The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.

===

[00:00:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I had a thought as I was reading this week's scripture block, which is Mosiah chapters one through three. And here's my thought. If I were to be on a deserted island and could only take one chapter from the book of Mormon, what would I choose? Now, listen, I know this is a little bit silly because the odds of me ever being alone, much less on a deserted island are preposterous.

I never get to be alone. Am I right? Seriously. But this is how my brain works. And I found my chapter, Mosiah chapter one. Link. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You'll have to wait until we get to that part of our discussion. And maybe it's going to be the chapter you choose. Maybe you already have one chosen.

In fact, I want to know what your answer would be to that question. So watch for it on Facebook and Instagram this week and share with me what is your one chapter you would choose to have on a deserted island. Welcome to the Sunday on Monday study group, a desert bookshelf plus original brought to you by LDS living, where we take the come follow me lesson for the week and we really dig into the scriptures together.

I'm your host, Tammy. Use a lack call. If you're new to our study group, please follow the link in our description and it's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your come follow me study just like our friends. And I say our, because my guests have the same friends. Ladies, who do you want to say hi to?

[00:01:12] Mary Ann Cropper: All the Oakland first ward relief society.

[00:01:15] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes. Yes. Yes.

[00:01:16] Mary Ann Cropper: Should we call them out?

[00:01:17] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. Who do you know? What can we say?

[00:01:20] Mary Ann Cropper: Anne Hall, Anne Binnings, Katherine Pritchett, Shauna Burge, Jacqueline Gordon. We love them all. I know we're getting into trouble when we leak people out.

[00:01:29] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah, seriously. Everyone, we love the Oakland first Ward and that's where my friends are from who are joining me now.

This is my favorite part of the podcast. He's each week. I get to invite two different friends, so it's always a little bit different. And ladies and gentlemen, I could not be more thrilled to announce these two women because I hold them in the highest respect. They are from the Oakland first word. That's how I have met them.

That is the word my husband grew up in. And today we have Mary Anne Cropper and Sarah Kimball. Hi ladies.

[00:01:54] Mary Ann Cropper: Hi. We're so happy to be here.

[00:01:58] Sara Kimball: So happy to be here.

[00:01:59] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, this makes me so happy. Okay, how do you two know each other? What's your history?

[00:02:03] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, I know her family, but we taught seminary together, early morning seminary together, which was a joy.

She's amazing.

[00:02:11] Sara Kimball: It was a joy. My sister has been in this ward a long time, and when I joined, I already knew who Mary Anne Cropper was. I'd heard stories before. So And now she's a friend of mine, and we've spent lots of time together with, uh, studying the scriptures. It's awesome.

[00:02:25] Tammy Uzelac Hall: And these two, I met the two of you together at the book club.

You have a literary club in Oakland, which has quite a history. And that's the first time I really met Sarah, but immediately I connected with Sarah and I'm like, Oh, we're friends. Yeah. Yeah. And I knew Mary Ann. , I met you years ago and immediately I'm like, she's my spirit animal.

[00:02:43] Mary Ann Cropper: I know, you're my spirit animal.

That was fun. Sarah was president of the book club last year, so.

[00:02:48] Sara Kimball: Yeah, and now Mary Ann is president.

[00:02:50] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes. Hey! Anyway, it's fun. That is so fun. Um, really quickly, just tell us a little bit about yourselves, each one of you individually. Mary Anne, tell us about Who are, who are you? Where do you come from?

[00:03:01] Mary Ann Cropper: I, you know, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, but my, I was baptized Catholic, as was my family, and, um, the missionaries tracted my parents out as an answer to prayer.

And, um, I, I thank my heavenly father every day as, as do we all. And um, you know, I went to BYU and served a mission and, you know, grown in the gospel, which these scriptures reminded me of today, but that's kind of who I am. I, I, I work and serve. That's kind of me. Yeah. I'm single and that should be said, right?

[00:03:32] Tammy Uzelac Hall: There you go. Well, yes. Hey, let's, let's shout out to the single sisters. Absolutely. That's right. That's right. Yeah.

[00:03:39] Sara Kimball: What about you, Sarah? Well, I grew up in Idaho and. My husband and I have lived in many places throughout the world, including London, Texas, Ohio, Michigan. And we ended up in the Bay Area about eight years ago.

We have four children, none of which are home. So we are empty nesters. Oh, wow. It's a very good gig, is what I'm saying. But, uh. I hear it is. Yeah. It is. But I, uh, I teach, uh, fitness classes, but I spend a lot of time at church. I'm the current Sunday school teacher. One of the Sunday school teachers. I've spent time being seminary teacher and we just, we're so close.

Finish serving the young single adult ward and just loved it best.

[00:04:20] Mary Ann Cropper: And she's Completely talented in every way. So just that's an understatement.

[00:04:25] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. I, yeah, I would say that's a fair statement about Sarah. Sarah's like the kind of person that can do anything. Yeah. And even if she had, even if she doesn't know how to do it, she'll figure it out.

Yeah. She and her sister. Right. She's shaking her head. She knows that. Yeah. Like Sarah, can you be the word organist? I'll figure it out. Sure. I'll figure it out. No problem.

[00:04:42] Sara Kimball: There's a limit. There's a limit to that. But yes.

[00:04:45] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I love it. Well, this is going to be a really fun discussion and I'm looking forward to what these ladies have to bring to this next hour and a half.

We have to study for Mosiah chapters one through three. If you want to see pictures of my friends and read their bios, you can find those in our show notes, which are at ldsliving. com slash Sunday on Monday. So everyone grab your scriptures and something to mark your scriptures with. And let's dig in to Mosiah chapters one through three.

Okay you two, what did the Holy Ghost teach you as you studied these three chapters?

[00:05:12] Mary Ann Cropper: You know, I have to say that the word And a word stuck out for me this time, and that word was preserve. Where is that? I saw that in, well, the first time I saw it, on the way through, where King Benjamin was talking about himself being preserved by God's matchless power, and that's in verse 11 of chapter 2.

And then when I reread it, I saw it all over the place. Um, I saw it in the chapter, in the chapter 1 chapter heading, where they were talking about, um, Be that their religion and civilization have been preserved because of the scriptures, you know The brass plates and the small plates of Nephi and I saw it, you know Just talking about how in chapter 2 where they were talking about preserving us in verses 20 and 21 from day to day by lending us breath and that but through God's power and Then I started to look at Um, at a little few more scriptures and so on and seeing in, you know, preserving the fruit, um, that God preserves the fruit unto himself and protects us.

And, and then it was reminded about elder Renlund's talk about preserving that change of heart, which ultimately happens. And so I just saw that pattern, um, which I had never seen before, which I always liked. Anyway, that was what jumped out for me.

[00:06:30] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, let me write down. I like how you just said a pattern of preservation or of the word preserve.

That's so cool. Wow. Thank you. That's great. Now I'm going to study that.

[00:06:41] Sara Kimball: That's really good, . That's a lot deeper than my thought. So we can move on to me. Actually, this was a personal experience when I was reading Mosiah 230 when King Benjamin is saying, my whole frame does tremble exceedingly while attempting to speak unto you.

It reminds me when I was a teenager and my brother and I had been able to go to the bottom of a general conference. We were able to walk in the side when there was room. And it happened to be one of Spencer W. Kimball's last conferences. And he was shaking, trying to, you know, make his way to the front of the room.

And the first song was, We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet. And I will have to say with tears streaming down my face, that was a moment when I knew that he was the prophet of the church then. And it just solidified so much of a testimony for me. So I, I read this and immediately it was brought back to that time.

