Thurs,
12/28 Good noontide
Brandon, Teeth numbers 3 and 14 are my bad ones. 1 and 16 are your
wisdom teeth. I have mine. \Image 1 ***1\ I looked up how to get
through tooth pain today to see if there was anything I could have
done better than what I did. He is a portion of the best article. I
announced it to the world and posted it on Facebook. :”) ~~~ Of
course, the answer to a toothache is always “see your dentist.”
But this advice isn’t all that helpful when you can’t see your
dentist right away and the pain is unbearable.In this article, I’m
sharing my best method for getting out of pain from toothaches or gum
pain, techniques to reduce the pain while you wait for your dentist
appointment, and the common mistakes people make that actually make
the pain worse.\The 3-3-3 Method for Tooth Pain\When getting out of
tooth pain, it’s all about controlling the swelling. Reduce the
swelling and you reduce the pain. Short-term, the best way to reduce
this inflammation is with the 3-3-3 method: three Advil (600 mg
total), three times a day, for three days.\What not to do: Don’t
take the Advil and then stop once you start to get pain relief. The
trick with Advil is to keep the levels up, because if you back off,
it takes a while for the Advil kick in again and reduce
inflammation.\Keep in mind that this method can’t do anything to
address the root cause of your tooth pain. You also have to check
with your doctor that you can take ibuprofen. Tooth pain almost never
goes away by itself—so don’t use this method for anything else
except for getting out of pain enough to tide you over until your
dentist appointment. [bps, I don't want to go to the dentist. 2 years
ago I got this tooth repaired. Deep side filling! It took months and
months for the pain to go away even after getting it filled. Last
year I had an episode and stopped it with ibuprofen. This year I did
the same. The same tooth on the other side of my mouth had issues
too. I now have a stub, a trunk, a post there with an artificial
tooth on top. Chances are I will be doing the same with this one. So
what's wrong with putting it off? The next step is to lose it
anyway.-v]\What Causes Tooth Pain?\Inside each of your teeth, you
have living tissue with an artery, vein, and nerve. These parts of
the tooth give the tooth sensation to pressure, hot, and cold, but
also can get infected. Certain bacteria in your mouth excrete acids
and bore their way through tooth enamel (the hard, white outer
coating of teeth). Once bacteria get through enamel, they gain access
to the inside structure, dentin—which is like a sponge with
tubules, and the inside of the tooth responds to these invaders with
inflammation.\When you cut your hand, there’s room to expand and
swell up—but inside the hard enamel walls of a tooth, the swelling
can’t expand—and that should give you a good sense of why tooth
pain is excruciating. It’s rather unique, as there’s nowhere else
in the body that this happens. This is why the 3-3-3 method works—it
reduces the swelling. @@@ Other updates: (I like you Brandon, I think
you are wonderful!) I don’t know my sister Gayelinn’72 all that
well. Even though she acts tough and defies the world’s/ nation’s
expectations in many ways she has a soft spot I just discovered. She
wants her children to be excited on Christmas! She rewrapped
Sorenson’s book and gave it to her husband for Christmas. She held
off opening “The BoM on Trial” until Christmas and she taped both
openings for me so I could hear their responses! I got a kick out of
MichaelM describing his book and thanking me for it after I had sent
it to Gayelinn, to her, and she had rewrapped it for him! Isn’t
that cute! @ I teased her in a text last night. She celebrated
finding a way to spend the $50 gift card I sent only for her: Instant
Pot. It is an electric pressure cooker. Water tops out at 212 degrees
F. It’s boiling point. But if under pressure it can go much higher
and cook things much faster: Instant Pot! Here is my tease: Son-”Mom,
I got you a blender for Christmas” Mom-”Thank you, son.”
Son-”Since you have now opened it, may I use it to go make my
shake?” @ I am tired of writing The Book of Mormon on Trial. I am
going to call it bomot, so I don’t have to write it all out. G said
that Britner read it all day and everyone else will just have to wait
and that he was half way through. :) @ G corrected me. She does not
have “Another Look at Mormonism” like she said she did. It is a
different premortal sketched book. DArn! I was satisfied thinking
someone in the family had “Another Look at Mormonism”. Now I am
not. @ ARe comic books worth the money? Man, I don’t think so! But
if they have joined, boxed, bound a couple of years worth together,
that might be. There were 3 issues of a French comic bound together
in the Graphic novels section of the library, called Blacksad. All
the characters are different animals. He is a detective black cat.
