Let's Read it Together

Book of Mormon 60 Day Reading Schedule


Jan 3--Nephi 1-4

Jan 4--Nephi 5-10

Jan 5--Nephi 11-13

Jan 6--Nephi 14-16

Jan 7--Nephi 17-18

Jan 8—Nephi 19-22

Jan 9--2Nephi 1-3

Jan 10--2Nephi 4-7

Jan 11--2Nephi 8-9

Jan 12--2Nephi 10-15

Jan 13--2Nephi 16-23

Jan 14--2Nephi 24-26

Jan 15--2Nephi 27-30

Jan 16--2Nephi 31-33

Jan 17--Jacob 1-4

Jan 18--Jacob 5-7

Jan 19--Enos & W. of Mormon

Jan 20--Mosiah 1-3

Jan 21--Mosiah 4-8

Jan 22--Mosiah 9-12

Jan 23--Mosiah 13-17

Jan 24--Mosiah 18-21

Jan 25--Mosiah 22-26

Jan 26--Mosiah 27-29

Jan 27--Alma 1-4

Jan 28--Alma 5-7

Jan 29--Alma 8-10

Jan 30--Alma 11-13

Jan 31--Alma 14-17

Feb 1--Alma18-21

Feb 2--Alma 22-25

Feb 3--Alma 26-29

Feb 4--Alma 30-32

Feb 5--Alma 33-36

Feb 6--Alma 37-40

Feb 7--Alma 41-44

Feb 8--Alma 45-48

Feb 9--Alma 49-51

Feb 10--Alma 52-56

Feb 11--Alma 57-59

Feb 12--Alma 60-63

Feb 13--Helaman 1-4

Feb 14--Helaman 5-7

Feb 15--Helaman 8-12

Feb 16--Helaman 13-16

Feb 17--3Nephi 1-4

Feb 18--3Nephi 5-8

Feb 19--3Nephi 9-12

Feb 20--3Nephi 13-17

Feb 21--3Nephi 18-20

Feb 22--3Nephi 21-26

Feb 23--3Nephi 27-30

Feb 24--4 Ne– Mormon 2

Feb 25--Mormon 3-7

Feb 26--Mormon 8-9

Feb 27--Ether 1-5

Feb 28--Ether 6-10

March 1--Ether 11-15

March 2--Moroni 1-7

March 3--Moroni 8-10

Activating the Power of the Priesthood

I finished rereading this article today.  What impressed me the most about what Elder Packard had to say were these particular paragraphs:

The authority of the priesthood is with us. After all that we have correlated and organized, it is now our responsibility to activate the power of the priesthood in the Church. Authority in the priesthood comes by way of ordination; power in the priesthood comes through faithful and obedient living in honoring covenants. It is increased by exercising and using the priesthood in righteousness.

Now, fathers, I would remind you of the sacred nature of your calling. You have the power of the priesthood directly from the Lord to protect your home. There will be times when all that stands as a shield between your family and the adversary’s mischief will be that power. You will receive direction from the Lord by way of the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 
With my husband having the authority of the priesthood and being worthy to exercise that authority, I was thinking of ways that we as a family can help him activate that power in our home to help shield us from the world.  Before the school year starts, we have him give our children father's blessings to help them take on their new load of school work.  When our kids aren't feeling well and are very sick, we have him give them healing blessings.  When they are struggling with certain feelings or situations, they can turn to him for council and he can give them comfort blessings (of couse, me too!).  Every time we sit down at the table to eat or when we kneel together as a family at night, he asks different family members to say the prayer on our behalf.  Now that we are literally within minutes of a temple (instead of hours!), we try to attend the temple a couple times a month or more to perform ordinances for our family names.  When we have a dificult decision to make that affects our whole family, we sit down to discuss it, pray about it and listen to what he has to say about what he feels is best for the family.  If my husband is living righteously and aligning his will with the Lord's will, then the promptings of the Spirit he receives concerning our family decisions will be what is right for our family.  As he listens to the Lord, we can be assured that following his council will be right. 
 
The Lord promises us that as we follow His commandments, that He will bless us abundantly.  Here is our church leaders asking us to activate the power of the Priesthood in all homes.  What can we do for our fellow brothers and sisters to help them activate this power as well???  By asking our Home Teachers to come regularly every month.  To encourage our husbands to do the same and visit all their families each month, making sure that their spiritual needs are being met.  Encouraging the youth who are old enough to be worthy and to participate in blessing and passing the Sacrament bread and water.  What are you doing in your life to help activate this power and all the blessings that come from the Priesthood?

A House Of Order

Doctrine and Covenants 88:119
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

Doctrine and Covenants 90:18
Set in order your houses; keep slothfulness and uncleanness far from you.

Doctrine and Covenants 109:8
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

Doctrine and Covenants 132:8
Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.
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Some days I wake up and think, "I need to clean this house!"

I know I get this from my mother.   I remember a many Saturdays where we would spend the ENTIRE day cleaning our home.  Every room.  Every bathroom.  Every floor.  Every corner.  Why on Saturday???  Bc we were preparing for the Sabbath, our day of rest. 

