In the 24 May 2008 Church News President Thomas S. Monson relates how he teaches new mission presidents that they need to be leaders and not buddies with their missionaries and missionaries about leadership.
Jason Swenson reported on President Monson's story:
"Later, while serving as a mission president, President Monson used a preparation day game of softball with his missionaries to teach an important lesson of leadership. A young elder who was pitching invited his mission president to take a few swings.
Oh, I don't know," President Monson told the elder, "I haven't played for a long time." But he handed his suit coat to his wife, Sister Frances Monson, selected a bat, stepped inside the batter's box, and told the elder "give me the best pitch you've got." The mission president smacked the ball out of the park.
The pitcher sent him another ball. Again, President Monson made solid contact. Then he handed the bat to the elder who was playing catcher. The catcher asked him if he was going to run the bases.
"No," he said, "I'm not competing with you missionaries, I'm your mission president. I just wanted you to know I could hit the ball."
President Monson sometimes shares that softball moment with new mission presidents. It's important that Aaronic Priesthood leaders establish "a little line" between themselves and the young men they lead. What if, say, that missionary-pitcher had lost his father a week after that softball game. "That's when that missionary needed a mission president — not another ball player."
Young men don't need another buddy or playmate, said President Monson. They need leaders to direct them." (Young men counseled to be their 'very best': Church president believes future is bright for Aaronic Priesthood holders, Church News [24 May 2008]: 3).
I think back on my own mission in Canada Toronto and I can see that my mission president M. Russell Ballard used to tell us the very same thing. He told us that he wasn't there to be our buddy he was there to direct us in what we should do. He said that his job as our mission president was to give us guidance. He said he could play basketball with us and hang out in the park and although he enjoyed it and would do it on occasion that wasn't what he or we were there for. We were there to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The best way that we would like him he told us was to motivate us to do our jobs. I always respected him for his tough nose attitude. I never felt slighted in the least that he didn't want to barbecue with me. Although I have wondered over the years why I haven't made his Christmas card list.
I think of my wife's mission president who was more easy going and would say what do you want to do elder or sister and tell them he wanted them to feel like he was their dad so he would just trust their judgment. Unfortunately their judgment has a few problems. She told me of how the elders and sisters held dances and would get together and had a fun mission. She felt a lot of guilt over having parties as a missionary. I wonder if her mission president had been a little more like Elders Ballard or Monson if she would have felt better about her mission. I don't know if one style fits all for a mission president. I bet a few missionaries had mission presidents that played handball, raquetball and basketball and took them out for Baskin Robbins and was their buddy and pal and they still had good missions. For me I couldn't wouldn't have excelled in that kind of an environment I was a serious minded missionary like Hyrum Smith who cut off the head of a doll so his kid didn't have any false idols. Russell Ballard was the perfect mission president for my style of missionary but is there only one style out there.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Missionary Letters--Rome Italy: Led by the Spirit
Cari Miei,
This week was really good. In fact this week we had a cool experience with prayer. We got a referral from the office of a person who called Provo when they saw an advertisement for a Book of Mormon and wanted one. All the office gave us was the name of the person Alessio Mangiaprete, the city Orbetello, the street Perelli, and the number 122. That's all we had. I of course was skeptical because the last name in Italian means something along the lines of (priest eater hmmm)
So we had never been to this city before because our area covers hours of cities in all directions by train. So we find out that we can get there by train and that it will take 2 hours by train to go and 2 hours to come back. So of course we plan a day that we can just go for the whole day and work in that city and we go. So we get there and have no map, so we ask a couple of people who tell us there is no street by that name in this city. So finally we talk to this guy at a news stand who likes to wink at my companion, he was more than willing to be helpful =-) He tells us that we must of heard wrong and that it is the street vIA pIETRO nENNI (sounds like perelli I guess) so he sells us some bus tickets and we are on our way...
So we get to the street (the police station is one this street) and walk the whole thing the apartment numbers end at 21 hmmm. So knowing that God must of sent us to that street for a reason we knock on every singe door we see on the whole street... looking at all of the names to make sure. We see no Mangiaprete or anything like it... Nothing. By now 2 hours have past and the sun is hot, we don't know what to do but we have come all this way to just give up, I think not. So my companion asks all of the police men where the street could be and nothing...So I say lets just go sit on these steps and say a prayer and tell God we are going to need him to lead us to this person he has prepared...
So I finish the prayer and my companion says why don't we call the office elders and they can look online and see if this street really exists or what... so we call, it doesn't exist... but Anziano McFadden tells me that he saw the street Marcelli and that it sounds like the same so I should try it. Marcelli... Perelli-- no not really I mean two l's one I that's about the end of the similarities but we don't know what else to do and we are trying to follow the spirit, so we go...I wonder if anyone is even still reading this email... anyways I thought it was a cool story and you know that I can never just get to the point of the story...
So basically we ask a million people and go on an adventure to finally find this street which only had 4 apartments on it (we are looking for number 122), but we think God must of lead us here for a reason so we knock on all of them, even though by now 4 hours have past and everyone is either in the middle of lunch or their afternoon nap...So on the last apartment complex there is this name (Manganelli, mangaprete manganelli hmmmmm) SO we ring from below and the door just opens so we get in the elevator and go up and there is a lady who the second she sees us starts waving her hand no no. So I just tell her hey we are just looking for Alessio... pause interested squardo. She tells us that she is Alessio's only relative in that town and that in fact he lives at number 22 on via Pietro Nenni the street where the police station is, it is just that there are three apartment complexes that are behind the station and you have to go through a gate that looks like it is part of the police station which really isn't easy to get to them...So now we have the real last name of Alessio, The real name of the street, and the real number of his house, and how to get there because it is hidden all because we went to a street that didn't sound like the name of the street name we originally had because we were trusting God to lead us and answer our prayers...
So we found Alessio a 17 year old boy who God must sure love a whole lot to lead us to him all so we could bring him a Book of Mormon. I love that God answers our prayers that he knows us personally and that to accomplish his work he will bring about miracles. I know that God knows you and that he loves you and that if you let him he will use you as an instrument in his hands.
Vi Voglio Tanto Bene
This week was really good. In fact this week we had a cool experience with prayer. We got a referral from the office of a person who called Provo when they saw an advertisement for a Book of Mormon and wanted one. All the office gave us was the name of the person Alessio Mangiaprete, the city Orbetello, the street Perelli, and the number 122. That's all we had. I of course was skeptical because the last name in Italian means something along the lines of (priest eater hmmm)
So we had never been to this city before because our area covers hours of cities in all directions by train. So we find out that we can get there by train and that it will take 2 hours by train to go and 2 hours to come back. So of course we plan a day that we can just go for the whole day and work in that city and we go. So we get there and have no map, so we ask a couple of people who tell us there is no street by that name in this city. So finally we talk to this guy at a news stand who likes to wink at my companion, he was more than willing to be helpful =-) He tells us that we must of heard wrong and that it is the street vIA pIETRO nENNI (sounds like perelli I guess) so he sells us some bus tickets and we are on our way...
So we get to the street (the police station is one this street) and walk the whole thing the apartment numbers end at 21 hmmm. So knowing that God must of sent us to that street for a reason we knock on every singe door we see on the whole street... looking at all of the names to make sure. We see no Mangiaprete or anything like it... Nothing. By now 2 hours have past and the sun is hot, we don't know what to do but we have come all this way to just give up, I think not. So my companion asks all of the police men where the street could be and nothing...So I say lets just go sit on these steps and say a prayer and tell God we are going to need him to lead us to this person he has prepared...
So I finish the prayer and my companion says why don't we call the office elders and they can look online and see if this street really exists or what... so we call, it doesn't exist... but Anziano McFadden tells me that he saw the street Marcelli and that it sounds like the same so I should try it. Marcelli... Perelli-- no not really I mean two l's one I that's about the end of the similarities but we don't know what else to do and we are trying to follow the spirit, so we go...I wonder if anyone is even still reading this email... anyways I thought it was a cool story and you know that I can never just get to the point of the story...
So basically we ask a million people and go on an adventure to finally find this street which only had 4 apartments on it (we are looking for number 122), but we think God must of lead us here for a reason so we knock on all of them, even though by now 4 hours have past and everyone is either in the middle of lunch or their afternoon nap...So on the last apartment complex there is this name (Manganelli, mangaprete manganelli hmmmmm) SO we ring from below and the door just opens so we get in the elevator and go up and there is a lady who the second she sees us starts waving her hand no no. So I just tell her hey we are just looking for Alessio... pause interested squardo. She tells us that she is Alessio's only relative in that town and that in fact he lives at number 22 on via Pietro Nenni the street where the police station is, it is just that there are three apartment complexes that are behind the station and you have to go through a gate that looks like it is part of the police station which really isn't easy to get to them...So now we have the real last name of Alessio, The real name of the street, and the real number of his house, and how to get there because it is hidden all because we went to a street that didn't sound like the name of the street name we originally had because we were trusting God to lead us and answer our prayers...
So we found Alessio a 17 year old boy who God must sure love a whole lot to lead us to him all so we could bring him a Book of Mormon. I love that God answers our prayers that he knows us personally and that to accomplish his work he will bring about miracles. I know that God knows you and that he loves you and that if you let him he will use you as an instrument in his hands.
Vi Voglio Tanto Bene
Exit Interviews and Mission Presidents
In March 2008 my daughter returned home from her mission. On the Sunday she was released she called me on Skype because I was in Saudi Arabia and she was in Provo getting ready to attend BYU again. She asked me to do a father's interview and to discuss her life with her.
She told me that her mission president had given her some counsel about her life. One of the counsels he gave her was that she should get married right away. She said he had told her that normally he would not counsel his missionaries that specifically but in her case he felt a strong impression that she needed to hear that. I think she thought I would think this was inspired counsel but I said "He is not entitled to revelation for your life. He is entitled to revelation for you as a missionary but it stops there." I told her I appreciated he was being helpful but that as her father and knowing her better that she should forget that counsel and concentrate on getting an education. I told her she would get married eventually but I as her father know her and feel she should get a degree first. I counseled her to get a job as fast as she could and concentrate on her studies. My daughter was still on academic probation from before her mission and if she failed this semester would be kicked out of BYU.
Of course she didn't listen to me. She met a boy her first week who himself was fresh from a mission himself. He hadn't been accepted in to BYU but was trying to get in but had bad grades and was going to go back down to California and then transfer later. I told her that was nice but he sounded kind of immature and to forget him. A few weeks went by and I find out through my wife my daughter is going down to meet the boy's parents. She was offered a job in the religion department which I told her to take. She said she didn't think she should take it since she wanted to work in the MTC. I said take the job and then later you can switch over if you get it.
I warned my daughter that she shouldn't go home with a boy unless she was engaged. She went to California and passed up the job in the religion department. When I finally spoke with my daughter this week I found out that she was suffering from depression as her new boyfriend had decided that they shouldn't be so serious and should date other people. She said she had been offered a job at the MTC but she was already failing her calculus class. She was even making arrangements to transfer to BYU-Idaho even before the semester was over. If she had listened to me this might have been avoided. Mission presidents should be careful what they say to missionaries they can destroy their lives if they become too specific. If something doesn't pan out the way they interpreted some of them might find that as an excuse for going inactive.
Recently in the Church News President Thomas S. Monson gave counsel that he suggests mission presidents use with missionaries which is a little more generic than the well meaning man in Korea. I don't hold it against him but I remember when I went home I wanted to find some girl and get married. I was younger then my daughter I think sister missionaries might feel even more pressure.
Jason Swenson reports:
"During his exit interviews with departing missionaries, President Monson stressed the importance of acquiring a quality education. That timeless direction to "seek learning" remains especially relevant in today's competitive, high-tech world.
You want to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. If you're not prepared, you're in difficulty," he said, before quoting the scripture, "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." (See Doctrine and Covenants 38:30.)
It isn't enough to simply get an education, added President Monson. Young men should plan to study something that they enjoy and will allow them to earn a living. A person may possess a fondness for, say, Egyptian pottery — but the job opportunities in such a field may be limited.
Study something you like to do and something that will enable you to have a family and sustain your family," he said.
