“I promise you, as you do so, there will be a greater sense of unity love and faith in your stake, district, ward or branch. There will be a greater love and harmony in marriages and families. An increase in faith. A greater ability to seek and receive the influence of the Holy Ghost and a sweet deepening spiritual conversion unto the Lord.” – Elder Kevin W. Pearson (Pacific Area Presidency Broadcast 2014)
In a recent training from the Area Presidency, Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy challenged the members of Ward and Stake Councils to immerse themselves in the Book of Mormon. As an Area we have been challenged to deepen our own personal conversion by doing 3 things.
- Increase personal faith in Christ and urgency for the work by keeping the commandments, magnifying your calling, and serving others
- Recommitment to the Law of the Fast by prayerfully fasting with a purpose on Fast Sunday and the payment of a generous fast offering
- Immersion in the Book of Mormon by individuals and families praying, studying, pondering, and reading the Book of Mormon at least twice this year.
Elder Pearson has prepared a Reading chart as a guide to help us fulfil this challenge.
(Following are the thoughts of one of our EMP sisters, as she commits herself to
accept Elder Pearson's challenge to us all.)
I am going to tell you about me and the scriptures. I know everyone has different ways of reading them, and some people really struggle. For me, I have gone through stages where sometimes I do more than at other times. I have a testimony of how much God wants to bless us, and I know He sends power, inspiration, light, patience, strength, peace and a whole lot more when we do read the scriptures.
When I was a teenager, probably in about Grade 11, I suddenly fell in love with the scriptures. I would write down all the scriptures I liked in big, fat, teenage writing in my journal- often I wouldn’t even end up writing about my day- I would just write down a bunch of scriptures that I liked.
I remember doing big long scripture trawls, where I would follow every cross reference, trying to find the answer to a point that puzzled me. In this way, I learned to think about the meanings of the words on the page, and about the concepts. For instance, I stayed for ages on 2 Nephi 2, which is a chapter that is particularly full of really big gospel concepts, and unpacked a lot of really key gospel doctrines.
I also fell in love with Isaiah. I used to read 2 Nephi with 3 books open: 2 Nephi, Isaiah, and Avraham Gileadi’s translation of Isaiah. By comparing three different translations of the words written by Isaiah, I came to love the messages and prophecies of this great prophet. I have never been scared of 2 Nephi since that time!
I found that when I read the scriptures really, really slowly, thinking about each word, and each concept, and expecting to understand it, the language just opens up, and because I have studied it in depth, the next time I come round to reading that part, there is a remembrance still, and I don’t have to do as much deciphering to understand it.
When I became a Mum, I went through a period of 7 years of post-natal depression. I guess if you have never had depression you would find it hard to believe just how much of a mountain every single thing gets to be. I got to the point where I would set a goal to achieve just three things per day, and hopefully one of them was to have a shower! It was tough. Sometimes, my scripture study dwindled. But I have a really strong testimony of the power of the scriptures, and so even if I all I could do was to read just one verse that day, I would still read a verse.
I think that if you have trouble reading the scriptures, and carry some guilt around for not reading them that it is super wonderful if you just read a verse a day. Sometime, that verse will turn into 2, and then maybe a page. But even one a day is the greatest start. It will bring power and peace into your life.
I have always read the scriptures, and we have always had family scripture study too. I believe they have literally protected me and my family from Satan. My home is a truly happy place. I believe that there is a measure of the Spirit that comes into a home when you actively block Satan from it by not viewing stuff that has sex or violence or swearing, and when you actively invite God into it by praying and reading the scriptures. Sometimes, on crazy busy weeks, we might miss a few days, but in general, we read them and talk about the meaning. My kids understand them, because from their earliest days, they have been part of a family scripture reading pattern. I don’t claim that doing these things will make your home a perfect home! But I do know that when you very deliberately go about blocking the evil of the world, and filling its place with the pure things of God, there is a much better chance of having a happy home.
In the last few years, I have been super, super busy. I work part time, I am at uni writing my psychology honours thesis, and I have kids at every stage of schooling: uni, high school and primary school. I run the home, I do the books for my husband’s business, and I am Stake Primary President. At one stage I was also P & C President. My day starts at about 5am with seminary, and often goes till 11.30 or 12 at night, and during exam time, it is often later than that. I am busy all day, every day. But I really love my life! I love being a mum. Having had depression, you really learn to value the days when you feel OK, and I still wake up and feel joy at being better. I love to dive into a day- it is so great to be free from depression, and to have motivation. So, I am busy, but in a good, happy way.
So, where do I put the scriptures into my day now? I try to read them first thing. Some days are better than others. Sometimes I wake up late, or there is someone needing something straight away, and so some days I don’t get to read. But my pattern is there, so I never let it go more than a day or two before I am back.
Some days I read a little. Life is like that. Some days I get a good half an hour or more in. Each year, I try to read the book of scripture we are up to in Sunday School, as well as the reading from RS. Because I travel quite a bit with my calling, I am often not in Sunday School or RS, so I have the fun of just having my own little lessons by myself. Soooo, what I do, is to download the Institute manual onto my phone, and then I read that along with the scriptures. It is SOOOOOOOOOOO amazing how much is in the Institute manuals, and how they help me understand the scriptures better. This morning I was reading about the Fall (Genesis 3) and there is such a lot of wonderful doctrinal commentary in the institute manual, that really helps explain the Fall.
The other great thing I have discovered when reading my scriptures is the internet. If I don’t understand something, or if I suddenly want to know about a person mentioned, I will jump onto google and start exploring. Last week, I was finally finishing off the Doctrine and Covenants reading from last year, and I suddenly wanted to know about what happened with Joseph Smith’s children. There was some great material. Did you know that Joseph’s brother, Hyrum has 30 000 living descendants, while Joseph only has 1 100! And 2/3 of them live in Australia! Oh, and only about 130 of Joseph’s descendants are members of the Church. When I find an article that I want to go back to, I stick it onto Pinterest.
Now, when the Area Presidency counselled us to read the Book of Mormon twice this year, while I was excited, I just didn’t know where I was going to fit that in! But one day, when I was being annoyed for the millionth time that our car radio has stopped working, I had this brilliant idea: I realised that I could listen to the scriptures on my phone while I was driving. I spend a heap of time in the car- shopping, taking kids to school and seminary, driving to uni, driving to other wards etc. It takes only 3-5 minutes to listen to a chapter of scripture, so even if I only listen for 10 minutes a day, I’ve done a couple of chapters that day.
I have been so blessed as I have returned to a study of the Book of Mormon. I can definitely say my productivity has increased, and I am feeling a greater measure of light in my mind. The Book of Mormon is an internal cleanser. It also makes me bolder with sharing the gospel. So I am truly grateful for the challenge this year- it has bettered my life already.
By Rachel Garcia
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