Card of the week: Write Our Stories

Verse:  BoM, 2 Nephi 25:23

Text: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ.”

Verse Rule: DISCARD: Mastery
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Histories
Icons: W, H, L

In Evangelical Christian theological circles, it’s often believed that Mormons are not Christian. Whether or not that’s true depends on what you mean by “Christian”. I don’t see how someone can look at this verse, or another one close to it, in verse 25, and think that we’re not Christian.

In reality, it simply means that even though we all strive to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, if I don’t believe the same things about Jesus that you do, then you can label me “not a true Christian”.

Oh, well...

The verse rules of this card were actually inspired by a mechanic from Magic: the Gathering. In that game, if someone plays a card that you don’t like, and you have a card with the “counter” ability, you can make your opponent’s play fizzle, and his card is discarded.

It’s a way to either keep your opponent from getting too much traction, or to prevent the play of a really powerful card.

In Seeker’s Quest, however, we do that with a twist: The DISCARD: Mastery mechanic! It’s a DISCARD ability, so you can trigger it in someone else’s turn, when they play something. That also means that you have to discard your verse, so you can’t go doing it over and over, unless you have more verses with the ability. “Mastery” means that your opponent has to be able to quote the text of the verse he’s attempting to play in order to successfully play it!

It means that when you’re about to make a key play, you’ll want to read over your verses in case someone goes all Mastery on you!

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the Week - Receive Me

Verse: DC, D&C 84:35

Text: “And also they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord.”

Verse Rule: ABILITY: When you play this verse or another priesthood verse, you may draw a verse.
Sacrifice Cost: 2
Markers: Priesthood
Icons:  S, W, F

There are many things that make Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) different from other religions, even unique among Christian sects. Many of them are cultural, some are political, others are doctrinal.

One difference between us and other Christians that I feel is key is the priesthood authority that we claim. We believe that the early church organized by Jesus and the apostles fell into apostacy over the years. We believe that as the apostles, who were chosen and ordained by Jesus Himself, were killed or died, that priesthood was lost.

We also believe that this priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith and others as a part of the overall restoration of the Gospel in the 1830’s and 1840’s. There are many revelations explaining the priesthood and documenting this restoration, but the best one to read is D&C 20.

This week’s featured verse is all about receiving that priesthood. It allows you draw a verse everytime you play a verse with a priesthood marker.

This verse doesn’t have a thematic marker. I thought it would be a little interesting to have a verse with just the priesthood marker, but to give it three different icons instead.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Latter-Day Voices

Each time General Conference rolls around, I have a lot of fun on Twitter and Facebook! I love livetweeting what I'm hearing, and reading the thoughts that others post. You can kind of get a feeling for the zeitgeist of Mormondom based on the lines they tweet. Those are the quotes that hit people.

So, I pick out some of the more commonly tweeted and retweeted lines, and I've started to make those into verse cards! Between last year's conferences and this year's, I'll soon have enough for a booster to make available.

Here are some of the ones for this year:

This one, named "Crazy Life" came from Pres Uchtdorf's Saturday talk about simplifying life. I grabbed that one word and decided that was the power of the verse. I'll make it simple, with the Quote mechanic!

When Elder Maynes talked about the pottery class, and then the sister after him also mentioned the concept in some hymn lyrics, I knew that would make a great verse card. Especially since the potter's whee is such a cool visual. This quote was a nice gem of wisdom, so the icons were easy to choose. I didn't think this one needed any special rules.

So, those will do instead of the regular featured card of the week, right?




Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the Week - Rememberance

Verse:  NT, Luke 24:8

Text: “...And they remembered his words.”

Verse Rule: Quote OR DISCARD: Play after chosen player fails to quote a verse. That quote attempt succeeded instead.
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Wisdom
Icons: W, H

So, this is kind of a fun and useful verse.

In the context of the scriptures, it’s quite joyous. This is when the women returned to the sepulcher to tend to the body and encounter the angel. He tells them that Jesus has risen, and quotes them the things Jesus said about the resurrection.

...And they remembered his words.

Then, they rushed off and told the apostles.

In the context of the game, I had a little bit of fun with it. I kinda ripped it out of context and just thought of the text, and of remembering the words. First of all, it had to be a Quote verse, because that’s all about remembering the words. Then, what if you flub a quote? What if you mess up and don’t remember? It seems to me that you should be able to have a “gimme” card that lets you succeed anyway. That’s what this one does. If you fail a quote, either for a verse’s ability, or if you get challenged, you can discard this verse, and treat it like you had quoted it perfectly.

It’s nice for some forgiveness, right? Like someone’s got your back.

Other than that, it’s a nice way to drop a W or H icon for free, because the quote itself on this verse is really easy. Also, it’s a nice cheap throwaway verse in case you have to play some powerful 3-drop pearl verse!  Like I said, a fun, useful verse!

