Mission Memories
this Message is sponsered by Debt unde Taxes as it is literally time to pay theReaper / US G0v't anyway.
theBadCredit!! thought it would be just grand to be sponsored by that one Princess / Royalty chick-thePrincess Stefanie von Unde Taxes.. (sp?!)
Taxi, Toxy? Maybe it is "cab" related name because she's always being driven around in big Limo's and all. Sorry that I can't get her name right, Unvonde Tax....
err. something like that, she's theChick!! with wild hairstyles and such, NOT that I've been Googling her and all, honest!! But I'm just saying.
What better way to honor 15 April 2007 than by playing the worlds scratchiest Violin music in mourning?!
At least that's what theSam!! still sounds like.
Just look at it this way, if "Patches" theCalico cat can still be patiently waiting on the porch by theApt door night after night when theNightShift!! gets a ride from work, then at least theFirstPosition!! can't be so bad with scales as theNeighborhood cats are still hanging around.
Or maybe it's because that one female roomie has such incredibly great smelling cooking?!
That being said,
the2nd Position!! will shift into 3rd Position and mourn for another few hours whilest reviewing the penciled in 10-40EZ (!!)
I went in to theLibrary the other day and asked about what forms were available to take with me,
theLibrarianGirl!! was bemused by my questioning and after quickly giving me theOnceOver!! with her cuteGlasses,
she took me to theTax!! section and after we both hopped onto theMiniForkLift!! and dissappeared into theWarehouse!! style aisles she braked theMFL!! at an dusty looking Tome upon the bleak looking shelves.
*Beep-Beep-Beep.....*
signalled theMiniForkLift as theSpectacledGirl backed up and then maneuvered into place and lifted this 5" thick White binder from its resting spot.
Upon theCover of theBinder I noticed only two markings,
"!!"
theVaunted Exclamation Points,
or as I often like to think, a scared bunny hiding in theSnow peeking at me!!
as what I always use in my writings and basically what summed up all thoughts of thePreparers!! that needed to access theBinder which housed the 10-40EZ (!!) forms.
Let me think here,
hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm.............
Root canals,
I've had at least one.
Village!!,
I've lived in a few yes and I even.... I....
anyways, I can deal with Pain.
So bring it on Tax man, theSam!! is waiting.
-------------------------------
In looking Outwards, I also look In and I also look Back.
I realize that in order to keep on posting more VillageTales I must also include
some events that I experienced as well in my Past.
So I will share some of these things.
Since it IS Sunday I will take you back to 1986, in the month of Oct,
Langsley, BritishColumbia Canada!! is the place.
As an LDS missionary at age 19 I arrived in eternally rainy wet BC along with Other
missionaries that were in our respective PrinceGeorge group.
In Provo, Utah at theMTC / mission training center all of theMissionaries in my group
being sent to Canada Vancouver were assigned a name, and PrinceGeorge was ours, as
an city in BC also had the same name.
Some young men of theLDS church feel a commitment to serve a mission after they
turn age 19. Some young women of age 21 also serve too,
I've met some fantastic Sisters while on my 2 yr mission, and I met some great sisters when I lived in Seattle and started to solicit complimentary services to the local Elders & Sisters.
Ever since I was a child and did see various LDS missionaries on my home reservation I wanted to do what "those" young men were doing.
They wore suits and clean white shirts & ties, and they did alot of talking to people and certainly had good things to say about everyone.
So even back then, my young mind was certainly impressed by my seeing LDS missionaries for the first time.
And a few years later, when I attended school in Idaho out on theLDS church placement program and first started to learn more of theLDS church I learned that after I grew up and turned 19 I would have an opportunity to do exactly as those first missionaries, that I had met, were doing.
And now, I'm in BC Canada.
Our PrinceGeorge group had about 10 to 12 of us Elders including two Sister missionaries.
We had just spent about 4 weeks living onCampus at theMTC in Provo living, eating, breathing, sleeping LDS religion.
Each of us missionaries had in our possession, a set of the 4 StandardWorks which consists of theHolyBible, thePearlofGreatPrice, theDoctrine&Covenants, and theBookofMormon.
Most of us PrinceGeorge group missionaries had similar events in our past that led us to that moment of our lives, we had awakened Early early in the morning and gone to Church or to school for 0500hrs or 0600hrs early morning Seminary classes.
We had been indoctrinated in theLDS church much of our lives, perhaps one or two of us PG members were Converts to theLDS church and had only recently felt an "Awakening" to serve a church mission.
In our possession we also had a small set of Discussion manuals that outlined for us, as of 1986 time frame, 6 Basic Discussions to follow when teaching any prospective Converts to theChurch.
As of 2007, I still have a set of discussions with me,
though after having to Leave theVillage!! overnight in 2003 as VillagePublicSafetyOfficer,
I had lost my big set of Scriptures that I had with me THEN on my Church mission.
All Original papers & items I had then are gone.