President Monson said that during his exit interviews with missionaries, he also spoke of the safety found in satisfying one's financial obligation to the Lord. "Pay your tithing," he said, "that's the big divider between those who stay fully active in the Church and those who do not. Tithing is the first law (some) slip on, then there is slippage all the way through."
Lastly, President Monson would tell his departing missionaries to marry in the temple. "Date only a girl you can take to the temple — you're going to fall in love with someone you date." (Young men counseled to be their 'very best': Church president believes future is bright for Aaronic Priesthood holders, Church News [24 May 2008]: 3).
It is a lot different to tell a young missionary get married in the temple than to tell them they should get married right away. One thing I read somewhere is that lots of returned missionaries put artificial pressures on their dating situations when they should very well relax and let relationships run their natural course. If mission presidents would stick to generalize things like President Monson has mentioned they wouldn't enable them to screw up their lives after their missions.
She told me that her mission president had given her some counsel about her life. One of the counsels he gave her was that she should get married right away. She said he had told her that normally he would not counsel his missionaries that specifically but in her case he felt a strong impression that she needed to hear that. I think she thought I would think this was inspired counsel but I said "He is not entitled to revelation for your life. He is entitled to revelation for you as a missionary but it stops there." I told her I appreciated he was being helpful but that as her father and knowing her better that she should forget that counsel and concentrate on getting an education. I told her she would get married eventually but I as her father know her and feel she should get a degree first. I counseled her to get a job as fast as she could and concentrate on her studies. My daughter was still on academic probation from before her mission and if she failed this semester would be kicked out of BYU.
Of course she didn't listen to me. She met a boy her first week who himself was fresh from a mission himself. He hadn't been accepted in to BYU but was trying to get in but had bad grades and was going to go back down to California and then transfer later. I told her that was nice but he sounded kind of immature and to forget him. A few weeks went by and I find out through my wife my daughter is going down to meet the boy's parents. She was offered a job in the religion department which I told her to take. She said she didn't think she should take it since she wanted to work in the MTC. I said take the job and then later you can switch over if you get it.
I warned my daughter that she shouldn't go home with a boy unless she was engaged. She went to California and passed up the job in the religion department. When I finally spoke with my daughter this week I found out that she was suffering from depression as her new boyfriend had decided that they shouldn't be so serious and should date other people. She said she had been offered a job at the MTC but she was already failing her calculus class. She was even making arrangements to transfer to BYU-Idaho even before the semester was over. If she had listened to me this might have been avoided. Mission presidents should be careful what they say to missionaries they can destroy their lives if they become too specific. If something doesn't pan out the way they interpreted some of them might find that as an excuse for going inactive.
Recently in the Church News President Thomas S. Monson gave counsel that he suggests mission presidents use with missionaries which is a little more generic than the well meaning man in Korea. I don't hold it against him but I remember when I went home I wanted to find some girl and get married. I was younger then my daughter I think sister missionaries might feel even more pressure.
Jason Swenson reports:
"During his exit interviews with departing missionaries, President Monson stressed the importance of acquiring a quality education. That timeless direction to "seek learning" remains especially relevant in today's competitive, high-tech world.
You want to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. If you're not prepared, you're in difficulty," he said, before quoting the scripture, "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." (See Doctrine and Covenants 38:30.)
It isn't enough to simply get an education, added President Monson. Young men should plan to study something that they enjoy and will allow them to earn a living. A person may possess a fondness for, say, Egyptian pottery — but the job opportunities in such a field may be limited.
Study something you like to do and something that will enable you to have a family and sustain your family," he said.
President Monson said that during his exit interviews with missionaries, he also spoke of the safety found in satisfying one's financial obligation to the Lord. "Pay your tithing," he said, "that's the big divider between those who stay fully active in the Church and those who do not. Tithing is the first law (some) slip on, then there is slippage all the way through."
Lastly, President Monson would tell his departing missionaries to marry in the temple. "Date only a girl you can take to the temple — you're going to fall in love with someone you date." (Young men counseled to be their 'very best': Church president believes future is bright for Aaronic Priesthood holders, Church News [24 May 2008]: 3).
It is a lot different to tell a young missionary get married in the temple than to tell them they should get married right away. One thing I read somewhere is that lots of returned missionaries put artificial pressures on their dating situations when they should very well relax and let relationships run their natural course. If mission presidents would stick to generalize things like President Monson has mentioned they wouldn't enable them to screw up their lives after their missions.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Elder M. Russell Ballard on How Video Games Are Lowering the Quality of Missionaries
On Sunday evening 27 April 2008 Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke to a gathering of military personnel in the Layton Utah Kays Creek Stake Center. Elder Ballard spoke to them about how military personnel can do member missionary work and to avoid pornography on the Internet and then he brought up a topic on his mind that I think makes for an interesting discussion which is does video game playing affect the quality of missionary service.
Elder Ballard said to those assembled as reported in the Saturday, 3 May 2008 Church News: "I wish they would put away those video games. They're blowing their minds with them. Consequently, when they get out into the mission field, they're not used to hard work and they're not used to being focused on studying the things of righteousness. They have too many things entertaining them all the time."
This statement hits home to me as I have recently bought my son a bunch of Play Station 2 games. He spends hours and hours playing a game to completion. I have never seen such commitment to succeed in mastering one of these games. It is amazing the concentration it takes to not miss a clue to overcome challenges to figure out hidden objects that will help him succeed. On the other hand in my own life I think of the many hours I spent reading fictional novels that could be better spent in reading the scriptures or praying. Is that what Elder Ballard means. I know that some missionaries are pudgier and more physically out of shape is that the danger of video game playing that they should have a balance in their lives. When I read the statement that is what I get out of it. My son on the other hand runs a mile a day or goes walking with his sisters around the Diplomatic Quarters which is our housing compound in Saudi Arabia. I wonder if Elder Ballard remembers how the Play Station user might have to fight over who gets the television when there are other siblings around. I think he had seven children. My son and one daughter age nine who play are lucky they gets in an hour or two a day. Sometimes they even play each other like in NCAA Basketball. One of them is always the BYU Cougars who lose. I mean they are actually preparing for a missionary ritual which is P-Day basketball and they are developing loyalty to the Lord's own basketball team. My son reads his scriptures and prays every night better than me. I am really conflicted now that Elder Ballard has pointed out the debilitating effect video game playing might have on my son's future missionary success.
I guess I will limit his playing for the few weeks because I respect what Elder Ballard says being he was my former mission president and I don't want my son growing up as porky as me. My son told me he was going to buy a television out of his own pocket when recently I told him his mother was contemplating not having a TV again when we move back to the U.S. It is amazing how a harmless statement with good logic can have so many different connotations.
Being an uber Mormon I guess I should pitch the Play Station in the trash with the fifty games we own. We could give away the games to a less faithful Mormon kid that doesn't know he made the statement. The television is provided by the housing complex so it just stays with the apartment. My older kids went seven years between televisions right before we moved here. My wife is on the warpath again as we will be moving again in a month and she doesn't want television at all in her home since it lowers the quality of our kids studying or playing the piano. I know it seems cruel that my children go years not watching American Idol but there is always DVD from the public library and the DVD drive on our laptop. When my wife breaks down from time to time we watch Grey's Anatomy in a marathon of sorts. Lucky for me I now have someone to point the finger at when my kids cry about not watching television or playing video games. I can say Elder Ballard thinks playing video games can affect your being a good missionary in six years so the TV has to go. I can say it takes a TV to play video games and I got rid of both to make it so you exercise and read your scriptures more. I want to hear you play some hymn over and over and after five years we still won't be able to sing it without a few mistakes. My wife will also be happy since she won't have to take the blame because I like to watch old movies and don't mind watching the news on occasion. Thank you Elder Ballard you solve a problem for my wife who won't have to be the scapegoat this time.
Elder Ballard said to those assembled as reported in the Saturday, 3 May 2008 Church News: "I wish they would put away those video games. They're blowing their minds with them. Consequently, when they get out into the mission field, they're not used to hard work and they're not used to being focused on studying the things of righteousness. They have too many things entertaining them all the time."
This statement hits home to me as I have recently bought my son a bunch of Play Station 2 games. He spends hours and hours playing a game to completion. I have never seen such commitment to succeed in mastering one of these games. It is amazing the concentration it takes to not miss a clue to overcome challenges to figure out hidden objects that will help him succeed. On the other hand in my own life I think of the many hours I spent reading fictional novels that could be better spent in reading the scriptures or praying. Is that what Elder Ballard means. I know that some missionaries are pudgier and more physically out of shape is that the danger of video game playing that they should have a balance in their lives. When I read the statement that is what I get out of it. My son on the other hand runs a mile a day or goes walking with his sisters around the Diplomatic Quarters which is our housing compound in Saudi Arabia. I wonder if Elder Ballard remembers how the Play Station user might have to fight over who gets the television when there are other siblings around. I think he had seven children. My son and one daughter age nine who play are lucky they gets in an hour or two a day. Sometimes they even play each other like in NCAA Basketball. One of them is always the BYU Cougars who lose. I mean they are actually preparing for a missionary ritual which is P-Day basketball and they are developing loyalty to the Lord's own basketball team. My son reads his scriptures and prays every night better than me. I am really conflicted now that Elder Ballard has pointed out the debilitating effect video game playing might have on my son's future missionary success.
I guess I will limit his playing for the few weeks because I respect what Elder Ballard says being he was my former mission president and I don't want my son growing up as porky as me. My son told me he was going to buy a television out of his own pocket when recently I told him his mother was contemplating not having a TV again when we move back to the U.S. It is amazing how a harmless statement with good logic can have so many different connotations.
Being an uber Mormon I guess I should pitch the Play Station in the trash with the fifty games we own. We could give away the games to a less faithful Mormon kid that doesn't know he made the statement. The television is provided by the housing complex so it just stays with the apartment. My older kids went seven years between televisions right before we moved here. My wife is on the warpath again as we will be moving again in a month and she doesn't want television at all in her home since it lowers the quality of our kids studying or playing the piano. I know it seems cruel that my children go years not watching American Idol but there is always DVD from the public library and the DVD drive on our laptop. When my wife breaks down from time to time we watch Grey's Anatomy in a marathon of sorts. Lucky for me I now have someone to point the finger at when my kids cry about not watching television or playing video games. I can say Elder Ballard thinks playing video games can affect your being a good missionary in six years so the TV has to go. I can say it takes a TV to play video games and I got rid of both to make it so you exercise and read your scriptures more. I want to hear you play some hymn over and over and after five years we still won't be able to sing it without a few mistakes. My wife will also be happy since she won't have to take the blame because I like to watch old movies and don't mind watching the news on occasion. Thank you Elder Ballard you solve a problem for my wife who won't have to be the scapegoat this time.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
President Thomas S. Monson's Key to Being A Good Missionary
This past week a member of the Deseret News staff Jason Swenson sat down with President Thomas S. Monson and ask him a few questions he had on his mind. Swenson brought out an important point that "there are tens of thousands of Aaronic Priesthood-age young men in the Church today. It would be impossible for President Monson to interview each individually." Swenson asked President Monson if he could sit down with each young man face-to-face what would he say.
Swenson said that "President Monson would likely share with each boy the same counsel he offered to his missionaries decades ago when he was a mission president in Canada."
President Monson responded to Swenson what he has said many times in the past when asked the same question and which is a title of one of his publications, "I'd tell them to be their very best. Be the best of which you are capable in all things."
Be your best self! What does that mean? What is a single missionaries best?
In my mind it means you measure yourself by yourself. It is really an open-ended thing decided by each missionary himself or herself. I think the litmus test is found in the many conversations, and blog posts that I read that only the individual missionary knows himself or herself for sure. No one else can tell you be it the mission president, another companion, your parents, stake president or your investigators. This really is a matter between the missionary and the Lord. Many missionaries tell you they felt their missions were worthwhile and others feel they wasted their time. But there is a deeper question here than was your mission a success. President Monson has hit the nail on the head when he says be the best you are capable. There is a distinction between do the best and be the best. It deals with outcome. It becomes a part of you and has to do with a state of being rather than just a series of objectives on the way to the outcome to be your very best.
