Starting out on a car trip knowing/intending that you will run out of gas is a thing.

I don’t post this to start another round of discussion about judging or discerning whether or not to render assistance/charity to those who ask or who appear in need; just a factoid FYI.

This article and a recent motorist-out-of-gas encounter reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of ‘Samaritan Snare’ featuring the Pakled characters. 

Stupid? Manipulative? Both?  Meh. I’ve been both.
Anyways…. just a heads-up/FYI. It’s a thing.

[In today’s Washington Post]

Among those killed in the demonstrations was Moroni Lopez, a 22-year-old English student and former Mormon missionary. He had joined the protests after watching footage of police roughing up protesters. (more…)

What the Spirit told me last night.

I assume I need to start with myself.

I have a theory that President Nelson is of a “new generation” of apostles, even though he is older than President Monson was.

The gospel is the same. The Lord is the same. But as society changes, people change. And then church policies and leadership styles change in response.

Look how the missionary system/program has changed with Preach My Gospel, raise-the-bar, age-change, and new mission policies dealing with contacting and finding.

And now the home/visiting-teaching program has morphed into “ministering.” Which is what it really was all along for those who caught the vision of it. But now those things are more explicitly talked about.

Anyway, here’s a list of church presidents starting with Joseph Fielding Smith, and the month/year that they were ordained apostles/joined the quorum: (Dates from wikipedia.) (more…)

Update: 4/23/2018. I’m withdrawing/suspending my recommendation of this book.  It looks like there is some counterfeiting going on. One of the ways to pass a counterfeit is to mix it in with truth. While those truths may still be true, their close association with falsehoods can cause you to swallow the lies along with the truth. Therefore, it’s better to get those truths from the better/purer source.

[Update #1:  Some “concerns” came up while reading this. So I did a web search on the author, and found he is a bit controversial, and has detractors who call him a cult figure.  (Well, same with Joseph Smith.)  So…,  I feel the need to warn readers to use discernment when reading this book, sort of like with the Apocrypha.  There’s good and bad mixed together. Where something goes against canon, or against current teachings of the Brethren: Follow.The.Brethren.]
(more…)

His Majesty became very quiet after the 2016 elections.

(more…)

[No Spoilers.]

This is a really excellent, funny, family-friendly and family-supportive movie; to which I would award 4.5 stars out of a possible 5.

(It just misses five stars by being ten minutes too-long; padded-out in the final third with too many ‘chases’ and last-minute rescues – albeit these are entertaining and very inventive.)

The opening scenes are among the very best I have ever seen in any movie. It begins with a sequence depicting life through the eyes of a happy, seven year old boy who is (at that time) the only child of loving parents. This is both truthfully-insightful, and a sheer delight. Then there is a scene of ‘where babies come from’ (Not!) – in which we observe the origins of The Boss Baby himself, and get an insight into his basic character.

The main part of the movie is a mixture of the ‘normal’ sibling rivalry as experienced by the seven year old in response to the overwhelming needs (and demands) of a new baby; plus his dawning realisation of the fact that this is no ordinary baby, but an intelligent, ruthless adult (somehow…) pretending to be a baby.

The rest of the movie is the working-out of this scenario – during which both the seven year old boy and the Boss Baby learn a lot about themselves, and about the possibilities of being brothers.

It is another classic from DreamWorks – at the same level as the best of Shrek, Ice Age, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda and (a particular favourite of mine) Rise of the Guardians.

I am fortunate to have lived-through this golden age of 3D animation for children – and while my kids were growing up – because the best of them attain the highest level of creativity of which our culture is capable.

-thus Vigen Guroian, in Slutty sheep: Veteran academics warn college students are going off the rails.

Related: Look for videos/books by Dr. Miriam Grossman on Youtube/Amazon, who discusses much the same things.

For $3 each, you can’t go wrong. The photography alone is worth that much, even if you never use any of the recipes. The regular Kindle price for these is $15.  I bought them the previous time they were on sale, and liked them so much that I then bought the hard copy of both.

Tartine Bread, by renowned San Francisco bread baker Chad Robertson.

Tartine Book No. 3: Modern, Ancient, Classic, Whole. Also by Robertson. (more…)

From a letter three weeks ago to a missionary son:

“More than most church responsibilities, everyone has an opinion what missionaries should be doing. ‘Every member a mission president.’ That’s not altogether without reason, as missionaries have a lot of authority. Though you will serve in the Melchizedek priesthood for the rest of your life, this is probably the only time who will bear the title ‘Elder.’ After that, the authority will be dormant, like the apostles in the quorum of the twelve who are all ordained and sustained as prophets, but only the church president exercises that ordination to the church and the world.”

In the Los Alamos Ward around 1992, a man whose face I remember, but not his name, was in our priesthood opening exercises for the first time, and when called upon, he introduced himself as a new move-in with his family. He was asked from the pulpit, “Elder or high priest?”, and hamming it up a bit, with self-pity he answered, “Neither, I’m a Seventy.” Brother Chamberlin, the ward’s last remaining refugee from the stake Seventies Quorum disbanded in ’86, turned and extended his arms in a gesture of embrace. “Welcome, brother.”

Another reminder of the past, from the 1986 instructions concerning discontinued stake Seventies quorums: “In the event that a stake seventies quorum operated a project or owned property, the stake presidency should, after prayerful consideration, submit its recommendation to the First Presidency concerning the disposition of such projects or properties.” A local quorum that operated a project or owned property? It was a different time, a different world.

How Rhodes Scholars think: “At the time of this interview, he [Gerrit Gong] was the assistant to the president of Brigham Young University in Utah, focusing on planning and assessment. He is now a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” (link)