I'm sad, but such precious things that are lost will one day be restored.
That's called Hope, it's called Faith.
Our PG group spent the day with our new MissionPresident / MP & his lovely wife.
They were late 50's couple, theMP was an warVeteran,
not an lazy Officer mind you, he was an Grunt at one time and worked his way up through
the military ranks to Officer rank, he knew combat and in his mannerisms it showed through
in quiet confidence and matter-of-fact candor.
Such things I had seen with other blooded war veterans in my own Native family as well as
seeing this trait in other tried & true veterans.
And theMP's wife was, to me anyway, a very compassionate woman that was just as empowered as her husband, albeit from her own lifes experiences of bearing children, being a 4 War wife while hubby served in theMilitary,
she controlled her own business interests at one time or other and certainly was like all theLDS mothers that I had seen in theChurch, women to be admired and respected.
Indeed, both theMissionPresident & his Wife were big, tall people inside & Out!!
Our PG group ate a sumptious meal at one local buffet style restaurant in Vancouver.
Ever after when I was in theCity!! and would drive through Vancouver I would glimpse that
place where we newly arrived Missionaries had eaten and talked, laughed.
Eat hearty, for the next two years of our lives would be trying indeed.
Looking back on how much I ate back then, I'd be sick now adays if I ate half as much food.
We spent the night in a nice upscale hotel and the next day were driven to a local Chapel in Vancouver where us new missionaries would then be assigned to our Trainers,
LOL.....
I remember those training days of mine in Vancouver.
My trainer was a young white man about a year older than me, from Utah of all places, and he was a pleasant person.
I was something of a novelty to some Sr missionaries, me an Indian, a Native out on a Church mission. Some White people just didn't know how to treat me or how to act around me.
My Trainer didn't act funny or snobby.
I found ElderWade to be most trustworthy and even a few years after my mission I did meet up again with my Wade at BYU / brighamyounguniversity,
It was when my College group of Indian students / Lamanite students visited BYU and I have no idea how I ever got into Wades apartment as I ended up literally crashing because I was sick.
I was feeling very Ill from the traveling and since my college group wasn't due to leave BYU for a few days, Wade gave me a Priesthood blessing and I slept for a few hours.
I don't know, there used to be something about just having to travel and be around new people and new sights and smells that bothered me, upset my Constitution and gave me headaches.
ThankGod none of these did I experience as badly as an LDS missionary, but still.
It was great to meet up with an old friend years later and still be able to trust in him for some kind of help.
I haven't forgotten Wade, thanks for all you did. I remember that Wade was attending BYU to become a Doctor. Let's hope by now that such a goal has been obtained.
Certainly back then I put that Goal in the back of my mind for use or pursuit one day too,
as when you are impressed with friends and such, you want to follow them.
Long ago in CanadaVancouver when Wade first taught me to how to Tract, that is going out Door-to-Door knocking on peoples doors to solicit interest in theLDS church I had some very good experiences.
As an LDS missionary, as in pretty much anything now adays, you have to believe in your Cause,
you have to believe in your Church, your Company, yourself to promote and spread theWord about what you believe in.
And I believed strongly enough to devote two years of my life to serving a Church mission.
I still remember some of theFaces of those people that answered their doorbells when us MormonElders tracted.
My Trainer Wade showed me how and after awhile, I was giving theOpening remarks to people on their door steps,
"Hi, I'm ElderFlyinghorse and this is ElderWade from theChurchofJesusChrist of LatterDaySaints, We have a 15min lesson on God's Plan of Salvation that we'd like to share with you today, May we come in?"
I learned in theMissionField, that you have to read theScriptures daily, you have to study theLessonPlans daily and follow theLessons,
invite theInvestigators to Church, invite theInvestigators to study theLDS scriptures as well, and invite them to make Commitments that lead to them Joining theChurch if they are interested.
It's been so long ago and yet it seems like last month when I first started using some small lamainated illustrated cut-out pieces to help me / us churchElders teach our Investigators of this Plan Of Salvation.
And using the cute, colorful cut-out pieces of paper that had been laminated we Missionaries would often explain thus.....
thePlanOfSalvation
We theHuman family, theRace lived in the pre-existance with God our HeavenlyFather and Jesus Christ,
*take the 3" tall Transparent figure representing a human and place it on the table*
We were born upon this Earth
*take the laminate colored Globe and place it on the table, and take the cute 3" tall human and place him on the table and place the transparent figure (which is his spirit) on top of him.*
As we go through the short lesson plan we introduce the concepts of God giving mankind holy scripture
*place the Bible cut-out down*
and of God sending Jesus Christ to this earth to establish an organized religion and to show by example how to live a good life to be able to return back to heaven with God.
We'd introduce the concepts of Other people living elsewhere on thePlanet earth way back in biblical days, not just Everything happened over in theMiddleEast!!
And so we'd touch upon how theBookOfMormon was written and later revealed to us via JosephSmith.
