Bailey's Blog

On Sunday 22 June we enjoyed "Music & the Spoken Word" followed by the Book of Mormon roundtable discussion, both on BYU-TV. I published the 15 June entry to my blog.

I then read chapter 14, "Restitution" from "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by President Spencer W. Kimball.

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895-1985)

We enjoyed again attending the Plantation Ward. The elders in the ward gave me three Book of Mormons and "The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith" to deliver to those who have said "yes" to my two Book of Mormon questions, although now I need a fourth.

Plantation Ward meetinghouse

The opening hymn was #41, "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise." It was written by Edward Partridge and was in the first LDS hymnbook. The music was from an anonymous source in Wuerttemberg, Germany, dated 1784, so it may have been used with the hymn in that hymnbook.

Edward Partridge (1793-1740)

Sister Parmenter was the first speaker. She and her husband have been married four weeks, finished medical school three weeks ago, and drove across country from Utah and then California to begin residency at Broward General. She spoke on Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk from April 2013 general conference entitled “This Is My Work and Glory." He said, "God has freely given His power to those who accept and honor His priesthood, which leads to the promised blessings of immortality and eternal life."

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Brother Brian Parmenter spoke next, also about the priesthood. He also used Elder Ballard's talk as he spoke to us. He referred to "Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood." He was thankful to his mother for her help getting him to grow in the priesthood and use it. He quoted, "The power of the priesthood is a sacred and essential gift of God. It is different from priesthood authority, which is the authorization to act in God’s name. The authorization or ordination is given by the laying on of hands. The power of the priesthood comes only when those who exercise it are worthy and acting in accordance with God’s will." D&C 121:36. That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.

Elder Tad R. Callister said in his April 2013 general conference talk entitled "The Power of the Priesthood in the Boy," "The priesthood in the boy is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man when exercised in righteousness."

Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy

The concluding speaker was the stake patriarch Brother Lawrence.

"With the organization of each stake in the LDS Church, a patriarch is ordained and called to serve the members of that stake. A patriarch is chosen by the stake presidency and each selection is approved by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The selected man must be married, hold the Melchizedek priesthood, and normally be at least 55 years old. He must be ordained to the office of patriarch by an apostle or by the president of the stake where he lives (if the stake president has written permission from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to do so). A patriarch retains the priesthood office of patriarch for life.

"A patriarch's primary responsibility is to give patriarchal blessings to members in his stake. He also has the authority to give such blessings to all of his descendants, regardless of what stake they live in. Unlike other priesthood blessings, patriarchal blessings are recorded and archived at LDS Church headquarters. Under ordinary circumstances, a member will receive only one such blessing in his or her lifetime." Wikipedia

D&C 115:5-6. 5 Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy lightmay be a standard for the nations; 6 And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.

Why did the Lord build a temple here in our midst? For me and for you. Because He loves us. He didn't have time for all of his talk, I'm sure.

I gave Sue's tithing to a member of the bishopric. He said that he would be taking Sue the sacrament during Sunday School. She was so glad to get it the previous Sunday.

We attended Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School with Colleen. They were on Lesson 21: “God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him" using 1 Samuel 2–3; 8. The purpose of the lesson was to help class members understand the blessings of honoring and pleasing the Lord above themselves, others, or the world.

In discussing Eli and his two sinful sons, President Joseph F. Smith taught: “There should [not] be any of us so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtless and so shallow in our affection for our children that we dare not check them in a wayward course, in wrong-doing and in their foolish love for the things of the world more than for the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them."

We enjoyed priesthood and Relief Society. Our opening hymn was #319, "Ye Elders of Israel." Whenever I am called upon to speak in a new environment such as our mission, I state that I don't think of Babylon as "the world." My home town is Babylon, New York! The chorus is "O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell; We're going to the mountains of Ephraim to dwell."

Our lesson was "Teachings For Our Time" as it is the fourth Sunday. We discussed Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk entitled "Spiritual Whirlwinds" from April 2014 general conference. I wrote about it in my blog for last week when I read it. We read and discussed the talk.

Elder Neil L. Andersen

Later at Sue's I finished reading chapter II of Gospel Doctrine by President Joseph F. Smith entitled "The Eternal Nature of the Church, the Priesthood, and Man."

President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918)

Sue had a nice visit from Steve and Audrey Frahm of the Plantation Ward. He is Sue and David’s home teacher.

I hung up all my clothes on the rod in the back seat of the car and packed almost everything in my suitcase for my trip tomorrow.

We received our British Zone Crier as we do every week from the British Floor of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City where we served our mission. I posted the spiritual thought on Facebook which is:

"Conform your lives to the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and when calamities threaten, you will feel the support of his all powerful arm. Make your homes the abiding place of the spirit of the Lord; let them be holy places, where the adversary cannot come; listen to the still small voice prompting you to works of righteousness. It is my prayer for one and all that you be not swerved from the path that leads to the knowledge and power of God, the heritage of the faithful, even life everlasting." LDS President and Prophet George Albert Smith (1870-1951)

On Monday 23 June I finished loading the car with suitcase and laptop. Colleen and the boys checked out of the hotel and came by Sue's. We all headed north about 11:25 am. Along the road I saw a good-sized fire in progress and an interesting cloud formation. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of the flames that I saw.

We got gas several times along the way when we saw prices in the $3.50s. We finally stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Belleview (near Ocala) after we reached I-75.

Wall decoration

Dining area

Ashton, Tanner, Spencer, and Colleen

I arrived in Brooker about 6 pm.

Clouds along the interstate

Colleen made a wrong turn due to my instructions not being quite explicit enough and arrived at 7 pm. As soon as they arrived we walked through waist-deep grass to look at the pigs and piglets next door.

