Book of Mormon: The Power of the Word (Including Free Printable Reading Charts)

I put together some free printable Book of Mormon Reading Charts to help make scripture study more fun.  (Links are at the bottom of the page.)  Reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover at least once a year is a good goal for any Latter-Day Saint.  Ezra Taft Benson taught that "studying and searching the scriptures is not a burden"; he taught that it is "a marvelous blessing and opportunity" (Ezra Taft Benson, "The Power of the Word", May 1986).

To prove this point, here are 10 Important Reasons to Read the Book of Mormon:

1.  To have a happier, more fulfilling, less complicated life.  In his talk, "Keep the Commandments", from the October 2015 General Conference, President Thomas S.  Monson says that "when we keep the commandments, our lives will be happier, more fulfilling, and less complicated.  Our challenges and problems will be easier to bear, and we will receive His promised blessings."  And as Nephi noted in 1 Nephi chapter 4, we must read the scriptures in order to know the commandments that we might obey them.

2.  To nurture strong testimonies.  In the same talk, President Monson tells us that we nurture strong testimonies by "studying the scriptures and by praying and by pondering the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

3.  To nourish heart and mind.  In the hymn "Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth", we learn that "searching scriptures faithfully" helps us to "nourish heart and mind"  (Hymns 298).

4.  For protection.  President Russell M. Nelson taught, "Scriptural knowledge ... provides precious protection"  (Russell M. Nelson, "Let Your Faith Show", October 2015).

5.  To find our course and stay on it.  Russell M. Nelson taught, "The scriptures provide one of the best ways to find our course and stay on it" (Russell M. Nelson, "Let Your Faith Show", October 2015).

6.  For added revelation.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that scriptures "will bring added revelation" (D. Todd Christofferson, "The Blessing of Scripture", May 2010). 

7.  To get nearer to God.  The prophet Joseph Smith taught "the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” (Introduction to The Book of Mormon, p. vii).

8.  To have a blessing hitherto unknown.  Ezra Taft Benson promised about the Book of Mormon that "if we will daily sup from its pages and abide by its precepts, God will pour out upon each child of Zion and the Church a blessing hitherto unknown" (Ezra Taft Benson, "A Sacred Responsibility", May 1986).  What an amazing promise!

9.  To strengthen commitment and fortify families.  Ezra Taft Benson promised that focusing on the scriptures will "automatically" increase other areas of activity.  He said, "Testimonies will increase.  Commitment will be strengthened.  Families will be fortified.  Personal revelation will flow" (Ezra Taft Benson, "The Power of the Word", May 1986).

10.  For greater power and more abundant life!  Ezra Taft Benson gave this prophetic promise about the Book of Mormon: " It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance" (Ezra Taft Benson, "The Book of Mormon---Keystone of Our Religion, Nov. 1986).

Here are some Fun Facts about reading the Book of Mormon:

Ø  There are 245 chapters or other sections in the Book of Mormon if you include the Title Page, Introduction, Testimony of Three Witnesses, Testimony of Eight Witnesses, Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith,  and A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon.

Ø  That means that if you begin reading on January 1st and read just one chapter a day, you will finish reading the Book of Mormon by September 2nd. 

Ø  And if you want to take 2 or 3 days to read long chapters like Jacob 5, you can probably easily make up for it by reading two chapters a day at the beginning of the book of Moroni where the chapters are only a few verses long.

Ø  If you read two chapters a day instead, you will finish the entire book by May 3rd.  You will finish a second time by September 2nd.  You could finish reading it a third time by January 3rd of the following year.

Ø  If you only read a half a chapter each day, you can still finish the entire Book of Mormon in just a year, 4 months, and 5 days.

Having trouble making it through the Isaiah Chapters or the War Chapters?  

The two longest books in the Book of Mormon are the Book of Alma (63 chapters) and 2nd Nephi (33 chapters).  Incidentally, those are the two parts of the Book of Mormon that people most often talk about having a hard time making it through while reading (the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi and the war chapters in Alma).  Maybe the reason it is hard to make it through is because it seems like you aren't making any progress because you are still in the same book.  Next time you read,  you could try mentally breaking these books in half by naming them "2 Nephi A" and "2 Nephi B", and "Alma A" and "Alma B".  That way it might be easier to get through these long books without getting discouraged.

On my reading chart, there is a smiley face half-way through 2 Nephi to show how much progress you're making.  Alma also has a smiley face after each of the first two thirds of the book.

