He started by asking us a question on who received the first patriarchal blessing. Which turns out was Jared, Enoch’s father. Then he went on to explain how the whole process works. Including the fact that the Stake President interviews them usually once a year, and reviews the blessings, and the blessings are then stored by the church.The originals are stored in the granite vaults here in Utah.

It’s interesting to note that the first interview question the Stake President asks during their yearly interview is about how their relationship is with their wife.  Patriarch Perry explained that there can be no contention in the home.  He also went on to explain that that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been. He was called while he had teenagers at home and that he’s still had arguments with his wife. He explained though, that he would immediately call for prayer if there were arguments or contention in the home to help bring about the spirit.

He told about getting his own blessing and how it wasn’t the best of circumstances – by that I mean he didn’t have a chance to really prepare for it. He said he had just gotten home from church and was about to change out of his church clothes when his father told him to come with them while his older brother got his patriarchal blessing. So after he was done his father said it was his turn, with no warning. He said he’d wished he’d had been giving some time to prepare before he had gone.

A person in the class asked about getting a second blessing after falling away from the church, and he explained he had only done this twice – once was for lineage. A woman who had gotten her blessing and then fallen away from church, came back and realized that her blessing didn’t contain her lineage – so he gave it to her, but also explained that to him this also meant that the blessing was not invalidated. There was nothing more to add to her blessing thereby saying, you’re blessing is still valid even after falling away. He didn’t explain the other one – but it is interesting, though I don’t think I ever thought of it being invalidated because one fell away.

Another question asked was about who old was the oldest person he’d ever given a blessing to and he 97, he gave another account of giving a blessing to an older gentleman who was very near death – and he was worried about what he would say. But he gave the blessing, and the daughter who happened to be there explained later that the blessing had answered questions the man had had all his life, and allowed him to face death with a clear understanding and peace.

He told us a story of giving a couple blessings that said they would go on missions yet they died a short time later, and he wasn’t able to reconcile this until years later when a young man spoke about him and his brother. This young man and his brother both had been given blessings and they spoke about going on missions – yet the older brother died before he went on one. The father of these boys had a hard time and was still grieving the older brother’s death even after the younger brother returned home from his mission. The younger brother was able to read over his older brothers blessing and talked to his father about it – there was part of the blessing that said “he will goto a strange place and speak a strange language”, the younger brother suggested this may mean heaven, what stranger a place then heaven. Patriarch Perry heard about this and went back to look over the couple’s blessings and found the same wording “goto a strange place and speak a strange language”.  This broght both the father and Patriarch Perry comfort.

He told us about lineage, as far as his experiences with them. With a few exceptions the first tribe that generally comes to mind is Ephraim, but there have been times when he goes to pronounce linage and his mind goes blank when trying to recall the tribe – he can’t think of the name Ephraim, but Manasseh will pop into his mind. He’s even had times when both Ephraim and Manasseh fail to enter his mind and he has pronounced Judah as the lineage to a member in a family who is all Ephraim.

All in all it was a pretty interesting class, he suggested as other leaders have that we should be reading our blessings daily or at least weekly. He said he still reads his and still finds new details in it. He also cautioned that it’s a private matter and should be shared with friends, but only family. He warned that by making it too public you may loose the message the Lord intended for your by your friends giving their opinions on subjects contained with in. I’ll admit, that I probably haven’t read mine in years, though my awesome wife tells me about it constantly and tries to get me to read it.

My goal is, and honestly I’m not sure why I have such an issue with this, is to try reading it at least once a month and I would urge you to try to integrate it into your lives more – or if you haven’t gotten one yet to prepare to get one and get it.

One last thing here, and I do this as the last bit of information because I didn’t find out till after the class either, but Patriarch Perry, is L. Tom Perry’s little brother. Yup that’s right, L. Tom Perry was the big brother who got his before Patriarch Perry.

If we can find forgiveness in our hearts for those who have caused us hurt and injury, we will rise to a higher level of self-esteem and well-being. – James E. Faust [April 2007 Conference]

I think it’s probably the wrong way to think, and I could probably chalk it up to a problem with public speaking. but during Fast and Testimony meeting sometimes I think I’ll go up and say something, then someone will say something that seems like a bigger issue then what I might say and I stay in my seat because I don’t want to try and upstage someone elses problems.  Yes I know, I shouldn’t even think about it, but it’s just another easy way to keep from going up – though now all my kids seems to think they need to go and my time of sitting on the bench is probably numbered.

I can though find solace through writing. While I may not always be the most elegant writer, or make use of fancy words – it’s always helped me get out what’s stuck in my head. A healing process if you will.

I’m lucky I suppose, I usually have an easy time of forgiving people wrongs – though there have been occasions when it cut deep and it took time to come to terms with and forgive someone. I pride myself on not holding grudges. But recently, something happened. While I won’t go into specifics, suffice it to say it was a doozy.

Agency is the power to think, choose, and act for ourselves. It comes with endless opportunities, accompanied by responsibility and consequences. – Sharon G. Larsen [October 1999 Conference]

What this [event] does do, is offer a great lesson in free agency and the consequences of choice. My wife and I have tried to explain this to our children so that they can see that while we have this awesome gift from God there is also the responsibility and understanding that comes along with those choices. Each one having an effect that we may not see or even think about.

