The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

So...I thought I'd actually write something of substance for once.  I was reading the Book of Mormon today (more about what that is later) and realized again how much that book blesses my life.  Then I thought it would be a real shame if one of my friends or even someone I don't even know could benefit from it and I didn't tell them about it.  So I wanted to write this to take a stab at explaining what the Book of Mormon is and why I feel the way I do.

First of all, let me start by saying how much I love the Bible.  I am so glad God commanded his ancient prophets to keep records so that today we could come to know and understand his gospel and especially learn of his son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  How amazing is it that we have multiple accounts of his life, miracles, and ministry.  I love reading about the tender story of his birth and I am so amazed by his perfect example, the love he showed to everyone, and most importantly his Atonement (suffering and death) for us.  The Bible also teaches us of the good news of his resurrection.  Because he was resurrected and lives today, we all will too.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I also love the Bible and believe it to be the word of God.  I'm so grateful for those who preserved it and translated it so that we could have it today.

But as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I also believe in another volume of holy scripture called the Book of Mormon.  Just like the Bible, it's purpose is to testify that Christ is our Savior.  The difference is the Book of Mormon was written by prophets on the American continent.  It starts about 600 years before Christ and ends about 400 years after.  (You can read the actual introduction to the book that explains way more including how we got the book here.)  I know that God loves all his children and so it makes sense to me that he would call prophets in the old world (where the Bible was written) and on the American continent as well.  And just as he wanted the prophets we learn about in the Bible to keep records, he also commanded those in the Americas to do the same.  And that's what the Book of Mormon is.  Not only does it testify of Christ, it helps to clarify the doctrines taught in the Bible and was written specifically for our day.

I could write all sorts of great things about the Book of Mormon and tell you that I know it's true.  But a few verses (Moroni 10:3-5) in the last chapter instruct those who read the Book of Mormon to pray and ask God if it's true.  It promises that you will receive an answer.  It's pretty simple and I love that it asks us to ask God, the source of all truth, for an answer.  (Because I get it...we shouldn't just go around accepting any book someone says is God's word as scripture.)

There's plenty more I could tell you.  So many reasons why I love this book.  And if you have questions, please let me know.  The whole thing is online here.  Or you can request a free copy on this website.  That same website explains a lot more about it and answers questions you may have.  But being the Christmas season and the time we think more about our Savior, I just thought I would share a few of my thoughts about the book that (along with the Bible) has helped me to come to better know my Savior and understand his teachings.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

Bahamas.

Since we had a few months free, we decided to go on a cruise with Brad's brother, Jeff, to the Bahamas in May.  It was great.  The cruise was definitely aimed at those who love to drink and party, but we had lots of fun anyway as evidenced by the following photos.

This photo has quite the story.  It's pretty long and probably one of those "you had to be there" stories.  But here goes... So we took a red-eye flight from LAX to Miami.  We had checked into our flight before getting to the airport so we got to the Delta terminal and were looking for security.  We walked in one direction and eventually got to what looked like the way to security, but it looked like that was the security for a different airline so we turned around and walked to the other side of the terminal where we found some more security.  So we stood in line and then an airport employee came and told people who had a flight leaving before a certain time to come with her.  We qualified, so we did.  She led us to the security lines that we had originally walked to.  Nice.  We got through and I checked my boarding pass on my phone for the gate our flight was leaving from.  That gate was all the way down a super long tunnel (I mean LONG...especially when carrying carry-ons.)  We got there and then realized that they had switched the gate.  And where was the gate?  Yes...all the way back down the super long tunnel we had just walked through.  We made it to the gate which was packed with people and got on our flight.  We made it to Miami bright and early and took an Uber to the port.  Of course you couldn't board the boat for another few hours so we sat on a bench near where we would check-in eventually.  Some workers told us there was a place that served breakfast relatively nearby.  So, we walked down there.  And no, that walk was not the shortest.  After eating a little, we walked back to the boat and eventually got on.  We were exhausted and just wanted to go to our cabin and sleep.  But of course cabins weren't ready when we boarded so we ate lunch and then sat down and waited.  At that point I glanced down at my ankles.  They were huge!  Major cankles...my ankle bone disappeared.  I was pretty shocked especially since I hadn't noticed anything before this point.  The above picture doesn't do it justice.  I thought the worst.  Just kidding.  But I did wonder if I had gotten a bite from some diseased mosquito.  Then I realized it was probably just the result of my sunburn I had gotten the Saturday before plus the walking plus the lack of sleep.  Who knew sunburns cause swelling?  Anyway, now you know.

