AGENCY - AND YOUR OPINION

This life is a great battle - one over ensuring that EVERYONE who qualified for a body is entitled to their chance at moral agency, regardless of their position.  The other focus of this life is to ensure that truth prevails over error and wickedness.  If we seek to diminish someone's moral agency or do not fight for truth - we have failed in our mission and will not make the grade.

We had a great talk today by a Stake High Councilor on member missionary work.  The thing that came out of that talk that struck me the most was a quote by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a politician and US Ambassador.  He said this: 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.

So, when I get testy about something - where someone appears to be attempting to manipulate the facts into what appears to be their opinion, I leave the "fight for moral agency" mode and I go into "fight for truth" mode and start to shred.  My wife is the same - but being a nurturer (by design) she approaches things from a standpoint of "mercy".  Being the patriarch, defender, male-type, I approach them from the "justice" standpoint.  The reason I call us "Brother Justice and Sister Mercy".....  So, when we put the two together (the two perfect halves, so to speak), we have a beautiful synergy and "whole" perspective that cannot be beat.  That is why I am a big fan of the role of woman - I get the need for that completing and finishing perspective.  And, for the most part, I believe she understands my role and how we fit together beautifully.

A HEARTFELT THANKS

  
  In posting this last entry, I noticed that the next one (this one) would be my 500th entry. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my inner-most thoughts with whomever has the time and interest in reading them.  For quite some time, I could not share mission experiences with people including my own family because they could not relate to them.
I married a wonderful woman whom I have been able to relate to fully and who has accepted what I have had to say and think - as unorthodox as it may seem, sometimes.  Where she has had doubts, we have had gone through remarkable things together so that our faith and bonding could be whole, as if to weld us together in the perfect union.
The other outlet I have for sharing this stuff is this blog - and it has been fun.  The thing that got me going on the blog was a visit by a former bishop of mine.  We had them over for dinner and I shared some of the things we had gone through in our lives and mentioned some of the stuff that is found here on the blog.  When I got on the topic of the second Civil War that is coming to the United States (not based on my own feelings, but based on what I had been reading about, back in 2008), I was met with incredulity, disbelief and challenged to produce what I had read.  I could not sift back through the hundreds and thousands of pages of stuff that I had covered and was met with some ridicule and scorn when I could not.  I was more than a little miffed as I knew that I had passed through at least 3 or 4 completely separate quotes about the topic and had been witness to a direct spiritual manifestation as my wife and I read Section 87 of the Doctrine and Covenants together one night about 10 years ago.  It became clear to us of what is coming and we began from that time forth to prepare more earnestly.

It was that pivotal after dinner conversation with our former bishop that inspired me to start keeping track of this stuff - a journal of sorts.  In a "not so flattering way", it is also a way of being able to say, "I told you so" when all of this stuff does go down, as I have been absolutely hammered by people (mostly those who previously held positions of power over me) for giving heed to this stuff.  In migrating to Montana, I find many others who feel as I do (including those who are in positions of power over me there, as well) and I find great comfort and satisfaction in that fact.  I find that I am no longer a "stranger in the land" as I felt on the left coast.

So after finishing out 500 entries, some catching more interest than others, and having almost 90,000 individual page views for each of the last two years since I started keeping track, I thank you for listening.  If one person's life is changed for the positive in becoming a better follower of our prophetic counsel to prepare for Christ's second coming, then all the time and effort has been worth it.  If someone's curiosity to seek out the pure, unsullied doctrines of the kingdom of God has been piqued due to what is written here, then I have a deep and abiding satisfaction in having spent time on this.

POLYGAMY - A TESTIMONY FROM BEYOND THE VEIL

So, I do not shy away from the controversial on this blog and this topic will prove it....

I just got done reading a thoughtful blog on the topic - I like to read up on this topic that seems to bring out so much human angst and emotion.  In my marriage to my sweetheart, we have shared many a heart-felt hour poring over the topic.  We both are at peace with the doctrine - 18 years later.  BTW - I have no intention of attempting it in this life - way too much difficulty in providing for my small family and meeting all the needs of them and my dear wife.  The challenges of another set of logistics would be daunting - the daily crush of meeting just the basic physical needs of one family unit is just too much.  However, I know it is completely possible to make it happen - especially in a place where temporal matters do not exist.

Clearly, Abraham and most all of the greats of time participated in it and Jesus himself apparently did having at least two, if not three wives that we are aware of.  Jesus put his stamp on it when he declared that he does the works that Abraham did (what else could that mean?) and that Abraham himself was enthroned in heaven as a God.  If Abraham were a vile person, that statement simply would NOT have been made.  So, what does all this mean?

It comes down to personal testimony and a deep and abiding understanding/testimony of the law of consecration and stewardship (simply being asked to take care of something to the full measure of its necessity, and then doing it).  When my wife was struggling with the effects of mental illness tied to the lack of B-12 in her diet and post-partum issues (an earlier post), I was beside myself and wanted to walk away.  It was in my extremity that I had a heavenly intervention and fully learned the concept of consecration and stewardship.  It was at that point that I feel I won the (true) love of my wife and the approbation of God.  I had prayed mightily and asked to be released from that trial - and indeed received permission to walk away, if that were my choice as there is true agency in everything - but I also would have sacrificed ALL blessings tied to enduring to the end and never learned the pivotal lesson of life and Christ-like living.

