Friday,
9:23pm,10/2/15, Good evening Brandon.Experiments, experiments. Always
experimenting. We have a Chic-fil-A here in town. Someone left some
single servings of their buffalo sauce in the FHC fridge. I
brought one home to see how it tasted. Since I never go out to eat, I
have never had buffalo wings or anything like them. Guess what the
2nd ingredient is after peppers? I wrote the answer between the
double ??’s a few~30 rows down. I had to let you have a
thoughtful guess. No just tell me the answer without guessing here!
Anyway, I wasn’t impressed. I bought a case of WF macaroni n chz
for 28 cents a box. I cooked one up last night and found it bland. I
told BS about it and he said add salt, then he said add MSG. When he
looked at buying a case with me on Monday evening he said, it is
probably full of salt. 500mg. Then he bought a case like me. So he
isn’t supposed to add salt and I am allergic to msg. funny bunny. @
I give people nicknames at the FHC and I often tell them what their
nick names are. I met Elder big, yesterday and today. I met Elder
English today. Elder big loved his new nickname. He is a young new
missionary who has a brother 3 years older who is serving at the st.
george temple. I suspect they are handicapped but I couldn’t see it
in EB yet. Elder English watched me type like crazy for an hour and
then prepare to leave. He complimented my typing and I offered
to explain it. As it turns out he taught HS English for 15 years and
then went into administration for the money and missed the kids. I
showed him one of your post cards to me this year and explained they
switched to pcards at the Jail in December. When I showed him your
writing on the other side he gaffawed. Can you read that he asked? Of
course I had to tell him I can fit 600 handwritten words on a post
card like your writing and 400 more if I make little blocks and fill
in the front too. He was duely impressed. I told him of some of my
experiments and not wanting to hand-write a whole conference talk on
post cards and that I can now fit 4K words on a post card. He was fit
to be tied! He was amazed and loved it. I always print off two
postcard copies. The first one on FHC flimsy paper to be sure it is
going to turn out and the second on heavier weight paper I provide.
As you know I would use card-stock but it doesn’t print as clearly
on that thickness. I gave him the first run copy from today incase he
wants to tell his wife the story. He guaranteed me that he did!and
valued the visual aide. Then he couldn’t help but ask about the
little blue circles and references on the one I had just stamped to
you. That was when I showed him my big original with all the colors
and circles which he thought was wild, and explained how we were
comparing Isaiah 29 with 2N27. I told him how much fun I had had
doing it and of course he said: maybe for you it is fun but for me it
looks tedious. That was when I told him I was an ol’ science
teacher and he told me he was an ol’ English teacher. Sister Clark
Sullivan asked me earlier this week, so that was the second time this
week I got to explain about my correspondence. @ How clear is your
conscience today? I have learned some weird things about mine these
last 2 weeks. Mark says that most people can fend off offenses and
not take them serious in a healthy way. As a sibling in my home of
origin we became tough. We could take them and we could dish them
out. But what I didn’t realize was that when my world got too
stressful, too mean and hurtful I would become disociated and work
like a puppeteer from a distance, pulling the strings and
controlling my body and going through the motions remotely.
??vinegar?? In a SF book I finished this week there were 3 alien
races and one of them had mind-reading/ telepathy skills. The first
human woman spacer to have that latent ability was captured and
tortured for 6 months and survived just before the story opened.
Little did she know 1- she had been infected with some time
delayed diseases to wipe out the human race and 2- she had survived
the mind invasion and physical torture by receding into herself deep
enough the torture monster couldn’t reach her. I suspect many of us
have had to have a place like that to survive some things in our
lives. Perhaps you have that too. I know my sisters believe there
were times when they left their tortured bodies as children and saw
them from the outside. I haven’t had that as far as I can remember.
