Dave's Thoughts

Hello everyone, wanted you to know that Jolynn and I are back. Isn't it interesting that every time a comittment is made to read the Book of Mormon, something arises to stop you. These have been numerous but we are still kicking. Jolynn and I are now in the middle of Alma. I think it is important to remember that each chapter was chosen by Mormon for inclusion in the book after much study of the many texts available to him and prayerful consideration. There is something the Lord wants us to know in it all. I will share with you one of my very favorite people in the book. Some weeks ago we read about Amulek. As you remember Alma was leaving the city of Ammoniah and was instructed to return and he would meet someone. He did and that person was Amulek. I like Amulek because he is totally relatable to me. He was a person of means having much property but that is not why. He declares to Alma that he "knew but would not know". In other words he had a testimony, but I am sure felt unworthy because of his personal shortcomings.Thus he knew, but pushed it aside. I suppose we all do that. You also recall that he shortly became a great companion to Alma and was a very powerful teacher of the Gospel. He was willing to suffer much hunger and even jail, yet he was the one that "knew but would not know" Perhaps the lesson here is that the distance from where he was when he met Alma to where he ended up was not so great a distance afterall. It may be the same with us. I would be interested in hearing from you about your favorite person we have read about so far and why. Different perspectives when shared gives the book new meaning for all of us. Look forward to hearing from you.

Grandma and Grandpa

Hey everyone this is Laura.  I took some cute pictures of grandma and grandpa and I wanted share them with all of you.  It was no easy feat getting them to smile at the same time and look at the camera.  They were as bad as the kids!  Sure love them.



On a B.O.M. note I am still reading.  I am wading through Alma right now and loving it.  Those wars are good stuff.

I'm still reading

I'm slowly reading. When we started the family challenge, I was actually still doing a previous challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days which turned into the 6 month challenge which turned into the...Well you get the picture. I have find it interesting that places where I have marked in the scriptures, either underlining, highlighting or making a note either have a deeper meaning to me or I have no idea why I made that notation. I will admit though that I am a slow learner or let me say, it takes repeated lessons or reading for me to grasp the what is being said in the scriptures. I'll give an example: way back in 1st Nephi regarding the ark. I was talking to Frances one day and I asked her (and not to laugh) if I was correct that there was two arks - Noah's and Lehi's. She did kinda laugh and said "Yes Mom, there were two. Noah's saved the people from the flood and  Lehi's took the people to Bountiful". My response was "Yea! I got it! 

Seriously though, I am reading, I love it and one day I will perhaps, no guarantees, be able to quote a scripture.

I hope everyone else is still in the challenge.

Love,

Jennifer

Grandma and Grandpa

Okay, I finally got the instructions for Grandma and Grandpa all typed up. It would be awesome if someone could print them out and go over the instructions with Grandma and Grandpa so I don't have to do it blindly over the phone. So...any volunteers? I can email you the instructions to print out.

If anyone wants I can post them on the blog. They are kind of long (because I did really simple step by step) but I'll post them if you want. I can also email them to anyone who wants to take a look.

Also, no one sent me their google account address, so just let me know if you want me to add you as an author.

I'd love to hear any of your thoughts and I know my dad and Grandma and Grandpa would love to also!

Happy Reading/Studying!
Nicole

Posting trouble?

Hey everyone! I noticed some people have been having trouble posting on the blog. So if anyone with a google account wants to send me their email address I'll add you as contributors on this blog. You will get an email asking if you want to contribute to this blog and all you have to do is click on the link. Then the family blog will be on your dashboard along with your own blog. That should make it so much easier for each of us to post. My email address is colee605@yahoo.com. You can email me your google account address or just leave it in the comments.

Also, I'll try to type up some easy instruction for Grandma and Grandpa to follow. It would probably be easier if someone was there to help them go over it, or I could try over the phone. I really don't know what their computer level is, so I'm just going to make the posting instructions as simple as possible.

I hope this will be able to help everyone out. I really want to hear what all of you have to say! I was all caught up on my reading, but then I had a pretty crazy week and got behind a few days again. But I'll be all caught up soon! I'm really enjoying knowing that we are all reading together (even if we're not in the same place). Every time I get to the Isaiah chapters I tell myself that I'm really going to dive in a try to understand, but that usually only lasts a few chapters. Any suggestions?

Dave's Thoughts

Jolynn and I just finished our reading for tonight. Actually we are using Book of Mormon on CD and following along in the Book. My mind always seems to be clearer when we read scripture and I understand more. We just finished the Isaiah chapters. I really enjoy Isaiah although the verbage sometimes is difficult. Boyd K. Packer a few Conferences ago called them a barrier, seperating the causal reader from the serious one. This I think is true. There are some marvelous prophecies there. I would like to ask a couple of favors of everyone. First, how are you doing? Are you staying up or falling behind? If you have not started, thats OK, are you reading the blogs?  I hope as much as possible you are reading as a couple and looking at the footnotes. Jolynn and I are having some great discussions about the meaning of what we are reading. Men and Women often look at things differently and we all need to be aware of the differences and respect them. Secondly. I ask each of us to consider commenting with an E-Mail address for all to have. Ours is Daver39@live.com. Lastly, I would love to hear from all of you either in a Post or a Comment. I always learn more when different perspectives are presented. I know it may be difficult for some of you but let us all learn together and from each other.

Nephi's courage

I know I'm a few days behind everyone else, but I just finished reading 2 Nephi 4. This chapter has always been a favorite of mine. I love how it shows that Nephi was a real person, tempted by sin. He always seems so perfect that it is nice to know that he faced temptation just like the rest of us and that it wasn't always easy for him to keep the commandments.

But while this chapter shows Nephi's vulnerable side, it also shows how he is able to stop beating himself up for his weakness and say"O Lord, I will praise thee forever." Nephi's true strength is also shown as he declares his absolute faith in the Lord. Through all 1 and 2 Nephi he says over and over again that he can do anything the Lord asks because he knows the Lord will help him. I think that could even be Nephi's motto! I hope I can be like Nephi when I grow up!

Anyway, that is just a few of my thoughts. What do you all think?