Here are some of the notes I used for my talk - sorry they don't make much sense probably! But there might be some good things in there :)

Story of the brother of Jared…

Take the brother of Jared… he knew that he needed to go to the promised land, right? They had an entire OCEAN to cross. Imagine getting your family together… sitting down for a little family council… well kids, wife, etc – we have this goal of getting to the promised land but I have some bad news – we’re going to have to swim there. IMPOSSIBLE. They were going to need help…. So the Lord had them make boats. Boats of safety that would get them to their destination.

Wouldn’t you feel better climbing aboard a sturdy boat?... because what happens next?

Vs 4: they got aboard… commending themselves unto the Lord…

Vs 5: FURIOUS WIND… towards the promised land

Vs 6: No monster of the sea could break them

This is an intense journey! Thank goodness for the boats.

Today I was asked to speak about being the Lord’s covenant people. My first thought was, what does that even mean? I took it a little step deeper and asked myself, how am I a covenant person? You can ask yourself – how are you a covenant person?

We make promises to the Lord through covenants. These are very individual and personal moments between God and us. Making these covenants is like making the individual decision to get on the boat so that God can take us to the promised land – Eternal Life.

Just as the boats kept the Jaredites safe from the furies of the ocean, our covenants keep us safe from the furies of the world. We are always pressing forward to the goal of Eternal life. But, we feel the furious winds, don’t we? Sometimes we feel buried by the world and have no idea when our prayers will be heard and we’re back on top. Sometimes these “monsters of the sea” attack… but when we are surrounded by our covenants, we can be safe.

We’ve been promised protection, forgiveness, the spirit, and eternal life as we keep our covenants – what a blessing!

It is amazing that so many times our covenants feel more like obligations rather than privileges or blessings. How can we celebrate our covenants on a daily basis? I love the story of when Alma invited his people to make covenants… they clapped their hands and shouted for joy! Do we feel like shouting for joy when we renew our covenants every week? Now… I have never shouted for joy as the sacrament is being passed around, but I have felt immense gratitude. Sometimes I feel like my life is going crazy and the furious winds are just too furious and I can’t stay afloat. I am so grateful for that time on Sunday when I can ponder what is going on, take the sacrament, and feel confident that God is helping me towards Eternal Life….

Didn’t want to get baptized until 99 ½ … but now I realize that through renewing my covenants, I can be clean every day.

I would like to suggest 3 ways that our covenants (baptismal or temple) help us as a covenant people.

Anchors us down & gives us hope

Unites us together

Sets us free

Anchors us down/gives us hope

Bonnie D Parkin:

There are both stormy seas and calm waters in life. But as Ether tells us, “Hope cometh of faith, [and] maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4). Covenants anchor us to solid ground, which, amidst the storms, makes our promises not only meaningful for eternity but vital for today.

Today is the BEST DAY YET….. something better is to come.

Unites us together

Look around you… we are all here because we chose or are choosing to become part of God’s covenant people. We are stronger together. We are united as a ward family, as a church, and eventually with our own families… the covenant of temple marriage unites a family in a way that the world cannot.

Keeping your covenants not only blesses you, but it blesses everybody around you… Hna Santillan – Emily – Oscar

Sets us free

Gentle-hearted King Benjamin said: “Because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ. … And under this head ye are made free” (Mosiah 5:7–8).

What are me made free from? SIN. We come unto Christ – the true liberator.

A scripture a day keeps Satan away

1 Nephi 1... and starting 2!!

So this morning I am reading in 1 Nephi 2! I finally finished one earlier this morning (it was wonderful) and now I am on to chapter 2 and it feels great haha. I need to figure out a more efficient system I guess :). A couple interesting tidbits from chapter one:

*there are 30 references to deliverance in 1 Nephi

*Lehi was praying and "there cam ea pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock" - this rock was likely an altar.

*What struck me while reading 1 Nephi 1 this time was that God really loves all of His children. I especially loved vs 14 where it talked about how His "power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth." Sometimes it is hard to imagine Him loving everyone so so much - but I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and how it helps me see that a little bit more each time I read it.

*vs. 20 - they "sought to take his life." They probably wanted to stone him (what a horrible way to die). Interestingly enough, "stone" in Hebrew means "eben" - or a combination of the father and son. Pres. D says that stoning, therefore, is a symbolic judgement of God

*I like vs 20. A LOT!

*"faith" in Hebrew comes from the root "aman" & it means "to make sure." The Greek word is "pistis" and it means "to obey." That gives a different spin on what our part of the deal is with faith - no passiveness allowed! We actually talked a lot about how to actively use our agency last night in my institute class. For something we fought so hard for, we need to use it as much as possible :) - in good ways of course!

