Here is a scripture marking guide for Mosiah 17 and 18

My goal is for you to use these and learn some new techniques that you can use in all of your scripture studies!

I am also including some ways you can fill in your scripture journals as you are studying!

There are ideas like this one to help you fill in your CHAPTERS journal.

And ideas like this to fill in your TOPICS journal.

Here is the Marking Guide:

And here are the fonts:

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Your Dad:  Let me see…  you already explained it pretty well.  You need to clarify what I’m fixing.  I didn’t replace the power steering pump.  I replaced the pressure line which went into the power steering pump.

Your Mom:  Ummm… ok.  There’s a pressure line?   What were you looking for in a girl?

Your Dad:  I wanted a girl that was real from the very beginning.  I knew what she was about from the very beginning, I didn’t have to wonder.  I wanted someone who didn’t play games.  I didn’t want to wonder if I could or couldn’t call her or wondering if I was coming on too strong… no games.  After college I was done with the games.  That is what you said you noticed – you knew I wouldn’t play games.

Your Mom:  I know.  I loved that about you.  I knew I was getting the real thing and you weren’t pretending to be someone you weren’t.  What else were you looking for in a girl?

Your Dad:  I wanted someone who was hard working, educated, nurturing.  Someone that I could easily see being a mother.  I didn’t want to have to twist and turn things to see her being a mother.  I wanted to see it easily, and a good mother.

Your Mom:  One day when a young man comes to you and asks for Hannah’s hand in marriage, what do you want that young man to be like?

Your Dad:  I can’t put that into words.  A worthy Priesthood holder, worthy temple recommend holder.  I want him to be a man’s man.  A man that’s a leader, a man that is authoritative – not in a bossy way, but in a righteous way.  He doesn’t get pushed around or walked on, but he leads.   He stands up for what is right in sticky situations, even if it is going to make him look bad.  He needs to have a clear understanding of what right and wrong is.  Someone who can provide the life that she dreams of for her and her children.   He needs to be smart, educated, protective and wants to provide.  Someone that will fight for you, verbally and physically if needed.  Don’t be a coward.  He needs to stick up for the people he loves.

Your Mom:  So, Basically like you.  What do you want Hannah to know before she starts dating?

Your Dad:  She will already know what guys are good to date and what guys aren’t before she is of dating age.  She needs to know that when she is on the date, that she is always in control of the situation.  If a guy ever puts her in an uncomfortable situation, call me and I will come and get her.  She can tell the guy that she is calling her dad and that it is up to him if he wants to be there when he arrives.

Your Mom:  What do you want Hannah to know about herself?

Your Dad:  That she is my daughter and even above that, that she a daughter of Heavenly Father.

Your Mom:  What do you want the young men to understand about her?

Your Dad:  That she has a dad that will protect her under any circumstance and destroy them if they ever hurt her.  The boys that are taking her on a date need to think of the women in his life that he respects the very most and put her in that role, and treat her that way.

Your Mom:  How did you feel the first time you held Hannah?

Your Dad:  Overwhelmed.  I will never forget her coming out of your belly (C-Section).  The doctors pulled her out feet first.  I was surprised how little she cried.  When she first came out, she made a little peep, and then they took her into the back room and gave her a shot, an immunization of something and she hardly cried then.  She was well behaved from the very beginning.  I was thankful that she had her mom’s temperament and not mine.

Your Mom:  She does hardly ever cry.  What are you most afraid of about fatherhood?

Your Dad:  Providing everything that she wants and needs.

Your Mom:  She will always get what she wants and needs.

Your Dad:  Her needs will always be met.  But I want her wants to be met too.

Your Mom:  What is the best thing about being Hannah’s dad?

Your Dad:  When she smiles and when she sleeps on my chest.  It makes me want to be a better father and a better person.

I thought that I had studied it enough, and read enough talks, and given enough lessons. If you would have asked me to speak on faith, I would have felt pretty secure in that subject.  In fact, I know exactly what talk I would have given, what examples I would have used, what quotes I would have shared.

