Mormon Church Doctrine

Ezra Taft Benson: Voice of Warning

2011-06-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice
Listen to President Benson talk about the great nation of the United States of America and what needs to be done to protect it from internal destruction.

Parley P. Pratt: Escaped Convict?

2011-04-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Aim and I went to watch Stephen run in a 6K today in Tallahassee. After the race I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that read: "Parley P. Pratt Memorial Freedom Run/Walk." According to the shirt the race is held in Columbia, Missouri. My curiosity was immediately piqued. I thought "how many Parley P. Pratts can there be in this world?"

I asked the guy if he knew who Parley P. Pratt was. He said, "I think he was an escaped convict who broke out of jail and got away on foot." The thought crossed my mind that his shirt might actually be referring to a different Parley P. Pratt than the one I know. I asked him if he knew when the convict escaped from jail. He said he thought it was sometime during the 1800's.

I thought how strange it is that there are people out there who know nothing about the men and women who played such a major part in restoring the gospel to the earth. People who know nothing about the original members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in our dispensation. People who know nothing about the suffering of the early Saints in Missouri or how and why the Mormons ended up in Utah. Would this guy think any different if he knew that Parley P. Pratt was an Apostle of the Lord? Was John the Revelator just a convict stuck on an island? Was Paul just a convict trapped in Rome?

I told the guy that our family belonged to the same church Parley P. Pratt did. I told him we are Mormons (sorry President Packer) and that Parley P. Pratt was one of the great writers and Apostles of the early Mormon Church. He didn't seem very interested. I then told him that my son, Stephen, had just won the race. He was more interested in that. We talked about the race for another thirty minutes or so before parting ways.

I get the feeling after our conversation that the only thing the guy knows about Mormons is that Mormons like to run. Oh well. Maybe a seed has been planted.

Emmitt Smith, One of the Eight Witnesses?

2010-05-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

After church today I asked Aim and Stephen if they could name the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. As a hint, I told them there were three Smiths. It didn't take long for them to pick out Joseph Smith, Sen. and Hyrum Smith, but they got hung up on the third Smith. Then suddenly Stephen's face lit up and he said "Oh yeah, Emmitt Smith." Aim and I busted out laughing. Stephen, realizing his mistake corrected himself. "That's right. Emmitt Smith was Joseph Smith's wife." Aim decided to correct Stephen on both of his mistakes. She told him "Emmitt Smith was a football player who used to play for Florida State."

I don't know which answer was more disappointing. Stephen thinking Emmitt Smith was one of the Eight Witnesses or Aim thinking Emmitt Smith was ever a Seminole.

A Little Church History Trivia

2010-05-13T08:56:00.001-07:00

I have been reading the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith. Here is a little trivia for y'all:

First, who called the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in our dispensation to be members of the Quorum of the Twelve? (Note: Obviously it was the Savior, but what mortal or mortals actually received the revelations and issued the callings?). (Hint: the answer can be found on page 186 of Volume 2 of the History).

Second, was there a man named Lewis Robbins who marched as a member of Zion's Camp to help redeem Zion in Jackson County, Missouri? (Hint: the answer can be found on page 185 of Volume 2 of the History).

Third, what was the eternal fate of those members of Zion's Camp who died of the Cholera which disease afflicted the Camp after the Camp continued to murmur and complain after being warned by Joseph Smith? (Hint: the answer can be found in the footnote on page 181 of Volume 2 of the History).

Fourth, was there a man from Springfield, Erie County, Pennsylvania who was an early member of the Church? (Hint: the answer can be found on page 149 of Volume 2 of the History).

Fact: A man named James Campbell swore "The eagles and turkey buzzards shall eat my flesh if I do not fix Joe Smith and his army (Zion's Camp) so that their skins will not hold shucks, before two days are passed." Mr. Campbell then boarded a ferry and undertook to cross the Missouri River when "the angel of God saw fit to sink the boat" in the middle of the river. Mr. Campbell's drowned body floated down the river some four or five miles and lodged on a pile of drift wood. When his body was found eagles, buzzards, ravens, crows and wild animals had eaten the flesh from his bones. How about that. Mr. Campbell was a prophet.

Let me know if anyone actually knew the answers to the above trivia questions without having to look them up. I didn't.

Triumph

2010-05-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

I saw this phrase posted on a local church sign:

"Triumph is when you put some 'umph' into your 'try.'"

It reminded me of the phrase "Put your shoulder to the wheel, push along." I could picture myself putting my shoulder against the wheel of a wagon or handcart and putting some "umph" into pushing it. After thousands of miles of shoulders against the wheel and "umph," the Saints triumphed. What a legacy!

We Spell Christmas with a Check!

2010-04-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

The other day Caroline was watching TV and saw Christmas spelled "X-mas." She asked me what "X-mas" meant. I told her it is a lazy man's way of spelling Christmas and that I personally think spelling Christmas with an X is disrespectful to the Savior. I told her "We never spell Christmas with an 'X'." Katherine then chimed in. "Yeah, we spell it with a check."

Go Get'em Missionaries!

2010-04-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

The following is an e-mail I received from Mom on her mission in Hawaii:

Aloha Family,

Today was truly one of the best days of our mission. President Petersen wanted us to go to a Zone Conference which included 2 zones. There were only 2 sisters among a room full of Elders. It is hard to believe the Spirit can be so strong in a room full of young adults. The testimonies were tremendous and I really felt they were sincere when they testified of our Savior's atonement. Our President gave us all a book about the atonement a couple months ago and so many had read it and gained a greater appreciation of what the atonement has done for each of us.

President Petersen asked me to bare my testimony first. After listening to all the young missionaries, I wished I had gone last. I felt like I wanted to tell them all that what they are doing with their lives right now; their righteous influences will be felt throughout the eternities. I thought of all my children serving missions and realized that the righteous service you gave on your missions also will be felt throughout eternity. It is like a pebble thrown in the water that creates a ripple effect, except that ripple goes on for eternity. Thanks again to you all for choosing to go serve in the Lord's work.

One of the most touching testimonies was an Elder who told of his mothers death 1 week before he left for his mission and 2 weeks after his sister returned from her mission. They were both there when their mother took her last breath. They knelt in prayer at that very moment and prayed for strength to overcome their grief, loss, void they were feeling and be able to move forward. While praying, they felt Mother was also now a missionary on the other side. I think the best thing you could do a week after your mothers death is go on a misison. Bringing our Savior's Gospel to others has to be right up there next to the gift He gave us.

We love you all and thank you again for this great experience. We know Heavenly Father keeps His promises and we were promised that you all would prosper for paying for this mission. We pray that you are also prospering Spiritually.

I told President today that we realized why Elder Scott sent us to the Unemployment Center and we feel Richard is where he is needed and where he is supposed to be at this time. He said, "and you are where you are needed and supposed to be now".

Another reminder to me to strenghten my faith in Heavenly Father and His wisdom and to know His servants are truly inspired.

We love you all and pray every night that you will guide and direct our grandchildren with great love and tenderness like our Savior would have you do. We have never heard a conference that was so aimed at families, parenting and teaching children as this past conference. There is a great need for righteous parenting. We love to hear about grandchildren doing their best and even crossing the finish line first and receiving a monetary reward. We are also cheering for them to cross the finish line to Heavenly Fathers presence. We don't want a single empty chair on the other side. Eternity is a long time to live without a loved one. It is more important now than ever to truly love and support one another. Today, President's last words to us was to forgive. The murderer is better off than the one who can't forgive that murderer. He told us of a personal experience when he was in bondage until he could forgive and forgiveness needs to come quickly.

Love, support and FORGIVE!!! How many times?

Love,
Mom

The HOUSE Of The LORD

2010-03-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

Another inspiring e-mail from Rob:

When Mom and Dad picked me up from the airport after my mission, they drove me past the Salt Lake temple on the way home. I thought that it would be neat to see the temple. I had no idea what was in store. The structure of the temple is impressive alone, but as we drove past the part of the temple that has the words "Holiness To The LORD The HOUSE Of The LORD", a strong spiritual feeling came over me that I will never forget. Through the Spirit I was allowed to feel and know some of the sacredness of that temple that had come through many years of dedicated work and sacrifice of the early Utah saints. These feelings came so strong that tears came to my eyes. I didn't know all that much about the history of the Salt Lake temple, but many years later I would learn that the man who cut those words into the stone did so at tremendous personal sacrifice. John Rowe Moyle lived 22 miles from the temple. Every Monday he left home at 2:00 in the morning to be at his post on time. On Friday he would leave work and 5:00 in the evening and walk almost until midnight before arriving home. After losing his leg in an accident, he carved himself an artificial leg and foot. Even though it was extremely painful for him to walk with the home-made leg, he built up the endurance to again walk the 22 mile trip to the temple twice a week again. His hands carved those sacred words on the temple that brought tears to my eyes. John Moyle could have murmured about losing his leg, blamed his Heavenly Father, and never finished the sacred carving. Instead, he left a righteous legacy and his grandson became an apostle and served in the first presidency. I am thankful for the House Of The Lord, for my temple marriage, for my family, for Heavenly Father, and the sacred plan of salvation. I am also thankful for my testimony and for the times that I have been able to share it with sincere brothers and sisters.

Savannah and the "Hot Surface Ignitor"

2010-02-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

An inspiring e-mail from Rob:

When we first bought our house, we were still living at the other house. We were bringing stuff over here little by little. One Sunday we came over to the house to find that it was freezing inside. The thermostat control actually showed 40 degrees, but the temperatures were on the way down because the furnace had stopped functioning. We didn't want the pipes to freeze in the new house, so I started trying to figure out what was wrong with the furnace. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the problem, but I only managed to get myself frustrated. I didn't really want to call someone to come out because it was on Sunday and I also the last time I called an HVAC guy, it wasn't a good experience. I came back upstairs and told Jen that I didn't know what else to do. We were just about to leave when Savannah asked if we could just say a prayer to fix it.

Not wanting to ruin her faith in prayer, we all knelt down and said a prayer that we could fix the furnace. Savannah then went back down with me to help me fix the furnace. I took the cover back off the furnace and immediately my flashlight shined on the problem. I distinctly remember my eyes being drawn to a certain part of the furnace that I had not previously looked at. It happened just like that. The prayer was said, we walked down, I took the cover off, and then I shined the light directly at the problem. I didn't even know what the name of the part was yet, but the light shined directly at this small part. When I looked very closely, I could see a very small black line across the ceramic. Right away I was sure that this was the problem, not because I was an expert on HVAC, but because this was an answer to Savannah's faithful prayer. I called Home Depot and described the part to someone, who told me that it was the hot surface ignitor and by the time I tracked one down and installed it, I had no doubt that the furnace would work when the new hot surface ignitor was installed. After replacing the hot surface ignitor, the furnace functioned properly. This taught me a lesson about having child-like faith and the Savior's counsel to "ask and ye shall receive".

