Walking dead

 Walking dead

No this is not a commentary on the comic book series or the movie.

This is about mortality. Man is created with a body and then the Lord placed a spirit into the body, so we live in a mortal world with two bodies.

You can probably see where this post is going.

I read the news on four sites. There are a number of articles about people who are the walking dead. They shoot and kill. They rob and shoplift. They get drunk and get impaired and drive and kill or injure people. They abuse spouse and children. They are immoral and run the risk of serious disease. They try to change the way they were created by their Father in Heaven. 

They are the walking dead. Their bodies are living, but their spirits are dead as to what their potential is and how the Lord created them.

How do they bring their spiritual body back to life?

When we try to resuscitate a mortal body we use artificial respiration and we may try cardio version by applying an electric shock to the heart.

The way to resuscitate the spirit is to turn the heart to the Lord by keeping the commandments and repentance. Then place the spiritual feet on the covenant path. The mortal feet allow us to move forward. Thus to regain spiritual life we need spiritual feet to lead us forward. Next we move up the spiritual body to the heart. We have to turn our hearts to the Lord for a cardio version.

Thus we can no longer be the walking dead. 

Love, 

Grandpa

Transmitter receiver

 Transmitter, receiver

I have on my iPhone an app called Find My Friends. With it I can track the location of my children and those that allow me to follow them all over the world. If they turn off their phones I can no longer see where they are. If my phone is off then they can’t see where I am. Each phone is a transmitter and a receiver.

This is a little like our communication with our Father In Heaven. The Holy Ghost is like the internetm enabling two way communication with Heavenly Father.

To turn off the voice of the Holy Ghost we just need to stop our transmission of prayer and reading the scriptures. Our location transmission is always on. The Lord always knows where we are and what we are saying and thinking. We cannot hide from Him. That is how He cares for His children.

In order to receive transmission from our Father we have to tune in to the proper frequency. When I was growing up we had a radio with a dial we could turn to listen to different broadcast stations

One of the messages on one station said, "Don’t touch that dial. Listen to Blondie”. They wanted us to stay on that frequency. Sometimes there was a loud noise that made it difficult to hear. We called that static.

By transgressing the Lord’s commandments we introduce static in the reception from the Holy Ghost and so we try to change the channel and lose the message from God and listen to worldly voices.

The more we pray and prepare for inspiration by immersing ourselves in the word of God to recognize His voice the clearer the transmission will be and clear up the static. 

 

It takes effort on our part. There is no free lunch.  If we do not exercise that energy, we will not be able to hear the voice of the spirit and get direction for our life..

 

Tune in to the proper channel.

Love,

Grandpa

Black sheep

Black sheep
Usually a definition of a person who doesn’t follow the family traditions or expectations.

I have referred to myself as the black sheep of my family. Not in all aspects, but in the eyes of the world.

Let me explain.
Both my parents went to Ricks college. They met there and had a fulfilling experience and wanted their sons and daughter to experience what they enjoyed.

When I graduated from high school I wanted to go to college. I had already decided to be a doctor and knew that in order to go to medical school, a college education had to come first. I don’t remember how it came to pass, but as I remember, my father’s aunt Alta Lowe offered to let me stay with her and I would do her yard work and shovel snow and help her around the house. She was a widow who had just lost her husband a year and a half previously. I would attend Weber college for two years and go back to Lander during the summer. I could not go on a mission until I was 20 years old, and I was only 18 so I had two years to attend college. 

 
The other option that I had to choose from was to attend Ricks college and live with my mother’s brother Wendell Stucki. As part of that agreement I would milk the cows on my uncle’s dairy twice a day and help with the feeding. I had spent a few summers on my uncle Howard’s ranch in Eight Mile out of Soda Springs, Idaho.
I had had enough experience milking cows, so I opted to go to Ogden and attend Weber.

My parents were not happy with my choice and made me promise to attend institute and attend church meetings.

Both my brothers opted to milk cows and attend Ricks.

So I was the black sheep as far as college preference was concerned, but not as far as the gospel was concerned.

My father got his college degree in physics. Both my brothers also graduated from college in physics. So I was the black sheep as far as college major was concerned.

Both my parents and grandparents Gee were opposed to my going into medicine. They were concerned that I would lose my testimony and be an inactive member or leave the church. My Uncle Vernon became a physician and never became active. He had his temple ordinances completed 3 years after his death. The doctors that my grandparents knew in Idaho all were inactive members of the church. The doctor who we went to in Denver that was a member left the church. 

Because of their concerns I took the opportunity to ask a visiting apostle (Elder Adam S. Bennion) while on my mission in 1956. He listened to my concerns and said that I should attend my church meetings and participate in the activities. He stated that in the future there would be bishops, stake presidents, and general authorities who were doctors.