[00:07:40] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh my gosh. I think that's neat, especially because he tells us that he's old in Mosiah chapter one, verse nine. He's like, I'm old. And I saw that in my school, the way of the earth. So that's a great connection. Oh, I like that, Sarah. Thank you. These are going to, this is going to be a fun discussion. There is.

So much goodness. I was grateful that it was just three chapters, I'll be honest, because I thought if they had added more, there's no way we could have gotten through it because just these three we could spend hours on. So yeah, let's do this together before we move on because I want us to, we're going to pick up where we left off last week from our discussion of Enos, Jerem, Omni and words of Mormon.

Turn with me to the book of Omni chapter one, verse 12. Let's go there. Go back a few pages. Omni chapter one, verse 12. We get throughout the book of Omni that the scriptures are being handed down the plates are being handed from brother to brother to brother. And then in verse 12, it says, behold, I am a Malachi, the son of Abinadam.

Behold, I will speak unto you somewhat concerning Mosiah, who was made king over the land of Zarahemla. I want you to highlight that name, Mosiah. And to the outside right, Mosiah number one. In order to understand this whole history, we've got to figure out where we're coming from to get to King Benjamin's dress.

So that's Mosiah number one. There are more. There's two Mosiahs. So now we have this Mosiah number one and all we know. Is that he took a group of people and left the land of Nephi. That's what it says in verse 12. It says he being warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him into the wilderness.

So, he takes a group of believers and they leave the land of Nephi. This was the land that Nephi originally set up when his family split in second Nephi chapter five. So for hundreds of years, they have all lived in this land. And then we get this man named Mosiah who takes a group of people when they go into the wilderness and they happen upon in verse 14, they discovered a people who were called the people of Zarahemla.

And it says, now there was a great rejoicing among the people of Zarahemla and also Zarahemla mark that name because that's the leader. So the people of Zarahemla have the leader named Zarahemla. They did rejoice exceedingly because the Lord had sent the people of Mosiah with the plates of brass, which contained the record of the Jews.

Now, bracket off versus 15 through 17, because in 15 through 17, it tells us. That when they got together, they realized, Oh my goodness, the people of Zarahemla, they actually are the people who came out from Jerusalem at the time of Zedekiah, king of Judah. So next to verse 15, I'm going to give you a cross reference.

Let's put second Kings chapters 24 through 25. This my friends is where the Book of Mormon and the Bible come together. Because if you turn to second Kings, and we're not going to right now. But you can on your own. If you turn to second Kings chapters 24 and 25, it's going to tell you a story about a man named Zedekiah and how Zedekiah was, he was a leader and he made some poor choices.

And so the king came in and arrested Zedekiah. It says he poked his eyes out. That's what they did back then. If you were so bad, they wouldn't kill you. They like take your eyes out. But one of the worst cruel things they would do is they would torture your family members. And then poke your eyes out. So it's the last thing you ever saw.

Like horrible things to the women, terrible things. They'd kill the sons, all of that. So next to second Kings 24 through 25, I want you all to write first Nephi chapter one, verse four, and let's turn there. First Nephi chapter one, verse four. This is how the Book of Mormon starts out. And when we get there, Mary Anne, will you read verse four for us?

[00:11:20] Mary Ann Cropper: For it came to pass in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, my father Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days. And in that same year, there came many prophets prophesying unto the people that they must repent or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.

[00:11:35] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. So there's Lehi living at the time of Zedekiah. They know the story of Zedekiah. So as the story goes, and we'll learn about this later on in the year, but the belief is one of the sons of Zedekiah, his name's Mulek, he was not killed. He escaped and he took people with them and he got on a ship and that ship ended up here on the American continent.

And that is who the Mulekites became. And that is who the people at the city of Zarahemla is. So they're so excited. They're like, we found you, we found you. And they have this great reunion and then they find a stone, turn the page, go back to Omni. Now back to Omni chapter one and Zarahemla then makes Mosiah number one, the king over the land.

Zarahemla is so excited. Mosiah teaches them his language. They learn the language and then they translate a stone. We talked about that last week. Bracket off verses 21 through 23 and just put ether. We're going to get to that later on this year. You just want to have a good connection there. There's ether.

Okay. Now in Omni one verse 23, Sarah, will you read that verse for us please?

[00:12:42] Sara Kimball: Yes. Behold, I, Amalekai was born in the days of Mosiah and I have lived to see his death. And Benjamin, his son, reigneth in his stead.

[00:12:53] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. Now we have Benjamin. This is King Benjamin, Benjamin and Malachi tells us in verse 25, it came to pass.

I began to be old and having no seed and knowing King Benjamin to be a just man before the Lord, wherefore I shall deliver these plates unto him. So that's who he passes the plates along to. That's where we are in the history of Omni. So knowing that then we have King Benjamin and he begins to be old and he needs to give the crown to somebody.

Amen. So, in the next segment, we'll find out who he makes king.

Segment 2

---

[00:13:34] Tammy Uzelac Hall: All right, turn with me then to Mosiah chapter one, and we're going to look at verses one through three. Mary Ann, will you please read those for us?

[00:13:42] Mary Ann Cropper: Yes. And now there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla among all the people who belonged to King Benjamin, so that King Benjamin had continual peace all the remainder of his days.

And it came to pass that he had three sons, and he called their names Mosiah, Helorim, and Helaman. And he caused that they should be taught in all the languages of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding, and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord.

And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, I would that you should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered an ignorance even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.

[00:14:32] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. Go back to verse two, put squares around his son's name, Mosiah, Helorim, and Helaman, and then put a number two next to that Mosiah. That is Mosiah number two named after his grandfather, I'm sure. Then turn the page and we're going to look at Mosiah chapter one verses nine and 10. Now we already talked about verse nine.

This is King Benjamin saying, look, I am old. I've waxed old. I'm going to go the way of all the earth. So he has to confer his kingdom upon one of his sons. And here's who he makes King. Sarah, will you read that for us?

[00:15:04] Sara Kimball: Yes, therefore he had Mosiah brought before him. And these are the words which he spake unto him saying, My son, I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land.

Among all this people were the people of Zarahemla and the people of Mosiah who dwell in the land. That thereby they may be gathered together. For on the Morrow, I shall proclaim unto this, my people outta my own mouth. That thou art a king and a ruler over this people whom the Lord our God has given us.

[00:15:31] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. So Mosiah number two becomes king. Now let's go back to Mosiah chapter one, verse two. Now that we know who the new king will be, we're gonna pause in that storyline because I wanna focus on what struck me. This is what the Holy Ghost taught me when I was reading these verses in verse two, it says.

As King Benjamin speaking to his sons, he says he caused that they should be taught in the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers. I highlighted men of understanding and I wrote women next to it because I don't think that this compliment is solely reserved for men only or for these boys because the conditions of them being called wise men or men of understanding.

is for all of us. And then I thought of you too, like you two are women of understanding. You have paid the price to know scriptures. My goodness, you taught early morning seminary right there out of the gates. That is, you win. That's the greatest, hardest calling ever. We would call you the unsung angels in seminaries and institutes because we got paid to teach.

You did not. You just got up and got, how early, how early did you teach? 630. 630. 630. Oh, forget about it. And, and you had to work. I mean, you would live your life and then at night you have to write a lesson to teach the next morning every day.

[00:16:55] Mary Ann Cropper: But, you know, you do get help and it is a joy most, most mornings,

[00:17:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: yes, especially when they have donuts, right?

Yes,

[00:17:05] Mary Ann Cropper: I know. They, the kids feel the joy on those mornings. So

[00:17:10] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I want us to think about this phrase, women of understanding, because here's my question for you. What would you say to someone who questioned the efficacy or power of the scriptures? And how has studying the scriptures made you women of understanding?

