Friday, December 30, 2016

RIP LaVell Edwards

LaVell Edwards died yesterday at age 86.  He is the one college football coach I always admired.  He was an excellent football coach but more importantly he was a wonderful man.

I will always remember BYU winning the national championship in 1984.  I daresay that was the beginning of my love of college football.  I remember my parents taking us to the BYU bookstore to pick out a national championship souvenir after the 1984 season.  I don't remember what I picked out but we all remember what Lisa chose.  A LaVell Edwards poster.  Excellent choice Lisa!  :-)

This quote from LaVell Edwards epitomizes why I looked up to him not only as a legendary college football coach but as an example of someone to emulate.
"all that has happened to me in my chosen profession is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the truly important things in my life.
"The testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I have, along with my wife and my family, are my most important possessions.” -- LaVell Edwards
LaVell Edwards had his priorities straight.  He was a giant on the field and off through his service to the young men he mentored as a coach and to all who knew him or knew of him.

RIP LaVell Edwards!

That's my two cents.

Image result for Lavell Edwards 1984
LaVell Edwards August 11,1984 
Image result for Lavell Edwards 1984

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Misplaced Loyalty

Quite often I feel like an alien living here in mortality.  It reminds me of the line from the hymn, "something whispers you're a stranger here" (LDS hymn number 292).  I seriously feel like I'm living in the twilight zone sometimes.  Why?  Because of other people.  Other people's bad choices and bad behavior. And their messed up thinking and ideas.  I'm constantly quoting John McEnroe, "you cannot be serious... chalk flew".  But there is not enough chalk to fly.

What makes it even worse is that these people are my family members.  People who should know better.  I'm constantly being disappointed by my own.  It's quite embarrassing.  But the disappointment is really what hurts. Why?  Because I want my family members to have eternal life.  I want our family to all be together in the eternities.  At this rate, it's extremely unlikely.  Barring some serious lifestyle change and repentance.  There is always hope but at this point no one has a desire to make the necessary changes.

I just keep hearing more twilight zone-esque stories and keep quoting John McEnroe.

It all really comes down to one thing.  Misplaced loyalty.  Apparently most people don't realize this one simple concept.  And that is that our number one loyalty and priority in everything we do should be God. Yes, even above and before family. This is where most people's loyalties are misplaced.

Just to clarify this, I found several quotes and scriptures which will help educate you.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  -- Matthew 6:33

"I urge you to give your deepest loyalties to the highest causes in eternity—those contained in the life and mission and message of the Only Begotten Son of God. If we can remain true there, with an eye single to that standard, all other loyalties will fall naturally into place." -- Jeffrey R. Holland, 21 January 1986

“What is our ultimate priority?” Are we serving priorities or gods ahead of the God we profess to worship? Have we forgotten to follow the Savior who taught that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments? (see John 14:15). If so, our priorities have been turned upside down by the spiritual apathy and undisciplined appetites so common in our day." -- Dallin H. Oaks, "No Other Gods", October 2013

"We must put God in the forefront of everything else in our lives. He must come first, just as He declares in the first of His Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.

"We should put God ahead of everyone else in our lives."-- Teachings of Presidents of the Church; Ezra Taft Benson, Chapter 1

“Those who wholeheartedly turn their lives over to the Savior and serve God and fellowman discover a richness and fulness to life that the selfish and egotistic will never experience.”-- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2014

For me though the biggest disappointment is not the family members who have gone off the deep end.  It's those who defend them.  I will never understand defending wrong -- it's just not in my nature.  Sharing DNA with someone does not trump morality nor following God's commandments.

I hear stories of parents defending their rapist sons or harboring fugitives of the law and it truly baffles me.  Apparently these people don't understand enabling.  Enabling never helps anyone.  And unfortunately several members of my family are big-time enablers.

Here is the definition for those of you who don't understand it:
Enabler: one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior.
I would love to give some examples here but I don't want to embarrass those guilty family members.  The sad thing about enablers is they actually think they are helping those they are enabling.  When in actuality they are harming them.

Whether your family member is an addict of any kind, a law breaker, immoral, or a commandment breaker which includes all of the above, or does anything which is self-destructive -- making excuses for their bad choices and bad behavior, sympathizing with them, and doing anything to help them avoid the consequences of their choices is doing them a disservice.  And, the fallout almost always  affects many other people--negatively.

I'm really just sick and tired of family members who should know better defending wrong and even praising it all because they share DNA with the perpetrators.  It makes me sick.  Your loyalties are completely misplaced.  I guarantee you if the perpetrator was not your baby son or nephew or brother or cousin, your tune would certainly change.

One thing I can say about myself is my tune doesn't change.  I don't care who is in the wrong.  I don't care how much DNA I share with anyone.  I will always defend truth and righteousness no matter what.  You can call me holier than thou, judgmental, hypocrite, or whatever other name you can come up with.  But I will always put God first and defend truth.  I will never enable destructive behavior.

