Lessons on Missionary Service
Description of the Covers for Lessons on Missionary Service
The Book of Mormon will sweep the earth and gather the elect – This is the reason the Book of Mormon is featured on the front cover of this book with a map of the world as a background.
President Ezra Taft Benson explained it this way: “The Book of Mormon is the instrument that God designed to “sweep the earth as with a flood to gather out [His] elect (Moses 7:62).” President Benson also said: “Combined with the Spirit of the Lord the Book of Mormon is the greatest single tool which God has given us to convert the world.”
The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote what is called the Standard of Truth: “Our missionaries are going forth in different nations. 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, calumny may defame; but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, 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.” The “truth of God” certainly includes the Book of Mormon.
The Minute Man Monument located in Concord Massachusetts depicts a young man with musket in hand as he leaves his plow in defense of freedom. The minute man’s “shot heard round the world” was prologue to the restoration of the gospel. Now missionaries using the Book of Mormon, rather than a musket, “fire the shot heard round the world” (Lessons on Freedom and Patriotism from the Book of Mormon, Lesson 27 Missionaries, Minute Men, and “the Shot Heard Round the World”). Millions of people around the world hear that shot.
Kentucky Louisville Mission Medallion on the back cover – One side of the medallion depicts angel Moroni sounding a trumpet. Because Moroni was instrumental in the restoration of the gospel he is often identified as the angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6, “having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” The states of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, and West Virginia, where our missionaries proselyted, are depicted in the background.
The image of angel Moroni sounding a trumpet is also a symbol of our Church. Around the perimeter of the medallion are the words: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”.
The other side of the medallion is symbolic of Lehi’s vision. Lehi saw a rod of iron which extended along a path which led to a tree. He saw that the only way people could get to the tree was to hold fast to the iron rod. (See 1 Nephi 8:19-33) We learn that the tree was a representation of the “Son of God” (1 Nephi 10:7), and the fruit of the tree represents eternal life which “is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (1 Nephi 15:36). The iron rod represents “the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction” (1 Nephi 15:24). This definition of the iron rod being the word of God includes the Book of Mormon.
I borrowed this symbolism of the Iron Rod from a medallion President Marion D. Hanks quietly gave a few of his missionaries he wanted to personally recognize. We gave the Kentucky Louisville Mission Medallion to all of our missionaries with the hopes that it would remind them of the importance of their mission even after they returned home.