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On Friday morning, Rebecca was volunteering at school, David tending the kids, and we had the opportunity to do a couple of endowment sessions at the Boston Temple. We ended the visit by eating codfish bisque for lunch at the temple cafeteria.
This temple is very pretty and in an attractive setting on the highest point on a prominent ridge. It is mid-sized, reminding me of the Oquirrh Mountain temple in its internal layout and functionality, with a grand staircase and two double ordinance rooms. Like the DC temple, it sits on a major expressway, and appears suddenly and grandly as you drive along.
We also helped Isaac celebrate his 6th birthday this day.
In the afternoon, we took a drive with the whole family going along both sides of the Charles River to and from Boston. We passed Harvard, MIT, and Boston U. The river scene was quite pretty, and the fall leaves were still colorful even though, perhaps, were a few days past their prime. The weather was much cooler starting with this day.
Pictures taken on Sunday.
On Thursday in the early evening we went a soccer practice for Isaac’s team and saw them play their final game on Saturday. David has been an assistant coach.
I will say that, in common with other players of his age that I know, he occasionally showed signs that he was into the game and that he was beginning to acquire some basic knowledge and skills for the game of soccer. His parents reported that he was improved over last year in Springville.
Picture: Isaac doing a practice exercise, kicking the one ball to hit and knock the second ball off its pedestal.
Wendy and I have been in Boston this past week, visiting with David and Rebecca and family. We so appreciate how good they were to us and the sacrifices they made to have us there with them (like making us use their bed while they slept on cots in the older boys’ room). And David took the days off from work, and he and the family spent much time in squiring us around to show us the Boston area.
We left our home on Tuesday evening, October 26th, and drove to Wendy’s sister’ place (Bonnie and husband Steve) in Bennion (near 6200 S. and Redwood Road). We stayed the night and Steve drove us out early to the airport to catch a 9 am Southwest Airlines flight Wednesday morning. We changed planes at Chicago Midway and arrived in Boston about 5:30 pm. We were thankful to barely miss a huge blizzard and wind storm that was centered in Minnesota but aided the jet stream in giving us an extra push eastward at nearly 200 mph (so said the pilots) and we got to both destinations early. Wendy was a little disconcerted?? to discover that we were flying over water (Lakes Michigan and Erie and also in our approach into Boston where we circled way out into the Atlantic and then landed on a runway that extends out into Boston Bay so that we couldn’t see land until we touched down), but thankfully we got back to on firm dry land for our landing.
David and Isaac met us and we were soon at their apartment in Belmont. We found Belmont to be a suburb about 10-15 miles west of Boston city center, in a wooded, slightly hilly area, with rivers and lakes (called “ponds” in MA) nearby. It has a population of about 25,000, mostly residential, appears to have been built out by the 1950s, has a wealthy high end area and all real estate pricey, and quite a few academics and business leaders living there due to its proximity to Harvard, MIT, other colleges, and various business headquarters. It also is a sort of LDS gathering place, having the Boston Temple and enjoying at least two wards, including some prominent members, including Mitt Romney and his family.
We stayed for a week and left for home on an 8 am flight that went through Denver and got to Salt Lake about 1 pm Mountain time. Steve picked us up in our Town & Country, we dropped him off back at his work, and we got home about 3 pm to beautiful fall weather.
We came away from the visit being most appreciative of two things:
1) seeing for ourselves how hard David and Rebecca are working to be good parents and to try to teach their guys the Gospel, our being a part of their family prayers, teaching the scriptures, going to church together, etc., and
2) it was a wonderful time to get much better acquainted with their boys and they with us:
Isaac–serious, precocious, fascinated with science and other learning, reading very well aloud (the scriptures), grasped the concept of and helped me work 4-star Sudokus
Ben–active and loved physical play, liked to hide and chase, laughed and giggled a lot, smart, happy, active, always kind to Henry
Henry–robust, solidly built, walking confidently, friendly, always smiling, always exploring, reminds me of a junior Holden.