I wish others in my family would stop enabling.  I wish others were not moral cowards who care more about what their family members think about them than what God thinks about them.  I wish more people were courageous and not panseric cowards defending wrong.

“Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well.”-- Thomas S. Monson, October 1986

I am not a moral coward. I'm not a pansy.  With courage and dignity I stand for principle and never compromise.  My loyalties are not misplaced.  I will always stand for truth and righteousness.

Think of me what you will, laugh at me, mock me, persecute me, but I will unashamedly stand before my God on judgment day with honor, power, glory, loyalty, courage, and dignity.

That's my two cents.

Monday, December 26, 2016

College Football Picks 2016 Final Results

Here are the final results of the 2016 college football season picks.  Congratulations to Rex for taking first place this year.  I thought I had a chance at it again but did really bad a couple of weeks which knocked me down.  :-(

The way it was tallied was your place each week was added together for all 14/15 weeks.  Lowest number winning.  If you didn't participate one week you received a last-place tally for that week. Special thanks to Lisa for tallying up the results.

1. Rex =  37
2. Tammy = 41
3.  Lisa  = 67
4.  Dad = 69
5.  Mercedes = 79
6.  Juliet  =  98
7.  Kingston = 109
8.  Derrinda = 112
9.  Chanelle =  114
10.  Brandon  = 137
11.  Elijah  = 138
12.  Mom =  139
13.  Cody = 146

Others participating not listed: uncle Ron participated two weeks.  Fourth and seventh place.  Ferreira family participated one week coming in seventh that week.

Thanks to all who participated this year.  It was a fun competition.

The pizza/award party is pending and will be in January sometime.  I'll let you all know the details when the party is finalized.

Get ready for next year's competition.  Only eight or nine more months to go.  :-)

Good job everybody.  See you at the party.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas 2016

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." -- Luke 2:11


Merry Christmas everybody!

"At this time of Christmas, this season when gifts are given, let us not forget that God gave His Son, and His Son gave His life, that each of us might have the gift of eternal life."
—Gordon B. Hinckley, "The Son of God", Ensign, December 1992

Friday, December 23, 2016

Eternity

While watching Walker Texas Ranger I heard a really good quote.  So I thought I would post it on my blog for all of you to see.

"I would not trade my eternity for his."

I echo the sentiment of the character on Walker.  I would not want to trade my eternity for anyone else's.

We each control our own destiny through our agency and choices.  This is why we fought so hard in the pre-mortal existence (pre-earth life) for agency.  Satan wanted to take away our agency.  Agency is a necessary part of our Heavenly Father's plan.  Without it we could not progress.

Thankfully we all made the right choice in choosing to follow Heavenly Father's plan in the pre-mortal existence.  Therefore we were given the opportunity to come to earth, receive a body, and exercise our agency.

Unfortunately many people exercise their agency unwisely and make terrible choices which affect their eternity.  Every choice has a consequence.  Good or bad.

You can't force people to heaven.  Our choices in life determine our eternal destiny.  People must choose to go to heaven. Based on how they choose to live their life and who they choose to follow.

You can give someone a home teaching or visiting teaching list -- or any calling -- and they can choose whether to accept it or not.  They can choose whether they will magnify their calling or not.  Or they can choose to completely leave the Church for whatever reason or not.  Or they may choose to never join the Church for whatever reason. But what they can't choose are the consequences of those choices. Those choices will affect their eternity.

I will close with a quote from our beloved prophet:
"I can’t stress too strongly that decisions determine destiny. You can’t make eternal decisions without eternal consequences." -- Thomas S. Monson, Decisions Determine Destiny, November 6, 2005
I'm grateful I am in control of my own destiny, my eternity. I am grateful for the blessing of agency. And like the character in Walker, I would not trade my eternity for anyone's.

That's my two cents.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Scripture of the Day

Alma 44:3-4

3 But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Bawl Baby Barack

"Michael Moore is out there offering to pay electors. He's offering to pay them and pay their fines if they will vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump. It's deranged. We are witnessing unhinged, deranged lunacy."...

"... [In Pennsylvania] One elector, Ash Khare, said he and all of the 19 others have been assigned a plainclothes state police trooper for protection. 'I'm a big boy,' said Khare... "But this is stupid. Nobody is standing up and telling these people, "Enough, knock it off."'"

"And that's exactly right. And I'll tell you who ought to be telling them to knock it off: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That's where, "Knock it off, grow up, we lost and get ready for the next one." That's where that ought to be coming from, Obama and Hillary. But they are encouraging this business."...

"Obama is not only going to reside in Washington and be on call, essentially, with the Drive-By Media, he's setting up what essentially is going to be a shadow government. 