Are there any mormon comic books? I researched it yesterday and there
are not. :( @ There is one mormon comic strip artist that sometimes
includes mormon elements in his books. But they have not been
compiled, bound together so I won’t be reading them: ***2:Madman
Celebrates 25 Years As The World’s Snappiest Comic t1992
was a big year for comics. Seven big name creators, tired of working
under the corporate machine of publishers like Marvel and DC Comics,
combined their talents to form their own publishing company: Image
Comics. In that year alone, the nascent publisher launched
WildC.A.T.S,
Youngblood,
Savage
Dragon and
Spawn,
with the first issue of the latter title selling over million
copies.\Of course, 1992 also saw the first issue of another new
costumed hero: Michael Allred’s pulp-infused, pop-art inspired,
retro-throwback series, Madman!\Secret
Origins!\Dressed
in all-white and rocking a red logo that combined an exclamation mark
and lightning bolt (A.K.A. the Exclamation Bolt!), the first Madman
series followed the eponymous hero on a journey to find Dr. Gillespie
Flem, the only person who can help Madman resurrect his recently
deceased friend, Dr. Egon Boiffard. Armed with superhuman reflexes
and the ability to take a psychic reading of someone by touching
them, he faced crime bosses, a murder plot to kill a town’s mayor
and deranged mutated clones. In the final issue of the series, we
learn that Madman’s mask isn’t used to conceal his secret
identity but to hide his scarred and discoloured face! It turns out
Madman’s secret origin is that he’s actually a John Doe brought
back to life by Dr. Boiffard and given the name Frank Einstein (named
after Boiffard’s two idols, Frank Sinatra and Albert Einstein,
while also an obvious pun).\For the record, Madman’s first
appearance wasn’t actually
in 1992.
The character debuted in the one-off anthology Creatures
of the Id in
1990, and popped up again in the Grafik
Muzik miniseries.
However, unless you’re a completist these series aren’t essential
to the Madman canon. It’s clear from the beginning, though, that
Allred had a strong connection to the character and clearly wanted to
do something with him.
That
something would be the monochromatic limited series Madman
and
the full-color Madman
Adventures,
both of which were published in 1992 and were colored by Allred’s
wife, Laura. While Madman
didn’t
exactly match the million-copy selling popularity and broad appeal of
books like Spawn
or
Youngblood,
it wasn’t without fans or attention.
At
the 1993 Harvey Awards, Allred received a “Best Cartoonist”
nomination, with Madman winning “Best New Series.” At the
following year’s awards, Allred would receive nominations for “Best
Artist”, “Best Cartoonist” and “Best Single Issue” (Madman
Adventures
#3),
while Laura was nominated for “Best Colorist.” Allred was also
nominated for a couple of awards at the 1993 Eisners, including “Best
Writer/Artist” and “Best Finite Series.”\Tundra would go out of
business in 1993, but that didn’t deter Allred from continuing
Madman’s story. He’d go to star in his first on-going series in
1994, Madman
Comics,
published through Dark Horse Comics under Frank Miller and John
Byrne’s newly-minted Legend imprint. The same imprint would also
put out series such as Byrne’s Next
Men,
Miller’s Sin
City: The Big Fat Kill,
Paul Chadwick’s Concrete
and
the line’s breakout series, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy,
who has a brief cameo in Madman
Comics#5\It’s
here that Allred’s creation would reach a wider audience and
popularity. It’s also where Allred’s style noticeably evolved the
most, as he become more confident as a storyteller with every issue.