@ But I discovered a defensiveness inside of me this week that kept
me from having to accept blame. Later, as I tried to work it out I
decided apologizing would be the fastest way to healing the
situation. I did and it did. One nice thing about cell phones and
texting is that you can write a text/ apology and deliver it
immediately. Without facing the person, face to face. It really
worked out well for me this time. @ Janice bom-teacher#1 delivered a
copy of MRBalard’s Region Conference address at the end of class
last night. I did her the service of excerpting the portion of a post
card to you that included all I had about it last week. At work she
knew someone who had a SLC connection where it was stored and so she
made us both a copy. Look at the benefits of trying to help her out.
I got a nice fresh clean original, although I really never wanted
one. lol I will have to read it and see if maybe it isn’t more
valuable than I remembered. @ As you remember I have been attending
HP’s group. Sam Hales came up to me last week and said, Nice to
have you here elder! and shook my hand. We like each other. @ BKP and
DAB gave two of the most wonderful addresses in the last session of
Oct’06 GC. I am going to send you 10 quotes from those 2 talks and
see if you don’t sit back in amazement at the truths they reveal/
endorse/ share.
BKP:1-If
a well-worn yellow bandana was good enough to be an ensign to the
world, then ordinary men who hold the priesthood and ordinary women
and ordinary children in ordinary families, living the gospel as best
they can all over the world, can shine forth as a standard, a
defense, a refuge against whatever is to be poured out upon the earth
2-If
we are doing the best we can, we should not become discouraged. When
we fall short, as we do, or stumble, which we might, there is always
the remedy of repentance and forgiveness.
3-Those
faithful Brethren were not free, and we are not free, to alter the
standards or to ignore them. We must live by them.It is not a cure or
a comfort to simply say they do not matter. We all know they do
matter, for all mankind is“instructed sufficiently that they know
good from evil” (2Nephi
2:5).
4-They
understood that the stakes were to be a defense and a refuge, but at
that time there was not one stake on the earth. They knew their
mission was to establish stakes of Zion in every nation of the earth
.5-
Now
the stakes of Zion number in the thousands and are all over the
world. The members number in the millions and growing. Neither of
these can be held back,for this is the work of the Lord. Now members
live in 160 nations and speak over 200 languages.Some live with an
unspoken fear of what awaits us and the Church in the world. It grows
ever darker in morality and spirituality. If we will gather into the
Church, live the simple principles of the gospel, live moral
lives,keep the Word of Wisdom, tend to our priesthood and other
duties, then we need not live in fear. The Word of Wisdom is a key to
both physical health and revelation.Avoid tea, coffee, liquor,
tobacco, and narcotics.
6-There
has been no end to opposition. There are misinterpretations and
misrepresentations of us and of our history, some of it mean-spirited
and certainly contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His
gospel.Sometimes clergy, even ministerial organizations,oppose us.
They do what we would never do. We do not attack or criticize or
oppose others as they do us.
7-We
face the challenge of raising families in the world in darkening
clouds of wickedness. Some of our members are unsettled, and
sometimes they wonder: Is there anyplace one can go to escape from it
all? Is there another town or a state or a country where it is safe,
where one can find refuge? The answer generally is no. The defense
and the refuge is where our members now live.
8-a 70 Oaks:reminded us of an accord signed by 10 nations on board the battleship Missouri inTokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, which ended WorldWar II. Some of us were in Asia at the time. Said Elder(General) Oaks: “I can’t even imagine a circumstance today in which such a meeting could be held or such an accord could be signed to end the war against terrorism and wickedness in which we are engaged. It is not that kind of war.”
8-a 70 Oaks:reminded us of an accord signed by 10 nations on board the battleship Missouri inTokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, which ended WorldWar II. Some of us were in Asia at the time. Said Elder(General) Oaks: “I can’t even imagine a circumstance today in which such a meeting could be held or such an accord could be signed to end the war against terrorism and wickedness in which we are engaged. It is not that kind of war.”
9-_DAB-When
we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel
insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy,
embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our
interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense.
However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you
or to offend me. Indeed,believing that another person offended us is
fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice
we
make; it is not a condition
inflicted
or imposed upon us by someone or something else.
