Italian Indexing- year end

Indexing Status - 3004 records submitted, 0 records to do
   My Goal: 3000 records indexed
   End Date: 31 Dec 2014
   Target Rate: 0 records per day

Sigh,  s i g h,  s  i  g  h  .  .  .
That was my goal last month but I did not make it. Yes, I made it this month. And the FRLibrary has been closed since a week before Christmas.

Am I going to keep that as my goal for next month? Probably not.  We'll see.

Today is Wednesday, the last day of the year.  I felt great at the end of Monday and Tuesday. Writing and mailing letters can bring me great satisfaction. Monday was for MichaelJ and Sion, Tuesday was for Kathy and Jared Dunn.  So fun!

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba.
zyxvwutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
Sometimes it is easier to type something twice and then compare for differences.  There is one!

". . .Not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."

1 Nephi 4:6

Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 4:6

"6  And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."

 

6:10pm. Monday, December 22, 2014

Sometimes I look back on things that 

have happened and I think, and all that

 

happened with me “not knowing 

beforehand the things which I should 

do."?

Don’t you just love it when it seems like it was all guided according to HF’s will?  That is just one of the all time thrills of my life!

This is the second time I am applying it to a situation in my life.  I sat in the car after arriving home from the WCLibrary where I printed of 20 pages of letter and conference talks(3pages-3talks)  = 17 from me. As I leaned back in my seat to pray I started laughing. HF did that just happen? Besides the letter (2 stamps) I sent him a Christmas card and 2 pages copied out  of the January Friend, 2015, the coloring page and the faith story. Pg 35 and 21 or something. I had written on the coloring page that with all the intensity of the conference talks maybe some coloring would be appropriate. And on the back of the card I wrote how Paul and Joseph of Egypt and Joseph Smith all spent long boring times in jail or prison but look what we got from them in the way of scripture.

Finally,I had to write something in the card. I told him to pick his favorite Christmas hymn, all the verses, and imagine me singing it to him and then he and I harmonizing and singing parts where ever we wanted. “Can you imagine that all the way through?” I asked him.

Now I want to know what hymn it was? : )

The first time I experienced this was when I was teaching Brock Buckway’s course 14 or 15 SS class. We met at the top of the south stairs and they had sustained Patzy Lamb as a spy and teacher development teacher. She kept getting assigned to come to my class. I suspect that someone was reporting to their parents that they didn’t like how I managed/taught the class. I was suffering depression although I did not know it. Decisions came so hard in those days. A few days before that class. . .

For some reason I had to be parked near Tabernacle and Main street in town. Laundry comes to mind but I don’t remembering having to do laundry. I was hunting for something and saw a stationary and specialty store with a sale on.  Kathy used cute stationary  with borders all the time for the kids journals/scrapbooks! I picked all kinds of cool, way cool borders like colored chili peppers etc..  I took them to class and as part of the lesson I explained how I had felt guided “not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” I told them about how cool the wonderful stationaries were and how delightful it is to receive encouraging notes from others.  I offered stationary to anyone who wanted to write one or some. Brock, laid-back, hang-loose, set-the-coolness-standard Brock said he thought he could do it. I was incredulous. What? A living icon, and also boy thought he could do it? I was meticulous in questioning his commitment. They might have been half price but the stationary sheets had all been the ones I liked the best and hand-picked.

I asked Patsy what and where that scripture was and she replied, I’m not a scriptorian! I eventually found it probably during the succeeding week.  And low and behold, Brock Buckway followed through. The icon of coolness wrote each person in the class a note of respect, assurance and compliments. I doubt there was anyone the class members would have rather had one from.

After his mission I told this story to the young people’s class he was teaching in the large Young Women’s room. I was his witness.

What does that say about Tawna his mother? Brock had a great big heart inside that buff exterior. His mother had nurtured it for years. She ended up doing humanitarian project after humanitarian project for the poor and underprivileged in his mission, while he was out.

One of his older sisters reported to me that she had told her parents, Brother Jensen is Brocks SS teacher? Good, finally someone who can keep him under control. Of course, I did not know that at the time, and that was not my intent. I just wanted to inspire them and challenge them to act on their spirituality.

I tried to excite them about preparing for the Saint George Marathon too! But it was to be a SS scripture, read the Book of Mormon marathon.  I thought it was the most awesome idea and told them I owned 2 trophies but that if they completed this marathon in such a worthy cause I would give them a trophy announcing this wonderful accomplishment. That trophy would be much more valuable than a running trophy. It fizzled.

