Journey to the Promised Land: Book of Mormon Journaling 1 Nephi 16-22 (January 27-February 2, 2020)

After two weeks spent in dreams and visions, we are now back to the adventuring chapters of 1 Nephi!

This week I have a lot of journaling to share. The density is partly due to the fact that I started my journal in 2019 before the 2020 schedule was made public. I had no way of knowing that all the beauty of these seven chapters was going to be squeezed into one week.

In 1 Nephi 16:7, Nephi, his brothers, and Zoram all marry daughters of Ishmael. Speaking of "tender mercies of the Lord" (1 Nephi 1:20), nothing is more touching to me than that the Lord remembered Zoram. He was the outsider. The odd one out. Was it a coincidence that Ishmael had five daughters instead of four? The Lord knew his plan from the beginning. He remembered Zoram.
In the margin beside the marriage verse, I wrote:
"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart," (D&C 42:22).

On the same page (1 Nephi 16:10) is where the Liahona is discovered (fun fact-the word Liahona isn't used until the book of Alma). In the same margin, I wrote this perfect quote from Elder David A. Bednar:
"As we each press forward along the pathway of life, we receive direction from the Holy Ghost just as Lehi was directed through the Liahona" (Elder David A. Bednar, "That We May Always Have His Spirit to Be with Us," April 2006 Conference). I do recommend looking at more of the talk. There were a lot of other things he said about the symbolism and purpose of the Liahona.

Still in chapter 16 (verses 14-32) we have the adventure of the broken bow. As with every other challenge they faced, Laman and Lemuel murmured. So does the rest of the family. For once, even Lehi starts murmuring. Nephi, however, gets industrious and makes a bow. It isn't a fine steel bow like the one he has been using for their journey through the wilderness so far, but he has faith enough to make one and then respectfully ask his father where he should go to obtain food. Everyone repents,  Nephi gets dinner with a homemade bow, and everyone rejoices. In the margins I wrote two quotes:
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse," (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Tongue of Angels," Ensign, May 2007).
"Have . . . the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitable come but also to make a second effort, should such be required," (President Thomas S. Monson, "Living the Abundant Life," Ensign, January 2012). [My apologies for not including a link. That one article in won't pull up for me today].

On the next page, as Lehi's family continues their travels, I traced/drew Daniel H. Ludlow's map of Lehi's travels in Arabia as it is printed (and adapted) in the Book of Mormon Student Manual:

In chapter 17, I really struggled to choose just one quote. And failed. Here are three. In verse 7, the Lord tells Nephi to "Arise, and get thee into the mountain," so I wrote:
"Let us go up to the mountain of the LORD," (Isaiah 2:3) [I just added more Isaiah to the Book of Mormon. This is funny]
Back up to 17: 5, and we have the description of the Arabian Bountiful, which was named because of its much fruit and wild honey. I traced a hexagon stencil to get a honeycomb, and wrote:
"The judgments of the LORD are . . . sweeter also than honey and honeycomb," (Psalms 19:9-10).
In 1 Nephi 17:8, Nephi is commanded to build a ship.
"Sometimes we need to make a bow and arrow before revelation comes as to where we should search for food. Sometimes we need to make tools before revelations come as to how to build a ship" (Elder Dale G. Renlund, "Abound with Blessings," Ensign, May 2019).

Before Laman and Lemuel help with the family work project of building a ship, they whine, murmur, and doubt. Nephi gives them a spiritual pep-talk, where he again likens his family unto Moses and the children of Israel who also wandered in the wilderness. In 1 Nephi 17:30, Nephi reminds his brothers how the Lord led them (the children of Israel) through the wilderness by day and was their light by night. In the margin, I drew a simple Edison bulb (I suggest penciling this in before tracing it in pen) and wrote:
"The LORD is my light and my salvation," (Psalms 27:1).

Back up to 1 Nephi 17:21, where Laman and Lemuel were still whining. Among their arguments is this amusing verse: "Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy." Come on boys. Don't you know stuff doesn't equal happiness? I wrote:
"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God," (Psalms 146:5).

Believe it or not, this was the page where I almost abandoned my Book of Mormon journaling. Why? Because I wrote that quote on the wrong page. In pen. I was devastated. Thank heaven I kept going. There are so many beautiful things I would have missed if I had given up over one (or five) mistakes I made in pen. Pretty sure there's a life lesson here.

