Thanksgiving Journal, Day 3

 It's Monday morning. I'm grateful for Monday, as it signals the beginning of a new week filled with hope and anticipation for the week to come. I'm grateful for Patsy's suggestion last night that we could put up the Christmas tree today, something I was unable to even think about last year.

So today I'm grateful for health and the restoration of strength sufficient to begin welcoming the Christmas season with lights, trees, ornaments, and all the decorations that spell "festive." Nobody does home decorations for every holiday like Patsy - especially Christmas nativities that fill our home as a reminder of "the reason for the season."

Many years ago we learned that Patsy was allergic to pine trees and aspen trees, and guess where we live? That's right, in the middle of a forest surrounded by pines and aspens. It was then we learned not to bring a fresh cut pine tree into the house every Christmas season. The Goates Kids replaced that tradition with a 9 foot artificial pre-lit pine tree that we have enjoyed each season. It's green, it's sustainable, and much better suited to Patsy's allergies. So I am grateful for an artificial Christmas tree that looks better in that corner of the living room than anything we could have cut ourselves.

I am grateful for the beauty of nature that surrounds us. At a distance, especially after fresh-fallen snow, there is nothing to exceed the exquisite and intricate patterns of creation that renew their attractions with the change of each season. I love the scent of pine in the winter, especially now that I can smell again, so I am grateful for all five senses, especially smell and sight that were restored to their full spectrum this year. In the fall yellow leaves on the aspen trees produce a gorgeous contrast to the evergreen pine needles

I love looking out my office window up the Mirror Lake highway toward the majestic peaks to the north and the east of my vantage point. At 7,333 feet above sea level, I give thanks for the ever-changing vistas. We live in a beautiful place unlike any other. We share our location with fish, deer, elk, moose, fox, rabbits, Canadian geese, sand hill cranes and ducks. 

We are visited by the occasional black bears and cubs, coyotes, mountain lions (some fans of the school down south would call them "cougars") and pot guts, rock chucks, field mice, and birds of prey in all varieties including owls, eagles and hawks year around. You won't find that array of wildlife in any subdivision anywhere. (Didn't even mention the cows and horses.)

We are blessed as a people living in Utah to also be surrounded by temples. Daughter Dianne and her Bayles crew were on a field trip yesterday to see the new Saratoga Springs temple as it is being constructed on the western slope of Utah Lake. She calculated that they live within striking distance of thirteen temples now. 

I give thanks for not only easy access to temples, but also the priesthood keys that actuate all the ordinances for all God's children who desire the hope for an eternal family. I am thankful for the glorious opportunity Patsy and I had to serve as ordinance workers in the Salt Lake Temple during the final year before it closed for renovation. We will be eager to return to the temples as they reopen.

I am also grateful for good friends this morning. I had the chance to call many of them during this summer to tell them of my brain surgery and its successful outcome. It was so great to get caught up with many of them. I give thanks today for my long-time mentor, Leon Peterson, who passed away on Saturday. I have many treasured memories of our association with him and his family. 

Many of my friends and acquaintances are now moving on from this life, and a lot of us are having "near misses." I was almost in the ranks of the newly departed this year, but I am thankful for the renewal of the lease on my physical body for perhaps a few more miles.

Thanksgiving Journal, Day 2

 We have had a wonderful Sabbath day thus far. We attended our weekly sacrament meeting, and we are grateful for the kind and careful steps our bishopric is making during the COVID-19 pandemic to make the chapel a safe haven where all may come to worship together without fear of spreading the virus that is altering nearly everything we do these days. We are thankful for two speakers in our meeting today who offered comments and a review of Elder Matthew S. Holland's talk at the recent October 2020 General Conference. He entitled it "The Exquisite Gift of the Son."

We are thankful for the young men of the Aaronic Priesthood in our ward who administer the emblems of the Lord's agonizing atoning sacrifice for each of us. The bread and the water, simple symbols that are universal reminders of the Savior's body and His blood, allow us to bind our souls to Him, to remember Him, to covenant to keep His commandments, and to always have His spirit to attend us. 

We were thankful for a season this summer to have authorization to administer the sacrament in our home, and we enjoyed having the Pahnkes, our brother and sister from California, joining us in our home sacrament service. But now we have thankfully been able to return to the ward building to be served by our young men, who are masked, wear protective latex gloves, and making everyone feel loved as they serve us. There is power in worshipping at home, but there is also power in gathering at the ward building for the fellowship of our ward members from a safe distance. 

