52 Apps in 52 Weeks

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we search and study the scriptures in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sometimes the tools we have—whether on the web or in the Gospel Library app—feel a little clunky, especially if you’re looking for an exact match or wanting to see every single mention of a given word. When you’re studying, it’s helpful to see each reference in scriptural order so you can read, analyze, and take notes on each verse. That’s why I decided to build my own scripture search tool that would not only provide a more comprehensive view of results but also give a count of how many times a word appears throughout the standard works.

I originally built a web-based version of this tool about six months ago. It was pretty simple to make, thanks to some JSON files of the scriptures available on GitHub. I used Python to parse the JSON and match keywords, then showed the results in a straightforward interface. While I shared the link with friends and family, it didn’t get a whole lot of traction. People tend to move on quickly when they see something new online, whereas the App Store has built-in discoverability—folks are always searching for Church-related apps, and I’ve noticed a spike in downloads for my Church projects every Sunday.

So, I took that same codebase—just HTML, CSS, and Python—and had AI help me convert it into SwiftUI for iOS. I spent a couple hours over a weekend polishing it up, then submitted it to the App Store, where it got approved on Monday morning. That was a neat reminder of how AI can really speed up personal software projects. I’m hoping people will find it useful, but if nothing else, I’m already loving it for my own study. I get a quick count of how many times a word appears, and it’s easy to jump around the scriptures in any order I like.

If you’re interested, feel free to give the app a try and let me know what you think. I built it mainly because I wanted a better tool for myself, but I’m more than happy to share it with others who might be looking for a more exact way to explore scriptural references. Let me know if you have any ideas or feedback. Happy studying!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lds-scriptures-search-tool/id6741032574

Jake