So Sister Ruth has been in the MTC since Tuesday, and I have been praying to know she is doing well and ultimately ok. Today was my confirmation in her first letter AND email! I am really glad i heard from her. She says her companion Sister S. is very sweet. I am glad she is doing well she has also already been asked to serve as a Training Sister. 3 days in already training just proves she is meant to be there and definitely there with the right heart and mind! I only hope i can be as well prepared as she was when she entered! I am just glad to have heard from her and to know she is proud of me and my endeavors! It means a lot to me!
So my second part of this post is because I have been doing a really cool challenge to encourage my scripture reading. I found it on a friend's blog of a blog she was at the time following. It's a challenge to write down or take some sort of note on the women you encounter in the scriptures. I thought it might be cool especially since I am named after Joseph of Egypt's mother- Rachel. I should want to learn about the woman my mother and father decided to model my name after. I guess the idea of woman in the scriptures has always been one we learn about especially as young ladies growing up in the church. But do we ever find our own testimony and love for these women that the Lord loved enough to leave as examples of righteous and faithful women to shape our own lives after. I didn't really want to start with my name and work from there I decided to pick one book and work my way through all standard works. I then decided it would be easy enough to start in The Book Of Mormon, because that's what my institute class is studying this semester. It was actually very easy to start but i found that as I really fell into a pattern of reading my scriptures I would forget to take notes and just fall into the stories and stay there until many chapters later I would put my scriptures down and just forget to take note.
The books that I have studied really strongly so far is that of 1st and 2nd Nephi. It started for me in 1st Nephi when I read about Lehi's wife. Sariah. She is a faithful and loving wife. BUT with 1st Nephi 5, when she finally melts down and murmurs against Lehi and yells at him. That's when I found my love for her because for once she was a mother not just a wife! Nephi loved his mother and respected her but this moment when she thinks her boys are dead she isn't just angry but she is mourning the thought of loss of her sons. I could only imagine what she must have felt and I believe the way she lashed out at her husband is a human reaction. She shouldn't have but she thought she had reason!
The next ladies I encountered were the Daughters of Ishmael, they were never given names and never counted really. I just ignored them until they started being distractions of the gospel for many of the young and older men in the story. I really think they were mentioned only because they became the wives of Lehi's sons. They really weren't important. The only young lady i would love to know more about is the wife of Nephi. he was persecuted so hardly by his brothers and many others, how strong was she? Was she able to comfort her husband or did she find her faith failing because her husband was so hurt and grieved by his brothers? How did she find her faith in the lord and her husband and never let that shake? I can't wait to know the answers.
So those are the two big groups that I encountered in the first two books of The Book Of Mormon. I hope that who ever reads this (especially you sisters in the church and faith) finds their own love to start learning about these women and their trials, their lives, and their own love for the savior!
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