The Book of Mormon Reading chart has a color version as well as a black and white version to give you options.

Click Below for FREE PRINTABLE BOOK OF MORMON READING CHARTS --- BLACK & WHITE OR COLOR.

Book of Mormon Reading Chart B&W

Book of Mormon Reading Chart Color

A Simple Faucet Replacement

Being relatively new to DIY plumbing, I wondered whether I was going to be in over my head when I told my husband that I would replace the faucets in our master bathroom. After a day or two of reflection on what possessed me to say yes, and then a few weeks of dragging my feet, I decided Saturday to take the plunge. Before you read this and think that when I say I am new to DIY plumbing that I mean I have only replumbed everything in my house, I just don't have an actual plumbing license or certificate, let me clarify what I mean. The only other thing I've done is replace a toilet with the help of my dad. And help is loosely defined here as observing, getting in the way, and being the gofer for whatever tool he needed. Truly I am a novice. But I do like to try new things. And I like to open my big mouth and volunteer for things that I am totally under-qualified for. But here I am on the other side, victorious. And you can be too!

My story starts two days ago, when I picked my dad's brain about replacing a faucet. I told him I just needed a few pointers, but I was really hoping he'd just replace them while he was at my house. (Shame on me!) We talked about it, and he even came upstairs to showed me where I needed to turn the water off under the sink. I promptly gave it a try, hoping that if I got the ball rolling, he'd step in. My plan turned a little sour when I attempted to shut the water off and instead the handle snapped off.

Hmm...not a very promising start. I was now certain I wasn't going to be able to do this project on my own. If you can't turn the water off at the source, you have to go back to the next point you can turn it off, which in my case was the street meter. This turns off the water to the whole house. We made our way out to the street and found that the shutoff valve was completely stuck. Truly not a promising start. But I was not to be deterred! "I'll just call the city and have them send someone out to fix it, and turn it off," I thought. So I made the call, and they told me they would send someone out. I patted myself on the back for getting the ball rolling, not thinking of it again until this morning at just before eight. My phone rang and a man informed me he had just turned off the water to my house. I had expected them to give me more of a heads up, but there it was. "Well, I wasn't exactly planning on replacing those faucets today, but why not? WHY NOT!?" I thought. My dad was at work today, so as I drove home, I gave him a call to beg him to help me over the phone. As he always is, he said he was willing and I immediately got to work. Where in the world do I start to get the old faucet out? Since I didn't see anything I could do from above the sink, I decided to go below. With my handy, dandy wrench, I was ready to go to work unscrewing the cold water hose from the top of the valve. But just in time, I remembered that there would still be pressure in the pipes from water that was already there, so I turned the faucet on. As I expected, some water did come out. When it had stopped dripping, I got back under the sink, and set to work. The hot and cold water hoses were fairly easy to unscrew from their valves, so I went to work attempting to unscrew the large nut next to the wall on the cold water valve.

After a few turns, some heavy breathing and the nut not being anymore loose than it was when I began, I huffed and got my dad on the phone. He said I needed TWO wrenches.
And that nut I was trying to unscrew? It doesn't unscrew from the wall. It stays there, and the rest of the fitting unscrews from IT. Now armed with two wrenches, I held onto the large nut with one wrench and unscrewed the fitting with the other one. Be aware that the fitting was a whole lot more tough to get out than the water hoses. NOTE: Be sure that you get the correct fitting because there are different sizes. I actually brought the whole valve with me to Home Depot where they have a board with all the various dimensions they have in stock and you can actually measure the one you have to the ones they carry and make certain you are getting the correct size.

Back from Home Depot, and with the correct valve at the ready, I hunkered down into the tiny space under my sink once again to get that fitting back in place. I wrapped the threading in plumbing tape and screwed it back into that nut I had originally tried to take off the wall. Note: You will need to use the two wrenches again to get it tight enough. After I had it back in the wall, I was ready to test my handywork. Here, I caution you: Make sure you have the valve turned to the SHUT position.

Otherwise when you turn the water to your house back on, you will have water everywhere. And I when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE! How does she know this? you may be asking yourself. Because I had the valve turned the wrong way and I had water spraying everywhere in my bathroom. Twenty minutes, and five big towels later, I had the water sopped up, the valve in the correct SHUT position, and the water turned on. No drips! Step one done; the valves are replaced!