Personally, I think I was protected from this event’s fallout because of how I led my life – but my emotions come from what it does to my children. I’m angry at the effects that it will have on them. It also puts me into positions I don’t feel ready for, as I have to take on more roles. I am now responsible for more than just my own family. But don’t get me wrong – I’m not shying away from this – I’m just overwhelmed and feeling a bit unqualified for the roles I’ve now been pushed into. Like most things, it’ll take some time and I’ll need to lean more the Lord for help.

But what of forgiveness? Is it easy? As one of my new roles, I’ve had to become a great listener, an offerer of support. I listen to the anger and hatred from others and try to convert that into a willingness to forgive and while it doesn’t always work – it has put me more into a better position to forgive in myself. Honestly I don’t like the burden of being upset or hating someone – it’s too much, especially when I have to help others to move through their feelings and emotions. It just seems easier to forgive. I understand it’s not always easy to forgive, and I know it takes time. I’m not here to try and make it out like it’s as easy as flipping a switch or that the pain goes away in an hour. In this instance it was easier for me, but I’ve been through other situations where the pain and anger lasted longer and it took longer for me to forgive. But what is at stake shouldn’t be taken lightly either.

“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.

“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:9–10).

The Lord understands your pain – my pain. As I’ve struggled with knowing what to say to ease the pain for others and help them in their process, Mosiah has words of comfort;

“The Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease” (Mosiah 24:15)

So if you’re struggling with forgiveness for a wrong – unburden yourself. Turn to the Lord and lean on Him to carry you. I testify that your burdens will be made lighter.

My appeal in this message is that we control our tongues, and by speaking kind words to each other emulate in our relationships with each other the loving kindness the Lord has for his people

It’s interesting because, in this day of civility there seems to be anything but. So I thought it might be a great opportunity to talk about love and kindness.

With the mass devastation that has happened in Japan, and in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, there are so many who are in need of love and kindness. But there is more than that. I am of the opinion that it is much easier to spread our love to foreign people when we are not directly involved, and this isn’t a rub on anyone – just an opinion. But it seems harder when it’s within arms length.  In the Bible, Luke says:

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:35–36.)

Which are great words to try and live by – I know I struggle through the day to day grind of dealing with people who seem to have no idea how to operate through simple instructions with a myriad of questions (for the unknowing I’m a web developer, and build lots of corporate applications) , then I get home and I’m bombarded with the daily issues of life; busted wash machine, busted tooth, busted cat, reading current events, etc. So I’m pretty frazzled by the end.

Again referring back to the article above, Marion G. Romney points out when Paul was speaking to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4):

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Gives me pause, and gives me new found energy to try and do better. I know, we’re taught from the get go to love one another – but sometimes you forget. My wife, is always striving to better herself ran across some information about an interesting experiment.

If I said Emoto Masaru, would you know where I’m going, or would you already be google-ing it to try and figure out what it is? It’s okay, when my wife first said his name I had no idea who he was either.

The quick explanation if you haven’t already hit up Wikipedia is this:

Masaru Emoto (?? ? Emoto Masaru^?, born July 22, 1943) is a Japanese author and entrepreneur known for his claim that if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be “beautiful” or “ugly” depending upon whether the words or thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer, music or by attaching written words to a container of water.

Since we don’t have access to all his equipment, we thought we’d try it with rice. Basically we’ve put cooked rice into two glass containers – one we speak kind words to and the other we speak harsh words to. The results are interesting to say the least.

We love one jar of rice, not the other...

I don’t know if you can see the difference here, but one jar is different – can you tell which jar of rice we spoke harsh words to? Alright, if you can see it’s the right side. The left side still looks edible (it’s brown rice to begin with). You can try this at home too.

But, and this is the question you can apply to yourself and the people around you,  if rice looks like this after a week – how do the people you speak unkind words to feel inside? How does it effect them in the long run? The Lord has some words concerning that, and it’s something you might want to consider. I know I need to work on it…

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. (James 1:24)

It’s my testimony, that if we can internalize the love that the Lord has for us then it will become part of our countenance. I know it can work, I know people that are so loving and forgiving that they epitomize the Lords love. As a parent this is where I learn how to be like God. I’ve always maintained that I love my kids no matter what they do. While it can be hard sometimes, and I sometimes get caught up in things I see that remind me what I don’t like about myself in my children – the words I choose to use can have a lasting effect on them.

So to wrap this all up I think Marion G. Romney says it best:

Let us, therefore, resolve to control our tongues and by speaking kind words to each other emulate the loving kindness of our Lord.

I wrote this as an email to my mission president the other night and he asked that I share it on our mission’s Facebook wall. I decided to turn it into a blogpost (but have removed the names for privacy).

The church leaders have encouraged us to stay in touch with our converts. This is a wonderful experience that I had the other day and an example of the long-term blessings from serving a mission.

It took almost 11 years but tonight I finally feel like my mission was worth it, and that the Ohio Cleveland mission was where I was meant to serve.

