his leadership position with the Ashanti Tribe. He said he was willing to give up all his possessions to become a member of Christ’s true church because he is more worried about his family’s salvation than property.

President, it has truly been a blessing to meet Oheneba and teach him the gospel with the help of Elder Davie and Elder Harper. Thank you for coming to help teach him and baptize him. We have already heard from Oheneba that the elders in Ghana have made contact with him.

Ofa atu,

Elder Ta’ufo’ou

What a remarkable story. It reminds me of King Lamoni’s father from the Book of Mormon – who was willing to give up his entire (and probably lengthy) previous life just for the truthfulness of the Gospel when he heard it preached from Aaron:

Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy (See Alma Chapter 22).

Ladies and gentlemen, the fullness of Christ’s gospel, including the priesthood power, temple blessings, and all the rites and ordinances necessary for salvation, has been restored to the earth in these latter-days. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church on the face of the earth that embodies the fullness of these blessings. That I know for certain. It is very heartwarming to see the message of the Restoration spread throughout the entire world – even among the nobles in foreign countries.

If you or someone you know has questions regarding the LDS church, feel free to ask representatives who will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

In the book of Mormon sometime between the years of A.D. 401-421 Moroni, the son of Mormon (for whom the entire volume of sacred writ was named), wrote:

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. Mormon 9:32

One of the extremely popular criticisms relating to this verse is that “there is no evidence in Egyptology of something called ‘Reformed Egyptian,’ and that the Book of Mormon’s claim to have been written in this language is therefore suspect.”

When I was a freshman in college I took a linguistics class and got interested in dead languages, an interest that has always culminated around Egyptology. Though I have not ever given serious focus on this fascination of mine, I do enjoy nuggets of historical information relating to Egyptian script and how it relates to the Book of Mormon. I will discuss just one of the many examples of “reformed Egyptian” that scholars may not refer to as being “reformed,” yet it is as reformed as reformed gets.

WHAT IS REFORMED EGYPTIAN?

In the preceding verse Moroni is clear as day when he says “the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian”. Of course, Moroni did not write or speak in English so the actual term that was translated by Joseph Smith into the English phrase ‘reformed Egyptian,’ whatever it was called, was only known to the Nephites. I don’t understand this argument because obviously the Egyptians never called some version of their writing ‘reformed Egyptian.” (In fact, the Egyptians called it sš n š?.t).

Side note: I presume the Lamanites didn’t use the term as it was most likely a priestly (religious) script and not used in every day writings. Verse 33 actually eludes to the idea that every day writing among the people was done in a form of, shall I be bold as to call it, “reformed Hebrew:”

And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also… Mormon 9:33

Over the years secular egyptologists and linguists have discovered that Egyptian hieroglyphic writing underwent three different changes since its creation somewhere near 3000-4000 BC. The word hieroglyphic is a Greek word (hieroglyphikos) meaning ‘sacred writing or carving.’ The first of these transformations among the Egyptian priests occurred during the Protodynastic Period of Egypt (ca. 3200 BC to 3000 BC). Hieratic derives from the Greek phrase grammata hieratika, which literally means “priestly writing.” This first example of reformed Egyptian was developed so the scribes were able to take notes or write laws, decrees, or religious texts with a reed brush on papyrus, and allowed them to write quicker than the time it took them to engrave glyphs.

After centuries of using hieratic to write their religious texts, the Egyptians developed the demotic script, which was coined by the Greek historian Herodutus demotikós, a Greek word meaning popular. This popular script was called by the Egyptians sš n š?.t (“document writing”) and was a highly cursive script, used for everyday writing, not strictly for religious practices or just by the priests or the ruling class. It is presumed that eventually many of the common Egyptians used this form of writing. This is the script that is found in the middle section of the famous Rosetta Stone (pictured at right), which resides in the British Museum. Demotic emerged on the scene roughly around the later part of the 25th Dynasty (760 BC to 656 BC). This is extremely important because, according to the Book of Mormon, Nephi begins his summary on the plates with “I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.” Further on he states that his father, Lehi, began prophesying “in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah” (ca. 597 BC), meanwhile demotic was already in use by the Egyptians 60 years prior to Lehi’s prophetic call.

With the arrival of the Greeks in the 1st century, Egyptian writing underwent it’s final “reformation,” into what scholars call Coptic. However, for our time frame with the Book of Mormon I’m going to focus on demotic.

It’s been shown the demotic, a cursive and highly popular form of “reformed Egyptian” was in use by as early as the 8th century BC, and Nephi tells us himself in the very first chapter of the Book of Mormon that he was writing in the language of the Egyptians. So then, if demotic existed circa 600 BC, and if Moroni claimed that the Book of Mormon was written in (what the Nephites termed ‘reformed Egyptian’ – using a Nephite word for it, of course), there must be some evidence of correlation between the characters that were engraved onto the gold plates (from which the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God through Joseph Smith) and published demotic script in the secular world, right?

Wouldn’t you know it, there are!

THE ANTHON TRANSCRIPT CHARACTERS

The Anthon Transcript was a sheet of paper upon which Joseph Smith copied a few of the “reformed Egyptian” characters from the plates of the Book of Mormon. In the winter of 1828, Martin Harris showed these characters to Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia College (now Columbia University), and hence the name (Encyclopedia of Mormonism).

Fast forward to the 20th century…

Between 1897 and 1970 the official magazine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was entitled “The Improvement Era.” In 1942 Ariel L. Crowley (1905-2005) was a contributor to The Era and wrote an excellent three-piece series comparing characters from the Anthon transcript to well-documented Egyptian demotic characters in other publications. I have listed direct links to the PDFs below. Part II is where the fun stuff is!

• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: The Identification of the Characters as Egyptian
• Part III: The Corroborative Evidences of the Serabit Inscriptions, the Plates of Darius, and the Inscriptions of Byblos

Beginning on page 4 of Part II Crowley lists characters from the Anthon transcript in the left column and an extremely similar, if not identical, Egyptian demotic character in the right column, complete with source. The two main sources that Crowley cites and wherein he located demotic characters that matched up with characters found on the gold plates are:

• Wilhelm Spiegelberg’s Demotische Grammatik (1925)
• Heinrich Karl Brugsch’s Hieroglyphisch-Demotisches (1868)

I listed the printing of both books for those critics who love to claim that somehow an uneducated farm boy with no more than a third grade education must have done a ton of research to come up with the story of the Book of Mormon. Notice that both of these German (Joseph didn’t speak or read German) titles were printed after Joseph Smith died in 1844.

Update (1/6/2011): I have actually been to the Library of Congress and searched through the book by Spiegelberg and have seen with my own eyes the demotic characters in that book that correlate to the characters on the Anthon Transcript.

I don’t know how much more similar the proof of the evidence of “reformed Egyptian” characters individuals need, but I do know that if it was part of the LDS gospel that 2+2=4, there would always be those who tried to say that is a lie and any who believed that, despite evidence to the contrary, were doomed to hell.

For centuries critics have come up with all kinds of calumny and aspersion against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Book of Mormon, and the prophet Joseph Smith. All kinds of falsehoods, lies, and deceptions have been perpetrated with regards to the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel, but if one will sincerely show an interest in learning more and do so with an open heart, without preconceived notions, sincerely desiring to know if it is true or not, as Moroni says in his epilogue, God “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10:4-5)”

I know that the Book of Mormon is sacred writ, painstakingly engraved upon gold plates by ancient prophets on the American continent for us in these the latter-days, and that is was translated by a poor, uneducated New York farm boy only by the gift and power of God. I have discovered far too many evidences of its truthfulness to discount (and all but ignored by LDS critics), but none greater than the personal revelation I have received from the Holy Ghost that it is a second testament of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calamy may defame. But the Truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country and sounded in every ear. Till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say, “The work is done.”

As we learn in the book of Ether, Mahonri Moriancumer, more commonly known as ‘the brother of Jared, was instructed to seal up the record along with two stones to be used as interpreters in the future. As Brother Ash writes, “These interpreters eventually ended up in the hands of Mosiah the younger, who used them to translate the Jaredite record — the Book of Ether.”

The article goes on to discuss how towards the end of translating the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer asked Joseph Smith to ask the Lord if they could be the three witnesses that the Book of Mormon mentions. As is recorded in D&C 17:1, the Lord replied:

Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.

Brother Ash mentions how the terms Urim and Thummim do not appear in the Book of Mormon at all, and proceeds to describe the processes and procedures that Joseph Smith underwent in translating the Book of Mormon.

Each article in the series builds off the previous and leads the reader to ponder on what the upcoming post will entail. Today’s article concluded by asking, if the Three Witnesses were promised that they would see all the items mentioned in D&C 17:1, what did they end up seeing besides the Gold Plates?

Read the full article here.

When I got home I got a chance to check it out, because the premise was, well, simple. At the time of writing this it looks like there is only a couple of videos available, but I’m excited for the release of “The Plan Of Salvation”.

Right now you can watch “Attending A Mormon Church Service” and “The Book Of Mormon”. Both are very easy to understand and actually explain quite a bit. They’re only about 3 minutes or so in length so watching them is quick.

I think Doug has a cool idea going on here, and I hope it grows.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Doug!

Here’s the two videos

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOeGls64tpY

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DET5RdkpHSE

The Opposite of Pride

Today’s Topic – Pride.

Out of the numerous verses listed, I was drawn to the following verse. I think it speaks volumes of our current situations in the world. The surrounding verses enumerate a lot of cause and effects, and “wo unto’s”.

2 Ne. 9: 28 –   “O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.”

The “cunning plan”

Sometimes you have to think how easy it is for satan. I mean, he has the advantage. Not only does he know man’s weaknesses, but he knows us individually and our individual weaknesses. A whisper in the ear, a fleeting thought – how fast can one slip? I know for me it can happen in an instance. While I have been counseled in my own blessing to frequent the Temple for this very reason – it’s partly due to this reason I tend to not go as often as I should.

Quick note: I was looking for an image to add to this post, so I went to google and typed in “Pride”, it would seem now that the word pride is now synonmous with homosexuality – how ironic.

Vainness, frailities, foolishness

Why don’t people believe in God? I think you could actually answer that question with each of these words. Vanity or self-idolatry would put one’s self in the place of God – not needing anything else but yourself. Frail or weak, can lead to lead to resentments, covetous – even vanity (think of those who were shamed into going to great and spacious building). Foolishness, I think we could all agree we’ve made a foolish mistake or two – and really what is the motive behind that, could it be…..pride?

They are wise, but will perish

Of course they think they are, if you are proud and vain – you are the smartest man around. You know it all – you have all the answers. So let’s look at today’s world, what are some things that might change if people we’re so prideful?

I don’t want to act as if I’m not guilty of my own pride (whoa, wait – does that mean since I admit to it, I might not have such a problem? lol). I have my own issues with pride that I am striving to overcome. I’m fairly certain everyone does – otherwise, why would it be one of the deadliest of the 7 sins? But really I think a big key to breaking it down – the topic that ModernMolly spoke about – Humility.

So here’s the challenge – try to humble yourself. Even if it’s one little thing, saying thank you to the Lord for helping you pass a test, write a bit of challenging code, making the team, earning enough money to pay for your shoes – anything, then build on it – keep it up. With God, all things are possible – but remember to thank him for making it so!