Friday,
noon, 7/17/15 Hello Brandon L Tom Perry Joseph Smith, I think you are
wonderful and I know, know, KNOW someones who love you. Someones! Ask
and it shall be given. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Let me
remind you of a little story I have shared before. @ It takes me
forever to get answers to my prayers! So I decided I was going to
stick to one need until it was answered. I wrote it on a postcard and
put it on my window sill face down. Kathyx didn't know what it was
but I know and God knew. The answer never came. I labored and sweat
and stressed and had an aching back shoulder and neck from my
efforts, week after week, month after month, year after year. I
worked at Denny's waiting tables in my forties trying to make ends
meet. I got fired at Denny's south because I went to a therapy
appointment with Mark Clayton and left my dead/super slow station to
the server next to me. I personally would have loved to have double
the work. The manager was gone when I needed to go so I passed the
word along and left. Back in those days I was extremely shy to impose
in any way. Came back to work after a grueling therapy appointment
and was told, you are gone. You are outta here! @I went and saw my
brother in law, the owner and he said, sorry, I have to support my
lady manager. The manager had been chaffing under my efforts for a
long time as it turned out. She felt like she had been doing me
favors since the beginning. But I didn't know that. Why should this
guy get extra privileges like progress up the seniority ladder when
he only works once a week and has not worked as many 11-7am graveyard
shifts as everyone else? Beside that he is old, older than me,
teaches school and thinks he is smarter than me, never takes a break
to go out and have a smoke, and doesn't drink coffee to get himself
revved up and going? And
he even wants Sunday mornings off so he can go to church. As you can
see it was a match made in heaven. She was blonde, single mom, black
teenage son who mooned people out the school bus window and was proud
of him, of course. @ I struggled, even working for free at the temple
on the grounds crew so that I would keep up my working mindset and
muscles. @ A month later I got a job at Denny's North instead of
south. Still owned by my B-I-Law but different managers. Wow, was the
atmosphere ever different. The managers were friendly and human. They
might have been a little put off by my age. I know the customers were
often shocked. But I hung in there as best I could. I rode my bike
most of the time to save gas, stay in shape, and decompress/
de-stress. @ A time came when I heard of a custodian opening at
Bhelementary School right across the street from Desert hills where I
was teaching and I applied and got it. The principal was leaving and
a 5th
grade teacher was taking it on. It was a million times better than
serving tables at Denny's and it was convenient, right across the
street. It was a 30 minute walk to school and then work every night
and morning. I was fighting undiagnosed depression so walking and
exercise were my lifeline. My financial concerns were not alleviated
but I was making my best effort and HF seemed to have blessed me bit
by bit. @ So now that I have told the story in a new way can you
remember/ guess what I wrote on that index card and prayed for
consistently for over a decade? I attended the temple still, once a
week and kept attending all my meetings at church. Did my home
teaching every month. Wrote in my journal and read scriptures
everyday and prayed. [Although, I didn't know then how to visit with
the Lord.] I took care of my wife and 3 boys and 3 girls to the
best of my ability and what was the result? Well the result was. . .
That my conscience was clear in that area. I was doing all I could.
And I love the feeling of doing all you reasonably can! By attending
the temple each week I had told HF that my wife's emotional,
psychological needs were over my head, and I had turned my life over
to him. As you know I recorded the names I proxied for in the back of
my journal each week. Yep, I still have all those years of names. @ I
turned 60 yesterday. I have been looking back at my life and
reminiscing for the last 2 years since my retirement. Did I
sacrifice and do all I thought I could? Mostly. Am I satisfied with
my home and 18K$ income every month? Man, you better believe it! I
was not expecting this. How did it happen? I have accidently talked
with 6 of my 11 kids in the last 24 hours. (birthday) What I wrote on
that index card was -finances- . Isn't that the major concern of
fathers of families in this life? As I have shared on occasion in EQ
I have discovered that Tim Adams, a psych at the VA office has prayed
and fasted for the same thing with his wife and they were blessed as
well. She doesn't even attend church very often. But God still
blessed them. @ OK Brandon, I have come full circle. Don't forget
what you are praying for. For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also. Even if you think it is an imaginary treasure! I
wasn't worthy to receive the Lord's blessings and guidance, but he
blessed and guided me anyway. Did I ask, even though unworthy? Yes!
