November 10, 2009

Hello Again,
Well this week was fairly uneventful. We had to stay in for a few days because my comp had the swine flu so we stayed in until Saturday. He is better now and I have not caught it so we are all good here! So I did a lot of reading in the BoM this week. I read from Mosiah 28 to like Alma 20. I remember how I used to think that the BoM was boring...this is not so. In like the 2nd chapter of Alma this epic battle takes place and they kill so many people that they make a pile out of the bodies, but then the piles get in the way and so they push the piles into the river.... If they made this stuff into movies it would be far past rated R. I also read some of the General Conference issue of the Ensign. I read Elder Holland's talk again and it was almost as good as it was in conference. I realize that I wouldn't have been caught dead "joy reading" the Ensign before my mission. I think why I can read it and get so much out of it now is because of my new perspective of "the gospel". I thought about it and realized that I no longer view the things said in church and from the prophets as the Church's teachings. Now I have begun to view those things as teachings that just help in life in general. You don't need to be LDS to see that. I used to have this line that I would draw in my mind that had church stuff on one side and everything else on the other side. That is not how it works. For the gospel to function like a well oiled machine it needs to be intertwined and weaved into the other parts of your life. That's what it,s meant for. So sorry if that seems at all preachy cause really I'm just trying to explain to you all why I am now joy reading the Ensign and the Book of Mormon.

So this Saturday I get to shake Jeffery R. Holland's hand! You all should be horribly jealous. That's it for this week.
Love y'all,
Elder Schroeder
Reported by Mom