Bees'-Eye View

On Thursday night, JB and I ventured out to Smith's Ballpark in Salt Lake City for our second Bees baseball game of the month and of the summer. We were more than happy to accept an invitation from Dave, who works for the Larry H. Miller business empire and was given tickets to access the company suite for the evening. Jessica, Kira, and Jake joined us for our evening out.

Friends in high places, amirite? It's nice and also rare to get such royal treatment. Not only did we have a nice view of the game from the first-base side of the diamond, but our suite was also stocked with a dinner that included chicken tenders, soda pop, popcorn, and other goodies.

The home team got killed once again---we must have that effect on them or something. But it was nonetheless a fun night for one and all.

"Forever Plaid," Again

My brother Ben recently completed his second time playing the role of Sparky in the musical Forever Plaid (the first time around was five years ago). JB and I caught the show Monday night along with Mom, Dave and Jessica, and Steve and Summer.

As an added bonus to that evening's performance, Ben pulled some strings and arranged for Steve to get called up onto the stage as the audience volunteer during the "Heart and Soul" number, which led to hearty chuckles all around. For his trouble, he got this cool certificate:

Semper Fi

"A soft answer turneth away wrath" (Proverbs 15:1).

Today at church, I watched as a new brother to the ward sat down near me in elders quorum. He had long hair, tied in a ponytail. Soon after he sat, one of the elderly brothers sitting behind him made a comment to another elderly brother next to him that he wanted to clip off the ponytail.

Insert brief tense pause here.

Instead of moving to another seat or ignoring them, this new brother instead turned around, smiling the whole time, and introduced himself to these two elderly brothers. After a few moments, he was laughing and joking with them. He told them that he had served in the U.S. Marines for a number of years and that he always had to keep his hair very short during this time, and now he was doing something else with his hair. He was proud of it, and he said his girlfriend loves it. After the meeting ended, he talked and joked with these brothers for an additional few minutes, and I think it's safe to say they were friends by this point.

This new brother handled this moment perfectly. It was the brightest spot of a memorable, wonderful day fellowshipping with my fellow Saints.

Plowman Family Dinner/June 2019

Earlier tonight, Mom hosted monthly family dinner for June at her home in North Salt Lake. We were all there to take part in the fun, especially Super Daniel:

Twenty-month-old Ike enjoyed dinner along with the rest of us:

JB made the desserts this time around, including a much-requested banana cake, which doubled as the birthday cake for our three June birthdays, Adi, Mom, and McKenna.

Roots

A few weeks ago, JB and I sent DNA samples in to Ancestry.com to have them analyzed and to learn a little bit more about our own respective ancestries. Today, I received my results. They look like this:

Confirming what we all basically already knew, I am pretty much the whitest white person around.

Paula's Visit

On Saturday, we were grateful to spend part of the day with Paula, whose mother Roxana I taught the discussions to as a missionary in Lima, Peru, over 20 years ago (!). Paula was in town from Sacramento this week for EFY, and we were able to take her through Temple Square and some of the other sites in downtown Salt Lake City before dropping her off at the airport for her return trip home.

She’s a great kid and part of a great family we are blessed to know. She spoke of her desires to serve a mission of her own when she turns 19 years old, and how could we not encourage her to do so? (JB and I are both RMs.)

By Love Unfeigned

In the April 2014 general conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave one of my favorite talks of the last decade, "The Cost---and Blessings---of Discipleship." In this message, speaking to the youth of the Church, he said:

"You may wonder if it is worth it to take a courageous moral stand in high school or to go on a mission only to have your most cherished beliefs reviled or strive against much in society that sometimes ridicules a life of religious devotion. Yes, it is worth it, because the alternative is to have our 'houses' left unto us 'desolate'---desolate individuals, desolate families, desolate neighborhoods, and desolate nations."

Though no longer a youth of the Church, I still took this challenge personally. This is my motivation behind why I post a lot of things I post on social media; because there are a lot of "false and vain and foolish doctrines" all around us to lead people astray, just as Nephi prophesied (2 Nephi 28:9) If we don't teach the truth to others and to the next generation, the wolves in sheep's clothing will teach them their dogma in its place.

Elder Holland later concluded his talk with the admonition:

"Be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don't live it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend them."

And therein lies the great challenge---defending our beliefs, but "with courtesy and compassion."

I haven't always been successful at this in my social media experience. It's caused me to lose sleep on more than one occasion after a discussion turned contentious.

The thing of it is: No one was ever won over to a cause by an argument, anger, or contention.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, we are taught:

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virture of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

"By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile---

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever" (D&C 121:41-46; emphasis added).

