Now we are crossing the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

We are driving to Orlando, FL right now and I am testing out Blogger's text to blog feature.

New Talk Posted on LDS Talks!!

The Civil War: Fulfillment of Joseph Smith’s Prophecy

On September 1823 Moroni, an ancient Book of Mormon prophet, appeared to young Joseph Smith and gave him many instructions relative to events to come. Joseph quotes Moroni who said, “that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people" (Joseph Smith History 1:30, 33). Partial fulfillment of Moroni’s words is clearly seen by Anti-Mormons who seek to somehow defraud Joseph Smith as a Prophet of God. Likewise, there are some who ignorantly disregard or equivocally discredit history in a failed attempt to disprove the revelation Joseph received on December 25, 1832. History is replete with explicit evidence of the fulfillment of this great prophecy. I will navigate the reader back through time, stopping just prior to December 25, 1832, and from there begin a detailed analysis of the prophecy with its fulfillment in the events that led up to and directly stemmed from the Civil War. From this analysis the reader can walk away with a witness of the literal fulfillment of this prophecy and look forward to the fulfillment of subsequent history majestically scribed, by the Lord himself. Click to Continue Reading

Today's weigh in makes me HAPPY!!!

My family had a contest to see who could loose the most weight and/or work out the most. Kiera and I started a week earlier than the contest and did pretty well through the whole contest. Since we moved to Hawaii I have not worked out once since I do not have a basketball but I kept eating ok. Anyway, this mornig I weighed in at 211.4 lbs. From 260 lbs that is right at 49 lbs lost. I am a happy man this morning!!!!!!

On a funny note, I accidentally posted this on my wife's blog first and luckily I caught it. Can you imagine how much trouble I would of got it. I am a happy man :-)

1st time taking the bus to church

We do not have a car yet and so we had the pleasure of taking the bus to church. It actually was not bad at all, we have been getting used to it over the last two days. It definitely helps seeing the beach and beauty Hawaii the whole way there and back. So I will take you through our journey step by step:

We walked to the bus stop by our house. Our house is two streets behind the 7 Eleven. It is hard to see the beautiful mountain back there will my trusty phone camera but it is gorgeous. Anyway, now we wait and wait...



This is the entrance to BYUH and we actually took this picture on our way back to the bus stop but it really comes first so here it is. BYUH has done a great job making the campus very beautiful.



And now, we walk... The Stake Center is on campus but it is about a 10 minute walk from the beginning of campus and a very fun one with the crazy girls. :-)



These last two pictures were taken at the bus stop just off of campus as we waited to be taken home by our "chauffeur." Ha, Ha, Ha!!

We had to leave the Big AZ with a Bang!

We got a gift card to Amazing Jake's for Christmas from Kiera and so we took the family for one last thrill in the Big AZ. It was really fun but it makes not sense to me why their food is not that good? Well anyway, here is the family. I have to say that all these pictures on from my phone camera which is not the best but it does ok if everyone is holding very still.



Our first ride after dinner...... Are you sick yet. This is how well my camera handles movement. This did look like a fun ride that they went on.



Here they are when the ride finished.



They only had two bumper boats working so Lacie and Alexa just bumped each other until their little hearts were content and then they just spun in circles. I guess you can only bump your sister so many times before even that is looses its fun.



Ashlyn just refused to hold still so this is what she gets. I am really sticking it to her.

Charity is the pure love of Christ

Kiera and I spoke in church a few Sundays ago and I finally posted my talk onto my LDS Talks Blog. I just love speaking with my wife it is just a blast.

Children's love for Mom

Every morning my girls come into our bed and they all want Mom. It is so funny because they all fight because they want to be the lucky one to be touching Mom. If both of Mom's sides are taken then they lay flat on her stomach. It is rather nice for me because I am not crowded but it would be nice to be honored to have such love. But only Mom's have that great honor, that is part of what makes motherhood so special. Here is a picture that tells a thousand words, and remember that Lacie is missing and she is usually one of the first. Also, there was no posing involved, I surprised everyone. They barely got off a smile.

While I was posting the above picture from my phone, Alexa and Ashlyn started fighting because they both had more of Mom than the other. Alexa was on her side and Ashlyn was on top but then Ashlyn put her arm on Mom's side, and Alexa got mad and finally she put her leg up on top of Mom. It was funny so I quickly grabbed this picture:

Again, while I was posting the above picture, Ashlyn got mad at Mom because she was squished. It is so funny, all the girls come in and take up our precious space and then say they are squished. Anyway, here is mad Ashlyn.

I went into the family room and Lacie was in there watching TV. I told her that I had just taken a few pictures of the girls all over Mom like they are every morning. She was sad and said that she did not come in because I had asked her not too. I had told her last night that I was up all night with her and the other girls and asked her not to come in so that I could get some sleep. She obeyed and that makes me very happy, so here is obedient Lacie.

Hotel room

Here is my girls in our hotel room just chilling. We are about to get them dressed to meet my family at Denny's. We are getting together before everyone goes back to their homes all over the country.

