Mindy Tyler Cam & Jane: The Holidays in Pictures.

Freedom Quotes

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams

"The (individual) growth required by the gospel occurs only in a culture of individual effort and responsibility. It cannot occur in a culture of dependency. Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or resources we could provide for ourselves weakens us spiritually and retards our growth toward what the gospel plan intends us to be."
Elder Dallin H. Oaks

The Truth...

...About GOOD VS. EVIL: How do we tell the difference?

I started a study about a year ago. I was thinking of how we're told in these last days good will be called evil and evil called good. I was also thinking of how those who stand for good things are often portrayed as anything but, and those who secretly (or not so secretly) stand for bad/immoral, etc. things are either lifted up or they have such a way with words that they are able to trick even the best of us. History is replete with examples of both. So while history can often be skewed based on who wrote the history books, so to speak, I turned the ultimate authority of the scriptures for my study. My study was conducted in the Book of Mormon (although such a study could be conducted in any book of scripture with similar results) and over the past year while reading it, I pulled out and documented every instance of the following that I could find. Because I am not perfect, there may be more that I missed.

Instances of evil doers being popular/tricky
-King Noah and his priests use flattery and lead people to much wickedness: Mosiah 11:7
-Samuel the Lamanite points out contrasting examples (see other side below in next section); "flattery," no consequences for actions: Helaman 13:27-28
-inspired men testify boldly, and lawyers and chief judges, high priests are very angry because of; prophets are put to death secretly: 3 Nephi 6:20-23
-Secret combinations tribe leader Jacob flatters to gain dissenters: 3 Nephi 7:12
-Rebellious Alma the younger a "man of many words" and does "speak much flattery" causing people to commit iniquity: Mosiah 27:8, 26:6
-Sherem is "learned," has a "perfect knowledge of the language," uses "flattery and much power of speech" to "overthrow the doctrine of Christ": Jacob 7:4
-Zeezrom, the "most expert" of lawyers tries to catch Alma and Amulek with tricky words for money: Alma 10:31-32; all ch. 11
-Korihor leads away the hearts of many by teaching Anti-Christ doctrine: Alma 30:12-18
-Amalikiah leads away by flattering words and promises for power; seeks to be king and destroy foundations of liberty: Alma 46:1-10

Instances of prophets/good people being accused of bad things
-Abinadi called contentious/wanting to stir up anger: Mosiah 11:28
-Nephi, son of Helaman, called a liar and said to "condemn" and "revile" against the law: Helaman 8:1-6
-Samuel the Lamanite points out contrasting examples (see other side in above section); testifies of iniquity, is called "sinner," "devil," "false prophet": Helaman 13:26
-Samuel the Lamanite is said to have a devil: Helaman 16:6
-Lachoneus is called wicked by Giddianhi, leader of Gadianton robbers: 3 Nephi 3:10
-inspired men testify boldly, and lawyers and chief judges, high priests are very angry because of; prophets are put to death secretly: 3 Nephi 6:20-23
-Prophet Ether "esteemed as naught" and cast out: Ether 13:13
-Lehi is mocked and the wicked are angry with him because of his prophecies; other prophets treated similarly: 1 Nephi 1:19-20
-Lehi and Nephi are said by Laman and Lemuel and co. to be foolish, trying to gain power over and rule over others:
-Alma and Amulek thrown into prisons and have their lives threatened because of their preaching: Alma 8:31
-Korihor claims church leaders/priests seek to usurp power over the people: Alma 30:23-31

I wanted to share this with everyone because I want to stress that sometimes people are not what they seem and that we need to be careful to support and follow the right people, politically and otherwise. We as good people cannot afford to be tricked. This is especially important with elections coming up in November. Since we can obviously not always rely on someone's words, either their own representation or someone else's opinion of them, or popular culture/media's representation of a person, how do we decide who is "the real deal?" Who is really good? How can we avoid being tricked? I came up with a couple of good answers.

First, we can know someone's true character by their "fruits."
3 Nephi 14:17-18 "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."
So in terms of at least politicians, what are their voting records? What do they support with their actions, not words? Do they live an honest personal/family life? (Yes, I absolutely believe integrity in one's personal life has everything to do with public life as it is pure evidence of their true character.) Don't look at how one talks the talk, look at how they walk the walk.

Second, we've been given the power to judge for ourselves and with the Lord's help we can come to correct conclusions.
D&C 9:8 "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
This translates to me as "do your homework." I promise that "evil doers" have hidden their real intent and messages very well. You actually have to put in the work, study and research. Do more than passively hear one newscaster's assessment. Get the whole story. Spend the time. Then ask the Lord. It's a promise.

…About SECRET COMBINATIONS

The freedoms of the United States were divinely instituted by men raised up to that task. Today we are either distracted or have forgotten how fragile freedom is and cannot even fathom life without it. I would like to strongly suggest that there are evil forces at work bent on getting money and power at the expense of our freedom. And they have their people in our government, the media, and our corporations. Sure, you can call it a conspiracy theory if that makes you more comfortable, but to help illustrate my point and to show that I am not crazy, I am going to use the ultimate source, at least for LDS readers, The Book of Mormon. And while reading, remember the book was written specifically for us in our day. In fact, I have never been so terrified of what is happening today while reading Helaman through Ether as I was this last time around.

