A Confession

I read the Book of Mormon at least twice a year and sometimes three times.  It is just what I do.  I read other scriptures too - this year it was the New Testament, but I am  always reading the Book of Mormon.  For our mission, we were asked to have read the Book of Mormon before entering the MTC.  I am in Ether.  My confession is that I usually skip the 'begats' at the beginning of Ether and just move on.  But this morning, I decided that I would read every word.  As I was reading, I came across two names from my childhood.  When I was growing up, my Grandma and Grandpa Brugger were always talking about two brothers named Emer and Omer.  I just chalked it up to either cultural names or what Utah has become known for - strange made-up names or spellings.  I was surprised this morning to see the names in the 'begats' as I was reading.  They are Book of Mormon names.  Had I carefully read this part before, I would have realized this before but I just assumed that like my Aunts Florine and Chlorine (Flo and Chlo) that the names were from some wacky thinking process.  (Flo and Chlo's father was reading in the paper about two new chemicals that were just invented.  He loved how they sounded and so his twin daughters bore those names.  I never knew that they were anything but Flo and Chlo until I was a teenager).

I don't know why, but this time through the Book of Mormon has been incredible.  I am discovering new things and re-discovering old favorites.  It has been a wonderful experience.  Clyde and I are now going to start reading it in Danish.  This should be interesting and bring out even more new things.

Our Danish is coming.  We have a goal to be speaking to each other with as little English as possible by the first part of July.  We are working hard to achieve that.  We could spend a week immersing ourselves in Danish in the MTC before we actually check-in but we would rather spend that time with family if we can.