Mormon moment in sports

Talk about “Mormon Moments.”  There is a young Latter-day saints athlete who is absolutely the top prospect in their sport  in each of the sports of baseball, football, and basketball:

Baseball: Bryce Harper,
20 years old, from Los Vegas, NV
6'3", 215 lbs.
Outfielder for the Washington Nationals of the American League, 2012 American League All-star (youngest player ever selected), 2012 AL rookie of the year, 22 home runs, batted .270.

While many young Mormons take two years in their early 20s to perform a mission trip for the church, the author of a Harper biography writes that Harper chose baseball as his mission.
“I feel I can be a walking Book of Mormon and help people on the baseball field and off it,” Harper told Miech.  In college, Harper inscribed his bat and the tape around his wrists with Scripture verses, including 2 Samuel 22:33-34, which encompasses a song from the Jewish hero David after an epic battle with King Saul. “God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect,” the song says. “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me on high places.”
The verse is fitting for a rocket-armed rookie who is one of the fastest runners on his team.
(Dan Gilgoff - CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor)

Football: Manti Te’o, senior linebacker for Notre Dame
21 years old, from Laie, Hawaii,  6'2", 255 lbs.
Was the most highly recruited athlete for any sport, in the history of the state of Hawaii.  Awarded the HS Butkus award as best Prep linebacker in the US.
In college, 2009 Freshman All-American, 2010 Second Team All-American (as a sophmore), 2011 Second Team All-American and 2011 Second Team Academic All-American (as a junior).
Projected top NFL draft pick, but turned down NFL offers to complete his senior college year. Emotional leader for team and top tackler with interceptions and fumble recoveries
Heisman trophy candidate

Te'o is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2009, when Te'o was being recruited by 29 college football teams, it was his belief in prayer that led him to ultimately chose Notre Dame.  Recently, his Mormon faith has helped him overcome the tragedy of losing both his grandmother and girlfriend within a matter of hours.  On Sept. 12, Te'o received two phone calls. The first came from his parents telling him his grandmother had died of an extended illness. The second, just six hours later, came from his brother. Te'o's girlfriend had died after a battle with leukemia.  In this video from ESPN, Te'o talks about the recent losses and how tragedy hasn't kept him from playing, and succeeding, in his football games.  After Notre Dame's win the following weekend, Te'o said, "They were with me. I couldn't have done it without them. ... I miss them, but I know I'll see them again.
(Katie Harmer, Deseret News)

Basketball: Jabari Parker, Senior at Simeon High School, Chicago, IL
6' 8" 225 lbs
As a junior, he was named  Gaterade HS basketball player of the year.  Led his tam to state HS championship.  Top ranked prospect by various rating services.
Father, Sonny Parker, played in the NBA.  Mother of Tongan ancestry and reurned LDS missionary.
Active Priest in his ward.  Attends early morning seminary, carries a Book of Mormon in his backpack.
Earlier this year Jabari Parker told Sports Illustrated that he "talked a lot about" missionary service when his elder brother, Christian, came home from his full-time mission.
"I want to go (on a mission)," Jabari said. "But I have doubts. The NBA is the biggest dream of basketball players, and I'm no different."

Third cousin of grandchildren is chess champ

According to a Deseret News article on 23 Nov 2012, at age 14 a young relative has become an international chess celebrity.  He is Kayden Troff of West Jordan, UT.  He just won won the World Youth Chess Championship Held in Slovenia, making him the highest ranking 14-year-old chess player in the world.

Undoubtedly he is a grandson of Patricia Johnson who married Arno Troff.  Pat was a cousin of Grandma JoAnn.  Her mother was LaVern Gourley Johnson and her grandmother was Bessie Gourley

You can find the article at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567404/Utah-chess-prodigy-wins-world-title-shares-his-Mormon-beliefs.html, which also contains interesting blogspot, facebook, and twitter links for Kayden.

I'm proud of Jeremy

     Jeremy asked if I would write a letter of recommendation for his Eagle application.  Its a pretty save bet that I would recommend him highly.  Here is my letter:

     "I believe that Jeremy is sincerely trying to implement the Scout Oath and Law in his life.  He is a conscientious young man who tries very hard to be obedient to leaders, family, etc, and to do what is right.  He takes responsibility for himself.  He is motivated to accomplish good things in school, in scouting, and in other aspects of his life.  He is uniformly kind and protective of his younger siblings and others.  He is respectful to adults and to sacred and patriotic things.  His attitude toward life and people is positive and he brings a quiet happy influence with him to everything that he does.  I believe he will be a credit to Scouting and to everything with which he becomes associated."

