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Book of Mormon [1 NEPHI 16-22] Creative Object Lessons with Maria Eckersley
Episode 10 • 27th January 2024 • Our Mothers Knew It • Maria Eckersley
00:00:00 00:16:55

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Object Lesson Summary:

On the creative side, we’ll create our own “ball of curious workmanship” in order to understand revelation. Next, we’ll use simple machines to talk about amplifying our efforts by using tools. Finally, we’ll bring back a fan favorite from the Old Testament and make a fresh batch of Brazen Serpents to help our kids understand how small moments of obedience can have great consequences.

Object Lesson Titles & Supplies:

  • “A round ball of curious workmanship”: Paper Liahona Box
  • 📘 Scripture": 1 Nephi 16:10-16, 28-31
  • ✂️ Supplies
  • ⬇️
  • Cardstock
  • Small gold treats (optional)
  • “Whither shall I go that I may….make tools”: Pulley Challenge
  • 📘 Scripture: 1 Nephi 17:10-13
  • ✂️ Supplies
  • 3 or more carabiners
  • Rope
  • Gallon jugs
  • “Because of the simpleness of the way”: Brazen Serpent Pretzel Recipe
  • 📘 Scripture: 1 Nephi 17:41-42
  • ✂️ Supplies
  • ⬇️
  • Bamboo skewers or chopsticks

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CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST DISCLAIMER: This podcast represents my own thoughts and opinions. It is not made, approved or endorsed by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Any content or creative interpretations, implied or included are solely those of Maria Eckersley ("MeckMom LLC"), and not those of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Great care has been made to ensure this podcast is in harmony with the overall mission of the Church. Click here to visit the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Transcripts

Maria:

Hey, you guys, welcome back.

Maria:

It's time for the creative side of week five.

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So this is where I give you three easy options to work with to help

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teach your kids or your classes.

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Just remember, my goal here is not that you do all of these.

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In fact, I'm giving you a variety on purpose so that you can pick

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the one that works for your family.

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Or maybe you do a hybrid of two or.

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come up with something else entirely.

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This is just a way for you to get a creative kickstart so that you know

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that you can teach these things in new and surprising ways, and hopefully

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pull in a few more kids and get them engaged in their scriptures.

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I'm gonna walk you through the supplies list that you'll need

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for all three of them first, and then I'll take you into each one

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and tell you how to pull them off.

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First and foremost, I really wanted to shine a spotlight on the Liahona,

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this ball of curious workmanship, and I found myself wanting to

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create something that was Curious.

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I wanted to make something that people were confused by, and then it

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comes together, mostly because I feel like that's revelation, you guys.

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The, the Liohona is a beautiful guide for what revelation looks like.

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It is something that we have to figure out, and once we

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understand it, it can guide us.

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So, I made you a round ball of curious work.

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Basically, this is a box that you're going to make.

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You have it, the printable comes in a full color version like this, or

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a version you can color yourself.

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But to create it, you just need cardstock, you guys.

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Nothing else.

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You don't even need tape.

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You probably need a little tiny bit of glue for this one.

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So cardstock and glue.

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And then if you want to, you can stash things inside it.

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And for that, you just need small treats.

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I thought it was more fun to have gold treats, so mine is stashed with

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Rolos and Dove caramel chocolates, but you can grab anything you want.

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This is a really good way to help your kids understand a connection to the

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Holy Ghost in just a new, fun way.

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That's your first one.

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Second one.

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This is talking about the tools Nephi seeks.

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I love that his first reaction when he is asked to build a boat is to ask the Lord,

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okay, where do I need to go to make tools?

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Where can I find the ore so that I can make a bellows and make the hammer or

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whatever he needed to create this boat that was not in the manner of men.

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And there's a really fun way to teach your kids about this idea

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of how tools amplify your efforts.

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There's a great BYU devotional that we'll talk about here in

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just a minute that I loved.

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It was all about being a better boat builder, and I'll give you links to

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it in the notes, but one of the things he talked about is how we should

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use tools to amplify our efforts.

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When God asks us to do something, We should seek the best tools we can.

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And if we can't find them, we should make them so that we can amplify

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what our little human arms can do and do something more powerful.

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And there's a cool way to teach that by showing your kids simple machines.

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So I'm going to demonstrate for you a simple machine of a pulley, and

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you can show your kids how a pulley makes a workload easier, but you

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honestly could do any simple machine.

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It could be an axle and a wheel.

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It could be a lever.

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It could be anything.

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I'll walk you through it in the notes.

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So if you want to do it the way our kids did it and do the milk.

