Why my wife is wrong!

So as I was sitting here deleting all of the spam links, my wife said that I should stop writing in my blog. She said that it wasn’t for me, and that because I am not consistent in writing that I should give up entirely. Now as all wives do, she has a good point, however I do disagree with her.

Here is a good example of why she is wrong.

A few weeks ago I felt inspired to ask to speak in sacrament. I went to the missionaries and asked if they are OK with giving a talk one Sunday. Of course they said that they would gladly do it, and one of the future Missionaries that was accompanying them wanted in as well.
So. . . With volunteers in hand I went to the bishopric for a good date to talk. The Lord was guiding my path. Our First counselor said that he had a great Sunday in mind and that he had a problem with getting people to talk.

The Elders and the young man set up a musical relief of “How sweet the word,” and practice for weeks. We all divided the first chapter of “Preach My Gospel,” and prepared for the inevitable day.

Last night I was finishing my talk, I had all but one scripture set up and ready to go. I called my Brother in Utah for a little ecclesiastical help, he gave it and I was finished with a great talk.

This morning I woke up and went over the talk and put a few final touches into it. I went to Ward Counsel and added a few more things to my talk, all of which is normal when I prepare my talk to a subject. It is usually a fluid article in motion. As we opened sacrament the spirit whispered to me that I would not be giving the talk that I had prepared. Sometimes that happens, I am not an easy guy to scare, so I sat and pondered the talk. The first talk finished and I felt inspired to let one of the Elders know that he had diminished time and that he would have to cut it short. So I told him.

The second talk finished and the spirit whispered to me that I would stand up and tell the ward that I knew that I was going to speak in advance but to say that I had not prepared enough and that I am sorry and then to sit back down. At first I dismissed the revelation and tried to think about what I was going to talk about. The inspiration came again, and I decided that I should follow it. From the second talk to the third I received no revelation, during the relief hymn I leaned over and told the first counselor that I was going to confess that I was not prepared to talk and that he should do nothing about it. He said “OK,” but had a very worried look on his face. I felt the exact same way, I had not received any insperation on what to talk about, I felt as if the heavens where closed. We are new to the ward and I knew that when I did this and did not give a talk it would destroy our family’s reputation for years.

I got to the pulpit and began explaining that I had known that I needed to prepare a talk on missionary work, but I had chosen not to, and now I was sorry, but I did not have anything else to say. I went and sat down. As I sat down I started to receive what I was supposed to say in my talk. The spirit the told me to wait a few seconds and stand back up and give my talk.

I stood and immediately began to tell the ward that as uncomfortable as it was for me to do that and for them to wait to see what was next, it would be much worse at the judgment seat of The Lord. When we all stood face to face with our Savior and explained that we had received the calling but we had decided to not prepare and help those who are searching for the truth. We would have to explain to Jesus Christ why some of our neighbors and friends had to wait until someone else came along and told them about the purpose of life. That awkwardness that we felt in the chapel would be nothing compared to the despair of what we would feel at the feet of The Great and Eternal Advocate.

I went on to tell the ward that they were at a crossroad. On one side was greatness, on the other was destruction and weakness. I counseled that we needed to work with the missionaries, follow the promptings of the spirit and continue in the work as we know we should. The talk took the exact amount of time as needed, the blessing and warning were given, either to the damnation or salvation of my ward.

I am thankful for this learning opportunity. I learned that to trust in The Lord and all will be as it should. The only scripture I used in my entire talk was D&C 62:3. It was about how when we bare our testimony the angels in heaven make record of it and we are forgiven of our sins. It was the scripture my brother was able to produce. What great blessings we are given, if we just do as we are asked eventually it will work out.

SO. . . That is why this blog is going to stay up, this is a place that I can go with my feelings, my emotions, and my spiritual triumphs and share them with the ether of the internet. Even if no one reads this I will know that I have been uplifted and taught, and that is what really matters.

Camping,

We went camping this last weekend with some friends from the ward. I have to say that it has been too long. We left after work on Friday, drove to Trapper Lake (a few minutes away,) camped at a beautiful spot, next to a river, with a fire pit, and good ground cover. I know my girls loved the river, my wife loved the beauty, and I loved the trees (they keep the heat off of the tent and car, as well as slow the wind down). We ate brauts and dog, then Mike, his son, and I went for a 6 mile hike looking for the lake. At dark we returned back to camp, had some smores, put the kids to bed and just chilled enjoying each others company.