"Now, I don't know how that's gonna manifest itself, or how it will appear, what it's gonna be, but it's not just going to be Obama.  There is going to be -- and this Electoral College business is the model. It's the blueprint.  This stuff isn't gonna end.  The subject matter is just going to change. After Trump wins the Electoral College today, they're gonna move on to whatever Trump does in his agenda, and they'll not stop here even before the inauguration. 

"And it's gonna be bought and paid for by George Soros and other Democrat donors, and Barack Obama is going to be the intellectual leader of this movement."...

"I have never in my life seen a more petty, childish, bitter, soon-to-be ex-president of the United States. Barack Obama is in fact participating in this effort to undermine the Trump transition, the Trump election, and the Trump presidency. And it's unprecedented in U.S. history. Ex-presidents have never engaged in the kind of behavior Obama is engaging in. 

"And this is accompanied by these tear-jerker stories, one after another about how they're all gonna miss him. He's so smart. He's so cool. He's so calm. He's so measured. He's so reverential. He's so what we want to be like ourselves. This man is unflappable. He's a brilliant intellectual...."

"And in fact, Obama is none of that. He's a street corner community organizer who is using the office of the presidency here to virtually undermine it."-- Rush Limbaugh.com, December 19, 2016

Well said, Rush!  

Bawl Baby Barack and Hillary and all of their leftist cohorts can't seem to face reality.  They live in their own little la la land where they think everybody is as deranged as they are.  They can't face the fact that they lost and that there are actually some people who don't like them and don't agree with their demented ideas.

Today is Electoral College day -- which is merely a formality -- so when Trump emerges victorious, get ready for more sheer lunacy from the deranged left and their leader, Bawl Baby Barack.

That's my two cents.

Safe Harbor

"Draw close to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be of good cheer. Keep the faith. Doubt not. The storms will one day be stilled.... In our own storms in life the Savior is our solace and our sanctuary. If we seek peace, we must come unto Him."
—Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Finding a Safe Harbor"

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Scripture of the Day

"And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things." --Alma 24:30 

Monday, December 12, 2016

CFP 2016 Weeks 14 and 15

  1. Rex -5 tie breaker 54
  2. Mercedes -5 tiebreaker 62
  3. Dad -6 tiebreaker 46
  4. Mom -7 tie breaker 49
  5. Lisa -7 tiebreaker 44
  6. Tammy -7 tie breaker 43
  7. Kingston-8 Tiebreaker: 42
  8. Cody -8 tie breaker 82
  9. Elijah -8 tie breaker 83
  10. Derrinda -9 tiebreaker 32
  11. Brandon -9 record 27
  12. Juliet-10 tiebreaker: 48
actual tiebreaker 51

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Light of Christ

"Every child of Heavenly Father born in the world is given at birth, as a free gift, the Light of Christ. You have felt that. It is the sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is true and what is false. That has been with you since your journey in life began." 
—Henry B. Eyring, "Walk in the Light", Ensign, May 2008

Christmas Trees

I have always been a fan of artificial Christmas trees.  Even as a kid I preferred them to real (dead) trees.  Let me tell you why.

First of all, artificial trees are always perfect.  Perfectly shaped, perfect color, and sometimes even pre-lit and partly decorated.

Artificial trees don't drop their needles, dry out, and are not a fire hazard. I mean seriously, isn't it a little insane to put a dead tree in your house for several weeks?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for using God's creations that were put on this earth for our use.  I have no problem with cutting trees down to use for lumber or even firewood.  But I don't agree with cutting a perfectly good healthy tree down just to put in your house and stare at for two or three weeks and then throw away in the landfill.  To me that is wasting God's creation. It's akin to killing an animal just for the sport.  And not utilizing it for food or raiment.  Trees are living things with spirits just like animals.
 "5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth...." 
"8 And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man whom I had formed.  
"9 And out of the ground made I, the Lord God, to grow every tree, naturally, that is pleasant to the sight of man; and man could behold it. And it became also a living soul. For it was spiritual in the day that I created it;..." -- Moses 3: 5, 8-9
Artificial trees are reusable ever year.  Not only do they always look good, but I can't see paying money every Christmas to kill a tree when you already have a perfectly beautiful artificial tree sitting in a box in your storage room that will look better and not cost anything.

And last but certainly not least, how ironic is it that the very symbol of everlasting life -- the Christmas tree -- is something that was killed so you can put it in your house to represent everlasting life? Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

I have always been and always will be an artificial Christmas tree lover and a despiser of killing perfectly good evergreen trees for no good reason.

That's my two cents.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me!
Another year older, another year wiser.

This picture is from the mid-90s.  I Photoshopped a pretty frame on it. It's the next best thing to a crown.  :-)

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Christmas

This Christmas season hasn't really felt much like Christmas to me.  I'll spare you all the reasons why.

