[Teachldsseminary] [Seminary-Notes] Memorization Perspective

[Wes Rook]

Thanks for the info, Ken.  
In my area, we have a program that allows the students to Letter-in-Seminary (like an athelete "letters" in a sport).  It is a big commitment for the students.  It was slow to get going the first few years, but about 80% of my class (and some of their parents) are going to letter this year.  One Seminary class in my stake had 100% of the students Letter last year.  Here are the requirements (taken from the booklet they received on the first day):
_____ Read the entire D&C

_____ Read the entire Joseph Smith History

_____ Read 200 days for 10 minutes or more

_____ Memorize the 25 Mastery Scriptures word-for-word and pass them off to your teacher.

_____ Memorize the current First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 in order and pass it off.

_____ Complete Seminary with full credit

_____ Memorize the books of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon, and pass them off.


Just thought I would pass that along, so you can see that some of our youth really CAN memorize the SM.

Wes Rook
Sacramento, CA



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ScriptureMastery at KenAlford.com>
To: <wesrook at comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 12:33 PM
Subject: [Seminary-Notes] Memorization Perspective


> 
> [Seminary-Notes]
> ====================================
> FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
> ====================================   
> 
> 
> I encourage Seminary students, who have the ability,
> to memorize all 25 scripture mastery scriptures each
> Seminary year -- so that they will have memorized all
> 100 scripture mastery scriptures before they graduate 
> from Seminary.
> 
> Periodically, students (who are perfectly capable)
> have complained that what I am asking them to do is 
> "just too hard."
> 
> In The Washington Post newspaper this week, I was
> reminded of a practice in Islam that should help
> our students keep their scripture mastery memorization 
> efforts in proper perspective.
> 
> In Islam, hafiz is a title given to those individuals
> who memorize THE ENTIRE KORAN in Arabic-- that means 
> memorizing all 114 Surahs (chapters), more than 6,200 
> Arabic verses which contain about 80,000 words.
> 
> The article discussed an 8th grade 13-year-old young 
> man in Woodbridge, Virginia who became a hafiz when 
> he was just 10-years-old!
> 
> The article noted that sometimes a hafiz who memorizes 
> the Koran in Arabic does not actually speak Arabic.  As 
> the article stated, "It is like learning part of the 
> Bible in Latin when you don't speak Latin."  (Source: 
> "Two Boy Imams Fill A Holy Month Void in Prince William," 
> by Theresa Vargas, The Washington Post, October 1, 2006, 
> pp. 1, 18.)
> 
> 100 scripture mastery scriptures memorized over four 
> years doesn't seem too much when viewed from that 
> perspective, does it?
> 
> As Elder Joseph M. Tanner noted during a General
> Conference talk in April 1901...
> 
> "And we take it that it is desirable that our children 
> should learn to memorize important passages; such that 
> will leave a strong impression upon their lives; 
> scriptural passages that they will use as their 
> guiding star; scriptural passages that will help 
> to form convictions in their minds of right and wrong; 
> scriptural passages that will bring conviction 
> to their hearts."
>  -- Elder Joseph M. Tanner, Conference Report, 
>     April 1901, pp. 77-78
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Ken
> 
> www.KenAlford.com 
> ScriptureMastery at KenAlford.com
> (703) 866-9414
> 
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