A Nation Of Voyeurs

We have become a nation obsessed with voyeurism. We are constantly fed a diet of material on the television and the cinema (a high-class word for movies), which brings us literally into the homes, and private lives of individuals, real and fictitious. We are led to watch people in intimate situations (through R, X and PG ratings) and stimulate the natural, carnal and sensual in man.

Advertising is touting products to enhance virility or sensuality.Tabloids glare at us from the newsstands and the racks at the grocery store to invite us to read the latest information about what someone has learned about a certain prominent or not so prominent individual.

There seems to be an insatiable appetite for this material that beckons to the baser nature of man.

Pornography in all its forms brings in unbelievable amounts of wealth to its purveyors. Their object is to make “Peeping Toms” of everyone. Most people don't look at the situation in that regard, but it is truly the case.

We are enticed to waste our productive time and our monetary resources on things of no profit or value to our families or ourselves.

We have been prophetically warned, but it seems as if our ears do not hear, nor do we comprehend the message and so we spend our precious hours here in mortality doing that which is of no worth when viewed from the eternal perspective.

Someone once asked me if I did not want a new High Definition TV. My answer was that I tried to avoid adultery in color; I did not need to see it in HD.

I hope that you will remember and take into your hearts the warnings given by the general authorities. Keep yourselves clean from the sins of this generation. You will not only have to avoid the material, but you will have to prepare your minds by reading the scriptures so that you will avoid even the appearance of evil.

Love,

Grandpa

Introduction

This was written before I started my blog. I wrote this on the back of a piece of paper in 2008 and I found it yesterday. The nice thing about machine-readable material is that it can be edited and redacted. In the future printout of my letters this document will take its proper place at the head.

All my grandchildren have such a disparate range of ages (2 to 28 as of September 2011) that I realize that some of you will never have the relationship and memories of their grandfather that others will have. As you know, I have decided to write a series of letters and post them on a blog on the Internet. Some of you will be able to read and understand them now and some will have to be given them by their parents at a later date. The purpose of these letters is to let you know of our love and concern for you, our posterity.

My grandparents Gee only wrote to me occasionally. They sought to give counsel and establish a relationship with a distant grandchild. I never knew my grandfather Stucki. He died before my mother’s marriage.

You may not appreciate my letters at first, but I hope in the future, you will understand how much your grandmother and I love and appreciate each of you. You and I will see things from a different perspective. I hope that you will realize that the views that I express come from over seventy years of living here upon this earth.

I have no expectations that everything that I write is the ultimate truth. I hope that my remarks will be based on true principles. As true principles, they can be applied in many different circumstances.

Thanks for being my grandchildren! I know you did not have a choice in the matter, (there may be some that did) but by sharing the love which we have we can develop a bond of friendship, which will allow us to find common ground to seek eternal glory with Christ, who should be the center of our lives.

Love,

Grandpa

“An enemy hath done this.” Matthew 13:28

The recent passing of Elder Marion D. Hanks brought to mind an experience that I had with Elder Hanks.

In June of 1954, I was in the mission home in Salt Lake City as a newly called missionary. The day of the departure for my mission, June 22, 1954, all the missionaries were assembled in the auditorium of the church office building and assigned to a general authority to set us apart. At 9:30 I was to meet with Elder Hanks. 

At that time all missionaries were set apart by general authorities. They read off the names of the missionaries in each group (usually 3-4) and gave them the time to go to the offices of the authorities. Elder Hanks was at that time a member of the Seven Presidents of Seventy. There were three of us assigned to meet with Elder Hanks. My parents could not be present for my setting apart, so they asked one of their friends to take down the blessing in shorthand.

I never did get that transcription and did not write down the details. What I wrote in my journal was. ”It really strengthened my testimony because he answered all my questions. I would return safely and be humble and numerous other things.” 

I remember more about the blessing of my friend Gordon. We were in the mission home together. He was assigned to go to the New England Mission and I was called to the East German Mission. We both went to Weber College together. He was in the school student and fraternity leadership at Weber. We were both in the same fraternity. We played golf together. I was sort of a loner and he was what we would term today ‘high profile’.

My friend Gordon was given a wonderful blessing. I can only paraphrase it. Elder Hanks said that Gordon was disappointed because he and not been given an overseas assignment. He was blessed that within six months he would know the reason why he was called to that mission. He was also blessed with the ability to teach the gospel with clarity and blessings of superior leadership.

