2 NEPHI 11-24

We divided these chapters into four subjects: (1) the scattering of Israel, (2) the gathering of Israel, (3) the Millennium and (4) prophecies about Jesus Christ.

With the scattering their were natural consequences to their sins. We learned that many sins were being committed such as listening to soothsayers, marrying outside of the covenant, worshipping idols, not worshipping God, prideful, preying on the poor, drunkenness, calling evil good and good evil, and cursing God. Do we see any of these sins today? The natural consequences to their sins were: hiding from the Lord, idols destroyed, wicked will perish, all their finery will be taken away, no knowledge of God, all sinners will suffer whether rich or poor, and will be in darkness. Do we suffer from these natural consequences to our sins? Do we sometimes hide from the Lord because of our shame (do not want to pray) and we know the Holy Ghost cannot dwell with us in our sins (be in darkness). But, throughout all of this we read that the Lord's hand will still be stretched out....we just need to reach for it.

We learned that the gathering has commenced. We discovered that The Book of Mormon is a good gathering tool. President Benson said, "We must not forget that the Lord Himself provided the Book of Mormon as His chief witness. The Book of Mormon is still our most powerful missionary tool. Let us use it." 2 Nephi 2:10-12 taught us that a root of Jesse (Joseph Smith) will stand for an ensign of the people. Gentiles will seek this ensign. It also taught that the Lord will recover His people a second time (first time they were saved with Moses) and they will be come all around the world. Elder Maxwell made the following statement: "President Brigham Young noted....that as the Church extended and expanded into the nations of the world..., so in like manner and simultaneously would the power of the adversary rise...In such dramatic circumstances you will need those virtues which President George Q. Cannon ascribed to those of the latter days: courage, determination, and 'obedience to God under all circumstances.' ALL THE EASY THINGS THE CHURCH HAS HAD TO DO HAVE BEEN DONE. FROM NOW ON IT IS HIGH ADVENTURE!" What can we do to help with the gathering?

During the Millennium we found out that everyone on the earth will be holy. We will not need to worry about door locks, prisons Satan, a strong military, national elections, poverty or pornography. Christ will be the leader of our government. The animals will change. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, etc. This can be figurative or literal. Literal...just like it states -- figurative the wolf, lion and leopard representing the powerful, aggressive people and the lamb, kid and calf may represent peaceful and meek people. Do you want to be there? If so, what are we doing to become a "holy" person?

2 NEPHI 19:6 (OR ISAIAH 9:6)

2 NEPHI 9

Imagine that you are walking along a beam of a high-rise building under construction. While walking on the fifteenth floor beam, you slip and fall off the edge. What safety device would you rather have: an umbrella, a parachute, a bungee cord, or a net around the base of the whole building? Why? We used this as a representation of the Atonement. If we choose correctly what our safety device will be, we can be saved.
Joseph Fielding Smith said, "The ninth chapter of II Nephi should be carefully read by every person seeking salvation."

2 NEPHI 6-8

Nephi asked his brother, Jacob, to speak to the people about some of Isaiah's writings. In chapter six we learned that Jacob was qualified to teach the gospel because: he was called of God (verse 2); was ordained after "his holy order" (he held the priesthood -- verse 2); was consecrated, or set apart, by the prophet Nephi (verse 2); he cared deeply about his people (verse 3); and Jacob had already put a great deal of effort into teaching the gospel (verse 3). Is our prophet as qualified as Jacob? How about our stake president, bishop, parents and even ourselves?
Chapter 7 tells us that the Lord has not abandoned covenant Israel in spite of their transgressions. In likening the scriptures unto ourselves we learn that the Lord will not abandon us....ever. We may abandon Him, but He will never abandon us. How can we abandon Christ? We learn from verses 10 and 11 that God is the source of light and truth. If we walk in our own light we will only have sparks, which last only an instant and give off little light. It was compared to fireworks....not very bright and can be a distraction.
Chapter 8 wants us to wake up and remember all the things the Lord has done for us. In verse 25 we are told to arise from the dust and sit down. Sounds like a contradiction at first but when we learn that dust was a symbol of mourning it makes more sense. We are to arise from our mourning and sit down in a place of dignity and loose thyself from the bands of thy neck (huh?). Invaders often took conquered inhabitants of the land as slaves, and often they would place bands around their necks. Symbolically, sin is like a band around our necks. So, get up....stop your mourning. We should find joy and hope in the promises that the Lord has made. We have knowledge of who we are and where we can go. This chapter teaches us that the Lord has not lost His power....we need to have faith that He knows what is best for each one of us.

