Advice To Fiancées

I'm getting married in 22 days. As I'm sure many of you that are married or engaged have realized, the wedding date is very apt at sneaking upon you like a lightening-fast ninja. I've been blessed enough in my own life to have had a little over three months from the moment I was engaged to the date of our wedding.

In my engagement time period, I've had numerous friends who have also gotten engaged or are on the verge of doing so. Having friends riding in a parallel engagement boat as you is a relief; my own little support group. That's what I think the world needs, support groups for fiancées and fiancés. It's helped so much. Each couple have discovered knowledge and tips about the process of getting married and share it so we all benefit. It works especially well when all the couples are in the same location during the engagement, even if they are getting married in different states.

You know how I mentioned that I have friends at the very beginning stages of being engaged? Well, these friends are starting to freak out (totally reasonable) and know that since I was a totally rational person during my own engagement (not), I've found they've come to me for information and wisdom, as if I knew all there is to know about being engaged.

Let me warn you now that I am no such source. Yes, I have definite experience in this area, but only for myself. I have no idea how helpful it would be to others. While this information will hopefully be helpful to all brides-to-be, it's more towards brides-to-be that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But I'll share with you what I've discovered in hopes that it helps.

My Book of Mormon Goal

Back on Monday, November 7, 2011, I began my goal of reading the Book of Mormon and blogging about it daily. It was planned to be done today, Thursday, July 3, 2012, if I followed through with writing about one chapter a day. And I've done it. I've completed my goal.

I just want to share with you that I know the Book of Mormon is true. In reading it, trying to figure out a lesson from each chapter, I know it is true. It has blessed my life being able to read it. Often times I thought about how I could possibly find the time to really study a chapter a day. But I've been able to do it. During the Winter Semester, I was taking 18 credits of college courses (which I hadn't realized until halfway through). Then, during the Spring Semester, I've been attending school and planning my wedding and marriage (because I'm engaged and getting married soon, in case you weren't aware). When I made time to study the scriptures, I discovered that I was more prepared for the day. That I could get done everything else that needed to be done. I was blessed in having my heavy load of difficult homework assignments, homework assignments I didn't think I could properly complete, be done and be done early. Homework assignments and tests that I had enough time for and earned great grades on them. Please, please read the Book of Mormon. It will bless your life.

In August of 2005, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave everyone a challenge:

"We studied the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this past year. Nonetheless I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year. Very near the end of its 239 chapters, you will find a challenge issued by the prophet Moroni as he completed his record nearly 16 centuries ago. Said he: 

'And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? … 

'And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true' (Moro. 10:27, 29). 

"Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God" ("A Testimony Vibrant and True").

I'd just like to add that I know my Savior Jesus Christ lives. I know he loves me. I know that through him I can repent and return to my Heavenly Father, who also loves me. I know the Book of Mormon is true and it has blessed my life in a multitude of ways. Please read and study it for yourselves. How grateful I am for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you would like to know more about the Book of Mormon and what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in, you can meet with the missionaries here.

Here are my blog posts about each chapter in the Book of Mormon:

Moroni 10

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God" (32).

Come unto Christ and be made perfect in Him. The Book of Mormon teaches entirely about Jesus Christ and his atonement. He loves us. He wants us to be perfected in Him. He has made it possible. I hope we each take steps everyday to become a little closer to him.

Moroni 9

I cried while reading Moroni 9. It's so sad to see people who were civilized, blessed and delightsome fall so far as to lose their love for others. They thirsted after blood and revenge continually (5). How sad. They became a people without civilization (11).

As individuals, families, and a people, we need to learn how to be forgiving. We need to learn to love others. A society where there is a lack of forgiveness and a lack of love for others falls apart. They don't work. They don't progress. They destroy themselves.