Determined to Read

I'm back!!

I spent the past week on vacation at a family reunion, and well, didn't quite keep up w/ my reading. I'm on page 89, 2 Nephi chapter 19. It doesn't help either than I'm getting bogged down with the Isaiah chapters.

My thoughts and prayers are going out to Cameron and Treyson. Are you two getting bogged down and behind as well? What page are you guys on? The best way to figure out where you should be if you want to stay on track is to subtract 5 (the day we started) from 19 (yesterday's date), then multiply that by 9 (number of pages per day), then subtract 7 (intro pages). This gives you 119, so today, we should be on page 119, or Jacob chapter 2.

How did everyone do in 2nd Nephi? I recently read in the Worldwide Training of the Church where Elder Perry asked President Packer the following question:

"People always talk to us about the scriptures and, some of them, how difficult it is to get through them. How do you make the scriptures come alive in your teaching?"

President Packer answered the following, admitting his early difficulty with reading the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi, but declaring his determination to get through them:

"Stay at it. I remember when I determined I was going to read the Book of Mormon. I was in my teens. I opened it and read, "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents" (1 Nephi 1:1). And I went on through the chapters, and I was learning things. It was interesting, and I could follow it until I got over to the Isaiah chapters and the Old Testament prophet language. So a few months later I decided to try again to read the Book of Mormon. I read, "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents," but every time I'd hit the barrier of those Isaiah chapters, and I wondered why they were in there. Finally I decided I was even going to read them. So when I was a teenager, I just had to look at the words. I didn't understand it, but I could turn the pages and then go on through. When you get over in Alma, you will sail on through. So you have to be determined to read them, and not just glean from them, but read them from beginning to end—the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price. For years I made it a practice to read the scriptures each summer when we had a little time off, to refresh the store that's there."

So keep crankin' away my young friends. Be faithful, be diligent, be determined, and I promise you that you will be blessed!