PRAYER CHALLENGE 18TH DAY

NEPHI 4 & 5

Chapter 4 is sometimes called the Psalm of Nephi. We discovered that the psalm has four parts. We paraphrased the following verses: 15 - 16: I (Nephi) delight in the Lord's words; 17 - 19: Nevertheless....my sins bring me sorrow; 20-25: Nevertheless....I know God has blessed me, guided me, and filled me with His love; 26-27: O then, why...why do I continue to sin? We then read verses 29-35 to discover how Nephi found the strength to face his difficulties.
In verse 17 Nephi talks about his iniquities? We wondered what iniquities Nephi was talking about (OK, I wondered). In verse 13 we learn that Laman and Lemuel are again angry with Nephi. In verses 27 & 28 Nephi is asking why he is angry because of his enemy and he asks God to help him not be angry again because of his enemies. I believe this is the iniquity Nephi is referring to.
We tried to compare chapter 5 to ourselves. In verse 5 the Lord warned Nephi -- the Lord warns us of danger. Nephi was to flee into the wilderness -- we have been warned to flee wickedness. Nephi took all who would go with him -- we have been counseled to associate with good friends who believe as we do. Verse 6 tells us the people who went with Nephi believed in the warnings and revelations of God -- we have been counseled to hearken to the words of our parents, our leaders and our prophet. Verse 7 says that they journeyed many days until they found a new place to live -- for us it sometimes takes significant effort for us to do what we have been prompted to do.
What challenges do we face that the above verses help us with: friends, parties, free time work, school, TV, movies, the Internet, music, books, magazines, etc.? How can the principle of fleeing wickedness apply to these challenges?
Oh, and by the way, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH AND JOSEPH

Lehi is talking to his son Joseph and tells him about Joseph of Egypt who has a vision about the Nephites and also Joseph Smith. Interesting enough this great prophecy is not included in the Old Testament. It is a great chapter but my favorite verse is, "And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation." (2 Nephi 3:15)
Imagine being Joseph Smith as you are translating the plates that will become The Book of Mormon. He is sitting there with his scribe saying the words from the plates and he says, "his name shall be called after me". Do you think he may have thought, "Oh, Joseph is his name." Then he translates that, "it shall be after the name of his father." "Wow! My father's name is Joseph. My name is Joseph." I don't know if that was Joseph Smith's thoughts...but I can only imagine at that moment the great awakening in our Prophet Joseph Smith as he read his name in print from some ancient plates. That is pretty COOL!
Why so many Joseph's in the title? We had Joseph, Lehi's son, Joseph of Egypt, Joseph Smith, Senior, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Joseph Wise who was sitting in class learning all about many important Josephs.

2 NEPHI CHAPTER 2

This chapter is filled with important principles of the gospel. We learn that Heavenly Father knew that no mortal could live His law perfectly, so He sent His Son Jesus Christ to atone for sin and bring salvation to those who repent. Temporal law came into effect because of the Fall of Adam. Spiritual law includes the commandments of God. We all will die (temporal law) and we all suffer a spiritual death (separation from God) as a result of not keeping the spiritual law completely. According to 2 Nephi 2:8 everyone will escape the punishment inflicted by the temporal law (resurrection). In verse 7 to escape the punishment inflicted by the spiritual law we need to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Elder Scott taught,"This absolute requisite of a broken heart and a contrite spirit prescribe the need to be submissive, compliant, humble (that is, teachable), and willingly obedient." Then he concludes by saying, "Please understand that the way back is not as hard as it seems to you now. Satan wants you to think that it is impossible. That is not true. The Savior gave His life so that you can completely overcome the challenges you face."
Ask your student about the fabulous movie we watched today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANCESCA!