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gallon challenge, then you're gonna need three carabiners like this.

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They don't need to be super weight bearing carabiners, just any three.

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And then also a little bit of rope, and you'll be good to go.

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Third one, you guys, maybe it's because I was craving these to start

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with, but when I read this week about Nephi using the story of the brazen

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serpent to motivate his brothers.

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I was like, okay, we're making pretzels because in the Old Testament, for

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those of you who've been with us for a while, we made these brazen serpents

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on a stick to teach this lesson.

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So I thought what would be cool about bringing it back now is what's

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great about the Book of Mormon is it actually adds to the story.

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This is where you learn why they didn't look at the stick and

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what happened because of it.

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You don't get the full story as deeply in the Old Testament as

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you do scattered throughout the chapters of the Book of Mormon.

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So this is our week you guys.

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So on the printables this week you'll see a recipe for

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these delicious pretzel dough.

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You can turn them into little tiny bites or you can turn them into serpents on a

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stick and teach your kids a cool lesson.

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It's really just simple ingredients.

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Nothing fancy.

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The only thing that you might not have on hand are peppercorns or in

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our case we couldn't, we didn't have peppercorns so I used cloves for the eyes.

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But other than that, you should have everything you need in the pantry.

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Okay, that's your supplies list.

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Time to get into the details.

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Nephi basically gave us an object lesson this week by teaching us the

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story of the Liahona, something that is given to the prophet when he's

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supposed to go and do something.

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It's something that has spindles inside that direct them where

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to go in a straight course.

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It's something that from time to time has new writing on it and new guidance

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about how they should do things.

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You even see in the verses this week that there's correction

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on the Liahona at times.

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There's that one point when Lehi reads it and he's afraid

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because he's been murmuring.

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I think that's the Holy Ghost, you guys.

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It's this beautiful symbol for what the Spirit offers us.

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It offers us guidance, it offers us course correction, and it works

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according to our heed and diligence.

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So you gotta cast a big spotlight on the Liahona this week.

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And I wanted to give you a printable to help you do that.

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There's this beautiful talk from Elder Bednar where he Compared to the two.

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So a lot of the understandings I had about how the Leona is

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a symbol come from his talk.

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So if you go in the notes, you can find it.

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It's from April, 2006.

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Basically what I would do if I were teaching this object lesson,

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I would create the printable first.

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So make one for your kids.

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Like I mentioned, you could put the full color or the black and white and let them

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color it and then work on the folding.

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I'll tell you upfront, the folding has to be pretty precise.

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I give you these dotted lines that you're going to score first,

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and then you're going to fold.

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But if you don't fold them right on the lines.

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The ball doesn't quite come together, right?

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It's really frustrating.

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It took me a while to kind of get the hang of it.

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What I loved is once I did get it right and it did form this little ball,

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then every time I opened and closed it after that, it went together smooth.

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Like it would, you can see it right now.

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If I like pull it open, you can see that when I push it back together,

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it comes beautifully and neatly into this like spiral pattern.

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The first time I tried to fold it.

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It did not go beautifully and smoothly and easily.

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And that's something I love about it.

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If I was going to teach this in a class, I probably would have a stash of.

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Treats.

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For me, like I mentioned, we did Rolos and little, you know, gold

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covered candies of some kind.

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I would put those in a jar and then use some of the verses

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from Elder Bednar's talk.

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In the notes, if you go in the creative notes, I've pulled out a whole bunch

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of them, plus a few more, that teach you things about the Holy Ghost.

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And I would just assign it out.

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So give your kids a couple of those verses and say, all right, you guys, I

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want you to read these verses and tell me what it teaches us about the Liahona.

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and about the Holy Ghost.

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Some of them are one or the other, some teach both, but I think there's a lot to

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be learned from your kid's vantage point.

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What do they see in those verses and how can they teach it to everybody else?

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And then when they do get the guts to speak out loud and say what they learned

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about the Holy Ghost, they get to add a gold treat to their Liohona ball.

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The goal being that by the end of class or the end of your family's

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lesson, everybody's got a full ball.

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You know, everybody has this full ball of goodness to remind

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them what the Holy Ghost is like.

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And then I would take time to talk about the process of

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folding that it's hard, right?

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It's hard at first.

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And once we get those creases set and we get things in motion, it gets smoother.

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It gets easier and it can offer us more.

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That's the gift of the Holy Ghost.

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Bizarre little ball of curious workmanship made out of paper

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will help you teach that.

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This is one of those lessons that you can use to teach one verse or another.