"“Let
me make sure I understand what has happened to you. Because someone
at church offended you, you have not been blessed by the ordinance of
the sacrament. You have withdrawn yourself from the constant
companionship of the Holy Ghost. Because someone at church offended
you, you have cut yourself off from priesthood ordinances and the
holy temple. You have discontinued your opportunity to serve others
and to learn and grow. And you are leaving barriers that will impede
the spiritual progress of your children, your children’s children,
and the generations that will follow.” Many times people would
think for a moment and then respond: “I have never thought about it
that way.”@
Sunday,
10/4/15, ~6pm. I think I stayed awake and have listened to all 5
sessions of conference. One nice thing about it: I usually feel
guilty if I don't get much done and just listen to conference
sessions for a couple of days. So I tell myself, you were feeling
sick and needed to recuperate, it is OK if all you did was listen to
conference those 2 days. But I don't have to make excuses on
General Conference weekend! I still haven't walked the dog in a
couple of days. I need to get her out and me! @ So did you
commit to anything in conference? HBE did a fantastic job reminding
us that we have felt the HG during conference and whatever he brought
to our minds we should do. Someone else did a super job on that one
Saturday as well. As Uchtdorf was talking today about desire, the
first step is just to want to, I got an interesting idea. Sometimes I
have a hard time believing all this is true. I have been really
impressed with my postcards to you the last couple of months because
my faith and testimony have felt so strong. I mentioned that to you
at our/ my visit. Well this is my idea: Just like I would love to
have a crystal ball that worked or a seer stone, there are gospel
miracles and teachings and stories that I wish with all my heart were
true. So I thought I would make a list of things about the gospel
that I would love to be true. I haven't begun it yet so at this point
I am just hoping I will, but wouldn't it be fun to be able to look in
your journal when you get to heaven and say, These are the things I
wished for and really wanted to be true! For example: There is a
young Mormon sitting in front of shelves of papyri and plates writing
the BoM in an Arnold Friberg picture. Oh, how awesome it would be to
me if that were true. I desire that to be true! Example #2 I would
love to see JS looking in a hat with his seerstone in it reciting to
Oliver Cowdery the sentences of the BoM without punctuation and not
reading anything back after a break to be sure of where he left off.
Now admittedly, neither of those is essential for my salvation, never
the less. . . @ So I feasted and feasted during conference. I
used to go work in the yard and blast GC out of the house so I could
hear on Saturday. Not this year. I listened to every session just
relaxing, laying back on my recliner. Usually I write in my journal
during my 3 hour block of meetings on Sunday. I didn't even open my
journal until the last 45 minutes of conference. @ I was a
little bit indignant that a 70 would dare to create a new word and
then teach us to do it. Ponderizing! But the longer I listened the
more I liked it. In fact 3/4ths the way through I started clapping in
excitement until my hands hurt! I was alone. @ My first
scripture is Luke 4:18,19,and a portion of 21 and 23. What does the
scripture say that JC quoted from Isaiah to announce his ministry?
Woah, it is beautiful bps. It is sweet and gentle and loving. 19
says, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I hunted 4 or 5
places to find out what that might mean. And now I like it even more.
I want to tease you: lds.org is so cool! Bishop Salmon told me at
scout camp last year it is the only website he visited, and
encouraged me to do the same. I'm not quite there yet. @ When I
read J Ruben Clark Jr's, our lord of the gospels I
discovered that Jesus taught a full year before he chose his
apostles. He began on the first passover and didn't choose them till
after the second passover. After going up to the pulpit and reading
the above scripture to his townsmen he reads their minds and
anticipates their question: 23. Ye will surely say unto me. .
.whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also
here in thy country. @He already had lots of preaching and
miracles behind him. He was late proclaiming his ministry in
Nazareth, and with reason. They got ticked and tried to kill
him! @New topic. Weirdness #1 I picked 22 long nice dandelion
leaves and soaked them for lunch today. I hoped to improve my
vegetable vitamins. I ate them a couple of hours later with ham,
cheese, and a yellow hot pepper. Weirdness #2 I have one molar
implant. It came out the week before last when I was chewing a sticky
hard cinnamon drop. I still haven't gone in to get it reattached. @
One of the new apostles is someone I fell in like with 5-8 years ago:
Ronald A Rasband. At 11pm last night I sent out a 5 page text to
30-40 family and friends, owning him! This is the story I told but
160 characters is a text page so I really super condensed it. I
looked up the real story afterwards because I wanted to see if I got
it right! ~@~ .