Thank you Brother Hurley for the donut holes! They were delicious.

1 NEPHI 20-22

Chapters 20 and 21 can be compared to a lawsuit brought against Israel for breaking her covenant with the Lord. Chapter 20 can be compared to the contract. It contains a preamble, historical review, conditions of the contract, witnesses, curses and blessings. Verse 10 talks about affliction. The Lord knows our trials we go through and he knows we can grow from them. Think of a baby chick breaking out of it's shell -- it must go through that hardship. If the baby chick is helped out of the shell, it may die. McKenna shared how a moth in a cocoon has to break out of the cocoon by itself. She told us of a man who found a cocoon and watched as the moth tried to get out. He helped the moth get out by cutting the cocoon. He found that the moth had a swollen body and undeveloped wings. That moth needed to go through "trials" to get strong. So it is with us.
Chapter 22 leaves us full of hope. We learn that the wicked will turn on themselves and will fall by their own hands. "And because of the righteousness of his (the Lord's) people, Satan has no power". A great promise made to us is that the righteous need not fear. Again, we need to decide what side of the fence we want to be on.

WE ARE WARNED

DON'T RUN INTO THE STREET! DON'T BLOW UP ANYTHING! DON'T TAKE CANDY FROM A STRANGER! DON'T SMOKE! We are warned from early on of things that may cause us harm. The scriptures warn us of things that WILL cause harm. Nephi has warned us, our prophets have warned us that we need to turn to Christ. 1 Nephi 19:7 tells us that the world shall judge Christ to be a thing of naught (to consider something worthless). We need to listen and obey so we do not trample Christ under our feet.
1 Nephi 19:23 is one of our scripture mastery scriptures. How can we liken the scriptures to ourselves? We can ask ourselves questions such as: "what significance does this particular event or principle have for me today? What does the rebellion of Laman and Lemuel teach me? How would I react to.....? What strengths to I have that resemble Nephi?" Questions will help us "liken the scriptures unto ourselves".

WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE?

Okay, I am learning what's work and what doesn't. Today was a "doesn't." We worked in groups of five or six and tried to decide what was more important for our well-being because we were lost/stranded. We didn't know where we were. We needed to list in order one being the most important and 15 being the least. We needed to make a personal decision and a group decision. The items were box of matches, food concentrate, length of nylon rope, parachute silk, portable heating unit, two 45-caliber pistols, case of dehydrated milk, two 50 kg tanks of oxygen, map, life raft, magnetic compass, five jugs of water, signal flares, first-aid kit with hypodermic needles and a solar-powered radio transmitter-receiver. Interesting to watch the different groups (ask Bryan how well he worked with his group). In the end there was no right or wrong answers. The questions were: (1) when you were ranking the items as a group, did someone take charge? Who? (2) Did some participate in the process more than others? In what ways? (3) What motivated the group to succeed? (4) What attitudes helped the group succeed? (5) How did the group discussion help you understand any errors in your own thinking? (6) What attitudes led to disorganization?
So, the final outcome -- this was a bust! I was trying to point out what Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and others may have had to face. Who takes charge? Why? Why is it always Nephi? How can we possibly build a boat? Oh yeah, we have seen an angel....what does that have to do with building a boat? etc. Oh, well....moving on (luckily not on a boat -- I might be facing mutiny).
This week we will be finished with 1 Nephi.

