Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Visitations
I teach a temple preparation class.
Saturday Cheryl and I took a couple to the temple for their first visit.
Sunday we had our class and asked them about their feelings and experience. Of course they loved it and had lot of questions. Sister Varela asked if when she goes back does she need to do endowments in the language of her dead ancestors? She said, just mater of factually, that her great grandfather, that she had never remembered meeting, came to her in a dream.
I don't think this is common but I don't think it's unusual. I think it is wonderful to be involved in temple work and see the spirits and Spirit work.
Merry Christmas
Sunday we had our class and asked them about their feelings and experience. Of course they loved it and had lot of questions. Sister Varela asked if when she goes back does she need to do endowments in the language of her dead ancestors? She said, just mater of factually, that her great grandfather, that she had never remembered meeting, came to her in a dream.
I don't think this is common but I don't think it's unusual. I think it is wonderful to be involved in temple work and see the spirits and Spirit work.
Merry Christmas
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
intelligence
Reflecting more on your Ignorance and Curiosity, I thought you might be interested in a different view of intelligence. Mormon doctrine and traditions has a unique definition for intelligence.
Sometimes intelligence is used as an invisible matter or substance, a noun, an element a kin to light with both wave and particle properties. I've imagined it like a photon or some other subatomic particle which cannot be seen. (The opposite of Anti-matter.) It is visible only by its effect on something else. Able to pass through darkness or some other substance and not be perceived. This intelligence or matter is also similar to energy which can also give life or motion to other physical matter. This intelligence has always existed and is independent from other forms of matter.
"Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
Children of God
Intelligences may also refer to the spirit children of God. As a spirits, we and the angles lived independent of God in a sphere or world separate and different from this one. This idea allows man to be co-eternal with God and presupposes that we live with Him before our birth We are children because we are still learning to control this life giving substance. God is Father because he can control all matter.
In Mormon scripture, Abraham is given a vision of the spirits that lived with God before birth. He discovers that he is among the noble and great ones. He also learns that all his seed would be blessed. See Abr. 3:19-23
In another use of intelligence, it is a splendid type of knowledge or information which can be acquired. It is associated with truth. Truth being those things that do not change; the same yesterday, today and forever. A truth not situational or limited to our perceptions of time and space.
Sincerely your friend,
Roger
Sometimes intelligence is used as an invisible matter or substance, a noun, an element a kin to light with both wave and particle properties. I've imagined it like a photon or some other subatomic particle which cannot be seen. (The opposite of Anti-matter.) It is visible only by its effect on something else. Able to pass through darkness or some other substance and not be perceived. This intelligence or matter is also similar to energy which can also give life or motion to other physical matter. This intelligence has always existed and is independent from other forms of matter.
"Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. D&C 93:29,30
Children of God
Intelligences may also refer to the spirit children of God. As a spirits, we and the angles lived independent of God in a sphere or world separate and different from this one. This idea allows man to be co-eternal with God and presupposes that we live with Him before our birth We are children because we are still learning to control this life giving substance. God is Father because he can control all matter.
In Mormon scripture, Abraham is given a vision of the spirits that lived with God before birth. He discovers that he is among the noble and great ones. He also learns that all his seed would be blessed. See Abr. 3:19-23
In another use of intelligence, it is a splendid type of knowledge or information which can be acquired. It is associated with truth. Truth being those things that do not change; the same yesterday, today and forever. A truth not situational or limited to our perceptions of time and space.
- The glory of God is intelligence, D&C 93:36–37
- Intelligence acquired in this life rises with us in the resurrection, D&C 130:18–19
Sincerely your friend,
Roger
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Ghost Town Cemetery
by Roger Wilcox
No one rests here anymore.
Tumble weeds pause to check the land.
Sage brush and desert daisies have replaced any grass.
Stones are up-rooted by the progress of insects
building new cities in the sand.
Our fathers' brothers or cousins once lingered here,
their children did not remain.
Long ago, plains far greener called them away.
Now, we ask "why did they stay?"
Dry winds and dust conceal any pain.
Peace is not the absence of change.
Nature has not lost her claim
and day and night are all the same.
I once slept near here - passing through
To take a look at the silent view.
Stillness is an illusion of time,
and eternity rolls in circular lines.
by Roger Wilcox
No one rests here anymore.
Tumble weeds pause to check the land.
Sage brush and desert daisies have replaced any grass.
Stones are up-rooted by the progress of insects
building new cities in the sand.
Our fathers' brothers or cousins once lingered here,
their children did not remain.
Long ago, plains far greener called them away.
Now, we ask "why did they stay?"
Dry winds and dust conceal any pain.
Peace is not the absence of change.
Nature has not lost her claim
and day and night are all the same.
I once slept near here - passing through
To take a look at the silent view.
Stillness is an illusion of time,
and eternity rolls in circular lines.