We have great news from Mount Zion–Jeff and Debbie Pierce went to Raleigh Temple yesterday for their endowments and to be sealed as a couple. This is such wonderful progress for them. From the first that we met them, we were impressed by the love and bond that existed in that family. Now they have taken a step that will further enhance and strengthen that bond. Temple sealings are about love. Every good marriage deserves and needs the temple.
We had hoped to be with them at the temple yesterday, but could not get our connections worked out, partly because of late dates changes for the ceremony and finally because I ended up with a doctor’s appointment on Friday.
Good news from that appointment-- My cardiologist, Dr. Carter, seemed to assure us that my bout with pericarditis was past.
We still hope we can work out travel arrangements to be present at the Raleigh temple at the time when Todd and Tabatha Harrell get sealed.
Emilie and Scott had arranged for their wardhouse for Friday night to host the family for our yearly Halloween party and led in the planning for this event. Almost everyone was there including some of our BYU students. I am very grateful for the willingness of our South Weber families to travel the long distance over congested highways to be with our family for this occasion.
One of the highlights was the ice cream eating contest. The junior division resulted in a tie between Jeremy and Jonathon. In the senior division, Paul won the trophy for the second year with an astounding performance. He was finished so quickly, estimated at less than 10 seconds, that we couldn't get a picture.
All family members came down the catwalk to model their Halloween costumes. This picture shows Matthew and Kim who came as hot dog condiments.
There is a current fuss in newspaper reports that a Presbyterian church near Charlotte NC has reneged on an offer to use a volunteer couple as cub scout leaders, because they were discovered to be LDS. It is against the policy of that church to use people who are not “Christian” as leaders in their scout programs.
The BSA does not operate its own programs, but in a sense, contracts with other organizations who want to use its programs. It is clear that BSA understands and expects that these chartering organizations will use the scouting programs to meet their own organizational objectives. For example, in our church we use scouting to help young men to achieve Aaronic Priesthood objectives, i.e., build testimonies, prepare to be missionaries, etc. Accordingly, when BSA charters its programs to various organizations, it gives them the right to set their own policies about choosing leaders, within certain parameters that include being roles models for character, morality, and belief in a Supreme Being. In our church, our leaders would typically not call a non-member to be scoutmaster, although I have heard of exceptions. When I was scoutmaster, I had a non-member, Bill Shepard, who was a very effective Assistant SM. He was always supportive of things about the Church and religion for the boys. I believe he had also served as Cubmaster at one time. It seems to me that in our Church at least, the Cub program is the most nondenominational. We integrate priesthood/Church increasingly with scouting the older the age of the young men served, so might be less apt to use non-members as leaders for the older-boy programs. I believe it would be typical for Bishoprics to individualize the calling of non-members to scouting leadership in our church, seeking inspiration and assessing, in addition to the character issues mentioned above and the age-group of the boys, the existing need for leaders (do we have members who could do it?), the attitudes of the individual toward our church (is it supportive?), and the good that might come to the person and his/her family from the call.
So, when Christ Covenant church backed off from using the LDS parents as den leaders, they were within the rights granted by BSA to define their own criteria for choosing leaders for the scouting programs they sponsor. But now, the reason for this rejection, as not being Christian--
Christ Covenant church is using a sort of specialized, technical definition of being a Christian, not typically understood except by persons who have some theological background or training. It takes its meaning from 4th and 5th century attempts to define orthodoxy in Christian belief, at a minimum, by the acceptance of the Apostles Creed, and perhaps, other creedal statements. It is not the common sense or consensual definition that identifies Christians as believers or followers of Christ or perhaps persons who follow Christ’s example in how they treat other people (“that was a Christian thing to do”). At worst, it is deceptive and dishonest, because those making the accusation likely know that the typical hearer will not understand it as a specialized and uncommom usage of the term Christian.