After we die
*separate theHuman figure cutout from his Spirit*
our body lies in the grave and our spirits go into the next world,
Depending on how we lived our lives, we go to SpiritParadise or to SpiritPrison.
And await theJudgementDay, which will happen much later on in time.
I'll go into an Tangent (again) here and expound upon an experience that my (now deceased) little brother's LDS placement Foster family had concerning my little brother.
As long ago, my little Sister and my little brother also lived a few years off theReservation and lived with a White LDS family and experienced much better ways of life than were available to us on theReservation.
My little brothers family, er..
theFosterDad and a FosterBrother (whom was on His church mission) had similar visitations from theSpirit world by my deceased brother.
My little brother got cancer at 15 and died a year later at 16, he never got to go on an LDS church mission and never got to even get out of high school.
But in my brothers visitation to his Foster parent & brother a couple of years after he died,
he / My brother was dressed up all nicely and he had an Mission companion with him.
They were missionaries in theSpirit world and my brother just wanted to let us know that everything was alright with him. As my little brother was (in real life) a young rebel!!
He didn't do drugs or party as a teenager but in his cancer year he smoked to ease the pain and he did make Sinners his friends, my litle brother.
I love him, and miss him, I know he's alive and well on the other side and such an personal visitation from him to his Foster parents is enough to further cement the facts that theLDS church is not a bad organization like some Anti-mormons would have you believe.
Some people may wonder why my little brother didn't appear to us his family? to his Mother or to me his older brother?
Because we already have Faith and Knowledge of such good outcome for my little brother in the next Life, we place our Faith and Trust in God that He will take care of all things eventually.
And we will see my little brother again.
Anyway, on with my writings.
theLDS church teaches that is SpiritPrison and SpiritParadise.
If you've been a goodly person you go to Paradise when you die.
If you've been a bad person you go to thePrison after you die.
there is no inbetweens, there is no other place.
It's one or the other and currently as we live our lives today, We Decide where we'll go to.
And it is in SpiritParadise, that my little Brother went after he died, to prepare for Missionary work in Prison.
theChurch also teaches there are 3 Degrees of Glory, and that by how we lived our lives, we will obtain One of these kingdoms to live in.
*put down the 3 laminate cut-outs of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars*
theSun represents the top 3rd Celestial Kingdom, it's where God & Jesus dwell.
It's the place where the really good people of this earth will go to.
All possibilities are endless here, all opportunities are endless and eternity is a happy place.
theMoon represents the 2nd / Middle Terrestrial Kingdom, it's where people of lesser goodness will go to that don't really follow religion, that don't really live up to and try to expand upon their talents and selfs here on Earth,
All possibilities are limited here, and all opportunities are limited as well, eternity will be happy here but not as good as in theCelestial Kingdom.
theStars represent the lower Telestial Kingdom, it's where people like criminals, murderers will go. People that never followed any higher laws and never were good end up here.
Limitations are more severe and very little opportunities exist for eternity, which will not be as happy for dwellers in this place.
Just think that even theWorst murderers and all theDespotic world leaders and dictators will also have some form of peace Telestial after they lived lavishly at the expense of their people.
All 3 kingdoms WILL have accepted religion, will have accepted JesusChrist and his Gospel.
And what God has in store for theLesser kingdoms is known only to Him.
And another place, called OuterDarkness.
Called by some SpiritualDeath,
is a very bad place and sadly, some people will also go there.
You can't be sent to a bad place or you can't be punished in the worst possible way without FIRST having had opportunities know about God and JesusChrist.
just think of today, if a good person steals a candy bar from a store, gets caught.
Are we going to hang them like theDictatorSaddaam was hung?
no, the punishment fits theCrime and persons life and character are taken into account when God punishes them. And for some people, they won't tolerate anything that has to do with God whatsoever.
They'll fight against God, they'll fight against Jesus, they'll fight against theChurch having once embraced God & Jesus and what not whole heartedly and lived Religious lives, then by some design they rebelled and turned against God and everything good in life.
For such people, there is a place prepared that they will go to and interestingly enough, when Satan and His Angels are finally overcome and cast out they too will be sent to Outer Darkness.
On with my writings.
After Jesus Christs 2nd Coming to this Earth, every living being on this planet that ever lived will be resurrected,
their spirits, as represented in our POS illustrated cut-outs, will be reunited with their bodies and we will all be judged and placed in one of the 3 kingdoms for eternity.
That is what lifts and separates, and unlike theUnderBra!! which only supports, theLDS church from other religions.
Is that we go above and beyond merely "accepting" jesus into our lives.
There is an order to follow in theLDS church,
You get baptized, and as males, you receive thePriesthood, you get placed into local congregation / Ward callings to help you get into the Workings of how things are taught,
You can advance in knowledge and responsibility if you work at it,
I personally have never had a desire to be anything more than my current Church level rank of Elder.