I followed up each week until I could see it had died. : (

Seasons Greetings Sulie Baren Hensen Arthur

Christmas time 12/16/14 Tuesday, 3:26pm

Dear sibling sister Sulie,

I am at the Family Research Library just north of the old cafe rio building in Saint George. If all goes well we will have a library like this built by the temple in 3 years!

Someone chose me for the 12 days of Christmas this year. I think it is my old bishop's family. They are so serviceful and I go out of my way to recognize all they do. So last night I got 20 Christmas cards from my Christmas elf to send out this year.

When I was a painter I had tons of time to think about life. When I was a teacher I didn't. Now I am an Italian Indexer and I do have plenty of time to think about life again. When one is engaged in mind numbing work it leaves the brain free to fly. As I type these names they remind me of people and family. Today I typed Giulia, they don't use J in Italiano, and I began to think about you and considered writing. My best old friend David Jentzsch's wife sends me a Christmas card each year and I have written them back but he doesn't ever answer.[1/6/15 but he wrote me back half a page! and I have his correct FAcebook account now.  So Awesome!]

Writing is a relatively safe way to communicate. No immediate responses are expected and one needn't read the rest if offended or triggered.

If you dared to answer some questions for me this is what I would ask:

- How are you and the church?

- How are you and Dan?

- How is your health and body?

- How long until retirement for you guys?

- What brings you the most joy these years?

-What brings you the greatest sadness?

- If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?

-Which days are your hardest?

-Which days are your easiest?

- Tell me 5 things you are proud of from your life?

-Tell me 5 things you are ashamed of?

-When would you like to die? Never and Now are options. : )

-Do you read or write for pleasure?

-Who are you close to? Do you have any totally trustworthy friends?

Good enough.

I will answer those same questions to fill this one page. (I do weird things.vj)

-H I am 100% in. It is my foundation.

-H WE are sadly divorced. Sept. '11 Kathy was here for Tgiving we said Hi.

-H Pretty good. Way overweight but hiking the dogs each day.

-H I was forced out. So living on my retirement already. 21 months. : )

-W My children.

-W Worry for my children. When I am not so anxious about my own issues that pop up all the time.

-I 1-Michael'92 to communicate and go on a mission. 2- A new happy marriage. 3-Blessings on my children.

-W Mondays.

-W Sundays

-T I made it to retirement teaching Jr. High. I never stop trying. I did psychotherapy 5 years. Even when my testimony was dead I did not leave the church. I have been a good spiritual example for my children.

-T perhaps in the future

-W now

-D both 

-W no one. no. ADVENTUREBILL1 is my blog. 4:09p
======================================================
4:33p

Tuesday, January 06, 2015 

The FHC opened yesterday. Claudia Owens saw me and signaled me that I was wanted in the principal’s office by Boyce Jensen. Made perfect sense to me considering the dreams I have been having lately!

I did not recognize her until I studied her nose and facial expressions. She had snow white hair from the front and I thought, no way this can be my Boyce Jensen!  But it is.  : )  What a blessing.  We took care of business and I left.

As I was out walking the dogs I realized I might have missed the chance of a lifetime.  Will I ever see her again?  I stopped by the office on my way in and sure enough she was not there today! A few hours later though I saw her helping a patron right behind me, and I kept my eye out for her for the rest of the time.

How dare I cross that bridge? It was so important to me but how should I do it? I decided to write a note. [Yep, you know me!] And better still I decided to write it on the backside of My Christmas letter to Sulie! How could I get Sulie’s Christmas letter? Off the  cloud. . . right here from my  blog. O, the joys of the cloud! And the joys of journaling on it!

Boyce used to live in Sulie and Stan’s ward, and that is all I knew.

I wrote her that the letter on the other side was the one I had sent to Sulie this Christmas’14 for the first time in a decade or two.

She came out of the “principal’s office” to visit with me about my note. This is what I learned.

-they still live in the same house.

-they are active in the ward.

-Stan is a counselor in the bishopric along with Boyce’s son, Brother Jensen

-B thinks Sulie will not read my letter off the internet and hoped I would sent it instead. I reassured her that I did that first. : )

-B has always liked S and thought the world of her.

-B thinks S became reclusive when her bishop and ward leaders would not believe her parental accusations.

-It wasn’t until a little 12 year old boy began abusing little girls and they followed up on his history and confessions about my parents and the things they did to him in “that basement” that the ward members started to give any credence to Sulie’s stories.

