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In part two of “The Power of the Pencil,” Cindy Young teaches how annotating scriptures—writing short notes, single words, tags, or questions in the margins—can turn passive reading into active study. She explains tagging story sections at the top of pages to quickly find and review specific scripture stories, and highlights this week’s reading in Exodus 14–18, including the Red Sea crossing and manna. Cindy shares simple annotation ideas such as writing “WOW,” naming unnamed principles like faith or courage, using digital tags for quick annotating, and writing questions beside underlined phrases, using Exodus 14:13 (“stand still”) as an example. She encourages starting small, suggests sticky notes, bookmarks, and wide-margin editions, and points viewers to a free worksheet on her website.

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
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Cindy Young introduces part one of her “Power of the Pencil” series on Primarily Scripture, explaining that while some people choose not to mark their scriptures, marking can help turn reading into studying by increasing interaction, retention, and recall. She shares childhood experiences with a red pencil, then gives beginner-friendly ways to start: use multiple colored pencils (with or without a strict color-coding system), switch colors to track ideas, and mark selectively by underlining or highlighting key words and phrases rather than whole verses. She also suggests using symbols like hearts, stars, and question marks to note love of God, memorization candidates, and questions to ponder over time, emphasizing that marking methods can change and should prioritize spiritual learning over aesthetics.

To see the video with Elder Bednar’s advice for marking scriptures: Gospel Library App > Books and Lessons > Seminary > Old Testament Student Manual > Scripture Study Skills > Annotating Scriptures > 2nd video down, under Marking Scriptures

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
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In this final part of her Understanding the Scriptures series, Cindy Young explains three types of scripture passages you’ll encounter—informational, stories, and sermons—how to identify them, and how to approach each. Informational sections (like genealogies, land descriptions, and laws) can be list-heavy and difficult, so she suggests skimming or even skipping long informational chapters if you’re not ready for a deep dive. Stories are easiest to follow, so she recommends retelling the events, looking for messages and character choices, noticing sequence, and applying principles to your life. Sermons focus on doctrine, commandments, warnings, and promises from prophets or the Lord, so she advises looking for truths taught, personal application, and what they teach about Jesus Christ. Come back next month to learn all about how using a pencil can enhance your scripture study.

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
Young Women
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In part 4 of her understanding the scriptures series, Cindy Young explains the power of “replacing” words to improve understanding. She teaches three ways to do this: first, identify antecedents by replacing confusing pronouns with the nouns they refer to; second, replace unfamiliar or old-fashioned terms with modern synonyms, noting that “my lord” can mean “you” respectfully and that “lord” can refer to a person while “Lord” refers to Jehovah or God; and third, insert your own name and life experiences into passages, using Joseph’s words in Genesis 45:4–5 to apply lessons about forgiveness, trials, and seeing God’s hand in difficult situations.

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
Young Women
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Cindy Young shares part three of her tips for understanding scripture. She explains that the manual skips some chapters and verses, encouraging beginners to focus on more relevant, doctrine-rich passages and return to harder sections later. She teaches viewers to look for lessons in the stories, using Joseph’s refusal of Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39 to identify adultery and the need for sexual purity, then to apply the lesson personally. Her final tip emphasizes inviting the Holy Ghost—through prayer, pondering, worthiness, or music—since “interpretations belong to God,” and the Lord being with Joseph models how spiritual help leads to understanding.

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
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Study Tips

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This week Cindy Young from Primarily Scripture shares simple study tips for Genesis 24–33, noting the heavy reading load and encouraging viewers to set or adjust goals to stay current if needed. Building on using modern Bible translations for understanding, she emphasizes returning to the King James Version to become comfortable with scriptural language, comparing it to learning a foreign language. She demonstrates breaking verses into phrases and looking up unfamiliar words like “peradventure,” and suggests paraphrasing passages in your own words. Cindy also highlights how Hebrew name meanings in footnotes (such as Reuben and Simeon) add depth, and applies Jacob’s “wrestle” and the name Israel (“let God prevail”) as encouragement to persist through difficult passages for spiritual understanding, line upon line.

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
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2 Must-Have Study Tips for Genesis 18–23 (Find Jesus + Actually Understand the Old Testament)

Since this week spans both Feb and March, you’re getting two study tips! We’ll talk about how understanding is absolutely essential, and Cindy shows you how to find Church approved Bible translations that can hep you better understand the difficult language of the Old Testament. Finally, she teaches a method to help you easily find Jesus in Old Testament stories that don’t even mention Him!

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
Young Women
Young Men
Temple
Aaronic Priesthood
Scripture Study
Study Tips

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We’ve talked all this month about finding Jesus in the scriptures, but this week’s tip is just a little different. Cindy will help you to find the pattern that Abraham used to unlock knowledge and connection with the Lord, and isn’t that what scripture study is all about?! To find that pattern, Cindy helps you look for action words, their objects (yes, a little like in English class!), and to rephrase them so they apply to scripture study. Don’t forget to download the free worksheet, which will help you find this pattern, too. Once you find the pattern, you can identify the secret ingredient that ties it all together, bringing power to Abraham’s life and to your scripture study!

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Don't forget the parable of the snowball: listening to someone else talk about the gospel is like having snowballs thrown at you. Reading the scriptures is like making your own snowball. Taking the time to search, ponder, and pray about what you've read is like rolling the snowball around and around so that it grows and grows. So don't just listen to me - please go read for yourself so your knowledge and testimony can grow and grow!!

Come Follow Me Old Testament
Beginners Guide to Scripture Study
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Book of Mormon
Doctrine and Covenants
CFM 2026
Teens, Youth, Kids, Family
Primary
LDS
Latter Day Saint
Young Women
Young Men
Temple
Aaronic Priesthood
Scripture Study
Study Tips