FHE - 1st Nephi, Chapter 1

Ashlyn was in charge of the lesson this past week and I got this idea that would put our Eggspert buzzer game to use.

Ash and I sat down Sunday night and read through chapter 1 of First Nephi and came up with about 20 questions.

TANGENT: I've been really trying to STUDY my scriptures lately and have found that questions are invaluable. It gets you thinking and pondering. I haven't gotten very far, however, but I've learned more about Zedekiah, king of Judah at the time of Lehi, than I've ever known before. END OF TANGENT.

Then for FHE everyone was given about 10 minutes to read through chapter 1 and study it as much as they could in that time before Ash quizzed them with her questions. The winner got some stale chocolate I had in my closet. Oh yum!

She asked a lot of WHO and WHAT questions, but I think one of the most important questions we can ask when studying is WHY.

I mean WHY would the Jews care so much about the content of Lehi's prophesies that they would want to kill him? If we see some outlandish story in the National Enquirer, we might roll our eyes, call them looney, and just dismiss it. We certainly don't have any inclinations to go out and harm whomever wrote the story. It makes me think that the Jews must have believed somewhat in Lehi's words, at least enough to want to get rid of him, to shut him up.

I also like what Nephi says at the every end of the chapter. I kind of see it as his purpose for writing, for keeping this record that we have today. It is the thesis statement for the Book of Mormon.

"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."

The Lord is going to be with those who are faithful. And throughout this book we see that again and again. When we are faithful, the Lord is there to bless us, strengthen us, help fight our battles. And when we are not faithful and cease to remember him, we have no promise. That is what this book is about and Nephi wants us to know that right from the start.

QUESTIONS WE CAME UP WITH

What is the name of the first book in the Book of Mormon called? FIRST NEPHI

Who taught Nephi? HIS FATHER, LEHI

What does the word commencement mean? BEGINNING

What was the language Nephi wrote his record in? LANGUAGE OF THE EGYPTIANS

Who was the king of Judah? ZEDEKIAH

How many prophets were there during the time of Lehi? MANY

What were the prophets prophesying about? THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

What came to Lehi as he was praying? PILLAR OF FIRE

After praying, Lehi went home and did what? CAST HIMSELF UPON THE BED

What were three of the five things Lehi saw in his vision? GOD, ANGELS, the ONE, 12 OTHERS, a BOOK

What was given to Lehi in his vision? A BOOK

Lehi describes Jesus’s countenance as being brighter than what? THE SUN AT NOON DAY

Who wrote chapter 1 of 1^st Nephi? LEHI

Who abridged chapter 1 of 1^st Nephi? NEPHI

The people are going to be forced to leave Jerusalem and go where? BABYLON

Did Nephi record everything his father saw and heard and prophesied? NO

What does the word abridgment mean? TO SHORTEN OR CONDENSE

What did the Jews want to do to Lehi after he testified to them? KILL HIM

What two things were in the book that Lehi prophesied to the people about? THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH and THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD

Why did the Jews mock Lehi? BECAUSE HE TESTIFIED OF THEIR WICKEDNESS

Nephi wants to show us through his writing that the  _______________     ________________ of the Lord are over all those whom the Lord hath chosen because of their faith. TENDER MERCIES

Christmas 2012

Yes, I'm a little late in posting about our Christmas here. I have to say that this was the first year we stopped in the middle to have some breakfast and it wasn't because there was so much to unwrap.

I really try every year to not overdo it with the gifts. There is always a book, something I think they really want, a clothes item (something they really don't want, except maybe Kiersten), and a few other things. I try to limit the gifts to around 6 or 7 per kid. I just don't want any of them to feel like someone got more than they did, and quite frequently I hold on to gifts to give at birthdays.

Every year I stand back and look at the tree after "Santa" has made his arrival and feel like I've overdone it. Tyler has to always tell me that it's not really that bad; we just have a lot of people in our family.