-B thinks the current bishopric are including her and putting their arms around her. Accepting her and helping her feel safe. Me- glory be!

I told Boyce I had not received a response to my Christmas letter.

AS I consider what I heard I feel:

-angry and indignant that church leaders did not believe S to begin with.

-surprised to hear it took a 12 year old boy acting out his experiences on little girls to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

-celebratory to hear they are active and surprised.  I just figured that since Jim McArthur helped Stan through the whole ordeal back then and since Jim was one of my sister’s sexual and ritual abusers as well as plural husband, that they SnS had just slid down that path as well. And I was aching inside.  I’m still not sure.

-grateful beyond words to hear she/they are being included and trusted in their ward!

-delighted that B was able to respond and still thinks so highly of S after all these years.

And then B asked how I was doing?  Me- sorry, no answer! You have to email me!  yessss!

Adventure Bill to the rescue! Not really but that is fun to write.ab 5:04p

PPS. There have only been 3 readers on this letter so it should be quite safe!ab

v12vdaysvofvchristmasvperfectlyvtimedv

8:33pm, Monday, 12/15/14

Dear Christmas Elves,

This is my second letter to you tonight. I wrote a letter to the EQ last month and entitled it: ADVENTUREBILL1

It was so cool! Half way through the lesson I had them google it and then I had Jesse Bird, who found it first, stand and read it to the quorum.

Since that worked so well I figured I would do the same for you. As you know I entitled it:
*12*days*of*Christmas*perfectly*timed*

Then I took the dogs for their walk. They were driving me crazy! "It's time to go, it's time to go!" they seemed to be dancing!

When I got home I decided to check and see if my plan worked and I googled it. Darn! DARN! It did not show up.

Maybe I just have to wait until the google bots find it. H1

Maybe it ignores ****'s H2

So as you can see I decided to act on the second hypothesis.  I rewrote the title with my first initial instead.  Isabel barked like crazy when you rang the bell tonight. I set my dinner aside and eventually got up and went out the garage instead of the front door so she wouldn't be in the way. Yay! you took my lovely box, which you just happened to give me the first night. So you have my instructions.

If it doesn't work I hope to leave you a better access Tuesday night.  You are so fun. I was feeling so discouraged last week!  Perfectly Timed.

Vern

PS. Perhaps Mom or Dad should read this first to determine whether it is time to share it or not. I would hate to pop anyone's balloon. And being a secret elf when your identity is suspected might lose all of the suspense and adventure.

*12*days*of*Christmas*perfectly*timed*

Monday, 12/15/14, 6:15pm

Dear 12 days of Christmas gift leavers,

One of the sweetest things that happens when generous, dependable saints like you do projects like this is. . . .
The recipient gets to imagine all the people in the neighborhood/ward who might like them enough to bless and compliment them in this way.

I can only think of one family that fits all the criteria of people crazy enough to try to do neatly wrapped and ribboned presents, with double layered red and green poems to announce each day.

If you are the family I am thinking of. . . Thank you it feels wonderful!

Here is the first clue:

This family has one daughter that has grown up and left home and is working, who used to love to change her hair color.

This mother and puppy were seen in front of Braeggar's blowing and raking leaves last week.

This family does more crazy, generous service than any family I have ever known!

This dad was willing to miss parent stake meeting Saturday night because someone from out of town needed a treatment.

This mom knows how to dress up like pi.

This youngest son worries he may have been brain damaged when he made one of the scars on his head.

This middle daughter can visit up a storm. Loves, LOVES puppies, dogs and other living things and wants to get a college education.

This oldest son is too shy to sit in front of the priesthood until his dad has to sit there also.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I tried not to eat all the cookies too fast but after 3 the first night. . they did not last another 24 hours. I tried.  Good thing it wasn't fast Sunday.

=======================2:00p Friday ============================repeat====
argh! Don't you hate it when you spend 20 minutes writing something and then it gets deleted!?

OK, starting over.

This really hurts. : (

Maybe I can be more abrupt and condensed this time. Forget the nice long paragraphs.

-I went late to my singles BoM class lastnight at the PineView Stake Center. I have been attending weekly since about August.

-When it was time for treats I asked if I could make 4 announcements. There were only 9 of us there. 1-I gave one of our teachers a 2L Pepsi as a joke. 2- I asked if anyone liked their drawers to smell nice and gave away the gift and read the poem. 3- I did the same for the silver ornaments. 4- The best one, the hot chocolate and marshmallows went last but each time I read the poem, and I was so proud of how beautifully presented they were! Nothing like what I ever give away.