Shea and I (with monkeys,) got up at 9 A.M. (I love sleeping in,) ate breakfast that the other family made and then went for a nice 4×4 drive. Around 11 A.M. we got to Trappers Lake caught a good amount of fish and then Shea and I took off so that the kiddos could get a good nap.

We had to hike 1/4 mile to get from parking to the lake. It was not on a marked trail and was some good climbing. Arias did a great job. She went down with only one minor mishap (she lost her shoe in mud,) and then on the way back up she hiked and climbed without having to be carried. Which was great, Tobi was in Shea’s arms, I was carrying 4 camping chairs, a tacklebox, fishing pole and then two bags of food. If Arias had fought to be carried we would have had a hard time getting up the hill.

We got back to camp, put the kids down and then hung out in the Rede that I got from a great friend in Brazil, (obrigado Renato!) and enjoyed just chilling. At about 4p.m. the other family came back from camping, and we began cooking the cutthroat fish that had been caught. We used lemonpepper and butter wrapped them in tinfoil, and tossed them on the coals. The fish was great!

We got home about 9:30 that night and unpacked and then prepared for the sabbath. I love camping, and I just don’t do enough of it anymore. I guess that is what happens to a person when they grow up. balls

See the pictures, they are amazing.

Memory Game

Here’s the drill (This one’s kind of interesting…)

Play along if you wish, the memory can be about Steve, Shea, our monkeys, or all of us!

Child Rape – The Supreme Court

Today the supreme court ruled that it is unconstitutional the execute anyone for child rape. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that execution in the case of child rape would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, citing “evolving standards of decency” in the United States.

Evolving Standards of Decency

I think that this is probably one of the most disturbing case results from the Supreme Court that I have heard in a long time. Justice Kennedy stated that since there had not been an execution in over 30 years, that the United Stated was evolving to a better standard of decency. I find that interesting that a judge who has seen a lot of cases thinks that the criminal element is evolving and that standards of decency apply to them. Then he stated that this is directly related to the 8th ammendment and that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to the child rapist to be executed. This stikes me in the face as ironic that the decency is given to those who prey upon our most valuable asset, and then distroy them in the worst possible way. Yet the victims of this crime have no recourse. The rapist will be in a prison that gives them 3 meals a day, an allowance, cable T.V., gym and outside privelleges, and a conjucal visit. The children get reconstructive surgeries, a life time of angst wondering what they had done to caused this, emotional damage, a mis-trust of personal contact, the worry of this aturocity happening again, and the understanding that these rapist can get out of jail at the whim of a judge.

The Supreme Courts then stated that “a willing act of murder,” is the justifiable reason that a person can receive the death penalty. With that line of logic a rapist can claim that they did not intend to kill the child and that it was an accident that happened while the child was being raped, and the rapist can get avoid the death penality. It even sounds like the Supreme Court is advocating an eye for an eye. Kill a person and get the death penality, but it is not the case, given time this ruling can be used for a refutal of all death penality cases in its entirety.

The court is ruling in an activist form. They have no concearn to the constitution or the belief that it is that document that has kept this nation great. It looks like the court has decided that they know better than the states and voters, and they have decided to restrict the state’s rights in the course of justice.

This is not the place to preach my religious beliefs, and I try to keep it to a minimuim since most of you know my beliefs already, and so I will keep this governmental in its entirety. The Supreme Court was erected so that it could help balance the power between the executive branch and the legislative branch. Up until the great depression the states had more power than the federal government, and the people had the most power of all. Then Roosevelt was elected and for three terms (look it up,) he was president. During that time the power shifted away from the citizen and into the pocket of the federal government. Roosevelt was a “progressive,” by his own deffinition as well as today’s. He used fear and threats to get the power from the private to the public. At one point in time Roosevelt even sent deligates to Mussolini’s government to figure out how he could change the United States to a Socialist government. Roosevelt even studied Hitler’s regime, and this is what he came up with: If a state can encourage a feeling of depenency upon it’s people then it can control them. Such things that help such a “progressive” movement is – youth worship, welfare, and distruction of religion.