I give thanks that we live in a day when we can worship freely in the land of America, where religious freedom abounds. Except for those freedoms we enjoy here in America, the gospel never could have flourished and we would be unable to go into foreign lands and teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the blessing of the Constitution of the United States and for the Bill of Rights that offers the privilege of worshipping who, where and what we choose. I give thanks for the Constitutional right to choose.

I am thankful for my family members, most of whom are feeling somewhat disenfranchised this upcoming holiday season because of the counsel to avoid gathering too many people. That suggestion, of course, puts a damper on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner plans for everyone. I am thankful that we can still be offering our gratitude even with reduced numbers around the table. We love getting together with our family whenever we can, but this year we give thanks that we are so anxious to be together even though the restrictions make it more difficult. Count it a blessing, as we do, that our families desire to be together. How sad would it be if they were indifferent and didn't care to be together? I am grateful they love one another.

Traditionally, one of our favorite holiday events has been getting together to make our gingerbread houses the day after Thanksgiving. We are still doing it, but gathering in much smaller groups to remain safer. We are grateful for Grandma Patsy, who makes the gingerbread houses - this year around 40 - for all who want to come and put them together. There is definitely more candy involved than Halloween, and how grateful we all are for the continuation of the sugar fest into November and December.  

I express my thanks for the peace and tranquility of Pine Valley. The long dry summer and autumn is finally transitioning into winter. The snow is a welcome respite from the heat and the drought that often dominates the desert climate where we live. We are richly blessed with all four seasons. The water we drink in summer comes largely from the skies above in the form of the winter snow. I am grateful for the "greatest snow on Earth."

I give thanks for electricity, for propane, for a boiler, for a water pump that pumps fresh spring water into our home on tap. I am grateful for warm showers and baths, for firewood to burn in our free-standing stove in one section of the house, and for warm baseboards fed by the boiler that heat the whole house. These creature comforts, though we all seem to take them for granted, are better than the castles of old Europe that lacked even the barest of these necessities in years gone by. I am grateful that I live better than the crown heads of Europe used to live.

I am grateful for transportation to get me wherever I wish to travel when and if it is possible. Cars and trucks that work, airplanes that fly, trains and buses are readily available to us. We aren't that many years removed from horses and buggies.

I am grateful today for Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in the October 2020 General Conference. We reviewed it in our Zoom priesthood meeting this morning. It is entitled "Waiting on the Lord," and Elder Holland emphasizes that we are not always privy to the timetable of the Lord. We often petition the Lord for blessings, and sometimes in the cases of chronic illness or physical pain those pleas seem to go unanswered for many years. I give thanks for the assurances that our prayers are always answered. 

"I offer you my apostolic promise that [your prayers] are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. . .

"He administers that calendar to every one of us individually. For every infirm man healed instantly as he waits to enter the Pool of Bethesda (see John 5:2-9), someone else will spend 40 years in the desert waiting to enter the promised land. (See Numbers 32:13; Deuteronomy 2:7; Joshua 5:6)."

Give Thanks, Flood the World with Gratitude

 

Yesterday President Russell M. Nelson offered his prescription for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world and spiking here at home in Utah. His secret formula: 1) Flood the world with personal expressions of gratitude for the next seven days, and 2) offer up sincere and humble prayer daily.

That may sound too simplistic to some, but he explained in another news release that this idea hit him in the middle of the night and he followed through on the impression the next morning. He offered his own prayer for all the world to witness as he concluded his message.

So I will begin my personal "Thanksgiving Journal," Day 1: I #givethanks first and foremost to my beloved companion of over 50 years, Patsy. That's her, above (third from the left), in a four-generation picture on the snowy day of grand-daughter Ashley John's sealing at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. She has the faith of a pioneer woman. I've often teased her that she was born 200 years too late. It was her leadership in mustering the faith of everyone in our family and our ward to see me through the episode of my meningioma diagnosis and subsequent brain surgery. She would have been at the top of my list in any event, but this latest example merely burnishes her place in all our hearts, especially mine.

I #givethanks for the knowledge of my Father in Heaven and His Only Begotten Son, our Redeemer Jesus Christ. But for the Savior's atoning sacrifice and Joseph Smith's humble prayer, we would be without hope in this world for the world to come.

I am constantly pondering what my life would be like without the Prophet Joseph Smith. As he opened the last dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these last days his faithfulness and persistence were astounding by anyone's calculations. Even his enemies seem to have been silenced to some degree as the monumental publication of the Joseph Smith Papers puts to flight so many of the specious and scurrilous allegations that now seem frivolous. I #givethanks to Joseph in this 200th anniversary year of his First Vision of the Father and the Son in the grove of trees near Palmyra, New York on a spring morning in 1820.

