Rick's and Kammi's Wedding

Last week, our dear family friend Rick Mears was sealed to his wife, Kammi. Mom and I got to attend, and it was a beautiful experience.

We first met Elder Mears many years ago when he was a missionary serving in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. Through several visits to our home over the months he served in our area, he became a good friend. He served with at least three companions (as far as I can recall) over that time period. As kids, we looked up to Elder Mears and the other missionaries as role models and as the kind of missionaries we five boys wished to be like in our own missionary service in the years that followed.

Here are Rick, Kammi, and their combined "Brady Bunch" family (yep, three boys and three girls) after the sealing:

Elder Hadley was one of Elder Mears's companions in our area; he came up from Las Vegas to attend the sealing. It was great to see him again (pictured here with his girlfriend, Jen) after so many years:

The Mears' sealing was performed, in fact, by Bro. Kay Briggs, who was Elder Mears's and Elder Hadley's mission president during the second year we lived in P.R., and the Briggs family attended the same ward we did So, it was a mini-Puerto Rico reunion in more ways than one. It was great company for a picturesque spring day.

"Churches Which Are Built Up, and Not unto the Lord"

As I mentioned in a post last week, I've been reading the Book of Mormon again. And, in the process, I'm finding some pretty great things.

In chapter 2 Nephi 28:3, Nephi prophesies about the things he writes coming forth in a day in which there would be "churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord" (emphasis added). These churches would spread "false and vain and foolish doctrines" (2 Nephi 28:9). A few chapters after this, Nephi laments, "I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given to them in plainness, even as plain as word can be" (2 Nephi 32:7).

I feel Nephi's pain. I look around at a world that has built up churches "not unto the Lord" everywhere; churches to science; churches that champion the natural man rather than the humble disciple, where personal responsibility and consequences are shirked; and even churches that worship celebrities, sports, and other hobbies or schools of thought. I've found that even those who claim to be agnostic or atheist are, for the most part, still religious about other ideas or things.

No, there is nothing wrong with most hobbies and sports. There's nothing bad about science in and of itself, either. It was by far my least-favorite subject in school, but I got no beef with medicine that cures illnesses of both the body and the mind, or a trip to the planetarium to look up at the stars, and learning about other wonders scientific minds have discovered. The problem, I believe, is when we, like Billy Joel once said, "go to extremes."

I cringe, for example, when I see so-called "science" (cough gender is now supposedly "fluid" and is determined not by chromosomes but is on an ever-evolving spectrum on, didn't you know? cough) making new "discoveries" that surpass basic common sense and that, worst of all, confuse and befuddle the children of God about what their true identities and possibilities are.


As G. K. Chesterton taught: "Unfortunately science is only splendid when it is science. When science becomes religion it becomes superstition."

I did a little fact-checking on Twitter to provide an example of celebrity worship, and I learned that the ever-fascinating mind of Kim Kardashian, to name one of our (sarcasm alert) most fascinating modern thinkers, is followed by more than 52 million people. By contrast, only two million people follow the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles combined.

It's a strange, bewildering time we live in. Yes, we have a lot of work to do, collectively, to spread the hopeful, wonderful message that the gospel carries with it. Nevertheless, the Lord has shown us the way so that we may see the truth through the lies and learn to discern "things as they really are" (Jacob 4:13).

Through my latest elders quorum teaching assignment a couple of weeks ago, I came across these powerful words from President Gordon B. Hinckley:

"Of course we believe in the cultivation of the mind, but the intellect is not the only source of knowledge. There is a promise, given under the inspiration from the Almighty, set forth in these beautiful words: 'God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost." (D&C 121:26.)

"The humanists who criticize the Lord's work, the so-called intellectualists who demean, speak only from ignorance of spiritual manifestation. They have not heard the voice of the Spirit. They have not heard it because they have not sought after it and prepared themselves to be worthy of it. Then, supposing that knowledge comes only of reasoning and of the workings of the mind, they deny that which comes by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"The things of God are understood by the Spirit of God. That Spirit is real. To those who have experienced its workings, the knowledge so gained is as real as that which is acquired through the operation of the five senses. I testify of this. . . .

"Let us not be trapped by the sophistry of the world, which for the most part is negative and which so often bears sour fruit."

Two Lessons from Omni

I'm reading the Book of Mormon again this year, and I'm learning things that possibly I hadn't learned before. Or things about which I needed a reminder.

Consider the book of Omni. It may be just one chapter. In one sense, it's a lot of record keepers writing only one or two verses and then passing the plates onto the next record keeper in a sort of game of Gospel Hot Potato. In fact, it's the only book in the Book of Mormon named after a guy who wasn't all that great of a guy.

Anyhow, two things stuck out big-time when I read Omni.

In Omni 1:2, we read about Omni himself: "But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done."

To me, these are some of the saddest words a human being could ever think or write. Regret is hell on Earth.

I think about my own experiences with regret, and I feel for Omni. I want to believe he still had time to turn things around after recording this assessment of his own character. And when I do so, I recommit myself to being a better human being afterward. I'm grateful for an Atonement that helps to wipe away the pain of regret and for second chances that help prevent possible future regret.

The second lesson is in the Nephites' discovery of the people of Mulek at Zarahemla. As the two peoples merge to become one group, Amaleki notes that the people of Zarahemla "had become exceedingly numerous . . . (but) their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them" (v. 17).

In short, the Nephites both (1) had the brass plates and (2) had kept a record, while the Mulekites had done neither. As a result, the Nephites were far better off, while the Mulekites lived in ignorance and apathy resulting from carelessness.

In other words, those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Not having the brass plates (scriptures) was devastating to the Mulekites, both spiritually and morally, while having the plates had blessed the Nephites. Education is an important gift for one generation to pass down to the next. And so forth.

It's amazing, time and again, how all of this was written "For Our Day."

Family Dinner/May 2017

At yesterday's May family dinner, we also celebrated our May birthday, which in this case belonged solely to Summer.

Fly like an Eagle

My 17-year-old nephew Dallin became the latest family member to earn the Eagle rank in Boy Scouts. He was awarded on the evening of April 20.

Family Dinner/April 2017

Our most-recent family birthday party was held Sunday, April 9th. We celebrated Graham's first, Jenna's 13th, and Jackson's ninth birthdays.

Graham really got into eating his piece of cake . . .

. . . so much so that he was not a very happy camper when Ben took him away from it.

At any rate, it was another fun family dinner and birthday party, and it also good to have our old friend Tyler and his family stop by for a visit.

My Dinner with Jackson 2017

My nephew Jackson recently turned nine years old. So, being the Fun Uncle that I am and all, I took him out to dinner at Sill's Cafe, because it was his choice, and he made it abundantly clear he wanted one of their scones.

Well, the story checks out. Sill's' scones are quite amazing.

From there, we went to Toys R Us, where he picked out a combination Nerf dart gun/zombie "brainsaw" (get it? like chainsaw, but for brains?). When it comes to zombie knowledge, fewer if any nine-year-olds can hold their own with Jackson.

Conference Breakfast/April 2017

One of our family traditions at general conference time is a breakfast prior to the Sunday morning session, after which we watch the session together.

The kids had a great time. So did the rest of us.

Graham's First Birthday Party

On April 1, we celebrated Graham's first birthday with a party at his house in Centerville. Plenty of folks on both the Plowman and Shewell sides showed up for the festivities.

There was good food:

Graham enjoyed his cake perhaps a little too much:

Kate's Second Birthday Party

On March 31st, we celebrated my niece Kate's second birthday.

This wonderful, brilliant kid showed off her new kitchen set to us and, she was obviously enamored with it.