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In my case, in this week's study, I really like using simple machines to help my kids

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understand that Nephi sought out tools.

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He didn't just go to make the boat.

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What he did is he tried to find ways to amplify his own strengths.

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You know, his own abilities would be stronger if he figured out ways

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to get the timber to the shore.

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If he figured out ways to make the iron stronger by building a bellows,

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that amplified his natural abilities.

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I love that piece primarily because I listened to that, um, BYU devotional.

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So if you go on the notes, you can find it.

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It's from, his name is Christopher Mattson.

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I believe he was, he's a professor of engineering, if I remember right.

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So his ideas on building a better boat, I thought were fascinating.

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He compares Nephi's boat to the brother of Jared's boat and talks about how

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we can use their boat building to help us understand our journeys.

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And he's the one that emphasized this idea about tools.

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Tools being a way to amplify our own efforts.

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And then he applied it to our life, things we do right now.

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Like, we can use the tools that the church provides, like the Gospel

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Library app and other sources that they give us, to amplify our efforts

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to understand the gospel, to teach the gospel, all kinds of things.

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I also think he encourages you to make your own tools.

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So if you get in a calling where you're like, I don't know how to

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do this better, you have to trust that there is ore in these hills and

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that the Lord would never give you a calling without giving you supplies.

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You just might have to put some effort in to get those supplies to

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come together the same way Nephi did.

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So that's where the simple machines challenge comes from.

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It's from that talk.

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He references Simple machines as a way that Nephi probably used to amplify his

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own efforts that we should do the same.

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So honestly, you could teach this in a hundred different ways.

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If you search simple machine experiment on YouTube, I'm sure you can come up with

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some cool ways to apply this to your kids.

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For us, we did this pulley challenge because back in 2020.

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We had this gallon challenge.

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It was our first throw down.

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And you had to come up with some way to use a pulley to lift

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jugs of milk or jugs of paint.

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And it was awesome to see the responses of the class because you

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guys were all over the country and all of you submitted videos of your

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kids hoisting these huge heavy things because they put pulleys to work.

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So if you want to try that with your kids, all you need to do is series of pulleys.

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Basically, you're going to teach them the difference between just trying to lift a

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jug of milk on their own, just picking it up off the ground and comparing that to

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if they attach it to just one carabiner and they pull down, the load is easier.

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It's not lighter, but the load is easier.

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When you create a pulley system and you put that jug of milk in the middle,

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then that load is half as heavy that you can accomplish twice as much

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with the same force pulling down.

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Since my kids are older than they were back in 2020, we decided to up the ante

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a little bit and Make them put their heads under the gallon of milk so that if

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they let go it would fall on their face.

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But you could do any number of options out there.

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But my hope is that you find a way to teach how small and simple

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things can accomplish great work.

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How when we seek the tools that God has put in our vicinity and put them

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to use, we can accomplish even more.

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It's part of what God put us here to do, to use our natural strength.

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and our abilities coupled with the tools he's offered so that

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we can accomplish great things.

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I hope you have a blast, and if you get a chance, I would love to

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see what your family comes up with.

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One of the witnesses that the brass plates must have been purer than maybe

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what we have in our Bible today is that you see Nephi tell us this story

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about the fiery serpents, that when the children of Israel were Plagued with

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these serpents that were biting people and people were dying the Savior offered

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his prophet a solution He said to Moses.

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I want you to forge a brass serpent I want you to put it up on a pole

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and have people look at it And if they will look they will be saved

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they'll be healed of this infirmity.

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And so he does, and a lot of people don't turn.

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What the Book of Mormon adds, that you don't necessarily get

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as fully in the Bible, is that you find out why they didn't.

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That it's because of the simpleness of the way, the ease of it.

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It seemed too simple and too easy.

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It almost brings back ideas of Naaman.

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Remember in the Old Testament when we studied about Naaman, who was told that

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he's supposed to go dip himself in the Jordan seven times, and he's like, No, and

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then his servant says to him, you know, if, if Elijah asked you to do some great

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thing, you probably would have done it.

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And then he, he humbles himself and he dips himself and then

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he's healed of his leprosy.

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It's that same sort of feel.

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So I feel like creating an object lesson that helps your kids

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remember the simpleness of the way.

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is a powerful one because a lot of the solutions to their everyday

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problems are simple solutions.

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They are scripture study, prayer, showing up for youth activities, showing up

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at the temple, doing the best you can.

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Those are the solutions that are Simple.

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They seem like they can't solve their weighty teenage problems, but they can.

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They are, they are a way that God can speak to them and give

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them more catered direction.

