tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201840762024-03-05T14:29:36.442-07:00Interstate 50Finding joy in the journeyDeanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-29438739296981725122016-04-13T22:55:00.002-06:002016-04-13T22:55:24.765-06:00Trip to the End of the World, Part 2
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: green; font-variant: small-caps;">Starting Down the Coast of Chile</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Monday, February 1, 2016</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At sea</i></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After breakfast
on the Lido deck, we went at 8:30 to listen to Michael Wilcox talk about the
earliest Antarctic explorers. It was a fascinating presentation. He is a
master teacher and an excellent storyteller.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had lunch, and this afternoon we walked three or four laps around the
outside deck on deck 3. Four laps is a mile. After that we attended a series of
presentations on Antarctica sponsored by the Holland America people.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And then at 4:00 we heard Michael Wilcox tell us the inspiring efforts of
Ernest Shackleton, a British explorer, trying to be the first to reach the
South Pole and later trying to be the first to travel across the continent of
Antarctica. He did not accomplish either objective. He got within 80 miles of
the pole but turned back out of concern for the safety of those with him. The
account of Shackleton’s effort to cross the continent, which turned into a
heroic effort to save his men, is captured in the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Endurance</i>, which was also the name of his ship that was crushed in
the ice. My reading of that inspiring story some years ago is what led to our
being on this trip.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tonight’s dinner was the first of three or four formal dinners during the
cruise. We ate alone at our table because the previous night Otto and Janice
told us they do not do formal.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We went this
evening to a movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sky and Ice</i>, the
story of a French scientist who over the course of his lifetime observed from
ice samples drilled in Antarctica that climate change was occurring.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tuesday, February 2</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Chile at Puerto Montt and
Frutillar</i></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today was a
good day. We awoke to our 5:45 alarm and went to breakfast about 7:15. I said
to Claudia as we awoke, “Can you feel that?”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“What?” she asked.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The boat is not rocking back and forth.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At 8:15 we met on the Lido deck with our fellow travelers from Fun for
Less Tours to prepare to go ashore. A tender—the boat that transports us from
ship to shore—took us to the dock at Puerto Montt. There we boarded our
color-coded busses for today’s tour. Puerto Montt, with a population of
219,000, is a port city in the Llanquique Province in the Lakes Region of
southern Chile, some 1,055 km (655 miles) south of Santiago. It was founded in
1853 as a part of the German colonization of southern Chile.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We drove through part of Puerto Montt and north toward Lake Llanquihue
(pronounced something like “Yankee Who?”). It is a large lake, big enough to
make it difficult to see the opposite shore. A large snow-capped conical
volcano stands at 8,703 feet above the southeastern shore of the lake. In
appearance, the Osorno volcano appears similar to Mount Fuji in Japan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our bus traveled along
the bank of the lake for some miles until we came to Vicente Pérez National
Park, where we took a much-needed bathroom break before hiking an easy trail to
Petrohué Falls on the Petrohué River. A word about public restrooms in Chile:
You have to supply your own toilet paper, which we had been warned about, so
fortunately we were prepared. This one at the national park actually had paper,
just not in the individual stalls. You had to guess how much you might need and
take that with you into the stall.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The bus then took us to the town of Frutillar, one of several German
settlements dating from the mid-1800s in this lakes region. It was a beautiful
place, and today’s temperatures were absolutely perfect, probably around
70º, perhaps into the low 70s.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The tenders took us from
the shore back to the ship. We filled our water bottles for tomorrow’s shore
trip and took short naps. Soon after it was time for dinner. We both had
salmon. Our tablemates did not join us again tonight, but we found out why
later. After dinner we walked half a mile on the Lower Promenade Deck and ran
into Janice Edwards, and she told us Otto was not feeling well.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition to
walking around the deck a couple of times, we also went this evening to listen
to a couple different singers on the Upper Promenade Deck.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; text-indent: .2in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wednesday, February 3</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Chile at Castro on Chiloe Island</i></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We awoke and
made ready for the day. We were to meet today at 8:00. We’ve learned that 8:00
really means at least 15 minutes before that. We arrived at 7:50, and within a
minute we were headed toward the tenders to take us ashore at Castro, the
capital and principal city of Chiloé Island. The town has around 40,000 inhabitants
and is Chile’s third oldest city in continuous existence, having been founded
in February 1576, although it only became a part of the Chilean Republic in
1826.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Chiloé Island is the largest island of the Chile Archipelago off the
southern coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean. The island has a population of
155,000 people.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We boarded our busses and were off exploring. We drove through verdant
countryside that was both beautiful and peaceful. We drove to a couple of small
villages—one north, one south of Castro. As with Frutillar yesterday, German
emigrants settled these villages in the mid 1800s. That fact was reflected in
the architecture of many of the houses and businesses. The villages had local
handicraft markets, a rich heritage of fishing, and many churches. In fact, our
native guide, who spoke rudimentary English, seemed to have a fixation on the
many churches and on telling us over and over that we were “in Chiloé Island.”
Every sentence, it seemed, included some reference to the fact that we were
“in Chiloé Island.” It became increasingly comical as the tour continued, and
almost a little annoying.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Castro is famous for its colorful wooden stilt houses that sit in a bay
on the end of the town, and as our bus drove past them near the end of our tour
I captured some nice pictures of the houses with their reflections in the
water.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We returned to the
ship a little earlier today. The day was overcast, and it rained a little,
looked threatening at other times, but temperatures were ideal again. At
5:45 we had dinner. Our tablemates have not returned, so we were alone once
again. After dinner we went to the theater, where three successive National
Geographic films were shown. We saw the first two but decided to skip the final
one, the longest of the three, so we could turn in at a reasonable hour.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thursday, February 4</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Chile at Puerto Chacabuco</i></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today was
another shore excursion—our best thus far. Our guide was a German emigrant who
came to Chile six years ago to raise his family of nine children here in
Patagonia. The government was giving free land to anyone who wanted to
homestead. He and his wife home school their children, which was against the
law in Germany. They live on a farm, where they are trying to be
self-sufficient. Grandpa Lange would have loved them. They have no electricity
except what a generator can produce. Even though they are homesteaders, he
picks up odd jobs, such as serving as a tour guide, to provide for their
minimal cash needs. Unlike yesterday’s guide, he was fluent in English and
delightful to listen to.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The ship docked at Puerto Chacabuco (a town of only 1,300 people), where
we took busses on a scenic drive through some stunningly impressive countryside.
Our road ran close to the Andes and through lands cleared by settlers dating
from the late 1800s. We went through the River Simpson National Reserve and
over a summit down into the town of Coyhaique (a larger town with 54,000
people), where we walked around the main square and down a street of shops.
Claudia bought two carved wooden penguins for US$3.00 each. Coyhaique is the
capital of the Aysén Region of sparsely-settled southern Chile, a relatively
young city that was founded in 1929.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On our drive back toward Puerto Chacabuco we stopped at a waterfall, Velo
de la Noiva (the Virgin Waterfalls), and at the natural history museum of the
River Simpson Natural Reserve.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was supposed to have been raining today, but it did not until we were
boarding the tenders to return to the ship. I cannot begin to capture the
beauty of what we saw today.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At dinner tonight Otto and Janice Edwards still did not join us, but
another couple from our group, Stu and Marnie Boyd, came over and sat with us
from the neighboring table. We had a delightful visit.</span></div>
Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-3494552030101252042016-04-13T22:42:00.000-06:002016-04-13T22:49:36.133-06:00Trip to the End of the World: Part 1<style>
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</style> <span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green; font-variant: small-caps;">Getting to the Ship</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green; font-variant: small-caps;"> </span></b></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Friday, January 29, 2016</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>To Los Angeles and then on to South America</i> </span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our adventure
began around 4:00 this morning. I had set alarms to go off at 4:30 and again at
4:35, in case I somehow didn’t hear the first one. I didn’t need either because
I awoke just after 4:00 all on my own. And Claudia sometime before that!</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Delbert and Mary Lou Strasser drove us to the airport. We were there by
6:00 to check in for our 8:30 Delta flight to Los Angeles and to check in with
the Fun for Less Tours representative. We made our way through the security
check and were easily at our gate well before boarding time, where we began
visiting with fellow Fun for Less travelers. We saw a missionary I had served
with in Brazil more than 45 years ago. He and his wife were on their way to a
mission in Lisbon.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our flight to Los Angeles
was uneventful, which we always want air travel to be. We arrived at LAX at
9:35, secured our bags from the claim area, walked with them in company with
Glen Rawson and his wife Debbie over to the international terminal to check
in for our 12:50 LAN flight to Lima and then on to Santiago. We landed in Lima
two meals later after what seemed to be forever at 11:30 p.m. Peru time (or
7:30 p.m. Utah time) and sat on the tarmac as Friday became Saturday.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today was the first we had ever met the Rawsons. We knew who Glen was
because he hosts the BYUtv series, <i>History
of the Saints</i>, and hosted an earlier KJAZZ series, <i>The Joseph Smith Papers</i>. They, along with Michael Wilcox, are our
tour leaders.</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Saturday, January 30</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>In Santiago, Chile</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After an
inflight breakfast we landed in Santiago, just as dawn was creeping over the Andes
Mountains. This is the furthest south either of us has ever been, and we will
be heading much further south before this trip is over.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Santiago is the capital
and largest city of Chile. It is located in the country’s central valley about
1,700 feet above sea level and 60 miles from the Chilean coast. The city was
founded in 1541. The presidential and judicial functions are headquartered in
Santiago, but the Chilean congress actually meets in Valparaiso on the coast.
The 2002 census listed the population of the Santiago metropolitan area at
5,428,590, which represented 36 percent of the entire country.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We made our way through immigration, collected our luggage, and went
through an agricultural inspection. Claudia had to chuck two apples we had not
yet eaten, but cheese sticks and nuts were okay to bring into the country.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We boarded busses to tour the city of Santiago while our luggage boarded
a truck to be hauled to our hotel. We were supposed to be on the yellow bus,
evidenced by the yellow yarn tied to our luggage handles, but it filled up with
blues because their blue bus was missing in action, so we had to ride on the
red bus. The bus took us to various historic, architecturally unique, or
otherwise prominent government and civic buildings and churches, including the
presidential palace in downtown Santiago. Also some beautiful parks. A native
tour guide on the bus told us about the various things we were seeing. She
took us to the temple complex, where Church administrative offices, the Chile
MTC, a meetinghouse, and such are located. She also showed us a building
nearing completion that is supposed to be the tallest building in South
America.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We next rode a tram to the top of the tallest hill in Santiago, which
offered sweeping views of the city. We did a little souvenir shopping at the
little shops on top. We went next to a place that had a variety of restaurants
and shops, where we ate lunch with Dean and Carol Terry from Enterprise in
southern Utah. They know a couple we served with at Winter Quarters and are
related to them. They very kindly insisted on paying for our lunch.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And finally, most of us bone tired, we were taken to the Hyatt Hotel to
spend the night. There are 117 of us or thereabouts on this Fun for Less Tours
trip.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today—which really started early yesterday morning—has been the longest
day.</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Sunday, January 31</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>In Chile at Santiago, Viña del Mar,
and Valparaiso</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Last night at
9:00 p.m. (which would have been 5:00 p.m. in Utah), after a shower, I went to
bed. Claudia had already fallen asleep. From the time my head hit the pillow
until our alarm sounded at 6:00 this morning, I was not conscious of a thing
and felt totally refreshed from the long day that was Friday and Saturday.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We had to have our luggage outside our door at 6:30. We ate at the
breakfast buffet on the main level of the hotel beginning at 7:00. It would be
our last meal before boarding the ship. By 7:30 we returned to our room to get
our final things, checked out, and this morning were able to get on the yellow bus.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
bus took us the 75 miles from Santiago to the sea over three mountain ranges,
through two tunnels, through some beautiful agricultural valleys, and finally
to Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, where we boarded the Holland America ship, the
<i>Zaandam</i>. We spent a considerable bit
of time touring through Valparaiso and got off the bus at the museum that
displays one of the large stone heads from Easter Island. Valparaiso is the
administrative capital for Easter Island, even though it is 3,000-some miles
distant in the Pacific Ocean, a five-hour flight from the mainland. The
Chilean national congress also sits in Valparaiso.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At 1:00 our busses
dropped us off at the ship, and by 2:00 we were finally aboard. We have an
interior stateroom on the starboard side of the main level (deck 2) of the
ship, number 2523. We went immediately to the Lido deck (deck 8), where we
ate a light lunch at a small salad buffet. We explored the ship a little before
returning to our cabin. Our luggage was there by then, and we unpacked. At
4:00 we participated in a mandatory evacuation drill. We are assigned to
lifeboat 3. We hope we never have to use it.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2pt; text-indent: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our assigned dinner table is in the Rotterdam Restaurant on deck 5 at
5:45 each evening. We are at a table for four people right next to a window.
Our assigned dinner companions are Otto and Janice Edwards from near Indianapolis,
Indiana. From the way our dinner conversation played out, we assume they are
not members of the Church<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></span> </span></span></div>
Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-40661773265691342242015-07-01T19:57:00.000-06:002016-04-13T22:47:30.523-06:00What road are we heading down now?<style>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Thoughts on the Supreme Court’s Unwise and Unconstitutional Decision
Redefining Marriage</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">, b</span><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">eing a varied collection of
everything on my mind these past couple of momentous days, published on
Tuesday, June 30, 2015, as the Final Word in our family’s monthly newsletter</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;"> </span></i>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">I</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Some years ago I started reading a book by David Kupelian published
in 2005 entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Marketing of Evil:
How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as
Freedom.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">An overview of the book states that “Americans have come
to tolerate, embrace and even champion many things that would have horrified
their parents’ generation—from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion-on-demand
to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade-schoolers. Does
that mean today's Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved
than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David
Kupelian. But they have fallen victim to some of the most stunningly brilliant
and compelling marketing campaigns in modern history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Marketing of
Evil</i> reveals how much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred
has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to them as though it had
great value. Highly skilled marketers, playing on our deeply felt national
values of fairness, generosity and tolerance, have persuaded us to embrace as
enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America's
founding regarded as grossly self-destructive—in a word, evil.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">I stated that I had started the book. I did not finish
it. After reading a couple of chapters—one about the elimination of prayer and
religion from schools specifically and the public square generally, the other
about making the unspoken evil of homosexuality standard and acceptable—I
became so agitated, worked up, and disgusted that I could not continue. It was
something like playing in a sewer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">The two topics I did read about—the assault on religion
and the normalization of homosexuality—are of course related. And we’ve seen
them coming to full fruition in this generation as our country becomes ever
more secularized and drifts further from the spiritual moorings that this
nation was founded upon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: .2in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">II</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">The Book of Mormon, which was written for our day, contains numerous
warnings about what led to the downfall and eventual destruction of at least
two previous civilizations that existed on this continent:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“And now,” wrote the prophet Moroni near the end of the Book
of Mormon record, “we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that
it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve
God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon
them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in
iniquity” (Ether 2:9).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Nearly 400 years earlier, as Mosiah was giving the
Nephite nation a new form of government, he warned prophetically, “And if the
time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time
that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will
visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land”
(Mosiah 29:27).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">And, sadly, just six decades later, we read, “For as their
laws and their government were established by the voice of the people, and they
who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were
ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted” (Helaman 5:2).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">This is not just interesting history. These are warnings
intended specifically for our day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">III</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">When I was a grade schooler in Idaho in the early 1960s, we began
each school day by reading from the Bible. I do not remember that we prayed at
school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">When the first school prayer cases were decided,
President David O. McKay said, “By making that [written prayers formulated by
the New York state board of regents] unconstitutional, the Supreme Court of the
United States severs the connecting cord between the public schools of the
United States and the source of divine intelligence, the Creator himself”
(“Parental Responsibility,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Relief
Society Magazine</i>, Dec. 1962, 878).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Six months later, just after the Supreme Court’s decision
forbidding Bible reading in public schools, President McKay said, “Recent
rulings of the Supreme Court would have all reference to a Creator eliminated
from our public schools and public offices.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“It is a sad day when the Supreme Court of the United
States would discourage all reference in our schools to the influence of the
phrase ’divine providence’ as used by our founders of the Declaration of
Independence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Evidently the Supreme Court misinterprets the true
meaning of the First Amendment, and are now leading a Christian nation down the
road to atheism” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Church News</i>, June
22, 1963, 2).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">President McKay was not a lawyer. He was not a judge. But
he was a prophet of God, a seer and a revelator. He could see the path we were
beginning down and knew where it would lead. We are well along that path now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">There is silliness about (that’s my kind word, perverseness
would be more accurate) that the United States is not a Christian nation.
America was founded as a Christian nation. Our founding documents, together
with reliable rhetoric from the remarkable men who founded this country, were
that God’s hand was in the enterprise. Our laws were based in the
Judeo-Christian morality taught in the Bible. Our belief, until quite recently
at least, was that America was something special in the world, a city upon a hill,
a beacon for the rest of humanity that stood against the forces of tyranny and
evil and oppression.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">IV</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">And that brings us down to this last week, when on Friday morning,
June 26, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 split vote released its ruling on so-called
same-sex marriage. Five justices, elected by no one, legislated that same-sex
marriage would now be legal in all 50 states. From my vantage point, the
Supreme Court got this one supremely wrong on at least two counts: as a moral
issue and as a legal issue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">V</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">First, as a moral issue. Modern prophets have taught, “Man’s laws cannot
make moral what God has declared immoral” (Dallin H. Oaks, “No Other Gods,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ensign</i>, Nov. 2013, 75) and “Sin, even if
legalized by man, is still sin in the eyes of God” (Russell M. Nelson,
“Decisions for Eternity,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ensign</i>,
Nov. 2013, 108).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">The scriptures and the teachings of modern prophets and
apostles are clear that homosexual behavior is a sin, just as fornication and
adultery and various other corrupt practices that are commonly tolerated in our
society are sins. Sin is sin. God defines that; I do not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Now that probably sounds very bigoted. Those who know me
at all know that I haven’t got a bigoted bone in my body. I am simply stating
what should be obvious and self-evident. I know people who are gay. I may not
agree with them, but I still respect them. I do not hate or mock or belittle
them. I respect their rights, including now in every jurisdiction their right
to marry. I do not disparage what they have been through or what they have had
to contend with. God is the judge; I am not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is
that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The
second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or
do. Both are nonsense” (attributed to Rick Warren, an American evangelical
Christian pastor).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">It goes with saying, although unfortunately it does need
to be said, that no true disciple of Jesus Christ should ever persecute another
person for his or her beliefs or actions. As Elder Oaks has taught, “On the
subject of public discourse, we should all follow the gospel teachings to love
our neighbor and avoid contention. Followers of Christ should be examples of
civility. . . . Though we may disagree, we should not be disagreeable.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Elder Oaks continued, “The Savior taught that contention
is a tool of the devil. . . .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“The most important setting to forgo contention and
practice respect for differences is in our homes and family relationships. Differences
are inevitable—some minor and some major. As to major differences, suppose a
family member is in a cohabitation relationship. That brings two important
values into conflict—our love for the family member and our commitment to the
commandments. Following the Savior’s example, we can show loving-kindness and
still be firm in the truth by forgoing actions that facilitate or seem to condone
what we know to be wrong” (Dallin H. Oaks, “Loving Others and Living with
Differences,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ensign</i>, Nov. 2014, 27).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">There is a freeway billboard sign in Salt Lake that
proclaims, “God loves gays.” Well, of course He does, but implied in that
message is that He accepts illicit or sinful behavior, which He clearly does
not. To think otherwise, is simply cheap theology and deceitful, devious
doctrine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">From the beginning of time, across cultures and
centuries, the definition of marriage has been a union between a man and a
woman. A Supreme Court decision cannot change that. They may extend the benefits
of marriage to those of the same sex, but they cannot say a cat is a dog
simply because a lot of cats wanted to be dogs and felt bad that they couldn’t
be. Sometimes I think we must be in a dream, an absurd nightmare of the sort
that Alice experienced in Wonderland.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">A statement by the Church that same Friday morning said,
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledges that following
today’s ruling by the Supreme Court, same-sex marriages are now legal in the
United States. The Court’s decision does not alter the Lord’s doctrine that
marriage is a union between a man and a woman ordained by God.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">VI</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">And now second, as a legal issue. Last Friday morning I read the
majority opinion and the four dissenting opinions (all 103 pages of them) and,
regardless of one’s orientation or views on same-sex marriage, I have to
concur with all four of the dissenting justices that today is a sad day for
America and those who love the Constitution and the rule of law. For saying as
much on Facebook, in response to someone else’s post, I have already been
labeled a bigot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“This Court is not a legislature,” Chief Justice John
Roberts observed in his dissent. “Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea
should be of no concern to us. Under the Constitution, judges have power to say
what the law is, not what it should be. . . . </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Although the policy arguments for extending marriage to
same-sex couples may be compelling, the legal arguments for requiring such an
extension are not. The fundamental right to marry does not include a right to
make a State change its definition of marriage. And a State’s decision to
maintain the meaning of marriage that has persisted in every culture throughout
human history can hardly be called irrational. . . .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Today, however, the Court takes the extraordinary step
of ordering every State to license and recognize same-sex marriage. Many
people will rejoice in this decision, and I begrudge none their celebration.