-I asked Jimmy Young in his dad's truck about an hour ago how his dad was doing. Is he discouraged or depressed? He hasn't visited with me in days, weeks, months.  He is ashamed of his new job of 2 weeks stocking shelves at Walmart. : (   He used to be a semi driver with an impeccable record, but he doesn't dare leave Jimmy alone like he did 3 years ago.   - - - - - - - - - So I couldn't resist, I took them the big red and gold tied-ribboned boxes of candy canes!

-As you know I ate all the cookies and I also wrote my sister a letter and mailed it in your Christmas Card for the first time in 20 years. So personally I could not be happier. If anything I am doing has hurt your feelings I so want to apologize. I was so discouraged last week and I am having such fun this one.

Dear 12 days of Christmas gift leavers,

One of the sweetest things that happens when generous, dependable saints like you do projects like this is. . . .
The recipient gets to imagine all the people in the neighborhood/ward who might like them enough to bless and compliment them in this way.

I can only think of one family that fits all the criteria of people crazy enough to try to do neatly wrapped and ribboned presents, with double layered red and green poems to announce each day.

If you are the family I am thinking of. . . Thank you it feels wonderful!

As I reread the poems before passing them along they were so flattering! Everyone wants to believe those things about themselves. Or at least to think that someone thinks that about them. Internalizing them is hard. We tend to say, no that's not me, they are just being nice, am I supposed to believe this? But I believe HF feels that way about us. . . so why not try to accept them?  Once again. Thank you!

If I have made you lose your excitement, suspense, thrill, joy, pleasure, anonymity I am sorry. But it is even more wonderful to me, thinking I know who actually has a heart this big.
=================================================^Friday^===

Dear Sark Jensen and family,

Sannon

Sridge

Srock

Sriley

Sritton

I rang your doorbell, but just once at 9:25 tonight. Sunday, January 04, 2015

I am not familiar with your daily schedule but I wouldn’t be surprised if it started early. I rode down on my bike after my dog walk with a #10 -3quart jalapeno can and a glass gallon jug of pickled jalapenos. It is the first gallon I have purchased. I am allergic to tons of stuff so I was hoping. . . I could eat them, and I can.

One of the first weeks of December I saw Sark wearing the loudest colored jalapeno tie I had ever seen to Sacrament meeting and he was conducting! I was amazed. Since I had just purchased my gallon I figured I would drop by WalMart and buy you guys a gallon just for fun, FUN! You know me, I’ll do almost anything for a laugh.

By the end of Priesthood opening exercises I realized it was December and the green vines that the multi-colored peppers were growing on were really electrical cords. Those were Christmas lights. And they still are mighty bright!!

Dan and Julie Moss were sitting on the bench right behind the thermostat in Sacrament Meeting today. I touched both their shoulders as I knelt behind them before the meeting and asked when they were Christmas Elves doing the 12 days of Christmas last? They did our family once when my kids were little and they started with a big frozen turkey on the 1st day of Christmas. "And a partridge in a pear tree. . . " Julie would go exercise at 4 or 5am and drop it off on our doorstep first thing in the morning.  When Tara Braeggar started her humble, meek, gratitude overflowing, testimony in Sacrament Meeting today I told HF in prayer that hers was mine as well. So blessed we are and have been. When I asked Tami Kalmon as I substituted for my 3rd week in the library ( I texted Eric Yunker tonight, and he said, I wasn't aware of that. Sorry.[we're way ol' buddies]) whose testimony would have been mine today, She guessed right off!

I left the Mosses saying, someone in your neighborhood is still doing it, Dan said, That's good to know. I'll give it some thought. 

I smiled a big one. Perfect! They had admitted that since the kids were mostly gone, except Sarah, they have quit. Too hard to run away!

Tami Kalmon and I started TV detective AGENCY last night. Here is the blog I wrote:

Saturday, January 3, 2015

TV d e t e c t i v e AGENCY

TV detective AGENCY stands for Tami and Vincenzo!

I have a partner in crime. Oops, I meant a partner in figuring out who is doing the anti-crime-KIND-deeds in our neighborhood Christmas after Christmas. She kept some of her evidence and I have the current stuff!

