Youth Book of Mormon Reading Challenge

A few weeks ago, Brother Dorny came into Young Women's and announced that he was hosting a Book of Mormon reading challenge for our Youth. It all started with a conversation he had with Lindsey Carducci on the Youth Temple Trip back in early January. Apparently, Lindsey's dad had been persuading her to read the BOM from front to cover since she hadn't done so. In the conversation, Brother Dorny gave her the challenge to start and finish the BOM by the end of February. To keep her motivated, he commited to do the same thing.

When Brother Dorny came in to issue the challenge to the Young Women, I groaned and said, NO WAY. I was just settling into a nice slow reading pace after rushing to finish the BOM and the Old Testament by the end of the year. I was not about to jump on THAT wagon... I'm a slow reader! Well, Sister Keeler, sitting next to me, was all excited and was trying to get me stoked about it too. "You can do it, come on!", and she raises my hand. So, i'm volunteering involuntarily to be apart of this commitment... thinking the whole time, NO WAY! Brother Dorny did say that there would be a surprise for those who finished. None of us know what it is yet, but we all seem to be excited about it.

Well, fast forward 3 weeks. We have quite a few of our YW who are hanging in there! The first week for me was rough... having to read 11 pages a day takes quite awhile and I got behind. But I was resolved. Even though I was behind, I was going to stick to it. On the next Sunday, Brother Dorny came in to YW to see who had done any reading during the first week. He passed out a great little chart to everyone to help keep track of where we are and where we should be and gave snickers bars to the faithful readers.

I will have to admit now, that this has been one of the most enjoyable readings of the BOM I have ever experienced. It takes me an hour to read the 13 pages I need to stay at the goal. At first, it was daunting to think about having to read my scriptures for an hour. But I've gotten to the place in the past few weeks where that hour is the highlight of my day and and never feels like an hour. I love how I can see more clearly the things that are taking place... how they connect, because the reading flows from one chapter to the next. My testimony that the BOM is divine scripture was pretty solid before, but I feel even more passionate about it and even more sure in my knowledge. Thanks Brother Dorny!