The cruise left on a Monday and got back on a Friday.  This is me on a beach on Tuesday at our first stop.  The water was nice and warm and pretty.

Brad and I at the beach courtesy of our selfie stick.  :)  Not pictured is the coconut filled with juice that Brad purchased.  I couldn't let the coconut go to waste so I went back to the guy he bought it from and asked if he would break it so I could eat the coconut.  He did and I ate a heck of a lot of coconut.  No waste!  Ha.  We also got fried (aka sunburned) despite applying plenty of sunscreen.

This was the next day.  We actually paid for an excursion and took a catamaran from Nassau to reef where we went snorkeling.  The weather was pretty cloudy/stormy and the thunder/lightening we could hear/see in the distance was a little scary.  Of course our guides never mentioned it and told us to jump in.  We trusted them assuming the lightening hitting the water in the distance was far enough away that it wouldn't kill us and jumped in.  It was crazy how many fish there were!  Definitely a fun experience.

This was on the third day at an island owned by the cruise company.  Our ship is in the background.  It was super nice since there were lots of lounge chairs set up on the beach for us to use.  I convinced Brad to go paddle boarding with me.  I love paddle boarding.  He thinks it's a girl thing.  He just doesn't understand.  Anyway, I also got the side of my head braided.  It's cool...okay?  Ha.  I'm way to white to pull it off, but hey...why not.  I promise I was happy despite my angry-looking face.

This was on the little boat that brought us from the ship to the island and then back again.  The water is so blue!!!

And in case you wanted a better picture of the hair...here you go.  This is after I got home.

Anyway, while a lot of cruises (especially the inexpensive ones) are mostly centered around partying and the on-board casino, we still like them.  We love having all our meals paid for and being able to order appetizers and desserts at every meal!  Yes, we'd do it again!

Coming home.

And then in May we became real adults and moved back to Southern California.  Boy I love it here.  The weather is superb and we live close to both of our families!  

This is a real snake.  We were visiting Brad's family and I walked outside to grab something in our car and saw this guy on the street near our car.  My first thought was that someone's pet snake got out of its cage.  Apparently it was actually just wild and it's not too extraordinary since they live in the foothills.  But that's the first time I've seen a snake of that size in a residential neighborhood.

The weekend after coming back, we drove up to Oakland with our friends Johnny and Kellie for one of Johnny and Brad's best friend's weddings.  They got sealed in the Oakland temple and then the next day they had a ring ceremony and reception in the most gorgeous backyard in Moraga. 

And back to Blue Heaven on Earth.  My first Dodger game of the season.  The boys went to a fathers and sons campout and the girls went to the game.  Isn't that sky gorgeous?

And one more picture in order to fully appreciate that sky.

We lived with my family for the first few months since Brad's job didn't start until July.  And that meant lots of Little League games.  Isn't Jimmy precious?  The following video is Jimmy up to bat.  Spoiler alert: he does hit it before the end of the video.

Little brother, big brother after a game.  So precious.

#1 and #8.  I really think he is the cutest.

Brad's Graduation and Baby Ivy!

And then it was April and Brad graduated!

This was after the huge ceremony with all the graduates in the Marriott Center.  So proud of this guy.

And then we took this one after his Marriott School ceremony where they actually said his name.  We sure love BYU!

And what made the week even better was meeting our new niece, Ivy!  Isn't she precious?!

Baby Bear and Kobe.

March 2016.  According to the pictures I have, it looks like the following were the highlights.

So...I got to hold a bear at work.  Who knew you could do that?  They were there promoting something that I can't remember. It was pretty cute, but not super happy probably considering it got held by a whole bunch of people before I got my turn.

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And then later that month we went to Kobe's last game in Salt Lake.  He played...but not much.  And the Lakers lost.  But...such is life.

After 2015 comes 2016.

So I managed to finish my review of 2015.  But of course it's already October of 2016 which means I'm not even close to being caught up.  So I'll continue blogging about what's happened this year mostly for my own benefit.  One of my worst fears is forgetting things.

So we'll start with the following events that occurred in February of this year.

Brad's brothers, Jeff and Michael, came in town for a sibling ski trip.  Brent, Brad's other brother, came down from Layton and we all went out to dinner at Tucanos and then hung out at our apartment.  This is Brent testing out our selfie stick. 

This is the whole gang (aka all Brad's siblings and me) before our day of skiing at Solitude. 

