Week 1: The Dark Ages

Week 1:  The Dark Ages



Can you imagine how that sounds to three little boys? The Dark Ages.  Their interest was peaked right away.  

If we are going to be talking about the preperation for  the retoration we should probably start wiith why did we needed a restoration?

Deffinition of Restoration: an act of restoring or the condition of being restored   Merraim-Webster

               

·         the act of restoring; renewal, revival, or reestablishment.

·         the state or fact of being restored.

·         a return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition.

·         restitution of something taken away or lost.

·         something that is restored, as by renovating.     Dictionary.com

Ok Anyways so why a need for this.  Well in a small amount of words, Througout the Old Testament is was foretold that the Son of God would condescend and come down to earth to save to redeem the world. And just that happened but first He came and he taught the people and he called 12 men to be his apostles. He gave them keys to act in His name and to help him oraganize his Church on the earth. Just like a police oficer needs authority to act in his duties so did these apostles. Christ put his hands apon them and and gave him His authority.  As we know Christ and these apostles were rejected. First Christ then the rest. Slowly his teachings were lost and because his apostles were killed his keys, his authority was gone from the earth. There was a Great Apostacy.



David had great fun telling bedtime stories to the boys of such things as Rome being sacked, Genghis Khan and all the other wars and “exciting” things to little boys.     They love weird sounding names and get all excited and crack up laughing when names or words sound very unique.



To explore life in the Dark Dages we spent a day eating grains such as outmeal for breakfast and we had nothing but homemade bread and vegetable broth, and peas for dinner. The boys loved eating the peas with the hands! 

The next day (we only did one thing at a time, we discovered it was fun to pretend to be in the dark ages but only one thing at a time), We spent the day by candlelight.  Seriously, the boys woke up to candles, got ready for school by candles and we spent the evening together by candlelight.

They had so much fun with this one. My awesome mom had three little lanterns on hand of course, (have you seen her craft room!?) so the boys each had their own to carry around, CAREFULLY. 

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the candles all around the house but the boys were taking this Dark Ages thing seriously, “they didn’t have phones!”

This has been a fun experience so far and I myself am learning a lot about history but I am also learning a lot about the Lord’s hand in our lives.  2,000 years ago people rejected his Son and brought darkness to the world as we sought power over one another, and pride, greed and envy overshadowed the spread of the word of God, but he did not give up on us. He right away started working through the good people that were still out there which were many. Inspiring them with their minds and hands. It would be a long time before people and the world would be ready to move out of the darkness and into the light but it would happen.

I know that God is in our daily lives. He is inspiring us and guiding us if we will but slow down and listen and then watch and see his hand in our lives in the little tender mercies of love.

Our 11 Week Journey-Following A Prophet's Voice

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 In the Spring of 1820, a young boy of 14, went to a grove of trees to pray and ask God which church he should join. His world and the rest of ours changed forever because of what occurred in that moment. The heavens weren’t closed, they never were. Just as in times of old God spoke to those who earnestly sought him and were called to do a special work. It was I this moment that God the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ through him.

Well that was just the start. We call it Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

Why did there need to be a restoration? Well that is the first part of discovery in this journey my family has started.

If you noticed the year above it was 1820. We just started 2020. So, this Spring will be 200 years since Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the beginning of the Restoration.

Because of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ we have a living prophet today (I’ll explain more about this later). His name is Russell M. Nelson. Last October in a general conference broadcast to the apx. 15 million members of the Church across the world he brought this 200 year mark to our attention and said “The year 2020 will be designated as a bicentennial year. General conference next April will be different from any previous conference.” He then gave this promise and invitation,

“In the next six months, I hope that every member and every family will prepare for a unique conference that will commemorate the very foundations of the restored gospel… Design your own plan. Immerse yourself in the glorious light of the Restoration. As you do, general conference next April will be not only memorable; it will be unforgettable.”

Unforgettable.   How do you get that out of your mind?!

I have always desired to follow the prophets voice because every ounce inside of me knows that he is called of God and he is hear to help us get through our time on earth during this time. But sometimes, like this time, I just don’t know quite how.

Well, it’s been a few months and it’s been on the back of my mind but the other week President Nelson reminded us and reinvited us to prepare for this bicentennial. Guess what? I did something else our prophet has been urging us to do. I sought for personal revelation for my family, and you know what, I got it! I got it!

I want to share my family’s journey with you not to show you how cool we are or to brag about how we follow the prophet but because I want to testify that when we desire to follow the counsel the Prophet of the Lord gives and we seek revelation how to personally do so, the Lord answers. He answers for me and my family. He told me what preparation would work best for me and my family. Maybe it would work for yours or maybe He has something that is better for your family. Maybe sharing our journey can help.

Here it is. For the 11 weeks leading up to General Conference, April 4-5, 2020 (we started last week), we are going to go through history discovering why we needed a restoration and how the Lord prepared the world for it. And the last three weeks we will be connecting with our ancestors and family and what role they played as well as reflecting on what The Restoration has brought to us and means for the world. Finishing with what role do we, my little family play in the ongoing restoration and the preparation of the Second Coming of our glorified Lord and Savior.

What does that look like you ask? Well I’m super excited to show you what it looks like so far.

I’m not a huge writer so most of the next posts on our journey will be pictures and brief descriptions. And I’ll do another one to catch you all up but for now enjoy a few pics from the Dark Ages and primitive record keeping.

All day we only ate things like oatmeal, and here we are eating bread and vegetable broth.