In Ohio I was lucky to teach and witness the conversions of quite a few people. A quick count is something like 11 individuals. While I never actually performed a baptism – either a family member performed the baptism or I usually let my companion, either because he was senior or I wanted to let the junior companion have the experience – I was able to teach these people. Each one was a great experience.

Of those 11 I remember, just four were adults. I worked mostly with part-member or less-active families and seeking out inactive members.

In these last 10+ years I have frequently wondered how the children we taught were doing. Are they active still? Are their parents still active (which usually leads the kids to remaining active or not)? Where are they now?

The other day I was going through my Facebook photo albums and tagging some Elders that I have recently reconnected with via Facebook. Then I decided to try some of the kids — after all, which kid isn’t on Facebook!?

When I was training Elder Cameron Comerford of Show Low, AZ in Barberton we taught two unbaptized sisters, ages 9 and 8. Two unbaptized sisters with a semi-active (I think) father. I barely remember teaching these girls but I have a few impressions of being in their home.

From what I recall we were asked to drop by and teach his girls. Gladly!! We taught them, they listened intently. We answered a few 9-year-old questions, and they were on the fast track for baptism. I was transferred to Cleveland proper in June of 2000 and both girls were baptized by Elder Comerford shortly after my transfer. All I have from that experience is one impression in my memory and a photo of the girls with Elder Comerford at their baptism (above).

Children of semi-active families who get baptized do not tend to have a good track record for staying active in the church and the fact that I worked mostly with children who fit this mold has bothered me in the last decade.

On top of that my patriarchal blessing has a healthy section about my full-time mission. In particular, one line states: “you will teach them in their language and bear testimony to them in a way that they will accept your testimony as truth.” This line always made me a little depressed because I served an English-speaking mission. I sort of believe the Mormon maxim that you get called to the exact mission you are needed to serve in, but that line in my blessing kept haunting me, especially since I worked mostly with American, English-speaking children.

Tuesday I can honestly say that the fulfillment of that part of my blessing was made evident – without ever learning a foreign language.

Back to Facebook.

I searched for the two girls and found them! The oldest is a student at BYU-ID and her sister is a student at BYU-HI. I was so happy to see they are both still active in the church. I felt like Alma when he was reunited with the sons of Mosiah as missionaries: “and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth (Alma 17:2)”

Both wrote me wonderful messages tonight. I’d like to share them with you:

From the oldest (was 9):
“I REMEMBER YOUUUUU!!!!! that is so awesome you found me because i was wondering about the missionaries that got to baptize me and if they’re married and if they have children and what they’re up to now and i remember one night i googled my name and my baptism picture came up!!!! i am so glad you found me! it just made my night! i love you elders and i love the gospel so much…thank you for baptizing me ”

From the youngest (was 8):
“This is soooooooo cool!!! Yeah I’m active in the church and I go to BYU-Hawaii. You have really blessed my life! Thank you!!“

The girls are now 19 and 20.

Those two sweet messages made the entire two years well worth it.

The gospel is great. We are so lucky.

Is there any scripture or prophecy that might answer the question: “Will the Holy Ghost have the opportunity to gain a physical body”? And when might that be?

It got me thinking, I mean I knew He didn’t have a body and I don’t recall ever thinking about after everything happens, will He get a body then? So I did some quick searching and found a pretty concise answer to the question.

Joseph Fielding Smith

AVOID SPECULATING ON DESTINY OF THE SPIRIT. The Holy Ghost is not a personage with a body of flesh and bones, and in this respect differs from the Father and the Son. The Holy Ghost is not a woman, as some have declared, and therefore is not the mother of Jesus Christ.

It is a waste of time to speculate in relation to his jurisdiction. We know what has been revealed and that the Holy Ghost, sometimes spoken of as the Holy Spirit, and Comforter, is the third member of the Godhead, and that he, being in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son, reveals to man by the spirit of revelation and prophecy the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our great duty is so to live that we may be led constantly in light and truth by this Comforter so that we may not be deceived by the many false spirits that are in the world.

I have never troubled myself about the Holy Ghost whether he will sometime have a body or not because it is not in any way essential to my salvation. He is a member of the Godhead, with great power and authority, with a most wonderful mission which must be performed by a spirit. This has satisfied me without delving into mysteries that would be of no particular benefit.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 1:39.

I found this information at the FAIRMormon Wiki, more specifically on the page Holy Ghost/Identity, so really it appears there is no real clear answer on the subject and nothing has really been said or stated. One of those, you’ll find out when you reach the other side of the veil.

Well I hope this helped clear up the question Grant, and thanks for asking.

Reminder, send in questions – this is kind of fun looking for answers…

We live in a day of “wars [and] rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places.^” As prophesied, “the whole earth [is] in commotion” and “Satan is abroad in the land.” He seeks to destroy all that is good and righteous. He is Lucifer, who was cast out of the presence of God.

While alone, this quote is enough to get anyone paying attention a little nervous with all that is going on. We can let those sentences get the best of us, and at times I have – but we should be paying more attention to the next sentence of Elder Packer’s statement more so than the first four:

Against all of that, we have very positive feelings about what lies ahead.