I had to. I needed his help. I did my best and he blessed. My best
might be better or worse than some one elses. But there is no
comparison. If we remember him, He remembers us! It is that simple.
So whose team would you rather sign up on? The one who abandons or
the one who accompanies? Give me the one that accompanies, please!
Every time! And lead us not into temptation, should really say, and
lead us through or around temptation. And deliver us from evil, yes
please deliver us from the evil our physical natures magnetically
seek! We are here learning to help our spirits learn and exercise
mastery over our bodies. Once again, it is that simple. Are we
expected to fail? Yep, absolutely. Otherwise we would need no grace!
So are we loved even in our sins. Yes! My last son Michael'92 has not
attended church in two years. How has that affected my love? It
hasn't. And HF loves us so much more. His love is a perfect love. It
never ends. WE can never repulse him. He will never be grossed out
nor repulsed by us. But he has to be invited! Keep inviting Brandon.
Never stop inviting him into your life. @ If at the end of your life
you are able to look back and see a long, long, long dark tunnel and
you know you never stopped inviting the Lord into your life. . . the
length of that tunnel will represent your loyalty to God! How loyal
can you and will you be? It will represent your trust in God. How
long can you trust? How did you get here anyway? Was this all an
accident or is it God's plan of salvation? It is that simple Brandon.
It is not an accident. There is a loving, planning, God. Do you think
the apostles deceive us? Listen to this one:Why
Marriage, Why Family
@D.
Todd Christofferson, April 2015 General Conference
@ There
came a time in this premortal existence of spirits when, in
furtherance of His desire that we “could have a privilege to
advance like himself,”
our
Heavenly Father prepared an enabling plan.
@
An enabling plan! Let Him enable you. Keep your face turned towards
him. Tell him when times are hard. If everyday is hard tell him.
Don't turn your face away. Don't make flesh your arm. If you are
depressed, tell him, even everyday. But then serve your brothers and
sisters in some way and exercise and take good care of this physical
body he has given us. Then tell him of your efforts. YOU might not
hear him but He and I will be cheering you on. I might not hear about
your efforts until the next life, fe, fe, life, but even so, it
doesn't matter to me. It matters to you and Him. I don't mind
waiting for the results. I have been patient before. Even patient for
a decade. And one decade follows another. :) @
Brandon, do you feel spiritually fed yet? If not go read the
scriptures and pray. :) @ New topic. Here is the letter and talk I
wrote Jpaul'68 and sent him and my kids and my JHS class president.
