I sat with the Brass.

Hello good buddy! Saturday, 5/13/17 Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! There are 25 OT mastery scriptures. I sent you the puzzle page for #25! Personally I have only completed up to #16 in my puzzle book. So since I sent you #25 I decided that rather than read my novel I would try to do it. Since I am expecting you to do it, I better make sure it can be done! What did you learn from the experience? These puzzle pages are designed to help us use learning aids we normally don't touch. I tried reading the bible dictionary after doing a couple of these puzzles because I could see that there is great information there but it is too boring! But reading just one article at a time and answering questions about it is really helpful. Here are 5 things I learned: 1- there is a quotation heading in the BD! 2- No one knows where Elijah's nickname comes from! 3- Elijah and Moses are best buds(translated buds). They get to visit and restore priesthood keys to Peter, James and John and JS. 4- Mantle of the prophet comes from Elijah. 5- The Phoenicians, the shipbuilders, are the ones who worshiped Baal. Which puzzle was the easiest for you? Which was the hardest? I smiled the whole time I worked on these puzzles. I just grinned thinking you would be trying to solve them too! So fun! Easiest for me was the head code. I did 3 letters and I knew the whole thing. The hardest was the spilled letters. I'm still not done. @ I got 10 of these puzzle books for $3 at DI. I have been sharing them around. I send Michael'92 a page or two each time I send him a letter. Same with Gayelinn'72. Sometimes you have to use a hymnbook and the tools there to find answers. After I had done about 13 of the mastery scripture puzzles I discovered the answers in the back. Before that I just had to guess. @ I sent your letter today. Hope you enjoyed it. @Tues5/16/17Hey Brandon, I have spent the last 30 minutes on Facebook. My breathing crippled gs-Lincoln is having a benefit concert this Friday and Louis'80 told me the info is on his Facebook page. $10 ticket at the door, $5 ticket presale. Guess which one I want? You get to pick your friends on Facebook and you get to bypass the ones that post too much. I found a comment from my daughter Jessica who doesn't share with me because she wants to protect her privacy. But here is something she wanted publicized. She posted it on Facebook. I am proud of her so I am going to paste it here: Debra Laverty Ketchie 
I am 62 and have been a member for 37 years. Ive been struggling with RS for the past year. I want to study doctrine. It seems the sisters spend most of the time socializing and getting way off track. I sat in the foyer one day and found other sisters my age out there. We had a great gospel discussion. Please don't tell me that we have wonderful things to share with the younger sisters. If they do actually get to the lesson, they blow us off as old fashioned or no longer in touch. Things have changed and not for the better. [Dear sister Ketchie, Brandon P Smith would want you to have a hug. AdventureBill would say: whine, whine, whine!]

May 12 at 10:57am Jessica Jensen Dahlquist 
Debra, it's disheartening to hear you clump all the younger sisters together. I too enjoy gospel doctrine driven lessons, and any lesson taught by the spirit. I also recognize that for some young mothers RS is their only window of adult conversation in the entire week, and while it may not be the best place for them to fill that friendship void, I try to be understanding- I've been there before too. When I feel like I'm not getting what I want out of church, I go with a prayer in my heart to "show me how to serve today, open my eyes" . Those Sunday's I come home with my heart full, someone needed a listening ear in the hall, someone else needed company while they followed their busy toddler around, another needed help with their baby so they could listen, another needed a friend to sit by, they were perhaps the anomaly as a single older sister in a ward of young families. We can research the gospel and doctrine any day of the week, but as we go to church with the purpose of serving as our dear Lord does the confirmation and edification of the spirit surpasses all lessons I've experienced. 