But things have changed.  I didn’t know what I thought I knew.

My entire life I have been waiting to be a mother.  I have never not wanted it, and have dreamed of the day I would have my own children.  I thought about their blessing days, their birthday parties I would throw them, the evenings filled with homework, what holiday traditions I would want, what it would be like when they were teenagers.  I thought about the home I would want to raise my children in, what vacations I would take them on, and how I would teach them important principles in ways they could comprehend them.  I have thought about where I have fallen short and where I would need to improve to be the kind of mother I would want them to have.

My little Hannah is now almost 10 weeks old.  I have discovered how blissfully wonderful it is to be her mother.  I have also learned that sweatpants and t-shirts are my new wardrobe of choice and that it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is anymore.  I have had to come to grips with how much harder it is to go ANYWHERE and that laundry seems to appear from nowhere, and dishes are never done .

I have been in full “adjustment mode”, and then something happened that showed me new horizons.

While I was pregnant,  I learned that when women are pregnant cancer can grow at a greater rate.  That little piece of information planted itself in my mind and I filed it away.  About a month after I had Hannah, that little fact started to come into my mind again and again.

While I was pregnant, I had noticed a little dark spot on my belly, and my husband and I had just shrugged it off as one more effect of pregnancy.  Then as it started to grow, we thought it was just stretching with my belly.  But, after I had Hannah, the belly went down, but the spot didn’t, so I made an appointment with my dermatologist.

“Oh, yes, that needs to come off,” she said the second she saw it, and sent it in to be tested.  She wasn’t alarmed, and neither was I.  We both just thought that it was a lovely mole that formed during pregnancy.  ”The results will be back in about a week,” she said, and I went home without any worry.

The day before the week was up, I started to feel uneasy.  Something was telling me that it wasn’t just a mole.  I get freckles, not moles.  So, I called to see if the labs were in yet.  ”Not yet,” was my answer.  And so I called back the next day, and the next.  As my concern was swelling, so was my husband’s, something was telling him the same thing it was telling me, and when Friday came and I received another “not yet” from the doctor, he knew I couldn’t stand to wait through the weekend without some answers.  ”I called the doctor myself,” my husband said when he called me from work.  ”I explained our concerns, and the doctor thinks it is just a mole,” he said.  And so we breathed a little sigh of relief, and made it through the weekend.

The next week was like the one before: no answers on Monday or Tuesday.  I was wondering if I was the office joke by now because when I called  again on Wednesday, the receptionist wouldn’t tell me herself that the results were still not in.  ”We are calling the lab to see what the delay is,” they told me, “the nurse will call you back.”

Ten minutes later I received a call, “They are faxing over your results now.  The doctor will look at them, make her notes, and then we will call you.”  ”Thanks,” I said, feeling like a crazy, paranoid person.

Soon after, my phone rang, and when I answered it was my doctor on the other end.  ”This can’t be good,” I thought.  ”We have your results back, she said, and it looks like you have Melanoma.”

I held myself together for the length of the call, but as soon as I hung up, I lost it.  Cancer.  I have cancer!  My little, sweet Hannah was sleeping right in front of me, and I just looked at her and cried.  My mind was going to worst case scenario and I couldn’t bear it.  My whole life I have waited for this and I just couldn’t stand the thought of not being here for her.  I have never felt such angst.

“Please call me,” I texted my husband, and so he did.  I never want to have another phone call like that again.  He told me after that after he hung up he wanted to throw his computer across the room.  These are the kind of moments we just aren’t ever really prepared for.

He left work immediately and came home.  I was sitting and holding Hannah with makeup streaked across my entire face.  We just held each other and he was trying to be strong, but I understood.  I understood that he just found out his wife has a dangerous form of skin cancer and that he has a new baby.  I understood that his wife’s future suddenly had a big question mark in it.  I understood that we desperately needed more answers.