Now I was ready to replace those faucets. My replacement faucets came with directions, but I think most faucets install much the same. I began by feeding the water hoses through the hole in my counter/sink. It's now time to secure that baby in place. I used some bathroom



caulking around the very bottom of the faucet where it and the counter meet. And then I used the rubber and metal plates that came with the faucet to screw it in place under the sink. Be sure you follow my husband's one bit of advice: make sure the faucet is pointing into the sink. Once you have the faucet secure, you're ready to actually get the water going in the faucet. Take the red hose and screw it into the hot water valve.

Take the blue hose and screw it into the cold water valve. Be sure to use the plumbing tape around the threading here as well. When I had twisted them by hand as much as I could, I used my wrench to make sure it was tight, but not too tight. Why? Because I didn't want to kink the hose! If you kink the hose, it can cause a loss of water pressure at best and can ruin the integrity of the hose at worst. Now I was ready for the moment of truth. I slowly turned those valves to the open position. I  heard the water move into the hoses and there wasn't any dripping or spraying. So I turned on my faucets. It sounded a little spastic at first because of the air that was in the hoses. But it stopped spitting and crackling after 30 seconds or so and the flow was regular.

Whew! What an experience! I do quite a bit of DIY and some projects go much more smoothly than others, but I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I do something new. Try it! It's good for the soul!

The Key to Living the Charmed Life

Written by Jeanette Flake

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to live a charmed life?  No matter what is happening in the world around them, they seem to be immune to all the world's ills.  They attract positivity wherever they go.  People smile at them and talk to them, and they never seem to be suffering for friends or good things.  Know anyone like this?  I do, and I've spent time observing them, searching for the key to having a charmed life like theirs.

I want to tell you what I found.  To do that, let me tell you about a day I had that was anything BUT charmed.  In fact, I would say it might even be called the exact OPPOSITE of the charmed life.

On this day, I woke up late because of sinus problems that had kept me up late the night before.  By the time I got up, my two youngest kids had taken it upon themselves to get cold cereal for breakfast.  The table was a mess.  Although the meal went off without a spill or major catastrophe, my youngest asked for a snack approximately two whole seconds after he had finished his breakfast.  I think it's a pretty safe bet that he didn't have enough to eat.  That's what happens when they get their own food.

Later when we left to run errands, the wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow.  The amount of dust in the air from the wind made it look like there was smog even though we live hours away from the nearest cities and our air quality without the dust is usually pretty good.  All this dust was wreaking havoc with my sinuses, and my nose was running like crazy.  When I opened the door to get out of the car at the store, the wind flung the door wide open, and I could barely get it shut again because the gusts were so strong.  This was no charmed life day for me.

Now, I want to tell you about another day that was very different and illustrates perfectly the key to living a charmed life.

On this day, my kids were already awake when I got up, and they said good morning to me first thing.  It was a great start to my day.  To top it off, I was able to read scriptures uninterrupted for a half hour before starting my routine, which is something of a rarity for me.  It was a spring morning, and as I drove to the store to run some errands, I noticed the buds were just opening on most of the trees.  Even in the store parking lot, the trees were blooming.

As I walked into the store, I was greeted immediately by a couple of friends from church.  They also said hello to my two younger kids who were with me and complimented my youngest on how tall he was getting.  He smiled and stood on his tiptoes to show his amazing height.  It was cute and funny, and we all laughed.  Before I even got to the next aisle of the store, I saw another friend who said hello and asked how I was doing.  I felt happy and loved.  It was the very essence of the charmed life.

As you may or may not have guessed, these two very different days are actually descriptions of the very same day from opposite perspectives.  That brings me to my point: the charmed life isn't something that happens by chance.  It comes about when we see the beauty in our life despite the less-happy things that are inevitably also there.

Someone once said that attitude determines altitude.  This saying is very true.  So is this one: "Attitude is everything, so pick a good one."

God didn’t design us to be sad. 

He created us to have joy!

"God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter," said Dieter F Uchtdorf.  Isn't that just so true?

The charmed life is something we create through our attitude.  Not only does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy by the greater amount of good we notice, but it actually changes the way other people respond to us.  People are much more likely to smile at someone who first smiles at them.  People will treat us differently as our attitude improves.  It won't happen immediately, but as sure as spring follows winter, it WILL happen.

So let's quit waiting for the charmed life to sneak up behind up us, and let's start building it day by day, week by week, and year by year.  The charmed life is possible, but it's up to us to put the charm in our own lives.  That is the key to living a charmed life.