Robert writes home #120 27 March 1998
27 March 1998 (out of order)
Dear Mother,
Our boy, Charlie, received his mission call to Bogota, Columbia. He enters the MTC on May 14. The only day that we have for his farewell is Mother's day. I don't know how that is going to work out. He doesn't get home from BYU until the end of April.
We really had a rain storm last week. It dropped 2.5 inches of rain here in DP in 36 hours. But, in Merced it dropped 6 inches of rain. Bear Creek flooded part of the city and 1000 people had to be evacuated. That's pretty unusual for a dry place like this. We have had a wet winter...about 15-20 inches of rain...depending on where in the valley you're located.
Saturday late afternoon a severe storm warning came on the TV. A thunderstorm accompanied by funnel clouds and 3/4 in. hail was reported 5 miles sout of Merced along Hwy. 99. It was headed for Chowchilla at 15 miles per hour. Chowchilla is getting to be "Tornado Alley." They were hit by a tornado about 3 weeks ago. It tore off some roofs.
You can probably tell that i like exciting weather. The worst thing about California's usual weather is that it is boring.
We hope you're doing well. We hope Magdalene gets over those shingles soon. We're praying for you.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam and Heidi Jo
PS Here's another essay: I like Karl G. Maeser's analogy that he made as he was leading a group of missionaries across the Alps many years ago. He looked back at the stakes stuck in the snow to mark the safe path and said "Brethren, there stands the priesthood. They are just common sticks like the rest of us. Some of them may even seem alittle bit crooked. But the position they hold makes them what they are. If we step aside from the path they mark we are lost."
The power of the priesthood lies not in being ideal sticks--but in being sticks in the right place (Doing the work directed by prophecy and revelation to those holding the priesthood keys._ The guy holding the priesthood keys is inspired to know where the sticks should be placed and the general priesthood holders are authorized to act s the official sticks and stand in those places. The requirements for that job are: having the authority conferred upon you to act as an agent for God; then, faith and discipline enough to comply with instructions.
In Seminary we're studying the period prior to and through the resurrection of Christ. This is the place where the "pride roller coaster" has it's shortest cycles i.e. righteousness, prosperity, pride, sin, destruction, humility, righteousness, prosperity.
Hugh Nibley, a modern Book of Mormon scholar, calls the pride cycle the NEPHITE disease. He says, "We have it."
Rejecting or ignoring prophetic counsels that don't seem logical in our circumstances, is a serious threat to our ability to function as priesthood holders. It also is a dangerous early warning signal of the "Nephite Disease." That is usually the one just before the big slide on the "Pride Roller Coaster" to destruction.
It's important to be able to see the early warning signs of the disease. They have to do with how people respond to prosperity:
1. Focus on fine apparel and jewelry..status symbols.
2. Growing class distinction...the people with the status symbols looking down on and separating themselves from the people without them. (It reminds me of a story about a group of people in a war torn country, like many of the countries in Europe were at the close of the 2nd world war. The people were starving and poorly clothed, wearing dirty ragged clothing (anything they could find) looting and scavenging for food and eating rats or anything they could get. Their dire circumstances made them acutely aware of their need for law and order. They were humbled and ready to do whatever they had to to get out of their circumstances. They sacrificed their own personal desires and will to obey the laws that would bring prosperity back again to the community...But as they began to prosper again, the more successful people started to shun those who were still in rags...trying to ignore the memory that they had all been in those circumstances just a short time before. They were intent on displaying those symbols of status and special talents tht would imply class distinction. They prided themselves on their self sufficiency and ability to rise faster than others, attributing it all to their personal genius...denying that God had a part in it.
3. Feeling of self sufficiency and taking credit for their own success without acknowledging God's role.
4. Selfish focus on personal gratification and gain.
5. Rationalizing and justifying small transgressions and selfish pursuits.
6. Denying the spirit of Prophecy and Revelation, thus freeing them from having to do anything that doesn't seem logical.
After the 6th sign comes the big slide into sin and transgressing the commandments starts as a trickle and turns into a flood...and eventual chastening destruction to turn them back into humility and righteousness.
NEW TOPIC: I'm also impressed that one of the most ideal jobs for new members in the church is submitting their four generations for temple ordinances. I think the fourth missionary lesson is the time to teach them about this. This job is rewarding and doesn't have the threat that teaching a SS class entails.
Moroni came back 3 times in one night to tell JS the same thing. It must have been important. What was it? That he was going to send Elijah to restore the sealing power to seal the fathers to their children and vise versa (it says turn the hearts of the etc., but Jos. F. Smith in Doctrines of Salvation said that it would be more accurate to say seal or bind instead of turn.)
JS said that this was the great work of this dispensation...the work associated with those priesthood sealing powers.
Why would the world be wasted at his coming if he didn't restore these powers first and get the work rolling?
This is the great "Evener upper" so to speak. This is what makes it all work out fairly. Without this process that Elijah restored the sealing power and vicarious ordinance work for the dead, the "earth experience" would be utterly wasted for those who didn't get a chance at the gospel and the saving ordinances before the destruction of the wicked that precedes Christ's second coming hits them.
According to some knowledgeable people whose conclusions I've read and have no reason to doubt...Less than 20% of all the people who have lived on the earth have even hard of Christ in their earth life time. Yet most of Christianity believes that those people who don't accept Christ and his teaching before death are doomed to damnation. That thought "makes reason stare." What kid of a just God would that be, that didn't give everyone a chance before they were condemned.
To reject of ignore this great assignment from Elijah, which the prophet Joseph Smith said was the "Great work of this dispensation." is serious neglect of our priesthood purpose.
