Revelation from my Father

Sometime in about 1975 my mother was very concerned for my brother Milt and I and while thinking about us received this revelation from my father who past away in 1970. I wrote a portion of this up once and bound it as a Christmas gift in 1985 to my siblings. I think those hard copies of long since found there way into a box and put up on a closet shelf. I came across the original and a copy of the book this morning while cleaning my own bedroom (under the bed) and decided I had to type it up in its entirety before I put it back (even though the house awaits Christmas light decorating).

Introduction:

My dearest sons, whom I love with all my heart, who are very special and I know you want to do what is right - your father loves you also and is watching over you. He has a message for you and he is going to give that message to you through me, your mother.

The world is full, I mean full of filth, you can't turn around without seeing it on all sides of you. Satan (our brother) and his followers are at work, they are also our brothers and sisters who would have preferred not to have their free agency. They were afraid they would fail in this second estate here on earth. They wanted to be made to work out their salvation. They, as you know, were cast out. Now my sons, we chose to use our free agency, what a frightening opportunity, but what a blessing. We can make of ourselves what we will, and with the Holy Ghost to help us, we can accomplish great things, your wildest imagination can not comprehend the things your Father in Heaven has in store for us if we are faithful. Rich? You can't imagine how rich you will be. Here, we of course don't have money but we have all the beautiful special things that money on earth can buy. But boys, that is junk; the finest house you have ever seen is nothing compared to what I have seen here, and what we enjoy is beyond your imagination.

Now I understand you boys, it is hard sometimes to to push out the thoughts you shouldn't be thinking out of your minds, it was for me, sometimes awfully hard. My friends at times weren't the best, and we got into conversations that would have been a lot better never mentioned, which only made it worse. Satan has a way of twisting the truth, and what should be beautiful and pure into something disgusting, filthy and lustful. Since this earth is ruled by Satan, he has more power to lead more people his way, then does our Father in Heaven. How many times did our Father cleanse the earth because he couldn't stand the corruption of His children any longer. This is going to happen again in the near future. You will live to see this day, and what a terrible day it will be. Only the few who are pure in heart will remain. I want you boys to be in that group.

Now let me tell you what you must do, and I will help you; I promise you this, this was one of the reasons Father took me because he had given us some very special children and He knew would need extra help. He knew I would give my life for you, if it would mean your eternal salvation. He gave me this privilege, and boys it is a privilege. I am with you always, sometimes I have been saddened by some of the things you have said and done. But being human myself, I have understood and forgiven you.

First boys be careful who you associate with. Be sure they are boys who will lift you up and not tear you down. Sometimes there can be boys who appear on the outside to be good boys, but are not as good as they should be. Never go along with them on conversations that would be against our standards, we have high standards, lift them up, you can be a tremendous help to them.

When we make mistakes they can cost us an awful lot, even out eternal lives. Be sure of what you are doing, never do anything without asking me and I will give you the go ahead signal, you will know in your heart by a good feeling, it it is not right I will give you a feeling where your mind doesn't register exactly, it will be kind of stupid, do you understand what I mean?

Read sections 88, 95:1-13, 76 (especially verse 25) and also 111 from the Doctrine and Covenants.

(Mother speaking - I don't know what is in these sections exactly. I tried to find my glasses so could read them but it seems I have misplaced them, as usual. But I am sure these sections will be a great help to you.)

The revelation then continued with some some advise to Milton, who at the time had a girl friend who was not a member of the church. After Milt left on his mission she joined the church and married and raised a family, she remained a close family friend)

Milton your sweet little girl friend is very nice, and needs a lot of help, Don't ever disillusion her by suggesting anything that would be contradictory to our standards. She looks to you more than you realize. Teach her the gospel, there are many things she does not fully understand. She looks to you and honors the priesthood you hold. Don't hesitate to pray with her each time you see her it at all possible. She will love you for it. Never, never be guilty of telling her things you have heard that would make her feel disappointed in you. She will love you for it. Her ears should only hear wonderful words that will make her realize what a very special person you are. I like her very much. I am grateful you used wisdom in choosing such a fine girl to associate with. If the opportunity arises and it would be fitting you could tell her this and she will understand and be glad.

Merritt you are a very special person also. I am happy your received your Patriarchal Blessing. It was a good blessing. I know what your life is going to be, what you will become, who your wife will be and your children. I have the opportunity to see them often and it makes my heart sweet with joy. This pertains to all your children. You have so many wonderful experiences ahead of you. I wish you could see as I can and you would be anxious for every tomorrow and making the very best of today. Work hard in school, don't try to just get by, because when you get here you will be sorry. Oh so sorry you didn't learn more as I have gone through this myself and know what I am saying.

