As you read Luke 2:1–7, what do you notice about the humble circumstances of His birth? Try to identify a detail or insight in this story that you hadn’t noticed before.
She gave birth alone with no mention of family otherthan her husband, having no nurse, doctor, or midwife.
What do you learn about the Savior from the circumstances of His birth?
Joseph & Mary were self reliant.
How do these insights affect your feelings toward Him?
Their attitude is admirable.
Article Faith 9
9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
Prophet Russel M. Nelson is revealing new and great things today, a call to change hearts. It is not about the details.
Ministering; no more home teaching
Personal Scripture Study
He could not write his talk because his love for the word is too great.
God speaks to man through the scriptures
scripture from Mosiah in the Book of Mormon - "What have ye to boast?" Words for hot-headed teenger
D&C 111:5 - "Concern not yourselves about your debts, for I will give you power to pay them." Words for a man troubled with his finances.
Be consistent.
God truly inspired the transcription of the scriptures,
Our "Come, follow me" study pondered the visitations of the angel Gabriel to Mary & Joseph. I thought that one verse in the quotation of his conversation with Mary was particularly comforting for her & for the long term.
"Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:34 & 35)
The angel's words of 'the power of the Highest, holy thing, of God' should have consoled her, for she was pregnant before her marriage. She may have felt guilty. Her marriage was not elaborate, for Joseph "minded to put her away privily." (Matthew 1:19) Gabriel's words were definitely inspired by the Holy Ghost. "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ." (2 Nephi 32:3)
Do you find yourself waiting for a blessing?
Yes.
What do you feel the Lord expects of you while you wait?
Patience & do my best.
What other messages might the Lord have for you in this story?
Patience yields wisdom by pondering.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only source of light in the world.
Everything good comes from God.
Don't let the past define your future, a fruit of forgiveness.
A woman sued the Church for a sexual assault experience with a leader of the church. The teacher testifies of the need forgiveness, for he and his siblings were sexually abused for years as a child, but he would be thrilled if he would see his abusers in the celestial kingdom.
A student related. How would you feel if a drug addict or an alcoholic in the Celestial Kingdom? Would you not be thrilled?
3 AM is the time that President Nelson reads the scriptures, talking about how he pulled out a flashlight to continue, when the power went out. That is the time that he finds that God speaks to him. He encouraged the audience of mission presidents to find the time and place that God speaks to them.
Joseph Smith Papers many accounts of the first vision, a more complete understanding of his experience.
Christmas was a little slow. I let myself sleep in some. I wrote a lot, and I practiced Thai a lot.
We stayed the night at the Ledesma's because Mercedes prepared a Christmas eve dinner, and we celebrated Christmas together too.
We read the story of the birth of Christ in Luke's epistle to the Gentiles.
The Hicken tradition is to have the oldest child host the present distribution, and we decided that Jessica will host Christmas. She arranged it so each family member opened a gift in order around the room a few times. I got clothing.
Our gift to John & Mercedes were Ancestry DNA Kits. Jessica had them open them at the same time. John prepared his specimen first, since Mercedes ate some melon recently after we opened gifts. An individual must wait thirty minutes after putting any substances in their mouth before filling the valve with saliva. One needs to create an account with ancestry.com before delivering the sample. I don't know if ancestry.com allowed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to sign in with an LDS.org account previously, but we thought so. After failing to sign in with Mercedes' LDS.org account, we let John set her up with an account at ancestry.com. There are a few questions to answer, and the identification number needs to be produced to match the specimen with the account. It was simple for them to prepare, and the results will come back in six to eight weeks.
We eventually continued the Trash face card game. Jessica was tied with me a lot of the time, but I was usually ahead. Jasmine had a harder time keeping up, but she was on the same phase as John at the end. Jessica would get a lot of wild cards in her hand in many phases of the game, winning the final round with one. John and Jasmine made their last turns, and all I needed to draw to win with Jessica was an Ace or a King. John noticed that my lucky ace was the Ace of Spades, drawing it a lot, because I won the game with Jessica and the Ace of Spades.
When I arrived at the apartment, I added a bunch of homely habits to Habitica. These new habits made the apartment look and be more neatly. I asked Jessica, "What habits do you thing I should develop?" She couldn't think of any, but I remembered somethings that she suggested previously. Thinking of habits to develop, I looked around the house. The more that I do the more experience that I get in the Habitica game and life. The following habits were added to my list:
Put away floss, toothpaste, and tooth brushes; clearing bathroom counter
Put on/remove shoes near door
Keep shoes organized
Take out trash
Wipe counters clean
Organize recycling
Rinse recyclable containers
Organize papers
Clear table
Put away dishes
Put away clothes
Fill grain bins.
The general contractor said that they would like to sign off my many items on their QC log, so I started on that, giving documentation to sign off one item.
When the inspector arrived, I realized that I forgot to prepare for him again. We did weld inspections first, since our scissor lift was being replaced. I found that an issue has become apparent, when we were inspecting stiffener plates. The welder only welded stiffener plates where there are embeds to weld to, and I went with that. The inspector and I verbalized that embeds are missing, making the investigation formal; although, I thought of the issue previously. There are just so many issues. I continued the correspondence to resolve these issues in the afternoon.