This year the day we celebrate Christmas, December 25, falls on a Sunday.  To me, it is a blessing to celebrate the birth of our Savior on the day of the week we set aside to worship him.  Church will be Sacrament meeting only, so to be able to attend Sacrament meeting and worship our Savior and partake of the sacrament on Christmas is a wonderful blessing.  Especially in this commercialized world we live in.  Where most people think of Santa Claus instead of Christ when they think of Christmas.  Of all the days to attend church, it would be Christmas.

 It makes me sad when Christmas is reduced to Santa Claus and presents -- where people are more concerned with what they will get on Christmas morning rather than what they can give.  And especially with Christmas falling on a Sunday -- how many people will skip church because it interferes with opening presents?  When the entire reason for Christmas is to celebrate Christ's birth and worship him. The saddest part of Christmas though is people who don't even believe in Christ.  Especially those who once believed and now don't. It breaks my heart.

A few weeks ago I started listening again to "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage. It is an inspired work by one of the Lord's chosen apostles published 100 years ago, in 1915. It is a very thorough book written about Jesus Christ.  Not many people know the actual birthdate of our Savior.  So I took the time to locate this excerpt from Chapter 8 of "Jesus the Christ":
"As to the season of the year in which Christ was born, there is among the learned as great a diversity of opinion as that relating to the year itself. It is claimed by many Biblical scholars that December 25th, the day celebrated in Christendom as Christmas, cannot be the correct date. We believe April 6th to be the birthday of Jesus Christ as indicated in a revelation of the present dispensation already cited, in which that day is made without qualification the completion of the one thousand eight hundred and thirtieth year since the coming of the Lord in the flesh. This acceptance is admittedly based on faith in modern revelation, and in no wise is set forth as the result of chronological research or analysis. We believe that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, April 6, B.C. 1."
Isn't modern revelation wonderful?  I feel so blessed to belong to the Lord's true church and have access to continuing revelation through prophets and apostles.

The fact that Christ's birth is not celebrated on his actual birthday is irrelevant to me.  But the fact that it is celebrated at all is.  Fittingly, Christmas and Easter are my favorite holidays.  Both centered on Christ.  My favorite part about Christmas and Easter are the songs about Christ's birth and resurrection.

Even though Christmas is commercialized, the fact that many nonbelievers still celebrate Christmas is a good thing.  Even if it is only for tradition or to fit in.  People still think more about Christ during this season as they sing and listen to songs about His birth and reflect on the reason we celebrate Christmas. That's always a good thing.

So, regardless of your level of faith in Christ, here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

That's my two cents.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Stop Embarrassing Me!

As any of you know, who follow my blog, I am into DNA.  Especially figuring out relationships by percentage of DNA shared.

Well, there are several people with whom I share a lot of DNA -- I could tell you the percentage shared with each -- who are an embarrassment to me and to the family name.  I understand making occasional mistakes and bad choices but this is becoming ridiculous. Absurdly, preposterously, ludicrously, ridiculous.

I won't divulge any details lest I embarrass those who embarrass me.  Suffice it to say, that sadly, I have a lot of extremely weak DNA relatives who disappoint and embarrass, not only me but other family members, by their continual bad choices. Bad choices that not only affect them but many others including close family.

I hope and pray that they get their lives in order and stop the downward spiral they are on.  Soon.  In the meantime, stop embarrassing me!

That's my two cents.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Nice try, Lucy

We had quite the Sabbath day adventure today.  It started out with our van battery being dead.  It's not like we could just take another car because the van is the only vehicle that can transport me.  So dad had to jump it.  The first machine he used was dead.  So he got another one out of the other car and come to find out he had left it on so it was also dead.  :-( Therefore we had to jump it using Juliet's truck.  Thankfully the third time was the charm.  We went the shortcut and were only about five minutes late to church.

Then, third hour sitting in Relief Society the teacher had just started a beautiful lesson on Christmas.  Just a couple minutes into her lesson the fire alarm goes off and we all had to evacuate the building.  It was a chilly day today and everyone was getting cold standing outside.  Firetrucks came to disarm the alarms and I guess check the building out for possible fire.  At this point there was only about 15 minutes left of church and we didn't figure we would be going back to finish the lesson so we just left.

I don't know the outcome but two Wards were affected.  The other ward in our building was not even halfway through Sacrament meeting.  It will be interesting to find out more details on what happened and what may have caused the alarm to go off.  Speculation was a child.  But who knows. In all my years of attending church weekly, I don't recall a fire alarm ever going off and having to evacuate. There's a first time for everything.

So, Lucy (Lucifer) really tried hard to thwart my Sabbath day today.  But despite his best efforts, I made it to church and was able to partake of the sacrament.  Went to Sunday school and part of Relief Society.  :-)  And the van started right up to bring us home after church.

Now let's hope we don't have any problems with our Family Home Evening/family dinner tonight.  We are planning on watching the First Presidency devotional tonight at five o'clock as our family home evening lesson.  I wouldn't put it past ol' Lucy to throw another wrench into our Sabbath day activities.  We'll see.