Mother speaking - At this point the phone rang. I answered it and after the conversation I went back to write some more but it was gone from me. I re-read what I had written and it was as though I was reading it for the first time which was a testimony to me that this is really a message from your father. When I wrote this I never once hesitated, it would roll off my pen in a steady flow of words. I know now how it feels to receive revelation. If we would always be in tune we could receive revelation everyday concerning our every day life. Just think what a help that would be to us. Each one of us, me included need to repent. We all have a need of repentance. Let's not procrastinate. The time is too short and there is a lot we are missing by not being prepared for it.

That is the end of the revelation and comments from my mother. I am so grateful for parents who provided me with such care and love, who sacrificed their youth and time to provide me with such a wonderful family. My father passed away when I was ten years old but I have always felt close to him. I know he has been given the ability to look over me and protect me from danger. I have felt his presence in the temple and know that he is aware of single thing I do and am about. I know that his life is a test for me to see if I can be worthy to be his son and return and live with him and my mother again and to bring with me all of my family.

This is a very personal post and I plan to take it down after Christmas but any who would like to make a copy of it are welcome to.

Merritt

Tennis court photo

I was looking through some old photos and came upon this photo of my tennis court. I took this at around Thanksgiving since that is the time I put up Christmas lights on the house. Once on the ladder I saw this great view of the court and took this picture. This was about three years ago. Since then I have up the color coat on the gray stucco areas and resurfaced the court to replace the green hitting area with a tan color (out of bounds remainded red)

Emma was always game!

This past month has been an emotional one. Heather's mom Emma passed away. She was doing fine then started to have nose bleeds, which she thought was just a nuisance. She went to see the doctor about them and a procedure was done to check them but it did not work. The next week she started to have pain in her back. Within a few days the pain got so bad she went to the doctor and they admitted her. That was on a Saturday. On Tuesday they diagnosed her with an aggressive form of leukemia. After deciding she wanted to spend her last days at home instead of at a hospital she came home on Friday. Heather was already in the area when this was happening and was with her on Tuesday when they gave her the diagnosis. I drove out with the Lochlan (we swung by Provo and picked up Madison and Sloane) and arrived on Friday evening. We were able to see her and say our goodbyes before leaving on Sunday afternoon. That sure was hard to leave her knowing we would not see her again. She passed away 3 days later, only a week after her initial diagnosis. We drove back out again for the funeral service. It was a beautiful service with so many of her friends coming. She was a great lady, a clever lady, a loving lady, a fine example to all of us how to care for others. When ever she did anything, she did it well. I love her and the family she created.

She was game for a challenge. When ever she and Ted came to visit we always had to have an adventure of some type. Here she is with Ted and Heather and I rafting down the Rio Grand between Santa Fe and Taos. She had a great time that day. She was a gamer!

Messing around in Grooveshark to make a widget

3 EFY songs I like

Half Century Mark

Well I turned 50 on Friday. Odd, I don't feel any different. Turns out 50 is just a number and the old saying, "Your as old as you feel" must have some validity. I did hear a funny comment about old age the other day. I goes like this, "The only problem with old age is that it doesn't last!"

Here is a shot of me on our tennis court getting ready to hit a wicked forehand. I was playing with Lochlan so it must not have been too wicked! (thanks Sloane for taking the pic)

They reorganized our stake presidency today and I am glad to report I am still the Bishop of the best ward in the church (Cibola Ward). I greatly respect our new stake presidency and know they are the men the Lord would have lead our stake at this time. That was impressed upon me quite deeply when their names were presented.

Tonight I had the opportunity to participate in conferring the Melchezidek priesthood on two of the young men in our priest quorum. Great to see them both take this next step prior to them going off to college next week.

I have been reading several blogs by missionary couples and find them quite interesting. The couples I have been following are serving in Peru, Ecuador and Korea. They are all quite inspiring. Makes me itch to get ready and go.

I sure love my daughter Lochlan. She is the epitome of kind (so long as you can scratch her back for the complete 2 hours of stake conference).

Just an August update

Figured I would just make an update/laundry list of what I have been up to lately.

1) Borrowed Kieth's chainsaw and trimmed several large branches from the Willow and Cottonwood trees. This should help keep the trees from tumbling down in high winds plus keep those drooping down branches from hanging too close to the ground.

2) Playing alot of tennis. On of my Korean tennis playing pals brought a friend (J.S. Kim) who is now taking English lessons from Heather.

