Elders Journal

Wood Badge - Back to Gilwell (again)

2012-01-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

This summer, my wife and I are going to be staffing Wood Badge course 591-12-5! Pollyanna will be a New Troop Guide and I'll be the Quartermaster. We're both pretty excited.

Going through the materials reminded me that I set some Wood Badge-like goals last year and I thought I'd better revisit them:

Complete "Bachelor of Commissioner Science" - I achieved this goal. I'm now working on my MCS, and serving as registrar for a Commissioner College next month. I have to admit, I'd forgotten about the goal, and accomplished it in spite of my lack of focus.
Engage ADCs and Unit Commissioners - I blew this one. After posting the goal, I managed to forget all about it. Without keeping my eye on the ball, I didn't make any blog posts or send any newsletters. I'm going to try again though - albeit with a different, but related, goal.

Obviously, I needed a good troop guide to keep me straight.

This year I'm going to work on three goals related to my role as District Commissioner:

I will visit (and record in UVTS) at least three units/month at least ten months in 2012.
In 2012 I will try to encourage/support the unit commissioners in my district by holding at least three Basic Training for Comissioners courses.
I will invite the Unit Commissioners in my district to all of the Commissioner Colleges run in our council during 2012. I'll especially focus on those who have not been trained.

It looks like Wood Badge ticket ideas are a big search term for folks landing here, so I thought I'd share some ideas that have been on my mind lately (note, these are not full-on goals, just ideas):

For Commissioners - work with council to organize and index Commissioners College theses and get them online.

For Commissioners - work on staff at a Commissioners College or Commissioners Conference

For Commissioners - help plan and staff a basic training course for commissioners

For Commissioners - invite assigned units to attend roundtable and support their efforts

For Scout Leaders - improve your own roundtable attendance

For Scout Leaders - invite other leaders in your own or nearby units to attend roundtable and support their efforts

For Scout Leaders - get involved in roundtable staff

For Scout Leaders - invite your unit commissioner to meetings and/or activities

For CORs - get involved in the District Committee

For CORs - help plan and staff a District Event

Commissioner Training Notes - A Commissioner's Priorities

2011-05-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Know Your Units—Our No. 1 Priority

It's important to understand the chartered organization(s) you work with. You should know the COR and chartered organization head,and help understand Scouting's chartered organization concept.
Get to know the direct contact leaders and the unit committee members. Be a friend and be willing to serve them. Units won't open up to you until they understand how much you care.
You need to understand the unit's environment. What are its history, education and income level, neighborhood, etc.? How do these affect its program?
Don't be one-sided. Not only do you represent the district to the unit, you must also represent the unit back to the district!

Prioritize Unit Needs

". . .[C]ommissioners must concentrate their Scouting time helping with specific unit needs and helping each unit become more effective with its program and operation." (Commissioner Fieldbook For Unit Service, 2010 printing, p24)
"Good commissioners . . . establish priority units. Priority units receive their most careful attention." (ibid)
"Keep a running list of needs, problems, and desirable improvements for each of your units. Highlight the most urgent needs and problems. Most people's time is limited, so concentrate your energies on the unit needs you have highlighted." (ibid)

Beware the Hazard of Diversion

"Because of the many programs and activities of Scouting, unit commissioners might find themselves promoting projects, carrying messages, acting as judges, running FOS campaigns, etc. While all these activities are unquestionably important, they are not the primary responsibilities of unit commissioners." (ibid)
Don't be afraid to say 'no' to scouting requests that will take you away from Commissioner Service.

Typical Priority Unit Needs

These are like the "Hurry Cases" in first aid. Units suffering from these problems need help urgently!
1. "Unit Not Meeting. ("Stopped breathing") A unit that has stopped meeting is in serious trouble. You must move quickly to salvage the remaining leadership and membership" (ibid p29)
2. "Unit with No Leader. ("No heartbeat") If the unit leader has quit or leaves for any reason, see that the leader is replaced quickly." (ibid p29)
3. "Unit with No Committee. ("Choking") A unit leader with little or no adult help might not survive very long or the unit program weakens and youth get cheated out of the great opportunities of Scouting. If the committee is not working, get in touch with the chartered organization representative and explain the importance of having" (ibid p30)"
4. "Unit with No New Members. ("Severe bleeding") Units should register new members yearround. If no new members are added and there are plenty of youth in the area, find out why the unit is not growing." (ibid p30)
5. "Unit Conflict with the Chartered Organization. ("Poisoning by mouth") Misunderstandings sometimes occur, and they can threaten the life of a unit if left unresolved. You may need to play a neutral role; be a mediator. Help unit leaders realize that the unit belongs to the chartered organization. Help leaders of the chartered organization realize they have some responsibility for the success of the unit. Work toward bringing unit and chartered organization leaders together to talk and build some consensus about the unit. Help them get better acquainted and recognize their mutual objectives. (ibid p30)"
6. "New Unit Leader Lacks Orientation or Training. ("Blue baby") Give the new leader preliminary information about the unit. Learn as much as you can about the new leader. Provide some basic printed materials to get him or her started. Review basic program literature.
  Have all new leaders exchange their names and contact information. Explain what other people in the unit do: The chartered organization representative represents the chartered organization, the unit committee supports the unit program and helps with administration, and assistant leaders help the leader with unit operation." (ibid p30)
7. "Unit with Weak Leadership. ("Comatose") In almost every case, a problem unit stems from weak leadership that must be either strengthened or replaced. Remember that the unit belongs to the chartered organization, and you must not remove leaders. You do have the responsibility, though, to see that the Scouts receive a good program. Therefore, it's your duty to impress upon the chartered organization representative and unit committee the importance of providing strong leadership for their Scouting unit. (ibid p30)

Steps in Solving A Problem

Identify the problem. — What's wrong?
Decide if it is a problem. — Is it really a problem, or did you catch things at a bad time?
Discuss the problem with the ADC. — Figure out what can be done for the unit/unit leader.
Is assistance needed from the district committee? — If the problem is beyond your ability to solve, what resources to you need to pull in?
Decide whether you will handle it alone or with the ADC. — If you need help, what role should the ADC have in bringing in other resources?
Decide who is to handle the problem. — If you need to pull in an expert, will he or she 'take over'? What role will the unit leaders play?
Plan your actions. — Make SMART goals and make sure to measure them.
Plan your alternatives. — Your first attempt might not work. What else are you going to have in reserve?
Put the plan into action. — Now that you've talked things through and made a plan, it's time to act!
Evaluate. — If you don't know what you were trying to do, you won't know if you suceeded. Keep records, you might find that you need these ideas again for another unit.

The Journey To Excellence Performance Award
This program replaces the Centennial Quality Unit Award, and applies to Units, Districts, and larger scouting organizations. The key points of the program are:

Each unit makes an annual committment, ideally at the end of the preceeding year but no later than February of the current year. This commitment is signed by the Unit Commissioner as a representative of the council.
In Q4 of the year, the unit determines if they have met their commitment and has the Unit Commissioner sign off on the form if they have. One copy is turned in to the district, another is turned in to the council office, and the final copy is kept by the unit.
There are unit level and personal recognition devices (streamers, plaques, and patches) which should be presented by the Unit Commissioner.

A Unit Commissioner is responsible to:

Understand the criteria, forms, and procedures for your assigned units
Brief the COR, committee, and leaders of the units you serve
Work with each unit you serve to qualify for the award. This should take place throughout the year.
Guide each unit through the annual review and ensure that they complete a commitment for next year.
Provide the appropriate recognition for each unit's achievement. Provide encouragement throughout the year as well.
Work closely with your ADC, District Commissioner, and/or District Executive to help the district strengthen the units you're assigned to.

Wood Badge - Back to Gilwell

2011-05-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Wood Badge (www.woodbadge.org) was a highlight of my adult scouting life. It's been a couple of years since I went through the course (Go Bob Whites!), but with several friends attending Wood Badge this year, I've been reminded of what a great experience is was.

In honor of James Levao (our new OA Chapter Advisor) and many others, I thought I'd take on a couple of new tickets.

Over the next year, I will complete my "Bachelors of Commissioner Science" to set a good example for the Unit Commissioners in my district, gain a deeper understanding of Commissioner Service, and be better able to serve in my new role as District Commissioner. The timing has been really bad for me to attend Commissioner College the last several years ... no more excuses.
During the next year, I will engage the ADCs and Unit Commissioners in my District with frequent blog posts (at least 8), monthly email newsletters (at least 9), and quarterly District Commissioner Staff Meetings (at least 3 — other monthly staff meetings will be at the sub-district level).

I plan on reporting on these tickets here, just to keep myself honest. Are you a first time Wood Badge attendee? If so, what are some of your tickets? If not, would you like to set (and share) a goal or two for yourself and recapture some of that Wood Badge magic?

What is a Unit Commissioner

2011-05-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Unit Commissioners are the core of commissioner service. They are the link between a unit and the district. Each Unit Commissioner is assigned three units in his or her district, which he or she is expected to visit regularly (ideally monthly, the national standard is bi-monthly). These visits might be to a unit meeting or camping trip, one on one with the unit leader, or with the unit committee. They should be tracked using the Unit Visitation Tracking System.

Feedback from the units visited should be brought back to the District or Sub-District Commissioner Staff Meeting each month. This meeting will also provide information and announcements that can be taken to units in upcoming visits. In the Rock Canyon District, we will also be sending out a monthly email with additional information. These emails (along with a companion email aimed at the ADCs) will also be posted/archived at this blog.

Unit Commissioners are BSA volunteers, and are required to get the same training other volunteers need: Youth Protection, This is Scouting, Unit Commissioner Fast Start, and Basic Training. The first three courses are available at myscouting.org. Additional Training is available through Commissioner College; Commissioner Conferences; and Council, District, or Sub-District Commissioner Staff Meetings.

If you have any questions or comments about Unit Commissioners, feel free to post them in comments here.

ADC Letter 20 May 2011

2011-05-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

We've got a lot of things going on in the district, and I wanted to send out a quick email to all of our ADCs to keep you all abreast of them. Would you be interested in a monthly (or so) email with information about upcoming district events, scouting resources, and the like?

Jun 4th is National Trails Day. We're inviting our units to participate with the Pleasant Grove Ranger District. They are hosting an event in Orem. The plan is to meet at the Orem Dry Canyon parking lot at 9:00 AM, and going to work on the Boneville Shoreline Trail.

Our district is hosting a National Youth Leadership Training course the week of Aug 1-6. This is an excellent program for 12-13 year old young men. The course covers leadership and training styles, communications, and conflict resolution. Participants will be able to bring these skills back to their home units, and eventually take them out on their missions. This is a great opportunity to help grow some leadership skills among the young men in your stake. Online registration is here.

The district will hold it's annual business/rechartering meeting in August. We invite all CORs, Commissioners, and District Committee Members to attend. There are a number of open positions in the committee (including a Unit Commissioner for our two non-LDS units). If you have any recommendations, please send me names, interests, and contact information. I'll see that it gets to the nominating committee.

There's a new Commissioner Award of Excellence available from the National BSA office. The requirements are in the current Commissioner Newsletter. We'll talk more about this at the next ADC meeting.

Sausage Gravy Buns

2010-12-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, I made up some 'pizza buns'. I made up some pizza dough, rolled it out into a rectangle, covered it with pizza toppings, rolled it up like cinnamon buns, topped it with a bit more pizza sauce and cheese, and baked them up. On a cold drive out to a winter camping spot, they were devoured by my troop of hungry scouts.

A couple of months ago, I saw King Arthur Flour's recipe for Quick Rise Caramel Buns. I tried it for my family, but they were a bit put off by their 'biscuity-ness' (I thought they were fine, and even made a batch using my friend's gluten-free flour mix).

Yesterday, I was struck with a great idea. Savory buns worked out really well, and (I thought) the biscuit style buns were pretty good -- why not combine the two? I decided to make breakfast for dinner, and this is what I did:

I started by whipping up some sausage gravy (yeah, this is another scout camp favorite).

1# breakfast sausage

1 T butter

1/4 c flour

2 c butter milk

Fry the sausage until cooked through and lightly browned. Try to chop up the sausage with a spatula as it cooks to create smaller chunks. Once the sausage is done, add the butter and melt it. Then, add the flour and mix well to create a roux of sorts. Once you've smoothed out all the lumps, you can add the buttermilk and stir while the gravy thickens. After the gravy is thick, add salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.

Now, to the biscuit/buns ...

2 c flour (plus extra for rolling it out)
1/2 c instant mashed potato flakes
4 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 large egg
1/4 c melted butter
1 c buttermilk

Grease a pie pan, and preheat your oven to 350F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then add the egg, butter, and buttermilk. Mix together and knead lightly. You're looking for a smooth, not quite sticky, dough. Turn it out onto a floured board and roll into a rectangle about 9" x 14".

Spread 1/2 of the sausage onto the biscuit dough, leaving an inch or so clear on one long edge. Roll the dough and sausage to form a cinnamon bun like roll. Slice it into 1-2" think slices and place into the pie pan.

Bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and done. (Internal temp should be 195F.)

During the last 10 minutes or so of baking, add another 2 cups of buttemilk to the remaining half of the gravy. Cook over medium heat to thinken, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Separate the sausage-gravy buns onto plates, top with remaining gravy, and serve.

Reading List Update 9/8/2010

2010-09-08T09:28:00.001-07:00

The recent news that GDB now supports D makes The D Programming Language jump up a notch or two on my reading list.
I've finished 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust, it was a fun read. I really identified with his trip to the French monastery. It seemed like a great climax to his year, with the perfect denouement as he came home to bake his final loaves.
With a chance to get involved with a local restaurant group (not behind the counter though), the food books are still winning out in my what to read next decisions.

Sunday Dinner - Sep 5, 2010

2010-09-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Michael's headed off to his first Homecoming Dance next week, and like overprotective parents everywhere, we wanted to know the girl he's taking. We decided the best way to do that was to invite Jane (the girl in question) and her parents over to Sunday dinner.

Pollyanna and I worked up a menu, got Michael's approval, and made the invitations. We decided on a stuffed pork loin, rot kraut, ratatouille, and rolls. Jane and her mom offered to bring a dessert. On Saturday, we headed off to Sunflower Market to pick some things up. The real fun began on Sunday though.

