~@
~Sunday, 12:17 midnight, Hello bps, Life is good. I am blessed. You
are wonderful and loved. I just got up from bed where I have been
studying for the last hour. We had a good, loud half hour
thunderstorm earlier tonight. Maybe you remember it. @ I studied
Lesson 20 in the priesthood manual and Jacob 5 lesson in my BoM
manual. Today we sang, 260: Whose on the Lord’s side? in
priesthood. We did Acts Ch. 7 to the end in SS and Jesse Bird showed
my all his typed pages for the lesson and shared that it was the
first time he has ever finished one of his typed outlines of the
lesson. He brings pages all printed out of the questions and
scriptures he wants to read etc.. One of the best prepared and
intelligent SS teachers I have ever had as an adult. He even handled
Hal Demke with aplomb today. Hal asked how he felt when he read Paul
saluting Agrippa? as the King of the World or something. Jesse
responded, clever! Paul was extremely
bright and knew how to play his cards and told his personal story of
conversion two different ways depending on his audience. He knew his
audiences! That almost makes me want to go read those chapters and
see what they were talking about.-v I asked Jesse in a letter last
year if he had autistic tendencies. He never answered. But I see it
in him regularly. But some would say he is off the charts, because he
is so high functioning. He programs computers and writes code and can
recite from memory verse after verse from the BoM that he has used to
guide his life. His wife sits on the front row and he has the whole
adult ward there in his lessons. They have 5 little kids including a
pair of twins. Plus he and his brother Nathan Bird are my HT and
never visit me. :( But let me tell you the insight and approval I
felt before I came in to write you. I write all over my lesson
manuals and scriptures. It keeps me awake and crystallizes my
thoughts and questions. Doug Lefler HP teacher, said he can’t read
a lesson from beginning to end, so he listens. They can be
downloaded. As he listens he has thoughts just like HBE said at the
end of lesson 20. Well it is the same for me but I can read a lesson
from beginning to end because I talk back to the lesson! So instead
of lecture it becomes a dialog for me! That was a sidetrack. @ Jesse
may have told his wife that for the first time this year he finished
his lesson notes, but I don’t think anyone else in the ward will
ever find out. He isn’t open. He doesn’t share. So what does it
say if he volunteered his response to me? Well #1 it means he
appreciated my compliment telling him it was the clearest lesson on
the end of Paul’s life I have ever heard. And #2 it means he knows
me and trusts me and that we are distant friends at least to some
degree! That flatters me. That is so wonderful I can get out of
bed in the middle of the night and come and write you and tell you
about it. How is it I came to that conclusion here in the middle of
the night? Because I am pondering. I am pondering and reading and
learning and applying. You have heard me say before that I believe
pondering includes reliving my experiences of the day. And it is more
than just recalling and remembering them. It is feeling them. It is
analyzing them and seeing how they match up to gospel principles like
fellows-hipping, shepherding, accepting and loving and valuing
others. @ Chris Bradley moved into Amber Allgood’s house 2 years
ago. I teased him about looking like David Bednar at first. He
and his wife ran the Saint George marathon 2 weeks ago. He is an
accountant and she is our primary president. He told me that his wife
beat him by 45 minutes! The furthest I have ever run was 9 miles and
I was sore for a week after wards. Can you imagine running 26? Man, I
would be so proud if I ever did that! Jim,bom-class member has run 50
marathons. What does that tell you about him? And he is faithful and
well based in the scriptures. So how did I find out about Chris and
Maria Bradley’s marathon’s results? He was giving me a piece of
mail for Amber and I asked if he knew anyone who ran the marathon. I
thought I overheard someone say something 3 weeks ago. Much of my
ability to reach out comes from my years of reaching out to Jr. High
students. But can you see how interesting the world gets when we
start to reach out and visit and question and encourage and accept?
The news and the tabloids and the sports and the movies will be
meaningless in the next life. Our relationships here will expand for
eternity. These are HF’s children and this is our playground/
daycare/ laboratory and we can help each other learn the things we
were short on in the premortal existence. And it is so much more fun
when we don’t have to work alone!@ Well I was blessed and I just
had to share it with you. Thanks for listening again. 12:58am
Tuesday, 10/20/15, 11:46am I sent you a yellow postcard/postcard
sized paper yesterday. KJ said you had finished volume 3 so I
ordered you volume 4 of the Work and the Glory series. This one will
be purple. In my opinion you have had some wonderful things to read
this year!!!! lol @ Empty Nesters are parents only households. All
the chicks have matured and fledged and flown. Weekly appointments I
am good at but monthly ones are too far apart to remember! I went to
our EN FHE last week and then again last night. It was really only
last night but I forced myself to stay up and awake last week so I
could go, ineffectively! BS went with me last night. He is generous
and supplied KFChicken for potluck. It was gone by the end and
Patricia Carter showed me the empty container. Good job BS! @ I have
always functioned on just 3 cylinders, fitness, spirituality, work.
