To Make Thee a Minister and a Witness

7/10

This is an old Priesthood/Relief Society book that was used way back in the day before they started doing the Teachings of the Presidents books. I acquired this and two other manuals in this group on my mission when a meetinghouse library was giving away free books to clear up some space. Unfortunately I only got Study Guides 2, 3, and 4. This is Study Guide 2. I posted Guides 3 and 4 previously in this blog. These books seem pretty good and it's interesting to see how some of the older manuals were structured.

Quote from Harold B. Lee:

"The most important of all the commandments of God is the one that you're having the most difficulty keeping today. If it's one of dishonesty, if it's one of unchastity, if it's one of falsifying, not telling the truth, today is the day for you to work on that until you've been able to conquer that weakness. Then you start on the next one that's most difficult for you to keep."

The Client by John Grisham

7/10

I finished reading this just yesterday. It is my very first Grisham book believe it or not. It was largely what I expected it to be - a quick and mostly entertaining read with a few flaws.

The book starts off very well and grabs the reader's attention with a suspensful first couple chapters. Unfortunately there weren't quite enough of these kind of nail-biter moments throughout the book. There is another similar moment but not until near the end of the book.

The main flaw of the book is pretty obvious. The 11-year old boy is told a secret about where a dead body is buried. He for some reason doesn't want to tell the police or the FBI. The explanation being that he is scared of the mafia. But if he just tells the police at the very beginning then the body would have been found before the mafia would have known what's what. Instead he keeps it a secret which allows the mafia to begin its intimidation tactics to keep him quiet. But obviously the story would have only been like 75 pages if he doesn't lie about it. Also, I feel like Grisham recognizes this issue and he tried to explain and justify the kid's reasoning several times throughout the book. I just chose to go along with it in order to not be too bothered.

Also, any time that the main character is a super mature young kid there is bound to be some cheesy moments. You just gotta roll with it.

All in all I actually enjoyed the book for the most part. And I'm sure I will read some other Grisham's some time down the line.

Saturday by Ian McEwan

4/10

I read this back in about the year 2007. It was my first Ian McEwan book. I didn't love it. In fact, I didn't much like most of it. Any lengthy book that takes place in one single day just isn't going to do it for me.The first two-thirds of the book is fairly boring and uneventful. The last third of the book picks up and saves it from being a mostly useless book to being an ok book. The writing is good but the story isn't. Fortunately I gave McEwan another chance by reading 'Atonement' which is a far superior book to this one.

The Long Valley by John Steinbeck

6/10

I read this ten years ago. It is a collection of 12 short stories. Steinbeck is one of my favorite writers but this one is by far the least memorable of anything I've read by him. I remember really liking maybe one or two of the stories. The rest were either ok or pretty boring  and uneventful overall. This book contains 'The Red Pony' which is more of a novella. It's a fairly popular story by Steinbeck but I wasn't too keen on it.

But I struggle to enjoy lots of short stories. I'm not sure why. I think the problem is just that - the stories are too short. There just doesn't seem to be enough time for plots and characters to develop.

One quote from a story called 'The Harness':

"[H]ard work is the thing to kill sorrow."

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith

9/10

I believe that this was the first "Teachings" manual that I read cover to cover. It is also one of three "Teachings" manuals that spans two years having 48ish chapters (the others being Joseph Smith and Brigham Young). It's a good one and he was definitely a very inspired individual.

I will share some quotes:

"If you do not forget to pray God will not forget you, and He will not withdraw Himself from you if you do not withdraw yourselves from Him."

"[W]henever ... temptations became most alluring and most tempting to me, the first thought that arose in my soul was this: Remember the love of your mother."

"Death is really a necessity as well as a blessing, and ... we would not and could not be satisfied and supremely happy without it."

"A gift from God, if neglected, or unworthily used, is in time withdrawn; the testimony of the truth will not remain with one who, having received, uses not the sacred gift in the cause of individual and general advancement."

"One of the greatest evils existing ... is that of ignorance, coupled with indifference."

Prayer

6/10

I read this little book way back when. It is a collection of essays on the topic of prayer from church leaders. As you can see from the book cover, there are some pretty big names who contributed to this book. It's pretty good and there is certainly some good insight contained in these pages.

I will share two quotes:

The first is from N. Eldon Tanner: "My father really knew how to talk to the Lord and made him seem so real and near to us. He would pray in the morning, 'Let thy blessings attend us as we go about our duties, that we may do what is right and return tonight to report to thee.' I think of that very often, and what a help it is to me! If everyone kept that thought in mind during the day, in all of his activities, knowing that he was going to account to the Lord at night for what he had done that day, it would be a great deterrent to wrongdoing and a great help in accomplishing works of righteousness."

The second is from Neal A. Maxwell: "Prayers are not to be bulldozers that automatically clear the way of all roadblocks."

Remembering Joseph by Mark L. McConkie

8/10

I read this at least a decade ago. It's a book containing tons of stories and experiences from family, friends, and others who had personal encounters with Joseph Smith. The book is organized by topic and has several lesser known stories that I found interesting.

My favorite topic was actually concerning the transfiguration of Brigham Young. The section contains tons of personal accounts of individuals who were watching Brigham Young speak when he suddenly looked and sounded like the recently martyred Prophet Joseph. It was cool reading so many different accounts from those who witnessed this event. Reading this book is a great way to get to know who Joseph Smith was and what kind of man he was. A very intelligent, courageous, and faithful servant of the Lord who remained true to his calling.

There are several good stories that I could share for the blog but I forced myself to limit the amount. I will relate three:

1. George A. Smith shares a story about a time when a Campbellite preacher came to Joseph Smith and said he would be dedicated to the church if he found it to be true. Joseph began teaching him and he said he wanted a miracle to prove that the restored gospel taught by the Prophet was true. "'Well,' said Joseph, 'what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done.'" The preacher said this was not the kind of miracle he wanted. Joseph then told him that he reminded him of the very first person the ask the Savior to perform a miracle which was Satan who came to Christ while he fasted in the desert. George A. Smith then says, "But the poor preacher had so much faith in the power of the Prophet that he daren't risk being struck blind, lame, dumb, or having one hand withered, or anything of the kind."

2. This one is more known, but I like it. "[In the winter of 1856 Emma] remarked of her husband Joseph's limited education while he was translating the Book of Mormon, and she was scribe at the time, 'He could not pronounce the word Sariah.' And one time while translating, where it speaks of the walls of Jerusalem, he stopped and said, 'Emma, did Jerusalem have walls surrounding it?' When I informed him that it had, he replied, 'O, I thought I was deceived.'"

3. Philo Dibble shares a story of a time when Joseph was preaching in Kirtland in 1833 and stated "Forty days shall not pass, and the stars shall fall from heaven." A skeptic wrote the words down and intended it to be a proof that Joseph was a false prophet once such an improbable occurrence fails to happen. After 39 days, this guy shows it to a member of the church named Joseph Hancock and asked him what he thought of his Prophet now. Joseph Hancock remarked that there was still one night left so certainly it would still come to pass. That night "[t]he whole heavens were lit up with the falling meteors" and the prophecy was fulfilled. The book also contains accounts from others who also witnessed this occurrence stating "I noticed in the sky numbers of stars falling from the heavens" among other descriptions. The book also quotes the 'Little Rock Gazette' newspaper on December 11, 1833 which writes of this as follows: "The Falling Stars - The meteoric phenomenon witnessed here on the morning of the 13th ult. was general throughout the United States. The Washington, Baltimore,   Philadelphia, and New York papers, give the same description of it, as those who witnessed it in this region, and to the north and south of us."