This was remarkable to me because I knew Gordon’s history and Elder Hanks was not aware of the circumstances. The blessing came from the Lord by revelation.

Two days previously on the 20^th of June, Gordon had his ‘farewell’ in his ward in Ogden. His associates from Weber College, who were in the mission home with him, drove with him to Ogden to attend the sacrament meeting that evening. Gordon spoke for over thirty minutes. In essence this was the story he told.

He had received his call in the mail and was disappointed that he was called to New England. He pondered this for some time and then sat down and wrote a letter to President McKay. In the letter he stated that he was declining the call and would not serve a mission. He put a stamp on the envelope and was walking to the post box to mail it when his bishop came up to him and told him that he knew that Gordon was disappointed that he was not going foreign and said to him that he would know within six months why he was going to that mission and to accept the call. He did not mail the letter.

Within the week the stake president came to his house and said that he knew that Gordon was disappointed at receiving a call to New England and promised him that within six months time he would know why he had received a call to that particular mission.

Thus three different priesthood bearers had witnessed to him the same thing. I always remembered that and wondered what happened to my friend Gordon on his mission. At a district conference of missionaries within the first seven months of my mission, I met Elder Glissmeyer who had been at Weber College with me. He was from Ogden and so I asked if he had heard anything about my friend Gordon. He told me that Gordon had gone home. He said that Gordon had gotten into the field and found it difficult to testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was true. 

The Elder told me that a psychology professor at Weber had planted the seeds of doubt in Gordon’s mind. This professor delighted in tearing down the testimonies of young Latter-Day Saints. He was an apostate from the church from a good Latter-day Saint family.

I never have known what happened to my friend Gordon.

Some years later Elder Hanks came to visit the Riverton Wyoming Stake. As it is custom, I was asked to speak first in the Sunday morning meeting. I told the story of my friend Gordon and his setting apart blessing. Elder Hanks was the concluding speaker. He referred to an early member of the church in Kirtland. His story is told in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 49 and in the introduction to Section 54. Leman Copley was called to serve a mission to the Shaker community in March of 1831 and then left the church in June of 1831.

Your grandmother and I were reading in Matthew about the wheat and the tares. Both were to grow together until the harvest. When the Lord was asked why this happened, he replied, “ An enemy had done this.”

There are many in our midst that would try and destroy our testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and the true restored church. We must be aware that there are indeed tares among the wheat, which if we do not obtain strength from the Lord, will choke out the spiritual nourishment, and we will die a spiritual death.

Remember, my dear grandchildren, that there is an enemy who will sow tares of discontent in the Lord’s field here in the earth. Do not neglect the spiritual nourishment.

Love,

Grandpa

Of walls, bars, rules, signs and traditions

This may be a strange title for a letter, but you will see later how the title applies. As a preamble to this little essay I will state something that Elder Neil A. Maxwell once stated. ‘The commandments of God are given to us to help us from hurting others and ourselves.’

As you know, I have been associated with missionaries in one capacity or another for fifteen years. I have taken care of them, screened their applications and followed some of their problems. I have great respect for the servants of the Lord and their missions. What I am about to relate is to illustrate the consequences of behavior.  

We do not always have to learn from our own experience. We can learn from the experiences of others.

Not every time that someone does something that is contrary to good common sense will the consequences be severe. The scenes here depicted indicate physical harm, but not having common sense has spiritual consequences as well. These spiritual consequences are not as blatantly obvious, but the results are just as damaging.

I read in the paper the other day of a young man who scaled a wall at a zoo. He was agile and had prided himself at wall climbing. He did not do this in the front of the viewing area, but behind the animal cages so that the employees could not see him. There was a door in the wall that was barred, where the employees could go to feed the animals. Through that opening the animals expected to receive their food. This was the lion cage. On top of the wall were the bars of the cage housing the lions. He backed up against the bars so that he could take a picture of himself next to the lions. He wanted his friends to take his picture as well. He stood against the bars and the lions came at him. One clawed his leg and before he could respond the other lion bit his arm.

He was severely injured and was taken to the hospital. After eight surgeries he had his arm amputated, because the damage caused by the bite and the infection could not be repaired sufficiently to let him have full use of his arm. He will carry the physical and emotional scars with him for the rest of his life.

