Goodbye glasses

After nearly 54 years its time to say goodbye to glasses and contacts. It seems rather strange not to be wearing them. Yesterday I had the lens in my right eye replaced with a "restore" lens that is supposed to allow me to focus at all distances without external corrective lenses like the left eye that was done in August. 18 hours later the doctor pronounced it good. The lens is properly positioned and my vision is good for that soon after surgery. Now 2 or 3 weeks of regular eye drops and a week of wearing the shield at night and it will be done. So far the vision at long distances is good but still lacking somewhat at intermediate and short distances. That will improve over time according to their experience with these lenses.

Pioneer ancestors

Following is a poem written by Eliza R. Snow to Mrs. Eleanor Bietler Bringhurst, wife of Samuel Bringhurst. The poem was recorded in a pioneer diary of Eliza R. Snow Sunday, March 19, 1848.

My heart is full of friendship -- but for thee
It has a holier feeling than that name
Identifies. The recollection of
Thy countenance from the first time
My eyes beheld thee -- whispers something to
My thought and feeling which I never can
Describe. 'Tis undefinable so long
As mind or understanding shall remain
As circumscribed as now. But when I think
Of thee, a thrill of near affinity
O'er spreads my senses and I truly feel
Within my bosom a strong kindred tie
As tho' we'd been associated in
Existence, ere we condescended to
Our present state of being. Lady, yes,
When our small understandings shall expand
And with the recollection of the past
Some knowledge of the future be inspired
We'll find a thousand kindred ties that form
Amalgamation's wreath, and which are twined
And intertwined, combining and combined
Connecting noble spirits here and there
And still extending on from world to world
Unto creation's undefined extent.

Thus let our hearts expand and let our minds
And acts approximate towards the point
Of true perfection, that we may attain
To an association glorified
On planets more exalted and refined --
Among intelligences long since dear,
And let us cultivate the sacred ties
Of love and friendship here that will abide
Time's rugged changes and eternally
Endure.

gg-grandparents

These are my great-great grandparents,  Father and Mother of William Augustus Bringhurst who was the father of my Grandmother Wilkinson.  They were the first in their line to join the Church along with his brother William.  They were Quakers living near Philadelphia when they joined the Church.  They later moved to Nauvoo and then across the plains to Utah. They traveled in the company of  John Taylor, with Elvin Hunter as Captain of the hundred, Joseph Horn of the fifty, and Erick C. Bowers of the ten.  They arrived in Salt Lake Valley about 6 October 1847.  His brother William was later called by Brigham Young to head the company which settled what now is Las Vegas, Nevada.

Things I hope you will teach my grandchildren

I don’t remember where I first heard it, but someone said in essence Salvation is an individual matter but Exaltation requires a group effort. Personal righteousness is essential but not sufficient for exaltation. We have to take people with us if we are going to be exalted. We can be saved, even in the Celestial Kingdom, individually, but we can be exalted only when sealed to a spouse and to ancestors and descendants. There are other blessings that are only available if we can persuade others to join us or if we can join an appropriate group. As we were talking in Sunday School class today about the end of the Nephite civilization, I thought about those who were yet righteous, including Mormon and Moroni and no doubt some others judging from Mormon’s letter to Moroni about infant baptism. There were apparently a few righteous saints left who were trying to keep the church going and do the right thing. That was not sufficient to preserve the Nephites, however, or to save themselves from being exterminated in mortality. Not that I think Mormon and Moroni and the others who were righteous were responsible for the sins of all their contemporaries. They did all they could. We cannot enjoy the blessings of a Zion society without the society. We have to do our part in brining others along.

Many of the teachings of the gospel are related to our interaction with others. Learning to relate to others is more than half of the battle. We are all interdependent, like it or not. This is difficult for me as I am not a very social being and I don’t enjoy trying to persuade others or explaining my beliefs to them. I’m somewhat of a loner and socially inept. I usually prefer a good book to a good conversation. The ultimate example of our dependence is, of course, the Atonement. Without Christ and his sacrifice we would all be lost. I have committed to try to be more outgoing and more social at church and elsewhere, to try to do my part in promoting the unity necessary to achieve the desired result. Maybe that’s why I was prompted and more or less forced into teaching. Something I need to work on.

Students

This is a picture of my Grandfather Wilkinson and two of his friends when he was a student at the Branch Normal School in Cedar. Grandpa is on the right, Jed Fawcett is seated and Fred Fawcett is on the left.

Am I irrelevant or just ancient?

Did you ever feel irrelevant? The other day I gave my students a quiz over element names and symbols. It was a clever story, that I got a copy of from another teacher, about an old western bandit named the gold dust kid. It had references to things like a platinum blond, filling the bad guy full of lead, a plugged nickel, a tin badge, "Hi Ho Silver!", cobalt steel jail bars, etc in which the elements were given as the symbols and they had to fill in the names, 

 

(Remember this guy?  If you do you are probably close to my age.)  

 

 

I thought it would be easier for them because of the context.  Of course most of them had never heard of the Lone Ranger but they also had no idea about any of the other references.  They had no concept of the old west or the Western movie genre.  It was all totally lost on them.   A culturally and generationally biased  test in the extreme.

Things I hope you will teach my grandchildren

Our opening hymn in Sacrament Meeting today was number 89, “The Lord is My Light.” As we came to the words “My weakness in mercy He covers with power”, I felt an overwhelming witness of the Spirit that that has been true and will continue to be true in my life as long as I acknowledge Him. If I have accomplished anything worthwhile, it is because He has made up for my limitations and inadequacies, filled in the gaps, so to speak. As the scriptures tell us, “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 25:23). I think many times we fail to recognize the influence of the Lord in our lives like the Lamanites who were converted that Jesus talked about when He visited them “even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 9:20).

This is also brought out in the story of the servant of Elisha the prophet when he saw the army of the King of Syria that came to take Elisha who was accused of being a spy and surrounded the whole city with horses and chariots so that Elisha would not escape. “And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (Old Testament | 2 Kings 6:15 - 17).

Joseph Smith recorded similar visions that he had of the apostles in the early days of the Church. "I saw the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, who are now upon the earth, who hold the keys of this last ministry, in foreign lands, standing together in a circle, much fatigued, with their clothes tattered and feet swollen, with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold Him. The Savior looked upon them and wept. ......Also, I saw Elder Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far south and west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men of color (Indians), who appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in their own tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a drawn sword in his hand, protecting him, but he did not see it." (History of the Church Vol. II, p. 381.

And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments. (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 59:21)

Sorry, I couldn't resist

Do you feel a bit overloaded sometimes?

Funny Picture

Sometimes I wonder why I can't seem to get anywhere in life.