1. Yes they exisit: Secret Combinations/Gadianton Robbers will be among the Gentiles(us). Mormon 8; 2 Ne 26:20,22

2. These organizations will gain advantages because of people’s iniquities. 3 Ne 2:18

3. They hold positions of power and prominence: The organizations have their people fill government seats to usurp power and authority. Hel 7:4; 8:1, 27-28

4. Yes it is possible: Governments have been destroyed by secret combinations. 3 Ne 7:6,9

5. No nation is immune from the unthinkable: These combinations caused the complete destruction of both the Nephites and Jaredites. Hel 2:13; Ether 8:18,21

6. These were not organizations that destroyed from without, they destroyed from within; Nephites supported the combinations and united with them. Hel 6:38, 7:25

7. Fortunately, they can be rooted out: the Lamanites completely eradicated them from their society. Hel 6:37

8. A warning and hope for us: Unless the people repent they will not be delivered from the Gadianton Robbers. 3 Ne 3:15

9. Watch this video by President Benson

Don’t underestimate what is most likely happening. But don’t underestimate what you plus millions of good people just like you are capable of. Think about it. THEN ACT!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Holidays in Pictures.

I have been needing to post pictures of the holidays! So many thing happened! And we got to see so many family members, my favorite thing. And while that is true I cannot obviously narrate to the point I think sufficient due to time restraints so I will keep it brief! Having said that I can still be pretty sure it will still be long.
As many of you know, we stayed in Utah for the holidays this year. Our little fam celebrated our own Christmas early.

Of course the best thing was having Tyler around a bit more. Not much more because he is such a good hard worker and took on lots of extra shifts over the break, but we loved that little amout of time extra.

Here is our Christmas Eve dinner! What a feast! Carl's Jr Six Dollar Burgers--they are seriously amazing! A tradition in our family.

Can you believe all these are for us three? Our families are awesome. Thanks everyone!

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning breakfast! A take on what the Neal family does Christmas morning with a pseudo Hawaiian waffle breakfast. Ours is a "take" because it is not nearly so intricate. And we couldn't find any mangos or papayas at the store! But we did buy a waffle iron just for the occasion.

The Merrill family came to town!! This is the real Christmas Eve we spent with the Merrills and the Larsens, Kara's new in-laws.

Christmas day! And the cute baby Merrill boys in their matching jammies from Grandma Merrill!

The reason for all the hoopla! Congratulations to Kara and Joe on their new marriage! It was a beautiful wedding and they both were so happy!

Here's the little Merrill boys keeping themselves entertained in the bridal room at the reception hall. Looks like a party, huh? Can't get enough of those cute kids!

Of course there was lots of fun and hanging out with the Merrills. We played tons of games, watched movies (mostly Wall-E, love it!) and chatted. Here's the present opening (along with hanging out spoken of before)! Way to score some awesome gifts Kara and Joe! Thanks for coming Merrill family. It was a memorable holiday!

Then more visitors. My sister Melanie and her little fam came to Utah for about a week! I got to finally meet baby Sarah and got to spend lots of time driving back and forth to Saratoga Springs where they were staying with some family. But it was all worth it! I love these guys and love spending time with family!

This picture is so great of Paige and Cameron being crazy together. They were chasing and screaming until they were all sweating and panting. Even then Cameron wanted to keep going! Cute kids.

And here's Cameron trying to get close to Sarah. Not quite sure how to express what he wanted to, he just tried to roll next to her, or on her, to show her he liked her. Kind of like a dog I guess.

Thanks for coming Melanie and James!

Also, here's a cute picture of when Cameron got to play in the snow a bit. It was his first snow play!
Overall an awesome holiday full of memories!

7 comments:

The Mom said...: soooooooo cuuuuutteee!! i love love that picture of the stoney tyler and cameron! and i was so excited to see in one of the pictures you wearing the shirt i gave you! yeeee!! i'm glad you had a fabulous holiday season, but i'm still sad we didn't get to see ya'll up her' in p-town.
-Amy; January 15, 2009 at 3:15 PM
The Mom said...: by the way your new blog background is way cute!
-Amy; January 15, 2009 at 3:16 PM
The Mom said...: That was a great entry. I am smiling so much that my cheeks hurt! Love that family! My fave kind of pix. Looks like you did have a great holiday. Congrats to Kara and Joe. Their reception here in Ptown was beautiful! Kara was gorgeous too. Paige and Cam are natural pal-ies, aren't they? So darling running around together. Cam is such a handsome little man. He is really a sweetie! Trying to roll on to Sarah...so loving!; January 15, 2009 at 5:14 PM
JaY said...: Good to see your diet consists of more fatty foods these days. As does mine btw. Remember giving your mom a hard time for eating Mayo when we were in high school. It is one of my favorite foods since having Adrie. There were times I thought I could eat it by the spoonful....don't worry I resisted that urge. Lol.; January 16, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Holly or James said...: that first picture is HI-larious. it looks like both Ty and Cam just woke up, did they?; January 16, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Holly or James said...: Missed you during Christmas. So sweet how you guys had a "hawaiian style" breakfast on Christmas morning just like the Neal Tradition. Looks like you guys had fun during the 2 weeks. (: YEAH!; January 21, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Heidi a.k.a. spaceghost said...: These are so great! You guys had a busy and fun holiday. I love the photos of cameron and paige running around screaming.; February 5, 2009 at 8:02 AM