[00:17:24] Sara Kimball: As I was thinking about that this week, I was thinking about all the things I read. I'm an avid reader. I have about 20 books on my next to my bedstead right now. Um, and you can take in a lot of junk as you're reading, but every time I read the scriptures, even if it's just for a little bit, I gained something from it.

I'm not doom scrolling. I am learning and I'm, I'm getting some sort of, um, benefit for, for reading the scriptures. I'm edified. I stopped thinking about all the scary things are scrolled, you know, on my Twitter feed. And instead I've reminded of who God is and who I am and that there's a bigger purpose here.

So for me, the scriptures just bring that peace. That I'm not getting through the other things I take in every day.

[00:18:17] Mary Ann Cropper: Wow. I, I totally agree with that, Sarah. And I, I, I, there's such a difference in how I say the scriptures now that I'm a little older and with a little bit more, uh, mileage under my belt. I used to be much more of a binge reader and I probably didn't get as much out of it.

But what I find is that a daily reading of the scriptures gives me noticeable strength and it's, It's the primary way Heavenly Father speaks to me, I have to say, and to receive revelation, I mean. It's not always, uh, I, I do get it in other ways, but I, I find it, um, just indispensable part of my day. Um, I'm, I'm weakened without it and it makes me sad, uh, uh, I mean, all the, all the years that I spent binge reading.

Um, we're setting for something other than I should have been and, and look at what's, what's there every day of your life on your nightstand. And all of these bookworm people didn't have these scriptures on their nightstand. No, except for us in these latter days, we're really privileged.

[00:19:19] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I have a quick followup question for you.

If I were to ask you, can you share a personal story about a time a scripture was an answer for you?

[00:19:27] Mary Ann Cropper: I can. I will. I'll share this story and it is a personal one, but I will tell you, I had been reading in the book of Mormon and I felt that in first Nephi and in Alma that there were some scriptures that related to each other in ways that I wasn't fully grasping.

And I was studying and studying and studying for months and I was praying about it. I was, I was searching for that understanding that I felt was there, but it felt outside of my reach. And one night. I'd been studying again and it was about midnight and I, I kind of gave up. I just said to Heavenly Father, you know, I'm not going to get it.

I'm not smart enough to get this. I think it's there, but I, I can't get it. And I was sad and I went to sleep and two, two hours later, I was awakened. Um, and I had the answer in my head, and I also had a page in a book that Elder Holland wrote on the Book of Mormon, it being the New Covenant. And I went to that book, and that's about 2.

30 in the morning, and I read it, and it was there so that I had, you know, backup. To my answer, but I was really, I noticed that, um, I had read those pages before. I always mark up all my books and I had taken notes, but I had not understood what was on that page until the, until I had done the work, um, and ask the questions and it was a tender mercy.

I, I think there's so much to learn from the scriptures, but I don't ask. But I'm grateful for those times when I do and I do get the answer. Yeah.

[00:20:54] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Beautiful. I'm grateful for your story. I like how you said that that's how God speaks to you. Yeah. Is daily scripture reading. Yeah. Oh, it definitely does. Thank you.

I feel it. Fantastic. Oh, great answers, ladies. I appreciate you thinking about that. This idea that we become men and women of understanding. And like I said, the conditions to become men and women understanding are rooted in scripture, but I'm not going to teach you about that. I'm going to let one of our women of understanding, and that's Sarah.

She's going to help us dig in in the next segment to Mosiah chapter one.

Segment 3

---

[00:21:34] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Sarah, you're up. I'm so excited. Sarah is going to teach us from Mosiah one. I actually asked the ladies ahead of time. What stood out to you as you read this? Like what do you feel passionate? What do you love? And they both came to me with totally different answers. And I just thought we got to go with this because it's not the direction I would have taken.

But when you said it, I'm like, this is what we need to talk about. So Sarah, I'm going to let you go.

[00:21:55] Sara Kimball: Excellent. Well, I'm going to give you a tiny bit of background here. I used to live in Texas and, um, for years, a friend of mine invited me to a Bible study group and I was like, uh, Try to avoid her at all costs.

I finally, I had no more excuses. All my kids were in school. I could go to Bible study and it ended up being just a great experience for me to really dig into the scriptures. And I realized that up to that point, I thought I didn't serve a mission. I didn't spend the time in the scriptures. I can't teach the gospel.

And I had actually been a seminary teacher in, um, Michigan. Oh, I lived there for a couple of years, and I did it, but I also had three young children, so I can't remember any of it. Anyway, so I, yes, you know what I'm talking about. So this moment really helped me understand that the gospel and understanding was not just for a certain kind of person.

It was for everybody. And it also helped me understand how important the scriptures were to me. in my life. So that's kind of the background behind probably why this section meant so much to me. So I'm going to ask you a question. Have either of you played that game where someone brings in a tray that has all kinds of objects on it and then they take a tray and you have to write down? Okay.

[00:23:08] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh my gosh. How many baby showers? I've been so many baby showers. That's where they play it. And I hate that game. I'm not good at it because I always put something small like that. I'll never remember. I get a safety pin. I don't even know.

[00:23:22] Sara Kimball: Yeah, exactly. So I'm horrible at the game too, but that little game came to my mind this week because as I was reading.

These scriptures, the word remember kept coming to my mind. Do you know that the word remember is mentioned 220 times in the book of Mormon? So when the Lord repeats something, he wants us to pay attention. And so this idea of remember has been stuck in my head. So right before King Benjamin gives this beautiful address to his people.

Um, as we just read in verse three of chapter one, he says, my sons, I would, that you should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance even at this present time. And then he goes on to chapter verse four and says, were it not possible that our father Lehi could have remembered all these things to have taught his children except that it were for the health of these plates, right?

And so the idea is that. And just like that game, if Lehi hadn't had the, uh, if he'd had the plates taken away from him, how much would he have remembered and how much would this have changed his life? And so it's very easy to see how quickly we can forget things, right? Well, King Benjamin had two really good examples of people who didn't have the benefit of having the scriptures with them.

We just talked about the people of Zarahemla and we'll also talk about the Lamanites. So the people of Zarahemla. As you said, left, uh, came about the same time as people of Lehi did, but they didn't have the plates with them. And so when Mosiah meets them, we find that their language had become corrupted so much that Mosiah, Mosiah's people could not understand the people of Zarahemla.

So that was one thing that they lost. But the other thing that's probably more crucial that they lost is they could not recognize They're a creator. They didn't know who God was. So when I was thinking about this idea of remembering, they forgot a huge part of doctrine. So when we don't have access to scripture, sometimes we lose doctrine.

Okay. So that was my first example. Now in the second example, the Lamanites also did not have access to scripture. We turn to Mosiah 10, verses 10 through 18. We learn, let's see in verse 11, now the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord. So they also did not know who their God was. So that's some doctrine that was missing.

But if you look in verses 16 and 17, instead of just missing doctrine, they started to teach their own false doctrine. And it says basically that they taught them that they should murder. Rob, plunder, and do all they could to destroy their Nephite brethren. So another problem with not having scripture is sometimes we turn to the doctrine of men.

And so I was struck by those two things, how easily things are lost when we, when we don't have the word of God right in front of us. So I've really contemplating these two ideas of both losing doctrine and also having doctrine replaced by whatever you will doctrines or philosophies of man or whatever it may be.

Thank you. So, King Benjamin continues to say in verse five, I saying to you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers, and we're talking here about.