I dropped off a bottle of Chablis, an empty package of triple elf chocolate cookies with M&Ms and 18 gold and silver Christmas cards. (I already used 2.) They are all waiting on her doorstep in a double Wal-Mart bag with a GOLD label taped on reading “evidence”.

Yes, I know it is 11:40pm at night. I did not ring or knock this time.

I told her and Jackie the chapter 2 part of the investigation story with the suspect being Wilma Courtney. I prefaced chapter 3 with RS president Cindi Brinkerhoff. My reasoning was that it must have been done by conveyor belt. The poems on red and green doubled construction paper. The gold bows. The red ribbon. The see-through packages. I suspected that I was not the only one receiving them and that it would take assembly line techniques to produce such high quality presents. These daily gifts were elegant! I was darn proud to pass them along!

Tami agreed that her poems, that she kept to use in future years, were double layered as well, with red and green construction paper.

I invited Tami to give me any suspicions she had and I would sniff them out. Jackie got a kick out of that word usage. : )

I suspect it might be the Jensen’s, Tami contributed.  O, Ho! That is even better than my chapter 3.  We shall see.

And I never even suspect Sark Jensen last Sunday when I clung to his arm so he couldn’t leave until I was done with my story in the choir seats. : )

And Sannon Jensen fits the profile exactly. And helper kids: Sridgette, Srock, Sriley and Sritton! Aha. . . I think we have something here! Can you believe Srock17 and Sritton12 did 37 fast offering envelopes a couple of months ago? I was astounded! And they didn’t even think it was a big deal!

Of course I had to announce it on 

Facebook the next time Sannon posted a family picture. “It’s a good thing the Jensen’s are in the ward!” I told them as they walked away with my fast offering. “Right back at ya!” replied Srock.  How could I remember it all these weeks later? When was the last time you heard a teenager return a compliment so smoothly? Yeah, now you know why I can still remember!

Tami and her family had not been able to read my blog that I sent her home to google. It was frustrating to her. Guess what? I helped them find it just after 9 tonight. I told her it had been viewed 16 times and none of those were from her and her family? Well, now it will be viewed a few more times.

  

So Jensen's, whose name I love, I have not voiced any findings but my prime suspects are y o u s!  :)

vern jensen <phonev6@gmail.com>	Jan 4

Hello good bishop emeritus, Would you pass this along to Tami for me, and browse to your heart's content.

Mark	Jan 5
to me

Bro. Jensen,

Thanks so much for your email.  I'm sorry I missed you last night. I am so glad to have my kids back in school, so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour each night.  I was in bed last night when you came by.  I'm glad you figured out my tie was Christmas light bulbs, instead of jalapeños. I don't know if I would wear a jalapeño tie?  I'll have to think about that.

A good mystery is always fun.  We have been the recipient of many anonymous kind deeds since we have lived in this neighborhood. It is fun to have such kind and thoughtful neighbors. I'm glad you had a merry Christmas. I appreciate your wonderful singing voice as you lead the music each Sunday. It helps me to learn the different parts of each song, when you mix in a verse of the tenor, alto or bass lines of music.  Happy New Year!

Thanks,

2x savings @ Walmart w/ American Express Bluebird debt account-fine print

12:03 am Friday night 12/05/14 ||| 6:02p 12/25/14 SAD CONCLUSION it did NOT work! Dang! there                                                                                                                         went another buck.

Fine Print:
*Offer is valid through February 28, 2015, and subject to change or cancellation at any time. Amounts credited to your Bluebird account in connection with the redemption of Reward Dollars, including amounts credited in respect of American Express' Double Your Rewards Dollars offer, will be held as “Walmart Buck$,” which are funds in your Bluebird Account that can be used exclusively to make purchases at participating Walmart locations and www.Walmart.com. Walmart Buck$ are not redeemable for cash. Amounts credited in respect of American Express' Double Your Rewards offer may not exceed $599.99 per calendar year. Click here for complete Walmart Buck$ terms and conditions.

12:03 am Friday night 12/05/14 I just got back from my midnight bike ride to Walmart in Bloomington.

1- I made it safely.

2- I had to know (experiment) and see if this really works.

Last week I missed ad matching my milk. It cost me $1 more for the 2 gallons than expected. Is that worth waiting in line at Customer Service to receive. There was only one person in line so why not? It was late.

Savingscatcher has caught my eye a number of times but I have not signed up. Too much red tape! Some people don't even like watching the advertisements and purchasing best priced items they use all the time.  As least I like doing that. It gives me a sense of control to be able to say "AD Match" at the cash register. Gerald Burgie at the FHC is just like me. He complains when milk is over $2.50/gallon.

