Happy Valentines Day and Presidents Day!

Hello world.

We had a good week out here. Not that much that is interesting to report, however. It involved lots of service to members (organizing spare rooms and cleaning new houses) because we haven't had many teaching appointments lately.

So instead of talking about my week, what I wanted to share is how much I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES.

I love them.

They are my best friends.

They are wonderful.

We are joined at the hip.

They are the sock to my hop.

They are the peanut to my butter.

They are the sun to my shine.

I would marry them if I could.

Haha.

Anyway...

Seriously.

So far on my mission I have read the Book of Mormon one and a half times, the whole Doctrine and Covenants, the whole New Testament, and I'm a third of the way through the Old Testament. I love it so much. Before my mission I read the scriptures sometimes and marked things that I liked, but I didn't have much drive to go looking for answers in them. Now, though, my study is completely focused on other people, which leads me to look for answers to doctrinal questions and life problems that I've never thought of before. And you know what?

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The answers are always in the scriptures! It's amazing.

It's like they're inspired or something.

Here are some pictures that I took this morning of my scriptures... I go a little crazy with the marking sometimes.

 Here I was studying about how to teach people about the authority of the Priesthood, and came across Alma 13. I've read this chapter probably ten times, but this time the words ordained, order, called, calling, and prepared starting sticking out to me, so I marked all of them in orange. And look how many there are! Suddenly this chapter took on a whole new meaning for me.

I've also been marking every variation of the word repentance in the whole Book of Mormon and it's EVERYWHERE. I love repentance.

This is Doctrine and Covenants section 31, where the Lord calls Thomas B. Marsh to serve a mission. It's the section that I read in the Provo temple that really convinced me to go. I have it marked up like crazy, but don't worry! There is a method to my madness:

yellow = things that I love

blue = promises

red = repentance/forgiveness/the Atonement

I have some other pictures, but they take forever to load.

The other amazing thing about the scriptures is that there is always more to learn. Every time I read them I find something that I have never noticed before. Depending on what investigator I'm studying for and what my focus is, things just miraculously appear to answer my questions.

For example, today during personal study both Hermana Brugman and I were studying about the authority of the Priesthood. One of the scriptures that I found was 3 Nephi 18:36-37, where the Lord gives to his disciples the authority to confer the power of the Holy Ghost. I marked it and thought, "That's the Melchizedek Priesthood! But what about the Aaronic Priesthood?" Then during companionship study she shared with me 3 Nephi 12:1-2, where it talks about the Lord giving His disciples the power to baptize. And there it was! The Aaronic Priesthood! It was so simple, but somehow, even after reading 3 Nephi tons of times, it had just never occurred to me that He really did give it to them in two steps, just like we do today. Wow.

It reminds me of 1 Nephi 16:28-29 where Nephi talks about the Liahona and how the instructions on it changed from time to time, according to the faith, diligence, and attention that they gave to it. That's just how it is with the scriptures! The more faith, diligence, and attention that we give to our scripture study, the more answers we will receive. The words on the page don't actually change, but it seems like they do because more and more comes to light with every reading.

IT'S AMAZING.

Anyway, the point is, I love the scriptures.

A lot.

And I also love all of you!!! Have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Bennett