I found that it helped to learn the vocab first. From there, I could see how the おんよみ was used to combined the kanji into praises and words(in most cases). This helped me to learn the おんよみ, which took a third of my battle out of the way. Learning the English meanings was not a problem at any point, so that just left me with learning the くんよみ. Breaking it down like this has made it so much easier for me. I guess I was just trying to learn too much at one time, and not giving myself enough time to do it. 
ありがとう,
Mishi