But for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority’s
approach is disheartening. . . . </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“<span class="a">If you are among the many Americans—of
whatever sexual orientation—who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by </span><span class="l6">all means </span><span class="l8">celebrate </span><span class="l6">today’s
decision. Celebrate </span><span class="a">the achie</span><span class="l6">vement
of </span><span class="l7">a desired goal. Celebrate th</span><span class="l6">e
oppor</span><span class="a">tunity for a new expression of commitment to a
partner. Celebrate </span><span class="l6">the availability of </span><span class="l8">new ben</span><span class="l6">efits. But do </span><span class="l9">not </span><span class="a">celebrate the Consti</span><span class="l6">tution. It had nothing to do
with it.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">I wish we had the space, and you as
reader the patience, to quote Justice Robert’s entire masterful dissent, as
well as the dissents authored by the other three justices who did not concur
with the majority opinion. In my judgment, all four of them gave compelling
reasons why legally this was a bad decision.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“I join the Chief Justice’s opinion in
full,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia. “I write separately to call attention to
this Court’s threat to American democracy.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">He continues, “It is not of special
importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming
importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my
Ruler, and </span></span><span class="a"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">the Ruler of
320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the </span></span><span class="l7"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">nine lawyers </span></span><span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">on the Supreme Court. The </span></span><span class="a"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact—and the
furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create ‘liberties’
that the Constitution </span></span><span class="l8"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">and </span></span><span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">its Amendments </span></span><span class="l7"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">neglect </span></span><span class="l6"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">to </span></span><span class="l7"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">mention. This </span></span><span class="a"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of
nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty,
robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration
of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span class="a"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">He continues, “</span></span><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">This is a naked judicial claim to legislative—indeed, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">super</i>-legislative—power; a claim
fundamentally at odds with our system of government. Except as limited by a
constitutional prohibition agreed to by the People, the States are free to
adopt whatever laws they like, even those that offend the esteemed Justices’ ‘reasoned
judgment.’ A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a
committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Justice Clarence Thomas adds, “The Court’s decision
today is at odds not only with the Constitution, but with the principles upon
which our Nation was built. Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood
as freedom from government action, not entitlement to government benefits. The
Framers created our Constitution to preserve that understanding of liberty. <span class="a">Yet the majority invokes our Constitution in the name of a ‘liberty’
that the Framers would not have recognized, to the detrime</span><span class="l6">nt of the liberty they sought to protect. Along </span><span class="a">the
way, it rejects the idea—captured in our Declaration of Independence—that human
dignity is innate and suggests instead th</span><span class="l6">at it comes from
</span><span class="l7">the Government</span><span class="l6">. This distor</span><span class="a">tion of our Constitution not only ignores the text, it inverts the
relationship between the individual and the state in our Republic.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span class="a"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">And, finally, from Justice Samuel
Anthony Alito: “</span></span><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Today’s decision usurps the
constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the
traditional understanding of marriage. The decision will also have other
important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling
to assent to the new orthodoxy. In the course of its opinion, the majority
compares traditional marriage laws to laws that denied equal treatment for
African-Americans and women. The implications of this analogy will be exploited
by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Perhaps recognizing how its reasoning may be used, the majority
attempts, toward the end of its opinion, to reassure those who oppose same-sex
marriage that their rights of conscience will be protected. We will soon see
whether this proves to be true. I assume that those who cling to old beliefs
will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if
they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and
treated as such by governments, employers, and schools. The system of
federalism established by our Constitution provides a way for people with
different beliefs to live together in a single nation. If the issue of same-sex
marriage had been left to the people of the States, it is likely that some
States would recognize same-sex marriage and others would not. It is also
possible that some States would tie recognition to protection for conscience
rights. <span style="letter-spacing: .65pt;">The majority today makes that
impossible. By imposing </span>its own views on the entire country, the
majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional
ideas. Recalling the harsh treatment of gays and lesbians in the past, some may
think that turn-about is fair play. But if that sentiment prevails, the Nation
will experience bitter and lasting wounds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">“Today’s decision will also have a fundamental effect on
this Court and its ability to uphold the rule of law. If a bare majority of
Justices can invent a new right and impose that right on the rest of the
country, the only real limit on what future majorities will be able to do is
their own sense of what those with political power and cultural influence are
willing to tolerate. Even enthusiastic supporters of same-sex marriage should
worry about the scope of the power that today’s majority claims. Today’s
decision shows that decades of attempts to restrain this Court’s abuse of its
authority have failed.”</span><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">VII</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">Now, a few words in conclusion. For all this to work for same-sex
marriage proponents, they have to get rid of religion and morality. They have
to get rid of Christianity, which will always be a thorn in their side and a
prick to their conscience. They know this. They acknowledge this. And the
assault has long since begun. In their eyes, America can no longer be a
Christian nation. It must become thoroughly humanistic and secular. Religion
and faith can have no place in the public arena.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">The Constitutionally protected and enumerated freedoms of
religion and speech and assembly, according to this assault, now have to bow
to concocted freedoms and political correctness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">A characteristic of elitists and those on the left end of
the political spectrum is that freedom of speech, for example, is all good and
fine as long as it does not disagree with what they believe. Otherwise, they
brand it as hate speech or bigotry or stupidity. They use it to demean or
belittle or ridicule. They employ it to get people ostracized or dismissed or
fired, just as Justice Alito predicted. They somehow miss or are willfully
ignorant of their own hypocrisy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">We in the Church believe that in fulfillment of prophecy
the Lord is now hastening His work in the earth. The end must be near. Satan
knows this of course, so he too is currently hastening his work. He is freely
marketing his evil. These are to be “days of wickedness and vengeance” (Moses
7:60). The skirmishes may become quite intense. We are in for an interesting
ride.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 2.0pt; text-indent: .2in;">
<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">But the Lord’s purposes in the end result in “peace, justice,
and truth . . . and mercy” (Moses 7:31). So, armed with faith and the power of
righteousness, and led by revelation, the saints of God in this dispensation
ultimately prevail. We can take comfort in knowing who wins the war.</span></div>
Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-58234378711099711732012-02-14T05:00:00.001-07:002012-02-17T12:40:08.414-07:00A Valentine's thoughtI've journeyed a bit down the road of life, and I want all of you children and grandchildren to know that one could not have a better traveling companion than your mom and grandmother.<br />
<br />
She may fall asleep along the way. She may send you down the wrong road--no, wait, that's just when she's with you in a literal car. In the metaphorical journey down life's highway, she never steers you wrong, and she's fiercely vigilant when it comes to those she loves. And her heart is a very big and generous and inclusive one. She just wants every chair filled, no one to miss the train--whatever metaphor you wish to use--so that everyone arrives safely home at the end of life's journey, secure in the arms and the love of our Heavenly Parents.<br />
<br />
And that's my Valentine's tribute to her and my Valentine's wish to all of you.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-2894593999140540782011-12-03T18:09:00.098-07:002011-12-04T12:15:44.724-07:00A mountainous journeyThe wife and I were driving along a winding scenic road in the rugged high mountains of southern Utah. The ride through forests of juniper, punctuated with red-rock ridges, bluffs, towers, and canyons carved through time by wind and water, was breathtaking. The brilliant blue sky, interrupted with an occasional white cloud, the fluffy kind, arched overhead. Judging from the sun approaching its zenith, it was late morning. The air at this elevation was delightfully cool. A beautiful day.<br />
<br />
The narrow blacktop snaked its way through the landscape. This was pristine country. Except for the road we were traveling on, there were no obvious signs of civilization to be seen for miles in any direction. We did not pass any other vehicles. The road through this stretch had no signs, no pavement markings, no guardrails. The guardrails, in retrospect, would have seemed to be a desirable nicety if not an outright necessity.<br />
<br />
My wife was driving the car. That was an odd curiosity because on road trips I was always the driver.<br />
<br />
Her father was in the back seat. I remember that fact simply because he cautioned her to slow down as we began our descent from the relatively flat plateau we had been driving on. The road started to become treacherous as it headed down the mountainside, but she seemed not to heed his warning.<br />
<br />
We rounded curves that hugged the side of the mountain. Just beyond the side of the road, the terrain in places fell away for thousands of feet. At times we were climbing steep hills. Once crested, the car picked up speed as we descended the other side. More curves. Switchbacks. More ups and downs. For whatever reason, she seemed bent on getting us to our destination in somewhat of a hurry. A ride on a roller coaster would have seemed tame in comparison.<br />
<br />
She headed a bit too fast into a lengthy curve to the right, and the rear wheels were sliding dangerously close to the precipitous edge. She gunned the engine to help the front wheels pull the vehicle back onto the pavement. The outcome appeared dubious.<br />
<br />
And that's when I awoke, safe in my comfortable bed, and realized that it had all been a dream.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-18300472725212109452011-11-30T11:30:00.001-07:002011-11-30T16:20:39.354-07:00"We're back in the saddle again"More than a year has passed since I last posted here. There are a variety of reasons, I suppose. For nearly six months during the first part of the year, I devoted much of my discretionary time to compiling the book <i>Diary of a Boy</i>, which I gave to my children on my 62nd birthday in July. It chronicles the first 16 years of my journey through life.<br />
<br />
In the months since then, I have been working on the next two volumes of that journey, my final two years of high school (the gift for my 63rd birthday) and my first year of college (for my 64th birthday). And doing various other things.<br />
<br />
Our out-of-state travel diminished this year compared to last year. In the fall of 2010 Claudia and I completed the marathon Primary sacrament meeting tour, including being there for grandchildren in the Eldorado Branch in Illinois, the Mulkiteo Ward in Washington state, the Brockett Ward in Georgia, and a couple wards here in Layton. Five separate Primary programs.<br />
<br />
This year we were as committed to such programs but attended only one out of state. We caught some here in Utah and one in Illinois. Chris and Camilla moved from Everett back to Bountiful, so we didn't need to go to Washington. We very likely would have flown to Atlanta to see Peter say his few words, but that program was the day after Paul and Eliza returned home after visiting us here in Utah for a whole month. And what a wonderful month it was!<br />
<br />
This year's road trips have been relatively short ones: to southern Utah a couple times to visit Kay and Karen (including an August trip to see him sustained as bishop of the Hurricane 11th Ward), to Lava Hot Springs (including a scenic drive home on a road less traveled), and to Nampa/Boise a couple times to see family there, attend a weddings, and participate in a Cleverly family reunion.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-66900369941558104442010-10-22T13:40:00.000-06:002010-10-22T13:40:11.632-06:00A special type of soldierPresident Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975) served during the 1960s as a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay. He was one of my spiritual heroes in my late teen years. His teachings, among other factors, influenced my decision to serve a mission, which has influenced my life for good ever since. Recently one of the Brethren I work with now, Elder Richard G. Hinckley, shared the following account by President Brown. I had never heard this story before and was impressed with it. It is a great story.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>At the request of the First Presidency, I had gone to England as coordinator for the LDS servicemen. One Saturday afternoon in 1944, I sent a telegram from London to the base chaplain near Liverpool letting him know that I would be in camp the next morning to conduct Mormon church services at 10:00 a.m.<br />
<br />
When I arrived at the camp, there were 75 Mormon boys, all in uniform and quite a number in battle dress. The chaplain to whom I had sent the wire proved to be a Baptist minister from the southern U.S. He, too, was waiting for my arrival. As these young men ran out to greet me not because it was I, but because of what I represented, and as they literally threw their arms around me, knowing I was representing their parents as well as the Church, the minister said, "Please tell me how you do it."<br />
<br />
"Do what?"<br />
<br />
"Why," he said, "I did not get your wire until late this morning. I made a hurried search. I found there were 76 Mormon boys in this camp. I got word to them. 75 of them are here. The other is in the hospital. I have more than 600 Baptists in this camp, and if I gave them 6 months notice, I could not get a response like that."<br />
<br />
And then he repeated, "How do you do it?"<br />
<br />
I said, "Sir, if you will come inside, perhaps you will see."<br />
<br />
We went in to the little chapel. The boys sat down. I asked, "How many here have been on missions?" I think a full 50 percent raised their hands.<br />
<br />
I said, "Will you and you and you, and I pointed to six of them, please come and administer the sacrament? And will you and you and you, and I pointed to six others, please come and sit here and be prepared to speak."<br />
<br />
Then I said, "Who can lead the music?" A number of hands were raised. "Will you come and lead the music? And who can play this portable organ?" There were several more hands, and one was selected. Then I said, "What would you like to sing, fellows?" With one voice they replied, "Come, Come Ye Saints!"<br />
<br />
We had no hymnbook. The boy sounded the chord: they all arose. I have heard "Come, Come Ye Saints" sung in many lands and by many choirs and congregations. Without reflecting adversely on what we usually hear I think I have only heard "Come, Come Ye Saints" sung that once when every heart seemed to be bursting. They sounded every verse without books.<br />
<br />
When they came to the last verse, they didn't mute it; they didn't sing it like a dirge but throwing back their shoulders, they sang out until I was fearful the walls would burst." And should we die before our journey's through, happy day, all is well." I looked at my minister friend and found him weeping.<br />
<br />
Then one of the boys who had been asked to administer the sacrament knelt at the table, bowed his head, and said, "Oh, God, the Eternal Father." He paused for what seemed to be a full minute, and then he proceeded with the rest of the blessing on the bread. At the close of that meeting, I sought that boy out. I put my arm around his shoulders, and said, "Son, what's the matter? Why was it so difficult for you to ask the blessing on the bread?"<br />
<br />
He paused for a minute and said, rather apologetically, "Well, Brother Brown, it hasn't been two hours since I was over the continent on a bombing mission. As we started to return, I discovered that my tail assembly was partly shot away, that one of my engines was out, that three of my crew were wounded, and that it appeared absolutely impossible that we could reach the shore of England.<br />
<br />
"Brother Brown, up there I remembered Primary and Sunday School and MIA, and home and church, and up there when it seemed all hope was lost, I said, 'Oh, God the eternal Father, please support this plane until we reach a landing field.' He did just that, and when we landed, I learned of this meeting and I had to run all the way to get here. I didn't have time to change my battle dress, and when I knelt there and again addressed the Lord, I was reminded that I hadn't stopped to say thanks.<br />
<br />
"Brother Brown, I had to pause a little while to tell God how grateful I was."<br />
<br />
Well, we went on with the meeting. We sang. Prayers were offered, and these young men, with only a moment’s notice, each stood and spoke, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to their comrades, bore their testimonies, and again I say with due respect to the various ones with whom I have associated and labored they were among the finest sermons I have ever heard.<br />
<br />
Then the time was up and I said, Fellows, it's time for chow. We must dismiss now, or you will miss your dinner. With almost one voice they cried, "We can eat grub any time. Let's have a testimony meeting!"<br />
<br />
So we stayed another hour and a half. I looked at my friend, and he was weeping unashamedly.<br />
<br />
At the close of that meeting, this minister said, "I have been a minister for more than 21 years, and this has been the greatest spiritual experience of my life." </blockquote><br />
<br />
This story comes from a talk President Brown gave at BYU in May 1969 ("An Eternal Quest—Freedom of the Mind," May 13, 1969, <i>Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year</i>, 14–17), when I would have been in Brazil on my mission. The story is also quoted in “Lesson 28: Serving in the Church,” <i>The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women, Part B</i>, 240.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-26395154225102678292010-10-09T10:56:00.000-06:002010-10-09T10:56:40.403-06:00A dangerous journeyMy son-in-law Vince yesterday posted some comments on <a href="http://v-lo.blogspot.com/">his blog</a> about the talk given in the recent general conference by <a href="http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-23,00.html">President Boyd K. Packer</a> and the resulting noise in the media. I posted the following comment in response to Vince's blog. <br />
<br />
<blockquote>Vince, I appreciate and endorse your sentiments. Issues such as homosexuality and same-gender marriage are clearly moral issues, and churches are supposed to speak out on moral issues. Besides the Mormons and the Catholics, where are all the other churches? <br />
<br />
President Packer's talk was characterized in some of the media and by some homosexual advocates as hate speech. I defy anyone who actually heard the talk or has since read it to point out a single hint of hate.<br />
<br />
I am grateful that the Lord is still willing to speak to His children through prophets, seers, and revelators. How utterly presumptuous to think we know more than the Lord or His servants! Among all the Brethren, President Packer clearly has the gift of seership; he "sees" things so many of the rest of us do not see.<br />
<br />
Last night I started reading the book Michael referred to, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581824599/?tag=cleveblogg-20">The Marketing of Evil</a>, and yes, we've been cleverly sold a bill of goods resulting in an almost wholesale shift in attitudes toward and acceptance of homosexuality (you will note that I am avoiding any use of the little three-letter politically correct word that was co-opted as a part of this sneaky advertising campaign for homosexuals to gain acceptance and then to silence any possible opposition [hence the cry of hate speech the moment anyone dares disagree with them]). They and we have been done a horrendous disservice.</blockquote><br />
Yes, we are heading down many wrong roads as a culture and a society. It is a slippery, dangerous journey that is rapidly eroding what has traditionally been admired as the American dream (and I am not talking about the economics of the American dream, but the moral and spiritual underpinnings of that way of life and the associated liberties that were once a beacon and last best hope for all the rest of mankind).<br />
<br />
I think we are reaching the time foreseen by the prophet Isaiah: "Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/5/20#20">Isaiah 5:20</a>; and quoted in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/15/20#20">2 Nephi 15:20</a>). That's the only conclusion I can come to when hearing someone say that President Packer's talk was "hate speech" when clearly it was precisely the opposite.<br />
<br />
I disagree with the objectives and the agenda of those militants who are pushing for homosexual rights. Mere disagreement does not constitute hate. I also disagree with any who would persecute or deny the rights of those who are different than they are or who believe differently than they do (whether they be Mormons, homosexuals, Jews, Hispanics, whatever the hate de jour).<br />
<br />
I personally know some homosexuals, two of whom are fairly close family members, and I bear them no ill will, no animosity, no hatred. If anything, I feel more compassion and concern and love for them. But such compassion, concern, and love do not move me to ignore, question, or oppose the Lord's clear position as taught in the scriptures and by latter-day prophets on issues such as marriage, virtue, and fidelity. Any sexual relationship outside of marriage is sin. Marriage between a man and a woman is fundamental and basic and essential to the very plan of happiness that was put in place before the world was even formed. Indeed, it was the very reason the world was created. Compromising on or destroying that foundation can only lead to individual heartbreak and the demise of civilization.<br />
<br />
