Our Brass Plates

Our budget for this journey is somewhat limited, particularly in embarking upon it at Christmas time which always puts a strain on our finances anyway.  Thus, we are opting to start small for now, but do a lot of research, and planning.

One thing we decided was urgent, and there happened to be a really good sale for, were pocket scriptures, the smallest ones the church makes.  We found a set of them for $7.25 each.  We purchased 2 of these along with a pocket sized Children's Songbook.  We currently have two pocket sized hymn books to add to this.  I have one additional Book of Mormon in this pocket size.  We plan to shrink and laminate our patriarchal blessings, and the proclamation to the world on the family as part of our complete set of "brass plates".

In the Book of Mormon these plates were so important to Lehi and his family that the Lord instructed them to go back to the city to get them from a man who had hold of them.  He was a wicked man, and they risked their lives to get a hold of these scriptures without which they feared they would dwindle in unbelief and their faith would be lost through the next generations. If the word of God was so important to risk their lives for, it surely is one of the most important things for us as well.

And so it begins...

I figured I'd write about going from not having almost anything or knowing much through all that we learn as we go along.  I find blogs like this encouraging and perhaps it would encourage someone else.  We have grown up in the LDS church (both of us), but have struggled our entire adult and married lives to have much in the way of preparations because of tight tight budgets dealing with school and various medical needs.  We now have a little more leeway than before and would like to prepare.  Better late and something than nothing and never at all.

Hubby and I have felt a real urgency after spending some time reading scriptures as well as hearing various things, and reading various books.  Some were not official LDS doctrine, but some of the quotes are.  There are so many good quotes from prophets all the way through the modern era about these kinds of preparations.

And so we begin!

We visited my family and parents for Thanksgiving and had good conversations with them about their preparations and where to start.  We both have very faithful and prepared parents.  We will begin working on these things pretty quickly.

We heard that the two first things to do are to build a supply of water, and a 3 month supply of foods we typically eat.  That is where we will start.  Because I don't keep track of this kind of thing, this will involve some paying attention as well as menu planning and finding items to store that are less perishable.

“Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church ... a famine in this land of one year's duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers. Yet we cannot say we have not been warned.”

- Ezra Taft Benson (General Conference, April 1965)