First Article of Faith and Once There Was A Snowman

2010-01-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

I asked Kappy today if she could recite the First Article of Faith. She said she couldn't. Caroline reminded her that they had just gone over it in Primary yesterday. Kappy's response: "Oh yeah. Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman. Once there was a snowman. Tall. Tall. Tall."

Ginny's Addition the FSU Post

2010-01-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

Ginny's addition to the Initial FSU Post. The last sentence in her post is telling.

I am reminded of FSU football, constantly, that I should never have anything even remotely big happen in my life during the fall, otherwise no one will notice it. Mark and I scheduled our September 2004 wedding so that it would not conflict with any of the FSU football games. We found a weekend that they had a bi-week and planned for then, even though it was the day before an historically tragic day, September 11. Unfortunately for us, but in accordance with my “Hamburger B” luck, one of FSU’s previous games was cancelled due to Hurricane Charley, I believe, and was rescheduled for what other day than September 10th! Luckily it was in the afternoon, so everyone attended our sealing in the Salt Lake City temple in the morning, but were scarce at our reception. Everyone was up in the barn where someone had found a small TV, watching the FSU game.

The only other memories I have were of finding a beer soaked pom-pom at one of the games, and I think I put it in my hair, since that is what everyone else was doing. YUCK! There was the BYU vs FSU game at the Jacksonville Jaguar stadium, that we all went to see when Jared had just returned from his mission, and the guy sitting behind us splashed beer onto my back. We were frightened to drive home because of all the drunken people that were driving home. OH, we sat on the FSU side. Was that morally wrong to do? Anyway, I also remember all the Christmas’ receiving FSU shirts, and was excited one year that I got the She-ra underwear and tank for Christmas istead. I think I have had my fill of football, and that’s why I don’t like it very much, but Mark and I rarely miss an FSU game. It just doesn’t feel right to be doing something else when I know everyone else is watching the FSU game.

Jared's Addition to the FSU Post

2010-01-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

Jared's addition to the Initial FSU Post:

I too feel like it was more than time for Bowden to retire. That isn't taking anything away from what he did. When you hear a guy like Pete Carrol say that what he accomplished in the 14 years will never happen again you know he did something special. I always hear Bowden talk about death after coaching. I think maybe he is afraid to die and that is why he held on so long.

My first memories of Florida State football were way back in the day when every game wasn't on tv. In fact not many were. If you didn't have tickets to the game or it was away, we were listening to it on the radio. That is where Gene Deckerhoff comes in. The man has the best voice for play by play on the radio ever. I can remember going to my ear during the FSU games and I would have my own football and I would try and re-enact the plays my self while he was calling the games. I am sure everyone in my family remembers me outside throwing the football to myself. Just so yall know a lot of those drops were on purpose because that is what had happened in the game.

I too remember the Seminole Rap. The Deion days are the start of my memories and probably the first player I remember. I can still see the skinny dude with a towel hanging down past his knees pointing to the end zone on a punt. Sure enough he took it back for a touchdown. Take that Babe Ruth. After Deion and for the next few years at least FSU had some of the best defenses ever, which made this year so hard to watch. That all changed when Charlie Ward came in with the "fast break" offense. To my knowledge FSU was the first team to use the no huddle offense outside the last two minutes of a game. The 1993 season was a blast to watch except for the second to last game against Notre Dame which we need to thank Boston College for coming in the next week and beating them. I also remember the 31-31 win we had over Florida. We can call it a win because we went and got them in the bowl game. We were down 31-3 going into the fourth quarter. We lived in Orem and everyone in our family had given up hope. I always go down with the ship so of course I am staying to watch. After we got the score to within two scores I waited for a commercial and went to round up the troops. At first there was some resistance to them coming back to watch it. Then we scored again and were within one score. I was successful in getting them back to watch the final touchdown for the tie.

I missed a national championship while on my mission. I do remember looking forward to the newspaper clippings that my family would send during that season.

I had to let Stacy know why Florida State football was such a big part of our lives during the fall. I called Travis and asked if he could get us some tickets to the first game of the season. FSU vs. Miami. Beside the Florida game there isn't a bigger game on the schedule so I thought that would be a good game to take her to. It was a night game on a Monday so Jason took us fishing. Jason caught a tarpon over 6 feet long and let me reel it in while he directed the boat towards the fish. Obviously I am naive because besides seeing the fish jump out of the water a few times I didn't realize how rare a catch of that size was. Jason asked me when we were going home from fishing if I would like to have that fish or an FSU win. It wasn't close and to Jason's surprise I said a Florida State win for sure. Well luckily I got both that year. After a four year streak of losing to the Canes Florida State pull out a 3 point win after Miami bobbled a snap on a tying filed goal. It was great for Stacy to see how almost all of Tallahassee shuts down on game day. All the cars have something FSU on them and most people in the mall have on FSU gear.

After having a successful trip to see FSU in Tallahassee we decided to go to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Same results only it was a crowed that heavily favored UCLA. In fact one of the guys sitting next to us wasn't shy about telling the people he was with how much he hated Florida State and all their fans.

Mom's Addition to the FSU Post

2010-01-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

Mom's addition to the Initial FSU Post:

When Traci was still in diapers, we had gotten pretty excited about FSU. The team had a pep rally at the Tallahassee Mall. We were there for quite some time trying to get as many autographs as possible. Dad had Traci on his shoulders and pushing Rob in a stroller. I had Travis by the hand. As we were scurrying around to get team autographs, Traci wet through her cloth diaper and soaked Dad's whole back. We continued to get autographs but it was easier to get them as Dads soaked in urine back) seemed to clear some of the fans out.

Soon after Travis went on his mission, I saw Coach Bowden and his wife in a restaurant. I went over and told him I had a son who was a great punter in high school. He asked me to have him come see him. I told him he was on a 2 year mission for our church in California. He told me very seriously "have your son come see me when he comes home from his mission". We moved to Utah the month Travis came home from his mission.

Dad and I had season tickets when Mudra was the coach at FSU. We were always there with the other 9 couples who attended (actually about 9,000 but with all the empty seats, it seemed like 10 couples). I don't remember ever seeing FSU win but we were there. Needless to say it was a lot more fun to attend the games when Bowden and Burt Reynolds got things rolling for FSU. It got more expensive and harder to get tickets as the winning began.

One Saturday, the Young Women were doing free babysitting at the Stake Center. After we dropped Travis, Rob and Traci off, we somehow ran into 2 Elders. They needed a ride somewhere and as we were talking to them realized it was our anniversary. We knew FSU was playing a home game so we went to the stadium to try to get in. A gator fan noticed we were trying to get tickets and he had 2. Dad told him we only had a $20. He gave us the tickets and we sat by him in the end zone. He bought us a program and 2 drinks but at least we were in to see the game.

I was over 7 months pregnant with Rich. As the thick crowd was leaving the stadium, I heard a cop yelling way behind us "stop him, stop him". I was yelling for dad to stop him as he was running past us through the crowd but dad had been pushed a little way behind me because of the crowd. I was much closer to the suspect than dad and ran over thinking I could trip him as dad was yelling at me to stop or I would get hurt. About that time the cop started firing into the air (which made me stop) but it only made the suspect run faster until he was up the hill by the tracks and out of site. We stayed up most of the night talking about the events of the evening; free babysitting that just happened to be on our anniversary that we had forgotten, 2 missionaries who happened to ask how long we had been married, a gator fan who happened to have 2 tickets and me saying for hours "I should have had him".

Another sold out game, we had seats in the nosebleed section. One guy had alcohol smuggled under his shirt in an enema bag. We weren't sure why he even paid money to go to the game. We noticed him sucking that enema bag dry. We were sitting on the top bleacher. He made it known he needed a restroom. He turned and came up a couple rows to the very top bleacher and started to zip his pants down to relieve himself over the edge. The whole crowd started yelling at him "no, not here" because there was a pretty brisk wind blowing back at us. Other than these 2 insidents, we had very enjoyable times for many years going to the FSU games or watching it on TV with family.

Aim's Addition to the FSU Post

2010-01-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

Aim's Addition to the Initial FSU Post:

I remember buying watered-down, expensive cokes from the boy scouts. Little did I know that years later I would be marrying one of them.

After the games we would always collect plastic FSU cups which were often filled with Tobacco or alcohol. We didn't care, we collected the filthy cups anyway, piling them way up high.

My parents are die-hard 'nole fans. I recall my dad made us sit through one extremely cold Peach Bowl game in Atlanta, GA where it was a chilling 24 degrees. While all the rest of the not-so-faithful fans decided to leave the game at half-time, we stayed. In order to avoid frost-bite, my sisters, mom and I spent the entire 4th quarter huddled around a heater we found in one of the bathrooms inside the stadium.

My parents taught us to love our neighbors, but that it was perfectly fine to be a "gator hater." Every time the Gators would beat us I remember the phone would ring and inevitably my Aunt Linda would be on the other end calling my dad to gloat.

I remember hanging out around the flag pole talking to my friends through most of the games while I was in middle school. I too remember the sticky walk up the metal garnet and gold ramps towards the nose-bleed section of the stadium. I also remember getting nearly trampled under foot after the games by the drunken fans.

I remember Fred-the-Seminole-head, who is now dead...no rhyme intended.

I remember seeing grown men with no shirts on covered in garnet and gold paint from head to toe, making total fools out of themselves and thinking they still had on more clothes than most of the women in the stadium.

I remember thinking it was so cool that I knew several of the guys who owned and were riding Renegade, and wishing I could ride. I liked watching Chief Osceola and Renegade pace back and forth in the end zone and throwing the fiery spear into the Seminole head in the center of the field. I always wondered why he speared himself.

I remember one of my sisters getting one of those mini-foam footballs tossed up into the stadium from one of the cheerleaders.

I remember doing the wave.

Since I was three years old, we lived a few blocks away from the Bowden's. They still live there in a pretty gold brick house. I would always look over at their house every time I passed by hoping to see them out in the yard, but I never did, not even once. I kind-of felt like I knew the Bowden's even though we've never met.

I remember going to Miami when I was very young for the Orange Bowl. We went to the Orange Bowl Parade and it was incredible. I remember returning to the FedEx Orange Bowl in 1994 for National Championship. This was the most incredible football game I have ever seen. I remember Charlie Ward was the quarterback. We were on our feet yelling at the top of our lungs for the entire 4th quarter. I remember when I thought we had won, and watched all the fans surge onto the field. Bobby Bowden got doused with Gatorade, and then my heart sank when the ref. stated the game was not yet over. I thought we might lose, but we won when Nebraska missed the field goal.

