Hi, and welcome to the Scriptures or Real podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Mulesstein, and on this podcast, we just sit down and talk about times when the scriptures came to life for us or when they became more real, because we believe that there's a great power in the scriptures.

And the more real they become to you, the more you can apply them to your life.

And the more you'll be drawn into them to see you through those hard times in life.

And so we're just going to talk about times the scriptures became real to us.

I'm so excited for our guest today. I'm here

with Andrew Skinner, who is, I feel a dear friend of mine. He has been the department chair

of the ancient scripture department, the department that I'm in. He was the dean of religious

education. He became the director of the foundation of ancient research and Mormon studies and oversaw its transition into becoming the Maxwell Institute for religious studies. But more than that, he is just a fantastic guy. I've been privileged to teach at the Jerusalem Center with Brother Skinner.

And I had looked up to him even before I was hired. And he's a prodigious writer and a fantastic speaker.

And I looked up to those things and knew he was good. But you don't really learn how good someone is until you're with them in the Holy Land.

And they start pointing out, you know, you thought you knew some things and they point out a thousand things you didn't know.

And you also feel of their testimony and the way they teach and love students.

And I can't give a more ringing endorsement than I would give for Brother Skinner.

So welcome to the podcast.

Well, Dr. Mealstein, thank you very, very much for that laudatory introduction.

It's almost as though my mother wrote it.

I appreciate what you said.

Obviously, you need to divide that by 20. And as you, as we will discover together.

Your wife told me what to say. I'm just kidding that. Anyway, he does have a wonderful life as well.

Yeah. Everybody spares no time or expense to remind me.

I married miles above me.

So now that we know that, we can talk a little bit about the scriptures.

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