Thy speech bewrayeth thee

 Thy speech bewrayeth thee

This quote from the Bible is applicable today.

We don’t use the language of the King James translation today, but how we talk and express ourselves in writing does label us and our abilities.

Bewrayeth means betray or reveal. What we write or say will reveal our learning and upbringing.

I was recently reading my missionary journal and ran across some phrase that I would never use today. The words in the phrase do not make sense except in the slang of the day. If my ancestors of three generations back were to read that, they would not know what I meant. In about one hundred years when my descendants read that phrase they probably would not know what it meant.

As I read posts and see lol, it may mean something to you but it really doesn’t make sense. It is a lazy way to say I am laughing out loud. Or that make me laugh. It then reveals to the reader or listener that you are not very articulate and are greatly influenced by the ways of the world.

How would you feel about communicating to the Lord with language like that?

We belong to Christ’s church. We need to be a light to the world. They should look up to the members of the church for that which is uplifting “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

A number of years ago we had some people comment on the language which Elder Neal Maxwell used in his writings and conference talks. They said that he used words that they didn’t understand. We had no problem, In fact, we really loved the way he expressed himself. It was uplifting and inspired us to increase our ability to express ourselves.

Slang is really revealing what we think of ourselves and those that we communicate with.

Think celestial when you speak and write. We don’t have to use Thee, thou, or thine except when we pray. This is the language of prayer and shows our respect to God. 

Love,

Grandpa

Listening to the Spirit

 D&c 84:46 listening to the spirit

We had a lesson in Sunday school this week. During the discussion a number of the participants shared incidents in their lives. That got me to thinking about times in my life when I had promptings from the Holy Ghost. There have been a number which I feel are not to be shared publicly. Today I would like to share one. It illustrates a two way interaction of the spiritual prompting.

My wife and I were just home from our mission to the Europe East area in Frankfurt in 2000. We were staying in an apartment in Canyon Road Towers just up the street from the conference center. We had people living in our home in Lander while we were on our mission and they had not yet moved so we could not go home.

That July there had been a change in the area presidency and Elder Ronald Rasband was assigned to the Europe Central area presidency. We had come home before we had met him.

We were still living in the apartment at the time of October general conference. We did not have tickets to attend, but wanted to go. We were standing in the line to gain entrance to the meeting for those who didn’t have tickets. As we were standing on the sidewalk across the street from the conference center Elder Rasband came along shaking the people’s hands. As he approached I had the impression as if a voice. “He has tickets,ask him.” I thought, I think that would be presumptuous. I am not going to ask him. He went down the line and then when he came back, he stopped in front of us and asked us if we would like tickets. I do not think he knew who we were, but he listened to the spirit and gave us the tickets. This was the Sunday morning session when President Hinckley dedicated the conference center.

I didn’t act on the prompting of the spirit, but Elder Rasband did.

Some times we may realize that we are getting messages from a loving Father, but we fail to act as in my case. Not often will things turn out as they did in this case.

The best advice that grandpa can offer is to learn to listen and when the impression comes act without hesitation.

Love,
Grandpa

The path is not a destination

 

The path is not a destination

Recently the church has talked about the covenant path. I did not remember this phrase when I was growing up. Although the gospel has not changed, the emphasis on certain aspects has changed. For instance they do not speak about having a year’s supply of food or money like they used to. That is important as well.

What is the covenant path and how do we get onto it? This is the path that will eventually lead us back to our Father in Heaven. It is described as a narrow way.

We must start on the path to make covenants with our Father in Heaven. Usually this starts when we are given a name and a blessing in the Church. For those who did not have parents who were members we start on the path when we were introduced to the restored gospel. For those who had parents who were sealed in the temple they were sealed into the new and everlasting covenant and were heirs to receive the blessings of Abraham. This is referred to as being born in the covenant. This now is our start on the path.

Once on the path, we make our first covenant when we are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This covenant is, that we will mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that are in need of comforting and stand as a witness of God at all times and in all places even until death. We take upon us the name of Christ and become His disciples.

The ordinance of the sacrament is to remind us of those covenants that we made when we were baptized. When we partake of the sacrament unworthily we are stopped in our progression along the covenant path. The scriptures give this condition as damnation. Just as a river has its flow interrupted, our progress along the covenant path is impeded or damned until we remove the obstacles by repentance.

For the men, the next covenant is the oath and covenant of the priesthood as described in the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

We next go to the temple where we make more covenants and get a symbolic representation of our destination, which is being admitted into the presence of God.

The temple is not the end. We have to keep those covenants that we make in the temple for the rest of our lives walking along holding onto the rod of iron. 

 

My dear grandchildren, please stay on the path. If you need help, I will hold your hand. 

 

Love,

Grandpa

The spot remover

 I was involved in a dry cleaning business in Lander a number of years ago. A couple of members of the church decided to open a dry cleaners in Lander. They came to me and asked for some financial backing. Alan Anderson and I had purchased some property on Main Street that had three buildings and a trailer house. Alan moved into the building with the garage with the hydraulic lift and gas pumps in front. There was a cinder block building on the property next to the garage that the individuals remodeled and installed the equipment and opened the business.

The business did well, but they decided to move and my wife and I became the owners and operators. My wife worked there as well as my daughter Rachel. We also hired some help.

I would go in and do pressing and remove spots on the clothes. We used a special fluid to spray on the items to remove the spots.