So what does this have to do with polygamy?  My mother passed away six months after my wife and I lost our 9 month old son.  Before she died, I remember her many times telling my father that he was under no circumstances to marry another woman if she were to go first.  Precisely because she would potentially have another to deal with on the other side - and did not want things to be messy.  One thing my mother was - was the stereotypical jealous woman.  If another woman so much as gave my father a sideways glance, my mother was all over it.  I was intrigued by that human characteristic in my mother as I watched it growing up.  So, the night my kid passed away, I was blessed with a particularly poignant dream in which I was shown what would befall my wife and I for the next three years as we passed through the healing process of losing our little treasure from heaven.  The second part of that dream involved knowing that "everything would be alright" given with a distinct sign.  We puzzled over that until my father gave me a call out of the blue a month after my mother died on Christmas day.  He related that my boy and my mother had visited him in the night in an open (waking) vision and had set the record straight and given him other counsel.  My boy was just there as a bonus or priesthood representative (he had been called over to the other side by my G-g-gfather because "he needed more help attending to family business").  Well, Dallin (my boy) was helping out with that kind of thing obviously in a big way.  The one portion of the message my mother gave to my father was that she was wrong in her desire that he not marry another and that he should proceed as soon as possible and be fulfilled and happy in the remaining years of his life.  My boy in his spirit form and according to my father, was slightly taller and broader shouldered than I was when I was in my prime at around 25 years of age.  He described my mother as in her prime - about how she looked like when she and my father were married in their mid-twenties.  So, for all the people who struggle with that doctrine of God - and I am not aware of too many women that don't - here is my little piece of the puzzle.  I know my dad is not making it up (speaking strictly from a logical standpoint) so that he could run off and immediately get re-married without waiting the requisite 2-3 year period, as some of my female siblings have accused....  I know that, simply because he did not know the details of the second portion of my dream I had the night my kid died and could not have known exactly how those details dovetailed into the impeccable timing of his phone call to me.  A complete improbability.  It simply happened, as stated.

So many people will kick against the pricks - many will leave the Church and allow themselves all kinds of excuses based on that doctrine that seems to be even more divisive than even the hellish practice of abortion.  After what my wife and I have passed thru, it is safe to say that we understand the concept of stewardship as God intended it.  When our child was called over to the other side to accomplish God's purposes, our time of nurturing was over and we had to comply with a heavy heart but with an attitude of "Not my will, but thine be done".  Not quite an Abrahamic test by any means; as our son was not handed over, nor did we have to build an altar and gather the sticks for the ultimate test in obedience, but when it was all said and done, we did have to endure with faith and without angry recrimination at God for having allowed us to pass through such a trial as that one. 

Reading some of the early writings of how the wives of polygamous marriages gained a "testimony" of the principle, I am astounded at their faith.  God did not leave them alone to mourn - but gave most all of them fantastic experiences in order to endure their ordeal in faith and long-suffering; just as my wife and I were given our faith-building experience in the face of tragedy.

Here is the quote from the blog topic on plural marriage that got me going down this bunny trail:

My wife’s ancestor, Sarah Levitt, was present during the early Nauvoo period. She asked her husband if she would have to share him. He encouraged her to pray about it. She had a dream. In the dream she was told that she wouldn’t have to share her husband (he died later). She wrote that she had a vision of the heavenly order and the beauty of it. She also wrote that the practice would be the means of “saving thousands and damning thousands. It was too sacred for fools to handle.”

Truly, the most powerful doctrines of the restored gospel are too powerful for fools to handle - precisely why they are so divisive and are used to separate the wise and foolish virgins in preparation for the glory that may come in the following life, if obedience is the outcome and not the rebellion of the "wise and learned" who think to counsel God and his servants.

THE PROGRESSION OF SIN

There have been alot of disturbing reports in the news lately that touch on cannibalism.  The first one that seared my mind many years ago was Jeffrey Dahmer who kidnapped little kids (boys), violated them (he was a homosexual - and that little detail is never pointed out in the media), and then he would kill them and then have a meal of various body parts.  Yep, pretty shocking, disgusting stuff.

The latest headline grabbing act of cannibalism is pretty much a carbon copy of Dahmer's despicable acts.  So what is the driver behind this kind of stuff.  Oh, the stupid liberals will call for gun control, then discover that a knife was used, then attempt to put a ban on the Chicago Cutlery....  Absolutely ridiculous stuff.  All the while the liberals are calling for adopting homosexual indoctrination in our schools, sex education touting "if it feels good, then do it", responsible drinking and drug use, etc.  Things they WILL have to answer for.  And I will be there - maybe not on the jury - but on the sidelines of the trial ensuring my witness is added to the narrative of how they have taken God's greatest work (this nation of freedom and justice) and made it into a hellish sea of destruction.

