March 19, 2025, 6:55pm MDT
Turning to examples of teachings from the young Prophet Joseph Smith and President Russell M. Nelson, Elder Hans T. Boom told a student at Brigham Young University Hawaii on Tuesday, March 18th.
“There is no difference in our world. How do we navigate all of these differences of opinion,” the ruling authorities Seventy explained that the Prophet was experiencing in Joseph Smith, referring to “the war of words and the turmoil of opinions” – History 1:10.
Those who seek all truth, like Joseph Smith, taught by Elder Boom, can look to the Lord to the same promises he made in James 1:5.
Elder Boom was joined by his wife, Sister Mahjong Boom, to teach his students how to find spiritual nutrition.
“Don’t tie your tongue.”
After allowing the promise of James 1:5 to sink into him, Joseph Smith decided to ask God, Elder Boom said. However, when he began his attempts to pray loudly in a place within the forest of his earlier chosen time, the young Joseph was “confiscated by some forces who wanted to tie his tongue.”
“Don’t tie your tongue to the fear that your Heavenly Father doesn’t want to listen to you or that you’re not enough,” urged the listeners. “And don’t be bound by hearing the voices of those around you and saying that religion is no longer popular and everything will ultimately be saved, so it’s not a problem to commit a bit of sin.”
Citing President Nelson’s teachings in April 2011, Elder Boom said, “Being a faithful Latter-day Saint would be rarely popular.”
He said those who follow mostly enthusiastically will be tested and persecuted. “That very persecution can either crush you into quiet weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and courageous in your everyday life.”
Elder Boom combined these teachings with words after President Nelson in April 2018. It prophesied as follows:
Elder Boom said, “We believe that the day has come when we cannot identify whether or not we are true if we are not influenced by the Holy Spirit.”
Elder Boom then cited President Nelson’s pleas and promises, invited listeners to hear the guidance of the Holy Spirit through “purity, accurate submission, serious quest, daily feasts on Christ’s words in the Book of Mormon, and daily feastings every day in his regular hours committed to the work of temple and family history.”
Listen to him
Returning to Joseph Smith’s account, Elder Boom said he had heard that the invitation that Joseph Smith received from his Heavenly Father had been repeated and extended to all people through “our beloved Prophet Nelson.”
Elder Boom meant “hear him,” saying, “hear what the Savior said, and then listen to his advice.” In these two words, “God gives us this pattern of success, happiness and joy in life.”
He then invited his students to live their lives in such a way that they could hear him, “expend plenty of time on things of eternal importance,” with all the busyness of life.
“Milk, bread, Brussels sprouts”
Before Elder Boom’s remarks, sister Mahjong Boom told the students that as a young girl, she once asked her mother how to get taller. In the words of the sister boom, her mother replied: “Drink your milk, eat your crust, eat your Brussels sprouts.”
Years later, the sister boom said that mothers’ advice works and that spiritual growth is “a bud of milk, bread, Brussels sprouts.”
The sister boom compared milk drinking with the nourishing conversations that an individual can have with God. She said: “No one knows you, or will care more about you than God does. … You can pour your heart into him and trust him.”
Just like eating bread crust, the sister boom said that this act could represent every day of savoring the words of Christ in the Bible. “As we learn, reflect and apply what we learn from the Bible, we not only grow in knowledge, but we approach the Savior.”
Finally, the sister boom compared her dislike for Brussels sprouts with her understanding that challenges often precede growth.
She said: “We sometimes want to hide Brussels sprouts under our napkins, but our Heavenly Father knows the best way for us to grow, and we can trust him to always be our biggest concern.”