Being Monday we had Family Home Evening. That's always a challenge with three young boys! We began with the hymn "Praise to the Man." Later they sang "The Iron Rod." Colleen had the music on her iPhone.

Colleen heated the "67th Street BBQ" that David had sent with us. It was yummy though containing high sugar! It is made with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce which we never use due to its high sugar content.

Colleen and the boys Facetimed with Sean and I Facetimed with Eileen.

I finished reading "King Solomon's Mines" by H. Rider Haggard which I had begun on 23 April.

Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925)

On Tuesday 24 June we left Russ's place about 9:15 am and stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Lake City, FL, at 10 for breakfast.

Then we stopped in Valdosta, GA, and gassed up both cars for $3.419. I shopped a bit at Walmart and we both headed north, though not in sight of each other anymore. I stopped at a rest area to "fluff my buns" and Colleen went to Discount Tires in Macon to get her tires rotated for free. She hit heavy rain along the way while I missed it.

Eileen and I like to observe the palindromes on our car's odometer. Most of the time we miss them but here is a photo of a significant one, i.e., repeating numbers.

She went to Trader Joe's in Marietta for food supplies and I stopped at Hallmark in Canton for a birthday card for Sabrina Bayless whom we home/visit teach. I gassed up at Walmart for $3.379, getting 10 cents off per gallon with my gift card. It is really weird that Kroger in Jasper is at $3.679!

I got home about 6:30, saw that the mail awaited me on the front porch; that our clocks on the stove and microwave weren't blinking, meaning the power hadn't gone off at all during our absence; unpacked the car; put in a new front porch light bulb; and went through all of our mail, 95% of which is recyclable solicitations and junk mail.

One of the first things I did, actually, was to check out our raised bed gardens. It was a bit odd as most plants were doing really well and a few of them did not grow at all! I picked four of the cucumbers.

Colleen and the boys stopped at a California Pizza Kitchen for supper and got here about 10:15 pm.

As I finished going through the mail, I looked at the several new Church Newses and was excited to read that the Church organized not one but two new stakes in Cambodia, the first two in that country.

I enjoyed FaceTime with Eileen.

On Wednesday 25 June a little after midnight I finished reading "The Red House Mystery" by A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, the author of the Winnie the Pooh stories. It was his only whodunit novel. I had begun it on 21 April.

A. A Milne (1882-1956)

I got two more Church Newses in the mail today and I was excited about the first stake in Jamaica!

I printed Sue's family ordinance request forms this morning. I e-mailed all the stake food drive information to our branch presidency and high priests group leader. I called branch members about cleaning the church building on Friday.

I ran errands for several hours this afternoon, making nine stops! I went by the dump on the way into town with garbage and recyclables,

Dump off GA 52

I got our lab results from Dr. Raisig since we haven't been able to meet with him,

Dr. Raisig's office in the woods

picked up the four editions of the Times-Courier that we missed while in Florida,

Times-Courier office in Ellijay

dropped off my suit and picked up Eileen's dress,

Legacy Cleaners

mailed four Book of Mormons and boxes to Eileen and Liam,

Ellijay Post Office

dropped off the check order at the bank for more of my checks,

Community & Southern Bank

went to the Squiggles car wash,

shopped at Walmart, made a payment on our layaway at North Georgia Diamond,

and got the current Times-Courier at R&A Orchards.

Ashton found another good-size cucumber in the garden. The boys played outside a lot. Colleen found a tick on one of them and in the evening they had fun watching the fireflies in the front and the side of the house.

I used Eileen's new kitchen grill to cook my little steaks for supper.

The 29 May edition of the Times-Courier had two pictures of us holding the newspaper, one in Hannibal and one in Nauvoo.

Ben and Eileen at Tom Sawyer's fence

Eileen and Ben in front of the Nauvoo Temple

I worked on Family Tree in familysearch.org in the evening and enjoyed a late FaceTime session (10 pm) with Eileen.

On Thursday 26 June I had a very nice visit with the Blue Ridge pantry folks (once I found it) this morning. Then I went by Darlene's and met on her front porch (kill two birds with one stone). However I was there for a couple of hours plus! Her screen door had swung closed on her arm and sent her cell phone flying. Virtually ruined!! She used my phone to try to arrange with Sprint to activate her old phone to no avail. She had not been able to contact her brother who pays for that stuff. Then he called her and she was able to see his phone number which she called on my phone. The next couple of hours they worked together and he was finally able to activate her old phone! She gave me a 23.7 ounce bottle of Nestle water and I read some of her July Ensign. When I left after offering a prayer I had to stop at Taste of Amish for a potty break! As my wife taught me whenever she stops somewhere for that reason, I bought something! Sugar-free chocolate-covered raisins which I dumped in the nuts container. The nuts were warm and the chocolate began to melt but I finished them before it got too messy. Colleen and the boys went to the library.

Taste of Amish

I enjoyed a late FaceTime session (11 pm) with Eileen.

On Friday 27 June I had a very nice visit with the Jasper pantry director in the morning. In the afternoon several of us cleaned the church building including Colleen and the boys. Then Spencer and I went to home teach Sabrina Bayless.

Tanner with our Dyson vacuum

Ashton and Spencer

Tanner and Ashton

I enjoyed another late FaceTime session (11 pm) with Eileen.

On Saturday 28 June I finished reading "Tom Swift and His Undersea Search, or, the Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic" by Victor Appleton which I began on 11 March. It is the 23rd Tom Swift book that I have read on my iPhone.

It was a pretty quiet day. While looking out the window of the front bedroom, Colleen took a picture of a squirrel enjoying the corn cob.

The excitement was the finding of a little scorpion in the dining room. It was placed in a jar and Colleen researched scorpions in Georgia. The pest control guy is coming on Tuesday.