This illustrates the first two words of the title of my essay: walls and bars. Walls are there for a purpose, as are bars. If we remember that they are there for our protection, we will stay a safe distance from them and we will not be injured.

While we were in Germany there were some missionaries in a mission that was not under my jurisdiction. One elder decided that he wanted to visit a scenic attraction by the sea. He asked his mission president if he could rent a car and go to the area. The mission president said that the mission rule would not allow him out of his area. 

The disobedient elder disregarded the president’s advice. He along with his companion and another set of elders and a set of sisters went to the scenic area in a rented car. There was a sign at the place near the water, which gave warning not to pass beyond.

The missionaries went out to stand on the rocks overlooking the ocean. A huge wave came and swept two of the missionaries off into the ocean. One was the disobedient missionary. The current took them in different directions. The waves then brought the disobedient missionary back to the rock where he was caught by his companion and pulled to safety, but his rescuer slipped and was swept out to sea. The result was that two people drowned.

This illustrates the principle of rules and signs. They are not to hinder us or keep us from enjoying ourselves; they are there for our protection. How would you feel if you were the disobedient missionary and had to carry the thought that you were responsible for two deaths for the rest of your life?

We now come to the last word in our title: Tradition. There are good traditions and what the Book of Mormon calls vain traditions. Let us explore a couple of examples:

In one mission, in the northern part of Europe, a missionary had a brother who had served before him in another mission. The missionaries in his brother’s mission would gather and burn one of their shirts on hump day. Hump day was the day in which the missionary had completed one half of his mission.

Our missionary knew about the tradition and wanted to better his brother and any other missionary in the mission. He decided to set his pants on fire while they were still on his body. He carefully put on a pair of jeans and then put on the suit pants. He then poured lighter fluid on the suit pants and struck a match. The pants burned all right, and also in the process he burned his legs quite badly.  

He was so ashamed of what he had done that he would not confess the deed to his mission president. When he was in a zone conference he was uncomfortable and unable to sit down. The mission president asked the reason and he had to confess. He was so badly burned that he required extensive skin grafts.

In the Ukraine mission there is a rock that looks like a slippery slide. It was common for the missionaries to go to this place and slide down. It seemed like great fun. One missionary was an avid snowboarder. He told the other missionaries that he could go down the slide on his feet, just like snowboarding down a slope. He got part of the way down the slide, lost his footing and fell to the ground on his head. He was taken to the hospital and we tried in vain to transport him to Germany for care. He died in a hospital there in the Ukraine and the last thing that I did before I came home from Frankfurt was to make sure that his body was safely on the plane to his home in the United States.

Righteous traditions such as family prayer, family home evening and scripture reading will bring us closer to the Lord. Vain traditions bring us far from him and result in pain and death, both physical and spiritual.

Remember walls, bars, rules, signs and righteous traditions (keeping the commandments of God) help us from hurting others and ourselves.

Your grandmother thought that this little essay only pointed out the negative. As I noted in the preamble, not every one has untoward consequences as the result of his behavior. Perhaps I can relate a few examples of positive behavior and it’s consequences. There are many we can site from the scriptures: Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in the Lion’s den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nigo and the fiery furnace. What follows is a story about one of your ancestors, Alexander Scoby Standley, as told by his great grandson George Burton Stanley, November 8th, 1931:

"In the spring of 1847, the family went to Pottawatomie County, Iowa, and with the help of the boys, great-grandfather put up a log house, plowed several acres of ground and planted a field of corn. He let his only horse team go to help take properties and records of the Church to Salt Lake Valley.

There was a long, dry spell in the spring and summer of 1848 and the crops were drying up. In a conference at Kanesville, the Saints united in prayer for rain and one of the presiding brethren promised if they would make a fast for the poor people among them, the Lord would send rain, and before an hour had passed a heavy rain fell which saved their crops from drying up.

Soon after conference, Ezra T. Benson and George A. Smith were making preparations to go to Salt Lake, but they lacked one animal of having sufficient teams. Great-grandfather owned two cows. He gave them one to hitch in their team. Brother Smith said: "Bother Standley, I fear you are robbing your family, but the Lord will bless you ten fold." The next spring the gold fever was on and many people were going to California. This caused a great demand for corn for food. Great-grandfather got a good price for his corn. He took the money and purchased twenty cows and as many calves. Thus Apostle Smith's promise was fulfilled in less than a year.