I can’t express how much I didn’t want to be sick.  As I sat and looked at my husband and child, the thought of not being his wife and her mother was more than I could bear.  I will take the laundry piles!  I will take the endless dishes!  I will take it all!  I just want to be here!  I thought of the birthday parties I might not be able to give, the rides to school I wouldn’t be there for, the cookies we wouldn’t bake.  In a moment like this, your mind just races and takes you to unbearable places.

“Can I have a Priesthood blessing,” I asked?  ”Right now?” he replied.  ”No, when you are ready,” I said.  We were both in a state of shock, and he needed to breathe a little.  We left the house, and that definitely helped.  Logic started to set in, and all the reading up of Melanoma we had done while waiting for the results helped us.  We were pretty sure we caught it early, and with this kind of skin cancer, that is the great determining factor.

After we returned home, our minds were a little more clear and he gave me a blessing.  The peace and hope I so desperately needed was immediately restored, and I felt like myself again.  An appointment was made with a doctor who specializes in this, and we went about our lives, but not as usual.

Something like this acts as a great filter, and every aspect of your life suddenly passes through it, including everything that you believe.  Like I said, I thought I new what faith was, but I had never needed it like I needed it now.  The stakes had never been raised this high before.

C.S Lewis said this:  ”You never know how much you really believe anything,” he confesses,  until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to [tie] a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. [Lewis, p. 25]

I was suddenly staring at a “real risk”, and I realized how desperately I needed my faith, and how strong I needed it to be.  I needed to have faith in God, I needed to have faith in eternal families, I needed to have faith in God’s will for me.  I thought I had understood this, but now it was my “rope”, and I needed it to be strong.

My husband’s blessing has been the rope I have hung onto this past week and it will be what I will hang onto next week as I go into surgery.  Things look really promising, and it seems as though we caught it early enough to take care of it, and we are in the process of going through all of the proper steps to make certain that happens.

I don’t care how deep they have to cut, and I don’t care how much it hurts.  I will take it if I get to be a mother and a wife and if it helps me increase in faith.  Because it isn’t just faith, it is the lenses we see the world through.  It is the dishes my family ate on that I am here to clean, it is the clothing my family wore that I get to be here to wash, it is the increased perspective – the shift in understanding.  It is about really “getting it” and seeing those new horizons.

***  This post is actually 2 years old.  It is one of the first things I ever posted on my site.  Since its rather a busy week for me and I didn’t get the marking guide I am working on finished… I thought I would post this… if in fact any of you haven’t seen this.  Today is a good day for you.

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This is a love story.

I am going to introduce you to your newest love of your life.  This chocolate chip cookie.

Finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe is the precise analogy to finding your spouse.  Or at least it was for me.  Just think of all of the time, money and dirty dishes you have invested in making the cookie in hopes that this ”one” may just be it!  And sometimes it was ”almost” it, and others it was definitely not it, and others you ate them anyway as long as you had a glass of milk around to ignore the poor quality of taste.  But you pressed on in your search because you just “knew” that cookie was out there.  You knew because you had seen it other places. You knew the potential.  You just believed.

Your search is over.  Meet your cookie.

 I call this a “Kitchen Cupboard Recipe”, because it is taped on the inside of one of my kitchen cupboard doors.  These are the yummiest, gooey-ist, crowd-pleasing-ist chocolate chip cookies around.  These may just send you into a chocolate chip cookie coma.  And you will be happy there.

But… as in all relationships, there are some very specific  instructions to earn the desirable results.  AND as in all baking… it is a science.  And rules must be followed.

You will see that this is not a cookie you can make in a snap.  This is a time commitment.  There are steps to take.  It takes time to reach our true potential.

Start ahead of time by setting out  your butter so it can reach room temperature

Then, into your mixer, add:

1 cup Shortening

1 cup Butter (room temperature)

1 cup Sugar

1 1/2 cups packed Brown Sugar

Mix and scrape the sides down

And then mix it like crazy

I mix it about 2 minutes.  Until it is fluffy and a very light brown – almost white.

Now add:

2 Extra Large Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

And mix

In a separate bowl add:

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

And sift together.  I whisk.