The conservative in me rejects any such ridiculous and devilish notions.  There have always been "gateway" sins that initiate a person on the path to debauchery.  This progression is not always followed to the letter, nor does it always end in unholy BBQ, but the ending is the same with the person bound in the everlasting chains of hell and under the power of the adversary and his minions.  Here we go with what these downward spiraling steps are:

- Word of Wisdom issues - drinking, ever hardening drugs that dull a person's senses
- Pornography and awareness of sexuality outside of a healthy context (distorting the sacred union of  man/woman)
- Mild Law of Chastity issues - french kissing, petting, everything but sex before marriage
- Egregious Law of Chastity issues - Sex before marriage or outside of marriage with opposite sex
- Homosexual relationships
- Murder
- Cannibalism

I am not sure a human being can sink lower than this last one, other than denying the Holy Ghost - and I think that denying the Holy Ghost is somewhere in the middle of those, depending on a person's light and knowledge.  All of these things lead to a next more serious sin until an individual feels trapped and unredeemable - where hope of the atoning blood of Christ appears to be out of reach.

So next time you meet someone who has pulled out of a spiritual nose-dive and get to talk to them about their journey into the abyss, see if it does not follow a similar pattern.  I think you will be surprised that this pattern is followed pretty closely.  Next time someone points out their belief that there is no harm in homosexuality - that its just a preference, point out that its possible that its just a mere two steps away from twisted barbeque..... and that it is one of the d'evils steps on the 12 step program to total personal, soul wrenching destruction and should be avoided like the plague.  It would be good to note here that most pre-modern cultures that have ended in the dust heap seem to have the tell-tale cannibalism as one of their last phases before self-annihilation.  The archeaologists always seem to find the tell-tale signs of bones cut with knives and other man-made objects and surmise that it was just part of their culture as a whole - and that it was a long-standing practice.  The Aztecs are one example where right before their end body parts ended up on the menu, natives of Easter Island yet another.  Yet, these same peoples made amazing advances in architecture, science, medicine, etc. - and the two (cannibalism and cultural advancement) are mutually exclusive.  Cannibals do not make good scientists (at least in biology and medicine), as they always end up eating their experiments.  In modern science, the closest group that made it to the heights of learning while simultaneously plunging to the depraved depths of debauchery, were the Germans under Hitler's regime.  So these archeaologists are making their suppositions based on a false line of thinking when they find the scored bones directly under the ash layer that showed the end of the depraved civilization.  The cannibalism was the last step of depravity before God allowed that group to be destroyed - or to destroy themselves so that another generation of innocent ones would not have to be exposed to the gross sin and base animalistic existence their fathers/mothers would bring them up in.  I have not read any ancient records to back this up (other than what some of the modern explorers have said about some of the modern peoples of Papua New Guinea who have been known to have their rival tribes over for dinner...), but I would suspect that homosexuality became rampant in those cultures just before the wanton murder and cannibalism set in.  No doubt, by inference, the people in Noah's day (whose culture was "filled with violence" and state-sanctioned gay marriage [CLICK to see my previous post on this topic] and late-term abortion; also experienced their share of cannibalism as people continued the depravity cycle to the bottom.  Of course, the result was total and complete annihilation by God for their actions.  We, of course, can expect nothing less for our collective crimes.  There, however, will be a few more than 8 saved this time around - probably more like 8%, or a little more by my worst-case guestimate and the destruction will come by the proscribed fire and not the former watery deep.  When it comes - if I happen to be a casualty of it, I will be cheering it on until I am no longer.  I am sick of the absolute garbage I see going on around me - so bring it on, so that the surviving generation can make a clean start.  As my BAC friend says - Come Quickly Jesus!!

Back on topic:  The d'evil will never know joy, sacred union of man and woman, the thrill of child birth, the perfect coupling of two loving people; and man and woman with their unique affirming and strengthening differences, he will never know the pain and ecstasy of life, never kneel across the altar and experience the long-term commitment of God's most sacred of ordinances that exalts and helps two people go the distance through the eternities.  He will never know the sensation of giving life or even the sweet kiss of death that comes to the righteous.  It is for this reason that he puts all the stuff on that list in the fore-front of our fallen society and his end-goal is to destroy family, life and eternal union.  The end-game of this whole exercise and homosexual agenda is to destroy our attempts to, without any interference, marry for time and all eternity in the House of the Lord.  If you lend even a small measure of support to that agenda - YOU ARE DOING THE DEVIL'S BIDDING - are my personal enemy (and more importantly, God's!) and need to repent speedily for your destruction will surely come.  I promise you that.

Do people struggle with same sex attraction?  Sure they do!  There are minions born with both pieces - and sometimes the doctors make an educated guess at birth on which way they should go in gender assignment.  They may struggle with same sex attraction as much as I struggle with opposite sex attraction (after marriage), but that does not give me or anyone else license to act on it.  For those individuals who suffer, it may be that they bear that cross their entire lives - and I believe they will be handsomely rewarded for having valiantly struggled.

Folks, we are at a cross roads.  We are in an election year where we get to make a choice - and we have one clear bad choice when it comes to God's definition of marriage - and a few alternatives.   I pray we all choose wisely, for I know that there will be destruction and hellish consequences awaiting us if we do not make the right choice.  God allowed the Noahidic peoples to be destroyed based on the exact issues we are facing today of abortion, destruction of the family and marriage through the homosexual agenda and violence.  LET US CHOOSE WISELY!

