No More Strangers

In the past week I moved across this entire great land of ours. I drove myself and all of my possessions from Sacramento, California to Boston, Massachusetts--that’s about three thousand miles--so that I could start graduate school at Emerson College this week. The distance didn’t really bother me. Driving long distance never has. Sometimes I think that my true calling is to be a truck driver; I can drive forever. But then I woke up in South Bend, Indiana with a sore throat. I had already planned out my trip so that this would be the last leg of my journey, and I wasn’t going to let a little sore throat change that. The day progressed just as any other on my trip, but I gradually felt the soreness in my throat invade my nose. Soon enough, I was sneezing uncontrollably and my nose felt like a faucet that was left just a tad open. The drive was miserable, but I finally made it to my new apartment.

My new roommates were ready to meet me when I arrived. We had communicated through emails and phone calls, but this was the first time we were meeting face to face. They introduced themselves, and extended their hands, which I told them I couldn’t shake because I didn’t want to infect them. (Despite all my efforts, I did end up infecting one of them, which I feel very bad about.) They showed me around the apartment and the neighborhood, and have been great about welcoming me into their apartment.

Today was my first time attending church out here in Boston. Many people assume that for a Christian, such as I am, any Christian denomination will do, that one is as good as the other. In fact, one of my new friends told me about how her new landlord mentioned that she and her roommates could go to any of the four churches that she could see from her apartment. They’re all Christian churches, so what’s the problem? I’ve heard the gospel compared to a mountain with many pathways up it, or a cloud with many ropes hanging down. The point of these comparisons is that any road, or rope, is as good as another and will bring you to the same destination. That’s not how Christ described it. He said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). Christ also prayed that His disciples “may be one,” as He and His father are one (John 17:11). All of the denominations, all of the pastors, all of the doctrines that characterize all of the different Christian denominations could hardly be described as “one.” Many times, you can go to a different church of the same denomination, and because of the interests, biases, and opinions of the pastor, feel like you’re in a completely different church.

That is not the case for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The teachers in my new ward use the exact same teaching manuals as the teachers I learned from in California and Utah. All church members, all over the world, go to the same three meetings, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, and Priesthood Meeting/Relief Society. Not only do all of the individuals in a single ward make up the body of Christ, as Paul talks about in his epistle to the Ephesians (see Eph. 4), but all of the wards in the world comprise that body. This is truly a worldwide church.

The only way such unity can be maintained is with a common foundation. That foundation was also described in the epistle to the Ephesians. Paul says that the household of God is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20). We all look to same source for direction, the president of the church, whom we sustain as a prophet, seer, and revelator. And the Lord has said, “though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:38). Knowing where to look for direction, which comes to us in our local wards through the organization of the priesthood is the unifying force for the church. And it was that kind of unity made me unafraid to move across the country, even though I knew absolutely no one out here. Even though I didn’t know what to expect with my new school and my new city, I knew what to expect with my new ward, because I knew not to expect a new church, but the same church I am familiar with. The same church that I know is true.

Paul wrote that the Saints in Ephesus were “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints” (Eph. 2:20). In my first week at my new ward, I didn’t once feel like a stranger or foreigner. I felt like a fellowcitizen. And like a new friend.