--- title: How the Book of Mormon Increases Christ’s Presence in our Lives date: 2025-11-10T09:17:00-07:00 author: Matt Bloomfield canonical_url: "https://www.mlj.one/church/talks/how-the-book-of-mormon-increases-christs-presence-in-our-lives" section: Blog --- [ ← Church Talks ](https://www.mlj.one/church/talks) Talk November 10, 2025 # How the Book of Mormon Increases Christ’s Presence in our Lives I gave this talk on January 21st, 2024 in the Snowflake 7th Ward Sacrament Meeting at the Pioneer Park Chapel in Snowflake, Arizona, per an assignment from President Todd Burk. --- ### **Presence and Time** There are so many people, technologies, entities vying for our time. Our kids need our time. Our calling needs our time. Our spouses need our time. Social media, sports, hobbies, streaming services, etc. all fight for portions of our time. With so much pulling for our attention, we must be thoughtful about the time we spend. After all, time is a constrained resource. Though we think we can, we are not made to multi-task. Every minute spent doing one thing is a minute not spent doing any others. As we reflect on our experiences through the last week - how does it break down? How much time was spent at work, with family, doing our callings, studying the gospel, in trivial pursuits, online, wasted? In a recent interview with David A Bednar he shared an experience with Robert D Hales. It was toward the end of his life, and Elder Bednar asked him: - “What do you learn, when you’ve been so capable in everything, and now you’re so limited in almost everything. I’ll never forget the answer he gave me. He said, ‘David, when you can’t do what you’ve always done then you only do what matters what most. And you don’t have to be in your eighties to learn that.’ See there’s a lot of folks … who if they would really think about that … they are consumed in some things that really don’t matter. And they haven’t looked up long enough to *realize* they don’t matter.” In his famous talk, “Good, Better, Best” Elder Dallin H Oaks explains a similar concept, “The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.” My message today is that, even with so many demands on our time, we need to remember to read the Book of Mormon; and that by reading the Book of Mormon, we will increase Christ’s presence in our lives. ### **The Book of Mormon and Christ** So why the Book of Mormon? How does it help us come closer to Christ? **It teaches us who Christ is** “The Book of Mormon provides the fullest and most authoritative understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be found anywhere. It teaches what it really means to be born again.” - [Russell M Nelson](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/10/the-book-of-mormon-what-would-your-life-be-like-without-it?lang=eng) **It helps us to point our lives toward Christ** - 2 Nephi 25:26 - And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. **It teaches us the doctrine of Christ** - Is there anything more clear? - 2 Nephi 31:13 - If ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel. **It shows us the effects of living a Christ-centered life, or not!** - Alma 41:10 - Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. - Nephites vs Lamanites - Pride Cycle ### **Doers, not just Hearers** There is a difference between knowing/loving the Book of Mormon and *reading* the Book of Mormon. - James 1:22-24: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. - Podcasts vs reading - “Whenever I hear anyone, including myself, say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” I want to exclaim, “That’s nice, but it is not enough!” We need to feel, deep in “the inmost part” of our hearts, that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live even one day without it. I might paraphrase President Brigham Young in saying, “I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people” to the truth and power of the Book of Mormon.” - [Russell M Nelson](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/10/the-book-of-mormon-what-would-your-life-be-like-without-it?lang=eng) ### **God’s love and the Book of Mormon** - Is God’s love based on our commitment to reading our scriptures? Saying our prayers? - “He loves me, nevertheless.” We don’t need to feel guilt, we need to move forward and do it. - “Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,” create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time.” - [Elder Eyring](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2012/10/where-is-the-pavilion?lang=eng) ### **Repentance and Shame (optional)** I think we do ourselves a disservice when we allow ourselves to enter into the muddy waters of guilt and shame for too long. Of course those feelings are natural consequences of sin, but that does not mean we are meant to wallow in them for days, months, or years. Just as there is no magic number of sins we are allowed, there is no minimum time frame for going to the Lord and repenting. At times, as instructed by a priesthood leader, there may be timeframes set in the process of forgiveness, but there is never a restriction to jumping to our knees the moment we realize our error and humbly begging the Lord for forgiveness. President Nelson has repeatedly called for daily repentance. So should it surprise us when we are sinning and making mistakes on a daily basis? Of course not! As Elder Neil L Andersen taught, “Repentance is not the backup plan; it is the plan.” And so is becoming clean. Each week as we partake of the sacrament we renew our covenant with the Lord while he restores our cleanliness as if we were just walking out of the waters of baptism. At times, our sins require us to obtain priesthood authority to help us through the process of forgiveness. Bishops stand eager to help in those cases and want nothing but your success and peace. Remember this plan of salvation is often called a merciful plan or plan of happiness. “Men are that they might have joy!” As we feel the joy of repentance and the burden of sin being lifted from our souls our love for Christ can be strengthened. If we choose to follow him we will continue to feel that joy and return to live with God again. ### **Experiences with Christ** **My personal conversion story:** - I read the promise that if I “would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if \[the things I had read were\] true; and if \[I would\] ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he \[would\] manifest the truth of it unto \[me\], by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moro. 10:4). **Reading with Jenni** - The unification between us and increased testimony ### **Testimony** I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and another testament of the veracity Jesus Christ. I know that Christ is our Savior and that through his atonement we can all be healed, changed, and forgiven. I know that it is through Jesus Christ and his redemptive powers that we will come unto the Father. I want to invite everyone, myself included, to renew our commitment to daily reading the Book of Mormon. As President Nelson has promised, “The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.” I leave my promise with his, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.