JESUS WAS MARRIED? THIS BOOK ARGUES IN THE AFFIRMATIVE....

I got this from a blog reader as a comment on the Jan 30, 2012 post about Genesis 49:10.

This book is now on the bucket list of reading material (when I get some time in the Millennium....).

You can read most of it on Google books: (CLICK LINK)

I have argued (though it is a rather unpopular position) that Jesus was married - and even plurally. See previous post about Jesus railing on people of his day about doing the "works of Abraham". One more thing to ruffle peoples' feathers - should fit in just fine on this blog!

ENJOY!

BY SHADES

So, if a Prophet of God was upset enough to say this back in the late 1800's, what would he say about today's conditions, where the Governor of the once-great state of Washington insists that the sacred institution of marriage should be shared with those who are gay and which violates God's earliest mandates given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? When will the hammer fall on us as a people? I can't help but ask the questions - Lord come quickly!!

Here is the quote from Wilford Woodruff:

When I contemplate the condition of our nation, and see that wickedness and abominations are increasing, so much so that the whole heavens groan and weep over the abominations of this nation and the nations of the earth, I ask myself the question, can the American nation escape? The answer comes, No; its destruction, as well as the destruction of the world, is sure; just as sure as the Lord cut off and destroyed the two great and prosperous nations that once inhabited this continent of North and South America, because of their wickedness, so will he them destroy, and sooner or later they will reap the fruits of their own wicked acts, and be numbered among the past. . . . We have no time to throw away, or spend in the foolish things of the flesh; what time is at our disposal should be used in building up the Zion of God, and in preparing ourselves and our families for the things that await us. (Wilford Woodruff, JD 21:301-02, 1880)

THE INSANITY OF RADICAL FEMINISM

Usually, I do not post this kind of stuff, but it rings a bell with me as I see the attitudes of the younger generation that I work with:

The Unexpected Pregnancy





In 2007, Mia Sardella, then an 18-year-old honor student at Drexel University, secretly gave birth and left the infant to die in the trunk of a car. No one – not even her friends or her divorced parents – knew she was pregnant. Sardella, the granddaughter of a prominent financial executive, may seem an evil woman, but I think she was temporarily insane, a victim of profound cultural dissonance.

Young women today are fed the constant message that sex is natural and simple. They inhabit an intensely erotic world. Despite the widespread availability of contraceptives, adolescents are careless and no matter how enlightened sex education is, this carelessness is quite normal in a young virgin. Some of these deceived girls suddenly face the fact that sex is not so simple; it is all too natural. A small percentage enter a state of such strong denial that they do not tell anyone that they are pregnant and even appear to deny the obvious to themselves. They move through life like automatons. They are the living embodiment of cognitive dissonance on a mass level.

In spite of sexual liberation, in spite of the availability of abortion and government benefits, our society is often heartless to the young unmarried woman who becomes unexpectedly pregnant. In many cases (the more you move up the social scale, the greater the shame appears to be), she feels alone and all the abortion clinics in the world won’t remove this isolation.

In any healthy society, pregnancy for a young unmarried woman under the age of 23 should be viewed as the shared crisis of her family and the family of the father. (It’s an outrage that any young girl should live so independently that adults do not even observe pregnancy.) A pregnancy should be seen as a reflection not just of her, but of her parents and the supervision they have offered her. A woman should not be heaped with criticism, but should be lovingly encouraged to marry or to give up her child for adoption to one of the many infertile couples longing for children. She should also be offered support and help through the aftermath of this decision. But these are her two options. There should be no other options, except for the possibility of her parents taking the child and raising him themselves.

Instead, women are left to have abortions and suffer the shame and remorse on their own. Or, they are given government benefits to help raise their children without fathers, a disaster for them and for the well-being of children. We live in an age of sentimentality and brutal heartlessness. No wonder you often read of these strange cases in which a very young woman whom no one even knew was pregnant gives birth secretly in a bathroom and then discards the child. She is a reflection of her culture, which acknowledges sex but denies its consequences.

At her sentencing hearing, Sardella said that every day she lives with remorse. A jail sentence was appropriate and necessary. But I believe her tears were real.

—- Comments —–

Coffee Catholic, a housewife, writes:

No sane woman would leave her newborn baby to die. That is the action of a terrified woman ~ terrified to the point of trying to protect herself from something that is very threatening. Our society is dreadfully threatening to women! Feminists are absolutely brutal.

It infuriates me how women are basically ordered by feminists and our feminist society to sleep around and have lots of sex without “hangups” or guilt… and yet when something goes “wrong” such as STDs or an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy, these same women are ostracized and cut out of society ~ by the very people that TOLD them to go and have sex!

There really is no “freedom to choose” because from early girlhood we are told to have sex outside of marriage or else we have “problems.” We are told that being promiscuous will make us happy and liberate us from misery. We are never told both sides of the story and we are never given a chance to hear about chastity until marriage. And there really is no such thing as being “pro-choice” because in order to choose, to exercise choice, one must be fully informed. Women and girls are never fully informed. They are brainwashed and indoctrinated and then THEY are the ones that must endure the pain and hardship of reality while the feminists continue to bray their warped party line and spread their poison without one thought about the women they keep destroying.

