Pioneer Day 2013

It's Pioneer Day, don't cha know? It's the holiday that we celebrate here in Utah that commemorates the day in 1847 that Brigham Young looked out over the Salt Lake Valley and said, "One-hundred sixty-six years from today, our pyromaniac descendants will be blowing up this valley piece by piece with bottle rockets, Roman candles, cannons, M-80s, Molotov cocktails, etc."

No, of course, he said, "This is the right place; drive on." As a family, we gathered at Mom's and Dad's house in North Salt Lake to barbecue (the hot dogs and steak were delicious) for the occasion, afterward we gathered in the street for a small fireworks show.

Here, Jenna, Kira, and Dave throw snaps out into the street:

If you think I was joking about the cannon comment, by the way, the parents' next-door neighbor actually brought out a small cannon to fire some ear-bursting shots into the atmosphere.

Day 338: Lights at Temple Square

Thanks to the customary generous supply of tickets from my inside source in the Tabernacle Choir (i.e. Pepe), I made it to the Conference Center for last night's annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional. President Monson and his two counselors delivered fantastic messages for the holiday season, and the music by the choir was great, too, as always.

It was a rather blusy day and evening, and it rained on us a good deal while we were outside, but Temple Square in December is still one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Day 312: Harold B. Lee on Hope and Patriotism

Sigh . . . Is this what Michelle Obama felt like during all of those years that she was not proud of her country?

Like many of you, I'm severely disappointed by the results of yesterday's presidential election. I believe Barack Obama not only to be the worst president in our country's history but also a true threat to the Constitution, which I believe was inspired by our Father in Heaven.

Nevertheless, I love my country, and I believe there are yet many good people in it who will take a stand and will fight for those principles that will get us back on track as a nation. My sister shared some very inspired words today, uttered nearly 40 years ago by President Harold B. Lee. I draw a great deal of comfort from them, and I hope that they help you, too.

Thanks, Biz.

Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail.

This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. . . . This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple.

We are living in a time of great crisis. The country is torn with scandal and with criticism, with faultfinding and condemnation. There are those who have downgraded the image of this nation as probably never before in the history of the country.

I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. . . . It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.
We must be on the optimistic side. This is a great nation; this is a great country; this is the most favored of all lands. While it is true that there are dangers and difficulties that lie ahead of us, we must not assume that we are going to stand by and watch the country go to ruin. We should not be heard to predict ills and calamities for the nation. On the contrary, we should be providing optimistic support for the nation.

You must remember . . . that this church is one of the most powerful agencies for the progress of the world, and we should . . . all sound with one voice. We must tell the world how we feel about this land and this nation and should bear our testimonies about the great mission and destiny that it has.

If we do this, we will help turn the tide of this great country and lessen the influence of the pessimists. We must be careful that we do not say or do anything that will further weaken the country. It is the
negative, pessimistic comments about the nation that do as much harm as anything to the country today. We who carry these sacred responsibilities must preach the gospel of peace, and peace can only come by overcoming the things of the world. Now, we must be the dynamic force that will help turn the tide of fear and pessimism.

(Excerpts from a talk given at Ricks College Devotional Assembly, "Have Faith in America ," October 26, 1973, and printed in two sources: Ye Are the Light of the World: Selected Sermons and Writings of Harold B. Lee, 340, 350-351, and The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 365-366.)

Day 91: Dallin's First Priesthood Session

This weekend marks the biannual general conference of the Church, in case you've been living inside a cave, and tonight, Dad, my brothers, and I were joined at the priesthood session broadcast with a newcomer: my 12-year-old nephew Dallin, who was ordained a deacon just a couple of months ago. Dallin did rather well sitting through his first priesthood session and did not fidget too much in his seat.

We enjoyed listening to good messages and counsel from President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors in the First Presidency, Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve, Bishop Edgley, and Brother Ochoa of the Young Men's presidency.

Following the meeting, we adjourned to the parents' house for cheesecake from Costco, which is really a great way to end a great day.

Day 78: The Life of a Prophet, Part III

Either I'm becoming a voracious reader, or I have a lot of free time on my hands. Or a combination of the two.