About noon Saturday I got a call telling me that Britain’s dad had briefly come to town and they had decided to bless the baby.  So I got dressed and participated in the blessing of Arthur William Soderquist, age 2 weeks, born 27 Oct 2012, by his dad.  I got this picture of the blessee and blesser.

Big storm

As I started to wake up Saturday at about 8 am but then to roll over and try to sleep some more, I suddenly remembered that it was supposed to have snowed during the night.  I had the thought that it might be timely to break out the snow blower that I got for Christmas a year ago and never used.  I opened the curtain, and what to my wondering eye should appear but 12 inches of fresh white stuff.

I got dressed in warm clothes, put on the snow boots that I also got last year for ice fishing but never used, and went to the garage to dig out the snowblower which was in the back of the storage side of the garage.  With some difficulty I got it past the car and pointed ready to attach the snow.  I checked and found it still had gasoline from when I tested it last year.  I strung an extension cord and plugged it in the snow blower socket (it has an electric start option).  I managed to find the starting instructions plate on the machine.  Going down the list, I set the throttle on high-choke as required, then depressed the choke button for step two.  Step three called for me to insert the key in the key slot.

I wondered, where did I leave the key, after I had tested it almost a year ago?  Wendy might remember, I thought.  But she is in Newport Beach with her girl-friends and would certainly still be asleep (it would be only about 7:15 am there).  So I started my search of the house, the key box, the cabinet file where the guarantee should be (it wasn’t), various kitchen and office drawers.  No sign of the key.  After 30 minutes I find it.  It was on my bedroom dresser, under receipts that had been accumulating for a year.  Someday I need to get organized.

Anyway, I was then able to start  the machine.  I did our driveway and sidewalks and also did the sidewalks around the corner to the east to Howard Peterson’s property and then to the west and up 820 east for 5 houses clear to the vacant lot past Young’s.  That part was easy and the machine handle the deep snow without a problem.

(Pictured: the snow blower in position this morning to go to work again, the foot of snow on Wendy’s flower pot on the patio and on the truck (this morning), and the top of a pine tree in Howard’s back yard with the top branches still weighed down with snow and a cute little top-knot sticking up.)

Capitol Reef Album--Scenic Drive

Capitol Reef Album--Deer near camp grounds

Tasty bush

Capitol Reef Album--Canyons

Capitol Wash

Capitol Wash varnish

Grand Wash

Grand Wash narrows

Capitol Reef Album--Sunset on the reef

Capitol Reef Album--Hickman Natural Bridge hike

Capitol Reef Album--Us

Capitol Reef Album--Huge old Cottonwoods

By Fremont River

6 feet in diameter

Capitol Reef Album--Interesting plants

Little bush with holly-like leaves

Brigham Bush--pioneers used it to make tea

Small Pinyon Pine with 2 cones

Capitol Reef Album--Fall colors at Kosharem

Capitol Reef camping

Wendy and I and Michael and Brian went to Capitol Reef NP for the first three days of this week.  We camped in the camp ground in the midst of the old fruit orchard Monday and Tuesday nights.  Some of the things we did:
*Hiked to Hickman Natural Bridge
*Petroglyphs on cliffs along the river
*Drove down the Scenic Drive (10 miles along the west face of the Reef)
*Drove to the end of Capitol Wash, then hiked a mile or so into the wash to see some more petroglyphs and also what they call the Pioneer Registry
*Hiked half of Grand Wash and then drove around to the other end to pick up Brian and Michael who hiked all the way through. 
*Hiked to Sunset Point to see the sunset on the west side of the reef.
*Enjoyed:
    The clear Utah-blue sky
    The red cliffs
    The yellow leaves (especially whole mountain-sides of Aspen–best near Koosharem)
    Some massive old cottonwood trees
    100s of deer
    The isolation and stillness
    Pretty little river in the Park–the Fremont
    Ancient fruit trees
    Good conversations with Michael and Brian.
    Lunch at Café Diablo (SW cuisine-#1 rated restaurant in Torrey, out of 12)
    Hamburgers at Slacker’s Burger Joint (#2 rated restaurant out of 12)
    Finding out I could still camp and hike (well, while taking lots of rest stops)

