O Brother, Where Art Thou?

We got back from searching for Nephi yesterday. We spent nearly a week looking for him, but a couple days ago, Laman decided it was enough, and we started to head back. You would think a bunch of people with their herds, kids, tents, etc. would be easy to track, but we totally lost their trail within a couple hours of searching for them on the first day. Their trail seemed to lead right into a mountain and stop at its base. I wasn’t very familiar with that area, so I guess I’m remembering wrong, but I swear there wasn’t even a mountain there when we were hunting in that area last year. And our native friends were really confused by the mountain too, so maybe it’s not just me. Anyway, this threw a major wrench into the whole process, as we now had no idea which way to go.

Laman was saying we need to “think like Nephi” to figure out where he went, but that’s not exactly an easy task. For all we know he built another boat and sailed off to someplace else. I’m only half kidding.

On the way back to camp we were hungry, and Laman managed to shoot a mountain lion. I was initially hesitant about eating it because it’s not clean. Laman pointed out though that the Law of Moses was a covenant given to the Israelites that was attached to their inheritance of the land of Canaan. Therefore, it provided a law regarding the animals of that land. But if we want to survive in this new land, we must receive the spirit of the land from those who know it best—its wildlife. We cooked and ate most of the mountain lion, but Laman left a small part uncooked that we then ate. He said that just as God had allowed us to survive on raw meat in the wilderness to protect us from the consequences of Dad's actions, we would continue to show our remembrance of God's protection by this token.

Laman isn’t normally the type to get too religious, so it was good to see him open up a bit more to the things of God. I see the mantle of leadership falling on him as he ponders not just the physical, but also the spiritual welfare of our family.

Anyway, we’re going to strengthen our defenses to ensure we’re prepared for any future raids Nephi might conduct against the family. He’s chosen to break off and no doubt views us as threats to his claims of authority. He’s stolen the brass plates, which we too risked our lives to acquire. I’m sad he’s chosen this road. Now Nephi is a brother by blood only, not by any real relation.