Skip to main content

Book of Mormon Read-a-Thon










On July 1 and 2, I hosted a youth activity for the teenage girls from our church that began on Friday at 10 am and ended on Saturday at 8 pm with a sleepover at my house while the rest of my family was traveling.  After a recent survey, I determined that this was something they all were extremely eager to do, so I planned it right after they finished school for summer vacation, just prior to the US Independence Day holiday weekend, and tied in a stars and stripes flag theme.  After all, that's where the golden plates laid hidden for hundreds of years.  For fun, I ordered a bunch of t-shirts and shipped them to the hotel when Kelly was on a recent business trip to the States.

It was an incredible two days with these righteous, lovely young women.  Their souls delighted in the scriptures.  They really felt an appreciation for the truths they discovered in the pages of The Book of Mormon, as they pondered over these words from paragraph six of its introduction page.

"Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

I grocery shopped, cooked, and baked the few days prior to their arrival, and fed them lunch, dinner, breakfast, and one more lunch, after which they began their fast to prepare for the next day's testimony meeting.  I reminded them what a pure testimony should be, and not about saying how much fun they had or how good the food was, but to share what they had learned from the holy scriptures.  The next day at church, several bore their testimonies and I could not have been more pleased with their strength and the truths that they shared.

I have more pictures from our event, but will add them tomorrow in a separate entry.  I do not want to take away from the nature of this post by adding food pictures, and so forth.  I realize that a good portion of those who look at my blog are already members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have your own copy of The Book of Mormon.  For the rest of you, you can click here to get your free copy or to chat with a friendly Mormon missionary in almost any language that you prefer to ask questions about our church.

And while I'm at it, I might as well share my own testimony of The Book of Mormon with the world, as it has been posted on mormon.org for several months, and I sincerely hope that everyone can have access to this marvelous book, that has helped me and my family draw closer together and most importantly toward the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Some people wonder why we put so much effort into sharing what we believe with the rest of the world.  If you could experience as much joy and happiness in life and felt like you had something so wonderful, you'd want all your friends to know about it too.

Comments

Robert Choate said…
Uh wow! I am feeling humbled right now on so many levels. This was awesome to read about. You were a swell leader and teacher (that guy of yours as well) 20 years ago. And you might be even better now from the looks of it. What a great idea. Glad it went so well.
Dianne said…
Kelly, what a fabulous activity. Sounds like it really touched the girls, how could it not. The power of the Book of Mormon & Scriptures is so strong. What a great YW leader you are for those dear girls!
Madison said…
That's an awesome activity! I wanna say I've done that before for YW, but I don't know for sure. It's a great idea, though. My mission president liked to encourage us to "drench ourselves in the living waters of the Book of Mormon like a hot shower." Good imagery, eh?
Bobbi said…
This sounds great for their testimonies. Maybe we will have to try this with our young women. What beautiful girls.

Popular posts from this blog

Book of Mormon Stories Pool Party!

Hopefully this title, Book of Mormon Stories Pool Party , does not sound irreverent, because as an Activity Days leader, I felt compelled to come up with a fun end-of-the-summer event that is also uplifting, and after all, who doesn't love a splash in the pool on a hot day in August?  My current church calling, or official role that I volunteer for, allows me to plan two activities each month for girls ages 8 to 11, that will encourage them to learn and live the gospel, serve others, and use the talents Heavenly Father has given them, to learn to do many good things.  This year's seminary course of study for high school students is The Book of Mormon, and since I am a huge fan of this inspired book of scripture, I came up with this idea to have each girl show up to my house with a written summary of one of her favorite stories from within its many pages, and share it with the rest of the girls, while outside in our swimsuits near our backyard swimming pool!  As each girl shares

Our new daughter!

This picture was taken at church a few days ago while Kelly was on his way to the US for work this week. We have some wonderful news to share.  We are adopting 7-year-old Yeh Min Yu, who has been in our home off and on the last couple of months.  There's a lot that goes into making this official, dealing with US Homeland Security to arrange for her immigration visa, Taiwan courts and Chinese documents, getting a home study done by a licensed, qualified person, applying for a passport.  You have no idea.  I'll be glad when it's all done, but I couldn't wait to share this bit of joy with everyone.  We will name her Hannah to go on her new US birth certificate.  She's excited and nervous to go to America with us.  She can say more than 100 words in English so far.  Some of her favorite things to say are "small dog, butterfly, apple, pig."  She says it more like pig-uh.  We love her and feel this is one of the reasons we came to Taiwan.  Who would have thoug

Elder Larson to return from Thailand soon

Soon is relative, I suppose. Our son has been away from home more than a year and a half as he has been volunteering as a full-time missionary in the Thailand Bangkok Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since September 14, 2016. He will be home in four months and is working so hard, knowing his time there is winding down. He has been assigned to train Elder Ben Meyer, from Sydney, Australia, as they serve in Ubon, Thailand. Christopher has been there since November. We are very proud of his dedication and hard work. This week in Thailand, the new prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, with his wife, Wendy Nelson, along with one of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and his wife, Patricia Holland, will be on their world ministering tour and be where our son is. The Church members and missionaries in Thailand are very excited and happy for this special visit! I can't wait to hear how it goes, and I look forward to pictures and stories to come.