Bleak outcomes, to be sure, but we have a sure, bright hope in knowing that the Lord's purposes in the end will prevail (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/morm/8/22#22">Mormon 8:22</a>).Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-29744675051424412022010-08-18T13:47:00.007-06:002010-08-18T13:47:00.589-06:00Taking Camilla to college<em>Journal excerpts from ten years ago recounting a family trip that we (Mary, Eliza, Camilla, Anna, Claudia, and I) took to Washington, D.C., and to Virginia, where we deposited Camilla at Southern Virginia College (now Southern Virginia University) in Buena Vista.</em><br /><br /><strong>Friday, August 18, 2000</strong><br /><em>Utah, Texas, Maryland, Virginia</em><br /><br />Our adventure began at 7:00 this morning as Cade and Michael each drove three of us to the airport. We checked Camilla's luggage, got our boarding passes, and went to the gate to wait. While there we saw Monte and Ann Stewart, who were on their way to their son's wedding reception in Atlanta and were on our same flight to Houston. We had not seen them since they returned from presiding over the Georgia Atlanta Mission in 1997 and had missed the Orem reception last Saturday evening because we had been busy with Carrie Bertasso's wedding luncheon and with getting Camilla ready to go off to school.<br /><br />At 8:30 our Continental flight left on time for Houston. The ticket lady at the gate used to live in Monte and Ann's ward and had upgraded them to first class. Just as we were boarding, Monte kindly gave his seat to Claudia and came back to sit with Mary, Eliza, and me. Camilla and Anna were in other rows further back. Just before boarding, I called Rich Hogan in Houston to tell him we'd be laying over there for three hours. He said he'd try to come to the airport to visit us but either missed us or was unable to come.<br /><br />We were served breakfast on our three-hour flight to Houston, bought lunch during our three-hour layover, and had dinner on our three-hour flight to Baltimore. We were late leaving Houston and late arriving in Baltimore. It was just before dark as we touched down and had been raining. Our luggage had come on an earlier flight and was already waiting for us. Too bad we hadn't come with it.<br /><br />We picked up our rental car, a Plymouth Voyager, and drove south on I–95, west and south on I–495 (past the Washington D.C. Temple that looms above the trees like it's floating in the air), and east on I–66 to our Comfort Inn in the Ballston area of Arlington. A long day of travel.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, August 19, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia, District of Columbia</em><br /><br />We ate our continental breakfast at the motel and around 9:30 or so walked about six blocks to the Metro station (the Ballston stop on the orange line) and took the Metro into Washington D.C. We disembarked at the Smithsonian station, which put us right on the National Mall. It cost us $13.20 for six round-trip fares.<br /><br />Our first stop along the Mall was the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where we saw an original sun stone from the Nauvoo Temple, the restoration project on the Star Spangled Banner (the giant flag that flew over Baltimore's Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to what is now our national anthem), a large statue of George Washington in a Roman toga, and an extensive exhibit on our country's First Ladies.<br /><br />We crossed to the other side of the Mall to catch a noon performance tour of Piano 300, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the piano. We saw the very first pianoforte built in 1700 and numerous other pianos from the intervening years. Mari Paz, a Cuban lady who in Mexico City became an accomplished pianist, was our delightful tour guide and played a variety of songs from different eras and countries on the various pianos, ending on a rhinestone-studded piano built for Liberace. We thoroughly enjoyed this exhibit.<br /><br />We returned to the Main Street Cafes, the cafeteria in the basement level of the American History Museum, and ate outside in view of the Washington Monument. The weather all day was very pleasant, partly cloudy, a gentle breeze, ideal for an August day. We wandered through a little more of the museum, visiting the pop culture exhibit, where we saw the Ruby Slippers Judy Garland wore in the 1939 movie <em>The Wizard of Oz</em> and a quilt exhibit. We shopped in the museum bookstore.<br /><br />Next we crossed the Mall again and walked clear down toward the U.S. Capitol to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where we saw the Wright Brothers' original plane they flew at Kitty Hawk, touched a piece of the moon, viewed <span style="font-style: italic;">Mission to MIR</span> in the IMAX theater (the first time any of us except Anna had seen an IMAX presentation), saw the Spirit of St. Louis that first crossed the Atlantic, and walked by numerous other planes and rockets and capsules that illustrate the history of flight during this past marvelous century.<br /><br />We were tired of walking by now and should reasonably have called it a day but decided to walk down to the Washington Monument and then beyond clear down to the Lincoln Memorial. From the Washington Monument, you can see the U.S. Capitol to the east, the White House to the north, and the Lincoln Memorial to the west. From the Lincoln Memorial, which I personally find one of the most inspirational sites in Washington, we visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.<br /><br />Then walk, walk, walk some more along 23rd Street to I Street, past the Department of State and George Washington University, to catch the Metro at the Foggy Bottom station and return to Virginia. Our walking was not quite through yet: we still had to walk the eight blocks from the Ballston station to our Comfort Inn. We estimate we may have walked 5 miles today. We drove in the minivan to find a place to eat and did so at a place called Diner 29.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, August 20, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia</em><br /><br />We awoke early, ate breakfast in the motel, and took off for Lynchburg. It was a beautiful three-hour drive, first west along I–66 and mostly south on U.S. 29, which was marked as the Seminole Trail, the 29th Infantry Memorial Highway, and for part of the way the James Madison Highway. The only major city we passed was Charlottesville.<br /><br />In Lynchburg we stopped at a Hardee's for lunch, using the occasion to teach Mary what the phrase "Ox in the mire" meant. Then we drove to church to attend meetings in the Lynchburg First Ward, where we were warmly welcomed. Larry Young's brother, Roger, is the bishop. His wife, Sue, is the gospel doctrine teacher in Sunday School. Camilla met Josh Lloyd, who will also be a freshman at Southern Virginia College.<br /><br />We went to the Youngs' home afterward for dinner and spent several delightful hours visiting with them. They have five children, an older married daughter who lives in Layton and who is expecting their third grandchild, a son returning from the Brazil Recife Mission in less than three weeks, a 17-year-old Eric, a 15-year-old Brett, and an 11-year-old Jenny.<br /><br />We went and found our Comfort Inn, where the four girls stayed in one room and Claudia and I in another. We called several people back home: Claudia in Bountiful (Kay was sustained today as first counselor in the 36th Ward bishopric), Shauna in Layton (Michael left today for a week in Boston), Rebecca in Layton (she returned home yesterday from girls camp), Rachael in Kansas City, and Talmage and Carisa's answering machine in Bountiful.<br /><br /><strong>Monday, August 21, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia</em><br /><br />Our Comfort Inn served a full hot breakfast, which we weren't overly impressed with. We took our time getting going and even watched most of the musical <em>Oklahoma!</em> on TV, which Camilla had never seen before.<br /><br />We drove east from Lynchburg on U.S. 460, somewhere between 20 or 30 miles, to Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, the site where Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee ended the Civil War in April 1865.<br /><br />We then drove back to Lynchburg, ate lunch at a Subway, filled the car with gas (at $1.29 a gallon, the cheapest we'd seen on the trip), and followed U.S. 501, a winding, scenic highway over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Buena Vista.<br /><br />Southern Virginia College is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on a prominent hill overlooking the town of Buena Vista. We stopped at Main Hall, where Camilla will be living on the fourth floor. It was built in the late 1800s as a resort hotel and in 1900 was purchased by Southern Virginia Seminary, a two-year women's college. A few years ago the failing seminary was purchased by a group of eastern LDS businessmen and turned it into what is now Southern Virginia College.<br /><br />We wandered around the campus and then drove up and down the streets of Buena Vista, trying to get a feel for the town of 6,000-some people.<br /><br />We drove over to Lexington, about six miles away, at the intersection of I–64 and I–81, and found the Comfort Inn that will be our home for the next three nights. We ate at the Shoney's restaurant next door.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday, August 22, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia</em><br /><br />Another slow start. Breakfast at this motel is served until 10:30, and we didn't go until the final half hour.<br /><br />A little before noon we headed north through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley on I–81 and east on I–64 to Shenandoah National Park. We drove about 25 miles along the Skyline Drive, penetrating maybe a fourth of the way along the 105-mile length of the park. Anna and Eliza hiked nearly two miles along the Appalachian Trail, which winds 1,000-plus miles from Georgia to Maine. The rest of us drove to the next parking area that intersected with the trail, and I hiked back toward Anna and Eliza while Claudia, Camilla, and Mary waited in the car.<br /><br />At Loft Mountain Wayside we stopped for milkshakes, bought postcards and CDs, and took a bathroom break. Then we retraced our route back out of the park and continued south on the Blue Ridge Parkway until it intersected with U.S. 60, which we took the final few miles into Buena Vista. We went to the SVC bookstore, now called the Light on the Hill Bookstore, to look for sweatshirts. Eliza and Mary bought one to share.<br /><br />We returned to Lexington, ate at Applebee's, and returned to our motel.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday, August 23, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia</em><br /><br />Today we deposited Camilla at Southern Virginia College. She is in room 435 on the top floor of the Main Building. We checked her in starting about 10:30 and hauled all her stuff up the stairs. Then we drove back to the Walmart in Lexington to shop for stuff she still needed (pillows, garbage can, hangers, toiletries, etc.) and ate lunch at the Burger King. We took her stuff to her room and returned to the K–Mart in Lexington for the second list of stuff we thought of (a fan, laundry detergent, more hangers, etc.) before returning to the school.<br /><br />We ate dinner with Camilla in the school cafeteria. We also sat with Emily, one of her roommates, and Emily's mother. Camilla has three roommates: Emily from Tennessee, Rheanna from Iowa, and Elizabeth from Rhode Island. Emily is a sophomore; the other three are freshmen.<br /><br />Camilla came back with us to the motel in Lexington to watch the final two-hour episode of <em>Survivor</em> on TV. After it was over, we drove her the six miles back to Buena Vista to sleep her first night in her dorm room.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, August 24, 2000</strong><br /><em>Virginia, Maryland</em><br /><br />After three days in the same Comfort Inn, we got up, had breakfast, packed our belongings, and checked out. We drove to Buena Vista, found the post office, and mailed 15 postcards. We then drove up to Southern Virginia College to see if we could find Camilla, which we did in the ballroom. We ate lunch with her in the cafeteria, went up to her room a final time, took pictures, and said our good-byes. A few tears were shed. And we were gone.<br /><br />After stopping for gas and at the Subway for Anna and Mary to get their lunch (they did not eat with us in the cafeteria), we started our return to the Washington D.C. area. We headed north on I–81 until we turned east on U.S. 211 to Shenandoah National Park. Tuesday we had driven the bottom fourth of the park. Today we drove the top fourth. Then we continued east on I–66 to the Alexandria area.<br /><br />When we got to our Comfort Inn in Ballston, the same one we stayed in our first two nights, the area was without power and we were unable to check in. As we sat waiting in the car in the parking lot, we wondered what it would take to go home a day early (Friday morning instead of Saturday morning). With Camilla safely deposited and all of us beginning to feel travel weary (there is only so much gorgeous scenery and fascinating history we can assimilate in a week), we decided anything else was anticlimactic.<br /><br />We made various calls on the cell phone and were able to change our airplane tickets and make all the arrangements. The $75 per ticket change fee, totaling $375 for the five of us, was nearly canceled out by our turning the car in a day earlier, a day's less food and other expenses, and canceling our motel reservations for tonight and tomorrow night. Mary Ann Holt had arranged for a friend to give us a tour of the U.S. Capitol tomorrow, and we finally reached Mary Ann on the phone to cancel that also.<br /><br />We ate dinner at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) in Ballston, drove to Baltimore, turned in our rental car, and beginning about 10:00 spent all night waiting in the airport for our 6:30 flight to Houston. It was like having a seven- or eight-hour layover. Not a good idea.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, August 25, 2000</strong><br /><em>Maryland, Texas, Utah</em><br /><br />We thought morning would never come as we waited all night in the freezing airport. We boarded our plane at about 6:00 and flew to Houston. This time we were not as scattered throughout the plane: Claudia and I were together on one row, and Anna, Eliza, and Mary were together on another. Other than eating the little breakfast they served on the plane, I think most of us pretty much slept the whole three-hour flight.<br /><br />Our layover this time in Houston was only a little over an hour, and then we flew home to Utah, arriving in the Salt Lake airport just before noon. Rebecca and Shauna came in their cars to pick us up. It had been a wonderful week, but we were glad to be home. (The flight from Houston to Salt Lake was over booked, probably because of us, and they were offering a $200 travel credit plus a flight later in the afternoon for anyone who would give up his seat. I was interested, but after waiting all night in the Baltimore airport no one else would even think of it, so we all came on home.)<br /><br />In the afternoon Mom and I drove Anna back to Ephraim and saw the house at 200 South Main Street, where she is living with Bethany and Rebekah Youngs. Claudia actually stayed awake the entire return trip to keep me awake.<br /><br />This morning while waiting for our flight home I wrote a letter to Camilla:<br /><blockquote>Dear Camilla,<br /><br />I am writing this first letter to you while sitting in the Baltimore airport. It is about 2:00 in the morning, a time of day calculated in any time zone in the country that I should be in a bed somewhere asleep.<br /><br />But I'm not. Instead, we are sitting here at gate C6 a day earlier than planned waiting for our 6:30 flight to Houston. Anna, Eliza, and Mary are sacked out on the floor. I tried that earlier but decided it was too hard for my old body. Mom is sleeping while sitting in one of these uncomfortable waiting room chairs. I tried that too, but so far that hasn't worked either. I have finished reading one of the books I got for my birthday, wrote in my trip journal, and am now writing this letter to you.<br /><br />After we left you, we drove through a different part of Shenandoah National Park and then back to the Washington D.C. area. We were going to stay in the same Comfort Inn in Ballston that we stayed in our first two nights. When we got there, their power was out and we couldn't check in. So as we were sitting there waiting, we got wondering what it would take to leave a day earlier (Friday morning instead of Saturday morning).<br /><br />We called Continental Airlines to see if there were seats even available on Friday. There were, but it would cost us $75 per ticket to make the change. We quickly calculated the savings from turning our rental car in a day earlier, not eating expensive Washington D.C.-area food all day Friday, and not staying in a motel either Thursday or Friday nights would all add up to the $375 it would cost us to leave a day earlier.<br /><br />So we went for it, canceling motels and our tour of the Capitol building on Friday, and so on. We were all getting a little travel weary and, frankly, after leaving you, all everyone wanted to do is get home.<br /><br />We drove to Baltimore, turned in the rental car, and have been here in the airport since about 10:00 Thursday night, waiting to get on our plane sometime around 6:00 Friday morning. It didn't seem worth paying for a motel for that short of a time, so here we are waiting, waiting, waiting in a cold, empty airport. I'm not sure how good of an idea that was, but here we are. It will be an additional memory I'm sure we'll never forget.<br /><br />It's now 2:30, probably three hours before the airport starts coming back to life and the ticket counter reopens.<br /><br />I never did get around to giving you a father's blessing. I originally meant to do it Sunday night. And then was going to on Tuesday evening. And should have Thursday afternoon when just we were there together in your room. I feel bad about that—the fact that we didn't do it.<br /><br />I am confident, however, that you will have a good school year. I pray that you will, that you will take full advantage of the opportunities that come to you, that you will study hard, that you will participate fully in your ward, that you will befriend those who are lonely, that you will bless and lift those about you, that you will have joy in the journey.<br /><br />Remember that there are a lot of us back home who love you, who are praying for you, who are pulling for you, who are wanting you to succeed. And there are those also on the other side of the veil who likewise—and probably even more so—love you and are interested in your happiness and success.<br /><br />Read your patriarchal blessing from time to time, such as every fast Sunday, to be reminded of what the Lord has in mind for you. Study the scriptures every day. And say your prayers. Simple things, but oh so important!<br /><br />I guess that’s my prayer for you. And my blessing.<br /><br />Sent with all my love, Dad.</blockquote>Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-7789337959508201602010-08-15T11:34:00.004-06:002010-08-16T11:02:27.739-06:00Trip to Washington<b>Monday, August 2, 2010</b><i> </i><br />
<i>Utah and Idaho </i><br />
<br />
Rebecca, Hyrum, and Mimi came and picked me up here in Bountiful about 10:30 in the morning. We were traveling in her car. I dropped her off at Costco to pick up a few items for our travels, and I filled the car there with gas. About 11:00 we actually hit the road and headed north on I-15 and then I-84 into Idaho. As we crossed the border, we honked the horn and of course sang "Here We Have Idaho" or my best rendition of it.<br />
<br />
It was a pleasant day for traveling and, though we hit some stretches of road construction, none of them were onerous or impeded our travel much. We stopped at the first rest stop into Idaho to stretch our legs and use the bathrooms. A few hours later we exited the freeway and drove into Twin Falls to see the impressive Snake River Canyon, the Twin Falls Idaho Temple, and to eat lunch at a Wendy's. Becca and I both had salads, although I did splurge with a chocolate milkshake for dessert.<br />
<br />
We continued on to Boise and then to Nampa, where we found Dale and LeAnn's house and where we spent the night. Dale called other family members, and eventually Lyle; Gene, Cheryl, and Ronnie; and Rex, Jackie, and Jared joined us for the evening. When Dale first called Gene, Cheryl answered the phone and said she was on her way to see him in the hospital in Boise. There had been a combine fire, and he inhaled smoke or fumes or something and had to be hauled off in an ambulance. After a few hours they determined he was going to be okay and released him. And then they came to Dale's house to visit.<br />
<br />
We followed Dale and LeAnn around in their car as we went to visit places from my childhood, such as Nampa High School, the final home my parents lived in just off Greenhurst Road, the first home we had south of Nampa off of Missouri Avenue, and the Scism School, where I attended parts of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.<br />
<br />
Except for Lyle, everyone else arrived after our little tour of the historic sites of Nampa. It was a late night by the time everyone arrived, visited, and finally went home, but it was good to see them all.<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday, August 3</b><br />
<i>Idaho, Oregon, and Washington</i><br />
<br />
We woke up (not too awfully early), ate breakfast, visited a bit more with Dale, gassed up the car at the Nampa Costco, and hit the road again sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 in the morning. We had contemplated driving out through where we used to live in eastern Oregon but decided not to due to the late hour of our starting. We thought maybe we could catch it on our return trip.<br />
<br />
We continued west on I-84, honked as we crossed into Oregon, where I pointed out that Ontario was the town I was born in, and continued, with one rest stop, across eastern Oregon, up and over the Blue Mountains, and stopped in Pendleton for gas and lunch at a Subway. We then continued west until we intersected with I-82 and followed it across the Colombia River into Washington. We stayed on I-82 until we hit I-90 and then west from there. We stopped at another rest stop just before climbing into the Cascade Mountains. As we reached the western slope of the Cascades and into the Seattle area, we took I-405 (where we endured massive traffic backups) and I-5 north to Everett. Mimi decided she really liked all the trees in this part of Washington and thinks she would like to live here.<br />
<br />
We went first to our motel, the Best Western Navigator Inn, and then drove back to greet Camilla and Sam in their Great Harvest bakery. Our motel is about a mile from their bakery and apartment. We arrived in Everett about 6:00 Sam time (aka Pacific Daylight Time), or 7:00 Mountain time, some eight or so hours after leaving Nampa. A long but pleasant day of driving. This was Becca's first trip to Washington since Chris and Camilla had moved here, and she thought their little bakery was absolutely darling.<br />
<br />
After Camilla closed their store at 7:00, we walked across the parking lot to a carnival/fair at the far end of the parking lot by the grocery store to meet Chris and wandered around and got some free food (Chris had a booth there giving away free bread) and watched Hyrum and Sam play on a big inflatable slide. We then went to Chris and Camilla's apartment to visit before returning to our motel.<br />
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<b>Wednesday, August 4</b><br />
<i>Washington</i><br />
<br />
Camilla and Sam came to our motel to pick us up, and Hyrum and I went with her to the free kids movie at the theaters in Everett Mall across the street from where their bakery is located on Everett Mall Way. We saw <i>Doogie</i>, I think the name of it was, and then returned to the Taylors' apartment.<br />
<br />
In the afternoon, armed with a lunch from the bakery, we all went for a picnic on a beach on the Puget Sound for a couple of hours. We drove by the Boeing plant to show Becca, Mimi, and Hyrum where they make the big airplanes. The weather was absolutely delightful for a day at the beach.<br />
<br />
In the evening Chris and Camilla and Sam came over to visit at our motel suite, and the two four-year-olds had a great time playing in the whirlpool hot tub in the room that Becca, Mimi, and Hyrum are sleeping in. I sleep on the couch in the part of the suite that is the living room and kitchen. (We are in suite 400 on the top floor of the hotel.)<br />
<br />
<b>Thursday, August 5</b><br />
<i>Washington</i><br />
<br />
Every morning I get up earlier than everyone else and go down to the exercise room on the main floor and walk on the treadmill for half an hour. Then I come back to the room and take Hyrum down for breakfast. He is a pretty picky eater, but I have been able to get him to eat some waffle and drink some milk, and we take some fruit (apples and oranges) and some yogurt back to the room for later snacking.<br />
<br />
Camilla and Sam came to our motel again to pick us up, and the four of us followed in Becca's car to a park next to a little lake, where we sat on wet grass and watched a puppet musical show about pirates. We returned to the bakery for lunch. We hung out at the apartment in the afternoon until it was time to go out to a farmer's market at Lake Stephens, where Chris has a booth every Thursday evening. We wandered around the little farmer's market, ate some Mexican food for our supper, sampled bread and such, and sat on the grass by the lake and listened to the musical concert. A delightful evening.<br />
<br />
After we returned to Everett, Camilla and Sam joined us at our motel room, and Hyrum and Sam played in the hot tub some more. They did not even need to know the place had a regular swimming pool. This was just their size anyway.<br />
<br />
<b>Friday, August 6</b><br />
<i>Washington</i><br />
<br />
Although the weather has been lovely all week since we arrived, today was overcast and cooler and threatened rain much of the day. I tended Mimi, Hyrum, and Sam in the motel while Rebecca and Camilla went to the Seattle Washington Temple to do initiatory work. The two of them had a nice visit on the drive to and from the temple.<br />
<br />
We decided to go down to Seattle this afternoon, so we stopped at the Everett Costco for lunch, and then all drove in one car (Becca's Mazda) to downtown to go to Pike Street Market. It was exceedingly crowded, packed with wall-to-wall people, which made it fun trying to keep track of two busy, inquisitive four-year-olds, but we enjoyed the outing. Getting to Pike Place, we drove through parts of downtown Seattle, including by the base of the famed Space Needle. <br />
<br />
<b>Saturday, August 7</b><br />
<i>Washington, Oregon, and Idaho</i><br />
<br />
