The Killers concert

I dare say that one of Tyler's favorite bands is The Killers, whose lead singer also happens to be a Mormon. One day I happened to see on Facebook that they were coming in concert to Orem and a thought popped into my head that Tyler might like to go.

So I decided to surprise him.

I got the tickets,

pinned them to his cork board in his office,

and the waiting began.

How long would they sit there before he noticed them?

Day one . . .

Day two . . .

Day three . . .

It's not like they are exactly hiding.
Day four . . . 

Day five . . .

Day six . . .

He finally discovered them.

Funny thing is that he looks directly at that board when he answers the phone.

He was pretty stoked about going. This was only his fourth concert ever and all four have been with me. Hmmmm, it must be me that likes concerts.

First: Counting Crows with his old college roommates
Second: Neil Diamond. Yes, I dragged him. He may not have enjoyed it so much, but I LOVED it! I am a Neil fan through and through.
Third: Jon Schmidt at Thanksgiving Point.
Fourth: The Killers

I guess it was payback time for me and the Neil Diamond concert. The Killers concert was fun and we had a great time, but I honestly didn't know many songs and part of going to a concert is being able to sing along. Tyler hinted that he would like to go to another one, so between now and then I guess I better brush up on my Killers music.


Brandon Flowers I Am a Mormon video

Christmas Letter 2012

The Leary Family
2012

A Year in Review

Alex (2 ½) has a developed an affinity for Erik’s Kindle. I would like to be able to report that he’s precociously reading books on it but actually he’s really good at targeting Bad Piggies with a bunch of Angry Birds.

Ashlyn ‘s (7) monkey bars got the best of her which entailed a trip to InstaCare. Luckily no broken bones and she scored a Happy Meal out of the deal. She also ran her first 5k this year.

Nathan (10) says he has been heavily recruited this year joining the ranks of soccer player, Lego engineer, violinist, pianist, and early morning scientist. He loves his busy life most days; the other days he’d really rather be engrossed in a novel, preferably about mythical people.

Erik (12) is the most popular kid at school, or so says Kiersten. We suspect it is probably due to his skills on the basketball court. He eats and breathes basketball. And then he just eats and breathes. And sometimes he just eats. One of his favorite things to read is the Taste of Home magazine.

Kiersten (13) became our first teenager. We are loving teenagerdom and love her and her infectious happy attitude. She finished the Book of Mormon for the first time, joined the brace face club, and has two piano students (her first job).

Missy* put together her first Primary program as chorister and can’t wait for next year (I’ve been in charge of many programs on the script-writing end). This is by far my favorite calling. AND, Alaska wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be (refer to Tyler).

Tyler* has put up with me for the past 15 years. To celebrate, I indulged him with an Alaskan cruise. He loved the wildlife, the crab, the salmon, the scenery, and the eat-whenever-whatever-you’d-like cruise ship cuisine.

*Our kids may think we’re old if we reveal our actual ages. I’d prefer they still think otherwise.

May the Christmas spirit find room in your hearts and home this season.

The dual symbolism of the serpent

Over Thanksgiving I was sitting in my parent's living room wondering why the symbol of the snake is used for both the Savior (see Numbers 21: 8-9) and for Satan (see Genesis 3).

It seemed odd that such a symbol could represent both. So I decided to ask Google and came across a talk written by Andrew C. Skinner, a BYU faculty member. This is what he had to say about it:

[W]hat of the serpent image as a symbol for Christ? If the serpent was a legitimate emblem of the coming Messiah, how and why did Lucifer usurp the serpent symbol after Adam and Eve were placed on this earth? In a roundabout way, the Prophet Joseph Smith may have provided a clue regarding the origins of serpent imagery as a symbol for Christ and why Satan appropriated it for his own.When speaking of the dove as an identifying symbol of the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith said, "The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove."(History of the Church 5:261)

A possible implication of this statement is that other signs, symbols, and tokens may have been instituted in premortality to represent deity, but the one that Satan absolutely could not imitate was the dove. However, as the preeminent counterfeiter and deceiver, Satan could and does usurp other signs and symbols properly applied to God in order to try to legitimize his false identity as a god. This is why Satan chose to appropriate and utilize the sign of the serpent as the best means of deceiving Eve as well as her posterity.

The scriptures help us to see that Satan imitates and perverts every divine truth; every godly concept, principle, or practice; and every good and positive symbol, image, sign, and token in order to deceive and manipulate the souls of men. This even includes appearing as an angel of light (see Alma 30:53; D&C 128:20). By usurping and manipulating the symbol of the serpent, Satan tried to validate his false identity and his lies, insisting that following his ways would elevate our first parents to the status of the very God represented by the true image of the serpent (see Moses 4:10–11). Satan came to Eve clothed, as it were, in the garb of the Messiah, using the signs, symbols, and even the language of the Messiah, promising things that only the Messiah could rightfully promise. "(And [Satan] spake by the mouth of the serpent.) . . . And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as the gods" (Moses 4:7, 10–11). In reality only the one who worked out an infinite atonement could legitimately make these kinds of promises. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Satan is justly called a liar from the beginning (see Moses 4:4; D&C 93:25).

Because Satan appeared as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, thereby adopting a symbol of the Messiah, it seems plausible that, like the sign of the dove, the sign of the serpent had been instituted in premortality as a symbol of deity, particularly Jehovah (see Exodus 4:1–5; 7:10–13; and Numbers 21:5–9), and later on as a symbol of Jehovah-come-to-earth, or in other words Jesus Christ (see John 3:14–15), the true God of life and salvation.