I was thinking about spot removal today and this quote came to mind from my high school English class where we had to memorize quotes from Shakespeare.

"Out damned spot" is a line spoken by Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth.

She is walking and talking in her sleep about the assassination of King Duncan, in which she is implicated. This was the spot she wanted to get rid of.

We develop spots on our character by transgressing the laws of God and man. After we die the spots on our characters may or may not disappear. To quote Shakespeare again, “The evil that man does lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar. “

We all make mistakes and transgress God’s commandments or laws that will keep us from his presence after we pass from this earthly existence.

Just as we used spot remover at the dry cleaners there is a process to remove the spots on our character that come with us after we die.

We must go through the process of repenting. Only Christ can make us clean again. Only He is the spot remover. He suffered for our sins, but only if we do our part and bring our souls to the eternal dry cleaners by first washing ourselves in the waters of baptism and feeling godly sorrow for our sins.

Examine your selves and get rid of the spots in your life.

Love Grandpa

Conference messages

 Conference messages

During my life I have seen the changes in the accessibility of the messages spoken in conference. The first time I remember was that the messages were compiled and printed in a volume called the conference report. It took almost a year before they were available and most members did not avail themselves of them.

The next thing that I remember was they were included in the church magazine, Improvement Era later the Ensign and now the Liahona.

Now one can read or listen to the messages on the Internet. I have an app on my phone and iPad which has all the scriptures as well as the conference messages.

We need to have access to all the spiritual information at this time, because we will go through a period of trial and testing and we will need access to the words of the prophets even more than ever before.

 

Feast upon the messages!

 

Love.

Grandpa

My first missionary companion

 My first missionary companion 

I recently tried to find out what had happened to my first missionary companion Richard Mac Crandall. I could not find him on Find a Grave or in Family Search. I Googled his name and didn’t find a match. I did find someone who might have been his father in Family Search so I sent a message to some individuals who had added sources with the surname of Crandall.

“My first missionary companion in Germany was the son of this man. His name was Richard Mac Crandall. Are you related ? I would appreciate knowing something about him.

Laurence Gee, M.D.”

His daughter Shauna Jorgenson emailed me back and related that he was still alive and living with his second wife in Oregon. He is no longer a member of the church and does not believe.

While I was in Germany I heard that he was going to go to the Swiss temple to marry a young lady that he met in Berlin when he got released.

Apparently that didn’t happen because of the Swiss regulations. They got married in the Los Angeles temple. Her name was 

Christel Gerda Luise Brandt

They had three daughters and then they divorced. Christel moved back to Germany and raised her daughters there and eventually did come back to the United States. She married again and died in Utah in 1985.

The daughter that I talked with is a realtor here in Utah and an active member of the church.

I did not tell the daughter that I talked to about a number of times that Elder Crandall left me alone. I was assigned to Hildesheim when we met with the mission president in Hannover to receive our assignments and after three days in Hannover he left with someone else and I had to travel to Hildesheim on a train with a German sister missionary Anna Ernst who was assigned there.

After I had been in the country 20 days I took 4 Boy Scouts on a camping trip to Hamelin by bicycle and he said he was sick and sent me alone.

There were a number of other times when I was left alone to travel.

We were teaching a young lady Lillie Goetz. She was working for the British army. We had arranged to go with her to a concert at the cathedral given by the children’s chorus, the Regensberger Domspatzen. When I was ready to go he said he had some branch work to do and sent me to go to the concert alone with her.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXWXpCM8p44&list=OLAK5uy_kt359u1yRwD_rIO_2o-69ieVR2kPHsoOw

He left me to go off with a soldier friend when we were to attend the mission conference in Laboe. I was left to go by myself and missed my train to Hannover where I was to join the missionaries from the district to travel to Laboe. Fortunately the train going north was late and I was able to join them. I had only been in the country for about two months.

I did not think it necessary to share this information with his daughter.

It is not surprising that he has lost his testimony. When we do not obey the mission rules we will be tempted to disregard God’s commandments and find ourselves on shaky ground or out of the kingdom.

My counsel to my grandchildren is to keep the rules and the commandments. 

 

Love. Grandpa

The story of the chewing gum

 The story of the chewing gum

I used to like to chew gum. Initially it came in packages of five sticks. I would first only chew one stick of gum. As time went on I would add an extra stick until I ended up chewing all five sticks at the same time. They next came out with packs of 15 sticks. I followed the same procedure until I was chewing all fifteen sticks at the same time. That was quite a mouthful. I would prefer Wrigley’s spearmint or double mint gum. I also like to chew bubble gum.

When I was on my mission to Germany as a young man they did not have chewing gum. One day my companion Elder Crandall had a friend come to visit him. He brought a large pack of chewing gum. I was delighted and wanted to savor the gum, so I only used one stick at a time.

We were teaching the Jensen family the gospel and at some point we taught them the lesson on the Word of Wisdom. I was chewing gum at that lesson. At a later lesson Herr Jensen told his wife that Herr Gee didn’t keep the Word of Wisdom because I was chewing tobacco. When I found that out I had to explain about American chewing gum. I told them that I had never chewed tobacco.

I then realized that appearance mattered. I resolved never to chew gum again, because I didn’t want to give people a false impression. I didn’t want people to think that I did not keep the Word of Wisdom.

“Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).