I'm not an High Priest, I'm not an 70, I'm not an Patriarch, or even an upper Church level leader in SaltLakeCity, Utah.
And yet, with all my Life's experiences and even with my Own personal experiences with God & Jesus as to things relating to My Own Life (and not theChurch) and for my Eternities, You'd think I would be a Church leader already.
Well, that is basically some memories from my church Mission.
We had other teaching tools, various pamphlets, tracts, booklets, cards, and more laminated figurines and such to help us teach our Investigators.
Those were the days!!
those experiences I had helped shape my character, helped strengthen me for the future and in many ways did help me to GrowUp!!
I would do them all over again and I'd be even more of a Ham!! than what I once was on my mission.
Although life didn't turn out theMormon way that I thought things would, life is still great.
I'm "Human" and have my times when I have to gripe and grouse, but after awhile I step back and once again, go to God in prayer and accept what is happening to me.
Lately I've been looking at some websites that are pretty much critical of theLDS church.
I find that when I need to type or vent or even if I just need to be aware of other peoples pain then I read what people post regarding their own experiences with theMormonChurch.
I've met antiMormons while on my mission,
they've pretty much turned me off to anything any future Anti would say to me.
And I'm sure that some Anti's would call me brainwashed, dumb, a morgbot for believing in all the Church related stuff that I believe in.
I certainly don't have the time to sit down and chase down story after story, historical document after document and such to dig up History about theLDS church and of the individual lives of past and current prophets.
I've got a life to live.
PublicSafety is my calling, my new Mission is Life is an Humanitarian one.
Albeit, in role of Police, Fireman, EMT, Probate / Parole, SAR, and most recently-Private Security.
Life is just a shadow of what is to come in the next world and in Eternity.
Life is preparing us all for tomorrow, whether or not any of us choose to get ready or not.
And as a Lakota, an Native American,
whose people had their Spiritual ways Long before any White man set foot upon this Western hemisphere,
I take comfort in the facts that I have such Spiritual ways to guide me as well in life, and not just what I've learned and accepted from theLDS church.
My people were recently tied to the settlers moving across thePlains.
We fought them, we were brushed aside for a time,
and I, a Lakota son have moved off those Reservation boundaries.
My life and mind, my Soul and my opportunities have increased and broadened as well.
theRacist past is past, I only look to protecting and serving my current City community and my state, my Country.
If theLDS church is so bad to some people, Why am I a success story then?
the following is a recent post I submitted to an Anti-mormon forum.
I had a few more, but can't seem to find them when I look. I am irreverant yes, I am honest in my postings, and I even include my real-life name in my posts as I have nothing to hide.
I speak candidly, with humor of course and as always I poke at self and Others too with a big stick.
Because to look Outward, is to look Inward
and to do both I must also Look Back!!
-------------------------------
Subject:
Re: Some basic inconsistencies and problems with the Mormon Plan of Salvation
Date:
Apr 14 22:01
Author:
theSam!!
When I first started my mission back in 1986,we missionaried were given a couple sheets of paper that was illustrated and all we had to do was Cut-out theFigures after Coloring them in all nice & whimsical.
With this cute and portable!! teaching tool, which fit conveniently into our front shirt pocket, we could conquer theWorld!!.....er. at least that's what I thought.
My little Figure was a man, I think my Trainer said his name was "Larry".
Me and Larry had a great 2 yrs on "Our" mission.
Although, at one time or another, Larry was technically "Dead" because his "Spirit" cutout was lost or missing.
You know!, that tranparent cutout that was "placed" over Larry's human body cutout to further illustrate how our Spirits enter theBody at Birth and Leave at Death!? yah, you know.
*sigh*
Aside from dying and resurrecting again, Larry was "flat-out", theBest mission companion that I had EVER!!Even though his viewpoints were at times, One dimensional, he did have a sticky personality and a "stick-to-itiveness" to his character.
So much that when carefully stacked upon theOther plastic laminated cutouts of "theEarth", "thePrexistence", "the3ArrowsOfCelestial-Terrestrial-TelestialKingdoms", etc al-adnauseum.
I had a hard time trying to "unstick" thePOS cut-outs that was..... "Larry", "theEarth", "Larry'sSpirit", "the3Arrows....."
Artistic lil old me decided to make more figurines and various scenes but after awhile my Trainers and even a few more companions frowned on such teaching tools.
I miss those mission days though. And I don't know where Larry went to or the rest of that Laminated funsy / cute display that I once had.
I think that he ran away with "sisterJensons" POS sister cut-out, I'm not sure.Or maybe he decided to stay with that one EternalInvestigator gal that we taught during last months of my mission.
She was a Fatty!!, and hot, and it was getting (Cold weatherwise) close to Oct in BC Canada.
Thanks for theMemories guys.I do appreciate having to visit here and remember some long dormant memories I've put away for over 20yrs.