It reminds me of a stupid thing we used to do in the Ragusa area in the Italy Rome Mission. We would all clasp hands like in a football huddle and we would chant "Lets Go Out and Really Go Just Like Parley Brig and Joe." As we broke hands I would say to myself every time we did it I am not good as those men but what can I do today to preach the gospel and then I would make a few suggestions to my companion as we went out on to Via Giovanni Mele and walked across the bridge to go tracting. My best in Italy was different than my best in Canada. There are a lot of factors that go in to being the best missionary.
With a little self-reflection I think we can determine if we are the best of which we are capable as missionaries. We can ask ourselves for me personally knowing my knowledge of the gospel, my psychological make-up, my relationship with my companions and mission president and my investigators, was I the best I was capable of being. This question has nothing to do with numbers or did you baptize people it has to do with what kind of person did you become. Of course you can't separate whether or not your best effort included baptizing people but it something deeper. To me it is a simple as asking yourself Yes or No. Am I a better person for having served a mission and did I do my best. Then take it to the Lord. If you come away feeling that you have then you should feel a sense of accomplishment. I could do a poll asking people to answer the question yes or no. I believe many of us would say no but I might be surprised. What do you think President Monson meant by this statement blog readers?
Swenson said that "President Monson would likely share with each boy the same counsel he offered to his missionaries decades ago when he was a mission president in Canada."
President Monson responded to Swenson what he has said many times in the past when asked the same question and which is a title of one of his publications, "I'd tell them to be their very best. Be the best of which you are capable in all things."
Be your best self! What does that mean? What is a single missionaries best?
In my mind it means you measure yourself by yourself. It is really an open-ended thing decided by each missionary himself or herself. I think the litmus test is found in the many conversations, and blog posts that I read that only the individual missionary knows himself or herself for sure. No one else can tell you be it the mission president, another companion, your parents, stake president or your investigators. This really is a matter between the missionary and the Lord. Many missionaries tell you they felt their missions were worthwhile and others feel they wasted their time. But there is a deeper question here than was your mission a success. President Monson has hit the nail on the head when he says be the best you are capable. There is a distinction between do the best and be the best. It deals with outcome. It becomes a part of you and has to do with a state of being rather than just a series of objectives on the way to the outcome to be your very best.
It reminds me of a stupid thing we used to do in the Ragusa area in the Italy Rome Mission. We would all clasp hands like in a football huddle and we would chant "Lets Go Out and Really Go Just Like Parley Brig and Joe." As we broke hands I would say to myself every time we did it I am not good as those men but what can I do today to preach the gospel and then I would make a few suggestions to my companion as we went out on to Via Giovanni Mele and walked across the bridge to go tracting. My best in Italy was different than my best in Canada. There are a lot of factors that go in to being the best missionary.
With a little self-reflection I think we can determine if we are the best of which we are capable as missionaries. We can ask ourselves for me personally knowing my knowledge of the gospel, my psychological make-up, my relationship with my companions and mission president and my investigators, was I the best I was capable of being. This question has nothing to do with numbers or did you baptize people it has to do with what kind of person did you become. Of course you can't separate whether or not your best effort included baptizing people but it something deeper. To me it is a simple as asking yourself Yes or No. Am I a better person for having served a mission and did I do my best. Then take it to the Lord. If you come away feeling that you have then you should feel a sense of accomplishment. I could do a poll asking people to answer the question yes or no. I believe many of us would say no but I might be surprised. What do you think President Monson meant by this statement blog readers?
Monday, May 26, 2008
Keith Meservy
Keith Hansen Meservy, one of the kindest and nicest men that I knew from my day's in the BYU Religion Department recently passed away on the 27 April 2008 after a fight with leukema. He was born in 4 Dec 1924 in Provo, Utah, to Edward Southwick Meservy and Lucille Hansen. He attended Provo schools, graduating from Provo High School. He enlisted as a private in the army on 11 Sep 1943 in Salt Lake City. I remember he had a picture of himself in uniform on one of his bookshelves in his office.
I knew Brother Meservy because I took a religion class and a Hebrew Class from him during the late 1970s. I spoke with him many times over the years up until I left there in August 1987.
I was perusing the bloggernacle and I discovered a blog written by Keven Crenshaw called a Personal Tribute to Keith Meservy that spoke about his recent death. Crenshaw's sister is married to his son Mark. Crenshaw said about him that "His quiet, encouraging manner and careful attention to spiritual things left their mark on me."
I know how Crenshaw feels I spent many a pleasant day in Meservy's office talking to him on different religious issues. He would bring out some details to some interesting details in the Old or New Testament. He and I had a chat about Elijah were I was able to show that at the very day and hour that the Jews were expecting him he came to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple if you consider that the seder actually is celebrated a day later here in diaspora. I passed that on to Dr. Cowan who expanded on it in his writings. Brother Meservy was talking about the Jews and Diaspora when I put the two together. Later Dr. Cowan and I spruced up the concept Meservy got a kick out the fact that we put it together just by his going on about what the Jews do in Disapora. Some of the faculty actually used to get together at the Madsens for a seder meal I think that was how it even came up.
He used to have a passion for Hebrew and he would say little phrases to me and others like David Seeley and Richard Holzapfel I met Meservy's son Mike who went with his dad on one of his trips to Israel. Keith used to be like Lamar Berrett and take out travel tours to Eygpt and Israel. At one point he was the chairman over Ancient Scripture while my boss Lamar Berrett was the chair over Church History. Keith was chair right before George Horton. The two men Brothers Barrett and Meservy took out travel study groups during the year. I remember Brother Meservy telling me about some of his trips and occasionally showing me some of his slides.
I took his famous Hebrew class in Fall 1977 with Dave Seeley, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Jenny Holzapfel (engaged at time I don't remember her maiden name but she was cute with braces at the time), me, and Margaret Potter (Toscano). There might have been one other person in the class but I don't remember who it is anymore, it could have been one of the Madsen kids. The four of us in Winter 1978 took Margaret who taught Greek and had an office in the Talmage building right above where the class was held. She was dating Seeley at the time. It was before he went out with George Horton's daughter. I thought Hebrew was tough well Margaret's class was even tougher. Kevin Barney the famous LDS blogger and a lawyer also took Brother Meservy's class in a different year. Barney graduated in 1982 in classics from BYU. I believe he copublished an article in Dialog with him.
I remember many days walking with Brother Meservy from the Religion Building after my Religion 421 class to our class in the Talmage Building. He would joke with me about being a returned missionary and dating.
Russell B. Swenson and Sidney B. Sperry 1943
One day he told me how he was inspired to teach Hebrew by the example of one of his own professors Sidney B. Sperry. Brother Meservy related how he knew him in an issue of Book of Mormon Studies:
"In 1932 Brother Sperry began teaching at Brigham Young University. It was here that Robert Patch began his association with him. Visiting Utah for the centennial celebrations in 1947, Brother Patch was walking by Brother Sperry’s office when he was invited in to visit, whereupon Brother Sperry hired him on the spot, about the same time that he hired Reid Bankhead and Calvin Bartholomew. For the better part of three years, Brother Sperry was their Hebrew teacher. Brother Patch recalls that Brother Sperry was a major influence in their study of the scriptures. One colleague asked him if he believed in what he was writing, and he answered, “Categorically affirmative.”
Keith Meservy met Brother Sperry a year later, in 1948, upon returning from his mission. He recalls that when he needed a class in biblical Aramaic, Brother Sperry willingly agreed to teach him one on one, since there were no other students. He remembers that Brother Sperry was an organist for the Provo Fourth Ward (having been one of the last students of John J. McClellan, organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle) and that he had been a boxer in his younger days. Brother Meservy tells an interesting story about a race sponsored in Provo for a course from Provo to Manti via Nephi and back. The object of the race was to use the least amount of gas, and Brother Sperry in his Volkswagen won this race at least twice.
Brother Meservy has a favorite anecdote concerning Brother Sperry’s writing habits. He reports, “One day when I went into his office to see him, I found him working on one of his books. He had a pile of papers neatly stacked on the right side of his desk. Each sheet was written in long hand. When I learned that this was the manuscript of his next book, I looked in amazement at the unruffled stack of papers lying there. (In those precomputer days, I not only typed out whatever I wrote, but also double-spaced it to make sure I had enough room to make corrections. Handwriting anything, knowing that it would all have to be rewritten, was too laborious and time consuming a way to write to my way of thinking.
The thought of writing a whole book by this process amazed me.) When I made an observation to this effect, he chuckled and noted that a friend of his had recognized his lifelong disposition to write well-composed paragraphs by nicknaming him ‘One-Write Sperry.’" Sperry passed his skills on to guys like Richard Cowan and Keith Meservy.
Sidney B. Sperry in his Book of Mormon Compendium thanked Keith Meservy for the help he gave him in reappraising the Book of Mormon:
"I am indebted to two of my former Hebrew students, Dr. Ellis T. Rasmussen and Professor Keith H. Meservy, now my colleagues in the College of Religious Instruction of Brigham Young University, for looking over my work on the Isaiah text in the Book of Mormon and for offering helpful criticisms and suggestions, a number of which I have adopted. They are not, however, to be held responsible for any errors, or slips in the interpretation of the Isaiah chapters which may be found in this book. I am hopeful that my work on Isaiah will, in a measure, help to bring about the fulfillment of one of Nephi's prophecies that in the latter days men shall understand Isaiah's words. (2 Nephi 25:8.)
In this volume I have reversed my views, held many years ago, that the Hill Cumorah, around which the last great battles of the Nephites and Jaredites took place, was in the State of New York. The book of Mormon data are very clear and show quite conclusively that the Hill (Ramah to the Jaredites) was in the land of Desolation, somewhere in Middle America. I have summed up my arguments and conclusions in connection with the discussion of Mormon Chapter 6. My conclusions have been tested in a number of classes of graduate students who were challenged to demonstrate their falsity. Up to the present time, no one has done so. The Hill Cumorah in New York, from which the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the Nephite plates, may have been so named by Moroni in commemoration of the Cumorah in the land of Desolation, around which his father and fellow Nephites lost their lives in their last struggles with the Lamanites."
We used a large grey or silver Hebrew text in his Hebrew class. In fact I still had that book and my wife BiV used it to self-teach herself Hebrew years later when she worked with some Jewish scholar on a mechanical translation of Isaiah. I'm sure Brother Meservy would get a kick out of that. I remember how we all labored so hard in his class to learn how to point the vowels. I remember the joy he had in reading to us the Old Testament brief passages and our going over them again and again. He liked saying the word for king mulek as we read passages from Isaiah. I remember I almost dropped the class because it was a pretty tedious class and I wasn't sure I would pass. Holzapfel told me not to sweat it and he would pass me no matter what if I tried hard. Sure enough I pass the class. Back then I thought I would be the next Hugh Nibley and taking Keith Meservy's class was on my path to getting a degree in religion. The funny thing was when Duke accepted me later I couldn't afford to go and pursued a different field for my doctorate.
Keith Meservy had a love for learning and was especially good at languages. He was in study group with Larry Porter, Don Cannon, LaMarr Berrett, Richard O. Cowan, Larry Dahl, and occasionally Truman and Ann Madsen who studied Spanish on their lunch hours for over twenty years. I believe they might have allowed David Boone Flake and Bruce Van Orden to join them on occasion in the later years. I believe Keith had also conducted a Hebrew class for the group during their many years of studying together. Members of the group with bring a brown bag lunch and would meet in one of the professor's offices as they munched and learned in a very casual atmosphere.
I remember another of his sons was in my ward when I lived up in Palymra Bean Packer and Thane Packer's basement on Sego Lane which I think was in the Pleasant View 3rd Ward. His wife might have even been related to Palymra who was also a Bean. I remember that Merrill Bateman lived in the same ward as did Barney and Mindy Madsen, the children of Ann and Truman Madsen. Barney was the elder's quorum instructor and gave some good lessons. He ended up going to Law School.