Oddly, the Presbyterian church, when created by Calvin, Knox, and others over 10 centuries later, was rejected at that time as unorthodox by then mainstream Christianity (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church of that day, and, perhaps, the Church of England). Whatever orthodoxy it has acquired is self-awarded or at least achieved many years after the time of its creation. It is also interesting that Christ Covenant church claims to not include Catholics as acceptable candidates for scout leadership either, although they certainly meet the above definition (acceptance of the early, but post-apostolic, creeds) for Christian orthodoxy. So, this issue becomes a sort of club that is applied discriminatorily by some churches to use to beat us into submission or at least marginalize our church to unsophisticated hearers.
Stephen E. Robinson provides a great anecdote on this subject that happened while he was a doctoral student at Duke University. He had been invited by a large Protestant church to present a lecture on LDS beliefs. Some of his professors were members of this congregation. When he completed his presentation one of these men asked: “Why do you call yourselves Christian, when you are not?” Knowing something of this man’s personal beliefs, and that the congregation mostly would interpret his question to mean that Latter-day Saints do not believe in Jesus Christ, Brother Robinson quizzed him along these lines:
“Do you believe that Jesus was the literal Son of God?"
“No.”
“Do you believe in the divinity of the historical Jesus?”
“No.”
“Do you believe that Jesus had the power to perform miracles?”
“No.”
“Do you believe that he took upon him the sins of the world, as a real transfer of real guilt?”
“No.”
“Do you believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus?”
“No.”
“Do you believe in a final judgment?”
“No.”
“Are you a Christian?”
“Of course, because I am a member and ordained minister of a denomination that traces its heritage back to the New Testament in an unbroken way.”
“As a Latter-day Saint, I believe that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God; that he was and is divine; that he had the power to work miracles; that he took the sins of the world upon him in Gethsemene and on Calvary; that he died for us; that he was literally, bodily raised up on the third day; and that he will raise us up to judgment and a glorious afterlife. Now am I a Christian?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“Because you are a member of a church that is not theologically derived from and dependent on the councils and creeds of the historical church, and because you reject traditional Christianity and its theology after its second century.” (ARE MORMONS CHRISTIAN?, pp. 31-33)
When full information is forthcoming, fair-minded people will easily make the correct judgment as to who is the real Christian (and many in that congregation did).
We appreciate Gloria’s efforts to help Nathan celebrate and be recognized for his 31st birthday. We went with them, and Matthew, Kim, Emilie and Garrett to Olive Garden and had dinner Saturday afternoon.
There was cake (with orange Marmalade center) and ice cream (extreme moose tracks) on Monday night to finish off the celebration, even though Gloria had to work.
Notice how I was able to get the traditional family puffy cheek picture as he blew out the candles. (These are more of my superb cell-phone images.)
I enjoyed and was impressed by the sacrament meeting talks Paul and Daniel gave Sunday. The styles were different, but both showed a lot of depth, commitment, and preparation.
Paul’s talk on the Holy Ghost was quite scholarly. He provided a comprehensive review of scriptural instruction and insights about the Spirit. He also demonstrated a quiet and humble sincerity that I think will be persuasive to investigators as he serves his mission.
Daniel was more animated. He talked about several of the principles and commandments of God that we should be living and boldly challenged us to keep these commandments. He challenged us that each week we should pick out one specific principle that we need to improve on and work on it during the week. I think this boldness will serve him well on his mission.
(Thanks to Matthew for the picture. Mine were not very good.)
A conversation with Alison a few days ago jogged my thinking about taking photos, about using the capability in my cell phone when a regular camera wasn’t available or practical. A major motivation is that I often have wished, after the fact, to have a picture to support the text in a blog but none is available. So, last week I did some reading on cell phone picture-taking on the web and in my phone manual, bought a micro USB cable for off-loading cell pictures to our computer, and started practicing on my cell phone photography.
