2 Nephi 25

Hello all! I apologize for making this post so late this week. March Madness, homework and socializing have gotten in the way this week. Aw, who am I kidding? Really it's just been March Madness and socializing.....anyway....Today I will be discussing chapter 25 in 2 Nephi. Throughout Second Nephi, Nephi and Jacob both quote the prophet Isaiah. Often times it is hard to understand the symbolism and the history that Isaiah describes. I know when I get to some of these chapters I think "alright, get through it as fast as possible and it will all be over soon." I don't recommend that kind of thinking. Verse 4 explains, "...the words of Isaiah...are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy." Luckily, we don't all have to be prophets in order to have this spirit. The Lord has blessed us with the ability to receive inspiration for ourselves and our families. This blessing comes with obedience to "the laws and ordinances of the gospel." If you feel stuck reading Isaiah, or any verse within the scriptures, pray, ponder, and wait for the Lord to reveal understanding to you. Moving on to verse 23 we read, "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ..." and onto verse 26, "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ..." I love these verses! I think this might be my new life motto. With all the missionaries now going into the mission field, I am so excited to hear about how how the gospel is growing throughout the world. For those (like me) not going on missions, it is still our job to "rejoice in Christ." Be an example to kids at school, coworkers, fellow athletes. I am so grateful for missionary work and for Latter-day Saints who are fantastic examples to others. We were each given the light of Christ and we just shine with it when we share our testimonies through word and deed.

2 Nephi 4

Hey guys! I have two exams to study for this week so the post today is gonna be relatively short. Today I am writing about 2 Nephi chapter 4. In this chapter, Lehi passes away after finishing his speech to his posterity. First I want to take a look at verse 5 where Lehi says, "...I cannot go down to my grave save I should leave a blessing upon you..." I love that Lehi knew the importance of a father's blessing. Here at BYU, I love seeing when young men exercise the Priesthood. I have had the opportunity to go to the Provo temple and be baptized by my Priesthood holding friends. I've witnessed blessings being given, home teaching lessons being taught on time, young men preparing for their missions and it is so amazing to see the power of God all around me. This next line in verse 20 is one of my new favorites: "My God hath been my support..." President Eyring said at General Conference that if we count our blessings every day, we will begin to easily see the hand of God in our lives. I appreciate that Nephi recorded how much Heavenly Father blessed and helped his family, even in times of trial in the wilderness. They were able to survive hunger and sickness because they relied on their Heavenly Father. For the rest of the chapter, Nephi prays. He prays out of gratitude, he prays for forgiveness, he prays out of joy and faith. I encourage you to read the rest of the chapter because there are some inspiring verses and one liners in there. As you go about the week, ask yourself when "God hath been (your) support." I testify that noticing and acknowledging the hand of God in your life will bless you and open your eyes to blessings you didn't even realize you had.

2 Nephi 1

Good afternoon! I hope you are all feeling productive today and have shaken the Monday slums away. This week marks the halfway point in the semester here at BYU. Since I have only gotten us through 1 Nephi, I think I am going to speed things up in the next few weeks. Or I might just continue posting stuff even after the semester is over....I haven't decided. Anyway, while I think about that, I want you guys to think about 2 Nephi chapter 1. This is basically a continuation of 1 Nephi, so it's gonna have some good stuff! It begins with Lehi prophesying to his family members. At this point, he is very old and frail so these are some of his last words to his posterity. In verse 13 he asks the unrighteous to "shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound" and in verse 23 we read, "Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains by which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." These verses sound a little scary, but in all honesty I love them. Before I talk about these verses, I want to start with a personal story. Up until recently, I felt like repentance was a harsh and hard process. Whenever I learned about it in a lesson or a talk, I just always thought it sounded kinda scary. Maybe I'm the only one with a little bit of pride in my personality, but it's hard for me to admit when I'm wrong. Saying sorry to my parents is hard enough, so saying sorry to my Heavenly Father just seemed like it would be harder. One day I was pondering over this and asked Heavenly Father if I could understand repentance better. I turned to the scriptures and verses like these helped me understand something I never thought about before. 2 Nephi chapter 32 verses 8 and 9 tell us that the "evil spirit teacheth a man not to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray." Nephi goes on to say, "ye must pray always..." Now replace the word "pray" with the word "repent." Heavenly Father wants to hear from us! Whether we are praying out of gratitude or praying because we have to say sorry, He wants to hear it! He has eternal, all encompassing love for you. For me. For your children. For every single person on Earth. Repentance can be hard because it requires us to humble ourselves and admit to a wrongdoing, but our Father in Heaven doesn't want to see us suffer. He wants us to learn from our mistakes, pick up and keep moving forward. Now, back to the verses in chapter 1. I like the phrase "shake off the chains." Whether you are sitting in a chair reading this or standing in your kitchen, just do a little shake. Not hard, right? The gospel makes getting rid of sin simple, but Satan is the one that makes it seems hard. He tells us we don't deserve to be forgiven, or that the process is too difficult to begin. I am here to testify that if we take the first step, our Heavenly Father is more than willing to help us along the way. So, "arise from the dust" and remember that Heavenly Father loves you. YOU! His way doesn't always seem like the easy way, but I guarantee that in the end it will be. He will "pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" if you arise, shine and sparkle the way you were made to.
This is one of my favorite talks of all time. I mean, of all time. Seriously so good, and of course it's by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: It Is Never Too Late