His line work got cleaner, page layouts became more interesting, and
his writing more consistent. Alongside this, Laura Allred’s color
became brighter, crisper, more “poppy.” The series’ cast also
expanded to include the alien Mott from the planet Hoople (named
after the 1970s glam rock band Mott the Hoople), the Astro Boy homage
Astroman, and the John Woo/Chow Yun-fat-inspired secret agent Chow
Skip-Wang, who is constantly diving through the air while firing off
pistol rounds and being shot with an alarming amount of enemy
bullets.\Ginchy
Stuff!\There’s
a generalization that the ’90s are the worst period of comics
history. I don’t think that’s true as a whole, but I can
definitely see where that idea comes from when you focus your lens
specifically to Marvel and DC’s out-put. The X-Men were hit with
crossover event after crossover event, while legacy characters were
either taken out of the spotlight or straight up killed in long
running storylines like “Knightfall,” “The Death of Superman”
and “The Clone Saga.” Not all of these stories are bad, but it’s
easy to understand the fatigue felt by readers at the time as their
comics became increasingly gimmick-laden. Off the page you also had
to contend with the speculator market, which was constantly on the
hunt for the new Action
Comics
#1,
buying up limited-edition die-cut covers and almost bankrupting the
entire industry.\I bring this up because even now Madman
feels
like a breathe of fresh air for the superhero genre. You can tell
just how much fun Allred is having while creating the series, and how
much love he’s pouring into it. Some of his writing has aged well –
the first Madman series feels a bit clunky at times, but for the most
part they hold up pretty well, especially the Dark Horse run.\It’s
a comic where people describe things as “ginchy” (1930s slang for
cool), and it doesn’t feel out of place. Allred has an affinity for
the past; his clean style owes a lot to Jack Kirby and Alex Toth’s
art, and he regularly dips his toes into pulp fiction: aliens,
robots, shady G-Men from Hell! On more than one occasion, Einstein
runs into a gang of Street Beatniks who’ll confuse you with the
bizarre slang of yesteryear before beating you up.\Allred also
embraces the sheer ridiculousness of comics. Madman has to decapitate
Dr. Flem and reattach his head to a clone of his body, while Felm’s
assistant Gale tries to use chemically-treated bandages to remove
tattoos that are covering her entire body, but instead makes herself
totally invisible except for the tattoos. Dr. Boiffard repeatedly
injects himself with a brain enhancement formula until he becomes a
giant floating brain. Each issue of the original Madman series
included drawings in the bottom corner of the page that you could
flip through to make a short animation.\Madman’s set up – a dead
man brought back to life who now fights crime – is one that easily
could’ve taken a much more grittier and darker route. It’s
basically Spawn’s origin, the book that defined the grimmer
superhero comics of the ’90s. With a premise like that, it could’ve
also have been a macabre contemplation of man’s morality or
post-modernist experiment, similar to what authors like Neil Gaiman
and Grant Morrison were writing over at Vertigo. And yet, the darkest
Madman gets is in the first couple pages of the original Tundra run,
when Frank rips out a hired goon’s eye and eats it. (He feels bad
about it later.)\But what ultimately set Madman apart from a lot of
the other popular superhero books that were coming out at the time,
with their edgy, grungy, “These ain’t your daddy’s
superheroes!” aesthetic, was how effortlessly cool it was. Madman
is cool in the same way as David Bowie or the Velvet Underground are
cool — you don’t know how to explain why, they
just are.
