Another first - LDS on President's Faith Advisory Board

Read the article here. I guess we're a legitimate religion now, even in politics.

"Elder Steven E. Snow of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been appointed to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, according to a press release issued Thursday by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah."

According to the White House, the advisory council is charged with: indentifying best practices for delivering social services, improving the implementation of public policies related to faith-based groups, and recommending changes to polices, programs and practices to the president. (Sojourners God's Politics Blog)

A thought-provoking talk

"Avoid rush, and haste, and uncontrolled words..." Elder F. Enzio Busche

Take the time to watch this. It applies to everyone of every faith who seeks happiness.

Religion survey

U.S. Religious survey is found here. I didn't get 100% but I exceeded 90% of the population in general knowledge but it turns out I didn't understand the Catholic sacrament.

On questions of Christianity, "Mormon" respondents — comprised primarily of members of The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints but possibly including members of other faiths such as from the Community of Christ — were the top-scoring group. Mormons averaged 7.9 correct answers out of the 12 questions on Christianity, with white evangelical Protestants second with a 7.3 average.

I'm sure Evangelicals as a whole know their Bibles better, but apparently we edged them (though very close) on our knowledge of Christianity and since the Bible is a large part of our religious study, we are learning. Our Sunday School Gospel Doctrine classes spend a year on the Old Testament, A Year on the New Testament, a year on the Book of Mormon and a year on the Doctrine & Covenants. However, we are encouraged to study all the scriptures and to do so daily.

Read more here.

Hope ya know, we had a hard time

Quentin L. Cook gave a talk in 2008 by this title.  Click here to read it.  These were the words of his three year old when he spoke to his mom on the phone after a scary and grueling experience while trapped in a surprise snowstorm.

At times when we may feel to say, “Hope you know, I had a hard time,” we can be assured that He is there and we are safe in His loving arms.

We need encouragement to make it through hard times.

Of his mother, Brigham Young said, "She taught us to reverence the Holy Book. She said, 'Read it, observe its precepts and apply them to your lives as far as you can. Do everything that is good; do nothing that is evil; and if you see any persons in distress, administer to their wants; never suffer anger to arise in your bosoms, for if you do, you may be overcome by evil.'"

Here's an uplifting story in Mormon Times, telling of Florida Relief Society sisters joining with Catholic relief efforts for Haiti.   In commenting about this partnership, Monsignor David Page said, "All of our churches should help each other and show God's love.

Becky Thomas writes a column, The Unexpected Life,  for Mormon Times and I liked this observation about the need for us to be well-rounded:

"We are given callings in the LDS Church, some which are just like pushing a square peg in a round hole. We are asked to serve with people whom we would not have connected with otherwise. We are asked to leave our comfort zone and speak in church, take youth on a modern day pioneer trek, serve missions and sacrifice our time for others. On top of that, we are faced with a variety of trials, challenges and struggles. It seems that from all angles our Heavenly Father is encouraging us to be well-rounded, not only for our benefit, but so that we can more compassionately and effectively help and understand others. "

I firmly believe that one of our greatest challenges is becoming balanced - to be able to give the appropriate level of time and attention to various aspects of our lives - house/home, family, work, service, spirituality, education/learning, personal development, entertainment, socializing, etc. 

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." - Winston Churchill

Drawing Heaven

Prayers on Temple Square

Jacques Desir, left, joins in prayer for Haiti earthquake victims at the reflection pool near the Salt Lake Temple Sunday. Desir has yet to make contact with his family in Haiti. (Michael Brandy, Deseret News)

Read the story here and read here about the LDS medical teams who are heading over there. A few excerpts follow.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jeremy Booth, an emergency room doctor from Ogden who speaks French Creole, needed to place only two calls to make the select group. Provo orthopedic surgeon Creig MacArthur — who learned French as an LDS Church missionary a half-century ago — gladly accepted a surprise phone invitation to join. And Jeff Randle, a Salt Lake City doctor specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, was a natural and willing choice, given his longtime charitable efforts at the group's destination site.

They are among the first wave of medical personnel en route to earthquake-ravaged Haiti as part of the ongoing humanitarian efforts by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scheduled to be on the island late today.

The LDS Church's medical team includes 14 doctors and nurses and two family services specialists, most from Utah. They've cleared their schedules and made themselves available for at least a week to make up what Nate Leishman, manager of the church's humanitarian emergency response, labels as "our assess and response team."

"This is a hard trip," said Leishman of the medical team's Haitian assignment. Most members of the group are making their first foray into responding to mass-trauma, disaster situations.

It will be far from a typical week's visit to a Caribbean island.

