Gospel Discussion - Geocaching

There hasn't been too much that has gone on. Last Thursday, my wife's cousin, Linda came over to get her hair done. We got into a discussion that included why a woman would need to obey her husband because of what had happened with Adam and Eve. It was an interesting discussion, and though I wasn't being attacked, it kind of felt that way because of the two women who were asking the questions of me. I finally found something that I thought answered it pretty well, and they both agreed that it was a beautiful way of saying it. Here is what I came up with:

Many people have difficulty understanding or correctly applying the Lord’s words to Eve at the time of the Fall: “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen. 3:16.) Some feel this is demeaning to women, and some men use it as an excuse to exercise unrighteous dominion. Can you give some insight on this verse?

S. Michael Wilcox, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Feb. 1994, 63

S. Michael Wilcox, instructor, Salt Lake University Institute of Religion. Part of the reason this verse troubles some people is that they place the emphasis on the word rule instead of on the word desire, which is the key word of the phrase. The root origins of desire give added meaning. Desire means “to long for, to stretch out towards, and to yearn for.” This was not a curse upon Eve but a blessing. Let’s suppose that just before my daughter was to be married, she came to me and asked for a father’s blessing. Let’s further suppose that when I laid my hands on her head, I gave her the following blessing: “I bless you that you will always feel a desire toward your husband. You will long to be with him in eternity. Your heart will stretch out to him in love, and you will yearn for his companionship. I further bless you that he will preside over your home in righteousness and honor.” Would she feel I had cursed and punished her? Surely every righteous woman in the Church desires to be married to a husband and to be able to love him in that manner.

President Spencer W. Kimball offered this valuable insight regarding the phrase “thy husband … shall rule over thee”: “I have a question about the word rule. It gives the wrong impression. I would prefer to use the word preside because that’s what he does. A righteous husband presides over his wife and family.” (Ensign, Mar. 1976, p. 72.)

Also we remember the man the Lord was talking about when he said these words to Eve. Adam was the great Michael, he who had helped Jehovah create the earth, the great first prophet of the Lord on earth, a most righteous son of God. Those who interpret God’s blessing upon Eve as a punishment have not understood the meaning of scripture. The Lord was telling Eve that she would be watched over, cared for, and protected by the righteous love of a noble husband as she entered the fallen world. In the misunderstandings typical of mortality, how ironic that many men take this verse and use it as license to exercise unrighteous dominion and to rule over their wives instead of treating their wives in a manner to encourage a spouse’s desire toward them.

In October 1993 general conference, Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve said: “Should a man ‘exercise control or dominion or compulsion … in any degree of unrighteousness,’ … he violates ‘the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.’ … Then ‘the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved.’ … Unless he repents he will lose his blessings.” (Ensign, Nov. 1993, p. 22; see D&C 84:39; D&C 121:37.)

In the general Relief Society meeting held prior to general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard, also of the Quorum of the Twelve, said: “God has revealed through his prophets that men are to receive the priesthood, become fathers, and with gentleness and pure, unfeigned love they are to lead and nurture their families in righteousness as the Savior leads the Church (see Eph. 5:23). They have been given the primary responsibility for the temporal and physical needs of the family (see D&C 83:2). Women have the power to bring children into the world and have been given the primary duty and opportunity as mothers to lead, nurture, and teach them in a loving, spiritual environment. In this divine partnership, husbands and wives support one another in their God-given capacities. By appointing different accountabilities to men and women, Heavenly Father provides the greatest opportunity for growth, service, and progress. He did not give different tasks to men and women simply to perpetuate the idea of a family; rather, He did so to ensure that the family can continue forever, the ultimate goal of our Heavenly Father’s eternal plan.” (Ensign, Nov. 1993, p. 90.)

-------------------------------------------------

This is the link: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=a29f425e0848b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Well, there were other things too, but that took a bit of research for me. I was just glad to come up with it.

