Serving as a missionary in the South Africa Cape Town Mission, I spoke to many men and women who spoke English as a second or third language. Xhosa was the major language of the majority of the people I encounter in the missionary field, and I could not speak the language well enough to discuss the gospel with the passion it creates in me.
When it came to speaking about the act of repentance, a wise missionary told me that the meaning of repentance is to change. Inguquko is the equivalent word in Xhosa, but I am glad that I focused on the word Change. God does not want us to change from being individuals, but from being full of, influenced by, and encumbered in sin from thoughts, words, and action= CHANGE!

President Russel M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in the April 2019 General Conference, 

"The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means “change.” The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean “mind,” “knowledge,” “spirit,” and “breath.”
Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.
Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ." [We Can Do Better and Be Better By President Russell M. Nelson]

Repentance means more than apologizing for wrongs we commit or omit in our daily walk, but also change into a better version of ourselves. Little by little we leave the old self behind through small changes we make on a daily basis. Jesus Christ commands, "Be ye therefor Perfect..." Matthew 5:48. He did not say that perfection would come immediately. The tool to obtain perfection is repentance made possible by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Moroni Perspective
​In his farewell engraving on the Golden Plates that became the modern Book of Mormon, Moroni leaves his testimony and admonishment saying, "come unto Christ, and be perfected in him..." How are we to be perfected in him?
​Moroni continues with the answer, "deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ." Moroni 10:32 What has Moroni seen of you?

There comes a point in life where it seems that the most extraordinary things in it no longer hold that shine. You know... the shine that comes from the next big thing that could happen? You know that one? The possibility of a new adventure over the horizion? That one.

Life has lost its shine after so many years of hoping and failing and hoping and failing. It is not that that life is not something still full of hope. No. The shine is gone because all the failure has eaten away at the hope without having the hope replenished because time has a way of wearing people down into what most people call reality.

"If you haven't made it by now, you will not make it," comes the well meaning advice of some.

"You are too old to be going through this struggle," comes the chastisement of others.

"When are you going to wise up and grow up," questions the voice inside.

Depression and despair takes the lives of many people. No, not necessarily physically. Dreams die because people let "reality" kill them.

Not accomplishing a goal planned before a certain age can cause misery and stagnation in life if the failure is allowed to fester. 

Moroni Perspective
Elizabeth and Zacharias wanted to have a child, but made it to old age before the Lord blessed them with John. Zacharias received word from an angel of God that he and his wife would have a son who would prepare the way before the coming of the Messiah in their old age! As a sign to Zacharias who doubted because of their old age, he could not speak until John was born.

Zacharias and Elisabeth surely did what they needed to bring to pass this marvelous thing in their lives to have a child and did not sit around waiting for another visit from an angel to encourage them. They waited many years past the age where child bearing was thought possible with no luck in having a child. Then came John.

Do not give up on a righteous dream because too much time may have passed for it to come true. If it is God's will, and we have faith enough to hope, it can still become a reality. "I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

We must have the faith, Moroni instructs, to hope that God will see us through to meet our righteous goals. That means it may take time and resources that seem impossible right now. Let the trial or test of our faith in that good thing not diminish. Following that test, as with Zacharias and Elisabeth's faith, will come the reward. What has Moroni seen of you?

Catherine Bazin Oliver left me without warning Wednesday morning July 11, 2018, Mother left this life. The circumstances are troubling, but the separation is poignantly distracting still. I wrote an article after her death. In part, it reads:

​I did not know that death was possible until Mother died July 11, 2018, a Wednesday morning between 10 am and 10:30 am. I know, it sounds so foolish to read that. My Uncle Charles and cousin Charlton died when I was 12. My grandmother died when I was 13. My Cousin JL died when I was 14. My good friend Bebe died when I was 18. The list goes on of loved ones I have lost giving me proof that lives exist and then extinguish. Death has a way of giving a different experience each time it happens to us, to me.
Mother was like God. She has always existed. With her life, I knew the continuity of life even if all other people around me died. It sounds absurd to think about when so many people lose their mothers. It was not a rational belief. Mother is life until she was not. How could life continue when Mother is not actively in it--physically experiencing it somewhere? She does not have to be near me. Knowing that I could call her or see her was enough for me to hope for another tomorrow.
I spent most of my adult life trying to get away from her. I wanted so much to have a separation from her. Now, there is no physical way to contact her anymore. The separation is utterly guaranteed. My life is not taken for granted anymore. My wife can die! She is a mother also. Life is truly precious.
I no longer doubt that I can die. I know it is an inevitability and not just a possibility.