Pollyanna and Michael set the table and then I sent Michael into the garden for summer squash, tomatoes, red cabbage, and leeks. Pollyanna whipped up the dough for her rolls, and I put the wild rice on to simmer and chopped up some bacon to brown. Once the rice was done, I added the mushrooms and let it set for a bit.

While the rice cooled, I skinned the eggplant then chopped it, the squash, the tomatoes, a bit of garlic, some leeks, and a yellow onion. The veggies all went into my dutch oven with some kosher salt, crushed black pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

With that in the oven, I got going on the pork loin. The first step was to cut it (jelly roll style), and lay it out. Then I brushed on a mixture of olive oil, balsamic, and a touch of liquid smoke. A touch of kosher salt and black pepper was followed with a layer of baby leeks from the garden. Next I spooned on the rice and mushrooms, spread that evenly across the top, and finished it with the chopped bacon I'd browned earlier.

I rolled the whole thing back up, rolled it tightly in foil, and popped it in the oven to start roasting alongside the ratatouille.

Next I shredded the cabbage, thinly sliced some onion and a pair of granny smith apples. I tossed the onion into a saute pan with the bacon grease and let them soften over low heat. As they started to brown, I added the apples and the cabbage and covered the whole thing. While the rot kraut softened, I mixed up some balsamic vinegar, ground cloves, and brown sugar to add a bit of extra flavor to the dish. After ten minutes or so, I added my vinegar mix, stirred everything up, and removed it from the heat.

As Pollyanna shaped the rolls, I pulled the pork loin back out, sliced it into individual servings, and put it back in the oven to finish.

The rolls went in at the same time. Fifteen minutes later, we were ready to plate and serve.

Dinner was a great success, we enjoyed meeting Jane and her family, and everyone ended up having a good time. Now, it's time to start planning next week's Sunday dinner. What are you eating these days?

My Reading List on 8/31/2010

2010-08-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Prentice Hall and Addison-Weseley giving me three new books, my reading list has bulked back up. Here's what I'm working through at the moment:

The Freebies
- UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th Edition) — I'm really excited about this one, I've loved the first three editions, and this looks like a really solid revamping of a classic in the Sys Admin field.
- The D Programming Language — I'd like to see how well D stacks up to C and C++ (though I've got pretty minimal chops with either).
- Distributed Programming with Ruby — another Ruby Book? I've always got room for one of those.
Three More I'm Working On.
- The Little MLer — I'm tired of waiting for a good OCaml book, and this looks like the best option for getting up to speed in the ML world.
- Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing — yeah, besides languages and communities, I like to hack food. I've had a couple of goes (each) at jerky, bacon, and sausage. Now, it's time to take a step up to the big leagues.
- 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust — Another fun food book.

What are you reading? Why?

Wood Badge Update 5/31/09

2009-05-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm nearly done working my ticket, and now I've been thrown a curve ball.

My tickets were mostly built around my role as Scoutmaster (though one of them had to do with my OA involvement). In January, I took over as the OA Chapter Advisor for the Lakota Chapter. Fortunately that didn't require any changes to the OA related ticket.

Last month, I was asked to take on a new role in scouting, Unit Commissioner. I handed over my scoutmaster reins to my Assistant Scoutmaster and started trying to meet the six units I'm now working with.

This means I'll have to change my ticket about doing team/unit building activities on camp-outs with my troop. I was two camp-outs away from fulfilling that requirement. I can see two options for how to move forward from here:

I can broaden the ticket to doing team building activities with the units I work with. This might be imposing myself too heavily though, and it is certainly beyond my control.

I could also change the focus and apply it to the OA chapter. I'm really leaning toward this one, especially since our chapter is getting close to the critical mass that it needs to really start to roll.

Even though I'm almost done with the work I signed up for, I see so many ways to stay involved with the themes that I started laying out at my Wood Badge course. I'm really glad that I made the investment to go. Now I just need to help the other leaders that I'll be working with to catch the vision and go.

If you're a scout leader and haven't been through the full BSA training program, do it. You'll be glad you did, and your scouts will be too.

First Post of 2009: a look back and a look ahead

2009-01-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, time for some catch-up. First off, I've changed responsibilities in my scout district. Gone is my angsting over how to present the best ever Boy Scout Roundtable each month. Now I get to work with the great young men in our OA chapter as the new Chapter Advisor. One of the things we've been working on is a blog to detail all of our activities and encourage our arrowmen to get out and get more active.

I'm still serving as the Scoutmaster for Troop 37. My friend and former Assistant Scoutmaster, Kevin Cole, has moved out of the area so I'm working with a new ASM and trying to build the kind of relationship there that Kevin and I enjoyed — so far, so good. Our Ward's Varsity Team isn't doing as well, but they're supposed to get a new Coach this week and I'm hoping that will help them turn the corner.

Wood Badge tickets are going well, though I need to check in on the rest of the Bob Whites from my course. Here's a quick update on each ticket:

Recruit Arrowmen for our chapter at BYU — I've been able to get small signs up in various areas, and have found a couple of students so far.

Support and Encourage Timberline (NYLT) attendance from my troop — I think I have two of my scouts (and their families) interested in going next year. I've also got three arrowmen from my chapter who are interested in serving on staff.

Become LNT certified — having completed my LNT Trainer course, I'm now focusing on sharing the principles of Leave No Trace whenever and wherever I can.

Run unity building activities at 75% of my unit's camping trips from 9/08 to 8/09. So far I'm 3 of 4, and I've got activities planned for both January's and February's trips.

Complete the requirements for the Physical Fitness MB — I'm midway through this, but I need to get back on track.

Klondike is coming, with a snowshoeing trek along the Great Wester Trail and more fun after that. At the Chapter level, I'm trying to get ready for lots of unit elections, a call out ceremony, and a Fellowship. It's going to be a busy time.

November Campout -- Another Activity

2008-11-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

We had a great camping trip this weekend. The Varsity Team that that has been integrated with us for the last several months cut the cord this time and we went to two separate locations. I think this was a good step for both groups. While we're both a bit smaller, we each had to take some steps to stand on our own. I can't speak for the Varsity Scouts, but the Boy Scouts certainly rose to the challenge.

In addition to enjoying the beautiful scenery at Maple Lake (and some good food -- mmmm, scotch egs make a great breakfast), we also worked on a pair of unity building activities as part of my woodbadge ticket.

The first one was a group sharing thing, as we sat around the campfire I asked each person to share a favorite scout memory. While I was interested in the answers, my bigger desire was to get everyone talking and opening up a bit about scouting and things they each enjoyed.

A bit later, we went around the fire again. This time, each scout was asked to talk about a point of the Scout Law and what it meant to him. We went around the fire a couple of times to complete all twelve points. It was interesting to hear them talk about some pretty deep topics. Neal, my Assistant Scoutmaster, and I asked leading questions when the discussion seemed to flounder. I think it was a good experience for all of us.

We also did a physical exercise. We had each boy sit in a circle, facing outwards. Then they linked elbows and stood up. It took a bit of work for them to get organised and standing, but they did it.

As we drove down and out of Payson canyon, we held a short self assessment on our recent activities, and set some goal for improvement in December. This is a great way to close out a camping trip.

Great Western Trail Reports

2008-10-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people ask my why I think the Order of the Arrow is an important adjunct to the Boy Scout program. There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that the OA provides additional opportunities for scouts to grow and learn.

Most of these opportunities come from participation in the chapter and lodge by arrowmen. Some of them are open to all scouts though. A great example of this is the Utah National Parks' Great Western Trail award. There are a number of ways to earn this ward, but all of them involve writing a 150 word report about your experience backpacking and doing service on the trail.

Getting out onto the trail is a good thing, working on a service project approved by the wilderness management agency is even better. Imagine the impact of going out and doing all of that, then coming home and writing about it to cement the ideas, memories, and insights in your mind.

Here are some excerpts from what my scouts wrote in their reports about our experiences on the trail:

Many things made me want to go on the trek. [Another scout] said it was going to be awesome. I also love to camp. And it would just be a good experience to look back on.

[I had] lots of fun backpacking with the scouts. [I liked] the big meadow where we spent both nights, it was fun. ... [Now I want to do] more, better service projects and more activities to help the community. I want to go on other parts of the Great Western Trail.

[I felt] like my service was appreciated. It makes me want to treat [the trail] with more respect than I have been doing before. ... [When I hike on other trails], I will feel much more grateful for those men, women, and children that gave up their time to make it look better and keep it clean.

I remember [our service] was hard work but the payoff was great, it was good to help the trail. It improved my outlook on [service] because of the satisfaction of doing it.

I remember cutting off all the branches on the trail hanging over and how fun it was to cut down a really big one. Ranger Polly taught us ... what to cut down and how to be safe with the [tools].

It made me see that just doing service does not mean it has to be boring, it can be really fun and cool. It made me feel good that someone ... noticed what we did.

I'm really glad that the OA put together a program that let my scouts get a better picture of what they can do ... not just in terms of backpacking and camping, but in terms of service and responsibility.

More Wood Badge Thoughts (including ticket ideas)

2008-09-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

After attending a pack meeting last night to support my wife and her wold den, and looking forward to a PLC meeting and troop meeting tonight, I find myself thinking about Wood Badge. I can't tell you how worthwhile I think the training is, but I can share with you what President Dahlquist (the LDS General Young Mens' President) said about it:

[P]repare yourselves constantly for your calling with the young men of the Aaronic Priesthood by getting properly trained for your calling. ... We encourage you to become appropriately trained so you can make the best of this wonderful resource to the priesthood. If you are new (or even if you have been in your calling for some time), yet have never been appropriately trained, go to www.scouting.org and begin your training now, online. Begin with Fast Start training, then basic and leader specific training, and then Wood Badge. ...

We are gratified with the reports from the field that priesthood leaders, including stake presidents and their counselors, bishops and their counselors, and Young Men leaders on both stake and ward levels are beginning to take the importance of this training seriously. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to sign up now for the next Wood Badge course in your council.

I think that's a pretty clear message. So, what if you're already sold on Wood Badge, and you're just looking for some ticket ideas? I can't write your tickets for you, but I'd love to share some ideas.

If you're involved with Cub Scouts:

How well is your unit doing with Character Connections activities? Holding these frequently and doing a good job with them will help improve packs, dens, families, and individual cub scouts.
Is your unit using the activity belt loop and pin program to encourage the boys to learn about athletic and academic topics beyond their rank advancement requirements? Maybe you could host an activity pin Pow Wow.
It can be hard for some families to help their boys earn the Bobcat award. Developing a 'Bobcat Packet' with ideas and activities could be a good project.

If you work with Boy Scouts or a Varsity Team:

Could your unit do something to support cub scouts? What about putting on a Webelos Woods, or hosting a Wolf, Bear, or Webelos advancement Pow Wow? Help your boys learn to love serving as they help the cubs advance along the scouting trail.
Does your troop provide a solid outdoor program? Year round camping, earning the national campoing award (or stepping up to the next level if you've already earned it) or incorporating hiking into your program could all be worthwhile goals.
Do your scouts enjoy the benefits of the Order of the Arrow? You could hold unit elections, encourage involvement in your lodge or chapter, or get involved in the OA's Scoutreach Mentoring program.
You could promote NYLT attendance (or encourage previous attendees to help staff an NYLT session).

No matter what kind of scouting unit you serve in:

You could become a merit badge counselor.
You could encourage adult attendance at Roundtable and/or Wood Badge.
You could learn about the Scout Parents program and encourage its implementation in your unit and district.

These three lists aren't exhaustive (and I left our venturing, because I just don't know enough about it), but I hope they're helpful to someone who's looking for ticket ideas.

Parents' Night: Sep 2008

2008-09-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

Last night, Troop 37 stretched themselves a little bit more. For the first time in several years, we held a parents night. 80% of our scouts were there, and all of their parents made it too. We even had a member of our chartering organization make it out.

Without having any real experience in running (or even attending) something like this, it was a big step for the boys to plan and conduct the meeting. I think they did awfully well though. Some things ran a bit long and others fell off the agenda, but we ended on time, provided some value to everyone who came, and enjoyed peach cobbler when it was over. I don't think you can ask for too much more than that.

I'm certain our next parents' night (in Mar 2009) will be better planned, better run, and better attended. I don't think I'll be any more proud of my scouts for the way they handle it or the things they talk about though.

The agenda our Senior Patrol Leader and I came up with looked like this:

Opening — prayer, pledge of allegiance, scout oath and law
Welcome the attendees
Review last 6 months activities — The boys ran this presentation, they focused more on the outdoor activities and less on weeknight stuff, next time I'd like to balance this better. We also ran too long, a rehearsal will probably help that next time.
Preview of the upcoming 6 months — I think better rehearsal, and more reliance on our program plan will help make this more useful next time. The boys did a good job though.
Scoutmaster's corner — I sprinted through six topics in six minutes. Hopefully it was as motivational as I wanted it to be, we'll see how many of our parents step up and get more involved.
Closing and refreshments — Our chartering organization representative gave us a closing prayer, and the boys served up the cobbler they made. I think we ended on a high note.

Next time, instead of a lecture format, I think it might be fun to run different stations presenting what we've done, what we're planning on doing, and how the parents can be more involved. Promoting Timberline is going to be another important goal in March.

Almost an Eagle

2008-09-17T11:23:00.001-07:00

A friend from Wood Badge sent my wife and I an email today asking for our prayers on behalf of her son, who's rapidly running out of time to earn his Eagle Scout award. This is a topic that hits close to home since I was 'almost an Eagle'. Here's my response (I've left out our friend's name and her son's, since that's not really the point).

At the time, it didn't seem like not earning my Eagle was going to cost me very much. My car, my job, and girls seemed so much more important at the time. Now, over 20 years later, I have to laugh at the thought of the Dodge Omni I drove. I don't even list my job from the time on a resume. I can't think of the last time I thought of one of the girls I went to school with. On the other hand, there are several times a month that I wish I'd put in the effort needed to earn my Eagle Scout award.

Scouting taught me many things: how to hike and camp in good weather or bad, how to work with others and how to lead them, how to cook in a dutch oven, the list goes on and on. I have lots of great memories: backpacking through Philmont, canoeing in the Boundary Waters, camping with Scouts from all over Europe, singing camp songs with 20,000 scouts at a national jamboree — but the memory that comes to mind most often is that I didn't earn my Eagle.

