ancient boast, “One soul shall not be lost.” (Moses 4:1.)

Tuesday, 10/25/16,12:20, hello Brandon! I am listening to DTC about unconditional love.  With God there is no such thing! It is not in the scriptures. Just like righteous pride is not in the scriptures. I said that kind of strong didn’t I. Well, maybe that will provoke you to have an opinion. :)  I emailed HC Mitch 6, don’t you love his last name? If your last name could be a number which one would you pick? Six only has three letters. One, two, ten, only have 3 letters too. In his email I told him I had studied HWH priesthood lessons Honesty18 and Commitment 19, that afternoon. I love it when prophets/ apostles make conclusive statements and promises.  HWH dared to make quite a few in these lessons. I was surprised. Here are some I liked: [Neither of our teachers liked the lessons they had to teach this month. What do you think of that? To me it means they were too shallow. Too surface. And/or too busy with the pressures of the world. Brady Golding taught this week from RMN about kneeling and seeking forgiveness when a family left the church that had had him do heart surgery and the child died. He actually knelt before(In June, I literally knelt in front of Jimmy, now 88 years old, and had a heart-to-heart talk with him.) How sad! Why should an apostle have to kneel because a Hatfield has taken lifelong offense? More power to RMN. What a good, caring, righteous man! I have knelt in front of another person before seeking forgiveness. They have taken offense and I have apologized. Maybe I could do it after all. The sweetest part of Brady’s lesson was when he told of losing his 24 week pregnancy daughter, 7 years ago. He works as a nurse at the hospital. He tried to pray and buoy up his wife but when Justin Salmon and Kelly Casey came in and offered him a blessing he burst into tears as they blessed him. ] HWH:“My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” (Job 27:3–4, 6). @How inspiring. Because of his strength, he had no concerns for the trivial temptations before which most people fall. Job had built into his own life a strength and satisfaction that Satan himself could not crash. It is also interesting to see how God was delighted with him: “There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil[,] and still he holdeth fast his integrity” (Job 2:3). @This great quality of integrity is fully available to us. If effectively used, it will solve all of our problems in government, religion, industry, and our individual lives. It would wipe out the awful scourge of crime, divorce, poverty, and misery. It would make us successful here and save our souls hereafter. @@ it will solve ALL of our problems in government, religion, industry, and in our individual lives!  WOW, nice consequence wouldn’t you say Brandon? After reading that I had to stop and analyze it. Is that possible? Is that true? Can I believe that?  No kidding? And now I must say that I agree. @ There’s hope. There is a solution. Relief! I can surely do my part in that. @~@ done for now:1pm @ Wednesday, 4:25pm, hello bps, I brought 2 weeks worth of mail to open at the Fhc when I got tired or bored. I just sorted through it all. Yes! Century Link says they tried to get their automatic payment but were rejected for insufficient funds. So they will charge me an additional $20 for missing a payment.  I hate that but what is even worse is that my account got dinged $30 bucks for the two times they tried!  OUCH! I told you that last Friday was a miserable day as I tried to manage my finances/ my accounts.  I visited with mark yardley and he removed 3 dings for my mortgage/ Wells Fargo that wanted their money. $90! So do I dare to go ask for him to remove these 2 dings as well?  We’ll see. Seems like the city dinged me too!  Lol. All because of that 370$ traffic ticket that overdrafted everything. Of course, the truth: if I had cared I could have carefully followed and planned that payment. But I was overwhelmed with ptsd! @ So I ate 2 servings of left over salad and 2 MnM cookies before sorting through my mail. The young FHC missionaries had a meeting today. I was sitting by doe-eyed little Sister Sorenson as she was falling asleep after lunch. All these young missionaries have handicaps but they may not be visible! I squirmed inside as she was asked to help a man and her assistance left something to be desired. I wondered if I should go work someplace else so it didn’t bother me so much. But I stayed. I did leave and work elsewhere later after listening to Elder Toni Minardi tell about his childhood stories and earliest memories. We do II together and visit on Tues and Wed. when he comes in. Today I asked myself, Can I count listening to him as service? I see him as an eternal friend. The relationship we have developed working on II together will cement us for eternity, at least that is how it seems right now. You know how everything in the current moment/ present seems so much more important and meaningful than all our past history? Tony was born in Saint Louis Missouri. He is 82. Tony’44 is super short and stout and quite a good visitor and story teller. Microsoft Word Recognition is a new program he is trying for free for Windows. He is excited. Perhaps when he gets his history started he will share it with me. He has some extremely dark past which he says he plans on sharing with no one. We have had some talks. As I look at him I am constantly asking myself, will I be as cognisant when I am his age.  