Friday, November 6, 2009
illegal aliens
I'm uncertain of what I saw. Hermes will vouch for me, I think. At first look, it was a star a little out of place, just off Orion's belt. At next glance, it had moved to the edge of his skirt. Hermes huddled close to look at it. The moon had to have seen it there in space. Not stationary, It moved. Not like a meteor, slower. Not like a plane, it did not blink. Brighter than the corner of Orion's skirt it moved to his side and was gone. Hermes doesn't want to talk about it.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Plane
The year Laura was born had some real highs and lows. The highest, of course, was the coming of Laura. This was a miracle. 14 1/2 years since Mary and 16 years of marriage. The story of Hannah and Samuel has special meaning to me. We had prayed many times for a child but had given up. It was left it in the Lords’ hands.
Before we knew she was coming, and a year before that, I had been called as a bishop. A new ward, every calling had to be filled. This was with the Tithing Hill Ward; I was first bishop of that ward, and 19 months later I was asked to organize the new Quail Ridge Ward. I was busy. On top of this I was the production manager for Laarhoven Design.
Robert Laarhoven of Atlanta, Georgia, had bought this company here in Salt Lake and was planning to move it back to Georgia. I was offered the job there. I had made a couple trips to Atlanta, a very nice place, nice people, and even a nice pay raise. Cheryl, Mary and I even went to look at house there. They did not like it much, but would go if I insisted. Even with lots of prayer, I was left to make this decision myself. No beams of light, no little voices, just what do I do? Of course I prayed. If we stayed I would need to find a new job. If we went I would serve somewhere else and would be thousands of miles from any family.
I decided to stay. A few months later Cheryl was pregnant. I needed to find work, the church calling was taking more time and I was a little more than lost. I worked as a nurseryman, a sign maker, a purchasing agent, an electrician’s helper, and a part time postal carrier. For almost three years I did not know what to do or if I had made one big mistake. This state of confusion, trials, and unrest was not without blessings: Laura (5lb 2 oz), good health, lots of friends and sense that God was mindful of me. Looking back now, 13 years plus, this was a dark period.
One night, late and somewhere in winter, I needed to get out of the house and go for a walk. Walking, hiking and driving have all been therapeutic for me. My head was down; I remember the place on the sidewalk but not the day or the trouble. “Look up”. It was as clear as if my father were standing right next to me. “Look up!”. Alone, I stopped and stared up. Nothing, not even stars. I stood staring straight up until a plane came into view below the clouds. I live under the flight path to the airport. I can’t remember if I’ve ever looked up and not seen a plane. I could not tell what airline it was in the dark, so I contacted them all. I even contacted the airport, nothing.
Before we knew she was coming, and a year before that, I had been called as a bishop. A new ward, every calling had to be filled. This was with the Tithing Hill Ward; I was first bishop of that ward, and 19 months later I was asked to organize the new Quail Ridge Ward. I was busy. On top of this I was the production manager for Laarhoven Design.
Robert Laarhoven of Atlanta, Georgia, had bought this company here in Salt Lake and was planning to move it back to Georgia. I was offered the job there. I had made a couple trips to Atlanta, a very nice place, nice people, and even a nice pay raise. Cheryl, Mary and I even went to look at house there. They did not like it much, but would go if I insisted. Even with lots of prayer, I was left to make this decision myself. No beams of light, no little voices, just what do I do? Of course I prayed. If we stayed I would need to find a new job. If we went I would serve somewhere else and would be thousands of miles from any family.
I decided to stay. A few months later Cheryl was pregnant. I needed to find work, the church calling was taking more time and I was a little more than lost. I worked as a nurseryman, a sign maker, a purchasing agent, an electrician’s helper, and a part time postal carrier. For almost three years I did not know what to do or if I had made one big mistake. This state of confusion, trials, and unrest was not without blessings: Laura (5lb 2 oz), good health, lots of friends and sense that God was mindful of me. Looking back now, 13 years plus, this was a dark period.
One night, late and somewhere in winter, I needed to get out of the house and go for a walk. Walking, hiking and driving have all been therapeutic for me. My head was down; I remember the place on the sidewalk but not the day or the trouble. “Look up”. It was as clear as if my father were standing right next to me. “Look up!”. Alone, I stopped and stared up. Nothing, not even stars. I stood staring straight up until a plane came into view below the clouds. I live under the flight path to the airport. I can’t remember if I’ve ever looked up and not seen a plane. I could not tell what airline it was in the dark, so I contacted them all. I even contacted the airport, nothing.
It wasn't the plane it was heaven. It wasn't the altitude it was the attitude. It was like the spires on a church or stars in the sky, something to get your directions from.
Thing are a lot better now. I still see that spot on the side walk and think of the voice. Mary is off and having kids of her own. Cheryl and I will be married 30 years next spring. Laura is 13 and acting her age. And I have a dog to walk with.
Things are looking up.
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