Isaiah - That Great Stumbling Block

I was going through my blog drafts and came across this one and for whatever reason I failed to click publish. Here ya go.


Anyone who has set out to read the Book of Mormon soon discovers that great stumbling block called Isaiah. With all the imagery he uses in his prose, he can be downright baffling to read, much less wade through.

So why?

Why was Nephi instructed to include the words of Isaiah? Why did the Savior himself quote from Isaiah's writings and declare his words to be great? (see 3 Nephi 23:1)

I find it quite interesting that Nephi, intending to persuade his people to more fully believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, read to them from the writings of Isaiah (see 1 Nephi 19:23).

Isaiah has never been a favorite of mine. I am one of those who find him challenging, hard, difficult to understand.

So I was a little taken back when Kiersten tells me last week how much see enjoys reading the writings of Isaiah. (She's been reading the Book of Mormon as a goal.)

WHAT??

Since she was in charge of the lesson for Family Home Evening, I gave her the assignment to teach us something from Isaiah.

I didn't give her a lot of time to prepare, but she did teach us about the name Utah which most of us have understood to mean "the top of the mountains." It's a pretty cool correlation but whether the meaning is entirely correct is up for discussion.

Either way, Isaiah was right when he stated that "the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains" (see Isaiah 2:2) No one can really dispute that Utah is situated in the top of some pretty good-sized mountains.

She also wanted to point something out that her friend Rachel showed to her. The word Utah reads vertical in that same verse of Isaiah, but we also discovered that not all editions of the scriptures show that to be true. It's a fun thing to find, but certainly not one to base a testimony on.

Oh, I hope she continues her love of the scriptures, especially Isaiah since she truly does delight in his words.

I have much to learn from my daughter and also from Isaiah.

Nothing to Envy, a book about North Korea

  Nothing to Envy

I had the opportunity to travel to South Korea in 2009 and desperately wanted to visit the DMZ to see what life was like behind that other "iron curtain." Having lived in South Korea for 2 years, Tyler persuaded me that it wouldn't be a very smart thing to do at this point especially since North Korea had just launched a missile delaying our flight into South Korea.

Ever since that trip I've been a little bummed we didn't go, so when this book was suggested for our book club, I couldn't have been more excited to get a glimpse into the lives of a North Korean.

It's not a book for everyone. If you have no interest in North Korea or communist countries, you probably will find it a little slow and hard to follow. I, on the other hand, found it fascinating to discover what life it like in a country that has shut out the world.

The irony of the famine during the 1990s was that it created a society where the people began to shun the government, trying desperately to find whatever food they could to survive, often creating black markets and attempting border crossings into China to find food which led to brokers who would helped people leave the country for good. I was amazed that the border between North Korea and China was nothing more than a river that could be waded across and that even North Korean border guards could be bribed with money.

I also felt for the defectors, the ones who actually made it to South Korea, only to be thrust in to a society having no technical or social skills and just wanting to return "home" to North Korea.

I strongly suspect that if the North Korean government had actually accepted food and help from the UN and kept their citizens fed during the famine that it would largely be the same country it had been for 60 years. This book left me with the impression that the country is still very much in the dark, but that the people of North Korea have become more disenchanted and disillusioned with their government.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Alaska - Juneau

Juneau just happens to be the capital city of Alaska, but the catch is that the only way to get to Juneau is either by boat, plane, or birth canal. There are no roads in or out. At one point they tried to move the capital to Anchorage but that didn't go over too well.

Downtown Juneau, Very hilly

We were told that Juneau is where you go whale watching. Tyler and I tried whale watching in Anacortes, outside of Seattle, but never got to see anything. This time we were hopeful that this particular excursion would pay off.
And it did. There were also harbor seals and bald eagles, lots of eagles.

Okay, I just have to point out that if you go on a cruise to Alaska, chances are pretty good that you'll be hanging out with a crowd of old retirees. Proof is in the matching jackets.

Tyler and I fit right in! (Thank you CUNA Mutual for the matchy-matchy jackets we got in Ireland. They totally made our trip to Alaska that much more comfortable.) And, no, retirement is nowhere in the near future.

Mendenhall Glacier was next on our itinerary with its gorgeous ice. It's called calving when it breaks off and falls into the lake or ocean exposing a deep blue, almost purple, color. The waterfall next to it was pretty amazing too. Kind of put the Multnomah Falls in Oregon to shame.



After a long day of sight seeing, we were greeted in our room by this:
Apparently my books took precedence over Tyler's if you notice his is still laying on his nightstand. Also we always had a chocolate, but devouring that also took precedence over the picture taking.

A modern-day Ellen Breakell Neibaur

My pioneers made it home safely.

Their expected arrival was 3pm so I drove to the church to meet them. I had the van pointed so that I would see those buses when they came around the corner.

How do I describe the emotions I had at the sight of BUSES? It seems so silly but I got a little teary-eyed when they eventually rounded that corner. I was so excited to hear all about the past week and just to give Kiersten and Erik a great big bear hug.

I waited and watched as the unloading began. The first person I saw was Uncle Medardo who gave a big wave to the crowd gathered to bring their pioneers home. Then my neighbor exited, needing a ride home to get her car. As I kept scanning the growing crowd, I felt so much like Ellen Breakell Neibaur who also scanned a similar crowd. However, as I was looking at the faces, wanting to see the ones I recognized, she was looking at the feet, wanting to see whose feet her shoes had helped to make the journey a little easier.
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Ellen Breakell Neibaur was an English girl who married a German, Alexander Neibaur, who had come to England to study dentistry. They were in Preston, England, when Heber C. Kimball went on his first English mission and Ellen and Alexander were converted.

