On November 6, Rex P. Nielson spoke at the Inspiring Teaching Workshop at Brigham Young University. Nielson is the director of the BYU Humanities Center and a professor of Spanish and Portuguese. His message, “‘They’re Just Rehearsing’: Reading Scripts & Finding Life,” focused on how individuals can faithfully respond to unanswered questions along their journey of faith.
Faithfully Finding Answers to Questions
To introduce his message, Nielson testified of key truths President Russell M. Nelson shared at the May 2022 Worldwide Devotional of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These key truths provide direction to those who have unanswered questions.
At the devotional, President Nelson said, “First and foremost, you are a child of God. Second, as a member of the Church, you are a child of the covenant. And third, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.” Later in the devotional, President Nelson said, “We live in the dispensation when ‘nothing shall be withheld.’ Thus, in time, the Lord will answer all our questions. In the meantime, immerse yourself in the rich reservoir of revelation we have at our fingertips. I promise that doing so will strengthen your testimony, even if some of your questions are not yet answered. Your sincere questions, asked in faith, will always lead to greater faith and more knowledge.”
In the midst of unanswered questions, Nielson offered three suggestions:
- “openness to what God might reveal to you,”
- “sincerity in our desire to learn truth,”
- “and a disposition of faith in relation to what we do not yet know or truths that we might not yet understand.”
In addition to these suggestions, Nielson shared practices to help individuals as they faithfully seek answers to questions. The practices included earnest and humble prayer, nourishing ourselves in the words of ancient and modern prophets, spending time in the temple, and engaging in service to others. He led a discussion with attendees regarding instances when the word of God had a profound impact on them and why that was able to occur.
How Literature and Personal Experiences Can Help Us Find Answers
Nielson shared passages from a short story called, “They’re Just Rehearsing,” originally written in Portuguese by Brazilian author Bernardo Carvalho. The story was translated to English by Nielson. In the story, actors are rehearsing a scene in a play in front of their director. One actor is playing the role of a peasant who is coping with the recent death of his wife. The peasant is speaking with death, a role portrayed by another actor. He is pleading with death to bring his
wife back. However, after each attempt at delivering his lines, the director interrupts him, trying to help him improve his unconvincing performance. Then the actor hears horns, motors, and sirens outside. As he sees a man whisper something in the director’s ear, the actor realizes his own wife has passed away in a car accident outside.
To quote the story directly, the actor instantly realizes “the sinister coincidence of the scene and the moment,” and understands what the peasant feels. The story reads, “because he is finally perfect in the skin of the peasant in his supplication before Death; he understands that for one instant he in fact has embodied the peasant, that involuntarily and unconsciously, by a trick of fate, he has become the peasant himself because of what the shadow has come to announce.”
Nielson used this story to demonstrate how literature and our personal experiences relate to finding answers to questions. He asked the audience if they must experience personal tragedy to increase in understanding. While people may not all have to experience a tragedy akin to the one in the story, individuals will likely need to go through challenges that test their faith to gain spiritual insights. A discussion with faculty about literature ensued. Faculty commented that literature can allow people to have more empathy for others and literature can take on different meanings depending on what someone is going through at the time they read it.
Having worked with countless returned missionaries in his language classes, Nielson has observed it is common for missionaries to receive revelation about Joseph Smith’s first vision while communicating the account of the vision to those they are teaching. Both the written account and the experience of sharing it allow missionaries to feel the Spirit, increase in their understanding, and build their testimonies.
Near the end of his message, Nielson shared a personal experience. Some time ago, he felt the Spirit prompt him to memorize a chapter from Paul’s letter to the Romans in the Old Testament. He had a favorite verse in the chapter and thought memorizing this verse was the reason for the prompting. However, some time later, he went through a difficult personal experience and another verse from the chapter he had memorized came to his mind, providing him with comfort and clarity during that time. He realized the Lord had prepared him for that situation. The written text, his effort to memorize it, and revelation from the Lord provided him with the understanding and strength he needed as he went through that trial.
Through a Lens of Faith
During his message, Nielson acknowledged that dealing with ambiguity and unanswered questions are part of the journey of faith. He advised faculty to remember and value the truths they know, turn to reliable sources for truth, engage in practices that will grow their faith, and gain insights from uplifting literature. As Nielson demonstrated during the workshop, individuals will gain answers to their questions as they look at their experiences through a lens of faith.
To learn more about faithfully responding to unanswered questions, review the slides below.