Miracles

Debunking the Big Bang

Jason and Rene's acquisition of six baby chicks set my mind on a journey of faith and gratitude.  One of the great blessings of my life was to be raised in a time and place where I could witness the process of birth and come to know how very dull and sterile the world and our own existence would be without "the breath of life."  The elements, also referred to as intelligence, have always existed.  Everyone has faith to some degree and it is meant to be so.  Theories abound as to what life is and how it all began.  One common theory among the "learned" men of our age is often referred to as "The Big Bang Theory."  Watching a baby chick be born, or the birth of any other living thing convinces me that there is a higher power that controls 'the breath of life."  I find it impossible to believe that an explosion in a print shop would every lead to the creation of the dictionary, but that would be no miracle at all when compared to the creation of a living thing, capable of breathing, eating, seeing, discerning sound and colors in all their variety, loving and nurturing its own, and then being able to recreate itself  many times over.  I've never been much of a gambler, but if I were, I would not risk a nickel on the Big Bang theory.  I'll stick to the sure thing.  There is a Higher Power, God, who is at the helm of all creation.  Were  it not so, life would truly resemble conditions after a Big Bang.  To whatever extent  we give credit to the Big Bang Theory of creation, our lives mirror the chaos which naturally follows any thing of the sort, large or small.  To the extent we put our trust in God and rely on His infinite wisdom as we come to truly know Him, our lives become more and more meaningful and even sadness, sorrow, and commotion, take on great meaning and challenge us to  use our agency to make our world and the world in general a better more purposeful place.

Take a few minutes with your families to watch a miracle take place and to gain perspective about the gift of life. You will all be better for this. It is not just about a chick.  The lessons are profound and permeate everything you do and see.  Don't tell me you are to busy.  If you are, I feel sorry for you.

She Lights Up Our Life

The past few days we have had the opportunity to have Sophie stay with us.  She is such a fun girl.  She says she never wants to grow up.  I think I know why.  She is loved and she knows it.  She loves other and they know it.That is a gift not fully enjoyed by many people. She is interested in everything around her and always sees the good in others.  In short she is just a beautiful, happy child.  One of my greatest wishes would be that every child could grow up with these feelings.  Needless to say, when we are around her, our days are also better.  The world just seems like a better place.  She doesn't whine or complain.  She just makes the best of every situation and moves on to the next.  We could all learn a lesson from Sophie.  "A little child shall lead them."  This is definitely true if we are smart enough to pay attention.

Sophie on the climbing wall at the nearby Whittier Park.

Sophie doesn't see a stranger. Here she is using her imagination to make a fort out of pine cones at Willow Park in Logan with her new found friend from Tremonton.

She went for a hike with her Grandpa along to Logan River Trail.

We had a little picnic at First Dam at the mouth of Logan Canyon.  So did the ducks, geese, and seagulls, thanks to Sophie.

Pondering Easter

Today, I have been reflecting on the holiday we celebrate as Easter. I hope for all of my family that each of you will look past the Easter Bunny, the colored eggs, and even the Easter feast and remember, really remember, what this special day is all about and what has gone into the blessings each of us receive as a result of the sacrifices of a loving Hesvenly Father and a loving Elder Brother. We all need to reflect on this most important and significant of all holidays, not just at this season of the year but always. Without this special gift to us, hope vanishes and misery reigns. Rejoice!!!!!!!

Below is a moving visual presentation about that first Easter.

Happy, Hopeful Easter!!!!!

Cars

I have not been one to be over fascinated by cars, but they do have their place and have played a significant role in the way we have lived in our lifetime.  About a year after I returned from my mission in Germany I purchased my fist car.  It was a used 1955 Wyllis. I paid $250 for it.  Yes, that's right.  It was in reasonably good shape and was the same color as the photo below.  Most of you have probably never heard of this brand, but that was long a go and the company didn't stay in business for very many years.  I thought it was kind of a cute car.  Unfortunately, I wrecked it about six months later.  And that was the end of my motorized transportation until I finished college.  I called it putting first things first and it certainly didn't hurt me to be a pedestrian during my college years.  It did kind of cramp my social life at the time, but then again I considered my social life to be a lower priority than my college education.

