A new way to study the Book of Mormon

Hello Family!

So, I kinda spoke to you yesterday haha, but, I thought of something pretty cool to share. So, I sent this originally to my cousin Dallin, but I guess I´ll share it with everyone because it´s super cool.

This is something I started doing just a little while ago, it has been the most spiritual experience I have had with the Book of Mormon, and I have learned SO much from it.

Start the Book of Mormon from page one, have 4 different things to mark a book of Mormon with (you will want a new Book of Mormon, the free one without Doctrine and Covenants) with one color, mark every time it talks about Christ, including words such as Him, He, I, The Lamb, Savior, etc. Then with another color Mark every time The Savior or God is speaking (Thus saith the Lord: ) then with another one, mark Christlike attributes, this one is cool, because, sometimes one attribute is in an entire story. The Christlike attributes are Knowledge, Virtue, Faith, Obedience, Humility, Charity, Love, Virtue, Patience and Hope. And then with the last one, mark any doctrine or principles you come across while you read. The last one is all over the place, I use a pen for it, and underline, or box the stuff in and then write off to the side what I learned. It can be something as simple as the word Angel, that is something we believe in, or it can be an entire story about the Nephites going to war and tricking the Lamanites out of their stronghold. Why did the Lamanites leave? What can be learned from that story?

There is something to be learned in basically EVERY scripture, you read tons of times "I don´t write one hundredth part of what happened" these prophets saw our days, and they chose these specific stories to share with us instead of 100 other stories because they recognized that we can learn from them to help us out with what we are going through. This challenge takes for ever but it is super cool and one of the best things I have ever done, I am not done yet haha, and I won´t be for many months, but I love it. You will be surprised how so many little tiny things you can learn seem to be so cool for you. An example of that was when I read Laman and Lemuel say "Our Father is a Visionary man and we have WANDERED in the wilderness for many years...." I thought about Wandered for a little bit. They had the Liahona, why did they think they were wandering? Maybe we can learn how Satan temps us from what we just read, maybe he makes us question our believes such as our father being a prophet, then once we question that it is a little easier to question this divine object right in front of us leading the way (Liahona... or Book of Mormon for us) so what can be learned, instead of questioning our believes, why not question our doubts? Pretty cool huh?

Other than that, I actually thought of something that would be quite handy to have out here. I have been cutting my own hair, but, my new companion doesn´t have a set of clippers. I was going to just go buy a set of clippers, but if you want to, that would be cool too haha. And then another thing, where does Tera live again? There´s a bunch of Army bases out here, and depending on where she lives, she may see the Elders every day, and I might know the Elders which would be kinda cool, but anyway, it was nice talking to you guys yesterday, we will talk again next Christmas haha, that seems like forever, but it´s only 7 months, and I´ve been out 6, so it´s basically waiting the same amount I have already gone through... which has seemed like a week, anyway, Bis nächste woche!

Elder Collings