The Divine Call of a Missionary
"Missionary
work is a subject very close to my heart, as it is to every member of
the eight Quorums of the Seventy, whom the Lord has appointed to go
“before his face into every city and place, whither he himself
would come.” 1Luke
10:1 Missionary
work is the lifeblood of the Church and the lifesaving blessing to
all who accept its message." @As
Sister Rasband and I had the privilege of presiding over the New York
New York North Mission several years ago, I marveled as the
missionaries arrived in New York City. @ As I interviewed
them on their first day in the mission, I had a profound sense of
gratitude for each missionary. I felt that their call to our mission
was divinely designed for them and for me as their mission
president. @After finishing our mission assignment, I was called
by President Gordon B. Hinckley to serve as a Seventy in the Church.
Part of my early training as a new General Authority included an
opportunity to sit with members of the Twelve as they assigned
missionaries to serve in one of the 300-plus missions of this great
Church. @With the encouragement and permission of President
Henry B. Eyring, I would like to relate to you an experience, very
special to me, which I had with him several years ago when he was a
member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Each Apostle holds the keys of
the kingdom and exercises them at the direction and assignment of the
President of the Church. Elder Eyring was assigning missionaries to
their fields of labor, and as part of my training, I was invited to
observe.
I
joined Elder Eyring early one morning in a room where several large
computer screens had been prepared for the session. There was also a
staff member from the Missionary Department who had been assigned to
assist us that day. @First, we knelt together in prayer. I
remember Elder Eyring using very sincere words, asking the Lord to
bless him to know “perfectly” where the missionaries should be
assigned. The word “perfectly” said much about the faith that
Elder Eyring exhibited that day. @As the process began, a
picture of the missionary to be assigned would come up on one of the
computer screens. As each picture appeared, to me it was as if the
missionary were in the room with us. Elder Eyring would then greet
the missionary with his kind and endearing voice: “Good morning,
Elder Reier or Sister Yang. How are you today?” @He told me
that in his own mind he liked to think of where the missionaries
would conclude their mission. This would aid him to know where they
were to be assigned. Elder Eyring would then study the comments from
the bishops and stake presidents, medical notes, and other issues
relating to each missionary. @He then referred to another
screen which displayed areas and missions across the world. Finally,
as he was prompted by the Spirit, he would assign the missionary to
his or her field of labor. @From others of the Twelve, I have
learned that this general method is typical each week as Apostles of
the Lord assign scores of missionaries to serve throughout the
world. @Having served as a missionary in my own country in the
Eastern States Mission a number of years ago, I was deeply moved by
this experience. Also, having served as a mission president, I was
grateful for a further witness in my heart that the missionaries I
had received in New York City were sent to me by revelation. @After
assigning a few missionaries, Elder Eyring turned to me as he
pondered one particular missionary and said, “So, Brother Rasband,
where do you think this missionary should go?” I was startled! I
quietly suggested to Elder Eyring that I did not know and that I did
not know I could know! He looked at me directly and simply said,
“Brother Rasband, pay closer attention and you too can know!”
