Pioneer Day Talk 2011
This is a talk for Sacrament Meeting, which is based upon and quotes talks given by then Elder Thomas S. Monson (Pioneers All) and Janette Hall Beckham (Modern Pioneers), both from April 1997 General Conference. Pioneers are a big part of our family. I love the heritage that they have given to me. Our daughter Libby is named for a pioneer in our family, Speedy Esther Ellsworth. When Libby was one year old, in 1997, there was the big 150th anniversary celebration of the Pioneers coming into the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young. At the time,...
read moreCinquain and Haiku
Cinquain New Moon Love, Lost Twisting, Sinking, Falling Who’s Love Will Win Jacob Haiku A faded old book, Open your pages to me that I may travel. November 19, 2009: I wrote these to illustrate to a class I was teaching how easy it was to write these poems. Since I expected them to do it in class, I thought I should write one. I had just seen New Moon (Twilight trilogy) movie.
read moreWhat is Mercy? Is it Real?
Mercy is the ability to show kindness or compassion to someone else-when they have done something wrong. Mercy is real. I have shown mercy and received it from others I have even shown mercy to animals. A good example is once I was driving after dark and hit a deer. I stopped to check on the condition of the deer as it had fallen on the side of the road. I could tell that it’s jaw was broken and knew at once that it would have a difficult time surviving due to it’s inability to eat. I drove to a close home and asked the neighbor to...
read moreSecure Local Government for Ramona
Recently, in the April 15 edition of the Ramona Sentinel, Mr. Jeff Mitchell, Publisher included as a “Rant” the following: “Until Ramona decides it wants to be a city, stop complaining on how the county votes on issues that impact Ramona. All the local committees and planning group can do is offer opinions and recommendation, then the county will do whatever it wants. So we either accept it and move on, or make a decision to take control; you can’t have it both ways.” After reading this and having spend sufficient time every Thursday...
read moreGardening: Our Wisest Pursuit
Planting and growing a garden is a basic tenet of self-reliance, as the Founding Fathers knew. “During the whole of the American Enlightenment,” Henry Steel Commager notes, “every President was a countryman.” (The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and American Realized the Enlightenment, p 243.) We must have hard work so that we can create order and virtue. Hesiod says, “The immortals decried that man must sweat to attain virtue, since for mortals, order is best, disorder is worst.” Those who work to “fill their barns”...
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