I feel like I owe a huge debt to the Scout leaders how helped me along — and I feel like I let them all down by quitting when the end was in sight. I could have been an Eagle Scout, but I'm not and I only have myself to blame. I wish I could help scouts today learn from my mistake. I try to encourage my son, and the scouts in my troop to keep on going, to earn their merit badges, to plan and carry out an eagle project, and to earn their Eagle.

The eagle isn't just another rank or award — it's a symbol of what you can be, it's a starting point for a life of service, it's a mark of brotherhood with the many others who have 'stuck to it' and become better for it.

Praying for [your son] is the least I can do. If you think it will help, please let him know how important I think earning his eagle will be.

Tri-Council Varsity Challenge

2008-09-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Over this last weekend, my son and I went to the Tri-Council Varsity Challenge. He was the only member of his team that wanted to go, so I worked out a deal with another team. Mike would go with them and I'd come along as a second leader, only the backed out a couple of days before the trip. I wish both groups had gone, it was a great activity.

I got to meet an internet friend, Dave Muncey, face to face. We sat at the feet or Pres Burgess (1st Counselor in the LDS Young Men's Presidency) and were taught about the importance of Scouting and the Varsity Program. We had fun at the opening concert (Jon Schmidt and his son's band "Painting the Finish Line". And all that happened on the first night.

Things got more involved the second day. Saturday kicked off with a ~4,500 scout glag ceremony. After that, we moved on to a series of activities that highlighted the five areas of emphasis in the Varisty Program:

Advancement
High Adventure/Sports
Service
Special Programs and Events
Personal Development

Most of the activities were things that could be brought back into a unit and expanded on over the course of one or more meetings. It was really neat to see examples of things that could be mixed into a Varsity Team's schedule to add a bit more excitement.

If you weren't there, you missed out. I sure hope they do something similar next year, I'd love to go again -- only this time I'm going to do a better job selling it to the Varsity Teams I interact with.

Hiking on the Great Western Trail

2008-09-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

The members of our troop have just one more requirement to finish to earn our Great Western Trail award (which is sponsored by our OA Lodge), writing a 150+ word report on our experience. In the interest of setting a good example, here's mine:

In June this year, we backpacked 20 miles on the Great Western Trail over three days. The preparation actually started in April. I contacted the Ranger District about doing service on the trail, we started doing shorter 'prep hikes', and I pre-hiked the trail with my son. While the hike was great, and working on the trail as a service project was great, I think the work before the hike made a bigger impact on me.

I feel like I let the boys down a bit because I did most of the coordination work with the Rangers. I really should have stepped back and helped Jonathan, our Senior Patrol Leader, take the lead on this. Facilitating a boy led troop is something I want to focus on during the next year.

The prep hikes were great. Hiking Rock canyon and two segments of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail helped the boys get ready for the backpacking trek physically and mentally, but also gave them additional experiences with hiking/biking trails in the area and let them try out some of the trail food that we were considering for the trek. I'm hoping we'll continue the practice of getting out as a troop to hike on a regular basis.

Pre-hiking the trail with my son was a great experience. We went several weeks before the real hike and hit more snow, sooner. On our pre-hike, we only crossed one other hiker. He was scouting the trail for an upcoming trail race. That really drove home the value of the service that we would be performing when we hiked the trail as a unit.

For me the hike itself was a step toward fulfilling a life-long dream. I've always wanted to hike on the 4 major North-South trails in the US: the Pacific Crest Trail, the Great Western Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Appalachian trail. This was my first experience on any of them. Each time we passed a Great Western Trail marker, I felt my heart beat a little faster knowing that I was really there. I hope all the scouts can start building their own list of dreams, then start accomplishing them.

Roundtable Last Night

2008-09-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, two posts in might be pushing it, but I hope you'll bear with me. I really wanted to write about both Wood Badge and Roundtable, and although the last post touched on Roundtable it was really about Wood Badge.

A while ago, I wrote about improving Roundtable. Last night, I took my first shot at improving things. I didn't get all of the things on my wish list done, but I think it was a good start. Here are the major points:

We started things off with a flag ceremony by Troop 188. Thanks for coming out to support us guys -- hopefully we'll pay you back with some extra enthusiasm and activities coming back into your unit.
I set up tables for each area in the district and asked people to sit in them. I wanted people to see who was or wasn't coming from their area. Sadly, the best attended area had only five people (from a possible 30 or so representing 7 troops). I told everyone we'd sit the same way next week and the best attending area would get a prize.
The first mini-presentation set the context for the night (focusing on Engineering and Pioneering). We discussed what resources were available to the troops to run a program on that theme: Merit Badge Pamphlets, Troop Program Features, and Troop Program Resources.
The second presentation started out with a discussion of a $7 mini-pioneering kit made from six 36" quarter-inch dowels (cut into 4 x 12", 12 x 8", and 36 x 6" lengths) and a ball of twine. The presenter had his troop measure, cut, and use it the night before and he said that they had a great time. Then he taught the attendees how to tie a square lashing and had them work on building miniature rafts. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Our third and final program feature was an index card bridge building contest. The attendees were split into two teams, and given five 4x6 index cards to build a bridge across an 8" wide chasm (between two stacks of books). They teams weren't allowed to use tape, glue, or other bindings, and weren't allowed to support the bridges from the bottom of the chasm. The winning team was able to stack 450 pennies on their bridge before it gave way!
We finished things off with a presentation by our Order of the Arrow Advisor. He discussed; what the OA is and how it can help individual scouts and units, our upcoming Ordeal, and unit elections. I think we ended up getting a couple of units to schedule elections. Good stuff for sure.

Maybe the best news of all was that there was some positive buzz circulating after Roundtable. My wife overheard people talking about it being fun and giving them ideas they could take back to there units and use right away. I was really happy to hear that, not only does it mean I was able to help those units but it should also mean we get some repeat attendees (if we can keep it up).

What do you think? I'd love to hear suggestions on how to keep improving our Roundtables (especially if you were there). I'd also love to hear what you're doing at your Rountable to make it fun and worthwhile for everyone.

A Wood Badge Ticket I Didn't Set

2008-09-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

As I thought about my tickets I tried to concentrate on three main areas: self-improvement (where it would impact my troop), supporting the local OA chapter (1/3 of my scouts are in it), and improving my troop directly. One area that I didn't think about was in my new (well, sort of new) role as the District Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner.

I'm kind of sorry I didn't think about creating a ticket about Roundtable. I know a lot of people set goals to go to Roundtable more often, but that's only part of the deal. Roundtables need people to go and get involved. If you're thinking about a ticket, consider doing something for your Roundtable. Take back some of your great Wood Badge training and put it to use.

Wouldn't it be great if a Wood Badger (or is that Gilwellian?) would teach a short class on using EDGE to tech scout skills? How about a short class on facilitating effective Patrol Leader Councils. If you don't teaching a class feels like too much of a stretch, what about leading reflections after the Roundtable to help improve it?

I think there are a lot of reasons to get involved with Roundtable, and a lot of ways to do so. Just pick one and make it a ticket. It will make an impact on you, your troop, and your whole district -- it just doesn't get much better than that.

New Woodgas Stove: A first look

2008-09-03T06:29:00.001-07:00

When we returned home from our long weekend of visiting family in Phoenix (and the Grand Canyon on our trip home), we found that our new Woodgas Stove from Spenton LLC had arrived. Frankly, I was too beat from the drive to do anything about it then. On Tuesday night, my son and I unpacked it and gave it a try. I'll be writing a more detailed review later, but I wanted to get my first impressions out right away.

The stove is fairly small, and certainly lighter than our current coleman setup. If you've got to pack your fuel with you you'll quickly add the weight back though — of course, you won't have to pack spent fuel cartridges back out either.

After reading the directions, we gathered up some fuel:

a napkin and a half stick of fatwood to get things started
2 fruitwood sticks about the size of my thumb cut into 3-4 inch lengths
2 fruitwood stick about an inch in diameter cut into 3-4 inch lengths

I tucked the napkin and fatwood into the combustion chamber of the stove and lit it, then added the fruitwood chunks. Once they were all burning well (about 2 minutes), I attached the battery pack and set the fan to high.

Within a minute, the amount of smoke had been reduced to almost nothing. At that point, we put a pot of cold water on to boil. Even with this small amount of fuel we were able to boil 3 cups of cold water (the amount my son and I usually use for a dinner) in about 6 minutes.

The stove continued to burn for another 15 minutes or so. We could have easily heated up more water for a drink or dishwater, or we could have turned the fan to low and used the stove to warm our hands.

All in all, we had a good first experience, and are looking forward to using our new stove 'in the field', maybe even this weekend.

Camp Stoves

2008-08-27T07:59:00.001-07:00

During the good weather months, we try to avoid 'car camping'. Backpacking, or at least camping somewhere that we have to walk some distance from the car help us to feel like we're more outdoors. This means we don't do much dutch oven cooking except in the winter or on special occasions. Instead we use camp stoves and focus more on backpacking style food.

One of the books that has really helped us is 'Pack Light and Eat Heavy' by Bill McCartney. Unfortunately it's out of print and harder to find. I'll try to write up some of the recipes here, but without the other information in the book, they're of limited value. Bill's key premises are that:

you can eat a variety of food on the trail without undue difficulty or added weight

you can 'build your own' backpacking meals easily and cheaply instead of relying on expensive selections from vendors

you can prepare good meals without doing more cooking than boiling water

When we're completely in this mode, we use a Coleman 1 burner stove. This isn't the lightest or smallest stove available, but it's sturdy and reliable (I've even used it in cold weather, I just need to take a fuel bottle to bed with me) -- it was economical too, since my Assistant Scoutmaster and I both have one. If you're not planning on doing too much backpacking with it, this is a pretty decent stove to start with.

If we're not camping too far from our vehicle, we might plan meals that don't go so well on the single burner (like pancakes and bacon, ummm). In this case, we might step up to a Coleman 2 burner stove. Again, this is one that we already had access to (it's part of my family's emergency storage). It's served us well for everything from New Scout Patrol trips to cooking up some rainbow trout we caught at Strawberry Reservoir.

Of course, if you're serious about getting light for a back packing trip, neither of these is the right answer for you. I'm looking into some alternatives ... we'll see where that journey takes me.

Pictures from Camp

2008-08-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

I could have done a much better job of taking and posting pictures from our various camping trips. I've created some albums over at facebook, and thought Maybe I should share them here.

In May of 2007, we went to Topaz Mountain with Troop 757 (we camp with them several times a year). It's a pretty nice area out in the Utah deseret, and allows mining of topaz crystals with hand held tools. The boys enjoy beating on rocks with hammers and chisels, clambering around on the face of the hill, and exploring some of the badlands in the vicinity. Here's a link to the album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50477&l=fb91a&id=678427115

In June of this year, we did a 21 mile backpacking trek along the Great Western Trail. Along the way, we put in 2-3 hours of service, cutting back branches and vines that had grown out onto the trail (and in one case cutting and removing a log that had fallen across the trail). Two highlights of the trip (for me at least) were having a short snowball fight in June, and getting thanked for our efforts by a mountain biker who said he could really tell the difference between the trail we cleared and the other one he'd ridden that morning. Here's a link to the album for this trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50484&l=24392&id=678427115

Notes on aug 19 2008

2008-08-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

I was able to make some good progress last night and this morning -- not on Wood Badge tickets, but on important stuff nonetheless.

First up was as the Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner. I've got calls out to our supporting units for September (late, sorry) and October. I've really been studying the Boy Scout Roundtable Planning Guide and I'm convinced we can do a better job of making this meeting more fun and effective. One thing I'm driving for is moving away from the monolithic lecture format that we've been in since I've been going to Roundtable. For the next two months, I'm shooting for 3-4 presentations/activities led by different leaders and separated by songs or run-ons. I'd like to add a contest or skit at each meeting as well. What kinds of activities do you enjoy at your roundtables?

I also got myself registered for the Commissioner College training this weekend down in Richland, UT. As a new commissioner, I'm feeling a bit unprepared. I sure hope this training will help me figure out what I should be doing and how I should be doing it.

Finally, I've also been working with my OA chapter about an Ordeal in October. It looks like things are coming together. I've contacted the couple of people that had been asking about it.
Now I need to get it (and other scouting activities) onto my google calendar.

Blind Walk ... Not So Much

2008-08-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

Well, my planned for 'Blind Walk' on our camping/canoeing trip didn't come to pass. Kevin (my co-wood badger and assistant scoutmaster) had also put together a unity building activity, and since it fit in better with the canoeing we went with it. It was nice to run the activity, see the boys reactions to it, and then spend some time in a retrospection/processing phase afterwards.

I also helped my wife work on one of her wood badge tickets this weekend. She's putting together a promotional video, with short interviews of attendees, so I went in front of the camera on Sunday. She's also planning on getting some scouts into the video mix, to help cement the idea that we're going to wood badge as an investment in building better boys.

Wood Badge Ticket Report Aug 15 2008

2008-08-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've made some progress on all five of my Wood Badge tickets:

One ticket is to create and distribute media to help recruit OA Arrowmen at BYU for the Lakota Chapter where my son and I serve. I've got some ideas for flyers and a poster, and have found two people on facebook that are interested in helping out (and have given me great ideas about where I can post things to get the most people seeing them).
Another ticket is to create a Timberline (NYLT) recruiting presentation for my troop and other troops in my district. Last night at roundtable, I spent some time talking to the district committee member who's putting together a local Timberline session for next year.
My third ticket is to run some unity building activities at 75% of our campouts over the next year. We're headed out tonight to go camping and canoeing, and I'm planning on helping the boys do a couple of blind walks -- I' better not forget to bring some bandanas.
My fourth ticket is to complete the requirements for the Personal Fitness merit badge before my next birthday. This week, I've been getting up early each morning to exercise. Monday I'll start the periodic measurements required by the merit badge.
My fifth ticket is to become a certified Leave No Trainer. I've signed up for the October class the council is doing. So far, three other members of my woodbadge troop have signed up as well. It'll be a reunion of sorts.

