Government Motors

In the 1930s Will Rogers humorously suggested: “There’s a simple solution to this traffic problem. We’ll have business build the roads and government build the cars.”

We’re there with the cars:

With Sale of Its Good Assets, G.M. Tries for a Fresh Start

We’ve been privatizing road building for some time now:

Private Roads, Public Costs

Any way you look at it things in transportation are changing.

“Yeah, but his smile is a lot bigger than yours”

We took the young men backpacking around Escalante this month. We had a great time exploring around Death Hallow, Sand Creek, and of course lower and upper Calf Creek falls. At the upper falls we were jumping off a short cliff into the quite cold water when a group of young couples from Provo showed up. They all jumped off too except for one of the guys; he just wouldn’t do it. The youngest scout in our group, who had just barely turned 12, started jawing this guy for not getting in. The spectator responded that he didn’t want to end up shivering like the scouts were. To this his friend replied: “yeah he’s shivering, but his smile is a lot bigger than yours”.

Life can’t really be lived as a spectator can it?

On the same trip we listened to a talk by Scott Simmons titled: “You only live once, but if you live right once is enough”. I highly recommend it. That’s a mantra to live by.

Finding the Temple

Our combined youth activity this month, planned by the beehives, was find your way to the temple. We first had to try and get there by rolling a die at each intersection to determine our course. After trying that for awhile we were given a map to follow. We then visited the temple grounds and had some leaders share thoughts on the temple and then we had some time to reflect and write goals for getting to the temple. It was a really good activity.  It was also a perfect evening, unfortunately I didn’t have a decent camera in tow.

At Stake Conference last week there was a lot of focus on the temple as well; mostly examples of how temple attendance has helped people in various situations. What a great time to live with temples being built like never before.

An Entrepreneur Endorses the Invisible Hand

When Paul Graham says

“The first essay of his that I read was so electrifying that I remember exactly where I was at the time. It was High Technology Innovation: Free Markets or Government Subsidies?“

well I have to pay attention. I wasn’t disappointed and I don’t think you will be either.  One of the most insightful and best laid out speeches I’ve read; especially on a political topic, even if it is from 1993.

An Apostle’s Easter Thoughts on Christ

“None Were with Him”

You Are What You Think

Last weekend I attended Stake Youth Conference at Aspen Grove. To be honest I wasn’t too excited to go. It was at the end of one of the longest weeks we’ve ever had. I had been gone to Salt Lake helping with our annual sales training event for several long days while Holli was at home dealing with the flu. However it turned out to be a really great experience.

Friday night was a fireside with Max Hall followed by a two Stake combined dance. Then on Saturday there was a 3 hour morning workshop on “I will go”, “I will do”, and “I will be”, followed by cross country skiing and a closing testimony meeting in the afternoon. For the workshop there were 3 different sessions. One was a returned missionary panel that turned out to be the high point for me (followed very closely by the Chambers excellent talks). They had 6 or 7 recently returned missionaries from our Stake, including one from our ward who had only been home from Russia for a week, and one guy who had been back for 10 years. Listening to their experiences, thoughts, lessons learned, and struggles to find the right English words brought back all of my mission feelings. It was truly the most spiritually uplifting experience I’ve had in a long time. I sat listening with my notebook open recording one thought and insight after another; just like in the old mission conferences.

Well the one missionary who had been home for 10 years shared three points with the youth, one of which was that just like physically we are what we eat, we actually become what we think. This is such a great concept that is so important to understand. Especially considering the constant stream of media and information that is found in our modern world. This is one of the great blessing of serving a mission; the opportunity to study and ponder every morning and then go out and apply what’s learned through teaching and serving others (or else spending many long hours walking which offers more time for reflection).  I thought about this a lot and decided to make it the focus of my lesson for the priests yesterday. Below you will find my notes for the lesson, complete with a pretty tough challenge at the end.

On a side note I think the back side of Timp offers the most spectacular mountain views in all of Utah, too bad I didn’t have my camera because the weather and light made for a perfect day.

Stake Youth Conference – You Are What You Think

What do missionaries think about?

