Hearing the Word

O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
~Jeremiah 22:29

I love studying the scriptures. I'll admit that I've been less diligent about it lately, but I definitely feel a difference in my life when I pay more attention to scripture study. A few years ago, when President Hinckley invited the membership of the church to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to do it. I was working and going to school, and it seemed that I spent more time in my car than at home. I discovered that the scriptures were online in .mp3 format, so I downloaded them to my ipod and began listening.

I found that having audio scriptures gave me the chance to make my commute productive, but there were some annoying factors as well. First was that if I wanted to listen to actual music, I had to scroll through screens and screens of scriptures before getting to songs. Second was that if I had to stop in the middle of a chapter, I would lose my place if I waited too long to pick it back up again. Third was that the narrator is irritating.

I'm pleased to say that last week I found solutions to the first two problems. (No help on the annoying narrator voice, though.) I downloaded some audio books, and I was pleased to notice that they were in a separate section of my ipod, labeled conveniently "audiobooks". They didn't clutter up my music playlists, and best of all, they were bookmarkable. I wouldn't lose my place even if I plugged my ipod in, listened to other audiobooks, or listened to music.

I googled to see if anyone had made the scriptures in audiobook format. I wasn't able to find it, but I found the next best thing. There is a free computer program available that will convert .mp3 files into .m4b files, the ipod audiobook format. It also allows you to take multiple .mp3s and make them into a large audiobook. I downloaded it and it works great. Instead of having hundreds of files across 87 playlists in my music section (one for each book in the standard works), I have 12 files sitting in my audiobook section. My ipod is neat and tidy and I can find my music again.

The Gall of Bitterness

For the past few months, I've had random nausea and stomach pain after eating. It didn't happen all the time, or even consistently with the same foods. Mostly it has been fatty foods, spicy foods, and onions. I finally decided to go to the doctor yesterday, and he thinks it's my gallbladder. I need to get an ultrasound to see if that's the problem, and if it is, I'll probably need surgery.

I'm extremely nervous about this. I was hoping it was something easy like an ulcer. (My mom had ulcers a few years ago, and she just took some medicine for a few months and recovered with no problems.) I've never had surgery before, unless you count getting my wisdom teeth removed. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is wrong won't require surgery, and that I'll have it all taken care of before I start school again in 3 weeks.

Around the Bloggernacle- Volume 3

Here is another installment of posts around the Bloggernacle that I found to be interesting.

Ronan at By Common Consent has a post about recurring dreams. It seems that many people dream about returning to their mission area.

Kiskilili at Zelophehad's Daughters has a random survey post where the commenters are encouraged to respond to a set of questions. Apparently the cello is quite popular among readers of that blog.

The Baron at The Waters of Mormon is doing a series of posts on movies. It contains a discussion of what our standards of propriety really mean, what the ratings mean, etc. I found it interesting.

In other news, I've completely rearranged my bedroom furniture, and both of my roommates are moving out. My cat is upset by this development because her tidy little world has been upended. I'm sure she'll be happier once my roommate's cat is gone. (Those two cats can't stand one another.) Now I get to go through the hassle of finding new roommates.