Feminism must go. It is a dangerous and destructive ideology.

Laura writes:

You are 100 percent correct.

Feminists hate women as they are.

I SHAMELESSLY CUT AND PASTED FROM THE BLOG "THE THINKING HOUSEWIFE".

FINALLY CLEARING MARY MAGDALENE'S NAME

Mary Magdalene has really gotten a bad rap - first in the early beliefs and writings of the Catholic Church and then perpetuated by many of my teachers as I was growing up. I really could not believe her to be a lady of questionable character to be the case - knowing how highly regarded she was of our Lord. I completely understand repentance and all - but the whole prostitute thing was really a stretch and I think it was a potshot at her by a male-dominated hierarchy attempting to consolidate power and squash the concept of Jesus being married so that they could buy off on the whole contorted unmarried/celibate clergy thing.... because I have a good feeling that Mary was one of the wives of Jesus - and was quite a remarkable woman on order with Eve, Eliza R Snow, etc.... I would much rather go that route than take the lower road and potentially slander the wife of Jesus - that would take some serious back-pedaling....

The following Wikipedia link seems to set the record straight on the matter and I endorse it: CLICK ON LINK HERE

Let me know what your thoughts are - don't be shy; I love feedback and more insights on this kind of thing.

PART II - FEELING SOMEONE ELSE'S PAIN OVER LONG DISTANCES

So, previously - a few posts back, I wrote down my experiences with my first love Tawny and how I was able to feel her pain from 5500 miles away.

So, I had another experience that was equally as unusual.

After I returned from my mission to Brazil, I worked in Eastern WA making good summer wages at a vegetable processing plant. I actually worked three jobs knowing that the scholarships would cover everything but the dating dollars - and I wanted some spending cash to spend on the ladies I knew I would bump into at the happy hunting ground.... It was not to be that year, while at Moses Lake, my brother met and introduced me to Danielle. I initially fell in love with her family - they seemed to have it all together and like mother, like daughter, I was determined to marry a girl that had a good blueprint for how to make a happy well-balanced family happen. Danielle had 7 kids in her family and they lived what I thought to be the perfect existence. Our relationship went along pretty well - she at Ricks and I at BYU-Provo getting my engineering degree. If grades are any indication of how well a girl positively influences a guy, I was in good shape. I was pulling the curves in almost every class and managed straight A's all year in engineering weeder courses. Our relationship went well, but there were some maturity issues on both our parts - and her dad specifically told me she was too young to marry. The other thing that scared me was that Danielle took the whole family thing a little too seriously. She was going to bear me 12 children - and she was dead serious. I was more in the 5-7 range. I know my limits - and 12 was too many. Maybe she was just trying to scare me off - but I knew she might try and make good on her promise. I was falling for her and we had even kicked the M word around - but there were a few hurdles we could not clear and she decided she was to serve a mission (much to her dad's delight). In the meantime, I found a good friend who I swear knew every woman on campus and he took me on "the rounds" every Sunday where we would go to the women's apartments and forage for a free Sunday meal. We had an agreement: we cleaned the kitchen top to bottom after taking care of the Sunday leftovers - and we also took notice of all the cute girls we bumped into. We were praised for our cleaning details which was no big deal as we were engineers and used to detail - they were praised on their cooking skills. It was the perfect setup and ended in the marriage of me to my eternal companion. She passed all the necessary tests and cleared all the hurdles except she came from a broken home where a divorce was occurring just as we were coming together in our union. Truly sad.... It was so sad, that having heard some of the dysfunction from her family had me thinking I was going to have to let her down easy and move on to the girl behind door number three - but I actually heard a crystal clear voice in my mind say "It will be okay (stick with her)".... FREAKY stuff!! The only time that ever happened before or since.
My sweetie was born in September (I had known my sweetie would be a Sept girl since I was 16 years old and first pondered on the concept of being married). We were actually born 15 hours apart and my best man - that set me up with her was born on the same day as me - all of us in the same year. Pretty odd for three completely random people meeting up. My best man being a major player in every major thing in my life including the dream I had the night we lost our Dallin. He even found me my current job that has seen us through tough economic times. Which segues nicely into the point of this whole story.....
I had the previously posted anguishing dreams the week Tawny lost her brother in a tragic death, and in Nov 2001 I, for two weeks, had been having these anguishing tormented dreams again - but this time about Danielle. Every morning I would wake up and tell my wife and then another torturous night feeling gloom and doom over Danielle. I was convinced that something bad had happened to her - but could not ascertain what it possibly could be. My wife prodded me to call her - but I could not bring myself to do it - it would be awkward beyond words, and besides, I had no contact info and she had married a few years before that and I only knew that my brother had run into her in N. Utah at a crafts fair where her woodworking husband sold some of his works of art.

One of the problems also was that I only awoke with impressions of torment, but with no specific details of what the exact details were. My wife promised me that if I would wake her, she would record the details the next time this kind of thing happened. I was concerned enough, I agreed, but I was NOT going to make contact with Danielle. VERY awkward considering how our relationship just kind of petered out and died with a sigh.... Not very good closure, I must say.