Earlier this week I did something like that for my upstairs.  I had all 3 bedrooms, kitchen and dining room and living rooms cleaned before Connor and I left for the day.  And we came home later???  It was so nice to come home to a clean, organized and uncluttered home.  Seriously the best feeling ever. 

I can understand my mother's insistance on always cleaning every Saturday.  It helped us be able to relax and actually rest on Sunday like we are commanded to do.  

Today I looked at my house and thought...now the downstairs needs my help!  LOL.

One room at a time, one floor at a time, one bathroom at a time...but my house, my home...will become a House Of Order.

My friend said it best

If you don't run into Lucipher, you may quite possibly be going in the same direction.

Amen to that!

Men Are That They Might Have JOY.

Am grateful for a husband willing to sacrifice for his God and country. Am grateful that he has come home to me every time from deployments. Am grateful for the support I always find from family, friends and neighbors...despite our differences. Thank you to all my soldier friends and their spouses for sacrificing your soldier's time, too. Listened to this today on the way home from church-a feeling of peace to listen to.




Today in Relief Soceity we had a lesson on Joy. We talked about how sometimes we feel inadequate or lack the self-confidance, but that we shouldn't let these feelings overpower us like the Adversary would want. We need to focus on the better things in life, keep a positive outlook and turn to our Saviour in PRAYER when we feel like we've done all we could to rid ourselves of these feelings. I know the Lord will help us, instill in us the love and confidance that we are in need of.

There have been so many manisfestations to me in the last week -- so many people that have been answers to my unsaid prayers. The Lord truly does bless you in your time of need as you try to live the gospel He has laid out for us. Temple attendance blessings, doing genealogy blessings, attending church blessings, performing your calling blessings, studying your scriptures and/or conference talks blessings. Loving your children like they should be blessings. What we lack the Lord will provide as he does not ask us to do things that we don't have the tools or the means to do. He will provide. 

Not Letting the Gloom Set In

Sometimes we feel like everything we try to do...or not do...is not good enough.  And it is times like this that I try to turn my perspective around so I can understand why I feel this way.  Am I truly a failure in everything?  Lately it is feeling like a failure in how I manage my time.  I haven't had the motivation to do much around the house or with my schooling.  I guess it has finally clicked in my head that my DH is really gone for 2 months.  I am in that "funk" and am trying to escape it...quickly!  I knew this would happen, it always does...when he leaves.  So what am I going to do about it?

I am thinking back on what I've done today and how bad really was my time management?

0715: Get out of bed, start laundry, take care of dog's needs
0730: Workout on treadmill
0815: Take shower
0830: Feed and dress kids
0850: Drive KJ to school
1000: Go Visiting Teaching
1130: Eat lunch
1200: Watch an episode of Care Bears with Connor, snuggle up to some books and put him down for a nap
1300: Blog, start to study my school work, text my DH to see how his day has been going

Seems like a pretty productive day so far.  Complete 180 of what my day was on Monday -- of just lounging on the couch and watching episodes on hulu.com all day, missing my DH.  I can at least see that I am changing.  And that is the point!  I think I have my hubby and my loving Heavenly Father to thank for that.  I was praying that I could get out of this funk, that I could find some motivation to just get up and do something...anything!  My DH was texting me and for a couple days, hounding me if I had touched my school work at all.  Finally, yesterday I told him I was thinking about doing that after the kids went down instead of watching episodes....and I did!  I studied for a few hours reading 1/2 my chapter and making an outline for it. 

It feels so good to be learning and studying again.  I know I can always count on my HF answering my prayers when I need them and also for my DH to be one who pushes me so that I can reach my full potential. 

Doing My Family History

My MIL sent me some names ready to be done in the temple.  I was able to get my visiting teacher to babysit my kids this morning so I could go today.  My body must've known I needed a good night's rest before going bc I fell asleep around 8:30pm...no joke.  Which is odd for me bc I usually stay up until midnight or so.  I woke up wide awake before my alarm went off around 6:30am. 

You always hear of stories that make it hard for people to get to the temple.  Mine wasn't hard, it just made my schedule late.  I live about 12 minutes away from the temple but I had to drop my kids off first.  When I went to plug in my VT's address in my GPS, it couldn't find the address or the street.  I used multiple city names...nada.  I went back inside to Mapquest it...that website couldn't find the address either!  I googled the metro station stop where she lives near and found the exact address for that...the GPS couldn't find that address either.  I was able to finally mapquest near the station so I hand wrote down the directions.  I still got lost getting there but after a few phone calls to her I finally made it to the Kiss & Ride where she picked up my kids.  This made me about 30 minutes later than I wanted to be but no rush since the temple in DC runs every 30 minutes on Saturdays. 

I made it to the 9:30am session.  I really tried hard to listen and I feel this was a great session for me personally. I did better on the things I needed to do and can't wait to come back to do the daughter.  It'll be even more amazing to do their sealings when my hubby can come help do the husbands. 

My goal for this year (what's left of it anyways) is to print out the names that are ready on my mother's side.  We have moved several times and somehow in one of the moves I found the Lorge Family History notebook that Grandma Lorge was working on.  How did it get into my belongings?????  I have NO IDEA!  But I've already looked up some of the names in it on ONE PAGE and half of the work has been done.  And I have hundreds of pages in this book.  I think that I will be busy this next year!