I don't get it.
It just doesn't make sense.
What?
The reading assignment for seminary tomorrow just doesn't
make sense.
It's just about olive trees.
It can't be that bad.
I always skip over chapter 5 when I read the book of Jacob.
You'd skip the whole Book of Mormon.
I don't get it either.
I wish there was an easy way of figuring this stuff out.
I've never even seen an olive tree.
Sure you have.
They're the ones with the cans hanging off of them.
I just hope someone understands
it, because I'm lost.
There you are.
Up, up, you can't sit.
It's time to work.
Hey, what's going on here?
Where are we?
I have dance club tonight.
I can't miss that.
Enough jabbering, it's time to work.
Now, you two take these pruning hooks and start on
those trees right there.
You two can start digging around these trees.
And you can start dunging.
Work.
How?
We don't know how to prune.
You don't know how--
you don't know how to prune?
Who would have sent me laborers who
don't know how to prune?
Excuse me, we're students.
Ahh, you're the students, not the laborers.
You're the students.
I knew that.
You're here to learn how to take care of olive trees.
You know, they take a lot of work and caring and attention.
They're worth every minute.
It kind of sounds like a lot just to have
olives on your pizza.
Derek.
We use them for a lot more than that.
We use the oil for medicine.
We burn the oil in our lamps for light.
And we also eat fruit for food.
But enough jabber, it's time to work.
We're students, remember, not laborers.
Don't we need to talk about the allegory?
We learn by doing first, then by talking.
Come on with me over here, and I'll teach you how to care for
a vineyard.
Come on over here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You dig around the roots like this.
You got it?
Yeah, I can handle it.
We dig around the roots because the air unlocks the
minerals in the soil, allowing them to nourish the tree.
Go over there and get some dung, please.
Dung, what's dung?
It's grass that's been recycled through an animal.
Good, now why don't you go get some.
Who knows why we use dung?
It's used to nourish the tree.
That's very good.
Have you dunged much before?
No, I've just read about it.
Ah.
All right, you just take some of this and work it into the
soil like that.
Now, who has those pruning hooks?
Well, dung.
Careful with those; they're sharp.
You prune by cutting off some of the branches like this.
But won't that hurt the tree?
Well, that's what the tree thinks.
So in order to survive, it puts all the strength into the
remaining branches, and the tree produces more fruit.
So pruning helps it produce more.
Exactly, but sometimes pruning isn't enough.
We also have to graft.
Grafting helps the tree in a different way.
Jill, bring this basket, will you please?
When you graft, you take a strong, tame branch, just good
fruit, and you cut it like this.
And then, put it on a wild branch that ordinarily
produces bad fruit.
And then you cover the graft with mud and dung.
Then you bind the two together on the graft.
Finger?
And the new branch brings forth good fruit.
That's pretty neat.
Can I try?
Does this mean I have to get more dung?
Not just yet.
Now we need to talk.
Remember the tame olive tree that you talked
about in your class?
Yeah.
We're going to walk through the vineyard now and find a
tree that looks just like that.
Let's see how well you've learned.
How are you going to try to save this tree?
Dig it.
Dung it.
Prune it.
Graft it.
All right, that's pretty good.
Now, I'm going to take these new shoots and graft them
farther out on the vineyard.
And while I'm gone, I want you to take care of this tree.
Cut out the dead branches, and graft in some wild branches.
And while you're doing that, think about this: If this tree
represents the house of Israel, what condition are the
children of Israel in?
And what is the Lord trying to do with them?
[MUSIC PLAYING]