When I graduated from USU and took a job teaching in Twin Falls, Idaho I bought a 1961 Mercury.

I drove that for about a year while I was dating Iris.  It was not the best car I've ever seen, but it got me around for a while.  I was glad to have a car as it gave me a better chance with the girls.  Actually, I think Iris was the only girl who ever got in that car while a owned it.  She was a "hottie" and steamed up the windows sometimes.  What did I expect?  She was a Georgia Peach.  I loved her then and still do nearly fifty years later.

This car had been used and had  a lot of miles on it when I bought it just after I graduated from college.  It was a nice car and served its purpose for a little over a year.  The one I owned was blue and looked just like this one, just a little more wear and tare.

Just before we got married I bought a new Mercury Caliente, two door hardtop.  It was a cream color and looked just like the one pictured above.  This was a wonderful little car and we both enjoyed it.

Just couple of memories about this car.  Shortly after we were married and living in Twin Falls, Iris had to go to the grocery store for something.  When she came out of the store, some old lady was parked in front of her and didn't seem to want to get out of the way.  After waiting a few seconds (an hour to Iris), she shifted the car into reverse and hit the accelerator.  Dang, there was a steel light pole behind her.  She hadn't yet learned what rear view mirrors were for.  Our nice new car had a big "V" shape in the back bumper.  No one was hurt and we chalked it up to a lesson learned.  The car was soon repaired and was as good as new.  Another time we were driving down to Bear Lake from Twin Falls to visit my Dad and Mom.  I was tired and iris volunteered to drive.  Imagine that. I put the seat back and kind of dosed off.  A while later, near American Falls, I woke up.  I looked over at the speedometer.  It was showing 110 miles per hour.  She had it floor boarded.  I asked why she was going so fast.  Her classic reply.  "There is still a car ahead of us."  Fortunately she has learned to slow down and look in the rear view mirror over the years, even when I am under the wheel.  She always drives when we are in the car together, even if she is riding shotgun, or is in the back seat.  I finally learned to just take my place on the passenger side and enjoy the ride.  The world is more peaceful that way and besides she is a very good driver despite her early experiences under the wheel. 

I recently saw an article on the Internet where some ninety year old woman was finally stopped from driving her beloved Mercury Caliente after driving it 585,000 miles.  I should have hung on to that car. I'd have saved a lot of money and had a classy car all this time.  Instead we now drive "The Pimp Mobile" so dubbed by Philip.  Oh well, as important as cars and transportation can be, I doubt that they play a significant role in our character development.  It's still important to consider the things that matter most in life.

The Endless Fun Club

Annika, Micah, and Tristan came to our house to spend the night.  They are always such good kids and make us smile a lot.  Recently, they started a club.  They are building a club house in their back yard.  It is made out of bricks.  Kind of like the three little pigs.  They even made a sign to tell about their club.  It will be called The Endless Fun Club.  These kids have lots of space to play at their new home, and they have lots of fun ideas to take up all that space.  They have endless energy to make every day and every hour a fun time.  We could all take a lesson from them. 

This is a picture of the President of the Endless Fun Club.  She is awesome!!!!!  Micah is the Vice President.
Tristan is the Secretary.  They always have fun playing outdoors in their  big, beautiful yard.  They like to play and they like to work outdoors in the sunshine.