It was considerable work to care for the cows, milk them, make cheese and butter and get it (the cheese and butter) ready for market. Early in 1852, the company began making preparations to go to the Great Salt Lake Valley, making yokes and bows for the cattle and training them to travel when hitched together. They fitted up three wagons with three or more yoke of cattle to each wagon and, having only one yoke of cattle and three yokes of steers, they had to use several cows. At Council Bluffs, Iowa, a company of 50 families were organized with Joseph Howell as captain. They started for Utah the first week in May, 1852.

Night and morning the cows had to be milked and the milk taken care of, but it added greatly to the food supply. Any milk or cream that was not used was put in a churn and carried in one of the wagons and, when they stopped for camp at night, there would be a nice lump of butter for their supper and breakfast next morning."

I can promise you that if you keep the commandments of the Lord and watch for the walls, bars, rules, and signs and keep the righteous traditions in your life, you will be blessed with blessings that will overflow your cup. You may not be able to recognize them as blessings for keeping the commandments at the time, but they will be there nevertheless and in the quite moments of reflection, you will recognize them as blessings from the Lord.

Love,

Grandpa

How examples of our Pioneer Ancestors can help us with our problems.

I found the following essay written by my father while I was cleaning out my files. It ends abruptly and as such lets one draw his own conclusion as to how our life compares to that of the pioneer ancestors that we descend from. So this is a letter to each of you from your great grandfather. I have edited the essay and any explanation I have enclosed in brackets[]. I have also italicized all the quotations. 

Of course we have our free agency so no matter how applicable the principle is it will not help unless we decide to make it a part of our lives.

Honesty, thrift, abiding faith in God and His goodness, industry, a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and devotion to its principles against all odds characterized the pioneers of Utah and the inter-mountain west, and sets a goal for us at this time.

The youth of the church today are among God's most choice and valiant spirits, held in reserve to come forth at this time to meet some of the greatest challenges the world has ever faced. Drugs, immorality, abortion, dishonesty, cheating, infidelity, pornography, profanity, blasphemy and the break up of the family are everywhere portrayed as the in thing[to do].

Our youth need all the help, encouragement and role models they can have to meet and overcome the problems of a world that has almost lost its sense of moral and ethical values.

Compare our 40-hour workweek with the entry in the journal of Marriner Wood Merrill: “I mowed grass by hand, as there was not such a thing as a mowing machine in Utah in those days. I cut the [wild] grass, which was very light, for one-third in the stack. [This means that it was someone else’s hay that he was cutting and for payment he got to keep one-third of the hay that he cut.] I cut an average of one ton a day and mowed every day except Sunday for 30 days, thus securing 10 tons of good wild hay in the stack. It was worth $100 if I had wanted to sell it. But I did not earn it by working from 7 A.M. in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening, but I started at 5 o'clock in the morning and worked until dark with time out only for meals which consisted of bread and milk for breakfast, milk and bread for dinner with some greens and mush and milk for supper.”

When I see what many newly wed couples think they need for their first home I am reminded of Marriner Wood Merrill and what he wrote in his journal: "I commenced to build my house. It was in dimensions 16 x 24 feet. I continued working on it until it was finished, working all the daylight hours with Sarah my wife helping me with all her power. On the 16^th of September I had my house so we could move into it, with the roof on and the floor down but I needed to make and hang the doors and put in the windows after we had moved into our house. On October 24^th, Phoebe Ann was born in our own house.

David S. Stiles with his wife and one child moved into our house on October 26^th to stay during the following winter."

From another history: "Marion Joseph Kerr was born 6 Nov. 1864 in Richmond, Cache County, Utah, son of Robert Marion Kerr and Nancy Jane Rawlins. They were among the first settlers in Richmond. Their home was a carpet covered wagon box where Marion Joseph, their first child was born.”

Education has been a matter of interest not only locally, but also nationally and is playing some part in the presidential campaign. From an early history: “One of the first concerns of the parents in Ora, Idaho was a school. There was no county [school] district, so a tuition school was held. William E. Gee was one of the early teachers, He took fence posts, pigs, chickens, garden produce and wheat for pay. There were times when the snow was 4 feet deep and the teacher and pupils had to get to school on skis.”