1 Nephi 18

Good afternoon guys! I hope you are all having a good week. With President's Day starting out the week, I have been a bit discombobulated so this post is a little late...sorry! So today I wanted to talk about 1 Nephi 18. In 18 we read about Nephi taking his family on the boat they constructed to the promised land. Everything starts well, but then of course Laman and Lemuel and  the sons of Ishmael revolt against Nephi. In verse 10 they say that they don't like having their younger brother "rule over" them, so in verse 11 we read that they tie Nephi up and leave him like that for four days. While Nephi was bound, a great storm arose and the Liahona stopped working, leaving the family helpless on the sea. As the storm raged on, Nephi's brothers grew afraid and realized they needed to let him go. Now in verse 20 we read, "...wherefore, when they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the thing which they had done..." and in 21 we read, "And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm." Did you notice multiple things had to be done in order for the storm to stop? First, Nephi's brothers had to repent of their sins. Next, they had to make things right by loosening the cords. Nephi then looked to the compass given to them by Heavenly Father and then prayed that the storm might cease. The principle I draw from this is that sometimes our trials aren't going to be taken away in the blink of an eye. In fact, that rarely happens. Trials are given to us because we have sinned, but they are also given to shape, refine and perfect us, even when we are being obedient. Without trials we cannot fully appreciate the Plan of Salvation or become like Christ. It is important to trust in God's timeline and know that there might be multiple things we have to do before we conquer a certain challenge. Something my Doctrine and Covenants professor said in class today is, "The Lord wants to bless us when the blessing will bless us the most." This teaches patience, but it also teaches the importance of faith in God, and knowing that he knows better than we do. I know this topic has kind broadened out from Nephi's story, so I hope you can see the connection I've made. I have learned to be grateful for the challenges in my life. Something I have started to do is instead of asking Heavenly Father to take my trials away, I ask for the strength and knowledge to overcome them. I have noticed that this gives more purpose and focus to my prayers as I learn how to overcome challenges. I challenge each of you to try this approach and I promise that your trials will seem lighter.

1 Nephi 15

Good morning readers. Are you feeling the love in the air? That's right, it's Valentine's Day week! In honor of it, give your loved ones an extra hug this week, tell them you love them, and maybe put a few heart stickers on their bedroom door or something. Anyone in need of a Valentine? I volunteer :) Okay, so back to business. Today I wanted to write about 1 Nephi 15, as you can see from the title of this post. So this whole time, Nephi has been trying to help his brothers understand the teachings of the Lord. Wouldn't it be frustrating to constantly tell your siblings something important, just to have them ignore and ridicule you? Well, in this chapter Laman and Lemuel finally express to Nephi that they just don't understand the teachings of their father. In verse 7 we read, "And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive-tree, and also concerning the Gentiles." Now, Nephi could have easily interpreted Lehi's teachings for them, but instead he said in verse 8, "And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?" Sometimes I just hope I will be given an answer to a question I have without doing any of the work. Ask Heavenly Father, He has the answers! They may not come when or how you want them to, but they will come, you need only ask. Which brings us to verse 9, "And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known to us." Okay, of course they don't understand this stuff, they are just waiting around for answers! It is important to remember to actively inquire of the Lord when we need answers. In verse 11 we are given three steps to achieving these answers: 1) Ask in faith 2)Believe that you will receive an answer 3)Be diligent in keeping the commandments. I am grateful for the power of prayer. I always feel more peaceful, productive, focused and happy when I have "inquired of the Lord." One last principle I took from chapter 15. In verses 13 through 18 Nephi speaks of the house of Israel and how they are a covenant people. He talks about how the Gentiles are a chosen people, a people who the gospel will be preached to and who will preach the gospel I love that the word
"chosen" is used. If we always remembered we were each chosen to be here at this time, we each have our own missions, we are each children of God, how would we act? This is such an important principle. Remember who you are! I am grateful I have had such strong women in my life who act as role models to me and who constantly remind me of my divine heritage. I am a princess, for I am a daughter of a King.
  I made a little handout (<-- that picture over there) so if you want to you can use it. I understand it is directed towards girls, but I'm pretty sure I don't have many Young Men's leaders reading my blog....:) Anyway, have a wonderful week readers!