Nephi, Jacob, Sam, our righteous fathers, even they would have dwindled in unbelief. Now that verse just got to me. Even the most righteous would have dwindled in unbelief. They would not have remembered who God was. For several, um, several years ago, elder Maxwell had a talk that he called God will yet reveal.

And as this quote from this talk, without this precious spiritual perspective, the human family is seldom more than one generation away from deep doubt and even disbelief layman and Lemuel doubted and murmured because wrote Nephi, they knew not the dealings of the God who had created them. They were provincial, just like forgetful Israel and those are, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the God.

Nor yet the works, which he had done for Israel. When I hear that, I just started to think about us, our children, our children's children, how quickly this can all fall apart. So what is the answer? When we turn the page. In verse seven, King Benjamin says, and now my sons, I would that you should remember to search them talking about scripture here diligently that ye may profit thereby.

So the answer is not just to carry these scriptures around. It's not that it's in their possession. It's searching the scriptures. Why do you think searching the scriptures alleviates this very doom field idea that we get? lose our faith within a generation? What does reading scriptures do that prohibits that from happening?

[00:28:53] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, gosh, I was just thinking about the word seeking, you know, and how we're blessed when we seek, when we're proactive, when we act and we want it in our hearts, um, are in the right place that we can be taught. But. It's really searching, it's profound. Yeah. I love that. Yeah.

[00:29:14] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I went back to your story, Maryanne, about how you were searching and seeking and that you didn't, you didn't give up.

And I, I think it's so powerful that you went to bed and I think when you told that story, I was like, Oh, that has happened before. Were you, you think, well, just, I'm going to have to shelf it for a little bit because I don't know the answer. And then sure enough, God comes in. He's like, let me answer you at the most inopportune time, 2 a. m. or 4 a. m. Is that how it always happens? The answer comes. You're like 4 a. m. Wide awake. Yeah.

[00:29:40] Mary Ann Cropper: At that point though, I was so grateful. I didn't care if I was losing sleep because I was losing, I wasn't losing sleep, but the pondering like Sarah said, because I was doing that and it goes along with the searching, right?

[00:29:52] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Right. And that word diligently. I mean, it made me just think about. But for me, that's daily scripture study. Diligent is, I interpret searching diligently, meaning daily as opposed to really getting in there. And sometimes you don't, I don't have the time to deep, deep read and deep study and look up all the words.

Sometimes I really am reading at the red light because I forgot to read that day. And so, but that, that's my effort. That's my diligence right there. I did it. I did. And that's okay.

[00:30:21] Sara Kimball: Well, and what I like to think about with scripture study. Maryann talked about her, how her study has changed as she has gotten a little bit older.

Certainly, mine has changed. And I think at all different stages in our life, even daily, there might be different circumstances per day that you can't, can't get involved in with the scriptures. But I think that the more that you involve yourself in reading scripture, it enhances you. And I think we find this in Alma 37 verse eight, it says, and now it is hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved.

Well, behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people. And so the scriptures enlarge the memory again, going back to this idea of remembering what does that mean? And elder Maxwell said this about memory. The Holy Scriptures represent mankind's spiritual memory. And when man's connection with scripture is severed, mortals are tragically deprived of an awareness of a spiritual history, which can blind the eyes of the faith.

And so when I put those things together, I thought to myself, what are the stories that I learn in the book of Mormon or in other scripture, the story of Esther, the story of whatever that reaches to me that builds my spiritual memory. And when I had that spiritual memory. Does it then become something, a part of me that's saying, Oh, this experience happened.

God protected that person or this experience happened and that woman's a mess. And so am I. So that's okay. So what I'm saying is it just starts to evolve into your understanding that these people and these things are part of you, part of your history and the scriptures then become something that's really important to you.

And that you don't want to give up. And so the idea that, um, seeking, uh, seeking after personal revelation through the scripture, seeking after answers to question the scripture, I think kind of counters that idea of quickly losing whatever we believe because we haven't kept it in our memory. And so just like that game that I talked about at the beginning, those things, once they're out of sight, out of mind, The scriptures kind of act like that.

The more that we participate with them, we get to just see more and grow more and it becomes part of our life. And to me that is, um, both been a fulfilling part of my existence, but also a true answer to my daily prayer of how am I going to get through the next, whatever crisis it is at the moment. So that's what I thought of when I read Mosiah 1.

[00:32:56] Tammy Uzelac Hall: That was awesome. That's so good. I mean, there's the word preserved. That's great. in that cross reference. And immediately when I read preserved, I thought, and I wrote this down, diligent scripture study preserves us spiritually. Love it. That's, that's why we should do it. Like I went back to your word preserved.

[00:33:12] Mary Ann Cropper: That was so good, Sarah. I love that. Actually, I, I flashed back to the words of Mormon, you know, right before King Benjamin, um, you know, Mosiah one starts, gives us a little background about King Benjamin and it says that he, I mean, he, He served by taking up the Sword of Laban and fighting, um, the Lamanites and also fighting against False Christ, he calls it, and False Doctrine and all that.

So even though they had the plates and he had them, he had to be so vigilant. I mean, fighting a war, really, he kind of equated the two. Um, And, and if we learn diligently and feed on the words of Christ, then we can actually help ourselves and help the youth as we teach them to, you know, be able to know doctrine and know false doctrine.

I know that somehow this is one of the most important things that we do now is, is make sure that, that they're getting doctrine, they're mastering the doctrine, right, which we teach.

[00:34:16] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Teach. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Wow. Sarah, thank you for teaching us from Mosiah chapter one. Those words. I mean, look how cool that was.

She just took a few scriptures and And she was able to just to give, like, I mean, imagine like a church talk. It was just so good. And look what we learned from that. The takeaways were so awesome. So thank you. Thank you. So in the next segment, we're going to take everything that we've just learned. And here we have King Benjamin saying to his sons how grateful they are for the records.

And now he's chosen Mosiah to be his king and he wants them all the people to gather together. And so in the next segment, we're going to find out what's bringing these people together.

Segment 4

---

[00:35:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: King Benjamin says to his son, all right, Mosiah number two, you're going to be the new king. So I want you to gather all the people, call everybody, come together and gather at the temple. Now, this is so cool because in Mosiah chapter two, there's two very important things going on. And there's verses of scripture that I'm going to show you.

What we have here, because I've always just read this like, Oh, look how fun all the families they gather together at the temple. But it's actually steeped in ritual. And there are two reasons that people are gathering together at the temple. Number one reason is there will be a coronation ceremony. This is where the king is going to be coroned.

It's not even a word crown. That's the word I want. Let me try that again. The new king is going to be crowned. So we have a coronation ceremony going on. Secondly, we have what we believe is Sukkot. Now Sukkot happens at the end of Yom Kippur, so I'm going to give you a little bit of background for this.

The Jewish New Year, it's called Rosh Hashanah. So if you've ever seen that on your calendar and went like, what's this? That's Jewish New Year. Happy New Year. But it happens in the fall. And when Rosh Hashanah starts, that word in Hebrew means head of the year. A big shofar lambs horn is blown and that lets everybody know, okay, everyone, it's time to celebrate.

our Jewish new year. It is the beginning of what they call the high holy days. So when they hear the ram's horn blown, Rosh Hashanah starts. And that to the Jews means we have 10 days. They're called 10 days of awe for 10 days. We're going to be thinking and praying about everything we've done this year that we want to be forgiven of.

And on the 10th day, they're going to gather together. As a people at the temple where the great high priest will enter into the tabernacle and then into the holy of holies. It's the only time in the year where the high priest enters the holy of holies and he will enter the holy of holies in place of all the people outside of the tabernacle who want to be forgiven of their sins, all the sins that they participated in.

