This Used To Count As Home Teaching

I’ve featured entries from God’s toolbox before. It's my only ongoing theme (everything else is a standalone), and it is pretty cool if you ask me. So far there have been four, each is a collection of experiences combed from recorded Latter-Day Saint history - some recent history. They are: 1)     Panoramic Visions 2)     Losing something, praying to find it and seeing its specific current location in your head 3)     Hearing a voice when no one is there 4)     Indescribable calmness during a big decision   Those are all things God has repeatedly used to communicate with his children. Yes – they are just 4 of many – but the well-timed re-usage of them is fascinating! (click the links!).  Here is entry #5 – It seems like the experience often comes just before a major fork in the road. What experience am I talking about? The sensation of the Spirit starting in the crown of your head and traveling down your body to the s...

The gold plates are long gone – placed back into a heavenly repository. You can’t look at them – lots of others did though . Reading the plates' translated scripture (the Book of Mormon) and praying is the best way you can really know of their scriptural validity. But , and this is very interesting, you can also compare their content to other ancient texts from the same claimed era, and see if it sits comfortably among them. Hint – it sits very comfortably among them! Below are four old texts that show how and what ancient middle easterners used to write. Some have content very, very like the BOM and some have structure very, very like it. For starters – there’s The Autobiography of Kai: 1)         “[Hugh] Nibley has pointed out the same kind of self-definition [as found in 1 st Nephi] in  The Autobiography of Kai , an Egyptian text which Nibley explains is from “a short time before Nephi.” …Nibley translates Kai’s open...