~~ @ ~~From: vern jensen [mailto:phonev6@gmail.com] @Sent: Thursday,
July 16, 2015 1:46 PM @To: Junius Jensen @Subject: Over the top @Hey
J Paul, you are so awesome. This is so much fun. I love to share and
to have a reason to share is a blast for me. @this means new
paragraph. Yesterday when I was at the Family Research Library the
two people in the lunch/break room asked how I was doing. I
responded, Excellent. Sister Bolivia responded, You are the only one
who is excellent, in her Spanish accent. I have been thinking about
that ever since. Was I really excellent? Why do I often respond like
that when I am happy inside? In fact the truth was that it was too
noisy so I was headed home to work instead. When I got home I made
terrible progress on my current Italian Indexing Death Certificate
batch. The clerk/scribe's handwriting is atrocious. I spent 2 hours
on it and I am still not done with the 20 certificates. A well
written batch can be completed in 30 minutes when I am rolling. I
felt a bit empty and lost and needing some rich intelligent fodder to
chew on. I found some and fed on over a hundred pages of mother
Smith's autobiography. @ That is just an example of the fight /
challenge I deal with from a traumatic childhood and when I forget my
paxil-paroxetine / antidepressant. @ As I have mentioned before we
have General Conference every 6 months. So not only do we have 4
canons of scripture we have biyearly living scripture available. Most
of us love listening to some of the sessions of conference once and
are glad we had no meetings on that day. A day off from teaching
classes or being the bishop or what ever our church calling is. @ I
am different than most people. I have listened/ to general conference
talks over and over again for years/ decades. They lift me and
nourish me and give me the foundation and reassurance I need. They
also give me something trustworthy and intelligent to chew on. @ It
took me over a year to listen and watch all the conferences from '71
to '15 after my retirement. I was at a low point in my life and
wanted to be lifted and spiritually fed. I have over 5k highlights I
have saved from that study and when I would lose attention and focus
or fall asleep, no big deal, I could just listen again. I do it for
the daily nourishment I need. Living scriptures or dead scriptures, I
love and ponder them both. @ So this talk by DTC is one I have
listened to probably 30 or 40 times. I love it. He is a new apostle
and I don't know him very well yet. He has probably only been an
apostle for 10 years. That is what I mean by new. : ) This talk is
so rich with gospel truth after gospel truth. I fully recommend it. I
would like to put it in double columns and comment on many of the
paragraphs. You and I have talked about the premortal existence. He
covers it again and with different angles and insights. We have
talked about grace and he touches on it. We have only talked a little
about keeping the commandments, and the celestial kingdom, and
families. Families are a very common theme in conference. Parents
teaching and guiding their children and the glorious responsibility
of raising Heavenly Father's children, our spiritual brothers and
sisters is a mainstay. But notice DTC approach on marriage. Powerful!
But personally I think you will enjoy the pre-existence the best. As
I have said, that is a theme I love to hear and haven't ever tired
of. @ Incidently today is my 60th! The Jared Bates family is heading
out on vacation and asked me to take care of their dog, Rosco. I have
done it about 5 times so far. She says they have ripe peaches! Yes!
She brought me a helium balloon and a treat and a schedule which I
asked for on Sunday. Crazy s a i n t s! It has been decades since
someone have me a helium balloon! 1:36pm @Why Marriage, Why Family
@Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles @A family built on the marriage
of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to
thrive. @Above the Great West Door of the renowned Westminster Abbey
in London, England, stand the statues of 10 Christian martyrs of the
20th century. Included among them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a brilliant
German theologian born in 1906.1 Bonhoeffer became a vocal critic of
the Nazi dictatorship and its treatment of Jews and others. He was
imprisoned for his active opposition and finally executed in a
concentration camp. Bonhoeffer was a prolific writer, and some of his
best-known pieces are letters that sympathetic guards helped him
smuggle out of prison, later published as Letters and Papers from
Prison. @One of those letters was to his niece before her wedding. It
included these significant insights: “Marriage is more than your
love for each other. … In your love you see only your two selves in
the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the
generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory,
and calls into his kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of
your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of
responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own
private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it
is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the
will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely
your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God
and man. … So love comes from you, but marriage from above, from
God.”@In what way does marriage between a man and a woman transcend
their love for one another and their own happiness to become “a
post of responsibility towards the world and mankind”? In what
sense does it come “from above, from God”? To understand, we have
to go back to the beginning.@ Prophets have revealed that we first
existed as intelligences and that we were given form, or spirit
bodies, by God, thus becoming His spirit children—sons and
daughters of heavenly parents.3 There came a time in this premortal
existence of spirits when, in furtherance of His desire that we
“could have a privilege to advance like himself,”4 our Heavenly
Father prepared an enabling plan. In the scriptures it is given
various names, including “the plan of salvation,”5 “the great
plan of happiness,”6 and “the plan of redemption.”7 The two
principal purposes of the plan were explained to Abraham in these
words: @“And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and
he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is
space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an
earth whereon these [spirits] may dwell; @“And we will prove them
herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their
God shall command them; @“And they who keep their first estate
shall be added upon; … and they who keep their second estate shall
have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.”@Thanks to our
Heavenly Father, we had already become spirit beings. Now He was
offering us a path to complete or perfect that being. The addition of
the physical element is essential to the fulness of being and glory
that God Himself enjoys. If, while with God in the premortal spirit
world, we would agree to participate in His plan—or in other words
“keep [our] first estate”—we would “be added upon” with a
physical body as we came to dwell on the earth that He created for
us. @If, then in the course of our mortal experience, we chose to “do
all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God [should] command [us],” we
would have kept our “second estate.” This means that by our
choices we would demonstrate to God (and to ourselves) our commitment
and capacity to live His celestial law while outside His presence and
in a physical body with all its powers, appetites, and passions.