 

Many of the early schools had just one room and one teacher and all grades. Textbooks were limited to what was available. In some of the better off schools there was a series of 5 readers [The McGuffey readers]. Pupils did not go from one grade to another but from one reader to another, but somehow they managed to do a much better job of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic than our present school system. Have you recently tried to read the handwriting of high school graduates or had them figure out a simple arithmetic problem without a computer [or calculator]?

From Marriner Wood Merrill's journal we read: "The county where I was born and spent my early childhood was sparsely settled and nearly all the people were very poor. My parents being very poor and schools being scattered and far between is some excuse for my neglect of my early education.”

However his second wife was a daughter of Alexander Scoby Standley, a well educated man and one who was interested in seeing that his children had the best education available. She became Mariner Merrill’s teacher and taught him what he needed to know to be a very successful businessman, apostle of the Lord and first president of the Logan temple.

One of the primary concerns of many of the youth is clothing. They have to have a new dress for every dance, the latest fashions of clothes no matter how unattractive they may be, the latest styles of foot wear or name brand shoes.

Listen to Charles W. Nibely's account of early days in Cache County. “Mother and I gleaned wheat every day so we could have flour for bread. Walking in the wheat stubble gleaning wheat all day bare footed was not altogether a picnic. [To glean wheat one would walk through the field and pick up the individual kernels of wheat or perhaps a head with more kernels that were left after the men with the sickles and scythes had finished cutting and bundling the wheat field.] I had an old pair of home made shoes that first winter but how I got them I cannot remember. I think I was 16 before I got a coat. Previous to that I had nothing but a shirt and pants or overalls. My first pants were made from a tent which we used in crossing the plains and which had grown so stiff and hard being weather-beaten in so many storms and a shirt made of the same material that when it touched my back or sides, it nearly took the skin off but it was the best I had and all that I had.”

Contrast present day entertainment with this entry: “At the time we couldn't get out of town for entertainment. We had to make our own. It was customary at that time for boys and girls to form their own groups of crowd as we called them. Usually on Sunday we would get together at one home. Sometimes it was just the girls and sometimes the boys would join us. We would play the piano and sing, play games and sometimes have a candy pull. Hendricks had a dance hall above their confectionery store and a player piano that would play a few tunes for a nickel. Often after school we would stop there and dance and then go to Maud Stoddard's and have a 5-cent hot dog.”

Here the letter stops. I will let you ponder the comparison. You may yet go through tough and austere times. Remember that if they did hard things you can do them as well.

Love,

Grandpa

Why I Believe

By Laurence Gee - Written March 2003

After receiving the book masterminded by Elder Neil A. Maxwell and reading many of the chapters therein I felt impressed to add my voice to those already published. Not to have this published, but as a gift to my children and my posterity.

My ancestors have been in the church since the early days of the restored church in their countries of origin. Each has contributed to my gene pool and they have paved the way for my membership and ultimate faith in the church. I have read a few of their histories, but what I was looking for from them, I have not found. I wanted a statement of testimony from them as to their belief and why they came into the church and a bit about their life as a disciple of Christ. Thus this is the impetus for my writing at this time. I hope that my children and grandchildren and all of my posterity will read this and know that I do believe, even know of the surety of the facts pertaining to the life of Christ, his divinity and the restoration of His church in these the latter days.

If I had written this a few years ago, that which was written would have been different than what I pen today. That which I would write in ten or twenty years would also be different than that which is set forth in these paragraphs. The reason for this is not that the testimony of the basic facts has changed, but that the experiences that I have had and will have adds to the detail of the picture painted.

I was born a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My parents were both members of the church and as such were active participating members of the church. I do not ever remember a time when my parents were not actively engaged in the restored gospel. My earliest memories were of the family and church.  

As most young people I accepted what my parents taught me and did not question the veracity of their statements. The instruction given at church reinforced those teachings. I learned the stories from the Bible, and particularly those from the Old Testament. I knew them as well as the other stories that I heard in my youth and accepted them as true while the other stories such as ‘Little Black Sambo” and others like it I realized were fiction. I was able to believe and discern by some power or gift that was beyond my youthful ability to comprehend. I was fortunate that I did not have friends or people around me who questioned my belief or mocked me because of my beliefs.

