Book Review - Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans

Promise Me is only the second of Richard Paul Evans' books I've read.  I've enjoyed them both.  This one is my favorite.  The story has a fascinating twist that really took my brain out of it's comfort zone but in a pleasant way.  Any good novel makes us ask questions of ourselves and this one does that well.  The question in this story was far more troublesome however, than Evans made it appear.  So given it was an impossible scenario, it came off a little too incredible to sweep me off my feet.

I have no problem with impossible situations.  Especially when they point out conflict or problems that make me rethink my assumptions about life.  This story did that very well.  I could relate to the quandary and what a quandary it was.  I even liked how it turned out.  It was a great idea, but slightly underplayed, so it didn't give the full effect.

It is pretty tricky for a man to write a novel in first person from the perspective of a female protagonist.  I don't think many men could pull this off.  Evans aced it.

I guess if you like sweetness and lite, you'll like this novel better than I.

Still I recommend it for it was a fantastic idea.

Four Stars

Pray For Mexico

The past couple of days we've had a yard sale at our house.  It was a wonderful success and we became much less encumbered by stuff.  We got to meet a lot of nice people, most of whom we've never met.  Among them were a number of Mexican expatriates.  Many were limited in the English they spoke.  All were polite, friendly, warm and kind.  I wanted to get to know them, so I took to asking them to tell me where they came from.

One older gentleman hails from Ciudad Juarez.  Aware that Juarez is perhaps the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere, I expressed gratitude that he was here where life is much more safe.  He echoed my relief, telling me how thankful he is that he has been able to get his family away from all that.  Another couple came by. She was from rural Guerrero and he from Acapulco.  I asked if he was a cliff diver.  His eyes widened in cheerful wisdom.  "Too high!"  He exclaimed.  She, spoke better English and I asked where Guerrero was.  She told me it is a state south and west of Mexico City.  When I explained that back in the 70's we loved to spend time in Mexico.  She declared, "It is no longer safe!"
"Even in the South?" I asked?
"En todas partes!"
"I thought is was only bad near the border," I protested.
"It is bad everywhere, these days."
"How very sad."

Another fellow came from Southern Chihuahua.  "It used to be quiet in my home town.  Not no more," he lamented.  I used to risk a visit to my parents every year, but now they're gone, we don't go there no more."

My heart broke for them, and for Mexico.  These are wonderful people, who've left behind a wonderful place.  It is so very sad.

Petey in our Ward just got back from a mission to Tijuana.  I asked him how his mission was.  "I survived." he sighed.  It took me back again to the early '70's when we lived on the border.  The Tijuana District of the Church was set to become a Stake.  Trouble was, they had no building - not one.  Our Stake got wind of it and in one night raised enough money for our Mexican neighbor's portion of the building.  The next year, we did it again and again.  Now there is a Mission in that city.  Still it is a dangerous place.

So Mexico is in crisis with Drug Cartels killing all who stand in their way.  Sound familiar?  Sounds just like the Gadianton Robbers to me.  Was life any less miserable for the Lamanites?  When they concluded to destroy the Gadianton Robbers from among them they did it by preaching the word of God to them.  That's right, they used the word to change the hearts of their enemies.  I expect the good people of Mexico will follow that most singular pattern and sooner or later turn the plight of their country into glorious results.  Why do I think this?  Because Mexican's are the salt of the earth.  They have a goodness and sensitivity that is most remarkable.

Today in Fast and Testimony Meeting a sweet little eighty-three year old Mexican American woman went to the pulpit to bear her testimony.  How sweet and sure and simple it was.  During her testimony I had the impression that I would live to see miracles happen in that sweet land.  Most misbehavior comes of desperation.  I believe that most if not all, of those desperadoes would choose a more righteous alternative if they actually felt they had one.  The good news is that there is a better choice and we must labor and teach, trust and pray that such a blessing will come to our wonderful, sweet neighbors to the South.

