The Work and The Glory

Our Bishop, Erick Hicks (a very good Bishop), challenged us to read the Doctrine and Covenants by June 30 and the Book of Mormon by December 31.

I decided to take the challange and, in fact, read the D&C cover-to-cover finishing a few days ahead of the deadline. Incidentally, I decided to read the Pearl of great Price during July (fairly easy) and I have now gotten underway with the rest of the challenge.

What made the reading of the Doctrine and Covenants much more interesting was re-reading the series "The Work and The Glory" by Gerald N. Lund. I bought the nine volumes and read them as they originally were published and saved them. Following the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in novel form while simultaneously reading the Doctrine and Covenants made both much more interesting.

What was kind of fun though was finishing the last volume of W&G (volume nine), which concludes with the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, on the morning of July 24, 2009, 162 years (if my math is correct) after Brigham Young arrived in the valley saying, "This is the right place. Drive on."

It is interesting to note that Brother Lund, who I believe has been released as a member of the second Quorum of Seventy, has a new book due out on August 5. It is titled "The Undaunted, the miracle of the hole-in-the-rock pioneers." Should be a very interesting read.