Starting chapter 2:

it's the end of Lehi's prophesying mission. This part had never made me sad before but this time I definitely felt something different as I read "And it came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness." Lehi had been preaching diligently to the people of Jerusalem. He was from the Jerusalem, Israel mission and I am sure that he was attached to some of his investigators. He probably still had hope for them... and then he got transferred out. Permanently... I bet he was sad. Even though on areas in my mission we weren't having much success, I still felt pain when I got transferred out and had to leave the people I loved behind. Lehi, as a prophet, likely had a special gift to really love the people and see them more the way God sees them... and leaving them behind was like leaving them to their deaths. Ayyyy.

Well, I'm off to school! HAVE A GREAT DAY! The scriptures rock!

Oh, and to answer your question, dad, Ezekial and John were 2 examples of prophets that had to eat their scriptures... look it up - it's pretty interesting.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 16:14-16

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands wither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."

A really good friend pointed this sweet scripture out to me recently. I like it because we can think about the Biblical (and obviously Book of Mormon) times and how people were always referencing the story of Moses... and this scripture says that one day people are going to stop talking about that as the big story and will start talking about other miracles... Like the first vision... or the little personal miracles we experience. We can see that happening today. And of course, these verses talking about the missionary work of today too - that it really is searching diligently for the ones who are ready.

scriptures... run for your lives!!

Did you know that some prophets had to eat their scriptures? I hope they were tasty.

beautiful quote

“The more we know of Jesus, the more we will love Him. The more we know of Jesus, the more we will trust Him. The more we know of Jesus, the more we will want to be like Him and to be with Him by becoming the manner of men and women that He wishes us to be (see 3 Ne. 27:27), while living now ‘after the manner of happiness’ (2 Ne. 5:27).” Neal A. Maxwell

some symbolism

Picture I took at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Saturday

"As sovereigns, choosing to yield to the Highest Sovereign is our highest act of choice. It is the only surrender which is also a victory! The putting off of the natural man makes possible the putting on of the whole armor of God, which would not fully fit before!" - Neal A. Maxwell

I had a delightful scripture study this morning in 1st Nefi 1 (again! haha), but I'm at the library at the moment and don't have my BoM notes with me... so - how about some MISSION NOTES? Yes? Yes.

How do we know that Christ was resurrected? Where is the evidence we have for that other than a few witnesses (ok, there have been a lot!) that saw Him after he was resurrected? It is on faith that we have to believe in the resurrection and believe that we too will be reunited with our bodies one day. It takes the same kind of faith to believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the original plates existed. There are some interesting similarities between what "evidence" we have for the BoM and what "evidence" we have of the Resurrection.

Resurrection of Christ
body placed in a tomb
sealed with a stone
angel came to witness
body felt by witnesses
ascends into heaven

Book of Mormon
plates also placed in a "tomb"
sealed up with a stone
angel came to bear witness
plates felt by witnesses
ascends into heaven

Interesting, huh?

Now let's talk about some symbolism of numbers in the scriptures. Now, I am sure that these aren't representative in EVERY case, but it can sure give neat insights into some scripture stories. Got this list from Pres. D at a zone conference one transfer

1 - God
2 - opposition
3 - covenant
4 - man
5 - Atonement
6 - didn't get that one
7 - whole & complete
8 - new beginning

For example, the arc only had 8 people on it when mankind had to start over again. I didn't write any more examples down and I don't have time to ponder on it at the moment, but see what you can come up with!

*man + covenants = whole & complete... perfected

quote

“We don’t acquire eternal life in a sprint—this is a race of endurance. We have to apply and reapply the divine gospel principles. Day after day we need to make them part of our normal life.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Genesis 1 & 2

"Over the last hours I have come to understand other blessings from 'always remembering him.' I thought of a family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I met years ago: a father, mother, and two teenage daughters who belonged to no church but read the Bible together every day. They pondered the Savior's life and his words. When we found them they had decided that Christ would have a church and that they should find it. They knew that it would have prophets and Apostles at its foundation because that is what Christ had left in his church in the meridian of time. They knew that the resurrected Lord had appeared to his Apostles."And so when we testified that God, the Father, and his Son, the Savior of the world, came to a boy prophet, Joseph Smith, that seemed right to them. When they heard us testify that Peter, James, and John appeared and restored priesthood, they knew that would have to have happened. And the Holy Spirit, which they also recognized, told them it was true. I realized sometime last night or early this morning that they recognized the truth, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, in large part because they had always remembered him. Every day they had gathered to read about him and his words, and so they remembered him. And after they were baptized they were ready to follow the living prophet because they knew the Savior always speaks to his prophets to bless his people." Henry B. Eyring

It was a story from Albuquerque - cool, huh?! Anyway, that is true - the closer we are to Christ and the more we follow Him the more we realize that the church is true. It's a good cycle.

