Life

30 MAR 15

(Moroni 1:3) “And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life.”

How many of us would have this sort of conviction? It’s easy for us to say we would from our relative positions of safety but since they were hunting it makes me think there were more than just Mormon and Moroni out there but maybe not quite at the same spiritual level as them. Considering the rest of the Nephites, there must have been just a few.

(Moroni 1:4)“I write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites, in some future day.”

So Moroni is present when the Lamanites destroy his civilization and are trying to find and kill him and yet he is still thinking of ways to help those that despise him. I hope to have that level of ability to forgive someday.  It’s easy to hold grudges or feel indifferent to those that harm us.

31 MAR 15

I would describe much of Moroni’s initial writing as filling in the gaps of instruction from the rest of the record. It’s as if he looked at the record and asked himself what was missed or left out. I find it interesting that in chapter two he starts with something that was left from the record and not heard by others. It makes me wonder if he received this part as a direct revelation to fill in this gap of the historical record recognizing that the Nephite disciples were Apostles.

Power to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Moroni 2:2)

The gift of the Holy Ghost has been a powerful blessing in my life. I have felt it’s guidance direct me in different paths in my life than what I might have otherwise taken.

 

01 APR 15

Authority to ordain Priests and Teachers. (Moroni Chapter 3)

I remember when I was ordained to be a Priest. I was in foster care and the home I was living in the foster mom was not in the church. Since Priests could ordain other Priests, I had a member of the quorum perform my ordination. It was pretty special for all of us.

Manner and administration of the Sacrament. (Moroni 4&5)

Some of these scriptures keep reminding me of things in my life. Lately my wife and I have been teaching our son about the sacrament and remembering Christ while taking it. It’s an amazing feeling to see him pick up the significance of it.

02 APR 15

A verse that stuck out to me as I was reading is Moroni 6:5. “And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls”. As a bit of an introvert the habit of meeting together in large groups goes against my natural preferences. I actually find ward socials to be a bit of a stressful experience but as Joseph B. Wirthlin said “Ours is the commandment and the blessing to meet together oft.”

Even if our natural preference is not to go to gatherings, we should go to fulfill the commandment to do so. As we do so, there will be opportunity to learn and grow with others. I know that while some of the church’s social events are still stressful to me I will be blessed for participating and have an opportunity to learn from others.

03 APR 15

Spirit of Christ/Light of Christ (Moroni 7:16-17)

As a father of a young child this is another thing that amazing to see in him. While he is still learning, there are many things that he just innately knows from right and wrong. I know that the Light of Christ is in all people.

Faith, hope, charity (Moroni 7:37-48)

I picked out these words due to the frequency they show up through these verses. It seems they are pointing out their significance. The combination makes me think of 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” I think I will pray to have a greater love for others in my life in this upcoming week. It’s easy to love my family and friends but it’s more difficult to have a love for those beyond that.

23 MAR 15

It’s not often in the scriptures that the Lord just fixes something miraculously. More often the Lord gives people the means and guidance to fix things themselves or asks them to perform an act of faith prior to the miracle. I like reading through the process that the brother of Jared and the Lord go through as they work through some of the problems (Ether 2:19-25 & Ether 3:1-5).

In this case the brother of Jared does what he was commanded in building the vessels but realizes there will be issues due to lack of light and air circulation. In the case of air the Lord gives the brother of Jared some simple instructions but in the case of the light, he just doesn’t give an answer but asks him what he would have him do. To me this a reminder that sometimes the Lord wants us to do some of our own work to prepare, even in cases where a miracle will still be needed.

24 MAR 15

In Ether 4:4 Moroni described the brother of Jared’s visions as “never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared”. I imagine those visions including things involving the covenants made in the temple and maybe even greater things with in his calling as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

Moroni goes on to describe the conditions that will be needed for this portion to be unsealed. I just wonder what hasn’t been revealed and what parts of it are also parts from the temple ceremonies and covenants. Since it requires us to have faith even as the brother of Jared I think it would also be something that could not be truly understood except the person have the spirit of prophecy.

25 MAR 15

I like catching the bits of revelation that has been fulfilled like that found in Ether 3:3-4. In that scripture in foretells of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. It strengthens my testimony as I have the opportunity to read of experiences like this and pray to know their experience was true. It is also a powerful witness to me that even as they fell away and only two came back, they never recanted their experience.