He has his idiosyncrasies. They have become  more noticeable this second year. He can’t type without looking at the keys. So he is constantly looking up and down as he indexes. He loves to read and he was pleased to discover he was quite bright when it came to the end of his HS tests. His teachers were surprised because he had been a nonproducer. I think you are the same Brandon. I think you didn’t produce much in school but your  brain has all kinds of skills, talents and abilities! Temple Grandin was extreme autistic but her ability to focus and a few guiding sacrificing teachers helped her on her unique way. I have 5 of her books checked out right now. But I am not going to study her further for now. Good enough. @ I get to visit you tonight. KJ says all I need is her phone number to get in.  I woke up worried this morning. The pressure of seeing you has lightened as I have indexed through the day but in 2.5 hours I should be visiting with you.  What will we talk about?  I often have so much to say but until the subject matter gets started I am at loose ends. How is it for you? You have two of these visits a week. How do you prepare for them? Or do you just go prepared to be entertained. Perhaps it is like Mark Clayton used to say to me: you don’t have to be prepared Vern. You can just come and go with the flow!  Poor Hugh Nibley couldn’t do that either. Here they were trying to make a movie about him and he prepared a lesson for each filming. He would rather leave than not have something prepared to share and teach. Poor guy. And they just wanted to get the candid HughN. Sounds just like me. He was definitely autistic wasn’t he! I n t e r e s t i n g.  Me too? @ So I sent a 5 page text to my 3 daughters last weekend. I realized I had heard from all my sons so I specifically sent them one. No response. @ I told my Home teachees that if they didn’t give me a thanks or no thanks for the text summary for the week before they would not get an update. Bruce Randall apologized and said he was in Indiana and had been out of town. I sent him a nice long personal update.  EricY got some things from me too. He is my partner.  Varlo got some email about cool conference quotes, but no update. @ Do you ever feel frustrated at being so alone in living the gospel? I know you do. Trying to talk to and encourage the other inmates to improve their lives when all they want to do is get out and get their next fix of sex, alcohol, drugs, etc., has left you bereft before. Is it possible that all these addicts around us will be saved in the Celestial Kingdom?  I don’t think so. But There is an Elder Combs here who taught seminary for 25 years whose mind and heart has changed along these lines. He used to draw a pyramid on the board for his students and then cut it with a horizontal line across the middle. Those below that line represent the telestial kingdom he told them. He then divided the top half in two. Those are the terrestrial and celestial kingdom people he said. But after retiring and reading and studying some wonderful insightful books he now draws it upside down! The telestial people will only be there because they want to be and they will be few. The tippy part of the half of a half. The terrestrial will be a few more but the overwhelming foundation of the pyramid will be floating up in the air and celestial.  That was the bottom half of the pyramid which is not flipped upside down and is the top half! He now believes that HF would not send all his children to fail. He already lost ⅓ to Satan in the war in heaven. He is going to save the vast majority of those who come to earth. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. And the difficulty of earth life will serve as a reminder for all eternity of what it is like to be without His spirit and presence.  We will then appreciate and value the goodness of God the Father for ever.  I wonder. Does this sound possible? @ As Ralph Taeger shared this thought with me from a copy of a spiritual thought given in prayer meeting he really wanted to caution that this could easily be taken too far.  (Here comes a long tangent: NAMaxwell’88- Why do some of our youth risk engaging in ritual prodigalism, intending to spend a season rebelling and acting out in Babylon and succumbing to that devilishly democratic “everybody does it”? Crowds cannot make right what God has declared to be wrong. Though planning to return later, many such stragglers find that alcohol, drugs, and pornography will not let go easily. Babylon does not give exit permits gladly. It is an ironic implementation of that ancient boast, “One soul shall not be lost.” (Moses 4:1.) @The philosophy of ritual prodigalism is “eat, drink, and be merry, … [and] God will beat us with a few stripes.” This is a cynical and shallow view of God, of self, and of life. God never can justify us “in committing a little sin.” (2 Ne. 28:8.) He is the God of the universe, not some night-court judge with whom we can haggle and plea bargain! @Of course God is forgiving! But He knows the intents of our hearts. He also knows what good we might have done while AWOL. In any case, what others do is no excuse for the disciple from whom much is required. (See Alma 39:4.) Besides, on the straight and narrow path, there are simply no corners to be cut. ) So that was the same as RT’ precaution. @ Personally, it would relieve all kinds of worry and concern for my sons louis and michael and my brothers Brent, Adrian and Scott, and my sisters, Gayelinn, Camille and Julia.  