Could we bridle the flesh so that it became the instrument rather
than the master of the spirit? Could we be trusted both in time and
eternity with godly powers, including power to create life? Would we
individually overcome evil? Those who did would “have glory added
upon their heads for ever and ever”—a very significant aspect of
that glory being a resurrected, immortal, and glorified physical
body. No wonder we “shouted for joy” at these magnificent
possibilities and promises. @At least four things are needed for the
success of this divine plan: @First was the Creation of the earth as
our dwelling place. Whatever the details of the creation process, we
know that it was not accidental but that it was directed by God the
Father and implemented by Jesus Christ—“all things were made by
him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”@Second
is the condition of mortality. Adam and Eve acted for all who had
chosen to participate in the Father’s great plan of happiness.
Their Fall created the conditions needed for our physical birth and
for mortal experience and learning outside the presence of God. With
the Fall came an awareness of good and evil and the God-given power
to choose.13 Finally, the Fall brought about physical death needed to
make our time in mortality temporary so that we would not live
forever in our sins. @Third is redemption from the Fall. We see the
role of death in our Heavenly Father’s plan, but that plan would
become void without some way to overcome death in the end, both
physical and spiritual. Thus, a Redeemer, the Only Begotten Son of
God, Jesus Christ, suffered and died to atone for Adam and Eve’s
transgression, thereby providing resurrection and immortality for
all. And since none of us will have been perfectly and consistently
obedient to the gospel law, His Atonement also redeems us from our
own sins on condition of repentance. With the Savior’s atoning
grace providing forgiveness of sins and sanctification of the soul,
we can spiritually be born again and reconciled to God. Our spiritual
death—our separation from God—will end. @Fourth, and finally, is
the setting for our physical birth and subsequent spiritual rebirth
into the kingdom of God. For His work to succeed to “[exalt us]
with himself,” God ordained that men and women should marry and
give birth to children, thereby creating, in partnership with God,
the physical bodies that are key to the test of mortality and
essential to eternal glory with Him. He also ordained that parents
should establish families and rear their children in light and
truth,17 leading them to a hope in Christ. The Father commands us:
“Teach
these things freely unto your children, saying: @“That … inasmuch
as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit,
which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye
must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the
[Holy] Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only
Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the
words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to
come, even immortal glory.”@ Knowing why we left the presence of
our Heavenly Father and what it takes to return and be exalted with
Him, it becomes very clear that nothing relative to our time on earth
can be more important than physical birth and spiritual rebirth, the
two prerequisites of eternal life. This is, to use the words of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the “office” of marriage, the “post of
responsibility towards … mankind,” that this divine institution
“from above, from God” occupies. It is the “link in the chain
of the generations” both here and hereafter—the order of heaven.
@A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best
setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of
children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the
environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a
successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A
critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for
societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and
nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the
family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the
love and happiness of adults. @The social science case for marriage
and for families headed by a married man and woman is
compelling.19And so “we warn that the disintegration of the family
will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities
foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”20 But our claims for the
role of marriage and family rest not on social science but on the
truth that they are God’s creation. It is He who in the beginning
created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and joined them
as husband and wife to become “one flesh” and to multiply and
replenish the earth. Each individual carries the divine image, but it
is in the matrimonial union of male and female as one that we attain
perhaps the most complete meaning of our having been made in the
image of God—male and female. Neither we nor any other mortal can
alter this divine order of matrimony. It is not a human invention.