“Neither take ye thought beforehand ^awhat ye shall say; but ^btreasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be ^cgiven you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” – D&C 84:85

A few examples:

“Behold, my ^asoul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my ^bheart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.” – 2 Ne 4:16

“Never did any passage of ^ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed ^bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects ^cunderstood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.”  – JS History 1:12

“On the third of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room ^apondering over the scriptures;” D&C 138:1

What do you think about when you have nothing else to think about?

It was during President Eyring’s study of physics at the University of Utah and his father was explaining a complex mathematical problem when he stopped and said, “Hal we did the same kind of problem as this a week ago and you’re no better now than you were then at this.  Isn’t this what you think about when you don’t have anything else to think about?”  When President Eyring said “no,” a very solemn moment followed.  His father then said, “Well then, Hal, you’d better get out because you’ll be competing with people where this is their life and they’ll be as bright as you are.  You better go find something that you think about when you don’t have to think about it, when it’s just a joy to you.” – President Eyring

Why treasure up in your minds?

“Seek not to ^adeclare my word, but first seek to ^bobtain my ^cword, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my ^dSpirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the ^econvincing of men.” – D&C 11:21

You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t learn without study & effort.

“You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something;” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is true intelligence for a man
to take a subject that is
mysterious and great in itself,
and to unfold and simplify it so
that a child can understand it.”
– PRESIDENT JOHN TAYLOR
THE GOSPEL KINGDOM, SEL. G. HOMER DURHAM (1943), 270 – Found in Preach My Gospel

How to do it?

“But your mind has been on the things of the ^aearth more than on the things of me, your Maker, and the ministry whereunto you have been called; and you have not given heed unto my ^bSpirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded.  Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ^aponder upon the things which you have received.” – D&C 30:2-3

1) Study & ponder scriptures each morning

2) Mark scriptures using multiple color system – take time

3) Think about scriptures during breaks throughout each day

4) Take quiet time to reflect each night

5) Tune out the world (tv, video games, Internet, ipods, cell phones, radio) during quiet times

What do you want to be?

“My earnest hope for each of you young men is that you will not simply go on a mission—but that you will become missionaries long before you submit your mission papers, long before you receive a call to serve, long before you are set apart by your stake president, and long before you enter the MTC.” – Elder Bednar – Becoming a Missionary

Solitude of the Savior

“And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to ^apray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” – Matt 14:23
Challenge – 1 Week

1 hour study/ponder/reflect/journal time each day (no distractions)
No Ipods
Report on (verbal or written)  What Are You Thinking

Tag Crowd

Last week I submitted a paper for a traffic conference. This one required a key word list be included. So this gave me an excuse to try out a tag cloud generator. I ended up using TagCrowd and it worked great.

Sports Guy’s Golden Retriever

Yes this choked me up when I read it in my office.

One final toss for The Dooze

Where’s Raul?

For our annual white elephant Christmas present exchange at work Raul created a life size poster himself.  The thing has been showing up all over the office ever since.

It’s been in several offices including mine, conferences rooms, and my personal favorite was in the hallway just behind the door so when you opened the door you were nose to nose with Raul.  Yesterday he showed up in a more permanent location, having been removed from his cardboard stand he is now plastered to the restroom wall.  Yes I was shocked and I expect to be every time I walk in for some time to come.

How far was that?

We just finished our company “Step Fitness Challenge”. The individual goal was to average 10,000 steps a day for 50 days, our department goal was to walk to Brazil or something like that which was 8,000 average daily steps. Every department met its goal and 29 individuals made it too.

At 522,574 total steps I was one of the lowest of those 29. One person had 955,674! Some went precisley off of the pedometer, I went more for a fitness value approach. So yeah I may have only taken 3,000 actual steps during that hour of basketball, but the fitness value was worth way more than walking for an hour or walking 3,000 steps. I ended up reling on the online step conversion charts quite a bit.

It was a lot of fun and provided that little extra push to make sure I got my exercise in each week.

Somewhere along the way our vocabulary changed too.  How far is it to walk J to school? 1,100 steps round trip. To the bathroom from my office? Right on 100 round trip. The breakroom is at least 200 steps round trip, depending of course on how long you pace pensively in front of the never changing array of frozen entrees.