First, the Provo City Center Temple was dedicated today. I had the opportunity of attending a temple open house and seeing the inside, and it is an absolutely beautiful building. And the story behind the creation of the building is a truly inspirational one. However, rather than talking about the Provo City Center Temple (which would make for a wonderful lesson) I'm not one for taking the easy route. I like to live dangerously. And when I say dangerously, I mean that I like to make things harder for myself for no other reason than I'm a little brain dead.

So instead of talking about a lesson that would practically write itself, I want to instead talk about Naaman the leper. As described in 2 Kings: 5 "
“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.” In the days of the Old Testament, leprosy was Associated with uncleanliness. Though Naaman was a noble man, his leprosy tarnished his name.

Naaman learns about a prophet of God in Samaria who could cure him from his leprosy from a captured handmaiden. So he journeyed to Samaria to hopefully rid himself of his disease. When he arrives at the hut of the prophet, named Elisha, the prophet sends out a messenger. The messenger instructs Naaman to go the Jordan and wash himself seven times. After which, his skin would be clean. Naaman, upset about Elisha sending a messenger instead of gracing him with his presence, says this to the messenger. "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."

Naaman went away, angry and bitter. However, a servant of his convinced him to heed the messenger's instructions. Humbling himself, Naaman bathed in the Jordan seven times. And upon coming out of the water on the seventh wash, Naaman found that his leprosy was gone.

What's the lesson here? Well, let's focus on what Elisha did. Instead of telling Naaman instructions, Elisha opted to have a messenger tell him. A subtle lesson is taught here, however, it is not the lesson I want to teach you today. I will still talk about it, though. The lesson is that the Lord spreads his message through humble servants and whisperings of the spirit. He does not go out and visit everybody who asks God of things like this. Instead, he would rather that those people learn for themselves about the Lord's way of conveying a message.

But the lesson I want to teach is to always follow the guidance of the prophets. Though sometimes their instructions seem a little inane, we should not question them. Their wisdom comes straight from God, whose knowledge surpasses the wisdom of man by an unfathomable length. Thomas S. Monson was called of God to lead our church for a reason. It wasn't because somebody pointed randomly into a crowd of members and appointed the one who he was pointing at. They were chosen by God.

-Joe