Describing Hope

     When David got back from his mission, we had a conversation one day in which he pointed out something that seemed to me to be an sort of anomaly in the Book of Mormon, which was the way that the concept of hope was taught.  In most passages it seemed to follow faith, rather than be the desire that leads to faith, which might be the normal way that hope would be understood if the word was being used as it typically is in our current 21st century American vocabulary.  I dug into studying the use of the word hope in the book of Mormon and found lots of confirmation that it generally had a stronger meaning than just being a positive wish.  It was an anchor to ones soul, an advanced companion virtue to charity, a gift of the Spirit.  I discussed this with Eric Huntsman, the BYU religious scholar, who was a friend and associate on our Provo Temple shift, who agreed and said there might be two kinds of “hopes” referenced in the Book of Mormon, which he characterized as a “weak” hope and a “strong” hope, the later being this sort of non-standard use of the word.   I wrote a chapter or more in my book on the Book of Mormon “Nearer to God: The Book of Mormon and the Good News of Christ” elaborating on this insight.

     Recently, I found some additional discussion with wonderful descriptive language on this very concept of hope in the writings of Bruce C. Hafen in his book “The Broken Heart” which was his earlier predecessor book to the 2016 family Reading Club book “The Contrite Spirit.”  In this book, Brother Hafen discusses at length the advanced processes that help us move toward sanctification and perfection after we have complied with the requirements to come through the initial gate of faith, repentance, and baptism and are now on the path toward eternal life.  He describes hope as the major support for our navigating this path.  Here are some of his ideas: 

     “[after quoting Ether 12:4]...the spiritual endowment of hope–of perspective, of patience, of an inner serenity, a sure inner sight, that is  “not weary in well-doing.” (D&C 64:33). Such hope is bestowed by the Holy Ghost, “which Comforter filleth with hope (Moroni 8:26). (Hafen, p. 183)

     “It is the hope that Mormon [in Moroni 7:3-4] recognized as a sustaining, God-given source of strength in the maturing stages of spiritual development... Not perfect, not frantic, not pessimistic, and not artificially cheerful.  The walk of those who walk with the endowment of hope is “peaceable.” (p. 184)

     “The divine blessing of hope gives us much needed perspective and strengthens our will to keep moving, against the odds, against the backward pull.  It is the principle by which our Father guides us – line upon line, precept upon precept.  It is “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom... I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.”  (p. 186)

     Comparing our efforts to that of a toddler being helped by parents to being to learn to walk, “Our Father in Heaven also waits and coaxes and literally gives us hope... (p. 187)

     “Hope, a divinely given blessing of atoning grace for those who seek it, after all they can do on their own, establishes in the way our mind sees things just the right distance between where we are and where we strive to be.  It also reassures us, somehow, that the ever-receding ideal is not a trick, but part of the growth process that can be not only acceptable but exhilarating.  The growing pains become a sign of life and energy, and we are invigorated by hope to watch every step unfold.  For the hope within our heart is the Spirit of the Almighty: “For I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (D&C 84:88)” (p. 188)

Making every commandment a delight

     Here is a sweet thought that came to me last night.  It starts with the numerous talks and lessons were have received recently on keeping the Sabbath Day holy, including Wendy having to prepare a 7 minute talk for the adult session of our Stake Conference several weeks ago.  Many of these presenters have dwelled on a point made by Elder Nelson in his April 2015 General Conference talk “The Sabbath Is a Delight,” that the motive behind our obedience to the commandment to honor the Sabbath should be to give a sign to our Heavenly Father:

     “How do we hallow the Sabbath day? In my much younger years, I studied the work of others who had compiled lists of things to do and things not to do on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until later that I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, “What sign do I want to give to God?” That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear.”

     I found a larger application in my reading of a chapter in a book on temples.  This is, we may view any obedience we give to any of the commandments of God as such a sign, to show our gratitude to him for being so merciful and generous to us, and to show our desire to please and follow him.  It may be like a “Gift of Love” returned to one who loved us first. 

     I find this motive for attempting obedience to our Father motivating in itself, and much superior to obeying commandments out of fear of punishment, to get a reward, to look good in the eyes of other people, etc., etc.

Scout recognitions

These pictures came from May 2015, when Scott attended a Wood Badge course and I was helping as a member of the staff.  Scott recently finished his ticket and at a Court of Honor last evening, he was awarded his Wood Badge beads.  He now joins myself, Quin, Alison, Matthew as members of the international fellowship of Gilwell Troop 1, trained leaders of boys.  Congratulations to Scott.  We are proud of his achievements and grateful he is part of our family.