Two lessons

Here are two experiences with Chandler guys that may suggest lessons for living.
1) Early in the afternoon on Friday September 7th, Wendy fielded a phone call from Jamison’s scout leader that reminded us that they had a camp scheduled for that evening and the next day. We had not heard of this before and weren’t sure whether the camp had been publicized very well even to the boys, and were a little apprehensive about what Jamison’s reaction would be. He gets home from school about 4 pm and they wanted the boys to be packed and at the church at 4:30. Having worked with scouts and teenage boys for a lot of years. I knew it to be fairly typical for their first reaction upon learning about an activity to be negative. Then if they finally consent to go it is also typical for them to have a great time and come home glad that they went.

So, Jamison walks in the door a moment after 4 pm and we inform him that there is a scout camp to get ready for. We were a little taken back by the vehemence of his response. It was like a little black cloud came over him. As I recall this, he curled up in a chair in a sort of fetal ball. With a scowl on his face, he told us in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t going to go. We mentioned that this was his Deacon’s Quorum and his Scout Troop that was doing this activity and suggested that he owed them his support, but seemingly without much of any change on his mood or motivation. Wendy told him that one of his friends in the troop had called wondering if he was going to go. (I think he was experiencing the same crisis as Jamison.) After that he made a similar call to a second scout. We got the intelligence from him that these two were probably going. By now 10 minutes had been lost. He was still scowling and stated that he still was not going to go.

So, we handed him the phone again and said, “OK, then you will need to call your scout leader and let him know.” He took the phone and was thoughtful for a moment and then said. “Well, maybe I will go. But you will need to call him and let him know I’ll be late.” Wendy and I said, “We’ll help you pack.”

There was a checklist for the camp. I found a backpack and sleeping bag and pad, and Wendy help him gather some clothes and supplies and we jumped in the car and reached the church at exactly 4:30–the first ones there.

The lesson here, or so it seemed to me, was in how Jamison’s mood changed. Immediately when he mumbled that he guessed he would go, the little black cloud disappeared and his was happy and spontaneous and enthusiastic. The contrast in the two moods was so great and the change happened very fast. I drew a conclusion from this that obedience and happiness go together, that we tend to be miserable when we resist doing what we should, and are also happiest when we do what is right.

2) Here is a little character study about Holden. We took the three littler guys to a swimming party for cub scouts on Wednesday (the 5th) at the home of a member of the bishopric. When the party started he welcomed the boys and went over rules for being in the pool. One thing he specified was that the pool had a plastic liner that could be ripped or torn if swimmers climbed out in places other than the ladder, and that would ruin the pool for use. Most of the boy complied with this but there were 3 or 4 older boys that didn’t and Sister Blake, one of the den leaders, saw this happening and reminded these boys one by one that they shouldn’t do it. They may have nodded “OK” but we noticed that they soon forgot their promise.

Holden was about the youngest boy there. As we were watching the pool with sister Blake, Holden climbed out over the side right in front of us. I don’t think he heard the instruction as was doing something in the water when it was given initially. Sister Blake said to him, “You are not supposed to climb out over the edge. You’ll need to use the ladder.” He was standing right in front of her and looked up in her face and said, “Why?” I was a little taken back by how direct he was in this interaction with an adult, and thought she could have been offended. But in a calm voice she explained the situation about protecting the plastic cover. He nodded and went back to the pool. And I noticed that he only used the ladder from then on and didn’t once climb out over the edge the rest of the evening.

I thought of Jesus’s Parable of the Two Sons, and how the one who initially rejected obedience bu then changed his mind was approved of God, but the one who promised he would obey but then didn’t was rejected of God. I was proud of Holden for being obedient when it counted.

Journaling, September 7, 2012

Our flight got us back to Utah at nearly 11 pm Monday. We had phoned and gotten tickets to tour the Brigham City temple at 11 the next morning. Wendy's sister Bonnie picked us up and we accepted her invitation from to stay at their home that night to save two hours of driving in the morning.

We took Wendy's son Michael with us to tour the temple, and had opportunity to answer a number of questions he had. We found the temple to be just as beautiful as others had reported, and look forward to the dedication service (to be broadcast to our building by Satellite a week from Sunday) and returning soon to do temple work there.

