Category Archives: Spiritual Nourishment

On the way to camp, I spotted the building for what I assume is the Farmerville branch. Once we got there, my grandmother brought a cool newspaper article to Camp Bloch: the Alexandria Town Talk did a full-page piece on the LDS missionaries assigned to the Alexandria ward. Pretty neat. Right now, our whole family is waiting to hear where our friend Jacob will go on his mission– it’s been 4 1/2 weeks since his papers went in, and we’re all eager to hear the news. It probably, alas, won’t be Alexandria.

This is how I know that Real Live Preacher is a real published writer: his first book hit the shelves, and now he’s wondering…

Writing is nice and all, but it’s no shop-vac, if you know what I mean.
If you think about it, I wrote some words and traded them for a shop-vac. Is this allowed? Did the guy who pays $200 for an essay and I do something wrong or immoral? Would we want to live in a world where that kind of behavior is commonplace? 
How can writing be compared to something real, like a shop-vac?
Other than the fact that they both suck at times. Bada-Boom, Thank you. I’ll be here till Thursday!

Tim asks:

What happened to the drive? What happened to the desire? Where are all the people out there working to make a better world for their children, not just making a house payment for their children?

Some of us are here (but we can’t hire you because you’d have to move to Seattle and Mom would kill me.)
Interestingly enough, part of our priesthood lesson on self-reliance yesterday dealt with this very topic. Consider the man who visited a stone quarry and asked three stone cutters what they were doing. “Cutting stone,” said the first one. “Earning a living for my family,” said the second. “Helping to build a glorious cathedral,” said the third. What a great difference in attitude between the three– even though all three of them are right and correct, only one has looked beyond his to-do list to see the greater purpose in his daily labor. I’m not exactly building a cathedral, but I can help build up my family, my community, and my country by doing good work and trying to live what I believe in instead of just coasting through the day checking off items on my (regrettably long) to-do list.
Now, back to work.

So, last night Arlene got a phone call from the stake executive secretary, asking if the two of us could meet with the stake president next Sunday. This is enough to strike fear into the hearts of the most valiant. Why? First, a brief explanation: an LDS stake is more or less equivalent to a Catholic diocese: it’s a collection of wards (each equivalent to a parish or congregation). When you’re asked to meet with a member of the stake presidency, it’s usually because:

• Your temple recommend needs renewal. In this case, you call them, not the other way around, and mine’s good until September. So much for the easy reason.
• They want you to speak during a stake event. Since our stake conference is next Sunday, that’s not it. Besides, they wouldn’t need both of us for that.
• One of us is in trouble. David’s first reaction, in fact, was to ask “What did you do?” We couldn’t think of any reason either of us would be called on the carpet, so that’s probably not it.
• One of us is getting a new job. Remember, all of the leadership positions in the LDS church are filled from the membership: our stake president works at Owens Corning; one of his counselors is retired, and the other’s a farmer. To understand why the stake is involved, you’d have to understand all the ins and outs of how callings work, which I certainly don’t. Some callings at the ward level are actually the stake’s responsibility; others are handled by the ward bishopric, except for some (like some callings in the elders’ quorum) that aren’t. For example, the bishop and his two counselors are called by the stake to serve in a particular ward, but the EQ secretary is called by the elders’ quorum president. This is a strong possibility.
• There’s some sort of temporary assignment. For example, last year Arlene was asked to help organize and run the annual stake young women’s camp, so the stake called her (although I vaguely remember that it was someone from the stake young women’s presidency that called her.)

Further complicating the reading of these particular tea leaves omens is this: most stake callings are handled by members of the stake high council. These men serve more or less as ambassadors of the stake president; since there’s only one of him (three if you include his counselors), and there are twelve or more wards in a stake, without the high council there wouldn’t be enough stake-ness to go around for every occasion requiring the stake’s involvement (including calling or releasing most ward-level positions).
And one final complication: the only time I’ve ever heard of the stake presidency wanting to see both spouses when one is called is when the calling requires an unusual amount of time or effort and the prez wants to ensure that both spouses are willing to work together on whatever-it-is. That makes me think that one of us is about to be under new management, so to speak. Tune in next week for more details.

