What is it that is up my people’s. Today I embark on a new journey to a foreign land. I journey to a place narry inhabited by a Parker since the late 1990’s. I journey to college dorms.
But why? Why you ask? I’ll tell your curious soul; worry not old friend.
You see my sisters lived in the dorms long ago but my brothers and I did not. I’m going to be an EFY counselor this week and will be living in Heritage Hall for 6 days. I’m really looking forward to it. EFY can be a crucial turning point for a lot of youth that may not have had testimonies. I know I needed it as a youth and for me that big change happened in the Missionary Training Center.
I’m so pumped for it! We had an all-day training yesterday on campus at BYU that was enjoyable. This is a very special place. There is absolutely nowhere like BYU in Provo. No better place for youth in the Church. The other counselors I’ve met are great people and I feel fortunate to be able to associate with them.
Oh day, glorious church day! Man I love Sundays. I went to church early for a meeting then came back and made pancakes for my roomates followed by a glorious nap on the couch. Ahhhhhhhhhhh yes. I hope your day is filled with diamonds and mythical creatures prancing about while they bestow hope and good fortune on all.
As they say in Southeast Asia, peace out and love someone,
I had this thought yesterday in church and wanted to write a post. In pop music, presentation can make up for content. In fact, you might say that’s the definition of pop music! However, most worthwhile music as we know it was once a beautiful poem, or even scripture. Parts of Handle’s Messiah, for example, come straight out of Isaiah. Pop music, on the other hand, is repetitive, shallow, and in many cases depraved of anything that can be considered valuable content. For example:
Can’t read my, can’t read my
No, he can’t read my poker face
(She’s got to love nobody)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(mum-mum-mum-mah)”
Yes. Exactly. Let’s all repeat that one to our kids! Or not.
See the contrast in a song by James Taylor:
“
“Now my mind begins to wander
To the days back on the farm
I can see my father smiling at me
Swinging on his arm
I can hear my granddad’s stories
Of the storms out on lake eerie
Where vessels and cargos and fortunes
And sailors’ lives were lost
Yes, but it’s my life has been wasted
And I have been the fool
To let this manufacturer
Use my body for a tool
I can ride home in the evening
Staring at my hands
Swearing by my sorrow that a young girl
Ought to stand a better chance
So may I work the mills just as long as I am able
And never meet the man whose name is on the label
It be me and my machine
For the rest of the morning
And the rest of the afternoon
Gone for the rest of my life”
He tells a story and teaches a lesson. That’s great!
Ecclesiastical talks and lessons are one place where presentation counts for very little. The Mormon church has chosen to present it’s message to the world in the same way for over 100 years. Calmly, cleanly, in semi-formal attire. Yes we now have technology to record and broadcast the message but it’s the same as it always has been. One thing about teaching the good word is that no matter your presentation, if you don’t live what you’re teaching your words will have no power to touch people.
Ever heard of Jane Clayson? She was on Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and did ABC News. She covered the 1996 Presidential campaign, the OJ Simpson trial, and September 11. Yup. I was on facebook today and saw that one of my friends, Spencer Nugent, was feature on mormon.org with a neat video story about him, and Jane had one, too! Whoa.
Very cool how she views motherhood. What do they do all day anyway? Well yo momma raised you didn’t she? I side with Jane in that momhood is important, vital stuff.
My friend Janie Thompson knows Jane Clayson Johnson (married name) really well and told me a story about Clayson’s sister once. She and her husband both got law degrees and didn’t have children until their 30’s. Mormons are usually known for getting married while preteens and having 14 children, but I guess even peculiar folks like us are different from one another.
I don’t think I’ve shared many things about my church on this blog. This morning I would like to mention a verse from one of my favorite books according to my facebook profile.
It’s about a great man who was responsible for helping many people find God and be happy. Once he was talking to the king of a people that were converted. They were going to be attacked by an opposing group of people and they wanted to escape, but they were worried about leaving and joining with another people that they had previously committed many crimes against from before they were converted.
This great man’s name was Ammon. So Ammon said to the king: “I will go and inquire of the Lord, and if he say unto us, go down unto our brethren, will ye go?”
Not all of us believe there is a god and not all of us believe that if there is a god, he is able to communicate with us. If you believe both of those, though, then this verse has a great meaning. It asks us if we receive instruction, will we follow it? If we know something is right will we do it? Love it.
