Emma's Scripture Thought

I've missed putting these up for the past couple of weeks! Here is Emma's scripture thought for the week.

'Seeing as the chapter heading of Third Nephi 7 starts out, “The chief judge is murdered, the government is overthrown, and the people divide into tribes…” I think I was kind of expecting a chapter that mostly went over some of the history and wickedness that had been taking place. But this chapter actually taught me a lot of great lessons about missionary work! Because there was a lot of wickedness, Nephi was able to do some great preaching. This starts out in Third Nephi 7: 16 where it says, “… (he) went forth among them in that same year, and began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. “I like this verse because it neatly summarizes what I think is our main message. I mean, it’s called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after all. Also pulling from that verse, the word “boldly” makes Nephi seem like a good missionary, but he’s actually way more awesomethan just good. Third Nephi 7: 18 says, “…for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily.” That is just so incredible to me, that people really could not disbelieve his words. They could not do so because he had angels ministering unto him. I like how it doesn’t say anything about Nephi being well-spoken or really smart. I bet he was, but the reason he was successful was because he had faith and had the help of the Lord. This is comforting because it’s okay that I can be ineloquent and a little awkward at times but that I need to try to be bold, have faith, and I will be able to teach people that Jesus Christ is their Savior. In fact, I know that principle is true for all of us! So don’t be afraid.'

Thanks, Emma! I love having your pre-missionary voice on here! (3 months until June 5th!)

Mondays with Emma

Here's our weekly inspiration from Miss Emma. Love that girl!


One of my favorite lessons from this week was found in Helaman 5: 51-52 which say, “And as many as were convinced did lay down their weapons of war, and also their hatred and the tradition of their fathers. And it came to pass that they did yield up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession.” I like this because up until now, this group of people (Lamanites) had generally had a tradition of wickedness among themselves. However, once they heard the gospel they completely changed and became a righteous people. I think this is wonderful because I think sometimes we have sins we want to give up but Satan tries to tell us that there are things about us that we can’t change, we just are going to have to live with it. However, this scripture gives us encouragement, because if the Lamanites could change their entire way of life, I can change the little things that I need to change. If you are ever feeling down on yourself, just think that you are probably not doing things as bad as the Lamanites were, and they changed so we can too!


I also like the word choice in this scripture of “convinced”. When I read the word “convinced” I thought of the word “converted”, because I think part of being converted is having a belief, or being convinced, but after the Lamanites were convinced or converted, they didn’t just leave it at that. Rather, they acted upon it. Because they knew, they changed their way of life and didn’t war anymore. This applies to us because it is great if we believe the gospel is true, but we also must do something about it in order to strengthen our faith. Today in Ward Conference my Stake President shared something that I really love. He said, “Testimony is what we know and feel. Faith is what we do and become.” In conclusion, I learned two major lessons from this part of scripture. 1. I believe that we are never too far gone to receive God’s help to make us better and 2. I believe that once we are “convinced” or have a testimony, the next step is to “do” or live it. This will help us be even more useful in the hands of God.

My Favorite Little Guest Writer.

Says Emma:

As human beings, when we are presented with a “difficult circumstances”, I think we often react by feeling stressed out or feeling afraid. It just so happens that this type of situation is presented in Alma 58. Verse 6 says, “And the Lamanites were sallying forth against us from time to time, resolving by stratagem to destroy us; nevertheless we could not come to battle with them, because of their retreats and their strongholds.”  In addition, the Nephites were not receiving the food or provisions that they needed. Initially, they were “grieved and also filled with fear…”, which seems like a reasonable reaction. But I love this part in the scriptures because this despair directly contrasts with what they decided to do next. In verse 10 it says, “Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us; insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.” Afterwards, they “did take courage will all our might” and “were fixed with determination” “and thus we did go forth”. I love the comparison between their initial feeling of grief and their later expression of faith. I love how after they exercised their faith, they were blessed with many gifts that we could use in our daily lives, like the gift of peace and the gift of courage. Reading these verses together just shows how faith is so much more productive than fear.  Faith may not be our immediate response to a difficult situation, but as we move past fear into faith, we will be blessed with many gifts fromGod. We will have the strength to keep going and He will be able to make much more out of our lives than we would be able to without Him.  

