Sister Coleman's Quotes & Extras

Another, day another blog post....today's block is Alma 9-10.  As I studied these two chapters my focus was really on Amulek.  I don't know what it is but I really focus on his experience with conversion. Today, I wanted to share a few things that Amulek shares about himself.  In Alma 10:1-6 Amulek gives his genealogy.  His is a descendant of Nephi, the son of Lehi (vs. 3), he is a man of no small reputation meaning he was well known and probably liked (vs.4), he has also done very well financially (vs. 4), and he admits to seeing so many marvelous things during his lifetime where he knew the Lord was real and had preserved this people but he chose to harden his heart, do his own thing, and not worry about the religious stuff (vs.5-6).  He then has an angel appear until him and tell him to return home and be ready to receive a prophet of God.  So Amulek went and did what the angel commanded (Alma 10:7-8).  This experience in being obedient led...

Today's reading covered Alma's first visit to Ammonihah where he tried to preach the word of God but was rejected.  He leaves town discouraged but wrestled "with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance." (Alma 8:10) What a very Christ like message of love, concern, and compassion even for those that rejected him and his message.  I love this example that each of us can learn to follow.  Praying on behalf of those who have rejected Christ and his teachings or who have harmed us in any way.  Our prayers cannot change or take away anyone's agency but it can soften our heart to be open to promptings on who we can help, help us see things with greater gratitude, and interact with these people with compassion instead of judgement.   The other part of today's chapter that stood out to me was from Alma 8:18.  After the angel (yes this is...

In Alma Chapter 6 Alma sets things in order in Zarahemla, making sure good local leaders are in place for the church, so he can leave to travel and preach the gospel more extensively.  He arrives in the land of Gideon and I love how nervous he is about speaking.  He hopes that he will do a good job, that his message will be clear, and that the Holy Ghost will touch their hearts, and ultimately that people will be brought closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father.  I think these feelings we can all relate to in our many efforts and opportunities to share the gospel.  To me this is one of the moment where you are reminded that Alma was a prophet, but also a human being with fears and weakness.  Had two things that stood out to me as I studied these words of Alma in chapter 7 as he declared the joyous message of the birth, life, Atonement of the Savior.  The first was in Alma 7:12 and the use of the word "succor" to explain why Christ would s...

Man I really dropped the ball on Friday, I totally forgot to do a blog post on Alma 3-4. I didn't realize my mistake until late Friday night and at that point I was just too lazy to fix it.  So we are just going to skip right along to Alma 5, a very long chapter that comes in just behind Jacob 5, the reining champion of longest chapter in The Book of Mormon. According to the subscript (the little introduction that comes before the formal Chapter 5 heading and chapter summary) the teachings contained in Chapter 5 were delivered to all the people in all their cities and villages throughout all the land.  It must be pretty important if it applies to everyone.  Also as a side note the subscriptions that appear in the book of Alma were translated from the ancient record by the Prophet Joseph Smith, these are original. This means you should probably slow down, read them, and pay attention to them.....unlike the chapter headings/summaries I tend to gloss over. If I were to g...

I am way late in the day for the blog post but things kind of got away from me this morning.  Sometimes I feel like a stretch Armstrong toy that is getting pulled in a million directions by my mind and today I forgot the blog post this morning.  I will say I was able to get a lot of other things done though. Today we dive into the book of Alma within The Book of Mormon.  The book of Alma is nearly 1/3 of The Book of Mormon and only covers roughly 40 years of Nephite history.  Chapters 1-44 cover Alma the younger's time, chapter 45-62 covers Alma's son Helaman's thoughts, and chapter 63 is Alma's other son, Shiblon.  There is a lot to be learned from the Nephites' and there 40 year history here.  We can learn that the word of God has more power to change hearts that the wielding of sword and that rejecting God's word leads to war and bloodshed. From these first to Chapters we meet Nehor, who introduces priestcraft (not preaching the pure and full gospel,...

here we are at the end of the book of Mosiah, I feel like that went really fast, and really slow at the same time.  Frankly, I just feel like Corona Quarantine is messing with any sense of time I had to begin with.  Okay quick recap of today's block, at the end of Mosiah the sons of Mosiah, Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni, desire to spread the gospel beyond just the Nephite people near Zarahemla, they want to help their Lamanite brothers as well.  King Mosiah uses theses "two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow" (Mosiah 28:13) to translate what we know as the Book of Ether, Mosiah then also shares his concerns about having kings and expresses his desire to move the Nephite ruling body to a "chief judge" system, which is then voted into place by the people. Now I could spend all day talking "two stones", seer stones, and the similarities between this moment and what we know about the translation process with the Prophet Joseph Smith...