With that, I pulled my chair a little closer to Elder Eyring and the
computer screen, and I did pay much closer attention! @A couple
of other times as the process moved along, Elder Eyring would turn
to me and say, “Well, Brother Rasband, where do you feel this
missionary should go?” I would name a particular mission, and
Elder Eyring would look at me thoughtfully and say, “No, that’s
not it!” He would then continue to assign the missionaries where
he had felt prompted. @As we were nearing the completion of
that assignment meeting, a picture of a certain missionary appeared
on the screen. I had the strongest prompting, the strongest of the
morning, that the missionary we had before us was to be assigned to
Japan. I did not know that Elder Eyring was going to ask me on this
one, but amazingly he did. I rather tentatively and humbly said to
him, “Japan?” Elder Eyring responded immediately, “Yes, let’s
go there.” And up on the computer screen the missions of Japan
appeared. I instantly knew that the missionary was to go to the
Japan Sapporo Mission. @Elder Eyring did not ask me the exact
name of the mission, but he did assign that missionary to the Japan
Sapporo Mission. @Privately in my heart I was deeply touched
and sincerely grateful to the Lord for allowing me to experience the
prompting to know where that missionary should go. @At the end
of the meeting Elder Eyring bore his witness to me of the love of
the Savior, which He has for each missionary assigned to go out into
the world and preach the restored gospel. He said that it is by the
great love of the Savior that His servants know where these
wonderful young men and women, senior missionaries, and senior
couple missionaries are to serve. I had a further witness that
morning that every missionary called in this Church, and assigned or
reassigned to a particular mission, is called by revelation from the
Lord God Almighty through one of these, His servants. @~@
Wasn't that totally awesome Brandon? If you need more time to
process it and see what you feel and think, take it now. Don't read
on because I am going to blab about what it meant to me. @
Halt, Stop, go back! Do not proceed. Single lane, one-way traffic! @
Was that a good enough warning? Blab: 1- I figured it was way too sacred for the first presidency to share how missionaries were
assigned. I served in Guatemala and have always wondered how that
assignment was made. 2- Rasband is humble. He has no clue about how
HBE is doing it! It is like Elder Eyring is magic as far as Rasband
can tell. 3- HBE is gentle and inviting. He includes RAR. He lets
RAR try over and over again with recuperation times in between and
takes advantage of the opportunity to teach RAR. Eyring could
have just hauled along and done it all himself. 4- The power is
real. These are good wholesome, pure apostle and future apostle and
they can tap into the power of the HG and therefore the mind and
will of God to make assignments to individual servants going into
the mission field. 5- It can be learned. And when both of you are
feeling the same thing it is a witness to your soul that it is the
right spirit, the Holy Spirit you are tapping into. 6- That paper
signed by the prophet that comes to the missionary is a revelation
from God, through a member of the 12 to you! I keep mine with my
patriarchal blessing. 7- God can do his own work. I think it was
Elder DAB that bore witness that he has watched the Holy Ghost
reveal things to the twelve that allowed them to manage HF Kingdom
on this earth beyond a man's ability. Dear Elder Bednar, his closing
address gave tribute to each of the 6 apostles who have passed since
he became an apostle. He was so unintentionally funny when he said
he has been waiting 10 years for there to be an apostle younger than
he is! 8-With the encouragement and permission of President Henry B.
Eyring, I would like to relate to you an experience, very special to
me, RAR got permission and even encouragement to share this story. I
first heard it in our Regional Conference & I was flabbergasted.
9- Evidence of the love of the Savior, which He has for
each missionary assigned to go out into the world and preach the
restored gospel. I cannot fathom how HF can know each one of us and
what he wants us to become. I cannot fathom that there are no such
things as coincidences. I am still stuck in my old science teaching
mode of probabilities and possibilities. I just can't fathom a
divine personal plan for me, individually. Now I will admit that I
believe he has guided my life up to now. 6 decades of guidance and
care. But that he can/ does understand my everyday, and every
effort blows my mind. @ I will just sit back and keep talking
to him like a friend and hope and trust, even if I can't believe.
This is one of those desire examples. @ I notice when I
get thrills/ chills, tears, and confirmations during GC. But I was
shocked when I googled Henry B Eyring after conference and saw my
picture on the bottom entry! What in the world was I doing there!
Last Jan 14, 2015 I used his name in the title of my blog. I had not
put a B. but just a B for his middle initial. I was shocked and
proud! I went and read the blog and it was a good one with a bunch
of his best quotes all color coded from his talk. I am hoping that
the testimony I bear and the truths I share will be of value
to others in the future. @ So many people are so shy or too
untrusting to post anything. If this helps spread the gospel of
Jesus Christ in any way I will be so pleased! 8:04pm
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