Luckily a good friend of mine @LDSGuy has been paying better attention, not to mention we had been discussing if there would ever be missionaries in Egypt. I got a text message the other night from him, telling me to go look up sign #48. It has been awhile since I read 65 Signs of the Times and couldn’t remember what it was, so I was pretty excited to see what it was about. I will let him add the remainder of this post:

The way I figure it, either 1. the fullness of the gospel will be taken into Egypt, missionaries will be welcome, a temple will be built, the Egyptian people will enjoy the blessings of eternal marriage and being sealed to their families for eternity, or 2. the Muslim extremists in that region will take over and align themselves with other extremist groups in the region and attack a common enemy—Israel. Both seem plausible. Of course both could happen, with the latter occurring before the former.

Somewhere deep inside my mind I seem to recall scriptures mentioning something about Egypt’s role in the last days and what their status will be with respect to the gospel, but I was not able to locate any.

That is until I came across my copy of David Ridges’ book 65 Signs of the Times Leading up to the Second Coming and started thumbing through it that night. Lo! and behold there it was on page 127 and continuing over onto page 128. The answers to Egypt’s status in the last days was given to us eight centuries prior to Christ’s birth by the prophet Isaiah (Esaias in the New Testament Greek). I’m going to copy Brother Ridge’s explanatory notes (in italicize brackets) in these verses to help illustrate his views on this topic.

18 In that day [the last days] shall five [several] cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan [Israel; a prophecy of greatly improved relationship between Egypt and Judah in the last days], and swear to the Lord of hosts [make covenants with Jesus Christ, implying that they will have the true gospel]; one shall be called, The city of destruction [not a good translation; could be "city of the sun"].

19 In that day [the last days] shall there be an altar [a temple; in a temple] to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar [symbolic of a temple—see Revelation 3:12] at the border thereof to the Lord.

20 And it [the altar and the pillar] shall be for a sign and for a witness [reminder] unto [of] the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they [Egyptians] shall cry [pray] unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

21 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day [the last days], and shall do sacrifice [see 3 Nephi 9:20; broken heart and contrite spirit] and oblation [see D&C 59:12]; yea, they shall vow a vow [make covenants] unto the Lord, and perform it [and will be faithful to them].

Here the author points out the fact that often times the Lord has to humble a group of people, and then save them for peril before they will listen to Him.

22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it [first humble it, then heal it]: and they shall return even to the Lord [the Egyptians will hear and live the gospel], and he shall be intreated [prayed to] of [by] them, and shall heal them [wonderful blessings are in store for Egypt].

Isaiah 19:18-22

After looking at this source further it seems to me that dark days still lie ahead for Egypt; however, the distant future will be a bright new dawn, full of gospel truths and saving ordinances.

Another excellent source I love to turn to when studying Isaiah is David R. Minert’s book Simplified Isaiah for the Latter-day Saints.

In covering Isaiah, Brother Minert does a remarkable job explaining Isaiah in simplified, modern terminology. Brother Minert consulted at least 12 different sources on Isaiah before coming up with his narrative of each verse in Isaiah.

In his book he covers chapter 19 by explaining details that have yet to happen for Egypt. These include, civil war (v. 2), a cruel king/leader (v. 4 – in my opinion this has yet to occur), all the water sources including the Nile river will dry up, plant life and the entire Egyptian economy will suffer as a result (vs. 5-10), the Egyptians will be fearful of even the mention of Israel (v. 17), eventually relations between Egypt and Israel will improve (v. 18), the gospel will be taught to Egyptians, a temple will be built (vs. 19-22), there will be an Arab alliance between Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria (v. 23), and surprisingly Israel will join this alliance (v. 24).

Obviously a lot of the things listed by Isaiah seem unlikely or far-fetched given Egypt’s current status, but then again remember how few people could have imagined that a) the end of the Cold War would occur almost overnight in 1989, or b) the gospel would be preached in eight Russian missions (count as of today), or even that c) an LDS temple would be built in a communist country prior to the end of the Cold War. Clearly, the Lord’s purposes continue to go forth, despite the status of the world’s problems.

I firmly believe that by-and-by all of the concrete prophecies of the prophets will be fulfilled, meaning the ones that do not have conditions attached to them. If a prophet says “in the last days Egypt will have a temple” it will come to pass. However, if a prophet says “in the last days Egypt will have a temple if they do not align themselves with {insert foreign troublemaker here}” and Egypt still aligns themselves with that country then of course they will not receive a temple. In the verses outlined above by Isaiah the prophecies of the future of Egypt all seem pretty concrete to me.

It will be interesting to watch and see how this current Egyptian unrest unfolds, but if I had to guess where we are with regards to the status of Egypt and her future, I’d start at the beginning of the chapter (v. 2)—with a lot of terrible and exciting things ahead for the Egyptians. My personal take on the current murky future of Egypt combined with verse four is that the near future will bring some sort of extreme regime that will NOT be friendly to the United States or Israel, that will possibly attempt to or be successful in instigating Shariah Law throughout Egypt, thus restricting the freedoms of those people who are currently calling for freedoms, and serve as a “cruel lord” over the Egyptian people. It may get dark before it gets bright, but Isaiah has promised the Egyptian people that one day prior to the Lord’s Second Coming the restored gospel will flourish in the Land of the Pharaohs and that the saving ordinances of the gospel will be administered to the Egyptians by the Egyptian saints. It may seem distant, but it could very well all happen within the next 5-10 years.

“Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you” President J. Reuben Clark Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1938, 103

Let me preface this by saying that it may not necessarily be provident living to some, but it is a huge change in my families spending habits and a change in our mindset of how we want to handle money in the future.

I also need to give a little background on our family. We made the choice some years ago to be be a one income family, though there may have been times since then that both of us have worked, we’ve never relied on daycare or outside systems to take care of any of our kids. We also had gotten ourselves into some bad habits, like using credit cards to supplement our income and by the end, racked up quite a bit of debt. I won’t use exact figures, but it was sufficient to finally make my wife and I sick of the situation and decide to make some changes. We still struggle, but we are making it.

So let’s roll back the clock, to the beginning of  2010. Lots of stuff changed for my family, with my wife being pregnant, getting a raise, having to move and enjoying a nice car, things were a little overwhelming in different ways. We finally landed a rental and couldn’t believe how we could afford all the stuff we had: a rental house, our nice Honda Pilot and we were still only one income (we had a little help from my wife’s sister living with us). But in all reality, we were one incident away from ruin and there were some tough decisions coming…and soon.

But at the beginning of the year, we really hadn’t made any real choices, we had stopped using the credit cards because, well it seemed like there was enough money every paycheck – and I think we had kind of gone over board with Christmas (like we seemed to do every year). Then my wife’s sister decided to move, and that was the catalyst.

Now I don’t think of myself as that stuck on things of the world, I mean I like things don’t get me wrong – but never quite realized how deep it was. When I was younger I bought the vehicles I wanted and I liked my vehicles. After I got married it slowly went away though I was still quite proud and stubborn about them. Though eventually after years of driving beaters and vehicles that some might consider to be less manly I’ve come to a point where I thought I didn’t care. Then we bought our Honda Pilot in a moment of weakness – well I say it that way, but that’s usually how we ended up with a car, go and look at usually bought the first thing we saw. So here we are with a pretty hefty payment, with a really nice car – one that I felt pretty good driving. It was shiny, powerful, had fancy gadgetry and awd drive.

If you ask me now, I’ll admit I never was happy with the Honda, and not for any reason other than I was always too worried about it. Like every new sound I heard I would have a mental break – How much is this going to cost me, how do I find the money to fix it. etc, etc, etc. But I wouldn’t admit it back then. I liked having a nice car.

But here we were, a loss of about the same amount of money per month as our car. The choice seemed easy, but the execution was not. I fought it tooth and nail saying I needed a car for work, we’ve had two cars since the day we were married. Also, there were legitimate times of needing a second car – like when I commuted over an hour each way to work. But my excuses for keeping the car were petering out and I finally gave in to my wife’s wise counsel. We put the car up on an internet site to sale it and to make a long story short, sold it within a week or two – and here’s the miraculous part, sold it for about $40 dollars less than we owed on it! As we look back on this we know that the Lord helped us sale this car because we needed to make choices, we needed to start a ball rolling that will ultimately lead us to financial freedom.

So now we’re down to one car. A 13yr old minivan. The talk was that at tax time this year we would look at buying a car for me, but now it’s changed – and I’ll get to that in a minute. But we’ve been sharing the van since the summer and while it’s not an awesome solution it has worked.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year. We look at last year and look at the debt savings we’ve made. We removed a vehicle from the equation which really freed up a nice little amount of money per month. We haven’t used any of our credit cards last year so they are going down, albeit slowly – they are going down. And we’ve got an initial amount of tax return that as our habits have changed, our use of that money has also changed. Our plan for this year is to start off with a bang, and by bang I mean using some of the tax money to get some work done on the van, put together an emergency fund and then pay the rest onto one of the credit cards.

You can look at this any way you want, but a snowball starts with one snow flake, however small that snowflake is it does grow over time. Personally I can get very focused on seeing results and when you’re talking about something the size of a snowflake it’s hard to see the results. But with a good woman at my side, support from various sources and strength from the Lord this year is going to make a bigger snowball and the effects are going to be very visible.

While I haven’t been very specific on somethings, these are some of the things we’ve been doing. We’ve been talking more – my wife and I about our finances. While I still struggle with sitting down with my wife and going over the finances. I talk to her more about it and we discuss most of our purchases. We also employee some rewards here and there. One of bad habits is going out to eat, and so we’ve been trying to change that habit into a reward system – it works, but sometimes it’s hard to stick to it. We listen to Dave Ramsey also, not so much for advice but to hear the people that call, both success stories and the people who are worse off then us. Because nothing motivates better than knowing how bad it can get. The most important thing to remember is the Lord, He is a big strength to us in trying to do this. We’re all human and subject to weakness – but with His help we can over come. We’ve been counseled to pray always, on everything and so this might be a helper to remember. but be warned it’s long Alma 34:18-27 – but the gist is simple, pray always. If you have serious spending problems pray over that candy bar at the check out isle, for me it’s more about impulsive big purchases like a car – but sometimes it’s about being weak or tired and saying let’s just get a pizza.