Add the flour a little at a time at a low speed

And accept the fact that getting flour everywhere is worth the final result.  Relationships are messy man.

This is the cookie dough.  Look how light and fluffy.

And you will start to get excited because this is not like all your other cookie doughs.  This feels different.

Now is the time for the great debate.  Milk Chocolate or Semi-Sweet???  I have found a good solution.  Add both.  One bag of each.  You see, this recipe is actually doubled.  We always double it.   And I like a well-rounded cookie.

And use the good stuff.  Invest in yourselves and buy the big yummy chocolate chips.  It will not be the same without them.  Above you will also see the semi-sweet “chunks”.  I like the different textures of chocolate going on in one cookie.

And the dough finally meets the chocolate chips.  They are meant for one another.  And they fall in love.

And stand guard by your cookie dough.  Passer-bys will  test your “defend the cookie dough” skills.  Like they do when you make bacon.

And cover it and put it into your fridge.  With a threatening sign.  I didn’t need the sign because we went to bed - this was a good “protect the cookie dough” move.

After the dough is chilled, roll it up into balls.

And put them in your freezer.  THIS is one of my secrets.

Heat your oven to 375.  You see, I love a gooey chocolate chip cookie with a crisp bottom.  And this is how I achieve that.  Bake at a high temperature, without burning, and with a frozen dough – the inside doesn’t get too done.

Try it.

PLUS – you just take out of the bag as many cookies as you want to bake, and leave the rest in the freezer.

Then when people drop by your home, and you want to give them a treat, because after all – they are in your home, you can have these out of the oven in no time.  And they will say “wow you have the perfect cookie – you are so lucky”.

These are just barely out of the oven.  Take them out just as they are starting to brown.  I mean barely brown.   The bottom will be brown already.  I believe a very unfortunate fact of life is that most people over-bake cookies.

 Take them out and let them set on the cookie sheet.

Now – are you ready?  It is time…

Meet the cookie.

Just look at that crisp bottom crust.  And the gooey center.  And that chocolate.   Bliss.  You will never make another recipe again.  You and the cookie will be loyal to each other.

Until you make him for your friends and family.  And they will steal him from you.

Here is the recipe again:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bliss

In a mixer add

1 cup shortening

2 sticks butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

Cream together till light and fluffy

Add to the mixture

2 extra large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix

In a separate bowl, sift together:

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

Add a cup at a time to the mxture

Add your chocolate chips

Refrigerate till chilled

Roll into balls

Put into plastic bag and freeze

Heat oven to 375

Bake 8-12 minutes or until they start to brown

Let set on cookie sheet

Control yourself

Nope.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.

“Um… I’m not sure,” I said, but what I was really thinking was, “Again?  So soon?  Ahhhh!”

“Want to go off-roading in my jeep?” he asked, un-phased.

“Sure,” I said, realizing that this guy’s plan of getting the girl was way better than my plan of controlling this situation.

When the evening arrived I wasn’t feeling very well, so I sent him a text message asking if we could do something a little more low-key.  “Sure,” he replied, “I will just come up to your place.”

I had this brilliant plan to watch the new Pride and Prejudice movie, I mean… such a wonderful movie – set in early 19^th century England, and I mean, Mr. Darcy… come on!  It is a perfect movie to watch on a low-key Friday night.  So after he arrived we put the movie on.  Fifteen minutes in, your father leans over to me and says, “I have to be honest.  I don’t understand anything they are saying.”  Turns out I was striking out on the entertainment front.   He must have really liked me to be willing to go to the She Daisy concert and then watch Pride and Prejudice two days in a row.

“Oh!”  I said laughing, and quickly swapped out Pride and Prejudice for Hitch.

The next morning was the day we planned on working on my jeep.  At ten in the morning, he pulled up in his jeep and got out wearing a white t-shirt and some ripped up blue jeans, carrying a big tool box in one hand and some orange juice in his other.  “Here, I thought this might help you feel better” he said.

This guy was winning my heart.

