One Soul, Institute and Little House

I thought that David starting another blog would encourage me to blog more. Apparently not. It seems as though I have very little to say right now, due in large part to a lot of inner dialogue (which I am not going to subject you fine readers to again) that has been bouncing around in my brain. I have however received what I think was inspiration guiding me along a path that may alleviate some of the stress in my life, but only time and effort will tell. Tonight it is going well, but we shall see.

During our devotional this morning I introduced to the kids the new scripture for July. It happens to be Doctrine and Covenants 18:15. Go ahead, click over and read it, otherwise the rest of this may not make sense :) We read it out loud and then discussed what it meant. While I was reading it, Mark interrupted me to tell me that he knew the one was each of us. We each get ourselves back to Heavenly Father. I agreed with him, after all, he was right. The more I talked with him and thought about it, the more right it became. It's all about agency. The only person that we can bring back to heaven in ourselves. We can be instrumental in helping someone else, or guiding them to the right path, but in the end we are each responsible for our own choices that will either lead us to or away from our Father in Heaven. I love when I get to be a part of those moments with the kids. It was really just the pick me up I needed since yesterday was not the best day and I had been feeling kind of down.

I have also been using the Institute Manuals for my personal scripture study and am 3/4 of the way through Old Testament 1. I have been doing a chapter a day, which on days like today means that I spent 4 hours reading either in the scriptures or the manual. That is almost all of my free study time in the day, but I did find time to read my more fun book, Little House on the Prairie, more on that later. Sometimes the manual asks really silly questions and by silly I mean the other s word that we don't let our kids say. (stupid) However I have found that the notes and commentary explain things that are otherwise so confusing I don't even think about asking a question about them. The experience thus far has been a very enlightening one and I feel as though I am getting to know the scriptures better than I ever have before. I would wholeheartedly recommend using the manuals, though you might not go as hardcore as I have :)

Ok, last thing. Little House on the Prairie. I admit I was inspired to read the series by Laurel's recent post about the show, which I never watched. I was more the Highlander, Star Trek, Charmed kind of girl. I must say I am really enjoying the books. I have read two of the eight in the series and I almost feel a desire to find a plain where no one has lived and build my own little log house and dig a well, and milk a cow, but then I remember that I was born during this time because as my father always reminded us I am "a pampered little princess". Just as a side note, though I haven't read it in the books yet, I do know from the summary bit on the back of some of the later novels that Mary does indeed go blind, how or why I will have to let you know when I get to it.

It may be a while before you hear from me again, or maybe not, who can tell? Just know that I am still here striving to figure out my life and everything that goes with it.