So on Yom Kippur, and Yom means day, and Kippur comes from the word kaphar, which means atonement, as we have learned in Hebrew. Day of atonement, the people will fast from sundown to sundown, a 24 hour fast. At the end of Yom Kippur, when they've all been forgiven of their sins, and they're fasting about the sins they're being forgiven of.

They then have five days to gather everything as families and build tents or Sukkot's that they're going to stay in as a family and live, eat, sleep, and worship for seven days together in that Sukkot in that tent. So knowing that then we have some cool verses of scripture that I want to show you guys that connect us to the celebration of Sukkot.

in Mosiah chapter two and the coronation ceremony, which if anybody saw the coronation ceremony of King Charles, I mean, Mary Anne, we talked about that. Tell me what you noticed.

[00:38:00] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, I, I noticed it. There was so much, um, Old Testament references there and it was sacred, the anointing and the new garment and the covenant, and I'm missing something.

There was a fourth item, but I thought, well, the origins of that ceremony and how sacred it is. Um, that, and it was private, right? It was not open to view.

[00:38:22] Tammy Uzelac Hall: So, right. If you go, everyone go, just Google it, watch the YouTube video, type in coronation of King Charles. You'll notice when he is, when that happens, they cover him with walls.

And inside those big walls is where he is receiving a washing anointing, a new garment with holy oil. I mean, it is so cool to think how this coronation ceremony cultures, all cultures have it like it's really awesome and we celebrate like we, we practice that too. Yes. Hey, so let's go through a couple of scriptures.

I'm just gonna give you some verses. I want you to mark it and to the outside we're gonna tell you what to write and how it connects us with this, these two main events. So let's go to Mosiah chapter one, verse 18. In chapter one, verse 18, you can mark where it says at the end of that verse, go up to the temple.

That's where everyone's supposed to go. Go up to the temple. And then you go to Mosiah chapter two, verse one. And it says right there, it came to pass that Mosiah had done as his father commanded him and had made a proclamation throughout all the land that the people gather themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which King Benjamin would speak unto him.

Okay. Going up to the temple proves the sanctity of this event. And this is where Yom Kippur would take place. Now, how do we even believe it could be Yom Kippur? Well, what we want to look at is in these verses, then we have verse three, it says, and they also took of the firstlings of their flocks that they might offer sacrifices and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses.

That was very emblematic of Yom Kippur. You offer an offering and we have the law of Moses that has these sacrifices. All right. The next one that we want to mark is in chapter two. We're going to do verses five through six. And I love that. It's a beautiful, these two verses are so beautiful. Mary Anne, will you read them for us?

[00:40:06] Mary Ann Cropper: Sure. And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents roundabout every man according to his family, consisting of his wife and his sons and his daughters and their sons and their daughters from the eldest down to the youngest. Every family being separate one from another, and they pits their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak into them.

[00:40:34] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. That is awesome. One of the celebrations of Sukkot is you would live in tents according to your family. So there's so much beauty in that. I mean, I really thought it was just like, Oh, they're making forts so they can hear like general conference like we do in our own house, but that's what I thought when I was young.

How fun. Yeah.

[00:40:52] Mary Ann Cropper: There's more to it.

[00:40:53] Tammy Uzelac Hall: There's way more to it. So they're, they're gathered together as a family. They're celebrating this awesome moment. They're going to live in these suit coats. Let's do another one. Chapter two, verse seven. This verse teaches us something cool. Go ahead, Sarah, we read verse seven for us.

[00:41:06] Sara Kimball: For the multitude being so great that King Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them.

[00:41:17] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Now this is cool because when I read that, I'm like, Oh, that makes sense.

So he's high up and everybody could hear him. But this corresponds to a wooden pulpit that was traditionally constructed for the king on the occasion of the Feast of Tabernacles. That was a normal interest.

[00:41:32] Mary Ann Cropper: I didn't know that.

[00:41:33] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. I thought that was so cool. Okay. Let's do another one. Then we have chapter three of Mosiah.

We're going to look at verse 11, chapter three, verse 11. That gives us more to why this is Yom Kippur and I'll read verse 11. This is King Benjamin speaking to the people. This is part of his address and he says this for behold and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam.

Who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them or who have ignorantly sinned. The connection here is the blood of Christ is reminiscent of the blood of the covenants that were sprinkled on the people by Moses at the very first Sukkot. You can cross reference that verse to Exodus chapter 24 verse eight.

That's what you read about. The blood of the covenant. That's kind of neat. Here's he is. King Benjamin's. I'm alluding to that. Just know if you read all of Mosiah chapter four and five, okay? One of the things that people do at the end of the address, what do they do, Mary Anne? I like how you're shaking your head.

[00:42:32] Mary Ann Cropper: They make a covenant.

[00:42:34] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes. With the Lord. Yes. They, they totally do. And so the neat thing is, is in these two chapters, they are being forgiven of their sins. Just like Yom Kippur, they are forgiven, and they're so excited that look how they react. This is another reaction for Yom Kippur. After the high priest goes in and the people have fasted, let's go to chapter four, verses two and three.

And in these two verses, these are so much fun. Verse two and three. Can Mary Ann read those for us? In chapter four, right?

[00:43:04] Mary Ann Cropper: Yes. And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying, O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ, that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified.

For we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth and all things, who shall come down among the children of men. And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words, the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having a peace of conscience.

Because of the exceeding faith, which they had in Jesus Christ, who should come according to the words which King Benjamin had spoken unto them. I love that. Tell me why. Well, it, that joy just jumps off the page that comes from receiving a remission of your sins. I mean, all through King Benjamin's, uh, life.

Speech. He, he talks about the joy, um, but it's, it's here and it's coral, it kind of correlated with, with the remission of sins and, and understanding that we can exercise faith in Christ and be, see forgiveness. It's just beautiful.

[00:44:12] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, it's so beautiful. And one of the things I read about these two verses, and the reason why we're connecting them to Sukkot and the coronation ceremony is that the joy of the people was expressed by praising God, music, and sometimes dance.

At the coronation ceremonies and at the end of Yom Kippur, like it's so exciting. I'm imagining it's because they're coming off that 24 hour fast, but I think also, yeah, going back to this idea of receiving a remission of their sins. It had to have been such, and to think though that only once a year they get to experience this.

I mean, we get this every Sunday and then it made me reflect, do I leave sacrament the same way?

[00:44:50] Sara Kimball: Yeah.

[00:44:51] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Joyous and dancing and

[00:44:52] Sara Kimball: I don't know. I love that idea and that renewal every week is a gift that we sometimes do not take advantage of.

[00:45:01] Mary Ann Cropper: And you know what I remember from four years ago, Tammy, it's been that long, but I remember walking on the trail, listening to the podcast and, and I think you had mentioned that the word for atonement, which is kaphar.

And, and so when, every time I, I, I. Think about them in the tense and the covering. It's, it really is a visual representation of the atonement to me being covered by the atonement and by the blood of Christ. And I, I just walk around with that since four years ago. I walk around with that. Um, when I think about these words, that's fantastic.

[00:45:39] Tammy Uzelac Hall: That's so cool. Thank you for sharing that. You know, in these verses, it's what was so striking to me is in the scholarship that I read, they are saying that this is a combination of Sukkot and a coronation ceremony. The scholarship I appreciated the most was that there are actually only about three verses that talk about the coronation ceremony.