At stake conference 10 days ago our visiting authority told us to attend church to serve. Don't go to get, Go to give! Do you like that idea? Perhaps with all the free clergy we have in the church most of us are already doing that. Sounds like this sister needs a calling so she can give too! :) So bps, how are you giving and serving? @ After texting with your momKJ, I was surprised that in order to satisfy Ellen Hensley your sentence starts now! No credit for the last 6 years! Oh my goodness! How disheartening! But at least it is not a life sentence. You really don't fit the prison profile very well do you? Why are you such an odd duck? How can you be a saint in prison? I am so proud of you Brandon. Keep being a saint to the best of your ability. @ My power / electricity started fluctuating Sunday afternoon. I was studying the priesthood manual GBH and the surge protector next to my head dinged and then popped and then started fizzling and smoke came out! Yikes. I jumped up and unplugged it. Do you know what an electrical fire smells like? Yuck. It is a scary smell to me because there are electrical outlets in every room. Where is it coming from? I bought a 100ft hose on Amazon.com and it is on the couch at the top of the stairs. I figured the cured rubber was contributing the smell. When I prayed Sunday night I thanked HF for discovering where the smell was coming from. The new rubber hose. I was relieved. Relieved enough to include it in my prayer. But Monday morning the computer had no internet connection so down stairs I went to find out what was wrong. Surprise! A melted black smokey surge protector down there as well. Stinky and sticky! The white shelf has a black shadow outlining the shape of the surge protector. It was not the hose after all! Scary. Here I went to sleep Sunday night at peace no knowing what had really happened downstairs! @ I sent out a text Sunday complaining that my pond goldfish had been eaten by the great blue heron that BillY captured in a picture, sitting on my roof last week. I got all kinds of fun responses. It really was not a great loss to me. Amber had dumped them on me from a lady at Pet Smart. You may remember how I asphyxiated most of them with chlorinated water last November. I still have 4 in my front pond the heron has not found yet. Well that text, the first I had sent my nephew Kent Cooper in over a year tipped him over the edge. He came unglued! He is bipolar and he threw 3 fits in words! So sad. But then, mom to the rescue! Camille'63 texted and said he uses his phone for gps while delivering pizzas. This was Sunday at noon. Later I told her he lost it and she said, Yeah. She and all three sons will be living in a home Neal Cooper and his wife are buying out in Bloomington, just down the street from Julia'59. But they won't have to drive by Julia's house but they would be in the same ward. Camille plans to keep attending the ward she is right now. Her old bishop is her Home teacher and she loves him. They had her as Sunday program maker and printer and she loved the calling. Then they split the ward and the calling is gone. :( @ Some years she has been so overwhelmed she hasn't attended church. So goes the lives of Vern's siblings. . . @ I went to JCPenny's to use a $10 off coupon for $10+ spent! I love those. But the only thing I could find were Sunday socks. That is just fine with me. I need Sunday socks. I also need a Sunday shirt but they were $40! Yikes. No thanks. @ I dropped by F Search and they told me they won't open for more than a month! Open house scheduled for June 22. March 31 was the last day they were open. I told my kids by text today that this working at home is for the birds! I lowered my daily goal from 100 to 50 this week. I just haven't been able to keep up. Having a place to leave the house for and something productive and building the kingdom to do is what I need. @ I sat on the back row for the BRASS only in HPGroup in priesthood. Tom Lamb, our stake president n bishop emeritus, Kent Perkins, high counsel and our bishop emeritus, Rulon Bagley, stake executive secretary emeritus, Beau Barney, current seminary teacher and Braxton-handicapped's father. Vern Jensen dared to sit right in the middle. I really wanted to talk to Rulon but he never said hi. Anyway, I dared! And I read aloud a portion of the lesson as requested:

Chapter 7: The Whisperings of the Spirit

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley, 2016

“I make a plea that we constantly seek the inspiration of the Lord and the companionship of His Holy Spirit to bless us in keeping our efforts on a high spiritual plane.”

From the Life of Gordon B. Hinckley

On June 24, 1995, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke at a meeting for new mission presidents and their wives, giving them counsel to guide their next three years of service. He told of instruction he received when President Harold B. Lee, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, set him apart as a stake president:

“I remember only one thing he said: ‘Listen for the whisperings of the Spirit in the middle of the night, and respond to those whisperings.’ I don’t know why revelation comes sometimes in the night, but it does. It comes in the day as well, of course. But listen to the whisperings of the Spirit, the gift of revelation, to which you are entitled.”1

Referring to his experiences as he followed this instruction, he said: “The Lord has spoken quietly. … In the middle of the night, ideas have come into my head which, I think, have been prophetic in their nature.”2 For example, in July 1992 he was in Hong Kong with other Church leaders, searching for a place to build a temple. He went to bed one night feeling unsettled about the decision he needed to make. Then the whisperings of the Spirit woke him up early the next morning.

