The Crandall Museum

I thought the visit to the Crandall Museum was very interesting. I always knew about Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press, but I never realized all of the work that had gone into each piece printed on it and the evolution that it undertook to bring us the Book of Mormon. I loved seeing the passion that the men who owned the place had for printing and its history. I'm not going to lie, there was a part of me that said, "If I were a boy back during these times I would totally having to go with printing for my apprenticeship-ness thing." I also thought the machine that they used to make a line of moveable type was so amazing! Watching its pulleys and levers move all over that place was fascinating. I know that there are ways which make our inventions of today very beautiful, but there was such obvious creativity that came with some of the inventions that they had during this time period.

I really would love for the Crandall Museum to be more advertised around the church. I feel as though it wouldn't have an extremely difficult time pulling in tourists considering the amount of LDS people that come to Utah to see Temple Square and the like. How easy would it be for these same tourists to take the short drive down to Provo to learn more about the production of The Book of Mormon. It definitely gained a special little place in my heart and will probably suggest my family visit it when they come out over the summer.

Paul's Final Trip to Rome

I think that it is important to remember that Acts was not written as doctrine, but merely to tell us of the journey of Paul. By showing these travels we can see that prophesy was upheld in order and the gospel was preached not just to the Jews, but to the Romans as well. I really liked the point we brought up in class last week when we discussed how we hear the story of the conversion of Paul three times. Each time the story is a little bit different, but the main points remain the same. Knowing this does not mean that it is not true simply that the minor differences are insignificant details that do not lend to the point of the story. Such things happen in our lives when we are telling stories to our friends and family. I think this helps show the truthfulness of the story. To me it is more meaningful that it is not an exact replica of itself every time the story is told because it means that he was truly testifying of his conversion and the great events that took place.

The Apostacy

I think the most interesting thing that we brought up when talking about the apostasy is how it actually occurred much earlier than the formation of the Catholic Church. We discussed how the formation of the Catholic Church wasn’t until the third or fourth century. Paul discusses how the great apostasy was to occur very soon. This very soon didn’t mean within the next five-hundred years very soon, but within the lifetime of many of the receivers of his epistles. I guess I had always thought that the formation of the Catholic Church was a formation of the apostasy, but now I see that it wasn't the formation of new churches that signaled the end of an era.

Knowing this we should be acutely aware the apostasy in our personal lives. It is quite possible that we could be walking away from the church without literally avoiding the church building. It is important for us, as members, to strive to participate in activities that will keep us from falling away from the church. WE all know what these are: read your scriptures, say your prayers, attend the temple, have FHE. Doing things like this will not only help us stay in the church, but help us to receive the full blessings that come from being a member. The more we strive to live not only by the letter of the law but the spirit of the law we will be focused on things that will bring us closer to God.

The Museum of Art

I thought that it was a pretty opportunity to go visit the Museum of Art and see all of the different ways that Christ and His sacrifice for us can be displayed. It was a good reminder to me of how everything is a testimony of Christ and the atonement. I really liked going with other members of the class and getting their take on the pieces. I went earlier with my cousin and I have to admit that I rarely understand art very well without the guidance of others. The piece that I feel I got the most out of was the first piece we looked out where a woman seems to be holding the bread towards the viewer. We discussed how her face seemed tired and worn and the long arduous process that goes into making bread from scratch. Even though I’ve heard the story of the chicken who asks for help from her friends to make bread I never really realized long process because the only homemade bread I usually had come from a bread maker. It was interesting to see how this woman’s daily work of bread making was very similar to the sacrifice of Christ. Just as she labored all day to give us this loaf, Christ labored all of His life so that we could be saved from our sins. I also could help but noticed the positioning of her hands reminded me of Christ’s hands in paintings where He is showing us the wounds on His hands from being nailed on the cross. It was a very Christ like way of the woman to display her labors just as He displays His to us. The title “Daily Bread” makes me wonder what my daily labor could be doing to bring me closer to Christ. In addition to the normal requirements of reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, etc, I think that it is important to realize that the dedication of our studies to the Lord can bring us closer to Him. I think that because we have all been taught the importance of getting an education as we strive to do so we will naturally progress closer to God as we continue keeping His commandments. I think that a lot of our education is so that we can provide a good life for our families. I think that sacrificing time and effort today so that we can give to our future children and those around us (both today and tomorrow) we will be creating our own “Daily Bread”.