Great Talk on Agency

Helped me clarify a couple of things in my mind.

Further to Agency Rant - Discussion at Girls Camp

President Daw doesn't like to say Satan's plan. He didn't really have a plan. Lenore calls it the plan and the sham.

I think the sham is that he told us he had an easier way and we could still be happy. This denies accountability, which must be an Eternal law or the other side of the Agency coin. Satan is the Father of lies, uses fear, is manipulative, binds us down through addicitions. He plays upon our lack of Faith and lack of Knowledge. We can overcome that problem by studying and acting on the knowledge we gain.

We have to choose good or evil. When we choose good we eventually receive "all that the Father hath." When we choose evil, Satan can't repay with what we want (to be happy) Our choice and our ability to choose are only taken away.

Since every sin, transgression, misdeed, slight, mistake, imperfection accumulates and adds to the imperfection of this sphere, until the Savior comes and raises it up through the Atonement to the proper fullness of its creation, there are no victimless crimes. Every wrong hurts and degrades the system and makes it worse for all of us who dwell here.

Warmup Weekend to San Clemente (300) Miles of Driving

This last weekend we had the ward campout and a Sarah and Daniel Johnson family reunion up in Preston.

Laney was really excited about the campout. This really is an outgrowth of the annual fathers and sons campout that most wards do. But, since the Bishop doesn't have sons we have made it a ward campout.

This year it was quite well attended and there were a lot of kids there.

We almost had a fiasco on the way up. I had gotten the keys out of our Bishopric closet and I asked Brent Winget if the locks had been changed in the last couple of years. He didn't know of any changes. I was pretty confident that Brent Gardner had used these keys last year to get in. Matt Brown came by the house early on Friday to get the keys since he was pretty sure he would be there first.

I got a call from Sherwood Preece after we just got into Parley's canyon that he was there and no one else yet. Matt Brown arrived within just a couple of minutes though and the key wasn't working in the lock.

I called Nate Cox.

I called Brent Gardner.

I called Brent Winget.

After some scrambling and having Nate Cox wait in town a couple of minutes to make sure we could get a key if we needed to, we found out from Brent Winget that there is a "super secret" key hidden on the property. We were able to let ourselves in and avoid a major fiasco.

We set up camp in our usual places, got a fire going to start toasting marshmallows. Soon we had a small contingent of kids hanging around the fire playing with burning sticks. They most annoying were Dain and Josh. Because, really aren't they old enough to be past the fascination with fire?

Kevin Westenskow brought a TV project player thingy and a screen and Luke Johnson brought up a generator and after the sun went down the kids watched a silly movie. It seems a little dumb to go camping and then watch a movie. But, after darkness fell the kids don't really want to go to sleep yet and it's nice to have something for them so you know where they are.

The breakfast in the morning was cooked by the Elders and they had everything you could want for breakfast.



Preston was also very nice. During the ride up there we had to endure Ailsa and Jensen talking nonstop about the new Batman movie. Sheesh. The weather in Preston was much milder than Salt Lake and we sat in the shade of a tree at Tutu's old house. Brian Woolley made a nice spread of food for us and I tried not to eat too much. But, I had to have one of each dessert.

We got back into town early enough that I was able to take a quick 26 mile ride on my bike.

Flight of the Conchords

I find this article interesting. I don't think it is necessary to charge individuals with crimes in this case. I have no problem with fining the companies. What I find interesting though is the sort of underlying, innate need to rectify everything that we see in man today. There are somethings that we just can't fix, or undo. Better to concentrate on those personal things or things close to us that we can change.

Don't Be Fooled

This story has been bugging me lately. It is a great example of how we sometimes let others define things for us or set the parameters of an argument. It took me a couple of times hearing this report and digging into it to actually find that the person is a WOMAN.

I'd Rather be Waterboarding

Regarding the stunt by Christopher Hitchens for his Vanity Fair article: I watched the video. Waterboarding looked a lot less horrible than I had expected. I'm sure the sensation of drowning and the fear for one's wellbeing is real. I go with what this guy said: Torture is any experience so horrible that no-one would consider trying it out simply for the purpose of writing a Vanity Fair article about what it’s like.