Tuesday, April 1, 1969

Last week Elder Stewart and I had several marvelous discussions about the gospel. One interesting thought found its way into words: There are three levels involved in living the gospel. Level one merely involves performing the duties and striving to fulfill the commandments. Unfortunately, many members of the Church are yet plodding along in this Mosaic level, many of whom are dedicated and good people but for some reason are missing the vision of the gospel. Level two consists of those who are living or trying their best to live by the Spirit, walking in the paths of righteousness as the Lord directs. Level three deals with those who have progressed to the point of having their calling and election made sure, their exaltation sealed upon them, the Second Comforter having visited them, and walking in a perfectness of life. There are men on the earth today in level three.

Tonight while tracting, we spoke with a man who had already read the Book of Mormon. He said it reminded him of a James Bond movie. The Mormon Church, he said, has no philosophical or theological foundation and about the only original thing we had come up with was polygamy. He said we could not say Joseph Smith was a prophet or that Jesus Christ had visited him because even our own scriptures, referring I suppose only to the Book of Mormon, do not speak of such things.

Another lady we spoke with became almost violent. She said she had attended the Church in Brasília and told of a big statue without a head next to a lopsided cross with ten idols on the other side. I merely told her it must be another church because we did not use crosses or statuary in our chapels. She asked if I had been in Brasília and, when I replied no, she told me to go before I tried to tell her what she had or had not seen. She was of an antagonist nature throughout the entire interview.