Such marriage is indeed “from above, from God” and is as much a
part of the plan of happiness as the Fall and the Atonement. @In the
premortal world, Lucifer rebelled against God and His plan, and his
opposition only grows in intensity. He fights to discourage marriage
and the formation of families, and where marriages and families are
formed, he does what he can to disrupt them. He attacks everything
that is sacred about human sexuality, tearing it from the context of
marriage with a seemingly infinite array of immoral thoughts and
acts. He seeks to convince men and women that marriage and family
priorities can be ignored or abandoned, or at least made subservient
to careers, other achievements, and the quest for self-fulfillment
and individual autonomy. Certainly the adversary is pleased when
parents neglect to teach and train their children to have faith in
Christ and be spiritually born again. Brothers and sisters, many
things are good, many are important, but only a few are essential.
@To declare the fundamental truths relative to marriage and family is
not to overlook or diminish the sacrifices and successes of those for
whom the ideal is not a present reality. Some of you are denied the
blessing of marriage for reasons including a lack of viable
prospects, same-sex attraction, physical or mental impairments, or
simply a fear of failure that, for the moment at least, overshadows
faith. Or you may have married, but that marriage ended, and you are
left to manage alone what two together can barely sustain. Some of
you who are married cannot bear children despite overwhelming desires
and pleading prayers. @Even so, everyone has gifts; everyone has
talents; everyone can contribute to the unfolding of the divine plan
in each generation. Much that is good, much that is essential—even
sometimes all that is necessary for now—can be achieved in less
than ideal circumstances. So many of you are doing your very best.
And when you who bear the heaviest burdens of mortality stand up in
defense of God’s plan to exalt His children, we are all ready to
march. With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ
has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and
loss for those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less
than all that the Father has for His children. @One young mother
recently confided to me her anxiety about being inadequate in this
highest of callings. I felt that the issues that concerned her were
small and she needn’t worry; she was doing fine. But I knew she
only wanted to please God and to honor His trust. I offered words of
reassurance, and in my heart I pleaded that God, her Heavenly Father,
would buoy her up with His love and the witness of His approval as
she is about His work. @That is my prayer for all of us today. May we
each find approval in His sight. May marriages flourish and families
prosper, and whether our lot is a fulness of these blessings in
mortality or not, may the Lord’s grace bring happiness now and
faith in sure promises to come. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
@~~~ Brandon, I have not sucked that talk dry yet and you probably
haven't either. Did you notice that besides my nonmember cousin I
also sent it to all my kids. I figured they may internalize it again
if I sent it on my 60th
birthday!
Sneaky, sneaky. Did you notice I also sent it to my Jordan High
School Class president of 1973? This is her response:Carol
Lee Coy @to me Vern, @Your life is definitely tied to the Lord and in
this he is well pleased. @Food for thought: When I am depressed I
take a garbage sack out for a walk and clean my neighborhood. I’m
doing something productive for others, clearing my head and
exercising at the same time. During this time I have a wonderful
conversation with the Lord and I count my blessings. However
blessing counting usually always comes last. Sometimes I take hymns
along with me to enjoy. And finally I try to remember I am a child
of God and he loves me, which is also a blessing to count. ~~@~~ Hey
Brandon, did that sound familiar? Service, exercise, de-stressing,
prayer, hymns. What do you think? Might this be a magic formula? Just
don't let Satan fool you that what good will any of that do? Today,
is a day of eternity. We can't see much of the eternal past, nor can
we see any of the eternal future, but we can trust. We can have
faith. We can be loyal. @ 1:48pm @@
1:48pm @7/18, 1:51pmHello Brandon, so how did I do? Was that the
best psyche up letter you have ever received. When I began that was
not my intent. But I was so full of the spirit that I just let it
flow and flow and flow! Personally, I think it is the best psyche up
letter I have ever written. But like my therapist says, if we really
accepted ourselves we would discover that we are our favorite people
to be with and if we met someone just like us we would hit it off as
BFF's. Best friends forever! It seemed like such a stuck up concept
when I heard it! But I have grown into it. I like it. And I like me,
most of the time.
