Last night

Yesterday I somewhat randomly popped over to the FARMS (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies) website at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute to see what they had. I wasn't really sure what I would find there, but I knew I needed some reading material to keep me occupied while I was scanning a whole bunch of documents at work.

What I found completely fascinated me. I printed out two articles to read at my leisure: an article on the records kept by the Jaredite people, and another article on Moroni, more specifically comparing and contrasting his three attempts to close the record of the Book of Mormon.

I especially enjoyed the article on Moroni. As I read through the final pages of the Book of Mormon, his life really came alive before my eyes, and I understood a lot about his narrations and his commentaries on the stories he was telling. I came to understand how he, like us, was a spiritual wanderer in a strange land, unsure of what the Lord had in store for him, but having complete faith and trust in His plan. The main difference between us and Moroni is that Moroni knows exactly what we are to "get" from the Book of Mormon. He saw our time, and knows the important lessons that we are to learn. And fortunately for us, he recorded them all in Moroni 10.

I've always seen Moroni 10 as the "conclusion" to the Book of Mormon. Well, what I managed to forget in this case is a basic principle of good writing: the conclusion needs to re-state the thesis statement of the work, and summarize it clearly and concisely. Reading the final chapter of the Book of Mormon as both introduction and conclusion, I was able to gain a large amount of insight as to what is important to look for while reading the Book of Mormon, and I am extremely excited to re-read the Book of Mormon yet again, and really focus on the things that Moroni emphasized in his final exhortation to us.

I've been trying really hard recently to study the scriptures, but not only that, to be a student of the scriptures -- really apply them to my life. I picked up a study manual for the second half of the Old Testament, and began reading about the rise and fall of King Solomon (1 Kings 1-11). The manual helped point out that the fall of King Solomon was mostly due to three things: pride, mismanagement of wealth, and a strong desire for acceptance by the world around him. I started thinking about my own life, and the past couple of months. I've really seen a lot of that in my personal life as well, I'm ashamed to say, and I've almost completely gotten away from the things that helped me identify myself as, well, me. So, I made a list, and I carry it around with me on my PDA, and I'm going to be referring to it frequently as I try to keep myself on course. I think this is a good thing to start the new year off with, seeing as how last year was made up mostly of ambiguous goals and scattershot attempts to be 'productive' and 'improve myself'.