More Church Stuff

Please be warned that this post contains details about my life that some might not be interested in reading. Any post marked as personal will contain events that are just that, personal. Feel free to continue reading only if you want to hear about my life. This post also deals with things that could be fairly foreign to anyone that isn't familiar with the LDS church (mormons.)

My Life timeline: Church

When I was 8-10 I was involved in the cub scouts. The LDS church has a special award that cub scouts can receive. In my ward at the time, nearly all the cub scouts worked to receive this award, and usually they were successful. One of the requirements for the award is you need to write fifty words or more what it means to "Do your duty to God." Here is what I wrote: "Faith in God means to me to attend church regular. To say prayers day and night. To read the Book of Mormon and to keep the commandments. To get other people that nobody plays with and play with them, and don't beat up on smaller kids, be nice to them." Fifty words on the dot. I didn't like being picked on, and I felt it was my duty to play with the ones that weren't being played with. For me I have always seen faith as an action. Duty to God and Faith in God meant exactly the same thing to me; you show your faith by doing what is right. It is fun to see that my memory of how I felt at the time was accurate, not that I was in doubt of my memory.

Here is the blessing I received shortly after I was born, when I was given my name.

"<name here> you will be known by this name on the records on earth and on the records in heaven, and we give you a blessing through the power of the Holy Melchizedek priesthood that we hold. We bless you with health and strength and every blessing there is to bless you with. We bless you that you will grow up strong and be able to preach the gospel and be listed among the strong and powerful and have authority to teach and be a good example of righteousness. You will live when there is pestilence and tribulations upon the earth. A time of trouble, but you will have every blessing and opportunity at this time to live a normal life. You will be baptized and as time goes on you will take a companion that is righteous to the temple. You will have the opportunity to have, teach and train a righteous family. As your parents have well taught and trained you in the ways of the gospel. As time goes on you will be able to have all the priesthood. We bless you that you will be a servant in the hands of the Lord throughout your entire life. We bless you to have parents that will understand you and give you guidance in every way"

Well there you have it. Pretty hard core, right out of the gate. You just have to love my dad blessing me to live in times of pestilence and tribulations. That is pretty awesome.

All right, here are some writings from my dad when he was in the bishopric in 1965-66 in Sandy, Utah, eighth ward. They were printed in the Messenger, I guess the ward newsletter or something at the time. It was 11 years before I was born.

Prepare in Season (October 1966)
Fall is in the air. It is the time of the year when the mountains, valleys and nature prepare for the period of scarcity. The trees in the mountains are losing the beautiful greens by giving way to elaborate reds, yellows and browns. Yes, soon they will be barren for a season. Some of them will survive the cold harsh winter and some will not.

The valleys have given up their bounteous crops to man, fulfilling their creation in every detail. Without the labor of man there would not have been a harvest produced for his survival. Someone had to labor in order to provide these blessings for him.

Just as the season provide a specific time to labor, so is there a specific time when we must labor. Tomorrow may not provide the same opportunity. Just as we do not plant crops out of season as it is not right, so we must not say. "If I were so and so, I would do it thus and thus"; but as it is not our season, our crop fails and has no fruit.

Oh how much better would we be if we were like Mother Nature and produce abundantly in our seasons. When Mother Nature gets out of hand, she kills that very fruit of her loom and everyone suffers. But if she takes care, we have greatness and abundant blessings for all.

May we all produce in our very season that which is asked of us, abundantly, so that our Father in Heaven may be glorified by His people.

Wow. You like the bit about Mother Nature getting out of hand and kills everything? We had better produce in our season or our Father in Heaven might get "out of hand." My dad was always good with uplifting messages.

Who's on the Lords side in 1966
As we draw the old year to a close, we can surely ask the question, "Who's on the Lord's side, who? Now is the time to show."

Collectively, the ward has not seen a better year than 1965! The chapel was paid for and dedicated. The Stake budget was met, the Regional Welfare assignments were fulfilled. The number of genealogical family group sheets turned in from our ward was the highest in the stake. More people prepared themselves and went to the Temple this past year.

Yes, the ward, collectively, has been more faithful.

Now let us look at 1966. We must succeed even more this coming year in order to progress. Individually, we must progress also. More could pay a full tithe; more could pay a full ward budget; more home teaching could be done. More family prayer could be said each day. More could say "yes" and "do" whatever they are asked. More could pitch in and make the burden lighter for the few have carried the load in the past.

Only a few paid a full tithe; a full budget; worked on the Stake Center; went to the Temple; attended meetings regularly. Only a few supported "all" the programs of the Church. To those few, the Lord has blessed greatly.

May we collectively say we are on the Lord's side, and individually, by our own works say, "I'm on the Lord's side for the whole year of 1966," is our prayer.

God bless us, everyone.

Yup. That was my dad.