This
is an example of a last name I am super proud to have figured out. It
is an italian last name/ surname. It starts with an M o. It ends with
a c a. The middle letter is a di. Yep, this scribe/clerk is very
sloppy or efficient! Whichever way you want to say it. By the way,
Look what I did! A new experiment! I pasted an Italian Indexing name
on your post card. Yes. @ The
familiy history center has had a marathon week. All the missionaries
dressed up in their running uniforms and a class has been taught
every hour and the indexed names counted and totaled every day.Their
goal was 5K names. Sister Forsythe, dear little friendly sister
Forsythe encouraged me to do my best last Saturday. I was standing in
front of the posterboard with the goal written on it and each day
listed and a grand total black at the bottom. I predicted 5k was too
low. We would get at least 10 k I told her. We ended up with 30k!!!
Yes! I turned my results sheet in on Tuesday predicting 400 for the
week. 80/day. They kept it. But
I have had difficult writing to try to decipher.If your guard cuts of
the stamp then you won't see the first copy of that surname. Just
another clever option I thought of. My therapist called me clever
one time and I have tried to use the word at least once a year ever
since. Which reminds me. @ UEA/WCEA called me this week and asked if
I was going to pay my membership dues this year. I explained I
retired in '13 but continued paying my dues because I was getting
legal help for clearing my teaching certificate. FERPA hung me! I
called her and explained that when I tried to contact Sue Porter
twice last year (my assistant for legal help) she did not reply. Her
husband was in the hospital etc.. So since it has been a year without
assistance I have given up on teaching at
the secondary level. She understood the very first time I explained
it. I told her how pleasant it was to speak to someone so bright and
intelligent/ understanding. I was so impressed. It was the total
opposite of talking with the bankers, Wells Fargo and US bank I have
dealt with lately. And if you think that is bad you should try the
Puerto Rican and Indian Walmart or Sprint telephone assistants!!!! It
is like talking to molasses. You would absolutely not believe the
worldwide assistants they have nowadays! They get cheap foreign labor
to answer all their phones for them! Perhaps it is a way of filtering
the patient, persistent people from the urgent, impatient ones. I
have spent 40 plus minutes on the phone multiple times trying to
resolve problems and understand the speaker. Times have changed
Brandon since you got into the pen. I went to lins grocery store in
Santa Clara yesterday. The STAR weekly headline showed a beautiful
blonde woman and a beautiful toothy brunette woman saying they have
fallen in love (and it showed another picture of them kissing) “And
they both used to be men.” I picked it up and had to show 3
different people before I could get it out of my system! H I l l a r
I o u s! ! BTW, did you notice my spell corrector automatically
capitalizes a single I by itself! There were two of them in
hilarious. JaniceV, my best BOM teacher has an angle. “Isn't it
cool to live in the last days, while we watch everything fall apart!”
How do you like that point of view, Brandon? @ My Oldest son,
Louis'80 held a celebration brunch for their 1 year old, Grace'14
born on my birthday, 7/16. Bonnie's sister was there with her little
one year old illegitimate daughter. They are both stacked and thin
and pixie faced brunettes. But there is Louis in his doctors/
rich mans house, temple sealing, tithing current two child family,
and there is Bonnie's sister without. The difference in living gospel
values and not. And even if Louis were alone and poor and 60 and
living the gospel like I am he could still be confident in the
presence of god and happy. So once again Brandon, accompanied or
abandoned? Which do you choose? Even IF your company is in heaven.
GBY-BltpjS-vj