After I had been a registered nurse for one year, I went back to school to get my BSN from Florida State. I knew that when I graduated I would only get a ten cent raise, but still it felt great just knowing I had graduated from FSU since I always wanted to achieve this goal...I truly am a nole!

I remember one night Travis, Stephen and Jacob and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Tallahassee. Travis looked at me with this shocked look on his face, and said, while pointing through the seat, "Aim, Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn are sitting right over there." They were two booths over from us. When we were leaving we asked them to sign their autographs on the back of our receipts "for our sons."
I remember in 2004 when the name of the football stadium was changed from "Doak Campbell Stadium" to "Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium."

I remember when they started calling Gene Deckerhoff "Golden Throat." I went to school with his son Eric for many years.

I remember we heard that Ron Simmons was going to be at the Garnet and Gold store in the mall signing autographs. Travis, Stephen and I went and stood in a long line. When we got up to him, he ended up letting Travis sit down next to him so he could talk to him about Travis' Uncle Walter Blount the rest of the time while the rest of the people came through.

We got to meet Andre Wadsworth while he was doing some sort of community service project at Publix. We took his picture with Stephen when he was a baby.I remember losing the FSU v Miami game three years in a row in the last minute due to wide right, left, right (I think).

I will never forget the shocked feeling I felt and the look on Dan Mowrey's face when he missed the field goal again. I remember thinking that could have been Travis, had he not chosen to go on a mission. I remember hearing about the death threats and counseling Dan had to go through as a result. I still wish the media would let it go.

Every year when the weather first changes from hot summer days to cool autumn days, the first thing I think of is FSU football.

I still get really excited every time I hear the booming drum beat from the Marching Chiefs. I will never be able to resist doing the chop and singing "ho-ho-hoa-ho, then go Seminoles, fight team fight, scalp 'em, win."

Thank you Bobby B, it's been a sweet ride!

Dad's Addition to the FSU Post

2010-01-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

Dad's addition to the Initial FSU Post:

I worked with Sol Carrol's wife at the state. He was the self proclaimed #1 Seminole Fan. He was a retired sporting goods salesman from New York and moved to Tallahassee to be near FSU. He was always bringing us coupons to fast food stores. He went to everything FSU. He died of a heart attack on the fan bus on the way to an FSU football game, the 1983 Peach Bowl. A side note can be read about Sol on sectionb.com which is about him naming the "Animals" at the FSU baseball field.

When Bowden was first hired, he stepped up to the podium in front of a packed house at his first introduction to the FSU booster club and said "Beat the Gators". It brought down the house and he didn't have to say anything more.

Travis had a connection with FSU on the day he was born. Mom went into the hospital at about 2:00 A.M. It was a Saturday and I know the day of the week because FSU was playing a game that afternoon. I figuered Mom would be done having Travis in plenty of time to see the game. Not so. Travis didn't come until late in the afternoon and they didn't have TV's in the labor room. What made it even worse is they didn,t have a place for me to sit so I sat on a step stool and leaned my head against the wall and fell asleep. When I woke up my tailend and the back of my head had fallen asleep and I couldn't move. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced. I had to just fall over on the floor and wait till all my body parts woke up before I could move. Not sure of what kind of FSU fan I was to let the birth of my first child and son get in the way of missing an FSU game.

Another neat story is when Robby found a $10 gold piece at an FSU game. When we were selling sodas at the games, after the games the scouts would scour the stands to see if there was any money dropped. I had the guys go out and get empty cups for me so I could make our inventory come out correct(I found out the hard way that the consession people at FSU shorted all the cup boxes). While they were gathering me cups they would find loose change and bills people had dropped. Dax or Dusty had the record of finding a $20 bill until an FSU/ Miami game. Robby found the $20 gold piece in the stands about 30 rows on the 50 yard line. Mom wanted it for a necklace but somehow it ended up in Darrons treasure chest.

This one is a little rarity that I remember from when I was going to FSU. In 1969 thru 1971 a member of the church who was studying some type of sports at FSU was on the gymnastics team and also dressed up like an indian for the football games and would perform with the cheerleaders. I can't remember his name but Aunt Pat might. He was short, about 5'6", and could do forward flips the length of the field without stopping. I don't know what FSU officially called him but the guy I knew was just one of several who did this before they started Chief Osceola and Renegade.

The Seminole Head is the silhouette of Bro. Wright who also wrote the Seminole Fight Song. He directed the performance of the song recently as his first and only time directing the Florida State Band. You forgot the first time we showed any interest as a family in FSU football when we drove to Campbell Stadium late at night when FSU beat Florida after a 10 year drought. We weren't alone, there were 10,000 other people there with us. Thanks for the memories. Dad

Rob's Addition to the FSU Post

2010-01-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

Rob's addition to the Initial FSU Post:

For me, the seminole memories are more of a feeling than anything else. That is because during our growing up years the seminoles went from being literally a circus act (which other college football program ever had a circus to attract fans) to being one of the best football programs in the history of NCAA football. Because of the seminoles' rise, there was and still is a feeling that anything in life is possible and can be achieved with all-out effort. Sure, the noles had the Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn years, but who can forget clutch QB's like Casey Weldon, Danny Kannel, and Thad Busby. Their individual effort was incredible. There were close games where the seminoles were down in the 4th quarter and there was just no need to worry. We all knew that the seminoles would play way above their heads and never choke. Also, who can forget the Jamal Reynolds/Andre Wadsworth quarterback meetings. They took out quarterbacks and shut down high powered offenses game after game. When will there ever again be 2 All-American d-ends on the same team at the same time? There are too many players to list on FSU's defense during the late '80's to late '90's that single-handedly impacted games with turnovers, hard hits, incredible speed and tackling, and just all-out effort. These guys played with heart and probably made coaching really easy. I don't remember anything that looked like it needed more practice back then, except the kicking game only at the wrong times. I am headed to Jared's to watch the noles and try to bring back some of that feeling. Robby

Travis' Addition to the FSU Post

2009-12-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

I remember Dad talking about Sol Carol being FSU's oldest and biggest fan. I always thought he was cool for an old guy because he always had those FSU flags and buttons and hats. I remember thinking we were related to him for some reason. I remember when he died. I think he died of a heart attack on a fan bus while traveling to an FSU football game. It may be an urban legend, but that is how I want to go.

I remember being told one of Mom and Dad's kids' births (maybe mine) was scheduled at an inconvenient time. During an FSU game.

Like Aim, I also remember as a kid collecting piles of FSU cups after every game. Around our house when I was a kid we affectionately dubbed FSU cups "the fine China." When Aim and I got married I figured it was now my job to make sure everyone out in Utah had enough FSU cups to last for the year. One of the key ingredients to any good Nole fans year's supply. Stephen and I used to wait until the stands were empty and then we would start collecting our cups. This was apparently fine while I was working at Southern Seafood gutting fish all day. But when we were still collecting cups after I had graduated from law school and passed the bar my boss (a Gator fan) told me I needed to grow up. My reply: "Never!"

Stephen and I ran into Dusty Brock a couple years ago after one of the games. Dusty was a Deputy Sheriff who was working security for the game. I hadn't seen Dusty for several years. Stephen and I were walking down one of the ramps with several large stacks of FSU cups. Dusty looked up and said "Some things never change." I hope they never do.

I remember after one of the football games some of the scouts decided they would see how fast they could run from the top of the bleachers to the bottom. Correct me if I'm wrong, Rob, but I think you were the one to get that started. This particular night the bleachers were wet from rain or dew. I remember one daring young scout trying to make a name for himself took off down the bleachers. After getting up a good head of steam he started to lose it. His foot slipped off one of the bleachers about half way down and both legs shot straight out in front of him. I watched as he bounced from bleacher to bleacher, clearing about 15 bleachers at a time in between. He finally came to a stop somewhere near the bottom of the stadium. I remember it as if it had happened in slow motion. Everyone else ran over to the stairs and started making their way toward the fallen scout. By the time I reached him he was up and sitting on one of the bleachers. He seemed to be alright. I remember telling him "I think you won that race."

I remember the night Aim and I met Warrick Dunn and Charlie Ward. Warrick and Charlie were eating at Old Town Cafe in Tallahassee. That weekend Charlie was getting married in south Florida. Charlie was already in the NBA, and Warrick was still at FSU. I remember when I asked Warrick for his autograph he seemed genuinely surprised I knew who he was. In a sincerely honest and humble tone he said "you want my autograph?" Did I mention Warrick Dunn is my all time favorite FSU football player? Also, Warrick the Dog is one of my favorite dogs of all time. One of, but no dog can beat Bo.

I remember seeing Dan Mowrey (an FSU kicker) in Tampa, Florida. We both finished law school at the same time and were both in Tampa to take the Florida Bar exam. He was headed to St. Augustine to be an Assistant District Attorney. Dan and I talked for awhile about what had happened to each of us since high school. We talked about Wide Right II. The fan reaction of many of the fans was tough on Dan. I assume the same fans who treated Dan like trash were the ones who sent death threats to Chris Weinke after Weinke through 6 picks in one game his sophomore year. Weinke went on to win the Heisman. Dan went on to be a very good and consistent kicker for FSU.

I remember Reinard Wilson and Peter Boulware playing til "the echo of the whistle" to quote Mickey Andrews. Steve Spurrier didn't like that. Neither did Danny Wuerffel. Hey Spurrier, put a running back in the backfield to block for your quarterback. You meathead.

I remember Bobby Bowden being the keynote speaker at one of our Church Firesides. He encouraged us to believe in God and to keep His commandments. I'm trying, but I'm apparently having a hard time with refraining from calling Gator coaches "meatheads." I'm not doing much better with Oscar Meyer down there, but I do hope is health isn't as bad as reported on TV. Tebow makes stomaching the Gates more palatable though. How can you go wrong with a popular college kid who is willing to tell the national media that he is a virgin? Great man. Glad he's graduating.

Directions to Gainesville: East til you smell it. South til you step in it.

I remember rehabing my thigh muscle in FSU's weight room with FSU's strength coach, Dave Van Halinger. I remember seeing Marion Butts walk into the weight room my first day there. He was massive. Over the next few months of working out there I realized that almost all of the FSU players were massive. Especially compared to me.

I remember when Dexter Carter set that flag on that Miami player's head after the Miami player laid him out on a personal foul. Check out this Youtube Video of it.

I remember taking Stephen and Jacob to a FSU game several years ago. FSU was honoring the troops that day and half of one of the end zones was filled with men and women in military fatigues. It was awesome to see them. Before the game started, a B-2 Bomber (aka "the Flying Wing", aka "Sadam's Worst Nightmare") flew over the stadium. The whole stadium suddenly went dark as the shadow of the Bomber engulfed the stadium. It was AWESOME! Stephen and Jacob still talk about that game with emphasis on the Bomber.