Back from Wood Badge

2008-08-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from Wood Badge, the second of three scouting activities I'm involved in over the course of three weeks, and I'm really feeling fired up about scouting and my calling to serve as scoutmaster. As part of my Wood Badge experience, I'm working on five tickets (goals to improve myself and benefit the scouts I work with in my various capacities). I won't go into a lot of detail about my tickets now, but I'm sure I'll be posting more about them as time goes by. Hopefully I'll be posting more here about; my experiences as the scoutmaster of troop 37, my continuing Wood Badge experiences, and related topics.

The Wood Badge course was a great experience for me. If you're on the fence about attending one, please hop of the fence and sign up, you won't regret it.

The Church Historian's Press

2008-02-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

This sounds pretty cool. I just saw an announcement that the LDS Church is starting “The Church Historian’s Press”, which will publish “works related to the Church’s origin and growth.” The’re initial project will be the 25-30 volume The Joseph Smith Papers.

The Church Historian, Elder Jensen, said that the new imprint and it’s first project “underscore the great value the Church has always placed on its history. This is an invitation for anyone interested in the history of the Church to read the foundational documents related to its beginning and development.”

The announcement also mentions that the Joseph Smith Papers project has been endorsed by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which is a significant vote of confidence in the project. Professor Harry S. Stout of the project’s advisory board said:

“Receiving this endorsement is important. It conveys the Commission?s conclusion that the staff and procedures of The Joseph Smith Papers meet the NHPRC’s rigorous scholarly standards for transcription and annotation and that the edition will be accurate and professional.”

Sounds like good stuff is happening. I can’t wait to see the fruits of this new endeavor.

Feeling Chastened

2007-12-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, I’ll admit that at times, I come out of a sacrament meeting or a session of general conference feeling slightly chastened about something I’m not doing as well at as I’d like. This morning, I felt myself feeling the same way, and about a topic I’d never have believed possible. You see, I’ve been pretty bad at keeping up my ‘religious’ blog here at “Elders Journal” and now, blogging is being ecouraged (along with participation in other ‘New Media’) by Elder Ballard. Here are a few of the things he had to say in his address at BYU-Hawaii.

About the reasoning for our involvement:

We are living in a world saturated with all kinds of voices. Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us.

His specific invitation/counsel to get involved:

...may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.

The value of our contribution:

The audiences for these and other New Media tools may often be small, but the cumulative effect of thousands of such stories can be great. The combined effort is certainly worth the outcome if but a few are influenced by your words of faith and love of God and His son Jesus Christ.

I guess it’s time for me to repent of my idleness and spend some more time here.

UPDATE: Wow! Elder Ballard's comment's have made the front page of www.lds.org.

Camping with the eleven year olds

2007-04-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Pollyanna is the eleven year old scout leader, I'm the scout master, and Mike is the 'New Scout Troop Guide'. This means that the three of us were all involved in a camping trip and hike last weekend, getting many requirements signed off.

(hmm, this got lost ... but I'll post it anyway.)

What I liked in 1 Ne 12

2007-02-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

1 Ne 12 continues with Nephi's vision/experience from yesterday's reading (1 Ne 11). Some of the things that stood out to me were; vv 1-15, 19-23 — a preview of the proceedings of Nephi's descendents; and the exigetical interlude in vv 16-18 where the angel refers back to Lehi's vision to explain how Nephi's vision fit into it.

What I liked in 1 Ne 11

2007-02-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

It's been while since any of us have blogged, so I'm stuck playing catch-up. I really don't want to break the one post per chapter model though, wo hopefully this means a bunch of posts of the next several days.

I'll start with 1 Ne 11. For a long time, I've seen this as sort of a 'temple experience' that Nephi had. He's taught about the Savior in a vision that includes: the tree of life; the birth, baptism, ministry, and crucifiction of the Lord; and the calling and ministry of the twelve apostles.

A(nother) New Stake Presidency: Part 1

2007-01-21T05:18:00.000-08:00

(Yes, I"m behind on my "What I Liked In ..." series. We're reading every night, I've just been slacking about writing. I'll try to catch up this afternoon. I wanted to write this first, though.)

Yesterday (Saturday, Jan 20th), I attended two sessions of Stake Conference. During the first, I sat with a large group from my ward. Our Stake President spoke first, and talked about the importance of training in leadership councils. He also addressed the reorganization of the Presidency, saying:

"Today and tomorrow we are witnessing a priesthood transition. We are watching the priesthood in action."

Following his comments, we heard from the two visiting authorities, Elder Ence and Elder Workmann (who was presiding). I was especially impressed by Elder Workmann's talk, he spoke with a great deal of passion. His presentation of 'the rising generation as a cycle, not a particular group of people was very interesting. I'll try to blog about it later (after I'm caught up). I also enjoyed a quote that Elder Ence used about taking youth groups to Martin's Cove:

"Martin's cove is not too far, but Lagoon is."

During the break between meetings, we had a final choir practice before singing two pieces in the final conference session of the day. Not much of a break, but a good setting to ponder what I'd heard so far and to try to prepare myself for what was still to come.

During the next session, I was sitting on the stand with the choir (my wife and son were there too). We heard from the two councilors in the current presidency both spoke. They were retrospective, and both expressed a desire to stay true to the faith and to continue to serve in whatever positions they might be called to next. Again, I found Elder Workman to be a powerful speaker.

Overall, I really enjoyed the spirit and content of both meetings, and I'm looking forward to the general session tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing "the priesthood in action."

1 Nephi 7 - Proposing Proposals

2007-01-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

1 And now I would that ye might know, that after my father, Lehi, had made an end of prophesying concerning his seed, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto him again, saying that it was not meet for him, Lehi, that he should take his family into the wilderness alone; but that his sons should take daughters to wife, that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise.
2 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that I, Nephi, and my brethren, should again return unto the land of Jerusalem, and bring down Ishmael and his family into the wilderness.
3 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did again, with my brethren, go forth into the wilderness to go up to Jerusalem.
4 And it came to pass that we went up unto the house of Ishmael, and we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael, insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord.
5 And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the heart of Ishmael, and also his household, insomuch that they took their journey with us down into the wilderness to the tent of our father.

This is NOT the strangest proposal I've ever heard of:
"Four+ guys, escaping the pollution of the city, like long journeys into and out of the wilderness, and like to rough up the youngest of us."

or

Dad's permission + Daughter + Wilderness = Marriage

How realistic is this? Could a formula like this really work in today's world?

If you haven't heard it yet, it's about time you know the story of Patrick's proposal to me.

The first time we saw each other was at a bar. . . okay, it was the breakfast bar at Shari's restaurant near Seattle where I worked graveyard, but the kids fall over into a fit of giggles when we put it this way . . . one of the reasons to have kids is to see everything anew through their eyes.

We were set up soon afterwards to go on a 'blind' triple-date with Pat's parents and the couple who had introduced us. Why the two of us? Because I worked at the same restaurant as the guy who arranged it. Patrick's parents were coming through town (Seattle) from Rhode Island on their way to be stationed in Korea and his friend was an old friend of the family from Patrick's High School days in Kansas. (Instead of a 'translation guide' I should probably include a map, huh?) This friend of Patrick's was in the Seattle area because he was engaged to a girl who lived here and they were to be married in a month, back in Kansas. Patrick's parents offered to take the five of them out to dinner and Patrick declined saying something along the lines of . . . "Why don't the four of you go out and have a good time." His friend responded with, "Well, I know a girl . . ."

I'll leave out the gory details . . . you'll have to ask in person,
but all the way home from the date, the couple kept saying, "He REALLY likes you" and asking, "So, what do YOU think of HIM?"

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I knew I was safe in NOT marrying him. Here was a non-religious make-up wearing, punk rocker who finished his pack of cigarettes and served pre-dinner coffee at his apartment, before we left for pre-dinner alcoholic beverages at the restaurant. I declined all of these 'hors d'oeuvres' and hoped I didn't embarrass the rest of the group when the matre'de asked to see I.D. and I told them in no uncertain terms that I was well under age.

I never really expected to see Patrick again as I was 'seeing' someone else and Patrick was NOT my type. So 'fate' took a hand and made sure that I would.

That summer was crazy. I was directing my first musical, Peter Pan. (The usual drama related disasters accompanied our production: our prima-donna was always threatening to quit if things didn't go her way; one month before the show, my choreographer asked leave to go to France and be with her husband on an extended business trip, I told her that if I were married, I wouldn't want my husband alone in France, so I said it was ok; two weeks before the show, the set designer quit because his wife was filing for 'divorce' he had only cut out one cannon - leaving me with a second cannon, a large window pane, a canoe that had to move across stage, several boulders and trees for the mermaids and lost boys, and a pirate ship to make; the day before our opening night, the building-manager tried to cancel my reservation, and on the day of performance, some of the parents threatened not to let their children perform in the play because they didn't see eye-to-eye with the make up artists. . . typical theatrical mayhem.) Add to this series of fiascos, my 'boyfriend' from California coming up in the middle of rehearsals on my birthday only to find that I had the chicken pox. You know how difficult it is to run play rehearsals when you are contagious to half your cast? Yes, I was desperate.

While my customers at the restaurant were asking for this or that, I began asking my customers if they could spare time to help cut, paste, paint, etc. Patrick began to come in more often for a bottomless cup of coffee, and of course, being the swell guy that he was, he offered to help out. He would drive about an hour from the military base south of Tacoma where he was stationed and help out most afternoons.

Pat and his buddy from the restaurant would paint and paste sets in the church building where the performances were to be held and then move outside to take a smoke break . . . the questions of concerned church patrons just added to my delimmas. When it came time to take breaks, Patrick always offered to buy me lunch, but not wanting to lead him on, I paid my own way. I specifically remember praying silently over my lunch at the Shari's restaurant and asking, "Please help Patrick know that I do not like him than more than I do, and please help me not fall hopelessly head over heals just because he opens the door for me."

By the end of the summer, my nerves were a wreck and I asked my parents if I could fly down to visit my boyfriend in California after the performances ended. I guess they disapproved of my California 'dream-date' because they said that if I did that I could take my stuff with me and not plan on returning.

Enter the Herculean Tasks - stage right.

I really wanted a break between the last performance and the start of college classes so I asked if I could accompany a stranger I met at the restaurant on his way to Kansas and see one of our mutual friends tie-the-knot. This was a Sunday. Much to my surprise, my Mom said, "Yes, if you can:

#1. Get a driver's license. (Even though I attended driver's ed, I followed it with two major leg operations, one in 11th grade, the other in 12th) My parents had to take care of all 7 kids living at home, I was the oldest; my Mom worked graveyard at the hospital and ran a daycare out of our home (10-13 kids) during the day; my Dad worked at the hospital with over-time and spent his weekends in the Army Reserves; they were understandably tired of running me around. - Patrick drove me to the DMV on Tuesday.

#2. Buy a car. (This shocked me, I didn't know why she included this, unless she thought it wasn't possible). I asked one of my customers, who used to race professionally, if he could take me car shopping. -In retropect, I don't know how this could have happened on Monday, seeing I didn't have a license yet, but I drove home my car the day after my conversation with my mom - my sense of right and wrong was a bit skewed.

#3. Pay someone to clean up after the musical. (My Mom was afraid that since I was a minor, she might be held responsible if I were to just up and leave . . . I don't blame her). You remember the choreographer who left for France? She had just arrived and for $20 said she'd be happy to haul it all to the dump.

It was now Wednesday afternoon, and to make a long story short . . . too late . . . as I was racing home from the last performance and stuffing dirty clothes into a suit case to head to Kansas, my Mom asked me if I had asked my Dad. "Oh, great", I thought, "My dad runs off every boy I've ever met; including high school students, musicians, a recently enlisted military guy, college kids, a chiropractor, etc. It seemed it wasn't age, talent, education, or a career he was concerned with." - looking back it was his daughter. Normally, I'd have to wait until he got home at night, but for some reason he had come home early that day. As I came up the stairs to the living room, there was my dad and my ride out of town shooting the breeze and having a good time. He simply said, "Take care of her son." My mom later told me that from her eavesdropping position in the kitchen, she about dropped the canning jars.

So we left for Kansas, he on one side of the car, me on the other, trying not to inhale.

Since Kansas was his old stomping ground, he went and looked up old friends and, with nothing better to do, I tagged along. They would ask about me, and at first we just said we had a mutual friend, then when they would press us we'd say, "Um, yea, we're friends", but after the dozen or so inquiries, it became monotonous, so we started saying boy friend and girl friend just to appease the masses. The wedding and reception came towards the end of the week, by then, everyone in town thought we were an item. I guess the joke was on me though, because I was the only one in the state who didn't believe it. After the wedding, where I think I remember the bride and groom toasting our 'engaged relationship' we were headed home to civilization. After about 20 minutes, when we had reached a popular spot in the mid-west: 'the-middle-of-nowhere,' Patrick pulled over to the side of the road announcing he'd forgotten something. I now know what was on his mind, but all I was thinking was, good thing he remembered the item he'd left behind so soon after we'd left.

So, next to the middle of a corn field, [not quite a wilderness, but close] he told me what he had forgotten,
"I forgot to ask you to marry me."

I had been to BYU, the marriage proposal capital of the world, and including the don't leave for college without marrying me, and the 'I've enlisted, marry me' . . . I'd laughed off half a dozen proposals without even breaking a sweat, I was going to get my college degree and travel the world before I was married.

In the end, I was 'right', I just got them in the wrong order, in the first 18 years of my life I got engaged, 18 years later we traveled around the world, and 18 years from now, I hope to have finished my college degree.

So for my proposal, I guess it worked,

Dad's permission + Daughter + Wilderness = Marriage

What was my reaction to Patrick's proposal? How was the trip home from Kansas? What was everyone's reaction back in Seattle? That's another story. . . Read on.

1 Nephi 6 - Need I Say More?

2007-01-18T19:15:00.000-08:00

"3 ... I desire the room that I may write of the things of God.
4 For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to bcome unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.
5 Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.
6 Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men."

Need I say more?

A(nother) New Stake Presidency: Part 0

2007-01-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I wrote a series of posts about getting a new Stake Presidency in the Kent, Washington Stake. Now, about two years later, We're living in the Oak Hills, Provo, Utah Stake and we're again in the middle of the reorganization of a Stake Presidency.

I don't know the brethren presiding here as well as I did the men in Kent. I've felt their spirit though, and believe them to been called of God to the positions they hold. They've served for a long time and (by all accounts) have been wonderful leaders.

