Post by Enos:
Reading what Zoram just said about my Uncle Nephi makes me want to tell you some of my experiences with Uncle Nephi. But in contrast to Zoram and Uncle Sam who are the only ones left who lived in Jerusalem, I am among the first of Grandpa Lehi’s posterity that was born here in this land. Me and my cousins never saw Jerusalem nor did we experience the hardships they talk about having had to go through in the wilderness. That said, I don’t want you to think growing up in this promised land has been easy either.
But some of the great experiences I had growing up have been when I spent time with my Uncle Nephi. I miss him as much as anyone can.
I love to hunt. Though this land is full of wild beasts, there are skills required to keep you from becoming their prey rather than them being our prey. I’m recognized as a fine hunter, a skill I take pride in. But I must admit I learned these skills from my Uncle Nephi. My father is not bad with a bow either but nobody can touch Nephi with a bow and arrow, nor a sword for that matter. He not only knows how to use a bow, but he taught me how to craft a bow and the arrows so they have perfect balance.
From my first memories, I remember being included with my cousins when Nephi would take is boys and go into the wilderness to hunt. These were great adventures. We would sit around the fire at night and Nephi would talk about his experiences in the old land. Nephi told us of the experience when his steel bow broke and he had to build a bow from wood and with hand made arrows he staved off starvation when Grandpa told him where to go find food.
Practically everything I know about hunting I learned from Nephi. When he got to this land Nephi again crafted these weapons from steel. This land if full of ore. I also learned these skills of metallurgy at his hand. Sadly, we have had to use these tools crafted for hunting to protect ourselves and our families from our very cousins – the children of my Uncles Laman and Lemuel.
If you’ve read many of the posts Nephi wrote, you will notice he didn’t include many great battle stories or much about our life here in the promised land. He told me once that it was because there would be other records kept with all that stuff but this blog was to encourage people to come unto Christ. I told him the readers would love to hear about some of our great adventures, but he wasn’t going to budge. I guess bring people to Christ is more important. My father and Uncle Nephi are a lot alike in that they both do look to Christ in everything. Someday I might take that spiritual stuff more seriously, but for now, we all miss Nephi, and as Zoram said, Nephi gave his whole life to leading us, protecting us and encouraging us to live in a maner to bring us the most happiness possible – both in this land and in the life after we “leave this mortal existence” as he calls it.
Farewell my dear uncle.
Enos