I remember the 1996 Thanksgiving Day game between the Noles and Gates. Grandma Robbins invited me, Aim, Traci and Jason to Cairo for Thanksgiving. She said we could watch the game on a big screen TV at one of the relative's houses. She didn't tell us (I don't think she realized) that most of our Cairo relatives are Gates. Even though the game was played in Tallahassee, FSU was a 7 or 10 point underdog. But the Noles came out of the gate strong and, behind the dominant running of one Warrick Dunn, we beat the Gates. Grandma, Jason and I stood the entire game on one side of the room while our Gator relatives stood on the other. Grandma chewed on her fingernails the whole time. Our dog P-nut had recently given birth to puppies and we were looking for a name for the only puppy we had left. That puppy was Warrick and that was the day Warrick got his name.

Thank You Coach Bowden; The Robbins Family Will Never Forget You!

2009-12-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Let me preface this by saying that for the past four or five years I have been one of those fans in favor of Coach Bowden retiring. My opinion has not changed on that matter. But, for some reason it hit me hard yesterday that Friday's game against West Virginia will be the last time I see Coach Bowden presiding over the Seminole Football Team, and I am sad. Let me explain.

I have a number of fond memories of my youth. Trips to the grove, dad coaching me and Rob at T-ball (Levy Park), playing with the Brocks, shaking President Spencer W. Kimball's hand at the Tallahassee Stake Center. And very close to the top of that list are my memories of going to FSU football games. Back then the stadium looked like a giant erector set. A system of criss crossing steel beems rising into the sky. I remember stepping in soda (or something sticky) as me, Rob and dad made our way up the metal ramps to our seats. I remember listening to my shoes make a sound like velcro being pulled apart as the sticky soles pulled away from the metal.

I remember hearing Uncle Richard talking about a guy falling off the top of the stadium during construction and bouncing when he hit the ground. I don't know if it's true, but I remember hearing it.

I remember sitting in the stadium for Larry Key's last football game. It seemed like the entire game fans stood and shook their car keys in his honor and chanted "Key, Key, Key, Key." Names like Ron Simmons, Wally Woodham, Jimmy Jordan, Paul Piurowski, Bill Capece, Rick Stockstill, Rohn Stark meant a lot to me. I remember dad telling me Wally Woodham was FSU's deep threat quarterback and Jimmy Jordan was better at throwing the shorter routes. Both quarterbacks were the same age and graduated from Leon High in Tallahassee. I later realized how rare that is.

I remember dad telling me Rohn Stark practiced punting by kicking the ball over the street that ran between the practice field from the stadium. I remember thinking how cool it would be to be driving down that road and see footballs flying over the roof of the car. That street used to sit on a gigantic embankment with a tunnel going through the middle for fans to walk through as they entered the stadium. I remember walking through that tunnel and feeling a little claustrophobic as a kid. The tunnel is gone now.

I remember dad telling me Ron Simmons had been arrested for stealing televisions out of someone's store and it made me sad. Ron Simmons is from Warner Robins, Geogia by the way.

I remember all of the kids in our family unwrapping FSU clothes at Christmas. Every Christmas. Just take a look at our old photos and you will see what I mean.

I remember crying when FSU lost to Oklahoma in the 1980 Orange Bowl and then again in 1981. I was 8 and 9 respectively. FSU was still a decade away from its "Dynasty Years" and I already bled Garnet and Gold.

I remember watching the Springtime Tallahasee parade at Uncle Walter's plumbing business surrounded by FSU football players. Mom and Dad always told us "Don't drink Uncle Walter's orange juice." Many of those players showed up at Uncle Walter's funeral, including Ron Simmons.

I remember singing "Thanks to Bobby B" as the song came on over the radio.

As I got older names like Pat Tomberlin, LeRoy Butler, Greg Allen, Danny McManus, Deion Sanders and Sammie Smith became important to me. I remember watching Coach Bowden go for a two point conversion and a win over Miami at the end of a game instead of a tie. A tie would have put FSU in the National Championship game, but Coach Bowden said a tie was like "kissing your sister." The conversion failed, but I loved Coach Bowden for going for it.

I remember the "Puntrooskie" and watching LeRoy Butler streak towards the end zone. Somehow in my convoluted memory I can see Butler getting into the end zone to win the game. Looking back, they tackled him short of the end zone and we kicked a field goal to beat Clemson.

I remember selling Cokes at FSU football games as a Boy Scout in middle and high school. Dad was in charge of coordinating the Coke sales and he was able to get one of his suppliers to donate some very nice knives to the scouts who sold the most Cokes. Out of 30 or so Boy Scouts, nobody ever beat Rob in Coke sales. But dad gave out knives to the top 3 or 4 scouts at the end of the year. The higher you placed in sales, the earlier you got to pick your knife. Rob always won, so Rob always got to pick first. I remember one year when Omar Thompkins came in 2nd to Rob and I didn't place. I had been spending the entire second halves of the games watching football instead of selling Cokes. Omar was surprised that year that dad actually let him pick 2nd instead of giving his [Omar's] knife to me. Dad told Omar "Travis didn't do what it took to get a knife, and you [Omar] did." I remember being proud of dad for not showing the favoritism toward me Omar assumed was coming. For those of you who don't know Omar, he was raised without a dad. Omar told me once that he had a great deal of respect for Dad. I think a lot of it had to do with the way Dad handled the Coke sales.

I remember watching "Prime Time" (that's Deion Sanders for those of you less familiar with FSU football) on television. The local TV station did an interview on Deion Sanders as he paraded around town with gold around his neck in a brand new hooride. While Deion played football for FSU he also played baseball for the New York Yankees so he was loaded. I remember Deion bating the Auburn quarterback during the 1988 Sugar Bowl. Auburn had stayed away from Deion all game long. On Auburn's final drive of the game they needed to score a touchdown. Out of desparation, they started to throw it to Deion's side of the field. It seemed like Deion was just letting the receivers catch the ball without making any real effort to stop them. This happened several times as Auburn drove the length of the field into FSU territory. Finally, on the last play of the game, Deion picked off the ball in the end zone. After the play Deion shook his finger at the Auburn quarterback as if to say "Now you know I was only trying to make the game more exciting."

I remember the Seminole Rap; a song recorded by some of FSU's players before the 1988 season. FSU was ranked preseaon No. 1 and I think the song was inspired by the Chicago Bears' Superbowl Shuffle. I remember Prime Time's lyrics went "I'm Deion Sanders. You should know my name. But if you don't then I'm not to blame. I got world class speed with moves to spare. You throw it my way you know I'll be there." I had just memorized the lyrics of the song when FSU was throttled by the Canes the very first game of the season. Say what you want, it wasn't Prime Time's fault.

I remember Brett Favre and Southern Miss coming out of nowhere in 1990 (I think) to beat the Noles. Nobody knew who Favre was then. We were just ticked that FSU could lose to some no name quarterback on some no name team.

I remember going on a mission and watching FSU beat BYU in the Pigskin Classic in Anaheim, California. President Chambers, my mission president, called me a week or so before the game and said he had bought all of the missionaries tickets to the game. I asked him what he thought I should do with the tickets I already had. I remember a picture in the Anaheim Newspaper the day after the game of all the missionaries in our mission watching the game. Right above us was a huge banner advertisement for cigarettes. The picture's caption read "Wouldn't Their Parents Be Proud?" I remember being in a zone where the Zone Leader and District Leader were both huge Michigan Wolverine fans. We decided to have lunch one Saturday as a Zone at a local restaurant that just so happened to have the FSU/Michigan game on. I watched as FSU (Amp Lee and T-Buck in particular) laid a beat down on the Wolverines.

I remember coming home from my mission to Utah and watching FSU play Notre Dame in 1993. We had to watch the game at 10:00 or so in the morning. I remember Richard calling one of his friends after FSU drove the length of the field on the first drive and scored a touchdown. His friend was a Notre Dame fan and Rich just wanted to make sure he was watching the game. FSU lost. Minutes after the game I remember the phone ringing but I can't remember if anyone answered it. I remember thinking that Richard's friend would probably be better off not bringing up the game for awhile. Our whole family was upset.

I remember going camping with Nate and some friends up in Heber the night before the FSU/UF game. It was Thanksgiving weekend. I woke up the next day and remembered the game. I told the guys I had to leave for awhile to watch a football game. They thought I was nuts. I made my way out of the mountains and the only place open was the emergency room at the local hospital. I convinced the nurses to put the game on. You wouldn't believe what it took me to get those kidney stone patients to shut up while I watched the game. Although that last sentence was just a joke, something did happen while I was in the ER. A group of people came in screaming. One of the adults was holding a kid in his arms. The kid just laid there limp. The kid looked about 10 or 11. They were speaking Spanish. The nurses came running over and saw that the kid wasn't breathing. It was like a tornado had started swirling in the middle of the ER as doctors and nurses ran to help the kid. Suddenly the kid was taken from the adult holding him and rushed out the door and into an ambulance.

The ER went silent as this group of people were now left stunned by what had just happened. Nobody seemed to notice that this group of about eight or nine people were just standing there stunned. They spoke to one another silently in spanish. I decided to break away from the football game to see if I could help. Using the spanish I had learned in high school and supplemented on my mission I found out that this was a family of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins from South America on vacation in Heber. They didn't know what had just happened to the kid. I asked the nurses and they said the kid had been lifeflighted to Salt Lake City. I got directions to the SLC hospital and gave them to the family. They thanked me and left the hospital. I then went back to watching the game, but not before saying a prayer for that kid and his family.

I remember hearing about Warrick Dunn (an obscure FSU football recruit). He wasn't one of the most highly touted recruits. In fact he was way down the list of running backs coming into FSU (anybody remember the name Tiger McMillan). But Warrick's mom had been killed while on duty as a police officer in Louisiana about a month before Warrick was to come to FSU. Warrick was now the oldest sibling of a large family without a mother or father (his father had previously abandoned the family). But Warrick promised his mom he would get a college education so instead of staying home and trying to eek out a living he came to FSU. Warrick's little brothers and sisters struggled while he was at FSU. A lot of people thought Warrick would "Go Pro" after his junior year to start making money. But Warrick had not finished his degree yet. A lot of people questioned him on staying at FSU for his senior year given his family's financial difficulties. Warrick said his family had grown closer through their struggles and that they had met together and made the decision as a family for Warrick to stay in school. Warrick was picked in the first round the following year and played in the pro's for many years. Warrick spent his first few years in the pro's living in a modest apartment while he bought homes for his family and other single parent families. Warrick is my favorite FSU football player of all time.

I remember Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn and beating Nebraska for the National Championship in 1993. I remember Charlie Ward graduating from high school when I did in 1989. Interestingly looking back, Charlie wasn't the highest ranked quarterback to commit to FSU that year. Nor was he the only 1989 high school graduate to win a Heisman Trophy for FSU. As it turns out, Chris Weinke also graduated in 1989 but decided to go play baseball for a few years before returning to FSU, winning the Heisman and a second national championship in 1999.