Everyone I talked to yesterday was thankful to be here, in America, in relative safety.  They also all expressed the wish that it didn't have to be so, for they'd rather live and raise their families back home.  For more and more, though, this is becoming home as generations are born and raised this side of the Rio Grande.  That is okay with me.  Most are refugees from oppressive poverty, crime and corruption.  I see them as welcome, decent and honest neighbors.  To me they are just as welcome as the Irish, Polish, Italian and German immigrants who fled similar oppression 100 years ago.  Just as welcome as the Dutch and English who preceded them and the Asians who've come more recently.  We haven't run out of room in our cities and towns for them and they'd assimilate far better if we hadn't run out of room for them in our hearts.

I guess each group of immigrants had to struggle to get a toe-hold for themselves in the United States.  Need we make it harder for them?  Can't we make legal immigration simpler and less exclusive?

The Church is growing in Mexico by leaps and bounds.  Mexico currently has 221 Stakes and 32 Districts, plus 12 temples with one more announced.  Zion in Mexico is enlarging her tent and I have great hopes that the Saints in Mexico will indeed leaven the loaf.  Let us all remember Mexico and our brothers and sisters there, often in our prayers.

I'll Be Voting, How About You?

I'll go over and vote today.  But I'll have a bit of stoic grimness in my countenance.  I will enter the booth and in every case I've studied, choose the lesser of to weevils.  I don't think any one is addressing the real problems with our country.  To me the real problem is career politicians.  Not a single candidate has expressed the recognition that the reason Washington is so bogged down is because our representatives are more interested in keeping their jobs and in establishing and maintaining their power bases, than they are in solving our problems.

We send them back there to do a job and they go back to keep it.  When I complain to them about it, they'll give me lip service, stuff like, "You're right, but because the system is so entrenched the only way I can really help you is to do the same."  Well, this go round, the people are fed up and they are giving limits to congress' terms whether they like it or not.  Trouble is, we're not fed up enough and are still sending too many of the scoundrels back.  And, it looks like the new comers are likely to continue to follow suit.

There are three things that can fix the mess in Washington, term limits, term limits and term limits.  If congress men and women knew that they had just two term to accomplish what need to be done and that then they would be returning to their homes and regular citizenship, they work on the problems instead of their careers.  Oh, there'd probably still be corruption, but we could deal with that.  What we can't deal with are representatives that represent themselves, using their constituents as mere fodder for their own personal objectives.

If they won't limit their own terms, I call upon voters everywhere, to do the limiting for them!

Book Review - The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell

I cannot imagine reading a book more pertinent to the moment, in my life, than this one was, now, for me.  It is a memoir of an amazing year in the remarkable life of a little man named Feliks Zhukovski.  You know I don't like to retell the story in my reviews.  This remains true in this case.  Suffice it to say that Feliks left Poland as a boy, just one week before Hitler invaded that land.  He lived in Switzerland during the War and in France the balance of his life.  Most of his adult life is spent traveling extensively in the Eastern Bloc as it was called under the thumb of the USSR and is now experiencing the momentous changes in the political structure of Eastern Europe as the Soviet Union crumbles and the Berlin wall comes crashing down.  That is not the story, that is the backdrop.

I learned so much about life behind the iron curtain during those years we call the Cold War.  The book showed me that life from a number of different perspectives.  I loved the colorful tour through a drab scene Jim Powell provided in a most unique and poignant way.  That, provided the atmosphere.

The story was more about certainty and confusion, about ideals and disaster, about lofty visions shading grimy realities.  It was about ideas versus experiences.  It was about understanding and compassion.  It was about thinking one thing academically, only to discover another truth entirely in the actual experience of life.

I have long held that in the pre-mortal experience we knew all there is to know.  What we lacked was experience.  We came to mortality to make practical application of the things we thought we knew.  It is one thing to know that a hot stove will burn you.  It is entirely another, to actually experience the placing of one's hand on that hot stove.  So, brilliant people cook up brilliant ideals for our lives and storm the political landscape with them; while in the end, they remain our lives, lived and lost, suffered and enjoyed, full of struggles and triumphs, mistakes and successes, lives of experience; the thing mortality is made of.