So while this may not be the provident living post you were hoping for, this is my experience with debt, finally getting sick of it and making changes. The changes may not be great, they are making a difference. However slow they start out as, they do grow, just like debt continues to grown, the snowball can also grow and eventually you will be free.

I caught a post on facebook from Dave Ramsey that mentions a police officer (I don’t remember where, but the numbers a probably close) that said about 80% of the domestic dispute calls he gets are based around money. Couple that with this article linking financial arguments and debt and you can see that you should do what you can now, however small it is.

“If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means. And if there is any one thing that is grinding and discouraging and disheartening, it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet” (Heber J. Grant, Gospel Standards, comp. G. Homer Durham [1941], 111)

Now realize that the article was written in 2009, though we as LDS were told about the problems even back in 1941…

I leave you with a testimony of living within your means. That if you follow the counsel of God and pray to him for help and strength that you to can work your way out of debt and release yourself from that bondage.

Quotes pulled from a General Conference address given by President Gordon B. Hinckley in the October 1998 Priesthood session entitled “To the Boys and Men“.

This missionary experience recently occurred to three Elders serving in my city. I learned of this experience through my bishop and it has been posted on our mission’s blog. The original was a letter from one missionary to President Albright. I have copied it as I received it. The bolding is mine for emphasis.

Dear President Albright,

Elder Davie, Elder Harper, and I were at church on Sunday two weeks ago. As we prepared to walk into the Mt. Vernon Ward sacrament meeting, a recent convert named Patrick Onoche, a Ghanaian, approached us with another man, also from Ghana. Patrick introduced us to the man as his uncle. As we discussed the gospel with this visitor, we discovered that he is actually a Prince from Ghana’s Ashanti Tribe. His name is Oheneba [Prince] Osa Kyme. Here are the interesting facts about this prince: The Ashanti Tribe, with over 3 million members, is the largest and most powerful tribe in Ghana. He and his family are the actual caretakers for the numerous idols and shrines owned by the King of the Ashanti. He was born into royalty and it has been his life-long duty to protect the King’s shrines and idols. He is now about 75 years old. He showed us photos of the idols and the King with his family. His passport also confirmed that he was a tribal leader.

Last month he was asked by the King of the Ashanti to come to America to purchase a new idol from the gold dealers and craftsmen in New York City. As he arrived at the meeting in New York to acquire the new items, he heard a voice tell him that “you will not find salvation by worshipping [sic] these idols.”

As he pondered on the words that had come into his mind, he remembered the warm and sacred feelings he had experienced when he had driven past the LDS Temple in Accra, Ghana. He recalled feeling that our Temple was a sacred and a holy place. He then remembered that his nephew Patrick Onoche had joined the LDS Church in Virginia last year (baptized by Elder Doman) so rather than continuing on with his meetings with the gold dealers, he felt a strong desire to fly to Virginia where he met with Patrick. Patrick immediately taught his uncle about the restoration of the gospel and brought him to attend Sacrament meeting the next day where we met him. After he came to church and learned more about the gospel he told us that he wanted to be baptized and that he would not return to Ghana until he was a member of the true Church.

We met with him every day last week to make sure he fully understood the covenants he will be making with God before he returns to his homeland. After he attended church for two weeks we held a special baptism for him on Jan. 9, 2011, just three days before he flew home to Ghana. He delayed his flight for several days to accommodate the instructions you provided that he attend church for at least two weeks before his baptism. Oheneba intends on resigning from his royal position as caretaker of the King’s idols upon returning home, so he can spread the Gospel among his people. We tried to persuade him that maybe he should just care for the idols as a custodian but not worship them. However, he was adamant that he wants to spread the gospel and give up his leadership position with the Ashanti Tribe. He said he was willing to give up all his possessions to become a member of Christ’s true church because he is more worried about his family’s salvation than property.

President, it has truly been a blessing to meet Oheneba and teach him the gospel with the help of Elder Davie and Elder Harper. Thank you for coming to help teach him and baptize him. We have already heard from Oheneba that the elders in Ghana have made contact with him.

Ofa atu,

Elder Ta’ufo’ou

What a remarkable story. It reminds me of King Lamoni’s father from the Book of Mormon – who was willing to give up his entire (and probably lengthy) previous life just for the truthfulness of the Gospel when he heard it preached from Aaron:

Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy (See Alma Chapter 22).

Ladies and gentlemen, the fullness of Christ’s gospel, including the priesthood power, temple blessings, and all the rites and ordinances necessary for salvation, has been restored to the earth in these latter-days. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church on the face of the earth that embodies the fullness of these blessings. That I know for certain. It is very heartwarming to see the message of the Restoration spread throughout the entire world – even among the nobles in foreign countries.

If you or someone you know has questions regarding the LDS church, feel free to ask representatives who will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

In the book of Mormon sometime between the years of A.D. 401-421 Moroni, the son of Mormon (for whom the entire volume of sacred writ was named), wrote:

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. Mormon 9:32

One of the extremely popular criticisms relating to this verse is that “there is no evidence in Egyptology of something called ‘Reformed Egyptian,’ and that the Book of Mormon’s claim to have been written in this language is therefore suspect.”