THE LIAHONA

We compared a compass to the liahona. A compass is man-made -- liahona was prepared for Lehi by the hand of the Lord (2 Nephi 5:12). A compass works by allowing a magnetized needle to align itself with the earth's magnetic field -- liahona worked according to their faith in God. Alma teaches us that the word of Christ is our liahona. The words of Christ can come from several sources, including the scriptures, living prophets, patriarchal blessings and the Holy Ghost speaking to our conscience.
Nephi and his family faced difficult situations. One time Nephi's bow broke, his brothers bows lost their spring and there was no way to obtain their food. Nephi's family murmured (including Lehi). Instead of complaining Nephi made a new bow out of wood and an arrow out of a straight stick. We decided he was optimistic. Then Nephi went to his father, who was the prophet and asked where he should go to obtain food. Nephi was also honoring his father by asking him where he should go for food. Food was found and all were humbled. The moral is sometimes we just need to figure out plan B or C or D and just DO IT. It doesn't help to murmur.
Interesting tidbit of information: 1 Nephi 16:34 tells us....Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom. In verse 13 Nephi tells us that "we did call the name of the place Shazer." This indicates that they did not name Nahom -- it already had that name and probably others lived and visited Nahom. Soooooo, why is that so cool? Maybe Nephi was giving us a clue as to where they actually had traveled to from Jerusalem. A few years ago archaeologists discovered ancient alters in Yemen that bear the name Nahom. The alters dated back to the 7th or 6th century BC. Why do I think this is so cool? Joseph Smith could not have known 20th century archaeologists would find alters bearing the name Nahom. Pretty cool!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KRISTINA!!

Thank you Sister Wilburn for the brownies! They were DELICIOUS!!

NEPHI'S VISION

1 Nephi 11-14 We talked about some of the things Nephi was able to see in his vision. He saw the birth of Christ, John the Baptist, Christ's trial and crucifixion, battle between Nephites and Lamanites, destruction of Nephites, Columbus discovering America, plain and precious truths are removed from the Bible, wars and rumors of wars and tells us "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and THEY WERE ARMED WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS AND WITH THE POWER OF GOD IN GREAT GLORY." (1 Nephi 14:14) If Nephi could see the birth of Christ, John the Baptist, Christopher Columbus and all the other things he saw that we know have happened, why wouldn't he be able to see what will happen in our times? He saw the righteous being armed with righteousness and power -- what side do we want to be on?

FALLEN IN A PIT

Imagine that you have dropped into a deep, dark pit with steep, slippery walls. You can't climb out and nothing in the pit can help you escape. How will you get out? First answer from class: pray! Always best to start here. Second answer: dig your way out -- this will be impossible because either the ground is impossible to dig through or you may not have hands to dig with. Third answer: try to jump out -- too tall, it's impossible. So how do we get out? Someone outside of the pit will have to help us. They can lower us a ladder to help us climb out.
President Joseph F. Smith: "This was precisely the condition that Adam placed himself and his posterity in, when he partook of the forbidden fruit. All being together in the pit, none could gain the surface and relieve the others. The pit was banishment from the presence of the Lord and temporal death, the dissolution of the body. And all being subject to death, none could provide the means of escape. Therefore, in His infinite Mercy, the Father heard the cries of His children and sent His Only Begotten Son, who was not subject to death nor to sin, to provide the means of escape. This He did through His infinite atonement and the everlasting gospel."
No matter how smart we are, how talented we are, how handsome we are or how pretty we are, we cannot get out of the pit alone. We need to rely on Jesus Christ to hand us a ladder.

OUR CLASS IN ACTION

Harrison receiving a letter of appreciation.

Jake filming the LN/LC football game that was used on channel 6.

Macey using her arms for cross country.

Maddy in the final stretch.

Ross breaking out of the pack.

PRAYER CHALLENGE

I issued a challenge to all students. Challenge may not be the right word -- suggestion, maybe? Starting September 1 we need to focus on making prayers a habit. When we awake in the morning, we need to hit the floor with our knees before anything else. This means we need to wake up a few minutes earlier (I said a few hours earlier and I got every one's attention). Then at night we need to pray before going to bed. These times are merely a suggestion. We need to remember that we can pray whenever. The challenge is for the entire month of September. If the challenge is accepted, I hope that the people accepting the challenge will notice a difference in their lives. Prayer makes a difference for me. "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Alma 32:27 We are experimenting upon the word, the word of prayer. Will it work -- we have to experiment to find out!