An observation I have is that reading the Book of Ether is like reading many of the major themes and history from the entirety of the Book of Mormon crammed into fifteen chapters. This thought occurred to me as I was reading Ether 7:20 and it was talking of the divisions forming in the land.

26 MAR 15

“Secret combination” (Ether 8:18-19)

Once again the downfall of a civilization in America is preceded by the growth of secret combinations. I’m not a conspiracy theory person but this makes me wonder if I should be. We know that in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars. This makes me wonder if this will be accomplished here by secret combinations set to get gain. Some would argue they aren’t so secret and that is much of the purpose of politics now days.

Speaking of politics lets go to Ether 10:5-6. In this section we are told of a series of leaders, some more righteous and some very less righteous than others. In verse 5-6 we read of Riplakish who built extravagant building and taxed the people into squalor. This makes me wonder if this should be used as word of caution in our day and the governing practices of our leaders and what they can lead to.

27 MAR 15

What does 30+1 have to do with the scriptures? Well in Ether chapter 12 the word faith is used 30 times and the word faithful is used once. These uses are spread across the words of Ether and the commentary of Moroni on the subject. The repetition of the words just stuck out to me and I realized that whole chapter is centered around the principle of faith.

A few of my favorite quotes concerning faith from the chapter are:

“faith is things which are hoped for and not seen” “ye have not witness until after the trial of your faith” (Ether 12:6)

The first is a beautiful definition of faith and the second reminds me to be strong in trials.

“if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27)

This quote I find comforting that the Lord will make me stronger if I have faith.

“if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith” (Ether 12:30)

Literally, mountains can be moved by the power of faith.

 

Sarah got me a new watch band for my Asus Zen Watch. I stained my old one from sweating and wearing it while during yard work. I usually wore sport watches in the past and I just wasn’t thinking about damaging the leather. I purchased a new watch band, pins and tool set to assist in changing it all out. It was pretty easy to change out and I was even able to transfer the original deployment clasp over. I wish I had purchased a spring bar tool set before. It makes changing out straps quick and easy. Overall I am happy with the new change to the looks of the watch.

Watch band http://amazon.com/gp/product/B002EEP5WI/

Spring bar tool set http://amazon.com/gp/product/B005ZEWGSA/

Spring bar pins http://amazon.com/gp/product/B000X94TVO/

 

 

 

 

So I took of Thursday with the intention of getting ahead on my homework for the math I’m taking online. I looked at the weather report and realized Saturday was going to be full of rain. So I switched to doing yard work I had planned for Saturday. I took Sarah and Joseph along and we got some supplies and plants for my projects from the Home Depot. I normally prefer Lowes but their saw was not working this past Saturday. The prediction for rain was correct and I will get to that homework in a few minutes here today. First I’d like to do a quick blog post about some of the yard work I did. I  mowed and fertilized the backyard but I also did a couple more interesting projects.

In my first project I built two raised planters and placed the start of some blackberry bushes in them. I figure the raised beds will help me keep them from growing into my lawn. I also made a simple trellis from spare fencing and wood that I had. I also think the position of the bushes will provide an additional natural thermal protection layer to my house. The wall the bushes are against get a good 6-10 hours of direct sunlight so I hope they will thrive in their current spot. The wood for the boxes were from some simple 2″x12″x8′ that I had cut down. Each box is 2’x2′ and hold roughly 4 cubic feet of soil. The bottom of the boxes are open but I placed cardboard down to assist in killing the grass below the boxes. Prior to placing the boxes I cut the grass down to as close to bare earth as I could get.

I also looked it up and realized I should have already removed the stakes from my trees. So I cut out the wire and started trying to wiggle them out. This was of course some tough work. I thought there had to be an easier way so I looked on Google and found a handy guide on YouTube with easy to follow directions on a method that worked for me. In my case I had 1’x6’x4″ boards but they substituted in okay for the place of the 2’x4′ boards. They just got chewed up good by the stakes biting into them. It’s projects like this that make me glad I purchased my large wood vice last year. I first used it for building our table but it has come in handy for several other projects. Below is the video guide I followed for removing the stakes.