And I have always been so stressed that I have little additional
energy for anything else. Of course reading each night and eating
each night were purely for pleasure. So that is my excuse for never
caring about the news nor politics nor community service. Kent
Perkins has been in for 39 years as our Leisure services director.
Gil Almquist my stake president has been on city council for 8 years.
Michele Randall, ward member is just finishing 2 years AS city council
woman and has two more for this term of office. All 3 have addressed
us at our EN-FHE in the last 8 months and Michele Randall was last
night. This is the text messaged I sent to all our EQ last night.>
>_EQ, City counsel-woman, Michele Randall, spoke at our
empty-nesters' FHE tonight. @ She was too sick to eat anything but
she presented well. I learned lots. @Julie Moss kept her company. 3
things
I can act on: 1early voting has opened. Bryan thiriot and the
incumbents (2) Jimmie Hughes and Bette Thiriot are good choices. 2The
BLM LAND grab can be protested. We will lose 10% of our water supply
and all camping n off roading privileges. 3 she gets at least 100
whining, often foul emails a day as a counsel-woman. The city
carousel pays for itself and some, every year. She n Kent Perkins
can't wait for the All Abilities Train park to be completed, although
most expensive in outlay. [Kent calls the train a cash cow because
one you get one it pays for itself in 5 years and after wards
generates income.]@ Only 10% have opted out of mandatory recycling
beginning January. @ Kent Perkins (39years leisure services
director), spoke to us last spring and Gil Almquist city councilman,
(and our stake president) spoke to us last month, but I missed that
one. V @ bps, how is that for a text message? Does it motivate you to
vote, and write, and feel grateful for local politics? Man, it did
me! @ I had finished my dog walk and was rocking on my moist hammock
at 10:30pm when I sent it out. When I learn worthwhile new things I
try to act on them. The first day of early voting is today and I am
wearing my I VOTED sticker! They average about a 20% turn out for
elections. In the prilim election there was only a 1.5% turn out. We
are counseled to VOTE. It sounds so easy. But what if you want your
vote to count? Then the words GO VOTE take on a whole truckload
of portent! That means I would have to read all the malarkey from the
sides trying to persuade me the way they want. Yuck. I hate malarkey.
I hate advertisements of any kind at any time. I even have a hard
time with the church commercials on the Mormon Channel between
conference sessions, and you know what I think of General Conference.
I love LOVE having a mute button on my remote!!! But I have
voted today, the first day early voting is open! YES! Thanks to FHE I
knew who to vote for. I used to tell Kathyx that if she decided who
we should vote for I would! So I am broken, running on 3 cylinders,
but Michele Randall is hurting and in pain much of the time but one
of her new cylinders includes city council. I am so proud
of her and grateful to her. Hubby, Tony Randall is on my EQ list so
he got my summary text last night. Michele is gifted with gab. She
expresses things clearly and intelligently. She has had fibromyalgia
since 30 and she is my age. [Fibromyalgia
(FM) is a medical condition characterised by chronic widespread pain
and a heightened and painful response to pressure. Symptoms other
than pain may occur, leading to the use of the term fibromyalgia
syndrome (FMS). Other symptoms include feeling tired to a degree that
normal activities are affected, sleep disturbance, and joint
stiffness. Some people also report difficulty with swallowing, bowel
and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive
dysfunction. Fibromyalgia is frequently associated with psychiatric
conditions such as depression and anxiety, and with stress-related
disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Not all people with
fibromyalgia experience all associated symptoms.Its exact cause is
unknown but is believed to involve psychological, genetic,
neurobiological and environmental factors. There is evidence that
environmental factors and certain genes increase the risk of
developing fibromyalgia; these same genes are also associated with
other functional somatic syndromes and major depressive disorder.The
central symptom of fibromyalgia, namely widespread pain, appears to
stem from neurochemical imbalances and the activation of inflammatory
pathways in the brain which results in abnormalities in
pain-processing.The brains of people with fibromyalgia show