Despite whatever Lucy throws at me, I know I am stronger than him and will always emerge victorious!  He may win the battle sometimes but he will never win the fight! Not against this tough gal!  :-)

That's my two cents.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Primary T-shirts

Several months ago Lisa asked me if I would help her design and make T-shirts for her ward's Primary Book of Mormon challenge.  I agreed.

It ended up being much more laborious than we originally thought but I think the final result is exceptional.  :-) If I do say so myself.

Here are the fruits of our labor.  This is the front of the shirt:
This is the back of the shirt:

 Everyone in the Primary who completed reading The Book of Mormon in the allotted time frame will receive a T-shirt, candy bar, and poster of their favorite Book of Mormon character.  We put each of their names on a footprint on the back design.

Lisa pressed them all and they turned out awesome!  I hope the kids (and leaders) like their shirts.



Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Good Riddance Fidel Castro!

The death of Fidel Castro should be celebrated, not mourned.  All these leftist cry babies praising Fidel Castro and mourning his death make me absolutely sick.  Fidel Castro was an evil oppressive tyrant.  Rush Limbaugh had a good segment yesterday about this.  The whole thing is really good and you can read it by clicking on the link below but here is just one small quote:

"This, folks, is mind-boggling. When you stop and consider who Fidel Castro was. Fidel Castro imprisoned, tortured, killed, executed his own people for the crime of pursuing life, liberty and happiness. He conducted a 50-year war against human nature. The left, which includes Barack Obama, has romanticized what should be itemized, condemned, and defeated." -- Rush Limbaugh, November 28, 2016

Interestingly, just a few days before Castro's death I read an article about the ignorant lowlife scum of the earth, Colin Kaepernick wearing a T-shirt with Fidel Castro on it.  A reporter questioned him about it and he gave some ridiculous nonsensical idiotic reply.  It's obvious that Kaepernick hates America.  Fidel Castro also was an America hater.  This is precisely why so many leftist liberals revere Castro.  Because they are all America haters.

The irony of this whole thing is that the very thing that Fidel Castro stood for is what the left liberal crybabies claim to oppose -- oppression. Yet they wholeheartedly embrace it.  Hypocrites!  And Colin Kaepernick is their poster child.

How can so many people be so stupid?  If you want to know why Donald Trump won the election just take a look at his response to Fidel Castro's death -- which is true and accurate.  Versus Barack Hussein Obama's ridiculous response.

Good riddance Fidel Castro!  I hope you enjoy weeping, wailing, and gnashing your teeth while you burn in H!

That's my two cents.

Monday, November 28, 2016

College Football Picks 2016 Week 13

  1. Rex -15 tie breaker 49
  2. Mercedes -19 tie breaker 39
  3. Kingston -19 tiebreaker 50
  4. Lisa -19 tie breaker 72
  5. Juliet -22 tiebreaker 54
  6. Mom -22 tiebreaker 56
  7. Dad -23 tiebreaker 53
  8. Tammy -26 tiebreaker 53
  9. Derrinda -27 Tiebreaker 49
  10. Chanelle -29 tie breaker 62
  11. Elijah -30 tiebreaker 38
  12. Cody -31 tiebreaker 62
  13. Brandon -36 tiebreaker 27
Actual tie breaker: 38

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Who's on the Lord's Side?

This morning Juliet and I were discussing this hymn. Who's on the Lord's side? Who? Hymn number 260 in the LDS hymn book. We tried singing it but couldn't remember the lyrics very well. It has a really catchy tune which I remembered easily. We were hoping it would be one of the hymns we sang in church today but it wasn't.  :-(  Anyway so after church today I looked it up to sing along to the Music library version on LDS.org --click on the link and you can too. It's really fun. :-) I do it all the time to different hymns.

In singing along today and remembering the lyrics I decided to post it because it is so pertinent to all of us in this world we live in. Whose side are we on? There are no fence sitters.  You are either on one side or the other.

Some of my favorite lyrics from this hymn include: "We wage no common war, Cope with no common foe." -- This is good versus evil. The enemy -- Satan -- is awake. He is coming at us with everything he has.  He is a very formidable opponent. Whose side are we on? "We serve the living God, and want his foes to know that, if but few, we're great" -- I love this. Such confidence. I'm a big fan of confidence. If you're on the Lord's side, you will exude confidence. "We ask it fearlessly" "No coward bears our flag" -- This fight isn't for pansies. And my favorite part, "We're going on to win" -- The winner of the war is already known. The Lord will prevail -- Satan will lose. Do you want to be on the winning side or the losing side? "Now is the time to show".

That's my two cents.

Who's on the Lord's Side?