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So I just wanted some way to help my kids remember that story.

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It's referenced at least three or four times in the Book of

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Mormon, this brazen serpent story.

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And so I feel like it's one of those anthems that can help our kids.

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Remember their connection.

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Remember that the easy option can help and can lift.

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So, I think you gotta make something memorable.

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That's where these brazen serpents come in.

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The reason I like these for this story is because they actually

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have a golden hue, right?

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The egg wash that you put over them when you bake them makes

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them turn this kind of golden hue.

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And then, as your kids are forming them, you can talk about the story.

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You can talk about what happened with Moses's situation.

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You can talk about what happened with Laman and Lemuel and how they

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didn't like the easy answers either.

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They murmured and complained and when Nephi asked them to

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just be obedient, they refused.

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They turned away.

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So you can talk about all those stories as you create them.

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The recipe is really simple, you guys.

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It's just a basic bread recipe, but this is a particularly delicious one.

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And you're going to make it the, if you've never made pretzels before,

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it's a pretty simple process.

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Basically, you're going to make the it'll rise for a little.

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Maybe 40 minutes or so, and then you're going to shape them into snakes.

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What I like about this for a kid interactive object lesson is they

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really don't need to be perfect.

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In fact, the snakes are cooler if they're not perfect.

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So have your kids roll out their little ball of dough into like You know, kind

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of like a fat Crayola marker size rope.

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Then you're going to put it in that bath of baking soda and

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water and then pull it out.

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And once it's pulled out, you can shape it a little bit.

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Once you put it onto the cookie sheet, you can shape it to give it a snake head.

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You can, you know, twist its tail around, you can make it coil on itself,

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and then set it on that, you know, parchment covered baking sheet and

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then you pop it in the oven to like.

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Get it all secured and hold on to that shape.

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Then at the very end, after they've cooked, that's when

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you put them on a stick.

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And that's when you, you know, teach the story.

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What I like about this is as soon as I started making these

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again, my kids remembered.

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You know, like, we haven't done this for a couple years, you guys, and as soon

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as we started talking about it, they not just remembered how delicious the pretzels

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were, but they remembered the story.

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They remembered about the brass serpent.

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They remembered about Moses, and they were able to talk to me as we cooked.

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You know, it wasn't like we had a fancy formal lesson, you guys.

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This was at like 10 o'clock at night, and as we were brushing and talking

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about these snakes, they remembered their testimonies from a couple years

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ago, they see it reinforced today, and they could talk about ideas on

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how this principle applies today.

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So, it seems silly and sort of trivial, but I'm telling you, These kind of

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memories last, and hopefully, tasting something delicious while they study these

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scriptures will help it last even longer.

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Thank you for being here, you guys.

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That is it for Week 5.

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I think it's going to be a good one.

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I just want to remind you that if you're watching this on YouTube or maybe

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listening on the podcast version, you can find the full course and everything

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that comes with it over on my site.

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So if you go to gather.

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mechmom.

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com, then you can find some options.

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As a free member, you can see the videos, you can engage with the community there.

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As a monthly member, you can have access to all the videos, all the

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notes, all the printables, not just from this year, but from all the years.

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And then if you're an annual subscriber, meaning you pay once a year, then you

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have access to all those things, plus all the MechMom printables I've ever made.

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So where Valentine's is coming up here pretty quick, if you need Valentine's

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games for your class or cool Valentine's for your kids to take to class,

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the MechMom printables area will.

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We'll give you everything you need.

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So hopefully there's some good options out there.

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But again, I would remind you that if you're not part of the course and you

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just want to grab a printable or two, you can often find those on my Etsy shop.

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So things like the Leah Hona from this week, if you just want to purchase that

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one, you can find it over in my Etsy shop.

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Just search for the Mech, Mech Mom Etsy shop, and you'll be able to track it down.

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Otherwise, I hope you enjoy your week, you guys.

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If you want to come join me on Monday, on the site, gather.

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mecmom.

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com, you can RSVP to come to the live.

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That's just a quick, you know, 40 minutes or so to an hour live video where we

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interact kind of like a Zoom call and we chat through this week's study.

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I take you more chapter by chapter.

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I point out some things I didn't have time to fit into these videos.

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And Honestly, we just have a good discussion.

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It's a good way to kind of buoy yourself up and get you

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eager to get into the verses.

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I promise this week you won't need much enticement.

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This is a great week of study and I think you're going to really love it.

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There's a lot to pull and I think you'll find it fast.

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So I hope you enjoy your study you guys and I'll see you on Monday.

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