As our conference approaches, I've been reflecting on my experiences in Kent. I hope to receive a strong witness of the calling and authority of our new presidency. I've also been encouraging my family and the young men in the Deacons quorum (with whom I work) to prepare for, seek, and expect that witness as well.

What I liked in 1 Ne 10

2007-01-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

I noticed several things in 1 Ne 10 as we read it tonight:

1 Ne 10:2-11 — Lehi prophecies of the fall of Judah, the coming of the Messiah, and of John the Baptist.
1 Ne 10:12-14 — Lehi compares mankind to an olive tree, prefiguring Jacob 5 (which makes me think that Jacob was probably exposed to it through his father's reading of the Brass Plates, I'm very interested in how parents language and teachings affect their children's language and teachings in the scriptures).
1 Ne 10:16 — Another reference to Lehi dwelling in a tent. Hmm, maybe these bookend something, time to go back and look again.
1 Ne 10:17-19 — Nephi desires to know for himself and teaches about God's willingness to share knowledge with His children.

What I liked in 1 Ne 9

2007-01-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

1 Ne 9 is a short chapter with an important message — the Lord knows why He asks us to do something, even if we don't. If He knows, then we should probably go ahead and do it.

What I Liked in 1 Ne 8

2007-01-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

Every time we read 1 Ne 8 I get caught up in the imagery. Some of the things that stood out to me this time were:

1 Ne 8:7-8 — Lehi traveling through the dark and dreary waste. I like both the metaphor of life without the gospel and his prayer that the Lord would show him mercy according to His great and tender mercies (shades of Elder Bednar's talk).
1 Ne 8:10-16 — Lehi partakes of the fruit, then wants to share it with his family.
1 Ne 8:21-28 — The great and spacious building, it was interesting to read this and then hear President Packer talking about it in his devotional at BYU.
1 Ne 8:36-37 — Lehi's feelings for his children.

What I liked in 1 Ne 7

2007-01-16T06:06:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we read 1 Ne 7, and with this entry I'll be caught up. (We don't read as a family on Monday nights, holding Family Home Evening instead.) This chapter is about a second trip back to Jerusalem (the first was covered in 1 Ne 3-4).
It impresses me that in the first trip, Nephi and his brothers collect the Plates of Brass (or, the scriptures), establishing a spiritual foundation for themselves. Then in the second trip, they go back to find wives with whom to establish families. What a great model for building successful families — it makes me think one of the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood: "Prepare to become a worthy husband and father." In the Aaronic Priesthood program, we're trying to help the young men follow the same pattern that Nephi followed.

A number of sections of this chapter stood out to me as I read:

1 Ne 7:8-12 — Nephi preaching to his rebellious brothers.
1 Ne 7:17-18 — Nephi praying for a miracle. This remindes me that when we're faithful, and turn to the Lord, He will give us the means to accomplish His work (see also Ether 12:27).
1 Ne 7:21 &mdah; After all that they do to him, Nephi still "frankly forgives" his brothers.

What I liked in 1 Ne 6

2007-01-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm behind in my posting again. but that doesn't mean there weren't good things to read in 1 Ne 6. In this chapter Nephi writes about

His purpose in writing (and the purpose of scriptures in general) in 1 Ne 6:4. "For the fulness of mine intent is that I may ^apersuade men to ^bcome unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved."
His approach in writing (which should be our approach in teaching, and living, the gospel) in 1 Ne 6:5. "Wherefore, the things which are ^apleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world."

Verse 5 also has parallels in Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph F Smith, Chapter 5:

"Some of our good people read many of the books that are published today, popular fiction so-called but they haven’t time to read the Word of the Lord. Many of these books are beautiful, but often many ideas are expressed which are only pretty words, well-connected sentences or sentiments that are like flowers blooming on the stem without root. Real truth you can gain from books that have been adopted as standard works of the Church. I see too many of our people who are very much better read in the things that are written by some of the popular authors of books than they are in the things of God. They don’t know one thing about the real essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they don’t know or comprehend one thing about the rites of the Priesthood and the principles of government that God has revealed to the children of men to maintain the kingdom of God in the earth. They know more about novels than they do about the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants—yes, far more."

day5

2007-01-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

So today I got to choose how we read the Book of Mormon (everyone does, it goes from youngest to oldest). I said that we would change when the reader would could call some one else (they could only read for 2 verses at a time). Then they would have to read it was very fun

What I liked in 1 Nephi 5

2007-01-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hey, I'm caught up again, yay!

Tonight as we read 1 Ne 5, I was struck by a couple of things:

In 1 Ne 5:8, Sariah has just finished complaining, and then realizing how much she and her family have been blessed. In her praise, she makes it very clear that because of the trials she's just been through that her testimony is stronger — now, she knows of a surety.
In 1 Ne 5:10, Lehi takes the time to 'search [the plates] from the beginning'. To me this is important for two reasons. First, even though they're travelling through the wilderness, it's important to Lehi to study the scriptures. Second, he doesn't just read them, he searches them from the beginning.

Oh, one thing from yesterday. I really liked how Nephi has already begun associating his journey through the wilderness with the Exodus and drawing parallels between the situations they find themselves in.

What I liked in 1 Nephi 4

2007-01-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

Last night's reading (yes, I'm still a day behind) was 1 Ne 4. Once again, here's my list of neat things(which picks up with yesterday's):

1 Ne 4:1-38 — continues the set of three examples from chapter 3
1 Ne 4:19-21 — A neat parallel to Gen 27.
1 Ne 4:32-38 — the absolute adherance to oaths

In my last post I talked about two examples: doing things our way, and doing them the world's way. In this chapter, we see that the best way to get results when trying to do the Lord's work is to do it His way. It only makes sense, doesn't it.

The parallel I mentioned above is also pretty striking. Laban was the keeper of the plates, but when he failed to live up to that responsibility he was replaced in that role. If we're not living up to the responsibilities of our callings, that may be our fate as well — hopefully not as drastically as was Laban.

1 Nephi 5 - Nagging Doubts

2007-01-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

It never ceases to bring me to some point of self evaluation when I read 1 Nephi 5:3

3: . . . My mother complained against my father

Here they were, sending their children off on a mission from God, and Sariah (Lehi's wife and the mother of Nephi) is regretting the decision to let them go on such a dangerous errand. I can not count the number of times that I've complained about serving others (at church or otherwise) - but I'm sure that God knows how many times.

After I see the benefits (that everything came together, that the goal was accomplished, that no one was injured, physically or emotionally) then I understand more why we were to do things in a certain way and how great it was from the beginning.

8: And she spake, saying: Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded . . . [us to do this] . . . yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected . . . [us in our adventures] . . . and given [us] power whereby [we] could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded [us] And after this manner of language did she speak.
9: And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel.

Why can't I seem to let go of nagging doubts and worry before and during events and regrets afterwards? I would enjoy life better.
Plan something? Yes.
Do my best? Yes.
Worry that it won't be wonderful, safe, and then afterwards loved by all? - - It's just not worth it, it takes all the joy out of it.

Someday, when I'm all grown up, (soon, I hope,) I'll be able to put these things in God's hands and carry on. Then when I read this chapter I'll no longer feel the pains of regret that I complained when there wasn't a reason to.

1 Nephi 4 - Lost and Found/Trust

2007-01-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

I'm always impressed by two parts in this chapter,
one is the way Nephi is able to follow the Spirit into a city the size of a modern metropolis in the dark and he doesn't get lost in location or in what to do next;
the other is that Zoram trusts them not to kill him later, and they trust him not to rat them out to the highest bidder all because they take an oath.

When faced with an unknown situation, I am not always the first to hit my knees and ask for help. But I do know that it works. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints every person who joins the church through baptism and lives worthily may accept a 'call' to some voluntary work. Usually the bishop, or one of his counselor's, pray about and receive inspiration as to who the Lord wants to serve in a position, or a 'calling'. They invite you to serve in this calling until the Lord has need of you elsewhere. Sometimes a calling is one that you have some experience in, but more often than not, it is completely new territory. People often say that the reason they are called to a position is because THEY need to learn those skills the most, not because they're the greatest at it. Like the time I was asked be the pianist - I hadn't had lessons since I was in elementary school. The time I was asked to be the Emergency Preparedness Co-ordinator for our area, I hadn't put my own food storage in order yet. Or currently, as the Scout Master of the 11 year old boys - I'm allergic to almost everything out-of-doors and I have a fear of creepy crawlies. In the six months that I have had this calling, I've worn through more pants kneeling in prayer than in meandering in the woods - I still feel a bit lost, sometimes literally, but I'm beginning to find my way.

As for oaths . . .

32 And it came to pass that I spake with him, that if he would hearken unto my words, as the Lord liveth, and as I live, even so that if he would hearken unto our words, we would spare his life.
33 And I spake unto him, even with an OATH, that he need not fear; that he should be a free man like unto us if he would go down in the wilderness with us.
34 And I also spake unto him, saying: Surely the Lord hath commanded us to do this thing; and shall we not be diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord? Therefore, if thou wilt go down into the wilderness to my father thou shalt have place with us.
35 And it came to pass that Zoram did take courage at the words which I spake. Now Zoram was the name of the servant; and he promised that he would go down into the wilderness unto our father. Yea, and he also made an OATH unto us that he would tarry with us from that time forth.
36 Now we were desirous that he should tarry with us for this cause, that the Jews might not know concerning our flight into the wilderness, lest they should pursue us and destroy us.
37 And it came to pass that when Zoram had made an OATH unto us, our fears did cease concerning him.
(emphasis added)

And you think the scenes on today's TV shows are intense - this is a live or die moment. Their conversation is without a 'free phone call.' 'Do you feel lucky?' They are putting their lives in each others hands and there is no "bad-boy, bad-boy 'desert police' " - even if there were, who's payroll do you think they'd be on anyway?

To think a man's word would be all it took. I wish that were the case today, I have trouble making a cash deposit into my own bank account without providing my full name, address, phone number and weight at birth. And if you think Zoram is a guy just out for his own agenda - personal freedom - think again, he certainly proves otherwise in upcoming chapters. . . read on!

1 Nephi 3 - Stepping into the Unknown

2007-01-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

My earliest memories of reading The Book of Mormon with my parents and siblings all center around Nephi and his courage to do what was right and his faith that God would come through even when stepping into unknown territory. Nephi tells his father,

7: "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

I wanted to be like that, for my younger brothers and sisters, for my friends, and later for my husband and children.
I remember a Sunday school lesson about a child who was bringing a lunch to their father. The father was working down in a deep well. When the child arrived, they asked if they could come down there in the hole and see what it was that dad had been up to all day. The father gave his consent and then told the child to jump into his awaiting arms. The father could clearly see the child, but the child could only see shadows. Then after some reassuring words, the child made the 'leap of faith' and the father caught them safely in his strong arms.

I think about the times that our family has had to take one step into the dark. Like when we moved to the East Coast. We were just about to sign papers on a house near our street in Portland, Oregon when our landlord asked if we were interested in buying the rental home we were in. We said we'd like to sleep on it. The next day, out of the blue, my husband, Patrick, was laid off. As a manager at the company, he had been told that after the holiday break they should prepare their staff for some lay offs. The way he figures it, he prepared them, by being the first one out onto the plank and setting the example.

We went to the temple the next day to pray about what we should do. Afterwards, we talked about where it was we'd be willing to go and if there were any strong feelings or impressions about where. Both of us simultaneously mentioned Boston. Neither of us had lived there, but Patrick's parents were last stationed by the military in nearby Rhode Island. So, we went again to the temple, this time with the express purpose of getting an answer about the Boston area.

If you're not familiar with temples in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we go the first time in life to participate in a special ceremony for ourselves; after that, we return to perform the same ceremony on behalf of those in our family tree. We believe that in the life beyond, those who did not have an opportunity to perform these ordinances for themselves can then choose whether or not to accept this work, as we perform the sacred acts and make promises our thoughts are on the Savior, Jesus Christ, and on our covenants that we have made. At the end of this 'work' we may take time to reflect on current needs of others and ourselves while in the unhurried and peaceful atmosphere of the temple and it's grounds.

We both left the temple feeling as though we were already in the Boston temple, although there wasn't one in New England at the time. Within two weeks we had hosted good-bye parties for the kids, packed the house and arranged for transportation for ourselves and our things and were headed into the greater Boston area. Pat had spent every spare moment hunting remotely for work, yet there was no word from anyone. We left, leaping into the dark and hoping that He would catch us.

Our travel arrangements took only one day, but by the time we arrived, there was a job interview scheduled the first morning we would be there. Our timetable was so tight, that Pat had to drop us off at a hotel in the middle of 'no-where' and head straight there. He got the job, we found a house, two years later we attended the Boston Temple dedication with new found friends we had helped teach the gospel to, and we found reassurance that if -

we go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded . . . that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

day4

2007-01-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

... finally the sprit tells nephi to kill laban and take the plates (and zoram {labans servant} comes to)

day 3

2007-01-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

so in this chapter nephi laman sam lemuel go back to jerusalem to get the plates the try talking they try money and finally they try ... stay tuned

What I liked in 1 Nephi 3

2007-01-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

Last night we read 1 Nephi 3, and it was late enough that I put off blogging about it until this morning. I did take some notes though, so hopefully I'm not leaving too much out.

This time around, I'd like to share three and a half things (the last one will be continued in tonight's reading):

1 Ne 3:5 — More about murmuring, again, it's Laman and Lemuel murmuring because they really don't understand what's going on.
1 Ne 3:6 — This time, we read that Nephi is favored of the Lord because he doesn't murmer against Him.
1 Ne 3:7 — This one's too good not to quote -
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
1 Ne 3:11-4:38 — This section contains three examples of trying to accomplish the Lord's work.

Since only the first two (failed) examples (in item 4) occur in chapter three, I'll talk about them in this post and the other in my next post:

1 Ne 3:11-14 — Nephi and his brothers try to do things on their own (Laman trying to talk Laban into giving them the Brass Plates), it doesn't work.
1 Ne 3:16-27 — Nephi and his brothers try to do things the world's way (they gather up all their treasures and try to buy the Brass Plates); again, it doesn't work.

