{"chapter_no":"27","chapter_title":"Powerful Feelings","book_id":"3","book_name":"Springville","subchapter_no":"0","page_no":"512","page_number":"1","verses_count":0,"total_pages":2,"page_content":"

<\/span><\/p>

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Chapter 27<\/span><\/p>

Powerful Feelings<\/span><\/h1><\/p>

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Grant travels to Asia on business—He discovers inspired parables of the gospel when he reads
an old novel—The Spirit<\/i> <\/i>transforms<\/i> his faith through powerful feelings.<\/i><\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

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In his duties as a manager in his brother’s consulting firm, and also in his years serving as
a leader in the Church, traveling to different destinations around the world had always been a
very rewarding experience for Grant, providing the opportunity to spend hours alone caught up
in a good book of his own choosing. Traveling on a plane was a particularly good way to launch
himself into reading without any interruption. When reading a book during a flight, or late at
night in a hotel room, Grant sometimes tapped into strong emotions that could last for hours,
days, or even weeks at a time. A selected book often defined the business trip completely,
becoming a constant companion for him while on the road.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

With China's growing importance on the world stage, Jerry had asked Grant to fly to
Beijing to set up small consulting offices of the company there, as well as in Shanghai and Hong
Kong. The trip would take three weeks and included stops in all three cities. In the days leading
up to the trip, Grant had started reading Les Miserables<\/i>, making it through the first fifty pages.
The book was one he had read previously, but somehow, in reading it again during the trip, it
moved him more than ever before. This time he was better prepared to read it. This time he was
able to understand and feel things that in the past he could not. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

Holding the book closed on his lap during the flight home, he reflected on all that had
happened to him during the last three weeks. <\/span><\/p>

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Such beautiful parables of the gospel!<\/i><\/span><\/p>

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How could I have missed<\/i> all of<\/i> this before? It was there all the time, but I never saw it.<\/i><\/span><\/p>

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The Asia trip had been truly special, a magical time in a sense. A transformation of his
faith and testimony had occurred. Principles and concepts he believed in so strongly, and that he
had built his life around, had been reinforced and solidified within him. Already possessing a
strong, vibrant testimony as one would expect of a leader in the Church, it would have been
natural for him to assume that he was doing fairly well in the eyes of the Lord and growing
spiritually stronger every day. Nevertheless, at the end of the trip, Grant felt newly awakened and
full of desire, as if he had been sleeping in the gospel all of his life. He realized that the years he
had served as a Church leader overseas no longer had to be considered as the pinnacle of great
works from which one eventually drops back down to normalcy afterwards. Instead, all of his <\/p>

leadership experience could be used as a building block to work towards even greater things on
the home front. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

The past few weeks had been a new awakening for him––a life-changing experience that
even the most righteous of men hope for. He had captured a new desire, a new hunger to read
more and more from the book. But it was just a novel, right? How could another man’s fiction
have such a deep impact upon him? His quiet ponderings of the book had extended many hours
beyond the reading itself... it had been that special. His spiritual state before God had been
awakened, releasing powerful new feelings within him, feelings that had been hidden away deep
inside his soul. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

Les Miserables<\/i> was one of the great novels of all time and would always be special to
him. On the other hand, he realized the book did have limitations. Its value was as a supreme
catalyst, helping to energize and redirect a reader like himself towards the real stuff––the
scriptures, the conference talks of modern-day prophets, apostles, and general authorities, and the
impressive inventory of gospel study materials available anywhere and everywhere throughout
the Church website. Only there, reading through these inspired words with the Spirit of God at
one’s side, could the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ be experienced and acted upon. <\/span><\/p>

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Nevertheless, there was no doubt that key parts of Les Miserables<\/i>,<\/i> and the beautiful
parables of the gospel contained therein, were an amazing complement to the standard works.
And while presentations of song and dance, as well as depictions in film, were fine, the greatness
of the book could only be discovered by sitting down and patiently reading through it word for
word.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

In the story of James, the reader will recall an accident involving a piano that left him
partially disabled. Saddened by the tragedy, great turmoil arose inside of him. Through that
internal struggle, he grew in faith and created a wonderful new life for himself. Through these
stories of him, there has also been an opportunity for us as readers to find treasures of our own––
to see the inner workings of a righteous soul and learn the lessons therefrom.<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

The principles of faith, repentance, and conversion to the plain and precious truths of the
gospel of Jesus Christ are fundamental to our beliefs as Latter-day Saints. These principles are
described well in the story of Jean Valjean and Little Gervais. It’s also worth noting that the
character of James found in this book shares the same youthful innocence of Little Gervais, the
important scenes of tragedy, turmoil, and repentance of Jean Valjean and, ultimately, the great
love of mankind we saw first in Bishop Charles Myriel of D–– and later in Monsieur Madeline
(Jean Valjean).<\/span><\/p>

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Included next is the story of Little Gervais. An impoverished boy, only ten years of age,
Little Gervais traveled many miles a day, from village to village, working as a chimneysweep.
The task of scraping soot from chimneys was difficult and dangerous work, and something for
which he received only meager wages. Jean Valjean was a convict; a man walking the plains in
search of a home and an identity; a man who had known only coldness, injustice, and the
brutality of men in life. A darkened soul, he had been imprisoned for nineteen years after stealing
a loaf of bread; but a soul, nonetheless, who had been blessed recently through an encounter with
the Bishop of D––, bringing him to an important crossroads in his life. <\/p>"}