Fast forward four and a half months. I had been given a weekly 5am Saturday morning temple assignment. I dreaded the early hours - but LOVED the chance to serve and start my weekend off right. My personal level of spirituality soared. Six weeks after serving in the temple, I had a most powerful and vivid dream. I rolled over and my wife and I woke up simultaneously. I was saying over and over "That was amazing, that was amazing...". My wife asked what it was and I told her I had just had the most incredible dream. She popped out of bed and disappeared into the office returning shortly with a tape. She popped it into the tape recorder that just happened to be next to our bed (we had just pulled it out of storage three days before to listen to some Cleon Skousen tapes the missionaries had given us - the only boom box we owned that could record). For 45 minutes I recorded the most incredible dream I had ever had - and our son had been laying dead in the next room for the past three hours. I believe he was there in the room - and the sweet spirit I was feeling was some of his presence - he is one of the greats of the Matheson line who needed only get a tabernacle of clay and move on to greater things without the need to be tried and tested in this fallen world. After recording this singular dream which we later foretold with incredible clarity three significant events that would define our lives in the future (one of which was Dallin's death), I turned off the tape and we rolled over and went to sleep until we woke up late that morning - the usual babe crying at 6am for his morning milk not having woken us as usual.....
Our little family converged on his room where we found his lifeless body - beginning the most unusual odyssey I could ever have contrived in my mind had I even scarcely believed it to be possible. One where I have a solid witness of God's interaction in our lives, where I know He lives and where I know there is life after this one and we are on a carefully guided plan to help us fill our greatest God-given potential - take my life if you must, but you cannot take that solid assurance away from me.

So - what does this have to do with Danielle? It finally (after I was able to digest the whole death of a child thing and that I wasn't just having random or coincidental dreams), I looked up her mom who still lived in the same place in Moses Lake and briefly told her of our tragedy and asked, "What happened to one of your daughters last November?". "Did something tragic or of significance happen the end of that month?" She paused - and then said that I must be referring to Danielle and I said yes, it was....

She then proceeded to tell me that around the time that my wife and I were married, Danielle (as a 21 year old woman - and on her mission in AZ) had gone through menopause and stopped ovulating completely. The woman who had wanted 12 kids became completely infertile and could no longer bear any. She gave Danielle our phone number and Danielle called a few nights later and we had a good cry together as we shared our losses - a truly surreal experience. She had met her husband and they started the treatment to kick her body out of the early onset menopause (much as they would one of these ladies who is 60 and decides she would like to have a baby). The doctors kept increasing the dosages of medicine until the doctor told her it would end up killing her before she could have a baby of her own. The levels were 5x what it would take to kick the 60 year old back into a fertile state. She was left with an empty minivan (she had bought with the idea she and her husband would fill it) - and no children. A tragedy as great as having and then losing one of her own - a true state of mourning. Once again, I had felt someone's pain from a great distance - that strange non-verbal soul to soul communication at work. I cannot explain it - but it is fascinating beyond words. I understand the communication with Danielle - we had professed our love to each other and I wonder what the long-term interactions between her and I will be. I found out after marrying my wife (who made the genealogical connections through a common friend), that all three girls who made the top of the list while I was at BYU were all descended from a common ancestor who was hanging out with my common ancestor on the Willey-Martin handcart company disaster. I truly was supposed to marry into that line - I am sure of it. I have only skimmed the surface on this topic - there is so much more weird stuff that I haven't got time for.

A whole other topic for a whole other day. Sufficeth to say - things are way too strange when you take a walk down the wild side in the Wood Zone. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't experienced it.

CHASTITY BEFORE MARRIAGE MAKES FOR A BETTER RELATIONSHIP - NO DUH!

I have a work friend who is divorced and has found another woman he is really compatible with (who is currently divorcing her husband).

He is afraid of marriage because of the heck he went through the last time around. I mentioned that if he wanted this marriage to go the distance, he would have to wait until he was married to engage in relations with his new-found sweetie. I thought he would laugh me out of the room - but he is a good man (one of the best fathers I have seen) and took me half way seriously. I pointed out that the respect between two people that love each other is magnified when they work together in a joint manner toward the goal of becoming one flesh on the wedding night - and not sooner. Trust is built and the very basic concept of having to work together towards a goal that is difficult (especially once you have been married and have already "opened Pandora's box") helps the couple develop unselfishness and that crucial sense of team work necessary for a happy marriage. Most people scoff at this concept - but I know it to be real and effective.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1341126/Want-secret-happy-marriage-Dont-sex-wedding.html

ENJOY!!

AND THEY WERE MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE - A PRELUDE TO DESTRUCTION

My daughter found this and I thought it was instantly recognizable as something we should all be aware of:

BY JANET PORTER

How same-sex marriage points to end of the world
Posted: May 20, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

What do May 17, 2004, and May 15, 2008, have in common? One judge and a redefinition of marriage against the will of the people.

Both the Massachusetts Superior Court and the California Supreme Court by a one-judge margin redefined what marriage has always been in every culture and every religion for more than 5,000 years of recorded history.