Now adays, theSam!!'s POS cutouts involve Multiple female cutouts of JennaJamison!!, LisaSparxxx!!, etc and instead of Arrows to theTopKingdom.
I just have an heavy duty express elevator, gotta lift all that Tonnage!!
( . Y . )
luvs, d:oP
theSam!!
samuellflyinghorseanchorage, ak
theBadCredit!! thought it would be just grand to be sponsored by that one Princess / Royalty chick-thePrincess Stefanie von Unde Taxes.. (sp?!)
Taxi, Toxy? Maybe it is "cab" related name because she's always being driven around in big Limo's and all. Sorry that I can't get her name right, Unvonde Tax....
err. something like that, she's theChick!! with wild hairstyles and such, NOT that I've been Googling her and all, honest!! But I'm just saying.
What better way to honor 15 April 2007 than by playing the worlds scratchiest Violin music in mourning?!
At least that's what theSam!! still sounds like.
Just look at it this way, if "Patches" theCalico cat can still be patiently waiting on the porch by theApt door night after night when theNightShift!! gets a ride from work, then at least theFirstPosition!! can't be so bad with scales as theNeighborhood cats are still hanging around.
Or maybe it's because that one female roomie has such incredibly great smelling cooking?!
That being said,
the2nd Position!! will shift into 3rd Position and mourn for another few hours whilest reviewing the penciled in 10-40EZ (!!)
I went in to theLibrary the other day and asked about what forms were available to take with me,
theLibrarianGirl!! was bemused by my questioning and after quickly giving me theOnceOver!! with her cuteGlasses,
she took me to theTax!! section and after we both hopped onto theMiniForkLift!! and dissappeared into theWarehouse!! style aisles she braked theMFL!! at an dusty looking Tome upon the bleak looking shelves.
*Beep-Beep-Beep.....*
signalled theMiniForkLift as theSpectacledGirl backed up and then maneuvered into place and lifted this 5" thick White binder from its resting spot.
Upon theCover of theBinder I noticed only two markings,
"!!"
theVaunted Exclamation Points,
or as I often like to think, a scared bunny hiding in theSnow peeking at me!!
as what I always use in my writings and basically what summed up all thoughts of thePreparers!! that needed to access theBinder which housed the 10-40EZ (!!) forms.
Let me think here,
hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm.............
Root canals,
I've had at least one.
Village!!,
I've lived in a few yes and I even.... I....
anyways, I can deal with Pain.
So bring it on Tax man, theSam!! is waiting.
-------------------------------
In looking Outwards, I also look In and I also look Back.
I realize that in order to keep on posting more VillageTales I must also include
some events that I experienced as well in my Past.
So I will share some of these things.
Since it IS Sunday I will take you back to 1986, in the month of Oct,
Langsley, BritishColumbia Canada!! is the place.
As an LDS missionary at age 19 I arrived in eternally rainy wet BC along with Other
missionaries that were in our respective PrinceGeorge group.
In Provo, Utah at theMTC / mission training center all of theMissionaries in my group
being sent to Canada Vancouver were assigned a name, and PrinceGeorge was ours, as
an city in BC also had the same name.
Some young men of theLDS church feel a commitment to serve a mission after they
turn age 19. Some young women of age 21 also serve too,
I've met some fantastic Sisters while on my 2 yr mission, and I met some great sisters when I lived in Seattle and started to solicit complimentary services to the local Elders & Sisters.
Ever since I was a child and did see various LDS missionaries on my home reservation I wanted to do what "those" young men were doing.
They wore suits and clean white shirts & ties, and they did alot of talking to people and certainly had good things to say about everyone.
So even back then, my young mind was certainly impressed by my seeing LDS missionaries for the first time.
And a few years later, when I attended school in Idaho out on theLDS church placement program and first started to learn more of theLDS church I learned that after I grew up and turned 19 I would have an opportunity to do exactly as those first missionaries, that I had met, were doing.
And now, I'm in BC Canada.
Our PrinceGeorge group had about 10 to 12 of us Elders including two Sister missionaries.
We had just spent about 4 weeks living onCampus at theMTC in Provo living, eating, breathing, sleeping LDS religion.
Each of us missionaries had in our possession, a set of the 4 StandardWorks which consists of theHolyBible, thePearlofGreatPrice, theDoctrine&Covenants, and theBookofMormon.
Most of us PrinceGeorge group missionaries had similar events in our past that led us to that moment of our lives, we had awakened Early early in the morning and gone to Church or to school for 0500hrs or 0600hrs early morning Seminary classes.
We had been indoctrinated in theLDS church much of our lives, perhaps one or two of us PG members were Converts to theLDS church and had only recently felt an "Awakening" to serve a church mission.
In our possession we also had a small set of Discussion manuals that outlined for us, as of 1986 time frame, 6 Basic Discussions to follow when teaching any prospective Converts to theChurch.