So I asked the Customer Service lady, if I had price/savingscatcher would it have caught this price at the register for me. She replied, yes. She has been at the Washington Walmart for over 4 years so I trusted her.  Then she said, "And if you get a bluebird account you will save double."  What? For real? No kidding? Sign me up.  WE had to go hunting for a bluebird sign up packet and I brought it home to read the procedures.

The instructions said to just buy something with the enclosed card and it would activate the account. Sounded strange but easy. Pepsi is 0.88$ for 2 liters at Smith's this week and Gerald Burgie loves it. I picked up a bottle and all the lines were long! Since I wanted understanding/information as well as to purchase the Pepsi I decided to try Customer Service again. I visited with both the lady in front of me and then the lady behind me about this 2X/double the savings offer. Neither of them knew anything about it.  If I could get a $3/gal milk for $2/gal because of a $.50 off sale it sounded really good to me!

Then I found you also had to register for the savingscatcher and you have to type in all your store receipt numbers if you have an dumb phone that doesn't scan. Crud! More red tape. More hoops to jump through. Not one of these again! I suspected as much!

I decided to try it anyway. I registered and typed in my first two receipts. It takes 3 or 4 days for the results. I don't expect any savings on those two because one was the $20 deposit I put in the bluebird-prepaid account and the other one I already claimed "Ad match $0.88", at the register! So since I still have extra energy I did my midnight bike trip to Walmart.

I typed in my 3rd receipt. I kept my mouth shut at the register and paid $3/gal for milk. I should get $1 added to my bluebird account when, When, WHEN, the 3-4 days have passed and I press the button my dashboard to deposit it onto my Bluebird.

Let the experiment conclude! And if all this expires on Feb. 28 it will have been another waste of time!Purchase Summary

from December 05, 2014

Purchased at 2610 PIONEER RD ST GEORGE 84790

TC # 7780 6024 2668 0346 8234

Not matched (1 item)   Hide

See how we compare

PF WHOLE MILK GAL

Qty: 2.00

$5.98 ($2.99 ea)

Walmart

Total Price:

$6.16

Taxes:

$0.18

Moral Agency side by side for BruceR and BrandonS

William Shakespeare’s play The Life of King Henry V includes a nighttime scene in the camp of English soldiers at Agincourt just before their battle with the French army. In the dim light and partially disguised, King Henry wanders unrecognized among his soldiers. He talks with them, trying to gauge the morale of his badly outnumbered troops, and because they do not realize who he is, they are candid in their comments. In one exchange they philosophize about who bears responsibility for what happens to men in battle—the king or each individual soldier.

At one point King Henry declares, “Methinks I could not die any where so contented as in the king’s company; his cause being just.”

Michael Williams retorts, “That’s more than we know.”

His companion agrees, “Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king’s subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.”

Williams adds, “If the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.”

Not surprisingly, King Henry disagrees. “Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own.”1

Shakespeare does not attempt to resolve this debate in the play, and in one form or another it is a debate that continues down to our own time—who bears responsibility for what happens in our lives?

When things turn bad, there is a tendency to blame others or even God. Sometimes a sense of entitlement arises, and individuals or groups try to shift responsibility for their

7:03pm Sunday, November 23, 2014

Hello Bruce Randall,

YOU are awesome. At least God and I think so.! : )

This talk came from conference. It has brought me great peace this week. I have listened to it 5-6 times. I was surprised because it comes from a new apostle and not one I had picked as a favorite.

Anytime someone starts by quoting Shakespeare I automatically think they are probably well read. I hate Shakespeare. I am glad he wrote but please don't make me listen to him or read him or watch him. I was given two $20 or 30 dollar tickets to go watch about 20 years ago and felt it quite the good luck, but yuck! What a waste of time! I got to go with my school 4 or 5 times when we had a charismatic drama teacher at Desert Hills intermediate school and it was a little better. They explained for the kids.

I set up the page this way so I can comment along the way, since you probably did not get my text before dark, and we won't be visiting you in person this month.

As Varlo taught this lesson today I posed two questions. What about Alan Averett who knows he shot people as a soldier? 1) And what about Casius Clay and

welfare to other people or to governments. In spiritual matters some suppose that men and women need not strive for personal righteousness—because God loves and saves us “just as we are.”