Leaving the third example isn't much of a cliff-hanger, but it's all I've got. See you tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.

1 Nephi 2 - A Dream Come True

2007-01-07T18:56:00.000-08:00

It may not have been a 'dream vacation' for the whole family, but I can relate to what Lehi's kids and wife must have been going through.

2 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness.
3 And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him.

As a child our family moved in answer to prayers, visions, and dreams of where the Lord wanted our family. With every announcement of a move there the typical reactions portrayed by Lehi's family. Denial, fear, misplaced anger, rationalization, hope, and , for most of us - most of the time, acceptance. I'll share one of the dozen or so moves I remember as a child. We were living in my dad's family home down in Southern California (his parents had passed away). We tried to sell it and move into a new housing development in a place called Mira Loma, then, a new city developing outside of the Los Angeles region. In a real estate market that is normally thriving, ours wasn't getting any offers. As a family, we prayed and fasted about it. We decided to give up our bid on a house in the development and that very day our house sold. Wow! Now where do we live. As a kid, this idea of being homeless was worrisome. So we prayed again. My mom, Sharon, had a 'dream'. This is the first one I remember her telling us kids. We lived in a home near the beach, but there were evergreens there. We all had a good laugh, anyone from LA knows that only palm trees grow on beaches. Next thing we knew, my dad was accepted for his hospital residency in Northern California along the coast of McKinleyville. First thing we did when we arrived was to scope our the beach, 'And what to my wondering eyes should appear' but evergreen trees on the beach. After searching hopelessly for 6 weeks and living out of a hotel room, we found a house available on Sharon Road.
This wasn't the first or last time we were blessed by moving on a 'wing and a prayer'. So it came as no surprise to my husband and I to feel inspired to move and to feel free to follow this inspiration. My husband and I have packed up and moved 24 times in our 18 years of marriage. So, as a wife, I feel for Sariah who went out for a quick trip to the wilderness and spent 8 years in the desert, crossed an ocean, and died in a foreign place. It may not be a dream vacation, but it is certainly a dream come true.

Five Things I liked in 1 Ne 2

2007-01-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

As you can see today we read the second chapter of First Nephi as a family. I picked out five things that I really liked:

1 Ne 2:3 — Lehi was obedient to the Lord.
1 Ne 2:7 — Lehi and his family were observant even though they were travelling, even though it was hard.
1 Ne 2:8-11 — Lehi found (and took) opportunities to teach his family in the things they did and the places they were.
1 Ne 2:12 — A great description of why we murmer.
1 Ne 2:16-17 — A pattern that helps explain why missionary work (evangelism) is so important to me.

The pattern in verses 16 and 17 is probably worth breaking out:

(implied) We hear the gospel (or a specific gospel teaching).
We desire to learn for ourselves.
We pray to know the truth.
We receive and answer by the Spirit.
We then obey what we've learned (see also 1 Ne 2:3 in point 1 above).
We testify to others of the truth we've learned.

I really love reading the Book of Mormon, both by myself and as a family. Even though our reading time can be filled with jokes, interruptions, and strange tangents (hey, you try reading something every night with two teenagers) it is an enriching and important part of my evenings.

day 2

2007-01-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

favorite scripture : 1 nephi 2:15 "And my father dwelt in a tent.". I think that this will be a fun time reading through the book of mormon. So far there has already been jokes, tears, and punctuation.

Glory to God in the Highest

2007-01-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

While we visited Europe this summer, we spent a day and a half in Heidelberg (where I lived as a kid). This sign is on a church along the pedestrian only market area in the old town.

A Record to Play Over and Over Again.

2007-01-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

It's really great to see our family start reading The Book of Mormon again. The first time we read it as a family we read only a verse or two at a time and then explained each part at the children's level of understanding and within their attention span. It took 8-10 years. The next time we read it all in about 2 1/2 years. We finished in time to read it with our new ward in Kent, WA where there was a tradition of reading through it in one month's time every August.
We were only able to read it in a month by reading it out loud about 8-10 pages every morning and night . . . Good thing my husband was out of work at the time, it took about an hour for each reading. By the next August we had read The Book of Mormon again and yet the ward decided to read the New Testament in a month. We did this, but the results didn't yield quite the same feeling. We read it once again, this time we tried reading parts of it in Spanish on Saturdays. If you do this, and are not very accurate in your pronunciation of the Spanish language, as we are not, I suggest you use the CD's. This helped tremendously. We stayed in the Kent ward one more year and read it again with them in a month . . . the great feelings associated in reading The Book of Mormon all the way through in such a short period of time returned.
The following year we read The Book of Mormon 'backwards' starting with the last book, Moroni, reading it from start to finish, then moving onto the next to the last book, Ether, etc. This was a nice twist, kind of like the joke about playing country music backwards, everybody came and went and instead of ending with blood and carnage and only one faithful saint left alive - there was this little family of faithful members Lehi and his wife Sariah, and their faithful kids Nephi, Jacob, Joseph, and their friend, Zoram. Sobering to think that we have a little family of faithful followers right now - yet what will our posterity be like if we don't pass along a burning testimony of the gospel to future generations. We ended this version the summer that Gordon B. Hinckley asked us to read The Book of Mormon by Christmas. To our delight, our new ward (Provo, UT) also reads The Book of Mormon annually. The Relief Society does it every year ending with a Christmas brunch and testimony meeting (for everyone in the ward who reads it), which was great to attend as a family. The youth in this ward also have a Book of Mormon marathon where they read it/hear it during a 24 hours YM/YW overnight activity. This being our first year they asked us to participate and so I did what I do best, theatre. At their request, we enacted two parts of The Book of Mormon (Abinadi in King Noah's Court) and (Jesus Christ's visit to the Americas) while it was being read out of the scriptures.
This last year we have also picked up The Book of Mormon in German, Das Buch Mormon. If you've ever seen "Other Side of Heaven" or read the great stories of early church missionaries' experiences with the gift of tongues, it really does work. As an additional treat we went on a once in a life time journey to Germany (Patrick lived there twice during his youth). It was a great opportunity to put our new knowledge into practice.
So now we are reading and blogging, another goal that we've always wanted to do with our kids. . . this being the last year we are all together. (Next year our eldest of two, is planning to move out of the home headed for college life and start her own traditions with reading The Book of Mormon.) I hope this year's blogging gives her a cumulative and tangible record of our family's testimony of The Book of Mormon.

Reading Together

2007-01-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

This week we've been reading the front-matter and started First Nephi (tonight, we read 1 Ne 1). Reading together and trying to keep everyone engaged can be a challenge.

I loved reading Joseph Smith's testimony last night. It's such a powerful couple of pages. I get chills everytime I read it. A few years ago we lived close enough to Palmyra, New York, that we were able to visit the places where these events occurred, which helped put a 'face' on the whole thing.

I've also been reading the new Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball book. Since I'm working with the Young Men, I don't get to attend the Elders Quorum classes using this and I have to take some extra time to keep up. As a convert, I really liked the section about his focus on missionary work while serving as President of the Church in the chapter on hisLife and Ministry.

The Book Of Mormon- Week One

2007-01-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

When reading the Book of Mormon this first week I've been impressed by the ability to read along in different ways. All the time understanding what we were reading.

the bom

2007-01-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hey I am reading the Book of Mormon chapter by chapter, and blogging about it too... yeah. Keep watching or would that be reading any way keep reading and see what comes up.

1 Nephi 1 - Of Goodly Parents & Mercy

2007-01-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

It wasn't until I was a parent myself, that I realized Nephi made this statement about "being born of goodly-parents" after he was already a dad. So, I feel less pressure to have my kids walking around spurting compliments like this one.
I really loved what the newest apostle said about the 'Tender Mercies of the Lord' (Conference Report from October 2004). Nephi states it in verse 20, "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
I cannot count the times that our family has been shown the 'tender mercies of the Lord' in delivering us. Whether from the storm tossed seas outside our beach front window during the Nor'Easter of 2001, or being lost, locked out, injured, sick, hungry, broke, etc. the Lord has seen fit to spare us and let us live to tell the tale, that Jesus is the Savior of the World.

Title Page, Witnesses, and Introduction

2007-01-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

Don't skip the prelude! Last year at this time I had just finished writing, directing, and starring in a theatrical production of "Christmas with the Smiths". I don't think my testimony of Joseph Smith will ever be the same. After reading thousands of pages of Church History, personal journals, and eye-witness accounts of his time, I have come to feel that the prophet Joseph Smith is more human and more real than I ever before imagined.
So, as I read the Title page, the Witnesses testimony, and the Introduction, I see them as though they were events that were happening or being recorded afresh. The angel Moroni's "instruction and intelligence" during the "interviews" with Joseph Smith each year were not just kept to himself, but you find out by reading from his Mother's writings that young Joseph shared these things with his family in the evenings to pass the time.
You wonder if the Witnesses were afraid to sign their names to the document, or were they more fearful of the consequences if they let down the powers of heaven that allowed them to see what they did.
Even Joseph Smith's testimony comes alive when he states: "I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose." Just leaving the place where he obtained the plates and getting back to his wife who awaited him with horse and wagon in the middle of the night, Joseph was attacked by assailants. But the miracles were not only in the escapes from constant danger. To me the miracles were in the ways the plates could be taken and given again on at least two occasions to keep them safe until, as Joseph says, "by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand."

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2007-01-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

I'm making a quick change in how I run this blog, and what it's for. I'm inviting my wife and kids to join me as we write about our experiences studying the scriptures this year. Since I'll be blogging more often, I may find the impetus to start blogging some more LDS specific stuff as well.

Tower of Babel

2006-09-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ping Pong Pairing (or something remotely like it)

2006-03-22T06:31:00.000-08:00

Spent some time last night ping pong pairing with a friend in St Louis. (We're working on a not quite secret project — the Dryer Fluff release of checkr, think lint for Ruby.) He'd write a test, then I'd implement the code to make it work. I'd write a test, and he'd make the code pass. Back and forth over several quick (and a couple of longer) iterations. It was a great way to code. It would have been nice to be colocated with him though, being a couple thousand miles apart is a bit of an impediment to real pairing.

The other cool thing was touching base with zenspider and Eric Hodel on some ParseTree issues while they were at the seattle.rb hacking night.

Danny's Dream -- Chapter 3: From the Beginning

2005-11-30T07:20:00.000-08:00

That night, after Danny had finished saying prayers with his dad, he carried his Book of Mormon, his lantern, and his blanket over to the window seat. Danny carefully laid everything out like he was going to camp out under the stars. Then he sat down and started to read.

Since he'd already read the verses his brother Tom had asked him to, Danny decided to start reading at the beginning. He'd tried it once before, but it seemed like he could never get past "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents".

This time, he really wanted to read the whole book. Pretty soon, his eyes started to close, and his head started to nod. Before he realized it, Danny was asleep.

Danny heard voices and started to stir. It seemed very hot under his blanket. Danny pushed it off of himself and opened his eyes. It was bright. He wasn't in his room. He didn't know where he was.

Danny looked around. He was in an alley, there were stone walls on both sides of the alley. One end of it opened out onto a street. Danny saw people on the street. They were dressed strangely, wearing what looked like robes and pajamas. The people looked busy. Some of them were carrying baskets.

A voice cut through the other sounds. "Dried figs! Come and see the finest figs in Jerusalem. Figs and Dates!" Jerusalem? What was the man saying? What was happening? Danny looked down. All of his things were gone; his lantern, his Book of Mormon, even his blanket. Then he noticed that he wasn't in his regular clothes either. Danny was dressed just like the people that he saw.

Danny was scared. He wanted to cry. What was he going to do? Where were his mom and dad?

Suddenly, another voice sounded above the others. "People of Jerusalem, repent! Jeremiah has spoken the word of the Lord and his words condemn you. Destruction is near if you will not set aside your sins and come unto the Lord."

Other voices, angry voices began to swell. "Joshua! Go back to your cave." "We don't want you here Joshua." "Why would the Lord destroy us? We're his chosen people. Jerusalem will stand forever!"

The new voices were saying things that didn't sound right. They sounded angry. Danny wished he could shut out these new voices and hear this Joshua guy. That didn't seem too likely though. People were starting to gather closer together. One of them stood apart from the others. The crowd looked mad. One of them bent down and picked up a rock. He threw it at the man standing alone. "Take that Joshua! All of you false prophets deserve to be stoned." Joshua, the man
who'd been standing alone, started to run. He was headed right toward Danny's alley.

Danny pressed himself back up against the wall. Joshua ran right past him. The crowd followed. Some of them threw rocks at Joshua as he ran away. They were shouting and laughing. Danny had thought he was scared earlier. Now he was terrified. The men chasing Joshua didn't even seem to notice him though. They were too angry.

As the crowd ran past him, Danny started to sneak back out toward the street they had come from. As he stepped out of the alley, he nearly ran into someone. It was a young man, but he didn't look angry like the crowd had. He looked sad, and suprised to see Danny. "Hi there. What is a child like you doing on the streets alone? What's your name?" He asked.

"My name is Daniel, sir. And I'm lost. Can you help me?" Danny asked, his fear of the crowd and his strange surroundings overcoming his normal shyness.

"Daniel, my name is Nephi, the son of Lehi. I'll help you. Let's get you to my father. He'll know what to do, he always does." The young man, Nephi, said. Nephi put his arm around Danny's shoulders and the two of them walked down the road together.

Later, as Danny and Nephi arrived at Lehi's home. They met another young man, a little bit older than Nephi. As they walked through a stone gateway into a yard filled with animals, Nephi called out to him, "Samuel. I've brought Daniel home to eat with us. He's lost and needs our help."

"I'll go and let mother know that we'll have another mouth to feed at lunch. Father's not here right now. He should be home this evening though." Replied Samuel, and he went across the yard into the house.

Danny loved the yard. There were goats and chickens running loose. A box, made out of stone, stood against a low stone wall, filled with water. One of the goats stood in front of it, drinking from the water inside. Standing in a shady spot against a wall of the house several large clay pots were stacked.

As he and Nephi walked across the yard, Danny looked at everything. As they reached the house Danny realized that there was no door, just a heavy sheet of fabric hanging in the doorway. Nephi pulled it aside and the two of them entered.