To read the complete Article: The Day Mother Died

I want to be sad here in the present, a yearl later. I cannot keep that feeling. She is in heaven. I miss here dearly. I miss her smile. I miss her touch. I miss her laugh and her singing. Truthfully, I missed those things before she died because she suffered from vascular dementia. God spared us from the gradual complete disappearance of all that made her, her. As she lived, I saw her mourn her personality leave a bit at a time. During her lucid times she recalled some of her demented behavior apologizing in sorrow. Her choices hurt so many because none of us knew she suffered from dementia for years. 

In God's grace, her final days were spent in full knowledge of her health concerns and all could be forgiven. The last conversation that we had was before we both retired for bed. She said goodnight and I said it to her. That was our mortal goodbye.

Moroni Perspective
Following a tremendous battle with a nation of his foes, Moroni recorded, "My father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not."

Mother told me on many occasion to take care of my family a do the right thing by them. It encouraged me during dark time to have her support, from which I never or will ever stray.

"Therefore," Moroni etched in gold ladened plates, "I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not. Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not." (Mormon 8:3-5)

In the midst of his grief, Moroni kept the faith of his father. He lost all! Like him, I could keep the faith and continue in the face of grief. Moroni saw me, and included his experiences with grief that I might also know that life can continue following the uproarious billowing emotional circumstances. What has Moroni seen of you?

​ne hundred and one students from several places received the invitation to participate in the Brownsville Middle School Magnet program. These 101 students bussed from local indigent parts of the city of Miami to receive a better-quality education, and I, Rodric, stood among them. Brownsville Middle School became a turning point in my Seventh-Grade life! After a thrilling trip to Disney World as a group of magnet kids for a field trip, I learned a message on the journey home that helped me to become a better person.
 
Early in the morning when the skies remained dark, appearing like night, all of us students waited for our rides home at a bus stop previously decided. My mother was to retrieve me from the designated place. As I sat on a bench minding my own business, the most horrid odor permeated the air and singed my nose hairs! Never in my young life had I smelled anything so pungent whiff through the air! To the right of me and sitting on the bench next to me, about two feet away rested a man. Filth shrouded this person. No, he wore filth as a second skin—his  clothing dark and dingy. Slinking away from the individual with great indignation, I found a perch beside a fellow student, a girl. 
I said to her, “I cain’t sit nowhere,” indicating the gentleman on the bench and the pungent odor that accompanied him. Ready to add an explanation of my annoyance, I thought she would confirm my indignant attitude; however, she regarded me with a multitude of repulsed emotions that quieted my tongue and shriveled me to a mouse. In her eyes, I saw a sermon preached.
 
As if telepathically, she responded with her gaze, “Why would you look down on that man when he has no home to wash himself or clean his body to remove his stench. Why try to recruit me to your cause of antipathy towards that man when you and I have means and a home to go to from here.”
 
Imagining the pity and disgust that she had in her eyes before she turned away from me to position herself in better company, I learned never to belittle a person for his circumstance. No, she said no words to me or even hinted that she thought those things; however, those sentiments reflected back into my soul from her eyes what I knew as truth. It was the first time the Spirit of God convicted me of my self-righteousness.

​Moroni Perspective
What I learned of myself that day, and hope to keep in remembrance, was that I never wanted to be as the ancient Nephites of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Alma, a righteous chief judge among them “saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted (Alma 4:12).
 
When God looked at my life, would He see more of the same, causing Him shame? Moroni recounts, “ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted” (Mormon 8:37). Though at the time I did not know I fulfilled part of Moroni’s words, I learned later.
 
“O then ye unbelieving,” counsels Moroni, “turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day” (Mormon 9:6). Change and believe that we are all worth love and respect is what Moroni taught me. What has Moroni seen of you?

As a young boy living in Miami, a few people touched my heart beyond words that looking back only God could have sent them to soften the hard knocks life brings. Mrs. Mary was one of the most important. She was not a family member or a friend of the family that I knew of, but she befriended the children in the neighborhood. With the appearance of any sweet old lady, her mousey voice and sugary sweet spirit brought out the best in all who knew her. Mrs. Mary's mouth turned up in smiles so frequently looking at her face opened a window to happiness.