What I have learned is that I can now handle the mechanics (take a picture, take another picture quickly, setup and perform the off-load to a computer). It turns out that the latter process is almost identical to off-loading digital camera pictures, so was easy to master. The photographing process (with my cell phone, at least) reminds me somehow of taking pictures when I was little boy with my mother’s Kodak Brownie, the prototypical “box-camera” of yesteryear– you need lots of light and you have to make sure you don’t wiggle the camera. Differences are that you don’t have to pay for processing bad shots (which most of mine have been), you can get images in lesser-light conditions and you get color (sort of, but “Photoshopping” the shots after transferring them to your computer is helpful to get a semblance of quality.
Here is a comparison of my best cell-phone shot of the Soderquist family, as we were together with them Sunday for Paul’s and Daniel’s pre-mission sacrament meeting talks, with one from Matthew’s big Canon digital SLR (borrowed from Facebook–thanks Matthew).
We spent most of the week at the cabin, except that we came home Wednesday night to go to our temple shifts on Thursday and then went back up on Thursday evening. I worked on blogs and indexing the Guy Lewis records. We walked a couple of days when it wasn’t raining and as I have started to feel stronger. I took my 600 mg Ibuprofen every 8 hours and made sure that I was drinking 7-8 glasses of water.
The really big rain storms kept rolling through from the south and I took lots of pictures throughout Tuesday of the effect on Mt. Timpanogos. There was a the first snow of the season high on Timp in the morning and some lingering cloudiness. During the morning the sun broke through and we saw some blue sky. Then another front appeared over the mountains to the south and west. At first the clouds were white. Then they got blacker, the mountain became obscured, precipitation started, an finally we totally lost our visibility of anything out the picture windows. The final picture shows additional snow on Timp on Wednesday morning.
Saturday was a full day. We picked up Nathan and attended a session at Mt. Timpanogos temple where Heidi received her endowments. We saw there Alison, Quin, Paul, Andrew, LeRoy and LePriel Soderquist, and Aunt Gretta. Then Wendy dropped us off at the BYU stadium where we had tickets for a 4 pm football game with SDSU. Greg had promoted this and was there along with Scott and Ethan, and Matthew and all six of their kids. Greg and Matthew led the cheers, but the loudest fan was Gloria. It was lots of fun to see the game with the family and it was enhanced by a BYU victory, 24-21.
The Book of Mormon presents a number of models, examples, or types regarding the paths persons follow to become fully converted to the truths of the gospel. In a recent blog (THE BOOK OF MORMON, A MEMBER MANUAL, September 24, 2010.), I listed several persons who were Church members that returned to a life of faith after having experienced a period of what today in the Church we would call being “less-active”:
“The process of returning to living faithfully (reactivation) on the part of members of the Church after engaging in such things as apostasy (Alma I), rebellion (Alma II), worldliness and materialism (Amulek), indifference and apathy (Enos), immorality and other serious sins (Corianton).”
These are all models of members who only become converted in their adulthood after wandering in wrong paths for a period of time. And in becoming converted, they all became powerful leaders and advocates for the Lord and his gospel. Some years ago, I wrote in more detail about these persons and their conversions or reconversions (THEY CAME BACK: BOOK OF MORMON STORIES OF REACTIVATION, http://www.lewisfam.com/nearertogod/html/they_came_back.html).
I want to add some more conversion types:
1) Member, faithful from childhood (Nephi). Although there are many other examples, Nephi seems to epitomize the member who never strayed, but from childhood, followed his righteous parents’ examples, internalized their teachings, and came early in his life to experience for himself the spiritual gifts associated with the gospel.
2) Member, good person but with shallow or social conversion (people of King Benjamin). These people appear to have been members who were keeping the commandments (Mosiah 1:11), but still King Benjamin seems to imply that they were self-satisfied with their level of obedience and had not really internalized the covenants of the gospel or experienced the redemptive power of the Spirit (Mosiah 2:13, 24, 28, 37; see also Rust, pp. 103-104).