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: My Holy Day

Verse:  DC, D&C 59:9

Text: “Thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;”

Verse Rule: none
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Strength
Icons: S

There have been times in my life when I just didn’t want to go to church. I think everyone goes through that a time or two. At those times, I often would try to talk myself into staying home by telling myself that I didn’t have to actually GO to church, I could just stay at home and study on my own, and that would be just as good.  Maybe even better, on a day when the High Councilman was speaking.

Even at the time, I knew that was wrong. I knew I was rationalizing. I knew that I would go back to sleep or get distracted or something and not end up studying.

I also knew that I would miss out on the connectivity, the camaraderie of church. I know that church should be a personal spiritual experience, and we don’t go to just to socialize, but interacting with each other and strengthening each other is a very important thing, too.

I think that’s why we’re commanded, in this verse, to go to church.

Now, this particular verse, in game, isn’t particularly powerful. It only has one icon, Strength, and it has no verse rules. I think it’s very important to include a lot of these kinds of verses in a constructed deck. It’s nice to have cheap verses to fill in a chapter and allow you to close up a book. It’s also good to have sacrificial fodder. If you want to play something really big and cool, it’s good to have small, weak verses to sacrifice to play it. If your hand is filled with power verses, you’ll be less eager to sacrifice any of them.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The First Vision

Verse:  PGP, Joseph Smith History 1:16

Text:  “I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun...”

Verse Rule: Unique. ALSO, Quote. ALSO, EFFECT: Search your deck for up to two chosen Histories verses, and set them into the same chapter as this verse.
Sacrifice Cost: 3
Markers: Histories, Epic Event, Testimonies
Icons: W, F, HH

This verse, in many ways, is the key to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It describes the moment that God, the Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the woods near his home in Palmyra, New York, in a place we now call, “The Sacred Grove”.

This one moment expresses so many of our core doctrines and beliefs.

• That God wants to communicate with his children, and does so through prophets, in all times and ages.
• That God and Jesus are separate individuals that work together as one.
• That God and Jesus are both physical beings with omnipotent reach.

Such a defining event expressed on a game card should be huge, right? it should be a game changer. So, to be able to drop a bunch of histories icons on single chapter in one turn can really change it up. That’s plenty powerful, to be sure. Then, to be able to quote it and play it for free, well, that just takes it over the top. That’s why it’s also Unique. It only happens once in a game.

Just like the event itself.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: Live Again!

Verse:  1 Corinthians 15:20

Text: “But now is Christ risen from the dead.”

Verse Rule: DISCARD: Discard this verse and up to two other chosen verses from your hand to retrieve that many other chosen verses from your discard to your hand.
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Histories
Icons: Faith, Histories

This week, we continue on our quest for verses to help make our “Glory of God/Work of God” deck the most amazing deck ever. This one is a great helper verse.

The verse itself is all about asserting the reality of the resurrection. What is amazing, of course, about Christ’s resurrection is that it sets up the gift of our own resurrection when the time is right. Resurrection is a gift that the Lord has given to us all, regardless of our choices or our circumstances.  We are all saved from physical death. The atonement in the Garden makes it possible for us to repent and be saved from spiritual death.

The beauty of this card in the Glory/Work deck, is that it can fetch those two verses back to your hand. Once you’ve played them and closed a book, of course, they go to your discard. But then, you can play Live Again! as a discard and retrieve them back to your hand to play again. Notice that you don’t retrieve Live Again! The wording on the verse means that you have to chose other verses, as it can’t fetch itself.

So, the fact that Jesus has set us all up to resurrect is a part of the “combo” that allows Heavenly Father’s Work and Glory to move forward!


Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The Marvel

Verse:  Isaiah 29:14

Text: “…Behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder”

Verse Rule: EFFECT: Seek: "Work"
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Wisdom, Histories
Icons: W, H

So, last week, I had a brilliant idea! The game mechanic that we had previously named “Keyword” should be named “Seek”! This is the mechanic that allows me to search through the verse texts in my deck for a particular keyword, then to put that verse into my hand. Since you’re seeking through your deck, it should be called “Seek”.

It was such a clever stroke of genius! It would tie the game play even closer to the name of the game, The Seeker’s Quest, and it’s more descriptive of the action of the mechanic.

What wasn’t quite so brilliant or such a stroke of genius about it was the fact that it meant that I had to spend lots of hours changing the graphics on about 1-2 dozen cards, a couple of which I had to recreate from scratch. THEN, I had to fix the rules booklets!

*sigh*

So, to celebrate the change, the Verse of the Week is one of the ones that changed, The Marvel. It’s built on the verse in Isaiah that talks about the “marvelous work and a wonder” that is about to come forth. That verse is requoted several times in the Doctrine and Covenants as well.

The work and wonder that it refers to is the restored Gospel, of course. LeGrand Richards used the phrase as the title to the book used as an introduction to the church, written when he was a mission president.

This verse rule used in this card is to seek out another verse with the keyword “Work”. The idea is that the “marvelous work and a wonder” is “about to come forth”, so playing the verse allows you to seek through your deck and fetch a “work”, so you can bring it forth.  It’s especially useful when you construct a deck using “The Work of God” or “The Glory of God”, http://chapterandversegame.blogspot.com/2015/06/card-of-week-work-of-god.html

This is a great way to seek out these two powerful cards and getting them ready to play so you can close up lots of books!


Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The Sealing Power

Verse:  NT: Matthew 16:19

Text: “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”

Verse Rule: None
Sacrifice Cost: 2
Markers: Wisdom, Priesthood
Icons: W, W, F

This one is interesting to me. I pull these out of my deck box at random, and then start writing. But just this last week, I’ve been musing a lot on how blessed I am to have a wonderful wife to whom I am sealed for time and all eternity.

We were married in 1987 in August (so our anniversary is coming up). We’ve had a wonderfully rocky marriage, especially the first three to five years. There were many times when we were working things out that we were each very upset at each other. And yet, at no time did I ever consider divorce as an option. As we’ve talked, she’s expressed this as well. We were committed to the idea of being committed to each other. We had promised ourselves to each other for eternity, so that meant we had to work out the problems we were facing.

Well, as we did that, it kept getting better and better. Now, we’re looking at our 28th coming up next month! 28 years together! I can’t imagine life without her.

This verse card has a very stunning graphic, I think. I tried to capture the thought of something being both earthly and heavenly at the same time. This arc shot of earth from space fit the bill very nicely, I thought!

Thanks so much, Jodi, for all these terrific years!


Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the Week: Perfected in the Resurrection

Verse: NT, Corintians 15:42

Text: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption;”

Verse Rule: EFFECT: Exchange a chosen verse in one of your personal chapters with a chosen verse in your discard (its abilities are applied).
Sacrifice Cost:
Markers: Trials
Icons: W, F, T
Basic verse, Learning game

This verse, in its context in the New Testament, is teaching us about the Resurrection. It talks about how we all, being corrupt and mortal, will rise again, resurrected, perfected, and immortal.

This whole chapter talks about the reality and universality of the gift of the Resurrection. Verse 55: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

In the game, I worked the verse rule so that you could "resurrect" a verse and swap it out for another verse in your tabletop. The abilities of the verse thus brought forth are then applied.

This is particularly cool if there's a combo you've got going and you need a verse from your discard to trigger it.  Maybe you've already done the combo, closed the book, and now you want to do it again in another chapter. For example, what if you've got The Work of God and The Glory of God in a chapter. You close it up and receive your blessings. But now those two key verses are in your discard. If you get another copy of one of them in your hand, you can use Perfected in the Resurrection to swap it out from the graveyard and there you have another quick book!

In addition to this, It's quite flexible with its icons, and it's only a 1-sac cost to play it. Quite a useful card!

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: Who Wants You to Pray?

Verse:  2 Nephi 32:8

Text: “...For the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth nim that he must not pray.”

Verse Rule: ABILITY: No opponent may activate a “Prayer” effect
Sacrifice Cost: 2
Markers: Trials
Icons: T, T
Power verse

While I was on my mission, I had a very powerful spiritual experience that started with a prayer. It’s not really the right place for me to go into detail here, but suffice to say that this experience really helped me to see the power of the priesthood and the gospel in a much purer light. It was such a profound experience for me that I even wondered for a time if it was from God.

Then, I found this verse. I realized that this experience had encouraged me to pray more and more, and the prepare myself more deeply when I prayed. Clearly, it had to have come from God. There was no other source. It was a great feeling to have it resolved.

When this verse came up in the Scripture Mastery list, it made me smile to remember that experience. I thought that it was all about trials and about overcoming them. It’s all about praying through your adversity.

The verse rule makes some players overcome the verse and work to eliminate the block so as to be able to benefit from the prayer effect again. This verse would be really effective against a deck that relies on the prayer mechanic to gather the right cards for a winning combo.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The Work of God

Verse:  PofGP, Moses 1:39

Text: “For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”

Verse Rule: ABILITY: If this verse is in the same chapter as “The Glory of God”, the chapter may be closed as a Wisdom Book.
Sacrifice Cost: 3
Markers: Strength
Icons: W, W

We are literally the spirit children of a great and loving God. I believe that to my core. And just like I want the best for my kids, He wants the best for His. And just like I should dedicate my life and work for the betterment of my own children, so has He.

So, this father’s day, I want to share one of my favorite verses, and one of my favorite combos. In fact, I based a whole deck on this combo.

The combo itself is, of course, obvious. You play “The Work of God”, and then you play “The Glory of God into the same chapter. Ba-boom. Quick and easy two blessings.

Where it gets crazy is when you build a deck around it.  Here’s how it works: First, you have three copies of each of these main cards in the deck. Then, you have other verses that can fetch these two directly, like verses with “Keyword: Man/Men” or “Keyword: Eternal”. Put three copies of each of those in your deck. Maybe even a few “Judgement Day”s to fetch the two back from the discard after you’ve used them. Finally, load your deck with higher-value Prayer Effect verses. These will help you cycle through your deck more quickly and get to these two verses. Then, add some simple 1-drop verses that you can either play into chapters your opponents are building, or use as sacrificial fodder to play the two big ones.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.