Danny spent the afternoon with Nephi. They had lunch soon after arriving. Instead of sandwiches and milk, they ate a strange kind of bread dipped in some kind of sauce and small chunks of cheese. The bread was round and flat -- Nephi would tear off a piece, scoop up some of the sauce and eat it like Danny would have eaten dip with potato chips. The cheese was white and hard, it tasted salty. As they ate, Danny and Nephi drank warm water. Danny wondered what Nephi would have thought about cold milk and fresh baked cookies.

After lunch, they went out and to gather wood. As they worked, Nephi and Danny talked. "What's it like having a prophet for your dad?" Danny asked.

"A prophet? You must be thinking of somebody else. My father is a merchant." Nephi replied. "Jeremiah, now he's a prophet. Some of the men who follow him are prophets too, like Joshua from the market today."

"Joshua is a prophet? But he said that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed! Shouldn't we leave or something?" asked Danny.

"He's a prophet all right. Jeremiah teaches the same thing.'' Said Nephi. "My father says that they speak the word of God. Samuel and I believe them too. My older brothers don't though. They think that because we are of Israel's line, Jerusalem will never fall."

"If a prophet says so, then it'll happen." Said Danny.

What I Don't do at Work

2005-11-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

As promised, here's another tidbit about work. I thought I'd start out by talking about a couple of things I'm not working on at work.

First, I'm not working on the fabled 'Digitize everything in the Vaults' project. I know things are being done, I don't know how much, how fast, or how accessible things will be. (I am hopeful that there are cool things happening somewhere here at church headquarters.)

Second, I'm not working on the Family Search Indexing project. It looks really cool, except that it requires Windows and IE. I've heard that it's going to go into use fairly soon -- I don't know what scale to measure soon by though.

Third, I don't work on any of the existing LDS web sites (LDS.org, ProvidentLiving.org, JosephSmith.net, etc.) There are a lot of cool things hiding out there though. Even though I don't work on any of them, I do try to make good use of them -- if you're not familiar with them, maybe you should be.

Oh, yeah, there are some other things I don't work on at work -- my writing projects (blog or otherwise), Free Software that we're not using, and a variety of stuff like that. That's what I do when I should be sleeping.

Danny's Dream -- Chapter 2: The Birthday Boy

2005-11-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

Danny stirred a bit, then woke up. He wasn't in his room! Where was he?

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Danny. Happy birthday to you."

The lights came on and suddenly Danny knew where he was. The reading room, only it didn't look the same. It looked like a bedroom. It looked like his bedroom!

"Hey kiddo, do you want breakfast or not?" Asked Mary. "I'd be happy to eat those pancakes for you if you're not hungry. Besides, I want to see you open up your presents."

The smell of pancakes and bacon cut through the excitement and Danny realized that he was hungry. Very hungry! "I'll eat them myself, thank you." Danny answered his sister, and he picked up his knife and fork and did just that.

"We're sorry you can't unwrap our present to you." Said his mom. "We hope you like your new bedroom."

"Like it? It's great!" Danny said between mouthfuls of breakfast.

"I'm glad you like it Danny." Said his Grandpa. "This used to be my favorite room in the house when I was little. I'd come up here when it was my dad's library. I can still remember falling asleep on that window seat with a favorite book. It seems like it happened almost every day. I learned to love a lot of books here in this room. I hope that you will too." Grandpa handed Danny a nicely wrapped bundle. "Happy birthday!"

"Wow grandpa. You used to use this room when you where little? That's too cool." Said Danny. He unwrapped the bundle and found a flannel blanket.

"I used to wrap up in that blanket while I was reading." Grandpa said.

"Open mine next." Said Mary, handing another box to Danny.

Danny unwrapped it and found a battery powered lantern. "Neat! Now I can stay up late reading." He said.

"Not too late, Sport." Said his dad. "Don't forget to open your present from Tom."

"No way I'll forget that one Dad. I've been waiting all week to open it." Danny replied as he picked up the package from his brother. He carefully tore open the brown paper wrapping uncovering a blue book with gold lettering. "The Book of Mormon! My very own copy. This is
so awesome."

"Check inside." Danny's mom said.

Danny opened up the front cover and saw a note from Tom. The note said:


       Daniel,
       I've given out a lot of these, but this one is the most
       special.  It's only one more year until you get to be
       baptized.  Before you take that step, you should read this
       book and know that it is true.  Did you know that Heavenly
       Father promises each one of us that we can know for ourselves?
       His promise is right in this book.  Read Moroni 10:3-5.

       You should also start reading at the beginning and go right
       through the book.  I'll give you an extra scripture to read
       every week in my letters until I come home.  It will be just
       like I'm teaching you out here.

       Love your brother,
       Elder Thomas Moroni Jackson

Danny's mom started to pick up the dishes from breakfast. "Why don't we let Danny get used to his new room, and maybe get a little bit more sleep." She said as she led the rest of the family out of Danny's room.

Danny wasn't tired, but he knew just what he wanted to do. He collected his new gifts and carried them over to the window seat. He turned on his new lantern. He curled up in Grandpa's old blanket. He picked up his Book of Mormon. "Where is that promise? Moroni ... Chapter 10. Okay. Here it is verse 3."


       "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these
       things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, 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 ponder these things, and ponder it in your
       hearts."
       "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 they 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."
       "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the power of
       all things."

"Wow." Thought Danny. "He did promise me. I can know if it's true." Danny curled up a little bit tighter in the blanket. It was nice and warm. Soon he fell asleep.

"Daniel." A voice called.

"Daniel." It called him again, and Danny started to stir. "Daniel, I want you to read the book."

Danny's eyes opened. there was someone in his room. A man, dressed kind of like an Indian, not with feathers and stuff, but like the Indians down in South America -- Danny remembered seeing pictures of them at school.

"Who are you?" Danny asked.

"I am Moroni. You just read my promise. Daniel, I want you to read this book. Pray about it, and Heavenly Father will let you know that it's true. Just like millions of people before you. Just like your brother, Thomas. Just like your father, William. Just like your grandfather, John." Said the man.

"Danny!" He heard a voice. "Danny!" It was his mother. Danny started awake, he must have fallen asleep on the window seat. "Danny, it's time for our devotional. Come on down." His mother called.

"I'm coming mom. You won't believe the dream I just had." He picked up his Book of Mormon and started down the stairs to join the rest of his family.

Food Storage, Day 1

2005-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, things didn't start so well. Yesterday we were going to eat out of just the basics we had stored (more or less the 1 month kits available through the Canneries). Alas, we awoke to realize that we'd not set up the bread maker to deliver nice, warm bread for the morning, and that we'd forgotten to soak the beans for rice and beans for lunch.

We had a pretty hurried (harried?) morning as we tried to put things right, and ended up not doing too badly. We did use some of the basic spices we'd already built into our storage, and things didn't taste too bad (though my kids might disagree). After dinner, we took comments around the table about what we should add to the basics (there was a lot of input about that, and soy sauce was high on the list of requests). We also voted on which two items we should pull out of our 'secondary storage' to supplement our meals for the week — peanut butter was a clear winner, and we decided to hold off on the second item until later in the week, but it'll probably be either frozen veggies or maybe a roast for Sunday's dinner.

We seemed to have learned our lesson about preparation though, since we soaked beans for soup and put a loaf of bread on before we went to bed last night. Boy, that bread smelled good this morning!

Danny's Dream -- Chapter 1: Prolog

2005-11-16T06:30:00.000-08:00

Danny slept quietly while the rest of his family was hard at work. You see, today was Danny's birthday and his family had a tradition. Each person in the family, on their birthday, was awakened to their favorite breakfast -- served in bed. The family would sing 'Happy Birthday', and give their gifts to the birthday boy (or girl).

That's why everyone was downstairs gathering gifts, blowing up balloons, and helping get Danny's favorite breakfast ready; walnut pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon, orange juice, and a big glass of milk. Everyone except Danny's older brother, Tom. Tom was serving a mission. He was living in Joplin , Missouri.

Tom still remembered Danny's birthday though. He had sent a special package, just to Danny. "Don't open until your birthday!", was written all over the outside. Tom was Danny's hero. They wrote letters back and forth every week. It had been very hard for Danny not to open Tom's box. He didn't want to let his brother down though.

Danny's sister, Mary, had mixed the orange juice. His mom and dad had made the pancakes. His Grandpa had gathered a tray and dishes to serve Danny's breakfast on. They set the breakfast onto the tray and started up the stairs. They went right past the second floor where Danny's room was though. They climbed right up to the third floor. The only room on this floor was the one they called 'the reading room'.

The room had been turned into a bedroom. Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with hundreds of books. A bed had been put into the room, and a pile of pillows filled the ledge of one window turning it into a wonderful spot to sit down and read. Three boxes sat on the bed. Two of them were nicely wrapped, the third was Tom's gift. "I'll put the bow on the door, you go down and get Danny." Said Danny's mom to his dad.

A couple of things

2005-11-15T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've posted a lot of technical stuff in my most recent posts here -- hmmm, with my lack of posts, it's hard to think of any of them as recent, The next batch won't be so technical. Let me tell you what I've got planned.

When my son, Michael, was first taking on early chapter books, I started writing one for him, Danny's Dream. Sadly, he blew through that stage before I finished. I'd like to post what I've got though, as a sort of serial. Maybe I'll even finish it this time around. At one point, I'd thought about making this into a series of books, but I never found the time.

I'd also like to comment a bit on an experiment my family and I are trying. We're looking to live off of our food storage for the week before Thanksgiving. We'll be starting tomorrow (so that I can start cooking for Thanksgiving next Wednesday). I'm hoping to write up some posts about how things go, and which (if any) recipes are worth trying.

If you only come here for technical stuff, I'll try to work some of that in soon too -- I just wanted to let my other side show for a bit.

A little bit of Ruby for work

2005-11-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

I've always used, but never really like ab for looking at Apache performance. The big things that I've wanted to do with it was hit multiple urls according to a defined ratio. After a bit of hacking on the bus, I've got a working kernel (uner 150 lines of Ruby). I can run a script like this:

config = {
"http://localhost/first" => '50',
"http://localhost/second" => '30',
"http://localhost/third" => '20'}
urls = RWBBuilder.new(config)
tests = RWBRunner.new(urls, 10000, 100)
tests.report

and I'll get back a report like this:

Concurrency Level: 100
Total Requests: 10000
Total time for testing: 48.786909 secs
Requests per second: 204.973018479199
Mean request time: 0.0048786909 secs
Results for http://localhost/first
Numer of runs: 4864
Shortest time: 0.02031 secs
50%ile time: 0.036371 secs
90%ile time: 0.045528 secs
99%ile time: 0.263913 secs
99.9%ile time: 1.555193 secs
Longest time: 1.556691 secs
Results for http://localhost/second
Numer of runs: 3142
Shortest time: 0.021777 secs
50%ile time: 0.035928 secs
90%ile time: 0.045415 secs
99%ile time: 0.289059 secs
99.9%ile time: 1.49962 secs
Longest time: 1.554188 secs
Results for http://localhost/third
Numer of runs: 1988
Shortest time: 0.016705 secs
50%ile time: 0.03639 secs
90%ile time: 0.04559 secs
99%ile time: 1.256631 secs
99.9%ile time: 1.496296 secs
Longest time: 1.544625 secs

Once I get it cleaned up a bit more, I'll release it for general use.

Yet more about work

2005-10-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

(I'm posting this reply to some email here because it fits in well with what I've been trying to write about, and because there are a not entirely unified set of people here and on the ldsoss mailing list.)

Just so you know where I'm coming from, here's a little bit of background.

I got involved in the Free Software world back in '89. I've done some volunteer work for the FSF (passing out literature at conferences and UG meetings and installing linux boxen at their MIT office space). I use, contribute to, develop, and write about Free Software both professionally and as a hobby. I've started perl mongers groups, ruby brigades, sys admin groups, and helped with LUGs in a variety of places. Heck, I even understand the difference between Free and Open Source Software (and come down firmly on the side of Free Software[0]). Even this email was written in an emacs buffer.

I'm also a church employee. I've been working here for several months now, and have gotten a pretty good idea of how things work (and sometimes even why). I've talked to several layers of management, and a number of peers about my writing and activism here and have a measure of support.

Okay, with that all out of the way, let's get down to the brass tacks.

What kinds of data will we be releasing?

What do we really want to get out of the ldsoss (or the wider FLOSS) communities?

Do we really know what we're doing?

I'm going to try to handle these in reverse order -- think of it as a modern day chiasm ;)

The church, it's IT workers, the Family & Church History Department, and even the comparativley smaller Family History group are fairly large organizations, people inside them are all over the board on their awareness of FLOSS and the principles that underlay it. We're using a lot of Free Software, and are mostly trying to give back into those communities (or are at least looking for
ways to do so). I think there is occasionally some confusion, either along the lines of "It's free as in a free [lunch], so we'll just grab it and go."[1] or "Well, we can just toss this stuff over the fence and the Free Software folks will spin it into gold for us.". I think there's a building awareness that these are both problems, and there are steps being taken[2] to
ensure that they will be corrected. Do we know what we're doing? Mostly -- and with education, it's getting better.

The Church has a lot of genealogical data that we want to make available in ways that will be useful to church members and the wider world. Our biggest goal is always to help bring saving ordinances to the many, many who have died without them. To that end, there have been (and will be) significant investments in Family History related IT. There's a lot more that can be done
though, and we don't have the ideas, the people, or the time to do it all. We're looking to partner with others to fill those gaps. In some cases, we want to contribute to existing Free Software[3], in other cases we want to enable people to write Free Software to fill the niches (either by providing data, or APIs). In still others, we would love to work with the community to
enhance tools we're already building (or thinking of building). What do we want? We want to work with the community to provide the tools that will enable more (unique) ordinance work to be done, releasing spirits from their prison.

Which brings us to data and APIs. There's a *lot* of stuff sitting in the vault. My understanding is that we want to get it all out there for the public to use[4]. How we get it out there is more nebulous. Right now, there's a big opportunity to influence that set of decisions. I think 'the powers that be' would be very open to hearing requests for specific kinds of data (and APIs to interact with it), especially when those requests are:
a) well thought out
b) have some community support behind them
c) have a solid backing reason.