Each member of the group was given a large duffel bag? called the "survival bag" ? that included a tent, a sleeping bag, a blanket and food for the stay. Once in Haiti, they will set up camp, so to speak, outside one of the several LDS chapels in Port-au-Prince or perhaps some at Randle's Helping Hands for Haiti clinic.

"This group is self-contained," said Leishman, adding, "there's no hotel for them there, and it's not as luxurious as camping."

Each of the medical personnel was also given a blue duffel full of basic medical supplies — ranging from gauze and bandages to stethoscopes — and an additional large duffel full of basic pharmaceuticals. Nearly two dozen pallets loaded with additional supplies and drugs are to arrive as well in Port-au-Prince.

9th Day of Christmas - a miracle dog turns seven

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aubrey and Steve with their two boys - they got away from the hospital for a couple of hours - wish Max was here!
We celebrated Ashlie's birthday along with Thanksgiving
Noah, Krista and the spread.
Sandy, Justin, Krista, Ken, my dad (Bill)
Rob, Jon, Natalie, Jenn, Fred
Four generations - Justin, Me, my dad and Kenlee. Justin and Krista surprised me with having my dad come. I rarely get to see him so it was a really nice surprise.
Four generations - Nat, her kids, me, my dad
The little boys and me
Rob and his boys
Nat's plotting Black Friday's route - this is a Thanksgiving tradition for sure.

I am thankful to have God in my life and I have no doubt that our freedom is a direct result of our faith in God. If we stop believing and allow the ungodly to take that which is precious from us, this country will not be what the founding fathers dreamed and sacrificed for in our behalf. And all who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of future generations will cry from their thrones in heaven. How ungrateful we would be to lose what they held so dear and were willing to die for. I pray that we will never cease to thank God for our freedom and for the opportunity to praise and acknowledge His hand in our lives. God Bless America!

One journey to religion & staying true to the faith

Daniel Ortner converted to the LDS faith and tells his story. Click the post title to read more.

(Another good Sunday story is found here. Modesty and pageants - a young woman does not compromise values to compete.)

Last summer, I did a study abroad program studying traditional Chinese medicine and Public Health in Southwestern China. I had an incredible Chinese instructor that was a leader in the local Christian community and he reawakened my spiritual desire.

Throughout my time in China, I was impressed by the profound spiritual cultures of the great Eastern faiths and this reinvigorated my interest in finding spiritual fulfillment. I made a checklist of the sorts of values I wanted my eventual faith to reflect. The church I ended up falling in love with and being baptized into less than one year later was very different than what one would have predicted from that list.

One of my best friends at Brandeis was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormon church). Throughout my period of atheism, I had mocked and made rude remarks about her faith in ways that I have come to realize was completely unbecoming of a true friend.

It was a church that I viewed as clearly fraudulent as well as regressively conservative. Still, I was fascinated by the way that her faith impacted her character and life choices in many positive ways.

I went to a Barnes and Noble and picked up a “Mormonism for Dummies” book and fell in love. The church theology answered all of questions I had been unable to find answers to in the past and gave me comfort and insight.

I met with the church missionaries and got a burning and searing testimony of the truth of the church one evening while praying in front of the Boston Temple (Off Route 2 in Belmont). I was eventually baptized into the church four months ago after my father came to accept my decision (a change for which I am eternally grateful) even as he continues to view it as a betrayal of my Jewish roots.

I did it!

Below: copied and pasted from my VISA account!!!

Current Account Information as of 05/19/2009
Current Balance $0.00

(I will now use only for travel and online purchases but will pay off immediately).

I have no debt except my house payment, which has also been reduced to 15 years. With any luck I'll have it paid off early!

You can achieve goals with WORK, perseverance and sacrifice. In sculpting, you just chip away at everything that is NOT what you want. Mt. Rushmore was created one chip at a time.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. ~Buddhist Saying


With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. ~Thomas Foxwell Buxton

His Hands

Misc. Current Issues - my opinions

Click on the post title to learn more about Sarah Palin's faith.

Go here for more discussion of repercussions sure to follow if California voters adopt same-sex marriage.
http://www.ldsmag.com/familyleadernetwork/080908fails.html

It's not homophobic - it's responsible citizenship with respect to the inspired forefathers of our country. Everyone can choose their own path as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. This is where this issue treads - on others' rights.

Politically, I am concerned about Obama's proposal to tax capital gains. Right now if you downsize for a realistic retirement you are exempt from capital gains up to $500K but his proposal will bring a tax of 28% on every home sale. This is very scary for security in the future. Other taxes too should be compared McCain vs Obama. Nice to say we'd love to see a man of African-American descent become president but if he is not up to the job, his race certainly won't make up for that and if he fails by raising taxes in our already overburdened economy, it will be a setback instead.

Sunday prayers needed (again) and editorial....