I #givethanks to God for the organization of His church, the only true and living church on the face of the earth today - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its genius organizational design and flexibility for growth worldwide is expanding its reach day by day as we gather the house of Israel on both sides of the veil.

I #givethanks for a living and loving prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, who continues unabated to give guidance and loving counsel to all the world. His gentle "invitations" are just that - calculated to offer a welcoming hand of fellowship to all who will respond with obedience and sacrifice. He is absolutely a man to match the mountains that surround us in the tops of the mountains of Utah.

This Thanksgiving season will be different because we are living in a COVID-19 pandemic. I hope we can remember that it's not to be measured as successful based upon the number who normally would gather around our table for dinner. Rather, this year let us measure ourselves based upon the depths of our gratitude for all the blessings a loving Heavenly Father has showered upon us.

I am greatly blessed for the return of my brain this year. How grateful I am for the advances of medical science that made possible the intrusion into my skull to excise that meningioma tumor. I #givethanks not only for skilled physicians and a talented medical team to support them, but most of all for the Great Physician who has made the healing so complete and perfect.

I think I am ready to even #givethanks for the brain tumor, now removed, that has put me in remembrance as never before of all the blessings I have received.

Fate of America Not Riding on November 3rd 2020 Election

I have been restrained by a self-imposed aversion to politics in more recent years, but I want to associate myself with a recent poll conducted by Scott Rasmussen and published this morning in the Deseret News. He maintains in his polling that culture in America always leads and that politicians lag far behind, yet it seems the politicians always garner the most publicity and in my opinion it is unwarranted.

The title of the article is "The fate of America will not be decided on Nov. 3." We are all bombarded in election cycles by the Red Team and the Blue Team, and no, we're not talking here about the U of U and BYU. The transitory nature of politics is nothing we should be investing in if we are sane citizens. 

There are types and shadows of former inhabitants of this land documented for our review in the Book of Mormon, and as a Church we have recently studied their disastrous fates in the Come Follow Me outlines when those earlier inhabitants were decimated by internal civil wars. We can be smarter than they if we will choose a better path.

Rasmussen has a lot of interesting findings in this latest poll. Among them:

- many voters agree with my key underlying assumptions: 69% agree that politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are

- 57% share my view that the culture leads and the politicians lag behind

- earlier polling showed that 76% recognize that American society isn’t nearly as polarized as American politics

- 71% of white voters agree that politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are

- that view is shared by 67% of Black voters and 64% of Hispanic voters

- 58% of Democrats agree that the culture leads and politicians lag behind

- so do 56% of Republicans and 55% of independents

- a strong majority of every measured demographic group believes American politics is more polarized than American society.

"For me," observes Rasmussen, "those views are consistent with a belief that almost all positive change in America begins far from official Washington and outside of the political process. That’s the story of America. Whether we look at the struggles for independence, women’s suffrage, civil rights or any other great movements, they began and grew in the popular culture. They rumbled beneath the surface and gained strength long before overcoming the resistance of our political system."

How refreshing is that? A voice of reason at long last, reverberating through the souls of most Americans who know what politicians always seem to ignore. There is a collective wisdom associated with the average American that far transcends the collective wisdom of Washington insiders. 

Just take a look at what they did with Social Security. Remember the "lock box" that was designed to keep the funds invested by those average Americans out of the hands of the spendthrift politicians? Yeah, we all know how that worked out, don't we? Now those trust funds are nothing more than a part of the general fund for spending amounting to trillions in deficits with no end in sight. The runaway spending freight train will not stop, it now appears, until it comes to the end of the tracks overlooking that vast chasm up ahead. Nobody in this election cycle has even mentioned a balanced budget. 

But let's not focus on the negative, something that is so easy to do.

"So," concluded Rasmussen, "I am not counting on the Red Team or the Blue Team to swoop in and save the day. That’s not their job. Yes, elections do matter. But there’s more to life and the nation than politics and elections."

Let me underscore that conclusion by my own observations. The POTUS cannot be held responsible for everything that happens or does not happen during their administrations. George W. Bush was handed his head politically over the government's seemingly inept response to the Katrina hurricane that hit New Orleans several years ago. Lyndon Johnson was blamed for not ending the Vietnam War sooner, and decided not to run for re-election. Jimmy Carter was guilty of surrendering in the war against the American economy triggered by Middle East aggression over oil prices, and went on to lose in a landslide election to Ronald Reagan. More recently, Donald Trump has been pilloried for the government response to handling the COVID-19 pandemic? Who in their right minds could possibly ascribe responsibility for all these happenings to one occupant of the Oval Office? That is the very definition of insanity - to think that a single individual could muster that much power to affect events outside their control.

