Day 6

— Day 6: ___________________  Date: ___________________            
Read: 2 Nephi 8-12 Mark & Ponder: 2 Nephi 2:27
Scripture of the day:
“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that
when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”
(Mosiah 2:17)
Thought for the day:
“Few will have greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a
small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of
this generation.” (Robert Kennedy)


I enjoyed reading 2 Nephi 10 3-4.  3 Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ—for in the last night the ^aangel spake unto me that this should be his name—should ^bcome among the ^cJews, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall ^dcrucifyhim—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would ^ecrucify their ^fGod.
 4 For should the mighty ^amiracles be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.

 I don't think I ever realized that it had to be the Jews that crucified Christ...

Day 5

— Day 5: ___________________  Date: ___________________            
Read: 2 Nephi 3-7 Mark & Ponder: 2 Nephi 2:25
Scripture of the day:
“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Thought for the day:
“..faith too has different seasons.  It has its warm, sun filled days of spring and summer,
and its long, dark bitter winters...God will not remove the winters, for through winter
comes spring.” (Lisa Johnson Boswell)

Today it took me about 30 minutes to do the reading.  I have found that I have a strong desire to finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas.  Lucky for me I still had 20 days to do it when I realized it.  I am doing this challenge in double time.  So while this is day five I have finished the reading up to Day 12.

Day 4 are you with me?

— Day 4: ___________________  Date: ____________________
Read: 1 Nephi 20-22 and 2 Nephi 1-2 Mark & Ponder: 2 Nephi 2:11
Scripture of the day:
“Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea,
even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith,  maketh an anchor
to souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good
works, being led to glorify God.” (Ester 12:4)
Thought for the day:
Hope is the thing
with feathers–
That perches in the soul–
And sings the tune
without the words--
And never stops–at all–
(Emily Dickinson, Final Harvest)

link to the document is still found here.

Day 3 in 40 days closer to Christ

I am still on track and blogging about it along with all my mommy duties.  I think when you make time for the things you should do.  Heavenly father blesses you with the time to do the things you should do.  In my life I am more focused when I am done reading.

— Day 3: ___________________ Date: ____________________        
                                 
Read: 1 Nephi 16-19 Mark & Ponder: 1 Nephi 19:23
Scripture of the day:
“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelations 3:20)
Thought for the day:
“The promise is made to everyone.  There is no discrimination, no favored few, but the
Lord has not promised to crash the door.  He stands and knocks.  If we do not listen, he
will not sup with us nor give answer to our prayers.  We must learn how to listen, grasp,
interpret, understand. The Lord stands knocking.  He never retreats.  But he will never
force himself upon us.  If our distance from him increases, it is we who have moved and
not the Lord.” (Pres. Spencer W. Kimball)




My thoughts on today's reading 
The lord is very patient.  How many times is he going to forgive Laman and Lemuel?  We all know the answer to that as many times as they repent. I am glad that I have that option in my life.  I would hope that if I had the experiences that Laman and Lemuel had that I would have had more faith.  Nephi seems to have the I will go and do mentality I hope that I can emulate that.

Day 2 in 40 Days closer to Christ

Yesterday went well I even took the time to update my blog with my thoughts on what I read.  If you haven't started yet you still can.  I recommend a paperback version of the Book of Mormon.  Then get some colored pencils and don't be afraid to write what you are thinking in the book as you read.

Here is Day Twos reading


— Day 2: ____________________   Date:  ____________________  
                                   
Read: 1 Nephi 11-15 Mark & Ponder: 1 Nephi 15:34
Scripture of the day:
“..I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will
show unto you all things what ye should do.”  (2 Nephi 32:5)
Thought for the day:
“God is weaving his tapestry according to his own grand design.  All flesh is in his hands.
It is not our prerogative to counsel him.  It is our responsibility and our opportunity to
be at peace in our minds and in our hearts, and to know that he is God, that this is his
work, and that he will not permit it to fail.” (Gordon B. Hinkley)

You can download the 40 day plan here.


My thoughts after reading day two. It took me just under 30 minutes to read.
I love that Nephi did  not doubt that his father saw visions. He desired to see the visions for him self not to know that they are true like his brothers would have.  He wanted to see them because he wanted to have the same experience. He thought the visions were so precious he wanted to be a part of it.

What would be my reasoning for wanting to see the visions to prove to me they were true or to experience what I knew was an amazing thing?

40 days closer to Christ.

Today I am starting a reading program.  I will read and ponder the book of Mormon in 40 days.  I think I will give myself 47 days to finish it. That way there is room for for busy days(Christmas and New Years).  That means I will be finished January 21th. If I sitck to to the strict 40 day plan I will be finished Jan 14th. I am trying it out to see if it would be a good fit for our YW.  We are doing summer of the BoM (Book of Mormon) this year.  We want to encourage the girls to read the Book of Mormon during the summer.   The plan I am following is found here.

Here is Day one.

Read: 1 Nephi 1-10   Mark & Ponder: 1 Nephi 3:7
Scripture of the day:
“..Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes
of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make
them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.” (Ezekiel 37:19)
Thought for the day:
“There is a book we need to study daily, both as individuals and as family, namely the
Book of Mormon.  I love that book.  It is the book that will get a person nearer to God by
abiding by its precepts than any other book.  Let us continually reread the Book of
Mormon so that we might more fully come to Christ, be committed to Him, centered in
Him, and consumed in Him.” (Pres. Ezra Taft Benson)



My thoughts after finishing day one.
- The reading took me just over 30 minutes.  I broke it up into two reading periods.
-My family isn't the only one that fights on road trips.  Lehi's family makes our kids seem like angels.
-Is Nephi a little boastful he talks about his stature several times like in 1Nephi 2:16 and 4:31. I am thinking his brothers must have been big also to get away with how they treated him or maybe there needed to be two of them.
-Notice the only time Laman and Lemuel didn't murmur about going back to Jerusalem was when they went back for wives.

Yesterday I thought Marissa's primary class they are 8 years old.  I started to ask them how much they knew about Lehi and his family.  They all were very smart and each told a small story about the Family.  One boy went on and on and I was very impressed.  He started to make me feel guilty for not reading the Book of Mormon with my kids more.  When I told the boy I was impressed with how much he knew about the Book of Mormon he smiled and said  "I saw the movie."  I guess I need to get some movies for my kids so they can impress their Primary teachers.

Young Women 2012 theme

The 2012 Theme for Young Women is  D&C 115:5

 We are going to do a craft project the first week in January 2012.  It will be a temple block. Like the one found here.  On one side we are putting the ward theme "Stand in Holy Places" and on the other we will Put the YW theme for 2012. "Arise and shine forth"

The ward theme

This is my take on the YW theme. 

I hope it ends up being a fun activity.  We are going to have all the YW and their leaders make one for themselves then we are making them for the 12 new beehives that we will get in 2012.