Cindy: 0:05

Hello friends, and welcome back to primarily Scripture. I am your host, Cindy Young, and today's guest is 16-year-old Kyle. Kyle, tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?

Kyle: 0:16

Uh, I like to pole vault and, uh, I love music. I love to sing. I play violin, I do theater.

Cindy: 0:26

Tell me a little bit about your scripture study.

Kyle: 0:29

I just started a scripture study plan in gospel library. And since then I've just been reading the little snippets it assigns you every day. Um, right before I go to bed and it's been working so far, I've been reading the scriptures every day.

Cindy: 0:46

I love the Gospel Library app and it makes it so easy to just read a little something every day. Okay, so here on primarily Scripture, I make worksheets every single week to help you study. They're available for free on the website. They look like this. And we are going to dive in to Doctrine and Covenant Section 19 this week. We follow come follow me. And that is the reading for this week. Now, Kyle and I are going to focus on one study tip that I absolutely love. One way to get a lot out of your scripture study is to ask questions. Kyle, can you read to us what it says under "Ask a Lot of Questions" - this is the study activity on the first page.

Kyle: 1:27

Even if you think that you know the answer, just asking and pondering can give the spirit a chance to teach you something new, confirm known truths, or deepen your understanding. Some answers come quickly and some come after hours, days or years of study, but if you don't ask, the answers will never come.

Cindy: 1:45

Do you have any thoughts about that part so far?

Kyle: 1:48

Um, I try to ask different questions, but sometimes, like I already know the answer. It's like a "primary answer."

Cindy: 1:58

Yeah.

Kyle: 1:58

but I still like write a little note in Gospel library. Like write the question and then one way to answer it.

Cindy: 2:05

Yeah, definitely. Like if you're reading a verse and it tells you you should pray always, asking yourself, "how often should I pray" seems like a really obvious question, and you might ask, why should I even ask this question? Well, it's because it opens the door and it just starts kind of the spiritual conversation in your head. If you say, oh, how often should I pray? Then you write it down, you take those notes, you ponder it. Then you can move into other thoughts as well. Like, well, when should I pray? Me personally, should I do it in the morning? Should I do it before I take my shower? Should I do it after I eat my cereal? Like it can help move you forward in that pondering just because you asked the question. So yeah, even if you think you know the answer, pause and ask some of those questions. Okay. So. That's the idea of why we should ask the questions. Will you read the next part that tells us what to do, and then we'll do this activity together?

Kyle: 2:57

Mm-hmm. Think of at least one question for every verse you read. Then ponder for a few moments. Then write your thoughts. What can I learn from this verse? What should I do? How is this relevant to my life? What does this one word teach me?

Cindy: 3:11

Awesome. So those are some question ideas right there at the end. So let's start reading. This worksheet covers verses 2 through 4 and 16 through 19 of section 20. Now, there is a journal page in the worksheet packet or you can get out your own journal or you can make notes in the library app. Do you wanna read verse two or should I?

Kyle: 3:31

I can read it.

Cindy: 3:32

Okay. If you are following along on the worksheet, you'll notice that there are fewer words in verse two than what Kyle is reading. That's because he is reading directly from his scriptures, and I did skip some of the words to make the verse fit on the worksheet better. That's what the " . . . " means in the middle of the verse.

Kyle: 3:56

I having accomplished and finished the will of him whose I am, even the father, concerning me having done this that I might subdue all things unto myself.

Cindy: 4:05

Okay. So who's talking first of all, like that's the first question that we should ask. Is this Joseph Smith talking? Is this Jesus Christ? Is this Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris? Like it could be anybody, right? Who is speaking? How do we find out?

Kyle: 4:20

Um, look at other verses before.

Cindy: 4:24

Excellent.

Kyle: 4:24

Like in verse one.

Cindy: 4:25

What's it say in verse one?

Kyle: 4:27

It says, "I am Alpha and Omega, Christ the Lord, yea, even I am he, the beginning and the end, the redeemer of the world."

Cindy: 4:33

Okay, perfect. This is the Lord. But what else could we ask in this verse? Do you have any ideas?

Kyle: 4:40

Um, what's the will of the father? Like, what did he accomplish and finish?

Cindy: 4:47

Yes. Let's ponder that right there. What is the will of the father? What did Jesus do? So we're gonna start by writing that down what did Jesus Christ accomplish?

Kyle: 4:57

He was, uh, crucified for the sin of all man, and he gave us the atonement, also taught the world teachings that we need to know, to get back to God the Father.

Cindy: 5:08

Yes. Like those are huge. Huge. The atonement. Crucified. Resurrected. And he taught us everything we need to know. So why is it important to know that that's the will of the Father?

Kyle: 5:21

So that we know that God wants us to know these things. He wants us to get back to him.

Cindy: 5:26

Yeah. And is this Jesus Christ's plan of salvation? Plan of happiness?

Kyle: 5:31

No. It's God's.

Cindy: 5:32

That's right. It was done because it was Heavenly Father's plan. What a great example that Jesus gives us here, that Jesus could have said, "it's me. I'm the amazing person who did everything!" Right? And no, he didn't say that. He said, here I am who followed my Father's will I accomplished *HIS* will. That's such a great example. Awesome. Do you see how, by asking that question and just kind of digging around a little bit, we got so much deeper into the doctrine that's here in this verse.