Youth Worship

Youth worship is when a society begins to remove the importance of the information gained from the older part of society and starts to encourage the ignorance of youth. Such sayings as “Who are you to judge me?” and “This doesn’t hurt anyone else!” are a great example of such things. Another and more prevelant example is the distruction of the nuclear family. This can be seen in all forms of popular art, TV shows glamorize that there is no need for a father in the family, and asserts that the male figure has no need for the family. The mother is then shown as a party going woman who has control over her family life. If you don’t believe me take a look some night. The Simpsons has a father that is an alcoholic that can’t take care of his family as they live in the lower clase of society. (I chose the Simpsons since it is the number one series in Television history.) If you look at ER, Grey’s, Scrubs, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, or many of the others it shows the same thing, that the male subject is the one to cause the damage to family and that in many cases the children would be better off without him.

Welfare

I remember one of my grandfathers talking about a flood that happened in Kansas during the early 1900’s. He said that people were ripping their doors off of the hinges so that they could float out of the town and to safety. He then goes on to talk about how Katrina caused so much damage. Undebatably New Orleans is a progressive (democrat) ran city. The unemployment rate is stagering, and crime rules the cities with a violent bloodly fist. Welfare can be obtained easily with no thought of giving back to the society from which it takes. During Katrina people waited on their houses for someone to come rescue them. The never even thought that they could take care of it without someone else doing all the work. I know that this is a generalization, and not everyone was that way, but many were. Instead of taking whatever they could and floating to high ground, they instead demanded that the government take care of them. Even after the flood the people demanded that someone else rebuild their city and to give them a place to stay until it was done.

Welfare without recompense distroys the pride of a hard working man. No longer does a person feel the need to get out of a bad situation and make a better life for himself. There is no need to take care of a family when Uncle Sam does. When you give the power to the government to take care of your family that is exactly what they will do. Recently in the news there have been schools that have decided to give birth control pills to girls starting at the age of 11 and without having to notify the parent. They have decided that it is okay to give 11 year old children hormone treatment drugs, and it is because they think that they know better than the parents.

Hitler had a saying that I am going to paraphrase, he said that an adult can try all he can to keep the Nazi movement from taking control, all Hilter needed was the young to carry out his plans. Hitler knew that if you could trap the young you could control the future. He developed the Hitler youth, and other “programs” that indoctrinated the children. The progressive movement is doing the same thing. In this campaign season we have heard both progressive parties talk about youth organization that they would begin when/if they are elected. One of them wanted to start the GreenEarth Youth party. The other talked about the village raising the child (not the parents).

Distruction of Religion

“Whatever we once were, we’re no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers,” Obama said during a June 2007 speech available on YouTube. We are a nation that is based upon Christian beliefs, we were never a nation of Christians, yet if you ask the progressive platform and they would say that it is naive, foolish, or hateful to be a Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Hindu or whatever. The need to destroy the belief that there is something bigger than man, and that we must answer to it is the final stage of the progressive push to socialism. My wife spent sometime in an Eastern Bloc country. She was told by the people that when the children were in school the teachers would teach against religion. They would seperate the children that believed in God and those that didn’t. One of the tactics that they would use to further distroy the beliefs of the young is to have the children pray. They would have the children put their heads down on the desk and have the religious children pray to their god, and the communist children pray to stalin for candy. The teacher would then go around and place candy upon the desk of the communist children only. When the children were done the teacher would say something along the lines of “Why doesn’t your God give you candy? Stalin does.”

By distroying the religion you have distroyed the accountability of society. I have heard that “religion is the opiate of the masses,” from many people, and it is a catchy phrase, yet it is 180 degrees off. Free religion is the liberating force of the universe. If you can chose which moraise and dogmas that you choice to live, you can choose the direction of live you shall have. A person can not choose to not pay the consiquence, that is what justice is all about. When justice is denighed then the it is the righteous that suffers.

Humor in Print

Here is some fun things I have found, Thanks to Natalie Dee, Ebuams World, and all others