Two Good Books

Last week I finished reading a book called “America’s Hope” by Douglas E Brinely. He is a religion professor at BYU. He had isolated or catalogued the 10 steps from arriving in this Promised Land to the destruction of whole civilizations e.g. the antediluvians (the people who inhabited this hemisphere before the flood), the Jaredites and the Nephites. They all had things in common. Their ancestors had made covenants with the Lord at the b beginning of their sorgein here. And as time went on they forgot them and became very wicked and were eventually totally destroyed. At first it sounded like we as a nation were doomed; but it did end on a hopeful note. Altho’ the supreme court has done its best to destroy the constitution by the way it is interpreting it, the righteous people of our faith as well as other faiths who believe in Jesus Christ will be able to save it. Brother Brinley pointed out that because this is the cradle of the Lord’s church and kingdom, it will be preserved as long as we do our part. He also pointed out that the Civil War or War Between the States was a direct result of the people of Illinois killing the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum and then casting or driving the Saints out of the country. Once they got across the Mississippi River they were out of the boundaries of the United States of America. I knew that the Prophet Joseph had prophesied before his death of the great war, but I hadn’t realized that it was a direct result of his death and driving the Saints from the country. A friend pointed out that “and that was their children that suffered the war not them themselves because the war was a good 20 years after the prophet was killed…almost anyway. It started before 20 but it last longer than 20 years after. I tho’t that very interesting. My friend went on to say, “We can chose our actions but we can not chose the consequences.”

I also read a book last week called “The Message” by Lance Richardson. He was a young man who had been comatose for a month or so and during that time he literally went to Paradise and was allowed to remember and record (actually was told to record) his experiences. He made it all sound so wonderful. I am looking forward to experiencing it myself. Altho’ I am no hurry to get there, I certainly don’t fear leaving this life. He pointed out that his ancestors whom he met there told him that they spent much “time” watching out for and literally helping their descendants get thro’ their struggles and happenings in this life. I found great comfort in that. Altho’ Lance returned to this life and was able to recover much, much faster than anyone every expected he could, he died about five years later. I remember taking care of him as a patient in the hospital. That was before his after death experience. He was two years older than our oldest son.

Both of these books has influenced and strengthened my testimony. I liked to think that my father who died 38 ½ years ago met and conversed with our youngest son as well as our grandchildren before they were born. I now think that he and others are helping all of us thro’ our trials and experiences in this life. This idea is not new with me nor for me, this book just strengthened it.

Our Fourth of July

We had a wonderful Fourth of July. We went up to Rexburg to get Bryce, our grandson who is going to BYUI up there. Since he said he tho’t it would be nice to go to the parade, we went. We hadn’t been probably for about ten years. It was a nice parade and I enjoyed it. someone had roped off an area that they weren’t using and since the parade had already started we set up our chairs there. No one asked us to leave so I guess it was OK. It didn’t last too long and didn’t start to get hot until just before it ended. Bryce had asked if we could go to the Ammon Deseret Book Store and meet his friend Mike. Since we were on 16th street and DB is on about 31st we decided we were halfway there so we went. It turned out that Mike is my favorite person who worked at the DB across from the temple. It also turned out that he was transferred to the one in Ammon only about a month before and he would start as the manager of the on in Rexburg the next Monday. So I will miss him but it was very unique and neat that we had dealt with each other before. He gave us each a free piece of pie. It was delicious. Bryce and I got coconut cream and my husband got banana cream. We stopped at Albertson’s and got some cherries. We watched Little Women then I fixed a Mexican Casserole with hamburger, refried beans, onions, taco seasoning and lots of cheese on top. Oh and Frietos. We were ready to leave by 4:30 to go over to a friend’s house who lives across from the boat dock where they shoot off the fireworks. We had to leave early because they close the road and don’t allow traffic thro’ after about 5:30 or so. Bryce and I were all ready to go and had everything in the car and we couldn’t find my husband. We looked outside, upstairs, down stairs, everywhere we could think of close by. Then we got in the car and drove around a couple of blocks looking ofr him. Since we couldn’t see him anywhere we just went back into the house and sat and waited for him. He finally sauntered back. We live 730 North and he had gone to 500 South to get a piece of carpet that he saw on the way home earlier that day. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. I have told him before that when he leaves he needs to tell me where he is going. Had he done so we could have met him down there and picked him up. Yes, he was walking! Well, we finally got there about 5:30. My friend had told me that we should probably be there by 5:00 because she didn’t know what time they closed the road. Anyway, we had supper with them. American, Korean and Mexican fare it turned out. All very delicious. We met people who knew people we knew, people we had worked with and others. My friend had told me that they found out the first year they were there that their yard filled up early in the evening with people they didn’t know who invaded their house, some without asking, to use their facilities and they decided they wanted to fill up their yard with people they knew. And the fireworks were fantastic!! They are choreographed with music and they had set up speakers so we could hear the music above the noise of the fireworks. We had debris raining down on us but nothing big or burned us. It took us 40-45 minutes to get home instead of 10-15 it would have otherwise. My husband wasn’t very patient but I talked to people who took an hour and a half or more. So it could have been worse.

On Saturday we took Bryce to see Penny Promise, a clean movie that was a wonderful story. We all really enjoyed it. Later that day we took Bryce back to Rexburg. It had been in the high 90’s both days. I’m thankful that our house stays fairly cool.

We hadn’t been to the center since the 23th of June. We didn’t do a lot with our time off. I did get a tooth pulled and we did a little extra cleaning. It was nice to have some leisure time.

We went back this last Wednesday. I helped a young woman who had gone on her mission to Finland. She said the temple there was in the process of being built while she was there and last summer she and some others went back there and went thro’ the temple. She told me that the Saints there prayed so hard that President Hinckley would live long enough to dedicate it. It was the last temple he dedicated. She stated, I think that is what kept him alive so long, was the prayers of the Saints there. On Saturday, I helped a woman who had come into do a temple ready for her son-in-law’s family. It was really neat talking to her. I showed her some of the things I had on my PAF because she had told me she was looking for pictures of her great-grandparents. I showed her how you could have pictures and documents linked to the PAF program. I taught my first PAF class of the 2nd round of teaching them yesterday. There was even one patron there as well as some of the new missionaries. I was happy about that. Summer is a slow time there at the center. People have too many other things they want to do. I had a good day tho’ and could feel the spirit was with me as I helped a few of the people there. And I learned something new again. There have been very few times I have been there at the FHC that I haven’t learned something new. It is a wonderful feeling to learn. And also to be able to teach others what one has learned.