I believe strongly in the value of Scouting as a tool for our families for helping boys in our family learn to be exemplary men, committed to integrity and service to others.  A number of young men in our family are well along on the trail to the Eagle.  We currently have four Life scouts who are clse to achieving Eagle rank:
          Jamison, with only his Eagle service project remaining
          Josh, needing 3 merit badges and a service project
          Trenton, needing 3 merit badges and a service project
          Aaron, needing 4 merit badges and a service project
 Also:
          Isaac was recently awarded his First Class rank
          Adam, just last evening, received his Scout and Tenderfoot award
          Chris has completed his first merit badge

Borg Family Pictures, 2 Jan 2017

Wendy and I gathered for a picture session with Wendy's siblings.  I thought you might enjoy a pair of couple pictures of Wendy and me.  The other picture is all the couples.  They are, from left: Jim and Sue A., Wendy and me, Steve and Bonnie J. , Ken and JoAnn B., Jerry and Kathy H., Mike and Shannon W.

The picture session happened with some sadness--Wendy's sister Bonnie has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  She said that she would like to have family pictures "before my hair falls out."

Big snow for Christmas

 We had a terrific snow storm on Christmas eve lasting until nearly noon today.  Wendy measure 13 1/2 inches tonight. 
We went to two sacrament meetings, 9 am at the Blakes and our own at 11 am.  When we got home, we spent 2 or 3 hours clearing the driveway and sidewalks.  It warmed a little in the afternoon and dried the sidewalks.  I was sure glad for a big power snowblower this afternoon.

We didn't open our presents until about 4 pm.  Then we had David with us for a Christmas dinner.

The Birds Are Back

We had hardly seen a bid for many weeks.  Wendy put out some birdseed last Tuesday, on the second day the came en mass.  There were about 20 mourning doves, and many juncos, sparrows, house finches, and chickadees, and a blue bird and a couple of others not identified.  In the picture, they are a little hard to see, but there are 12-15 small birds on the grass to the right of the tree and at least two in the hanging feeder, and 9-10 doves on the ground, in the tree, and on the fence in the background.  I especially liked the juncos.  They are quite cute, dark with little white aprons.  As I read on the web, they travel very far to winter in Utah and other places, from a home base in places like the North West Territories in Canada.  And why fly thousands of miles to winter in Utah.  A few more miles and they could be in some land of perpetual sunshine.  Maybe because they love Wendy's birdseed offerrings.

 

That was Thursday.  Then came more snow.  The little birds went into hiding but the doves hung around even when the snow covered the seeds.  Again a little hard to see, but there are about 9 doves in the tree.  I guess they were mourning the loss of a free lunch.

Temple Trip--Manti

Manti Temple

Herd of sheep near Gunnison, UT

Our bed room, Linnea's B&B, Ephraim

Dining area, Linnea's B&B

Linnea herself

Temple Trip--Monticello

Monticello Temple

Monticello Temple

Passing Shiprock on our way

Temple Trip--Albuquerque

Albuquerque Temple

Albuquerque Temple

With Bro and Sis P (friends of Mullennax')

Temple Trip--National Parks

Petrified Forest NP--Big Log

 

Petrified Forest NP--Big Log

Petrified Forest NP--Big Log

Petrified Forest NP--Cactus

Petrified Forest NP

Petrified Forest NP--Cactus

Petrified Forest NP--Cactus

Petrified Forest NP--Cactus

Painted Desert NP

Painted Desert NP

Painted Desert NP

Painted Desert NP

We visited these parks Monday on the way from Snowflake to Albuquerque.

Temple Trip--Snowflake

Snowflake Temple

Snowflake Temple

Snowflake Temple

Snowflake Temple

Salt River Gorge

Salt River highway crossing

With Brother and Sister B and their temple map

The second half of the drive from Gila Valley to Snowflake was some of the more interesting terrain we traveled through on our trip.  For the first half we back-tracked up to Globe which was very dry uninviting desert.  But we began to gain more elevation and entered a juniper-pinion pine forest like we see on the road to Eureka.  Then suddenly we came to a river canyon, the Salt River.  It had dramatic cliffs and views as we descended to the river then climbed out on the other side.  Someone said that this river canyon would be world famous for sight-seers if not for there being an even bigger canyon up north.  I added a couple of pictures from the web to remember this canyon.

