Back to School Already?

                                                  Back to School

It's hard to believe that some of our grandkids are already back in school.  The Jackson's school starts early; the first week in August.  We can hardly believe that Harvey's in kindergarten and that Max is in middle school.  Time flies by.

Roy, Catharine, Char and Phil enjoyed Footloose at the Hale Centre Theater this week.  We're glad we caught the Cook's before they took off to Norway with their grandson, Taylor.  It was a good play and we enjoyed the company!

I think that Elijah is the only baby I've ever known that likes grass.  That's a falling leaf by his head.
  

This weekend is Jennie and Jordan's first time up to the cabin this year.  Crista and Matt joined them Saturday night.  I didn't know Yuna was going, too.  Lucky Yuna!  They are up past their knees in mud.

Nick and Effie got muddy, too.  On purpose.  In the Muddy Dash.  Effie loves mud and is constantly getting in trouble for playing in mud.  This is obviously an "Effie Activity." 
When Nick was Effie's age, he would play in the creek every day after school; before coming in and changing his clothes.  We had red dirt in Georgia and I was constantly telling him he needed to change before he played.  I guess Effie gets it from him.

Roy went up to get his Talon from the gorge so he could use it for a ride next weekend.  Since he was there when Jennie and Jordan were there, he took Jordan and Yuna on an afternoon ride.  It was a little chilly, believe it or not, and Yuna was in shorts, so Roy found a warm outfoit for her to wear.  It's a little big since it belongs to Roy.

Adrienne came over to pick berries and visit for a minute on Saturday.  Cub had a blast in the yard, but you could tell he was a little tired when he got on the swing.  It's a little skiwampus, which Cub loved because he could get on it by himself.

We had a great discussion in church a few Sundays ago and I've been wanting to share some of my notes but am always in too big of a hurry.  Our teacher was Keith Erekson.  He works for the church as a historian and has had a lot to do with the essays on various church subjects.  He was one who pushed for the church to be more open about it's history and some of the difficult subjects in our past such as polygamy.  Keith is also the father of Haley Erekson who shared the beautiful testimony of the man who was baptized in her mission, that I included a couple of weeks ago.

Keith began by talking about the Proclamation of the Restoration presented to the church in 2020.  He said that the first time he heard it (in conference), he heard it as a historian would listen, noting the timeline and summary of relevant facts.  Later, as he was reading the talk, he had the inspiration to read it differently. He said he started diagramming the sentences as an English teacher might do.  As he did this he realized the the subject of all the important sentences of the document was Jesus Christ.  He said that as we study church history, we need to realize that the subject is always Jesus Christ.  As we study the history of the church over the last 200 years, we learn more about the Savior, that He is leading His living church.  We often hear that the Jews "looked beyond the mark."  They missed the fact that the Savior was right in front of them.  When we study, we need to make sure that we don't miss the mark.  We can watch for His direct involvement.

Keith talked about the interactions Joseph Smith had with the Savior, and often God the Father as well.  He pointed out that Jesus Christ is the light we are to hold up.  

Another interesting thing about Keith is that he was heavily involved in purchasing the Kirtland Temple for the church.  He'd been gone from church many Sundays and couldn't tell anyone what he was working on.  His kids joke with him that he works on Sundays a lot more now that he works for the church than he ever did before.  He told us that one of the great things about the Kirtland Temple is that it is possible to point out the exact spot where the Savior appeared (by the way, there were many more witnesses than just Joseph Smith at the various appearances of the Savior); even in the Holy Land that's not possible.

 We can look at the scriptures and see how God interacts with the people.  We see that He is merciful; He invites and persuades; He gives us our agency (we are never forced to follow His path); He reveals all of His secrets unto His servants the prophets.  His goal is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

The most common way God deals with us is through His Spirit.  "By small and simple things great things shall come to pass."  The small things confound wise people. 

He encouraged us to think about our life experiences and the tender mercies we have from the Lord; to notice the small things and to recognize when we feel the Spirit of the Lord.  

Keith shared more, but this is enough for today.  I may add some the next time I sit down to write.

Speaking of the Kirtland Temple, Dave shared this in his letter this week: 

We had traveled from Pittsburgh to see the Kirtland temple. When we arrived at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints’ Temple, there was a newly discovery document which was a patriarchal blessing to Joseph Smith III by Joseph Smith Jr. I was intrigued by this new authenticated document and the clerk was very anxious for me to read it. As I started to read the blessing to Joseph III it was obvious the facts in the letter indicated it would be called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the true and living church Joseph Smith had seen in vision.

For some reason, I momentarily forgot my own testimony and started to get upset with strange thoughts - that if this blessing was true, I might be in the wrong church. Just as these thoughts of discontent filled my soul, I heard these two words in my head. "Just wait". I stopped reading the document, put it down, and walked away from the counter. The words were plain and simple and to someone without a testimony seemed completely true. After hearing “Just Wait” I was no longer upset and realized I had received a revelation telling me to wait before I drew any conclusions about this patriarchal blessing. A couple of months later an explosion in a car of a man by the name of Mark Hoffman, was a well-known dealer in antique manuscripts. We thought he was just another one of the victims of a bomber who had been killing people that dealt in these manuscripts and documents. Two people had already been killed in this manner. Within a few more months it was determined that Mark Hoffman was the bomber and had forged countless documents, including the patriarchal blessing of Joseph Smith III. Hence my revelation "to wait" helped me understand the lies of that document and every new lie when people try to distort faith. This has helped me in many other ways and especially with anti-LDS nonsense. I have learned the lies which go around about the church by people trying to destroy testimonies or point out weaknesses, the truth will come out, if we “Just wait.”

After reading this, I remember talking to my dad about these papers that later were proven to be forgeries.  Interestingly, his exact words to me were, "Just wait."  I trusted my dad and did not worry a bit about what was on the news about the church at the time.