FEB 26, 2023
This zip file contains all of the eight victim statements, video and audio files from the Provo Utah Police investigation, as well as other important documents.
This is the complete police file that compelled David Leavitt to hold his press conference.
Continue reading “No More Secrets”
I heard about this book almost from the minute it was published back in the day. I live in Boulder Co and the author is a local hero and a highly respected intellectual.
Many friends and family members encouraged me to read Under the Banner of Heaven, but I dismissed as a hateful screed against the church I love and slandered it on my blog as “horrid“.
I like to think of myself as open minded and so I am not in the habit of judging before reading, but in this case I did.
I watched the first two episodes of the Hulu show this past week and decided it was high time to finally read the book. So I bought the Kindle version and have read intently the past few days and finished up this morning.
I was pleased to read what I consider a fair and well written depiction of our history and although perhaps quibbling over certain notions, I believe this book to be a good addition to the many that have been written about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
My testimony is not damaged in any way by reading this book.
I liked how the author described his own faith:
“And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why—which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.”
I found the chapters on mental illness to be particularly compelling and how the various doctors described in detail the differences between faith and psychosis.
At the end of the day I believe everyone wants to fit into our society. And non-conformity breeds emotional illness, especially in the posterity of those who step out of the mainstream of current accepted truth.
Human history is littered with the human wreckage of those who bravely stand up and share something new and unorthodox, especially if it cuts into the finances of current business endeavors.
Jenny Marie Hatch
By President Henry B. Eyring
First Counselor in the First Presidency
The Savior is our example of unselfish service. His perfect life was devoted to serving Heavenly Father and all of His Father’s children. The united purpose of the Father and the Son is to give all of us the gift of immortality and the blessing of eternal life (see Moses 1:39).
To qualify for eternal life, we must be changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ—born again and cleansed from sin. Little children under the age of eight, however, are without sin and are redeemed through the Atonement (see Mosiah 3:16, 21;Moroni 8:10–12).
For all of us who reach the age of accountability, there is a wonderful plan that allows us to be cleansed from sin and prepared for eternal life. That preparation begins with baptism by priesthood authority and the reception of the Holy Ghost. Then we must always remember the Savior and keep the commandments He has given us.
King Benjamin told his people in the Book of Mormon of the joy that comes from feeling forgiveness from sin through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then he taught them that to retain a remission of their sins, they must teach their children to serve one another and they must be as generous as they could to meet the temporal and spiritual needs of those around them. (SeeMosiah 4:11–16.)
He also taught, “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).
Jesus went about teaching His gospel and doing good (see Acts 10:38). He healed the sick. He raised the dead. With His power He fed thousands when they were hungry and without food (see Matthew 14:14–21; John 6:2–13). After His Resurrection He gave food to several of His Apostles as they came ashore at the Sea of Galilee (see John 21:12–13). In the Americas, He healed the sick and blessed the children one by one (see 3 Nephi 17:7–9, 21).
James the Apostle taught us how the desire to serve others springs from our gratitude for what the Lord has done for us:
“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. …
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:25, 27).
One of the assurances that you are being purified is an increasing desire to serve others for the Savior. Home teaching and visiting teaching become more of a joy and less of a chore. You find yourself volunteering more often in a local school or helping care for the poor in your community. Even though you may have little money to give to those who have less, you wish you had more so that you could give more (see Mosiah 4:24). You find yourself eager to serve your children and to show them how to serve others.
As your nature changes, you will feel a desire to give greater service without recognition. I know disciples of the Savior who have given great gifts of money and service with a determination that no one but God and their children would know about it. God has recognized their service by blessing them in this life, and He will bless them in the eternal life to come (see Matthew 6:1–4; 3 Nephi 13:1–4).
As you have kept the commandment to serve others (see Matthew 22:39), you have felt a change in your feelings of pride. The Savior corrected His Apostles when they contended about who would be greatest among them. He said:
“Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
“But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:10–11).
The Savior teaches us how we can learn to serve others. He served perfectly, and we must learn to serve as He learned—line upon line (see D&C 93:12–13). Through the service we give, we can become more like Him. We will pray with all the energy of our hearts to love our enemies as He loves them (see Matthew 5:43–44; Moroni 7:48). Then we may at last become fitted for eternal life with Him and our Heavenly Father.
I promise that we can come to serve more perfectly as we follow the Savior’s teachings and example.
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has encouraged us to pray for opportunities to serve: “In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day … looking for someone to help” (“Be Anxiously Engaged,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 31). Consider inviting those you teach to set a goal to pray each morning for opportunities to serve and then to seek them throughout the day.
By Siphilile Khumalo
The author lives in Gauteng, South Africa.