“Something very interesting came to my mind,” he recorded in his journal. “I did not hear a voice with my natural ears. But into my mind there came the voice of the Spirit. It said, ‘Why are you worried about this? You have a wonderful piece of property where the mission home and the small chapel stand. They are in the very heart of Kowloon, in the location with the best transportation. … Build a building of [several] stories. It can include a chapel and classrooms on the first two floors and a temple on the top two or three floors.’” Having received that revelation, President Hinckley said, “I relaxed and went back to sleep.”3

Today in Kowloon, a densely populated section of Hong Kong, a single building stands where a chapel and mission home once stood. That building, which houses a chapel, a mission home, a mission office, and a sacred temple, is a testament of the whisperings of the Spirit to a prophet of God.

Hong Kong China Temple

Tell me 5 things that stick out or that you liked about that story Brandon. Quick! Before you read mine! I am terribly allergic. So was GBH. I never knew that. He tried to join WWII even though he was married but they rejected him! The weirdest thing I am discovering about the prophets is that they prayed like crazy for the previous prophet to stay alive so they wouldn't have to do it!!! And after the calling came they say: Why me? I'm just little old Gordon, Ezra, are you sure you really want me, Heavenly Father? Isn't that sweet! Are these power hungry glory seeking men? No! Please choose someone else if possible. . . OK if you really want me then I will absolutely do my best. Thank you for your vote of confidence, HF. @ Delay over. I came home and googled Hong Kong Temple. It is not on the Island. It us up against the northeastern mountain. What a perfect place! But only the top part is the temple#1! Look at all the other stuff it houses! #2 These poor guys/ prophets really feel the weight of their callings. Many sleepless nights! #3 I only remember one thing Pres Lee said. Candid huh! #4 “In the middle of the night, ideas have come into my head which, I think, have been prophetic” Look at that humility and meekness Brandon. He doesn't say I know, he says I think! #5 He went to bed unsettled. I read this over and over when I was reading his biography. They feel like something just isn't quite right! It is like me smelling frying electrical insulation and not feeling comfortable. It is like me being worried about Kent's reaction to my friendly text message, and not feeling comfortable. Do you dare to pay attention to your feelings yet? Are you allowing your spirit to come to the surface? If you are, congratulations. If you feel uncomfortable remember to tell HF about it. And if something resolves be sure you thank him like I did when I felt the relief about the smell coming from the hose. Does he care if I am wrong? Nope. He just likes to be included! @ So in your last letter I included Puzzle page #25 for scripture mastery OT. I hadn't done mine yet so I sat down and worked on it. KJ has a copy of that puzzle book that I gave her as well. If you ever finish a page you can brag and tell her to get on the stick/ get on the ball! Now that I am not limited to postcards. . . :) [I can send you other pages. There is something special that happens when we feel the truths from prophets in other ages.] @ I sent that same page to Michael'92 today as well. That is such a beautiful scripture: The last two verses of the old testament! Can you believe that Jews set him a place and AND leave the door open so he can come in!!!? Amazing! After all these years they still believe in and know their God spoke truth and his promises will all be fulfilled. Mormons are not alone on this planet believing in the true Heavenly Father! And the Jews will absolutely be answered. The promises will all be fulfilled. But they are just like the rest of the world in the sense that their revelations ended. Mormons still have God talking to us. God is not dead. The scriptures are not closed!!! We have a living active, revealing God. But darn if not even the prophet and apostles still don't have to live by faith. What's with that anyway? In the premortal existence the number one rule was agency. In mortal existence the number one rule is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have all kinds of scriptures confirming that. The history of the world confirms it. Adam, [lds.org Dispensations 

A dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. When this occurs, the gospel is revealed anew so that people of that dispensation do not have to depend basically on past dispensations for knowledge of the plan of salvation. There have been many gospel dispensations since the beginning. The Bible suggests at least one dispensation identified with Adam1, another with Enoch2, another with Noah3, and so on with Abraham4, Moses5, and Jesus6 with His Apostles in the meridian of time. Paul writes of “the dispensation of the fulness of times” in which the Lord will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (Eph. 1:10). The fulness of times is the final dispensation and began with the revelation of the gospel to Joseph Smith7. It is a dispensation of restoration and of fulfillment of the Lord’s plans and purposes since the world began. There are also things reserved for the fulness of times that have not been revealed previously (D&C 121:26–32; 124:41). It is a glorious time, the time in which we live today (see Acts 3:19–21; D&C 27:13; 110:11–16; 112:14–32; 128:18–21; 136:37–40).