It had been a fun week, which went by all too fast. Fortunately, we did not pack it too tight with too many activities. We had nice visits with Chris, Camilla, and Sam, and it was particularly fun for the two four-year-old cousins, Hyrum and Sam, to play together. And Chris and Camilla and Sam live in a spectacularly beautiful part of the country.<br />
<br />
We packed, checked out of the motel, and stopped by the bakery to say good-bye to Chris, Camilla, and Sam. By about 9:00 Sam time (10:00 Mountain time) we were leaving, retracing our route along I-5, I-405, I-90, I-82, and I-84 back across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to Nampa. We stopped for gas in Yakama and ate lunch at an Arctic Circle. At a town called Prosser in south central Washington, we got off I-82 and took a little detour south and then east before rejoining I-82 just before it crosses the Colombia River back into Oregon. We also stopped at a rest stop in the Blue Mountains just east of Pendleton. Somewhere in eastern Oregon, both going and coming, we passed a sign that said, "45th Parallel, Half Way Between the Equator and the North Pole."<br />
<br />
At Ontario we stopped to get gas again and drove by the Holy Rosary Hospital, where I was born in the summer of 1949. The hospital looks a lot different and is a lot larger than it was then. We contemplated driving to Nyssa, the Owyhee Ward chapel, Adrian, and by the old homestead where I first lived on the Oregon-Idaho state line, but we had been in the car enough today, so we passed on that little side trip.<br />
<br />
We reached Dale and LeAnn's house in Nampa about 7:00 in the evening, where we ate, visited, and played games. He was going to try to gather more of the family together again, like he did Monday evening, but none of the rest of them could make it.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday, August 8 </b><br />
<i>Idaho and Utah</i><br />
<br />
We left Nampa this morning and spent approximately five hours driving home to Layton. Mimi and Hyrum slept much of the first half of the trip until we stopped at a rest stop near Malta. It seemed to me that both yesterday's and today's return legs of the trip went by much quicker than when we were driving on our way to Everett earlier in the week.<br />
<br />
And now our trip was over.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-46525501949017986032010-07-27T19:27:00.003-06:002010-07-28T06:18:03.876-06:00Trip to Houston<b>Prelude</b><br />
<br />
Clouds moved in yesterday afternoon, and it rained some along the Wasatch Front, and humidity increased. The weatherman on TV talked about how humid it was and would continue to be during the coming days. Claudia and I had just returned from Houston, and this was not humid. Not even in the same ball park. Houston is humid.<br />
<br />
Humidity in Salt Lake has never caused my glasses to fog up when I leave an air-conditioned building. That happened to me half a dozen times during the five days we were in Houston.<br />
<br />
In fact, when we first mentioned to people that we were going to Houston, their incredulous response was always, “Houston in July? Why would you want to do that?” One person even told me that we should be able to find inexpensive lodging since no one goes to Houston in the summer.<br />
<br />
We were able to find lodging in the MainStay Suites on Old Spanish Trail, near the hospital district, and not far from the Reliant Center (what used to be known as the Astrodome) that housed all six of us and fed us breakfast every morning and provided a place to exercise and park our two cars and was reasonably air-conditioned—all for $115 a day. Whether that was inexpensive I cannot say, but it seemed reasonable to me for housing six people (that works out to only $19.17 a day per person), especially when precious few places even allowed six people to stay together in the same room.<br />
<br />
As to why we would go to Houston in July, that was easy enough. Eliza asked us to come play with her and two of our grandchildren (Peter, who will be four in October, and Aaron, who will be two in December) while Paul was off at class all day. He was here for a week doing a compounding seminar.<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday, July 20, 2010</b><br />
<i>Utah, Colorado, Texas</i><br />
<br />
About the time Michael was driving Claudia and me to the airport to catch our flight to Houston, Paul and Eliza were arriving in Houston by car from Atlanta. They had made the same trip in May and knew they had about a 13-hour drive in front of them. This time they left after Paul finished work on Monday and drove about five hours and stayed overnight in Mobile, Alabama, and then spent eight hours driving the rest of the way to Houston. Peter was disappointed that we were not already there.<br />
<br />
Our plane was 15 minutes late leaving Salt Lake, and we were concerned that we had only 30 minutes in Denver before our next flight was scheduled to leave. Fortunately, the pilot flew fast enough to make up the 15 minutes we were late. There had been severe thunderstorms across Colorado, so everything was backed up in Denver. The plane we were concerned about getting on hadn’t even arrived at the gate yet to disgorge its passengers from wherever they were coming from. We waited and waited. Finally, the plane came, and we waited while the passengers filed off. We boarded the plane, and we waited inside the plane. The pilot announced that continuing thunderstorms prevented our being cleared to take off. We waited some more. We left Denver an hour late.<br />
<br />
The first half of the flight from Denver to Houston was about as turbulent as any I’ve ever experienced. Claudia slept through most of it. She was bundled up in her sweater, which should have been a clue to me that she was not well. Even after arriving in Houston, she left her sweater on. That confirmed it. She later explained that whatever was ailing her had turned on all of a sudden while we were sitting in the Salt Lake airport waiting to begin our trip. Even though our plane arrived after midnight, it was still hot and muggy, and she was freezing.<br />
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We had arranged a rental car and were concerned the Alamo rental site would be closed before the shuttle got us there. It closed at 1:00 a.m., and we got there about 15 minutes before that. We picked up our car, an economy model, and also decided to pay extra to rent a GPS unit for the week. That was a good decision. It proved invaluable.<br />
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We found our hotel without much difficulty and tried to enter the room quietly so as not to wake everyone up. Eliza did greet us and asked if I wanted my birthday surprise right then. The previous day had been my 61st birthday. I said we could wait until morning when everyone else would be up, but she couldn’t wait. She then announced that she was pregnant. She and Paul are expecting their third child on January 7. That was a wonderful birthday surprise.<br />
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<b>Wednesday, July 21</b><br />
<i>Texas</i><br />
<br />
While the boys were still sleeping, Eliza drove Paul his class. Aaron, who by now was in the middle of the queen bed Paul and Eliza had slept in, woke up first and appeared completely bewildered. Here he was in a strange place with strange people in the bed next to him and no parents anywhere in site. He could see Peter sleeping over on the couch across the room. He kept stealing glances my way. He never did fuss or panic but looked, well, bewildered. Peter, on the other hand, was ecstatic when he woke up. He was so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa here finally.<br />
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Our room was on the fourth floor of the building and had a little balcony that looked out toward downtown. Planes approaching Hobby airport were easy to watch from the balcony. They had been watching the planes the night before, and Peter kept asking whenever there was a Southwest plane if Grandma and Grandpa were on it.<br />
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After Eliza returned from taking Paul, we all went down to breakfast. They offered a nice spread with lots of choices. We learned that Peter has become a picky eater, but Aaron will pretty much devour anything he can fit into his mouth. We were amused that the waffle maker produced waffles in the shape of Texas.<br />
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With Claudia not feeling well, we had a low-key day. She rested much of the day. Eliza and I took the boys and went shopping first at Sam's Club and then at Kroger for food for the week. Our room had a stove top (but no oven), microwave, refrigerator, small sink, and very limited counter space, so we could deal with simple meals. Both the Sam's Club and Kroger were conveniently nearby.<br />
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In the late afternoon Eliza, Peter, Aaron, and I went to pick Paul up from his class. We then went to Chuck-E-Cheese to eat and play. We were there several hours. As we walked out to the parking lot, I had the first of several instances of my glasses fogging up. (Actually the second; the first occurred when we stepped out of the airport when we first arrived in Houston at something after midnight.)<br />
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We drove back to the Alamo car rental place near the Hobby airport to sign Paul up as an additional driver on the rental car so he could take the smaller car to his class each day and leave us with their larger vehicle (which holds five of the six of us here).<br />
<br />
Wednesday evening I finally made phone contact with Rich and Amy Hogan. We are planning to attend church with them on Sunday, and Amy invited us to Sunday dinner afterward. While talking with Amy, she told us about the outdoor theater at a place called Miller Outdoor Theater, which I then looked up online.<br />
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A word about being online. Just before we all arrived, severe electrical storms had knocked out the hotel's telephone system, fried some of the DVD players, and completely interrupted wireless Internet service. People came into our unit at least twice checking on our phones (as if we would ever use them, since we all have cell phones). Our DVD player happened to work but only in black-and-white. No color. Our Internet service was spotty and easily interrupted.<br />
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<br />
<b>Thursday, July 22</b><br />
<i>Texas</i><br />
<br />
Claudia continues to feel sick. In the afternoon I took her to an emergency room at the Woman's Hospital of Texas to make sure she did not have a strep infection, such as was running through Michael and Shauna's family the previous week. She had a headache, sore throat, sore ears, and such. The doctor determined there was no strep but did prescribe an antibiotic just to be sure. Eliza and I went and filled the prescription at the Kroger's pharmacy.<br />
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<b>Friday, July 23</b><br />
<i>Texas</i><br />
<br />
Based on Amy Hogan's tip, this morning Eliza and I took Peter and Aaron to the Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park to see a stage performance of "Jack and the Beanstalk." It was a bit of a musical, and the characters engaged the audience at various points. The theater was near the entrance to the Houston Zoo. After the little play I paid for the $3-per-person tickets for us to take a train ride around the park. We judged it was about four or five times longer than the little train ride around Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo.<br />
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Claudia had stayed in the hotel to rest. It occurred to me that she is actually getting far better, more extensive rest here than she would have back at home. Plus, there was the added benefit for her of not experiencing the oppressive humidity and heat outside.<br />
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Paul, Eliza, Peter, Aaron, and I enjoyed an evening at the ballpark watching the Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros. There were fireworks after, so it was kind of like being in Utah to celebrate Pioneer Day. They were more impressive than what we would have seen this evening at Mueller Park Junior High had we been in Bountiful for Handcart Days.<br />
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Peter and Aaron are veteran game attenders, having attended several home games of the Atlanta Braves. Now they've been to one in Houston. And they did great. It's darling hearing them sing "Take me out to the ballgame . . ."<br />
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In Texas, after singing "Take me out to the ballgame" at the seventh-inning stretch, they also sing "Deep in the heart of Texas," the one that goes:<br />
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<i>The stars at night are big and bright</i><br />
<i>Deep in the heart of Texas.</i><br />
<i>The prairie sky is wide and high</i><br />
<i>Deep in the heart of Texas.</i><br />
<br />
And they sing all the verses. You have to love it.<br />
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The waffle maker in the hotel's breakfast room also makes Texas-shaped waffles, just as Eliza reported after their visit to Houston in May.<br />
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That reminds me of what a wife of a new mission president told me last month at the mission presidents' seminar. They were from Texas. She said something to the effect, "You don't really need to ask people where they are from. If they're from Texas, they'll tell you soon enough. And if they're not, you don't want to embarrass them."<br />
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<b>Saturday, July 24</b><br />
<i>Texas</i><br />
<br />
Paul and Eliza went to the temple this morning while we watched Peter and Aaron. Claudia and I get to the temple several times a month in Bountiful. The Atlanta Georgia Temple closed for major renovation shortly after Paul and Eliza moved there, so they get to a temple rarely.<br />
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Late in the afternoon we drove to the Downtown Aquarium and spent the evening seeing the fish and sharks and white Bengal tigers and such stuff. We rode the merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, and little train that went around the property. A nice evening. Claudia was feeling better and went with us. It was her first outing here, except for the trip to the hospital the other afternoon.<br />
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We watched a DVD movie back in our room after the boys went to sleep. <i>Invictus</i> was the story of Nelson Mandella's election as president of South Africa and his support of the nation's rugby team as it helped draw the country together by winning the 1995 rugby world cup. <br />
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<b>Sunday, July 25</b><br />
<i>Texas</i><br />
<br />
This morning we drove north to Spring, which is where the Houston Texas Temple is located, to attend church with our dear friends, Rich and Amy Hogan. Five of their six children are now married, and they have three grandchildren. Seventeen-year-old Cami still lives at home. We calculated we last visited in their home 15 years ago, in the spring of 1995, when we were driving across the southern tier of states on our way to see Rachael graduate from Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina. Eliza was 12 years old at the time.<br />
Church meetings were good. Laurie Harper Cole, the married daughter of Bruce and Jean Harper, also lives in the same ward. She and her family came in just as the meeting was starting and sat in the row just in front of us. Laurie really did a double take when she glanced back and saw us sitting there. We had a chance to visit briefly after sacrament meeting.<br />
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After church we drove by the temple and then to the Hogans' home for a delicious Sunday dinner that Amy prepared. We then visited for several hours and left around 8:00 p.m. to drive back to our hotel. It was a wonderful sabbath day. And Claudia was feeling much better today.<br />
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A dramatic thunderstorm moved through the area after we were back in our room.<br />
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<b>Monday, July 26</b><br />
<i>Texas, New Mexico, Utah</i><br />
<br />
We awoke early, after a fitful night wondering if we would hear the alarm and get up soon enough to get back to the airport. We got up about 6:30 (5:30 by the time we are used to), packed, said good-bye to Paul, and went downstairs to eat a final breakfast with Eliza, Peter, and Aaron. Peter particularly was sad that we had to be leaving. By now it was nearly 8:00, so we said our last good-byes, stopped to fill our rental car with gas, and then turned it in. A shuttle took us over to the airport. We stood in a long line to get through the security checkpoint, and then waited at our gate, where we boarded our plane.<br />
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I talked on the phone with Eliza, and she said she had asked the boys what was their favorite part of the whole week in Houston. They answered, "Grandma and Grandpa." <br />
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The flight left on time at 9:35 a.m. We flew to Albuquerque but stayed on the same plane while some passengers got off and new ones came on before we headed on home to Salt Lake City. We touched down in Salt Lake about 15 minutes early. Shauna, Andrew, Ethan, Marta, and Hyrum came to pick us up and drove us home to Bountiful.<br />
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It had been a good week. I talked on the phone with Eliza again to let her know we had made it safely home. She said they boys had been playing on the bed where we had slept, and Peter sweetly said, "It smells like Grandpa."<br />
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Paul's final day of his compounding class was Tuesday, after which they were hitting the road and heading on home to Atlanta.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-80909938122351993672010-07-21T10:23:00.011-06:002010-07-21T10:23:00.271-06:00Along the back roads of America<em>Journal excerpts from ten years ago recounting a 2,869-mile trip through six states, starting with a couple days at our condo in Lava Hot Springs and helping Rachael move to Kansas City to live with her friend Kathryn Kieffer</em><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Friday, July 21, 2000</strong><br /><em>Utah, Idaho</em><br /><br />Our adventure began about 5:00 this afternoon—just two hours after our original target—as our three cars pulled onto northbound I–15 at Layton: Rachael and Camilla in Rachael's blue Geo Prism, Eliza and I in our green Saturn, and Michael, Meghan, and Caleb in their tan Honda Accord. Traffic thinned out somewhere north of Ogden, probably near Willard Bay, which is about where the battery failed on one of our new walkie-talkies (we hadn't been sure it was fully charged), which we were using between our car and Rachael's.<br /><br />After we crossed into Idaho and Eliza had to endure my awful rendition of "Here We Have Idaho," we called Mom on the cell phone to report we were in a new state. She and Mary were staying home in Bountiful because of Mary's dizzy spells. Shauna and Jacob were in Layton. Cade, Rebecca, and Mimi starting today were spending a week at a condo near Eden. Talmage and Carisa were at Lake Powell. And Anna is in Ephraim working at Snow College for the summer.<br /><br />By 7:00 we reached Lava Hot Springs, a little resort town ten or eleven miles east of I–15 on US 30. With two or three exceptions, we have come here every July since 1980 to stay in our condo at Hot Springs Village. This year we are only staying a couple days.<br /><br />About 7:20 all of us but Rachael went swimming in the big pool. It was not crowded, and Meghan and Caleb especially enjoyed going down the slide, mostly on Eliza's lap, occasionally on Camilla's, never by themselves. Meanwhile, Rachael had gone to Shawn's Market to buy food for supper and had macaroni and cheese, rolls, and a berry drink ready for us when we returned from swimming.<br /><br />Michael and I, still in our wet swimsuits, went quickly to the store to get hotdogs and sherbet to add to Rachael's supper and also fixings for breakfast.<br /><br />I slept alone in the big bed on the east end of our unit. Michael, Meghan, and Caleb, who started out in the bunk beds, ended up sleeping on the floor at the foot of my bed. Rachael and Camilla each slept on one of the hide-a-beds in the west end. Eliza slept on the bottom bunk.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, July 22, 2000</strong><br /><em>Idaho</em><br /><br />This morning Eliza and I took Meghan and Caleb for a walk along the Portneuf River that runs through town and back along Lava's Main Street. By the end we were carrying them on our shoulders.<br /><br />Knowing there was a Pioneer Day parade sometime this weekend, we tried to find out when. A kid in one of the shops on Main Street thought it was today at 4:00, 5:00, or 6:00. The lady in the grocery store thought it was tomorrow at 5:00. And Gerri in the condo office thought it was either at 10:00 this morning or 6:00 this evening, having been told those alternative times, she said, by someone who was actually going to be in the parade. It turned out to be at 6:00 this evening.<br /><br />Back at the condo, after our walk, Eliza and I fixed waffles, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for breakfast. Camilla cleaned up afterward.We had a pretty lazy day, which is what Lava for us is all about. We spent time reading, playing pool and other games at the club house, playing on the swings and other outdoor toys with Meghan and Caleb, watching TV, and such. Caleb likes the trains that rumble by several times a day, just like his daddy did 20 years ago.<br /><br />This afternoon we went to the ice cream parlor on Main Street, Smitty's Sweet Shop. Caleb, who had the smallest cone possible, was a dripping mess by the time he had eaten all he wanted of his. Sitting in the air-conditioned shop, eating our ice cream, was a welcome break from the oppressive heat outside. It was a hot one (97 degrees we heard on the news tonight, 103 degrees down in Salt Lake, where poor Mom was tending house with a broken air conditioner that won't get fixed until next Wednesday at soonest).<br /><br />Michael, Meghan, and Caleb left for home at 3:15, as soon as we had finished at the ice cream store. Shauna had called earlier to see how everyone was doing and to mention her dad had driven up this morning in a minivan and took away their old red car. Wow!<br /><br />The four of us remaining—Rachael, Camilla, Eliza, and I—played pool, fixed shredded potatoes and hot dogs for supper, went to the little parade (actually just Eliza and I went to the 10-minute parade), and drove out to historic Chesterfield, now a ghost town with some of its buildings well preserved. It was founded in 1880 by settlers from Davis County who were finding Utah getting too crowded. We walked through the cemetery, which is well kept, and looked at headstones. Many of the same surnames seen in the Bountiful cemetery were here: Call, Hatch, Holbrook, Sessions, Muir. The earliest birth date we could find was 1822. The earliest death date 1888. The most recent burial 1998.<br /><br />Back in Lava, we stopped at Shawn's Market to buy ice and provisions for our travels tomorrow.<br /><br />Several times during the day we talked with Mom on our cell phone. This way she gets to share in the journey without having to ride in the car or endure the summer heat (except she is doing that at home anyway with a broken air conditioner). She doesn't do heat well.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, July 23, 2000</strong><br /><em>Idaho, Wyoming</em><br /><br />We awoke, ate breakfast, got ready for church, and at 10:00 attended sacrament meeting in the Lava Hot Springs Ward. We returned to our condo, packed and cleaned up, ate lunch, and at 1:15 headed east on US 30 toward Soda Springs.<br /><br />We decided we wanted to see Star Valley, which we'd never been to before, so we headed north out of Soda Springs on state highway 34, a scenic drive that took us north and east into Wyoming near Freedom. We headed south on US 89 through Thayne, Grover, Afton, and Smoot. We reached an elevation of 7,630 feet crossing the Salt River Pass before slipping back into Idaho briefly and then back into Wyoming for the rest of the day.<br /><br />At Border, Wyoming, we rejoined US 30 and followed it south to Cokeville, east to Kemmerer (the home of J.C. Penney), and southeast to I–80, which we then traveled along past Little America, Green River, and Rock Springs to Rawlins, where we spent the might at the Sleep Inn. The air conditioning had been knocked out by a lightening storm a couple days earlier, so we were given an additional discount off our room. We ate sandwiches, Jell-o, pop, and cookies in our room. Eliza and I went for a walk at sunset.<br /><br />We arrived in Rawlins about 7:30, a little over six hours after leaving Lava. Camilla and Rachael drove in one car, Eliza and I in the other. We used our walkie-talkies to communicate with each other. Eliza read me chapters from Ray Bradbury's <em>Dandelion Wine</em> as we traveled. Anna called us from Michael and Shauna's house just as we were approaching the tunnel by Green River. We talked to Mom a couple of times. She informed us that Uncle Irv, my dad's twin brother, had died Friday. He was 85.<br /><br /><strong>Monday, July 24, 2000</strong><br /><em>Wyoming, Nebraska</em><br /><br />Pioneer Day, which we spent at Martin's Cove, Devils Gate, Independence Rock, and Scotts Bluff—all important landmarks along the Oregon, California, and Mormon pioneer trails.<br /><br />We ate breakfast at the Sleep Inn, filled the cars with expensive gas ($1.65 a gallon), and headed north out of Rawlins on US 287. Not far out of town we waited for about 20 minutes because of road construction. At Lamont we stopped to take pictures of the sign saying "Lamont, Population 3."