We went out into the garage and he quickly diagnosed the problem.  “It is your power steering pump,” he said.  “My what?” I replied, having no idea what he was talking about.  “You need a new pump,” he said.  So we called the Jeep dealership, ordered the part, and drove to the other side of town to pick it up.

After we returned, he realized he needed a tool he didn’t have, so we made another trip to Sears and searched for what he needed.

Then, after we returned from that I started to worry.  What he didn’t know is that I had another date that evening that had been planned far in advance.  I was watching the clock realizing that this might not work out so well, and I started to get nervous.

“These newer jeeps have their parts all crammed in tight,” he was saying as he was trying to fit the new pump into its place.  “Here, let me try – my hands are smaller,” I offered, so he coached me as I attempted to fit it.  As my attempt was failing, I realized that I was soon to be in a real mess as one guy was about to come pick me up while your father was in my garage.

“I will be right back,” I said.

“Alright,” he replied.

And I went off and shamefully canceled a date last minute.

I had no idea that I was canceling the last date I would ever have with another guy.

I returned just as your father was finishing up.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Hannah, let me tell you what I learned months later as we were discussing this day he fixed my car.

“I never told you that I had a date with another guy that night,” I told him.

“I knew that,” he said.

“You did?” I asked.

“Yeah.  I figured a girl like you would have a date.  What you don’t know is that I had your car fixed much earlier in the day, so I unfixed it and kept working on it until I knew you had changed your plans.  I wasn’t about to let another guy get my girl.”

To be continued.

Honestly, studying PRIDE and CHARITY side by side has absolutely impacted me.

I have clarity.

So… the first thing I did was study the two.  I looked up scriptures and I read talks.

And then, because I am a ridiculously visual learner, I drew the this.

The girl on the left is my hero and my goal.

The girl on the right is motivated by pride.

Now, these ladies are the extremes.

So – I drew these lovely ladies and then thought of as many characteristics I could that would come from such attitudes.

I think THIS MAKES THE BEST DATING LESSON!

Give them scenarios like:

Then ask them how you come to marry someone like the one on the left.

(You become that way yourself)

I think this could be such an interesting discussion to have with your family.

Here are some of the things on my list:

• Doesn’t seek her own gain at the expense of others
• Prays for Gifts of the Spirit so she can improve and serve others better
• Is not puffed up – she doesn’t try to appear to be more than what she is
• Is gentle with others
• Is not easily provoked or offended
• Uses persuasion, doesn’t command others
• Motivated by love to be better
• Her eye is single to the glory of God – not her own glory
• Submits to the Lord
• Is long-suffering
• Doesn’t boast of her own gifts
• Recognizes her talents and uses them to bless others
• Is kind
• Has pure intentions
• Has endless potential
• Feels love for ALL of Heavenly Father’s children.  Not just those in her family, or her ward, or stake, or nation, race, school, religion, etc.
• Does not cover her sins.  Repents quickly.
• Does not swear or speak of inappropriate things
• Does not gossip
• Gains pure knowledge so she can teach and lead others to Christ
• Studies the scriptures
• Does not elevate herself to diminish others
• Does not cheat or deceive others in any way
• Never disciplines out of anger, but out of love
• Takes accountability for her sins and repents quickly
• Has self-control
• Prepares and prevents so she will not sin
• Listens to leaders and prophets
• Prays for guidance
• Lives within her means
• Discusses without contention
• Overcomes her fear so she can serve
• Rejoices in the success of others, even if it is something she wanted herself
• Is honest in every way
• Does not care if her good deeds are known
• Knows when to lead and when to follow
• Easily compliments, uplifts and shows praise and gratitude to others
• Has self- worth
• Respects authority

Isn’t this a cool girl???

And now for this girl.