Einstein regularly wears a leather jacket over his costume, and you
never really question the look, while the bomber jackets being worn
by the X-Men and Avengers at the same time came off as extremely
dorky.\Overall, Madman was a celebration of just how imaginative and
weird comic books can be. Madman’s costume is one of those simple
but brilliant designs in comics, and each issue is filled with this
energy as Allred goes for broke, channelling his love for 1950s
sci-fi pulps, 1960/70s glam rock and the dynamic energy of Jack
Kirby. It was fun, but still managed to tackle big concepts like
identity and existence as Einstein tries to unravel the mystery of
who he was before he died.\Madman
& Beyond!!\Frank
Einstein would go on to appear in a spin-off series The
Atomics
(a
super team consisting of mutated Street Beatniks turned good guys), a
second on-going Madman
Atomic
Comics
(now
published through Image), a handful of one-shots between 2009 and
2014 and a coffee-table sized 20th anniversary hardcover.\It’s been
a couple of years since Madman’s Exclamation Bolt graced comic
store shelves, which is understandable considering that Allred has
been busy with art duties on Vertigo’s iZombie,
Marvel’s FF
and
Silver
Surfer,
and is currently writing and drawing Bug!:
The Adventures of Forager
over
at Young Animal (With Laura on colours and his brother Lee
co-writing). On Twitter he’s hinted at a
25th Anniversary Special
that’s
should be coming out sometime later this year, so here’s hoping for
the return of the World’s Snappiest Comic Magazine! @@@
bps, are you salivating? Wouldn’t it be fun to have all those 25
years to read and enjoy? It sounds fun and intriguing doesn’t
it! @@@Friday,
12/28
Good
morning Brandon, How are you feeling today? Is anything disturbing
you? @ Last night at bomc I offered to read Moroni 10: 9-18. Janice
asked me to do it without elaboration. I offered to only number the
gifts. She said no. Rex said no. Bert said no. Do you mean you don’t
want me to say one, two, three after we identify each one? Yes, said
Janice. Then I am not willing to read them, I said. Rex said, “I
will pick it up.” And he did. @ What do you think of that?_____ @ I
guess I have been coming on a little too strong. Do you remember when
I have mentioned being willing to be limited? Back at the beginning I
told Erin in a letter that if they ever needed me to calm down they
could say: Drop it down a level, or something like that. Well, it
looks like Janice is invoking that offer. I am not sure how I feel
about it. @ So how many gifts are mentioned? 8
And
again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God,
for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are
different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same
God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations
of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them.
9
For
behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the
word of wisdom1;
10
And
to another, that he may teach the word of knowledge2 by the same
Spirit;
11
And
to another, exceedingly great faith3; and to another, the gifts of
healing4 by the same Spirit;
12
And
again, to another, that he may work mighty miracles5;
13
And
again, to another, that he may prophesy6 concerning all things;
14
And
again, to another, the beholding of angels and ministering spirits7;
15
And
again, to another, all kinds of tongues8;
16
And
again, to another, the interpretation of languages and of divers
kinds of tongues9.
17
And
all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto
every man severally, according as he will.
18
And
I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every
good gift cometh of Christ.
So
there were 9 gifts mentioned the way I count them. :) @ Later in the
lesson I chose to read aloud again. I did not want to sit and stew.
The best way is to get up and try again. I did. @ I don’t socialize
much. Bomc is my only small group socializing each week. As I drove
to class I thanked HF for this special weekly opportunity. Mark
Clayton carefully tried to tell us, Camille and I, that our over-the
top loud laughter and other responses are evidence of distorted
feelings inside. He said others are more sensitive to what is going
on in society and what is acceptable and what is not. I should not be
hurt by being limited. After all I was the one who offered. Insert:
(a couple of hours later) Hello Brandon. I was overwhelmed with
tiredness after finishing the rosary below and going back to
indexing. I turned on the priesthood session, took a couple of
ibuprofen to ward off the tooth pain, and sat back in the recliner. I
awoke to knocking on my door and went back to indexing. I started to
pray. Hf, as you I am fighting depression and feeling I have been
bad. I have no issue with admitting I am prideful at times. I am
sorry for that pride. I apologize for causing problems in my bom
class last night. As you know my main interest in that class is to
draw others out. To make a safe , wild and crazy place, where they
feel comfortable sharing. Perhaps, that had happened and my efforts
were no longer needed last night. If that is the case I have no
problem with stepping into the background. I would have succeeded. I
would have accomplished my purpose. Itnojc,a. @ It worked
Brandon. The shadows of oppressive feelings dissipated. That was not
what I was expecting. Tyhf. @ Insert over. @@@ Lisa said she has a
convert friend who read the bom in 24 hours without stopping and when
she got to the promise in Moroni 10 everything stopped. She prayed
using the rosary before and after the prayer and gained a witness.
Janice said we can do that each time we read if we want. Of course I
stuck my neck out and commented that Lisa didn’t mean in 24 hours.