3) Helping Lochlan with going back to school activities. Okay, my help basically consists of telling her I like her new shoes/skirt/top/hair cut etcetra. We did make the milestone of saying "This will be the last time before you go off to college of.....starting seminary, having a birthday, etc" By this time next year we hope she is working on going off to college at which point we will become official empty nesters. Lochlan has taken care of arranging her school schedule and helped register students. She is really doing well.

4) Watching Murder She Wrote espisodes with Lochlan. I dose off during the middle of the show often but wake up in time to catch the last 10 minutes which is 10 minutes more of that show than is necessary to figure out the plot. Lochlan figured out that she has about 210 (7 years at 30 episodes a year) friends who somehow have gotten mixed up in Murder!

5) Still plugging away at work. Very slow going there.

6) Listening to more books on CD. Just finished one on Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorn Clemens). Guy was brilliant but also a horrible father. To full of himself. Spent his family into ruin a couple of times forcing them to have to move to Europe since they could not afford the upkeep on their mansion in the US.

7) Enjoyed a couple of visits from my cousin Annette's daughter April and her family as they drove thru Albuquerque twice on way to Utah and back from Lubbock.

8) Looking at finally buying a GPS unit - mainly so Lochlan can take it in the car and not get lost (seems like once a week she is going somewhere then calls me up and says, "Dad, I am by a Wendy's on Montano, how do I get to 4526 Sherwood?" When I try and ask where on Montano she is all she can say is "I don't know!". I am looking for a unit that will also double as a hiking GPS. Nuvi 500 seems like it fills the bill.

9) Spent $1000 on the Infinity - new brakes, bearing, axels etc. Cars are just a money pit! Now we have to drive that car another two years at least to get our moneys worth back out of it. Actually we bought that car for $6000 when the Blue Book was $13000 because it is a salvaged title car. The engine has a rattle in it and the transmission slips sometimes (which had me concerned) but it has run fine for 4 years now. If we can get it to last until June 2011 it will still be a great deal. I know some folks with $450 per month car payments, which seems crazy to me since those same people are paying $900 for their home rental payment.

10) Thinking about doing some hiking up in the Pecos Wilderness Area this fall, but that will cut into my tennis time.

11) Turning 50 this week (on Friday). Sloane called and asked me directions to the SLC airport, she had gotten onto I15 North from downtown SLC and I told her to turn around and take I80 West. She was taking a friend to the airport and her friend was a bit doubtful that my directions (having not lived in SLC area since like 1987) could still be trusted. After she successfully dropped her friend off Sloane called to compliment me on not being over the hill, yet!

Holly and family come for a visit

My sister Holly came for a visit with her kids, son-in-law and grandson this past week. We don't get family visitors often so Madison and Sloane also came down to be here. We had a great time. Unfortunately this was a very warm week in Albuquerque with pretty high humidity so the evaporative coolers (Swamp Coolers) were not working well. We attempted to counter that by buying some floor fans which did help a bit.

We ate great, played tennis and in general had a good time. One of the highlights was having a watermelon seed spitting contest (using certified "Blessed by Jesus" watermelons and all the girls going for manicures. We made carmel popcorn (using Nan Cattle's marshmallow recipe) and had a good time eating it under the willow tree in the backyard. Holly learned to play Mexican Train dominos and we spent one evening playing Scum, which everyone enjoyed. Grand baby Rider entertained everyone with his cute smile and disposition. My family got to know his Dad, Brad, better and we all agreed that Ashley did a great job bringing him into the family.

Friday was Tennis day and started at 8 AM. I think we got over half of the 10 people in the house on the court that day and everyone had a good time. Holly and I finished up around 4 pm but we all rotated around. The highlight for me was watching Madison and Courtney play a pretty competive match. Mostly it was just fun watching them enjoy the game.

One of the best things about their visit was that we could all bunk up in our home with most people having beds (greatful for Madison and Sloane being willing to sleep on couches). Having everyone together just made it that much more enjoyable.

We all went to church together on Sunday and it was a great surprise to have my sister and three of her daughters along with Sloane attend the youth class I teach every fourth Sunday. They all made some good comments and the class went well.

Sunday evening, after they left, we sat around talking about how nice it is to be with family and how nice of them it was to come for a visit. We will need to make a trip to Las Vegas to spend more time with them before February.

July is over half gone!

Just an update. Sloane came down 2 weeks ago for a short visit. It was great to see her. She came to have some dental work done and to also have a treatment performed on her planter's wart. We hope both are successful. She also got her NM drivers license renewed so we know for at least that reason the trip was a success. While here she and I did some baking. We made a Chocolate Pound Cake that had great body and flavor except of the fact I used some rancid vegetable shortening which gave it an off flavor of paint. How stupid to do that! The can had been in our pantry for quite some time and the top was kind of yellowish and I just scooped up that poison and put it in our mixture. We did discuss that shortening was all kind of like Vaseline anyway so we figured it wouldn't make too much difference. Dumb! After a couple of pieces we had to throw the whole thing out before we made ourselves sick.

