Notes from 1 Nephi 1-3

Once again, I was carried away in our conversations at the book club meeting and forgot to take notes. But I will do my best to recall some of the things we talked about.

One of the things that really stood out to me was when Nephi opened the book by stating that he was "born of goodly parents." I've read that line a hundred times but it wasn't until now that it occurred to me that that means Laman and Lemuel were ALSO born of goodly parents, yet we know they chose to take a much different path in life. One of the ladies pointed out that Nephi also said he had "been highly favored of the Lord" and that he "had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God." She related that to the gifts of the Spirit, which is something I'd never thought of before. It makes a lot of sense too if you think about the different paths the brothers all chose. It was also pointed out that Sam was probably blessed with the gift of believing in other's testimonies. That was made evident in 1 Nephi 2:17.

Another interesting thing we noticed in these chapters was that when Heavenly Father wanted Lehi to see the fate of Jerusalem as well as the greatness of God, he gave him a book to read. We are also given books to learn more about God in our day. (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price) I continued the conversation with my husband after the book club and we had a thought: If all we take with us from this life is our knowledge, feelings, and personality, then wouldn't it make sense that "having the veil lifted" doesn't mean we will know ALL things, but instead, that we will remember all the things we had done and learned in our pre-mortal and mortal existences? And perhaps, when we enter the next life expecting to learn the answers to the questions that plagued us in this life, we will simply be directed to a giant library of books where we can actually learn ALL things! (Obviously, none of this is doctrine, just us speculating.)

During our meeting we also talked about the tendency of characters in the Book of Mormon to turn to murder to solve their problems (i.e. the people in Jerusalem sought to take away Lehi's life when he preached to them, and Laman and Lemuel sought to take away Nephi's life whenever he did anything that made them mad.) It seemed really crazy at first that a person would ever see murder as a solution, but when you really think about it, we still have those feelings today (i.e. I sometimes feel like we should use capital punishment on people who molest and rape children) the difference is we've been given enough light and knowledge to know that that is not an acceptable or Christlike way to solve our issues, and killing in and of itself has become very socially unacceptable.

One of my favorite things that we talked about during our time together was Nephi's reaction to the information given him from his father, versus the reaction of his brothers. When you read 1 Nephi 2:16 Nephi says that the Lord "softened his heart". This suggests that he was also struggling with the words of his father. The difference came when he chose to pray for clarification and understanding instead of brooding  and becoming angry about how crazy his father may have sounded.

Anyway, we talked about a lot of fun stuff and had a great time together talking about the gospel and eating yummy fruit and dip!

Next week we will be discussing 1 Nephi 4-6 and Stephanie has volunteered to bring a snack. Also, we will be meeting in the cultural hall (gym) of the Woodridge Ward Building. See you Friday at 9:00 am!