As of 2007, I still have a set of discussions with me,
though after having to Leave theVillage!! overnight in 2003 as VillagePublicSafetyOfficer,
I had lost my big set of Scriptures that I had with me THEN on my Church mission.
All Original papers & items I had then are gone.
I'm sad, but such precious things that are lost will one day be restored.
That's called Hope, it's called Faith.
Our PG group spent the day with our new MissionPresident / MP & his lovely wife.
They were late 50's couple, theMP was an warVeteran,
not an lazy Officer mind you, he was an Grunt at one time and worked his way up through
the military ranks to Officer rank, he knew combat and in his mannerisms it showed through
in quiet confidence and matter-of-fact candor.
Such things I had seen with other blooded war veterans in my own Native family as well as
seeing this trait in other tried & true veterans.
And theMP's wife was, to me anyway, a very compassionate woman that was just as empowered as her husband, albeit from her own lifes experiences of bearing children, being a 4 War wife while hubby served in theMilitary,
she controlled her own business interests at one time or other and certainly was like all theLDS mothers that I had seen in theChurch, women to be admired and respected.
Indeed, both theMissionPresident & his Wife were big, tall people inside & Out!!
Our PG group ate a sumptious meal at one local buffet style restaurant in Vancouver.
Ever after when I was in theCity!! and would drive through Vancouver I would glimpse that
place where we newly arrived Missionaries had eaten and talked, laughed.
Eat hearty, for the next two years of our lives would be trying indeed.
Looking back on how much I ate back then, I'd be sick now adays if I ate half as much food.
We spent the night in a nice upscale hotel and the next day were driven to a local Chapel in Vancouver where us new missionaries would then be assigned to our Trainers,
LOL.....
I remember those training days of mine in Vancouver.
My trainer was a young white man about a year older than me, from Utah of all places, and he was a pleasant person.
I was something of a novelty to some Sr missionaries, me an Indian, a Native out on a Church mission. Some White people just didn't know how to treat me or how to act around me.
My Trainer didn't act funny or snobby.
I found ElderWade to be most trustworthy and even a few years after my mission I did meet up again with my Wade at BYU / brighamyounguniversity,
It was when my College group of Indian students / Lamanite students visited BYU and I have no idea how I ever got into Wades apartment as I ended up literally crashing because I was sick.
I was feeling very Ill from the traveling and since my college group wasn't due to leave BYU for a few days, Wade gave me a Priesthood blessing and I slept for a few hours.
I don't know, there used to be something about just having to travel and be around new people and new sights and smells that bothered me, upset my Constitution and gave me headaches.
ThankGod none of these did I experience as badly as an LDS missionary, but still.
It was great to meet up with an old friend years later and still be able to trust in him for some kind of help.
I haven't forgotten Wade, thanks for all you did. I remember that Wade was attending BYU to become a Doctor. Let's hope by now that such a goal has been obtained.
Certainly back then I put that Goal in the back of my mind for use or pursuit one day too,
as when you are impressed with friends and such, you want to follow them.
Long ago in CanadaVancouver when Wade first taught me to how to Tract, that is going out Door-to-Door knocking on peoples doors to solicit interest in theLDS church I had some very good experiences.
As an LDS missionary, as in pretty much anything now adays, you have to believe in your Cause,
you have to believe in your Church, your Company, yourself to promote and spread theWord about what you believe in.
And I believed strongly enough to devote two years of my life to serving a Church mission.
I still remember some of theFaces of those people that answered their doorbells when us MormonElders tracted.
My Trainer Wade showed me how and after awhile, I was giving theOpening remarks to people on their door steps,
"Hi, I'm ElderFlyinghorse and this is ElderWade from theChurchofJesusChrist of LatterDaySaints, We have a 15min lesson on God's Plan of Salvation that we'd like to share with you today, May we come in?"
I learned in theMissionField, that you have to read theScriptures daily, you have to study theLessonPlans daily and follow theLessons,
invite theInvestigators to Church, invite theInvestigators to study theLDS scriptures as well, and invite them to make Commitments that lead to them Joining theChurch if they are interested.
It's been so long ago and yet it seems like last month when I first started using some small lamainated illustrated cut-out pieces to help me / us churchElders teach our Investigators of this Plan Of Salvation.
And using the cute, colorful cut-out pieces of paper that had been laminated we Missionaries would often explain thus.....
thePlanOfSalvation
We theHuman family, theRace lived in the pre-existance with God our HeavenlyFather and Jesus Christ,
*take the 3" tall Transparent figure representing a human and place it on the table*
We were born upon this Earth
*take the laminate colored Globe and place it on the table, and take the cute 3" tall human and place him on the table and place the transparent figure (which is his spirit) on top of him.*
As we go through the short lesson plan we introduce the concepts of God giving mankind holy scripture
*place the Bible cut-out down*
and of God sending Jesus Christ to this earth to establish an organized religion and to show by example how to live a good life to be able to return back to heaven with God.