To make up for that fiasco we did make a carrot cake. Lochlan and I had just finished reading a book called Eat Cake about a lady that provides for her family after her husband loses his job by making cakes. The book gave recipes in the back and so we made her carrot cake recipe. It was very good. We also decided to make some pie, after studying some recipes we decided on a strawberry-rhubarb pie. We didn't want to bother with the crust and so just used the refrigerated dough you can buy in sheets at the store. It was pretty good except we did not cook it long enough and so the crust on the bottom was too doughy. Well 1 out of 3 is not bad when you have never tried the recipe before.

I bought some fresh shortening so I can make another attempt at the Chocolate pound cake but Heather says I need to wait since she doesn't want the kitchen heated up by baking until the weather cools down.

It has been in the mid and even upper 90's this past couple of weeks in July after a very mild June.

I ordered a new topband for my tennis court net. I have been sewing it up trying to extend it's life but a new topband is now in order. It arrived 3 days ago. I should get it woven on in the next couple of days.

Lochlan decided she wanted her High School graduation present early so we helped pay for part of a laptop computer which she will be able to use her Senior year of HS and then later at college. After much research we decided on the Acer Timeline model due to its exceptional battery life and also light weight. It should arrive in the next couple of days. We hope she likes it.

Attended a very special Stake Priesthood meeting last night. Instead of the typical format the stake president just opened the time up for members to share their testimonies about Fathers and their Sons. Several Father and Sons shared their love and appreciation for one another and their testimonies of the gospel. It was great when you knew the story behind some of those relationships.

Tennis court finished, nearly anyway

Okay. Here is a photo of the finished tennis court. Lines are on and net is up. Have played on it at least 3 times per week since getting it done about about 3 weeks ago. I still have some work to do on the fencing but that should be done soon as well. Glad this project is over. One day soon I will post a blog with all the photos showing the resurfacing process in more detail.

Ted and Emma come to visit

Heather's parents are here for a visit from Sacamento California. We have been taking it easy around the house, doing some gardening projects together. Ted (an artist) is helping Lochlan with a design for the Homecoming Dance decorations she will be in charge of next year. Today we spent the day in Santa Fe enjoying the art galleries. On the way home we bought about 10 plants (some daisies, collumbine and I can't recall the others) and put them in the planter near the back kitchen door. We planted those along with some Hollyhocks and Day Lillies we moved from other parts of the yard and put in some drips so they are all set. Next week I will add some crusher fines to give it that finishing touch and it will all be set. Tomorrow we are off to southern Colorado where some friends have allowed us to use their cabin for a four day get away. It should be very relaxing.

It has been pretty cool weather for June with more rain than usual. Here is a picture taken from our front yard of a cool rainbow that was the result of a brief afternoon shower.

Photo of court, partially done.

This is a photo of the court after we put on the in bounds area sandstone color. Red color has not yet been resurfaced. Black patches in foreground are just that. Areas where I patched some pits in the court.

Photo of court when it was partially done

Just trying to recall how to upload photos. If this works right there will be a photo of the court after the interior sandstone color has been applied but before I got the out red color resurfaced. The block spots in the forground are patches I put down.

Tennis Court complete

Okay I finished the tennis court (got the lines painted on and the net up) last week on May 30th. I like the new sandstone color but at least one friend complains they can't see the balls as well coming off the lighter colored surface. Doesn't bother me and I like the look more than the green court. The main thing is that it keeps the surface temperature cooler so the surface lasts longer. I have now started on improving the drainage by placing the latia posts up on the bottom rail of the pipe fence. This keeps them off the ground so water and leaves can escape off the court rather then being trapped there. Had a couple of boys over last Saturday and we got the far side done, should finish this project in a a couple of weeks. Another project is to put a door on the far side of the court so we don't need to walk so far to pick up balls that get hit out.

May 2009 - Tennis court

Well I am about 2/3 finished with resurfacing my tennis court. It has been four years since I originally built it and typically it should last 6 or 7 years between resurfacing but I had a problem with my underlying asphalt layer. It turns out the asphalt my contractor used had a high iron content. As moisture went down thru the acrylic top coat it reacted with the iron to form iron oxide and expand. The expansion pops off the acrylic top coat. I wrote to the coating supplier about my problem and he indicated that the only true fix was to remove the top inch of asphalt and replace it with low iron content asphalt. Well that would have cost about 10K. I noticed that the problem was worst on the green area of the court (the inbounds area) then less on the red areas and no problem at all on the while lined area. The coating expert explained this was due to lower surface temps for the white area. I then noticed that areas of the court that have shade parts of the day also were unaffected.