Ok, now I am going back to yesterday's class notes! First of all, a wonderful quote from my professor that I wrote down - "You just have to open your Book of Mormon and your fingertips start to get warm from the spirit...!" He was comparing the BoM and the Bible saying that a lot of times it can be harder to feel the spirit through the Bible because it isn't as pure, translated correctly, and it is harder for us to relate to the stories until we dig deeper... but, we can still feel the spirit when we read the Bible of course - just maybe for some of us it will take a bit more effort.

All right, our list on who is God... we have sets of descriptive words here

Group #1:
all knowing
lawyer: precise
power
control
provider
professor
protector
big talker
in charge

Group #2:
gives us a chance
interested
Father/friend
artist: into the details
approachable: one-on-one
allows choice
love
human characteristics
satisfied
facilitator
optimist
shares

Do you see a difference between the two groups? Interestingly enough we can see that first list mostly in Genesis 1 and the second list in Genesis 2. There seems to be a contradiction between His characteristics... the first group seemingly very much focused on justice and the second more on love and understanding. Do we sometimes wish for the justice side for our "enemies" and the mercy side for ourselves? I know I've done that before. After discussing it for a while we came to the conclusion that these aren't "separate sides" of God's personality, but rather 2 parts that make up the whole of who He is. In order to be perfectly just and perfectly loving, He has to be able to demonstrate all of these characteristics so that we can learn from Him. I don't know if I am making sense to you guys, but it makes sense to me in my head!

Genesis 1: top down (God's perspective - it ends with man)... very logical... the spiritual creation?
Genesis 2: bottom up (human perspective - it begins with man)... aesthetic: organic, the physical creation?

There are a lot of patterns/themes in genesis...
- violence & sex
- birthright violations
- parental favoritism (which seems to be the cause of a lot of problems!)

We talked about wells and the significance of them - there are a lot of times when prophets or other important people find their wives by a well. A well is a symbol of fertility and life. There is a pattern in almost every Bible "well scene."
1. man leaves home and travels far
2. meets a woman at a well
3. water gets drawn
4. woman rushes home (always the same Hebrew word for "rushes")
5. meal
6. betrothal

I've always heard my whole life that Rebekah was just so kind and generous to get all of those camels water (which it was a big job!), but somebody pointed out that she was also a very smart girl. Obviously those guys were rich with all of those camels laden with gifts and stuff... maybe we don't think enough about what her intentions might have been! No, I know she was a great woman (or girl, she probably was only about 14) with a lot of faith who really followed the spirit - because she did exactly what she needed to (what the Lord had said) to mark her as the chosen one. Sometimes I worry that I'm not following the spirit enough to do all that I need to. Every day a little bit better, right?

Who is God?

Man I have been slacking on my scripture blog! I promise to improve :). I'm going to be quick again tonight because it is already 12:22 at night and I am beat. But, I wanted to just express my testimony of the God. We talked a lot today in my literature and the Bible class about the nature of God and who we see Him as. We wrote a paper on this topic focusing on the first three chapters of Genesis. We came up with some very interesting insights and I will write about them soon. But, what it came down to for me is that He is the perfect father. As simple as that - He has a beautiful balance of justice, mercy, love, knowledge, power, acceptance, and about a million other characteristics. He is completely trustworthy and dependable. He is perfect. I am so grateful to know my God. I know that a lot of religions teach that us mere humans can't have a real relationship with Deity. I know that is not true. I know that we can have a relationship with God and that that is what he wants! That is why He has given us the scriptures, prophets, each other, His son... they are tools that bring us to Him so that eventually we can feel comfortable living in His presence.

"The future is as bright as your faith." Thomas S. Monson

1 Nephi 1

Hahaha.... I saw this picture and just had to laugh. But it's true - Nephi SHOULD be our hero... he was a man of incredible faith, incredible devotion to the Lord, and he put up with a lot to help us have the scriptures and the doctrines that we had today. Who is my hero? Well, Nephi is of course!

Jumping into 1 Nephi 1 today...

A few things I learned from President D's notes:

* Nephi did not write his books like a journal... from different clues we can see that he wrote in retrospect... for example, in the opening paragraph of 1st Nephi, before chapter 1, is written by Nephi, and includes events as late as the arrival in the promised land (1 Ne. 18:23). In the subtitle to 1st Nephi and again in 1 Ne. 10:1, Nephi mentions his "reign and ministry." Nephi does not begin to "reign" until 2 Ne. 5:18-19.