Kyle: 6:03

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 6:03

Awesome. Okay, so let's go on. Let's read, I'll read verse three, and then we can come up with a question based on this verse. So he, he's still talking about himself: "retaining all power, even to the destroying of Satan and his works at the end of the world... judging every man according to his works and the deeds which he have done." Okay. Now sometimes these verses are a little bit wordy and they're hard to understand. Did you catch what that was saying?

Kyle: 6:29

Um, kind of. I'm rereading it real quick.

Cindy: 6:31

Column two of the worksheet has an explanation in easier to understand terms with some fill in the blanks so that you can look back into the verse and kind of learn to decode the language of the scriptures. Will you read that verse three from column two?

Kyle: 6:49

All right." I have all power, even enough to destroy Satan and all of his doings at the end of the world. Then I will judge every person by their actions and what they have done and tried to do.

Cindy: 7:01

So is that a little easier to understand?

Dave: 7:02

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 7:04

Alright, so let's, talk about this and find a question. He's talking about himself some more explaining who he is as the savior, that he has all power, and that he'll destroy Satan at the end of the world before judgment, and then he will judge all of us. So what kind of question can we ask here?

Kyle: 7:21

I like the question, how is this relevant to my life?

Cindy: 7:24

Yes. Such an important question because just reading the scriptures isn't gonna do anything unless it changes your heart, changes your life. Why is it relevant to know that the Lord is going to judge us according to our actions? Why is it relevant to know that he's gonna destroy Satan?

Kyle: 7:40

Uh, because we all suffer with temptations and different afflictions. And we know that, Jesus is gonna destroy Satan and his works.

Cindy: 7:49

It makes it so easy to pick a side. Am I on the Lord's side or am I on Satan's side? Well, Satan is not gonna win. This is the easiest side to pick in the history of the world.

Kyle: 7:59

We already know the outcome.

Cindy: 8:00

Exactly. Yeah.

Kyle: 8:02

Yeah.

Cindy: 8:03

Awesome. Okay, let's go on. Will you read verse four?

Kyle: 8:09

Yeah."And surely every man must repent or suffer for I God am endless."

Cindy: 8:15

Okay. Repent or suffer. Yikes. What can we ask here?

Kyle: 8:21

How often do we have to repent?

Cindy: 8:24

Oh, I love that. That is such a great one. I feel like that's one of those questions that we know the answer to already. We kind of know I need to repent every time I make a mistake. But what has the prophet told us about repenting?

Kyle: 8:36

We'll experience the joy of daily repentance or something like that.

Cindy: 8:39

Yes, that was exactly it. Experience the joy of daily repentance. So good. Okay, so after we ask the question, we can give a trite answer, like, every time I make a mistake, uh, I need to repent every day and move on. Or we sit with this question and those answers that we know and we expand on them. So let's expand on that a little bit. What's the next question that we ask? How about what does that look like? What would it look like to repent when you make a mistake or to repent every day?

Kyle: 9:13

Uh, lots of humility, lots of like desire and wanting to repent.

Cindy: 9:19

Yeah.

Kyle: 9:21

Maybe, uh, after we notice that we've done something wrong, we need to repent immediately while it's still fresh.

Cindy: 9:29

Right. Yeah.

Kyle: 9:30

And just turn ourselves around. Instead of going off a different way.

Cindy: 9:34

Yeah, I love that. That's so good. I love that immediate action. My kids laugh at me because we'll be driving in the car and like if someone cuts me off, I go, Hey, What are you doing?! and then I go "Ugh, that was mean. Okay. I'm sorry." And then I say the name of the car in front of us, right? I'm like, "Ugh, I'm sorry, just be patient with me. That wasn't very nice," and like I apologized to the car 'cause I was, I was mad at it for cutting me off and my kids are like, mom, you're crazy. That's okay. But like in that moment I knew that my attitude wasn't great. And so I was trying to like repent right away. What about daily repentance? What if there's nothing you can put your finger on that you've done wrong?

Kyle: 10:15

Um, there was one kid who said a prayer at something a while ago and he said, please forgive us for the things that we don't know that we did wrong or can't remember that we did wrong.

Cindy: 10:28

Oh, that's awesome. I love that. And I feel like when you. Have your heart in that place that the Lord can help you realize what you did wrong. And the Lord is pretty good at, um, humbling us and helping us see where we can be better when we're open to it. Awesome.

Kyle: 10:46

Mm-hmm.

Cindy: 10:48

Now we asked some questions and dug deep on some of these verses, and when you do that, it takes up so much more time, but you learn so much more and we could go into more of these, but I'm gonna let you go and do that on your own because, it was Mark L. Pace, the Sunday School President, in general conference, he said that "to be most effective, your experiences with the scriptures must be your own." So go read the scriptures. Ask questions and listen to the answers that come through the spirit. I'm Cindy Young. This is Primarily Scripture. Kyle, thanks for being here. I'll see you next time.

Kyle: 11:20

See ya! Thanks for tuning into primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website, primarily scripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time.