Lesson 1

Opening Discussion Post
President Monson took a great deal of time and energy to present in the topic of communication because he wanted to make sure that he conveyed what he and the Lord felt were necessary messages. Both time and communication are very valuable commodities that are needed to survive mortality, but they are two of the most troublesome things to man simply because they are not always used in an effective manner. It may simply be a matter of not knowing how to communicate effectively and that might be why conflict happens, so instead of continuing to foster conflict, people need to learn how to communicate effectively in order to prevent or stop an active conflict from growing. There are many types of communication and not all of the types are always used properly simply because people don't know how to use them. Many academic and non-academic courses are available to teach people how to communicate properly, but people often fear learning new things because it means that they will need to step out of their comfort zone and use a little faith. Faith is not always an easy thing to exercise. 

As far as writing goes, it is a very expressive type of communication and great detail can be used to make a point, but at the same time, one has to know what points are pertinent to include in writing and what points will prove ineffective to the written word. Even if people are shaky with their verbal communication, they can still express themselves through writing and communicate effectively using that medium so long as they understand the finer points of writing. If one does not understand how to write, it is very possible to learn as long as one is willing to take the time and energy to learn. President Monson is good at both verbal and written communication not only because he understands the finer points of both communication mediums and practices them, he also continually works to have the Spirit with him and all things are possible through the Spirit of God even if we do not see it as being possible. The Spirit of God has the ability to help us be strong even in our weaknesses.


Knowing about proper communication helps us to have the confidence to use it to not only get to know others around us, but to also foster a sense of unity with others by creating open relationships. Creating such unity is a gesture of love and charity is the pure love of Christ put into action. When we have enough confidence in ourselves to use communication to build unity with others, positive feelings such as friendship and love eventually develop and when we are harboring and expressing love, that invites the Spirit of God to be with us. When we have the Spirit of God with us, we are more likely to receive personal revelation and when we receive revelation, we need to record it either on paper so we can reflect upon what we are taught or we need to record it in our hearts. Writing down things that we are taught through God's Spirit tells God that we are listening to what he has to tell us and that we are open to future revelations. Even if we never share what we write with anyone else when it comes to revelation, we need to write our personal revelations down so we can show God that we have heard him and actually care about what He has to tell us. When we actively show God that we care about what He has to say, He will often give us more revelation. We keep the Spirit with us by recording revelation and showing God that we care about learning as much as He cares about teaching us.
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I then went to this week's lesson about Paragraph and Essay Development and watched videos about paragraphs, Microsoft Word for beginners, and clarity. It said in the paragraphs video that paragraphs are the building blocks of your paper and they are often mistakenly defined by length instead of by a specific idea or topic. The format of a paragraph is presenting an idea and supporting evidence starting with a topic sentence and followed by evidence that supports it.

I then did the quiz on fragments twice and ended up with an average of 90%, which is 9/10.

After that, I did the readings and also wrote the first draft of a love letter to my temple recommend.