3) Non-member convert, rich and powerful (Lamanite King, Lamoni’s father–Alma 22).
4) Non-member convert, doubting, argumentative and intellectual (Zeezrom–Alma 12 to15).
5) Non-member convert, impoverished and persecuted (Zoramites–Alma 32-35).
I see at least one more type, for which I have not found a model in Book of Mormon persons, but rather in the life of Abraham:
6) Seeker for gospel blessings, that recent ancestors had left (Abraham). He states that his “fathers, [had] turned from their righteousness, and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping the gods of the heathens...” (Abraham 1:5). Therefore he left the residence of his fathers in the land of the Chaldeans to seek for himself “mine appointment unto the Priesthood” (v. 4) which was his right based on his lineage, but not available from his fathers because of their apostasy. His motive was to find “greater happiness and peace and rest..., [to] be ordained to the [blessings of the fathers], to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace...” (v. 2). I have pondered what informed Abraham’s faith in the face of his fathers’ apostasy, and had the thought that his mother may have stayed faithful and been the instrument to teach him the gospel. Abraham’s travels eventually took him to Canaan where he received the priesthood from Melchizedek (D&C 84:14), whom he also recognized as his superior in authority by paying him tithes (Alma 13:15).
How did you become converted to the gospel? Who is your model and exemplar? Are you a Nephi, an Enos, or like the people of King Benjamin?
In a small way, I feel some spiritual kinship to Abraham. While not apostates (and Abraham’s father even sought his life at one point--Abraham 1:30), my immediate Davenport ancestors took their families away from the safety and blessings of the Mormon Utah-Idaho-Arizona corridor before the Church stopped advocating gathering (which occurred about 1899).
Immediately after I was baptized in June 1954, the week after my high school graduation, I felt a new and strong prompting to attend BYU in order to affiliate with the Church in its strength and receive its blessings. I canceled my plans to attend Washington State and started working and saving money to go to BYU the following year. (Going in a year would also put me back with my age group, which I thought would be desirable socially.)
Oddly, at this time I had very little concept of such things as priesthood and temple. President Burles kept talking about giving me some priesthood. My first thought was “I am now baptized–what more do I need?” Of course, I later came to learn that there was much more.
Alison gave me some interesting feedback in a phone conversation this week. Thinking about our family general conference evening gathering, I tried to compliment her and Quin on how many of their children had come having made notes on each of the conference talks.
She said, “It’s the family meeting that does it. They know that they will have to appear before the family and their cousins and report something on conference.”
I said, “I always thought this was a result of good parenting.”
She said, “No, good grandparenting.”
Whether true or not, this conversation does give me more incentive to persevere with this part of the family calendar. And how might we assist the boys of Bentonville and Boston to have this same blessing with general conferences?
In our blog of May 15, 2009, I reported on getting reacquainted, in the Raleigh Temple, with Richard Rust, who I knew a little at BYU. He is a retired UNC English professor, and is also considered one of the experts on the literary aspects of the Book of Mormon. While at the cabin this week, I have been rereading his book on this topic (FEASTING ON THE WORD: THE LITERARY TESTIMONY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, Deseret Book, 1997). In a chapter where Brother Rust describes the Book of Mormon as epic literature (long heroic poem or narrative that covers extended time and grand scope like The Odyssey , The Iliad, Paradise Lost, Beowulf, etc.,–among other things these epics usually involving larger-than-life characters) with particular reference to the identity of Lehi’s descendants, he makes a statement that caused me to ponder our family: “To truly understand their identity, a people must know who they are, where they came from, and what their destiny is.” (Rust, p. 47)
Although not written at this point as epic poetry, I thought about how much our Church doctrines and practices help us with our identity. It positions us as spirit children of God, our Heavenly Father, coming to earth under his great Plan of Redemption worked out by greatest of heroic figures, Jesus Christ, and with the story spanning life before and after our existence on this earth. There is the ancient gospel, which tells and provides the way to access the Plan, first given to Adam, reintroduced through various prophets, by Christ himself when he lived, and then restored in our day through the prophet Joseph Smith. The latter is itself filled with heroic deeds, Josephs’ faith and martyrdom, the pioneer trek and building the kingdom in the West, missionary experiences and miracles, etc.
