Well... Um... Crap.

The remainder of this week was a bust.

On day 4 (Wednesday), I had one of the worst migraine headaches of my life.  It started in the morning and by the time I got home from work, I was completely useless.  I was hydrated, I ate dinner, I took Ibuprofen... nothing helped at all.  I ended up passed out on the couch with my face buried in a pillow on my husband's lap.  There was no phone, no computer, no reading, no homework, no nothing for me that evening.  I'm not even sure I remember going to bed that night... or brushing my teeth.  Ugh. *Shutter*

Day 5 (Thursday) brought great relief from the previous day's horrid experience.  I telecommuted from home for over 9 hours of work before taking a shower and enjoying date night with my husband (yes, you read that correctly, Thursdays are our date night; long story).  I learned this week that we shouldn't bank on reading scriptures on date night... because date night activities *ahem* don't always offer the extra time to do so.  OK, fine.  We're all adults here.  I really don't want to go flip open my scriptures after a good romp in the hay.  There, I said it.  Thursdays are out.  Other days where hay romping may occur will be dealt with individually... but I'm calling it for Thursdays for sure.  God understands and still loves me, we're cool.

Day 6 (Friday) came with the last leg of that killer migraine from Wednesday.  They can last up to 72 hours and it seems that Thursday was just a merciful eye of the storm for me.  It got worse as each hour passed and by the time I got home on Friday, I was unable to speak well, unsteady on my feet, nearly in tears, and probably shouldn't have driven from work to the chiropractor, or home from there.  I didn't realize this until I stumbled across my kitchen floor, sideways flopped into a chair, and noticed the room spinning.  Needless to say, I ended up again passed out on the couch.  Like before, I was hydrated, fed, and this time I took Exedrin Migraine with no relief.  One of our nieces was over for dinner but I don't remember much beyond her opening Christmas gifts from us (Influenza B had us out of commission for the holidays), her giving me a big stuffed whimsical narwhal stuffed animal for Christmas which I had clutched under my arm when I woke up on the couch around midnight, and me almost vomiting on my husband's lap twice. This was another evening of no reading for us, and no anything-else-either for me.

Day 7 (Saturday - today) was the perfect opportunity to get back on the reading wagon.  I slept (finally) in till about 12 noon thanks to yesterday's migraine, worked on school stuff most of the day in rotation with playing what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-my-gut marathons (fun side affect of post-flu recovery and some migraines), and attempted to watch an episode of "Blue Bloods" with my husband while also responding to stray discussion posts in my classes that nobody replied to (I try to be nice like that).  I thought that after the episode we'd read scriptures together and review the "Come Follow Me" lesson for tomorrow's Relief Society/Priesthood classes, but my sweet husband fell asleep sitting up!  I didn't realize he was so tired, so he went to bed and I'm still up writing this blog post.

UPDATE (well into Sunday morning):
I received a Facebook message from a sister at church whose whole family is now down with the flu asking for help teaching her new Primary class.  What my husband doesn't know yet is that tomorrow (or I guess today since it's weeeelllll after midnight) we're teaching a combined class of 7, 8, 9, and 10 year-old Primary kids (apparently there is a teacher shortage at the moment)! On the first and third Sundays, we teach the 11/12 year-old Sunday school class, but last week someone covered for us since we were still sick enough we didn't want to accidentally spread it to our church friends.  Now we can pay-it-forward by teaching for someone else... and by we, I mean me.  I am going to stay up until I'm done preparing a lesson for the kiddos.  So, technically, this counts toward my scripture reading goal, right???

The Witnesses

We haven't "officially" begun reading The Book of Mormon yet in the traditional sense of hitting the ground running with First Nephi.  We read the testimonies of the three and eight witnesses this evening... and by evening, I mean we got to bed, set our alarms, and then panic ensued because we didn't get any reading done and it was only day two!  My husband pulled up the audio for both testimonies on his phone and I read along on mine.

We reviewed both testimonies a few times to review the differences between the two, the most prominent being that the testimony of the eight bore witness to the physical aspects of the gold plates, while the testimony of the three bore witness to spiritual aspects of such as well.

The eight testified of the following:

• Joseph Smith was in possession of and showed them the plates / they saw the plates
• The plates had "the appearance of gold" 
• They physically touched all the pages or "leaves" that Joseph had translated / they "hefted" the plates
• They saw the engravings on the pages and acknowledged that they had "the appearance of ancient work, and [were] of curious workmanship"
• They "lie not" 
• Their testimony was given in a serious manner or "soberness" to all people 

The three testified of the following:

• "Through the grace of God" and Christ, they saw the plates
• The plates contain the "record of the people of Nephi," the Lamanites, and the people of Jared
• The plates were "translated by the gift and power of God" because they heard His voice "declare it unto" them, therefore they "know of a surety that the work is true"
• They saw the engravings on the pages by "the power of God, and not of man" / it was "an angel of God" who "came down from heaven" and showed them the plates
• Their testimony was given in a serious manner or "soberness" to all people 
• "The voice of the Lord commanded" them that they "should bear testimony of these things"
• "If we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgement-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens"***

I put the *** at the end there because this particular phrase brought up a question of what it meant.  My husband dozed off soon after vocalizing the curiosity, but I've stayed up and poked around for some information.  Keith H. Meservy, professor emeritus of ancient scripture at BYU, provided insights HERE that helped me with this.  It is now my understanding that the three witnesses were testifying that if they are faithful in Christ, they will share the truth that they know, which is what will "rid [their] garments of the blood of all men."  This applies to us, too.  We all have the responsibility of sharing the truth with others... our children, our families, our friends, our neighbors... if anyone is not taught the truth, the burden of their lack of knowledge ("the blood of men" or their spiritual death) is essentially on us.

That's heavy stuff there, eh?

I also would like to share some material below that I found valuable to our study from the first lesson in this new year's "Come Follow Me" curriculum for Sunday School.  The additional resources at the end of the lesson included the following two insights that I found quite powerful in their illustration of the humanity of all men (even those who have seen angels and heard God's voice) as well as the validity of one's testimony despite the paths one may take off the "straight and narrow."

The Importance of the Three Witnesses

The Testimony of John Whitmer