Grandma Gillins, Reading, and The Book of Mormon

December 3rd will always be a very special day for me.  It was on this day in 1908 that my dear, sweet grandmother Bernice Carter Gillins was born.  My grandma and I were always very close. There are no words to justly describe how wonderful she was.  She was beautiful, loving, intelligent, and served quietly all the days of her life.  She was an excellent cook, and it is because of her that I love to cook as well. She loved and served her Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, her family and friends, and the elementary students that she taught for 43 years.  The greatest compliment I ever received is when someone told me that I reminded them of my grandmother just after I spoke at my high school graduation.  She was a divine daughter of God in every sense of the word.  I love and miss her very much.  I will forever be grateful for all the love she gave me and for the countless things she taught me.  Happy Birthday Grandma!  I love and miss you.  She passed away just three months before her 100th birthday.  I cherish her memory and example.

One of my favorite traits that I received from my grandmother was her love for reading.  As a very young girl I remember being at her home and her helping me read from the old programmed reading books that she used at her school.  She also kept a good supply of other children's books for us to read.  She had me reading even before I started kindergarten.  I remember feeling so proud of myself that I was only one of two kids in the class who was reading at the time.  This love for reading has stayed with me throughout my life and I am so grateful for it.  I enjoy few things more than getting lost in a novel, especially on a cold, rainy day.  I read as often as time permits.  I enjoy books from all different genres.  The last book I read is called "Focused: Keeping Your Life on Track, One Choice at a Time." It is a book about a world champion and Olympic medalist named Noelle Pikus Pace.  Her sport was skeleton racing.  She is a member of the LDS Church.  I received this book as a reward for renewing my Deseret Book Platinum membership, otherwise I probably would have never read it.  It was super interesting and very inspiring.  It is a quick read - I read it in about two hours.  Other good books I have read recently include: "Amazed by Grace" by Sheri L. Dew, "Covenant Hearts" by Bruce C. Hafen, "Eve and the Choice Made in Eden" by Beverly Campbell, and a whole slew of other books that I have used as part of the research I am doing for the book I am writing.  It is almost finished.  We have received most of the chapters back from our editor and we are in the process of making a few minor changes.  We will for sure be submitting it to publishers by the end of the year.  

 

The one book, however, that I read without fail everyday is the Book of Mormon.  It is by far my favorite book, and the one that I am most grateful for.  I read it at least twice each year.  Last week I started on my third reading for the year.  It never ceases to amaze me the new things I learn each time I read it even though I have already read it multiple times.  That is the magic of this amazing book - the Spirit teaches you at the level you are at while you are reading it and will cause your mind to reflect on the things that you need at that particular time in your life.  Although each page has become very familiar, each page still welcomes me to find the hidden treasures of knowledge they contain.  I add my testimony to that of Joseph Smith's when he proclaimed that a man will get nearer to God by reading the Book of Mormon and abiding by its precepts than by any other book.  The Book of Mormon has blessed my life in countless ways, but the greatest blessing is that of the closeness I feel to my Heavenly Father, my Savior Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Ghost.  It contains so many wonderful promises.  Some of my favorites are found in the following scriptures:

2 Nephi 32:3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
2 Nephi 32:5  For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
2 Nephi 31:20  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
Heleman 5:12  And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

That's just to name a few.  Each night I read I also like to do chose one verse to "ponderize" as Elder Durrant counseled us to do.  Tonight's verse is from 1 Nephi 10:19  For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

I have a testimony of this verse.  The Holy Ghost will reveal the mysteries of God to us as we seek to find them, and when we do, we will realize that the course of the Lord is indeed one eternal round (Blaine loves this concept and speaks of it often).  What a wonderful day it has been!  I have so much to be grateful for!