Lisa affirmed she really meant that. After her wonderful faith
promoting story, quiet Walt turned to me and said, She must have had
the Evelyn Wood speed reading course. @ So how many minutes
does it take to read the whole bom? My original copy has 590 pages.
Let’s round that to 600. At a page a minute that would be 10 hours.
At a page per 2 minutes that would be 20 hours. At a page per 3
minutes that would be 30 hours. I just timed myself reading a page
aloud. 3 minutes. Interesting huh! @ Do you like power Brandon? What
about a powerful motorcycle? You have heard of the gift of the HG. It
is the 4th principle or ordinance of the gospel. What about the power
of the HG? What is the power of the Holy Ghost? It is mentioned twice
in Moroni 7. It is mentioned in verse 4 of Moroni 10. You may have
heard the phrase, “power in the priesthood”.
And one of my favorite scriptures says: 41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; 42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile— @ I am wondering about the power of the HG. @@@ I watched LizD yell within a foot of BruceR face 3 or 4 times last Sunday during my home teaching visit. She is a convert of less than 5 years, and admits she is bipolar and brilliant. Does that sound like gentleness and meekness? Woah! It sure doesn’t. Bruce invited this lady to live in his house with her 19 year old son. She has 2 other sons. And he takes that verbal abuse right in front of his home teacher. That blows my mind. I don’t think I can take watching that happen again. I told my absent companion about it and suggested we pull BruceR away from her next time. She says Greg Walker is her home teacher. @@@HOW TO PRAY THE ROSARY
Rosary beads help Catholics count their prayers. More importantly, Catholics pray the rosary as a means of entreaty to ask God for a special favor, such as helping a loved one recover from an illness, or to thank God for blessings received — a new baby, a new job, a new moon.
1. On the crucifix, make the sign of the cross and then pray the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
2. On the next large bead, say the Our Father.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen.
3. On the following three small beads, pray three Hail Marys.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
4. On the chain, pray the Glory Be.
And one of my favorite scriptures says: 41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; 42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile— @ I am wondering about the power of the HG. @@@ I watched LizD yell within a foot of BruceR face 3 or 4 times last Sunday during my home teaching visit. She is a convert of less than 5 years, and admits she is bipolar and brilliant. Does that sound like gentleness and meekness? Woah! It sure doesn’t. Bruce invited this lady to live in his house with her 19 year old son. She has 2 other sons. And he takes that verbal abuse right in front of his home teacher. That blows my mind. I don’t think I can take watching that happen again. I told my absent companion about it and suggested we pull BruceR away from her next time. She says Greg Walker is her home teacher. @@@HOW TO PRAY THE ROSARY
Rosary beads help Catholics count their prayers. More importantly, Catholics pray the rosary as a means of entreaty to ask God for a special favor, such as helping a loved one recover from an illness, or to thank God for blessings received — a new baby, a new job, a new moon.
1. On the crucifix, make the sign of the cross and then pray the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
2. On the next large bead, say the Our Father.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen.
3. On the following three small beads, pray three Hail Marys.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
4. On the chain, pray the Glory Be.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
5. On the large bead, meditate on the first mystery and pray the Our Father.
You pray mysteries for each of the five sections (decades) of the rosary according to the day of the week:
5.1 Mondays and Saturdays:
The Joyful Mysteries remind the faithful of Christ’s birth: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38); The Visitation (Luke 1:39–56); The Nativity (Luke 2:1–21); The Presentation (Luke 2:22–38); The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41–52)
5.2 Tuesdays and Fridays:The Sorrowful Mysteries recall Jesus’ passion and death: The Agony of Jesus in the Garden (Matthew 26:36–56); The Scourging at the Pillar (Matthew 27:26); The Crowning with Thorns (Matthew 27:27–31); The Carrying of the Cross (Matthew 27:32); The Crucifixion (Matthew 27:33–56).
5.3 Wednesdays and Sundays:The Glorious Mysteries focus on the resurrection of Jesus and the glories of heaven: The Resurrection (John 20:1–29); The Ascension (Luke 24:36–53); The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–41); The Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God, into heaven; The Coronation of Mary in heaven.
