Bob, an 89-year-old in Utah, died this week. He was 21 when he and 19-year-old Lola got married in Las Vegas. They had four children togeether, but later in life they divorced and each married someone else. Lola was born in Provo and raised in a Mormon family; Bob was never a member of the Church.

So how many days will it be before some enterprising fourth cousin of Lola takes care of temple ordinances for Bob? Will that cousin, or another of Lola’s hundreds of such cousins, set up news alerts so she will know when Lola dies, so she can attend to a proxy sealing before someone else does? Will another cousin jump the gun and set up a proxy sealing before Lola dies?

Church policy, in case that matters to anyone, is:

Except as noted in 28.3, proxy ordinances may be performed for all deceased persons as soon as 30 days have passed from their date of death if either of the following applies:

A close relative of the deceased (undivorced spouse, adult child, parent, or sibling) submits the name for temple ordinances.

Permission to perform the ordinances is received from a close relative of the deceased (undivorced spouse, adult child, parent, or sibling).

If neither of the above conditions applies, proxy temple ordinances may be performed 110 years after the deceased person was born.

My Dear Wormwood,

What a time to be in the field, tempting souls! I am absolutely envious. Even a tempter of your modest skill and experience with more souls than you can handle! I don’t need to hear your complaints. You are not overworked, you are in the midst of a feast, with souls throwing themselves at you. Enjoy it.

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A  knowledge of truth is essential to salvation.  What is truth?  Let’s check D&C 93, starting around verse 24.

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Father Time in his wisdom made me too old to be interested in Charlie Kirk.  I had heard of him, that’s it.  But some of my kids I found out are fans and my daughters in Utah County had gotten out of work/class and were on their way to his event at UVU yesterday when we got the news.  Perhaps for that reason, it has affected me a lot more than I would have thought.

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

https://xcancel.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

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Covering Sections 89 through 97.

* I think the most important verse in the Word of Wisdom is verse 2.  This section can only be understood by revelation and wisdom; and God cares about temporal salvation.

* 90:17 suggests a virtue chart.  This verse is advice to the First Presidency on how to be the First Presidency.

Be not ashamed, neither confounded; but be admonished in all your high-mindedness and pride, for it bringeth a snare upon your souls.

In particular, I think the implication that shame is what leads to being confounded, whereas being admonished in some way complements being unashamed and not being confounded, is psychologically astute.

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A few weeks ago I snapped the above photo about 27 minutes after the closing prayer of my ward’s sacrament service. This is what will usually be seen in the chapel at that time most Sundays. One of the ways in which holding priesthood meeting prior to the sacrament service works out nicely.

Catherine Pakaluk, mother of eight, social scientist, and author of Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, will speak at a BYU Forum next month. Below are links to a couple interviews.

Public Discourse
“I did not go into this project thinking about her, but at some point analyzing my data—we should call the narratives ‘data’ or use the sociological term ‘hearing data’—various aspects of the story of the biblical Hannah jumped out at me. I saw that her basic attitudes about childbearing and the meaning of life looked like the women in my sample. The biblical Hannah became, for me, an archetype to help describe what I discovered in the stories. Though barren, Hannah prayed to be blessed with a child. We all know what came next: she received her son, Samuel. What we all don’t know these days, however, is that God sent her five more children after she brought her firstborn, Samuel, to live in the service of God. The women I met generally didn’t set about to have large families—rather, they valued children greatly, like the biblical Hannah, and saw children as blessings.”

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We were in a ward last Sunday where the lesson was ‘Taking Charge of Tech.’  They had taken the Church lesson for parents and converted it into a one-sheet handout front-and-back.  It was surprisingly good.  The Purpose, Plan, Pause mantra is sound.

My daughter was an FSY counselor this summer.  She said the ‘taking charge of tech’ discussions were normally her favorite.   Everyone was engaged and spiritual.  Her main lessons were ‘change has to come from you’ and ‘you can’t just say no to bad tech use, you have to say yes to something positive.’  We had a long family discussion in the car the next day (we were on a family trip) and it went really well.

(For humor purposes only)

I was thinking of the stereotypes, with some basis in reality, that Joseph Smith was a great visionary and Brigham Young was a great organizer, and thought of a virtue chart for them.  But who would the antonyms be?  Who are the bad visionary and the bad organizer to pair them with?

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There are worse things than stretching in an early morning parking lot of a small town motel, watching the last stars on the silvering horizon

A new train engineer was learning about his duties and his assigned route.

“first,” he was told, ” there’s a long slope down.  You can coast, gathering speed.”

“Next,” he was told, “there is a long flat stretch.  You can coast for a while on the speed from the slope and then you will continue to chug along under your own power.”

“Sounds easy,” the fresh-faced engineer said, ” so what’s the problem?”

“The problem is the switch.  When you come barreling down the slope and are abruptly pulled up by the flats.”

I’m not sure what a good word would be for the vicious or imperfect form of Spirit.  Pride?  The ultimate unmoored egoism?

Here’s the synthesis chart. (more…)

We are driving across some of the flat, open parts of the country so trains are on my mind.  You can see them coming from a long way off.

Hence this parable.

There once was a newly-built train.  At the switching station, it looked out on its first track all the way across the gleaming plain to the distant white city in the far, far horizon.  The train was full of enthusiasm.  “I am going to roll on all the way to that city!”  it said.

An old worn-down train nearby wearily set about tempering the new train’s expectations.  “You have no idea how far that city really is,” the train said.  “Nor how difficult it is.  You feel good now, but wait until you are trying to get your wheels to turn in sand.  Or in swamp, heavens, oh man, swamp.”

“Why would I do that?” the new train said cheerfully.  “I will simply stay on the track.”

The older train was aghast.  “Stay on the tracks!  Are you crazy?  Live a little!”

I am tempted to read this promise in the Word of Wisdom as an easter egg prophecy that the Word of Wisdom would one day be included in the temple recommend interview.

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

-thus D&C 89:18

My belief is that it is verse 11–

Eat fruits and herbs only in season

–and verse 17–

Which states that specific grains are meant for specific species and implies that low alcohol beers might be okay.

I don’t talk about them either because I don’t have any idea what they mean.  I sometimes think the word of wisdom was given, this is not a joke I really do think this, to curious of our addiction for finding answers to all our questions in the scriptures instead of relying on modern prophets and modern revelation.

The word of wisdom in the doctrine of covenants in a sense is not the real word of wisdom.

I turned to the scripture citation index to see if it matched my view about what parts of the word of wisdom don’t get discussed.

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