During my teenage years I lived in predominately non-LDS communities. I was active in the church and enjoyed the social aspect, which the church afforded. In Denver, Colorado the young people of the ward used to get together often after the evening meeting and play games and socialize. I thus gained an appreciation for the social role that the church plays in the lives of people. For me, it filled a need in my developing personality.

After we moved to Lander, Wyoming I did not have that circle of friends of like faith and values. My brothers and I, along with a few girls from the Alexander, Ririe, Farthing and Yack families, made up the members of the church in the schools and community. Small units of the church tend to foster cohesiveness and so I belonged to a small, but intimate group of believers. We made the church the center of our life and I never felt excluded from that environment. 

Up to this point I relied on my family and the church for my assurance of the truthfulness of the doctrine and the church that proclaimed that doctrine. I was fortunate to live in Lander at that time. We had full time missionaries in Lander and they came to our house for dinner often on Sunday, as well as other times of the week. I do not remember them coming to church, but I am sure that they did. My memories were of dinner with the missionaries and playing basketball with them as well as learning how to play chess from them. We would often discuss the doctrine of the church and read appropriate scriptures. We would bring up answers to the questions that were posed by those not of our faith and reason what would be convincing to them.

Because there were so few members of the Aaronic Priesthood in our branch, all of us met together for priesthood meeting. During the last year or two of my high school time we studied a series of lessons by James Barker on the Great Apostasy. This was a detailed examination of the early Christian church and the historical documents of the early church. I became very interested in the early Christian writings and the Apologetic writings of that time. I read the priesthood manual and learned about the falling away from the true church. The teacher was brother Harold Farthing, who had no education in the subject, but prepared the lessons and led the discussions.

After I was ordained to the office of an Elder, I went to the quorum meetings in Ogden. I was attending Weber College and living with my aunt Alta. The teacher there was a very learned man and gave what I thought were very interesting lessons, but most of the class members could have been less than interested in the subject.

I enjoyed attending church and went to all the meetings. My aunt Alta told me, when I went to live with her, that my parents expected me to attend church. After I had been there a while she said that I didn’t have to go to all the meetings if I didn’t want to, but I did and I attended all the meetings. After I was ordained to be an Elder, I missed the opportunity to bless the sacrament that I had when I was a Priest.

I wanted to go on a mission and never do remember a time when that was not my desire, although at the time of this writing I do not remember much about the process of submitting my application. I was very pleased to be called to the East German Mission with headquarters in Berlin. It was on my mission when I began to earnestly study the gospel and read the scriptures. We had read the Book of Mormon as a family at home sitting around the dinner table after supper. I remember that, for me, it was a chore to be endured and not cherished. 

I did attend the Institute of Religion at Weber College when I was there, but do not remember much about it other than the fact that Joseph Fielding Smith spoke at the graduation.

While I was on my mission I read The Articles of Faith, Jesus The Christ and The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Perhaps the most impressive thing that I read was a series of articles in the Improvement Era written by Hugh Nibley on the apostasy. I don’t remember how I came upon them, but I was so intrigued by them that I could not get enough. I read and reread them and also read the footnotes. I determined to be knowledgeable in the scriptures and the gospel. I read the bible from cover to cover in German and also the Book of Mormon as well as the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. I read the Old Testament Apocrypha as well and tried to find some of the books that Hugh Nibley referred to in his writings. I found an old bible with the parallel translations in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and German, but I did not have enough money to buy the set.

I was exposed to some anti-Mormon literature while on my mission, but I did not seem to be influenced by it. Although I could not answer all of the arguments, I had enough faith not to let it bother my belief. I had reassurances from the spirit to let me know what my understanding and learning did not know. Time has confirmed this position.

After I returned from my mission I had the opportunity to take classes from Hugh Nibley at BYU. I enjoyed the experience and realized then that I would have to make a choice between medicine and academic pursuits and I chose the former.

When Alice and I were married we lived in Salt Lake and attended the University student ward. Oscar McConkie was the bishop and Elder Neal A. Maxwell was a counselor. We learned a great deal from our exposure to these men. It was here that we learned many of the principles of church administration. We learned about father’s blessings and the importance of a righteous priesthood bearer in the home. I suppose that this period of time was as important to my belief as it was to my medical education.