I could go on with FSU football memories for a very long time. But let me just say this. I have now lived in Florida/Georgia for the past 16 years while most of my family (parents and 4 brothers and 2 sisters) is scattered throughout the United States. No matter where we live it is not uncommon for me to get a phone call at halftime from one of my parents or siblings asking for my opinion on how the game is going. FSU is one of the strongest common threads running through our scattered family.

Now I hear my kids (a new generation of Robbins) talk about Christian Ponder and other current FSU players with the same fondness I have for the FSU players of my youth and it has helped me realize something. FSU football is about way more than FSU football to me. It is about being a Robbins. How can you be a Robbins without being a Nole fan? Win or lose, FSU is our team. Not because of what they did in the 80's or 90's or what they will do in the future. Not just because they have won two national championships or might win others in the future. Not just because the Tomahawk Chop is the coolest chant in college football or because Chief Osceola and Renegade are the best mascots. Not just because Garnet and Gold are the most awesome colors or because the Seminole Head logo was patterned after someone we know (rumor has it). Not just because Grandma Robbins went to school there and Dad graduated from there.

FSU is our team because other than being Mormon, nothing in this world has galvanized the Robbins family and brought us together for one common purpose like FSU football. How many times have we sat together as a family and screamed at the television for FSU football? How many times have we sat thousands of miles apart screaming at the television for FSU football and knowing that others of our family are rooting for the same common cause? That is what makes FSU football unique and why it is important for us to pass it on to our kids.

And, oh by the way, I know that "if if's and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas," but if a two point conversion is completed and if three kickers don't freeze up (one of them, Dan Mowry, a friend of mine from high school) in three separate games FSU could have been the College Football Dynasty of the century. As it is, fourteen years in the top 4 and two national championships is something FSU will always be proud of.

For as long as I can remember, Coach Bowden has been at the head of FSU football. Now that his time as Coach has come to an end, I would just like to say thanks for all the memories.

Stephen Takes 10th; Kappy Gets Concussed

2009-10-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

Today was like being on a roller coaster. We started out by driving 3 hours to Macon for Stephen's Cross Country State Meet. Stephen's goal was to try to win it and if he couldn't win in to at least finish in the top 10. The top 10 get medals. Number 11 doesn't. Stephen and I walked the trail ahead of the meet and noticed that there were several difficult hills. We developed a strategy and he seemed to stick to it pretty closely. He started out with a fast jog (almost a sprint) down the steep incline at the head of the trail. By the time the incline leveled off he was 4th. He said he was 5th as at the top of the first steep hill and held that position for about 1/3 of the race. By the time the pack came out of the woods at about the half way mark he had slipped to 9th. He stayed at 9th until the last stretch of the race when he gave out of gas and was passed by a kid who had finished 4th in his Regional last week. He ended up 10th.

We do have some video footage of as much of the race as we could tape.

Before the race. Checking things out. The massive throng of JV Runners.
Stephen's Brookwood Crew.
Just after the race.
The Awards Ceremony Something interesting
Had the kid at the end not passed him, Stephen would have finished higher at State than any other kid in his Region. Stephen finished 3 places ahead of the kid who beat him at Regionals last week. That kid didn't get a medal. I wonder if Stephen would rather have finished 1st at Regionals and not medaled at State or pick up a 2nd at Regionals and medal at State like he did.

The top 4 kids are 8th Graders who looked like they should have had their birth certificates checked. One of them had stubble on his face from not shaving that morning. Some of the coaches seemed upset that the top four kids were running the JV race. From what I could overhear, you can "get held back," be a year older than the kids in your own grade and still compete in JV.

Now for Kappy
After the race started Aim took off with the girls to meet Stephen at the 1/3 way mark. As she did, a group of runners who were warming up accidentally ran over Kappy. I think one of them hit her in the temple with his knee as she had a huge bruise on her left temple. She began to act lethargic and her eyes started rolling back into her head. We grabbed a bag of ice, put it on her head and waited. It was definitely a concussion. After an hour or so of waiting she finally started throwing up. Kappy will tell you "throwing up makes you feel better."

She was still a little lethargic when we stopped at Cracker Barrel to eat. I took her over to the toys section and in the middle of talking to the parrot that repeats what you say, she threw up (or "puked" to use Kappy's words) all over the floor. After that she was back to her normal self and right now she is bouncing off the walls and asking me to cook her some scrambled eggs. I better go make her some eggs.

Another Week of Successes

2009-10-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Like last week, this week has seen another week of successes. To begin with, Jacob and Caroline brought home excellent report cards. No report card for Stephen yet, but we no longer worry about his grades. And now for the sports.

It's hard to say who had the best week in sports. Caroline and Katherine finished their second week of soccer with a 6-2 win. Below are some pictures.Then Jacob's team came back after trailing 0-2 at the end of the first half to win the game in a shootout. Jacob scored his team's first goal of the night. I don't have any pictures of it but Aim filmed the whole thing. When you get to the part where Jacob scored Aim started screaming like a wild banshee. Ahhhhh how that brings back memories of my youth. Just substitute one screaming mom for another. Some things never change!

Then Stephen came in Second Place in the GISA Region 3 AAA Championship Cross Country Meet with a time of just under 10 minutes, but they round up. Two of the guys he beat in the meet had just beaten him the weekend before. The only guy who beat him at Regionals had finished 3rd the week before. The top three times were 9:56, 10:00 and 10:04. Stephen has now finished 7th, then 6th, then 1st, then 4th, now 2nd. The State meet is in Macon on October 31.

He also had his last football game tonight. He sacked the QB twice and had two more tackles for loss. He loves football.

Stephen Picks Up the "W"

2009-10-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday was certainly an eventful day. As many of you know, Stephen is playing football and running cross country for Brookwood Middle School in Thomasville. He has really picked up on football quickly and has avoided any major injuries so far. That is more than I can say for many of the kids on his team. He starts at offensive guard (nobody knows why they have him at guard as he is one of the fastest kids on the team). It just doesn’t look right when your guard outruns your running backs.

He also starts at defensive tackle where he has at least two quarterback sacks. One of his sacks caused a fumble which our team picked up and ran into the endzone.

But this post is not about football. This post is about cross country.

A Little Cross Country Background
Several weeks into the cross country season I asked Stephen if he would like to try running cross country too. The thought first came to me after seeing him scamper all around the mountainside like a mountain goat in north Georgia at Scout Camp in July. He said he wouldn’t mind giving it a try so I e-mailed the cross country coach.

The coach replied that they were already several weeks into the season, that he had already missed many of the practices but they wouldn’t mind having another JV runner. She said since the football players couldn’t practice after school, some of them ran early in the mornings before school. She also said the coaches wouldn’t be there in there mornings. Stephen practiced two times before his first meet (they run 1.7 miles) and didn’t meet the coaches until the day of his first meet.

His First Meet
There were around 50 kids at his first meet in Thomasville and he ended up coming in 6th. They gave out ribbons for the top 8. I was actually surprised that he didn’t finish higher and that he was as exhausted as he was. But (like his dad) Stephen is a mouth breather and began getting cotton mouth about half way through that meet. If you have ever tried running with cotton mouth you know how difficult it can be to even focus on the running. All of the other kids were sweating and his mouth and forehead were bone dry.

His Second MeetThere were about 60 kids at his second meet in Albany. We got there a little bit early and tried to game plan a strategery. The best we could come up with was that he would line up on the front line to start out. If you don’t start on the front line you end up playing frogger until you can work your way out of the slower pack. You lose a lot of energy just trying to get where the kids in the front start out at. We planned for him to start out fast to break away from the pack with the faster kids and then pace himself. I also gave him a mint to keep his mouth salivated.

Despite our strategery he came in 7th. He actually did better in the second meet as there were more and better runners even though he finished lower. They only gave out medals for the top 5 so Stephen was on the outside looking in. He didn’t like that. Like the first meet, he got cotton mouth about half way through the race, was completely worn out and was unable to sprint at the end. The mint apparently hadn’t lasted very long.

Saturday’s Meet
That brings us to Saturday’s Meet in Tifton. During the week we discussed a revised strategery for the Tifton meet. He would drink a bunch of water early that morning and then just pee it all out before his race. Also, instead of a mint we went with chewing gum to keep him from getting cotton mouth. I kept him with me in the shade prior to the race instead of skipping rocks in the lake like most of his teammates. Another thing we decided to do was about half an hour before his race he would take one lap around the jogging track. We did this because (like me) when Stephen first starts to run his lungs start coughing up flem and he has to spit until he gets rid of it. We figured that if he went ahead and got it out of his lungs he wouldn’t have to fight with it during the race.

We got there early and saw that the race was to be run on a dirt track that weaved in and out of the woods before circling around the school and finishing at the back of the school. The track basically went around a large grassy area where all of the cars were parked which gave the spectators a chance to follow the runners as they came in and out of the woods. We noticed that there was a huge log that ran across the final exit from the woods. I told Stephen that even though that log didn’t look like much now, I bet it would seem like a giant wall after running ¾ of the race.

The middle of the track was hard packed and the outside of the track was soft. About 200 feet into the race the runners had to go up a steep incline before the track leveled off again. The left side of the track was a more gradual slope but took longer before it leveled off. We decided that Stephen would break out early with the faster runners and get to the right side of the track so he could get to the level ground faster. He would then follow one of the kids who had beaten him in the first two races and try to pass him at the end of the race. He picked a kid who is about Jacob’s size but has finished in the top three in both races. There were actually about 5 kids there who had beaten him in the first two races.

Once the race started, my job was to jog across the parking lot and meet him in two different places where he would be coming out of the woods and then about 150 yards before the finish line. I would tell him about how far behind he was and how much more effort he needed to put forth to catch up. His goal was to finish in the top 5 and win a metal.

Things Don’t Always Go As Planned
When the race was about to start we looked over at the starting line and saw that the first two rows had already filled up. By the time Stephen got to the line he was about 5 rows back. He doesn’t have the personality to just shove his way to the front like I told him to. By the time all the kids were lined up there were about 80 runners total and he was behind half of them. The thought crossed my mind “he’ll be lucky to finish in the top 15 starting in the back like that.”

The horn sounded and, as I thought, the faster runners took off leaving Stephen to do the frogger dance with the slower kids. The pack sort of pushed him to the left side so it took him longer to get up the incline at the beginning of the race. Stephen later told me that in addition to the poor start, the slower pack he was in had pushed him into the softer sand making it difficult for him to run. He said he finally just looked over at the kid next to him, reached out his hand and gently swim moved the kid until Stephen had worked his way onto the harder packed dirt. He said the kid gave him a dirty look but Stephen felt the kid would get over it.