And yet, we want to believe in some altered parallel universe that it is still possible. That's insane.

We live in a day when we are among a diverse and culturally heterogenous society. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are in the boat with everyone, and we are a tiny little faction in the whole fabric of God's tapestry worldwide. We will be in for a raucous and rough ride from here on in until the Second Coming of the Lord. Things will unquestionably get worse before they get better.

"These are days of great spiritual danger for this people. The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you that it will not get better.

"I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds the wickedness and depravity which surrounds us now.

"Satan uses every intrigue to disrupt the family. The sacred relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, through which mortal bodies are conceived and life is passed from one generation to the next generation, is being showered with filth.

"Profanity, vulgarity, blasphemy, and pornography are broadcast into the homes and minds of the innocent. Unspeakable wickedness, perversion, and abuse — not even exempting little children — once hidden in dark places, now seeks protection from courts and judges. . .

"The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were localized. They are now spread across the world, wherever the Church is. The first line of defense — the home — is crumbling. Surely you can see what the adversary is about." (President Boyd K. Packer, "On the Shoulders of Giants," BYU, J. Reuben Clark Law Society devotional, 28 February 2004, 7-8).

President Dallin H. Oaks in April of 2004, spoke at General Conference in a similar vein:

"We are living in the prophesied time 'when peace shall be taken from the earth' (D&C 1:35), when 'all things shall be in commotion' and 'men’s hearts shall fail them' (D&C 88:91). There are many temporal causes of commotion, including wars and natural disasters, but an even greater cause of current 'commotion' is spiritual.

"Viewing our surroundings through the lens of faith and with an eternal perspective, we see all around us a fulfillment of the prophecy that 'the devil shall have power over his own dominion' (D&C 1:35). Our hymn describes 'the foe in countless numbers, / Marshaled in the ranks of sin' (“Hope of Israel,” Hymns, no. 259), and so it is.

"Evil that used to be localized and covered like a boil is now legalized and paraded like a banner. The most fundamental roots and bulwarks of civilization are questioned or attacked. Nations disavow their religious heritage. Marriage and family responsibilities are discarded as impediments to personal indulgence. The movies and magazines and television that shape our attitudes are filled with stories or images that portray the children of God as predatory beasts or, at best, as trivial creations pursuing little more than personal pleasure. And too many of us accept this as entertainment.

"The men and women who made epic sacrifices to combat evil regimes in the past were shaped by values that are disappearing from our public teaching. The good, the true, and the beautiful are being replaced by the no-good, the 'whatever,' and the valueless fodder of personal whim. Not surprisingly, many of our youth and adults are caught up in pornography, pagan piercing of body parts, self-serving pleasure pursuits, dishonest behavior, revealing attire, foul language, and degrading sexual indulgence.

"An increasing number of opinion leaders and followers deny the existence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and revere only the gods of secularism. Many in positions of power and influence deny the right and wrong defined by divine decree. Even among those who profess to believe in right and wrong, there are 'them that call evil good, and good evil' (Isa. 5:20; 2 Ne. 15:20). Many also deny individual responsibility and practice dependence on others, seeking, like the foolish virgins, to live on borrowed substance and borrowed light.

"All of this is grievous in the sight of our Heavenly Father, who loves all of His children and forbids every practice that keeps any from returning to His presence."

Those are but two examples from a host of prophetic warnings about the specific conditions in which we live. In my experience the living prophets among us have been warriors of truth, not counting the "political coin of the realm" before speaking out. It has ever been thus, and it will ever be so in the days ahead.

Here is President Russell M. Nelson giving counsel to us on the day he was sustained in a Solemn Assembly as the Prophet, Seer and Revelator:

"I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that 'if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things — that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.' (D&C 42:61).

"Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, 'To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!' (Neal A. Maxwell, “Meek and Lowly” [Brigham Young University devotional, Oct. 21, 1986], 9, speeches.byu.edu).

"Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, (2 Nephi 32:3) and regular time committed to temple and family history work.

"To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you — even miracles — will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you.

"I am optimistic about the future. It will be filled with opportunities for each of us to progress, contribute, and take the gospel to every corner of the earth. But I am also not naïve about the days ahead. We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.

"Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation." (President Russell M. Nelson, "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives," Ensign May 2018).

And so, I end where I began this post - there is no need to get caught up in the rhetoric of the political free-for-all that pummels us each election cycle in America. Take for your guide instead the admonition of a living prophet and seek to increase your personal revelation through the Holy Ghost. I am a witness that miracles do and will happen as we petition the Lord in faith, even though it may take much longer than we anticipate. But the answers will and do come. 