Anyway, the reason the unwrapping took so long was because of this:

The math tags were slightly more trickier than last year and took more cooperation and Nate's new handy calculator. They all worked together to solve them and then we all usually waited while that person unwrapped their gift. I am loving the math equations. I think we only had one mishap where I forgot an equal sign and there was no way to solve it. Luckily I had them all written down on a separate piece of paper.

Some of our favorite's this year:

New basketball shoes

A binder of all the songs she frequently plays on the piano  

Fitbit - a cool little gadget that tracks how many steps I've taken for the day. I guess it's more like a glorified pedometer. But I love looking at it to see how active (or inactive) I've been throughout the day.

Matching clothes - love our sports teams

Heated blanket - and just in time for the frigid air that's hit our area

Soccer ball

Bulgogi

And last . . . a white Christmas. It's been a long time since we had one of those.

(photo below courtesy of my father in law; you can kind of see the snow out the windows) 

10 Gear Engineers

Nate was offered the opportunity to be a part of the Lego League team that Erik was a part of last year. They put together a new team based on science and math scores and brought back the three 5th graders from last year.

Again they started practicing and working together last summer in hopes of performing well at the competition. I was a little nervous and didn't think they would do as well as last year's team.

BUT . . . 

After one round in the robot portion of the competition they were in first place. And after three they were still in first.
They were all ecstatic and should be. I overheard another participant telling his dad how last this team took first but their name was something like Egdelwonk.
So not only did they take first place in the robot mission, but they also walked away with the best overall team trophy which means they must have scored well on their presentation and skit. 

Out of 18 teams, they are one of four going on to state.

And last night they had to opportunity to present their skit to the school board and receive an award for "Students of the Month."

I love Lego League and wish all kids had the opportunity to participate. It promotes teamwork, creativity, smarts, cooperation, learning new things. They have mentors, but basically it is the kids who do all the work and I'm pretty much amazed when I see what they've accomplished.

Water bill math equation

We pay $150 for 3 months and have 1 acre foot of water allotted to us which translates to 325830 gallons of water for the year.

The third quarter came to an end, I got our bill, and to that point in the year we had used 323980 gallons.

325830 - 323980 = 1850 left for the year

Um, that wasn't going to go very far.

Or so I thought.

I got our new bill for the fourth quarter and was very nervous to open it. Tyler and I took bets on what it would be. He thought $300 extra ($450 total, ouch!); I was hoping it was not more than double ($300).

I peeked inside and saw this:
That couldn't be. So I glanced at this little box:
And then it hit me. The water year/bill goes from October to October. We had actually come in under our allotment, even with all the grass, trees, shrubs, stream, splash pad we had put in.
This is one bill I will happily pay.

Believing is when you've given your heart over to something

"This I Believe"
an essay by Jenny Engh

What do I believe – a very fundamental question and something I’ve given a lot of thought to over the past year and a half when I was so rudely interrupted by cancer!

Our minister at House of Hope gave a sermon on Believing – right in time for Christmas.

His take on belief was this: that thinking and believing are different – so when people ask you what you believe – they may really be asking you what you are thinking.

The difference?

Believing, he went on to say, is much more settled – when you’ve given your heart over to something.

What a beautiful thing to say – believing is when you’ve given your heart over to something.

So what do I believe in?

I believe in

the goodness of people,

the blessings of living life fully

and being open to new possibilities.

I believe in

nurturing those who are struggling

or may have lost their way.

I believe

we have all been given an opportunity to leave things better,

helping others improve their lives.

I believe in
fairness,
treating others equally
and calling out when others are treated unfairly.

I also believe in
the fundamental choice we all have in making our lives better
and creating our own happiness.

Personal responsibility, regardless of our circumstances, is not negotiable. We all have the power to make choices about our lives, perhaps not all the material goods or same opportunities we would like to have, but choices to do the right thing and to live life honestly.

I believe in

loving each other,

showing more kindness.

So belief is a starting point, not a destination. When my friend Duane asked me what I would want him to say at my funeral, I said, “remind people to be kinder to each other.” 

I believe we can.