On the slopes.  It was kinda windy and got very foggy which makes for interesting skiing.  But we had fun anyway!  I've been skiing since I was 4, but that does not mean I'm good at it unfortunately.  I'm too chicken to challenge myself very often.  I'm all for the blue runs.  But these blue runs were pretty intense.  I never did fall though.  Probably because I went at a snail's pace on all the scary parts.

After a day of skiing, we met up with the rest of the Pickering side of Brad's family at Chuck-A-Rama.  I'd never been before and it exceeded my expectations.  However, my one complaint about all buffets is that you can't bring home leftovers.  Sure you can eat a ton while you're there, but being that stuffed is never very fun.  I prefer paying for a non-buffet meal and then bringing home what I can't finish so I can turn it into two meals.  Nevertheless, the rolls were delicious!

Later that month we went to the Provo City Center Temple open house!  Boy is that temple gorgeous!  It is located a few blocks away from where we were living.

Brent and Trisha came with us!  We love hanging out with them and are sad we live in different states now.

YIR: December 2015

What do you know...we made it through 2015 before 2016 ended.  Here's a look at last December because who doesn't love Christmas pictures posted in July.  Also, looks like the amount of pictures in this post will make up for the lack of pictures in the last post.

If you remember our October 2015 post you'll remember that it's a Chase family (meaning Brad and Bridget Chase family) tradition to carve small pumpkins.  So we decided why not continue the tradition with a small Christmas tree.  We didn't have all that much room in our apartment for a big tree either.  Plus big trees are expensive.  So we bought our first Christmas tree together at Home Depot.  We took it through self checkout which I thought was pretty entertaining.

Here is the undecorated tree in our apartment.  :)

This is a picture of my cousin's son Channing.  I didn't take it and wasn't even present when they took it (they live in Idaho).  But when I saw it, I fell in love.  Isn't he the most adorable shepherd you've ever seen.  I'm tempted to frame it and use it as a Christmas decoration every year.

The beginning of a very slow/snowy drive home from Salt Lake City after work one morning.

Another photo of the drive.  I was going awfully slow since Google directed me on side streets.  Being from California and never having a car in Utah until after I got married, I'm quite inexperienced with driving in snow.  You might think I was scared.  Not really.  Probably because I was too naive to realize how easy it is to get stuck or crash.  I actually thought it made the drive far more interesting than normal.  I'd probably have different feelings if I had crashed, but I managed to make it home in one piece.

Brad didn't like the idea of me driving in the snow especially since working nights I was driving in the late night and early morning which didn't give crews very much time to clear the roads.  So, I took the train the night after.  I normally love trains...meaning I find public transportation exciting when it's cheap and I don't have to be somewhere by a certain time.  But taking it to work was not my favorite for the following reasons: 1) I couldn't be late to catch the train on the way to work.  2) I had to leave for work earlier than if I was driving.  (And when I was working nights every second at home was precious.) 3) It wasn't all that cheap.  Definitely not cheaper than driving.  Anyway, this is a picture of the sidewalk in front of my building as I walked from the train to work.  Pretty sure I was wearing Keds or some traction-less footwear.  But I made it.

This was taken on the morning of December 23rd.  It was snowing relatively hard on my walk to the train.  That was the other downside of taking the train.  I actually had to face the elements walking from my work to the train stop.  Driving from parking garage at my apartment to the parking garage at work was much warmer.

This is proof that we did in fact decorate our Christmas tree.  We even bought precious blinking lights (that's why a video instead of a picture was necessary).  We bought each other far too many presents.  I thought I might receive a few things I had mentioned to Brad that I wanted.  But he kept track of what I mentioned and bought almost everything if not everything on the list.  What a guy.

This is precious Jim on Christmas Eve.  The fam came up to Utah for Christmas!  I probably told him to give me a kiss.  

This is us after a fun-filled Christmas Day.

We also went sledding with my family while they were in town.  I wore my fake Uggs which also have zero traction.  It was pretty difficult to make it up the hill even if I took the long way around up a less steep hill.  

We also went to a Clippers @ Jazz game with some of my family.  I definitely a not a Jazz fan and am not really a Clippers fan either.  (Go Lakers.)  But if I had to pick between the two, I'd pick the Clippers.  I believe the Clippers won.

There was a promotion at the Jazz game for a free Chickfila sandwich if a Clippers player missed two free throws in a row.  That happened.  So what's better than the Jazz losing?  The Jazz losing plus free Chickfila.  The game was on a Saturday.  Chickfila is closed on Sunday.  And I believe them you could only use them at a Utah location.  So with my family already back in California by Monday, Brad and I got their two tickets as well as our tickets to take advantage of the free food.  So we went on Monday night for dinner.

