Jan 2

Shalee spent the day on individual dates with each child that they gave her for Christmas.  She started at IHOP for breakfast with Kara, moved to Chipotle for lunch with Luke, ate Pizza at Costco with Sammy for dinner, and finished with dessert at the Cheesecake Factory with Jared.  We feasted today!!

We also read from the Book of Mormon together again.  Here is some of our discussion:

1 Nephi 

1:6- 

-What is a "Pillar of Fire"?  Jeremy suspects it includes a personage (angel, Savior, etc.)

-How did Lehi physically react to this experience? Who else has seen something like this? Kara named Moses and the burning bush.  We also discussed Joseph Smith's experience in the Sacred Grove.

-Exceedingly means "a lot."

1:7-

-Lehi wasn't at home when he saw the pillar of fire and when he got home he was exhausted from the things he saw/heard.  Who else was exhausted after being taught by an Angel--Joseph Smith and his experience with the Angel Moroni.

-What if Lehi filled his life with distractions or loud noises (wii, tv, music?) Would he have had those experiences?  We discussed how we need to turn off the world and listen to God more.  This is one reason we try to not have electronics on Sunday.

1:8- 

-What did Lehi see?  Jared said God was sitting on a throne like a king.  We talked about how the angels were happy.  Jeremy asked who the angels were...Kara said "Heavenly Hosts" and Jared said "people who appear to others and teach them like Moroni."  Then Jeremy taught us that they are God's children who weren't born yet...it could have been US!!!

1:9- 

-Who descended?  We talked about how "One" is capitalized so it wasn't just anyone it was THE ONE. Our Savior. We talked about how he would have been called Jehovah because he hadn't come to earth yet.

-Jeremy taught us that "luster' means "brightness.  What was the Savior's brightness compared to?

1:10- 

-Who are the 12? What was their luster compared to? We talked about who would judge us in the judgement and how the 12 would judge the Tribes of Israel.

It was a great discussion and connections were made from other stories in the scriptures and we are trying to make some applications to our own lives as well.

We decided to spend January studying about Nephi since that is something that correlates with a program in "The Friend." Next month we will study a different Scripture Hero.

In addition, we decided we will try to memorize 1 Nephi 3:7 as a family.

Jan 1

So far so good!  We made pretzels for dinner tonight and then settled down in the piano room for scripture study.  We decided to start at the very beginning and skip chapter headings.  Here are some of the things we talked about.

1 Nephi 

1:1- 

-What does it mean that he saw many afflictions?  What is affliction (hardships, trials) Do we see that in our world today? (Divorce, children dying, evil, sadness)
-What does it mean to be favored? Kara said it means God chose him to do what He needed him to do.
-Why does someone who was chosen experience affliction?  We talked about how some of the most faithful people we know have gone through the most difficult experiences.
-Why does he mention his parents?

1:2-

-What language did he write in?

1:3-

-Why is he telling us this?  Kara said he's basically saying that this is his autobiography. He is making sure we know that he wrote this and everything he wrote is true.

1:4-

-What would happen if the people didn't repent?
-What does it mean to repent? Jared said pray.  We talked about righting the wrong and not sinning again.
-Lehi lived his whole life in Jerusalem.  We discussed how this probably made it that much harder for when he had to flee with his family.  It was the only place they ever knew.  We talked about how it was hard to move from Arizona and we had only lived there for 3 years.  I think it took much faith on Lehi's part to leave his home.

1:5-

-Where was Lehi going? Jeremy said that he felt like either Lehi was one of the prophets in the previous verse who was out prophesying or else he was out listening to one of the other prophets prophesying when he began to pray for his people.

-What does it mean to pray with all your heart?  We discussed really thinking about what we are saying.  Not saying the same thing every time. Jared mentioned repenting.

And we ended the night with warm brownies topped with ice cream...oh that every night could be such a feast!!

Feasting upon the word of God in 2016

This year our family is taking the challenge to study and ponder the Book of Mormon.  Each night after feasting on dinner we plan to read together (with whoever is not at dance or basketball or scouts...) one verse each and then have meaningful conversation and discuss important principles that jump out to us.

In the past we have read the Book of Mormon twice as a family and have taken roughly a year to get through it.  It's been a wonderful experience and has definitely blessed our home and family.

In 2016, we are going to read it slowly and carefully and see how our experience goes.  In addition to reading, I wanted to journal some of the things that are said or discussed so we can look back on it and see how far we've come.

5 verses a day (we aren't including a verse for Sammy since his attention is elsewhere!)  Maybe more if we are feeling ambitious.