Brother Meservy and his wife Arlene had four children: Mike (Sally Oxborrow, dec.), Marcia (Dan Wheeler, the fisherman), Mark (Jileen Crenshaw,) and Lynda (Greg Schaelling), twenty grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
I remember Keith son Mark looked a lot like him and was kind of a mellow guy. He had a great sense of humor like his dad which was on the dry side. He might have married one of our home evening sisters I can't remember but he was in my home evening group when I attended the local ward for about a year. I liked some girl that ended up marrying Bateman's son but she was a challenge at the time as I drove her mad. I think the kid was on a mission so that was why I could tease her so mercilessly. I remember seeing Brother Meservy occasionally on Sunday. He liked to wear this grey sports coat with elbow pads. I always thought he looked like the absent-minded professor with those metal glasses and his gray hair blown all over with that preppy coat. On Sunday he sometimes wore a pin-stripe suit but I remember that one particular sports coat that he liked so well.
An example of Keith Meservy's humor was provided by Gary Begera in his BYU: A House of Faith:
Keith Meservy joined the Ancient Scripture faculty in 1958. Brother Meservy received his B.A. in 1951 from BYU and his M.A. in 1966 from Johns Hopkins University. He is an acknowledged scholar in Old and New Testament studies. Brother Meservy served on the Gospel Curriculum Committee for many years that was head up by Richard O. Cowan. I remember his giving Brother Cowan some drafts for Sunday School lessons when I worked for him as his research assistant during the 1980s. Brother Meservy was also a member of the bishopric of the Pleasant View Third Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake. He taught on occasional class up until about six years ago but was an emeritus faculty member in Ancient Scripture since the early 1990s.
In the Daily Herald Obituary it said that the family preferred contributions to the Perpetual Education Fund which is something that Brother Meservy would have approved of.
List of Church Publications
I knew Brother Meservy because I took a religion class and a Hebrew Class from him during the late 1970s. I spoke with him many times over the years up until I left there in August 1987.
I was perusing the bloggernacle and I discovered a blog written by Keven Crenshaw called a Personal Tribute to Keith Meservy that spoke about his recent death. Crenshaw's sister is married to his son Mark. Crenshaw said about him that "His quiet, encouraging manner and careful attention to spiritual things left their mark on me."
I know how Crenshaw feels I spent many a pleasant day in Meservy's office talking to him on different religious issues. He would bring out some details to some interesting details in the Old or New Testament. He and I had a chat about Elijah were I was able to show that at the very day and hour that the Jews were expecting him he came to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple if you consider that the seder actually is celebrated a day later here in diaspora. I passed that on to Dr. Cowan who expanded on it in his writings. Brother Meservy was talking about the Jews and Diaspora when I put the two together. Later Dr. Cowan and I spruced up the concept Meservy got a kick out the fact that we put it together just by his going on about what the Jews do in Disapora. Some of the faculty actually used to get together at the Madsens for a seder meal I think that was how it even came up.
He used to have a passion for Hebrew and he would say little phrases to me and others like David Seeley and Richard Holzapfel I met Meservy's son Mike who went with his dad on one of his trips to Israel. Keith used to be like Lamar Berrett and take out travel tours to Eygpt and Israel. At one point he was the chairman over Ancient Scripture while my boss Lamar Berrett was the chair over Church History. Keith was chair right before George Horton. The two men Brothers Barrett and Meservy took out travel study groups during the year. I remember Brother Meservy telling me about some of his trips and occasionally showing me some of his slides.
I took his famous Hebrew class in Fall 1977 with Dave Seeley, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Jenny Holzapfel (engaged at time I don't remember her maiden name but she was cute with braces at the time), me, and Margaret Potter (Toscano). There might have been one other person in the class but I don't remember who it is anymore, it could have been one of the Madsen kids. The four of us in Winter 1978 took Margaret who taught Greek and had an office in the Talmage building right above where the class was held. She was dating Seeley at the time. It was before he went out with George Horton's daughter. I thought Hebrew was tough well Margaret's class was even tougher. Kevin Barney the famous LDS blogger and a lawyer also took Brother Meservy's class in a different year. Barney graduated in 1982 in classics from BYU. I believe he copublished an article in Dialog with him.
I remember many days walking with Brother Meservy from the Religion Building after my Religion 421 class to our class in the Talmage Building. He would joke with me about being a returned missionary and dating.
Russell B. Swenson and Sidney B. Sperry 1943One day he told me how he was inspired to teach Hebrew by the example of one of his own professors Sidney B. Sperry. Brother Meservy related how he knew him in an issue of Book of Mormon Studies:
"In 1932 Brother Sperry began teaching at Brigham Young University. It was here that Robert Patch began his association with him. Visiting Utah for the centennial celebrations in 1947, Brother Patch was walking by Brother Sperry’s office when he was invited in to visit, whereupon Brother Sperry hired him on the spot, about the same time that he hired Reid Bankhead and Calvin Bartholomew. For the better part of three years, Brother Sperry was their Hebrew teacher. Brother Patch recalls that Brother Sperry was a major influence in their study of the scriptures. One colleague asked him if he believed in what he was writing, and he answered, “Categorically affirmative.”
Keith Meservy met Brother Sperry a year later, in 1948, upon returning from his mission. He recalls that when he needed a class in biblical Aramaic, Brother Sperry willingly agreed to teach him one on one, since there were no other students. He remembers that Brother Sperry was an organist for the Provo Fourth Ward (having been one of the last students of John J. McClellan, organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle) and that he had been a boxer in his younger days. Brother Meservy tells an interesting story about a race sponsored in Provo for a course from Provo to Manti via Nephi and back. The object of the race was to use the least amount of gas, and Brother Sperry in his Volkswagen won this race at least twice.
Brother Meservy has a favorite anecdote concerning Brother Sperry’s writing habits. He reports, “One day when I went into his office to see him, I found him working on one of his books. He had a pile of papers neatly stacked on the right side of his desk. Each sheet was written in long hand. When I learned that this was the manuscript of his next book, I looked in amazement at the unruffled stack of papers lying there. (In those precomputer days, I not only typed out whatever I wrote, but also double-spaced it to make sure I had enough room to make corrections. Handwriting anything, knowing that it would all have to be rewritten, was too laborious and time consuming a way to write to my way of thinking.
The thought of writing a whole book by this process amazed me.) When I made an observation to this effect, he chuckled and noted that a friend of his had recognized his lifelong disposition to write well-composed paragraphs by nicknaming him ‘One-Write Sperry.’" Sperry passed his skills on to guys like Richard Cowan and Keith Meservy.
Sidney B. Sperry in his Book of Mormon Compendium thanked Keith Meservy for the help he gave him in reappraising the Book of Mormon:
"I am indebted to two of my former Hebrew students, Dr. Ellis T. Rasmussen and Professor Keith H. Meservy, now my colleagues in the College of Religious Instruction of Brigham Young University, for looking over my work on the Isaiah text in the Book of Mormon and for offering helpful criticisms and suggestions, a number of which I have adopted. They are not, however, to be held responsible for any errors, or slips in the interpretation of the Isaiah chapters which may be found in this book. I am hopeful that my work on Isaiah will, in a measure, help to bring about the fulfillment of one of Nephi's prophecies that in the latter days men shall understand Isaiah's words. (2 Nephi 25:8.)
In this volume I have reversed my views, held many years ago, that the Hill Cumorah, around which the last great battles of the Nephites and Jaredites took place, was in the State of New York. The book of Mormon data are very clear and show quite conclusively that the Hill (Ramah to the Jaredites) was in the land of Desolation, somewhere in Middle America. I have summed up my arguments and conclusions in connection with the discussion of Mormon Chapter 6. My conclusions have been tested in a number of classes of graduate students who were challenged to demonstrate their falsity. Up to the present time, no one has done so. The Hill Cumorah in New York, from which the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the Nephite plates, may have been so named by Moroni in commemoration of the Cumorah in the land of Desolation, around which his father and fellow Nephites lost their lives in their last struggles with the Lamanites."
We used a large grey or silver Hebrew text in his Hebrew class. In fact I still had that book and my wife BiV used it to self-teach herself Hebrew years later when she worked with some Jewish scholar on a mechanical translation of Isaiah. I'm sure Brother Meservy would get a kick out of that. I remember how we all labored so hard in his class to learn how to point the vowels. I remember the joy he had in reading to us the Old Testament brief passages and our going over them again and again. He liked saying the word for king mulek as we read passages from Isaiah. I remember I almost dropped the class because it was a pretty tedious class and I wasn't sure I would pass. Holzapfel told me not to sweat it and he would pass me no matter what if I tried hard. Sure enough I pass the class. Back then I thought I would be the next Hugh Nibley and taking Keith Meservy's class was on my path to getting a degree in religion. The funny thing was when Duke accepted me later I couldn't afford to go and pursued a different field for my doctorate.
Keith Meservy had a love for learning and was especially good at languages. He was in study group with Larry Porter, Don Cannon, LaMarr Berrett, Richard O. Cowan, Larry Dahl, and occasionally Truman and Ann Madsen who studied Spanish on their lunch hours for over twenty years. I believe they might have allowed David Boone Flake and Bruce Van Orden to join them on occasion in the later years. I believe Keith had also conducted a Hebrew class for the group during their many years of studying together. Members of the group with bring a brown bag lunch and would meet in one of the professor's offices as they munched and learned in a very casual atmosphere.
I remember another of his sons was in my ward when I lived up in Palymra Bean Packer and Thane Packer's basement on Sego Lane which I think was in the Pleasant View 3rd Ward. His wife might have even been related to Palymra who was also a Bean. I remember that Merrill Bateman lived in the same ward as did Barney and Mindy Madsen, the children of Ann and Truman Madsen. Barney was the elder's quorum instructor and gave some good lessons. He ended up going to Law School.
Brother Meservy and his wife Arlene had four children: Mike (Sally Oxborrow, dec.), Marcia (Dan Wheeler, the fisherman), Mark (Jileen Crenshaw,) and Lynda (Greg Schaelling), twenty grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
I remember Keith son Mark looked a lot like him and was kind of a mellow guy. He had a great sense of humor like his dad which was on the dry side. He might have married one of our home evening sisters I can't remember but he was in my home evening group when I attended the local ward for about a year. I liked some girl that ended up marrying Bateman's son but she was a challenge at the time as I drove her mad. I think the kid was on a mission so that was why I could tease her so mercilessly. I remember seeing Brother Meservy occasionally on Sunday. He liked to wear this grey sports coat with elbow pads. I always thought he looked like the absent-minded professor with those metal glasses and his gray hair blown all over with that preppy coat. On Sunday he sometimes wore a pin-stripe suit but I remember that one particular sports coat that he liked so well.
An example of Keith Meservy's humor was provided by Gary Begera in his BYU: A House of Faith:
Eight months later in May 1974, religion professor Keith Meservy gave some of his classes copies of a parody attacking not only evolutionary theory but biologists in particular. Written by Kent Peterson and entitled, "The First Book of Moses Called Genesis," Meservy's handout read, in part:
Keith Meservy joined the Ancient Scripture faculty in 1958. Brother Meservy received his B.A. in 1951 from BYU and his M.A. in 1966 from Johns Hopkins University. He is an acknowledged scholar in Old and New Testament studies. Brother Meservy served on the Gospel Curriculum Committee for many years that was head up by Richard O. Cowan. I remember his giving Brother Cowan some drafts for Sunday School lessons when I worked for him as his research assistant during the 1980s. Brother Meservy was also a member of the bishopric of the Pleasant View Third Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake. He taught on occasional class up until about six years ago but was an emeritus faculty member in Ancient Scripture since the early 1990s.
In the Daily Herald Obituary it said that the family preferred contributions to the Perpetual Education Fund which is something that Brother Meservy would have approved of.
