book of mormon challenge {results}

i'm happy to report that i finished the book of mormon on saturday, august 31, right on schedule. like i said before, this is the first time i've attempted to read the book of mormon in such a short amount of time, and some days were harder than others, but it was a cool experience.

one of the main things that stood out to me was how often the prophets stressed that they "delight in plainness"--the gospel is supposed to be "plain" to us. the truths of the gospel are pure and simple; if i don't understand a principle, i need to work to understand it plainly. things aren't supposed to be confusing, though there are obviously things that we just don't know yet (the mysteries--i LOVE thinking about the mysteries :)).

reading so quickly, i also felt like i got to know the people a little bit better and that i had a better grasp of the history and the timeline. it was easier to keep track of everybody when i wasn't spending two months reading second nephi.

so, it was pretty great. here is one of my fave scriptures, one out of many.

now, i'm reading the old testament as the next installment in my standard works challenge. i'm sticking with the 8-chapters-a-day regimen, which will put me in the middle of december to finish, also just in time to start the new testament at christmas (which will hopefully help me to stay on schedule). so far, it's pretty cool. some weird stuff, but that's why you consult official church materials for clarification.

in summation, the church is true. read your scriptures.

finishing the doctrine and covenants + book of mormon challenge

here i am, back in the blogosphere. it's weird being away from provo for a couple weeks, weird in a way that makes me realize how ready i am to leave this town. but anyway, back to the business at hand.

since just before easter, i've been reading the doctrine and covenants. after my birthday in february, i made this list of 25 things to do while i'm 25 (also, why haven't i been referring back to this? i've done a couple of these things and i probably wouldn't have even crossed them off the list! sheesh.), and one of the items (the only one i've really remembered, i guess) is #15: read the standard works. today, i finished the doctrine and covenants, the first time i've really read the book all the way through. here are some things i learned/relearned these past few months:

• God speaks to His servants, then and now.
• the doctrine and covenants are unique in that many of the sections are direct revelations from God and Jesus Christ, so they are in their exact words. writing it like that, it doesn't sound so different from any other work of scripture. but i'm a person who is interested in authorial voice--i feel like the sections of the doctrine and covenants express the voice of God in a way that doesn't always come across in other scriptural books, because they are essentially written by God or the Savior. does that make sense? it's just cool to me.
• i LOVE this verse, written by john taylor after the martyrdom of the prophet joseph smith and hyrum smith.

 Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated! (d&c 135:3)

• that is so awesome. it's difficult to comprehend how joseph smith did so much--translating the book of mormon, restoring the Gospel and organizing the Church, doing missionary work--in so little time and through so much persecution. i'm grateful for him.
• most of the revelations that became the doctrine and covenants were received in the 1830s. how incredible is it, then, that so many of them have relevance for us today, right now?

today, i'm starting a book of mormon challenge. for the month of august, i will be reading 8 chapters a day to finish by august 31. i'm really excited about it! i've never read the book of mormon like that in a short amount of time before, so i think it will be really great. if you'd like, join me!

i love the scriptures. i love reading them.

some things i've been thinking about

i've been on a nonfiction kick lately, drawn to the biography and essay sections when i head over to
the provo library. the other day, though, a novel caught my eye as i was on my way to check out. it had a metallic cover, which always helps.

i just finished it: my name is memory by ann brashares, the author of the sisterhood of the traveling pants series. the main premise of the story is that every person has lived before, perhaps hundreds of years' worth of lives, dozens of births and deaths. the main character, daniel, is special (of course--he's the main character of a somewhat supernatural novel); he can remember all of his past lives, which makes each of his existences interesting in that he knows that this life is not his only one--he has lived, loved, and died before, and he will again. this is interesting to me mainly because this, in part, is what the gospel is all about. not that we have lived many times before in various reincarnations and milieus, but that this mortal life isn't all we have. we have lived before, and we will live again after we die.

the other really interesting idea that brashares introduces is that your soul, the thing that you do carry with you through all these lives, in some way or another, makes an impression on each body and life that you inhabit. the female protagonist, lucy, has a scar on her left arm from an injury she received in a past life. some of her likes and dislikes, fears and insecurities, inherent qualities, stem from things that happened to her before she was lucy. i know that's true in reality, too. our personalities stay with us. there is something holy and eternal about each of us that transcends mortality and ties us to divinity. we are incredibly unique, but we are known.

i listened to an episode of this american life last week called "switched at birth." like every episode, this one featured a fascinating story about two women who were switched in a hospital as newborns, the mother who knew as soon as she got home, and what happened to their lives when she finally broke the news 43 years later. this is obviously a crazy thing to contemplate, but something, related to the ideas in this book, really struck me. each of the girls, when they met their biological families, realized how much they were like those people and not the family they were raised with. one of the women, marty, was outgoing and funny and popular, just like her birth family, the mcdonalds, and vice versa with the other family. this is such a weird thing to me. isn't a lot of your personality formed by your environment? why didn't marty become more like the family she was raised with, the millers? this suggests that much of our personality is actually genetic rather than socially constructed. crazy!

just some random thoughts for your tuesday.

for times of trouble

this post is a long time coming. i started it way back in december and then didn't want to bum people out, so i put it on the back burner. but here it finally is: some thoughts about dealing with adversity. 

a couple weeks ago i taught my last institute lesson, on the topic of adversity. that happens to be something i think a lot about anyway, so i was kind of excited to put together all of my favorite quotes and scriptures. my two main mantras for my college years: 1) "i can do hard things" and 2) "things will work out".

also, this picture is awesome. he's so happy!

the sunday before my lesson, driving home from salt lake and listening to soft sunday sounds, i heard an ad for elder holland's new book, for times of trouble. perfect, i thought. this is exactly what i need (for my lesson and for life :)) so i headed to deseret book and forked out the money for the book, and people, it's amazing. he approaches the topic through the psalms, and i can't believe i've never studied them more closely. they are so beautiful. and elder holland is such an incredible thinker and writer anyway, so i'm learning a lot. i just wanted to share a few thoughts from the book today. and as i was reading through again to find what i wanted, almost every page had something awesome to think about. this is only the tip of the iceberg.

psalm 56:9: "whenever we go out and always when we come in, no matter what the trouble and trial of the day might be, we start ad finish with the eternal truth that God is for us. He loves us. He is our Heavenly Father. He never sleeps nor slumbers in His watchcare over us. His work and His glory are to save us, to exalt us, to see us safely home with Him."

psalms 19:1-3; 8:3-6: "by name, place, and personal circumstance God knows us and our needs. He knows our hopes and dreams and He knows our fears and frustrations. Above all, He knows who we really are and what we can become through faith in Him."

psalm 27:4-5: "when a difficult moment comes or an important decision faces us, we instinctively go to the temple. we find peace there and we find answers. it is the setting for tranquility, purity, and revelation. the tangled complexities of life fall away and the path we should walk or the action we should take--or just the safety and peace we desperately seek--becomes clear. the temple truly is a rock upon which God sets us when the winds and the waves are strongest."

psalms 30:5; 42:5; 130:6: "all of us need to believe that things will get better. no matter how dark the night or how long the struggle, we all need to believe that the dawn will come and that the tears of the night will be dried in the rays of the morning sun."

there are so many more gems i could share, but who knows what the plagiarism laws are for this kind of thing--don't want to get in trouble with the church! also, you should all read elder holland's book anyway. can't you just hear him saying all of these things? i know i'm always in need of comfort in the face of various trials, and elder holland's words have brought me some peace.