I'm not entirely sure where to even begin with this chapter.  So many good stories are found in this one, which can easily be likened to our own lives and our own times.  Various lessons come to mind.... For example, verses 1 through 3 are a magnificent litmus test of personal righteousness.  When someone comes at you and truthfull...

Ya know... Chatting with good friends has its benefits.  Just like think-tanks and collegeate consortiums are good for concerted cognation, a good conversation with a concerned cohort can be just as contenting. I think I've mentioned this before in my journal, but in talking with a good friend of mine, I hadn't made the connection with just...

After reading this chapter for no more than 30 seconds, I simply must type. I love verse 3. Many, many times have I been in a doctrinal discussion with someone and the other person just can't "get" what a scripture or principle means.  Verse 3 could explain why that happens to us. Some things we just can't understand without th...

When I sit and think about what I just read, the 14th chapter of 1st Nephi is pretty crazy. Just a few points... The majority of the chapter is all about the "mother of abominations" and the "whore of all the earth". I believe it's written here to clarify the impact this (these) church(es) has (have) had upon the plain and...

No, seriously, people...  Microsoft really does care....  loads and loads of caring! They care so much ABOUT MONEY it makes me sick. I just got done reading this article and I'm left with a feeling of sickening "awe" at how greedy Microsoft really is. Lately, I've been following a story about a group of people in a project...

Where do I even begin with this chapter? I remember reading it and understanding it for the first time during my mission.  It was really cool realizing that all of this stuff in this chapter is written about in history books!  It talks about Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Revolutionary War, the Bible, the coming of the Bo...

I had forgotten that in this chapter, Nephi sees the Lord descend from heaven to the people who would be born from Nephi. I put myself in his situation, and quite honestly , I have no idea how I would react.  It would be so supremely surreal - seeing your kids' kids' kids' kids, and then seeing the Savior of the world show himself unto them....

As soon as the angel of God knew Nephi's purpose and desire, the first question he asked him was "Do you believe?". I think that's a fairly important question, which we should ask ourselves each day.  If we are being tempted and we ask ourselves that question, to which we already know the answer, I can promise you the tempter's pow...

First Nephi Ten... I'm not really in a spiritual mood right now, which really is unfortunate because I know this chapter has some spiritual meat to it. One thing I can write, is when I read this chapter during my mission, and even before, I always found myself focusing on Nephi's desire to see the things his father did (in verse 17). He didn'...

Two things for tonight's study: I believe the purpose of this chapter is the same as chapter 6:  To give purpose behind the Book of Mormon.  The things Nephi is writing are things of God - things pertaining to the ministry of the people in those days. I love verse 5.  It reminds me of when Adam was commanded to build an alter and...

It might be that I'm a techno-geek, but the first thing I thought of when I read this was "social media".  People went from house to house and "labored exceedingly" all through the night to let it be known where Jesus was going to come the following day. Also interesting are the activities of the people when the arrived t...

The first thing that stood out to me this time around was the anger of Lamoni's father.  Try to place yourself in the situation Lamoni found himself in.  There are so many variables in the situation, it's hard to imagine exactly what was going on with the family undercurrents, but holy cow.  Lamoni's father drew his freaking sword an...

 So, I wrote a few days ago how I was able to get my new echo audiofire12 working under gentoo Linux with the old firewire stack.  Well, I couldn't leave well-enough alone, so I tried my hand at updating my kernel and using the new stack.  Turned out there were a few caveats that, without some external help from a great person in the...

I just got done reading, listening to, and watching the general conference talk "Ask In Faith", by Elder David A. Bednar. I must say, having missed the original broadcasting of this conference, I heard all the hype about this talk in the ensuing weeks and months.  It seemed that this talk was all the rage about learning how to &quo...

Sunday March 27, 2011 Hey everyone! It's been a while but I'm back and I have so much to share with you. Lately I've been busy with school. It's really challenging and it's getting down to being time for finals. I just hope that I'll do very well on my finals than I am on my classwork. I also would like to share that I'll be participating in ...

