The Gospel According to Jeffrey

First of all, this post is best read if you’re familiar with the concepts in my recent Primer on Family History . If you’re not familiar with my love for the pastime, or are just wondering how I got into it in the first place, check out that post. I hope you’ll find it informative. So now, let’s deal with my personal history in family history programs. Back in 1991, when I first became a Christian, I was encouraged (like all members of the Church of Jesus Christ) to begin researching my family history. (Wonder why? You must not have read the Book of Jeffrey entry. Seriously, check it out!) ;-) I don’t remember how long it was before I learned of Personal Ancestral File 2.1 (or “PAF,” for short), but I immediately knew it would be a wise investment. You see, Personal Ancestral File was an application developed by the Church, designed to help people track their family history. It was quite crude, by today’s standards, but it was a great program at the time. When I arrived home from my...

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen my status update, some 36 hours ago, in which I stated that I think I’ve finally decided on a new family history program. This status led to a rather humorous discussion of what I meant by that, but the point is that I’m finally ready to move into the 21st century, when it comes to tracking my genealogy and family history. So here’s a little background, so you can understand just where I’m coming from. Back in 1991, I accepted Christ as my Savior and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . One of the basic tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ is that God loves all of His children, not just those that are lucky enough to learn His plan during their short time on Earth. However, we also know that Christ taught that baptism is essential for entrance into the kingdom of God (see John 3:1-5 ). So what about all those that died without ever having the chance to be baptized, or even to accept Christ as Savior...

One of the things that has always fascinated me about the First Book of Nephi is the first phrase of the headnote: “An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi.” The Small Plates of Nephi were written long after most of the events therein, indeed some 30-40 years after the family left Jerusalem (see 2 Nephi 5:28-34 ). So realizing that Nephi is now an older man, why does he only speak of Lehi’s “four sons”? Why not “six sons”? Nephi obviously wasn’t trying to hide his 30ish-year-old brothers, Jacob and Joseph; heck, in the same chapter as he makes the plates, he “consecrate[s them] that they should be priests and teachers over the land of [his] people”! ( 2 Nephi 5:26 ). So what gives? A couple of weeks ago, this concern was brought to mind as I was reading Understanding the Book of Mormon . In his section on Nephi, Grant Hardy deals with Nephi’s characterization of others. As he points out: “Aside f...

I’m finally getting around to starting to read the Book of Mormon again, which is ironic, because I hadn’t even gotten to 1 Nephi 1 before getting sidetracked and having a month or so of downtime. I suppose that’s to be expected, really; the easiest time to break a habit (be it for good or for bad) is when the habit is relatively new. In fact, I’ve heard it said that it takes three weeks to ingrain a good habit, but only three days to undo that ingraining. Hopefully this will be day one of those first 21 days. :-) Before I begin my study of the Book of Mormon, I’d like to introduce my readers to a book I recently purchased:  Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide , by Grant Hardy. I’ve been reading this book for about a week now, and I must say it is absolutely amazing: as I follow Hardy into the minds of the three most significant authors of the Book of Mormon, my understanding of their lives and their writings is being enhanced like I never imagined. What mak...

This past Sunday was my first time attending an entire elders quorum meeting in weeks. Between taking photos for the upcoming issue of the Elders Journal , helping a friend in the Family History Center ® , subbing in Primary and Nursery, and our annual stake Priesthood meeting (which requires each ward in our building to have only Sacrament Meeting), it had been seven weeks since I last attended an entire meeting with my quorum. What’s most amazing is how much I missed it, and how little I realized how much I missed it. My hearing isn’t the best, so I always sit in the front row to keep the gym’s (sorry, Cultural Hall’s) less-than-ideal acoustics from drowning out the instructor. The front row was unusually full, this week, and it was great to be back where I belong, in the company of my brethren. Furthermore, we’ve been blessed with a really great quorum—unlike most wards and quorums, I can’t think of a single person that can regularly be counted on, to bring up some ridiculous pet ...