One night a friend of another faith visited me. I usually study my scriptures alone, and I had taken them out to study that night. I was prompted to invite her to join my scripture study, but I was afraid and began instead to study alone. I knew that I had ignored a prompting of the Spirit. After a few minutes I cautiously asked, “Would you like to study the scriptures with me?” Without hesitation my friend replied, “Yes.”
We then read from the Book of Mormon. She asked me some questions, and I could feel the Spirit guide me as I answered. I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. After I did this, she told me, “I have been crying and fearful all day. I had just prayed to God for help when you asked me to read the scriptures with you. I feel so much better now. Thank you.”
The Lord had used me as an instrument to answer a prayer and serve one of His children in need. I know that promptings are divine instructions from a wise, glorious Father. When we put aside our fears, we allow Him to manifest His power through our obedience.
Children can choose to serve others. Circle the pictures where the child is choosing to follow Jesus Christ by helping someone else.
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I have read a few articles the past few days about all these dead bankers. Click HERE to read the latest.
“It’s become a health hazard to be a banker. What evil lurks beneath the pile of bodies?
In growing numbers, the bodies of bankers are piling up in the streets — at least eight global financial types in recent weeks (and five others in the past year). And a financial reporter for The Wall Street Journal walked out of his house and mysteriously hasn’t been seen or heard from in weeks.
So what gives? Three of the bankers worked for JPMorgan. One worked for Deutsche Bank AG. Others for companies not so prominent, i.e., not “too big to fail,” but possibly implicated in one or more of the number of investigations being undertaken in FOREX fraud and the LIBOR scandal. Maybe they uncovered something they shouldn’t have. Maybe they knew too much to begin with. Some of the “suicides” have been deemed “suspicious.”
In the Doctrine and Covenants is a scripture that talks about our day. It says:
“26 And in athat day shall be heard of bwars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall cfail them, and they shall say that Christ ddelayeth his coming until the end of the earth.”
It appears that we are winding down this experiment in Keynesian Economics that has laid waste to our world economies for the past hundred years.
And the big question is what is the transition to Austrian Economics and Freedom going to look like for the average family?
When I was a young mom I had many promptings about preparing myself for end times events. This meant that we spent time and resources on food storage, books to self educate, and as I have said over and over on my blog, I made the choice to learn Mothering Self Reliance.
Whenever I would have a dream or a prompting I always thought the event that would compel me to need a skill or a practice was just around the corner or weeks away. This made for some funny purchases as I prepared. One time I had a dream about us cold and in need of warmth. So I went to wal mart and bought big snow suits for the whole family. We did end up using those now and again for sledding and camping in the mountains, but mostly they took up space in the closet and I eventually sold them at a garage sale.
Now that we are completely prepared for whatever may present, it is interesting that it is the economic world that is wobbling.
During my dreams and in my waking nightmares as I contemplated which sort of a scenario might cause us to need the skills I always thought it would be a war or a natural disaster.
But an economic collapse, especially on a world wide scale could also be as devastating as anything else.
I love this video that describes the difference between Keynes Economic Theory and Hayeks Austrian Free Market teachings:
I hope and pray that any sort of collapse around the world does not affect you too badly dear reader. Ukraine and Argentina are wobbling like Greece did two years ago and unfortunately the way we are all wired together, one default may mean many defaults.
God Bless
1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
I have always loved this parable.
It is a powerful reminder that when we refuse to walk in the truth and get lazy about our responsibilities to be witnesses of God at all times and in all places, that the spirit of the Lord will not always strive with us.
Sometimes it is easy to think that we can just continue on living a lie, sticking our fingers in our ears and yelling when the truth is presented to us over and over again.
But when the Lord gives us opportunity after opportunity to embrace the truth and we pridefully march on thinking that we can just have it our own way, at times, some who profess to be followers of Christ, get left behind. And Heavenly Father does not expect those who have embraced the truth to always share with those who refuse to.
It makes me think of a talk that the Prophet President Ezra Taft Benson gave during General Conference…He said:
“To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is no lukewarm endeavor. It is total commitment of our very being—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to a love of the Lord.”
President Benson also quoted the Savior in Matthew chapter ten when he said that those who love Father or Mother more than the Savior are not worthy of him.
“The Lord said, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). One of the most difficult tests of all is when you have to choose between pleasing God or pleasing someone you love or respect—particularly a family member.”
A final scripture used in this talk was one from The Book of Mormon which talks about how it appears that the wicked have everything going for them for a time, but eventually the lies, sins, pain, agony, and rejection of the truth tellers will catch up with them and they will experience eternal torment for their choices during mortality.
“In the meantime the wicked think they are getting away with something. The Book of Mormon teaches that the wicked “have joy in their works for a season, [but] by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return” (3 Ne. 27:11).”
Click to read the whole talk: The Great Commandment-Love the Lord
It is my lifelong goal to always be walking in the truth, no matter what sort of pain in may bring into my life.
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