If I'm going to give those to you and you can mark it, go back to Mosiah chapter one and right next to verse 10, this is where he says, Mosiah, I'm going to make you the king. And I'm going to give you these cross references. So put Mosiah chapter two verses 29 through 31, and then Mosiah chapter six, verse three, these are the only verses that actually mentioned the succession of a new king.

And so while it is a coronation ceremony where we are so excited, we have a new king. Um, the scholarship I read actually points, it could possibly be it's more steeped in Yom Kippur and Sukkot and that combined these two ceremonies, it was just a joyous occasion that they were gathered at the temple and that they had a temple.

I think that's so powerful and that these families are together and here we have this new king. And so that is the idea of this. And then we get into this great discussion because King Benjamin's now going to begin his whole address. I wanted us to just kind of have this idea of why they are at the temple.

What's going on and how powerful this moment must really be for King Benjamin because they're coming off this high of being forgiven. They're going to enter into a new covenant. We're going to talk about that next week, but here they are. And so knowing this about them then helps us understand. More of King Benjamin's address and the condition and hearts of the people as they're listening to their dying prophet dying King's words.

I think this is so cool. Any thoughts you guys have anything you want to add?

[00:47:26] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, and I just love how he references our heavenly King. Mosiah 2 verse 19. You know, he the coronations happened and you know, he talks about what he did. Um, under his reign, but it is all to teach us about our heavenly king.

And cause he, he lays the case about being in service, how he served and we ought to serve. And if you think, you know, you ought to thank me, he says, Oh, how you ought to thank your heavenly king.

[00:47:52] Tammy Uzelac Hall: That is so brilliant. What a great connection. Anything, Sarah, you want to add?

[00:47:59] Sara Kimball: I was just thinking about the beauty of the temple.

Just we are so privileged where we live, but Mary and Anna and I taught seminary. We have to drive to the temple every morning to teach and it's just, I cannot tell you every single time I drove to the temple and saw it, it was like my heart was opened up. And last night we happened to go to the temple.

Uh, and I was thinking to myself, there's some people in our ward who need some help. There are people in our state who need some help. My own family needs some help. Where do I go when I need to listen to words of encouragement and peace? It's to the temple. I think it's beautiful.

[00:48:39] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Absolutely. Thank you, Sarah.

So great. What a great discussion and a great way now to continue on then with King Benjamin's address. So in the next segment, Mary Anne is going to take us into what the King has to say.

Segment 5

---

[00:49:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Mary Anne, take us into King Benjamin's address.

[00:49:03] Mary Ann Cropper: Okay. Well, I focused in on chapter two and three, um, when I, in my reading and I, I really am always taken with the last words. I think you mentioned this, Tammy, a podcast or two ago, we were talking about Lehi and he, it's the last words you want to listen to what, what he's saying.

And you hear him in verse nine, um, at the end of the verse, he says that you should hearken unto me. And open your ears that you may hear, and your hearts that you may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view. And I immediately flashed when it talks about that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view to a talk that, um, Elder Kimby Clark gave a few years ago.

It wasn't a general conference talk, but it was a talk to the Teachers Seminary and Institute. I don't know if either of you remember this talk, but it affected me. And I saw. Um, what the points that, that Brother Clark made in his talk are really addressed here in King Benjamin's speech. And so I, I kind of wanted to talk about that.

Mysteries of God may be folded to review. That's really referencing the plan of our heavenly father, you know, the plan of salvation and exaltation, which of course. He's, he wants to teach at the temple. That's where we're primarily instructed in the best ways at the temple, but we also teach our youth.

Elder Clark was emphasizing in his talk that we should teach for deep learning as particularly of in the gospel, but of the plan of salvation and that these things need to go deeply into their hearts and that as we teach the plan, that that becomes their view of the world and how they see themselves and every challenge.

All responsibilities, opportunities, everything is seen through that lens and how powerful that will be for us and for the youth of the church. And, and he, he said somewhat jokingly, and it's reminded me of me as I kind of grew up in the church through the primary organization and teaching and seminary, that the, the circles and the squiggly lines were how we taught, you know, we'd get the chart out, um, and certainly, um, All of those circles were part of the aspects of the plan and Elder Clark says, you know, those circles are alive and well, but he really wants us to get away from teaching the plan of salvation in that way.

And he, he talks about the elements that we should, we should talk about and one of the, the points he makes, and this is a really great talk, but, Um, is that in the Heavenly Father's plan, the name of Jesus Christ is put on every important part of that plan. Jesus Christ, of course, being central. And when I was teaching the squiggly lines and the, the circles, you know, Jesus Christ is nowhere in that drawing.

But King Benjamin teaches us that. Who's at the center of the plan of salvation, our Heavenly Father's plan, and that, of course, is Jesus Christ, and, and chapter 3 of this, of, of King Benjamin's speech teaches us of the miracles that he will perform, and he will condescend and come in a tabernacle of, of clay, and he will cast out devils, and I love the fact that He will cast those evil spirits or those awful things that are in our hearts, um, out of, out of our hearts.

And he will suffer temptation and, and even more than men can suffer. And that blood cometh from every poor, which is not a fact. That's why, you know, certainly I think it's an only in the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible. Right. And, um, that he shall be called Jesus Christ, the son of God and his mother shall be Mary and, and that, um, salvation might come to the children of men, even through faith on his name.

And it talks about that his atoning blood will atone for our sins and he'll be resurrected. All the whole centrality of, of Jesus Christ. And the plan of salvation is beautifully taught here by King Benjamin. And that's what, when I go back to the talk that Elder Clark gave, he, he really wanted us to emphasize that when, when we teach, when we think of the plan of salvation,

[00:53:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I've never read King Benjamin's address.

As a plan of salvation, like talking about the plan. I can't wait to go back in now and read it and look for those. Mary Anne, that is so cool. I've never ever once considered that before.

[00:53:14] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, good. I, yeah, I just want to, one of the things I wanted to say is that, you know, I don't keep my scriptures in a really Um, you know, for every particular doctrine is one color and neatly marked and all of that.

I mark, um, very messy. If somebody's sitting next to me in Sunday school, they'll probably wonder what is going on there. Um, but I mark according to the experiences I have with the Holy Ghost, what's kind of hit me or my study so that it's all there the next time I come to it. And I've always loved those verses.

Um, because when I was age 18, even though I didn't understand that this was the plan of salvation being taught, but it was my view as it go back to chapter two, verse nine, that the mysteries of God may be enfolded to your view and how your view changes. It changed my view, reading these, reading these scriptures about, um, You know what it says, I say unto you that if you should serve him with who has created you from the beginning and is preserving you from day to day by lending you breath, that you may live and move and do according to your own will and even supporting you from one moment to another.

I say if you should serve him with all your whole souls, yet he would be unprofitable servants. I hadn't really understood the doctrine of grace very well, but it's there and it goes on and now in the first place. He hath created you and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

And secondly, he doth require you that if you require that you should do as he hath commanded you, for which if you do, he doth immediately bless you and therefore he hath paid you and you are still indebted unto him and are and will be forever and ever therefore of what have ye to boast. And to an 18 year old, you probably did a little bit of boasting that really, um, put everything in perspective and changed my view.

But there was so much more to this speech, but I, I just love these verses. These were the very first verses in all of my scripture reading that ever spoke to me.

[00:55:13] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. I want to do something. I want to take it and test your theory. So because I'm looking at every of these verses and every time I look at a verse, I'm like, Yeah.

Plan of salvation. Plan of. So here's what I want us to do. Just find a verse real quick and say how that verse applies to the plan of salvation. I'm going to go first because now I look at verse 19 in a whole new way. And behold, also if I whom you call your king who has spent his days in your service and yet has been in the service of God, do you merit any things from you?