We'd introduce the concepts of Other people living elsewhere on thePlanet earth way back in biblical days, not just Everything happened over in theMiddleEast!!
And so we'd touch upon how theBookOfMormon was written and later revealed to us via JosephSmith.
After we die
*separate theHuman figure cutout from his Spirit*
our body lies in the grave and our spirits go into the next world,
Depending on how we lived our lives, we go to SpiritParadise or to SpiritPrison.
And await theJudgementDay, which will happen much later on in time.
I'll go into an Tangent (again) here and expound upon an experience that my (now deceased) little brother's LDS placement Foster family had concerning my little brother.
As long ago, my little Sister and my little brother also lived a few years off theReservation and lived with a White LDS family and experienced much better ways of life than were available to us on theReservation.
My little brothers family, er..
theFosterDad and a FosterBrother (whom was on His church mission) had similar visitations from theSpirit world by my deceased brother.
My little brother got cancer at 15 and died a year later at 16, he never got to go on an LDS church mission and never got to even get out of high school.
But in my brothers visitation to his Foster parent & brother a couple of years after he died,
he / My brother was dressed up all nicely and he had an Mission companion with him.
They were missionaries in theSpirit world and my brother just wanted to let us know that everything was alright with him. As my little brother was (in real life) a young rebel!!
He didn't do drugs or party as a teenager but in his cancer year he smoked to ease the pain and he did make Sinners his friends, my litle brother.
I love him, and miss him, I know he's alive and well on the other side and such an personal visitation from him to his Foster parents is enough to further cement the facts that theLDS church is not a bad organization like some Anti-mormons would have you believe.
Some people may wonder why my little brother didn't appear to us his family? to his Mother or to me his older brother?
Because we already have Faith and Knowledge of such good outcome for my little brother in the next Life, we place our Faith and Trust in God that He will take care of all things eventually.
And we will see my little brother again.
Anyway, on with my writings.
theLDS church teaches that is SpiritPrison and SpiritParadise.
If you've been a goodly person you go to Paradise when you die.
If you've been a bad person you go to thePrison after you die.
there is no inbetweens, there is no other place.
It's one or the other and currently as we live our lives today, We Decide where we'll go to.
And it is in SpiritParadise, that my little Brother went after he died, to prepare for Missionary work in Prison.
theChurch also teaches there are 3 Degrees of Glory, and that by how we lived our lives, we will obtain One of these kingdoms to live in.
*put down the 3 laminate cut-outs of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars*
theSun represents the top 3rd Celestial Kingdom, it's where God & Jesus dwell.
It's the place where the really good people of this earth will go to.
All possibilities are endless here, all opportunities are endless and eternity is a happy place.
theMoon represents the 2nd / Middle Terrestrial Kingdom, it's where people of lesser goodness will go to that don't really follow religion, that don't really live up to and try to expand upon their talents and selfs here on Earth,
All possibilities are limited here, and all opportunities are limited as well, eternity will be happy here but not as good as in theCelestial Kingdom.
theStars represent the lower Telestial Kingdom, it's where people like criminals, murderers will go. People that never followed any higher laws and never were good end up here.
Limitations are more severe and very little opportunities exist for eternity, which will not be as happy for dwellers in this place.
Just think that even theWorst murderers and all theDespotic world leaders and dictators will also have some form of peace Telestial after they lived lavishly at the expense of their people.
All 3 kingdoms WILL have accepted religion, will have accepted JesusChrist and his Gospel.
And what God has in store for theLesser kingdoms is known only to Him.
And another place, called OuterDarkness.
Called by some SpiritualDeath,
is a very bad place and sadly, some people will also go there.
You can't be sent to a bad place or you can't be punished in the worst possible way without FIRST having had opportunities know about God and JesusChrist.
just think of today, if a good person steals a candy bar from a store, gets caught.
Are we going to hang them like theDictatorSaddaam was hung?
no, the punishment fits theCrime and persons life and character are taken into account when God punishes them. And for some people, they won't tolerate anything that has to do with God whatsoever.
They'll fight against God, they'll fight against Jesus, they'll fight against theChurch having once embraced God & Jesus and what not whole heartedly and lived Religious lives, then by some design they rebelled and turned against God and everything good in life.
For such people, there is a place prepared that they will go to and interestingly enough, when Satan and His Angels are finally overcome and cast out they too will be sent to Outer Darkness.
On with my writings.
After Jesus Christs 2nd Coming to this Earth, every living being on this planet that ever lived will be resurrected,
their spirits, as represented in our POS illustrated cut-outs, will be reunited with their bodies and we will all be judged and placed in one of the 3 kingdoms for eternity.
That is what lifts and separates, and unlike theUnderBra!! which only supports, theLDS church from other religions.
Is that we go above and beyond merely "accepting" jesus into our lives.
There is an order to follow in theLDS church,
You get baptized, and as males, you receive thePriesthood, you get placed into local congregation / Ward callings to help you get into the Workings of how things are taught,
You can advance in knowledge and responsibility if you work at it,
I personally have never had a desire to be anything more than my current Church level rank of Elder.