My hat is off to Wayne Hale, the new deputy program manager for shuttle operations. Here’s what he has to say in the postscript to an excellent letter he wrote to the NASA community:

P. S. A final, personal note: a worker at KSC told me that they haven’t heard any NASA managers admit to being at fault for the loss of Columbia. I cannot speak for others but let me set my record straight: I am at fault. If you need a scapegoat, start with me. I had the opportunity and the information and I failed to make use of it. I don’t know what an inquest or a court of law would say, but I stand condemned in the court of my own conscience to be guilty of not preventing the Columbia disaster. We could discuss the particulars: inattention, incompetence, distraction, lack of conviction, lack of understanding, a lack of backbone, laziness. The bottom line is that I failed to understand what I was being told; I failed to stand up and be counted. Therefore look no further; I am guilty of allowing Columbia to crash.
As you consider continuing in this program, or any other high risk program, weigh the cost. You, too, could be convicted in the court of your conscience if you are ever party to cutting corners, believing something life and death is not your responsibility, or simply not paying attention. The penalty is heavy, you can never completely repay it.
Do good work. Pay attention. Question everything. Be thorough. Don’t end up with regrets.

I hope his attitude takes root at NASA. In fact, I’d like to see it take root everywhere, starting at least with me– the principles he sets out in his last line seem to me to be pretty good ones to follow.

I believe in the 11th Article of Faith of our church:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

This seems like a pretty basic concept, one that even witches understand. However, this understanding has been curiously absent from a lot of churches, to the point where “Christian” bookstores offer books about why one or another church is wrong (this, next to the section on how to ordain yourself and start your own church), or offering seminars on how to “save” people who are members of other denominations. Now here’s a radical thought– maybe the idea that freedom of religion includes tolerance is catching on:

Freedom of religion is not just to practice the religion of your own, but the freedom and decency to respect someone else’s desire.

This from William B. Helmreich,  a professor of the sociology of religion, in an NYT story on “Christmas Jews”, or Jews who volunteer to work on Christmas so that their Christian counterparts can take the day off. The article highlights reciprocity and tolerance of other faiths as necessary attributes of society. If only that would catch on more widely! Sadly, my experience has been that some of the people who claim most loudly to be Christian are the same people who are rigorously intolerant of other people’s faith. Jesus had somewhat to say about that.

When I first started my own business, I made it a point to send thank-you gifts to my customers– normally, that meant some kind of holiday gift basket sent to the project editor of each book I did. It was a good thought, but it had some problems. First, most people have enough holiday junk to eat; second, lots of people can’t eat the treats due to dietary or religious restrictions. Third, it’s a transient gift. Even with those limits, though, it definitely helped build my relationships with my customers, which is very important in the computer publishing industry– your brand determines whether you get great title opportunities or junky ones.
So, year before last I switched over and made donations to The Heifer Project in my clients’ names instead. This was well received, and I liked it that our gifts were accomplishing something positive . A number of clients said to me that they appreciated the gesture much more than they would have appreciated Yet Another Gift Basket.
This year, 3sharp wanted to do something similar (spurred on by Microsoft’s draconian no-gifts-to-employees policy), so we made a donation to SmileTrain, a charity that provides medical training and services to help repair cleft palates. Their web site puts it simply:

The greatest tragedy is that all of these children are suffering not because they were born with a cleft, but because they were born poor. Too poor to pay for a simple cure that has been around for decades. Helping these children is the mission of The Smile Train. We help provide free cleft surgery and related treatment for children who would otherwise never receive it.

It’s a great cause, and I’m thankful that we are able to contribute. If you’re looking for a good holiday cause, I encourage you to consider making a donation. 100% of donations go toward providing surgeries; their overhead expenses are paid for by their supporting sponsors. (n.b. Computer Associates, perhaps the most evil software company in the world [well, besides Oracle– ed], is a sponsor– proof that even the bad guys can do some good in the world.)