functional and structural differences from those of people without
fibromyalgia, but it is unclear whether the brain anomalies cause
fibromyalgia symptoms, or are the product of an unknown underlying
common cause. Some research suggests that these brain anomalies may
be the result of childhood stress, or prolonged or severe stress] Our
host Kent Carter asked her to explain how she got involved in city
politics. M n T Randall owned our ambulance service in Saint George
and spent $400K fighting to keep Gold Star Ambulance from taking
over. But that was their max. They threw in the towel and told their
attorneys, we’re done. ~3 years ago I asked how the fight was going
and she responded, Vern, you wouldn’t believe the graft and
corruption in our local government! Crud. . . even in Saint
George? v- I now realize that greed seeks power so who else wants to
run for office!? @ Tony Randall was part of a trucking family but now
he works for a mortuary. He has had a couple of heart attacks and
bypasses and weighs more than I do. He works in our Ward Library with
Eric Yunker. OK this next part may be boring but I am really
sensitive so I want to record some of the feelings I had about the
conversations last night. @ Doug Lefler n spouse were there and any
time we mentioned cars or mechanics he was an expert witness. He
taught lesson 20 in HP group Sunday. Someone expressed how they love
the lack of bars and pubs and saloons on every corner in Saint George
and not even knowing where any are! Very different Patricia Carter
said, from SLC! Doug was able to fill us in on where the worst 2 in
town can be found. He admitted to hanging around with the riff raff
in his mechanics shop. I teased him about where he was? and he did
not take the bait. He is the guy I gave a new white shirt to last
month. And he has worn it each week since conference! You would not
believe how happy that makes me inside! @ 12:40pm @ Thursday,
10/22,2:31pm. Here comes my all-time favorite talk #9 ~@~ OCTOBER
1971 LAYING A FOUNDATION FOR THE MILLENNIUM @LeGrand Richards @I am
very grateful to my Father in heaven for the privilege of attending
another general conference of the Church with all you faithful
Latter-day Saints here present this afternoon. @The Savior said, “Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4.) I am sure that those of us who
have been privileged to attend the last three sessions of this
conference have felt a realization that we have truly been fed the
bread of life eternal. We have had some wonderful counsel and
inspiration given to us by the servants of the Lord. @Bread will keep
the body alive, but it takes more than that to keep the spirit alive.
The music has been wonderful, and I would like to compliment these
singers from Ricks College. I was there just a few weeks ago at their
devotional, and we can’t help but thank the Lord for all the
institutions of his church and what these institutions and
educational opportunities are doing for our young people. @Today I
thought I would like to say a few words about the kind of a
foundation we have for our faith, and what we live for, and what our
aims and our ambitions really are. I think of the time the beautiful
temple here on this block was erected, over a hundred years ago. When
the foundation was being laid, we are told that it was sixteen feet
wide, and at one time President Brigham Young came and saw the
workmen throwing in chipped granite. He made them take it out and put
in those great granite blocks with this explanation: “We are
building this temple to stand through the millennium.” Isn’t that
a good thought? Each one of us ought to want to build our lives and
help our families to build their lives so that we can stand through
the millennium. @As we listened to Brother Romney in this morning’s
session, outlining the promises of the prophets and the Savior
himself regarding his coming, who is there among us who wouldn’t
want to be walking in a way that would assure us that, when the trump
of God shall sound and the dead shall come forth, we,
with
our loved ones, can be numbered among them and share in his presence.
@I think of the words of the apostle John, who was banished upon the
Isle of Patmos and was shown by an angel everything from the war in
heaven, when Satan was cast out, to the final winding-up scene. He
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works—not just their
faith, not just what they say with their mouths, but by their works.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they
were judged every man according to his works. (See Rev. 20:12–14.)
