World Wide Leadership Training 2013

The Lord needs us to do His work and he will put all of His power behind it.  D&C 84:88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.  President Eyring testified of the importance of this training.

“The power that is with us is infinitely greater than the forces that attack true happiness.  Our safety and our success require only that we align our intents and our hearts with God’s wishes and so with His power.  This training is a guide and an encouragement to make that alignment and to take others with us.  I bear you my witness that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live.  They love you and your family.  They are perfectly aware of you; your needs, your wants, and your potential.  The blessings of the priesthood and its keys are available to you and to every member of your family everywhere in the world.  You can be sure of that even in the dark times.  Our families can be strong and at peace.”

President Eyring further said, “This training is designed to help us learn, through the power of the Holy Ghost, how Heavenly Father would have us minister, particularly in families.”

Your ward should have been given a DVD of this training but it is also available online. https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013?lang=eng    It is easily downloadable or can be watched via streaming.  We have been encouraged to use it in Stake and Ward Councils as well as in families and in our callings.  Each video segment has a PDF discussion guide that can help facilitate discussion in families and in council meetings.

This is a valuable resource for the sisters in your wards to use to strengthen their families through family home evening lessons, personal gospel study, and family gospel study.  It is also a valuable resource to help sisters who do not live in a home where a priesthood holder resides understand that they also have access to priesthood power in their homes.

This training encourages us to counsel together and to draw more fully on the power of the priesthood in our callings.  Barbara W. Winder, a former General Relief Society President said,  “unity is ‘not simply a matter of the sisters working together, but that we are partners with the priesthood bretheren.  We are companions in the work.’” (pp. 141)  We are equally responsible as brothers and sisters to move this work forward.

Elder Oaks said, “The prophet Joseph Smith told the early sisters that he had something better for them than a written constitution.  Being organized under priesthood authority they were to reject worldly concepts of power and seek the power that flows down from heaven for those functions and to those individuals who are using their time and talents in the Lord’s way.”

When teaching about the World Wide Leadership Training 2013, the General Relief Society Training 2013 beautifully taught how we have access to priesthood power

·         When we access priesthood ordinances

·         When we make and keep sacred covenants

·         When we participate in all aspects of temple work (remembering covenants and promised blessings)

·         When we renew covenants through the sacrament

·         When we receive delegated authority when we are set apart in our callings

·         When we work in unity in priesthood councils, in ward councils, in stake councils, in family councils and when we are counseling together in our presidencies

·         When we receive priesthood blessings

·         “Through delegated authority and personal righteousness ward and stake Relief Society presidents can act with priesthood power.  We can receive inspiration, have access to all the gifts of the sprit, have the sustaining blessing of the Lord’s power in our callings, and have confidence that the Lord will direct our work.  Through covenant making and righteous covenant keeping all sisters can have access to priesthood power in calling down the blessing of heaven for themselves, for their families, and in their callings.”

This training bears powerful testimony of the need for us to continue on the covenant path and for us to help the sisters within our stewardship to make and keep all of the sacred covenants available to us through the priesthood of God.

President Eyring said “Never waste an opportunity to teach and exemplify the love of God extended through the priesthood.”

Please encourage your sisters to use this training in their homes.  The Holy Ghost will testify of the truth contained therein and their homes will be strengthened and protected by an increased faith in the power of the priesthood.

Neil Diamond Kentucky Derby Pie

Every January a friend of mine had a Neil Diamond Birthday party.  It is rediculiously fun with a game of "Neilo" (where we group sing the Neil Diamond songs we have on our Bingo cards) and Pin the Chest Hair on Neil".  We also bring food inspired by a Neil Diamond song.  This year I made a derivation of the famous Derby Pie inspired by the song "Kentucky Woman" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-YpI-eJgDc

A note about corn syrup.  I searched specifically for a recipe that did not use corn syrup.  I know that there is no decisive evidence that corn syrup is metabolized differently than other sugars http://scopeweb.mit.edu/?p=2080 however I prefer to eat foods that are as close to natural as I can get them.  With that said maybe in the future I'll try this recipe with honey or maple syrup rather than refined sugars.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 T flour
1 T milk
1 t vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
9" pie shell

Combine all ingredients and pour into a 9" pie shell

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes covered in tinfoil.  Then 15-20 minutes uncovered.

note:  I forgot to add the flour and I had to cook it longer than the above instructions.

