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

Nefarious November: NUMBSKULLs, NITWITs, NERDS, NUMBNUTS, NINCOMPOOPs, N______________

12:01pm Saturday, November 29, 2014

Hey Brandon,

Don't you wish you could call your informants names when they lie to you about not being able to send mail in November.  I am so sorry for the pain they caused both of us. Now knowing you and your easy going attitude you might just say: no big deal, I forgive them, they probably misunderstood, and for sure they weren't trying to cause me any problems. They are such sweet helpful guys and they are filled with patience and long suffering. They know how hard it is to be here and they try to make it as pleasant as possible. In fact, I can't think of any nicer people and more loyal friends than the ones I have developed here in the last 4 years! So awesome! What a privilege! I have no idea how I will ever re-pay society for this lovely, well not quite lovely but at least comfortable and most considerate stay! I have been able to be so useful and productive while I was here. I wonder if they have extensions so I can finish writing my second book before I have to leave?

I get my mail in once a week when I am not expecting anything from you, Brandon. Wednesday night is usually the best because the grocery adds come out. Last week, I just stacked on the kitchen table and did not even sort through it. This week I stacked on the kitchen table and decided to look through it this morning to see if I could get whole milk for $2.50 a gallon. Yay, Smiths had it on sale! I love my nightly homemade ice cream. Are you feeling any twinges of jealousy yet?

Hot Dang! I got a surprise letter from you!  Who would have thought. joke> Darn, now I am going to have to read and respond to make it look like I really care about what you write! <joke I do want to compliment you on being a lot more open than usual.  Thank you!  I feel privileged!

I called Varlo Davenport this morning, early. I told him I had just finished reading your letter and that you mentioned him and I would like to share it with him by taping it to his front door. When he is done I requested that he tape it back on mine so I can respond in more detail.

The other night after Thanksgiving I wrote my oldest son Louis a letter. One of the benefits of writing emails or letters is that I can be specific and report the best parts of the day to someone who cares. I texted him on Friday to let him know he had an email.  He said great and thanks. I am including his letter with this one to you.

No one significant that I know of reads my blog. The General Authorities have been encouraging us to be as authentic as possible in our social media. (social media- latest power word!) I don't know if you have been aware but my letters to you have been part of my posts for AdventureBill.  Of course, I don't retype all the stuff I hand write just so the letters are complete.  You made me laugh when you said you dare not write from bottom to top or the letter would not get sent because they would suspect it of being a coded message.  I loved all the cute girls in Jr. High School and the classes were so boring. After a few of my love notes got exposed I began writing in code so they couldn't be so easily deciphered.  The science behind codes is extensive!! I got a NOVA video at school called "the code breakers" and I was totally fascinated by it. I loved it. My students. . . not so much.

I wondered if I could type from bottom to top to just experiment but so far it could not be easily done.   !emosewa si nodnarB is still possible but not very efficient.  : )  I so hoped you would get a kick out of that letter and the backwards format.  That would be enough to drive a computer reader crazy!!!  Can you imagine?

As you raise teenagers and 20 year olds there will be times when your kids need money and you don't want to just give it to them outright. At my house we always  had the rule that if you wanted to buy something bad enough to earn half the money mom and dad would pay the other half.  It was beautiful and simple.

At certain ages additional expenses kicked in like car insurance and rent etc.. I could go into great detail of the financial deals I made with each of my individual children.  I kept $100 bills in an envelope on the top shelf in my closet for emergencies. One time Brian DeMille was selling a car for $300 that had a cracked block. I got down my envelope and we had a car for my kids until they tried to drive it to Caliente, Nevada with a car full of siblings to go see Louis' girlfriend give her missionary farewell or something.  Needless to say, they did not arrive. I have taken more cars to the dump, dead than I have sold. In fact to tell the truth I don't believe I have ever sold a car. Just all used up and trashed.

Anyway, Rod (secret alias) has always been brilliant. You would not believe all the baseball cards he had memorized and categorized. He has the most awesome collection from the late 80's and early 90's you could ever imagine.

But as an adult, life has been totally intimidating and overwhelming for him. How I ache for all he has gone through.  I will no longer need the book accounting all his fatherly loans because he paid me all of it back last night. Of course there was no interest! That is the benefit of borrowing from parents!  I called him this morning and did not even greet him before singing: "I'm on the top of the world looking down on creation and the only explanation I can find, Is the money that I've found ever since you came around, my heart's put me at the top of the world!"