We got home mid-afternoon Tuesday. We found everything to be alright and also a big box sitting on the kitchen island containing about a bushel of peaches from our late Elberta tree that the Blakes had picked for us on Sunday evening. We (but mostly Wendy) spent most of the rest of the day in bottling 21 more quarts of peaches. That makes a total of 35 quarts we bottled from our two little trees. Add to that about 30 packages that the Blakes froze and some that Matthew and Kimberly got, and that makes lots of good eating from our peach crop this year. (Thanks to Alison for helping with pruning again.) Plus we had lots of fresh peaches to eat. I can't think of anything I like better than fresh, tree-ripened peaches from our own trees. We had 6 weeks of good eating, stating with nectarines, then our early Elberta, then finally the late Elberta. They ripened about two weeks apart, so we had fruit from the trees continuously starting in early August until now.

Journaling from Bentonville, Sept 2-3, 2012

Sunday, September 2nd
Testimony meeting--Jamison bore his testimony about the blessings of daily scripture reading. He said he has been trying to read the Book of Mormon daily and when he does this, things go better. We also heard a sweet testimony from a women whose family are real recent converts. In March they had reservations at a Utah ski resort. When they got here, there was no snow so they decided to tour Temple Square. They loved the Spirit they felt there, wanted more, contacted the missionaries, and now the whole family, Dad, Mom, and their 12 year old son are members and loving it.

At this meeting, there were people sitting in the overflow and back into the cultural hall. It looks to me like the ward is prime to be divided.

Valerie had asked me teach her Sunday School class of 13 year olds. The lesson was on the Sacrament. 11 kids were present. This is a very good class, with kids who like to explore the scriptures. Thanks, Valerie, for letting me have this experience.

In the evening Wendy and I gave our family presentation on great-grandmother Martha Ann Townsend Lufkin and her presence at the meeting in Nauvoo where she and many others experienced the "mantle of Joseph" falling on Brigham Young.


Monday, September 3rd Labor day--The post-Isaac weather has turned out to be southern summer at its most horrendous--Just like July-August in NC that we were happy to miss in our second year--99 degrees and 70% humidity. Step outside the AC'd door and you are enveloped with a blast of furnace-hot air.

Ward breakfast--We attended a ward pancake breakfast Monday morning with the kids. Big attendance. We are starting to get acquainted.

Chandlers were assigned to put up and take down scout flags for the Labor Day holiday. Our route was one of four, and was the Kensington neighborhood where their house is located. We had 29 flags. Jaron drove and McKay and Jamison put the flags out, with my helping to read the map for which homes got the flags. Monday evening I drove while McKay and Jamison took the flags down. The flag project is really lucrative here. They ask $50 a year from each subscriber family. On this route, 24 of the homes are non-members and 5 members. If that ratio holds, the program is grossing about $6000 each year with about 85% coming from outside the ward and Church. It enables a rich young men's program, like doing summer camps at Philmont last year. This coming summer, they are going to a Scouting sea base in the Florida Keys. This ward seems to have lots of young men right now, and appears to be operating effective Troop, Varsity, and Venturing programs. Our current Stake President in our Spanish Fork stake has decided not to allow flag projects, which is OK, but the ward leaders are constantly complaining that they don't have enough money to go to BSA camps or do district activities. I guess I have a preference for what the Bentonville 1st ward is doing.

Tie tieing school

Valerie suggested that sometime during the visit, I conduct a tie tieing school. So we brought that program into being Sunday afternoon. With a little help and coaching, both McKay and Jamison achieved a beginning competence with a Four-in-hand knot. See picture for proof. We may work on more advanced knots next Sunday, if they have maintained the Four-in-hand lesson.

Four-in-hand: (Our NC Raleigh missionaries called this a Twister.) This is the simplest knot and the one that businessmen such as Mitt Romney have been using for the last 30 years. It looks neat and professional. It makes a slim knot that is slightly off-center or with a small twist in it. It works with most all widths of ties from very skinny to very wide.

The other two knots I know are the Half-Windsor and the Windsor. (NC Raleigh elders knew them as Windsor and Double Windsor). They make increasingly fat knots. Many of our Utah missionaries and current Utah boys seems to a prefer a big, fat, loose, and bulky knot that the two Winsors achieve. Current tie styles include ties that not only are wide but also are thick having some inner material added to increase the bulkiness.