In addition there were dispensations of the gospel among the Nephites, the Jaredites, and the Lost Tribes of Israel. {Really? You mean those 7 dispensations I have memorized don't work?vj] Melchizedek could also be included, as well as John the Baptist, since they truly held the priesthood and taught the word of the Lord to the people and were unique in their time. There are many other prophets who have had the priesthood and a knowledge of the gospel. Perhaps if more were revealed to us, we would learn that they too should be spoken of as having a dispensation. These could include, among others, Abel, Esaias, Gad, Jeremy, Elihu, Caleb, Jethro, Zenock, and Zenos. SeeJST Gen. 14:25–40 (Appendix, whoever would have even thought these were there? These are like brand new scripture! I don't even recognize them!vj) ; 1 Ne. 19:10–12; Alma 13:14–19; 33:3–17; D&C 84:6–16; HC 3:386–89; 4:208–9. {Well that is enough to bend my mind!vj}

The plan of salvation, which is older than the earth, has been revealed and taught in every dispensation beginning with Adam and is the same in every age of the world. However, each of the dispensations has been unique in some way. For example, Adam opened the way of the earth; Noah preserved a portion of mankind through the Flood; Jesus wrought the Atonement and Resurrection; and through Joseph Smith the foundation was laid for a culmination of the purposes of God on the earth.

Although the Bible contains historical information pertaining to the ancient prophets and patriarchs, it is latter-day revelation that makes it clear that the leaders of former dispensations had the gospel of Jesus Christ and that certifies to the divine calling, ordination, and high intelligence of those early brethren (D&C 84:6–16, 26–28; 107:41–57; Moses 6:3–6, 45–46 see all these verses in Moses Brandon? That PoGP has good stuff in it if, you have someone to help you decipher it.).]

From doing that puzzle page I learned that Malachi was not concurrent with Elijah. Elijah was 500 years before Malachi! So when Malachi prophesied that Elijah would return he was talking like we would about Columbus!!! Columbus will return before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Does that sound like a strange prophecy? It should! :) So JC loved what Malachi said. The Nephites were long gone from Jerusalem so JC quoted it to them! Isn't that fun. He quoted to them about tithing too. Malachi did a good job, didn't he.

The bad guy. The instigator. The dealer from Ogden. Paul Ashton. Would you be intimidated after watching him shoot two people? Was Satan there? 3 AM

Throughout the court process, the defense argued
that Ashton manipulated Smith. Prior to the shooting,
Ashton sent Smith a series of texts saying
he felt his life was in danger due to people finding out
he had been a drug informant for the police.
In response to this Smith drove to Ashton’s home
and supplied him with a revolver
while Smith also brought a pistol for himself.\
The defense said Smith was terrified of Ashton
after witnessing two people get shot,
and wasn’t sure what would happen to him
if he didn’t do what Ashton said.

Could you be provoked to do extreme evil?

Any of us could provoke, or we could be provoked by others with power/ intensity, to do evil. vern jensen <phonev6@gmail.com>