  1. 1. Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    Now is the time to show.
    We ask it fearlessly:
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    We wage no common war,
    Cope with no common foe.
    The enemy's awake;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  2. (Chorus)
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    Now is the time to show.
    We ask it fearlessly:
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  3. 2. We serve the living God,
    And want his foes to know
    That, if but few, we're great;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    We're going on to win;
    No fear must blanch the brow.
    The Lord of Hosts is ours;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  4. 3. The stone cut without hands
    To fill the earth must grow.
    Who'll help to roll it on?
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    Our ensign to the world
    Is floating proudly now.
    No coward bears our flag;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  5. 4. The pow'rs of earth and hell
    In rage direct the blow
    That's aimed to crush the work;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
    Truth, life, and liberty,
    Freedom from death and woe,
    Are stakes we're fighting for;
    Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  6. Text: Hannah Last Cornaby, 1822-1905
    Music: Henry H. Russell, 1818-1900, alt.

Friday, November 25, 2016

My Good Good Boy Abinadi

Lisa took this cute picture a few days ago.  :-) My good good boy Abinadi posing for the camera.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!



Happy Thanksgiving!  I read this on Rush Limbaugh.com yesterday and thought I would post it for you all.  I didn't take the time to edit much out so it's basically the entire transcript.  But it's a good read.  I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

From Rush Limbaugh.com:

The True Story of Thanksgiving


BEGIN TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: The Real Story of Thanksgiving is a tradition on this program.  ...This is my favorite time of year, starting now and going through Christmas.  I just absolutely love it....
But "The True Story of Thanksgiving," written about in Chapter 6 of See, I Told You So, which is book two. It's the chapter titled "Dead White Guys, or What the History Books Never Tell You."  And, by the way, this chapter and this story served as the foundation for the first book in the Rush Revere series, which was Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,where, in addition to The True Story of Thanksgiving, we have the true story of the Pilgrims, who they were, where they were.
Why they risked everything to get on a rickety little ship and travel the Atlantic Ocean to a place that was foreign and unknown. They had no idea what they would encounter.  And it was all for religious freedom.  And the real story of Thanksgiving, I wasn't even taught it, and I was in grade school in the late fifties and early sixties, and I wasn't even taught.  I was taught that Thanksgiving was about the Pilgrims being saved from starvation and deprivation by the Indians, and learning to grow food and thanking the Indians for saving us, the Native Americans. 
Everybody was taught this, but it's not true. 
"The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century ... The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their [religious] beliefs," in 1600, England, the 17th Century.
"A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but" at least the promise was, "could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences."  It's a powerful belief, the belief in freedom of religion to engage in this kind of activity in order to be able to do it, to be able to cross an ocean to a place where you have no idea what to expect. 
"On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established," essentially socialism, "just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments.
"They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work." They were people with incredible faith. "The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford's detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them.
"There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims -- including Bradford's own wife -- died of either starvation, sickness or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians," the Native Americans, indeed, "taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end."
That's where the traditional story of Thanksgiving ends: The Indians helped 'em and they learned how to plant corn, had they had a big feast, and that's what we celebrate today.  No!  "Thanksgiving is actually explained in [way too many] textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than" what it was. Thanksgiving was "a devout expression of gratitude" to God -- and if you doubt that, go look at George Washington's first Thanksgiving Proclamation, when Thanksgiving became a national holiday because of George Washington. 
You cannot escape the fact that it was a national holiday rooted in thanking God for America, for the blessed nature of our country, and this is exactly what the Pilgrims did.  That's what they were thankful for.  "Here is the part that has been omitted" from the traditional textbooks, and was omitted when I was in school. "The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into" on the Mayflower, they all... They had merchant sponsors.  They didn't have the money to make this trip themselves.  There were sponsors, merchants in Holland and London that paid for it.
They had to be repaid.  So, the contract that they had "called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well." It didn't belong to any individuals, and everything they produced, "[t]hey were going to distribute it equally." Everyone would get the same, and everybody would be the same. "All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.
"Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks." It was a Humboldt, County, California, commune -- minus the weed.  "It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California," with organic vegetables. "Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter" after settlement. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage," and it was theirs. 
Whatever they produced was theirs to do whatever they wanted. Sell it, keep it, use it, but it was theirs.  Well, you know what happened.  This was, in effect, the unleashing of the power of competition and the marketplace.  The "Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism," and it failed miserably. "It didn't work!" Drastic action taken by William Bradford got rid of it. "What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else," because no matter what you produced, you got the same as anybody else. 
If you didn't produce anything, you still got the same amount that everybody else got.  They were "trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it..." The rest of the world's been doing that since the beginning of time, but there's no way to refine it and perfect it.  They dumped it.  The Pilgrims dumped approximate.  "What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson. ... 'The experience that we had in this common course and condition. The experience that we had in this common course and condition tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing -- as if they were wiser than God,' Bradford wrote.
"For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...'" What he's saying is, "Why should we [be] working for people not doing anything?"  It didn't work.  It was a resounding failure.  "Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself?"
From his own journal.  The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without insensitive.  "So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise..." They let every family have its own plot of land to work and they were permitted to market the products, the crops that they grew, and the result was, Bradford wrote, "This had very good success.  For it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."

