Planning for Success and Building for the Long Term

This has been an exciting week.  I am down to two more class periods, a few short pages to write, and some revisions to make before I am done with this semester.  It has been a long semester, but it has been a good one and it is exciting to contemplate coming to the end of it and being able to move forward with my comprehensive exams in the Fall and then the dissertation.  The big news of this week, however, was the birth of my new nephew Maxwell Andrew Johnson.  I can't wait to meet him in a week and a half.  With a name like Maxwell, perhaps he will become a writer.

 I'm still trying to think which of Elder Maxwell's books best welcomes a baby boy into the world.  More importantly, I hope and pray that he follows the sterling example of his namesake who was among this world's most humble disciples of the Master.  I still remember standing in the line at my Nana Haycock's viewing--a much smaller affair than my Papa's Haycock's was--and having Elder and Sister Maxwell come in to pay their respects.  At the time I was nearly 19 years old and had received my mission call to Arkansas.  The moment left a lasting impression on me because of the way that he introduced himself to me.  He put out his hand, smiled, and said, "Neal and Colleen Maxwell.  We were friends of your grandmother."  No titles.  No presumption.  No arrogance.  No expectation of special treatment.  He was there to pay his respects to my Nana, not to be a Mormon celebrity.  That moment has never quite left me, not just because it was a time when I was privileged to meet one of the Apostles of the Lord, but because of the humility and kindness he displayed in that simple exchange.  Later when I read his biography, I learned that the Brethren had asked him to refrain from shaking hands with people because the dangers of infection were so high due to his Leukemia.  But in this moment when he had come to pay respects to a departed friend, he ignored that counsel and shook my hand.  It is these kind of attributes I hope little Max will develop.

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, which some have argued was the Waters of Mormon

During my scripture study this week, I came across a few passages in Mosiah 23 that I found insightful.  The chapter begins by mentioning that Alma and his people had "been warned of the Lord that the armies of king Noah would come upon them" (Mosiah 23:1) and that they needed to leave the Waters of Mormon.  This must have been a difficult thing.  These people had already left their homes once to join Alma and now they were being asked to leave again.  And the place that they were leaving held a special place in their hearts.  It was a beautiful "fountain of pure water" (Mosiah 18:5) and more than that, it was the place where they had entered into covenants with the Lord.  One verse captured this significance beautifully:  "And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer" (Mosiah 18:30).

What a difficult move this must have been!  I know what it is like to leave a place that I love, and it is very difficult.  Some places are just special because of the people you were with and the experiences you had there.  But Alma's record goes on to say that after eight days of journeying, "they came to a land, yea, even a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water."  The waters of Mormon were not the only beautiful place out there!  In this beautiful world that the Lord has created for us, there are beautiful places and good opportunities and kind people to have wonderful experiences with everywhere we may go.

What impressed me most though was the next verse: "And they pitched their tents, and began to till the ground, and began to build buildings; yea, they were industrious, and did labor exceedingly" (Mosiah 23:5).  Given their recent history did it make sense to set down stakes, to build buildings and till the land?  Indeed, as the story goes, they didn't get to stay at this land they named Helam permanently anyway.  Why not just pitch tents for awhile and see if this place lasts?  If you have to leave, buildings and homes and tilled fields just make the departure all the harder.  So why do this?  Why plan for permanence when history was not on the side of permanence?

I believe they did this for the same reason that the Saints built Temples and buildings in Kirtland, laid cornerstones and tried to begin building temples in Independence and Far West, built a city out of a swamp and erected a majestic Temple at Nauvoo, and then began planning out a city and a Temple just a day or two after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley.  The Lord expects us to live for and expect success. He expects us to plan for things to work and then faithfully endure, move on, and build anew if they do not.  No matter how long we are called to be in a place, there are people to touch and communities to improve.  Our task is to set down our stakes and begin serving and building, leaving questions of time and permanence to the Lord.  In the process, each of these opportunities leave with us a small body of happy memories and stories of growth.