So to finish the story Ammon asks if they should go, the Lord says yes, and they join the people whom they previously wronged. They were very happily received! The opposing group mentioned did attack anyway, but were beaten because these other two groups of people joined forces.
This is from the Book of Mormon (it’s like the Bible). The book within the book is called Alma, chapter 27.
Yesterday was wonderful. Filled with family and General Conference. A very influential person in my dad’s and therefore my life came to visit my parents while Eric and I were up there yesterday. His name is Chuck Stamps and he was my dad’s youth group (’priest quorum’ if you’re Mormon) adviser when he was 16. He would stop by my dad’s house and wait outside until he came outside ready for church. He was a big factor in my dad’s activity in the church.
We had a great connection happen- Chuck served in Tuskegee, AL in 1999-2000 on a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of my accounting professors baptized a woman Chuck knew there whose posterity has been very influential in the area.
Tuskegee, believe it or not, is very significant in American History. It was home to Rosa Parks, Lionel Richie, the first African American female gold medalist, and the infamous syphilis study that inspired “Miss Ever’s Boys”.
This week’s home evening was sweet. We decorated cookies. They tasted good.
Afterward I gave a guitar lesson to my friend who I used to home teach. He’s in the BYU marching band and several other groups, which goes along with being a percussion performance major. He’s phenominal on anything pounded and wanted to learn some guitar. Learns fast, I’m impressed. We also broke it down severely at home evening with beat-boxing and improv rhymes. Lotsa fun.
I have been protesting Facebook for some 3.5 years now. I thought it was a big waste of time because so many do just that.
I have decided that I’m going to be in the world and try not to be of it. Because my father, grandmother, bishop, and Church now have facebook pages I figure it’s finally time.
What does that mean to you? To me it’s being humble in the light and true in the dark. “Tell me what a man is thinking when he doesn’t have to been thinking and I’ll tell you what kind of man he is”. When I was a missionary in Oxnard California I had that quote posted on the back of my bedroom door. I could only see it when the door was closed in the mornings and I was alone studying the gospel and Spanish. Again:
“
Tell me what a man is thinking when he doesn’t have to been thinking and I’ll tell you what kind of man he is.
“
Jon Huntsman said last Tuesday: “be a person of integrity; it is totally up to you and no one else how your life evolves”. He went on to say that many of us look to others as a place to shift responsibility for our future.
Who are you when the lights go out? Can you be trusted? Are you hiding anything important from people close to you or denying a fact about your own self? Do you make decisions promptly and stick to them? I would say that integrity is more important than performance. I would hire someone who always told the truth over someone who always left you guessing. I’d rather surround myself with people from whom I never had to worry about whether I was hearing the whole story.
It is always the right time to tell the truth. It is always the right time to confess our faults, to clearly communicate with others.
I attest this is true. People ask me about my attitude and wonder how on earth I can be so positive. It’s Christmas Day! That’s why! Didn’t you hear? Today can be the best dang day of your life if you let it! Just ask, seek, and knock for the positive and I guarantee it will flood to you! If you look for reasons to form a long and painful story about how life punished you today, then I also guarantee you will succeed in that endeavor.
Man moves in the direction of his current, most dominating thought. Why let the devil tell you it has to be sad or negative?! Take charge and think positively, call me and wish me a Merry Christmas when you do.
At least these ties are. I asked my roomate at church if his tie was a Jerry Garcia and he looked puzzled. To his surprise he turned it around and beheld the author of his neck-wear! I was telling him how I had one, too when we decided to take this shot because another guy had a yellow tie on. Good ‘ol Sunday.
Can you spot the Jerry? Do you like Cherry Garcia Ben ‘n Jerry’s ice cream?
I love General Conference of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints. It feels so good to watch it and hard to describe what it feels like. Its just good. Some of the kindest people speak to us in an effort to help us to get closer to God.
There are 6 sessions this weekend. Saturday morning and afternoon, priesthood session Saturday night, and Sunday morning and afternoon. They are 2 hours each, which seems like a lot but its really worth it and flies by.
Here is Eric, me, and my dad after priesthood session. My dad was excited for us to start his chainsaw because he recently got it repaired.
In the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a leader, or president. President Thomas Monson we also call a “prophet” just like Moses or Abraham in the bible. It’s a bold claim, we know, but that’s really what we believe.