RUSH:  So the result of free enterprise after the Pilgrims had tried socialism, well, William Bradford wrote about it. "This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."  Bradford doesn't sound like a committed leftist, and he wasn't. 
So the Thanksgiving that was had: "Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves.  Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you're laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians."
In other words, there was capitalism going on.  There was buying and selling going on.  There were profits.  A group of people arrives on a boat committed to being equal and the same.  It fails.  They end up turning out industrious activity, creating that by virtue of competition and being able to keep what you produced.  They produced more than they needed.  They ended up setting up trading posts.  They exchanged goods with the Indians, and the profits finally allowed them to pay off the debts to the sponsors, the merchants in London who had sponsored them. 
"The success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the 'Great Puritan Migration.'"  In other words, the Pilgrims had such overwhelming success at growing their community, word spread all the way back to England, and it began this humongous migration of people. 
Remember, the Pilgrims preceded the founding of the country by hundreds of years.  They really were the ones that got it started and showed how it could be done.  And it was -- I don't want to use the word "rich."  It was so plentiful, this was what they were thankful for.  They thanked God for the guidance found in the Bible for restructuring their community, and shared their bounty with the Indians, who did teach them how to do things they didn't know how to do, basically be farmers.  That's The True Story of Thanksgiving.  

END TRANSCRIPT

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Monday, November 21, 2016

CFP 2016 Week 12 Results

  1. Tammy -10 tie breaker 37
  2. Mercedes -11 tie breaker 45
  3. Rex -13 tie breaker 37
  4. Juliet -14 tie breaker 52
  5. Lisa -17 tie breaker 64
  6. Dad -18 tiebreaker 46
  7. Mom -18 tiebreaker 49
  8. Kingston -22 tiebreaker 45
  9. Chanelle -22 tie breaker 49
  10. Derrinda -22 tiebreaker 59
  11. Elijah -24 tiebreaker 72
  12. Brandon -29 tiebreaker 27
  13. Cody -30 tie breaker 43
Actual tie breaker 26

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Thoughts from Stake Conference

We had our regular Stake Conference today.  I just want to share a few thoughts on what I got out of it.

President Manwaring, one of the counselors in our Stake Presidency gave my favorite talk.  He talked about being a missionary in Brazil and how he became conceited and thought that they were having success because of him and how great he was.  It just so happened that one of the AP's was going home soon -- for those of you unfamiliar with missions, an AP is an assistant to the mission president.  I guess it could be considered the highest calling a missionary can have in terms of responsibility and status.

President Manwaring decided that he was such a great missionary that he would certainly be called to fill the vacant position of AP.  In fact he was so sure that he packed his suitcases in anticipation of transfers awaiting the call.  When he was told he was staying in the area and Elder Olson was called as the new AP, President Manwaring was certain that the mission president was not in tune with the Spirit and made a mistake.

He paid extra close attention to the job that Elder Olson was doing, fully expecting him to fail.  But to his surprise, and perhaps chagrin, Elder Olson did a wonderful job.  Through this experience, President Manwaring learned a valuable lesson.  Actually several lessons not the least of which was that the Lord's work would continue to roll forth with or without President Manwaring.  He had to decide if he was going to be a part of it or not.

The Lord chooses humble servants who rely on the Spirit and understand that He is our source of strength, not ourselves.  Are we going to reap the blessings of being part of the Lord's work and his Church?  Or will we choose to be on the outside looking in and one day wish otherwise.

President Manwaring went on to say that there are still many great important things yet to happen in this Church and in the world.  Great things that would rival things in history.  We can all be a part of these great things yet to come in helping to advance the Lord's work and His Kingdom. If we so choose.

Something that stuck out from the Mission President's talk was a quote from Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the quorum of the 12 apostles.  I couldn't find a transcript but I found an article from LDS news that I will quote from.  This is from a missionary broadcast given on January 20, 2016.