Michael Williams has an interesting blog entry: Difficult Teachings of Jesus. He points out, quite rightly, that Jesus taught some hard principles, too, not just the “love your neighbor” type teachings that have largely been reduced to platitudes. That reminds me of an article from the September Ensign that I’d been meaning to blog, “The Surety of a Better Testament“. Here’s an excerpt:

The New Testament is “a better testament” because the intent of a person alone becomes part of the rightness or wrongness of human action. So our intent to do evil or our desire to do good will be a freestanding element of consideration of our actions. We are told we will be judged in part by the intent of our hearts (see D&C 88:109). An example of being convicted by freestanding intent is found in Matthew:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28).
This New Testament is harder doctrine.
Because of the formality and rigidity developed in the administration of the old English common law, in order to obtain justice the law of equity was developed. One of my favorite maxims in equity is “Equity does what ought to be done.” The New Testament takes the concept of law even farther. In a large measure we will be judged not only by what we have done but what we should have done in a given situation.

This raises the bar a lot, since it’s no longer sufficient to do right actions. Instead, we have to govern ourselves to do right actions for the right reasons– and that’s a lot harder.

I went to our stake priesthood leadership meeting the other night, and the president of our elders’ quorum asked me to take notes because he couldn’t be there. These may be unintelligible if you’re not LDS, but feel free to ask questions in the comments if you’re curious.
The meeting opened with an address by Brother Williams from the stake presidency. He cited Matthew 4:18-20 and said that we’re called to do the same work as Simon Peter and Andrew, and that in doing so we should try to be energized and not weary in well doing because the rewards will be worth it (D&C 64:33-34). He promised that as we “leave our desks” and kneel to ask God for our help, he’ll give it, according to D&C 88:78. He’s a pretty good speaker.
We then broke up into separate meetings; I went with the elders’ quorum people.
Brother Richard Hamilton went first. He spoke on the importance of conducting good stewardship interviews, which is where we interview the home teachers to find out how their families are doing and whether any of them need anything. He stressed the importance of giving good feedback and asking the home teachers to report back– no one likes to do work that never comes to light. He pointed out that stewardship interviews are under our control, even if the individual family visits aren’t, and that if we regularly conduct these interviews that home teaching will be more effective as the brethren understand its importance and have the opportunity to report on their visits. He gave some suggestions for interviews (find a quiet location to invite the spirit, perform one-on-one personal interviews, keep records so you can follow up from month to month, make a regular date for your interviews). He also gave us a couple of handouts: a checklist for interviews, and a checklist for the home teachers to use when planning their visits.
Tim Lenahan spoke next on prospective elders (those who are preparing to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood). His central theme was simple: don’t give up. He asked a simple question: which of your children would you abandon? What’s that? None of them? Fine. Don’t give up on your prospective elders. He cited D&C 107:99-100 in reminding us to be diligent in reaching out to these men. We had a good discussion of good ways to do this, including scheduling social activities (note to self: prepare for chili cookoff next week!). His overall guidance was simple: meet these brethern wherever they are spiritually and befriend them. Don’t try to convert them, just be their friend.
I missed the next talk due to an ill-timed phone call about Oracle, and I don’t know the name of the next speaker because I returned partway through his talk. He was a real fireball, though– he pointed out that the home teacher is supposed to be the first line of help for the family, but in most wards the relief society is actually the ones who notify the bishop when someone’s sick, out of work, moving, or whatever. That doesn’t speak very well for how well we’re doing our duty. He cited Mosiah 19:5-6, Moses 7:18, and the famous John 21:16-18 (“Feed my sheep” for those of you playing at home.)
He closed with a quote from President Monson in the OCtober 1970 general conference: “When performance is measured, performance improves.”
I know I’ve got some improving to do in the home teaching department, and I’m going to jump on it today.