Here's Emma Again.

Here's another guest post from my little sister, Emma. I hope she'll keep sending these to me, because I like reading them. :) Fun fact about Emma: she received her mission call this week to serve as a full-time missionary in Cusco, Peru. That means she'll be there for 18 months, teaching people about our Savior and His Church.

The big white envelope containing the mission call came on Friday. Friday night, we all skyped in: Grandma, Mom, Dad, Brigham, McKay, and Mary from Colorado; Emma, Sam, Elise, and some of Emma's roommates from Utah; Dana Lee, Kyle, & Breckyn from Colorado; Chad and me from here in Louisville; and Taylor & Jenny from Atlanta. It was so wonderful to hear her read the words, "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You have been assigned to labor in the Peru Cusco mission."

You may or may not know anything about how mission calls are assigned (or what Mormon missions are all about, for that matter). In a nutshell, the 12 Apostles (or some of them? can't remember.) meet together and review each and every missionary application. They pull up the picture of the applicant on a big screen and look over the needs for missionaries in the different missions in the world. (this is a big deal, because there are usually 50,000+ missionaries at any given time, and the number of applications has skyrocketed since the announcement that girls could serve at 19 instead of waiting til 21). And then, through prayer and revelation, they determine where each individual missionary is to be called. I know this process is directed by God. I just do. If you have ever opened a mission call or been present when someone else opens theirs, there is an overwhelming spirit there just letting you know this special assignment is from Heavenly Father. I've also heard that being a part of the call-making process is pretty darn special.

Anyway, I am so excited for Emma. I know she will be a diligent, studious, fun, & loving missionary, and I can't wait for her to fall in love with the people of Cusco! Here's what she sent me this week (this is a weekly assignment for her Book of Mormon class at BYU, and I offered to give it a home on my blog).

"This week in Book of Mormon the assigned reading was Alma 43-56. One of my favorite parts of that reading was Alma 48:17. At this point in The Book of Mormon, Mormon is telling us a little about Captain Moroni. Mormon says, “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” I love this description of Captain Moroni because it is such a powerful statement. I don’t know that I could replace my name for Mornoni’s in that statement because I still have a lot of things to work on, but it is inspiring to know that this could have been said of a mortal man. It means that it is possible for us to live in such a righteous way that Satan’s temptations will be to no avail. It is also a reminder that the devil can only have influence in our lives if we allow it. Since Moroni was so steadfast, the devil wasn’t even able to get a foot in the door. The same could be true for us if we live like Moroni. I also like this scripture because it gives us a small glimpse of what it may be like at the Millennium when Satan is bound and has no power over us. Why not start working towards that now?"

A Book of Mormon Post, from a Special Guest Writer

I love my little sister, Emma. She'll be guest writing occasionally on this blog about her reading in the Book of Mormon. I've always admired Emma for studying her scriptures so consistently, so I'm excited to read some of her thoughts. Enjoy!


"Hello everyone that reads Cammie’s blog! My name is Emma, and I’m Cammie’s little sister. I am taking a Book of Mormon class at BYU this semester and one of our assignments is to share some insights that we have while doing our assigned readings. This class studies Alma chapter 30 through the end of The Book of Mormon.

For my class, we were assigned to read Alma chapters 30-35 for the week. One scripture that I really like in this is Alma 30: 44, especially the end part that says, “…yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” I really like this because it is a reminder to me that I can remember God’s hand in my life every day by all the little things that happen and everything surrounding me. I don’t need a huge miracle to see that God exists because He can be found in all the details. The complexity and beauty of this earth is always a great reminder of God’s love for us and His existence. Today it snowed quite a bit in Provo. Everything looks really beautiful and it’s awesome to take a moment to admire how God made us such beautiful surroundings. Other things testify to me that God is real because of their complexity. I am taking an anatomy class and it is remarkable to learn about all the different parts of us and all the different processes that take place in us. I think something so amazing could have only been designed by Heavenly Father. I’m grateful for this scripture because it reminds me that everything witnesses that God is real."