Cycling home from work, I practiced counting in Thai. One through ten was easy, but eleven through nineteen was harder because Thais would count by saying ten one (11), ten two (12), ten three (13), and so forth. Switching between ten and regular numbers, I had to get use to it. I counted up to 39.
When I arrived at the apartment, I added a bunch of homely habits to Habitica. These new habits made the apartment look and be more neatly. I asked Jessica, "What habits do you thing I should develop?" She couldn't think of any, but I remembered somethings that she suggested previously. Thinking of habits to develop, I looked around the house. The more that I do the more experience that I get in the Habitica game and life. The following habits were added to my list:
Put away floss, toothpaste, and tooth brushes; clearing bathroom counter
Put on/remove shoes near door
Keep shoes organized
Take out trash
Wipe counters clean
Organize recycling
Rinse recyclable containers
Organize papers
Clear table
Put away dishes
Put away clothes
Fill grain bins
Since Drops lets me have sessions every ten hours, I wanted to do them early. When I recorded the experience in Habitica, I thought that if I practiced Iearning Thai with other apps I can have a broader perspective and knowledge. I downloaded more than ten apps, exploring the angles that each app takes. After I reviewed them, I uninstalled many of them, finding many to be not intuitive and generic. They typically teach phrases.
The following apps remain useful to me:
Learn &Play Thai Beginner Word - This app is almost a generic app, teaching common Thai phrases, but it is simple and intuitive. The game is slightly fun.
Learn Thai Alphabet - This app is unique because it concentrates on the basics of the alphabet. The quiz mode is good to consolidate your Thai language knowledge.
Learn Thai with Master Ling- Master Ling is my ex, when it comes to apps to learn Thai. It is good, but I haven't gone back to him. He is designed to eventually require subscription.
Mango Languages: Lovable Language Courses - Mango is wonderful; however, it requires an account, which is not free. Although the app does not save progress, the Thai lessons are accessible. (Mango revealed to me that Drops is teaching me girl phrases. Girls say "I" as chan, and boys say it as pom.)
Pocket Thai Master: Thai Language and Culture - It looks like a text book, but I have not started reading it yet.
Write it! Thai - Writing is also good to reinforce your Thai language study.
Everyday Thai - I like this app because it is tone oriented.
Drops - I use two drops apps to make sure that I get my two daily sessions, since the minimum time between sessions are ten hours. On weekends I get double. I like the daily quick sessions to develop the habit of practicing consistently.
I have nine apps in total to learn Thai, and I like using Habitica to measure my experience in my language practice.
I still woke up early; although, I went to sleep late.
Since Drops lets me have sessions every ten hours, I wanted to do them early. When I recorded the experience in Habitica, I thought that if I practiced Iearning Thai with other apps I can have a broader perspective and knowledge. I downloaded more than ten apps, exploring the angles that each app takes. After I reviewed them, I uninstalled many of them, finding many to be not intuitive and generic. They typically teach phrases.
The following apps remain useful to me:
Learn &Play Thai Beginner Word - This app is almost a generic app, teaching common Thai phrases, but it is simple and intuitive. The game is slightly fun.
Learn Thai Alphabet - This app is unique because it concentrates on the basics of the alphabet. The quiz mode is good to consolidate your Thai language knowledge.
Learn Thai with Master Ling - Master Ling is my ex, when it comes to apps to learn Thai. It is good, but I haven't gone back to him. He is designed to eventually require subscription.
Mango Languages: Lovable Language Courses - Mango is wonderful; however, it requires an account, which is not free. Although the app does not save progress, the Thai lessons are accessible. (Mango revealed to me that Drops is teaching me girl phrases. Girls say "I" as chan, and boys say it as pom.)
Pocket Thai Master: Learn Thai Language & Culture - It looks like a text book, but I have not started reading it yet.
Write it! Thai - Writing is also good to reinforce your Thai language study.
Everyday Thai - I like this app because it is tone oriented.
Drops - I use two drops apps to make sure that I get my two daily sessions, since the minimum time between sessions are ten hours. On weekends I get double. I like the daily quick sessions to develop the habit of practicing consistently.
I have nine apps in total to learn Thai, and I like using Habitica to measure my experience in my language practice.
I wrote my daily journal entry, publishing it before Jessica woke up.
After breakfast, Jessica and I cleaned our apartment. The compelling thing that got us to clean is that I accidentally put the detergent tray in the laundry machine backwards, and it is stuck. Now we are mostly ready to ask the maintenance guy whether he fixed this situation previously. Our apartment was pathetic.
I have been recruiting family to my Habitica party to help each other maintain our healthy habits, and adopt new habits. Jessica, Trevor, and Jasmine are on my team.
Our Christmas Eve Ledesma dinner was good. We almost continued our Trash game, but John finished his nap too late. We started a puzzle, which Jasmine bought Mercedes two years ago and never opened. I never seen Jessica so focused on an activity. She set the majority of the pieces.
Going to sleep on time is always difficult when visiting family. We are staying the night.