1:16 PM (0 minutes ago)to Janice \J,\What an interesting concept.\Where did you come up with that?\We were all a bit surprised as you professed that last night.\This morning as I think about brandon p smith, that is what happened to him. I write him thousands of words a week.\ Adventurebill1.blogger.com has all my letters to him. Hundreds and hundreds of pages. He was a resource kid/ special ed seeking acceptance. He was a return missionary. A big angry controlling drug dealer from Ogden moved here after being mugged and shot 3 times to escape the gangs. Trece is a serious gang in Ogden. The Draper prison has serious problems with them. Paul Ashton was the creep!!! And he is a physical brute in size, and meanness emanates from his countenance. I hadn't read the news article below. I hadn't heard that Brandon had written 3 letters of apology in the last 6 years. I do know 1- he confessed immediately, 2- he was concerned anything and everything he said would be used against him. Referring to #2, can you imagine not being able to talk or fell or express your innermost self for 6 years? His brain wasn't working and he felt coerced. My parents used power and coercion from beginning to end. I like to think I couldn't be forced. But I had to nod my head last night as you expressed the concept, because I have been there. Poor Wendy has been there too. She felt she had to kill herself. Her patriarchal blessing convinced her that she didn't. The voice that kept telling her it was the only way out was wrong. These are very extreme ideas. We usually don't go here do we. . .\Smith sentenced to serve 15 to life for 2010 murder\Written by Mori Kessler\April 5, 2017ST. GEORGE – A somber mood set over the courtroom Wednesday as friends and family of 2010 murder victim Jerrica Christensen addressed the court before the judge passed sentencing on Brandon Perry Smith, the man convicted of killing the 20-year-old Leeds resident over six years ago.

Fifth District Judge G. Michael Westfall sentenced the 35-year-old Smith to a prison term of 15 years to life for killing Christensen, an action that translated to a first-degree felony count of murder.\Christensen was killed Dec. 11, 2010, in an incident that also resulted in the slaying of 27-year-old Brandie Jerden by Paul Ashton. Ashton pleaded guilty to killing Jerden in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Smith originally faced a similar fate until the jury reduced the first-degree aggravated murder charge he faced to first-degree murder when he was convicted in February.\File photo: Brandon Perry Smith sits among his attorneys with head lowered during the first day of testimony given in a multiday trial for the part he played in a 2010 double murder in St. George, Utah, Jan. 31, 2017 |\With the reduction, Smith could be paroled in the early 2030s.\Smith had also faced the possibility of the death penalty for a time. However, the Washington County Attorney’s Office dropped the death penalty at the request of Christensen’s family due to concerns it would unnecessarily prolong court proceedings.\

After the jury convicted Smith for murder, Gary Pendleton, Smith’s attorney, said the defense planned to file an appeal in order to address items they believe “were decided wrongly in this case.”/“We may have to make some more appearances,” Christensen’s mother, Ellen Hensley, said following the sentencing, “but if we have to, we will because Jerrica is worth it.”[she has not yet let go. She has not yet forgiven. Sad. She doesn't understand. She thinks you could do it again. You couldn't. Not anymore than any of the rest of us could. We could all go down that same path. “But for the grace of heaven there go I.”vj]\As he had done throughout a two week trial earlier this year, Smith kept his head bowed.

