onward and upward

Tuesday, 3/20/18 Hello Nate, God bless you! I am not sure what you do to celebrate FHE on Monday nights. Once a month we have a group that meets together and call it Empty Nester's Family Home Evening. I am the only single guy that attends. And we always have a pot luck dinner. I have a severe allergy to monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer, also called MSG. It is in gravies and salad dressings and flavored potatoe chips and tomato sauce and on and on. Rather than try to decide if there is anything I can eat I just eat at home and sit at the table without a plate and visit while everyone else eats. You may ask, why go if you can't eat? Answer: Socializing Sounds strange doesn't it. Let me tell you it is strange and it causes everyone around me to reevaluate their own motivations. After FS yesterday I ran some errands and then went home for my late lunch and reading time and nap. Then when I am not fighting sleep I can index some more, refreshe...

Good Wednesday morning Nate, God bless you! I am so proud of you! Full time job, prepared and blessed the sacrament Sunday, morning scripture study group, trying to fill you time with purposeful and uplifting and righteous activities! Yay for you! I wrote you last time about the specialness of patriarchal blessings. They are so special that some of my children never felt worthy to get one! Two of my three daughters waited until after they were married to get one.  I felt similarly. We talked about patriarchal blessings at church all through my Sunday School years but it wasn't until I was going away to school that I felt, "worthy or not I needed one."  So precious! I got to see what HF had to say to me, typed, in words I could read and memorize if I wanted to and stored in the church vaults in Salt Lake City! My son youngest son Michael'92 still does not have one. Karen and Jessica have never shared theirs with me. Next, I have been quite introspective lat...

Hey Nate, Today was the day! How did it go? Someone read the blessing on the bread so calmly and understandably today that I felt blessed just hearing it. I purposefully did not look up to see who did such a great job. But I felt closer to God because of that blessing offered in my behalf. It is hard to stay worthy of blessing the sacrament. The good news: just repent first! I always prided myself on being a know-it-all in the church. It is easy to know more than everyone else when your family teaches the gospel. They did! Too bad my parents didn't live it. That messed all of us up. At BYU after my mission i got to be roomies with my best friend, next door neighbor, David Jentzsch. He taught me something his father taught him that surprised me. I guess I didn't know everything after all. 9  But behold, I say unto you that ye must  pray  always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall  pray  unt...

This has been a very busy time for me! I rarely have free time to get anything done. When I do have any, it is consumed with reading the scriptures. I don't own a television, nor do I want one. I've started a small study group to read the scriptures Monday Wednesday and Friday mornings. It has very poor attendance. For people who profess to be good Mormons you would think they would be more enthusiastic about this. Oh well, they are students as well and must have so much going on they can't take thirty minutes out of their mornings to come. It's okay I set the example and eventually they'll come. I wouldn't stress too much about the trash talkers in your ward. I get people who talk about me in this branch. Just have to let it go and not feed into the damage that causes. Only will backfire on them in the end. I'm going full-time at work this coming week so my schedule will be even more crammed. Idle hands are the devil's workshop but it would be nice t...

Good Monday afternoon Nate, No comments from you this last week. Did you read my comments yet? If you want you can make comments on my comments. You get to see your bishop regularly. You may also have seen your counselor this last week. I saw my first psychotherapist after my parents were discovered and exed in ‘89. My wife was worried that if I had been abused and didn’t remember, maybe I was secretly abusing the kids. My insurance allowed 20 visits so I went to who ever she lined up. Wes Craig. I got nothing out of it. Later I saw Bob Tripp from church social services a couple of times. I’m not sure why. I was probably reeling from my parents having been excommunicated. The legal investigation was not gentle either and I was trying to keep my wits about me and teach school everyday? I liked him from the start. He felt whole and good to me. I was fascinated that things could have happened to me that I didn’t even know about, that I couldn’t even remember. I didn’t make any progress ...

I don't believe in coincidences either, only events that coincide with other events, fulfilling God's perfect plan. I have trust issues as well but it brings me comfort to view"bad" things that happen in this light. Yesterday went well. Choir practice was cancelled so church started at 11. We have this thing called linger longer once a month where the wives of the counselors and president make the main course (spaghetti yesterday) and people bring the side dishes. I made a no bake cake, because the batter for cookies was too runny; I didn't have enough oat meal. It was delicious. Then I stayed for a missionary meeting about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Very edifying. The president was in Provo this Sunday but I met with him on Wednesday. This Wednesday I will too and then Sundays. I start individual counseling on the 22nd. 185$ first session so say a prayer I can afford my rent next month, that is basically my whole paycheck for the week and$200 weekly goes to re...