26 comments for “Progress Report

  1. I thought I was late getting started November 1st. Trying for ten pages a day. Must say I’m hardly studying, but I’m hoping for obedience blessings.

  2. Kaimi, sometimes your corny humor makes me laugh (or at least smile really big). Keep on keepin’ it real.

  3. Drat! I just re-read Pres. Hinckley’s challenge and lost the loophole upon which I was depending.

    He said, “If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year.”
    (239 chapters / 1.5 chapters per day = 159 days ~ 5 months, Aug-Dec)

    I had remembered it, “If you will read a bit more than one and one-half pages a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of a year.”
    (531 pages / 1.5 pages per day = 354 days ~ 1 year)

  4. I’m almost to the end of Third Nephi. I started after my husband and he is plugging away in Alma. He’s getting more out of it. I’ve read it so many times I tend to skim and I have to make myself go back.

    But you know, my husband is getting really spiritual. It’s cool. I’ve read it to him and our kids early in the morning many times, but this time it’s hitting him. I’m amazed.

    I don’t think I’m getting any brownie points in heaven because I don’t feel spiritual. I read some scriptures as old friends, but I’m just doing it because I was told to, not because I want to.

  5. My wife and I are taking the easy way out. We listen to the audio scriptures from the Church website and follow along in our own scriptures. Those fellows read the scriptures in a much more understandable way than I ever can and so there is more comprehension doing it that way. We got started late but calculated a realistic pattern of study of how we can finish by the end of the year. Procrastination has caused us to recalculate a couple of times but we are still committed and enjoying the experience.

    But I’ll keep Kiami’s comment in mind in case I fail to make the ultimate goal.

  6. I took the entire month of November off from the challenge, in order to write a novel and get a top score on the LSAT. The novel deadline is tomorrow, and the LSAT is on the 3rd, which gives me 28 days to get through everything after Jacob, Ch. 1. Whoohoo!

  7. I’m in 3 Ne, but I’ve fallen behind my schedule in the last week. 3 Ne is my favorite book, so I’m savoring this one. :-) It’s been wonderful this time through! I plan to continue with daily scripture study after the end of the year. It’s such a blessing!

  8. I’ll probably just binge-read from Alma to the end in a couple Sundays in December.

    Nice thing about being ADD … on occasion you can really send your concentration level through the roof!

  9. I am plugging away in Alma. I procrastinated because when the prophet issued his challenge I had *just* finished reading the Book of Mormon again. You will notice that he also said that if you had *just* finished reading it, you should still read it again. So I waited until mid-October to start. I think this is one of those test of faith, bath seven times in the River Jordan kind of things. I don’t know if I will make it by December!

  10. I remember sitting by a group of Indie Rockers in a student ward a couple of months ago, and wishing that Preisdent Hinckley had indeed challenged members to bathe at least seven times by year’s end.

  11. I took Pres. Hinckley’s talk as more suggestive than instructional. Then, since everyone at General Conference seemed to be taking it quite seriously, I decided to read it. Polished it off in a couple weeks and enjoyed it. Now, in re-reading it, I’m wondering…is the point to read it by the end of the year, or to ready 1 1/2 chapters every day? Makes a difference, though for now, I’m enjoying knowing that I was at least a little more in harmony with the Church leaders and their suggestions/instructions.

  12. I encouraged all my YW to take up the challenge and we have charts up in the YW room to check their progress. The embarrassing thing is that I am furthest behind (and a little child shall lead them).

  13. A light bulb just went on and I get what you are saying. The actual Book of Mormon within the Book of Mormon. I am sorry to inform you, but you have quite a bit more reading ahead of you than that lol. Maybe someone already told you and you are accelerating the process. I hope you do read so you can be blessed. :)

  14. annegb…
    I have read it many times too and had been reading with the sort of results you mentioned until this recent challenge. I have found once again in my life that The Book of Mormon is one book you can read day in and out and if done with the right attitude, it NEVER gets old! I am loving every second of it and have learned many new things.
    Instead of thinking of it as any other book (which leads to thoughts of “not again” we should thirst after every opportunity to read it again). I think that attitude makes a difference.

    One last thought, a relative of mine who hasn’t missed a day in 50 years now reads topically rather than cover to cover. Maybe that will help? I am not ready for that yet…but a focused reading has worked wonders for me.

  15. So how you doin’ Kaimi? I’m now in 3rd Nephi. Actually perfect timing for Christmas. Despite life-long membership in the church, this will be my first time all the way through. Got most of the way through with seminary. Got some of the way through during my BYU BOM class. My last attempt I skipped the Isaiah chapters and the war chapters. That’s a lot of the BOM! Earlier this year I read just the Isaiah chapters, in addition to Isaiah and Revelation in the KJV. Sounds dumb to say it, but I’ve gotta tell you, even I’ve been surprised how Christian it is. Seems all these prophets and missionaries really knew Christ!

    My mom read the BOM in 2 weeks while she was investigating the church. I think you could do it in a week–having survived law school and all. :-) Okay, back to “Another” Good Book.

  16. Congratulations on your progress thus far, Lisa.

    Although I have to say that of my own progress — well, “I’m currently in denial” is probably the best public characterization. I hold out hope that with a few all-nighters, I may yet pull it off.

  17. Although this time I read as duty, maybe every time, yeah, that’s probably right, I did feel a new spirit come into our home, Bill, especially, just became a different man. I’m a believer.

    One thing that struck me over and over again is how anyone could possibly believe that Joseph Smith made it all up. And in such a short time. I know there are deeply educated explorations which come to the same conclusion, but the consistency is what strikes me.

  18. Melissa finished the BoM a week or two ago. When President Hinckley originally issues his call, I somehow didn’t hear it the way so many others did; it was well into October or maybe even November before I realized that this was actually a “goal” that thousands of members of the church had embraced. I haven’t read the BoM through–from beginning to end, with no distractions or jumping ahead–in well over a decade I’m sure, and I confess I felt a little superior to all those who were slavishly trying to cram the book in before December 31. But as time went by, and I talked with Melissa about her reading, I came to really regret that I didn’t get over my pride, and get on the bandwagon, late as I may have been. I hope President Hinckley suggests that we all get on board another church-wide reading program in the coming year. This time, I won’t miss the bus.

  19. For anyone looking for either a faster way to finish the BoM or a way to get a new perspective, may I recommend reading a facsimile of the first edition. Without versification, headnotes, footnotes, and far fewer chapter divisions, it zips along far more smoothly than I ever remember in reading the current standard edition. For example, the Isaiah quotations flow seamlessly into the text literally mid-sentence or mid-paragraph and actually make sense in context. (Lawyers and writers can also have fun spotting the many typos.) I’m actually going to be somewhat reluctant to go back to the current chopped up, super cross-referenced and explicated version — it seems less ‘pure’ than the straight-on narrative thrust I found in the first edition. I think I’m especially going to find the chapter headnotes to be rather annoying.

  20. Today at the gym (in Logan, Utah), I noticed three or four people on the treadmills and elliptical trainers diligently reading their copies of the Book of Mormon (a few others were flipping through copies of the “Ensign” or “Liahona”). And just in case a gym goer had forgotten his or her Book of Mormon, the Sports Academy had courteously provided a large print copy of the Book of Mormon next to the magazine rack for their use.

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