In this much belated episode, Amberly and Kendall discuss the passing of the torch from Nephi to Jacob, admiring just how big of a job Jacob is stepping into. Jacob gets to have some of the "fun" conversations with his people, preaching about how they willfully misinterpret the scriptures in order to justify their own very poor choices. Kendall notes that if we want to hear less criticism from the prophets, then we have to be more righteous, and Amberly points out that righteousness can be found in many places as long as we have the eyes to see it. Join us as we start our comeback arc towards any semblance of consistency!

We're back! After our long hiatus we are posting extras to get you all caught up as we catch up with editing. This episode, we discuss Nephi's final recorded testimony, and dive into what he thinks is most important for us to know and why. Nephi teaches the doctrine of Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Kendall shares some mission stories, and Amberly and Kendall show how in sync they are by marking the exact same verses. Join us for this glorious return!

*Forgive us as we catch up on editing! We've still been recording weekly and are just catching up on editing/uploading after a very busy few weeks for our family. Thanks for bearing with us and sticking around!*

Today we go through 2 Nephi 26-30. We get to see how Nephi applies the words of Isaiah to his own prophecies, and what he hopes his descendants (and all of us!) get out of them. Kendall doesn't go quite as hard into the extended Isaiah interpretations, and Amberly gets to bring up her most favorite conference talk of the week yet. Join us as we approach the end of Nephi's ministry, and see what he wants us to get out of his last recorded prophetic passages!

In this week's episode, we finish up with the Isaiah chapters and get a look at what Nephi wants his people (and us) to get out of them. We discuss the relative merits of "vibes-based" scripture study and look at more ways to navigate around a bunch of proper nouns we aren't familiar with in the scriptures. If you find it difficult to understand Isaiah, fret not! Nephi knows that's the case and gives us a good way to look at scripture we don't have perfect cultural context for.

In this week's podcast, we start into the official "Isaiah chapters!" While many simply assume they'll always struggle with discerning meaning in these chapters, we're here to assure you that it is both doable and rewarding. Kendall goes into two different ways one can study highly symbolic scripture, and Amberly graciously lets him talk way more than anyone probably wants to hear. Join us this week and next as we dig into this feast of scripture that gets the endorsement of Jesus himself!

This week, we get to study one of Jacob's sermons to the Nephites! Jacob makes our job easy as he prophetically interprets passages from Isaiah. Kendall attempts to explain how the context in which a passage is given enhances our scriptural understanding and Amberly does her best to keep him on track.

P.S. We're very sorry for missing a week! Ultimately, we're still accomplishing our goal of studying together, but we didn't manage to edit and publish last week's podcast. In the interest of not falling behind, we're going to keep moving forward, but we'll get the "lost" episode 7 to you soon!

P.P.S. Amberly's mic problems will be fixed next week!

In this episode, we discuss 2 Nephi 1-2. There's a reason the church's curriculum department only put 2 chapters this week! Lehi gives his final words to (most) of his sons, including some very strong words to Laman and Lemuel and some extremely dense doctrine to Jacob. Kendall finally gets to bring up his favorite thing to compare the Gospel to: physics! Amberly takes her comparisons in a different direction, much to most people's relief. Especially with how short the reading is this week, we highly recommend you read the chapters before listening to the podcast. It will help you keep up with how much we tend to bounce around!

In this episode, we discuss 1 Nephi 16-22, featuring Isaiah! Laman and Lemuel really go downhill in a hurry, and Nephi builds a boat, much to Laman and Lemuel's shock and surprise. They cross the ocean and arrive at the promised land. Nephi quotes Isaiah to drive home to his descendants that they are of the House of Israel, and that God has a plan for them and is aware of His children across all the "isles of the sea." Kendall attempts (and fails) to coherently express his thoughts about the symbolism in the Isaiah chapters and how to apply them to our lives, and Amberly once again reminds listeners that this podcast pretty much lives in the weeds.

In this episode, we discuss 1 Nephi 11-15. Nephi sees the vision of the Tree of Life for himself, and a lot more besides! This is a pretty dense section of scripture, so we get lost in a few weeds here and there. Amberly is proud of herself for lasting 4 whole episodes before mentioning Taylor Swift in some fashion. Kendall once again talks everyone's ear off as he discusses some of the potentially more controversial statements made about Nephi's vision of the Americas. Tune in and get ready for a lot of discussion! And thank you for your patience as we continue to nail down how exactly to tune audio settings!

In our third episode, we discuss 1 Nephi: 6-10. Lehi's sons go back to Jerusalem to bring Ishmael and his family along, Nephi shows an example of unconditional forgiveness, and Lehi has his vision of the Tree of Life. Join us in this new (and ever evolving) journey!

Link to this week's Come, Follow Me lesson: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-home-and-church-book-of-mormon-2024/03?lang=eng

Some of the external sources we talk about:

Kevin W. Pearson - "Stay by the Tree" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/stay-by-the-tree?lang=eng#title1)

Jeffrey R. Holland - "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2012/01/israel-israel-god-is-calling?lang=eng)