The period of my service as a stake president only served to deepen my understanding of the gospel and of priesthood leadership. I was privileged to know and understand how personal revelation is received and to experience first hand the workings of the spirit. As I grew spiritually so did my understanding of the church and my knowledge of the divinity and reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have had too many experiences to deny the existence of God or the truthfulness of the restoration of Christ’s church in the latter days through the prophet Joseph Smith. I have been in the presence of all of the prophets of the church since David O. McKay. I have known some of the general authorities of the church. I know that this church is founded upon modern day revelation through ordinary men who have been called of God. I know that in spite of the fact that they are men, they have claim to the revelations of God if they will be humble enough to receive them. 

I have written previously about my testimony of the Book of Mormon, which is the word of God to us in these days if we will but read and heed it’s teachings. I want all of my posterity to know that I know these truths and will testify to them before the “pleasing bar of the great Jehovah” in the future. You will hear from my own lips that I did indeed have a knowledge of the truth and hope that my actions will justify and ratify that knowledge.

Amen

Thy Speech Bewrayeth Thee

“Thy Speech bewrayeth[1] thee”

Matthew 26:73

Your grandmother and I were watching a cooking show on television last week and the lady demonstrating the recipe used the word (an inappropriate slang word) that your grandmother had not heard before. She asked me what it meant and I responded in medical terms that she understood.

She was shocked that anyone would use that word on the air. In our day it would have been bleeped out and more often than not, would not have even been aired.

The use of crude language indeed shows what kind of refinement a person has. Our language reveals our sensitivity to the spirit. When talking to the Lord or his son Jesus Christ we would be ashamed to use improper language or converse in anything but the most refined and dignified utterances.

I was brought up in a home where I never heard my parents swear or use crude language. This did not mean that I was not exposed to people who did. My classmates at school swore. The children and teenagers that I was around swore and used filthy language. I worked on my uncle Howard's ranch during the summer and some of his hired hands also swore and used inappropriate language. I did not feel comfortable around them. As a result I do not ever remember swearing or using crude language in front of my wife or children. 

 Each of you deserves to be in a clean environment, which you need to cultivate in your home and family.

George Bernard Shaw was an English playwright. He wrote a five act play entitled “Pygmalion”, later spawning a musical by Lehrner and Lowe, which we know as “My Fair Lady”.

The theme of both productions is that one can be taught to learn proper English and style of speech and thus become accepted in the higher and more socially acceptable levels of British society.  

The point is that our speech betrays us as to our upbringing, our family values, and ultimately our spirituality.

When we were in Lander there were two brothers who were raised in southern Utah living there. They ran a successful business in Lander and were active in the church and both became leaders in the church and were good men, but when they opened their mouth to speak they showed their ignorance of the English language. The language was not polished or refined. The verb tense was almost always used inappropriately.  

One of the most glaring to my ears was using “he done” instead of “he did”. These men would never reach the full potential that they were capable of, because of their inattention to the details of the language. It was not that they were not good people with testimonies of the Gospel, but that they could not express themselves as Professor Henry Higgins[2] would say, “ In language that is [not] painful to the ears.”

When I was in high school, I had a good friend in the same class by the name of John L. Frank. He was a brilliant young man and we used to see who could get the best grades on the tests. We had a study hall together. We both really didn't need time to get our homework done, so we went back to the library and looked up words we didn't know in the big Oxford English dictionary.  

We would write them down with their different definitions and then quiz each other. We had a high school principal by the name of Wedge Thompson. He had a good vocabulary and we would listen to him and try to pick up words that we were unfamiliar with and write them down and look them up later.  

We had a good English teacher by the name of Mrs. Miriam Tweed. She did not let us use improper grammar.

When I went to college, I had no trouble with my English courses and didn't have to relearn to extinguish bad habits, because I was taught well at home and at school.

Each of you must decide that you will not pick up the improper usage of the English grammar, but more than that, not let “That which cometh out of the mouth defile the man.”

Will any one be able to say of you, “Thy Speech bewrayeth thee”?

Love Grandpa

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[1] Bewray. To expose (a person), by divulging his secrets, or telling something that one knows to his discredit or harm. To reveal, divulge, disclose, declare, make known, or to show.

[2] “My Fair Lady”

Sleep when the wind blows

The other night we went to bed and the wind was blowing. We could hear something rattling out on our balcony. We had left some things on the table and were concerned that the wind might blow them off, so I got up and found that the wasp trap was blowing against the railing, I moved it and took the things off the table and brought them into the kitchen. As I climbed back into bed I thought of a story that I heard many times when I was growing up.