List of Church Publications
| 1. | Ezekiel’s Sticks and the Gathering of Israel Keith Meservy Ensign February 1987 Many critics have long frowned upon the Latter-day Saint interpretation of sticks in Ezekiel’s prophecy as two books of scripture—the Bible and the Book of Mormon. |
| 2. | The Peaceful Life through Reconciliation: Five Stories from the Old Testament Keith Meservy Ensign July 1986 As we seek to develop a Godlike quality in our lives, we daily come into contact with conflict—conflict within ourselves and conflict with our fellowmen. |
| 3. | Life in Ancient Biblical Lands John M. Lundquist John M. Lundquist Ensign December 1981 Israel—ever-changing, yet timeless. Indeed, some of Israel’s scenes have succumbed to time and history; yet others have remained constant and are as familiar to modern inhabitants as they were to the |
| 4. | “This Day Is This Scripture Fulfilled” Keith Meservy Ensign April 1987 We anchor our faith with the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, or in other words, the Messiah. |
| 5. | Four Accounts of the Creation Keith Meservy Ensign January 1986 All authentic accounts of the earth’s origins have a single source—the Creator of all things, whose explanations come to us through prophets. |
| 6. | Jerusalem at the Time of Lehi and Jeremiah Keith H. Meservy Ensign January 1988 Lehi abandoned the doomed city of Jerusalem in the first year of Zedekiah’s eleven-year reign. |
| 7. | I Have a Question Ensign October 1973 Richard Lloyd Anderson 03036_000_010 I Have a Question Ensign Oct. 1973 28 What Old Testament books are most quoted by the Savior? Richard Lloyd Anderson : Jesus showed impressive ability both to use the Old Testament and to |
| 8. | I Have a Question Keith H. Meservy 03041_000_017 I Have a Question Ensign Feb. 1974 38–39 What have our authorities said about the account in Joshua 10:12–14 about the sun standing still? Keith H. Meservy Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University In his book Evidences and Reconciliations (Bookcraft, Inc., 1960), pp. 129–30, John A. Widtsoe says that: “A miracle is an occurrence which, first, cannot be repeated at will by man, or, second, is not understood in its cause and effect relationship.” If it is repeatable at will by man or explainable t... |
| 9. | LORD = Jehovah Keith H. Meservy Ensign June 2002 We are frequently told that Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament (see Bible Dictionary, “Jehovah,” 710–11). Keith H. Meservy is an emeritus professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University and a member of the Pleasant View Third Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake. |
| 10. | Ezekiel, Prophet of Hope Keith H. Meservy Ensign September 1990 Ezekiel lived at the close of an age. |
| 11. | I Have a Question No doubt there were many others who, under the direction of the Lord, could have done that work; but the Lord selected the one that pleased him, and that is sufficient.” 15 Keith H. Meservy 92904_000_029 I Have a Question Ensign Apr. 1992 60–61 What does the phrase “blood on one’s head or on one’s garment” mean? Keith H. Meservy , professor emeritus of ancient scripture at BYU, a member of a Church writing committee, and a member of the bishopric of the Pleasant View Third Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake. |
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Dillon Inouye and His Influence on My Life
One of the most influential people in my life was Dillon Inouye. Most people in the LDS Church have probably never heard of him. But he is one of the most influential teachers who has shaped the lives of hundreds of BYU students and several LDS General Authorities. He is a pretty honest guy and usually tells it likes he sees it. He is about ten years older than me and was married within a year of me so his children are even about the same age as mine. I have known him my entire adult life. I call him from time to time just to see how he is doing. He thinks I call him up to give him a report but the truth is I think about him and know he must be doing something good so I want to know what he is up to. I pretend to give him a report of my life because he is my teacher and I am his student.
When I was a student at BYU Dillon Inouye was a professor of Instructional Science now the Instructional Psychology and Technology Department. I ended up taking a class from him based on the philosophy of Walter Gong. Dillon was a wiz kid of sorts having gone to Stanford and majored in psychology where he completed his doctorate in 1978. After his doctorate he came to work at BYU and that is where I met him. I had been a student there about a year when he graduated and I met him in 1981 which was about in his third year there. Dillon had been a student of Walter Gong who was in to exponential learning. Gong talked about learning as being a three-person problem. "Gong, was a firm believer that teachers must be learners and learners must teach others." Dillon modeled his life on Gong's philosophy and was close personal friends with him and his family. Dillon brought his former mentor's ideas to BYU from Stanford. He made recruits out of professors across the campus and tried to interest students in the concepts espoused by Gong.
Dillon even arranged for Gong to come and teach a special class that influenced Stephen R. Covey who went on to make millions using the three person problem concept. I took Covey for a couple of classes including his Organizational Behavior Class before the BYU administration forced him to choose between consulting or teaching which I believe was a great loss for students but beneficial to Covey who built his motivational seminar firm. I knew Covey from the fact he was a good friend to my mission president M. Russell Ballard and had spoken to us when visiting the Canada Toronto Mission (CTM) back in 1976 at a time he was consulting for IBM. I used to sit on the floor in Covey's class and listen to him describe the three person problem we had and how we all needed to be teachers and learners. Covey being Gong's disciple gave credence to what Dillon told us. In his 2005 book the Eight Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Covey said about Gong:
"While teaching at the university years ago, I met a visiting professor, Dr. Walter Gong, from San Jose, California. He taught a one-semester class for faculty entitled How to Improve Your Teaching. The essence of his program was this great principle: The best way to get people to learn is to turn them into teachers. In other words, you learn the material best when you teach it.
I immediately started to apply that principle in my work and at home. When I first started university teaching, my classes only had about fifteen to thirty students. When I started applying Dr. Gong's principle, I found that I could effectively teach many more students; in fact, some of my classes were packed with nearly a thousand students, and yet the students' performance and test scores actually went up. Why? When you teach you simply learn better. Every student becomes a teacher, and every teacher a student.
Now, the common paradigm is that the teacher-student ratio is critical -- fewer students means higher-quality teaching. But if you turn your students into teachers, you gain leverage. You move the fulcrum over.
Also when you teach or share what you're learning with others, you implicitly commit socially to live what you teach. You will naturally be more motivated to live what you're learning. This sharing will be a basis for deepening learning, commitment and motivation, making change legitimate, and enrolling a support team. You will also find that sharing creates bonding with people -- especially with your children. Have them regularly teach you what they are learning in school. My wife, Sandra, and I have found that doing this simple thing essentially eliminates any need for external motivation with their studies. Those who teach what they are learning are, by far, the greatest students."
Dillon liked to find ways of helping some of his gifted students to excel in their lives and treated us all as Gong would. I met Dillon in a strange way I was one day talking to someone about my interest in studying LDS temples and a female student in the Harold B. Lee Library told me that I should go over to the stadium and meet him. She said she had worked for one of his colleagues Grant Von Harrison in the Instructional Science department and that if he had any money he would hire you. Dillon's office was up by the stadium and later in the Jesse Knight Building before ending up in the McKay Building so I decided to apply my father's philosophy which was "They can just say no" which means you can't get it if you don't ask so I went over to see him. I remember it seemed like a long way from the campus to go up there by the stadium but I trudged up there one day and he immediately decided to make me one of his projects. He claimed that Von Harrison had the money and he was going to hire me to research the subject. Can you imagine getting paid to do something you wanted to do in the first place?
They did it to help students who needed help and it was their way of finding new recruits. Soon you were sucked in to their world. Many people who have doctorates today started out that way. Even Richard Page, a high powered lawyer now legal counsel for the Church in Russia and a former stake president I served under in Houston, Texas told me one day he had worked for Grant Von Harrison and knew the very same men I did including some of the research assistants. He said he even went to law school with Jeanne Bryant now Dillon's wife.
There was a cadre of men back then who liked to act like a think tank that consisted of Dillon Inouye, Monte Shelley, Grant Von Harrison, Adrian Van Mondfrans, and Harvey Black. They used to sit around and talk about some deep philosophical issues including LDS religion. They could go on for hours and didn't mind students being in the room who would listen in and sometimes offer up opinions. I sat with them some times for four or five hours as they would debate different intellectual ideas. For example years later after I left there in 2003 at the International Conference on the Psychology of Other Dillon presented Levinas" Hypostasis: Three Implications for Psychology that is the kind of stuff they would talk about if it wasn't him it would have been Piaget or Montessori etc.
They actually ruined my academic career as I developed the mistaken notion that all academicians sat around and discussed intellectual concepts. Later I learned after twenty years of working in universities that most professors are mundane and banal and would rather tell jokes or talk about sports. Usually their conversations were so esoteric it went over our heads but we soaked in a few ideas that carried with us. You had to be intellectually gifted to understand the various psychologists and philosophers that they would be sprouting. Grant Von Harrison was known for his book Drawing on the Power of Heaven and was idealized by people since it was a mystical thing to tap in to the powers of heaven.
His assistants were guys like Larry Ellsworth and Conrad Gottfredsen who later worked at the MTC and one ended up teaching at BYU. Grant Von Harrison was in to his blended theory of reading at the time that kids needed to learn to read by both sight words and memorizing key words. His current popularity of using the Book of Mormon isn't something new but something he preached for thirty plus years. All of these men were quite innovative and made money either by developing software or publishing books or investing in start-up companies. They were quite generous and gave lots of upcoming students a start including many of us that weren't directly related to them. I was always amazed that they picked me out since I wasn't the sharpest card in the deck back then. He was a very caring individual who loved to serve in the Church and did very innovative types of projects. He gave dozens of students over the year a start lots of times out of his own pocket or awarded them grants or student internships.
Dillon liked to help out students and was in to financing many of them out of his own pocket. He even helped lots of emotionally challenged people including counseling them from time to time. When I took his revolutionary Instructional Science class that was supposed to make you in the top ten percent of your class, he hooked me up with a couple of really anti-social characters that I wouldn't have otherwise come to know. We had small cluster groups and were suppose to know our fellow students like they were our families. One of them was a young woman who was brilliant artist but socially a whack job. She couldn't even look you in the eyes and was constantly putting herself down. I met her family but couldn't see how they had emotionally abused her but she suffered from low self-esteem. I wasn't very normal but she even beat me in the social skills department. She was a passive aggressive type who one minute was tearing herself down and then the next saying something angry and hostile. For his sake I hung out with her and came to see her outlandish behavior was just a coping mechanism. I ended up liking her as a friend. It was one of the few times in life I saw a female as a friend not a girlfriend so in that regards it was an evolutionary success in my development. I actually discovered that she was abnormally normal now that I have had seven daughters and a wife. Associating with her helped me cope with all that progesterone.
Dillon was an entrepreneur of sorts. When I knew him in the early 1980s he was single and in his thirties. He had been at BYU for several years and was able to save a great deal of his income which he invested in different start-up companies. When Walkman were hot he purchased thousands of knock-offs and sold them making a tidy profit. He owned a house near Timpview even before he was married and was known for making investments in up and coming innovations. He invested in many different kind of technologies including Folio View which was an indexing program that grew into LDS Infobase. When computers first came out he actually helped several kids pay for their education or go on missions by building and selling computers.
In the last few years he founded Perfect Search which is a sophisticated way to find information. He gave me my first paid job in the Instructional Science department doing a bibliography on LDS Temples. When computers first came out just before he married his wife Jeanne he sold me a computer saying I needed it to do my LDS research. Later when I struggled to pay for it when he was first married he and Jeanne just gave it to me saying to help someone else out who was in need when I was in a better financial position in life. I learned a lesson in generosity from him. Later I was able to give away a couple of automobiles and furniture to struggling families as well as hundreds of dollars in food and cash. I probably won't have done that if it weren't for his example.
He is involved in education and helped found a couple of educational institutions in the Provo area including the Walden School and the Liahona Academy where his daughter Emily worked. The Walden Schools says: " This vision is rooted in the developmental and cognitive theories of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, and Jerome Bruner; in the contemporary research of respected educators such as David Gardner, Frank Pajaras and Carol Dweck, and on the ideas of noted educational philosophers such as Nell Noddings, Parker Palmer, Walter Gong and Dillon Inouye. It will be a place where students feel welcome and respected and where they will rediscover a love of learning."
Even when Dillon was single he served in the Church in some very important callings such as on a LDS Melchizedek Priesthood church board and in a campus bishopric. His wife served on the General Relief Society Board and is now an assistant attorney general in Utah. He was of Japanese descent and had served a mission to Japan. He became acquainted with Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi through his Japanese connections. It was through Dillon that I was introduced to Elder Kikuchi. He and Elder Kikuchi were both about the same age and both served missions in Japan. Dillon's parents were both placed in a Japanese American concentration camp in Utah where he was born during World War II. Kikuchi's dad was killed by American bombings during World War II so the two men could relate to one another in both had suffered oppression at the hands of the American government.
Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi was called to be a Seventy in October 1977. In the summer of 1978 he and his family went to BYU every summer for a few years to take classes and learn English. They actually stayed in Heritage Halls over on Ninth East. Dillon was one of his best friends when he came to this country and helped him to get situated and acculturate to the culture. I remembered how quickly Elder Kikuchi picked up English and how he started functioning professionally once he picked up the language in a year or two. I remember the first time I met him going up to his office in the Church Administration Building that he spoke in broken English but by the time I worked with him on his book he had almost mastered the language.
In an earlier blog Spiritual Experience on Spencer W. Kimball book I described how Dillon introduced me to Elder Kikuchi. Dillon was a friend and confidante to him. When Elder Kikuchi expressed his desire to do a quote book on missionary work to Dillon he knew that I had a gift for collecting and compiling information. Dillon liked to think good things about the people he mentored he told him "I had a gift and a genius for finding material by the General Authorities on any subject." I actually helped Elder Kikuchi find the best missionary stuff by getting Ed Kimball to let me make copies of all his father's talks. Then I rounded up a group of student volunteers including my future wife who helped extract them in to usable subjects. My real contribution was falling on the Ensign index and adapting its topical arrangement in to subjects that he used in his book. Elder Kikuchi was good at extracting things but he was in to overkill he found things that weren't specific enough and had to do with other subjects like a beautiful sunset or something on tithing. My job was to distill down to the punchy stuff on the topic.
I didn't see the project to completion because of a personal life's situation. I was dating an eighteen year old freshman at the time who was very immature. We never went past making out but we spent a lot of time kissing. Once she lost control and tried to do some serious stuff but I stopped her when she started unzipping my fly. I said what do you think you are doing. I told Dillon about it who demanded that I should tell Elder Kikuchi immediately since if I lost control I could jeopardize the spirituality of the Kimball missionary book project. Dillon thought I shouldn't work on the book any more.
I didn't know it but it was just what they needed to get rid of me as Kikuchi's unofficial assistant on the book. When I went up to see Elder Kikuchi he told me that I had been accused of stealing and copying some sensitive documents in the temple department. I had used the CES vertical file library which had some missionary articles and a compilation by the Prophets on doctrinal topics and was going between two floors with the documents to copy it near Elder Kikuchi's office and to save him charges. One of the full-time employees in the temple department where Elder Kikuchi's office was located said I had copied a sensitive notebook from his office. The only temple stuff I got at the time was some histories of the current temples that Elder Kikuchi gave me and his secretary at the time copied which was an unofficial volume about the history of each temple which included dedicatory prayers and who the architect were. Nothing high level or sensitive. I always wondered what this other document was that I never saw but that I was accused of copying. I didn't even know where the guy's office was at the time. The funny thing was that the Mormon underground claimed the guy's son feed them stuff his son provided them when he wasn't looking. I found the thing very funny but Elder Kikuchi went on about his losing face over something I had been perceived to have done.
Losing face is a very serious matter to a Japanese person who wanted to be in the good graces of the Prophets and Apostles. Dillon told me one time that Gordon B. Hinckley had prophesied about Elder Kikuchi when he was touring his mission Elder Hinckley pointed at the young Elder Kikuchi and said that he would be a great leader one day in the Church. Dillon told me he thought Elder Hinckley meant one day Elder Kikuchi might be an apostle. So I felt sorry for the guy since I was innocent of taking anything but he thought he had a mark against him by his association with me and it could affect his future prospects. My personal concern was that he wasn't faithful to those who were faithful to him. I would never have believed for one minute what the church bureacrat said without finding out from the horse's mouth.
I was actually told I might be put on a list that might follow me the rest of my life. I sometimes wonder if that is true once I was called in by a stake president who said he thought he would call me to be his executive secretary but had changed his mind at the last moment. I wonder if when my name goes to Salt Lake does it come back with a red mark. Plus now I have been turned down twenty times for jobs at BYU even one for $40,000 that was a library technician and didn't require an MLS let alone the doctorate that I hold. When they hire a person with a BA over someone with a doctorate as being the better qualified person it makes you wonder.
I never even got a grateful mention for my work or the loss of several hundred dollars that I paid to copy the articles. I had four hundred dollars covered by ASBYU grant but I paid for some of it personally. I figured Dillon did the same thing so I should be more like him. I didn't see my name mentioned even in a long list of names. It is better to be like Dillon Inouye behind the scenes. I know he has personally spent thousands of dollars on different Church related projects and all he gets out of it is the satisfaction of knowing he did a good thing.
Kikuchi never had much to do with me after that except to marry me and my wife in the Salt Lake Temple when my own mission president M. Russell Ballard didn't want to do it since Tom Mullen was getting married the same day and he just didn't have the time. The one thing I did learn was it was always better "to walk in the noon day sun" so I didn't regret telling him. Kikuchi was very pleasant and came out with our non-member families and had his picture taken. He is one very likable guy.
The funny thing is that in my meeting Elder Kikuchi told me "the young woman I was dating would one day end up a divorcee." I wonder if she has been? and just how prophetic he is. I never told her what Kikuchi said. My girlfriend broke up with me because one of my roommates who was a jerk started putting me down telling her I was told old for her and a loser. He actually told her she deserved a better guy. After what Elder Kikuchi said I really thought it for the best at the time that she broke up with me.
I loved it when the same roommate started dating my former girlfriend's roommate and actually shared his patriarchal blessing with her and then she dumped him for another guy in our ward who was actually a decent human being unlike him and married the other guy who she barely met. I met my wife right after this so it was actually a blessing in my opinion that I didn't marry the first girl. The jerky roommate once threw away a hundred dollar pair of my hiking boots because I left them outside the apartment when they were muddy for a couple of days. He didn't care I couldn't afford another pair or wouldn't even tell me where they were when I asked about them for a few days. His brother later confessed to me where they were and apologized about his brother but the trash company had already picked up the bin. When I called the hick on it he said he would do it again if I ever left something out and I should learn to take care of my stuff. What goes around comes around, he got what he deserved in life.
Elder Packer even had come about this time warning youth not to share their blessings. I will always remember that roommate as the red neck hillbilly roommate who was stupid in sharing something he should have held as sacred. Getting your heart crushed at BYU was just a part of your social development as I had learned myself and my roommate later learned. His experience was one of the few times that my faith in social justice was restored. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
I got the last laugh a year later when Ezra Taft Benson asked me to do his Teachings book. I always loved Elder Kikuchi but I learned that even LDS General Authorities could be disappointing at times. I never trusted another one after that incident and wasn't overly surprised when the Benson book didn't list me as compiler later nor that Elder Kukuchi has never used me again and doesn't welcome my visiting him in Salt Lake City with open arms. It didn't shake my testimony that GA's were human and could make mistakes by unjustly accusing you of untrue things. I offered him my missionary compilation a couple of times to use when I heard he wanted to do a similar thing but he just blew me off.
Dillon Inouye ended up being a BYU campus bishop in a married student ward I lived in. He did some very innovative things. He divided us up in to family home evening groups. We actually went to Sunday School in several different classes by group where we would have a leader who would be the teacher. Every Monday one of them would show up and make sure we were doing okay. It was a very tight knit group. I still remember many of the young couples fondly. He even tried counseling my wife when we had marital problems which helped a little bit at the time. He was a good listening going ah ha and would try to get the person to answer how to solve their own problems sometimes it was helpful.
I think it surprised Dillon that I ended up compiling the Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson. I stayed in touch with him throughout the years. After I finished the book when they were deciding what to do with me. Elder Ballard wondered what to do with me so he contacted a couple of people like Donald Q. Cannon and Dillon. I had been promised a job when I was done in the CES. All of them including Elder Ballard said they should give me one that I had earned it and it was the least they could do but none of them were willing to do anything to really help me other than to say I should have a job. So I actually wrote a letter on his stationary and signed it telling the CES to hire me. I knew that I was going to be put out on the street after years of service and that you couldn't do anything with a bachelor's degree in history. I also knew that if he told them to they couldn't refuse. Some men have power and can do things.
I knew Gary Gillispie had phoned the CES earlier but Joe Christensen and Stan Peterson said they wouldn't hire me and that if President Benson didn't like it he should release them since they ran the CES and he had called them in the first place so he should let them do their jobs and they just didn't want me so that was the end of the matter. When I told Dillon about writing the letter he told me that I should be banned from BYU for life and that I followed Satan since I wasn't trustworthy. I admit it wasn't my most ethical moment but I was desperate at the time since I was made promises that no one meant to keep. In the end I was given a temporary job at BYU Hawaii and had my graduate degree paid by the CES. I know Dillon feels he has always been faithful and he probably has for the most part. But he had a few breaks that people like me never seem to have. Desperate people are reduced to desperate measures. Its an area I didn't measure up in.
I kept in touch with Dillon who went through some up and down times in his own life due to his health and a couple of run-ins with Church leaders. He is usually serving quietly in some position and doing a marvelous job. He always said he was at fault never his leaders unlike me who thinks it takes two to tango. About two years ago when I wrote the foreword to my Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord and told about how it was not published by Sheri Dew for unknown reasons. Dillon told me that I was under the power of Satan to mention the details since I was negative. He doesn't think it any big deal if I don't publish it. Some of us are meant for greatness and some us aren't.
I told Dillon I appreciated his sentiment but I didn't agree with him. I spent twenty years compiling the book and in that twenty years I have never wavered about telling my disappointment in never being acknowledged for my work on ETB nor my being able to make it right with the second book by being acknowledged as compiler and having it published in a legitimate place. I told him one day when I stand before God I will tell him to his face of my disappointment and I won't be ashamed of what I wrote or what I feel. I just don't agree that I follow Satan just because he Dillon Inouye says so. It is hard to tell your teacher you reject anything they say but that is what happens in the learning teaching process. Students become teachers and teachers become students. I didn't tell him when he had a scuffle with a stake president several years ago and he was released that he must have been under the power of Satan. Two can play that game. No I just saw it as a human break down in communication. Any one that knows Dillon knows his heart is usually in the right place. Any one that knows me knows that I love the brethren and would do anything to build the kingdom of God. We are not the same person we have different experiences.
Unlike me Dillon Inouye is as faithful as the sun shining. You know it is up there in the sky shining even on a cloudy day. I can't say the same for me because I don't mind calling a bozo a bozo when he is one even if he holds a church position. I respect the man for his deeds but being a former Catholic I don't kiss any rings. I could use a little more humility as taught in the Japanese culture. I don't have a problem luckily with any current general authorities so I don't foresee a problem nor do I associate with any nor do I think I will at my age. So I am safe to make these statements.
Dillon helped me to weather periods in the church when others have accused me of following the wrong spirit. Unless someone calls you out a time or two you don't have the ability to analyze yourself. His telling me I followed Satan a time or two has allowed me to realize that maybe I do at times make bad decisions. Sometimes I let others run all over me because I think am I being disobedient. Once a bishop ecclesiastically abused me and told me I followed Satan when he removed my recommend for saying a counselor in a stake presidency needed to dust off his scriptures because he was plugging Abraham Gileadi in a gospel doctrine class shortly after the man had been disfellowshipped. I had laughed when the counselor had been teaching a gospel doctrine class and yes I snickered because at the time Gileadi was living up by the Kohl Dream Mine near Benjamin. I wasn't laughing at his naivety nor at Gileadi's scholarship which is some of the best ever written on Isaiah I was laughing at the fact he was in to Jewish mysticism and was living up there near a mine that never once produce one lick of gold.
A few weeks later I was in the stake presidency counselor's institute class and had shared an experience about President Benson's To the Mother's in Zion talk about how I thought it was an inspired talk and how my wife benefited from it. A non member was in the class who worked and she didn't like my telling how Reed Benson told me about how President Benson got thirty thousand letters from women who said he didn't know what he was talking about nor my telling how the next seventy thousand said he was inspired from women who went home so he called me in to tell me not to talk in his class. The institute man had his secretary call me in to his institute office saying President F..... want to see you. He in essence told me to shut up that he was telling me to shut up. I told him he worked for the CES and in my opinion he should tell us if there is a non member in the class if we need to be careful and he had no right to use his stake position to tell me what to do or not do since it was a religion class and had nothing to do directly with the church. I also told him it wasn't the policy of the CES to have non-members taking institute classes. He didn't like that I disrespected him and he reported me to the stake president.