When I was a freshman in college I took a linguistics class and got interested in dead languages, an interest that has always culminated around Egyptology. Though I have not ever given serious focus on this fascination of mine, I do enjoy nuggets of historical information relating to Egyptian script and how it relates to the Book of Mormon. I will discuss just one of the many examples of “reformed Egyptian” that scholars may not refer to as being “reformed,” yet it is as reformed as reformed gets.

WHAT IS REFORMED EGYPTIAN?

In the preceding verse Moroni is clear as day when he says “the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian”. Of course, Moroni did not write or speak in English so the actual term that was translated by Joseph Smith into the English phrase ‘reformed Egyptian,’ whatever it was called, was only known to the Nephites. I don’t understand this argument because obviously the Egyptians never called some version of their writing ‘reformed Egyptian.” (In fact, the Egyptians called it sš n š?.t).

Side note: I presume the Lamanites didn’t use the term as it was most likely a priestly (religious) script and not used in every day writings. Verse 33 actually eludes to the idea that every day writing among the people was done in a form of, shall I be bold as to call it, “reformed Hebrew:”

And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also… Mormon 9:33

Over the years secular egyptologists and linguists have discovered that Egyptian hieroglyphic writing underwent three different changes since its creation somewhere near 3000-4000 BC. The word hieroglyphic is a Greek word (hieroglyphikos) meaning ‘sacred writing or carving.’ The first of these transformations among the Egyptian priests occurred during the Protodynastic Period of Egypt (ca. 3200 BC to 3000 BC). Hieratic derives from the Greek phrase grammata hieratika, which literally means “priestly writing.” This first example of reformed Egyptian was developed so the scribes were able to take notes or write laws, decrees, or religious texts with a reed brush on papyrus, and allowed them to write quicker than the time it took them to engrave glyphs.

After centuries of using hieratic to write their religious texts, the Egyptians developed the demotic script, which was coined by the Greek historian Herodutus demotikós, a Greek word meaning popular. This popular script was called by the Egyptians sš n š?.t (“document writing”) and was a highly cursive script, used for everyday writing, not strictly for religious practices or just by the priests or the ruling class. It is presumed that eventually many of the common Egyptians used this form of writing. This is the script that is found in the middle section of the famous Rosetta Stone (pictured at right), which resides in the British Museum. Demotic emerged on the scene roughly around the later part of the 25th Dynasty (760 BC to 656 BC). This is extremely important because, according to the Book of Mormon, Nephi begins his summary on the plates with “I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.” Further on he states that his father, Lehi, began prophesying “in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah” (ca. 597 BC), meanwhile demotic was already in use by the Egyptians 60 years prior to Lehi’s prophetic call.

With the arrival of the Greeks in the 1st century, Egyptian writing underwent it’s final “reformation,” into what scholars call Coptic. However, for our time frame with the Book of Mormon I’m going to focus on demotic.

It’s been shown the demotic, a cursive and highly popular form of “reformed Egyptian” was in use by as early as the 8th century BC, and Nephi tells us himself in the very first chapter of the Book of Mormon that he was writing in the language of the Egyptians. So then, if demotic existed circa 600 BC, and if Moroni claimed that the Book of Mormon was written in (what the Nephites termed ‘reformed Egyptian’ – using a Nephite word for it, of course), there must be some evidence of correlation between the characters that were engraved onto the gold plates (from which the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God through Joseph Smith) and published demotic script in the secular world, right?

Wouldn’t you know it, there are!

THE ANTHON TRANSCRIPT CHARACTERS

The Anthon Transcript was a sheet of paper upon which Joseph Smith copied a few of the “reformed Egyptian” characters from the plates of the Book of Mormon. In the winter of 1828, Martin Harris showed these characters to Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia College (now Columbia University), and hence the name (Encyclopedia of Mormonism).

Fast forward to the 20th century…

Between 1897 and 1970 the official magazine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was entitled “The Improvement Era.” In 1942 Ariel L. Crowley (1905-2005) was a contributor to The Era and wrote an excellent three-piece series comparing characters from the Anthon transcript to well-documented Egyptian demotic characters in other publications. I have listed direct links to the PDFs below. Part II is where the fun stuff is!

• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: The Identification of the Characters as Egyptian
• Part III: The Corroborative Evidences of the Serabit Inscriptions, the Plates of Darius, and the Inscriptions of Byblos

Beginning on page 4 of Part II Crowley lists characters from the Anthon transcript in the left column and an extremely similar, if not identical, Egyptian demotic character in the right column, complete with source. The two main sources that Crowley cites and wherein he located demotic characters that matched up with characters found on the gold plates are:

• Wilhelm Spiegelberg’s Demotische Grammatik (1925)
• Heinrich Karl Brugsch’s Hieroglyphisch-Demotisches (1868)

I listed the printing of both books for those critics who love to claim that somehow an uneducated farm boy with no more than a third grade education must have done a ton of research to come up with the story of the Book of Mormon. Notice that both of these German (Joseph didn’t speak or read German) titles were printed after Joseph Smith died in 1844.

Update (1/6/2011): I have actually been to the Library of Congress and searched through the book by Spiegelberg and have seen with my own eyes the demotic characters in that book that correlate to the characters on the Anthon Transcript.