Not much went on Friday or Saturday. We did go on a walk on Saturday because the weather was nice. We need to do that more often. I enjoyed the walk with my wife. Also, on Friday I had to go pick up a medication. I decided to find a geocache that was in the area that I was in while I was out there. My wife thinks that this is just a bit odd for a guy who is almost 50 years old and enjoying going out to find geocaches. That was the first one that I found that had a travel bug in it. There were actually two. One was an elephant (meant for Republican) and the other was a bell. They have a tracking number on them so people can follow where they go. I left them there because this cache required that you leave a travel bug if you take one out. So far, on the caches that I have found (all four of them), I haven't taken anything, and I have only left something in one so far. Some of them are only big enough to sign the log (which is fine with me). The fun in this is finding the caches and where people put them.

Yesterday was just the normal Sunday stuff. We went to church and just took it easy for the day. Not much happened today either. I did find one cache on my way home from work. There is another cache that I tried to find, but couldn't quite find it. Reading the logs it looks like that one is a bit difficult to find. People see it as a creative one.

Well, that's about it.

Derek and Andrea got Married

It's only been a couple of days since my last confession.... wait, that's not what I mean... It's only been a couple of days since I last wrote. I just thought I should say something about a marriage that happened today.

First, I'll start by stating that Tuesday evening, I went to Scouts where we had Bro. Bean teach the boys about Personal management. He did a good job and for the most part kept the boys attention. Glen had his computer set up so we were able to look at a couple of stocks for the boys to track and hopefully, they all start working on the three months tracking of finances for the completion of this merit badge.

Today I stayed home from work. There wasn't a lot of reason to go into work because Derek was getting married to Andy (Andrea). I enjoyed sleeping in, but for some reason was a bit tired. We had to leave the house by 8:30 this morning so we could be to the Timpanogus Temple. As it was, we got there early. It was a beautiful day outside although there was a slight chill in the air.

We knew of an earthquake that had happened in China yesterday so we were a bit concerned that Casey would be involved in that (he wasn't). So, I was looking on my blackberry for some information on that. For the most part we found enough to make us believe he was fine. We didn't even know where he was for sure in China.

Well, we went into the sealing room of the temple. We were surprised to see that Kevin was able to be there, as I wasn't sure since he is still on house arrest (not even on parole). Anyway, who are we to judge? I knew of two ex convicts that were in the room. But then our gospel is one of forgiveness and love, so why not?

My Uncle Gene was the officiator (sealer) of this ceremony. He gave a pretty nice speech before they were married, but I sometimes wonder about some of the things that are said. I appreciated what he said, and I know it was all done in the way of advice as well as a help to the young couple.

After the wedding, we all waited for Derek and Andy to come out of the temple. I had the opportunity to talk with my brother Larry. He told me that he has been living on his savings for the past two years and that he was hoping to be able to turn a profit from his businesses soon. I asked him how the health care reform would affect his businesses and was told that for the most part it wouldn't as he is under 50 employees. There seemed to be some concern for his employees though who would have to purchase some kind of insurance. I don't know what that will do to the businessman. He then told me how some of his construction businesses aren't fairing well partly because most of the construction businesses out there do not have businessmen running them. They don't understand that they are losing money until it is too late. Also, he said he has a problem with those companies that don't pay their fair share of taxes and get the construction licenses they are required to do. They also don't pay workmens compensation which in the long run helps keep the legitimate businesses out and the illegitimate business are able to keep on running because they aren't paying all the expenses.

The health care that we were talking about got to my wife. She sat down and discussed a lot of that with my brother. He was able to explain things to her so much better than I have been able too. He did say that the reform would be better for him personally because of his and his wife's pre-existing conditions. He said that he would pay less. But, he is concerned because his kids and grand-kids will pay more. He doesn't think that is right. He would rather pay his portion. He also told her that he is against us all being forced to pay for some commodity. This is absolutely wrong. It was nice for my wife to have this kind of discussion with my brother.

Well, pictures happened next and then we went to my brothers house to wait for the wedding breakfast. We did finally get over to the church where the wedding breakfast was to take place. It was a good time and my sister did a good job on a limited income.