All three knots start with the tie laid over the shoulders (or threaded though the collar) with the narrow end on the left and the wide end on the right. The narrow end should extend only to a point somewhere between the sternum and the belly button, with the higher for more bulky knots. (When the knot is completed, you want the wide end to extend to barely cover the belt buckle, and the narrow end to be shorter.

You do all the work of tieing with the wide end.

The wide end overlaps the narrow end at about level of breast bone.

For the Four-in-hand, at about the level of the breast bone, wrap the wide end around the itself and the small end, about one and a half times to a point directly at the back side of the knot, then bring the wide side end up and over the knot to the front and poke it under the wrap at the front of the knot. Pull it loosely tight and straighten out the front if the knot if necessary, then tighten then knot up to the collar. And you are done.

The Half-Windsor starts the same way, except the wrap only goes a single time around the knot to a point at the front of the knot, then you put a single wrap around the narrow end of the tie just above where it enters the knot, starting at the inside and bringing the wide end around again from the outside. Then continue the wrap around to the backside of the knot and finish it in the same way as the Four-in-hand.

The Full-Windsor starts the same way, except that the wrap only goes a half way around to the neck side and then is brought through the top of the knot and makes a single wrap around the wide end just above where it enters the knot, then goes across the back side of the knot to where another single wrap is made around the narrow end just above where it enters the knot (this is the same as for the Half-Windsor) and then the wrap continues around the front to the backside to finish the knot the same way as for the other two knots.

OK, now the whole world knows.

Journal, Saturday, Sept 1, 2012

BENTONVILLE, AR. Its Saturday morning and the sun just started to shine again, with bright blue sky (its like Utah blue) between the remaining clouds. It rained most of the time since yesterday morning, perhaps for a total of couple of inches (I've not seen any official figures), sometimes pretty hard and sometimes only a drizzle or a mist. Isaac seems to have passed us (we ended up only on the outer fringe), without any flooding, but giving NWA some much need moisture.

Thursday night was exciting for those of us who are BYU fans. Our defense dominated Wazzu's much toured Air Raid and our offense sputtered at times but showed promise. We are staying with three great fans of BYU football, Jamison, Trenton, and Holden. (I'm not sure what went wrong in the education of Jaron and McKay--they could care less about BYU football.) The 9:15 pm starting time was a challenge on a school night. Jamision had an invite from The Blakes to celebrate the game with them, and the two little guys begged and pleaded to be able to watch. We finally passed the buck back to Valerie, when she called about 8 pm to let us know that she and Greg had arrived in Boston, and she suggested that Trenton and Holden be able to watch the first half. They got on their PJs and saw that much action and then dutifully retired. Blakes brought Jamison home as promised during halftime. He watched a little of the third quarter and put himself to bed.

In the meantime, Wendy and I concentrated mostly on watching the last evening of the Republican convention. Like much of the audience we teared-up with some of the stories about Mitt Romney's caring actions and others' stories of family progress.

In the morning we were pleasantly suprised that the little boys all were able to get up on schedule so that we were able to get them to their schools on-time ( a part of the bargain for seeing part of The Game).

By the way, the morning schedule for getting the guys to school is a killer--set the alarm for 5:15 am to help Jaron wake-up and get off to seminary by 5:55, 6:45 wake up Holden and Trenton and see that they get up, dressed, etc.; also wake McKay; at 6:55 drive McKay to seminary; at about 7:15 walk Trenton and Holden down the street to a neighbor's so that they can get a ride to school; 7:40 leave for the church to pick up McKay from Seminary and bring him back home; 7:55 wake Jamison; 8:20 drive Jamison to hs school; 8:35 drive McKay to school. I have done all the driving, while Wendy has been preparing breakfast, helping with dressing, etc., here at home. She rode along to take McKay to high school. When we got home at 9 am after nearly 4 hours of effort, I had the thought, "We are 33% done with our assignment to get the kids to school in the morning. Two days down and four to go, next week."

Six days of this routine is really not such a burden, especially as we don't have anything else to do, but we can see that Valerie deserves great credit for doing this day after day, month after month, year after year. We are grateful that we have had pretty good cooperation from the boys and that there has been a minimum of grumbling and resistence to getting going. We would feel a great sense of failure if the alternative occurred.