• She is motivated to be better by pride… not love
• She will pit her will against God’s will… unless His will agrees with her.
• Desires gifts and talents to gain the praise of men
• She elevated her ways above others, and above God’s
• Is defensive
• Is competitive
• Finds pleasure in being above the rest
• Embarrasses others
• Is harsh
• Disciplines out of impatience and anger
• Criticizes others
• Manipulates others
• Selectively loves people
• Desires the success or higher rank of herself, or her family, or her race, or her school, her ward, her nation, etc.
• Asks others to do things she is unwilling to do herself
• Exaggerates her abilities or accomplishments
• Rationalizes her sins
• Immodest
• Does not pray or only appears to pray
• Denies that she is sinning
• Is more concerned with what man will think that with what God will think
• Mimics love to get what she wants
• Needs signs before she has faith in God
• Looks to the popular opinion
• Wants immediate gratification
• Lives beyond her means
• Behaves inappropriately
• Is jealous and envies
• Blames others
• Doesn’t take accountability
• Cheats
• Deceives others for personal gain
• Easily laughs at bad or inappropriate things
• Wants her opinion to be right
•  Wants good deeds to be seen of men
• Holds grudges
• Resents authority
• Fear trumps her faith
• Self-contempt
• Progression is limited or stopped
• Self-pity
• Uses hostile words
• Backbites
• Depends on the world to tell her she has value
• Unity is impossible
• Easily argues
• Does not receive correction
• Envies those above her and resents those beneath her

Now… we will find ourselves in both of these girls.

It would be really interesting to discuss this with your family and then talk about everyday scenarios and how each person would deal with them.

• She finds out someone is talking about her
• She is at school and someone asks to copy her homework
• The boy she has a crush on asks someone else to the school dance
• Her teacher asks her to put her cell phone away
• She is asked to speak in Sacrament meeting

It is amazing how understanding charity and pride illuminates everything and makes everything clearer.

Here are the page titles for Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther!

These are just short phrases that paraphrase what is happening on that page and are meant to be written at the top of the specified pages.   For more page titles, search under marking suggestions.

Here is the PDF: ezra -esther page titles

Our Dear Sweet Hannah,

My life has changed since you were born.  I see life so differently now.  Being your mother is such a great honor and I thank you for being my little Hannah.

Your story began long before you were born.  Generations upon generations of people living their own stories and making choices until it was your turn.  I don’t know about all of them, but they are also your story.  I have felt a new gratitude for them now.  Because of them, I am here, and because I am here, I have you.

You should know how your father and I met.  I think back on that blessed day and know that I had no realization of the happiness that day would bring me.

Your father and I lived our own lives, making our own choices , totally unaware of each other’s existence.  You can see here that your dad used to have red hair too.  You are like both of us.

One of the most important things I could teach you is that you are living your love story right now, just like we were our entire lives.  The reason your father and I fell in love is because of who we were.  I worked a long time on myself hoping to be worthy of someone like him.

We were each with our own group of friends.  He was coming from a barbeque, and I was going to it.  I noticed him because I knew that group of guys well and was surprised to see an unfamiliar face with them.  We didn’t talk but I guess he noticed me because he asked his friend who I was and learned details about me before we actually met.

Your father had just moved to Salt Lake after finishing his schooling at BYU-Idaho, and I had been living in Salt Lake teaching seminary.  I was fresh off the plane from a trip to Europe and had no idea that would be my last international backpacking trip.  I was of the opinion that as long as I am not married, I should take advantage and see as much of the world as I can.  There were actually times I would literally grab a globe sometimes and spin it and let my finger land randomly to pick where I was going next.

So there we were, finally in the same city for the first time in our lives and he just happened to be close friends with a guy I knew and saw frequently.   Soon after the barbeque a group of us went to a local baseball game and we sat behind the outfield on the grass.  Your dad brought along two girls and I never let him forget about that.  Our only interaction at the game that I remember was when I handed him some bills and he bought me a bottle of water.   It was after the game that I began to see something special in him.