So I woke up this morning feeling so positive and wonderful and then I get to read an unexpected letter from you as well. You can see why, since the FHC is closed this week, it was even worth coming here to the public library to makes copies and write you!

Life is good.   I am blessed.   As ye sow, so shall ye reap.  The joys of loving and sacrificing for family and having the bread you cast upon the water come back to you!

That was my conclusion but. . . When ever there is a sale on apple juice for a 64 oz bottle for 1$ I stock up and deliver it to my therapist. (And Rod and Amity's current wonderful one.)

They have been rolling around in the trunk of my Chevy Aveo since a week before ThanksGiving, when they went on sale.  I used two for Hailey and Brooklyn welcoming their little sister Kayla into the world and I had 6 still to deliver to Mark Clayton. Since I had given Rod the two turkeys I had cooked and portioned out! . . . huge job!, And removed the 2 cases of canned vegetables I got on sale, 3/$, The 6 Apple juices were sliding from one side to the other with each turn and braking and acceleration. Counseling associates was closed and locked so I put 5 bottles in the fire escape stairwell and wrote Mark a note connected to the one I set in front of his door. He drinks bottled juice every day during his counseling. This is not the first time. Each time the sale comes on he knows what to expect, and Walmart matches prices. To start with I hid them under the stack of 3 broken chairs in the stairwell. But with sore knees or back it was to hard to retrieve when I needed the paper inside to write on, that I placed them on top of the stack of 3 chairs the next time.  Counseling is so so expensive but so worth it if you have a wonderful one like Mark. So at $100+ a visit, 6$ worth of apple juice is just a pittance, a kind thought.

I took Roger Eves 2 jalapenoes and one carrot this morning as well.
 : )

Silly, Little, Blessings

9:14pm Thursday
I missed singles Book of Mormon class last week. I missed Empty Nesters FHE this month. I am better at remembering weekly activities than monthly ones.

I had the big pleco and a tiger barb die in my bedroom tank this last week. I discovered the Pleco today. I decided to immediately change the water. The algae on the front glass has gotten really bad. I guess the pleco has been sick for a while. I have increased the food thinking he was swimming around looking hungry 2 weeks ago but it hasn't been disappearing as fast as I expected.

My wireless computer mouse died Tuesday. I changed the battery and still dead. I planned on taking it to Best Buys where I got it and asking what was wrong and did I need to buy another. The last time I had this problem I just replaced the battery.

I debated as I got in the car as to whether I should go to BBuys first and just be late to BoM or go to BoM and just do the mouse some other time. I made it to class on time!

As I sat in my car after class I debated trying Walmart or save it for another day. I had polished up and carefully cleaned the mouse well. I had pulled both thumb drives for the wireless keyboard and mouse. I figured out which was which and put the two broken ones in a clear baggy. I walked all the way to the back of Walmart and the helper pushed the on switch. I told him I knew about that and had turned it off to save the new battery I had just put in. He opened the back and the battery was in backwards. All fixed. I should have removed my glasses so I could see the symbols + and -- more clearly.

So I was able to put God first, be on time to his/my class and the problem only took a minute to fix. I showed my faith and respect. Which was more important?

After the class I debated going to the Family Research Library and getting a batch done before they closed like I did some weeks ago, or trying to fix the mouse at Walmart so I could do more batches at home. See all the questions all along the way. I titled this Silly, Little, Blessings because we all have little decisions every day and some of them are spiritual choices we might not even think about like these. I was not trying to be staunch and righteous. I was just trying to be respectful and efficient. But as I drove home I was on cloud nine! So happy and so grateful inside.

There was an uncomfortable, ugly situation for a moment after class, on the front steps. : (  I didn't know how to respond. YOU probably know I have delayed responses to emotional things. But sometimes I eventually respond. Here's what I did tonight:

Dear Book of Mormon Singles Teacher Erin,

8:48pm

Class ended 48 minutes ago. Please pass this message along to Janice.