<br /><br />Camilla, Eliza, and I had been to Martin's Cove with Mom and Mary three years ago, during the pioneer sesquicentennial. This was Rachael’s first visit. We went through the visitor center, watched a brief film about the experiences of a boy in the Martin Handcart Company of 1856, pulled a handcart out to the Veil Crossing, walked over to Devils Gate, and returned the handcart (with my riding while the three girls pulled me) back to the parking lot.<br /><br />Next we drove 10 miles or so further east to Independence Rock. Rachael and Camilla waited at the rest stop at the bottom while Eliza and I climbed to the top. (Eliza had been on top of Ensign Peak on Independence Day and now Independence Rock on Pioneer Day.) From the top we called Mom at home and used our walkie-talkies to communicate with Rachael and Camilla at the bottom.<br /><br />We then continued on to Casper, the second largest city in Wyoming, where we stopped to eat at a Pizza Hut and where Rachael made comments in front of our waitress about how ugly Wyoming was. We then headed south on I–25 until US 26 took off east toward Nebraska. We arrived in Scottsbluff a little before 6:00 and checked into our room at the Comfort Inn.<br /><br />This evening we drove out to Scotts Bluff National Monument, where Donna Davey, one of the park rangers, was very kind in helping us. She let us drive the mile and a half to the top, although it was nearly time to close the road for the evening, and was most helpful when we returned back to the visitor center. She even gave us helpful hints on where to eat and how best to drive back to our motel.<br /><br />On the way back, as we were driving through Gering, we stopped to eat at a Runza restaurant, famous throughout Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Colorado for its Runza sandwich, which has German–Russian roots stretching back to the 18th century. The unique blend of fresh ground beef, cabbage, onions, and special spices baked inside home-made bread has been passed down for generations and debuted commercially in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1949, the year I was born. Rachael had a Swiss and mushroom Runza sandwich, I had a tossed salad, and Camilla and Eliza had cheese and broccoli soup and milkshakes.<br /><br />Hyde Frederickson called tonight to report that Jack White in our ward died this evening. He had lain down for a nap and was gone by two hours later when Helen went in to wake him up for dinner. [<em>I was serving as bishop at the time and felt bad I was not there to assist Helen and her family and even contemplated ways I could abort the trip and get back to Utah. I also wanted to be home for my Uncle Irv's funeral, but in the end I missed both funerals.</em>]<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday, July 25, 2000</strong><br /><em>Nebraska</em><br /><br />This morning, after getting ready for the day and eating our standard continental breakfast, we were on our way again. Just east of Scottsbluff we stopped alongside the Burlington Northern tracks to see the grave site of Rebecca Winters, a pioneer woman who died at age 50 from cholera as she was traveling with her family along the Mormon Pioneer Trail. I believe she is an ancestor of my uncle, Dean Winters.<br /><br />We continued a few miles more until reaching Chimney Rock, probably the most famous landmark along the pioneer trails. We had our National Park passport, which we had purchased the night before, stamped and saw a film in the visitor center and bought postcards.<br /><br />We then turned north on US 385 toward Alliance, where we went to Carhenge a few miles north of town. Thirteen years ago the people who owned the farm decided at a family reunion to build an exact replica (as to size, dimensions, and orientation) of England's famous Stonehenge but out of cars instead of stones. Interesting.<br /><br />We took pictures, returned to Alliance, ate lunch at McDonald's, and headed east along Nebraska highway 2 through the beautiful and isolated Sand Hills country. We passed successively through or by little towns represented by dots on the map: Antioch, Lakeside, Ellsworth, Bingham, Ashby, Hyannis, Whitman, Mullen, Seneca, Thedford, Halsey, Dunning, Anselmo, Merna—many of them so small they didn't even have the water towers or grain elevators common to Midwestern towns.<br /><br />Mullen, one of the larger towns with 500-some people, located near the Middle Loup River at the intersection of highways 2 and 97, is the only town in all of Hooker County. Another 200 people live scattered on farms throughout the rest of the county. Just east of Mullen, at the county line, we crossed from the mountain into the central time zone.<br /><br />At Broken Bow we stopped for gas and a snack. Less than 20 miles further, at Ansley, we turned off highway 2 onto 92, with a clear shot east (through half a dozen more counties) to Omaha. This portion of the trip was through lovely rolling farm country rather than the rolling grasslands of the Sand Hills region. Loup City, Ashton, Farewell, St. Paul, Osceola, Shelby, Rising City, Wahoo were the towns we passed. A gorgeous sunset was at our backs at Wahoo.<br /><br />It was dark by the time we reached our Comfort Inn in Omaha. We had spent the entire day traveling the back roads of Nebraska, not once coming anywhere near an Interstate, and it had been a wonderful day. We ate a late supper in our motel room with take-out from an Arby's restaurant.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday, July 26, 2000</strong><br /><em>Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri</em><br /><br />Every other day the girls switch cars: Eliza rode with me on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday; Camilla rode with me on Monday and again today.<br /><br />This morning we visited the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters, a lovely new visitor center built since our last visit here seven years ago when we were taking Rachael to Peace College in North Carolina. In the center we met a Sister Wakefield, a niece of Garth Wakefield, who works with me in the Missionary Department. We also met an Elder and Sister Ross Williams, whom we knew in Rose Park 24 years ago. After taking the tour of the center and watching a film about the Saints' stay at Winter Quarters in 1846–47, we walked through the peaceful pioneer cemetery and saw the new temple under construction next to the cemetery. It is supposed to be completed by the end of the year.<br /><br />Back on I–680, we drove across the Mormon Memorial Bridge into Iowa, joined I–29 and headed south into Council Bluffs, where we found the reconstructed Kanesville Tabernacle, where Brigham Young was first sustained as the second President of the Church, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as his counselors in the First Presidency, at a special conference on December 27, 1847. Elder Williams, whom we had seen over in Winter Quarters, was our tour guide. He let Camilla and me play an old organ—over a hundred years old, he said—in the tabernacle.<br /><br />We ate lunch at a Blimpie restaurant up the street, got gas, found I–80, and headed back across the Missouri River into Nebraska. Back in Omaha, we headed south on US 75 down the eastern edge of Nebraska rather than driving on I–29 down the western edge of Iowa. The Missouri River forms the boundary between the two states.<br /><br />South of Nebraska City, we turned off US 75 onto state highways 128, then 67, to find the little town of Talmage, population 246, and took pictures. (There is also a Talmage in Kansas that has only 126 people living in it.)<br /><br />We returned to US 75 and at Auburn turned east on US 136, crossed the river into Missouri, and headed south another 100 miles or so on I–29 to Kansas City. From our visit here last summer, we were able to drive straight to the Kieffers' house at NW Adrian Terrace, which is just off I–29 at exit 5. Mom and Dad Kieffer are in Utah this week, Kenny had left for work at 3:30, and Kathryn was supposed to have been home from work by 5:00. It was about 6:45 when we arrived, and Rachael went through the garage, which was not locked, and peeked her head in the door into the house, which was not locked, calling for Kathryn, who was not home, and set off the burglar alarm, which was not turned off.<br /><br />So we waited outside. Half an hour later two policemen showed up in a squad car to see if everything was OK. We explained the situation and apparently looked honest, and they were nice about it, but had we been actual burglars we could have hauled away a lot of the house before they arrived. We waited some more. A friend of Kathryn's came by and knew how to turn the alarm off, so we were able to wait inside the house. She said Kathryn had gone shopping with a friend. We waited some more. Still no Kathryn, so finally we wrote her a note with our cell number on it, and we went to eat dinner at an Applebee's. Kathryn was home when we got back, and we sat up visiting until midnight.<br /><br />Severe thunderstorms moved across the Kansas City metro area and put on quite a spectacular light show, reminiscent of our visit here last year when lightening knocked down their neighbor's tree. (This afternoon, when we were still in southeastern Nebraska, we had heard on the radio tornado watches for southeastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa, although the weather looked fine to us at the time.)<br /><br />Uncle Irv's funeral was held today in Woods Cross.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, July 27, 2000</strong><br /><em>Missouri</em><br /><br />Tonight, sitting in the Kieffers' living room in Kansas City, I finished reading one of my birthday books, Larry McMurtry's <em>Roads: Driving America's Great Highways</em>. I share McMurtry's passions for books and the road (he lists a third: women) and have enjoyed both during this week's foray into middle America. Not only did I read <em>Roads</em>, but Eliza has been reading aloud from Ray Bradbury's <em>Dandelion Wine</em> as we made our way across the back roads of Wyoming and Nebraska.<br /><br />In his final chapter, McMurtry writes, "Some years ago I had a sobering realization about women, which was that there are just too many nice ones. . . .<br /><br />"As it is with women, so it is with roads. There are too many nice ones. I could go on for a long time, driving America's roads. I could see the sandhills of Nebraska, follow the old Oregon Trail along the North Platte, see the Tetons, dodge moose in Maine, slip down to Salt Lake City and remind myself what an inspired city planner Brigham Young had been.<br /><br />"But I can't drive all the roads. On even the narrowest highways that I've driven on these trips, and in even the smallest towns, there are signs pointing down even narrower highways to even smaller towns, many of which I will never see."<br /><br />Something like that thought occurred to me yesterday afternoon as we were pushing south along US 75 in eastern Nebraska. Our fourth child and second son is named Talmage. We knew from our road atlas that a little town named Talmage, population 246, was in these parts.<br /><br />As we were looking for Talmage, we overshot our intended turn off by a few miles, so turned instead onto a little paved road that after a half mile turned into "a rock road," so called by the friendly farmer from Talmage who stopped to see if we needed help as we sat at roadside studying the atlas. He wondered who we were visiting in Talmage and, after explaining our purpose in visiting there, explained that we could indeed arrive there along the rock road (what I would call a dirt or gravel road) that his tractor was planning to follow but suggested we go back and take the regular road instead. "Maybe I'll see you there," was his parting comment. He seemed so helpful, I was almost surprised we weren't invited for supper.<br /><br />We backtracked to state highway 128, one of those narrower roads that lead to even smaller towns that McMurtry referred to, and I thought of all the myriads of little roads like this that crisscross the places people call home. After a few miles heading west, we turned south on state highway 67 and after another couple miles had to take an even narrower road, a half-mile spur that led to the little town. Talmage. Like so many other towns we've seen here in the Midwest, the name was proudly emblazoned on the town's water tower, as if water towers wandered off or were misplaced and had to be returned from time to time to their rightful owners.<br /><br />Today was a rest day. It was afternoon by the time we were ready to go find the Liberty Jail visitor center and deliver a package of pamphlets from Winter Quarters. We took the tour at Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and his companions were in prison during the cold winter of 1838–39 and where some of the most sublime revelations were given to the Prophet.<br /><br />We then drove back to Independence in Jackson County and visited the home of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States. He was the president when I was born in 1949 and Claudia in 1951. The guided tours through the home are limited to only eight people at a time. We were the last tour of the day.<br /><br />Afterward we drove by the Truman Library eight blocks away, the temple and other world headquarters sites of the RLDS Church, the LDS visitor center, and the National Historic Trails site (which had just closed for the day).<br /><br />We drove back to the Kieffers' house in Platte County, and Kathryn had dinner ready for us. Rachael and Kathryn went off to an Institute class this evening. Camilla, Eliza, and I caught up on journals, read, and such. I finished reading <em>Roads: Driving America's Great Highways</em>.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, July 28, 2000</strong><br /><em>Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming</em><br /><br />Today we headed home. We told Rachael good-bye and took off. She was standing in the Kieffers' driveway as we left, looking pretty sad, reminding us of an August afternoon seven years ago when we left her bawling in a parking lot at Peace College.<br /><br />It rained on us pretty much all the way up I–29 to the Iowa border. During the 13 miles we were in Iowa before crossing the river at Nebraska City, it did not rain. At Lincoln, where we stopped for lunch at a Runza restaurant, it started raining again and did for a while as we headed west along I–80.<br /><br />Originally we had a motel reservation at Ogallala in the western part of Nebraska, but we were reaching there by mid-afternoon, so we called and canceled that room and made a reservation for Rawlins, Wyoming, the same motel we had stayed in last Sunday. All they had available, unfortunately, was a smoking room, which we took but later regretted.<br /><br />We stopped for supper at a Wendy's in Laramie, Wyoming. As we were pulling onto the highway again, I observed that we were now 700 miles away from Rachael and was overtaken by such a sense of sadness, an emptiness, that she was now so far away from home. We will miss her a lot.<br /><br />It was about 9:00, thirteen hours after we left Kansas City, when we pulled into our Sleep Inn in Rawlins. The stench in the smoking room we were put in was pretty bad and caused everything we took into the room to smell. Eliza had a hard time sleeping because of it.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, July 29, 2000</strong><br /><em>Wyoming, Utah</em><br /><br />We awoke right at 6:00, ate our breakfast, and were on the road toward home by 6:40. At Little America we stopped to buy 35¢ ice cream cones and fill the car with gas. After we reached Utah, we took I–84 down Weber Canyon, then south on US 89, and then I–15 to Bountiful. Mom called us on the cell phone as we were passing Farmington, and Camilla and I each talked to her until we were on 500 West in Bountiful. Our intent was to surprise her; she wasn't expecting us until this evening. Finally, she asked where we were, and I gave a vague enough answer that she was totally surprised when we walked in the door only moments later. It was 11:00 and our trip was over.<br /><br />According to our odometer, our house is 1,100 miles from the Kieffers' house in Kansas City by the route we took home. During the 2,869 miles of our trip, we saw license plates from 40 states (we were missing Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia) and 4 Canadian provinces (we saw Alberta, British Colombia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan). Our highest elevation was 8,640 feet on I–80 at Laramie Pass in Wyoming. Our lowest was probably when we crossed the Missouri River at Kansas City. We stayed in four different motels (in Rawlins, Scottsbluff, Omaha, and again in Rawlins) and spent $245.70 for lodging. We stopped 10 times for gas and spent $123.38 for fuel. We spent about $165 on food and about $30 on other stuff. We traveled through parts of six states (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri). And Eliza read aloud all but 30 pages of Ray Bradbury's <em>Dandelion Wine</em>. It was a wonderful trip.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-9309651541889728622010-03-21T21:19:00.001-06:002010-03-23T21:45:29.851-06:00123,456 miles!Sunday evening, after we had returned from church and ate our dinner, Claudia and I went for a ride in our old 1998 Ford Windstar minivan. We took the back roads through Bountiful and Centerville to Farmington and drove by the house where Chris and Camilla lived for a while when they were house sitting for a missionary couple. We also drove by the historic rock home on the corner of 100 East and 500 North where my grandmother used to live after she married Harry Pledger. And by the old rock church where the first Primary was organized.<br />
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Less than a mile later, while still in Farmington, we pulled over to the side of the street we were on and took this picture of our odometer showing that our car had traveled 123,456 miles.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8VSj5DZawsuF3iL3WQ20OOliORaURzldohj4-y7AnKOzbJWId69oC7UEgH4n7UJv0zt_pMXiPnrDo4I_5BtenzWLI4tK2rGaTvUu7AoJBByBjYJHEO25gFhM_qQCQQmgzNibLBg/s1600-h/Mileage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8VSj5DZawsuF3iL3WQ20OOliORaURzldohj4-y7AnKOzbJWId69oC7UEgH4n7UJv0zt_pMXiPnrDo4I_5BtenzWLI4tK2rGaTvUu7AoJBByBjYJHEO25gFhM_qQCQQmgzNibLBg/s400/Mileage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Not quite as far as the 222,222 miles <a href="http://esperto96.blogspot.com/2010/03/you-dont-see-this-on-your-odometer.html">Talmage's Saturn</a> has traveled, but just as classy.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-44035234654419216882010-01-31T10:20:00.002-07:002010-01-31T10:21:53.908-07:00Isaiah class: My view<div style="color: #0b5394;"><i>My view on some of the ideas concerning the last of the last days in response to what was discussed by Avraham Gileadi during the ten-week Isaiah class Michael and I attended in Provo last fall. I wrote this little piece in early December, near the end of the series.</i></div><br />
The Lord's way of keeping time does not correspond to the way we measure the passing of days and weeks and months and years. There are hints of that fact throughout the scriptures. In a revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith on September 11, 1831, the Lord declared, "Behold, now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/64/23#23">D&C 64:23</a>). Apparently the period of time from 1831 until the Second Coming, however soon that might be, is as a single day to the Lord.<br />
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The Lord expects us to study the scriptures (see, for example, <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/5/39#39">John 5:39</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_tim/3/14-17#14">2 Timothy 3:14–17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/10/14#14">3 Nephi 10:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/26/1#1">D&C 26:1</a>; and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/33/16#16">D&C 33:16</a>), with particular command to search the words of Isaiah (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/11#11">3 Nephi 20:11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/23/1#1">3 Nephi 23:1</a>; and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/morm/8/23#23">Mormon 8:23</a>). However, do we need to exercise a little caution before making too fine a distinction about sequences and timing that were prophesied millennia ago concerning events that will occur during this "day" we are in—particularly when that "day" extends for at least a couple hundred of years according to our present reckoning?<br />
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To say that Isaiah, confirmed by Book of Mormon prophets, talks about certain events as a single end-of-time scenario, happening all at once or in short succession, all of it yet future to us, may not correspond precisely to what the Lord Himself has revealed in our day. Additionally, there are examples of prophecies that have multiple fulfillments.<br />
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Let's consider some specific examples:<br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394;">The Lord performs a great and marvelous work</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span> In at least five separate revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord declares that "a great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men" (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/4/1#1">D&C 4:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/6/1#1">6:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/11/1#1">11:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/12/1#1">12:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/14/1#1">14:1</a>). All five of these revelations came in a five-month period from February to June 1829, at about the time the priesthood was being restored and less than a year before the Book of Mormon would be published and the church of Christ would be officially organized. It seems from the context of these latter-day revelations that the Lord expected us to understand that the "great and marvelous work" was then beginning in the early decades of the nineteenth century, not at some point yet future to us in the opening years of the twenty-first century.<br />
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In confirmation of that fact, the Lord told Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer in June 1829 that "by your hands I will work a marvelous work among the children of men" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/18/44#44">D&C 18:44</a>; see also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/121/12#12">D&C 121:12</a>). If we believe the revelations, there will be a great and marvelous work yet to happen in this dispensation, greater and more marvelous than anything we have yet seen, but it does not seem accurate to say that the great and marvelous work does not also refer to what the Lord has already been accomplishing in the earth over the past 180 years.<br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394;">The Lord sets His hand the second time</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span> In a vision given to the Prophet Joseph in January 1836, the Prophet used this very phrase to describe the restoration of the gospel when he referred to the death of his brother Alvin in November 1823, which occurred some six years before the restoration of the priesthood and reestablishment of the Church: "And [I] marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord set his hand to gather Israel the second time" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/137/6#6">D&C 137:6</a>). In January 1833 the Prophet wrote, "The time has at last arrived when the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has set his hand again the second time to recover the remnants of his people" (<i>Teachings</i>, 14).<br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394;">Gentiles reject the gospel after receiving it</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span> In the same January 1833 letter, the Prophet wrote of the gospel going to the gentiles in the meridian dispensation: "And the Gentiles received the covenant, and were grafted in from whence the chosen family were broken off; but the Gentiles have not continued in the goodness of God, but have departed from the faith that was once delivered to the Saints, and have broken the covenant in which their fathers were established (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/24/5#5">Isaiah 24:5</a>); and have become high-minded, and have not feared; therefore, but few of them will be gathered with the chosen family. Have not the pride, high-mindedness, and unbelief of the Gentiles, provoked the Holy One of Israel to withdraw His Holy Spirit from them, and send forth His judgments to scourge them for their wickedness? This is certainly the case" (<i>Teachings</i>, 15).<br />
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The Prophet in this missive clearly refers to a rejection of the gospel by the gentiles as an already accomplished fact in that day, either an instance of the prophecy already being fulfilled or an instance of multiple fulfillments of the prophecy. He says that not many gentiles will be gathered, suggesting that the millions of Latter-day Saints gathered over the past 180 years have been primarily from scattered Israel.<br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394;">Israel receives the gospel</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span> Isaiah and the prophets in the Book of Mormon may preserve the distinction that Latter-day Saints are those "who are identified with the Gentiles" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/109/60#60">D&C 109:60</a>), as the Prophet Joseph prayed in the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, but the Lord apparently does not always maintain that distinction in the latter-day revelations: "For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/103/17#17">D&C 103:17</a>), the Lord said of the Saints in Missouri in February 1834. A few months later, in June 1834, the Lord refers to the Latter-day Saints as "the army of Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/105/26,30#26">D&C 105: 26, 30)</a>.<br />
