4 February 2024
VOLUME 12 – NUMBER 541
Book of Mormon marathon
This Sunday, we had a reading marathon so we could finish the last few books in the Book of Mormon. While reading, it answered some of my questions or worries about life and what happens if I don't stay on the path. Talking about it kind of made me emotional I just didn't show it.
Veidi and I were in charge of the snacks. Our family tradition is that the snacks start with the same letter as the books we read, and we can’t eat that treat until we get to the book it belongs to.We had Fourth Nephi Nutty Buddys (peanut butter bars), Mormon Munchies, Ether eggs, and Moroni M&Ms.
I never really thought about the Book of Ether because I never really knew what it had. The chapters have a lot of things that they have about being on and off the path.
I know that God is all-knowing and knows what will happen to us if we fall away. God has a plan for us, and if we want happiness in our life, listen to what you already know is true.
Book of Mormon marathon treats
When James and Izzy came over, we played with them. We played dragons. Me and Troy played dragons with James and Izzy. We played where me and Quinn were the dragons and James and Izzy tried to hunt us down. Me and Troy just ran away to hide from them. They finally caught us after a while and it was fun.
Veidi and Joanna at Jame’s and Izzy’s party
This week we decided to finish the Book of Mormon because we have been reading it as a family for a long time. We finally finished it at midnight. We had treats. It was fun and also tiring.
Veidi’s creative way to trim Max’s claws
On Monday I went in for a hydration infusion. With my past chemo treatments, as soon as I get hydrated, a lot of my symptoms disappear, so this time I scheduled a hydration treatment four days after my chemo, hoping it would help.
And it worked! This time around I was only sick for five days, which leaves me just over two weeks to enjoy before my next infusion.
Owen in his “cloud”
I took a job offer this week at Discovery Ranch in Mapleton, Utah. I'll be working as a youth mentor at a residential treatment center. I haven't ever worked a job like this before, but Endia has, as well as my dad, so I'm looking forward to it.
Having a new baby and not having any form of income for the last month has been challenging, but I recognize that Owen will only be this age once. I am very grateful that I got to spend so much time with him and Endia during the first month of his life—that time was priceless.
Owen’s bedtime
This week, Scout and I went on another date and also got together to study on BYU campus. For our date we went to Utah Lake and pitched apples, potatoes, cabbage, and even a watermelon to each other as we bashed them with a bat.
It was a bit chilly, so we ended up spending a lot of time just sitting in the car and talking. Once again it was a really fun date and a good week.
I also had an intramural basketball game this week, and we won! I know a couple of guys on my team so it’s nice to not be with complete randos (random strangers). I think we have a good chance this year to potentially win a couple tournament games but we’ll see!
Book of Mormon marathon
I know that if you choose to follow Jesus Christ then you will be able to have eternal blessings. If you also do your part in the plan, which is getting baptized, Aaronic priesthood, Melchizedek priesthood, getting sealed after marriage, having a family and then dying. Then you will have a wonderful eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Book of Mormon marathon
Almost exactly 10 years ago (10 years and a week), we finished our family reading of the Book of Mormon that we had started right after moving into this house in early 2007. On that day, I took a picture of Monte reading the last verse. It’s hard to believe that it has taken us 10 years to finish! Here’s how we ended up doing a marathon reading to finish it.
Recently I was thinking that since we are reading the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me this year, it would be nice to be able to start over, but as a family, we were still reading 4 Nephi.
Then we got the idea to have a reading marathon so that we could finish the Book of Mormon in one night, so we could start over and be more in line with where everyone is in Come Follow Me.
Monte finishing Book of Mormon (01/27/2014)
So that’s what we did. At about 6:00pm, we all got in our pajamas, got into comfortable reading positions, made sure our Book of Mormon treats were ready to go, and we started reading. We each read a couple verses out loud, and then we went around the circle.
It’s crazy, with only a few treat/bathroom breaks, we read out loud in the Book of Mormon as a family for six hours until we had finished the book!
However, something amazing happened. The Spirit was with us, and to my surprise, despite the length of scripture reading, the children really seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards, most of them said we should do something like that more often!
Monte examining Dad’s Jaredite barge