Thursday, December 4, 2008

My Companion, the Scriptorian

During our mission, we have had marvelous insights into the scriptures, through our studies and through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In a later blog, I'll share some of the "mysteries of the kingdom" that we have discovered.

But I want to give credit where credit is due: Mi compañera.

She has taught me that:

  • The scriptures are filled with symbols of Christ (2 Ne 11:4) and every verse should be interpreted as testifying of Him.
  • "Christ is both the messenger and the message," as she often tells me.
  • All the prophets are types and shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., Moses, 3 Ne 20:23), so that by studying about their lives and reading their words in the scriptures, we can learn about Christ.
  • The words in the scriptures have great symbolic meaning, and to find out the full meaning, we need to look up all the occurrences of that word in the scriptures.
  • All the modern scriptures relate back to the Old Testament, so that we shouldn't ignore that great book (or the Pearl of Great Price).
  • There are many scholarly studies on the scriptures that can add insight and testimony of the divine calling of the prophet Joseph Smith and of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Her book of scriptures is a veritable gold mine of knowledge, which is why I strongly encouraged her to bring her quad, even though it was heavier than all of her skirts and blouses combined. This picture shows you what I mean. Her margin notes contain profound information on virtually every scriptural topic. I wouldn't dare give a talk or a lesson without consulting her and her scriptures first. Her constant study of the scriptures is an example to me.

5 comments:

Andrea said...

she is amazing!

Tracy said...

Is there a way to copy and reproduce Bev's scriptures so we get the benefit of all her study? I know I know, do it myself. Love the blog and the updates. So glad you take the time to do this. I want to see Peru now.

Sharon said...

Way to set the example for women Bev! I'm not a bit surprised. Remember in the olden days when we were kids...women rarely even had scriptures, let alone marked them. How things have changed!

I bought a new smaller, lighter quad for this latest mission and tried to "transfer" all my notes over. What a futile effort! After eight 6-hour days, I hadn't made a dent! I'm back to my large, comfortable, well-worn treasures.

Anonymous said...

Beverly, you are truly amazing! Part of this post reminded me of Todd Parker's (a BYU religion professor) spiel on how "all things testify of Christ." If you're interested, you can read it here: http://farms.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/?id=42&print
He starts the aforementioned spiel about 1/4 of the way into his speech.
Anyway, Beverly, you really are such a wonderful example to me.

Emily said...

You ARE amazing.

I hope someday mine look like that.

It will be awhile, but I'm getting there. Slowly. ;)

It's great that you guys are blogging about your mission.