How you ought to thank your heavenly king. There it is right out of the gate. Who's in charge of this plan? Our heavenly king. He's running the show. He's got jurisdiction. Oh my gosh. Go next. You've got one chapter.

[00:55:52] Mary Ann Cropper: I just think that chapter three, well actually I mean chapter verse 41 chapter two verse 41 which.

It just tells us about keeping the commandments and how we'll be happy. And I love that part of the plan of salvation and exaltation because it's not just promising us happiness in some life way far away.

[00:56:13] Tammy Uzelac Hall: It's a plan of happiness.

[00:56:14] Mary Ann Cropper: It's a plan of happiness. And when it says, and moreover, I would desire that you should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.

For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual, and if they hold out faithful to the end, they are received into heaven. That thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. Oh, remember, remember that these things are true for the Lord God has spoken it. So we'll be happy now and happy then.

And it's, if we just follow.

[00:56:43] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, that's cool. Right there. The name of it.

[00:56:46] Sara Kimball: Go ahead, Sarah. I'll just choose one. Thirty five. And also all that has been spoken by our fathers until now, and behold, also they spake that which was commanded of them of the Lord. Therefore they are just and true. Um, yeah, all of this is just and true.

This is, this is what you need to know in order to progress along this plan, right?

[00:57:05] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. I mean, who teaches us the plan? It's prophets and apostles. It's the fathers. Yeah. Yeah. And the Lord. Wow. That's cool. Yes. Right there. Morning plan of salvation. This is fun. You could do this for anyone that's teaching seminary.

[00:57:22] Mary Ann Cropper: I think that a lot of these are doctrinal mastery.

[00:57:26] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. I think you're correct. Yeah.

[00:57:30] Mary Ann Cropper: I also like, um, and it's just so succinct in chap Mosiah three verse 17 to say, and moreover, I say unto you that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come under the children of men.

Only in and through the name of Christ the Lord Omnipotent. I mean, that's

[00:57:49] Sara Kimball: that is the plan

[00:57:51] Mary Ann Cropper: He's right at the center. He's not in the circles or the squiggly lines like I used to teach but it's him I I love that and you know and the older I get And the more challenging life is sometimes that I have to put my complete trust in the Lord That he he's there.

He's there He, but by exercising faith, um, he leads me along and he becomes, he is, becomes the, rather than when I was younger, I thought the church was really the center of my thoughts and getting a testimony that this was a true church. But now it's really about being converted to the Lord and trusting in him and his gospel and every place that he puts his name is the, you know, where I want to be and what I want to do.

[00:58:41] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I'm, as you've been talking, I'm reminded of just the temple endowment portion of the ceremony and how Christ centric it has become. If you haven't been in a while, I recommend you go because it is entirely about Jesus Christ as Mary Anne has just taught.

[00:58:57] Sara Kimball: And I think that I had just heard somewhere that if you look at general conference addresses over the last 25 years, then the number of times that Jesus Christ has mentioned has like tripled.

It's really interesting that we're, we're finally getting where we Our focus needs to be, which is on Jesus Christ.

[00:59:16] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. Like you said, Mary Anne, his, his name is on it. The Church of Jesus Christ. So, wow. Thank you ladies. That was a fabulous discussion about those verses and how fun I'm excited for this challenge now to go through and find the plan of salvation.

That's really cool. Thank you. Excellent teaching. Boy, both of you. I just have to go back to that verse again. Women of understanding. There it is. And thank you for coming so well prepared. This is such a fun discussion. So in the next segment, then our last segment, I'm going to share with you the chapter I would take on a deserted island.

Segment 6

---

[01:00:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: This is my deserted Island chapter. Let's go to Mosiah chapter three. This was it. I'd never considered that before in my life. I have read this chapter so many times going off of what both of you've taught us, especially Mary Anne, this idea of just Christ centered and Christ has his name on everything.

For me, Mosiah chapter three, it just is all about Christ. I could read this chapter over and over and over again and just continue to learn more and more because even now, I mean, how many times have I read this and I read it again, I'm like, what? This is in here. And there's so many cool Hebraisms and amazing things in this chapter.

And so I want us to do what we're going to do together is the three of us is we're going to talk about the truths that we learn about Christ just from Mosiah chapter three. So we're each going to take turns and let's just go and tell me what you guys mark.

[01:00:50] Sara Kimball: Verse four, the Lord has heard all thy prayers and at the judge of thy righteousness and have led me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice and be filled with joy.

Ends. He's our judge, but he's our advocate and he's wants everything to come to joy with us. And I just think that's such a beautiful way to start out. That doesn't even, that's even before the nitty gritty just head right into joy from talking about it. I love that.

[01:01:16] Tammy Uzelac Hall: In fact, I put next to this verse, I'm so grateful you picked that out because where it says, the Lord has heard thy prayers.

Remember if we are doing Yom Kippur and here's all the people outside of the tabernacle. And now he's saying, Oh, listen, the Lord heard all your prayers and he has judged of thy righteousness. And he has sent me, the high priest to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice, that thou mayest declare unto the people that they may be filled with joy.

They have been forgiven. There's that joy. They're so excited. Oh, I think that is such a cool. This is their moment where he enters into the Holy of Holies. Mm. So good.

[01:01:52] Mary Ann Cropper: I love the part where he, he talks about that the Lord, how does he say it? In verse five. Um, the Lord Omnipotent. So he's really talking about that, that king, um, who, who reigneth.

And that's another reference to the, his crowning glory. But he shall come down from heaven, um, among the children of men and they shall, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay and shall go forth amongst men. Working mighty miracles and so on and it reminds me a lot of the angels question to Nephi about knowest thou the Condescension of God, you know Really if you think about how far he went from his crowning glory all the way down to a tabernacle of clay And then he had this suffer In ways that even more than man can suffer in verse seven, and, and that, and then in verse nine, and even after all this, they shall consider him a man and say that he hath a devil and shall scourge him and shall crucify him and he shall rise.

The third day from the dead, I mean, he, he did descend below it all for us that we could exercise faith in his name and receive forgiveness. It's just beautiful.

[01:03:09] Tammy Uzelac Hall: And like you pointed out, this is a long time before Christ is even born and he knows that this is going to happen. Wow.

[01:03:18] Mary Ann Cropper: Well, it's a, it's tremendous what the angel taught him that those Book of Mormon peoples had.

We, we don't get this in the old Testament. These are old Testament era people. They, they didn't have, or at least. The Bible doesn't record all of this knowledge. They probably had it, but no. It's not there.

[01:03:37] Sara Kimball: I have. Have you been struck with this reading of the Book of Mormon in general? How many times the angels come and reveal to these prophets?

I don't know why that didn't stick out to me before, but it totally does this time. And because they have this extra information, it's this book is for us. And so we get to understand a little bit more. I just, I've been fascinated by the angels. I,

[01:04:01] Mary Ann Cropper: I love that he said that and then at the very end of the chapter, he says in verse 23, And now I have spoken the words which the Lord God hath commanded me.

And I could just feel his relief. Okay. I did it. I taught it. It's done. Um, and you know, it, what a responsibility that is when the angel comes to tell you what to say and then to actually do it, to build the tower and to teach and see all the people there. And it's done. So I, I related to that.

[01:04:31] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yeah. That's a neat one.

This is kind of fun about the angel. Mosiah chapter three, verse two, I'm glad you brought this up, Sarah. He says, and the things which I shall tell you are made known unto me by an angel from God. A little side note, a couple of scholarship or scholars that I have read from agree that that angel might possibly have been a Benedi.