Positioned within this context is the identity of our own family. Who are we, where did we come from, and what is our destiny? We research our ancestry, compile our family history, and do temple work with the expectation of meeting and accounting to these persons in the next life. We love conversion stories of our ancestors and to hear of their faith and sacrifices. We gather together to maintain our association and relationships. Our Lewis Family Creed tries to establish some future family goals. Are we producing our own family heroic characters? What more should we do as a family to provide the basis for our own family epic?
Our family met in the evening of general conference Sunday for dinner, to do some calendaring, but mostly to remind ourselves of the messages we had just received and of the most significant conference themes. We heard from the smaller kids about something that impressed them each about conference and then the older teens and adults each identified important messages they heard. Here is our summary of some of the important themes of this conference:
1) Increasing our gratitude, both feelings and expressions (President Monson and also Elder Holland). Being grateful to God and to other persons is an antidote to pride and selfishness and helps us become Christ-like.
2) Getting direction from God, through the Holy Ghost and through the Church and its prophet (Elders Bednar, Oaks, Duncan, Jensen, Pres. Eyring)
3) Staying on the path, obedience, faithfulness, using our agency to make good choices, avoiding specific sins (including pornography, homosexuality), follow divine principles and not the fads of the day (many speakers)
4) Using are time wisely, simplifying, doing the most important things (Pres. Ucktdorf, Elder Christofferson) .
We cut short our stay at the Missionary Reunion because I was experiencing some symptoms that we were afraid were those of a heart attack. I had quite a bit of and increasing discomfort in my shoulders, upper back and upper chest. We went to Emergency at the Altaview Hospital which was just a few miles away from the chapel where the reunion was being held and announced that I might be experiencing a heart attack. That seemed to get their attention and they got me right in and started some tests. The enzyme test that indicates heart issues was not conclusive but showed the possibility of a heart attack. They eventually decided that I should transfer to the cardiac unit at the new IHC hospital (IMC) in Murray, so I got a nice ambulance ride there at about 11 pm. Wendy followed us over in the car.
They initiated some more tests and since, I suppose, things seemed stable, they let us go to bed at about 1:30 am (there was a sort a bed for Wendy on the far side of the room).
By morning, the cardiologist on duty, Dr. Walsh, let me know that they had probably ruled out a heart attack, and about about midday Saturday, he came back saying that I had pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac that surrounds the heart. He thought the cause was viral. He thought the inflammation would go away in about a week. He also identified that there was some concern with my kidneys. They started giving me an anti-inflammatory drug through my IV and also upped the amount of fluid being given intravenously. The medical staff kind of lost interest then and let us watch conference. They let me be released Sunday afternoon, so we were able to come home and host the family for dinner on conference evening. I have a prescription for a heavy-duty Ibuprofen to take for a week and made a commitment to be sure to drink 6-8 glasses of water daily. (I think I have gotten a little careless and let myself get dehydrated, especially as I have increased my exercise level recently.)
Thankfully, this episode was not more serious than it was, that I am feeling better, and that we were able to have the joy of being with our family as planned on Sunday evening.
We had been really looking forward to our first mission reunion on the Friday night before general conference, especially to see missionaries again that we had enjoyed and learned to love. It was held in a ward house in Sandy.
Among the people that we enjoyed seeing were: President and Sister Wallis, Sisters Myers and Bloomgren, the Gunnells, Elders Gaylord, Post, McVey, Sheffler, 2 Jensens, Bigalow, Croft, Henley, Stewart, Johnson, Barker, Clark, Godfrey, Cannon, Howell, Sisters Baker and Michaels.