As in so many other things, the gospel and the scriptures show us how to treat others and to love our fellow men.

The only point in my life in which I consistently was been able to see people change was through these very principles and it was, of course, the two years of my Church mission. On a regular basis, I got to help others feel the Spirit, identify His presence and witness, and then invite them to make very significant changes in their lives. Though many did not ultimately make these changes, even after feeling this powerful witness, some did---and miracles came as a result.

The Spirit and the truth did this; I didn't. I was just the messenger. As Paul said: "I have planted ... but God gave the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6).

If there are any who are reading this with whom I've had a disagreement at any point, I'm sorry. I was not my best self then. I'm still not, but I'm working to be a better self every day, even as I make mistakes. Odds are, so are you.

The gospel means everything to me, and I have a lot of opinions both about that and about current affairs that you'll see from time to time if we're connected on social media. Friendship also means a great deal to me. And, fortunately, having beliefs/opinions and friends with whom you disagree on some issues is not a mutually exclusive choice.

An added bonus: There is the option on many social media sites to hide certain posts from those people that are bound and determined to argue no matter what (while still letting them see other posts), even if you simply post something as horrifying as, say, "The sky is a beautiful blue today!" (They'll find a way somehow---trust me.) The importance of this option cannot be understated.

Mom's Birthday Party

On Wednesday, my beloved mom turned ... older. She's making aging look easy, though. A number of us gathered at her home to eat dinner with her that night, and we also shared a birthday cake with her.

Mom had a little help from Kate in blowing out the candles.

Our Night Out with Jake

Birthday dinners with our niblings have sort of become a thing of the past since JB and I got married. At least, we decided we'd give our niblings the option for their birthdays of either doing an activity together with us or getting a present they really want to have.

Jake, who turns 14 years old next month, chose to go to a Salt Lake Bees AAA baseball game with us, and that took us Smith's Ballpark in SLC Tuesday night for their matchup with the San Antonio Missions (the Milwaukee Brewers' AAA club).

The game started out very poorly for the Bees (and very slowly for us); the Missions scored six runs in the top of the first, and SL's starting pitcher was forced out of the game after only 1/3 inning of pitching. By the end of that first half-inning of play, the game was already a half-hour old. Nevertheless, the Bees bounced back by chipping away at the lead, including hitting two home runs. San Antonio still ended up winning, 7-5.

Well, it's still fun being at the ball game and seeing one live in one of the best parks in the country. Our nephew had a good time, most importantly. We snacked on peanuts and popcorn while we watched the action on the field. We also had very good seats, sitting behind home plate.

It was a fun night out with a great kid, and we're looking forward to maybe attending more games over the summer.

The Crosby Show

One of the most important decisions in the lives of a newlywed couple is that of adding a member to the family. In our case, we took that step last week by ... dog sitting for one of JB's co-workers. (What ... you were expecting something else?)

We've had Crosby, a Yorkiepoo (which is such a fun breed name to say: half-Yorkie and half-poodle), with us for the past week, and for the most part, he's behaved himself well and only occasionally barked at the neighbors/strangers. He is a lapdog in every sense of the word, and has spent numerous hours curled up in JB's and my laps when we've been home. He's a tiny little thing but has an incredible amount of energy and a lot of love to give, like all good dogs do.

The Parable of the Worms

We've been enjoying the new Church's new Come, Follow Me program so far this year as we've been studying the scriptures and, in particular, the New Testament. Recently, one of the topics we discussed was the parables of Jesus---the parable of the talents, the ten virgins, the sower, and so forth.

One of the study questions/ideas from this lesson was to come up with a parable of your own, using modern metaphors. At that moment, I couldn't think of one. But upon going outside later that morning and walking through the pouring rain, a parable became apparent before my very eyes.

It is simply this: The adversary uses things that, on the surface, look very appealing and attractive. Once he's drawn us to the surface by these superficial things, like the worm, he crushes us or steps on us or runs over us with cars or does any number of a horrible other things that can be done to worms in the rain.

So, there's my parable.

Spencer's Graduation Party

Our nephew Spencer graduated from Viewmont High School last week. There was a graduation party for him Thursday night at Smoot Park in Centerville, and of course you know that meant that the Fun Aunt and Uncle were there to help party with him.

We're proud of the man this kid is becoming and his Uncle Paco is particularly proud of the fellow Star Wars fan he is, too. JB told me that he said his "dream vacation" would be to the planet Kashyyyk (the Wookiee world from Revenge of the Sith) and that his favorite movie (not just in the series, but his favorite movie) is Return of the Jedi.

I also learned that he is an accomplished woodworker; a number of his woodworking projects were on display to show everyone.