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"Thou shalt preach the fulness of my gospel," the Lord said in a January 1831 revelation, "which I have sent forth in these last days, the covenant which I have sent forth to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/39/11#11">D&C 39:11</a>). In another revelation, in August 1831, the Lord spoke of Edward Partridge as "a judge in Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/58/17#17">D&C 58:17</a>; see also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/107/72,76#72">D&C 107:72, 76</a>).<br />
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In the revelation through President Brigham Young, the Lord declared "the word and will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeying to the West" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/136/1#1">D&C 136:1</a>). In that revelation the Lord declares, "I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. . . . and my arm is stretched out in the last days, to save my people Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/136/21-22#21">D&C 136:21–22</a>). In context, the Lord is clearly referring in this revelation to saving the Latter-day Saints, whom He calls "my people Israel," who were heading toward the Great Basin in the West.<br />
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Latter-day prophets, from the days of Joseph Smith down to our present day, have consistently referred to the gathering that has been going on for the past nearly two centuries as the gathering of Israel despite the fact that certain identifiable portions of the house of Israel (such as the Jews and the Ten Tribes) are yet to be gathered.<br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394;">Many fight against Zion</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span> This has been the lot of the Latter-day Saints since the beginning of the Restoration. The fight may well intensify in the very end of times, before the Savior returns, but opposition and persecution has been characteristic of the entire latter-day dispensation, beginning as soon as Joseph walked out of the Sacred Grove and continuing in Missouri and later in Illinois and in Utah and on down to our present day, in some seasons more intense than others.<br />
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When the Saints were being driven from their lands in Missouri in the 1830s, the Lord referred to the enemies of the Church who were fighting against Zion and said concerning His people, "I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so I will fulfill—I will fight your battles" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/105/14#14">D&C 105:14</a>). Once again, the fighting against Zion appears to be one of those prophecies with multiple (or even ongoing) fulfillments.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-1556900562583794702010-01-30T09:12:00.052-07:002010-01-30T09:35:40.992-07:00Isaiah class concludedThe last of our ten weekly classes with Brother Avraham Gileadi on the book of Isaiah was held on Thursday evening, December 17, in Provo. With the rush of the holidays, my catching a cold that has persisted since the beginning of the new year, its morphing into a sinus infection this past week, and incredible busyness at work, I have never taken an opportunity to craft a final report on the experience.<br />
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In previous posts I have reported on specific content from eight of the weekly classes. Those posts, particularly <a href="http://i50.blogspot.com/2009/12/isaiah-class-9.html">the summary from the ninth class</a>, offer a reasonable overview of what we covered.<br />
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There were also intangible benefits from our enrollment in the class. I greatly appreciated spending five or so hours every Thursday evening driving to and from Provo and attending the class with my first-born son Michael, together with the time the two of us spent at the end of the evening, by which time it was way past my normal bedtime, discussing some of what we learned with his mother and my wife, Claudia. I also greatly appreciated sitting at the feet of such an eminent Isaiah scholar seeking to understand and comprehend his various insights concerning Isaiah's teachings about the end of times. A good way to increase understanding is to come at a topic from fresh approaches and to consider viewpoints that lift you out of the routine ruts that you are accustomed to traveling in.<br />
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It was a good class. And I am grateful that we chose to participate.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-78117305450277359782010-01-08T17:24:00.003-07:002010-01-08T17:36:16.857-07:00Meghan ReportingHello Cleverly Family! This is Meghan writing. Let me fill you in on some things that have been happening lately. Well if you haven't heard my dad (Michael) has been shaking, thirsty, and unexplained sudden weight loss. They thought that he might have diabetes but we have determined that he doesn't. He went in 2 days at LDS Hospital. He had to drink radioactive iodine. It has been discovered that he has Graves Disease as well as a hyper active thyroid.<br />
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And today we got a call saying that while Jacob was in gym playing fishy fishy cross the sea he went from standing up to on the ground. We think that he slipped because he doesn't have good tread on his shoes. He hit his head really hard. My mom and I were in Bountiful about to take the twins to the dentist for the first time. A really nice neighbor picked Jacob up from school and was going to take him down to Bountiful where my mom would then take him to the doctor. So, Grandpa Dean had to talk to the people at the dentist, so he, my mom, the twins, and I were there. Then my mom left to go take Jacob to the doctor. At first he couldn't remember his name but then he did. But didn't remember anything that happened. So after the dentist Grandpa Dean took us to his house. My mom and Jacob had to go to Primary Children's Medical Hospital. We just got a call from my mom saying that they were in the E.R. there and Jacob was going to have a Cat Scan. Poor Jacob. We are waiting for more details.<br />
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Thanks for everyone's help!!!! What an exciting time!<br />
~meghan~Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-87192079797038344242009-12-15T19:07:00.000-07:002009-12-15T19:07:00.538-07:00Isaiah class 9<em>Thoughts from the ninth of ten classes, Thursday, December 10, 2009</em><br /><br />For the first time since this series of classes started, Avraham Gileadi provided us an actual handout with scriptural references from Isaiah and the Book of Mormon concerning the major points he has been making. He titled his compilation "The Book of Mormon's Endtime Scenario of Concurrent Events Based on the Prophecies of Isaiah."<br /><br />These are the 14 endtime events he listed, which taken all together constitutes Israel's restoration:<br /><br /><ul><li><strong>The Lord sets His hand the second time</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/14#14">2 Nephi 6:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/17#17">25:17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/1#1">29:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jacob/6/2#2">Jacob 6:2</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11/11#11">Isaiah 11:11</a>).</li></ul><p></p><ul><li><strong>The Lord makes bare His arm</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/10-11#10">1 Nephi 22:10–11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/20#20">3 Nephi 16:20</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/35#35">20:35</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/9#9">Isaiah 51:9</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/10#10">52:10</a>).</li></ul><p></p><ul><li><strong>The Lord's servant fulfills his mission</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/43-45#43">3 Nephi 20:43–45</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/8-11#8">21:8–11</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11/10-12#10">Isaiah 11:10–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/41/2,25,27#2">41:2, 25, 27</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/42/1-7#1">42:1–7</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/44/26-28#26">44:26–28</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/45/1-6,13#1">45:1–6, 13</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/46/11-13#11">46:11–13</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/14-16#14">48:14–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/1-9#1">49:1–9</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/50/4-10#4">50:4–10</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/7-9#7">51:7–9</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/13-15#13">52:13–15</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/53/11-12#11">53:11–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/55/3-5#3">55:3–5</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The Lord performs a great and marvelous work</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/7,17#7">1 Nephi 14:7, 17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/8#8">22:8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/17#17">2 Nephi 25:17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/1#1">29:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/30/8#8">30:8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/9,26-29#9">3 Nephi 21:9, 26–29</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/14#14">Isaiah 29:14</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The gentiles reject the gospel after receiving it</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/28/24-32#24">2 Nephi 28:24–32</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/10#10">3 Nephi 16:10</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/15,28#15">20:15, 28</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/22/11#11">21:11</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/28/7-29#7">Isaiah 28:7–29</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/9-16#9">29:9–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/41/21-29#21">41:21–29</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/42/18-25#18">42:18–25</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/50/1-11#1">50:1–11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/56/9-12#9">56:9–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/1-7#1">48:1–7</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/59/1-16#1">59:1–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/66/5-6#5">66:5–6</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Many fight against Zion</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/14,19#14">1 Nephi 22:14, 19</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/12-13#12">2 Nephi 6:12–13</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/13,16#13">10:13, 16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/14#14">29:14</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/7-8#7">Isaiah 29:7–8</a>).</li></ul><p></p><ul><li><strong>Kings and queens of the gentiles nourish the house of Israel</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/6-8#6">1 Nephi 22:6–8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/6-7#6">2 Nephi 6:6–7</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/8-9,18#8">10:8–9, 18</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/4#4">3 Nephi 16:4</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/43/3-8#3">Isaiah 43:3–8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/22-23#22">49:22–23</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/60/1-16#1">60:1–16</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Israel receives a knowledge of the gospel</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/15/13-16#13">1 Nephi 15:13–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/9,11#9">22:9, 11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/11,14#11">2 Nephi 6:11, 14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/7#7">10:7</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/16,18#16">25:16, 18</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/13#13">29:13</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/4,11-12#4">3 Nephi 16:4, 11–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/13,30-32,40#13">20:13, 30–32, 40</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/7-8,26-27#7">21:7–8, 26–27</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/6-8#6">Isaiah 48:6–8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/6-8#6">52:6–8</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The saints and covenant people of the Lord are endowed with power</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/14#14">1 Nephi 14:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/17#17">22:17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/14#14">2 Nephi 6:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/15#15">3 Nephi 16:15</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/16-17,19,22,36#16">20:16–17, 19, 22, 36</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/11-13,25#11">21:11–13, 25</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/41/8-16#8">Isaiah 41:8–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/9-10#9">51:9–10</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/1-3#1">52:1–3</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Israel returns from dispersion</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/12#12">1 Nephi 22:12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/6,11#6">2 Nephi 6:6, 11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/8-9#8">10:8–9</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/14#14">29:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/5#5">3 Nephi 16:5</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/13,18,29,33,41-42#13">20:13, 18, 29, 33, 41–42</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/1,23-29#1">21:1, 23–29</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11/10-12#10">Isaiah 11:10–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/43/5-8#5">43:5–8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/8-12,22#8">49:8–12, 22</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/11#11">51:11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/11-12#11">52:11–12</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The wicked are destroyed</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/5-7,15-17#5">1 Nephi 14:5–7, 15–17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/13-19#13">22:13–19</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/14-18#14">2 Nephi 6:14–18</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/30/9-10#9">30:9–10;</a> <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/15#15">3 Nephi 16:15</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/16-20#16">20:16–20</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/12-21#12">21:12–21</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/41/2,11-16#2">Isaiah 41:2, 11–16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/43/14-17#14">43:14–17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/47/1-15#1">47:1–15</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/24-26#24">49:24–26</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/54/5-17#5">54:5–17</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The righteous are delivered</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/5,14#5">1 Nephi 14:5, 14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/17,19#17">22:17, 19</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/16-17#16">2 Nephi 6:16–17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/30/10#10">30:10</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/36-38#36">3 Nephi 20:36–38</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/42/7#7">Isaiah 42:7</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/43/1-4#1">43:1–4</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/45/13-17#13">45:13–17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/20-121#20">48:20–21</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/24-25#24">49:24–25</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/11,21-23#11">51:11, 21–23</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/1-12#1">52:1–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/55/12#12">55:12</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Israel receives lands of inheritance</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/12#12">1 Nephi 22:12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/11#11">2 Nephi 6:11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/7,10,19#7">10:7, 10, 19</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/14#14">29:14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/5,16#5">3 Nephi 16:5, 16</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/14,21-22,29,33-34,46#14">20:14, 21–22, 29, 33–34, 46</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/22-24#22">21:22–24</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/44/26,28#26">Isaiah 44:26, 28</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/8#8">49:8</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/3#3">51:3</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/54/2-3,11-12#2">54:2–3, 11–12</a>).</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>God fulfills His covenants with the house of Israel</strong>: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/5,8,17#5">1 Nephi 14:5, 8, 17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/15/18#15">15:18</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/6,9,11#6">22:6, 9, 11</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/12#12">2 Nephi 6:12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/7,15,17#7">10:7, 15, 17</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/1,14#1">29:1, 14</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/16/5,11-12#5">3 Nephi 16:5, 11–12</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/12,22,25-27,29,46#12">20:12, 22, 25–27, 29, 46</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21/4,7#4">21:4, 7</a> (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/54/10#10">Isaiah 54:10</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/55/3#3">55:3</a>).</li></ul><p>Brother Gileadi's contention is that if we as Latter-day Saints read the Book of Mormon thinking we are Israel, we will get it all wrong. In Book of Mormon terms, we are identified with the gentiles. Although, having made covenants with the Lord, we are numbered among Israel.</p><p>His conclusion: "When carefully researched, analyzed, and compared, the foregoing scriptural references demonstrate how the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario consists of a series of concurrent events predicted by the prophet Isaiah. Drawing on different parts of the Book of Isaiah—as if all depict a single scenario—Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus provide variations on one theme: the restoration of the house of Israel, which house of Israel they identify as Jews, Lehi's descendants, and [the] Ten Tribes.</p><p>"Israel's restoration involves the Lord's 'setting his hand the second time' to restore his people; the Lord's 'baring his arm' to all nations; the Lord's servant fulfilling his mission to the nations; the Gentiles rejecting the fulness of the gospel after having received it; the Lord's performing his 'great and marvelous work' among the nations; many people, including former believers, fighting against Zion; the (spiritual) kings and queens of the Gentiles nourishing the house of Israel; the house of Israel accepting the fulness of the gospel; the saints and covenant people of the Lord being endowed with power over their enemies; the house of Israel returning from dispersion in an exodus from the four directions of the earth; the destruction of the wicked of the world and the deliverance of the righteous; the house of Israel and those numbered among them receiving lands of inheritance; and the Father's fulfilling his covenant with the house of Israel and with Israel's ancestors.</p><p>"By the Book of Mormon's own definition, this synchronized series of events constitutes the Lord's 'great and marvelous work' and defines God's fulfilling his covenant. Employing a literary device familiar from the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Mormon ties the above events together domino fashion within the scriptural passages cited above to establish a single endtime scenario that is still future. Only by taking all such passages together, not separately, therefore, does this complete scenario clearly appear. The chapters of Isaiah from which the above events are drawn comprise principally the Book of Isaiah's high point in the vicinity of Chapter 52, but include also others such as Chapters 11 and 29. As with the Book of Mormon passages, however, these chapters cannot be isolated from others in the Book of Isaiah—to which they are linked by linguistic, typological, and thematic interconnections—without distorting the message of both Isaiah and the Book of Mormon.</p><p>"The part played by Latter-day Saints, who are identified with the Gentiles in the Book of Mormon (D&C 109:60), is to facilitate Israel's restoration through seven phases, the first two of which precede the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario while the remainder comprise it: 1. the restoration of the gospel to the Gentiles; 2. the completion of the scattering of the house of Israel by the Gentiles; 3. the Lord's servant bringing forth the words of Christ to the Gentiles; 4. many Gentiles rejecting the fulness of the gospel after receiving it, resulting in their being 'cut off from among my people who are of the covenant'; 5. the kings of the Gentiles hearkening to the words of Christ that the servant brings forth and ministering to the house of Israel; 6. the gospel turning away from the Gentiles back to the house of Israel; and 7. the house of Israel's restoration. Just as Israel's ancient apostasy caused its scattering, so Israel's endtime receiving the gospel leads to its gathering.</p><p>"Auxiliary events to this scenario, based on prophecies of Isaiah that are not delineated explicitly in the Book of Mormon, include a 'great division' that occurs when many who are at ease in Zion cling to 'precepts of men' and reject the further word of God that comes forth. We may thus conclude that searching the words of Isaiah on which the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario is based, and searching the Book of Mormon's own words for what <em>they</em> say, not what we assume they say, may prove critical to our salvation when the Lord sees fit to unfold the next phase of these prophesied events."</p><p>With that foregoing conclusion you have a fair summary of what we have spent the past nine weeks learning. (And I thus saved you $100 and ten trips to Provo.) I wonder what is left for us to cover in the tenth class this Thursday.</p>Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-55393408315191388742009-11-30T21:06:00.002-07:002009-12-15T13:08:30.388-07:00Isaiah class 7<em>Thoughts from the seventh of ten classes, Thursday, November 19, 2009</em><br /><br />I took fewer notes this week than in any of the previous classes, partly because I was busy looking up other references as the discussion moved along, a lot of it question-and-answer stuff that I gather was not exactly what Brother Gileadi had originally intended to cover. And partly because we were just reading selections from various chapters of 1 and 2 Nephi that quote or paraphrase Isaiah's teachings on the events at the end of the last days.<br /><br />Some of the Book of Mormon passages we specifically looked at all describe or refer to the same latter-day scenario:<br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/8-19#8">1 Nephi 22:8–19</a> Correlated with other passages of scripture, particularly as presented throughout Isaiah, these latter-day events are all presented as a part of a single scenario.<br /></li><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/4-13#4">2 Nephi 6:4–13</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/7-19#7">2 Nephi 10: 7–19</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/1-8#1">2 Nephi 25:1–8</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/28/26-29#26">2 Nephi 28:26–29</a> It is a most damnable attitude to say "we have received enough and need no more." Intelligence is not just acquiring information but what we do with it.<br /></li><li><a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/29/1#1">2 Nephi 29:1</a> This single verse contains three events from the list we began constructing last week of things that will happen at the last day: a marvelous work, the covenants of the Lord, and the Lord setting His hand a second time to recover His people.</li></ul>Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-52434857687055406112009-11-15T20:22:00.002-07:002009-11-23T15:58:57.909-07:00Isaiah class 6<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Thoughts from the sixth of ten classes, Thursday, November 12, 2009</span><br /><br />The passages from Isaiah most quoted in the Book of Mormon (primarily by Nephi, Jacob, and the Savior) are chapters 48–55. They all refer to events in the last days. Interestingly, <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/53">Isaiah 53</a>, the one chapter that is clearly about the Savior, is not quoted (except as paraphrased by Abinadi) because that chapter has nothing to do with the last days. Book of Mormon writers, knowing that their writings would come forth in the last days, actually talk a lot about the last days.