There are some many amazing things taught in Mosiah 27.  There is the incredible story of Alma and the son's of Mosiah overcoming their sins, choosing to repent, and this zealous fury of work trying to fix their wrongs.  These young men overcame a very serious sin, preaching and teaching against the Lord and His church, and became some of the post powerful missionaries that worked the remainder of their lives to bring people closer to the Savior. There is definitely a beautiful story of redemption here and a reminder that the reach of the Savior's Atonement is limitless but what stood out so me was the actions of righteous people and a loving father. In Mosiah 27:14 when the angel of the Lord has appeared to Alma (the younger) and the son's of Mosiah he says: "Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that though mightest be brought to the know...

Back at another week, so lets dive right in. Life since the arrival of all parties in Zarahemla is going decent however the younger generation who don't remember the teachings of King Benjamin aren't so excited about being part of the church or living by its teachings.  In fact there are now people going around with their "flattering words" (Mosiah 26:6) trying to deceive people.  Alma is extremely upset by the situation doesn't know what to do.  He goes to King Mosiah hoping he will just take care of the problem but as a wise King he admonished Alma that this is a church matter that he is responsible for taking care of.  Alma wants to do the right thing so bad, not to mention his own child is involved (see Mosiah 27), and he goes to the one person who can give him an answer, the Lord. "And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the ...

The time hopping and confusion of Mosiah has come to a close.  The people of Limhi and the people of Alma have all made it to Zarahemla and have joined with King Mosiah and the people Mulek. King Mosiah invites all the people to gather together and he reads the accounts of both Zeniff (King Limhi's people) and the account of Alma and his people.  I feel like it is very simple in this moment to put yourself there and instead of hearing Mosiah reading the accounts you just read them. What did you feel as you read? Were you filled with hope, wonder, amazement?  The people in Zarahemla immediately raised their voices and gave thanks to God. Can we take this a little step forward and bit more personal? How do you respond when you hear about friends, family, or acquaintances that have been brought out of bondage? Do you feel a desire to give thanks and express gratitude to the Lord for blessing your friend? What about after the Lord has brought you out of bondage, do you imme...

Mosiah 23 & 24 is bit of time hop back to follow Alma and his people now from the time they fled from before King Noah.  Alma and his people traveled for 8 days and then came to a "beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water" (Mosiah 23:4).  Once there they began to work hard and build a city that by all accounts appeared to be flourishing. Eventually the Lamanite group that tried pursuing the people of King Limhi but got lost ran into some of King Noah's wicked priests living in a land of Amulon with the Lamanite daughters they kidnapped that are now their wives.  Weird stuff here, I know.....any way the wicked priests join this group of Lamanites looking for the land of Nephi to return to but they just so happen to stumble onto Alma and his people in the land of Helam.  Since Helam was thriving they desired to take it over.  A compromise was made with Alma and the Lamanites so that instead of killing Alma and his people they were brought into bonda...

As I sat at my desk this morning listen to the sound of the rain falling and reflecting over the Governor's announcement  yesterday that the "soft closure" of school would continue through the remainder of the school year my heart just ached.  It ached in a lot of selfish ways, like I was going to miss out on experiences with my students, the fun events of the end of school, and how was I ever going to keep balancing work and school teaching responsibilities for my kids for 7 more weeks. It also ached in a lot of unselfish ways, it ached for the tears shed by my son Tanner for missing field day, friends, and his teacher Mrs. Swenson.  It ached for my son Sam and Luke and them missing some of the amazing reading techniques taught at their school, the teachers, the friends, and the Spring Program.  It also ached for all my students missing Prom, spring sports, graduation, senior sunset, the spring play, and final choir/band performances. There is just a lot of heartach...

There is a correlation that I notice over and over again within The Book of Mormon.  This correlation is that when the Nephite people are righteous, following prophets, striving their best to be good they treat their wives and children with respect.  They willingly go into battle to preserve them and are often preserved and protected.  On the other side, when Nephite or even Lamanite people stop listening to prophets and become prideful and disobedient they begin to treat their families poorly. A perfect illustration of this is found within the verses of Mosiah 19-20. We see how King Noah and his priests feel about family. Mosiah 19:11 reads, "Now it came to pass that the king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites." These pansies, for lack of a better word, abandoned their wives and children and fled into the wilderness to avoid fighting the Lamanites and facing potential death.  These same priest...