Solar Eclipse May 20, 2012

I was able to capture a quick time lapse of the Solar Eclipse tonight.  My Canon Rebel XT with a 300 mm zoom lens and a welding hood placed over the lens made for a great spur of the moment telescope!

I took a picture every 3 seconds and use a 1/50sec exposure, f5.6, ISO 100

Magic on the Sidewalk

The chalk art festival in Bountiful, Utah is sponsored by the Joy Foundation which “help[s] local youth to discover talents, develop confidence and overcome adversity through arts.”
It is in it’s eight year but I didn’t discover it until last year when a friend and I were running on Main Street in Bountiful and saw the chalk art going up.
This year the festival ran Thursday – Saturday and a big rain storm was forecast for Friday.  Although the artists covered their work in plastic much of it was damaged.  Some left it as it was and it created interesting textures in their art.  Other’s touched up their work where it had been damaged.  And a few cleaned the sidewalk and started all over again.
Here is one of the pieces that was damaged by the rain but not so much that it needed to be repaired. You can see the striated lines where the rain soaked plastic pressed down onto the chalk art.

Here is a piece by Stacy VanArsdale that was partially completed before the rain started.















And here is the same piece after it had been completed and the damage from the rain fixed.














This artist started all over again after the rain storm.  Here is the beginning of her work on Friday evening.
















And here is the finished art work which won the Adult 1st Place.


















The Avengers was a common theme at this festival and this piece won the People’s Choice Award

The Hunger Games was also a common theme.

There were also a lot of zebra’s.  All of them very colorful!



This was one of my favorite pieces.

This piece made me laugh right out loud when I understood the perspective from which it was drawn.


There was a lot of great creativity in design.

This one was captioned “Picasso’s Guernica meets Toy Story 3.” 

I love how this artist integrated the man hole cover into the classic Van Gogh work of Starry Starry Night.

There was also a lot of space for young and old artists alike to create their own works after being inspired by the artists’ work.  It was really fun to walk along and see all of those creations.

Fast Train - Slow Camera

Inspired by +Gene Bowker I went out and shot trains.  I leared a few things about shooting trains.  1) It is really boring waiting for a train, 2) setting up the shot ahead of time doesn't help because the train comes down the wrong set of tracks, and 3) it is really ESHILARATING when the train is rushing by and the world starts to whirl around you.

This image was shot at ISO 100, 3.2 sec exposure, 32 aperture, 238 mm zoom on my trusty Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT.

Multiplicity

The first step in taking this picture was setting my camera up on my tripod and setting my interval timer to take a shot every 10 seconds.  From there I just walked around the frame, smiled, and ignored the fact that I looked really silly!

Once I had the pictures taken, I loaded all the ones I wanted to use onto photoshop.

I picked one picture to paste all of the other self-portraits into.  From there I used the Lasso tool to draw a line around me in one picture, copied it, pasted it, and then tried to match the spot where it fit as best as I could.  It is kind of like putting a puzzle together. If you look at the picture on the left you can see where I have used to Lasso tool to delineate what to copy.  In the picture in the middle you can see that I have pasted it but not yet placed it.

I made a second version of the picture with one more me =).   Although I used photoshop, Gimp is a free photo editing software that would do just as good of a job as photoshop did.

Cactus League Baseball Spring Training–Texas Rangers vs San Francisco Giants

I think that going to the Old Ball Game is almost as relaxing as sitting on the beach.  There is just enough action to make it interesting but just enough lull in the game for you to be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the cool night air.  Spring training baseball is even better because you can get much closer to the action!

We were lucky to be sitting right on the edge of the 1st base line where the Texas Rangers players walked back to the locker room.  Many players walked by but only Josh Hamilton http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/texas-rangers/post/_/id/4880443/josh-hamilton-pleased-with-his-spring and one other signed autographs.  I enjoyed watching the excited fans get autographs as much as I enjoyed watching the game.  And I have a lot of respect for players who will take the time to greet their fans.

Poised to get an autograph

Excitedly waiting for players ……… But no luck this time.

A loyal Texas fan