I am not one to worry excessively but MichaelJ’92 is still a responsibility I feel profoundly.  Will he ever marry Xiang? How long until he begins attending church regularly again. If he marries Xiang what about her two little boys? I sure wish he would prepare himself for a profession so he doesn’t have to eat from hand to mouth the rest of his life. @@ So last week as I analyzed my accounts I discovered I had $5K in my Chase account. I have been having $1K deposited from it into me SWUCCU account each month. The rest has been accumulating. T h a n k h e a v e n s ! To you it may seem silly that I was not aware of every dollar that was available to me. But I don’t like money. I try to ignore it. But I ignored it a little too long this time! @ I can’t describe the sense of relief I felt to discover I was covered! @ I also have $25k for medical expenses. I could send in my receipts and get that out in an emergency. @ @ Thursday, 9:53am. Good morning bps, I got to visit you for like 20 minutes last night after your aunt was done. You were smiling and happy and upbeat and joking and teasing and it was so fun!  Thank you!  I don’t know what you did to get yourself in a good mood, but it sure was pleasant and enjoyable for me.  You  tried to calm my down as I got way excited about my two Sea Gull books coming in!  I just wanted to stand up on my chair and dance around!  I was so pleased!  MEGAN and I figured there would be problems but there weren’t.  In my last postcard I started with the email I wrote to Millennial mama, KJ telling her of my experiment. Nothing chanced, nothing gained. Nothing risked, nothing gained. Ben Franklin: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  OK, enough crowing about that, but to me it is super significant! @ I used my HWH priesthood manual as a visual aide. I also had a gold foil Limburger cheese wrapper I could have shown you. My family of origin had so many jokes about Limburger cheese.  I spent ~$7 on 8oz for Adrian this summer from Harmon’s.  He was so pleased! When I found the gold foil wrapper in the trash I took it out and pressed it straight and posted it in my hallway on the bulletin board. I like to keep mommentoes of memories. Jenese won’t let Adrian bring his limburger in the house because it is too stinky. AS I was thinking about things to share yesterday that gold wrapper caught my eye. @ Wiki: Limburger is a cheese that originated during the 19th century in the historical Duchy of Limburg, which is now divided between Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands.The cheese is especially known for its strong smell caused by the bacterium Brevibacterium linens. In its first month, the cheese is firmer and more crumbly, similar to the texture of feta cheese. After about six weeks, the cheese becomes softer along the edges but is still firm on the inside and can be described as salty and chalky. After two months of its life, it is mostly creamy and much smoother. Once it reaches three months, the cheese produces its notorious smell because of the bacterium used to ferment Limburger cheese and many other smear-ripened cheeses. This is Brevibacterium linens, the same one found on human skin that is partially responsible for body odor and particularly foot odor. [v- check out how these strong foods go together!] One of the most traditional ways of eating limburger is the limburger sandwich. After three months, when the cheese has ripened, it becomes spreadable. The cheese is often spread thick (more than 0.5 cm or 0.2 inch) on firm-textured 100% rye bread, with a large, thick slice of onion, and is typically served with strong black coffee or lager beer. Alternatively, for heartier eaters, chunks or slices of the cheese up to 1.5 cm (0.6 inch) thick can be cut off the block and placed in the sandwich. This sandwich still remains very popular among the descendants of German immigrants in the Midwestern United States, such as Cincinnati, and German Village in Columbus, Ohio. However, it is markedly less popular among the descendants born after about 1960, mainly because of the permeating smell, and the inconvenience of going to specialty cheese and sausage shops to obtain it. In Wisconsin, the Limburger sandwich can be found on menus at certain restaurants, accompanied by brown mustard.|Limburger and its characteristic odor are a frequent butt of jokes. Reactions to, and misinterpretations of, the smell of Limburger cheese were gags used in numerous Little Rascals and Three Stooges comedy shorts. Also, the arch-enemy of the Biker Mice from Mars has the name Lawrence Limburger, complete with terrible body odor.