I do not recall when she befriended me first, just going to her home on occasion and chatting. I told her about my problems as a young kid and she would soothe while providing milk and cookies. She lived around the corner from my Aunt Patricia n’em. I remember her house had an old nice person's look to it that invited you to feel at home--dollies everywhere and knick knacks. I never learned anything from her that I can remember that was significant or life changing. She was a nice woman and she always had time to listen no matter what. Her home was safe. I loved Mrs. Mary because she loved me just because I was there. She provided me with a true example of service and compassion.

Being that she was elderly living alone, her son went one day to her home to visit. I never saw Mrs. Mary again after that. Her son took her away because her health required constant care. I missed her.

Moroni Perspective
"For behold," Morni wrote of his father Mormons words, "God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing." Moroni 7:22

The angel that God sent to me as a young boy is Mrs. Mary. She ministered to me without cost as does Christ to all of us. People who show this type of love no matter what their faiths, are the essence of what Christ desires of all people, to love one another and take care of each other in whatever capacity in our ability. The coming of Christ starts in our ministry to each other. What has Moroni seen in you?
 

​Repentance is the power to grab happiness by the horns and achieve it through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. How? Jesus paid the price for all people to change our lives in a way that we can incrementally find our way to perfection daily as taught by President Russel M. Nelson with clarion invitation in the following:
"When Jesus asks you and me to “repent," President Nelson instructs at the April General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ, "He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit —even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies." 1​

Change, is the word of God to us in this day of so much turmoil in spirit. Repenting is not about being evil and changing to good only, but about being what we are and making small changes to be more of it daily. "Nothing is more liberating," President Nelson promises, "more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance." 1

Why is every day repentance "liberating", "ennobling" or "crucial?"
Moroni Perspective
Moroni, speaking of the ancient prophet Ether said this man "did cry from the morning," as does the modern prophet President Nelson, like a clarion, doing so "even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed." 2. President Nelson warns "The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord. He is arming his minions with potent weapons to keep us from partaking of the joy and love of the Lord." 1

Ether assures through the ministration of Moroni, "by faith all things are fulfilled--
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world,"  through the act of repentance, changing for the better in daily increments. He continues quoting Ether that through this repentance, we can hope for "even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men" 2

Moroni suggest through Ethers words that repentance, changing a little each day as President Nelson teaches in the way "we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies" will have the effect of helping us be "sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God," 2.

Daily repenting, changing for the better by improving ourselves is how God makes people perfect as His son commanded us to be. What has Moroni seen in you?

Notes:
We Can Do Better and Be Better 1
Ether 12:3-4 - 2

During His mortal ministry, Jesus Christ taught His disciples the importance the Holy Ghost would portray in their lives. Because He, the greatest of all Comforters, remained with them, His disciples could not yet enjoy all the manifestations of the Holy Ghost for some reason yet to be revealed. To instruct them in the full measure of His doctrine, Jesus told them that there were many more things that He wanted to reveal to them, but could not because they were not ready to endure them. According to John, Jesus said toward that truth when He leaves them, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever... But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:16, 26
Though Jesus could not reveal all things to them at that time because they were not ready, He affirmed that the Holy Ghost would teach them all all things and help them to remember everything that He taught them. That promise applies to us in modern times.

Moroni Perspective
Probably the last prophet with the apostolic mantle still in mortality at the time, Moroni affirms the teachings of the savior in his final testimony. Moroni, in testifying of his record to the world that became the Book of Mormon gave the key of the Spirit of God as the way to know the truth. He said nothing differently than did his Savior Jesus whom he saw as a resurrected being. Moroni's words are, "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." Moroni 10:5 What has Moroni seen of you?

People have said this for generations, almost 2000 years now, without it happening in the way that they have said. However, when President Russell M. Nelson says that we are running out of time, it feel like he is not offering fear tactics to get parishioners. 

“As President of His Church, I plead with you who have distanced yourselves from the Church and with you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s Church has been restored. Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out,” he said.
Moroni Perspective
​
"Be wise in the days of your probation," counsels Moroni to the world, each of us. "Strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it (your life, this probation) on your clusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God." Mormon 9:28

It seems to me that he and President Nelson wants to tell the world that life is not a guaranteed thing for everyone. Jesus could come back soon, but how many of us are going to die and meet Him before that Second Coming? Now it is the time to prepare to meet God. Who knows how soon will our meeting with Christ will occur? We will each hove one. As the Prophet says, "Time is running out." What has Moron seen of you?