But God intends that His children should act according to the moral agency He has given them, “that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.”2 It is His plan and His will that we have the principal decision-making role in our own life’s drama. God will not live our lives for us nor control us as if we were His puppets, as Lucifer once proposed to do. Nor will His prophets accept the role of “puppet master” in God’s place. Brigham Young stated: “I do not wish any Latter Day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ,—the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied. I wish them to know for themselves and understand for themselves.”3

So God does not save us “just as we are,” first, because “just as we are” we are unclean, and “no unclean thing can dwell … in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man [of Holiness].”4 And second, God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become. Truly He loves us, and because He loves us, He neither compels nor abandons us. Rather He helps and guides us. Indeed, the real manifestation of God’s love is His commandments.

We should (and we do) rejoice in the God-ordained plan that permits us to make choices to act for ourselves and experience the consequences, or as the scriptures express it, to “taste the bitter, that [we] may know to prize the good.”5 We are forever grateful that the Savior’s Atonement overcame original sin so that we can be born

others who dodged the draft and then had amnesty declared so they were safe in the US again? 2)

“Shift responsibility” is a concept you and I feel strongly about!

My next door non-member neighbor, Bill Young, believes that we need not strive for personal righteousness-because God loves and saves us “just as we are.” He is the one who believes baptism is optional.

I didn't think any apostle would ever quote that statement from Brigham Young. But he did.

I have never liked thinking that nothing unclean can enter into God's presence. I have always wanted to be able to keep just one little sin or addiction. Don't you get tired of repenting? Man I did. I knew I had to repent each time I partook of the sacrament or it would be harmful to my spirit. How many decades could I sin and repent without feeling helpless and powerless to change? Man when I was finally able to put that sin/addiction behind me I thought, horray! Yippee! I will never feel so unworthy taking the sacrament again! To me it was a sin that overpowered or overshadowed all other sins. I could abandon for long periods of time but it always came back. I couldn't change under my power alone.

He neither compels nor abandons us. Really?

into this world yet not be punished for Adam’s transgression.6 Having been thus redeemed from the Fall, we begin life innocent before God and “become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for [ourselves] and not to be acted upon.”7 We can choose to become the kind of person that we will, and with God’s help, that can be even as He is.8

The gospel of Jesus Christ opens the path to what we may become. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His grace, our failures to live the celestial law perfectly and consistently in mortality can be erased and we are enabled to develop a Christlike character. Justice demands, however, that none of this happen without our willing agreement and participation. It has ever been so. Our very presence on earth as physical beings is the consequence of a choice each of us made to participate in our Father’s plan.9 Thus, salvation is certainly not the result of divine whim, but neither does it happen by divine will alone.10

Justice is an essential attribute of God. We can have faith in God because He is perfectly trustworthy. The scriptures teach us that “God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round”11 and that “God is no respecter of persons.”12 We rely on the divine quality of justice for faith, confidence, and hope.

But as a consequence of being perfectly just, there are some things God cannot do. He cannot be arbitrary in saving some and banishing others. He “cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”13 He cannot allow mercy to rob justice.14

It is compelling evidence of His justice that God has forged the companion principle of

Satan would have us believe otherwise. Quinn Carter compared Satan to a character in Charlie Wonka's chocolate factory in my visit with them this afternoon. “I'm just doing my job.” says the character.

We can choose to become the kind of person that we will/want! And with God's help, that can be even as He is. Two things! We have to want/will, and we can't do it alone!

There are so few members of the church on the earth right now. One of 500 people! How sad that so many of His children are in the mortal test without understanding! Their true colors just sort of shine through without the help, guidance and understanding that you and I have.

I have a favorite scripture I thought he might quote here. I love this one, It is one one of my original 16 that I would repeat to myself when I couldn't sleep at night. “And now the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made. Therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, that God might be a perfect, just God and a merciful God also.”

There are some things God cannot do. That brings to mind some funny riddles/questions teenagers ask each other as they try to figure out how powerful God really is.

mercy. It is because He is just that He devised the means for mercy to play its indispensable role in our eternal destiny. So now, “justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own.”15

We know that it is “the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom [the Father] wast well pleased; … the blood of [His] Son which was shed”16 that satisfies the demands of justice, extends mercy, and redeems us.17 Even so, “according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance.”18 It is the requirement of and the opportunity for repentance that permits mercy to perform its labor without trampling justice.