The Box

One Sunday  few weeks ago, I was standing by the door to our High Priests Group classroom in the Logan 5th Ward.  One of the brethren in our ward came over to me and handed me a box..  It was meticulously wrapped in a pretty flowered wrapping paper.  The lid had been separately wrapped in the same way so that it could be removed to display the contents. It obviously contained something very precious to someone.  I was told that some.one had given him this box for some unknown reason and he didn't have any idea what he should do with it.  It contained the only possessions of a brother who had at one time lived in the Logan 5th Ward.  He was an immigrant to the United States and had come over from Finland when he was just a boy.  He had been sponsored by a church bother who lived here in Cache Valley,  Hyde Park, I think.  He had never married and so had no family in this country.  Upon examination I found that it contained several pages of genealogical records of his progenitors in Finland.  Some of them were rather difficult to decipher (no one I knew speaks Finnish) and were obviously quite old.  Others were copies and type written records of other family members.  They are a little disorganized,but with some effort I have been able to make sense of some of them.  I was not quite sure what to do with them myself, but the Spirit whispered to me that I should not just let them sit around and that I would have a heavy price to pay if I should not treat the contents of this box with respect and some degree of urgency.  The people whose records were in the box are, of course not my relations, and so in my mind,  I first thought they should be someone elses responsibility.  I have thousands of name for blood relatives who need ordinance work done in the temples.  After setting the box on a shelf for a few weeks my eye and my mind seemed to be constantly drawn to this box and its contents.  It was as though unseen spirits were  leading me to focus more and more on this box and its contents.  After some prayer and deliberation, I decided to take it to Priesthood Meeting last Sunday and discuss it with the brethren in the High Priests Group.  During the course of the discussion there were a few of these men who had interesting information about the man whose records were in the box.  Apparently he had become very active as a scout leader and some of the brethren had been guided through some very perilous times in their youth by this good immigrant brother.  One of them even said that he literally owed his life to this man.  Others felt a need to give back in some way as well.  It was decided that we would make it a project for the High Priests Group in our ward to  get this good brother's ancestor's temple work done for him.

Today, with the help of my sweet little granddaughter, Ada, we decided to tackle this project and see what we could make of it..  Ada was very interested in what we were doing and believe it or not she was a great help.  After about three hours of work we had nearly forty names ready to have all of the temple ordinances done for these people.  I told her when we started that I was going to take her on a fishing trip.  We were going to be fishers of men.  As we worked we talked about how important family relationships are in the eternities and what is necessary for the families to be together forever.  She is just nine years old, but she seemed to understand exactly how it works and why it is important.  It was three hours filled with the Spirit and with wonder. I am looking forward to the next session and to hear what the brethren have to say at Priesthood Meeting on Sunday.

Here we are at the kitchen table working on the things of eternity and a little geography thrown in.

What a marvelous experience.  Thanks Ada!!!!

Just a quick sample of some of the contents of  "The Box."

A House Is Not A Home But it Helps

As most of you are aware Ryan and Samantha and their sweet family recently moved into a new home.  Well, it's not new, but it's new to them.  They were able to find a beautiful older home on a large lot not far from where the used to live.  It is actually in River Heights.  It sits on a large a beautiful lot with lots of space to run and enjoy the great outdoors and yet be so very close to all of the conveniences the city has to offer.  The way they were able to sell their other home so quickly and to find another one which the liked seems almost like a miracle.  I hope they recognize the presence of an Unseen Hand in this move.  There is still a lot of work to do and with a lot that size there always will be, but working together is what will make for the happy memories which hold families together forever.  They are indeed blessed.  We are blessed as well.  They live just 1.4 miles from our place. Just a nice walk on sunny day.  We will have many of those soon, I hope.

This is a view of their new home after the recent snowfall here in Cache Valley.

The kids soon found a way to enjoy being outside even in the snow.  This is the first of many snowmen, that will be made  at this address over the next several years.

Annika did most of the work on this one.  She bundled up and stayed warm as she worked on the snowman, but she still ended up with rosy cheeks for her efforts out in the winter cold.

This picture shows the three enjoying a treat  in the kitchen after a while playing in their new yard.

They will be joined by a new little one in a few months and we pray all will be well and happy for them in this new adventure in their new house which they will, no doubt, make into a wonderful home.