Yesterday I read 1 Neph 1. As I was reading the main thing that stood out to me is the pillar of fire on a rock that came to Lehi. Visions are something that I would like to study. There seems to be visions that have to do with an actual being coming to the onlooker, and others that are like looking through a window and watching future events, there are also others that come in dreams. The ones in dreams.

Today,

I am reading in the manual and I came across a really neat quote that demonstrates the converting power of the Book of Mormmon. This is from the manual:

President James E Faust related an experience

shared by Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy

that demonstrates the converting power of the Book

of Mormon:

“Sister Celia Cruz Ayala of the Puerto Rico San Juan

Mission decided to give the Book of Mormon to a

friend. She wrapped it in attractive paper and set out

to deliver her present.

“On the way she was attacked by a bandit who stole

her purse and with it the wrapped copy of the Book

of Mormon. A few days later she received this letter:

“‘Mrs. Cruz:

“‘Forgive me, forgive me. You will never know how

sorry I am for attacking you. But because of it, my life

has changed and will continue to change. That book

[the Book of Mormon] has helped me in my life. The

dream of that man of God has shaken me. . . . I am

returning your five pesos for I can’t spend them. I want

you to know that you seemed to have a radiance about

you. That light seemed to stop me [from harming you,

so] I ran away instead.

“‘I want you to know that you will see me again, but

when you do, you won’t recognize me, for I will be

your brother. . . . Here, where I live, I have to find the

Lord and go to the church you belong to.

“‘The message you wrote in that book brought tears

to my eyes. Since Wednesday night I have not been

able to stop reading it. I have prayed and asked God to

forgive me, [and] I ask you to forgive me. . . . I thought

your wrapped gift was something I could sell. [Instead,]

it has made me want to make my life over. Forgive me,

forgive me, I beg you.

“‘Your absent friend.’

“Such is the conversion power of the Book of Mormon”

(in Conference Report, Apr. 1996, 58; or Ensign, May

1996, 42).

I also read 3 Nephi 26:12-13 and Mormon 8:34-35 and the book makes the point that when Mormon made editorial decisions, these two factors were his governing concerns: to write what he had been commanded (or sometimes he was commanded not to write things) and Mormon saw our day and our doings. The book of Mormon then contains scriptural instructions specific for our day. If ever we are confused or down on the happenings in our lives in the current world in which we find ourselves we can appeal to this book and find strength and answers.

Mastery of Good and Rejection of Evil

[imp] Today while I was reading for school about the Healthy People 2010 inititive I thought that its funny how it correlates to our ideas found in James of mastering the good and rejecting evil...also related to my lesson on virtue that I learned from E. Mickelson on my mission. The initiative talks about promoting health and preventing disease. There is a universal pull toward the negative in our lives, we see it with sin, we see it with clutter in our homes, we see it in the natural tendencies to anger or become offended. It was interesting to see it in a health setting, in my career. I love it when I can make gospel correlations to dentistry. I'm going to try to keep looking for those.

[imp] My second impression was that I am thinking with a gospel framed mentality today because I started the day with the Lord. That is a great principle.

Moroni's Promise

Moroni 10:5 is applicable to all the recent discussions we have had at church about personal revelation. I love this formula that he gives.

Read the Book of Mormon with a spirit of gratitude

Ponder its teachings

Pray with sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ

Feel the power of the Holy Ghost

Spiritual Knowledge/Revelation

Things I need to study:

I tried to be prayerful this morning and come up with a list of topics that the Lord feels like I should study. These are the topics that I was impressed to write down.

Redeem the dead

Perfect the Saints

Proclaim the Gospel

Leadership

Families

Virtue

Thoughts

Atonement

Friend

Priesthood

Temples

Restoration

Charity

Faith

Hope

Diligence

Moral Discipline

Steadfast/Consistent

Provident Living

Personal Revelation

Natural Man

Temptation

Sacrifice

Prayer and Fasting

Conference Talks

I've been thinking lately about how I can increase my gospel study efforts to a point where I am consistently feeling the spirit and receiving personal revelation on a daily basis. It is 6:30 AM right now. I am showered and dressed and sitting here ready to start studying. The following quote was given by the bishop yesterday in our 5th Sunday lesson and it shares some real specific ways to enhance our scripture study:

Further, for the gospel to be written in your heart, you need to know what it is and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. 5 When I say “study,” I mean something more than reading. It is a good thing sometimes to read a book of scripture within a set period of time to get an overall sense of its message, but for conversion, you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time. I see you sometimes reading a few verses, stopping to ponder them, carefully reading the verses again, and as you think about what they mean, praying for understanding, asking questions in your mind, waiting for spiritual impressions, and writing down the impressions and insights that come so you can remember and learn more. Studying in this way, you may not read a lot of chapters or verses in a half hour, but you will be giving place in your heart for the word of God, and He will be speaking to you. Remember Alma’s description of what it feels like: “It beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.” 6 You will know that the gospel is being written in your heart, that your conversion is happening, as the word of the Lord from His prophets, past and present, feels more and more delicious to your soul.

D. Todd Christofferson, “When Thou Art Converted,” Liahona, May 2004, 11–13

Making Outlines on Conference

At the back of the conference issue of the Ensign you can usually find talks by topic, news, etc. This November I was looking back there and found a nice Conference Story Index that I found interesting. Also I read a little section of the counsel for teaching for our times and saw that one of the suggestions said to make an outline of how to teach the principles and doctrines. It got me thinking back to my Living Prophets Religion course at BYU. The teacher gave us the assignment to make outlines for several key talks over the years and we would hand them in as papers to get feedback.

I want to set a goal to make outlines for all of the talks in the conference issue by the end of the year. I want the outlines to be somewhat formated on the suggested elements from my BYU course but I'm going to have to look that up. Making outlines is a great way to have spiritual thoughts at your fingertips, and be led by the Spirit, I think the biggest asset though is the act of making the outline really makes you digest the talk in a whole new way.

Preparing to Ascend

I find it fascinating that as Christ was preparing to return to His Father in Heaven he went about setting up and organizing teams to help carry on the work. The three main examples I can think of and there may be more as I begin to unravel this thought, are: The mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, the Nephites in Bountiful, and on the other side of the veil those in the spirit world.

Transfiguration of Christ: Peter, James, and John saw the Lord glorified and transfigured before them. The Savior had before promised that Peter would receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16: 13-19; 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-10; Luke 9: 28-36; 2 Pet. 1: 16-18). At this important event, the Savior, Moses, and Elias (Elijah) gave the promised keys of the priesthood to Peter, James, and John. With these priesthood keys, the Apostles had the power to continue the work of the kingdom after the ascension of Jesus.

Joseph Smith taught that on the mount of transfiguration, Peter, James, and John were also transfigured. They saw a vision of the earth as it will appear in its future glorified condition (D&C 63: 20-21). They saw Moses and Elijah, two translated beings, and heard the voice of the Father. The Father said,”This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matt. 17: 5).

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to be continued....