Agency

Agency

A word of explanation: This is a letter that I wrote to one of my children.  Sometimes we do not know why some leaders in the church do not act to correct errors in the doctrine or procedures and practices in local units. This is my response to the question posed.

The war in Heaven was fought over the principle of agency.  Our father in heaven desired that all of his children should come back into his presence but he would not force them or do anything to abrogate his children's agency.  We often refer to this as free agency.  There is nothing free about agency.  It is given to us freely, but we must work for it in order to constantly maintain our agency.

Adam quickly learned about agency in the Garden of Eden. He was given a commandment not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and he was also admonished what the consequences would be of his disobedience.  You are well aware of the results of what happened.  The Lord allowed Adam his agency and did not interfere.

When the gospel was later explained to Adam and he learned why he was offering sacrifices, he taught his children.  Satan came among them and said, “I too am a son of God, believe it not.”  And many believed it not and followed Satan.

You are having a hard time understanding why the general authorities did not interfere and set this good brother aright.  It is because of agency.  You have asked the question if he leads people astray shouldn't there be interference to save the people.  That is a good question.  The Lord however does not usually work in that manner.  If he did that would interfere with agency.  We and He would not have anybody going astray, or have Satan leading other people astray.

We are first to rely upon the Lord for our direction.  If the leaders of the church ask us to do something wrong and it is against gospel principles, they are to be held accountable.

This is where accountability comes in.  We have agency and we will also be held accountable.  This is why it is said in the Scriptures that we will be judged according to our deeds or our works in the flesh. 

The history of the restored church is replete with examples of people who have gone off on tangents believing that they are right.  Some examples that you are probably not familiar with are as follows:

James J. Strang was a man who dissented from the church at the time the prophet Joseph Smith died.  He took a lot of people with him and went to Beaver Island, Michigan, where he proclaimed himself King and prophet.  He had at one time 12,000 followers.  You can get a more complete history on Wickipedia.

”The Godbeites were members of the Godbeite Church, officially called the Church of Zion, organized in 1870 by William S. Godbe. This dissident offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was aimed toward embracing all belief systems. Known for mysticism, the church died out by the 1880s.  This happened in Salt Lake City.  A more extensive history is found on Wickipedia.

These people who were led astray are all God’s children.  He did not want them to be led astray, but because he loved them he allowed them to make the choices that they did.  He could have sent an angel to strike down William Godbe or James J. Strang or Sidney Rigdon, but he did not.  He gave those people their agency and gave them the Holy Ghost to guide and direct them if they would listen.  He does not fight or quarrel or twist arms or coerce in anyway.  Everyone that has been baptized has the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide them.  All they need to do is listen and heed the promptings.  The book of Mormon has many such instances where people were led astray by slick talking people. 

You have been taught correct principles.  You have quickly identified the problem.  Now is the time to let the Lord take care of it.  It will not happen as quickly as you would like it to.  It is not your or our place to set things aright.  Your parents and your siblings all feel as you do, that the subject matter presented in the sacrament meeting was inappropriate and introduced false doctrine.  Now you just have to wait and see how this plays out.  Please know that you are loved and supported and that we will sustain you in the times ahead.

Love,

Dad

As a postscript there has recently been a case in the local and national news of a woman member of the church who has been recently excommunicated by her bishop. She believes that women should receive ordination to the priesthood.  She has organized a group and collected both money and supporters. Using the pressure tactics of demonstrations and disregard of the requests of church leaders, she tried to force her will and ideas by being refused entry into the priesthood meeting of general conference. In essence she has formed her own church, although she will deny that. Time will deal with this as it has with the examples above. In the times to come before the advent of Jesus Christ's second coming, there will be pressure on the church to change from within and without. The prophesies are there.  Do not be lead astray or cave into the ways of the world. Heber C. Kimball said that there would be a great sifting that would occur. 

Do not be among the ones who go through the sieve. Listen to the Holy Ghost.

Love,

Grandpa

Food and me

I grew up in a time when the country was just coming out of the great depression.

My parents came from rural backgrounds where the food that they ate was mostly home grown and was simple in its nature and preparation. My great grandmother Jane Butler learned to cook at Dunraven castle in Wales. Her husband John Ulrich Stucki was Swiss and brought that gastronomy background to the family. It was reported that when the visiting authorities would come from Salt Lake to Paris, that Jane Butler Stucki would be asked to prepare the meals for the visitors.

My mother was raised in that environment and would often tweak the recipes for food that she made. She enjoyed good, well-prepared food, especially if it had butter or cream. She was not afraid to experiment.

I always liked to eat at my grandmother Mary Ellen Kerr Gee's home. She would fix dishes that we did not eat at home. The one that sticks in my mind is peeled sliced oranges with coconut sprinkled on top.

We usually ate meat, potatoes and vegetables. There was nothing fancy.  When we went to a restaurant we would usually order chicken fried steak or a hot beef or pork sandwich.  We may have gone to the restaurant once every two or three years, or less often.

When I was working for the forest service, I did some cooking for myself and later for the fire crew.  On the Wiggins Fork fire I was the cook for the mop up fire crew.  I had plenty of provisions.  Although I did not prepare anything fancy, I enjoyed cooking.