Dear slapped/rebuffed Janice, I am so glad you easily identify and label verbal slaps. I wish I were not so delayed in offering condolences. There you were keeping him company, visiting companionably while I waited at the turn in the hall. Reaching out to befriend and encourage and seek truth acceptable to both, some level of agreement and he felt angry and bested. So strange. Where did that come from? His past obviously, which is still alive in his present.

So teacher though you are I want to comfort you as Randal did with a hug. An imaginary hug. Thank you for taking that slap with a smile. I wasn't sure what to do. So here I sit an hour later offering support.

I hope both of you Janice and Erin feel of my appreciation and support. Thank you for preparing for us and thank you for teaching and loving the Book of Mormon and prophets and apostles. Thank you for being vulnerable and humbly, meekly sharing your imperfections and struggles with the Spirit.

As well as your witnesses of its reality and truthfulness in your lives. Jesus Christ rules!

Two weeks ago I followed Erin's encouragement and brought a friend from the Family Research Library. He loved the feeling in the room. He said it felt like family, each of us caring for each other. I was relieved because he is very opinionated.

Some weeks ago I opined to Janice that Rex is just seeking a perfect witness, and she responded, I can't give that to him. Nope we can't.

You can probably tell I taught Jr. High, yuck, for 31 years and High School for 3. I pulled a blank tonight as I tried to read Himni. Sorry about that. 

As Erin closed with her testimony tonight she said she hoped we could feel the spirit while we were there. I opened with prayer requesting that our spiritual tanks could be refilled. Mine was. I came home so happy. May each of you feel as happy as I do. 9:06 

Cremona, Italy. Going the extra mile.

7:57 am Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Good Morning Brandon Perry Smith,

A week has gone by and I hae not heard from you. Maybe they did close down the outgoing mail, as you warned.

As I rode home with Andrea Davenport from that Stake baptism Saturday the 1^st of November I mentioned to her that you had said, Maybe not much longer. . . Since then I have realized that was your way of saying good bye, and that you wouldn't be able to respond again. But you are my missionary right now. My oldest son Mouis was almost emotionally healthy enough to serve a productive mission to Iowa Spanish speaking. Rod wasn't. : (

Mouis did have some issues on his mission but completed it, that is why I said almost. I went and visited him for 15 minutes last night. I needed my weekly “family fix/shot”. It was so nice to see a son and visit.

I dropped by Jaren's house Saturday night and no one was home. So yes I did ring the doorbell and banged on the knocker to my hearts content. : )

I sent out a text to 10 people/family that night asking what they had done and where they were at. 1/10 answered back. Only Mouis.

Jaren is due with #3 daughter on Thanksgiving so I texted her again this morning expressing my prayers and love.

I have a sister at Eagle Mountain, Grayelinn'72 who will take every vmail I want to leave so there is always a place to talk, luckily.

I think I told you I set the crazy goal of 3K II (italian indexing) births this month. 15 usually take me an hour. At the FHC/FRL yesterday I met a guy and his wife that had just completed their 3 week training and it was their first day as full fledged genealogy missionaries. Brother and Sister Sewell (sounds like Jewel). He has never done any genealogy or family history besides writing his journal. She has been doing it for 30 years. What a courageous man. He was all smiles and pleasantness but quite occupied with trying to learn all the ins and outs of the system.

The rows of computers face each other. So you can easily look someone in the eye at all times. Just glance up from your screen and there they are. Not an arrangement one would use to promote learning in school! But rather a social environment. So as he lped different people who were brought to him through the day, I got to listen in and observe all their interactions. I encouraged him to keep a notebook or a blog of the things he discovered and learned as he found them and to share it with me if it was in the form of a blog and I would share my blog with him.

Just like I was curious as all get out, about you and prison life, I am curious about the steps one goes through learning to be a family history missionary.

I doubt if anything will come of it but if it does it would be exciting.

So I made this goal of 3K names this month. To make it I would have to average 100 names a day. I don't think I will make it. I am behind already. It is the 11^th and I should be at 1100 names if I were on target.

And then last week we ran out of names! On Thursday night there were no more available. On Friday I checked all the different cities. There were some batches written in free-hand but I can only translate the typed forms in the registry not the full written pages. It is quite a tedious process to download a batch from every city and then open it to see if it has typed forms or in freehand. I did that on Friday and only discovered a couple. I sent one back by accident and it was gone. They don't reassign you one you sent back, duh.