The next week the stake president showed up at the institute building and told me and my wife that I didn't sustain my leaders. I told the stake president his counselor was not acting as my leader but as an institute guy and that was different. If the guy asked me to do something I would do it but what he said or did in his class was separate from the Church structure. My wife and I both tried to tell him my side of the story but he said we were lying and his friend wouldn't misuse his position and that my problem was I didn't sustain the other man.
The bishop took my recommend over the CES man misusing his power. You can cloak it all you want but I to this day do not respect the institute teacher. When the bishop told me I followed Satan as he took my recommend I said "yes sir you are the bishop and if you say I follow Satan then I must sir." I had learned from Dillon Inouye that I followed Satan on the CES matter with the Benson book so I figured I might as well admit if I ever did follow Satan again. I have always been taught to jump when my leaders say jump and ask how high to jump. A few months later the bishop returned my recommend on the day he was released. It was his last official act as bishop. The stake president went off to BYU and the CES guy went off to Utah State leaving me all alone. I am glad BYU was smart enough never to hire him nor did he ever get any higher in the church. Unfortunately the new stake president heard all about me so he treated me accordingly. I solved matter by leaving a perfectly good job at 37 and getting a doctorate. I am glad I did I was made a high priest two months later. If I had stayed in Missouri I would have lived and died as an elder.
I had a second problem with ecclesiastical abuse a few years later after I completed my doctorate. I moved to California and the counselor in the stake presidency touched my wife in an inappropriate place at a Know Your Religion Session. It was crowded so she sat on one side of a row and I sat across the row on the side pew. He had his hand on the pew and she wasn't sure it was a hand at first. She told me about it a few days later and at first I didn't believe her and thought she was imagining it. But one Sunday I saw him take a hold of her hand and he wouldn't let go of it. She had to literally pry it out of his hands. I never saw anything like it in all the years I have been a member of a guy holding on to a woman's hand for five minutes. The Spirit told me at that moment she was telling me the truth.
I don't know which Spirit it was but I knew he had done it. A few weeks later I told him in private when he was visiting my ward after he said to me "you don't like me do you?" I told him he was very perceptive and that he was a slime ball in my opinion. I told him about putting his hands on my wife and then I told him if I had actually seen him do it I would have punched his lights out but that since I didn't see it I would have to take my wife's word for it and I knew she was telling the truth. He never denied he touched her but he said I don't know if I did touch her but if I did touch her I apologize." The stake president came to my place of work a few days later and told me I had traumatized the poor guy so he was taking my recommend and putting it in a drawer for a few months that I couldn't treat such a spiritual man that way. I left a tenured faculty position and moved within a few months to get away from them despite the fact I would have made $100,000 a year just by staying in my job for ten more years. I would have never left California if not for that man inappropriately touching my wife. I lived four blocks from the campus and had a cushy job. I regret the day I left there but I wouldn't have had another calling for years had I stayed.
I was appalled a few years later after I moved when I heard the perv was made a stake president which he still is today. I guess he repented. I told a couple of area seventy's about him but they counseled me to forget it so I did meaning don't contact the First Presidency and the Twelve which I told them I was contemplating. I just wonder if he has been tempted in dealing with women with problems. Will he put his hand on their behinds mentally?
I talked to Dillon a few months before coming to the Middle East. He told me he thought about recommending me to Terry Warner since he was looking for someone with my skills. But the foreword in my Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord was written under a dark cloud and that guys like me don't belong at BYU. The first part I didn't agree with but I think I agree with the last part. I could never make it in a repressed society like BYU. They aren't the best librarians in the country and many of them are actually quite rude. One time I had an interview with them they called me fifteen minutes early and made fun of me during the interview. Lucky for us we have faithful brethren like Dillon Inouye there. I wish more of us were like him.
He sees a bright beautiful world while others like me see the good, the bad, and the ugly at times. It is all in our construct. The one thing I have learned from Dillon Inouye is to serve no matter how flawed we may be and that sickness shouldn't hold us back either. I have been amazed that he is still going strong like the energizer bunny despite kidney problems and an atrocious hacking cough. I would have given Dillon Inouye my kidney had I been a blood match because in my opinion this would be a sad world if he weren't in it. He is an honest and true friend. We just don't always agree about some things. I wonder if I really learned what he was trying to teach me.
With the passing of Dillon K. Inouye one of his other students P. Clint Rogers posted another tribute on 3 July 2008 entitled "In memory of a true teacher and friend, Dillon K. Inouye: his thoughts on the central role of our profession."
Friday, May 23, 2008
What Happens to Former Stake and Mission Presidents: Creation of Seventh and Eighth Quorums of Seventy
Have you ever wondered what happens to many of the best former stake presidents and mission presidents? According to Earl C. Tingey in the 7 May 2008 Church News the cream of the crop are made Seventies and used to train other church leaders:
"In the quorums are "many outstanding men. These are really powerful men; most have been presidents of missions and stakes. They are seasoned people who know the local area well — the customs, languages and carry the office of Seventy to preside. Once we have a Seventy, we can convene groups of stake presidents and let the Seventy train them as needed by direction of the seven presidents or the area presidency."
Several of the former mission presidents are today members of the eight quorums of Seventy. Up until April 2008 there were six quorums of Seventy but then two more were created on 19 April 2008.
John L. Hart of the Deseret News said about the creation of the two new Quorums of Seventy: "Two new quorums of the Seventy — the Seventh and Eighth quorums — have been created, the First Presidency announced April 19 by letter to priesthood leaders."
I wonder why there are eight Quorums of Seventy when the Lord said there would be seven by seventy but the Church goes on revelation and can call as many as they need. Elder Tingey tells us that the Prophet received inspiration to create more than seven groups.
John L. Hart says in the Church News account, "Elder Earl C. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy quoted Doctrine and Covenants Section 107, which states: "The Seventy are to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve or the traveling high council, in building up the church and regulating all the affairs of the same in all nations . . . (verse 34).
It is the duty of the traveling high council to call upon the Seventy, when they need assistance, to fill the several calls for preaching and administering the gospel, instead of any others . . . . (verse 38).
And also other seventy, until seven times seventy, if the labor in the vineyard of necessity requires it" (verse 96)."
Tingey also said in his response to the creation of the two quorums:
"As Elder Neal A. Maxwell used to counsel us, there is no elasticity in the ranks of the Twelve. It is fixed at twelve. The elasticity is in the ranks of the Seventy. We have seen the Seventy increase from 137 in 1997 to 195 today. We have seen the number of quorums increase from one in 1976, from two in 1986, and from five in 1997 to eight today.
The additional Area Seventies were called to meet the needs of growth which, combined with retention and activation efforts, has brought the Church to 2,676 stakes and 338 missions, with a membership of some 12.4 million.
This is a reflection of the Lord inspiring the prophet, from time to time, on how to organize the Seventies.
The beauty of it is that the organization is in place to add Seventies to a quorum,. You don't have to create a new structure. If there is a lot of growth in one part of the world, you can add three or four. It is flexible, it has elasticity to fit whatever situation is out there, based on the growth of the Church."
That the Church would use the former mission presidents who understand the areas of the world in which they serve and many times are men of significant Church experience is not surprising. During the last century many of the Twelve and Quorum of Seventy have been former mission presidents. Since these former mission presidents now Seventies have developed a vast amount of experience and new mission presidents and stake presidents need additional training and the Council of the Twelve are so busy organizationally it makes sense to call seasoned stake presidents and mission presidents to help in supervising a growing International Church. Who better than men who have served in similar callings and know just the kind of issues that will present themselves to other mission and stake presidents.
I have had great respect for the former stake president I served under for nearly five years as an executive secretary. He had served for nearly twelve years and was well seasoned in church leadership. I learned a great deal from him and know that other stake presidents could learn best practices from him.
If you are lucky enough to be a former stake or mission president that is dynamic and powerful you have a good chance of being called to one of these quorums. The article says when a quorum grows larger than 70 then it is split so conceivably there could be many more quorums plus there are still a few dozens of openings in the new quourms since there are only 197 total Seventies. There are some exciting times ahead in church government.
I have always had an interest in these types of things. Many years ago I was a student of Wilson Anderson who taught a Church government and history class and I worked for Richard O. Cowan who studied the development of the Church. It is quite fun to track the new pool of mission presidents coming out in the class of 2008. I wonder how many of them will distinguish themselves and have the Lord call them in the next decade to fill the ranks of the Seventh and Eight Quorum of Seventy.
"In the quorums are "many outstanding men. These are really powerful men; most have been presidents of missions and stakes. They are seasoned people who know the local area well — the customs, languages and carry the office of Seventy to preside. Once we have a Seventy, we can convene groups of stake presidents and let the Seventy train them as needed by direction of the seven presidents or the area presidency."
Several of the former mission presidents are today members of the eight quorums of Seventy. Up until April 2008 there were six quorums of Seventy but then two more were created on 19 April 2008.
John L. Hart of the Deseret News said about the creation of the two new Quorums of Seventy: "Two new quorums of the Seventy — the Seventh and Eighth quorums — have been created, the First Presidency announced April 19 by letter to priesthood leaders."
I wonder why there are eight Quorums of Seventy when the Lord said there would be seven by seventy but the Church goes on revelation and can call as many as they need. Elder Tingey tells us that the Prophet received inspiration to create more than seven groups.
John L. Hart says in the Church News account, "Elder Earl C. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy quoted Doctrine and Covenants Section 107, which states: "The Seventy are to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve or the traveling high council, in building up the church and regulating all the affairs of the same in all nations . . . (verse 34).
It is the duty of the traveling high council to call upon the Seventy, when they need assistance, to fill the several calls for preaching and administering the gospel, instead of any others . . . . (verse 38).
And also other seventy, until seven times seventy, if the labor in the vineyard of necessity requires it" (verse 96)."
Tingey also said in his response to the creation of the two quorums:
"As Elder Neal A. Maxwell used to counsel us, there is no elasticity in the ranks of the Twelve. It is fixed at twelve. The elasticity is in the ranks of the Seventy. We have seen the Seventy increase from 137 in 1997 to 195 today. We have seen the number of quorums increase from one in 1976, from two in 1986, and from five in 1997 to eight today.
The additional Area Seventies were called to meet the needs of growth which, combined with retention and activation efforts, has brought the Church to 2,676 stakes and 338 missions, with a membership of some 12.4 million.
This is a reflection of the Lord inspiring the prophet, from time to time, on how to organize the Seventies.
The beauty of it is that the organization is in place to add Seventies to a quorum,. You don't have to create a new structure. If there is a lot of growth in one part of the world, you can add three or four. It is flexible, it has elasticity to fit whatever situation is out there, based on the growth of the Church."
That the Church would use the former mission presidents who understand the areas of the world in which they serve and many times are men of significant Church experience is not surprising. During the last century many of the Twelve and Quorum of Seventy have been former mission presidents. Since these former mission presidents now Seventies have developed a vast amount of experience and new mission presidents and stake presidents need additional training and the Council of the Twelve are so busy organizationally it makes sense to call seasoned stake presidents and mission presidents to help in supervising a growing International Church. Who better than men who have served in similar callings and know just the kind of issues that will present themselves to other mission and stake presidents.
I have had great respect for the former stake president I served under for nearly five years as an executive secretary. He had served for nearly twelve years and was well seasoned in church leadership. I learned a great deal from him and know that other stake presidents could learn best practices from him.
If you are lucky enough to be a former stake or mission president that is dynamic and powerful you have a good chance of being called to one of these quorums. The article says when a quorum grows larger than 70 then it is split so conceivably there could be many more quorums plus there are still a few dozens of openings in the new quourms since there are only 197 total Seventies. There are some exciting times ahead in church government.