@“… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But
the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. … Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall
be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years.” (Rev. 20:4–6.) @Who is there whose testimony has ever
been touched by the divine Spirit who would be satisfied to remain a
thousand years when the trump of God should sound and they might have
prepared themselves? And if it takes a sixteen-foot foundation to
hold that temple for the millennium, then it takes a lot of obedience
on our part to prepare ourselves for that glorious event. @The Savior
said, “… strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt. 7:14.) And so we
want to be sure that we are on that straight and narrow way which
leadeth to life. He said on another occasion: @“… whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: @“And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. @“And
every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand: @“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall
of it.” (Matt. 7:24–27.) @The kind of foundation upon which we
build our lives is just as important for our eternal happiness as is
the kind of a foundation upon which they built that holy temple that
it might stand through the millennium. @A few years ago while I was
president of the Southern States Mission, I delivered a sermon one
night in Quitman, Georgia, on the eternal duration of the marriage
covenant and the family unit. I read from Brother Rulon S. Howells’
book Do Men Believe What Their Church Prescribes? (Deseret Book Co.,
1932.) He has a chart there where he lists all the major churches and
then their statement and attitude toward the major doctrinal
principles, including this one about the eternal duration of the
marriage covenant, and not one believes this. @I just cannot
understand how they could read the Bible and yet not believe, and how
marriages could be performed in the churches all over the world until
death do you part. What a flimsy concept! Why don’t they go back to
the time when God had finished the creation of this earth, and looked
upon it and found it good, and placed Adam here, at which time he
said: “It is not good that the man should be alone. …” (Gen.
2:18.) He made a helpmeet for him, saying, “… and they shall be
one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24.) Now what God joins together and makes one
flesh, you couldn’t separate without having two halves instead of
two wholes. Jesus repeated that statement when he said: @“For this
cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? @“… what therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matt. 19:5–6.)
@At the close of that meeting, I stood at the door to shake hands
with the people as they left, and a man came up and introduced
himself to me as a Baptist minister. I said, “Did I misquote you
here tonight?” “No, Mr. Richards,” he said; “it is just like
you say. We don’t all believe all the things that our churches
teach.” And I said, “And you don’t believe them either. Why
don’t you go back and teach your people the truth? They will take
it from you and they are not ready to take it from the Mormon elders
yet.” He said, “I’ll see you again,” and that is all I could
get from him that night. @The next time I went to that branch to hold
a conference, about four months later, my coming was announced in the
newspaper because I was the mission president. As I walked up to that
little church, there stood that Baptist minister waiting for me. As
we shook hands I said, “I would certainly be interested to know
what you thought of my last sermon here.” He said, “Mr. Richards,
I have been thinking about it ever since. I believe every word you
said.” Then he said, “But I would like to hear the rest of it.”
How could any man who has a true love for his wife and his children
not want to believe that principle? @I like the little verse written
by Anderson M. Baten, “To His Wife Beulah,” in which he said: @“I
wed thee forever, not for now, @Not for the sham of earth’s brief
years, @I wed thee for the life beyond the tears, Beyond
the heart pain and clouded brow. @Love
knows no grave and it shall guide us dear @When
life’s spent candles flutter and burn low.” @There
are people like that who believe that marriage ought to be eternal,
but there is no other church in all this world, outside of our
church, as far as I know, that believes in the eternal duration of
the marriage covenant. @Just
think what a difference it makes in our lives when we know that we
are to live on and on forever and forever! I would just as soon
believe that death is a complete annihilation of both body and spirit
as to think that when death came it would separate me from my wife
and from my children and that we would not know each other. I tell
you, there wouldn’t be very much to look forward to. How could you
want to live on and on forever without a continuation of the love
ties that bind you together here? @We
see cases of kidnapping, when children are taken away. I remember
years ago, I think it was in 1932, when Colonel Lindbergh’s little
boy was kidnapped and a note was left asking for $50,000. He would
gladly have paid what they asked if he could have gotten his boy back
again. And yet here we come along with the knowledge of life eternal.