Oh man, back to the weekly grind....whatever that looks like now.  I realized this morning that this quarantine routine has been going on for over a month. They say it takes 21 days for something to become a habit so I keep wondering if this is the new normal.....can't say I am a huge fan..... As I studied Mosiah 18 this morning there were three things that stood out to me: 1) How Abinadi's effort to teach turned into one changed heart, Alma's.  Then Alma's efforts multiplied to 204 and eventually at the end of the chapter 450.  Don't ever forget the powerful impact your light can have on others.  Elder Anderson addressed just a few weeks ago in General Conference the ability for our past spiritual experiences to impact ourselves and others in dark times in the video below. What are you doing to share your precious moments with others to light their way? 2) My next thing that stood out to me hales from Mosiah 18:8-10 which Elder Holland taught, "Th...

These three chapters are the final words of Abinadi where he shares simple and essential doctrine regarding Christ's role in the Plan of Salvation.  I feel like this is summed up in Mosiah 15:9, "Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice." There are no words that justly express my gratitude for my Savior and all He has done for me, repentance, growth, change, forgiveness, and resurrection are all possible because of Christ's loving Atonement so I hope as you study these verses you slow down and  underline  or mark  all the things the Savior has done for you and what gifts He offers to you. I want to shift gears now to one thing that always stands out to me about Abinadi.  From my view point of a reader o...

Today a Book of Mormon great arrives on the scene, the wonderful, faithful, and fearless Abinadi.  When we think of Abinadi, the famous Arnold Friberg portrait probably comes to mind.  I am going to let Elder Holland set the stage (the talk in its entirety can be found HERE  it is an amazing discourse about teaching the gospel): "Abinadi has, from my youth upward, been one of my most admired prophets in our entire standard works of scripture. Abinadi comes on the scene as a virtual unknown, claiming no prophetic heritage nor revealing any famous family line. With things degenerating in Zeniff’s headstrong colony, Abinadi is called to cry repentance unto Zeniff’s son and pathetic successor, King Noah. You know the account. "Noah immediately puts out a death warrant, and Abinadi is forced to flee. After two years in hiding, Abinadi again steps forward to teach and testify. I pause here to smile at the prophet’s apparent childlike innocence in all of this. He has b...

Hope everyone is hanging in there! Just a reminder it is Wednesday , just in case you have lost track of what day it is, half way to the weekend which may not feel like quiet a difference than a week day right now but hopefully you don't have to do so much school work or juggling of stuff.  For me I am just looking forward to not spending 12 hours a day hunched over a computer, desk, table working on work stuff or home-school stuff.  Today I am going to share some quick thoughts about Mosiah 11-12:17, after last post the less words out of me the better.  Zeniff's son Noah, yes wicked King Noah, is now in charge (if you need a reminder of what is going on right now in Mosiah see previous blog post HERE ). As I studied this morning there was one word that kept standing out to me and that was the word heart . When describing King Noah he is described as: "[walking] after the desires of his own heart (Mosiah 11:2)" and "[placing] his heart upon his riches, and he...

Okay, I know you aren't supposed to play favorites but Mosiah has to be one of my most favorite books in The Book of Mormon.  That being said it can sometimes be a little confusing as it jumps from different groups of people and travels back in time so for those of you who like a chronological story this is a bit confusing.  Here is a link to the best visual diagram for my fellow visual learners out there:  Overview Diagram  I have also included a screen grab of the same diagram, although the quality isn't great. So to back things up, remember how Nephi had to leave his brothers and journey further into the wilderness once arriving in the promise land because Laman and Lemuel wanted to kill him? Yes, okay so they went up to the land which is now called the Land of Nephi.  Well after several generations of living there the Nephites began to be wicked and have disputations so a guy name Mosiah was warned by the Lord that he should leave the land of Nephi and...

Hey Guys! Welcome back to the blog and life after Spring Break.  I hope despite current circumstances you found ways to relax, recharge, and enjoy a break from school work and other responsibilities.  Spring Break here wasn't quite how I had imagined it would be earlier this year but it was still nice.  I got to figure out what homeschooling is going to look like for my two sons who are in private school and had some fun doing crafts (if anyone one needs help making paracord bracelets, I am your gal), playing games, enjoying walks outside, and finally finishing the  book I started near the end of Christmas Break. With your online Canvas material this week you have the option of covering a lot of stuff, Mosiah 5-17 to be exact.  So I will try to cover this the best I can in this format, but know there is much more material available in your class Modules.  As a final reminder you have to complete 2 Modules and attend one Zoom class on Friday, or complete 3...