The Promise - Moroni 10:3-5

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

(Book of Mormon | Moroni 10:3 - 5)

The promise of the Book of Mormon. I love that I can go to my God, my Heavenly Father, and seek truth from Him directly. I do not have to rely on my own wisdom and learning, or anyone else’s. The promise is made in the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon that if I want to know about its truthfulness I can pray and get an answer.

I have put this promise to the test. I have studied its words and implications. Throughout the pages of this work I have felt the love of my Savior. I have witnessed for myself to what great lengths Heavenly Father has gone to provide salvation for all of His children.

I have received a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon several times. Typically it comes to me after a period of quiet solitude and reflection. It comes after I have read a passage, perhaps a chapter, and have wondered why was this chapter put into this book?

The scriptures, i.e. The Book of Mormon, The Bible, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, are relatively small when you consider the significance of what they hold. I love to read. I have several bookshelves full of books on many different topics and genres of writing. My scriptures make up only a fraction of the words on paper that I own.

This forces me to ask every time that I read, “What is so important about these verses that they wound up in sacred writ?” It is that contemplation that has invited the Holy Ghost to witness to my spirit the importance and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Like Moroni, I invite you to put the promise of the Book of Mormon to the test. Read the book for yourself, and think about how merciful the Lord has been to you throughout your life. If your life is like mine, you have had your ups and downs through it. You’ve had tremendous struggles, and also experiences of great joy. I can see in my life where the Lord has helped me through my struggles and challenges, and I am grateful for His guiding hand.

The Book of Mormon is true. I know this with every fiber of my being. I challenge you to find out for yourself.

Glenn Beck on Prop 8

Elder David Bednar on Prop. 8

From Chandler, AZ to Provo, UT...and still pedaling

Back in July I started riding a bike to work. My intentions were twofold. First, skyrocketing gas prices were taking a toll on my finances. Second, I thought it would be a good way to get some exercise, and perhaps drop a few pounds.

Living in the greater Phoenix area, starting such an endeavor in late July proved interesting. The temperatures were typically over 90 degrees when I started my ride in the morning and had climbed to about 110 degrees by the time I decided to go home. I carried 50 oz of water both to and from work and drank most of it.

After about a month of riding I stopped getting dizzy as I rode and acclimated a bit to the challenge. My trip is a tad over 13 miles round trip each day and I ride Tuesday through Friday. On Monday, I drive all of my clothes into work for the week.

The first day after buying the bike I went on a short 2.5 mile ride. I hadn’t ridden a bicycle since my mission which was about two decades ago. Anyway, my bike has this really cool odometer/speedometer on it. On that first ride I averaged 10.5 mph and reached a top speed of 12.63 mph.

When I wrote about this on my blog I bravely suggested that someday I’d like to ride with an average speed of 14 mph. That seemed a bit unrealistic to me, but I wanted to set a high goal.

I now regularly average over 14 mph on my ride. Once I even maintained an average of 16.2 mph with a top speed of 22.92 mph. I now tend to pass the beginner riders on the road. They’re easy to spot because they look a lot like me. However, the hard core bikers, you know the ones with the bike shorts and shirts, and a bicycle that probably cost as much as my car, still pass me. It’s all good though as I simply enjoy the ride.

This afternoon the total miles ridden on my odometer said 634 miles. Curious to see how far that would be if I rode in one direction I went into Yahoo maps and started playing around.

If I road my bicycle from my home in Chandler and headed west I would hit Los Angeles and then head north. I’m currently about 20 miles past Fresno. The distance from Chandler, AZ to Las Vegas, NV is 317 miles, so I have ridden there and back. If I just head north, Provo is 634 miles from Chandler, so I just made it to my old Alma Mater.

With the savings in gas, the bike has pretty much paid for itself. Ironically, I haven’t really lost a lot of weight. However, there is muscle definition on my legs that I haven’t seen since the last time I was a student at BYU and played on their club Water Polo team.