At any rate, I finished my latest biography of the modern-day prophets this afternoon. This one centered on John Taylor, third Church president in the dispensation. As with the other biographies, I enjoyed this read quite a bit and learned a lot about this good man.

One of my favorite stories (which I'll have to paraphrase) centered around a sermon Pres. Taylor gave in his early days as a new Apostle in the Kirtland area in Ohio. Certain members of the crowd threatened to tar and feather him if he spoke, but he did so anyway. When he was finished, he tore open his shirt and basically shouted out, "Now, come and get me!" The men who had previously threatened him had been so touched by the sermon that they instead left him alone.

Day 69: The Life of a Prophet, Part II

Earlier today, I finished reading my latest biography of one of the modern-day prophets. This one focused on President Heber J. Grant, and I found it to be very educational and full of many great stories about this good man who was called as a stake president at the young age of 23, as an Apostle at 26, and then served in the Quorum of the Twelve and as president of the Church for an incredible 63 years, including through the Great Depression and the first two World Wars.
My overall experience reading these books has been amazing. I look forward to completing the next one.

Day 52: The Life of a Prophet

Earlier today, I completed my latest read, which was (as you can see) George Albert Smith: Kind and Caring Christian, Prophet of God, by Elder Francis M. Gibbons.


I got started reading biographies of the Latter-day prophets about a year-and-a-half ago, when I was given President Monson's (at the time) new biography for my birthday, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Since then, I've read biographies of seven of the other 15 prophets of the Restoration, and I now have eight more to go to finish this project.

Reading Pres. Smith's book was a no-brainer right now, as we are studying his teachings in church twice each month. I learned a good deal about this good man from this biography, and I look forward to finishing the next one (which, incidentally, is Heber J. Grant).

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The whole Halloween to New Year's stretch is actually my favorite time of year, so I think of the Christmas/New Year's season as kind of the grand finale of it all. As I write this, it is (finally) snowing outside and making things look like a true winter wonderland.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is wearing Christmas socks. This tradition was inspired by both the Christmas episode of "Mr. Bean," in which Mr. Bean gets a pair of Christmas socks, and a gift from my friend Jacob Lowell in high school, which was the result of a gift exchange in our A.P. Spanish class. (Some of you know Jacob's brother Jonathan, aka J-Lo.) Jacob gave me a pair of red socks, on which Santa Claus was playing basketball.

After that, I began to collect Christmas socks of all kinds. I even had a pair that played a rap song by Santa Claus - until they went through the wash. I now have six or seven pairs of Christmas socks that I rotate throughout the month of December.

Someone at church yesterday pointed out my mistletoe socks, and it wasn't long before a handful of girls were gathering around and commenting how much they liked them. (Yeah, so, you can see now why I wear them.)

Thursday night, I attended the ward Christmas party. In spite of what I mentioned in my last post about a little incident that occurred at dinner, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening spent with many good friends and ward members. I am still not the world's greatest gingerbread house construction worker, but I was sorted onto a team with a professional architect in charge for the gingerbread house-making contest and was happy to take orders and try to help my group out as best I could.

For Saturday's Improv rehearsal, I got to play Santa Claus in one of the games, with my brother Steve and my buddy Ryan Huff as some of Santa's helpers. You really had to be there to understand it - the game ended with Santa dying when a child stopped believing in him, coming back to life at his funeral as a zombie, and going out to kill the Easter Bunny - but Improv, likewise, is now helping me to enjoy the holiday season.


In ward choir, we are rehearsing four excellent numbers: Mozart's "Jesus Savior," "The First Noel/Pachelbel Canon" medley, "Were You There?", and one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, "Still, Still, Still."

Pepe once again gave me two tickets to attend last night's First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center. The Tabernacle Choir sounded great, and the talks by Presidents Monson, Eyring, and Uchtdorf were all fantastic and really helped me to put some things into perspective. After the meeting, my date and I wandered around Temple Square, gawking at the Christmas lights and enjoying the holiday air. Among other friends, I ran into my old Institute choir leader, Bro. Paul Hanks, and his wife, Jean, both of whom I hadn't seen for a few years. It was great to see them both.