Saturday a minor miracle occurred for me. On Friday I had started at the bottom of the list and worked up. Saturday morning, intrepid adventurer that I am I tried again, this time starting at the top. There are two Cremona's listed. The first one was empty. Why try the second? It is the same city/province. But I tried it and pay dirt! I was able to download 10 batches, (the maximum at a time). So I had 10 hours of work in the bank that I could draw on at any time. These typed forms that I can read run from 1875-1902. The 10 batches I got were mostly from 1875, the oldest! I particularly like those ones. To me it is sort of like precious coins, the older the better. But then the bad news, these clerics or scribes shaped their letters in brand new ways! So not only were the names mostly unfamiliar, because each place has its own unique popular names, but now there were letters that didn't look like anything I had ever seen before. For example it took me hours before I realized that this letter, J when written upside down was a capital S and that this letter, j without the dot was really a g.

Are you good at making cursive capital Z? It is a weird shape right? Well yesterday I discovered if you make one of those with a hump afterwards it means double zz. And of course there are the weird other sporadic letters like an s that looks like a cursive “l” extending both above and below the line and capital T's and L's that look just like the upside down J, which is supposed to be an S.

OK, you get the idea. Now one of the most delightful things that happens as I index is the thrill of getting a difficult name right! If it turns pink after you type it , it means it is not on the authority list. Bad and sad.

But if it is IN the Italian white pages you can still count it as right. I make lists of the right ones from the Pagine Bianche Italiano for each city I work from so I won't have to keep looking them up. There is a certain sense of control and over-riding when a pink one shows up and you know that it is on your PB list.

For the first time yesterday at 3pm I decided to keep track of my riddle-thrills. The thrill that comes from solving a riddle. For the next hour I wrote the time and the word that had given me the thrill of discovery and a rating from 1-10 on the size of the thrill.

Similarly, yesterday morning, here at home when I tried indexing this new city, Cremona, every pink name just floored me! There were all these scores of new names, letters I couldn't read and it appeared I was getting them all wrong. I had started at 5am because of nightmares and after my first batch I felt tired again and went back to sleep. I saved the first batch rather than turn it in because I did not have the energy to correct all those pink ones.

I did 4 or 5 more batches at the FRL yesterday and by the last one my list of Pagine-Bianche surnames was getting pretty long. I also typed up 100 surnames unique to Cremona to help me get familiar with what the letters were supposed to be spelling.

As I slowed with exhaustion and prepared to come home I decided to go back to all the ones I had saved starting with that first one from 5am to see if I couldn't clean them up and submit them/turn them in. Much to my surprise and pleasure there was only one batch that I couldn't clean up! YAY, I had learned lots during the day! And progressed and succeeded!

And all that without really knowing what I was doing as it was happening. How much of that riddle solving came from the Holy Ghost or spirits nearby helping me and guiding me? I don't know, but many times when I succeed I say, Thank you Heavenly Father.

New topic

I finished studying Elder J Rueben Clark Jr's book: “Our Lord of the Gospels” 1958 this weekend. Do you remember that is where he puts all the 5 gospels'excerpts in chronological and side by side order. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 3^rd Nephi.

Well as I finished all the quotes were from 3 Nephi because that was up to a year after his resurrection in Jerusalem.

You may even remember he came back special after his 3 day ministry here to clarify the name of his church etc. as the 12 were praying and fasting and seeking an answer.

Anyway, stunningly clear to me this time was the difference between his referring to his Father in 3N compared to the other 4 gospels. He must quote his Father or pray or refer to him 100 times in that short ministry.

Sometimes I have wondered how much credit I should give the Savior and how much to the Father. Some would say, it doesn't matter, they are one. But in my mind I want to be fair and righteous. After reading the Lord's words about his father and that we have to do it in his, Jesus Christ's name, I believe that he wants us to specifically address everything to the Father unless Jesus is in our physical presence. That was good for me. I like nice clear lines. WE are to follow his example.

New topic

Last week was a rich week of social adventure for me. I was asked to give the opening prayer at our regional singles fireside our stake hosted Sunday night. I had never attended one before.

I went out 3 times with the “guys”. And was disturbed /unsettled enough by them to need to pray about it at length when I got home Saturday night. I don't like to have to repeat things I have already written that are important enough to want to share. You have probably noticed this as I forward to you things I have already written. 