While all this was going on I started jogging across the parking lot and as I did I could see the lead runners starting to disappear into the woods about a football field ahead of Stephen and the slower pack. By the time Stephen reached the woods, though, he had pulled away from the slower pack. My guess was that he was right in the middle of the faster pack (now well into the woods) and the slower pack he was leaving behind. I also figured that he had had to expend too much energy getting out of the slow pack to catch up to the top 10.

The Waiting BeginsOnce Stephen disappeared into the woods the waiting began. I made my way over to the first exit from the woods and got ready to count the runners as they came out. I wanted to be able to tell Stephen how many runners were ahead of him once he made it out of the woods. After what must have been 4 minutes (it seemed like half an hour, but given Stephen’s eventual time of 10:58 it couldn’t have) I saw the first runner emerge from the woods and right on his heels was Stephen. I couldn’t believe it!

I got so excited I yelled “Go Babe, Go!” When I did he started to bolt ahead of the other runner and I realized there was still half a race to go. I then yelled “Wait! Slow down! You’ll wear yourself out!” Stephen later said when I started to yell “Go” his heart began to race so he took off. Then he remembered our strategy and slowed down to let the runner pass him back as they headed back into the woods.

Another minute later they emerged a second time from the woods, Stephen still right on the lead runner’s heels. I noticed this time that the two had pulled about 200 feet away from the third place runner and it was starting to look like a two man race. Then back into the woods for the final time.

Remember the Log
When the two runners made their way back into the woods I ran to my final cheering station on the other side of the school building and about 150 yards from the finish line and waited. I could no longer see the woods as the finish line was on the other side of small hill. I had no idea who I would see first as the runners rounded the school building. And then it happened. After about a two minute wait Stephen rounded the school building about 75 feet in front of the next runner. When the other kid saw that the finish line was near he started to sprint. I yelled “Go Babe or he’s going to catch you!” Then “Go! Go! Go! ...”

Stephen started to sprint. When he did, the other kid looked up and stopped his sprint. I guess he figured “I’m not going to catch him now and the kid behind me isn’t going to catch me so why kill myself?” That’s what I would have been thinking anyway. Meanwhile, Stephen didn’t realize that the kid had slowed up so he continued sprinting.

He finished the race in first place and started puking his guts up. It reminded me of the swim test I had to take at Scout Camp after eating a pack of hot dogs. The boys all thought that was pretty funny.

Stephen later told me that as he and the other kid exited the woods for the final time the other kid slowed down to get over the log. Stephen said he remembered Coach Field (his old P.E. coach at Shiver) tell him that Stephen was one of the best jumpers in the 6th Grade. Stephen then decided not to slow down, but to just hurdle the log. He said that when the kid saw him hurdle the log (passing him in the process) the kid started to give up. We had earlier talked about why Lance Armstrong usually wins. Because his mind will not let his body give up.

What the Coaches Thought

After the race, one of Stephen’s coaches (whose son has a full ride cross country scholarship to Mercer) said that in 20 years of coaching she has seen only four other kids with Stephen’s natural ability to run. She then got onto me for making Stephen run in heavy leather shoes and Boy Scout shorts. The other kids have nice shoes and running shorts. Just then, one of the girls on the JV girls team said “Apparently it’s not the shoes on the runner, but the runner in the shoes.”

Stephen’s coach said she thinks Stephen can get a full ride to the school of his choice in cross country. She said in addition to the shoes and shorts, he will need to quit football and work on cross country full time. I told her I didn’t think he’d want to do that. He LOVES football. She asked him and he told her he didn’t want to quit football. He wants to be like his uncle Richard and uncle Jared. He talks about them all the time.

Well that is it for now. He has another meet this weekend and Regionals next weekend.

Mom is Opening Her Mouth?

2009-09-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Below is an e-mail I received from dad the other day. Pay particular attention to the first sentence and ask yourself "is it really hard to believe mom is doing well with the Open Your Mouth program?" Just kidding mom.

From Dad:

Aloha everybody,

Mom's on fire with OYM( open your mouth). A lady that came in to look for a job who is a non-member asked about the copy of the Book of Mormon we have on a stand and Mom was all over that. The lady is scheduled to meet with the Elders on Friday. Then Mom went out to the car which we park in a parking garage. They are doing some construction and a traffic guard saw her name tag and asked if she was an Elder. She explained that she was on a mission and he told her he was an inactive member and wanted to come back to church. Mom was all over that too.

We haven't found the ward boundries to determine which Elders will be teaching him. WE will help get him reactivated and married (he is living with his girlfriend and baby girl and knows she has to have Heavenly Father in his life). Will keep you updated.

I wish I had enough time to tell you about the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center). That was fun, especially at the missionary ticket price. The Samoan in the pictures started a fire on a hibiscus limb with a flat stick made out of hibicus in five minutes( and that was while he was fooling around ) and it had just stopped raining. Would tell you more, but I am tired from being out so late last night.

Love Ya'll,DAD

A Tough Way to Meet the Missionaries

2009-08-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

This is an e-mail from mom and dad in the mission field. What a blessing to be a part of sending them:

Wanted to let everyone know about our frightening experience yesterday.

At lunch time we were turning around at a park close to our apartment. As we were pulling out, there was a high hedge and we were both looking left to see if we could pull out. We heard a big crash and thud. I screamed as I looked up to see a person on our windshield and a bike on our hood. A young Korean exchange student was riding down the sidewalk on a hill hurrying to class. Because of the hedge we never saw him and he never saw us. He must have been going pretty fast when he slammed into us. I thought he was dead. My heart was pounding. After he was flung onto the ground he got up. I got out of the car to see if we needed to call an ambulance.

He said he was alright but I could tell he was in pain. He wouldn't let us call an ambulance or take to to the hospital. Our mint condition car got several dents and paint from his bike. A man in the park came over and told us we should call the police and file a report to get our car fixed. It was obvious the young man would not be riding his bike because it was too damaged and he kept grabbing his legs. When the man told us he witnessed the whole thing and it wasn't our fault because in Hawaii it is against the law to ride a bike on the sidewalk and against traffic which he was doing both the Korean kid got tears in his eyes. He said he didn't want to get sent back to Korea because he is just an exchange student and if he caused any trouble he would be sent home. I told him if the police told us it would get him in trouble we wouldn't file the report. When the police got there the first thing he said is he would have to issue him a citation for not having his bike registered. Hyngjun (his name) didn't know his bike needed to be registered.

We could see the guy was upset (probably because of the pain, his ruined bike and it was apparent he was very afraid of being sent home). We told the police we weren't going to have him report anything and the kid was very happy and humble (bowing saying he was sorry). A guy who works at the park told us he just picked up a bike off the street to fix for his daughter. When he brought the old bike out of the shop, it was the same brand as the Koreans bike. Neither one of them was rideable. Because he can't miss classes or be tardy without being sent home, Dad told him we would drive him to class and Dad would come back and fix the bike. It took Dad and the nice man at the park several hours to make one bike out of the two. They finished about an hour before he called us when he was finished with all his schooling for the day. The back brakes didn't even work so we aren't sure if he just didn't see us or couldn't stop. When we picked him up, he was very happy to have a bike even though it was pink and blue. Dad called his school today and explained why he had missed the one class.

While we were taking him to his school (about 3 miles from the accident) I asked him what religion he was. He said he didn't have any beliefs. His Mom is Buddist and his father doesn't believe in any kind of God. He has a wonderful spirit and we felt we should stay in touch. When I invited him to dinner next week, he said "no, I need to cook dinner for you". Dad reminded him today to get his bike registered and he is coming to dinner on Tues. Hopefully, he will want to learn about the Gospel and if not he is a nice person to be friends with. What a way to get a contact!!!

...

We love you all and miss you! Give our sweet grandchildren hugs and tell them they are from us.

Love Mom and Dad

The Best Laid Plans

2009-08-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago our Stake President, President Watson, had us announce in sacrament meeting that our branch was to meet in Thomasville for church today. Most people, including me, speculated he was going to announce that Cairo and Thomasville were going to become part of the Tallahassee, Florida Stake again. Some also speculated that the Cairo Branch might be combined with the Thomasville Ward. A third specualtion was that Cairo would no longer be a part of the Macon Georgia Mission and, instead, become part of the Tallahassee Florida Mission.

The last speculation was interesting given a conversation I had with dad last week about a couple he and mom met in the MTC. Apparently, mom and dad met a missionary couple in the MTC who had been called to serve as the office couple for the Tallahassee Florida Mission. Dad asked me to look them up some time.

Now for the Best Laid Plans
Church in Thomasville started at 9:00 a.m. I planned on leaving our house by 8:20 and arriving in Thomasville by 8:45. I thought it would be nice to visit with some of our friends before casually strolling into priesthood 5 or 10 minutes early. But that didn't happen. We didn't leave the house until 8:35. On our way to Thomasville we stopped by to pick up three kids in our branch. The kids' mom recently had surgery on her brain to remove a cancerous growth. Her situation is very serious and she is only in her late 20's. The kids were still in their pajamas but Aim could tell they wanted to go to church. We had to leave to get church on time but on the way there I asked Aim to call their dad and tell them I would come back and pick them up.

On the way to church we got a phone call from a family in our branch telling us they had hit a pothole and punctured two tires. I thought to myself "If we had been on my scheduled time we would have been in church when the phone call came and missed the call." We picked them up on our way to church.

After dropping off both families at church I headed back to pick up the three kids. On the way I got a phone call from the Thomasville Bishop asking me to pick up some extra sacrament trays. We needed the extra trays because of the two units meeting together. I thought to myself "That must be why I was supposed to go back and pick up the three kids." After picking up the kids I drove to the Cairo church building to get the extra sacrament trays.

When I came out of the building there was a car parked in front of the church with Idaho license plates. I asked the couple in the car if I could help them. I recognized their missionary tags and asked them if they were from the Tallahassee or Macon mission. They replied "Tallahassee." I asked them if they were new to the Tallahassee mission. They said yes, they had just arrived on Thursday. Then I said "Then you must know my parents." They gave me a strange look. I said my parents had just left the MTC to go to Honolulu. "You know. Elder and Sister Robbins." They were surprised and now probably think the Robbins have the biggest family in the world.

As it turns out, they didn't know the Cairo Branch was meeting in Thomasville this Sunday. The were about to give up and drive back to Tallahassee when they saw me and the three kids pull up. Instead, they followed me to Thomasville. I thought to myself, "That must be why I had to go back for the kids and then pick up the trays from the Cairo church building."

Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Coon have been assigned to our branch.

So What Happened in the Sacrament Meeting?
The answer to the above question is Thomasville and Cairo are now part of the Tallahassee Stake and Tallahassee Mission. They are still separate units.

