So Saturday mornings at the Green household meant work. Nearly every Saturday we would either wake up to my Father repeatedly using the high pitch call button on our intercome or, even worse, the silent call of his work list on the table waiting patiently for us to discover it. I remember one particular morning we came down and discovered one of these said lists. There was a column for each child with a bullet list of chores. Some chores were to be shared by more than one child, and some chores were for all of us to conquer. The only good thing about it was, if all of us finished our Dad would take us to dinner and the movies. Because of this we usually tried to work together anyways so that all of us would be done in time to enjoy the evening with the family. On that fateful day we all had one shared chore; weed the gap between our yard and the dirt horse road behind our yard. The dirt there was hard as rock and the weeds tall and daunting. We decided to tackle that chore last. Working with speed and frenzy through the rest of the list, we quickly reconvened to tackle the chore of the day; weeding.
I remember getting a good grip on one of the weeds and pulling with all my might near the base of it; my reward was that my hand slid all the way up the weed and took off all of its branches yet, the weed hadn't moved from the dirt an inch. After several attempts of this from all of us we had roughly two of two thousand weeds pulled. Needless to say I was discouraged, and I began to "murmer".
Now I would like to pause here because this story came to mind as I read the account of Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. This was a far more daunting and "unreasonable" task and yet it was required of the Lord. When asked to accomplish the task Nephi's brothers Lamen and Lamuel murmered saying it was "a hard thing" (1 Nephi 3:5). Nephi on the other hand had responded "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7). He led his brothers back to Jerusalem where they drew lots to see who would go and ask Laban, the owner of the plates, if they could have them. The lot fell on Lamen who went as asked and was chased out by guards. Essentially, he ran for his life back to his brothers. Like Lamen we had tried one way to get our job done that was asked of us by our Father, and it had failed miserably. At this point of our journey I, like Lamen and Lamuel, began to murmer. And yet I too had a brother to lead and help me to accomplish my goals and tasks. When Nephi's brothers were upset this is what he told them "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down...until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). He then suggested they go and get all their money to trade Laban for the plates. 
As Nephi sought new ways to accomplish, so did my brother Jared. He suggested we water the dirt until it was moist enough to get the roots of the weeds out. Re-energized we went right to work. Soon the whole area was watered down and excitedly I reached to pull out a weed. To my extreme disapointment I discovered that the weeds still wouldn't budge, and now I was all wet and muddy. Just as Nephi's plan to bring their money for trading failed and caused Nephi and his brothers to again run for their lives, this time leaving behind all their possesions, my brother's idea had backfired too. It seemed we were going backwards... At this point in the Nephi account Lamen/Lamuel began to beat him with a rod. Now I didn't go that far, especially since my brother was a lot older than I, but I did start to wonder if we would ever get done. Exasperated I began again to murmer. But my brother did not. He called my Dad to ask for his advice. Luckily my Dad was on his way home and was able to come out and see our progress and provide council. This is exactly what Nephi did, he sought the Lord's council and left for the city being led by the Holy Ghost, "not knowing beforehand what he would do" (1 Nephi 4:6). But he was led, and he was finally able to get the plates because of his Heavenly Father's guidance... 
Now if you are wondering if my own weed story has a happy I'm here to tell you it did. After my Dad poked at some weeds for a bit he got the weed wacker and demolished them all in under an hour. We all showered and were able to go to dinner that night with our job completed. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father in my life that works with us in the same way. We are all asked to do hard things. Sometimes we try and we try and we try and things just get worse. But just like Nephi and his brothers, I know if we do all we know how to do and give the job our best effort, the Lord will ALWAYS step in and provide a way for us to finish it. So, let us like Nephi of old and my brother today, stand up and say in our lives "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). I know if we do we will always finish all that is asked of us, and we will in turn recieve the blessings that come with faith, diligence, and accomplishing all we are asked to accomplish.
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