This economy has taken its toll on many of our family members - in many different ways, but primarily in the employment realm. Jon and Chris both worked for the same company and were both laid off - Jon over a month ago and Chris just recently. Chris has decided to move to Japan to work, so he and the family will be living there for the next year or two. He was in the process of selling everything when the transmission went out on his truck. Of course this means he won't get the needed price for the truck (which has come in very handy in moving everyone as needed) so that is an added burden for him. He is always right there when any neighbor or family member needed anything transported, hauled, or if someone needed to be rescued on the road. This also makes it more difficult for him to move the things they are keeping to the storage shed. It WAS a nice truck with a nice shell...

It's a tough time for Jon to be out of work too. Karla has been quite ill and they are wondering if it may have been caused by a previous incidence of Lyme disease. She lived half her life on the east coast and it's pretty rampant there. Her blood work revealed that she has had it in the past and apparently there's some controversy over treating this latently. They're trying it because they can't seem to find other causes for the problems that plague her - cause her to be extremely tired, get sores on her skin, frequent headaches and even a couple of years ago had to be life-flighted due to stroke-like symptoms that caused 24 hours without intelligible speech and with other impaired functions. They were never able to determine the cause. And now, Madi is having health problems. She has not been growing properly (gained 7 ounces in 2 months when most babies are growing like weeds - she's the size of a three month old) and she is lagging developmentally. She will be seeing a pediatric physical therapist to try and help her. Meanwhile, please pray!

We have also recently learned of a family friend just diagnosed with breast cancer after being informed her position is being eliminated at work. Bad time to have to look for a new job because she must inform those interviewing her that she will be undergoing the extensive life-saving measures that may take a huge toll on her physically. And this is to say nothing of what it does to her health care coverage.

This is such a sorry state of affairs. By linking health insurance to employment we set people up for loss of coverage. It's a terrible cycle even if the job loss itself did not leave everyone vulnerable. Consider this - a person is diagnosed with cancer (or other illness/accident). They are too ill to work so they lose their job, then they lose their coverage, then they become more ill. This is in the case of someone with coverage to begin with. The leaders say, "Let them take Cobra." But when out of work, who can afford Cobra? And of course the small business person or self-employed never could afford it to begin with. Then, take it a step further - the stress of wondering how one is to pay for expensive treatments DECREASES their ability to heal because it INCREASES their stress. A person with cancer, etc. needs all their reserves to fight the disease. Our country adds to the burden of illness and health care costs as well as failure to restore or maintain health by creating a stressful environment simply due to lack of universal health care coverage.

For those who think universal coverage is bad, please examine countries where it is working - Japan, Taiwan, and many others. Our system is broken and adding more bandaids will not cure the problem. I hate too much government and would not want the government to be the administrator of this, but what we have now does not work at all - everyone is just one crisis away from financial ruin and of being placed in a worse environment for healing when coverage is inadequate or missing. In Utah IHC has 75% of the market share and they do a darn good job of managing to cover people. If this were extended to all and taxes were collected to pay the cost, which would be much less once we get rid of the gatekeepers and paperwork nightmare, the role of government could be minimized with private agencies providing the coverage, but without limitation to the uninsured. In urban areas hospitals would not have to compete for business, but could be in the business of healing most efficiently. One facility could specialize in one thing; another in a different area, rather than everyone buying the same expensive diagnostic machines.

Single payer universal healthcare is NOT socialized medicine, but until we get that idea out of our heads, we will never solve this problem. Huge lobbying agencies who stand to lose millions are keeping this from reality, but in truth it is no different than other social institutions that use the combined efforts to take care of all people (our utilities, school system, water distribution systems all use this principle and we don't call it socialized utilities). It just doesn't make sense for everyone in every community to have to have their own cesspool and clean their own drinking water to avoid governmental intervention.

If you get the chance to see PBS's Sick Around the World, or In Sickness and in Wealth series, or Michael Moore's Sicko (I'm not a fan of his but he brings out some important points), don't miss them. It is important to see firsthand the problems we are facing and how some countries are handling this crisis more effectively than the U.S. For being such a smart nation, we sure lag behind on this one. Apparently there is a book coming out by T.R. Reid of the Washington Post, We're Number 37 (the U.S. - not number one!). Here are some other sites to check if interested:
http://www.pbs.org/now/news/315.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/08/DI2008040802824.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89651916

The Republicans are blamed for this not happening yet, but Democrats have been in control of Congress for two years now and what have they done? We are a republic and as such the senators and representatives should be acting; not just looking at the problem. Adding more money to CHIP or Medicaid will pick up a few pieces while contributing to the bureaucratic red-tape. This is not a single, presidential decision and waiting for one of the two candidates to make it happen is unlikely from what I have seen. It's going to take a grassroots, non-partisan determination. When the people say, "Enough!" we might make progress.