And then we went on Tuesday night as well.  Hurray for free food.

Another morning after work on my way to the train.

This was my last morning of working the overnight shift.  Since they knew I was leaving in April, they hired another person to produce the 4:30am show.  So I trained her which is kinda hilarious since I was not an expert by any means.  My superiors had mentioned that I would switch to dayside associate producing at the start of the new year.  But for whatever reason I didn't count on it actually happening.  So I was getting ready to leave after the morning shows on New Years Eve and was then told it was my last day working nightside.  Great news.  Although I'll admit I was sad to stop working with these girls.

YIR: November 2015

November was a month of few pictures apparently.  Enjoy.

Another picture to prove that Brad is the greatest ever.  As noted previously, he'd rather watch most BYU football games on TV than in the student section.  But because he loves me, he decided to brave the cold (luckily it was a day game) with me for the last home game of the season.  It was against Fresno State and we won 52-10.  That day was also our 3 month anniversary in case you were wondering.  :)

I was lucky enough to get Thanksgiving and the day after off of work which allowed us to go home to California for Thanksgiving.  We spent Thanksgiving day with Brad's family and then went to Knott's Berry Farm the next day with both families.  This is Jim and me awaiting the Snoopy on Ice Christmas show.  From what I can remember, I highly recommend it.

YIR: October 2015

We've made it to October 2015...there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Of course there was more BYU football in October including the homecoming game against East Carolina.  Everyone was supposed to wear royal...so we purchased some new t-shirts for the occasion.  (Guaranteed t-shirt sales is the principal reason they tell fans to wear certain colors to certain games.)  I love BYU sports.  Brad does too.  But I'm a little obsessive and feel the need to go to all the football games while I'm in Provo.  Brad enjoys football from the couch on TV.  But because he's an excellent husband, he suffered through all the games sitting on a hard stadium bench with me.  To make it a little more bearable, we would sit at the top of the stadium so we could have something to lean against.

This is proof that we actually were actually at the game.

Then my family came up for my cousin's wedding.  Of course we had to take the obligatory "sis pic" after hanging out on campus.

And then we took this one with all the kids (minus Nick).

The next weekend we went to another wedding!  This time it was that of our friends James and Amanda at the Salt Lake temple.  Brad was a groomsman.

I got a job in Utah as an associate producer for TV news.  I was technically on-call, but I ended up working full time for the first 3+ months on the overnight shift.  Of course I was behind the scenes helping to write the morning shows.  But this one time I actually made an on-air appearance.  Thanks to there not being many people working the shift, I was chosen to be a face paint model during a segment wear the anchors tested out different Halloween face paint kits.  They gave the anchor some short amount of time to paint our faces on live television.  If you couldn't tell, I was painted to look like Darth Maul.  At this point I had seen a total of 0 Star Wars movies so while I had hear the name, I couldn't tell you who he was.  Let me tell you, I was very disappointed to learn while watching the movies later on that Darth Maul is only in one Star Wars episode.  How lame.   Considering that I had heard of him beforehand, I figured he was some important recurring character.  Guess not.  In case you were wondering, I washed the face paint off before I left. 

In case you didn't already know...I'm not much of a Halloween person.  I probably get it from my mom.  I have nothing against the holiday...I'm just not very creative when it comes to choosing a costume.  And I'm not a big fan of scary things.  Remind me why people pay to go to a haunted house and get scared.  It makes zero sense to me.  Anyway, working the night shift probably left me with even less creativity than normal.  So Brad and I (mostly Brad) came up with these costumes.  If you're not from the computer generation CTRL+C is the keyboard shortcut for "copy" and CTRL+V is the shortcut for "paste".  And since you can't really tell in this picture...Brad and I were both wearing white shirts, jeans, and white shoes.  We put the costume together a few minutes before our ward party a few days before Halloween.  And we got to wear them again at a Halloween party on Halloween hosted by our friends Jake and Anna. 

And of course we had to carve pumpkins.  Brad and I started dating in October of 2014.  He took me on our first date on a Friday (October 10) and then the next night was his roommate Jake's birthday party.  Being fall...small pumpkins were used as decorations.  Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to carve them and so the next day Brad brought them two of them over and we did.  So fast-forward a year and we decided to carry on the tradition and carve small pumpkins again.  Not only are they cheaper...but they are definitely cuter.  Yes, we carved them late Halloween night due to the fact I was lacking motivation and energy due to abnormal sleep schedule.