Yes on Prop 102 passed

Well, all the hard work that everyone put in to make this propisition to pass worked because it did pass. Marriage is protected once again.

Our family End of the Summer APX Party...Yippee Kiyah

Yesterday I decided to call it a summer. My whole team went home last weekend and I bribed a tech to stay and install my jobs for the week. Well, yesterday I decided it was enough since I found out that all my hard work would not go to my summer numbers. Our office had lots of trials and we were told there would be a good chance that we would get all of September added to our summer numbers. Unfortunalty, it was confirmed that only through 9/17 will be added. So that was the last straw to get me to call it a summer. We went to the reservoir or lake by one of the apartments and we burned two of my APX shirts. We invited the tech that installed my job and his name was Davie, and he brought some small APX equipment boxes that made it possible to prop up the shirts to make it look cool, this was his burning contribution. We all ate Cheetos, Cracker Jack's, and drank rootbeer around the little fire, it was a blast. Anyway, below is some footage of this blessed event. Our camera ran out of batteries right before we started the fire so it is taken with my handheld so the quaility is not the best but you get the idea.

Stake Work Project 2008

Spiritual Fortification coming soon

I have enjoyed sharing the Gospel over the internet. I feel like an internet missionary. My LDS Talks blog has over 2558 hits and my LDS Quotes blog has over 1461, from all over the world. It is absolutely amazing. About a month ago I started designing a full feature website where I can share the Gospel in a greater capasity. I do lack the HTML skills to have it come to fuision but I am going to begin to contruct the content at least, since I can do that much. The name that I have given it is Spiritual Fortification. The July 2008 Ensign has given me new added inspiration to do more. Here is the article titled, Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet. So stay tuned...

New talk posted on LDS Talks

One of the nonmembers on our team, Ken West, went to church with us and it was awesome. First of all I got up and bore my testimony in sacrament and of course cred like a baby. Then, in Gospel Principles class we had a good lesson on Faith in Christ. Ken made a comment that I thought could get very confrontational, he said that nothing we can do will increase our faith, it is simply that you have faith in Christ and he will give unto us. One of the recently baptized members asked how to increase your faith when it gets low, and so we were talking about reading scriptures and I said that if we want an increase in faith we must sacrifice more for that. Anyway, Ken used Hebrew 11 to make his point, and so I turned to Hebrews 11 and prayed that the Lord would lead me to a verse that would prove that faith is increased through action, and sure enough the Lord answered my prayer. Hebrew 11:8-9 says:

8 By faith ^aAbraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an ^binheritance, ^cobeyed; and he went out, not ^dknowing whither he went.

9 By faith he ^asojourned in the ^bland of ^cpromise, as in a strange country, dwelling in ^dtabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

So, I told him that Abraham had great faith and as he obeyed his faith was increased and Ken's eyes began to be opened. Between Alma 34 and the lesson we were studying he began to break down walls of incorrect traditions and thinking that he had. It was so amazing the Spirit began to fill his soul and he was excited. Several times he said with excitement, I need to read this book of Alma. One of the missionaries were asked to give the closing prayer and he just kept saying I need to get me this book of Alma and read it, and finally the missionary just cut him off an prayed, it was funny. We got him a Book of Mormon and we talked for a few minutes before going into Priesthood. I told him that just like the Bible is a history of Judah, the Book of Mormon is a history of Joseph, I told him about a prophecy of Joseph who was sold into Egypt that a remnant of his seed would be persevered and I told him that what he was holding in his hands is the history of that remnant of Joseph. He asked me where in the Bible he could find that prophecy and I told him that I would find out for him. That is what inspired my talk. I went back to the hotel and wrote out a talk about that. I also spent the first few minutes of Priesthood to find many of the verses that I wanted to use to show him.

So if you get a few minutes jump over and read my talk. If you have other scriptures and/or quotes that pertain to this topic please make comments on my LDS Talks website so that I can make a complete compilation of ideas on this subject. This way anyone can use this in helping their nonmember friends to understand the reality of the Book of Mormon.

Thanks and enjoy!

Read the talk just click here!

Quick Update

It has been for ever since I have posted anything because our computer broke. I am at the public library for a few minutes and thought I would make a quick update.

We left Tampa for several reasons and moved to Jackson, Mississippi where we spent several weeks and did very well. We ran into a few issues and are now in Texarkana, TX for a week or so. It has been a crazy summer.

Yesterday, one of the guys, Ken, who is not LDS come to church with us and wanted a Book of Mormon. He is an amazing guy.

I also wrote a talk that I will post once my computer is up and running. It is more like a compilation on scriptures but it should be helpful. Ken asked me where in the Bible it talks about the stick of Joseph and I told him that I would find out and let him know, so the talk is some of my research.

Anyway, my family is doing great, they are actually in Illinois visiting Kevin and heather and then they are going to Iowa to visit Mark and Sherri. On their way to Illinois they met Kevin and Sherri in Nauvoo and watched the Nauvoo Pageant, they enjoyed that and some time in Nauvoo. So needless to say they are having a fun time.