Does all of this still seem a bit nebulous? I'm afraid that it probably does but bear in mind that this is a long road, one which we've not gone very far down. This is a great time to get involved. Again:
Think about what you'd like to see.
Think about how you'd make use of it.
Talk about it, here or on other mailing lists.

Your involvement will help shape the future.

thanks,
-pate
Infrastructure Engineer
Family and Church History Department

[0] Yes, I've read the GPL and the LGPL, along with a bunch of other licenses.

[1] I'm thinking here of situations like using nagios or mon and not getting involved in the community, not hey, let's grab this code and throw it into a program/library that we're going to distribute.

[2] I'm not at liberty to talk about these yet, but I'm encouraged -- for now, you'll have to take my word for it.

[3] E.g., my call for volunteers to help us bridge JIRA and nagios. Thanks for those who have responded, I haven't forgotten to get back to you.

[4] I'm talking only about family history related stuff here. I have no idea what the plans are for access to Church history information is -- but I know things are happening there, too.

Open Source mini-project: call for volunteers

2005-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, are you interested in doing some Open Source work that would really help the LDS Church's family history website, which provides free (as in free lunch, not free beer) genealogical data and tools?

We're in the middle of some significant upgrades (see previous posts or here), and it often seems like we have more stuff to do than people to do it. Case in point, we use the JIRA issue tracking system and the Free Software Nagios system/network monitoring software. We'd really like to build some connectivity between the two (to enable 1-click ticket creation for example), but we don't have anyone we can assign to making this happen. Would you be interested? It could be done as a brand new project or as an extension to Nagios, As long it it stays Free Software we'll be happy. (We'd like it to be Free in the GNU sense, not because we want to save money.)

Update:
Just so everyone knows, Nagios has a home page at www.nagios.org.

Also, JIRA has an API (SOAP, REST, and XML-RPC) available, which is probably the way to do this.

More about work.

2005-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's a bit more about what we're doing at work. I'm tremendously excited to be a part of this, and I think that it will turn out to be a very important step forward for the church as it rolls out into general production.

The project as a whole encompasses a lot of pieces: Family Search Indexing; a redesign of the www.familysearch.org home page; making more documents from 'the vault' accessible; and (the part I'm involved with) developing a new software system for organizing, performing, and recording family history and temple work.

I'm part of the infrastructure team that manages the computing and networking resources involved in running this new system. There are several people on the team (although we have a few job openings that we're still trying to fill). Right now, I'm most involved in developing processes and tools for provisioning and maintaining large sets of computers. In subsequent posts I'll try to put together some specifics about this.

There are a lot of developers hard at work on the actual system. It's been cool to see things coming together. One of the pieces that really has me jazzed is the effort that's gone into making collaboration easy. I look forward to this accelerating the work of identifying and researching our ancestors. (Again, I'll try to put together some more information about this in later posts.)

Well, that was interesting.

2005-10-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

In a comment to a recent post an anonymous poster wrote a number of unflattering things about me. A lot of them centered around my being prideful. That's not a comment I haven't heard before -- and it's something that I've tried to work on and will continue to work on. That's also not what bugged me.

The anonymous commentor also said: "The church dispanded(sic) your former ward due to corruption.". Now that irks me. All units of the church are made up of people, and none of us are perfect. But to say something like this about a group of people (most of whom don't even know that they're being painted with that brush) is petty and mean.

Most of the people in my former ward are decent people, with solid testimonies, trying to do the right thing. Our bishop was a humble caring man, who loved his ward family and served them well. The Elders Quorum presidency was made up of three stalwart brethren who were focused on ministering to the families of the quorum. I could go on, but I'm afraid I'd leave someone out so I'll stop with this pair of examples. I know of no 'corruption' or any similar problems in the ward.

In fact, the entire stake went through a renaming and a series of boundary changes a couple of weeks ago. This is not an uncommon event, and is brought about by demographic changes. I think the changes will make for stronger wards and a stronger stake. I think these kinds of changes are a wonderful sign that the church is indeed a 'living' church (see D&C 1:30).

Blog Spam

2005-10-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been more or less under the radar, but I think that's starting to change. I've been getting 1 or two spam messages a day for several days now. So far it's manageable though.

Yummy!

2005-10-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

I just found a link to Tasting Menu a great foodie site. They've created to e-cookbooks that are currently available at no cost. The books are a visual delight, and are full of wonderful looking recipes. I'll be adapting the 'Dungeness Crab wrapped in Red Delicious Apples' soon ... maybe for a date night treat this week.

Anyway, I just had to share. Enjoy.

Hearing about your job in conference

2005-10-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

One of the neatest tidbits from conference (for me) was hearing President Hinckley talking about the new genealogy software. That's the project that I work on, and this was the first time I've been in a position to hear the prophet talking about my day to day work during conference. It sure left me feeling excited to get in to work on Monday.

On a related note, we're still looking for some good technical people. I'll try to blog a bit about what's going on here, and lay out some more information about the kinds of people we're looking for.

the best way to learn . . .

2005-09-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

is to write about it.

IBM just published another Ruby article I’ve written, this one’s about Debugging Ruby Code.

Maybe after another hundred or so articles, I’ll be able to start thinking of myself as a master.

See more progress on: master Ruby

getting started with Haskell

2005-08-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve started working through Yet Another Haskell Tutorial to teach myself some haskell. I’m not too far into it, but it’s making sense so far—none of the mind-bending strangeness that I keep hearing about. Nothing that makes me want to give up Ruby either.

Here’s my version of a recursive multiplication by addition function from one of the exercises:

mult a 1 = a
mult a n = a + mult a (n -1)

See more progress on: learn haskell

Not nearly a Ruby master, but I'm working on it.

2005-08-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things of been doing lately is writing about Ruby. An article of mine was released on IBM’s DeveloperWorks site last week (yay!), and just got linked from OS News (http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=11574) which is pretty awesome too.

See more progress on: master Ruby

more ruby

2005-08-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

today, i needed a class for handling IP addresses for hosts and the IPAddr class from the standard library didn’t quite do everything I needed, so I ended up writing one for myself. Now, when people do data entry into my hosts database I can keep them from entering all kinds of hokey, bad data:

here’s some trimmed output from irb:

host = IP_Addr.new(‘192.168.1.0’, ‘255.255.255.0’)
RuntimeError: bad ip address, can’t use network address
host = IP_Addr.new(‘192.168.1.255’, ‘255.255.255.0’)
RuntimeError: bad ip address, can’t use broadcast address
host = IP_Addr.new(‘192.168.1.253’, ‘255.255.255.0’)
host.network
=> “192.168.1.0”
host.broadcast
=> “192.168.1.255”

now, I can count on my db not having network or broadcast addresses (or other invalid addresses that I’m checking for), and I can build dhcp and dns config files automaticly.

See more progress on: Get a job where I can code in Ruby all day

another step, another release

2005-07-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

The Ruby Programming Shop has been hard at work on r43, a Ruby library wrapping the 43 Things webservice. All of our hard work has really paid off. The 0.2.0 release of r43 is better designed, better tested, and easier to use.

I’d especially like to thank Sean Carley and Edward Cho who really beat the early code into shape. If anyone is interested in getting involved, we’re going to be working on r43 through the end of August. At that point, we’ll pick a new library to work on.

You can grab your own copy at the r43 page on RubyForge.

See more progress on: finish a 1.0 release of r43

Quick update

2005-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been too long since I've posted, but I thought I should break my silence for this.

My daughter just got accepted into BYU's concurrent enrollment program. She'll attend Fall and Winter terms under this status, then will be able to start as a true freshman in the Spring. Not bad for a 15 year old.

Mom and dad are both doing fine.

Ajax on Rails

2005-06-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Ajax on Rails,
originally uploaded by chrisglass.

A great visual pun about two cool web development technologies.

(Thanks to Tim Germer for the pointer.)

Ruby Brigades just rock!

2005-06-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Tim Germer just made a post on his blog about the June pdx.rb meeting. From his tone, it sounds like it was his first meeting, but I think he’s hooked:

It was great to be surrounded by such smart people – there was easily over a dozen people in attendance. The experience was like grabbing a really challenging book off the library shelf and diving in; ambitious to learn new words, etc.

When’s your next Ruby Brigade meeting? I’ll be going to one in Utah next week.

See more progress on: help build local Ruby Brigades

Today's article

2005-06-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Tim O’Reilly wrote about a TestFest in June (I wish I could be there, it looks like it’ll be fun).

See more progress on: test first all the time

Feeling the pain of not unit testing

2005-06-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ten minutes without a test is a great article about the pain that ignoring tests brings. Whether you’re writing code test first, or just doing unit testing, this is well worth the read.

See more progress on: test first all the time

New Rails beta-Book

2005-05-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Dave Thomas and DHH have released the beta-version of their book Agile Web Development with Rails. I need to grab this book, both to learn more about Rails and to support a great idea.

See more progress on: write an application on Rails

Moving

2005-05-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, the big news (and my major time sink right now) is that my family and I are moving. After 3+ great years in the Pacific Northwest, we're headed back to Utah. I've taken a job with the Family History organization of the LDS Church.

We've lived in a lot of places (in New England, the MidWest, the Intermountain West, and the Pacific Northwest), and have good memories about all of them, but the time is right for our family to head back to the Wasatch Front. We'll be down there in the latter half of June.

Fragility of Judgement

2005-05-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

I love this term, which I just saw at radar.oreilly.com. Tim O'Reilly blogged about Malcolm Gladwell's talk at an IT conference.

In his overview, Tim points out how much our judgement is swayed by non-essentials -- for example, an increase from 5% to 50% in hiring female musicians when using visual screens and the poor record of ER doctors in diagnosing heart attacks because they tend to focus on predictive factors rather than symptomatic diagnosis.

My question then is what kinds of extraneous factors blur our judgements?

test first with Ruby

2005-05-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

I wrote a tutorial about coding test first for ibm. Hopefully, it’ll help more people start writing code this way.

See more progress on: test first all the time

Update: By the way, I did a lot of the organizational/background work of this using BackPack, which I'm still really enjoying. I'll need to get a bigger review up later, but something a bit more urgent is taking up my time at the moment.

New Google Home Page

2005-05-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

It's not a new idea, but it is done pretty well. You can get see your google home page (at least if you're already 'cookified' by google. I'm pretty happy with my first 30 minutes of use. We'll see if I stay happy.

My only nit is that the gmail preview shows the senders for each email instead of the subject.

I want to read 'Higher-Order Perl'

2005-05-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

but not enough to buy a copy. MJD is putting it online though, so I’ll have to read it that way. I really don’t care that much about Perl, but I think I can translate the concepts over to Ruby.

On the other hand, maybe just learning haskell or scheme would be enough.

See more progress on: read higher-order perl

more Ruby Brigades

2005-05-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

It looks like there are two more Ruby Brigades meeting soon. Columbus.rb and the Phoeniz.rb (though this one seems to have been around for a while). It’s good to see the growing number of Ruby Brigades.

I’m hoping the next step is to have more regional cooperation—like the Seattle.rb, pdx.rb, and Vancouver group’s upcoming code fest.

See more progress on: help build local Ruby Brigades

Backpacking it!

2005-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

I got a golden ticket to to try out backpack this weekend, and I’ve been loving it. It’s a great way to organize a lot of the little stuff that’s floating around in/on my head, my calendar, a bunch of post-it notes scattered everywhere, and emails in my inbox.

I think this will be a great addition to basecamp, and tada lists. Together, I think they might even be able to bring order to my disordered life.

See more progress on: make better use of basecamp

Exciting Ruby Stuff

2005-04-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

In the last week, I’ve seen a new group pop up in Omaha, NE and Tulsa, OK. The Omaha.rb will be meeting on Monday, May 2nd from 7-9PM (directions on their web page). I don’t know when the Tulsa.rb will meet, but hopefully it’ll be soon.

By the way, the Utah Ruby Users Group is set to start meeting on the third Wednesday of the month (May 25th). The Seattle.rb is meeting tonight. Wow! That’s a lot of Rubyists.

See more progress on: help build local Ruby Brigades

Home Teaching Survey

2005-04-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

Home Teaching in our ward is pretty bad, getting to 40% of the families assigned to the elders quorum is looked at as an achievement. To help understand the problem a little more deeply, we passed around an anonymous survey in Primary, YM, YW, and RS. I knew it wasn't terribly scientific, the sample was poorly chosen among other things, but I thought we could use the data anyway.

I worried that even though this was anonymous, people wouldn't respond honestly. The first several forms I got back all said (essentially) 'All is well, no problem here.', and I thought my fears were confirmed. Gradually, I started to see some of the concerns that I knew were lurking. Here are the results.

I asked six questions:

('Yes' or 'No')
Do you know who your home teachers are? 70% did
Do they visit as often as you'd like? 50% did

(sliding scale)
Do they present an appropriate message? 68% positive
Are you comfortable asking them for service? 65% positive
Would you be comfortable asking them for a blessing? 64% positive
Do they help you to strengthen your family? 56% positive

(Comments)
How could they help you to strengthen your family? I got a lot of answers to this one. Here are a few:

Personally, I see no value in home teaching. I sit there while he talks to my husband, wishing I could be somewhere else. . . . Rather than share what he wants to share, think about us and focus on us, then prepare an appropriate message for us.

He strengthens us each time he comes because he really does care and calls us often

To help, they should actually come!

Have lessons for young children so they'll sit and listen.

Instead of asking if there's anything they can do, be more specific. For example: "Can we help you with your garage sale next week?" Take initiative: "I know you've been sick so we brought you a lasanga."

Know my children and take an interest in their lives

Come!

I haven't got a husband, or parents, or children, so I need home teachers

If the active, easy to visit families feel this way, I think we've got a long way to go to straighten out home teaching. How is it going in your ward? What are you doing well? Where do you need to improve?

skipping stones

2005-04-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

skipping stones,
originally uploaded by pate.

One of my goals over at 43 Things is to do more hiking with my son. I posted some pictures of our last hike over at flickr.

r43 is being built test first

2005-04-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

It’s so nice to watch it build like this. Add a test, watch it fail, write some code, watch it succeed. Here’s how it looks right now:


% ruby test_r43.rb
Loaded suite test_r43
Started
.........................................................................
Finished in 0.611202 seconds.

73 tests, 112 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors
%

If you’re not writing your code this way, you should give it a try.

See more progress on: Practice religious test-first development for a month