| And it came to pass when Jesus had said these words, he spake unto his
disciples, one by one, saying unto them: What is it that ye desire of me,
after that I am gone to the Father?
And they all spake, save it were three, saying: We desire that after we
have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast
called us, may have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in
thy kingdom.
And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me;
therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto
me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest.
And when he had spoken unto them, he turned himself unto the three, and
said unto them: What will ye that I should do unto you, when I am gone
unto the Father?
And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they durst not speak unto him the
thing which they desired.
And he said unto them: Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired
the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that
I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me.
Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; but ye
shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men,
even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the
Father, when I shall come in my glory with the powers of heaven.
And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my
glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to
immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father.
And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither
sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because
of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye
might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand.
And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down
in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the
Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and
I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one;
And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father
giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men, because of me.
And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched
every one of them with his finger save it were the three who were to tarry,
and then he departed.
And behold, the heavens were opened, and they were caught up in to
heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things.
And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given
unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard;
And whether they were in the body or out of the body, they could not tell;
for it did seem unto them like a transfiguration of them, that they were
changed from this body of flesh into an immortal state, that they could behold
the things of God. (3 Nephi 28:1-15)
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| This is third hand, but here goes.
My friend's dad knew a man who was a Book of Mormon scholar. All
his spare time was spent studying the book of Mormon, and trying
to learn all that he could about it.
This man had a cabin in the woods where he would retreat to be
alone. He was returning from his cabin one evening, pondering
over several questions he had encountered in the Book of Mormon
(these questions had been posed to General Authorities of the Church
even without answers). As he sat pondering these questions, he
saw a hitch-hicker, and picked him up.
The conversation steered towards these questions the man had on
the Book of Mormon, and to his surprise, the hitch-hicker began to
answer all of them, and ellaborated on several other concepts in
the Book of Mormon that had been on this man's mind lately. Needless
to say the man was astounded, and taken aback.
The hitch-hicker asked to be let off so the man, still in a daze,
dropped off the hitch-hicker. In a couple of minutes the man realized
that he had let this hitch-hicker off in the middle of no where,
miles from civilization. He went back to find the hitch-hicker,
but could not.
The man says that on reflection after this experience, he believes
that it was one of the three Nephites sent to answer honest sincere
questions that no one else on earth could answer.
Jim
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| I have a 3 Nephite Story.
I learned it from a friend of mine who was doing a Masters Degree at
BYU in English and her thesis was to collect and document these
stories.
It seems that a missionary in England (I believe or at least a foreign
European country) was without money or food. For some reason his
monthly check had not arrived and was in need of food. Strangely, a man
knocked on his door and presented him with a fresh baked loaf of bread
wrapped in a kitchen towel. The missionary thanked him for the bread
and the man left.
Upon returning home, the missionary was empyting his suitcases and
placed the towel on his bed. His mother came in saw the towel and
and asked where he had got it. The missionary explained the bread
story. The mother then said that she had been baking bread and had
placed them on a window sill to cool, but had placed a kitchen towel
over them to keep insects off. When she returned to pick them up, one
loaf and the towel were gone. She knew someone had taken it. The
towel had distinctive markings, so it was unlikely that it was a
duplicate.
Unfortunately, I have lost contact with this friend and how her thesis
turned out.
Paul
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