He came to BYU today and spoke to us in our weekly devotional. It was great, he’s really funny for being an 82 year-old retired printing executive. Today he spoke about other prophets that have lived in the past 60 years and told us a more human side of them. Their favorite food, favorite quotes, foibles, and so forth. It was a great experience to be there.
Temples are the Mormon Church’s most sacred and important buildings. The church currently has 130 operating temples throughout the world. Eric and I went to the Provo temple this afternoon. Everyone wears white when they enter the temple to symbolize equality in God’s eyes. White also symbolizes church member’s commitment to keep clean from the sins that would destroy families.
I love the temple because inside I grow closer to God and feel a special peace there.
This is Mary Li, April Lin, and Ethan Parker. Today was April’s first day in the United States.
Don’t worry, she actually smiles a lot and we had a great time today. Culture thing in pictures. She’s now a 20 yr old Sophomore at BYU and not Mormon. My friend Mary volunteers with the international office on campus and asked me if I would drive them around today to get some things done. We got groceries, a student ID, a laptop, a pillow and some other stuff. She looked very lost in the grocery store. Poor girl said something like “all this food is so American, I don’t know what to get” in Mandarin to Mary.
Mary was in her same position 2 years ago and now speaks excellent English as a very active Latter-day Saint. Great experience!
If you haven’t heard that name yet, you’ve missed out on one of the world’s truly great people right here in Provo. Today is her 88th birthday and she’s as spry as ever and full of songs and jokes. Yesterday I went to visit and take out the news paper recycling and we sat down and talked for a bit. I feel lucky to know her. Here is how we met:
September 13, 2006 my dad and I drove my 1986 VW Jetta from Ventura, CA to Kaysville, UT. It was a gift from my dad’s cousin in Valencia marking the end of my LDS mission. The next day I started classes at BYU. I was still getting used to Provo and had no idea where anything was so I used to drive to class and park in nearby neighborhoods. One rainy day I was headed back to my car when I saw a nice lady walking in the rain with an umbrella. I said “Hi, how are you?” -she looked excited and walked up to me with a reply “Did you say hi, Janie?!?!”. I’m sure I looked a little confused while shaking my head.
I asked her where she was going in that kind of weather and she mentioned that she was headed downtown to pick up some typewriter ribbon. I offered a ride and off we went. I didn’t know they still made typewriter ribbon! She was so kind and honest in the way she spoke.
After we got there she said I didn’t have to wait for her and that I could just go back home. I was going to take her up on the offer, but thought that just wouldn’t be right. Rain, she’s old, I guess my conscience wouldn’t let me. When I was about to drop her off she offered to have me over for dinner that Sunday. I accepted. From then on we had a deal where I would do some yard work or chores around their house and they would feed me. She lives with her sister and brother-in-law and a grand-niece. She also offered to give me two tickets to the Homecoming Spectacular at BYU in a couple weeks. I thought that was cool, and it was if you’ve never been.
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Corny phrase, yes. Janie has made my experience at BYU something totally different and special. I really feel like I am a part of something great because I know Janie and have heard all of her amazing stories about how she started the Young Ambassadors, performed with Tony Bennet, founded Lamanite Generation (now Living Legends), did over 2000 shows in her career and jammed with Glenn Miller overseas in WWII. She also served on the Young Women’s General Board for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 16 years.
Janie’s testimony is rock solid, too. She really has helped me stay on the right path since I have been home from my mission. Being accountable to her makes me live at a standard much higher than normal.
Last summe the city of Provo asked Janie to to a musical she wrote about 20 years ago called “We the People” and I got to be in it. It was also part of a documentary BYU recently did on Janie’s life entitled “Performance of Faith” that has been on KBYU a few times. The picture below is of Janie and I last summer. I hope she doesn’t mind (but probably won’t ever see it!) I have embedded a video of a song she performed at the closing banquet for the BYU football team from the 2006 season. It’s just an example of the hundreds if not thousands of great and super cheerful songs she has written over the years. This was a special serenade just for me in her living room, I wasn’t invited to the football thing.
If you’ve ever heard me talk about her or met her, that probably means we are really good friends. Read about her if ya like:
My friend Josh and I went to the Bountiful temple because we were up in that area today. It is a beautiful building with lots of white marble and wise old men wearing white. Today we did initiatory work. Elder Scott’s advice to think about and pray for the people who will be affcted by the work is good advice. He mentioned that in his most recent conference talk entitled Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need.
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