 [You were depending on God weren't you brandon? How else could you make it through?]vj Instead of sporting a suit and being clean-shaven as he had during the trial, Smith has grown a beard and once again wore an inmate jumpsuit.[man was I ever glad you did not go to your trial that way!! Ha, ha. Who paid for your suit? Whoever it was, thank you!vj] \All the while, as Smith sat at a table with Pendleton, friends and family of Christensen stood before the court and shared how the murder had affected them.\“The guilt you feel for not being at home to protect your family is overwhelming,” said Elvin Hensley, Christensen’s father.\Elvin Hensley told the court he was deployed in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps from July 2010 until learning about his daughter’s death via emails received from home after a communications blackout was lifted\"’Please, please, please call me. Jerrica is dead. She was killed at 3:15 a.m. She was murdered. This is not a joke,’” he said as he recited the words of one of the emails sent from his wife. “’… I need you at home as soon as possible. Please, please, please.’”\While seeing death on the battlefield can be a seemingly daily occurrence and is prepared for and accepted to a point given what soldiers have committed to do, there still is the anticipation that the family is safe as home, Elvin Hensley said.\“For weeks, all you can do is try to make sense of it, but the sense never comes, and normalcy is gone forever,” he said, noting his initial disbelief and acceptance of Christensen’s death. “But you have to learn to live with it.”\He then expressed his frustration over the case taking so long to wrap up in court. For over six years he and his family have been waiting for their ordeal to end, only to learn it may not be completely over due to the likelihood of appeals.[If they would let go, stop pressing, forgive, look at the freedom they would gain! Holding a grudge, seeking revenge is a heavy burden. It is a burden Satan loves us to be weighed down with. Jesus Christ offers us a freedom from that!vj] \“I promise, we will be fighting for justice for Jerrica as long as we have breath in our bodies,” Elvin Hensley said.[I'm so sorry Elvin, You may be a veteran but you are defending the wrong now. Satan would have eternal misery. Miserable like unto him. Let go. Let freedom ring. Let someone else, who is stuck in the justice of this world bear that burden. Join the mercy of JC. Turn it over to him. He has already born that burden. He has already paid that price. Why pay it again, and again, and again? If we accept Christ's offering we gain eternal life. I and my oldest children were abused, traumatized by my parents. My mother is still alive. Do I seek her demise? Nope. Should she be in prison? Yep. Do I protect myself from her? Yep. Has she admitted anything? Nope. Did Brandon admit anything? Yep. See the difference?]vj \Kim Hansom, Christensen’s sister, said her life was forever changed the day her sister was killed.\“I became an only child Dec. 11, 2010. I lost my only sister,” Hansom said.\Christensen will never know Hansom’s husband and her children, she said, adding she’ll never be able to do anything with her sister again because of her death.\“(This) isn’t something I wish on anyone,” Hansom said. “It’s completely unfair that Jerrica lost her life the way that she did, and because of this my family has to suffer.”\Ellen Hensley spoke with emotion in her voice as she addressed the court.\“This is the thing I’ve been waiting for, for six and a half years and it’s been what’s terrified me the most,” she said.\“Two weeks before Christmas of 2010, she (Christensen) was basically butchered,” Ellen Hensley said. “It was the worst Christmas a mother could ever have. [She is still trying to convince others.vj][her Christmases will be forever changed. They will be more like a crucifixion homage if she can't turn it over to Christ. Who knows, maybe this was in the midst of a turn around for Jessica. She may have been headed in the right direction just in time. HF knows.][I just have to say, this is / was a messed up family. So was mine. Look at my poor siblings.] It was grueling to have to return her Christmas presents.”\The night before she was killed, Christensen made choices that no one could have imagined would ultimately prove fatal, her mother said.\Instead of choosing to stay home and make Christmas treats with her mother, Christensen decided to have dinner with her boyfriend, James Fiske, instead. That would lead to her going to the St. George home of Paul Ashton where Fiske had been asked to help move out a friend who had been renting a room there.\I chose to be angry she would not return my calls or answer my texts that night. [She is using the word chose well. That seems to accept responsibility in today's world. But it doesn't feel real. There is still too much blame in her defiant use of the word “chose”.vj]  The next day I never would have dreamed I was texting and calling and leaving messages to my deceased child.”\A St. George Police officer would appear at the Hensley home the next day to inform Ellen Hensley that her daughter was dead.\“Never again will she come home,” she said. “My family has lived and relived this nightmare for six and a half years. Every time we come back to this courthouse, the scab is picked open and we feel the pain again.”\Pendleton said he was torn as he wished he could express his condolences to Christensen’s family, yet noted it likely wouldn’t be received well based on previous interactions between them. He also said that three apology letters Smith had written over the last five years wouldn’t be read in court as it was counterproductive from a legal standpoint.\Smith also did not address the court per Pendleton’s advisement.\Though present in the courtroom, none of Smith’s family chose to address the court.[Observation: By not addressing the court there is no comparison to make between the two sides. Instead we inspect what was said and detect the motivations and flaws in the Christensens. Interesting.vj]\The night of Dec. 11, 2010, Fiske and Christensen went to the home of Ashton to help move Jerden and her boyfriend out of Ashton’s condo. Jerden’s boyfriend was not present at the time the murders occurred after 3 a.m. that night.\Ashton and Jerden got into an altercation in which Jerden slammed a plastic toolbox against Ashton’s head. In response, Ashton shot her and Fiske with a gun provided by Smith. Jerden was killed while Fiske was wounded.\Throughout the court process, the defense argued that Ashton manipulated Smith. Prior to the shooting, Ashton sent Smith a series of texts saying he felt his life was in danger due to people finding out he had been a drug informant for the police. In response to this Smith drove to Ashton’s home and supplied him with a revolver while Smith also brought a pistol for himself.\The defense said Smith was terrified of Ashton after witnessing two people get shot, and wasn’t sure what would happen to him if he didn’t do what Ashton said.(emphasis added by vj)\During this time Christensen had locked herself in a bathroom in the back of the condo. Ashton told Smith “to take care of her” – as in silencing her somehow. This ultimately resulting in Smith’s killing Christensen after beating her, strangling her and cutting her throat.\The way Christensen was killed is what originally led to prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case.\“Justice was served. It didn’t do anything to bring Jerrica back. She’s still gone,” Ellen Hensley said following the sentencing.\“Our family will move forward and try to heal as best as we can,” she said. [Oops, you were running around with the wrong crowd brandon! And what consequences you have had to pay. I am so sorry. HF understands. He knows you and the intents of your heart.vj]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

