Christmas Idea

Hey all~

I don't want to sound miserly, but how does this sound to everyone: would anyone be interested in skipping our family gift exchange this Christmas? This would allow each of us to put that money towards the reunion, or just not spend it now. We could then just move this rotation to next year. We can do this if everyone agrees, if you don't want to do this, that is fine, too, just a suggestion.
Obviously, I agree...
What do you think?

Following Christ

I paused my reading of The Infinite Atonement to read this second book by Stephen E. Robinson, Following Christ. I enjoyed this book as well, though there wasn't anything that I was uncertain of like with his first book. I think he's done a good job of discussing our obligations as members of the covenant people. He discusses the nature of the covenant and then points out that he doesn't need to provide a list of rules we must follow to remain in the covenant, but instead reiterates that all that we must do is contained in the concept of love. As we truly learn to love God and other people, we will keep all the commandments/rules. It was a good book.

Telescope

I've been thinking a lot about getting Will a telescope. I've got some books, done some online research, and feel like I know what I want to get him...if I decide to do it. Tonight it occurred to me that I haven't even gone outside to look at the sky in all this time I've been considering getting a telescope. So, I went outside. The night sky is very cool to me. Here are some (not very good) pictures I took. You can see there's a lot of "light pollution" in my backyard. I think the telescope I want to get (for Will...) will let me hook my camera up to it. Won't that be cool?

Here's one of the moon, too.

Four Years Ago Today,

around 3AM, Lauras water broke.

For his birthday, Nick will be having a birthday party, for which Laura is currently slaving away. Starting celebrations a day early, Andy took Nick and Abuela to Wild Waves, a nearby water park. While there, all three had a wonderfull time.

Unfortunatly, we had a camera battery charge malfunction and where unable to take any pictures.

Fortunatly, we've corrected the charging process, and we should have plenty of pictures of the party and cake.

In any case:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!

Stephen E. Robinson's Believing Christ

I imagine most of you have read some if not all of Robinson's book. I just finished it and while I was unsure of it for most of the time I was reading it, I think I now agree with him. The book is short and would be a quick read if you have a couple of uninterrupted hours--and if you do, lucky you. I read most if while brushing my teeth and in 5-10 minute spurts as they became available. I do a lot of my reading that way, in fact.

So, why was I unsure about the book. Let me quote a portion that felt incorrect to me at first. "Taken together, Christ and I make up a new creature. The old creature, the imperfect me, ceases to exist, and a glorious new creature, a perfect partnership, takes its place. Taken together as a single entity, the two of us, Christ and I, are perfect. I do not mean (this is absolutely crucial!) that we can become perfect later on. I mean that from the moment the partnership is formed in good faith, from the moment we have sincere faith in Christ, sincerely repent of our sins, and receive baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost--from this moment the partnership is celestial. The merits of the Senior Partner make it so. True, this is not individual perfection, which will indeed come later (much later), rather it is perfection-in-Christ (see Moro. 10-32-33), through which we receive the benefits of our partner's merits. Nevertheless, from this moment the kingdom is ours, provided that we maintain the partnership by abiding in the gospel covenant. (See 3 N. 27:16, 19-21) [Emphasis in the original]

Does that seem odd to anyone else? He continues to make this point, that once we've entered the covenant, we no longer need to strive for perfection--at least as far as our worthiness in God's eyes. We can't perfect ourselves and we don't need to. We are already perfect in Christ. Having said this, however, he goes on to point out that to remain in the covenant--to avoid falling from grace--we need to give our best effort.