<br /><br />Isaiah is pretty much the only Old Testament frame of reference to the last days that the Book of Mormon writers had.<br /><br />There are relatively few Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament as we have it today. The Book of Mormon at least is pretty much silent on them. Given that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ, and that one of its central purposes is "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page), then it is curious that it would not have quoted more Messianic prophecies unless they were pretty much absent from the record. Some Messianic prophecies that are quoted, such as by <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/19/10,12,16#10">Zenock and Zenos</a>, do not appear in our current Old Testament.<br /><br />It is important, however, to remember that another one of the Book of Mormon's central purposes is "that they [the house of Israel] may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever" (Book of Mormon title page). The Isaiah passages, together with prophetic commentary on them by Nephi, Jacob, and the Savior, speak much about the covenants of the Lord with His people and that because of those covenants they will not be cast off forever. That is what the prophecies concerning the last days are all about. And why they figure so prominently in their writings.<br /><br />The Prophet Joseph Smith understood that he was just laying a foundation, the beginning of restoration. The Lord's latter-day servant, still yet to come, is also a restorer. The Savior's quoting of Isaiah in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/21">3 Nephi 21</a> makes clear that this all comes at the end of the last days. We need to tie down to what scriptures actually say.<br /><br />In a revelation the Lord gave in September 1832, the Lord spoke of a condemnation resting upon His people for treating lightly the things they had received, particularly the Book of Mormon (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/84/54-58#54">D&C 84:54–58</a>). President Ezra Taft Benson applied the same warning against the Latter-day Saints in the day that he presided over the Church. Perhaps a part of our condemnation for treating these things lightly is our ignoring Isaiah, whose teachings figure so prominently in the Book of Mormon.<br /><br />Isaiah, given the way it is constructed, is a whole tapestry; all the threads run together. We cannot take bits and pieces out of context. One remarkable things the Book of Mormon writers do is to take different parts of Isaiah and treat them as one single scenario. That is a key to understanding Isaiah.<br /><br />We started on a list of events that all happen together, that are all a part of one scenario, that occur in the last days.<br /><ol><li>A great and marvelous work (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/14#14">Isaiah 29: 14</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/7#7">1 Nephi 14:7</a>)<br /></li><li>Covenants of the Lord (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/54/10#10">Isaiah 54:10</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/5,8,17#5">1 Nephi 14: 5, 8, 17</a>)<br /></li><li>Fighting against Zion (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/8#8">Isaiah 29:8</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/14,19#14">1 Nephi 22:14, 19</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/6/12-13#12">2 Nephi 6:12–13</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/27/3#3">2 Nephi 27:3</a>)<br /></li><li>The house of Israel being nourished by the gentiles (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/22-23#22">Isaiah 49:22–23</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/8#8">1 Nephi 22:8</a>)<br /></li><li>The Lord making bare His arm (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/10#10">Isaiah 52:10</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/10-11#10">1 Nephi 22:10–11</a>) ["Arm" signifies divine intervention, the revealing of the Lord's servant]<br /></li><li>An endowment of power (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/1#1">Isaiah 52:1</a>; <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/51/9#9">Isaiah 51:9</a> / <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/14#14">1 Nephi 14:14</a> and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22/17#17">22:17</a>)<br /></li><li>Conversion of the house of Israel to the gospel (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/7-8#7">Isaiah 52:7–8</a>)</li></ol>We did not finish our list because we ran out of time.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-45273593798832010302009-11-12T10:00:00.000-07:002009-11-12T10:00:04.205-07:00Isaiah class 5<em>Thoughts from the fifth of ten classes, Thursday, November 5, 2009</em><br /><br />This past week has been like no other we have experienced in a long, long time, if ever, so I am very tardy in reporting on last Thursday's session with Brother Avraham Gileadi, but I thought I should do so before going off to the sixth class tonight.<br /><br />Although we are studying Isaiah, we spent much of the two hours in our fifth class reading and discussing parts of five chapters from two other Old Testament prophets: Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The intent, as I understood it, was to illustrate that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah were all on the same page, as prophets of the Lord were all teaching the same message, and were all seeing down to the end of times, our dispensation, and prophseying of the Lord's latter-day servant who would assist in the gathering of Jacob or Israel.<br /><br />We need a foundation in the Old Testament, Brother Gileadi affirmed, in order to understand the rest of the scriptures.<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>Old Testament > Book of Mormon > New Testament > Doctrine and Covenants</strong></div><br />The Book of Mormon, for example, as the above little diagram illustrates, begins in and grows out of an Old Testament setting and culture. It assumes a deep familiarity with the Old Testament. Then as a premier witness of Christ and His mission, the Book of Mormon prepares us for and helps us really understand what the New Testament is about. And so forth.<br /><br />We read from <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34">Ezekiel 34</a>. Sheep are a metaphor for the Lord's people. Beasts are a metaphor for Satan's people. The word "meat," as translated in the King James Version of the Bible, signifies "food." Mountains and hills signify nations.<br /><br />The Lord is always looking out for the poor. The Lord will search for and deliver them from all the places "where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/12#12">verse 12</a>). Causing them to "lie down," as in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/14-15#14">verses 14 and 15</a>, signifies rest, peace, and security. The "deep waters" mentioned in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/18#18">verse 18</a> refers to the deep things of God. Joseph Smith once wrote that he was wont to swim in deep waters (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/127/2#2">D&C 127:2</a>). The shepherds of the people were privy to the deep doctrines, the deep things of God, but muddied it up for others.<br /><br />The Lord is always gathering. <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/23-24#23">Verses 23 and 24</a> reference the latter-day servant of the Lord, who will be called David. <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/25-31#25">Verse 25 and beyond</a> describe the Millennial era, when evil will be gone from the earth, when there will be no more telestial people around, and the Lord's people will be safe in the land (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/27#27">verse 27</a>).<br /><br />We then turned to <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/37/15-28#15">Ezekiel 37</a> and, beginning with verse 15 to the end of the chapter, talked about the uniting of the tribes of Israel into one nation. The sticks, although we commonly in the Church refer to them as the records of the two nations, in the actual context of this chapter refers to the two nations or kingdoms. The Lord is speaking of making the two nations into one. The reference in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/37/23-27#23">verse 23</a> that they shall "be my people and I will be their God" is covenant language (see also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/37/23-27#23">verses 26 and 27</a> and also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ezek/34/24#24">Ezekiel 34:24</a>).<br /><br />A latter-day reference to the stick of Ephraim makes it clear that the stick actually refers to the house or tribe or nation of Ephraim (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/27/5#5">D&C 27:5</a>). Otherwise, the passage would be redundant, and the Lord would be saying that He had committed the keys of the record of the record of Ephraim.<br /><br />Next we read from <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/23">Jeremiah 23</a>, where it opens with the same woe pronounced against the leaders of the people (the "pastors" referred to by Jeremiah comes from the same word in Hebrew as the "shepherds" in Ezekiel). The rise of the latter-day servant always comes on the heels of the abuse by the shepherds or pastors of the Lord's people. We see the same scenario in Isaiah, in Ezekiel, and in Jeremiah.<br /><br />We then turned to <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/30">Jeremiah 30</a>, where it speaks of the latter-day servant David. The chapter heading interprets David as Christ, but it is clear from other passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah that the David mentioned in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/30/9#9">verse 9</a> is the latter-day servant of Christ. Jesus Christ or Jehovah is the Lord their God, and David is a king who serves under Him. The Prophet Joseph Smith seems to assert the same thing: "The throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised out of his lineage" (<em>Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,</em> 339).<br /><br />Compare also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/33/14-16#14">Jeremiah 33:14-16</a>. And <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/113/1-6#1">Doctrine and Covenants 113:1-6</a>, which is a revealed commentary on certain verses in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11">Isaiah 11</a> that speak of Christ as the Stem of Jesse and the rod of Jesse and the root of Jesse as a servant in the hands of Christ and who will hold "the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/113/6#6">D&C 113:6</a>).<br /><br />In <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/30/11#11">Jeremiah 30:11</a> the Lord declares that in the last days He will make a full end of the nations but not of thee, meaning Jacob or Israel.<br /><br />The Old Testament prophets know that what they are writing is ambiguous, and they seem to do it on purpose, as a test, to weed people out who are not spiritually attuned to understand and receive the message. From that vantage point, it is a merciful thing they do.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-183274019448177972009-11-01T22:00:00.000-07:002009-11-01T22:00:03.316-07:00Isaiah class 4<em>Thoughts from the fourth of ten classes, Thursday, October 29, 2009</em><br /><br />The most important lesson I took from this evening's class with Avraham Gileadi was that we have to fit all scriptures together, not just focus on one passage in isolation. Otherwise we will get into trouble and wander off course. We have to connect all the dots, put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and rely on the safety that comes from the scriptures' own internal checks and balances.<br /><br />Among all holy writ, the book of Isaiah is remarkable in its exquisite use of literary devices and structure to ensure that every truth is presented in more than one way in more than one place, often in multiple ways, to keep us from getting off base. There is hardly a thing in Isaiah that does not repeat itself somewhere else. The book has its own internal checks and balances.<br /><br />The scriptures all cohere. There are not contradictions. Apparent contradictions are there to weed out the insincere or lazy who really don't want to invest the effort, time, and energy to ferret out the truth. (He didn't say this, but I suppose there could be contradictions resulting from faulty transmission of the original text.)Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-10122144250395870212009-10-24T16:00:00.003-06:002009-12-16T11:16:12.538-07:00Isaiah class 3<em>Thoughts from the third of ten classes, Thursday, October 22, 2009</em><br /><br />We spent our two hours this week on <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49">Isaiah 49</a> (which Nephi quotes in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/21">1 Nephi 21</a> in the Book of Mormon). After some review of chapter 48 and other preliminaries, and the discussion of pertinent questions along the way, we spent the rest of the time dealing with only the first six verses of chapter 49. If we were to continue analyzing Isaiah at the same rate we've started, I calculate it would take us another 128 weeks to complete our study. And we actually have only seven sessions remaining. (Although I perceive that one thing Avraham Gileadi is trying to teach us is <em>how</em> to study Isaiah and other scriptures.)<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Preliminaries</span><br /><br />For the sake of his latter-day servant, the Lord promises (in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/9#9">Isaiah 48:9</a>) that He will not <em>entirely</em> destroy His people in the last days: "I have shown restraint toward you by not entirely destroying you." But that means He will <em>mostly</em> destroy them.<br /><br />An idol is anything that diverts our attention from the true and living God. It is possible to veer off course and to let a lesser law become the whole law. It happened to Judaism. It happened to early Christianity. It has even happened, Brother Gileadi contended, to Latter-day Saints. We do not do and hear all that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught us.<br /><br />Moses, at the foot of the mount, told Israel to both hear and do the word of the Lord (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/deut/5/1,25,27#1">Deuteronomy 5:1, 25, 27</a>). Replace the word "hear" with "understand." Adam offered sacrifice for many days before he was taught to understand why (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/moses/5/6-8#6">Moses 5:6–8</a>). But, as we seek to hear or understand, who has time to spend hours a day studying about God and His ways?<br /><br />We live in a very materialistic and idolatrous world, which we take for granted because we are products of that very world. Recognizing Babylon, let alone fleeing it, is not necessarily an easy thing to do.<br /><br />The Book of Mormon peoples did not have rabbinic Judaism; they had the law of Moses. Rabbinic Judaism developed after the Jews' return from Babylonian exile, and Lehi and his family left Jerusalem just before the exile. Book of Mormon prophets were very aware that the law of Moses was a foreshadowing of a higher law. They did not let the lesser law become the whole law.<br /><br />How grateful we should be to have the book of Isaiah, Brother Gileadi exulted. It is such a gold mine, a systematic theology, a paradigm of life, a guidepost. If we read only Isaiah, we would be well off. Can you imagine what our scriptures would be like without the book of Isaiah? Frankly, some people would not even notice.<br /><br />In <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/57/1#1">Isaiah 57:1</a> the righteous disappear, and no man gives it a thought.<br /><br />Throughout the book of Isaiah are various things the Lord is going to do: set His hand a second time (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11/11#11">Isaiah 11:11</a>), do a marvelous work and a wonder (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/14#14">Isaiah 29:14</a>), reveal the arm of the Lord (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/53/1#1">Isaiah 53:1</a>), and those who fight against Zion (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/8#8">Isaiah 29:8</a>). The Book of Mormon brings these diverse elements together into a single concept that are all to occur in the last days at the end of times (such as in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/22">1 Nephi 22</a>).<br /><br />It is no mere coincidence that <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/48/22#22">Isaiah 48:22</a> and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/57/21#21">Isaiah 57:21</a> say the same thing: there is no peace for the wicked. They are the final verse in their respective chapters. Both chapters are talking about the Lord's latter-day servant. Healing occurs for both the servant and for all Israel (what is for one is for the many who depend on him).<br /><br />In <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/6/10#10">Isaiah 6:10</a> the Lord's servant receives a commission to harden hearts. The reverse of what this verse says is the very formula for healing: see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand in their heart, and repent. Only God can bring about healing and peace. It is a form of covenant reversal. Healing comes over time. The gospel has the power to heal all wounds, not just effect forgiveness of sins. Only God can reserve covenant curses. Doing those things listed in verse 10 will eventually bring healing.<br /><br />And in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/53/5#5">Isaiah 53:5</a> we learn that peace and healing are synonymous. If there is no peace for the wicked, then there is no healing for them either (or vice versa).<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Our examination of the first six verses of chapter 49</span><br /><br />When Nephi quotes Isaiah 49 in 1 Nephi 21, it includes the things Nephi wants to tell us. There are probably at least two reasons why Nephi waits for several chapters after he tells us he cannot write more of the end-from-the-beginning vision before he quotes Isaiah: One, he wants to put some space between the two. And two, he lays a foundation for what he quotes; he tells their own exodus story.<br /><br />This exodus story is not unique. Ancient Israel did it out of Egypt. Lehi and his colony did it out of Jerusalem. The Lord has led people out from time to time (as we learn in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/10/22#22">2 Nephi 10:22</a>). The Latter-day Saints have done it. And it will occur again in the last days, Isaiah tells us, under the direction of the Lord's servant.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">1 Hear me, O isles; listen, you distant peoples:<br />The Lord called me before I was in the belly;<br />before I was in my mother's womb,<br />he mentioned me by name.</span><br /><br />The mission of the Lord's latter-day servant is to be worldwide—to the isles of the sea, to distant peoples.<br /><br />Here, as with Jeremiah (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/jer/1/5#5">Jeremiah 1:5</a>), is a plain reference to the premortal call or foreordination of this servant. The sense is clearer here in Gileadi's translation than the same verse in the King James translation, where it reads, "The <span class="smallcaps">Lord</span> hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/49/1#1">Isaiah 49:1</a>).<br /><br />The Lord's mentioning this servant by name before he was in his mother's womb is a reference to a premortal calling and election, a foreordination.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword</span>—<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">in the shadow of his hand he hid me.<br />He has made me into a polished arrow</span>—<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">in his quiver he kept me secret.</span><br /><br />"Hand" is a name for the Lord's servant. We know this from a similar passage in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/11/11-12#11">Isaiah 11:11–12</a>, where the Lord's servant is an ensign who rallies the people to come to the latter-day exodus and delivers them. He recovers a remnant of the Lord's people from the nations, assembles the outcasts of Israel, and gathers the dispersed of His people from the four corners of the earth.<br /><br />This servant is the Lord's secret weapon ("in his quiver he kept me secret"). He is not previously well known, like David, the youngest son of Jesse, at the time he was selected, was not known. Similarly, Christ was an upstart in his time, Joseph Smith in his, neither of them previously known to the establishment. The fact that he is "a polished arrow" suggests he has already gone through a refiner's fire. Arrow is not a friendly symbol; it goes straight to the heart.<br /><br />Like the word hand, "arm" is also a metaphor of the Lord's servant, such as in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/52/10#10">Isaiah 52:10</a>, where the baring of the arm is a revealing of the servant, setting everything in motion, bringing about the Lord's great and marvelous work, and bringing about the destruction of the people. "Arm" also symbolizes the power and intervention of God.<br /><br />Why does the Lord do this now? What setting calls it forth? He will preserve a remnant of Abraham's posterity, which He is required to do by covenant. The Lord has made unconditional covenants with various prophets. (The Sinai covenant, on the other hand, is a conditional covenant: if Israel will do thus and such, the blessings will follow.) The Davidic covenant was also unconditional, a paradigm for anyone who is a king or priest. In the last days, when the servant comes forth, the Lord has all these covenants He has to respond to.<br /><br />Returning to the notion of proxies discussed in previous weeks, Lot was saved for Abraham's sake, and Lot's daughters were saved for Lot's sake. Hezekiah interceded in behalf of all the people in Jerusalem in his day. Alma's prayer in behalf of Alma the younger is answered because of covenants already made to Alma the elder. That is why some equally as earnest parental prayers are not immediately answered with the appearance of an angel to the wayward child. It all has to do with covenants and associated promises.<br /><br />All that the Lord does is because of covenants the Lord has made in the past, including in premortality. Each person has an individualized path laid out for him or her. All terms of covenants that God has made will be met. Our lives are patterns, foreshadowed. We need to accomplish what the Lord wants us to do—only God knows the ins and outs of these things, we cannot judge, but all happens within the context of covenant relationships.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">3 He said to me, You are my servant,<br />Israel, in whom I will be glorified.</span><br /><br />The servant is a parallel with the Jacob scenario: his name was changed to Israel after he wrestled with an angel and saw the face of God. Jacob, being given a new name, was raised to the next level, to a higher spiritual state, where he received a greater spiritual inheritance and a higher commission.<br /><br />"Servant" denotes a vassal relationship (the emperor-vassal relationship). "Son" also terms a vassal relationship. "Israel," as used in this verse, is probably a code name. We do not know what the servant's new name is. "Israel" can also refer to God's servants collectively.<br /><br />All of us can <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">glorify</span> God by fulfilling our calling here on the earth.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">4 I had thought, I have labored in vain,<br />I have spent my strength for nothing<br />and to no purpose!<br />Yet my cause rested with the Lord,<br />my recompense with my God.</span><br /><br />The servant had few or seemingly no results, ye he still had faith in the Lord.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">5 For now the Lord has said</span>—<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">he who formed me from the womb<br />to be his servant, to restore Jacob to him,<br />Israel having been gathered to him;<br />for I won honor in the eyes of the Lord<br />when my God became my strength</span>—<br /><br />The phrase "from the womb" in Hebrew has the sense of "before the womb," this notion again of premortal existence and appointment.<br /><br />The servant's mission is to what? To restore Jacob. "Restore" is a key word. We speak of the restoration of all things.<br /><br />Jacob/Israel represent a telestial level, but there is a difference between Jacob and Israel (some on the right hand, some on the left hand). Zion/Jerusalem represent a higher spiritual level, a terrestrial level.<br /><br />"Israel having been gathered to him": the Latter-day Saints have been gathered. Isaiah is here using "Israel" as a spiritual level.<br /><br />Nephi, the son of Helaman, is an example in the Book of Mormon of "God became my strength." He attained to the power of Elijah and was given the sealing power.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">6 he said: It is too small a thing<br />for you to be my servant<br />to raise up the tribes of Jacob<br />and to restore those preserved of Israel.<br />I will also appoint you to be a light to the nations </span>[or to the gentiles]<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">,<br />that my salvation may be to the end of the earth.</span><br /><br />The servant's mission is not just to Jacob and Israel but to all the nations, to the end of the earth. The scattering of Israel was all a part of God's plan to bring salvation to all in the latter days because the seed of Israel is scattered among all nations, and thus the Lord's covenants previously made can reach out to embrace people among all nations.