President Nelson reminds us we must "patiently honor the Lord's timetable." Remember that America, for all her faults and weaknesses is made up of average folks like you and me who do their level best to make individual and wise decisions about their lives in the best way they know how. Let's respect one another despite whatever differences may exist among us.

Let us learn to disagree better, maybe not less.

Patience, Not Anger, Eventually Wins Out

 About thirty-one years ago we added a large two-story addition to our original cabin structure in Pine Valley. It was late in November when we commenced construction, and getting the addition framed up and closed in before winter was our primary concern. 

We contacted the power company (then Utah Power & Light, now Rocky Mountain Power) to move the buried primary power cable running through the valley, and waited a week after three failed attempts at getting a response from them. Each day the temperature dropped, and the footing and foundation contractor told me he would have to move ahead, or cancel and wait until next spring. He was getting worried about pouring the cement in the winter months because of falling temperatures. 

After no response from the power company, except for shallow promises, "We'll get right on that," we decided to move ahead with a work around solution. The cement contractor fashioned a PVC collar to fit around the two-inch power cable where it would go through the two foundation walls and allow the power cable to run through our crawl space in the new addition. Problem solved, or so we thought.

Construction proceeded, we did in fact get the structure finished and closed in before the winter's fury descended upon us, and for those thirty-one years we have lived with that power cable in our crawl space. These are the things one does when you live where we live.

Fast forward thirty-one years. Despite several additional attempts to get the attention of the power company over the years, nothing was ever done until last week. We heard a knock at the door, and opened to greet a crew chief from Rocky Mountain Power who let us know they were on our property to inspect where the main power line was so that additional work around us could be accomplished. Blue stakes had marked the existing line with red paint and little red flags, and the crew chief was simply asking if the markings that showed the line running under our addition could possibly be accurate. I assured him they were, then he asked, "Could we go down in the crawl space and take some pictures of the line?" 

He took the pictures back to the office, and his parting words were, "I can't believe the power company has left this situation unaddressed for thirty-plus years. I don't know if we can get to it right away but certainly by next spring we'll move that line out around your home to the east, cut the existing cable and remove it from under your home." 

Imagine my surprise when I awoke the next day to find trucks, track hoes, dump trucks, and a large crew of men from the power company's subcontractor who were ready to go to work on rerouting the line. We walked the ground and agreed on the new trench location for the cable, and they explained they would bury the conduit in the ground that day and a crew from Rocky Mountain Power would follow up the first of this week and pull new cable and install a new terminal transformer box on our north property line. The speed, efficiency and accuracy with which they worked was impressive.

Turned out, when he got back to the office with the pictures, it was concluded quickly by the crew chief's boss, Mitch, that this was a project that leaped to the top of the list of priorities. He was good friends with two of our sons, Jake and Rich, who had lived in Mitch's neighborhood over in Heber City, and they had played together on the same Church basketball team and won a regional tournament together. He said to me when we met, "You've raised two great sons there, who have become great men. When I learned this was your home and the home where they had been raised, I was determined to make this happen sooner rather than later." It is good be the father of great sons, I thought to myself once again.

Last night, Mitch and his crew from Rocky Mountain Power arrived around 6:30 p.m., and confirmed they were there to pull the new cable through the buried conduit and make the new connections. They worked on it for about four hours, and we were only without power for about five minutes while they made the connections at both ends of the new cable in the junction boxes. When Mitch came up from the crawl space with the cable neatly coiled up in his hands, he said, "Well, promise kept after thirty-one years - we've taken out that 7200-volt power line from under your house and moved it safely away from you and your family."

The point of my telling this story is simple. Sometimes life presents us with experiences where we have choices. We can either huff and puff and threaten to blow down someone's house, or we can choose to be patient and civil, waiting for future events to unfold as they always will when truth rises to the top as cream rises in a bucket of fresh milk. And no, I will not be suing Rocky Mountain Power any time soon, and no, sitting on that 7200-volt power line for 31 years did not cause my brain tumor.

In this political election season in America, let us all be patient with one another and our politicians. Let us not be pouters or rioters. Let us, instead, be civil and patient with each other. America is the land where God chose to set the events in motion that would be hundreds of years unfolding in the ongoing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Israel is being gathered from the four corners of Earth's expanse, and that work will take some time to complete. Be patient. "Let God Prevail," as President Russell M. Nelson has reminded us recently.

And just like the power company that fulfilled all its promises some thirty-one years later, God will yet fulfill all His promises too. (See Doctrine & Covenants 1:37). America will not fail in this political season, just as it has not failed in prior election seasons. Sometimes it just takes a little while to fulfill the promises the way we had hoped.