|In 2006, a study showing that the malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger and to the smell of human feet earned the Ig Nobel Prize in the area of biology.The results of the study were published in the medical journal The Lancet on 9 November 1996. @ v- blue cheese was another favorite at my childhood house. The idea of eating blue mold was so fascinating!  Mom made whole wheat bread. I can’t tell you how many half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I threw away at the school cafeteria. We could never afford school lunch. As the years have gone by I realize how much money I have saved by never eating out for lunch and always packing a lunch for energy. @ So let’s talk about things I learned from you last night. These will not be given equal weight and value. I will talk more about the ones that interest me the most. 1- TV is what everyone does when they are out of their cells!  It is like a baby sitter for adults! Imagine how many problems would crop up without it! Short attention spans are your bane/ burden/ lot. Your neighbors get bored at the first commercial or second and forget and lose interest in what they thought they wanted to watch!  How funny, Brandon! You are left watching the show you might not have chosen and may not have wanted just because you can focus longer!  Wow, that says so much for the people that are in there!  They almost all have handicaps and disabilities! They are reactive. They are easily distracted. They have mental illness to put it in mark clayton’s words. @ Direct TV is what they provide and out of the 200 channels you guys use about 20. 2- you didn’t want to talk about your motorcycle. 3- you read the bible once. Not very rewarding was it? Can you imagine that being all everyone has had for 300 years? What a pain!  You have heard me complain and whine before about the plan of salvation missing from the bible, and why would anyone want to live the commandments without understanding that?  They did have the concept of heaven and hell, but Satan had distorted that too! My OT Scripture Mastery Puzzle book is sure great for teaching the worthwhile concepts of the 25 OT smscriptures!  I do one of those lessons a week and it never fails to lift my spirit and send my understanding soaring! 4- “Daughter of the Empire” sounded good to you.  Thank you for even knowing the name of the book! That really made my effort feel valued. There are 3 in that series. It has a female protagonist and the setting and the political intrigues are absorbing.  I discovered the series this year and it has partner authors!  They did a fantastic job. The scope just grows and grows! 5-We discussed the seer stone joseph used. You asked what the source was. I just went back and looked it up and it was background for mormons and non mormons on lds.org!  That is the church website. It is approved church history! I am fascinated by the breastplate Moses and Aaron and Joshua wore with 12 stones representing the 12 tribes and the Liahona and the seer stones. So Isent that article to give you background on a topic you have to research to discover, because it is not the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, HG, endure to the end. So just so you know what exactly I am talking about I am going to paste it here again: The other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or “seer stone.”18 As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure.19 As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.20 Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. These two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters.21 In ancient times, Israelite priests used the Urim and Thummim to assist in receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature of the instrument, several ancient sources state that the instrument involved stones that lit up or were divinely illumined.22 [Book of Mormon Translation LDS.ORG - Topics] Latter-day Saints later understood the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters. Joseph Smith and others, however, seem to have understood the term more as a descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less as the name of a specific instrument. Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used to access God’s power: the rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.23 The Mechanics of Translation |In the preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote: “I would inform you that I translated [the book], by the gift and power of God.” When pressed for specifics about the process of translation, Joseph repeated on several occasions that it had been done “by the gift and power of God”24 and once added, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon.”25Nevertheless, the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts that give insight into the process. Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates. Most of the accounts speak of Joseph’s use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone), and many accounts refer to his use of a single stone. According to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.26 The process as described brings to mind a passage from the Book of Mormon that speaks of God preparing “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”27The scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”28According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.” When asked if Joseph had dictated from the Bible or from a manuscript he had prepared earlier, Emma flatly denied those possibilities: “He had neither manuscript nor book to read from.” Emma told her son Joseph Smith III, “The Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him.”29 Another scribe, Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words, Harris would say, “Written.” An associate who interviewed Harris recorded him saying that Joseph “possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.”30 @~@ Brandon here are the references: *17.Mosiah 28:14–15, 20; see also Mosiah 8:13, 19; and Ether 4:5. Joseph Smith seems to have used the terms “interpreters” and “spectacles” interchangeably during the early years of the Church. Nancy Towle, an itinerant Methodist preacher, recounted Joseph Smith telling her about “a pair of ‘interpreters,’ (as he called them,) that resembled spectacles, by looking into which, he could read a writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown.” (Nancy Towle, Vicissitudes Illustrated in the Experience of Nancy Towle, in Europe and America [Charleston: James L. Burges, 1832], 138-39.) Joseph’s 1832 history referred to “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16.) In January 1833, the Latter-day Saint newspaper The Evening and the Morning Star, edited by William W. Phelps, equated “spectacles” and “interpreters” with the term “Urim and Thummim”: the Book of Mormon “was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles— (known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, [new word-vj. I dare you to ask your mom to look that one up!  teraphim] or Urim and Thummim).” (“The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, January 1833, [2].) By 1835 Joseph Smith most often used the term “Urim and Thummim” when speaking of translation and rarely, if ever, used the terms “interpreters” or “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith, Journal, Nov. 9-11, 1835, in Journals: Volume 1: 1832-1839, 89; Joseph Smith, History, 1834-1836, in Davidson et al., Histories, Volume 1, 116; John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B. Carlson, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 [Provo, UT, and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005], 123-28.) *18. Joseph Smith probably possessed more than one seer stone; he appears to have found one of the stones while digging for a well around 1822. (Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984], 69–70.) *19.According to Martin Harris, an angel commanded Joseph Smith to stop these activities, which he did by 1826. (See Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, 64–76; and Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” BYU Studies 24, no. 4 [Fall 1984]: 489–560.) Joseph did not hide his well-known early involvement in treasure seeking. In 1838, he published responses to questions frequently asked of him. “Was not Jo Smith a money digger,” one question read. “Yes,” Joseph answered, “but it was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.” (Selections from Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 43, available at josephsmithpapers.org.) For the broader cultural context, see Alan Taylor, “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” American Quarterly 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–33. *20. Mark Ashurst-McGee, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet,” (Master's Thesis, Utah State University, 2000). *21.For example, when Joseph Smith showed a seer stone to Wilford Woodruff in late 1841, Woodruff recorded in his journal: “I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM.” (Wilford Woodruff journal, Dec. 27, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.) See also Doctrine and Covenants 130:10. *22.Cornelius Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 9–26. *23.Exodus 7:9-12; 30:25; 40:9; Leviticus 8:10-12; Numbers 21:9; Joshua 3:6-8; John 9:6. *24.Preface to the Book of Mormon, 1830 edition. *25.Minutes, Church conference, Orange, OH, Oct. 25–26, 1831, in Minute Book 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, available at josephsmithpapers.org; Welch, “Miraculous Translation,” 121–9. *26.Virtually all of the accounts of the translation process are reproduced in Welch, “Miraculous Translation.” Two accounts of the translation process, including the use of a seer stone, have been written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and published in Church magazines. Historians have also written about the seer stone in Church publications, both in the Ensign and in The Joseph Smith Papers. (See Neal A. Maxwell, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign,Jan. 1997, 36–41; Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign,July 1993, 61–63; Richard Lloyd Anderson, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Sept. 1977, 78–85; and Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, xxix–xxxii.) *27.Alma 37:23-24. *28.