We were going back to my place to play some games, at least that was the plan.  When your dad pulled up in his jeep he was without those two girls.  Turns out, he and his friend took them home and came back to my place because he knew that I was the girl he wanted to talk to.  I had put in a batch of chocolate chip muffins and when they had fully baked, I left the group to take them out of the oven.  In my haste to get back to the group, I overturned the pan and because they were too hot, they fell apart all over the counter instead of coming out as whole muffins.  I was so embarrassed, but then your dad and his friend came in to eat the crumbs.  As good friends do, his buddy quickly left us alone in the kitchen.

We started talking.  I don’t know how long, but it must have been awhile because people started to come looking for us.  I don’t remember everything we talked about, but I know I picked up on your father’s intense desire to provide and protect the people he loves.  I remember thinking that this guy will not fail his family and that he would do whatever it takes to give them what they need.  I am sure that is a quality in many of the guys I have known, but I have never seen it like this in someone.  And Hannah, what I realized that day has only been magnified since then.  You can always count on your father.  He will move heaven and earth to give us what we need.  We are so very lucky.

He didn’t ask me out, and to be honest, I didn’t want him to.  I thought he was a nice guy, but I had other dates with other guys, and I knew that your dad wouldn’t be casual about dating.  I wasn’t ready for him yet, I needed to know him more.  So we kept  running into each other, at least once a week it seemed.  And he wasn’t afraid to make it known that he was interested in me… all part of his plan he says.

We met in July 2007, and now it was early September.  Throughout that time span, my Jeep was acting up – something with the steering. I had no idea at the time that a very annoying car problem would change my life forever.

In our very first conversation in my kitchen he had told me that he had worked as a diesel mechanic while he was in high school and so I casually mentioned my car issue.  Well, it turns out that he has a jeep too and that he would love to help fix mine.  “Sure,” I thought – every guy is a mechanic when they like a girl.

So every time I saw him he kept asking me when he was going to fix my jeep.  That was his plan – he wanted to come fix my jeep and have me fall madly in love with him.  But, I was on to him and kept saying, “Oh, yeah, I will call you” but just happened to not have his number, and just happened to never ask for it.

Over a month later I began to realize my car wasn’t fixing itself so I sent a text to his friend asking for his number.  And because I knew of his plan, I also had a plan of my own.

I just happened to know that he wasn’t available during his work day to answer his phone, so that is exactly when I called.  “Hi, this is Shannon….  So, I was wondering if your offer to fix my jeep is still good.  I’m not sure what is wrong with it, and it only acts up on certain places on the freeway, so I was thinking…  a GROUP of us are going to the  She Daisy concert at the state fair, and if you want to come with us, I will totally buy your ticket and then you can drive my car and see if you can figure out its problem.  Call me back.  Thanks,bye.”

Now Hannah, I want you to see what is wrong here.  First of all, I invited your father to a She Daisy concert.  Second of all, well… you will see, your father will show me where I had foolishly underestimated him.

So, he sent me a text telling me exactly when he was going to call, and he did.

“Hey, I got your message, I would love to come”, he said.

“Great!  It is this Thursday”, I told him.

“But I will only come on one condition.”

“huh?”  I thought.

“That you let me pay, and that it is a date”, he very boldly replied.

“Oh no!” I said back peddling.  “You are totally doing me a favor and it is my way of saying thank you!”  But what I was really thinking was “Oh no, I am losing control of my plan”.

“I have wanted to ask you out for a while now, and this is the perfect opportunity”, he said.

And then I dropped dead.

I wasn’t used to guys like your father.  I was used to guys who were really interested thinking that they had to act not interested.   They would say they would call at a certain time, and then call far after that.  Or they would wait some pre-determined-in-their-head time period before asking me on a second date.  Or they would try to text me to ask me out. Or they would try and hang out rather than have the responsibility of a formal date.  In short, I was used to guys not being men, and your father wasn’t like that.

It was September 14^th when your dad and I went on that first date, exactly eleven months before we were married… but of course we didn’t know that.  He drove my car as planned and we were going to meet everyone else at the concert.   As we were approaching the entrance, he said to me, “Now, you didn’t sneak and buy the tickets did you?”  “Nope”, I said.  “Good.  Because I want to take care of you”, he replied.  “What”? I thought.  “Are there really still guys like this out there”?