Christ died not to save indiscriminately but to offer repentance. We rely “wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save”19in the process of repentance, but acting to repent is a self-willed change. So by making repentance a condition for receiving the gift of grace, God enables us to retain responsibility for ourselves. Repentance respects and sustains our moral agency: “And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.”20

Misunderstanding God’s justice and mercy is one thing; denying God’s existence or supremacy is another, but either will result in our achieving less—sometimes far less—than our full, divine potential. A God who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist. A world without God, the living God who establishes moral laws to govern and perfect His children, is also a world without

A God that makes no demands. . . Woah! Powerful statement.

Wouldn't it feel awful if there were no God? Where would be our ultimate fairness when we finally die and receive our just rewards?

ultimate truth or justice. It is a world where moral relativism reigns supreme.

Relativism means each person is his or her own highest authority. Of course, it is not just those who deny God that subscribe to this philosophy. Some who believe in God still believe that they themselves, individually, decide what is right and wrong. One young adult expressed it this way: “I don’t think I could say that Hinduism is wrong or Catholicism is wrong or being Episcopalian is wrong—I think it just depends on what you believe. … I don’t think that there’s a right and wrong.”21 Another, asked about the basis for his religious beliefs, replied, “Myself—it really comes down to that. I mean, how could there be authority to what you believe?”22

To those who believe anything or everything could be true, the declaration of objective, fixed, and universal truth feels like coercion—“I shouldn’t be forced to believe something is true that I don’t like.” But that does not change reality. Resenting the law of gravity won’t keep a person from falling if he steps off a cliff. The same is true for eternal law and justice. Freedom comes not from resisting it but from applying it. That is fundamental to God’s own power. If it were not for the reality of fixed and immutable truths, the gift of agency would be meaningless since we would never be able to foresee and intend the consequences of our actions. As Lehi expressed it: “If ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be

Reading/listening to these rationalizations was Painful for me. They are so real. They seem so reasonable. Don't you like how he can declare them black. Not grey. Black. Oh I love having apostles that can do that for us!

What do you think of Lehi's logic here?

acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.”23

In matters both temporal and spiritual, the opportunity to assume personal responsibility is a God-given gift without which we cannot realize our full potential as daughters and sons of God. Personal accountability becomes both a right and a duty that we must constantly defend; it has been under assault since before the Creation. We must defend accountability against persons and programs that would (sometimes with the best of intentions) make us dependent. And we must defend it against our own inclinations to avoid the work that is required to cultivate talents, abilities, and Christlike character. 

We must defend it against programs that would make us dependent. No freebees for us! We need to earn our way and Not “avoid the work that is required to cultivate our talents.” What work are you exerting right now to cultivate your talents? I am indexing at the FHCenter in Italian. And I am as challenged as I want to be. I made a goal of 3K names this month. I am not going to reach it. I was stuck on tough, tough handwriting and names I had never seen before and it took me an hour a batch and sometimes 2 hours or 3! A week ago I decided I had had enough of the tough stuff and went back to the city of Cuneo to index. I had one batch this week that I got done in 24 minutes. They are supposed to take about 30 minutes.

The story is told of a man who simply would not work. He wanted to be taken care of in every need. To his way of thinking, the Church or the government, or both, owed him a living because he had paid his taxes and his tithing. He had nothing to eat but refused to work to care for himself. Out of desperation and disgust, those who had tried to help him decided that since he would not lift a finger to sustain himself, they might as well just take him to the cemetery and let him pass on. On the way to the cemetery, one man said, “We can’t do this. I have some corn I will give him.”

So they explained this to the man, and he asked, “Have the husks been removed?”

They responded, “No.”“Well, then,” he said, “drive on.”

It is God’s will that we be free men and women enabled to rise to our full potential both temporally and spiritually, that we be free from the humiliating limitations of poverty and the bondage of sin, that we enjoy self-respect and independence, that we be prepared in all things to join Him in His celestial kingdom.

I am under no illusion that this can be achieved by our own efforts alone without His very substantial and constant help. “We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”24 And we do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help—divine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience. But I know that beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency. My plea is simply to take responsibility and go to work so that there is something for God to help us with.

I bear witness that God the Father lives, that His Son, Jesus Christ, is our Redeemer, and that the Holy Spirit is present with us. Their desire to help us is undoubted, and Their capacity to do so is infinite. Let us “awake, and arise from the dust, … that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto [us] may be fulfilled.”25 In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.4.  I am under no illusion that this can be achieved by our own efforts alone without His very substantial and constant help. 8:08pm vj