So, there you go. In short he is suggesting that other signs and symbols were given premortally, but that Satan being the Great Deceiver has taken those for use as his own. Knowing the symbol of the serpent belonged to the Savior FIRST helps us makes sense of how Eve could be deceived when the serpent appeared to her. There would have been no other reason to believe otherwise.

And why a serpent to represent the Savior?

Snakes were regarded as having medicinal powers to heal and make whole. Jesus Christ was often referred to as the great physician. Also, as a snake sheds its "old" skin leaving behind a body with "new" skin this is seen as a sort of rebirth and renewal. In essence this is what the Savior does for us. He helps us to put off the "old" man and become a "new" creature through him. 

Rock art

Prior to indulging in our Thanksgiving feast, we decided to work up an appetite and take a hike to see some Indian writings I haven't been to since I was a kid. The hike was easy enough that we took Alex with us. 

I feel so blessed to grow up in the area that I did and wouldn't trade it for the world. And I love being able to share it with my kids.

 

Tom and family

Look who stopped by Thanksgiving morning.

 

Dueling pianists

I found this fun little duet online and have taught my kids how to play it, which may or may not be such a good thing. We hear it all the time now and Kiersten is teaching it to her piano students.

However. . . 

It has increased the amount of time they spend at the piano and that is a definite plus.

What if Dr. Suess wrote the Book of Mormon?

Today's post is number 365, a full year's worth of blogging.

Today we also finished the Book of Mormon as a family for the 2nd time. I love that book more each time I finish it. It is certainly applicable to my life. Kiersten also finished it for the first time several weeks ago.

And it's dumping snow outside, the first snowfall of the year. What a magical kind of day.

So in commemoration of our second completion (which, by the way, didn't take us nearly 3 years to finish like the first go around, maybe more like 2), I offer the following question:

What If Dr. Suess Wrote the Book of Mormon?*

Nephi:
Of goodly parents I was born.
I've never drunk, I've never sworn.
This is Lehi, he's my dad.
Laman, Lemuel, they are bad.
And who is this? Why this is Sam. 

Sam:
Yes, this is Sam; Sam I am. 

Laman:
That Sam I am, that Sam I am. I do not like that Sam I am.

Sam:
In a tent, my father dwelt.

Laman:
And it's so hot, I think I'll melt.

Lemuel:
Our father's brain is out of whack. 

Laman:
Yeah, it's too hot. I'm going back.

Lehi:
Then go and get the plates my dear.

Laman:
On second thought, I'm staying here.

Nephi:
You said you'd leave and go away.
Now all you want to do is stay? 

Lemuel:
That Nephi always gets his way.

Laman:
Here we are in this damp cave.

Sam:
We would not be here if you'd behave.

Nephi:
I will go and I will do.
There's the angel, that's my cue.
Laban's had too much to drink.
Now he'll lose his head, I think.

Nephi:
Look what I found, a brother from the quorum.

Sam:
We will take him home, we will call him Zoram.

Laman:
Our gold and silver we have spent.
I do not like it in this tent.

Lemuel:
I cannot read the Liahona.
I must have drunk too much Corona.

Laman:
We hate it here, we have no lives.

Lehi:
Then go back to the city and get some wives.

Lehi:
A tree, a tree, I see a tree!!
The fruit is white, the fruit is free!
A floating building, could it be?
Why do they laugh and stare at me?
Laman, Lemuel, come and see! 

Laman:
We will not eat your precious fruit.

Lemuel:
We will not wear a tie and suit.

Laman:
We will not help you build your boat.

Lemuel:
We do not think that it will float.

Laman:
No, not this boat.
It will not float.
Not even in a shallow moat.
I do not care what Nephi wrote.

Lemuel:
We will not eat your fruit I say.

Laman:
We will not eat it on a tray.

Lemuel:
And we won't eat it in a tent.
Not even if your clothes you rent.

Laman:
We'd rather have a can of spam.

L&L:
We will not eat it, Sam I am.

Sam:
You do not like it, so you say.
Try it, try it, and you may.
Try it and you may I say.

Laman:
Sam, if you will let us be, we will try it, you will see.

L&L: Say, we like this fruit of life.
Sorry that we caused such strife.
You've saved us from an awful jam.
Thank you, thank you, Sam I am!

*This little poem was in my files from many years ago. I certainly am not taking credit but I'm really not sure who to attribute it to.

Is faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ written on our hearts?

Today was the first Sunday of the month which meant I received a Relief Society newsletter. Our RS president shared the following short excerpt from a message Linda Burton, General Relief Society President, gave at the General Women's Meeting that I missed (because I was in a car headed to Canada):

A few years ago, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared his feelings about the deep-rooted faith of pioneers who pushed forward to the Salt Lake Valley even after the deaths of their children. He said, "They didn't do it for a program, they didn't do it for a social activity, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones."

"That’s the only way those mothers could bury [their babies] in a breadbox and move on, saying, 'The promised land is out there somewhere. We’re going to make it to the valley.' They could say that because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit."

He concluded with these thought-provoking words: "If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other less-needed things sort of fall out of the wagon. I'm told those handcarts could only hold so much. Just as our ancestors had to choose what they took, maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, 'What can we put on this handcart? It's the substance of our soul; it's the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones.' Or, to put it another way, it is what is written in our hearts!