Unfortunately, I think that I still look more like a water buoy, than the water boy I used to be. I tell friends and acquaintances (and now complete strangers in cyberspace) that I used to look like a greek god, but have since traded that body in for a more Asian deity…

Here’s the good news though. Before I started riding my bike I was on high blood pressure medicine. I was taking 60 mg of Lipitor a day to lower my cholesterol, and my sodium levels were high.

Now, my blood pressure without any meds is 120 over 68. My resting heart rate is 66 (better than average). My cholesterol meds have been decreased to 20 mg a day, and my sodium levels are normal. So I now have the Buddha body on the outside, but the sleeping athlete is starting to wake up on the inside.

Missionary e-mail 10-20-08

Hello there!

It was definitely a little more calm this week. Things are going great as usual. The assistants decided to move our splits from tomorrow to last week. The divisions went well and I was able to learn a lot from the new AP, Elder Camargo. I went over to their area (Telegrafo) and another elder from my group Elder Emery came here. I worked in Telegrafo for 8 months so I know the area better than Elder Camargo. I was able to show him around to some old investigators' houses and we found some awesome new people including some families that have really good potential.

We went back to Abaetetuba this week to do a baptismal interview for Elder Nitta. It was my first interview so I was really nervous! It went well though and she passed. Her name is Joana. Her an her sister Aldalice were baptized Sunday after church. They had another baptism of a 16 year old boy named Neilton. He is really strong in the church and has a strong testimony of the gospel but his parents, nonmembers, didn't want him to be baptized right now and wanted him to wait a little while to make sure he was ready. Just going there to Abaetetuba and back on Saturday took up our whole day. We got back late then went to a meeting with the bishop and other ward leaders.

Iago went to church again and is excited for his baptism on the 1st. He already chose me to baptize him which is a good sign that he really wants to be baptized.
Well, I gotta run. I love you all tons. Im way excited to see you all in 2 weeks!

Love,
Elder Childs

Prophetic Warnings

Tell me if President Ezra Taft Benson's words don't ring true today? He gave this speech, not as president of the church, but as a citizen of the U.S. 43 years ago.

I've posted several times recently about prop 8 in California and prop 102 in Arizona. I will use that issue to reinforce Ezra Taft Benson's words on socialism.

It has been widely reported how a first grade teacher in San Francisco took her first grade class to City Hall to watch her marriage to her same sex partner. If you don't know about this just scroll down a few posts where I discuss the issue.

Due to the recent change in California law, i.e. legalizing same sex marriage, the school felt that the field trip was, "Academically relevant."

Here's the kicker. Pehaps you're thinking that you can avoid the issue altogether by just homeschooling your child. If you live in California, think again. Earlier this year a California Court of Appeals ruled that Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, CA, could not home school their children because Mary (the mom/teacher) was not a certified teacher in CA.

From the above cited article:
"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws."

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

Now back to my own thoughts:
The government is dictating how our children must be taught. Therefore, they get to decide what is taught.

What's next? Will Sunday School teachers need to be certified by the state? Some might consider that an incredible stretch that the state would never presume to impose. However, the ruling above caught the entire homeschooling community in California by surprise. And now an estimated 166,000 children are potential truants and their parents face possible prosecution.

Socialism typically deals with economic issues. The underlying principle however is that the government should dictate how goods and services are produced and distributed. When the government decides how and what should be taught to our children, regardless of our views on how our children should be taught, we are sliding down a slippery slope that we might not be able to recover from.

Vote yes on prop 8 in California and prop 102 in Arizona. Our children are too important.

Guess where Rhys will go on his mission

Hi all,

Our son Rhys should receive his mission call either today or next Friday. Feel free to post a comment and take a wild guess as to where he'll end up.

To make full disclosure I will give the following information which might be relevant, but then again, might not be...

He has studied four years of spanish in high school. His older brother is coming home from the Belem, Brazil mission on November 5th. He is secretly hoping to be sent to Fiji.

Please post a guess and we'll let you know where he's going once we find out.