I have begun re-reading the Book of Mormon in accordance with the Stake goals that have been set by our Stake President here in Tulsa. We are suppost to read it by May 1st. To be honset I have only read the Book once through in my life and I finished that read on the plane flight frrm Utah to here. I have tried several times to read it through, but things have always come up, and there is a whole list of excuses that I can make up, but I simply haven't done it. I always thought that to be a good learning experience I needed to read a whole book from cover to cover and retain everything that was read. I have since learned that I learn the most through studying what I realy want to learn about, and the application of what I learned. Doing this creates a greater desire to learn even more about other things, and has begun to build my confidence up in all aspects of my life. So reading through books has not always been the best way for me to learn.
When I started the first book of Nephi I was hung up on a verse found in the first chapter, is verse 20. Nephi is giving a brief account of his fathers life and calling to be prophet to call the Jews to repentence and in verse 20 he says, "But behold, I , Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." What I take from this is that Nephi is saying that he is going to show us how God watches over those that are chosen, and exercise faith in Him, and that God will make it possible that they that are chosen and have faith can be delivered out of anything. This tells me that while I read the Book of Mormon I need to be looking for the things that God does because of Nephi and his family's faith. I can think of several times where Nephi was the only one faithful and was given power unto deliverance, the brass plates, the bow, the boat and so on. But this is not what I really learned from this scripture, what I really learned was that Nephi is writing in a journal and the Spirit is helping him see where throughout his life he has lived by faith and how the tender mercies of the Lord has blessed him. Nephi didn't know that the third time going back into Jerusalm was going to do the trick! It was only after the events of getting the brass plates did he realize what the Lord had done because of his faith. I have begun to think about how this could be applied to me and I have come up with this thought, "I have a life full of faith, I need to be looking back on it and see how the Lord has watched over me, and blessed me with the power unto deliverance because of the acts of faith in my life. I have begun to notice more of the Lords hands being involved in my life, and learning of the moments when those tender mercies have happened and strengthened my faith. I am learning from my past, applying it to the present and preparing for the future. This is something important for me to remember.
It has gotten warmer here; we were in the fifties, which could have made for great basketball weather, but we decided to play at the church instead. It was a well needed break from things.
I've got to go; we are running a bit behind schedule. I love you Mom and Dad and thank you for all you are doing for me!
Love,
Elder Kelly Conrad
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