I have always had an interest in these types of things. Many years ago I was a student of Wilson Anderson who taught a Church government and history class and I worked for Richard O. Cowan who studied the development of the Church. It is quite fun to track the new pool of mission presidents coming out in the class of 2008. I wonder how many of them will distinguish themselves and have the Lord call them in the next decade to fill the ranks of the Seventh and Eight Quorum of Seventy.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Missionary Letters--Rome, Italy
Cari Miei
This week we got transfer calls, I am staying in the same city with the same companion. We thought that with a new ward we would get some elders but that didn't happen so it is still just us... whoot whoot for a sister city.
It has been raining, so it hasn't really gotten that hot yet so that is good. I am accumulating cute husband points by doing house in the rain. tehehe
We met with some new members and they are awesome and we are planning a picnic for the ward the first week of July so that will be way fun. We are meeting with a lot of part member families trying to build relationships with the non member spouses of a lot of members. I know that they can become eternal families and that the Lord will prepare them and that he wants that for them.
I just don't know how to get them to be interested to actually listen to the lessons and have the desire to become a member. One of our members who lives at home with her parents told us that the interesting thing is that non members with member family members see the church in an interesting way because they can see the good the gospel brings, but also most members talk bad about others and they share their frustrations with their families for example the dificulties of their callings etc.
So their families see the good and the bad. It is hard to be an example all of the time, but I am realizing the power of never critizing the people who serve in the church and what it really means for members to sustain each other.Next week Brother Johnson from the area seventy will come and give us a conference so we are excited for that and the training that he will do. Thats about it in the life of this missionary.Vi Voglio Bene
This week we got transfer calls, I am staying in the same city with the same companion. We thought that with a new ward we would get some elders but that didn't happen so it is still just us... whoot whoot for a sister city.
It has been raining, so it hasn't really gotten that hot yet so that is good. I am accumulating cute husband points by doing house in the rain. tehehe
We met with some new members and they are awesome and we are planning a picnic for the ward the first week of July so that will be way fun. We are meeting with a lot of part member families trying to build relationships with the non member spouses of a lot of members. I know that they can become eternal families and that the Lord will prepare them and that he wants that for them.
I just don't know how to get them to be interested to actually listen to the lessons and have the desire to become a member. One of our members who lives at home with her parents told us that the interesting thing is that non members with member family members see the church in an interesting way because they can see the good the gospel brings, but also most members talk bad about others and they share their frustrations with their families for example the dificulties of their callings etc.
So their families see the good and the bad. It is hard to be an example all of the time, but I am realizing the power of never critizing the people who serve in the church and what it really means for members to sustain each other.Next week Brother Johnson from the area seventy will come and give us a conference so we are excited for that and the training that he will do. Thats about it in the life of this missionary.Vi Voglio Bene
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Need for More LDS Couple Missionaries in West Indies Mission and Throughout the World
I found this post from three months ago on the West Indies Mission blog that Diane Robison wife of the mission president puts up for families of missionaries. In it Reid Robison makes an appeal for more couple missionaries. I reviewed the site in detail having recently reacquired the link from someone who has requested serving in the West Indies, Larry and Jan Meyers, who are sharing their experiences from preparation through the actual mission to encourage other couples to go. I had temporarily lost the link earlier in year but found it on the prospective couple's sidebar. Since I get five thousand hits a month I thought I would give it more exposure.
In a spirit of trying to encourage more couples to serve I am reposting the three month old post to encourage more couples to serve. The post shows the urgent need for couples in the missions throughout the church. I thought I would put the word out that more couples are needed throughout the world and especially in the West Indies Mission. I would give a link back to the original post but it is in MAC and not easily found. You would have to spend an hour like me reading each post one by one. If you want to do that then go ahead, it is really great seeing the pictures of the missionaries and finding out how the work is going down there.
Reid Robison wrote:
How the West Indies Got So Many Couples
One of the unique things about this mission is the blessing of having couples serve in almost all of the countries within its boundaries. When we arrived, there were 4 couples serving in the West Indies and a Humanitarian couple and a CES couple. Today there are 22 couples.The sad thing is - they go home after 18 months! We always need couples. These couples serve with love and dedication and do so much to establish the Church in the isles of the sea. They mentor elders, they train branch leaders, they assist in the administration of mission affairs, and above all they help bring the "lost sheep" back to the branch. We can "recruit" couples to serve in this mission. This practice is often called "private placement." We were told that it is hard enough to find couples who must leave family, friends, fun, finances behind and overcome fear.
Five Couples Urgently Needed
Seven couples return home in 2008 having served 18 or 23 months. We still need replacements for five of them (three in Trinidad, one in St. Lucia, and one in Guyana). We invite you to share this website link with a couple you may believe is interested and have them view the pictures at the “Missionary Couples” link (under construction - will be up very soon) to get a feel for the mission. Then if they would e-mail me of their interest at presidentrobison@gmail.com, I will answer their questions. Many of the wonderful West Indies couples were found by returned missionaries, parents of currently serving missionaries and the couples themselves. We appreciate your consideration of this request to find couples to help continue the marvelous work of establishing the Church in the West Indies.
President Robison
Dr. B. writes: I think it would be cool to serve down there. Notice the great tans on the missionaries. I might consider it myself in nine years when my youngest leaves home. Couples can make requests of where they serve. If you want to go to a particular mission then get a hold of the missionary department in Salt Lake City. You can check out their cost by going to Missionary Department and find out about current openings Senior Missionaries Opportunities . If you have any questions about serving a couples mission feel free to call the Department in Salt Lake City at 1-800-453-3860, ext 23492 (for those outside the U.S. the country code is 001-801-453-3860 x23492). If you don't care where you are going you can begin the paperwork through the online application process--The Missionary Online Recommendation System--where couples or senior missionaries can apply from the convenience of their homes.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Lip-Syncing and LDS Missionaries
In my rather long post Missionaries and Singing one of my commenters Faux brought up a cultural practice that is actually quite common and done by many men particularly missionaries throughout the Church which is to lip-synch while singing LDS hymns.
Faux said: "I loved the Spencer W. Kimball story about the family singing at the last moment. This was especially meaningful, given that he lost his voice later in life. I am envious of those who can carry a note. I am of the Heber J. Grant tradition -- which is to say my singing may do more damage than good. Consequently, I have tried to develop a good lip-sync. (Is that a form of lying?)" That is an intriguing question whether we are being dishonest by giving an outward form of singing.
Wickipedia defines lip-syncing as "Lip-sync or Lip-synch (short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice....Though lip-synching or lip singing can be used to make it appear as though actors have musical ability (e.g., The Partridge Family) or to misattribute vocals (e.g. Milli Vanilli), it is more often used by recording artists to create a particular effect, to enable them to perform live dance numbers, or to cover for illness or other deficiencies during live performance"
I think this is a form of situational ethics. For some it might very well be a form of lying since many men and a few women who engage in this practice can sing and sing passably if not well. Others on the other hand would disrupt the meeting by their disharmony. Is it better to ignore them in a spirit of tolerance or is it better for them just not to sing.
My response to Faux was "I think there is some truth in what you say I have gone through periods of lip syncing also. I think it is a cultural practice of singing. In an evolutionary scale it moves us mentally toward actually singing. On one end of the continum we just don't even engage on the other end we sing and do it passably. I mean by lip syncing you are consciously engaged as the words pass through your mind and form in to words. For some of us it is a way of conforming without fear of embarassment. Kind of like I would sing if I really could but I can't so I do the next best thing. It is a form of social accomodation."
Since singers range in their ability and LDS missionaries have a stronger desire than most since they desire to feel the spirit and set an example I wonder if they are under pressure to sing in some ways more than the general member. Mission presidents tell them to sing and they themselves want to model for the investigator good cultural practices. I know from experience that they are human too and want good-looking young adult sisters viewing them or their missionaries peers to think they are okay as singers and missionaries. I for one as a missionary felt a sense of shame when I sang and that the young women in the ward and my fellow missionaries felt sorry for me. A way that I found to get around it was to lip-sync. I felt either way whether I sang or whether I lip-synced a sense of failure. I knew I couldn't sing my mission president even threw me out of a missionary singing group for a mission-wide conference. It took me more than a decade to be able to sing passably and that was because my wife forced me to sing in a couple ward choirs. I felt sorry for people who performed putting up with me so patiently for so many years.
Many missionaries who have never sung can't just miraculously start singing like angels. On the other hand they will never learn to sing if they don't actually put the music with the words. My expectations were that I just had to open my mouth and a good sound would come out. Unfortunately teenage girls and young women laughed when I sang which reinforced my behavior. It took Heber J. Grant who is held up to us missionaries as an example by our mission presidents thirty or forty years to get the hang of singing why should it be any different for those of us without that gift. For many of us musically challenged we might need a culture of immunity. The only place I didn't have a problem singing was in small struggling branches where twelve year old girls played the piano or in an area where it was just us six missionaries. We all can't measure up the David Archuletas in the Church and that is who a modern day missionary would measure themselves with. When I was a missionary it was the Osmonds. In a singing culture with the likes of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir you can't escape the fact singing is an expectation for missionaries.
I wonder how we can overcome the need to lip-sync among our young men and older men who have continued the practice in to adulthood.
Faux said: "I loved the Spencer W. Kimball story about the family singing at the last moment. This was especially meaningful, given that he lost his voice later in life. I am envious of those who can carry a note. I am of the Heber J. Grant tradition -- which is to say my singing may do more damage than good. Consequently, I have tried to develop a good lip-sync. (Is that a form of lying?)" That is an intriguing question whether we are being dishonest by giving an outward form of singing.
Wickipedia defines lip-syncing as "Lip-sync or Lip-synch (short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice....Though lip-synching or lip singing can be used to make it appear as though actors have musical ability (e.g., The Partridge Family) or to misattribute vocals (e.g. Milli Vanilli), it is more often used by recording artists to create a particular effect, to enable them to perform live dance numbers, or to cover for illness or other deficiencies during live performance"
I think this is a form of situational ethics. For some it might very well be a form of lying since many men and a few women who engage in this practice can sing and sing passably if not well. Others on the other hand would disrupt the meeting by their disharmony. Is it better to ignore them in a spirit of tolerance or is it better for them just not to sing.
My response to Faux was "I think there is some truth in what you say I have gone through periods of lip syncing also. I think it is a cultural practice of singing. In an evolutionary scale it moves us mentally toward actually singing. On one end of the continum we just don't even engage on the other end we sing and do it passably. I mean by lip syncing you are consciously engaged as the words pass through your mind and form in to words. For some of us it is a way of conforming without fear of embarassment. Kind of like I would sing if I really could but I can't so I do the next best thing. It is a form of social accomodation."
Since singers range in their ability and LDS missionaries have a stronger desire than most since they desire to feel the spirit and set an example I wonder if they are under pressure to sing in some ways more than the general member. Mission presidents tell them to sing and they themselves want to model for the investigator good cultural practices. I know from experience that they are human too and want good-looking young adult sisters viewing them or their missionaries peers to think they are okay as singers and missionaries. I for one as a missionary felt a sense of shame when I sang and that the young women in the ward and my fellow missionaries felt sorry for me. A way that I found to get around it was to lip-sync. I felt either way whether I sang or whether I lip-synced a sense of failure. I knew I couldn't sing my mission president even threw me out of a missionary singing group for a mission-wide conference. It took me more than a decade to be able to sing passably and that was because my wife forced me to sing in a couple ward choirs. I felt sorry for people who performed putting up with me so patiently for so many years.
Many missionaries who have never sung can't just miraculously start singing like angels. On the other hand they will never learn to sing if they don't actually put the music with the words. My expectations were that I just had to open my mouth and a good sound would come out. Unfortunately teenage girls and young women laughed when I sang which reinforced my behavior. It took Heber J. Grant who is held up to us missionaries as an example by our mission presidents thirty or forty years to get the hang of singing why should it be any different for those of us without that gift. For many of us musically challenged we might need a culture of immunity. The only place I didn't have a problem singing was in small struggling branches where twelve year old girls played the piano or in an area where it was just us six missionaries. We all can't measure up the David Archuletas in the Church and that is who a modern day missionary would measure themselves with. When I was a missionary it was the Osmonds. In a singing culture with the likes of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir you can't escape the fact singing is an expectation for missionaries.
I wonder how we can overcome the need to lip-sync among our young men and older men who have continued the practice in to adulthood.
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