Sunday, September 13:Day 94

Today was my first "lazy" Sunday in a long time...maybe since the volcano erupted and church was cancelled. Anyway, it was stake conference and it was over by 11:00 a.m. so the rest of the day was ours! It was so nice. I really enjoyed stake conference. Most of it was a broadcast that was made specifically for the members in Washington and Alaska. It included talks by Elder Nelson, and President Monson along with a couple others. Elder Nelson talked about how the translators in the church who are working on translating the Book of Mormon into other languages can, if they're working at their best, translate 1 page a day. And that's from a known language to another known language. He then said that Joseph Smith, when he translated the Book of Mormon from an unknown language to a known language, he averaged 8-10 pages a day! And that he completed the whole thing in less than 3 months. I feel like I had heard that before, but it had been awhile and I had forgotten the specific numbers. It's incredible to me. I have been working on this idea to help my seminary class get more excited to read their scriptures the night before they come. Since I'm writing this 5 days later, I can say it hasn't really taken off like I wanted it to, but I hope if I keep promoting it, they'll start to do it. Here's the idea...it's been taken from another teacher and tweeked a bit. I spray painted a Book of Mormon gold and set it by the roll sheet as they come in. They can take it and put it at their seat if they have a "golden insight" from the assigned scripture block the night before. They mark the verses they liked, sign their name in the margin and anything they want to say about the verse along with it (or a cross reference, whatever). Then, since I'll see the Book of Mormon on their desk, I'll know they want to share something after the devotional. I modeled this the first day and everyone seemed to like the idea, but so far I've been the only one to share. Hopefully, we'll get some takers here soon.