Eventually they came to America and settled in Nauvoo. When it came time to leave on the westward journey, the Neibaurs were extremely poor. It took all of their money to buy a team and wagon and enough supplies to get them through. She didn’t even have enough money to buy a pair of shoes, so she wrapped her feet in rags and came all the way across the plains barefoot. After they reached Salt Lake, traveling in the second company with Brigham Young in 1848, her husband became a teacher. She took in laundry.

For the next eight years, any time she could save a penny or two she put it aside. After eight long years, she finally had reached the point where she could buy a pair of commercially made shoes from a mail order house. She ordered a pair of high-top patent leather button shoes. They arrived sometime in September 1856.

Just a few days later, on October 4, a company led by Franklin D. Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve rode into Salt Lake with some very disturbing news. They said, "President Young, we have two more handcart companies stranded out on the plains, with over a thousand people." Brigham Young was stunned; three companies had already come in safely and he assumed that was it for the season. He had no idea there were more, so he had called all the supply wagons back to Salt Lake. The news reached him on Saturday afternoon, October 4.

In general conference on the next day, October 5, Brigham Young stood up and said, "I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak to-day and during the conference. It is this. On the 5th day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, 'to get them here.'" President Young then called for teams, wagons, food, and clothing to help those who were stranded.

And Ellen Neibaur, after eight years of waiting, had not lost sight of what the covenant was and what mattered. She took that brand-new pair of shoes down to the wagon team and gave them to the rescue effort. It was customary, when a new company came into the Valley for all the Saints to go out and line the streets and greet them. When this particular company came in, everyone went out to greet them, because this was the first of the two besieged handcart companies to be rescued.

Ellen Neibaur went out. Normally the Saints watched the faces of the people coming in to see who they were. She wasn’t looking at faces. She was looking at feet. She wanted to know who had gotten her shoes. Now, here comes the beautiful end to this true story, a great example of faith and covenant, and an example of the power that follows. When Ellen Neibaur saw her shoes, she looked up and, to her absolute amazement, wearing them was an old friend from Preston, England, who had joined the Church since Ellen had left England!

Ellen’s sacrifice had helped to save her friend’s life and had helped her come to the Valley safely.

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Kiersten and Erik were lucky enough to be in the same company with Uncle Medardo as captain even though they were in different families . . . at least in the beginning. By the end of trek their two families had basically blended together.

They experienced one of the hottest weeks so far this summer, rain, dust storm, dehydration. Kiersten even tried walking barefoot and decided that wouldn't be so fun, especially in the snow. I think they both had a great time. At least they said they would do it again.

Kiersten during the women's pull. She told me she went down the hill 4 times to help pull handcarts up. I don't think she appreciated Erik taking a photo of her.

Thanks to Aunt Nancy who was the company mom, I got a few photos of my trekkers.

Um . . .

Did you realize summer is half over?

At least for those of us who have children in school.

And we haven't crossed one thing off our bucket list yet.

But that's going to all change next week when we try out Seven Peaks (aka Raging Waters) for an orthodontist patient party.

Whew! I'm sure glad I know where my money's being spent.

And they're off

I miss them already.

I just wish I could be that little gnat in their ear to remind them to drink LOTS of water, to wear sunscreen, and just to make sure they're going to be okay.

I can't wait to hear all about their TREK adventures when they come home Friday.

FHE lately

Be assured we still do hold our weekly family home evening. We've just been lazy about pictures.

Have I mentioned how crazy May can be? We did fit in a trip to the West Valley Fitness Center to swim (still trying to get use out of our passes before they expire) and then to 7-11 for Slurpees.

One week Kiersten had us play hide-n-seek all over the house like the kids used to when we first moved in. I didn't realize there were so many good places to hide.

Erik's birthday happened to fall on a Monday evening and Memorial Day we worked at getting packed as we all headed to different destinations for 10 days.

During June Tyler and I were in Alaska and the others were spread around.

Ash gave us a lesson on temples one night and on another we talked about trek and watched 17 Miracles. I shared a story about Tyler's Aunt Pam that was emailed to us 4 or 5 years ago by her husband Uncle Bob. 

She was participating in trek that year riding a horse. Aunt Pam was asked to take a leather coat to someone. But as the coat was being brought to her, the horse she was on got spooked by it, reared up, and landed on top of her with the saddle horn hitting her right in the chest. She knew she was in a lot of trouble as she felt the bleeding inside and immediately asked for a blessing. The ma's and pa's were asked to gather their families together and pray for her.

As she was given the blessing, she felt the feeling that she was bleeding go away and was told she would make a complete recovery. She was life-flighted to the hospital where a trauma team was waiting to perform numerous surgeries based on the EMT reports. However, there was nothing to operate on and the doctor found no evidence of internal bleeding.

The stake president who gave her the priesthood blessing later told Uncle Bob how it was revealed to him that her injuries were very serious and life threatening but that as he began the blessing he knew she would be healed and recover.

"We have been blessed with a miracle in our family that has been shared with hundreds of people. Pam worried that her accident had disrupted trek or taken away from it. Everyone tells us that the experience enhanced their experience and helped their trek families pull together as they prayed together for Pam."

Fire break

Utah is literally burning down this summer. It has been so hot and dry . . . and windy!

This is the view behind our house that makes us a little nervous to leave for very long, especially over the 4th. Even though fireworks are banned you get some non-compliant people out there.

One year while living in Stansbury, we were gone on the 4th of July and came home to discover that our neighbor's fireworks had burnt several holes in our trampoline and lit a couple of bushes on fire.

So we put in our own fire break. Actually, it's been part of the plan all along, but our landscapers sure finished at an opportune time.