I went to live with my aunt Alta Lowe and attend Weber College.  I lived with her for two school years.  She was an excellent cook and had dinner parties at least once a month. She let me help with the preparation of the parties.  The first party that I remember was one in which she prepared a cold three-bean salad.  You have probably eaten this salad, but it was not common at that time. I was used to eating my beans hot and not with vinegar.  I discretely placed the beans in my napkin and then disposed of them in the toilet. I like cold bean salad now, but it required a honing of my palate.

One day my aunt asked me to go to the fish market.  She asked me to pick up some fresh crab. She was going to prepare cracked crab on ice for my grandparents who were coming for a visit. It was the first time I had ever eaten crab.  I also learned to eat fried oysters and fried shrimp while living at my aunt’s house.

I helped her prepare the canned plum pudding, which she gave away to friends and relatives at Christmas time.

My next adventure with food came when I found myself in Germany on a mission. It was here that I was introduced to a wide variety of foods that I had never eaten before. I will name a few: potato pancakes, lung ragout, calf’s brain, carp, marzipan, Rinderouladen, Kohlrouladen, Kuchen, rutabaga, buttermilk soup and bauernfrüstuck.

On the way home from my mission I added to the foods that I had previously not experienced: frito misto mare (calamari, octopus, prawns and fish all deep fried), vineyard snails in garlic butter, and real Italian spaghetti.

On the ship home we had an eating contest.  I won. We went through the entire menu ordering every item.  Then we started at the top again. I won by a leg of chicken.

After I returned home and got married I worked at the Salt Lake Country Club running the refreshment stand on the golf course. I got to take home all the food that was prepared for the golfers that was not eaten.  Occasionally the chef would give me a filet of beef to cook on the grill. I would take it home with me and share with my wife.

We liked to cook “shish kabob” on the charcoal grill.  I incorporated dill pickle next to the beef cubes because it reminded me of the rouladen I had eaten in Germany and we have prepared it that way ever since.  Usually we have beef alternating with tomatoes, red or green peppers, onions and dill pickle. We have prepared it with chicken, shrimp or lamb as well. 

We used to listen to cooking shows on the radio and write down the recipes.  My wife Alice was adventuresome as well and she usually did the cooking.  While we were living on the avenues in Salt Lake City, we started making our own hand-dipped chocolates and used fudge and divinity and white fudge for the centers.

After we moved to Lander we ordered a series of cookbooks from Time/Life publishing company.  We got a number of our recipes from these cookbooks.  We collected recipes on 3x5” cards and put them in boxes.  Eventually the box became too small and we got a larger wooden tole painted box. It too became too small. Our recipe books soon lined the book self that we had in our kitchen.  We subscribed to Cuisine magazine and got small cookbooks from Cuisinart when we bought our food processor. We subscribed to Bon Appetite magazine and would look through the recipes to see what sounded good to eat.  I got a small magazine at the office called Physician’s Life Style.  There was only one good recipe in each issue.  We got our recipes for cream cheese pie and chicken cacciatore from this magazine.

In California we would go to the Imperial Dynasty restaurant in Hanford where the food was excellent and the atmosphere exotic.  The restaurant was famous all over California and beyond.  People would fly into Hanford just to eat there.  The owner was the chef for General Marshall during World War II.  We usually ordered the Tournados of beef, and they had an excellent egg foo young that they served with it.

In order to raise money for the marching band, we had a series of dinners and served at least 100 people and we were involved in the planning and cooking.  We had a few dinners for the high priests and cooked and served food for those.  We belonged to a dinner group with friends from Riverton and Lander and rotated homes and dinners for them. 

When we would go down to Salt Lake with our children, we would always go out to eat.  Some of the restaurants we frequented were Michelinos, Della Fonatana, Bratten’s Grotto, The hotel Utah coffee shop, Al Forno and other places where we could get food that wasn’t available in Lander, Wyoming.

When I was on the board of directors of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming, we would go to Jackson Lake Lodge, Phoenix, or the Old Baldy Club in Saratoga, Wyoming and eat food prepared especially for the group.  It was a dining experience.

While on our mission to Frankfurt, we went with other missionaries and by ourselves to a number of different restaurants.  I prepared a dining guide with the name of the restaurant and the food that we ate.  The food was good and we learned to eat and enjoy things that we did not have in Lander.  We also watched the TV show “Koch Duel” and got a few pointers from the chefs there.  We also found that the vegetables at the local farms were very good and the produce was fresh and excellent. We took our recipes with us on our computer. The first 48 pages or so was put together by Alice and then we added and added and added until the document was given to each of our children.  Some of the recipes are in German. 

When we went to Moscow we enjoyed eating at the Scandinavian restaurant and especially at the Pushkin restaurant at the Tverskaya Metro stop. It is touted as the premier place to eat in Moscow.  In Moscow we got the BBC television in our apartment and enjoyed watching “Ready Steady Cook”.  We took our recipes with us. 

Food seems to be a topic of conversation in our family.  We feel that food for the body is as important as food for the soul.  Both must be of the highest quality and pure and delicious.

Love,

Grandpa