Cindy: 0:04

Hi friends, and welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young, and today we've got Anna here with us. She is 10 years old. She loves to write, and I'm super excited to study with her. How are you, Anna?

Anna: 0:16

I'm good!

Cindy: 0:17

Did you read Joseph Smith-History and read about the first vision this week?

Anna: 0:20

Yeah, it's very inspiring when it just appears to him and then he's talking to God face to face. It's so cool.

Cindy: 0:30

It is such an amazing story. And it's true! It's not just a story. This is the truth about the Lord sending His message to earth and calling a prophet. Like, such an amazing thing. I'm so excited to study it this week. Alright, so, like we said, we are reading about the first vision that is found in Joseph Smith History, chapter 1, verses 1 through 26. Free worksheets are available on the website: primarilyscripture.com. We're gonna work off of those today. Anna, which part do you wanna look at?

Anna: 0:59

Let's look at the second page with all the little notes on it.

Cindy: 1:04

Yes. This is one of my favorite ways to study. The margins of my scriptures are just full of notes, full of notes. As I study, I think about something and then I write it down and it's a great way for me to ponder. When I have that pen in my hand, I just, I ponder better. I don't know what it is. I love it. You've got one too. Awesome. Okay. So pondering takes a lot longer than just reading. Have you found that?

Anna: 1:27

Yes.

Cindy: 1:28

Let's pick one or two that you especially loved. What do you want to look at first?

Anna: 1:32

This is hard. There's a lot of them I like. Um,

Cindy: 1:34

I know!

Anna: 1:35

Let's do the "favorite" one and then let's do "what kind of extreme difficulties"

Cindy: 1:42

Okay, let's do extreme difficulties first. That's part of verse 11 where we find that. It is the first thought bubble on the left hand side of the page. Will you read verse 11 so that we understand what we're pondering?

Anna: 1:55

"While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists. I was one day reading the Epistle of James. first chapter and fifth verse, which reads, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."

Cindy: 2:17

What does this verse teach you, and what did you ponder about this verse?

Anna: 2:21

It taught me that if you read the scriptures, then you can find a lot of answers there.

Cindy: 2:29

Yeah. Why did Joseph Smith turn to the scriptures?

Anna: 2:32

Because he didn't know which church to join, and he prayed, and... you know what goes best with praying? Reading the scriptures.

Cindy: 2:40

Definitely, definitely! And it said at the beginning there, "while I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by these religionists," right? There was so much going on around him. He was just not sure what to do. There must have just been a crazy atmosphere of arguing over which church was right.

Anna: 2:58

Like, all day long, this church, this church, this church. And God gives us a lot of ways to find out truths.

Cindy: 3:07

That's right. So he just wasn't sure where the truth was, and he had all these extreme difficulties. So we'll get to how his prayer was answered in a little bit, but let's ponder how this applies to us. What is the thought bubble there on the side?

Anna: 3:22

"What kind of extreme difficulties might I face?"

Cindy: 3:25

Right. Because you're not going to have the exact same kind of trials that he had, but sorry, spoiler alert, but you will have difficulties! What kinds of difficulties do you have when you're 10 years old?

Anna: 3:36

Fifth grade is hard

Cindy: 3:38

Yep

Anna: 3:38

and it's tricky to catch up with all of it and have bullies at the same time.

Cindy: 3:44

Oh, definitely. For sure. What kind of spiritual trials do you have?

Anna: 3:49

Addictions. Some things like sugar and all that stuff.

Cindy: 3:54

Right. Those habits that we want to just like watch TV all day or be lazy. What kinds of difficulties do you think you'll come across as you get older?

Anna: 4:04

I think school will get harder as it goes on, but it might also be all the distractions because teens do need a lot of help.

Cindy: 4:12

So when Joseph Smith had so many problems around him, what did he do?

Anna: 4:17

He prayed. He read the scriptures. And he had his alone time in the Grove where it was nice and quiet, but I feel like it's harder to find that kind of quietness when the world is, um, telling you stuff that might be wrong, and it's just confusing.

Cindy: 4:38

Yeah, that's a good observation. Quiet time and alone time is hard to come by. So what can we do to find that time?

Anna: 4:44

After prayer, you can have a quiet time. a quiet minute to let the spirit talk to you.