*"Let's just put down on paper a little outline of this chapter. I think it would look something like this:
a prophet prays
has a vision
sees heavenly messengers (apparently including Jesus)
receives a book
is rejected by most of the people

Now that's a rough outline of the story you described in chapter 1. Does it look at all familiar to you?" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Daddy, Donna, and Nephi," Ensign, Sept. 1976, 9)

.... JOSEPH SMITH anybody?!

*There is an interesting comparison we can make between Lehi and the prophet Jeremiah (who was another prophet in Jerusalem during the same time period). While Lehi was called to leave Jerusalem and inherit the promised land, Jeremiah was asked to stay and be a witness to the destruction of Jerusalem. They both were priests (Lehi from the Melchizedek line and Jeremiah from the Aranoid family), both were Patriarchs... etc etc. I like what President Donaldson highlighted in his notes, however, that we can view Jeremiah and Lehi as symbols of Israel's relationship with the Lord.... Jeremiah's life was a symbol of the justice of God and the impending destruction of Jerusalem. However, he sought solace and comfort in his relationship with the Lord and prophesied the return and restoration of his people (see Jeremiah 30-31). We can view Lehi's life as a symbol of the "tender mercies of the Lord." Although he had to go through severe trials, he was able to help deliver his family from destruction and inherit another promised land.

*Jeremiah and Moses were both symbols of Christ - 2 different aspects of his mission.

"Moses was a prophet who demonstrated the power of God over the elements and over Israel's enemies. He had the power to prophesy the future. He was a deliverer, redeemer, and lawgiver. Moses, in one of his final sermons, pronounced one of the most prominent of the messianic prophecies: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken" (Deuteronomy 18:15). Jeremiah, throughout his ministry, eloquently demonstrated to his people the type of a suffering servant. Because he had delivered his message, Jeremiah was persecuted, isolated, falsely accused, imprisoned, and tried for his life. He protested his innocence: "But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter" (Jeremiah 11:19; cf. Isaiah 53:7)."

Wow. There is SO MUCH to learn... so I didn't even get close to getting through 1 Nephi 1 this morning... maybe I need to be more selective on what I want to learn and focus on. Well, it was a very interesting study at least! Hope you all could learn something too :) It is very interesting to think about the "call" of a prophet... Jeremiah was called to be a prophet as a child whereas Lehi was called as an adult (already married and with children). The Lord calls us to do things when we are ready and when he needs us. He will call us to be witnesses of certain events and people so that we can testify about them. I am very grateful for our prophet, Thomas Monson and for the guidance we receive from him and our other leaders. I know that if we just follow them and try to be obedient (like Nephi!) we will be happy and successful... in the manner that GOD wants us to be.

temples

I just want to say that I love temples. We went to the Salt Lake temple this morning to do a live session and it was soooo wonderful. The spirit inside is so strong and it is just such a beautiful place to be. I know that it is the house of the Lord and that if we need guidance, peace, reassurance, knowledge, or whatever - we can find it there! Some new friends and I were discussing a project we want to do - we're going to make Saturdays temple day and go to a different temple in Utah every weekend :) I can't wait.

Few thoughts from Pres. D's notes:

"Before even arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young’s mind was focused on the erection of a temple, for he had seen the Salt Lake Temple in vision.
Just four days after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, in July of 1847, President Brigham Young strode to a spot that inspiration had obviously fixed in his mind. Pointing his cane to the parched ground, he declared: “Here we will build a temple to our God.” Elder Wilford Woodruff placed a marker on the designated site.
President Young later declared “I have never looked upon that ground, but the vision of [the six- spired Salt Lake Temple] was there.”
This declaration by President Young was a pronouncement of a prophet of God. In the midst of the summer, camped in a desert, with the pressing needs of food, shelter, and even survival weighing heavily upon the minds and hearts of the newly arrived pioneers, their prophet-leader reminded them of the “solemnities of eternity” (see D&C 43:34) which should also be resting upon their minds.
The construction of the Salt Lake Temple would not be completed in Brigham Young’s lifetime, but in my own heart I feel that both he and Joseph Smith were allowed to be present on that glorious occasion on 6 April 1893, when President Wilford Woodruff dedicated this magnificent house of the Lord. In fact President Woodruff recorded in his journal:
“If the eyes of the congregation could be opened they would [have] seen Joseph and Hyrum [Smith], Brigham Young, John Taylor, and all the good men who had lived in this dispensation assembled with us, as also ... all the Holy Prophets and Apostles who had prophesied of the latter day work. ... They were rejoicing with us in this building which had been accepted of the Lord.”