An E-mail From Rob

2009-07-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

Travis,
Just thought I would let you know about mom's and dad's setting apart, which was in our living room. I felt the spirit strongly during the setting apart. Dad was blessed that he would be able to bear his testimony to many people and that he would be able to do so with much clarity. I wish I had been given a blessing like that before I set out to southeast Texas. Mom's blessing stated that mom and dad would draw closer to each other than ever before in their lives. If no other blessing was given to her besides that one, it would still be a powerful blessing from Heavenly Father. There were many other blessings given to both of them (my right shoulder is still sore from the length of time I had to have it raised), but those stood out to me.

Love,
Robby

The Pondry of the Day

2009-07-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

My pondry of the day comes from a decision my wife and I made in December, 2006. I had been working as an attorney for six years when I was presented with another business opportunity. The new opportunity made little intellectual sense to most of our friends and some of our family. It would require that I leave the legal field completely. Without getting into too much detail, we talked about it for months, studied it out over and over in our minds, prayed about it and decided to take the road less traveled. Now (three years later) the decision has really paid off for us. To be sure, it was a bigger than normal risk we had to take. In fact, some might say it was a bit of a gamble.

This set of events has caused me to ponder a lot on where the Lord stands on risk taking. We know that the Lord is opposed to gambling. The prophets have been uneqivocal on that. The idea of selling my house, taking all of the proceeds and betting them on one roll of the roulette wheel is clearly prohibited. On the other hand, investing in an IRA or 401k or other "safe" retirement is encouraged by many in the Church. So what happens when you face a situation that falls somewhere betwen Vegas and an IRA?

I think the Lord himself weighed in on risk taking when he was here on the earth. In Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Talents), the Lord gives three different men certain amounts of money. Two of the men increased the amount of money the Lord had given them (presumably taking a risk of losing it in the process) while the third man took the safe route.

By burying the money he had protected it and was able to guarantee back to the Lord 100% of the money the Lord had given him. But that was not what the Lord expected. It appears to me that the Lord expected the man to take at least a little risk with what he had been given. The Lord himself used the analogy of money and the Lord would not have used this analogy if he had not agreed with the financial principle being taught.

I only wish I knew how the Lord would have responded had the first two men lost some of the talents the Lord had given them. I suspect he would have still appreciated their efforts, but probably would have given them instructions on what would have been a wiser investment.

The way he does that now is through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. My wife and I had little or no doubt that our road less traveled would work out because we felt that we had been prompted to go in that direction from the Holy Ghost. Without that, we would never have left the law and changed directions.

Just thought I'd throw that out there for anyone currently going through what we went through several years ago.

I Love the Mormon Channel

2009-07-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

If you have not had a chance to listen to the Mormon Channel check it out at http://radio.lds.org/eng/. It has all kinds of stories, interviews, obscure (as in relatively unknown) conference talks and music 24/7.

I love the Mormon Channel.

Congratulations Mom and Dad!

2009-06-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Mom and dad have been called to serve in the Honolulu Hawaii mission as employment specialists. Congratulations on the mission call!

We Survived Scout Camp

2009-06-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Check out these pictures from Camp Woodruff in North Georgia. Glad to be home, but we had fun. Stephen and Killian ended up rescuing a kid who had fallen into the river just before the rapids.Lunchtime. Feeding 1300 people didn't take as long as I would have thought.
Stephen Mountain Boarding. After a couple of crashes he seemed to get it mastered.
Basketry Merit Badge. Stephen made a stool for Jacob, a salad bowl for Caroline and a cup for Kappy.

More Scout Camp Pictures

2009-06-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

The last night of camp we had a bonfire in the ampitheater. Stephen is wearing his Indiana Jones hat. The teepee of logs behind him became the bonfire.
The archery range.

Sitting on our tail ends doing a good turn daily. Actually, on that hike we took a wrong turn and ended up hiking an unnecessary two or three miles up the mountain. I was worn out. I guess that's why the motto is not "Do A Wrong Turn Daily."

Stephen is becoming a herper like his uncle Robby. He loves snakes and while the other boys were getting the watersports merit badge, Stephen chose reptiles and amphibians.

The first merit badge day of camp some of the younger scouts wanted to squeeze in another short merit badge class in the afternoon. This was basketry. It was a lot harder than it looked.

They did it. Stephen made a stool and two different sized baskets. He gave them to his brother and sisters when he got home.

Young Women's Camp

2009-06-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Next week is Young Women's Camp. This year the camp is about 3 1/2 hours away near Macon, Georgia. For those who don't know it, Macon is above the "gnat line" in Georgia. I was a Priesthood chaperone at the same camp for a day last year. The camp is located on a big lake and has a dozen or so small out building to sleep in. Some of the buildings have electricity (the adults get those) but most don't.

The YCL's have to arrive by 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday to get ready for their Guinea Pigs on Wednesday. Since Aim is the Young Women's President she is taking the girls up and staying until Friday. I am driving the canoes up Tuesday morning.

Good luck Albany, Georgia Stake Young Women's leaders. You'll need it.

Sister Beck, Sister Cook and Elder Posey

2009-05-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days that I will likely never forget. The General Relief Society President, Sister Beck, the 1st Counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency, Sister Cook, and our Area Seventy, Elder Posey, put together a Women's Conference in the Tifton, Georgia chapel. One of the perks to being a Branch President is that I often get invited to gatherings like that even though I am not a sister. I was an usher.

The Meeting Begins
Our leadership meeting was supposed to begin at 10:00 a.m. The speakers were coming from Augusta where they had attended a similar meeting the night before. By 10:05 the speakers had still not arrived and the building started to get a little noisy with anxious attendees eagerly awaiting the speakers' arrival. Kind of like being in a church building with two wards that meet at back to back times in the chapel. The overlap always seems to get a little noisy.

Our Stake President, President Watson, stood up and asked the congregation to sit quietly while we waited. About 5 minutes later the noise was again starting to crescendo when the three speakers walked in. Immediately, silence fell over the room and the entire congregation arose. It is difficult to describe, but at the moment they entered the room it was filled with the Spirit and it seemed as if concourses of angels had just come into the room with them. At least that is how it felt to me. That feeling stayed with me throughout the meeting.

Sister Beck's Theme
The main theme I took away from Sister Beck is that we are a faith based business and that we are in the business of saving souls. She spoke about serving others and getting away from thinking of ourselves first. She spoke of raising our children with an eye always on the temple. She talked about the power of being united in our visiting teaching efforts and reclaiming lost souls. She defended a talk she gave in General Conference titled "Mothers Who Know" after an antagonistic sister chided the contents of the talk as unrealistic given how busy women are today. She said homemaking is just that home making. It is not easy to make a home. A good home that is like the temple won't just fall into your lap. It takes hard work and dedication. I really enjoyed her talk.

Sister Cook's Theme
Sister Cook's theme was centered around the new Value lesson of "Virtue" in the Young Women's Personal Progress book. She had several mothers and daughters come to the podium to talk about how much they loved and appreciated each other. She wanted us to see the value in passing down righteous values to generations of righteous daughters.

Elder Posey's Theme
Elder Posey didn't have much time to speak but his theme was on "Rescuing" our lost brothers and sisters. He said that it one of the main things hea has taken away from his meeting with President Monson.

What a great meeting. I find that the principles taught in most of these types of meetings are the same as those we can find in previous talks given by our Church leaders. The thing that was of most value to me was the Spirit I felt while the messages were delivered and the thoughts that came into my mind as they were delivered.

North America Southeast Day of Service

2009-04-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, my son Stephen and I participated in the North America Southeast Area Day of Service organized by the Church. Our Branch was assigned to go to Bainbridge, Georgia to work on several rather large cleanup projects. When we arrived at the Bainbridge chapel I saw that there were a number of orange roadcrew looking vests and some of those grabbing poles you use to pick up trash. I walked over to the Branch President and asked him in my best Kip voice "is there some kind of vest that I can wear or something?" It wasn't a gold bracelet, but as soon as I put my vest on I certainly felt official.

The "Crackhouse"
Along with me and Stephen, there were four young women, another young man and their parents in our group. Our first project was to clean up the yard around a "crackhouse." I wish I could say it only looked like a "crackhouse," but this was indeed a "crackhouse." The house was vacant. The ground around the house was littered with what must have been 3,000 beer bottles, smoking and drug paraphernalia, dirty diapers thrown into trees (possibly for decorative purposes) and other signs of certain acts of violations of the law of chastity. I'll let the adults figure the last one out.

I knew the location was dangerous when they assigned a deputy sheriff to take us to the house; and then again when he decided to stay and stand guard until the cleanup was complete. But the kids and parents worked hard and we were able to fill up around 28 large, black garbage bags in just about an hour. While we were working on the cleanup several black guys walked over to a nearby street corner and stared at us as we cleaned. One of them held a leash attached to a pitbull. I don’t know if he meant to be menacing, but the pitbull certainly got my attention.

I thought how strange it must look to them to have 15 or 20 white folks come into a predominantly black neighborhood to clean up a "crackhouse." I mean, what are those crazy white folks thinking? I also thought, "I hope the guy holding onto that leash has a good grip."

Then the thought crossed my mind that we might actually be offending them by coming into their neighborhood to clean up. I mean, what an insult it would have been to me if someone came into my home and just started doing my laundry or washing my dishes. Well, maybe not. But you get my meaning.

Before leaving the church we had been given a dozen or so fliers to pass out around the city to encourage people to keep Bainbridge clean. I walked over to the van, pulled out the fliers and started walking toward the three onlookers. As I walked toward one of them his face began to look puzzled. I walked up to the guy holding the leash and asked if he wouldn’t mind passing out the fliers to his neighbors. The puzzled look I had seen on his face earlier was replaced with a softer look as he responded, "Sure. We'll pass them out." During the next half hour as we cleaned, I watched them go from door to door passing out the fliers. In fact, I am convinced that if we had more official orange vests they would have joined us in the cleanup effort.

After we finished cleaning the “crackhouse” we went to our next project. But this post is getting too long so check out the post following this one if you want to read about it. Here’s a little teaser. It involved a boat landing, emu eggs and lots of mosquitos.

Why Do Mormons Build Temples?

2009-03-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this video titled Mormon Messages: Why Mormons Build Temples. The video was produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is posted on the home page of lds.org.

The question I have is: why don't other Christian churches build temples? I think the simple answer is because most other Christian churches don't really know why a temple would be any different than a regular church building. This video answers that question.

An Epiphany about Music

2009-03-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

"Explicit lyrics linked to sex among teens: scientists." Now that I’m 37 and have a family of my own, my first instinct when I read an article like this is, “Well, duh.” File that article under things I didn’t need a scientist to have to prove. But that hasn’t always been the case.