In the end (thinking about the National Elections day after tomorrow) it is people that matter, not policies and parties and power and posturing.  Like Eastern Europe we've developed a system of government that has concluded that the ends justify the means.  And like the former USSR, we are quickly running out of the means to carry it off.  That seems totally lost on those who seek to guide our future.  Not unlike the Communists, Congress will carry on with an attitude that "you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet."  Which might seem fine, until you realize that the omelet is not for us, but for them.

History, will surely repeat itself.  The egg breakers will continue down their reckless path and eventually the house of cards they imagine themselves to be building will tumble, revealing it for the illusion it has become.  Lives will be shattered, broken, crushed, but experience will be gained and the purpose of mortality fulfilled.  It is time to think more seriously about the people across the dinner table and less so about those across the Potomac.

Five Stars!

A Brilliant New Way to Study the Scriptures on new.LDS.org!

Have you checked out the newest update of LDS.org?  It is wonderful!  The site is now interactive offering tools and applications that will be useful to not only Latter-day Saints but also our friends of other faiths.

Members of the church may use their church site passwords to access all of the information available to members including New Family Search for preparing family names for Temple Work online.  They may also access their Ward and Stake websites and get meeting information and check out the Calendars for their local units.  New to LDS.org now, is the ability to sync your Ward and Stake Calendar with Outlook or Google Calendar.  What a fantastic way to keep current on local church events in a busy age.

Another great feature allows us to access the Ward directory of our own particular Ward and Stake.  This includes addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and photos.  Best of all is that this is always as current as the membership records in the Clerk's office!  In Wards where membership has a rapid turn over, this will be an especially useful tool.

Also, there is a Maps app that will help you locate addresses.  This isn't too needful in my Utah Ward, but imagine being called as a Home Teacher to a newcomer in a rural Texas ward.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to check out a map right from the Ward Web Site?

You can also request a copy of your Patriarchal Blessing from the site.  That, and the blessing of any direct line ancestor.  Isn't technology great!

Finally, and my favorite, is the My Study Notebook.  Associated with all the library content on the site, the notebook allows you to personalize your study of the scriptures, conference talks, church magazines, etc.  As you are studying, should you wish to mark that particular verse; you can highlight it, add personal notations, file the scripture in subject folders of your own creation, as well as tag it for later selection on a particular topic or theme.  This feature makes the online scriptures every bit as useful as my old well worn set of leather bound ones.  Over the years I've tried commercial versions of this that never met my needs.  I shudder to think how much money I spent with no real results.  Now, for free, I can make my own archive of personal insight and inspiration, as pertains to every verse I wish to comment on.  Then when I read the scriptures again, I can read them side by side with the notations I've previously made included right there.  There is a feature that allows you to hide your notations, but I look forward to keeping them open for future reference.  I have long studied the scriptures with a red pencil to mark passage that impressed me.  While I have often, also written notes in the margins, there is seldom enough space to meet my needs.  Now there is no limit to the space I can use to note impressions I have as I study.  Now, if a quote or concept from a conference talk impresses my heart I can file it in a folder that is unique to me and find it quickly next year when I need it for a talk or lesson.

The search engine for the scriptures is much improved as well.  And you can search Conference Talks and other library content as too. It looks like there's also an app that will allow my Folders and Scripture marks and notations to be downloaded to a mobile device so I can carry with me, not only the scriptures, but my personal study data as well.

Well did the ancient prophets long for our day.  Can you imagine studying the scriptures back then and while rolling up a scroll, be given a vision of what we're experiencing today?  I'll bet if we could see those old scrolls, we'd find drool stains, from men who were shown what great blessings and resources WE would take so much for granted.  I hope not to take them for granted, but to make full use of such great gifts from our Father in Heaven.  The church is making full and wonderful use of technology today.  Check our Mormon.org New.familysearch.org for more fantastic examples.  See it all at http://new.lds.org .