Brett

One Year Older and Hopefully Wiser Too

Random Internet Image that Popped Up when I Googled Birthday Cake
(and it looks delicious)

Today is my 32nd birthday.  I rung it in last night with a text message from my brother at 12:02 (I was still awake), a quick chat with Julianne, and then a couple of other texts from my Mom and my Dad.  I also went to a BBQ restaurant with some friends and enjoyed a delicious chocolate bundt cake that Julianne thoughtfully had delivered to me (I would have taken a picture, but my phone is ghetto and doesn't take nice pictures).  So far 32 doesn't feel too bizarre, though the two rather than the one at the end reminds me that I am definitely in my early thirties now and no longer very close to my twenties.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who found this week to be unique.  The events in Boston and Waco captivated all of us and hopefully reminded us of just how precious life is and of how lucky we are to live in this land where most of the time we feel safe and secure thanks to the work of our military and law enforcement officers, and especially the blessings of heaven.  I found myself thinking about a good friend of mine who works for one of the agencies in counterterrorism.  I thought of the comfort and peace of mind that he sacrifices by spending each day uncovering and preventing attacks on us so that we can enjoy comfort and peace of mind.  I thought about my brother-in-law John, who has devoted his life and career to protecting the freedoms that I often give too little thought to.  I don't know, and perhaps (hopefully) will never know what a war zone is really like.  I don't know how or why I have been so blessed, but I pray I never forget.

This week I also ended up making a visit to the doctor to get something checked on that had been bothering me.  Everything is ok, but while checking my vitals, the PA informed me that my blood pressure was high again (as it was in December).  She told me that I need to start making some changes to bring that down.  That message was a jolt, but it probably shouldn't have been.  Even though I am blessed with the Word of Wisdom, I know that I haven't always done a good enough job of taking care of my health.  As with all aspects of life, it is easy to make excuses, to say "I was too busy" and "I didn't have enough time," when what we really need to do is go to work and make the changes that are needed.  I am hoping that in this, my thirty-third year, I will begin to be wiser and more proactive about caring for the tabernacle the Lord has given me so that I can do whatever work He has called me to do.

Among the charges that Abinadi levied against the priests of Noah was that they had "not applied [their] hearts to understanding; therefore, [they had] not been wise" (Mosiah 12:27).  Each of us has areas where we perhaps have not applied our hearts to understanding and have not been wise.  Let us seek out those areas where we know that we need to improve and then begin to make the simple decisions to improve.  Usually the changes are not hard, they just require consistent effort and commitment.  May we give such an effort and such commitment that we might grow in wisdom.

Brett

(Looking at my blog, I can't help but note the irony of the picture that goes with it).

Things We Don't Know

It is getting to that point in the semester where my capacity to think of things to write has begun to wain.  Between a presentation on the Puritans, a paper on the origins of the Utah War, and another on how historians have written about women in Latin America, I am pretty well out of thoughts for the rest of the day.  So hopefully this post won't be too poorly written.  :)

Even though there is a lot of work left to do, I am very excited for the end of this semester to come.  It is the last time I will ever take a college course for credit, which is an interesting and exciting landmark for me.  It feels like I've been a college student forever, and now things are winding down (except for my comps and the dissertation, but I don't want to think about that right now) and it feels good.  This summer I get the opportunity to teach my first college class: Church History to 1844 at BYU.  The Lord blessed me with this opportunity when one of the professors who had been scheduled to teach couldn't teach and a good friend advocated my cause.

As is often the case, after the excitement of hearing about this position came the fear of wondering if I know enough and am qualified to do the job.  I decided a long time ago that there was less competition and more room to make a contribution in studying Church history after 1850, meaning that much of my reading has been on the Utah and modern periods of Church history rather than the early period.  I have been blessed with research opportunities that helped me to learn a lot about Brigham Young, Church education, and several other aspects of these later periods of Church history.  So I must confess a sense of fear about teaching a less familiar subject.  But if there is one thing I've learned in 11 years of college, it is that it is a good thing to identify the areas we don't know as much about because that allows us to grow.

So of necessity I have been thinking a lot about the things that I don't know.  Along these lines, I had to give a presentation on the Puritans on Wednesday.  It was an interesting exercise.  The professor specifically assigned us topics outside of our time periods and expertise to teach us how to get through a lecture about a subject we are unfamiliar with.  In preparation I read 3 books on Puritanism and threw together some basic information into a lecture.  In the lecture, I opted to talk about some of the popular perceptions of the Puritans like Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and George Miller's play The Crucible.  It was evident to me that we don't always have the most positive view of these people.  But as I studied them, I found a lot of common ground.  They were a religious people who wanted to be a part of English society without partaking of the sins they saw around them.  Their goal was to become "a city on a hill," an example to friends and family of Christian faith and virtue.  Yes, sometimes their devotion got out of hand and the result was a terrible event like the Salem witch trials, but such things were anomalies in the lives of a a people whose highest desire was to serve God.  The Puritans were not perfect, but neither were they completely horrible either.

I realized that I had let the anomalies define my views of these people, rather than taking the time to actually know who they were.  How often do we do this?  We learn one small detail about a person (whether living or from the past) and we decide that that detail defines the man or woman.  But the more I have studied Church history, the more I have realized how many things I do not know.  There is almost always more to the story and more to the man or woman than what we know, including details recorded only in heaven.