When I was a teenager back in the late 1980’s my friends and I loved to listen to hard rock. Some of our favorite groups were Guns N Roses and AC/DC. For a little light listening we would throw in Van Halen and ZZ Top. When my parents were home I would listen to the Top 40 songs like “Jump” but when they were gone, out came the hard stuff. (This is not bragging. In fact, I am now embarrassed that my character wasn’t strong enough to reject that trash in the first place.)

Justification
I justified listening to these bands by saying "I don't really listen to the words, just the music. Besides, mom and dad, even if I did listen to the words I don't actually believe what they’re saying." There was nothing that woke me up in the morning faster, nothing that got my adrenaline pumping before playing sports and nothing that made me feel like I fit in with my friends more than hard rock. On the way to early morning seminary (I usually rode with my friends) we would blast it until we were pulling into the church parking lot. When we left seminary for school the Metal would crank up just as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot.

The Beginning of an Epiphany
I remember one morning when one of my friends showed up late to seminary and forgot to turn down the Metal as he parked his car. Right in the middle of the prayer I heard the lyrics (you know, the ones I never listened to) “Running with the Devil.” Some of the kids thought it was funny, but I didn’t. I remember seeing the look on the teacher’s face. A teacher I respected. She was upset. Not mad upset. Disappointed upset. I remember wondering whether I had ever done anything to cause that look to come across her face. I hoped not.

The Epiphany is Complete
Some time after this episode in seminary a wise Bishop came into our Priest’s Quorum meeting and announced that we were going to be having a Fireside on music. He wanted to make sure all of the Priests, Teachers and Deacons would be at the meeting. I remember thinking, “I’m not going to start listening to MoTab no matter how great he tells me it is. I know what I like and that isn’t going to change.” Great attitude!

The night of the Fireside came and we all filed into the Relief Society room for it to begin and sat down. While I was sitting there (parents on one side of me and friends on the other) I noticed several CD’s on the table in the front of the room. AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N Roses. No MoTab. A fear came over me. I wondered if the Bishop was going to hold up the CD’s, tell our parents that we were listening to Hard Rock and then play some of the CD’s for my parents to hear. Or, even worse, destroy the CD’s right in front of us. I thought to myself, “what a waste of a good CD.”

But neither of these happened. Instead, after starting the meeting one of our youth leaders stood up and gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and how the Holy Ghost makes us feel. During his talk I felt the Spirit, but wondered whether he had gotten the memo that this Fireside was on music. After his talk, the next speaker stood up and said he would like to demonstrate something to us. He put a CD into the CD player and turned it on.

I immediately recognized the song as AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.” The song starts out with about 30 seconds of slow, soothing guitar before the lyrics begin. But something was different about this version. There were no lyrics after 30 seconds. Instead, the speaker had removed the lyrics from the song. As I sat there and listened to the five minute song I could feel a distinct change in the room. The warm, comforting feeling of the Holy Ghost was leaving and a new spirit starting to take its place; a feeling of aggression and anger. Aggression and anger brought on by the music, not the lyrics. Without any lyrics at all, AC/DC was able to completely drive the Holy Ghost out of the room.

This was a huge wake-up call for me. During that five minute period the blinds were taken off my eyes and I could see the danger in telling my parents “I just listen for the music, not the lyrics.” I could see that both could be used to drive the Spirit away. That is a lesson I have never forgotten.

Temple Trip Tomorrow

2009-02-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am taking a group of four youth (two young women and two young men) to the temple in Atlanta tomorrow. We don't have a very large group of YW/YM but the kids we do have are very faithful. It will be Stephen's first temple trip. He is very excited.

If it were just a Melchizedek Priesthood trip we could make the trip from Cairo to Atlanta in less than four hours. With the youth it will probably take about five and a half. Something about having to go to the bathroom and eating. Wish us luck!

Tornados in Cairo

2009-02-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

At least one tornado (and probably several) touched down in Cairo last night just south of where the LDS church meeting house is located on SR 93. I received an e-mail around 3:00 a.m. from our Stake President asking me whether anyone was hurt. Fortunately, there were no injuries; only property damage.

I found out where the tornado hit and drove down to the area this morning. Dozens of huge trees were uprooted and slammed down on houses and buildings. A trucker had apparently parked on the side of the road waiting for the storm to pass when a huge oak tree came crashing through the middle of the refrigerated unit he was towing. Thank goodness it didn’t hit the cab. The unit was completely destroyed. It looked brand new too.

Prepare them Now!

2009-02-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

On the ride home from elementary school several years ago my then seven year old son, Stephen, asked my wife: “Mom, what is sex?” There is always a long, uncomfortable pause that comes when a question like that comes up for the first time. I could just picture our two younger children (four year old Jacob and two year old Caroline) along with Stephen as they sat with rapt attention awaiting her response. Well, Jacob and Stephen anyway.

She asked Stephen what had brought up the subject. He said he had heard the word used by some of the older kids at school. He said he had asked one of the kids in his class what the word meant but the kid replied, “That is a word I am only allowed to talk to my parents about. You better ask your parents.” Good kid! Better parenting!

Voice of Forewarning
When she told me about their conversation I was a little saddened. One, because it meant my little boy was growing up. And two, because I have always prided myself on being the voice of forewarning for my kids. Before we moved Stephen to a new school during first grade I told him it might be scary at first but that he would warm up to it. Before he got up to bat in his first baseball game I told him he would probably have butterflies but so does everyone else. Before he jumped off the side of the swimming pool for the first time I told him I would be there to catch him and that he didn’t need to be afraid.

But this time I was playing catch up. A couple of Saturday morning breakfasts at Hardees discussing the birds and bees over sausage biscuits and cinnamon buns seems to have done the trick. Stephen's question strengthened my resolve to be the voice of forewarning and taught me something.

What I Learned
No more catch up. What happens when my kids get into high school and I haven’t prepared them for situations they are almost certain to face? Drugs, sex, pornography, drinking, etc. Do I want the next uncomfortable question to be “Dad, what do I do now that my girlfriend is pregnant?”

My wife and I constantly tell Stephen that the closer he gets to teenagehood the more he will begin to think he knows more than we do. We are preparing him now for the thoughts and feelings we know he will experience. We were there. We went through it. What better time to get him ready for it than now.

In the end, he will have to face a number of difficult circumstances in middle and high school without us being there. It is his agency. He will be the one making the decisions. But it is our job to arm him with as many of the answers as we can now.

Father/Daughter Dance

2009-02-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the long awaited Father/Daughter Dance in Bainbridge, Georgia. I say long awaited because my six year old daughter, Caroline, has been reminding me of it every day for the past two weeks. She picked out her dress several days ago and then brought it into my room and asked me "Daddy, what color is this dress?" She loves to ask me color questions because I'm color blind and she gets to listen to me run through four or five colors before getting the right one. I usually end up playing her game of "guess the color" even when I actually know what the color is.

Should be fun!

Rationalizing a Car Payment

2008-11-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago someone backed into my car, denting the driver side door and damaging the handle. Now I can’t open the door from the outside. I just love having to go around to the other side of the car, reaching through and opening my door from the inside. The adjuster came out, looked the car over and wrote me a check for $2,000.00. Now I’m stuck in a dilemma.

The Dilemma
The car is ten years old, has almost 200k miles on it and has been hit at least three times. The number of wrecks it has been in might be more, but my wife refuses to own up to some suspicious dents that have just shown up over the years. It is either her, or my 12 year old son taking it out for some joy rides.

I am now faced with needing (small “n”; not like needing air or water) to buy another car. If I scrape together all of our extra funds I can come up with about $5000.00. I can either buy an older car without a warranty outright, or I can use the $5000.00 as a down payment and finance another $8,000 and get a slightly used car with a warranty and fewer miles. But I would a car payment.

The Resolution
The resolution to this dilemma should be easy. It should go something like this: (1) we have been counseled by prophets of God to get out of debt (see Provident Living); (2) there are exceptions to this counsel, but a car payment is not one of them; (3) adding a car payment would be the opposite of getting out of debt; (4) do not add a car payment. Buy a used car outright or keep my car and try to fix the door myself; (5) if the kind, gentle counsel of the prophets is not good enough, Dave Ramsey would call the decision to have a car payment STUPID. Don’t do it.

The Rationalization
Despite knowing full well what I SHOULD do, I still have some pretty good rationalizations for getting a newer and nicer car. Rationalization No. 1 – What happens when my wife drives the car? I need a car that won’t break down on my wife leaving her and my kids stranded in the middle of nowhere. My wife, by the way, is opposed to a car payment. Rationalization No. 2 – I am an attorney by trade and I need to give off the appearance of prosperity to my clients. Rationalization No. 3 – A more expensive car will likely last longer and, therefore, actually cost me less over the long haul. The assumption is that an older, cheaper car will need to be replaced again in a couple of years.

So you can see that I have put some serious consideration into my rationalizations. In fact, I bet you even agree with some of them. But in the end, I know that the prophets are right and I WILL NOT take on a car payment. I just need to repeat that last sentence several hundred times until my resolve is complete.

Stephen is a Deacon

2008-10-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

What a Sunday! Stephen was dressed in his suit (with white tennis shoes because his church shoes were missing) when I walked into the chapel and saw him sitting on the stand where we meet for priesthood. The moment is a little too emotional to describe. After opening exercises we split up and Stephen and his cousin, Tyler, went to the other end of the building with Brother Doug for Stephen's first official Young Mens class.

This Sunday, as with many Sundays, I was so busy during the first two hours that I didn't really get a chance to see him again until Sacrament. During Sacrament my brother-in-law, Jason Beyer, and good friend, Dan Copelin, joined me in performing the ordinance of conferring the Aaronic Priesthood on Stephen. The Spirit was really strong. Stephen then joined his cousin Tyler on the bench and prepared to pass the Sacrament. After church Stephen told my wife, Amy, that he felt so comfortable and relaxed with our hands laid on his head that he just about fell asleep. My little boy is growing up.

My wife, Amy, also got a new calling this Sunday. She is now the Young Women's President. Good luck with all that. I know she will do a good job. The young women already love her and she loves them. There goes our Wednesday nights together. Looks like her next trip to Young Women's camp will be in a more official capacity.

General Conference, October 2008

2008-10-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Our family watched both sessions of General Conference today. The first session we watched on our computer via byu.tv. We didn't have any problems getting the first session in loud and clear. However, our internet connection stalled about 15 minutes before the second session started so we drove over to my parents-in-law's to watch the second session on their satellite.

I was particularly impressed with how calm and reassuring the speakers were given the economic difficulties the U.S. (and, therefore, the world) is currently facing. The speakers had neither panic nor alarm in their voices as they acknowledged the difficulties, but reiterated that if we are prepared we should not worry. The Lord's work will continue to move forward and has already shown the ability to prosper in times of both economic difficulty and prosperity.

I can't help but think the last person I would want to give me a PPI is President Packer and the first person is President Eyring.