So last night I was explaining to Arlene that I was planning on watching the Sox-Yankees game tonight. “Why?” she said. “I hate the Yankees,” I replied, “and, besides, as a Mormon it’s my job.” She was a little nonplussed, so I quoted Mosiah 18:9 to her. Now, hopefully my comforting won’t be necessary as the Sox send the hated infidels back to NYC, but just in case…

Today was a fascinating day. First thing, we got up and walked over to the LDS Conference Center, a 21,000 seat auditorium used for church events. They offer a 30-minute guided tour. I expected it to be mildly interesting, but it was actually really cool. The main floor of the conference center is actually 96′ below ground level, with an array of nine skylights that bring outside light underground. The king truss weighs 621 tons– you can see from these pictures that there are no internal pillars or supports in the conference area; the mezzanine and balcony levels are cantilevered. The workmanship of the lectern, flooring, and everything else is breathtaking. (In fact, the rostrum is large enough to hold the entire Tabernacle… with a 2′ boundary left over!) There’s a lot of gorgeous artwork, including the originals of Arnold Friburg‘s 12 Book of Mormon paintings and a stunning sculpture by some guy whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. The roof garden is pretty stunning, too; it looks much like a natural mountain meadow, and the outside of the building is terraced to reinforce that impression. I got some good across-the-street shots of the temple, too.

After we left the conference center, we walked over to the Church Administration Building; our tour guide mentioned that the admin building had an observation deck on the 26th floor. They sure did, as you can see from the below shots of the Utah Statehouse (north of the building) and the temple (east of it).

The Utah state capital and the SLC temple, from 26 stories up

Our next stop was actually the surprise hit: the Church Art and History Museum. I’m not much on art museums, so I figured that this one would be a quick in-and-out. However, I hadn’t counted on the variety of pioneer artifacts they had– all kinds of great stuff, including tools and dies used to make the original Utah Territory currency, tools from the Salt Lake City temple construction, and lots of details of the original economic and territorial missions that the church sent out to help populate the intermountain West. That was cool enough, but what really blew me away was the collection of submissions to the 6th international LDS art competition (note that the link should take you to a Flash presentation of the artwork itself). Some of the sculptures and paintings were ugly not to my liking, but others, like the quilt “Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words”, the photo “Two Prophets Saluting Each Other” (where the photographer caught a picture of President Hinckley’s plane dipping a wing in salute while flying over a wagon train recreation commemorating the 150th anniversary of the pioneer migration), and Don Christensen’s painting “Called To Serve” were just outstanding. A couple of the works were so beautiful that they moved me to tears, and that’s not exactly my usual M.O. Who would have guessed that an art museum would be one of my favorite parts of this trip?

On our way to lunch, we finally got good pictures taken at the pedestal.

Paul & Arlene @ the temple

After lunch, we drove to find a scrapbooking store, but not until after we’d visited the This Is the Place Monument. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but I learned quite a bit from the monument and its surrounding information. For example, Provo was named for Etienne Provot, a French fur trapper and explorer who was the first white man to explore the Salt Lake valley. A trio of Catholic friars were the first to map out the route from Santa Fe northward into the Utah territory. And so on, all of it mostly useless but nonetheless interesting.

This is the place, all right

We had dinner (mostly dessert) at Passages again and watched the new episode of MI5 (Verdict: it’s no 24, but it’ll do). Arlene’s watching Aliens while I write this, then it’s time to pack. Tomorrow, back to the real world. Oh yeah– it was 105 degrees today. Mmm, mmm, good.

Today was a great day. We got up, had breakfast in the hotel (where they incessantly play bad ’70s mush-pop, like Bread; I wish they’d quit), and headed over to the Tabernacle for the 3,860th broadcast of Music & the Spoken Word. The choir was delightful; as good as they sound on the BYU satellite channel, they sound ten times better in person. The volume and clarity of their singing is just amazing. You miss a lot of the fine notes of that magnificent pipe organ, too, particularly the vibrato at the end of each passage. This was probably the high point of my trip so far.