I believe that none of us would wish to be defined by our moments of greatest weakness, even though such moments are important in our individual growth and development.  What a tragedy it is, then, when we do this very thing to others: both living and dead.  I believe we must do as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland suggested and "Let people repent.  Let people grow.  Believe that people can change and improve.  Is that faith?  Yes!  Is that hope?  Yes!  Is it charity?  Yes!  Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ."  Some day I expect that we will no longer "see through a glass, darkly" but "face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12), seeing and comprehending "things as they really are" (Jacob 4:13).  At that day, none of us will regret having been too charitable or having forgiven too much.

Brett

Prophetic Guidance in Times of Trouble

Saturday Afternoon Session, 183rd Annual General Conference, April 6, 2013

I absolutely love General Conference and the entire Conference weekend.  It is a moment for me to stop doing whatever I am doing and listen to apostles and prophets who have been called of God to give His holy words unto me.  I'm sure I say this every time, but I can't remember a time when I have enjoyed Conference so much.  The messages have been bold and powerful declarations of the truth and have stood out in stark contrast against so many of the messages and ideas that we are seeing in the world around us today.  Perhaps I have just been paying closer attention, but it seems as though this conference has lifted a warning voice in a powerful way and I have felt like those messages and warnings have been so applicable to me personally.

Each of the messages has been wonderful, but here are a few that stood out to me:

1) President Monson's opening message was short, but powerful.  I never cease to be excited by the announcement of new Temples and the addition of Temples in Cedar City and Rio de Janeiro will be such a blessing to the saints in those areas!  What astounded me most, however, was President Monson's discussion of the numbers of missionary calls presently issued with elders and sisters waiting to enter the MTC.  20,000 calls out at one single time was absolutely astounding to me, particularly on top of the 10,000 new missionaries already serving from where we were at last year.  Between the economy and Korea and a thousand other things, it is easy to get discouraged these days.  But the growth in Temples and missionary work serves as a powerful reminder that there are wonderful and miraculous things taking place in this troubled world of ours as well.  If we are attentive, we will behold the hand of the Lord wherever we look for it.

2) President Packer's talk was bold and powerful.  I must admit that I felt very sad as he told the story about the snakes in the ivy, but that story was so very applicable to us.  His witness of the atonement of our Savior stood out and reminded me of just why I am a member of this Church!

3) Elder Ballard's talk on the priesthood was so beautifully done.  Sometimes we forget that the priesthood is the very power of God and that it blesses all of us as we worthily seek to build up the kingdom of God.

3) I am not sure I have ever heard a more powerful talk on the law of chastity than the one that Elder Bednar gave.  It was pure and powerful and it taught the why of that important commandment so powerfully that I don't believe anyone who heard it could have misunderstood.  I know that this isn't always an easy or a popular commandment to teach in our world, but as we understand it within the context of our divine nature and destiny, it makes perfect sense.  Elder Bednar made me want to strive for greater virtue and purity, to rise to the divinity within me through developing greater purity within my mind and heart that I might be more like my Father in Heaven.

4) Elder Hales's talk in the priesthood session was similar to Elder Bednar's.  He reminded us that we must stand for truth and righteousness, no matter the cost because the commandments do not change.  It was perhaps the most moving talk I have ever heard Elder Hales give (which is saying something!).

7) Both of President Uchtdorf's talks (in Priesthood and in the Sunday Morning Session) were so hopeful and optimistic.  He always gives such wonderful counsel and reminds me that even as we stress obedience to the Lord's commandments, that it is ok that we are not yet perfect so long as we are striving each day to become like the Savior.

6) Elder Perry's talk moved me in similar ways to those by Elder Bednar and Elder Hales.  It was a powerful call to obedience and righteousness!

7) Who didn't love President Monson's story about trying to start Provo Canyon on fire?  It made me flash back to earlier times with friends on campouts.  There is nothing more frightening in this world than the thought of a group of boys, some matches, and dry fields.

8) Finally, I don't know how he does it, but conference in and conference out, Elder Holland never ceases to give what for me is the most memorable talk of the conference.  I loved his use of the story of the boy and his father, and particularly his statement about how the father referred to the need for "us," meaning his family, rather than "him," the boy, to be healed.  Trials of faith don't just come to individuals, they come to whole families and the Savior's healing touch extends to all those affected by those trials.  What a marvelous gift the power to believe is!  Would that I could have as much faith as did that anxious father!

What talks spoke to you?

I'm grateful for the conferences of the Church and for the constant willingness of the Lord to teach me notwithstanding my many imperfections and faults!

Brett