2 Nephi 6-10 “O How Great the Goodness of Our God"

“No member of this church can stand approved in the presence of God who has not seriously and carefully read the Book of Mormon.” Joseph Fielding Smith (CR, October 1961, 18)

Garret   That quote seems intimidating at first, but it should really be encouraging; as we "seriously and carefully read the Book of Mormon," we are bringing ourselves closer to divine approval. That's neat!

2 Nephi 3-5 “I Know in Whom I Have Trusted"

“Young [people] the Book of Mormon will change your life. It will fortify you against the evils of our day. It will bring a spirituality into your life that no other book will”. (Ezra Taft Benson, CR, April 1986)

1. Stan  In 2 Nephi 4:15-16, Nephi explains how much he enjoys pondering the scriptures. I get two things out of this scripture. First, in my personal life, I need to find time to slow down, to ponder. Great personal revelation comes when we are pondering the scriptures or pondering the things of the Lord. Second, my role as Patriarch is to liken the scriptures unto ourselves for the profit and learning of my children. Teaching my kids to get answers to questions through pondering and scripture study.
2. Garret One of the first real experiences I had with the scriptures was with 2 Nephi 4; as I read it I felt that I could relate to Nephi (although now I realize his problems were much bigger than mine!). Back then I was grateful to read about someone else who had problems and was discouraged by his own weaknesses, as well as those of his brothers. Now, however, as I read through the same chapter, the main theme to me is the relationship of complete trust that Nephi has with his Heavenly Father. He trusts his Father enough to obey Him consistently, even when it's hard.

   
   Today in Gospel Doctrine, we learned that even after much hardship, the people of Nephi were able to live "after the manner of happiness" (2 Nephi 5:27). Then we read through chapters 4 and 5 and looked for reasons why they were able to be so happy. How many can you find?
3. Brianna   It took me forever to get on the blog, I finally realized I had spelled Bassett with only 1 t, oops. Well we are a week ahead of you since you already had stake conference and ours is in 2 weeks. So spoiler alert because this is for next weeks lesson. I really liked what one of our students pointed out in 2nephi 9:39 the last line is "to be spiritually minded is life eternal" Which can be abbreviated as smile. Because when you are thinking about eternal life and being spiritually minded you smile and I thought that was really cute.
   
   
   Landon   I thought this was a cool chapter because it only reinforces Neph’is willingness to serve God. in one part he says, “oh wretched man that I am” even though we all know how great nephi was, his brothers continually pulled him down. We need to lift up others in life and look on the bright side of the world.
   
   
   Michelle  Chapter 4 is the well known poetic like sermon of Nephi’s that Landon mentioned. My favorite line from it is in verse 30 - “Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and rock of my salvation.” That is the essence of life, the message of the Gospel. That because of Christ we are redeemed! The reason for true joy!
   
   
   Ross  2 Nephi 4:16 - “Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which i have seen and heard.” I love that Nephi uses the word “continually” because it emphasizes the fact that we should have a place for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father in every aspect of our lives.
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Week 5: 2 Nephi 1-2 “Free to Choose Liberty and Eternal Life"

"The Book of Mormon is the best guide to learn how well we are doing and how to do better.” Henry B. Eyring, October General Conference, 2011


Michelle  AWAKE, ARISE…get up, open your eyes, see what must be done, stand up and be counted, let your light shine, be on the Lord’s errand…don’t let complacency rule your life…be up and doing and valiant in the cause of the Gospel.


Garret   In stake conference on Saturday, Elder Johnson of the Seventy spoke about our lives and said that they should be like Nephi's ship: "of curious workmanship." Just as that ship was not built "after the manner of men", our lives should be different! It doesn't mean we're better than other people by any means. But it means we've received instructions from the Lord as to how we should pattern our "ship", and we should follow those directions no matter how weird it looks to other people.

Week 4: 1 Nephi 16-22 “Hearken to the Truth, and Give Heed unto It"

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things . . . that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

"And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

"And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever" (Moroni 10:2—7).

Michelle  In building the ship, Nephi did not follow after the manner of men, but instead with incredible faith and fortitude, he built the ship after the pattern the Lord set forth. Great lesson for me.