All my brothers and my father married Idaho girls. They wanted me to find either an Idaho or Lander girl for my wife. I married a Southern Belle.
So I again was a black sheep.

I do not regret my choices even though they were not what my parents wanted.

I hope I haven’t made any of my children feel like they were black sheep.

I think that this illustrates that worldly choices are not as important as the spiritual ones we make. In the eternities it is these spiritual choices that will provide happiness.

Chose the right when a choice is placed before you. 

Elder Maxwell said that we make choices of principle or preference. It does not make any difference to your spirituality if you choose a Snickers or a Milky Way.  Your eternal salvation does not depend on that.  I think you can see that I was not a black sheep as far as the gospel is concerned. My black sheep choices were choices of preferences.

A quote he used is “If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”

Make wise choices!

 Love,

Grandpa

The supposed calling envy

 

The supposed calling envy 

There is no inequality in the gospel of Jesus Christ and His true church. All are children of God and are equal before him, as long as we keep His commandments.

 
Let me illustrate how inappropriate thinking can keep us from understanding how the Lord administers His kingdom.

Before we moved to Lander the stake president needed to call a bishop to serve in the Lander first ward. He and his counselors cleared the individual with the high council and submitted the recommendation to the First Presidency. He then informed the individual to expect the call. The First Presidency informed the stake president that he should find another candidate, because this man was employed at a job that required him to work on Sunday. That was a big blow to the man. He later served on the high council. 

 

When I was the stake president the stake Sunday school president moved and we needed to replace him. I felt inspired to call this brother to serve in that calling. I understood that he felt that this was a demotion and shortly after this he moved to the Big Horn basin. I heard that he had hard feelings toward me. He didn’t know that he was no less serviceable in that position.

We had a neighbor who went to high school with me. She was much younger and we went to church together. She married in the Idaho Falls temple the same day we were married. Her father had served as the branch president and was at one time on the high council. After awhile she was upset that her husband was not “promoted “ to a leadership position in the church. They eventually divorced and he married a girl that I took to a high school dance on my return from my mission in 1957. She joined the church and as far as I know she is active even after he died two years ago. The first wife is inactive.

We do not have a church where every member is unimportant. 

We need every calling and they are needed for the body of Christ. Metaphorically speaking we cannot be without a single toe. 

 

Love,

Grandpa

Service in the church

 Service in the church

Most young people are accustomed to equating missionary service with proselytizing. 

Let me illustrate by an experience. My brother Martell had a grandson who was not physically qualified to serve a proselyting mission. He had congenital heart disease and was operated on and went into cardiac arrest on the table when he was about 4 years old. Because of his postoperative condition he was ill suited to serve a standard mission. My brother asked me about it and I told him that there were a number of handicapped young men who were serving in the family history library. They would help people and work in the archives and microfilm services. A couple of these young men were in wheelchairs. At that time this was a mission that was not part of the missionary department. The application went directly to that mission president. It now goes through the missionary committee.

All young missionaries now go through the missionary committee. They are screened by medical and psychiatric specialists and then by a committee of staff at the Missionay department who make recommendations to the assignment committee consisting of a member of the council of the twelve and other general authorities. They make the assignments for all the young service missionaries and all the proselyting missionaries and all those that go to the family history library.

This is different than when I was called on my mission in 1954 for 36 months. There was no screening. The application was filled out with a recommendation by my father who was the branch president and the mission president. I was then interviewed by a general authority. In my case it was Carl W. Buehner who was a counselor in the presiding bishopric.

On our two couples missions 1997-2000 and 2001-2003 we were recruited by the head of the missionary medical committee for the first mission and the area presidency for our second mission. We just filled out the paperwork and got the call from the church president. 

My fourth mission came as a service missionary after I had been a volunteer in the Missionay department for 17 years. It was a 2 year assignment that ended in August 2023. I did not fill out any paperwork and didn’t have any priesthood interviews. I was set apart by a counselor in the bishopric If I look at my record on Tools I am still listed as a service missionary even though I have been released. I lived at home and only worked on Tuesday after noon. My wife was not with me on this mission. Because of Covid the last half of this mission did not require me to go to the church office building. I just sat at my computer in our office at home.

We serve where and when we are called. Most members of the church think that there is a rank in the church. Members feel that if you are called to be a bishop that you are more important than if you were called to be a counselor or a clerk and that you have a higher approval rating in the eyes of the Lord. A deacon passing the sacrament is no less serviceable to the Lord as well as is the teacher in the nursery.

The Lord needs servants in all the positions in the church.

You may not know the following, because I have not made this known, but I think this is appropriate to share at this time. 

Different stake presidents have recommended me to the first presidency to serve as; 

1. Mission President
2. Temple president. 

They were thinking that I ought to know, but that was not in accordance with church policy. I did not sit around waiting for the call.