J,

2015, After a year of writing Brandon, who had been in our ward choir, I decided to find out what he had done. The above article is more informative than everything else I have ever found. It is the final conclusion after all these years of quiet and speculation. What a relief to see the facts.\I had no idea the mother had had another extended altercation with her daughter. Her daughter was in an ugly drug crowd and trying to make a turn around. These drug crowds are out there. Last night you asked us what we would choose to defend ourselves. I wanted to raise my hand and say I would choose good friends, saints who live the gospel like I do. I would not want to have to be alone. I go to Family Search everyday to be with good people. What a wimpy answer: friends! And yet it is true. Speaking of patriarchal blessings, mine says : "Associate only with those sons and daughters who are living the Gospel as you are living it and I promise you this day. . . " I have done that. It was/is a good thing. I had been damaged. If I had run around with the wrong crowd. . .

The power of the adversary is real. 

Heavenly Father is our true friend. Satan has all power in some places. We do not go in those places. We stay away.\In your lessons you go places Heidi Taylor couldn't even imagine. She is too simple. You are much much more complex. Thank you for daring to take us there.\Once again, I apologize for my enthusiasm, intensity. I like you am deeply affected when I think I have offended someone. At the beginning of the evening we introduced ourselves at your suggestion. It might have seemed it was getting a little out of hand. But we were meeting needs. Do you realize that? We were meeting needs. Sometimes in the past we have gone around the circle and each has said their first name and we are none the better, no more involved than we were to begin with. The names go by so fast no one is the wiser. I have written them on the board at times so we could refer back to them. Last night I wrote our assigned scriptures on the board so we could refer back to them. These lessons turn into a group process that is rich, as rich as the flavors of all the people in the room if they open up and share. And the scriptures are our backbone to those lessons. You do a great job in so many ways and one of those it to get things from the scriptures. And you love the scriptures. I prayed at length last night. I was much more tense at 1am than I had thought. As I prayed I realized that I wanted to read the scriptures the other groups were assigned. Hope hurried up and read to herself our second assigned scripture and told us what it said in her own words. I had to ask her 3 times your guiding question: How do they apply to us? (I wrote it differently on the board, something like what concepts/eternal truths can we take from their experience to apply to us today?) She said some dumb thing that didn't answer the question. She wasn't processing she was just summarizing and trying to get done fast. I may have added to her impatience. . . I never did get to read her first scripture. I was to busy trying to get something from what she was saying. So she can't say she was never listened to!!\ In way of reassurance: She has come late before, she has left early before, she had an appointment I am sure. Silly girl. Priorities! This class is not yet her priority. I gave her my letter last week. No response last night. I was sitting right next to her had been curious all week at how she would respond and . . . nothing! :(\Shallow.\So when people start sharing their patriarchal blessings are they sharing pieces of their hearts? If they are trying to live their blessings then I think they are sharing their hearts. Special sacred things.\:) Aren't we glad Ted comes infrequently. He really was energized last night!\Man, did we cover territory last night. And smile, it looks like Randal found a friend. . . David whose eyes aren't working.

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vern

live and learn

life is good

I am blessed

onward and upward