Out of the Salt River canyon we kept climbing to a ridge that was about 8000 feet above sea level.  This was the Mogollon (pronounced Muggy-yown, people said) Rim.  This is an escarpment that runs 200 miles eastward from mid AZ to near the NM border.  It forms the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau which covers the NE fourth of AZ.  On the high slopes of the ridge we went through a Ponderosa Pine forest that reminded me of how the east slope of the Cascades in Washington state where I was raised.  We gradually descended to about 6000 feet at Show Low and the country was a high flat prairie with high desert vegetation reminiscent of some of the valleys in southern Utah. 

I could relate to this from my reading Louis L’Amour novels that many of them (for example, some of the Sackett family stories) were set in the area along the Mogollon Rim.  And I learned that he had a tyhing about this area and even built himself a cabin along the Rim, near a town named Payson, AZ.  The cabin has been preserved and is a tourist attraction.

Snowflake, about 10 miles north of Show Low was out on this high, flat terrain, and was another of the Mormon settlements in Utah.    It was founded in 1878 by leaders Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake, hence the combined name.  The temple was dedicated in 2002 and has 11 (soon to be 12 it was announced the Sunday we were there) stakes in its district, with most of them within a 30 miles radius, so the immediate area appears to have a predominantly LDS population.  We saw at least half a dozen LDS chapels in the little twin towns of Snowflake and Taylor (total population about 10,000, with at least 2/3rds LDS).

The temple was at the top of a knoll visible to the country around it.  It had a water feature in front with water tumbling over some rocks.  It was attractively decorated.  It had the basic small temple design with a single 2-stage endowment room arrangement and no chapel.  One difference however was that the entrance was on a lower level which included the baptistry, with a stair case leading up to then main ordinance level.

While attending the temple Saturday late afternoon, we got acquainted with a couple (the B family) who invited us to attend church in their ward the next morning and to have dinner with them after.  They were interesting people.  He had recently been released as their ward Bishop and had just joined her a temple worker.  They met at BYU where she was a roommate to Sister N who lives in a neighbor ward here in Spanish Fork and who Wendy knows as a temple worker.  He has an engineering degree and is still active professionally working from home.  They are one of the few couples I have known who still have the goal of visiting every Temple in the church.  They may be falling behind, but they have two big maps (World and North America) with pins stuck in all the places of temples they have attended.   The total right now is 92.  Recently they were in Peru, and were frustrated because they found the temple closed and couldn’t check that temple off.  His father, Wilfrid B, was an anthropologist, who had taught at places like the University of Georgia and was faithful LDS.  He said that his dad was well-acquainted with John Sorenson and believed that he had consulted with Bro. Sorenson on some of the latter’s papers on Book of Mormon geography and culture.

Temple Trip--Gila Valley

The Gila Valley Temple, with Mt. Graham, 10,720 feet in height in the background

Traveling toward Gila Valley from Phoenix, we saw mostly desolate desert, and the area within a few miles of the temple was the most hospitable we saw on the whole route.

Cactus on hillside, between Globe and Thatcher AZ

The temple was quite attractive, and serving a small population, it seemed neighborly and friendly.  It was dedicated in 2010, and while a small temple with the single 2-room progressive design, an added waiting chapel was a nice improvement over the design used in the Snowflake temple.
We felt this temple must be a very significant addition and resource for this little Mormon corner of the world, since its dedication.  It serves 7 stakes (about 20,000 people).  Three of the stakes are in the immediate area, and the other four are scattered in the surrounding area.
The upper Gila Valley was where Pres. Kimball was raised, in the area of Safford, Thatcher, and Pima.  It was a Mormon settlement started in 1879.  The Gila River provides water for farming and sustenance but not a great amount.  The river rises in the Black Mountains at the continental divide in New Mexico and runs westward about 600 miles absorbing several other rivers and draining (sort of) the south half of Arizona and also some part of Sonora in Mexico, eventually joining the Colorado River just north of the Mexican border.  However water from these rivers water is mostly used along the way.  Gila Valley in the area of the temple has an elevation of about 2,500 feet above sea level and is very hot, like Phoenix. We saw some agriculture, including quite a few cotton fields undergoing harvest as we passed.

Field of cotton near Pima AZ

Temple Trip--Gilbert

The Gilbert Temple is in an upscale, very modern community in the SE part of the Phoenix metro area, about 15 miles and 25 minutes from the Mesa Temple.  It is spacious and near twin to the Payson temple, with different but equally beautiful decor.