I don’t know how much more similar the proof of the evidence of “reformed Egyptian” characters individuals need, but I do know that if it was part of the LDS gospel that 2+2=4, there would always be those who tried to say that is a lie and any who believed that, despite evidence to the contrary, were doomed to hell.

For centuries critics have come up with all kinds of calumny and aspersion against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Book of Mormon, and the prophet Joseph Smith. All kinds of falsehoods, lies, and deceptions have been perpetrated with regards to the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel, but if one will sincerely show an interest in learning more and do so with an open heart, without preconceived notions, sincerely desiring to know if it is true or not, as Moroni says in his epilogue, God “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10:4-5)”

I know that the Book of Mormon is sacred writ, painstakingly engraved upon gold plates by ancient prophets on the American continent for us in these the latter-days, and that is was translated by a poor, uneducated New York farm boy only by the gift and power of God. I have discovered far too many evidences of its truthfulness to discount (and all but ignored by LDS critics), but none greater than the personal revelation I have received from the Holy Ghost that it is a second testament of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calamy may defame. But the Truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country and sounded in every ear. Till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say, “The work is done.”

Tetris

It’s been a busy summer, and by busy – I don’t just mean being a lazy blogger. My job has been hectic, still trying to get a hugemungus project out the door. Not to mention the contract work I pick up from time to time, but there’s also been a new addition to the family (I’ll explain, don’t worry), scout camps, day camps, weekend trips, et cetera, et cetera…et cetera…

Today though, I’m taking a moment to blog. Well, after I found a new theme – wordpress’s update seemed to kibosh the old theme. At any rate, I felt I had been away long enough – though in my life those can be famous last words…

I’ve always found the gospel interesting. I tend to look in on it, rather then from the inside out – probably due to my rebellious youth, but nonetheless I find it curious. It’s like tetris, or bejeweled in that respect that when you take a 20,000 ft look at it, it all fits. It makes sense to me. Let’s take the creation for instance, if you understand God is the ultimate scientist and knows all the laws that governs the universe – then it makes sense how it works. I don’t think it matters exactly how it started – there very well could have been a big bang, or something else…all that matters to me is that he knew what needed to be done – like that tiny grain of sand in a pearl starts a chain reaction that results in a beautiful pearl. He knows what triggers what, and finally produces a universe. Of course this a very simple explanation of a very deep subject that can get heated and leave a lot of people bitter and angry – and that’s not my goal here.

So how does looking back  fit in to all this, well I guess it’s just a way for me to fit those pieces in, and knock out another level (or gain another level in my testimony).

The Addition

Back to the addition to our family. A couple of weeks ago, in fact exactly 14 days ago, my wife gave birth to our 4th child – a little boy of big proportions. But even back when we first found about him my wife decided that this one was going to be all natural. She wasn’t happy with her experiences with other deliveries of our other children, and so though going natural would be the best – I tried to support her in that decision, but was worried about all the pain – she was firm though and felt it was the right thing to do.

So fast forward, up to the delivery (all the checkups were fine, healthy boy, etc…) and what do we find. This little bundle of joy was standing at attention trying to get out – what this means is unlike normal where the baby tucks his head (chin to chest) to torpedo out, our little boy had his head straight up (as if he were at attention) – this presents a larger, flatter portion of the head to push through – and of course he got stuck.

It got a little frantic there at the end, not by the midwife or the nurse – but by me. The boy’s pulse was dropping as he got stuck there and I got a little worried because my wife was having troubles during the pushing and the nurse very calmly said that he needed to come out soon.

So my wife (the trooper that she is) pushed with all her might and got him out – turns out he had the cord around his neck too, but the talk was that if she had gotten an epidural she wouldn’t have had the strength to push him out and would have had to get a c-section.

So looking back, some 7 months into the past – there was a choice made that determined the fate of this delivery. I see pieces lock into place and another row drop off. I’m sure people could chalk this up to good fortune, or luck – but I don’t see it that way. I see it as divine intervention making a suggestion to my wife to go natural with this birth to save her from a lot of pain, and suffering. In fact, I’m willing to lay down money that it was also to allow for us to have my son’s baptism 6 days later and for everyone to attend. Though I’m sure it connects to other things in the future that I’m not even aware of, not to mention the things that led up to it…here’s comes the programmer in me – but look at all the if else statements going on here. For all the old basic guys – it would be one giant if then goto program.

It amazes me that people would sooner forget or ignore the connective links that brings us to where we are today – and how God manages all that – not to mention adding variables to that. I’m reminded of a commercial I remember seeing some years ago for a phone company that was trying to show off it’s ability to keep callers connected by showing the originating caller’s call following a path, and if something happened to one of the connections it would go to another one to continue on it’s path to the final destination. This also can  be a diagram for our life with sin too. While we have our final destination, there are always problems along the way – one mistake doesn’t drop the call, it only redirects momentarily to try and get us back on the to the final destination – and continues to work even if our original path changes, the end stays the same.

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it makes sense to me – it works. Sometimes it takes a look back to realize just how awesome it is, but it is real. I testify that it is the true gospel and the only gospel on earth.