Cindy: 4:49

I love that. Definitely. I find when I take a little bit of time to think and ponder, that that's when a lot of answers come. Okay. You also wanted to talk about your favorite part. What is your favorite part of this entire set of scriptures?

Anna: 5:04

Spiritual specials on TV, when they show Joseph Smith's first vision, they don't usually include the part where Satan is fighting him to get him to stop praying. That is one of my favorite parts, and

Cindy: 5:19

So, not everybody would say that the part with Satan is their favorite. But I love that part, too. Tell me why it's one of your favorite parts.

Anna: 5:27

I like it because Joseph fights Satan to keep praying. And he shows us when things get hard, we can fight him off. Satan, he tries his hardest to stop us from growing our testimonies.

Cindy: 5:41

He definitely does. Just last week, I had something happen, and I was upset all day, and I was actually trying to work on more primarily scripture, and I couldn't do it because I was upset. And that evening, I went to the temple, and as soon as I was in the waiting room of the temple, all of the frustrations and like, the little argument that was happening inside my head disappeared. And in that moment, I thought, ah, it was Satan who was trying to stop me! All day, Satan was putting negative thoughts into my head. And as soon as I went to the temple, peace. Such amazing peace is found in the temple. It was such a testimony to me that Satan is always trying.

Anna: 6:18

Just a tiny little feeling in your head and in your heart.

Cindy: 6:22

Yeah, and Satan uses those tiny little things. And when I did the right thing and went to the temple, that was me fighting against him. And guess what? When you fight against Satan, as long as you have the Lord on your side, you're gonna win. Because the Lord always wins over Satan. Always! That's awesome.

Anna: 6:39

This is why I can't wait to be old enough to go to the temple. My brother comes home after the temple. It was so nice and fuzzy feeling. I'm all, You're so lucky!

Cindy: 6:50

You'll get there. One more year, right?

Anna: 6:52

Yeah, one more.

Cindy: 6:54

Okay, so is there anything in here that you marked specifically?

Anna: 6:57

I like in verse 16 when it says,"but exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of his enemy," I really like it when he's trying his very hardest. to have a good day and not get defeated. Because when you get defeated you feel really terribly and you don't want to do anything and just want to flop on the couch and give up. I know I do sometimes.

Cindy: 7:22

Yes, I think we all do that sometimes. That's awesome. I love that, "all my powers." Okay, well I don't want to end without talking about the most important thing. that ever happened and the two very most important words for the entire world. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Anna: 7:38

Is it "hear him?"

Cindy: 7:39

It is. I'm gonna get my yellow colored pencil and highlight that really bright."Hear him." Why do you think I say those are the two most important words ever?

Anna: 7:49

I think it's because if we listen to him, then we can do the right thing all the time. I remember President Nelson, in one of his talks, he said, "if you can develop the crucial skill of [hearing] the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, you'll have all the direction you'll... need in your life." And it's so right. If you just hear the Holy Ghost and hear Jesus talking to you, you can listen to it and you can have the best days of your life and you can just be so happy, so calm. It's amazing.

Cindy: 8:25

Awesome. Who said these two words?

Anna: 8:27

Heavenly Father.

Cindy: 8:29

It is not very often. that God the Father speaks to us on earth. Almost all the times in the scriptures when the Lord is speaking, it's Jesus Christ.

Anna: 8:36

It's Jesus.

Cindy: 8:37

Yeah, but this time Heavenly Father himself appeared also and said, this is Jesus. Hear Him! Aaah!! It's the most exciting thing that ever happened anywhere! That's so cool! Wow! Amazing. Alright. Any last thoughts about the First Vision? How do you feel when you read this?

Anna: 8:59

I feel calm and happy and like everything's gonna be okay.

Cindy: 9:04

Yeah, definitely. Me too. I feel like everything is going to be okay, even though the world is crazy right now. So crazy, right? But as long as we focus on Jesus Christ and we hear Him, everything is gonna be fine.

Anna: 9:17

Absolutely okay.

Cindy: 9:18

All right, friends, I hope you will go and read the scriptures as well, because as much as Anna and I would love to talk to you about the scriptures all day every day, we can't do that. And when you study the scriptures and find it for yourself, then you'll be building your testimony, and that is so important! You need to build a testimony based on your own spiritual experiences. So go read your scriptures, and I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!