I don't know when I have been touched so tenderly and I mean it...you 3 dear friends and sisters have really touched me...I love your imagery - Debbie, you running up the stairs; Linda, you playing the piano and the comments about your Mom; and Sandee that image of the girls in the halls reading their scriptures ought to be in the Ensign (I was just sitting down with the children looking at all the pictures in the Ensign - I look so forward to the pictures; they're so touching - tiny hands in bigger ones, older people in walkers being helped down steps, saints from around the world, chubby cheek children...)....thank you all for your beautiful sentiments and thank you Debbie for suggesting this!

Here's a quote you'll like: scripture study is a harmonizing echo of distant lessons already learned, a wondrous review of divine instruction gleaned firsthand from the Creator Himself. Wisdom already planted in our hearts and mind by virtue of the preparation and instruction we have received in the premortal realm....it's an "adventure in remembering"; those who read and ponder the word of God thru the Spirit will experience that remarkable sensation of seeming to recover, line upon line, what was known long before the veil of forgetfulness was placed upon us at birth...the messengers of the scriptures will speak to us...be that familiar spirit (2 Ne 26:16).

My "adventure in remembering"....my parents joined the church when I was 3 or 4. My earliest memories of studying the scriptures was when I was about 12; propped up in my bed reading and reading, night after night - no one told me to; but I loved reading the scriptures...I was even teased by other girls in the YW's (in a good way I suppose)...because I loved the scriptures....
it was always "a part of me" - it was always a feeling of "recovering line upon line" what was known before the veil - there was not 1 experience or a prayer that testified of the truth for me; I had just always known....

What I can testify of is it's not always about the words that are being read -- but as I read the words, a connection builds, a bond grows, I feel drawn to my Father in a way that I know Him better, I see Him in everything...one night for no reason AT ALL I was just feeling a little low and as I let Sugar out before bed in the dark for her potty-break; I was pondering why am I feeling low for no reason....then the clouds parted at that very moment and one of the planets shone through the little break in the clouds and in the moonlight just was as bright as can be - it seemed to say to me "I am here; not far, I love you" - it was so powerful, it made me cry...I stared at it for awhile smiling as if I was looking at my Father, then it tucked back in the clouds....there's been similar such experiences at just the moment I needed them - the Book of Mormon is power - power in ways we don't even realize or know how to express ~ my love to you all:)