Brother Marion G. Romney quoted this morning the revelation of the
Lord where he said that in the resurrection children would come forth
and grow up without sin unto salvation. (See D&C 45:58.) @There
are those of us who have laid away our little ones in the grave, and
we had that responsibility. A little daughter was born to us over in
Holland while I was president of the mission there, and we kept her
until she was three and a half years old. My wife has said time and
time again that she knew the angels brought that spirit to her
because she felt their presence, and yet we laid her away in the
grave. If we had to feel that that was the end, we would have given
anything in this world to have her back again. And then we come to
this great knowledge that we have in the restoration of the gospel,
that she will be ours in the eternal world and we will have the joy
of seeing her grow up without sin, unto salvation. Sometimes I have
thought that probably some of these choice spirits did not need the
experience here in mortality like other children, and that is why the
Lord has seen fit to call them home. @We
had four daughters before we had a son. We were sent to California to
preside over a stake down there, and our boy went out with a member
of the high council and his boys, and he lost his life in an
accident. That is the greatest sorrow that ever came to us, but now
we are getting up on the top of the ladder, so to speak, and we look
forward, knowing that these love ties are intended by God, our
Eternal Father, to endure throughout the eternities. It takes the
sting away from death to know that we are going to meet those who are
so dear and sacred to us. Thank God for this knowledge! I want to see
our foundation here so laid that we will be worthy to stand with our
loved ones and with the sanctified and the redeemed of our Father’s
children. @Brothers
and sisters, we are a blessed people. We are blessed in the privilege
of living upon the earth when the gospel has been restored and having
a knowledge of its truth. We are blessed to have a foundation upon
which to build our faith, which makes every day a happy day as we
associate with our loved ones. No wonder President McKay so often
said that no success in life can
compensate
for failure in the home. And the nearer men and women live unto God
in keeping his commandments, the greater is the love in the home and
the greater appreciation of the knowledge that that love can continue
throughout the eternities that are to come. @While
I was president of the Southern States Mission, a schoolteacher
loaned a book to one of our Mormon children; and when the book came
back, in it was an Articles of Faith card, and that schoolteacher
read it. She went to her minister and said, “Why can’t our church
have something like this?” The minister could not give her any
satisfactory explanation, and so she wrote a letter to the Bureau of
Information here in Salt Lake City. They sent her literature, they
sent us her name, the missionaries called on her, and she joined the
Church. @Then
I think, as I read those Articles of Faith written by the Prophet
Joseph Smith (and there are many other important doctrines that he
didn’t list), how could anybody read those articles and then not
believe that we have the truth? No other church in the world has such
a foundation to build upon. In closing, I would like to recite some
of them: @“We
believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and
in the Holy Ghost.” [A of F 1:1] Two separate, distinct personages,
the Prophet Joseph taught, with bodies of flesh and bone, and the
Holy Ghost a personage of spirit. @“We
believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for
Adam’s transgression.” [A of F 1:2] There are not very many
churches that believe this. @“We
believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” [A
of F 1:3] Most of the preaching today is that all you have to do is
to confess him as your Savior, but our statement is that we have to
do what he says. @“We
believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are:
first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third,
Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” [A of F 1:4] I don’t
believe there is any other church in the world built upon that
foundation, and yet if we turn to the sixth chapter of Hebrews, Paul
says: @“…
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead
works, and of faith toward God. @“Of
the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” (Heb. 6:1–2.)
@That
is exactly the same as we have it in our Articles of Faith. @“We
believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the
laying on of hands, by those who are in authority to preach the
Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.” [A of F 1:5] No
other church believes that; they think they have authority by reading
their Bibles. @“We
believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive
Church,
viz.,
apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.” [A of F
1:6] Paul tells us that his church is built upon the foundation of
apostles and prophets, with Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone; and no other church has such a foundation. @“We
believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions,
healings, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.” [A of F 1:7]
@“We
believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated
correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
[A of F 1:8] And no man can believe the Bible without knowing that
there is another volume of scripture that God has promised to bring
forth and put with it and make them one in his hands. @“We
believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and
we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God.” [A of F 1:9] In other words, we
believe in continuous revelation and that Christ’s true church is
directed by revelation today. @And
then, “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the
restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the
American] continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the
earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its
paradisiacal glory.” [A of F 1:10] We know these things, and Isaiah
tells us that when that day shall come there shall be a new heaven
and a new earth in which the lamb and the lion shall lie down
together, and we shall build houses and inhabit them, and we shall
plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof. We shall not build that
another shall inhabit, but every man shall enjoy the works of his own
hands, and they are the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with
them. (See Isa. 65:17–23.) @No
wonder we ought to want to lay a foundation comparable to that
foundation upon which the holy temple stands, so we can be sure that
we will stand with our loved ones through the millennium. May God
help each one of us and our families so to do, I pray, and leave you
my blessing, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.~@~bps,
LeGrande is famous for being the longest winded and most enthusiastic
of the apostles. And it lasted until he died. He went blind and so he
spoke from his memory and heart. He was almost a cartoon character to
us saints and everyone smiles who knew him when they hear his name.
Even Brad Newby! (old SS teacher) The next post card I send will be
shokcing to you. It will include a story about Shae Langston's
girlfriend. Gby, bltperryjsmilth-vj