Incidentally, since a few of you have asked me about how I have been handling the Person A/Person B situation, I asked Person C - meaning someone else entirely - to go with me to the devotional. I am still trying to figure out Person A and Person B's personalities, and someone who is nice all of the time seemed like a better choice.

In the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, family festivities, watching my nieces and nephews open their presents, egg nog, bowl games (way to go, Cougars and Utes!), Christmas caroling, friends' birthday/graduation parties, and the like. There are so many things out there to enjoy.

Anger Management

People all over the place are really angry about a lot of things right now. I read about several of them tonight as I perused the pages of today's Deseret News. (There was an excellent article on the same topic in last week's paper by columnist Doug Robinson: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705262181,00.html)

You see these irate people everywhere. They are on TV or on YouTube. They are even picketing around Temple Square and the state capitol building. And they are definitely not afraid to hide that fact that they are hopping mad about, well, almost everything.

The anger thing isn't going to get any better this week. The annual BYU vs. Utah football game is coming up this Saturday, and we all know what that means: The Mr. Hyde in many Cougar and Ute fans will be coming out for a visit.

Bring up any number of topics, and - want it or not - you will get their opinion on any number of current events, often with clenched fists, beet-red faces, and little volcanoes emerging and erupting from the tops of their scalps. Some of these topics include, but are not limited, to: the release of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film being postponed until next summer (okay, not so much of a problem, really), George W. Bush being responsible for everything wrong with this country, having to endure living on the same planet and breathing the same air as Sarah Palin, gas prices, the economy, and - oh yeah - the LDS Church's involvement in California's Proposition 8, which passed in the election held two weeks ago.


If you dare disagree with these Proposition 8 people, in their book, you are therefore labeled (by people who largely don't want to be labeled) "homophobic," "intolerant," "bigoted," "hate filled," "ignorant," and a "hypocrite," plus you will be told that you need to come out of the cave and into the 21st century and/or you must die a horrible, painful death - possibly by being smothered in peanut butter and being dropped onto a pile of killer ants, like those in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - at the earliest possible moment.

They use big words like these, while at the same time their actions show that they are clearly the ones who are full of hate and intolerant.

In Peru, they have a saying: El ruido de tus acciones no me permite oir tus palabras. Loosely translated, it means: "The noise from your actions blocks out the sound of your words." I think it applies here.

The Proposition 8 protests have saddened me a lot. The election is over, but they refuse to accept the results. (Just imagine what would happen if John McCain acted in a similar manner and encouraged his supporters to send hate mail to the president-elect.) Their demonstrations are also being directed at my church, even though the LDS Church was just one of several in a coalition to support Proposition 8.

My Improv colleague Tonia wrote a letter to the editor in defense of Proposition 8 that appeared in Thursday's Deseret News. Saturday night, I performed in a show with Tonia's husband, Curt, and mentioned to him that I had read the letter.

"We've already received hate mail," he replied.

Over the past two weeks, LDS meetinghouses in Utah have been vandalized. At one building, a copy of the Book of Mormon was set on fire. Last week, an envelope containing white powder - at first feared to be anthrax - caused an evacuation of Temple Square.

Yes, whoever is doing it is using terrorism.

So, what can we do about it? What do we have left to "turn" when we have used up your "cheeks"?


I recently read an excellent article by Paul Bishop that sheds important light on the subject. Bro. Bishop writes from personal experience about the protests that have been held outside of the grounds of the Los Angeles temple. If you haven't already done so, I hope you take a look at it:

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/081110hate.html

Reading this article created all kinds of emotions inside of me. I felt sad, then annoyed, then angry, and then the cycle started all over again. Ultimately, though, Bro. Bishop concludes his article in just the right spirit. He quotes Elder Robert D. Hales on the true spirit of tolerance. He also adds the thought that Pres. Monson, in the face of this kind of persecution, knows what's going on and is leading us in the right direction.


I'm very grateful to have both a prophet and an exemplary man to whom I can look for guidance and counsel.

Fighting anger with anger and hate with hate has never solved anything - at least, not since Old Testament times. As the scripture says:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22–23).

I am also reminded of this excerpt from the life of Elijah:

"The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

"And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:11-12).

I know from experience that you can win converts to your cause - so to speak - only by kindness, civility, and rational thinking.

And that speaks louder than words.