Dear Mother,
Our boy, Charlie, received his mission call to Bogota, Columbia. He enters the MTC on May 14. The only day that we have for his farewell is Mother's day. I don't know how that is going to work out. He doesn't get home from BYU until the end of April.
We really had a rain storm last week. It dropped 2.5 inches of rain here in DP in 36 hours. But, in Merced it dropped 6 inches of rain. Bear Creek flooded part of the city and 1000 people had to be evacuated. That's pretty unusual for a dry place like this. We have had a wet winter...about 15-20 inches of rain...depending on where in the valley you're located.
Saturday late afternoon a severe storm warning came on the TV. A thunderstorm accompanied by funnel clouds and 3/4 in. hail was reported 5 miles sout of Merced along Hwy. 99. It was headed for Chowchilla at 15 miles per hour. Chowchilla is getting to be "Tornado Alley." They were hit by a tornado about 3 weeks ago. It tore off some roofs.
You can probably tell that i like exciting weather. The worst thing about California's usual weather is that it is boring.
We hope you're doing well. We hope Magdalene gets over those shingles soon. We're praying for you.
Love,
Robert, Janet, Sam and Heidi Jo
PS Here's another essay: I like Karl G. Maeser's analogy that he made as he was leading a group of missionaries across the Alps many years ago. He looked back at the stakes stuck in the snow to mark the safe path and said "Brethren, there stands the priesthood. They are just common sticks like the rest of us. Some of them may even seem alittle bit crooked. But the position they hold makes them what they are. If we step aside from the path they mark we are lost."
The power of the priesthood lies not in being ideal sticks--but in being sticks in the right place (Doing the work directed by prophecy and revelation to those holding the priesthood keys._ The guy holding the priesthood keys is inspired to know where the sticks should be placed and the general priesthood holders are authorized to act s the official sticks and stand in those places. The requirements for that job are: having the authority conferred upon you to act as an agent for God; then, faith and discipline enough to comply with instructions.
In Seminary we're studying the period prior to and through the resurrection of Christ. This is the place where the "pride roller coaster" has it's shortest cycles i.e. righteousness, prosperity, pride, sin, destruction, humility, righteousness, prosperity.
Hugh Nibley, a modern Book of Mormon scholar, calls the pride cycle the NEPHITE disease. He says, "We have it."
Rejecting or ignoring prophetic counsels that don't seem logical in our circumstances, is a serious threat to our ability to function as priesthood holders. It also is a dangerous early warning signal of the "Nephite Disease." That is usually the one just before the big slide on the "Pride Roller Coaster" to destruction.
It's important to be able to see the early warning signs of the disease. They have to do with how people respond to prosperity:
1. Focus on fine apparel and jewelry..status symbols.
2. Growing class distinction...the people with the status symbols looking down on and separating themselves from the people without them. (It reminds me of a story about a group of people in a war torn country, like many of the countries in Europe were at the close of the 2nd world war. The people were starving and poorly clothed, wearing dirty ragged clothing (anything they could find) looting and scavenging for food and eating rats or anything they could get. Their dire circumstances made them acutely aware of their need for law and order. They were humbled and ready to do whatever they had to to get out of their circumstances. They sacrificed their own personal desires and will to obey the laws that would bring prosperity back again to the community...But as they began to prosper again, the more successful people started to shun those who were still in rags...trying to ignore the memory that they had all been in those circumstances just a short time before. They were intent on displaying those symbols of status and special talents tht would imply class distinction. They prided themselves on their self sufficiency and ability to rise faster than others, attributing it all to their personal genius...denying that God had a part in it.
3. Feeling of self sufficiency and taking credit for their own success without acknowledging God's role.
4. Selfish focus on personal gratification and gain.
5. Rationalizing and justifying small transgressions and selfish pursuits.
6. Denying the spirit of Prophecy and Revelation, thus freeing them from having to do anything that doesn't seem logical.
After the 6th sign comes the big slide into sin and transgressing the commandments starts as a trickle and turns into a flood...and eventual chastening destruction to turn them back into humility and righteousness.
NEW TOPIC: I'm also impressed that one of the most ideal jobs for new members in the church is submitting their four generations for temple ordinances. I think the fourth missionary lesson is the time to teach them about this. This job is rewarding and doesn't have the threat that teaching a SS class entails.
Moroni came back 3 times in one night to tell JS the same thing. It must have been important. What was it? That he was going to send Elijah to restore the sealing power to seal the fathers to their children and vise versa (it says turn the hearts of the etc., but Jos. F. Smith in Doctrines of Salvation said that it would be more accurate to say seal or bind instead of turn.)
JS said that this was the great work of this dispensation...the work associated with those priesthood sealing powers.
Why would the world be wasted at his coming if he didn't restore these powers first and get the work rolling?
This is the great "Evener upper" so to speak. This is what makes it all work out fairly. Without this process that Elijah restored the sealing power and vicarious ordinance work for the dead, the "earth experience" would be utterly wasted for those who didn't get a chance at the gospel and the saving ordinances before the destruction of the wicked that precedes Christ's second coming hits them.
According to some knowledgeable people whose conclusions I've read and have no reason to doubt...Less than 20% of all the people who have lived on the earth have even hard of Christ in their earth life time. Yet most of Christianity believes that those people who don't accept Christ and his teaching before death are doomed to damnation. That thought "makes reason stare." What kid of a just God would that be, that didn't give everyone a chance before they were condemned.
To reject of ignore this great assignment from Elijah, which the prophet Joseph Smith said was the "Great work of this dispensation." is serious neglect of our priesthood purpose.
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