A farmer one day was working in his yard when a man came up the lane. He was looking for work and asked the farmer if he might possibly have some extra work that he could do. The farmer did need someone to be a “hired hand”, so he asked the vagrant what kind of recommendations he had. The man replied to the farmer, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” This seemed to be a strange answer to his question, but the man was clean and looked strong, so he decided to hire him.

Many farmers in those days had a bunkhouse. This was a building, usually a tar paper shack, a distance from the main house. The farmer told the man that he could put his belongings in the bunkhouse and the man went to work. The farmer was satisfied with his hired man and they seemed to get along well.

Sometime later the farmer woke up one night to hear a fierce wind howling around his house. He knew that the wind might damage his property and especially the doors of the barn and the chicken coop and other things that weren’t tied down. He got up and ran to the bunkhouse. He pounded on the door, but there was no response. He tried to wake up the hired man, but he did not respond. In desperation he ran to the barn. He found the doors bolted and secure. The hayloft door was also shut tight. He next went to the chicken coop and found that the gate was closed and all the chickens were locked in for the night. He looked around to see if there was anything that the wind might damage and everything was in order.

The next morning the farmer saw the hired hand walking to the barn to get the milking started. He ran to ask him why he had failed to respond to rouse the previous night. The man simply replied, “I can sleep when the wind blows.”

This hired man had made sure that every evening he had taken care of every task that should be completed. All of his assignments were completed and he served his master well. He did not need to panic, because he had been prepared for any emergency.

I obviously was not prepared for the bitter cold wind, which whistled around our house the other night. I was not ready, for I had left things on the balcony that could have blown away in a very strong wind.

We all have a tendency to procrastinate and not finish things and therefore when the winds come, be they real natural winds or the winds of adversity, we are not prepared and then worry comes into our minds as it did into the farmer’s. The quality of being prepared physically or mentally for the tasks in life is a virtue that we should try and develop in all of our undertakings.

I now have a question for you. Can you sleep when the wind blows?

Quo Vadis?

Quo vadis? is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" or "Whither goest thou?". The modern usage of the phrase refers to Christian tradition, related in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (Vercelli Acts XXXV), in which Saint Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome. Peter asks Jesus the question; Jesus' answer is, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again" (Eo Romam iterum crucifigi). This prompts Peter to gain the courage to continue his ministry and eventually become a martyr.

The phrase also occurs a few times in the Vulgate translation of the Bible, notably including the occurrence in John 13:36 in which Peter also asks the question of Jesus, after the latter announces he is going to where his followers cannot come. (Wikipedia)

This was also the title of a movie, which came out in 1951, the year that I was a junior in high school. Since I had some Latin in my freshman year in high school while I was in Denver, I have used this phrase occasionally to ask myself and others where they were going.

To often our day-to-day routine overwhelms us to the point where we lose our direction in life. We go through the day with this thought that we will accomplish the daily tasks and wake up early to go to work, come home, watch the news, eat, and go to bed.

We are in charge of our life. We may need to spend a certain number of hours sleeping, working and eating, but where does this all lead? Are we improving ourselves or being of service to our fellow man?

When I was young, I had a certain goal in mind and I set out to accomplish it. I always wanted to be a doctor and I read and studied about what it would take to become one. There were always things that I was interested in but I always came back to my original goal. After I had accomplished my goal and went out into practice I became quite miserable and I did not know what the reason was. After I was drafted into the military service, I gained some introspection. The reason that I was so miserable is because I did not have any goals and I did not know where I was going.

Since that time I have always had some direction in my life. It is true that this is self- directed but it is always satisfying to accomplish that task. For many years at the first of each year I have written down those goals that I wish to accomplish. Recently as I was going through the files I found some of these that I had written down. The most important of these has always been things that would improve my spirituality and give me a closer relationship to my Father in Heaven.

They have always answered the question “Quo vadis?” as in the Wikipedia definition above.

Each of you must map out a course of what you are going to do with your life and what you are going to become. My hope for you is that you will be a good person first, a dedicated member and disciple of Christ, an excellent and loving parent and an example for good in the community.

And now I ask of you this question, Quo vadis?