Because a Benedi, now this is crazy because the story of a Benedi comes later, but it actually happens before in the storyline, which we'll get to. I know it's crazy, but there are some scholars who think, could it have been a Benedi that came because a Benedi quotes heavily from Isaiah and, and you even shared that with us, Mary Anne, about how he says that he will grow up as a tender plant.

And he, there's no comely, no beauty that we, you know, desire of him. And then he does the 10 commandments and he spoke heavily about Christ. And so there's a belief that maybe that's the angel who came to King Benjamin and said, you got to talk to this people and here's what they're going to need to know.

And I'm coming from the, from the future. I know

[01:05:31] Mary Ann Cropper: this does echo in many ways, Alma seven, doesn't it? Very, very heavily. Isn't it? Yeah.

[01:05:40] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, this is. Yeah. I thought that was really cool. I have angel from God circled with just this little, like it could be, no one said definitively, but I like how the scholars have said it could be, it might be.

What if, um, I think, yeah, absolutely. Why not? I think that's pretty cool. In fact, if you want a really good book on angels to read, I recommend Don Perry. Donald Perry has a new book. Have you read that?

[01:06:01] Mary Ann Cropper: Yes. And I love that book.

[01:06:03] Tammy Uzelac Hall: He speaks every time at education week on that topic and it is so good.

[01:06:11] Mary Ann Cropper: I got it on my Deseret bookshelf and I read it in one night.

It was really very compelling.

[01:06:15] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, it's really good. Yeah. And he has paid the price and everything he says can be backed up. It's none of his, that's what I love about Donald Perry. It's never his opinion ever. I'm going to give you a fun one, but this is homework. You get to do this on your own. If you look at Mosiah chapter three verses 18 and 19, this is the chiasmus of chiasmus in the book of Mormon.

And I'll give you a little hint if you go through it and read. The formation of this is a, b, c, d, e, f, and then f, e, d, c, e, a. So do it on your own. See if you can find the chiasmus in those verses. Oh my gosh. So cool. And it's like the classic scripture. I mean, the natural man is an enemy to God, has been by the fall of Adam.

Like, you know that so well, that's doctrinal mastery right there. So cool. Any other verses that stood out to you from this chapter about Jesus? I will say one of the things I did, I went through and started numbering everything I learned about Jesus, and then I just gave up, like number 18, because I, I had to just totally marked up.

I'm like, I can't keep up with this. So I, and then I actually started highlighting in one color. I'm like, that's just too much. Every line would have to be highlighted in that.

[01:07:22] Sara Kimball: That's mine. I highlight references to Jesus in purple and this chapter is purple.

[01:07:26] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I chose purple too! What? Royalty! I'm not even kidding!

Yes, that's exact Oh, Sarah! We both have purple! That is crazy. Yeah.

[01:07:36] Mary Ann Cropper: You know, one of the things that I thought about with Christ was It's, it's, uh, King Benjamin talks about how he served with all his might, you know, we, we are taught that he defended the people, did a lot of the things that Christ would do.

He tells us all about that because he tells us about how Christ gave all just like he had. Um, and that because of that, and if we're grateful, we're, we're to serve each other just like Christ served us. And that, that attribute, um, jumped out at me.

[01:08:07] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Well, especially in Mosiah two. If you look at Mosiah two, just start in verse 11 and go to verse 21 and you'll see the word serve or service 13 times.

Yeah. Highlight that. That is awesome. Let's end with Mosiah chapter three, verse 17. Mary Anne already read this to us, but I just think this is a great way to end our whole discussion of King Benjamin's address because I think this is the whole crux of it.

[01:08:30] Mary Ann Cropper: And moreover, I say unto you that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men.

Only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord omnipotent.

[01:08:43] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you. If you highlight verse 17, after you highlight it, I want you to draw a little line off of each of the word you and the, and then include verses 20 and 21 on the other side of the page and make that all one color right there, 17 then 20 and 21 and I'll read 20 and 21.

And moreover, I say unto you that the time shall come when the knowledge of a savior will spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God omnipotent.

I mean, that is just a great way to end our discussion and what King Benjamin had to say to the people like, repent. He's telling all of them, I'm here to help you. You know what this is about. There is a savior for all of us. And that word omnipotent, he is. What is it, Sarah?

[01:09:37] Sara Kimball: All power. He's, it's all, it's all through him.

Everything.

[01:09:42] Tammy Uzelac Hall: You don't get more royal than that. Nope. Pretty royal. Wow. Well, thank you, ladies. That's the end of our discussion. That was awesome.

[01:09:50] Mary Ann Cropper: Tammy, you're a master.

[01:09:52] Sara Kimball: I know. Tammy, thanks so much.

[01:09:54] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, so much fun. Thank you. for coming so well prepared. All right. Gather your thoughts, do this, and what's your takeaway?

What's, what did you learn or what's going to stick with you or what do you think you want to teach other people that you learned today?

[01:10:07] Mary Ann Cropper: I think that your points about reading the scriptures, And understanding the prophecies and what the words of the prophets are and the plan of salvation so that we can become men and women of understanding is, is just so inspiring.

I think we aim too low sometimes in our study. Oh, I like that you

[01:10:28] Tammy Uzelac Hall: said that. We do aim too low. And that was awesome because Sarah just really did, she just pointed to a scripture and look what we learned from that. Uh huh. That was cool.

[01:10:37] Sara Kimball: I am tied between the whole ceremony and Yom Kippur. I think that's such a beautiful idea that makes me want to think about that just a little bit longer.

And then I have to go back through and look through the plan of salvation for those. That is his speech. I just, I, that's wonderful. I'm, that's a good lesson for me to invigorate my brain here.

[01:11:00] Mary Ann Cropper: Yeah. And it actually helps, I think, to read, uh, chapters four and five, which are another lesson, right?

[01:11:07] Tammy Uzelac Hall: But it's there.

There. That was, that was really cool. Mine is Sarah going back to the very beginning when you were teaching us. And you talked about how important the scriptures were and the people who didn't have the scriptures, you're citing the people of Zarahemla. This really hit me hard when you said they could not remember their creator.

And that was so good because I almost started to cry. And then I wrote, that's why I read my scriptures is to remember my creator or as Mosiah teaches us the heavenly king. That is, that really hit me hard. And then Mary Anne, I loved the heavenly king. When you connected the coronation ceremony. To, here we have King Benjamin speaking, but he's really giving credit to his heavenly king.

And that was, and that made me think like, yeah, is he, is, is he really my royalty? Do I believe he has all power? And I just thought that was cool. So thank you. Thank you. Beautiful job ladies. That was a great discussion.

[01:12:11] Mary Ann Cropper: I love you for giving us Mosiah Chapters one through three.

[01:12:14] Sara Kimball: Thank you.

[01:12:15] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Well, what was your takeaway? Gosh, that was a great discussion.

Okay. Listen, go join our group on Facebook or on Instagram and share with me what you've learned, especially the question at the beginning. Cause I would like to know what is your chapter if you were on a deserted island. In fact, that might even be our question at the end of the week. So comment on the post that relates to this lesson and share your thoughts.

You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode on LDSliving. com slash Sunday on Monday. And it's not a bad idea to go there anyway. It's where we're going to have links to all the references as well as the transcript of this whole discussion. So go check it out.

The Sunday on Monday study group is a Deseret Bookshelf plus original brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy use a lot call and today are just incredible. Such incredible women of understanding were Mary Anne Cropper and Sarah Kimball. And you can find more information about these friends at LDS living.

com slash Sunday on Monday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited by mixed by Cole Wissinger and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week. And please remember that our heavenly king, you are his favorite.