<br /><br />The servant is to be a light to the nations that the Lord's salvation may be to the end of the earth. There are two lights: the Lord is a light, and the servant is a light, a greater light and a lesser light. The servant is like the dawning, the early morning, the beginning of the Millennium. He prepares for the coming of the greater light, the full blaze of the sun, who is the Son, the Lord Himself.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-10861433486832153272009-10-18T21:34:00.006-06:002009-10-18T21:34:00.817-06:00Isaiah class 2<em>Thoughts from the second of ten classes, Thursday, October 15, 2009</em><br /><br />In this week's class we spent the entire two hours reading and discussing a single chapter of Isaiah, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=20184076&postID=1086143348683215327">chapter 48</a>, the first of many quoted by Nephi in the Book of Mormon (see <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=20184076&postID=1086143348683215327">1 Nephi 20</a>). With only eight sessions remaining, it is clear we will not cover many of the 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah.<br /><br />Although Avraham Gileadi led an interesting, stimulating discussion, it was challenging for Michael and me to take detailed notes while trying to keep up with what he was saying. There were moments when I did not even try. There was a lot more class discussion this week, a lot of questions about what we were reading or what Avraham was teaching, and some of the time we were clearly sidetracked on tangents. Compounding the problem was his reading from his translation of Isaiah while I was trying to follow along in my King James Bible. The sense was clearly similar, but the wording differed significantly between the two versions. (My take on the two, after further reflection, is that the King James translation is far more poetic, while the Gileadi translation from Hebrew is actually easier to understand in contemporary English.)<br /><br />Throughout the rest of this report, whenever I quote from Isaiah, I quote from the Gileadi translation and show it in <em>italics</em>. There were comments at pretty much each verse we read from this chapter, but I did not take notes in each case.<div><br /></div><div><i>1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,</i></div><div><i>you who are named Israel--</i></div><div><i>though you stem from the lineage of Judah--</i></div><div><i>who take oaths in the name of the Lord</i></div><div><i>and invoke the God of Israel,</i></div><div><i>though not in truth or in righteousness,</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The following chapter of Isaiah, chapter 49, begins with similar invocation, except in that chapter it is: "Hear me, O isles; listen, you distant peoples." The translation of that verse in the Book of Mormon adds a preface to that invitation to those upon the isles and in distant places: "And again, Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/21/1#1">1 Nephi 21:1</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>The reference to "the pastors of my people" is reminiscent of both Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who refer to the pastors as shepherds.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other chapters, Isaiah refers to the Lord raising up "righteousness from the east" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/41/2#2">Isaiah 41:2</a>; or "the righteous man from the east" in the King James Version). This is the Lord's latter-day servant, a person who is perfect on the seraph level, who keeps all the commandments required for that level. He exemplifies righteousness on the level of translated beings. In other places, the same person is referred to as "a bird of prey from the east, from a distant land the man who performs my counsel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/46/11#11">Isaiah 46:11</a>; or "a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country" in the King James Version). John the Apostle refers to the same person as the "angel ascending from the east" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/rev/7/2#2">Revelation 7:2</a>; see also <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/77/9#9">D&C 77:9</a>).<br /><br />This righteousness (or righteous servant) prepares a righteous people who can be ready to receive the Lord. The Redeemer, on the other hand, is referred to as Salvation (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/62/11#11">Isaiah 62:11</a>).<br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>2 who call yourselves of the holy city,</i></div><div><i>upheld by the God of Israel,</i></div><div><i>whose name is the Lord of Hosts:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>3 The prophecies of the events of the past</i></div><div><i>I made known long beforehand;</i></div><div><i>no sooner did they issue from my mouth,</i></div><div><i>than I caused them to be announced.</i></div><div><i>Then, suddenly, I acted and they came about.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>How does the Lord tell the end from the beginning? Well, he tells it through prophets ("the prophecies of the events of the past . . . made known long beforehand"). But it is because He orchestrates the end from the beginning. Ancient history becomes an allegory of the last days. Isaiah, Nephi, and numerous other prophets use a selective selection of events from the past to foretell the future. (See, for example, the comment about Moses and the yet-to-occur latter-day exodus back to Jackson County, Missouri, that appears following verse 21 below.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Everything that happens in the latter days is a shadow of what happened in the past.</div><div><br /></div><div>The previous Saturday evening Avraham Gileadi had held a public Feast of the Tabernacles celebration, which apparently many in the class had participated in. He said that it is good to be familiar with what that and other ancient feasts teach us because the events, or similar events, will occur again. History is going to repeat itself. We need to be wholly familiar with the prophetic milieu. </div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>4 For I knew how stubborn you were--</i></div><div><i>your neck was an iron sinew, your brow brazen--</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>5 therefore I told you them beforehand;</i></div><div><i>I announced them to you before they transpired,</i></div><div><i>lest you should say, My idols did it;</i></div><div><i>my graven and wrought images caused it!</i></div><div><br /></div><div>We are so full of pride. We do not realize how nothing we are in God's sight. We put a lot of stock in "our idols," the technology and images and toys that define our modern world, that keep us tightly tethered to Babylon.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>6 But you have heard 'the whole vision';</i></div><div><i>how is it you do not proclaim it?</i></div><div><i>Yet as of now, I announce to you new things,</i></div><div><i>things withheld and unknown to you,</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Where is "the whole vision," the seeing of the end from the beginning, recorded? Well, in a couple of places that we know of: in the book of Isaiah and the in the book of Revelation. But it is all in code. We have to search it out, diligently, like learning a new language. It won't come with casual or cursory reading.</div><div><br /></div><div>And there are other places, not currently available to us, where the end from the beginning is written, as Nephi reminds us: "And also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/26#26">1 Nephi 14:26</a>).</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>7 things now coming into being, not hitherto,</i></div><div><i>things you have not heard of before,</i></div><div><i>lest you should say, Indeed I knew them!</i></div><div><br /></div><div>And why does He spring these new things on us? Individually to try us, test us, and prove us. And collectively, to cause a division among the people.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>8 You have not heard them,</i></div><div><i>nor have you known them;</i></div><div><i>before this your ears have not been open to them.</i></div><div><i>For I knew you would turn treacherous;</i></div><div><i>you were called a transgressor from the womb.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>9 For my own name's sake I have bridled my wrath;</i></div><div><i>on account of my renown</i></div><div><i>I have shown restraint toward you</i></div><div><i>by not entirely destroying you.</i><br /><br />Isaiah here refers to the occasion, which we mentioned last week, when the Lord God Jehovah wanted to destroy the children of Israel and make of Moses a great nation (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ex/32/7-14#7">Exodus 32:7–14</a>). Moses on this occasion stood as a mediator between God and rebellious Israel. He served a proxy role, the clue being the reference to "my own name's sake."<br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>10 See, I am refining you, though not as silver;</i></div><div><i>I am testing you in the crucible of affliction.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Again the notion of trying, testing, proving. Seeing what we are made of. Refining us, etc. And it seems to happen best, or perhaps only, through affliction.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>11 For my own sake, on my own account, I do it,</i></div><div><i>that my name be not dishonored,</i></div><div><i>nor my glory, which I give to no other.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>12 Hear me, O Jacob, and Israel, my elect:</i></div><div><i>I am he who was at the first,</i></div><div><i>and I am he who is at the last.</i><br /><br />The Lord God Jehovah is the same member of the Godhead that we know as Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/rev/1/11,17#11">Revelation 1:11, 17</a>).<br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>13 It was my hand that founded the earth,</i></div><div><i>my right hand that stretched out the heavens;</i></div><div><i>when I call them, they arise at once.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Scriptural references to the Lord's hand (in verse 13) or to His arm (in verse 14) refer to those who help Him, those who are His servants. When the Lord was creating the earth, we were surely there helping out, because that is the way He does things. What flower or plant might we have designed?</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>14 All of you, assemble and hear:</i></div><div><i>Who among you foretold these things?</i></div><div><i>It is him the Lord loves,</i></div><div><i>who shall perform his will in Babylon;</i></div><div><i>his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>15 I myself have spoke it, and also called him;</i></div><div><i>I have brought him, and I will prosper his way.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>16 Come near me and hear this:</i></div><div><i>I have not made predictions in secret;</i></div><div><i>at their coming to pass, I have been present.</i></div><div><i>Now my Lord the Lord has sent me;</i></div><div><i>his Spirit is in me.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>17 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,</i></div><div><i>your Redeemer:</i></div><div><i>I the Lord your God instruct you to your good,</i></div><div><i>guiding you in the way you should go.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>18 Had you but obeyed my commandments,</i></div><div><i>your peace would have been as a river,</i></div><div><i>your righteousness like the waves of the sea;</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Unconditional covenants start at the celestial level. Covenants at every level below that are conditional covenants.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>19 your offspring would have been</i></div><div><i>as the sands in numbers,</i></div><div><i>your descendants as many as their grains.</i></div><div><i>Their names would not have been cut off</i></div><div><i>and obliterated from my presence.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The promise of posterity was the first covenant blessing. A lack of posterity was a covenant curse.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>20 Go forth out of Babylon, flee from Chaldea!</i></div><div><i>Make this announcement with resounding voice;</i></div><div><i>broadcast it to the end of the earth.</i></div><div><i>Say, The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>21 They thirsted not when he led them through arid places;</i></div><div><i>he caused water to flow for them from the rock;</i></div><div><i>he cleaved the rock and water gushed out.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Although Isaiah is speaking of the latter-day going forth out of Babylon, of our exodus out of the world, of the redemption of Zion, he holds up Moses as a type and refers to events from the exodus out of Egypt. Moses is a type. The latter-day servant of the Lord is like unto Moses.</div><div><br /></div><div>Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord revealed concerning the latter-day redemption of Zion, an event yet future to us, "Behold, I way unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power;</div><div><br /></div><div>"Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel. . . . </div><div><br /></div><div>"And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/103/15-16,18#15">D&C 103:15-16, 18</a>). </div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>22 But there is no peace, says the Lord,</i></div><div><i>for the wicked.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Reminiscent of Alma's teaching to his son Corianton in the Book of Mormon: "Wickedness never was happiness" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/alma/41/10#10">Alma 41:10</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>The rest of my notes undoubtedly refer to thoughts Brother Gileadi expressed in response to questions that were raised, or tangents we were on, and do not fit neatly under any of the verses from chapter 48 quoted above:<br /><br />Concerning the notion of individuals serving as types, an idea we explored the previous week, Cyrus serves as a type. He was the Persian conqueror of Babylon. David, Moses, and Enoch are also types.<br /><br />One of things Enoch did was to get his people up to the level of the elect. Enoch did it, and Melchizedek did it. David, unfortunately, did not attain to that level. His sin against Uriah and his wife caused him to fall from his exaltation (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/132/39#39">D&C 136:39</a>).<br /><br />The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "A murderer, for instance, one that sheds innocent blood, cannot have forgiveness. David sought repentance at the hand of God carefully with tears, for the murder of Uriah; but he could only get it through hell: he got a promise that his soul should not be left in hell. <p> "Although David was a king, he never did obtain the spirit and power of Elijah and the fullness of the Priesthood; and the Priesthood that he received, and the throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his lineage" (<span style="font-style: italic;">Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith</span>, 339).<br /></p>The Prophet Joseph Smith continued receiving revelations throughout his entire life because he had an open mind and always wanted to know more. Joseph cautioned us not to set up bounds and stakes (or limits) to what the Almighty can do or can teach us. When we do that, we damn ourselves. We stop our own progress.<br /><br />Real numbers are important in the Lord's scheme of things. Numbers such as three, seven, twelve, twenty-four, etc. often have particular significance. Fourteen is the numerical value of the name "David" in Hebrew. "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/matt/1/17#17">Matthew 1:17</a>).<br /></div>Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-80575191023270996742009-10-12T18:00:00.005-06:002009-10-16T13:40:45.910-06:00Isaiah class 1<em>Thoughts from the first of ten classes, Thursday, October 8, 2009</em><br /><br />Somewhere about 45 minutes into our class, the teacher looked up at the clock, and it was already five minutes after nine. Time to quit. And we had actually been at it for two hours, since seven o'clock.<br /><br />Based on this first session last Thursday, this is going to be a good class that my oldest son, Michael, and I are taking in Provo every Thursday night over the next few months. We paid $90 apiece to go hear <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Gileadi">Avraham Gileadi</a>, a religious historian and Hebrew scholar, who also happens to be a Mormon, teach a ten-week course on Isaiah.<br /><br />What follows in this blog post is my attempt, from the meager notes I took, to make sense of what he was teaching and what I was learning. I am fulfilling requests from at least two of my daughters who live in opposite corners of the country. Eliza asked from Atlanta, "Are you going to blog everything you learn?" And Camilla added from Everett, "I like Eliza's idea. Best way to learn something is to teach it!"<br /><br />The book of Isaiah holds the key to reconcile the Old and New Testaments. If you had a great tapestry of all the scriptures, Isaiah would be at the center.<br /><br />The Ben Asher Codex, dating from about 800 A.D., is the earliest, best manuscript of Isaiah that exists. (There is an Isaiah manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from approximately 200 A.D., which is some 600 years earlier, but it is somewhat corrupted.) "The plain and precious parts" and "the covenants of the Lord" were both lost when the text passed through the gentiles.<br /><br />The Book of Mormon throws a lot of light on Isaiah and bridges a lot of gaps between the Old and New Testaments. Hebrew literary structures, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiasmus">chiasmus</a>, are very prevalent in the Book of Mormon, which was one of the things that intrigued Avraham, when he first read it in Israel as he was converting from Catholicism to Mormonism.<br /><br />Isaiah was one of those who saw the end from the beginning. We are aware of some other prophets who did also, such as Moses, Nephi, the brother of Jared, John the Revelator, and Joseph Smith.<br /><br />Studying Isaiah is like learning a new language. It takes two years of diligent study to become fluent, for the book to become plain. Two things, according to Nephi, help us to understand Isaiah: the spirit of prophecy (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/4#4">2 Nephi 25:4</a>) and the manner of the Jews (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/25/1-2,5-6#1">2 Nephi 25:1–2, 5–6</a>). Searching diligently is a necessity. In fact, other than general commands to study the scriptures, Isaiah is the only one the Savior singled out by name as a prophet we are to study (see, for example, <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/20/11#11">3 Nephi 20:11</a> and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/23/1#1">3 Nephi 23:1</a>).<br /><br />After such introductory discussion as above, we spent much of the two hours reading from and discussing three chapters of 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon: <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14">chapter 14</a> (which is "a very informative chapter"), <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/20">chapter 20</a> (in which Nephi quotes Isaiah chapter 48), and <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/21">chapter 21</a> (in which he quotes Isaiah chapter 49).<br /><br />What exactly is the "great and marvelous work" that Nephi refers to in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/7#7">1 Nephi 14:7</a>? We have to put together all the pieces of the puzzle—from different places in the scriptures. For example, Nephi speaks of the church of the devil, which is the great and abominable church, the mother of abominations, the whore of all the earth. Isaiah equates all of this with Babylon.<br /><br />It is good to have a clear idea about what the various labels used (such as Zion, Israel, Babylon, etc.) actually mean. It is also important to know who you are so you can understand and properly fulfill your role.<br /><br />Near the end of chapter 14, remembering that both Nephi and John had seen the end from the beginning, Nephi says that he was stopped from writing more, that he cannot tell us what John will later write, that John is commissioned to reveal the final part of the story (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/14/19-28#19">1 Nephi 14:19–28</a>). So, Nephi spends the next five chapters finishing his journey narrative, telling of Lehi's people leaving their homeland and traveling to the promised land. He then quotes Isaiah 48 and 49, which also constitutes a journey narrative out of Babylon. Nephi knows full well that Isaiah saw the whole thing too, so why not quote someone else who is already published to tell more of the ending of the story. John won't be published for another 600 years or so.<br /><br />Israel's latter-day restoration is a theme of everything Nephi quotes from Isaiah. Indeed, that theme is a preoccupation of all Book of Mormon writers.<br /><br />Brother Gileadi referred to, but did not particularly elaborate on (or at least I did not take notes on), the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinai covenant, and the Davidic covenant, except to say that each of these covenants were permanent and would continue to the end of time. We speak a lot in the Church concerning the Abrahamic covenant, less so about the other two.<br /><br />I suspect the Sinai covenant has to do with what is related in the book of Exodus, wherein the Lord says: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ex/19/5-6#5">Exodus 19:5–6</a>). And a little later when He says: "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God" (<a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ex/29/45-46#45">Exodus 29:45–46</a>).<br /><a name="6"></a><br />In relation to the Davidic covenant, a proxy role is involved. David stood in for his people. Well, I guess Moses did too when he interceded with the Lord in their behalf when Jehovah wanted to destroy the children of Israel and make of Moses a great nation (see <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ex/32/7-14#7">Exodus 32:7–14</a>). Moses on this occasion stood as a mediator between God and rebellious Israel.<br /><br />I hope in future classes we explore this path (the notion of proxy roles) further. Just as class was ending, Brother Gileadi observed that whenever we encounter the word "sake," such as occurs in <a href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_ne/20/9#9">1 Nephi 20:9</a>, a proxy role is involved. And then he noticed the time was gone, and the class ended, and nothing more was said.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184076.post-25359592436575153342009-10-10T18:03:00.015-06:002009-10-10T19:22:14.061-06:00No holier placeThursday at work it was my turn to give the spiritual thought in our Executive Directors' meeting. I mentioned that I had recently been called to teach gospel doctrine in our ward and that this Sunday I was teaching a lesson on the 1856 rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. I shared a couple of scriptures and this bit of testimony from a man who had crossed the plains with the Martin handcart company:<br /><br />"One day he was in a group of people who began sharply criticizing the Church leaders for ever allowing the Saints to cross the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart company provided. The old man listened until he could stand it no more; then he arose and said with great emotion:<br /><br />"'I was in that company and my wife was in it. . . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? . . . <span style="font-style: italic;">[We] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.</span><br /><br />"'I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. . . . I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.<br /><br />"'Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. <span style="font-style: italic;">The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company</span>'" (quoted in <span style="font-style: italic;">Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</span> [1996], 78).<br /><br />At the conclusion of my thought, Elder Richard G. Hinckley shared an experience from his family that he said I was free to use, if I wanted, in my lesson Sunday. A few years ago his father, President Gordon B. Hinckley, took all of his family, his children and their children, to the area along the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetwater_River_%28Wyoming%29">Sweetwater River</a> in south central Wyoming known as Martin's Cove, where the handcart pioneers sought refuge from the early winter storms that descended upon them. As they were walking along the trail, the Prophet stopped and talked to them about what had happened here.<br /><br />"You have all been in holy places," President Hinckley said in essence, "some of you in the Holy Land, all of you in temples." And then with some emotion he added that they would never stand in any holier place than here.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSytz1NKI-VxZbx9XqgvWpZ4FKwBuVXTuKtCyWnE-nEbyUx3yMpbTXJ_LfQiBMM-Slp7Ov5zmUjFfD2T-m3Fni6XKke0XM7gHr5187u59lpkDoiKLFhVAzjiE2Qnj3XyTRTtnOsg/s1600-h/Martin's+Cove"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSytz1NKI-VxZbx9XqgvWpZ4FKwBuVXTuKtCyWnE-nEbyUx3yMpbTXJ_LfQiBMM-Slp7Ov5zmUjFfD2T-m3Fni6XKke0XM7gHr5187u59lpkDoiKLFhVAzjiE2Qnj3XyTRTtnOsg/s400/Martin's+Cove" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391143202416439858" border="0" /></a><br />Claudia and I and some of our children have been to these same sites on the wind-swept highlands of Wyoming, where the handcart pioneers became acquainted with God in their extremities and where a prophet-directed rescue took place. And I feel the same as President Hinckley. It is a holy place.Deanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12905909420639308193noreply@blogger.com1