The Tabernacle Choir in their natural habitat

After that, we went to have our picture taken at the pedestal that overlooks the Temple. Unfortunately, our two pictures both came out poorly; Arlene was sticking out her tongue in one (ostensibly to moisten her lips) and had her eyes closed in the other. We’ll try again tomorrow. (We also took this picture, just for David– it was his special request.) Of course, at the time we didn’t know anything was amiss, so we headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the Salt Lake 18th Ward sacrament service. It was quite nice, although oddly there were only two talks. One of them was really moving; it was given by a man who had only recently joined the church, and who had had a fairly rough road of life until that point. He was very sincere in his appreciation for God and the blessings that he’s received. THe other talk was given by a newly returned missionary; she served in the Oregon Portland deaf mission, so she closed by giving her testimony in American Sign Language. It looked to me like she was signaling the pitcher, but Arlene speaks a little Ameslan, so she understood some of it.

After church, we walked back to the hotel, changed clothes, and set out for the Rodizio Grill, another Karen recommendation. Rodizio’s is a kind of churrascaria, which is basically a Brazilian cross between a tapas bar and dim sum. You sit down, and the servers bring skewers of various foods– steak, chicken, some outstanding Brazilian pork sausage, and so on. You ask for what you want, and they serve golf-ball-sized portions, so you can get some variety. The food was terrific. My favorite, surprisingly, was grilled pineapple– it was a little crispy on the outside and still warm, but very, very juicy.

After lunch, we decided to drive to Park City, without benefit of maps. We ended up headed north on I-15, toward Layten. That was OK; we drove for a while just looking at the mountains. We turned around right outside the main gate of Hill AFB. On the way back, Arlene pointed out a sign for Antelope Island, which is actually in the Great Salt Lake. On a whim, we decided to visit. We drove along a causeway over some (bad-smelling) salt flats before we entered the park proper, then we drove around looking for some of the 600 buffalo that live there. No joy, unfortunately. We did climb up Buffalo Point. At first, I wasn’t going to, but then I asked myself: what would Chris Larsen do? So, we climbed it.

Arlene taking a break enroute

On top of Old Smokey…

Buffalo Point is just over 5000′ above sea level, but only a bit over 500′ above the trailhead, so it’s not like climbing K2 or anything. Still, it was my first significant climb. Yay! We drove back to the hotel (marveling how many ugly refineries and other industrial sites are just to the west of I-15) and came up to the room to rest.

Continue reading →

First off: some pictures from Friday, here, here, and here.
We woke up early yesterday, had a delicious breakfast, and headed over to the Temple for an endowment session. It’s no exaggeration to say that I have never had a more spiritual experience– the beauty of the Temple’s interior, and the calm spirit that pervades it, really made this special. (ANother thing unique to this temple is that some of the endowment ceremonies are conducted with live actors– we had a guy with a lovely, but mild, Scottish brogue filling one part, and he was a treat to listen to.)
After our temple session, we walked over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, formerly the Hotel Utah, to see a film. The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd gets its name from the New Testament (John 10:16):

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

The whole point of the Book of Mormon is that it’s a record of Christ’s ministry in the Americas– hence the title (and content) of Testaments. It was a fascinating, and very moving, film– even I got a bit teary-eyed at the end (but I won’t spoil the surprise). Arlene’s friend Anita recommended it, and she was right.
Unfortunately, her lunch recommendation didn’t go so well– she suggested we go to The Roof for lunch, except that it’s only open for dinner. Instead, we went to the cafeteria-style Lion House Pantry, where I had some decent tilapia and some superb bread. (Personal to John: it’s rated in Zagat’s but since I’m too cheap to subscribe, I don’t know the verdict.)
After a bit more walking around, we decided that it was time to try another recommendation, this one from our friend Karen. So, we drove the 7 or so miles to Murray and found the local Cold Stone Creamery. Their ice cream is very good, albeit expensive; they make up for it with huge portions. Yay. Once we were done bingeing, we drove back to the hotel, dropped off the car, and went to the big Deseret Book store near here. Along the way, we ended up with a couple more pair of shorts for me and (drum roll) some more Mormon Handicraft fabric.
We went back to the hotel and watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Pure fluff, but it had some entertaining moments. Along the way, I downloaded Franklin Covey‘s TabletPlanner, which is supposed to implement their time management system on a Tablet PC. Heaven knows I could use the help; I’ll have to post a longer review when I’ve used it more. And so to bed.