My wife and I went home and I slept for a bit. My wife stayed home with our son and I went back to the reception with our daughter. We had a good time at the reception and I was able to talk with a lot of my relatives and my sisters ex-husband. I'm glad I went, but I probably stayed too long.

Anyway, my congratulations go to Derek and Andy with wishes that they will have a successful and loving relationship in their forever marriage.

I should also mention that today is my parents 60th wedding anniversary.

Sand Dunes and Miscellaneous

Time is flying by even faster now. I hadn't realized it had been so long since I last wrote here. There is no way that I can remember all that has happened over this past little while. There must not be too much to write or I would remember it.

The first thing I can remember is that General Conference happened. We were able to listen to all the sessions of conference even though we were in different rooms in the house. Our kids surprised us (pleasantly) as they chose to watch all of the sessions of conference. Saturday evening, I went with my son to the Stake Center to watch the priesthood session. Late Saturday night my wife was busy getting Easter Baskets ready for our kids. She wasn't going to do it, but the little girl in her took over and she chose to actually get the baskets and hide them. After I had gone to bed she even got the bunny tracks (pieces of paper with bunny paws) that she had to let the kids know that the Easter Bunny had been there. Our daughter tried to follow the Bunny tracks to find her Easter Basket. We had to tell her that they didn't lead to them anymore because she should be old enough to find hers on her own. Well, they both found their baskets.

Being General Conference, we went to my parents house on Sunday. My wife had made her veggie pizza and we were able to say hi to Kevin outside my parents house. Because he is on house arrest he was not allowed to go inside. He (and his family) were in Suits and Dresses so I'm pretty certain they went downtown to watch conference at the Conference Center. That was probably his church time which he is allowed to leave his home for. My sister went in the house and got them both a plate to eat and then left with her husband. We had a nice dinner and barely got everything down in time for conference to start. I found that I watch conference better when I get a place on the couch (which I had for the very first time ever).

We went over to see my wife's parents after conference. Our son had told us that there was a problem with Melanie acting out when we dropped our dog off. That didn't happen while we were there, although I wondered if Rod started it by saying some anti-LDS things about women. He tried that while we were there. We didn't let it fly though. That was nipped in the bud. It was good to not have all this crap going on.

The next thing I can think of was Young Men on the 6th. Glen was sick and Brother Olsen wasn't able to make it either because he had to help out Brother Jackson. At least Brother Bean was able to come up on the stage with me where we made rockets so we could hopefully blast them off at the sand dunes on the weekend. At least we had something to do, and it wasn't too bad. I was also told that both Glen and Scott (Olsen) would not be able to make it to the Dunes on Friday and Saturday. If I was to go, I had to find one of the parents. Jordan said that maybe his dad could go. I talked to him later and he said that he could make it.

At work all last week I had meetings. I was in learning the new Riskmaster system so I can maybe help out with things when we take that over from the Portland office. It was interesting, but got boring at times. That lasted from Tuesday through Thursday. Friday, I was off from work and was able to go on a walk with my wife and then we went out to eat at Rumbi's. I really enjoyed the time being with her. We did have to go to the store to pick up a few things and I had to get stuff together for the Sand Dunes.

I packed all my stuff and made me a tin foil dinner. When our son came home, we asked him if he wanted to go to the scout camp at the Dunes. At first he didn't want to go, but then decided he would go. I made him a quick tin foil dinner as well. We met at Glens house at 4:00 in the afternoon. There were more boys than we thought would be going, so it looked like we would need to take the trailer. This was the first time that I have put a hitch onto our Honda Pilot. It handled pretty well all the way down there and wasn't too bad as far as getting everything there.

With the two leaders (three if you count my son who is 18) we had a total of eleven people at the camp. I loaded a few geo caches on my GPS to see if I would even be close to one while we were at the Sand Dunes. I took the thing and the boys in my car enjoyed hearing Dr Nightmare, Elfred (an elf) and a Yeti talk on the GPS. On the way home they asked for some of those as well as we put on a Japanese lady speaker.

