Monsoon Season!

So I started school and it's good I really like it. Though I wake up every day at like 6:30am and I don't go to bed until midnight or later which is usually not that good of a thing to do. But I live through it, I really like the pace that it is set at; I like having a class for 4 weeks and then switching to a new one for the next four weeks, I am a full time student and I work part time. So it's good it keeps me on my toes, and school is at times so intense that when I have free time I spend it doing homework. But it will be so worth it in the end.

Last Sunday it was really windy and rainy so we have this little field next to our drive way and there is this really big huge tree that is very old so when I got home from church there was this big branch that had come down and was laying across our driveway and our front yard. Thank goodness nothing got damaged but also our power went out Sunday at 4:40pm and didn't come back on until 7:20 am Monday morning. Monday I went to school and did my power point presentation, turned in English homework worked on my essay paper went to work came home and worked on my paper some more and finished up some other homework that was due. Tuesday turned in everything that was due then went to work and then went over to Sunny's and Allie's for a girl's night out party and watched When in Rome. Friday was my day off I went shopping and then I went to a party with some friends that I haven't seen in like 6 months and had a awesome time it was really good to see them. Then Saturday I ran errands and then came home and made chocolate chip cookies, then I went to a party at Erica's and Heidi's new place and that was fun.

So yesterday at church we were combined with the boys and Brother Akerlow gave the lesson it was on weaknesses and sin it was good. Sunday school was good and Sacrament meeting I got an answer to a question that had been going through my mind a lot lately. Then I went to the mingle and talked to a lot of people in the ward and then went home to eat dinner and celebrate my aunt's birthday and we went to temple square then went back to my aunt's house and had cake and ice cream, and we watched some home movies.

Also it has been either super hott or thunderstorms off and on and it has been muggy so it has been like a monsoon season in the Valley also because of it raining so much the mountains are still pretty green it is awesome. Today I woke up to a huge thunderstorm that was raging which was pretty cool. I went to institute today I am taking a class on the New Testament and so far it's awesome. Much to my surprise when I got out of class today I saw a few of my friends that are in my ward. So that was pretty awesome. For now it has stopped raining but it most likely will start up again soon.

Speachify!

So I spoke in church on the 22nd of August so I thought I would share it with ya'll

I was really surprised when Brother Akerlow asked me to speak because this is my first time ever speaking in this ward. Also I don't like to stand up in front of a bunch of people and talk because I get really nervous. I have read the Book of Mormon many times and the the Book of Mormon is the first book of scripture that I have read from cover to cover.

But this time around I began to wonder why is this book so important? The first thing I though of was president Hinckley's promise. So I thought well that is true but there has to be more to the Book of Mormon than just that. So I remembered that Elder Holland gave a talk in Conference on the Book of Mormon last October. So Elder Holland said, "Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times-including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to 'come unto Christ' and be perfected in him. That phrase -taken from Moroni's final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi's vision-is a dying man's testimony of the only true way."

In addition the paragraph on the title page of the Book of Mormon says "And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations." But what I think sums it up best is when Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon into English through the gift and power of God. He said that it is: "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." So why is this book so important? Well it came from God, it is a correct book, it is the keystone of our religion, and it is a way we can get nearer to God.

Another thing that really stuck out to me is the story of Lehi and his family fleeing out of Jerusalem and what Lehi did before they fled into the wilderness. Lehi is shown in a dream many amazing things from the Lord. And Lehi became so overjoyed that he went among the the people of Jerusalem and prophesied so Nephi writes in 1 Nephi 1: 18-20 he says, "Therefore, I would that ye should know, that after the Lord had shown so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard. And it came to pass that the Jews did mock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations: and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world. And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

So I began to wonder why would Lehi go and preach unto the people even though he probably knew that they would want to kill him if he went out and preached unto them? Well I came up with the answer that Lehi knew that the words of the Lord are worth dying for and that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ is worth it, because we all know that this life is not the end, and that if we live worthy of the blessing to come, we can return home and live with our Father in Heaven and our Savior who is Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it does truely testify of Christ it is a wonderful and beautiful book that Joseph Smith translated with and through the power of God and I testify like Elder Holland says in his conference talk "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commandeed of God to do so." I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.