My solution was to resurface the inbounds area with a light sand stone color which will drop the surface temperatures. I left the red outbounds area red. Prior to resurfacing I hired 8 teenagers to work for about 6 hours patching all the small holes with using a filling compound and putty knives then smoothing the patches down after they had partially set.

I also took the opportunity to level out some of the low "bird bath" areas of the court that tend to retain puddled water after a rain.

I have now put on 2 coats of the in bounds sand stone coating and 2 coats of the red out bounds area and could paint the lines on this weekend but I have enough extra red acrylic coating material left to do a third coat (about $300 of material) and so I might as well do a third coat.

I am hoping that all the iron that was going to react has already reacted along with the cooler color of the inbounds area to keep the court in good shape for at least 6 years.

While I did have a problem with the asphalt at least my foundation is good and my court has no cracks whatsoever. Once you get a crack in your court you can never really fix it. You just need to patch it every couple of years. Cracks always come back.

Anyway I hope to get the third outbound coating done on Monday morning, repaint my net posts back a nice glossy green and put the lines on Monday afternoon.

I will put some photos up on my other blog "Thoughts on a rainy day" when I get the whole thing finished.

May 2009 - Cuenca Ecuador

Cuenca, Ecuador! That is a place we might wind up moving to when I retire in 2010 - 2011 time frame. Over the past month I have been following several blogs of US and Canadian expats who have moved to Ecuador. Some move to the beach and some move to the mountains and some maintain residences at both locations (which seems like a great idea to me). The cost of living is low (it appears you can rent a great place for < $700 per month or buy a place for about 100K). The climate is great (cool mountains or warmer beaches). The culture is interesting (indigenous people and decedents of European colonists). The food is great and varied (Cuenca is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador and has nearly any type of food you would desire). Beach areas are obviously much less developed but the native fare sounds fine. Medical costs are very reasonable. Basically not much to dislike and much to enjoy all at about 1/4 the cost of living in the USA. Why wait until your 65 to retire? We would make a trip down and spend about 4 weeks about a year from now then decide if it is really the place for us. Likely we would buy a place in Cuenca and rent a place on the beach when we wanted to enjoy the ocean.

March 2009 entry

Well things are still on track for the 2011 retirement party. We have had some ups and downs with the recent economic fall out but all that means is I need to find somewhere cheaper to live when we retire. Heather and I don't really need much to be happy in retirement. We recognized that owning a second home, or boats or three wheelers etc are not important elements of our life. All we really need is a good book and good friends.

I am playing on Sierra Vista's 4.0 mens team this year. This is my first organized sports since I was playing little league. Our first match was last Saturday and I played as part of the number 3 doubles team. My partner and I lost our match but we had a good time. We were competive and I enjoyed it. It makes me want to improve my game which I am sure I can do. Doubles requires more patience and more control in shot making to be successful.

Madison graduated from BYU last August (2008) and is living in Provo and enjoying life. Sloane is in her junior year at BYU and has changed her major 3 or 4 times in the past 3 or 4 months. Lochlan was elected senior class president at Cibola next year. She only ran since there class has had the same boy as president since they were freshmen and after he got caught smoking pot in the parking lot at school she felt that there class needed at least some other choice.

I toyed with the idea of taking a management position in Taiwan in Feb but in the end decided it was best to just stay here in Albuquerque. I have been serving as bishop of our ward for the past 3 years and am enjoying that.

This weekend I will be driving to SLC to see Madison and Sloane and see general conference with them (we have tickets to the Sunday morning session). Lochlan will stay behind this year since she needs to take the ACT test that same weekend. Lochlan has been doing alot of regular babysitting and making about as much money as she use to make working at the fabric store (she worked for Hancocks fabric for about 8 weeks from Oct to Dec 2008). She has been checking into going back east and being a nanny for a year between high school and college. This might be a good experience for her, we will leave that decision in her hands.

Heather started working about 4 weeks ago as a care giver for people on medicare. She worked for about 8 years before and just after we were married and if she works 2 more yeas she can qualify for some social security when she turns 65. She works about 30 hours a week and has lots of interesting experiences meeting lots of interesting disabled people.

I am getting ready to resurface my tennis court this spring. Will do it before it gets too hot some I can do both coats in a single day so I can do it on a friday and saturday and have it all done. Will need a couple of days to prepare the surface. Will order the coatings this week.

Thats all for now...