Why does this matter?

As I wrote about in my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," Jeffrey Satinover, who holds an M.D. from Princeton and doctorates from Yale, MIT and Harvard, was on my radio program one day and I asked him about where we are in history. He explained that according to the "Babylonian Talmud" – the book of rabbis' interpretation of the scriptures 1,000 years before Christ, there was only one time in history that reflects where we are right now. There was only one time in history, according to these writings, where men were given in marriage to men, and women given in marriage to women.


Want to venture a guess as to when? No, it wasn't in Sodom and Gomorrah, although that was my guess. Homosexuality was rampant there, of course, but according to the Talmud, not homosexual "marriage." What about ancient Greece? Rome? No. Babylon? No again. The one time in history when homosexual "marriage" was practiced was … during the days of Noah. And according to Satinover, that's what the "Babylonian Talmud" attributes as the final straw that led to the Flood.

On my Faith2Action radio program on Thursday, Rabbi Aryeh Spero verified this to be true.

Rabbi Spero spoke of God's compassion before the Flood, in hopes people would repent and turn back to His ways. He showed patience for hundreds of years.

But, he said, the Talmud's writings reveal that "before the Flood people started to write marriage contracts between men, in other words, homosexual 'marriage,' which is more than homosexual activity – it's giving an official state stamp of approval, a sanctification … of homosexual partnership."

In fact, he said, "the writings indicated that it wasn't even so much the 'straw that broke the camel's back,' but that the sin in and of itself is so contrary to why God created the world, so contrary to the order of God's nature, that God said then and there 'I have to start all over … to annihilate the world and start from the beginning. …'"

Rabbi Spero went on to say, "Even in ancient Greece they did not write marriage contracts between men. There was homosexuality, and it was wrong, but there was not an official 'blessed' policy. … Marriage is 'sanctification' (not simply a partnership)." He said to confer the title of sanctification and holiness upon this behavior is "probably one of the greatest sins of all that one does against God's plan for this world."

The one time it happened was: "During the days of Noah." When I first heard this, my mind immediately went to a verse I've heard many times but never with such relevance. The verse is found in Matthew 24:37. It reads:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. – Mathew 24:37 (NIV)

I used to read this verse and think: It was bad at lots of points in history; it doesn't necessarily mean now, but if these Jewish writings are true, we are uniquely like the "days of Noah" right now – and only right now.

But it can't be yet, you say. You have a lot going on in your life? You're getting married? Here's how the New Living Translation describes that very sentiment in Luke:

When the Son of Man returns, the world will be like the people were in Noah's day. In those days before the Flood, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat, and the flood came to destroy them all. – Luke 17:26-27

Happily going about as if everything was fine was what they did, too.

You don't like this possibility? Don't even believe in the Flood? Doesn't matter. Some things are true whether you believe them or not. How can you be sure? There's a way. Did you know that about one-fourth of the Bible is prophecy? A quarter of the Bible is a lot – it's a big book. And did you know God's standard? Perfection. That means that if even one of those prophecies is wrong, you can discount the whole thing. Kind of like a prophet who makes a false prediction – that made him a false prophet and a candidate for stoning. Did you know that 4,000 prophecies in that Bible have already come true down to the last detail? That leaves about 1,000 left to be fulfilled – those are the ones regarding the last days before the return of Christ, which are being checked off the list right now.

If 4,000 out of 5,000 prophecies have already occurred exactly as the Bible predicted they would, you might want to pay attention to the rest.

The good news is that 1.1 million people across California have signed a petition to bring marriage to a vote of the people through a state constitutional amendment (just like 27 other states have done). And guess what? An amendment to a state constitution trumps even the most out-of-control state judiciary. We'll likely know if these signatures are validated before this tyrannical ruling goes into effect, and I predict they will be since they gathered 400,000 more signatures more than they needed to qualify. Besides, they already voted – eight years ago where more than 61 percent of Californians declared marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Now they just need to turn that same language into a constitutional amendment.

I don't live in California, so why am I sounding the alarm? Here's why:

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. – Ezekiel 33:6

I'm praying and working to protect marriage in California (and the rest of the country) not only because I care about marriage, but because I care about civilization. And, if we obey God, he just may spare us from the judgment we deserve.

May heaven help this nation....

MENTAL COSTS OF LOSING A CHILD

WELL, IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE I WOULD END UP DOING A SPOT ON THIS SUBJECT.

I HAD READ THAT THERE WAS A 70% CHANCE OF THE MARRIAGE OF A COUPLE WHO HAD LOST A CHILD TO END IN DIVORCE - AND THAT A MARRIAGE THAT HAD TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUES OF BIPOLAR (MANIC/DEPRESSIVE) HAD A 90% MORTALITY RATE.