“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 289–90. Some outside reports describe the spectacles being placed in the hat during the translation process. A Palmyra newspaper published the earliest known account of the translation in August 1829: Jonathan Hadley, a Palmyra printer who may have spoken with Joseph Smith about translation, claimed that the plates were found with a “huge pair of Spectacles,” and that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.” (“Golden Bible,” Palmyra Freeman, Aug. 11, 1829, [2].) In the winter of 1831, a Shaker in Union Village, Ohio, spoke of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles” through which the translator “looked on the engraving & afterwards put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into his mind.” (Christian Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar: The Earliest Book of Mormon Reviewer,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 [Spring 2011]: 143.) *29.“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90. *30.“One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 13, 1881, 4. Here Martin Harris uses the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the interpreters found with the plates. @~@ wa So as we visited last night Brandon, I wasn’t sure what the source was and You asked if it was wikipedia and I said yes, and “That is what the world believes”. But I was wrong. I hadn’t remembered the source. And it is what the church  believes!  Not the world! So we learn something new!  Isn’t that cool. Joseph had to be told by the angel Moroni not to use it in that way! Live and learn! Even the prophet had to live and learn. @~@ Dave Lambert and his mother were there at the Jail last night. I hadn’t seen him for years. They were  visiting joi lambert in jail. He was a bit grumpy and not happy to be there. He is a speech pathologist. Been with WCSD for 30 years and is retiring in 6 months. I reminded him of who I was and he seemed ashamed of WCSD. He said he never reminds anyone that works there, of where they work! He has been at Cinnamon hills for the last 10 years and 5 months as well / in addition to. I asked him to help my log in on the TV since I hadn’t ever done it before. He kindly showed me how but then your aunt had already done it. I did not know who she was and she did not know who I was, so it wasn’t until I saw your face on the TV screen that I knew we were in the last slot/ TV/ visit booth. I watched your aunt punching in the numbers before Dave Lambert show me how. I hadn’t dared talk to aunt. @@ DHOaks is my old BYU president and I have always loved him. He seems to be getting older and gentler! I listened to his talk again this morning. I don’t dare to follow his counsel. @~@There are three things all members can do to help share the gospel, regardless of the circumstances in which they live and work. All of us should do all of these. @First, we can all pray for desire to help with this vital part of the work of salvation. All efforts begin with desire. V-no thanks-this scares me.

Second, we can keep the commandments ourselves. Faithful, obedient members are the most persuasive witnesses of the truth and value of the restored gospel. Even more important, faithful members will always have the Savior’s Spirit to be with them to guide them as they seek to participate in the great work of sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. V-no problem

Third, we can pray for inspiration on what we can do in our individual circumstances to share the gospel with others. This is different than praying for the missionaries or praying for what others can do. We should pray for what we can do personally. When we pray, we should remember that prayers for this kind of inspiration will be answered if accompanied by a commitment—something the scriptures call “real intent” or “full purpose of heart.” Pray with a commitment to act upon the inspiration you receive, promising the Lord that if He will inspire you to speak to someone about the gospel, you will do it. V- not quite. V-  I am not sure what is holding me back on this. Perhaps it is my depth of commitment. When I commit I really commit!  It is a lifelong thing. And to tell the truth, I am already doing this but I just don’t dare formalize it. Are you ready for a smile? Sharing the Restored Gospel By Elder Dallin H. Oaks, October 2016 General Conference "Our young members’ fascination and expertise with social media gives them unique opportunities to reach out to interest others in the gospel. Describing the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites, Mormon writes, “He did teach and minister unto the children …, and he did loose their tongues … that they could utter” ( 3 Nephi 26:14 ). Today I suppose we would say “loose their [thumbs] that they could utter.” Go to it, youth!" @ v-I suspect my kids wish I would sprain my thumbs! Joke.@ Well Brandon, i hope this postcard lifted your spirits. You are doing a tough work. My challenge to you would be to continue developing skills that may bless you in the work force!  You said you don’t like math, but brushing up those skills and extending them brings dividends. How can someone who likes Chess not like math? Gby-bltpjs-vj