Heaven is For Real

Corey got me this book "Heaven is for Real" for Christmas and I finished reading it today. Corey and I have read lots of books like this and they always fascinate me. Has helped my thoughts be more on Christ, who is the reason for the season, as we all know. This one was a quick read and I finished it tonight, then got online to look up the picture "Prince of Peace" that they reference by Akiane Kramarik -


which led me here, which then reminded me of some things Tomas Kofod said during a fireside that we went to back in 2000 ... (cue year 2000 journal entries -)

First, before the fireside where Tomas spoke, we had gone down to temple square to see the movie "The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd - Here's what the newspaper said at that time: -

Salt lake Tribune Religion Section C for Saturday, March 25, 2000. It is the main article on C1. It said that all actors who had a major role had to be temple worthy. The film maker Keith Merrill was told by President Hinckley, “It will be the most important film the church has ever made.” Then Pres. Hinckley said “I have never seen a depiction of the Savior I liked.” They said finding the right person to play Jesus was like finding Cinderella. They looked at “every available LDS actor in the world, eventually considering more than 500.” Merrill gave screen tests to 64, then selected three to present to the First Presidency. The result? LDS leaders told Merrill to “keep looking.” In desperation, the director sent a call across the Internet and received an email from Tomas Kofod, a Danish convert, asking about the part. Kofod had been an exchange student in Utah more than 10 years earlier, had lived with a Mormon family, then returned to Denmark and joined the LDS Church. He became an accomplished actor, performing with the Royal Danish Shakespeare Company. Kofod was brought to Utah for an audience with the First Presidency, and they like him immediately. Kofod’s Danish-accented voice had to be dubbed by Will Swenson. They said His blue-eyed Scandinavian looks are not meant as a church statement about Christ’s appearance, instead, viewers should see Kofod as presenting “the feelings of Christ that were acceptable to the First Presidency.

So, after reading that in the paper, I was really excited to see the portrayal of Christ. We went and saw the film at Temple Square later that month in 2000 and just loved it.

The next year, we went to a fireside where Tomas Kofod spoke on 24 June 2001 (I'm so glad I have these journal entries - making me remember that I need to keep writing and recording today cause I'm going to forget everything about my life right now and it will be lost forever if I don't write it down!!!) Just going to paste this whole entry here...

Sunday, 24 June 2001

This afternoon we went over to Corey’s parent’s house. The single’s ward where Mark and Nancy attend was having a special fireside and Tomas Ambt Kofod was the speaker. He is the man who played the part of the Savior in the Church movie The Testaments of One Fold and One Sheperd. It was a spiritual feast. I felt the spirit so strongly and felt so edified after hearing him speak. I want to come to know the Savior better. I am going to study the Book of Mormon more faithfully - President Benson said that is the tool that the Lord has give us to draw us nearer to Him.

Some things Tomas spoke about was the miracles involved in him even finding out about the part. His wife sent her very first email to her friend in Orem, and her friend got on the computer when she got home from work, which she never does, and saw the email from Tomas’ wife. She sent them information regarding tryouts for parts in the Church film, which she had seen on the internet earlier. That information was only on the internet for that one day. Everything about it was miraculous, from him finding out about the part, getting out of other acting commitments to come and try out, getting his ticket to fly over in time, and then finding a replacement after he was given the part. He said when he was getting his make-up on before his screen test, he looked out the door saw “Christ after Christ” walking down the hall, they were all tall and had deep voices (Tomas kept making jokes about how skinny and small he was). He also said he didn’t like his nose, and after taking a look at himself he asked the make-up artist to put more make-up on each side to shadow his nose a little better, and after she did and he saw himself in the mirror, he said he was looking into the eyes of his Savior. He told of how he got sick on the night before they were going to start filming, and he prayed and pleaded for help to get better, but felt his prayers weren’t getting past the hotel ceiling. It was late and so after pouring his heart out he decided it would be best to go to bed and try and get some rest. As he was laying in bed, a voice came to his mind, as clear as any voice he’s ever heard. The voice said he was sorry to make him sick, but this was the only way to make him humble enough to hear. The Lord told him he needed to be more humble and told him many other things he did not share with us. He said if a person had rebuked him that way, he might have been offended, but he didn’t take any offense, but listened to the counsel. Another time he got sick when they were filming, but it wasn’t to humble him. He was given a blessing, I think by the director, where they rebuked Satan and commanded him to leave.

One more entry of another fireside where we listened to two other actors from the film-

Rick Macy, the man who played Helam in the Church film The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepard, came and spoke, along with the lady who played Mary Magdalene, and Merrill Jenson, the man who wrote the music. It was a wonderful fireside. I invited my parents and Corey’s parents. Corey’s parents came and so did Mom and Rebekkah. The main message: it was all real. You can’t act a testimony. It was an amazing spiritual experience for all of them, and the film has truly strengthened my testimony and touched my soul. Rick Macy said that Tomas Kofod, the man who played the Savior, is such a humble and Christlike man. He was the person for the part

Then searched around online and I thought this was a book - but I think it's just in audio cd, will probably order it sometime. It is probably a recording of a fireside similar to the one I attended.