Last year when we went to the dunes it was $8 a car. I had cash for both cars but then found out it went to $18 a car. I had to write a check to get us both through. They would take credit cards but we would've had to go inside for that. Anyway, $36 lightened from my load and we were in. We got one of the last places at the Dunes to camp. Ken asked if we should go somewhere else and I said no that this place was good enough because we may not get another place and in the process may lose this one. It was a good location and it was next to the rest room (a plus). The boys put up their tents and I was grateful to have my son to help me put up my tent. We got a fire going because we needed coals for tin foil dinners. The boys went to play in the dunes and I sent my son up to take pictures of them. We cooked the dinners and it was good (although my son and I had to put ours back in the fire to cook all the way through). One of the boys had hot dogs and one boy didn't bring anything but his teddy grahams that he shared on the drive up. Some of the boys shared their meals with him.

We roasted marshmallows at night (it is a way to keep the boys from just going into their tents) and then Ken, myself and my son stayed out and talked at the diminishing fire. We had some good conversations and I did get out of my son that he is indeed planning on going on a mission. While we were doing that one of the boys came out of his tent and came over. I asked what was wrong and then some boys behind him said to do it. He yelled, "I hate puberty!" and ran back to the tent. A bit later, a bunch of boys were out in their boxer shorts (or swim suits) yelling the same thing. At that point we decided that something had better be said. I went to the tents and told them that they needed to look at what they were playing and make sure it was up to the standards that we wanted to portray. It was cold out so it wasn't comfortable for them to be running around half naked. It was also 10 now and we told them that it was time to be quiet for the other campers. We stayed out until around 11:00 in the evening. I remember looking up at the stars and wishing I could share that moment with my wife. It was incredibly beautiful.

There were a couple of four wheelers that went during the night (its against the rules) so I was grateful that I had thought to bring ear plugs. It was also a cold night.

Morning came, and we got everybody up and out. A fire was built and breakfast was brought out. They made french toast, sausage, and bacon. The plates were forgotten, so it was a bit more difficult to eat the french toast, but they made do. Tents were taken down and then a little bit of playing. Only one rocket was able to be fired because the engines that we had brought didn't fit any of them but the one. That one blew apart in the air and all but the one fin was found. I went with my son (actually he was ahead of me because I stayed behind to go with the Rockets until I found that only one was going to be done) to a geo cache that wasn't very far away. It was up a horrendous hill though. I lost sight of my son and all of a sudden his tracks weren't there. It was a hard climb because it was steep and in the sand. I thought I wouldn't make it. So did my son. When I called out his name he called me on the cell phone. He was surprised that I had made it up the hill. Anyway, we found it by a tree in some rocks. We signed my moniker and I put in a coupon for $1 off a Papa Murphy's pizza. There was a dollar bill in there and some scout items like tote-n-chip. There was also some stickers and just a few nic-nacs. That was my second find (ever). I kind of like finding them. I need to do it more often.

We left soon after this and arrived home by noon. I got the car washed and then did a little bit of laundry. That's about all that went on that day.

Sunday was church, and I found out that I am going to be the one speaker (as far as the scout leaders go) at Jordan's Eagle Scout court of honor.

One thing that happened today that I want to point out is that I saw an arrest happen. I was going to the restroom at work when I looked out the window and watched as a cop pulled over a car into our parking lot. Another cop pulled up and they both got out and went to both sides of the car. After talking a bit, they got the woman out and she calmly walked to the back of the patrol car putting her hands on the car. They searched her and then put cuffs on. Another officer came and the second officer came into our office (he is one of our security guards). I asked him what had happened (I had to turn in my borrowed badge since I forgot mine). He told me that she was on parole and claimed that she had talked with her parole officer. They called him and he said she needed to be arrested. Plus the fact that she had drugs and a couple of warrants out for her arrest. I guess she'll be put away again for a time. It's good to see our men in blue get the bad guys.