“Who are you? You are sons and daughters of God! Everything else you and I are is subordinate to that. Think of it! We are royalty—the sons and daughters of God!” 
And what are missionaries called to do? 
“You are not called to preach what is politically correct or personally comfortable,” he said. “You are not called to invite people to join a social club whose rules are made by its members. You are called to testify of Jesus Christ and to invite people to do what He has required to come unto Him and walk the path He has defined by His doctrine to reach exaltation in the celestial kingdom.” 
...Elder Oaks taught that it is critical that missionaries understand the role of Christ’s Atonement in their lives and in the lives of those they teach. The Savior came to redeem men “from their sins” upon the “conditions of repentance” (Helaman 5:11).
“When a person has gone through the repentance process, the Savior does more than cleanse that person from sin. He also gives him or her new strength. That strengthening is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our Heavenly Father.”
Missionaries, he added, do not preach and teach in order to bring people into the Church or to increase Church membership. They do not find and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. They offer something more. 
“The fundamental purpose of our missionary work is to teach the word of God that men and women cannot be saved in the highest degree of glory, the celestial kingdom, without faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that the only way to lay claim to the ultimate merits of that Atonement is to follow the commands of its author: repent and be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and the ordinances of the temple and endure to the end. Those who do this can be exalted in the celestial kingdom.” 
No one else can do this, declared Elder Oaks. Other churches cannot do it. Good Christian living cannot do it. Good faith, good desires, and good reasoning cannot do it.
“Only a man or woman teaching the fulness of the gospel with priesthood authority can teach this, and only a man exercising the priesthood of God can administer a baptism that will satisfy the divine decree: ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).”  -- Church News, January 22, 2016
 I put a little more on here than the one quote which I highlighted.  :-) I thought was excellent.

And just a few thoughts on President Wells' talk.  His talk was basically about being prepared ahead of time for things that will come when you don't expect them.

He used the example of when he was doing his medical residency.  He was having a meeting with all of the people over his residency basically all of his professors and mentors.  They were discussing the future of the residency program.  As chief resident he was invited to attend.

He suddenly became very uneasy as the topic turned to training residents to do abortions.  He said the person discussing adding this new training portion to the residency was very excited about it.  Then, the director asked for the chief resident's opinion on the matter.  President Wells said a quick prayer and then told them that one of the reasons why he chose that particular residency was because they did not perform abortions nor were they required to train in such.  He went on to explain why he was opposed to it.  He then stated that his fellow residents felt the same way that he did.

I thought that was a good example of always being ready to defend the Gospel and the Lord's doctrine at all times.  It does seem to occur when you least expect it.  That's why you always have to be ready.

Anyway those are just a few of my thoughts from our Stake Conference today.

On a side note, I ran into one of the Elders I served with on my mission.  I knew him from my mission because we were from the same town.  Graduated from the same high school even.  He is now serving as bishop in one of the wards in my stake.  It's a small world!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

How to Prepare to Serve a Mission

As I was perusing LDS.org I came across this article that went along swimmingly with my lesson on repentance last week.  So I thought I would post it.  I was going to just put a couple of quotes but ended up putting the whole thing except for one section I removed.

Hope you enjoy it. Here it is:

Want to Prepare Your Child to Serve a Mission? Teach Repentance

Contributed By the Young Men General Presidency and Board
20 OCTOBER 2016
"Recently, one of our board members—Brother Mark Pendleton—was at a breakfast with several stake presidents and stake leaders, during which a sincere father asked a question:

“What do you feel is the most important thing I can do to help my son prepare to serve a mission?” the father asked.

"Because Brother Pendleton works in the Missionary Department, he often gets questions. Usually the questions are more general and tend to focus on various topics such as mission preparation classes, obtaining a job, going off to college, how to create outlets for stress, turning weaknesses into strengths, and helping young people be able to do hard things and not get discouraged when things don’t go their way. The list is expansive, and there has been much written and spoken on the subject of mission preparation.

"Without hesitation, the response given to this man was: “Teach him how to repent.”

"The father wasn’t prepared for this answer and appeared a little confused.

"Missionaries’ purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement and repentance.

"Preach My Gospel states, “As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase” (p. 2). Missionary work is helping people to repent, and in order to do that, a missionary has to know what it feels like to repent so he or she can help others know how to repent. Preach My Gospel also states, “We must understand what an investigator must feel in order to receive conversion” (p. 92).

"Our youth need to understand that repentance denotes a change of mind and a fresh view about God and about oneself. Then repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God and a renunciation of sin. Without this there can be no progress in the things of the soul’s salvation. If a young person understands that true change is repentance, he or she will look at missionary work very differently.

"Repentance is an important part of a missionary’s life both personally and for teaching investigators of the Church....

..."The conversation with this father ended with this statement: “There is nothing more important for your missionary’s preparation than to help him come to know the Savior and His Atonement in this special way. Help him see repentance in a new light as a blessing and privilege and a positive lifelong experience as he learns to take the gospel from the mind deep down into his heart.” The father nodded with grateful appreciation.

"Often our youth look at repentance in a negative way, believing it's only used for the most serious of sins. This approach to repentance may include a period of time not partaking of the sacrament and keeping oneself completely free from the sin for six months or a year. Though this is part of repentance, if the focus becomes a box to check off, or ticking off the months in place of turning one’s heart and will to God, then there might be a change of habit with little change of the heart.

"We hope that every young person works on changing their heart by repenting every day. “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). One of the most precious commandments is to repent of all our sins. Repentance is the only way to return and live with our Heavenly Father."-- LDS.org, October 20, 2016 -- click on the title link above to read full article.