We went into the concert and sat by everyone that I had originally planned to meet up with.  When I found my seat, we saw that there was something spilled on it.  Your father insisted on switching seats with me and proceeded to sit slouched back with his tailbone on the very edge of the seat the entire concert.  I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that would have been, but he has since confirmed to me that it was very uncomfortable.  Strike one should have been the She Daisy concert, and strike two should have been that he had to sit like that the entire time…  but when a guy likes a girl, he will treat her like this.  Remember that and accept nothing less.

The concert was good, at least I thought it was, and we said goodbye to the group and made our way to the rides and booths.  We wandered around enjoying each other’s company when your father saw the carnival attraction where you take the mallet and strike the plate and see how far up you can make the thing go up until it hits the bell.  Well, you surely know by now how freakishly strong your father is, and he wanted to show off for me, so he bought some tickets and we walked over to it.  Well, it turns out that they only take cash there, not tickets, and since he had just spent his cash we opted to go on this ride where you climb in a little caged car and it flips you around and around as you go in circles.

Well, that ride was fun for the first 30 seconds, but five minutes later we literally stumbled out and decided that we were too old for that sort of thing anymore, and we did what old people do and went and got a couple of lemonades.

We sat down at a table and started talking about everything that mattered to us.  It was so easy to be with him.  We talked about family, his mission, our jobs, our dreams… and I realized that everything that mattered to me also mattered to him.  We talked for so long that by the time we pulled out of our trance, we realized that we were the only ones left!  In the entire park!  All of the lights were still lit on all of the rides but there was not a soul to be seen.  We felt like we were part of some elaborate prank, or in a scene of a movie – it was all very surreal.

We made our way out of the park without ever seeing a single person.  Then we made our way back to my place with the plan that he would be at my house 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, tools in hand, to fix my car.

And that is my favorite of all the stories to tell.

To be continued….

Here is a map for the Book of Mosiah.

This is NOT meant to be geographically correct… it is meant to be a visual teaching tool to help you follow the story.

The map is in a PDF below and is black and white.  You can color it as you go.

The Book of Mosiah is where the Book of Mormon can get confusing because timelines begin to cross and it can be hard to get everything straight.

As you study, make notes as you go.  Just write little notes to help you keep everything clear.

Visualizing the story this way really helps me, and if you are a visual learner I hope it helps you too.

And I just cut down the edges and glued it into my chapter journal.  I used this page in my chapter journal as kind of a theme page for the entire Book of Mosiah.  So, I didn’t really dive into any specific scriptures, but rather themes of the entire book.  After this page, I will dive into individual scriptures.

Here is the PDF for this map:  Mosiah map

And here are some other maps for the Book of Alma:

Alma 1-27

Alma 28-35

Alma 36-49

I never announced the winner of the Matt Townsend prize giveaway!

The lucky winner is Windy Solis!  You get a signed copy of his book, the hilarious audio CD about the differences between men and women, plus a 3 month subscription to his women’s classes, workshops and more!

Matt will be getting touch with you to get your prize sent to you.  Congratulations!

Second…

Several of you asked and I wanted to let you know that the Family Scripture Study journals will be available at the Murray, Utah Quilted Bear by Tuesday… and perhaps sooner.

I was just in there buying my little Hannah her blessing dress and the sales people were telling me that one of you who live in Australia sent your mom in to get some journals and bring them to you on her visit.  That made my day!

They are also available on Amazon for those of you who prefer to use them.  And both Amazon and Create Space (whom my store is linked to on this site) ship internationally.

Third…

I am almost done with a post with the Book of Mormon map for the book of Mosiah.  So for those of you teaching that in Sunday School – it should be up by tomorrow.

Fourth…

I have been receiving so many wonderful emails and I wish I could magically have the time to get back to all of you.  I am trying to respond to the emails that ask a question, but if you were just sending a nice message my way, please know that I read all of them and that I am SO grateful for them – they help me know that the effort is worth it.