By Melissa Plowman
Walking through the halls of the Wilkinson Student Center and hearing the words, ?I?m going to make it? has happened frequently at BYU this semester.
Because when President Gordon B. Hinckley speaks, members of the LDS Church listen.
As of July 25, President Hinckley issued a challenge to the church members to read the Book of Mormon before years end. Many BYU students accepted this challenge with full force.
Christy Thomas, a special education major from Iowa, said she found a way to combine two of her favorite activities.
?Bath?s are important to me and reading the scriptures are also important, so I just combined the two,? Thomas said. ?I have a little Book of Mormon. It?s one of the cheap ones from the distribution center, and it?s wet all the way through to the point the pages stick together.?
Before Thanksgiving, Gavin Ripp, a senior from Dallas majoring in economics, said he had fallen behind in his reading. But during the break, he spent the whole time catching up. Once he caught up to his girlfriend, Ripp made it interesting by putting a dinner on the line for whoever finishes first.
?I?m about 15 pages behind,? said Ripp as of Wednesday. ?You better believe I?m going to win, are you kidding me! I?m a hypocrite for reading the scriptures and making bets. But I would make her a good old Texas barbecue and some good old Kool-Aid to go with it.?
BYUSA President Adam Larson has copies of the Book of Mormon in the different places he visits every day ? one in his apartment, one in his office, one at his parents house and one tucked away in his car.
BYUSA started passing out ?Y read? cards the week of Sept. 19, which includes a chart with the chapters to help students fill out how much they have read. Larson said even within the last week, people have been picking up the cards, trying to catch up to President Hinckley?s challenge.
?They are starting late but starting nonetheless,? Larson said. ?To our best estimate 10,000 cards have been passed out.?
In the annual Christmas Devotional, President Hinckley said more people are possibly reading the Book of Mormon than at any other time in the history of the church.
?Now it has been suggested that as the year draws to a close and many of you are concluding your reading of the Book of Mormon, you may wish to share it as a gift to others who do not have it,? President Hinckley said.
To finish out the ?Y read? campaign and in an effort to follow the prophet as a student body, BYUSA bought 1,000 copies of the Book of Mormon for people to pass out to friends with their testimony of the book included inside.
?It took us five hours to get the copies of the Book of Mormon from church distribution because of the weather conditions,? Larsen said. ?In two and a half hours, we had passed them all out. Hopefully they are in good hands with people that are committed to give it to someone and share their testimony at the same time.?
BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson said he is pleased so many students have accepted the challenge to read the book by the end of the year.
?Recently, as I walked through one of the halls in the Wilkinson Student Center, I couldn?t help but notice how many students, some lying on their backs, were reading from the Book of Mormon,? President Samuelson said. ?One of our students even raised her scriptures as I passed and said, ?President, I?m going to make it!''?
Fortunately, school will end a few weeks before the end of year, and students will have a chance to catch up if they need it, he said.
?I commend these students, as I do everyone who is striving to make it,? President Samuelson said.