In 1 Nephi 18:3, Nephi mentions going into the mountain often to pray. In the scriptures, mountains often symbolize temples, but I already had a temple quote  in the last chapter, so I went with a prayer quote from Psalms (lots of Psalms this week!):
"Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray," (Psalms 55:17).

I used colored pencil for the sunrise/sunset (yellow, orange, red, purple, and blue) and outlined the stars and sun in a brown Micron pen. Use the side of a sharpened colored pencil, not the tip, for the soft gradation of color, and overlap your colors slightly.

On the next page, also in 1 Nephi 18, I went to a lot of effort to draw a rather mediocre looking ship with Mildliner highlighters and colored pencil. The one thing I like about the drawing is the lightning. I drew it with a yellow Mildliner highlighter, and left a little white space around it when I was coloring the sky gray.

Skipping ahead to page 46 (1 Nephi 19:18-21) Nephi remembers the prophets of old. In verse 18, he shares his reason for writing the record he has been writing (to "persuade them that they would remember the Lord their Redeemer). In the margin I wrote:
"Having prophets is a sign of God's love for us," (Ulisses Soares, "Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit," Ensign, May 2018).

On the next page is my second case of wrong-page scripture quotes (more mistakes in pen!). I'll address them in the order they were intended.
1 Nephi 20:10 quotes Isaiah, saying, "I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." I love this reminder that we are of great worth even in our trials. I don't know about you, but I tend to feel better about myself when I am "successful" in my plans and projects. I don't usually feel as good about myself on those days (or weeks, or months) when it seems that everything is going wrong. Often when everything around me is going wrong, I feel like somehow it's my fault. I'm failing. But here in this beautiful verse from Isaiah, we are reminded that the Lord sees our worth even in the "furnace of affliction." In the margin, I wrote a lengthy quote from Zechariah:
"I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say: It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God" (Zechariah 13:9).

I had a lot of fun with the next page. And, no, I'm not pretending that Lehi's family wandered through a caricature of a desert in the American southwest when they were busy in Arabia. I just felt like drawing some cartoonish cacti. It isn't meant to be taken seriously.
In the margin I combined parts of 1 Nephi 20:21 and 21:10 (I love how it reads like a Psalm!):
"They thirsted not: he led them through the deserts . . . neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them."

I used colored pencil for my desert: a light tan in the foreground, brown on the mountain, blue in the sky, green for the tall cactus, and blue-green for the round cactus. Both cacti were given stripes with green Mildliner highlighter (though Crayola green marker would be pretty similar). I outlined the sun and mountains with brown Micron pen, and both cacti in the foreground with green Micron pen, adding prickly bits with a v-shaped mark. And, yes, I traced the circle for the sun. A penny would work in a pinch, but I'm pretty sure I used a circle stencil.

1 Nephi 21:16 is one of the most poignant, heart-tugging verses of all: "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands . . ."
In my wrong-page margin, I wrote:
"What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends," (Zechariah 13:6).

Then it bothered me having a blank margin on the "correct" page blank (not sure why. I have other blank pages in 1 Nephi), so I wrote what Christ will say in a future day on the Mount of Olives:
"Then shall the Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet? Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God," (D&C 45:52).

In 1 Nephi 22:2 we step out of Isaiah quotations and back into Nephi's world. Nephi has just finished reading two chapters from Isaiah, and his brothers, understandably, ask what they meant. Nephi prefaces his explanation by reaffirming that these were revelations given to the prophets. In the margin I wrote:
"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets," (Amos 3:7).
I traced a banner stencil and key with a bullet journal stencil.

On the next page I traced another banner and a circle (for the world).
1 Nephi 22:9 includes the promise to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." In the margin I wrote:
"The Lord Himself prophesied that before His return, the gospel would be preached in all the world 'to recover His people, which are of the house of Israel,'" (Elder D. Todd Christofferson, "Preparing for the Lord's Return," Ensign, May 2019. See JS Matthew 1:31 and D&C 39:11).

Near the end of his book, Nephi brings in a lovely sheep metaphor, "And he gatherers his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture," (1 Nephi 22:25). This reminded me of Psalm 23 (which might have been on the brass plates as David predated Nephi). In the margin, I wrote the first four verses:
"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He taketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leaders me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leaders me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," (Psalm 23:1-4).

Did you choose different quotes for 1 Nephi 16-22? Please share in the comments section below.

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