Sharpen Your Knives

9:29pm Sunday, 16 November, 2014

I told the brethren to sharpen their knives to close our elder's quorum lesson today. As I have analyzed and prayed about it since then I have realized that if I ever get the chance I will change it to "sharpen your swords of truth"!  Here's D&C 27:

 15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.

 16 Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;

 17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;

 18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It doesn't quite fit does it? Oh well, maybe next time. But oh, what a promise!

A couple of hours after church, 1:40pm to be exact, I had finally dealt with my feelings enough to start enjoying and valuing having taught the lesson. I wrote in my journal, reread the lesson, added things we discovered along the way and prayed a couple of times. There are two people I may have unintentionally offended in the lesson. I have debated whether I need to apologize to them or not. Kim Garrett and Steve Muir. Sometimes I just respond like myself instead of a servant of the Lord. I got enough compliments and thank yous and even a hug from good old Pres. Black who knows to some degree the reassurance I always need, after the lesson to know that they know I did my best and that I love them/us.

There were so many highlights I wrote 12 of them in my journal and won't repeat them here. But the new thing, the thing I have never, ever done before in a lesson was > use social media right there in the EQ classroom. So awesome and so fun! So cool. I am so proud! Cutting edge, good example, advance preparation, and all that stuff.  Greg Brailsford was a kick! He must have asked 5 questions as he hunted for it. Jesse Bird was proud to be the first one there and announced it. He zoomed through all his lesson material in SS today and had us reading verses of Jeremiah all over the place. I asked him, how much of his lesson material he made it through about half? And he corrected me with the whole amount he had prepared. He reads fast and not very loud. He read my letter to the quorum clearly to begin with and then faster and faster as I had him stand and face the class from his front row seat. : )

I only used about 1/4 of what I prepared and the number of minutes and hours I have analyzed and thought and considered applications I can't quite estimate. I am smiling as I write this. It was a brief immersion into my old world of professional teaching with all the motivation, interests, considerations and consumptions.  Was I keyed-up? Is waking at 2:30am this morning and writing out an idea/concept/analogy in my journal for an hour enough evidence? I also did indexing and dog walk around the golf course and conference talks, highlighted recent talks, shaved my week's growth and took advantage of the extra energy. I drifted off from 8:10-:20 but then had to get to early morning choir practice for our performance today.

I am fasting today and tonight. I really ought to fast once a week. In my 2:30 am journal entry I concluded by saying I could fast and pray in celebration of the safe arrival of Kayla Brock into the world on November 14, 2014. I had/have been remiss in my prayers for the Brocks during many weeks of this pregnancy. As I prayed to express my excitement and gratitude I said something funny and something sincere. I told HF that since there is no time with God, whether I pray before an event or afterwards doesn't really matter, I hope.  And That if any of my actions have supported him and the building of his kingdom here on the earth in these last months and if he would accept them as an offering of gratitude, I would be pleased.

Anticipating a fast and then enduring it is almost torture. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it today. I did not make a rock solid commitment. I just had this hope, dream, this desire. But after I had calmed down this afternoon I told myself it would be perfectly fine not to go home teaching and to just nap if I wanted.  Three hours of napping I did. And then a dog walk again tonight and now writing so it looks like I might make it. f a s t i n g

But food brings me such pleasure!

I saw Eric Yunker in the chapel library today! Yes! First time in weeks.

At the end of my lesson, (afterburner) I shared my Old Testament for LDS families, my journal, Our Lord of the Gospels, my triple, and my having listened to every videoed General Conference talk from '71 'till '14.

There are ways to fill our lives with the gospel, the spirit of missionary work, and sharpen our knives of truth and swords of the spirit! Get sharpening!

PS. A huge idea about Dallin Oaks talk: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, I never even touched on. But at least we read out of the manual! I got on my lds.org account this morning and changed my password to "daveblackisnothere" so we could go look up Elder DHO's talk with all my highlights and the succeeding talk(s) as well. I so knew the quorum would get a kick out of my password. I saw Taylor Black in the hall today and was able to call her by name. She sure loves her dad. Contact comfort is common for them at church. Makes me wonder how being a caboose will impact her personality and life compared to the first batch of kids they raised. : )