I'd be interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of the topic--and, if you've read the book, what you think of it in general. If you own it and haven't read it in a while, I'd appreciate if you'd re-read it and share your thoughts about it with on. (It's only 125 small pages)

A couple things that this book helped me recognize. 1. Christ, because of his immortal Father had control over when he died. I knew this. I always understood it to be taught in reference to the fact that he gave up his life--no one took it from him. However, it also means that he was able to choose not to die while suffering the atonement--something that would have killed any other person. Because of this power, he was able to live through infinite suffering. 2. In the sacrament prayers, as we renew our baptismal covenants, we promise to take upon us the name of Christ, always remember him, and keep his commandments--or, at least, that's what I always thought we were covenanting. With this understanding, I renew my covenant, I am forgiven of my sins. I'm am brought back to the state of purity (free from the stains of sin) that I was in when I was baptized. I stay that way until I sin again (which sometimes is a matter of only seconds), and then I am impure. However, I firmly believe that if I die during the week, the sins that I committed since the last time took the sacrament won't be held against me any more than those that I committed before then. But, how can that be? I haven't been forgiven of those sins until I take the sacrament, right? What makes more sense is that I still have been forgiven. I have been forgiven of all my sins as long as I remain in the covenant that I have made. And what was that covenant? "That they are willing to take upon them..." I'm willing, but sometimes I weak. I want to keep the commandments, all the time, but sometimes I don't. As long as I "endure to the end" with the right attitude--a broken heart and contrite spirit--I am still in the covenant even though I make mistakes.

What do you all think?

The Miracle of Forgiveness

I decided that my next few books would be more doctrinal and less historical. I recently finished "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by Spencer W. Kimball. I really enjoyed it. While I was working with Aaron Bishop at his printing shop, we listened to this one on tape a few times (along with some stuff by Truman Madsen and Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage). As I was reading through it, however, I didn't recognize much. It seemed mostly new to me. I did remembered the story about him "cussing the cattle" and how he was sure no one could hear him. He told how he was surprised to find that we will have to give an accounting of every idle word--his response was why would I have to do that when no one else was around? Reading the book did make me wonder about the things that I do that I shouldn't that I don't know yet that I shouldn't. There are still plenty of things that I do when I know I shouldn't and even more that I should and yet I still don't--so maybe I'll hold off on finding out about the other things.

Have any of you read it before? What did you think? Anyone reading anything interesting now? I just started Stephen E. Robinsons, "Believing Christ." It's interesting and I'll post and share some stuff from it when I'm done.

FAMILY REUNION UPDATE!!

HEY HEY HEY!!
After reading Andy's post, and the comments there, Mom and I discussed finding out more details. We found that the reservations for next summer opened last Sunday and there are only 5 spots left for next summer.

The available dates are
June 4-17
July 11-12
Aug. 10-12
Aug 29-1
Aug 20-24

We made tentative reservations for Saturday Aug 20- Wed Aug 24. This can be canceled, but we are not likely to get a spot otherwise. We are not obligated to keep this reservation.
Prices, as Andy mentioned, are $10 per night per person. Children 3 and under are free. That leaves us with 24 people. We can fit as many people into the lodge as we want. There are 26 beds. You can go look at the link on the previous post and see what you think. You will see that these are just bunk beds and nothing fancy.
We would have loads of activities, a full kitchen and adequate restroom facilities.
Does this sound good to everyone? If you want to try another time, we need to do so immediately. If this does not sound good to you at all, let us know that, too.

A New Family Reunion Planning Post

I found out just a couple of weeks ago that The Church has recreation properties with lodges and such. See my blog for my personal experiences. Here's a link to the church website about the specific one I visited. You should click on the links to the left of the screen to see the activities and pictures.

http://bigo.byu.edu:8085/MRP-NANW/Camps.jsp?menuSelect=about&campSelect=4

Prices are $10 per person per night to stay in the lodge, or $10 per vihicle per night to camp out. I think we should have adults stay in the lodge, and send all the kids to camp out :)

I looked at all the other properties, and the one I went to seems to have the most/coolest activities listed. I'm excited to see what you all think about this.

UPDATE
I just read about the lodge accomodations. It has 5 four people rooms, and 1 two people room, which is just one person short than our 27(unless someone else joins the family before than). I don't think that should be a big deal. If we can't convince them to let us squeez in, we could send a few people to sleep in a cabin. Or I might just decide that I'd rather save $30 a night and camp out, then come and shower in YOUR lodge :). It also has a "commercial" kitchen with a "collosal" mixer.