I was not disappointed when I was not called. The Lord used my talents and abilities in the place where I was needed and that I really enjoyed, missionary medical. The Lord knows who and where he needs our talents. If those in leadership positions rely on inspiration we will be just as important as any of the Lord's chosen servants.

I have written about my experiences in another blog.

 https://wyomingdoc.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-supposed-calling-envy.html

We have 7 church service missionaries in our stake. 

If you have concerns about serving a mission, talk to your bishop. 

What good would it do?

 What good would it do? Also, would it help?

The first question comes from a quote to me from Elder Boyd K. Packer during the time that I was stake president. We did not have the organizational structure that exists in the church today. At that time if a stake president had a question he would call the church office in Salt Lake and ask the operator to speak to an authority and would be connected to the authority on call. 

I had a question that was not addressed in the documents or general handbook of instructions. When I asked him what I should tell the person what they should do, I proposed a solution and Elder Packer responded, “What good would it do?” I responded that it would not do any good.

The next quote is from the movie “Bridge of Spies”.

The prisoner of the Americans was questioned about something and his reply was, “Would it help?”

The other day some pro Palestinian demonstrators held up traffic on the freeway and on an overpass. When one asks whether their actions would have any effect on helping stop the war many miles away. What would your answer be?
Would it help? What good would it do?
Does demonstrating make any difference in mediating differences in conflicts abroad or changing opinions over things we cannot control?

How do you think the people who were affected by this action reacted? I would hazard a guess that only about one of a hundred were sympathetic. The others were disturbed and exasperated. How do you think the driver in one of the cars who had an appointment and was late felt?

Would it help the Palestinians? What good would it do?

We are here on earth to do good. This demonstration will not bring us closer to God. How would these demonstrators feel if the tables were turned and they were the ones on the other side.

Christ said do unto others as you would have done unto you.

We need to follow Christ and not Babylon or the world. When the question is asked would it help? Or what good would it do? We hope we can answer in the affirmative, it will!!!

Measure your actions against the standards of the gospel of Christ. 

Love,
Grandpa

The twenty Mark note

 

We recently watched a YouTube talk by Elder Bednar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGS45Fd9nmE&t=840s

In it he described an event that happened on his mission in 1972. Elder Boyd K. Packer was visiting the mission and needed to go to Berlin to visit that mission. He was unable to fly because his flight was cancelled. They had to take the train instead. Elder Bednar gave Elder Packer a 20 Mark note because he thought that he and his wife might need some money to buy some food.
When they got to the East German border, they had to present their passports. Elder Packer’s passport was in order, but his wife’s passport was a 3-year passport that was extended to 5 years. The East German government did not recognize this type of passport and would take the holder off the train. Elder Packer gave both passports and the 20 Mark note to the guard and later the guard returned the passports without the money. They arrived safely in Berlin. I doubt that Elder Packer knew rhe value of the 20 Marks.

What Elder Bednar did not explain was that the exchange rate at that time was $1 was worth 4.23 West German marks. I am unable to find the exchange rate of West German currency to East German marks, but when I was in Berlin it was 5 to 1. That means that that 20 Mark bill was worth 100 East German Marks. If I can estimate that money would be 3+ weeks’ pay.

 

I reached out to my contact in Berlin, and this is the information that he sent.

Here is what I could find regarding the salary of East German soldiers:

 

https://home.snafu.de/veith/besoldun.htm

 

About the exchange rate between German – later West-German - Marks and the US Dollar I can say that it stayed mainly the same between ca. late 1923 and about 1973, i. e. about 4,23 Marks / DM for 1 USD. If I remember correctly, this was something that was fixed after the end of the German inflation in late 1923. Only after 1973 was there a free exchange agreed upon rate that varied depending on the market.

 

The East German Mark had about the same value as you experienced it until about 1989, although at times its value was less, depending on certain political and economic situations. For the East German authorities, the official rate was 1:1, but that was politically motivated without any relation to the economic reality. Only after 1989 did the exchange rate plunge down to about 1:8 or even 1:10, making it very easy for West Germans to buy things in the east until the currency reunification on July 1, 1990.

 I hope this helps you somewhat.

While I was on my mission 1954-1957, I traveled by train from Hildesheim through the East Zone to Berlin in January 1955. We were not allowed to open the window shades or look out the windows and had to have a travel permit issued by the Russian commander in East Berlin.

I then traveled by train from Berlin to Bern, Switzerland and back with the same restrictions when I went to the temple dedication. Then later again from Berlin to Flensburg by train.

When Clark was released in 1980, we bought a car and drove through East Germany to Berlin and back. Clark said that it was like going from technicolor to black and white. The exchange rate was about the same at that time. We also had to show our passports at the border in Helmstedt.

The next time we went to Berlin the wall was down and we could travel without restrictions.