Okay, people.... I was hired on here at Nature's Way as the only person in the IT department who knows anything about web development.  Almost all people here are either networking, helpdesk, or SAP gurus.  They desperately needed help in the web development corner of IT.  So... They hired me.  Go figure. Anyway...  I w...

Man...  I can only imagine what Ammon's joy truly felt like.  After reading D&C 18:15-16, I begin to see why Ammon fainted due to overwhelming joy so many times throughout his mission.  Dedicating a full chapter to nothing but the rejoicing of Ammon seems perfectly reasonable. I always thought his brothers were kind of rude to ...

Two things for tonight's study: I believe the purpose of this chapter is the same as chapter 6:  To give purpose behind the Book of Mormon.  The things Nephi is writing are things of God - things pertaining to the ministry of the people in those days. I love verse 5.  It reminds me of when Adam was commanded to build an alter and...

My wife and I got a dutch oven set about a month ago. We finally decided to try it out. We have both seen and helped with dutch oven cooking before, but have never done it without the help of someone more experienced. Problem #1 You need to get the coals lit before you can cook anything. I tried a couple methods to get them started. Pile o...

Before I even begin reading this chapter, I've gotta let you know that this chapter intimidates me.  It is so doctrinally rich, I'm seriously getting anxious just thinking about having to decipher its contents here and now.  I know this anxiety is unfounded because I know that God answers prayers, and I've prayed, so... Let's get to it. ...

Lately, I've been feeling quite the spiritual outpouring from heaven upon me.  It happened about ....  Let's say last Friday (the 10th).  I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I've been happier, more settled emotionally, more productive at work, and ....  Just really anxious to be about a good cause. I think now would be a...

ILoveMyJournal announces the formal inauguration of editable entries! Yes, you heard right, folks!  You can now edit any entry you have previously entered here at ILMJ.  You can do this from two pages. First, Please make sure you are in your private journal, not in your blog.  All blog entries are also displayed within your pri...

Seems that the testimony of Nephi against the people of Zarahemlah was centered around their disbelief in Christ.  Interesting that, as soon a Satan has control over a people, Christ is the first doctrine which is attacked. Also the story of the finding of the murderer of Seezoram is interesting through the eyes of the foreknowledge of God.&...

Let Isaiah begin! This chapter is a great pre-cursor to the chapters to follow.  Nephi explains why he like the words of Isaiah, as well as the fact that he likes to bring people to Christ. Interesting in verse 3, Nephi says he'll send the words of Jacob to his children for the purpose of reinforcing his own words.  The reason being b...

One part of this chapter possibly made sense to me, although I could be totally wrong. Okay, two parts did. The first is verses 8 - 13.  It seems to me that these verses are talking about the kingdom of Judah.  Though they may assemble themselves and try, they will ultimately fail unless they begin to fear God.  (again, could b...

Concerning world events, I'll be the first to say that I'm a pretty naive guy.  I keep up on stuff that's important to me, but not too much more.  I realize that this is somewhat of a flaw, so I am trying to involve myself much more with the world. That said, on the morning of Sept 10, 2001 - if you asked me what the "world trade ...

It's 2:00am and I'm sitting down here writing and recording music.  I'm trying to do some really relaxed "Trance" music, and .... I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna turn out, but it feels good being able to record music again. I don't even have a name for the song I've been working on for the last month, but... it'll come when it'...

First Nephi Ten... I'm not really in a spiritual mood right now, which really is unfortunate because I know this chapter has some spiritual meat to it. One thing I can write, is when I read this chapter during my mission, and even before, I always found myself focusing on Nephi's desire to see the things his father did (in verse 17). He didn'...

Yes!  You can now comment on public blog entries at ILoveMyJournal.com! I wrote the whole process from scratch, so some of the methods used to keep bots away might be new to you.  Here's the skinny: First off, nothing is required except the comment and the human-test answer.  I'm not sure if this is gonna stick or not, but I co...

I find it interesting how Satan is described throughout scripture. In this chapter, through verses 13 - 20, Satan is seemingly exposed as the weak fraudster he really is.  Verse 16 is quite potent, written from the standpoint of people who were tempted by him, when shown his actual person, are amazed at the frailness of Satan.  They say...