THERE IS ALOT OF INTERESTING STATS THAT I HAD NOT RUN ACROSS (BUT THAT ANECDOTALLY SPEAKING, I COULD AGREE WITH). THERE WILL BE ALOT MORE ON THIS TOPIC IN THE FUTURE AS TIME ALLOWS:

The death of a child can cause not only devastating grief, but later serious mental illness as well, researchers reported last week. The study of more than a million Danish parents showed that losing a child under the age of 18 raised the risk of serious mental crisis, requiring hospitalization, by 67 percent. And it takes five years for the risk to subside, the researchers reported in last week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Women were the most vulnerable, according to the study. Their chances of ending up in a psychiatric hospital for the first time increased 78 percent following a child's death. Fathers who lost a child had a 38 percent increased risk of being hospitalized for psychiatric illness. The team, led by Jiong Li of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, also found that the risks ''were highest during the first year after bereavement, remained significantly increased five years or more after the loss," and went down if the parents had more than one child. Previous studies have shown that losing a parent during childhood or losing a spouse also heightens the risk of mental illness.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/03/29/death_of_a_child_can_l

ATTEMPTS BY GAY ACTIVISTS TO UNDERMINE MY MOST SACRED RELIGIOUS RITE - MARRIAGE

MY OBJECT IN THIS BLOG IS NOT TO MAKE IT A POLITICAL BLOG - SO DO NOT TAKE IT AS SUCH. THE ATTACK ON THE MORAL MAJORITY BY A GROUP LESS THAN 5% OF THE POPULATION IS FAR MORE A MORAL ISSUE THAN A POLITICAL ONE. MY RELIGION DOES NOT EXPRESSLY SUPPORT POLITICAL CANDIDATES OR PARTIES BUT HAS ALWAYS RESERVED THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT CLEARLY ON MORAL ISSUES AND THUS MAINTAIN OUR CHARITABLE STATUS. ANYONE WHO TRIES TO DENY ME THIS RIGHT HAS CLEARLY CROSSED A LINE AND WILL BE DEALT WITH DECISIVELY.

BELOW IS A GREAT ARTICLE EXPLAINING THE LDS POSITION ON PROP 8 FOR WHICH I EXPECT TO TAKE SOME HEAT AS A SO-CALLED "BIGOT". THE FACTS ARE BELOW. WE ARE JUST THE LITTLE GUY (2% OF CALIFORNIA'S POPULATION) SO WE TAKE THE MOST HEAT BY THE 5% (WHO IS BEATING UP ON WHO?). CALL RIGHTS TO SEE A 'LOVED ONE' IN THE HOSPITAL SOMETHING ELSE AND YOU HAVE NO FIGHT. CALL IT MARRIAGE AND FURTHER IMPINGE ON A SACRED ETERNAL ORDINANCE OF MINE AND YOU WILL HAVE A FIGHT ON YOUR HANDS - SOMETHING YOU CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE. YOU MIGHT AS WELL TRY AND TAKE MY KIDS OUT OF MY GRASP AS ATTEMPT TO ASSAULT THAT PRINCIPLE WITHOUT A FIGHT. FIRST A WAR OF WORDS - THEN SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A SMALL GROUP OF FOLKS IN THE SOUTH TRIED TO IMPOSE THEIR VALUE SET ON THE MORAL MAJORITY IN THE NORTH....

WE WERE DRIVEN AND SCOURGED OVER OUR 'IMMORAL' AND 'GROSS' STANCE ON POLYGAMY IN THE LATE 1800'S. WE WERE STRIPPED OF ALL OUR RIGHTS BECAUSE WE WERE NOT MORALLY ON THE 'INSIDE' - BECAUSE WE DID NOT BELIEVE IN THE STAUNCH IDEA OF JUST ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN. NOW WE ARE CALLED IMMORAL YET AGAIN PRECISELY BECAUSE WE FIND COURAGE TO CLEARLY STATE THAT MARRIAGE IS DEFINE PRECISELY AS BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN.

WHAT INSANE CHAPTER WE EMBARK UPON. DO NOT CROSS LINES. THE RESULTS WILL BE CATASTROPHIC FOR THIS NATION AND PEOPLE THAT DEFIES GOD'S WAYS - YES, NOT THE MORMON'S WAYS, BUT GOD'S WAYS.

Thanks to Phil Wasden for sending this letter.

“In the aftermath of the recent election, we may find ourselves oddly on the defensive regarding our support for the Yes on Proposition 8 cause. Our young people have been especially subject to mean spirited comments by high school friends and teachers. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We did nothing wrong. In fact, we did everything that a civic minded American can and should do. I have put together a few facts that help me to appreciate our position better. For example:

Latter-Day Saints make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

Latter-Day Saints voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.

African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.

The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Latter-Day Saints were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

Not all Latter-Day Saints voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or herself. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

Hold your heads up high – you did a great job on this most important cause. We will have more opportunities in the future to participate in our democratic process. Let's remember the lessons learned and do an even better job next time.

These are my personal opinions and thoughts; any errors are mine and in no way reflect official Church policy or doctrine.”

Thanks,
Kevin Hamilton

LINK OF MANY CANCERS TO STD VIRUSES

As a committed germ freak and believer in committed monogamous relationships and the law of chastity, this is one of my babies.

I have been wanting to make this post for quite some time as part of my "Chastity Makes Sense" diatribe. It would seem that most (60%) of the cancers out there can be caused by STDs or violations of the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 89):

Here is the first link from THROAT CANCER to oral sex and HPV.

There is much more to come so check back over time. This is definitely a work in progress.