5.4 Thursdays:Pope John Paul II added The Mysteries of Light, also known as the Luminous Mysteries, in 2002: The Baptism in the River Jordan (Matthew 3:13–16); The Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2:1–11); The Preaching of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14–15); The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8); The Institution of the Holy Eucharist (Matthew 26).
6. Skip the centerpiece medallion, and on the ten beads after that, pray a Hail Mary on each bead; on the chain, pray a Glory Be.
Although a decade is 10, these 12 prayers form a decade of the rosary.
Many Catholics add the Fatima Prayer after the Glory Be and before the next Our Father: O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.
7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 four more times to finish the next four decades.
8. At the end of your Rosary, say the Hail Holy Queen.
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
O God, whose only-begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation; grant we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. @@@ Woah! Talk about complex! I recite the 13 articles of faith regularly. I recite A poor wayfaring man of grief regularly. The Lord’s prayer shows me how to praise, something I am not very good at. They help lift my spirit. There is a ton more to the rosary than I was expecting. @@@***4 Before or After? Do you remember the 2000 stripling warriors? Do you remember what they looked like after the battles or before? In Modesitt’s books, for example Lorn in the Magi'I of Cyador (2000), and Scion of Cyador (2000), kills/ murders / assasinates people every hundred pages of those thousand pages, and yet he is still sensitive, thoughtful, loyal, loving and unselfish. That does not make any sense to me. I cannot imagine killing someone, even in righteousness, and being whole and sane afterwards. But that is me. That is how I feel. Am I handicapped by my past? Yes. And that is how I feel. @ You probably remember me saying that I would give soldiers a carte blanc since they face such ugliness in war. But evidently JC doesn’t feel that way. Imagine this: In modern times, the First Presidency has given the following counsel to Church members in military service: “To our young men who go into service, no matter whom they serve or where, we say live clean, keep the commandments of the Lord, pray to Him constantly to preserve you in truth and righteousness, live as you pray, and then whatever betides you the Lord will be with you and nothing will happen to you that will not be to the honor and glory of God and to your salvation and exaltation. There will come into your hearts from the living of the pure life you pray for, a joy that will pass your powers of expression or understanding. The Lord will be always near you; He will comfort you; you will feel His presence in the hour of your greatest tribulation; He will guard and protect you to the full extent that accords with His all-wise purpose. Then, when the conflict is over and you return to your homes, having lived the righteous life, how great will be your happiness—whether you be of the victors or of the vanquished—that you have lived as the Lord commanded. You will return so disciplined in righteousness that thereafter all Satan’s wiles and stratagems will leave you untouched. Your faith and testimony will be strong beyond breaking. You will be looked up to and revered as having passed through the fiery furnace of trial and temptation and come forth unharmed. Your brethren will look to you for counsel, support, and guidance. You will be the anchors to which thereafter the youth of Zion will moor their faith in man” (Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and David O. McKay, in Conference Report, Apr. 1942, 96). @Did you catch those promises Brandon? @@ I told the class about the top 10 countries with the most mormons last night. The biggest one was Chile. The 9 others were Pacific Island nations. There are a number of lessons in the manual I have skipped and I studied one today: Chapter 34. That’s where that picture and ideas are coming from. Guess what? It tells of 2 prophets that told New Zealanders where they came from: “To [a] group of Saints in the South Seas, President [Spencer W.] Kimball observed: ‘President Joseph F. Smith, the president of the Church, reported, “You brothers and sisters from New Zealand, I want you to know that you are from the people of Hagoth.” For New Zealand Saints, that was that. A prophet of the Lord had spoken. … It is reasonable to conclude that Hagoth and his associates were about nineteen centuries on the islands, from about 55 B.C. to 1854 before the gospel began to reach them. They had lost all the plain and precious things which the Savior brought to the earth, for they were likely on the islands when the Christ was born in Jerusalem.’ (Temple View Area Conference Report, February 1976, p. 3.)” @You may remember one or some of the temple dedications saying the same thing. This time it really hit me. How cool!