I'm not an High Priest, I'm not an 70, I'm not an Patriarch, or even an upper Church level leader in SaltLakeCity, Utah.
And yet, with all my Life's experiences and even with my Own personal experiences with God & Jesus as to things relating to My Own Life (and not theChurch) and for my Eternities, You'd think I would be a Church leader already.
Well, that is basically some memories from my church Mission.
We had other teaching tools, various pamphlets, tracts, booklets, cards, and more laminated figurines and such to help us teach our Investigators.
Those were the days!!
those experiences I had helped shape my character, helped strengthen me for the future and in many ways did help me to GrowUp!!
I would do them all over again and I'd be even more of a Ham!! than what I once was on my mission.
Although life didn't turn out theMormon way that I thought things would, life is still great.
I'm "Human" and have my times when I have to gripe and grouse, but after awhile I step back and once again, go to God in prayer and accept what is happening to me.
Lately I've been looking at some websites that are pretty much critical of theLDS church.
I find that when I need to type or vent or even if I just need to be aware of other peoples pain then I read what people post regarding their own experiences with theMormonChurch.
I've met antiMormons while on my mission,
they've pretty much turned me off to anything any future Anti would say to me.
And I'm sure that some Anti's would call me brainwashed, dumb, a morgbot for believing in all the Church related stuff that I believe in.
I certainly don't have the time to sit down and chase down story after story, historical document after document and such to dig up History about theLDS church and of the individual lives of past and current prophets.
I've got a life to live.
PublicSafety is my calling, my new Mission is Life is an Humanitarian one.
Albeit, in role of Police, Fireman, EMT, Probate / Parole, SAR, and most recently-Private Security.
Life is just a shadow of what is to come in the next world and in Eternity.
Life is preparing us all for tomorrow, whether or not any of us choose to get ready or not.
And as a Lakota, an Native American,
whose people had their Spiritual ways Long before any White man set foot upon this Western hemisphere,
I take comfort in the facts that I have such Spiritual ways to guide me as well in life, and not just what I've learned and accepted from theLDS church.
My people were recently tied to the settlers moving across thePlains.
We fought them, we were brushed aside for a time,
and I, a Lakota son have moved off those Reservation boundaries.
My life and mind, my Soul and my opportunities have increased and broadened as well.
theRacist past is past, I only look to protecting and serving my current City community and my state, my Country.
If theLDS church is so bad to some people, Why am I a success story then?
the following is a recent post I submitted to an Anti-mormon forum.
I had a few more, but can't seem to find them when I look. I am irreverant yes, I am honest in my postings, and I even include my real-life name in my posts as I have nothing to hide.
I speak candidly, with humor of course and as always I poke at self and Others too with a big stick.
Because to look Outward, is to look Inward
and to do both I must also Look Back!!
-------------------------------
Subject:
Re: Some basic inconsistencies and problems with the Mormon Plan of Salvation
Date:
Apr 14 22:01
Author:
theSam!!
When I first started my mission back in 1986,we missionaried were given a couple sheets of paper that was illustrated and all we had to do was Cut-out theFigures after Coloring them in all nice & whimsical.
With this cute and portable!! teaching tool, which fit conveniently into our front shirt pocket, we could conquer theWorld!!.....er. at least that's what I thought.
My little Figure was a man, I think my Trainer said his name was "Larry".
Me and Larry had a great 2 yrs on "Our" mission.
Although, at one time or another, Larry was technically "Dead" because his "Spirit" cutout was lost or missing.
You know!, that tranparent cutout that was "placed" over Larry's human body cutout to further illustrate how our Spirits enter theBody at Birth and Leave at Death!? yah, you know.
*sigh*
Aside from dying and resurrecting again, Larry was "flat-out", theBest mission companion that I had EVER!!Even though his viewpoints were at times, One dimensional, he did have a sticky personality and a "stick-to-itiveness" to his character.
So much that when carefully stacked upon theOther plastic laminated cutouts of "theEarth", "thePrexistence", "the3ArrowsOfCelestial-Terrestrial-TelestialKingdoms", etc al-adnauseum.
I had a hard time trying to "unstick" thePOS cut-outs that was..... "Larry", "theEarth", "Larry'sSpirit", "the3Arrows....."
Artistic lil old me decided to make more figurines and various scenes but after awhile my Trainers and even a few more companions frowned on such teaching tools.
I miss those mission days though. And I don't know where Larry went to or the rest of that Laminated funsy / cute display that I once had.
I think that he ran away with "sisterJensons" POS sister cut-out, I'm not sure.Or maybe he decided to stay with that one EternalInvestigator gal that we taught during last months of my mission.
She was a Fatty!!, and hot, and it was getting (Cold weatherwise) close to Oct in BC Canada.
Thanks for theMemories guys.I do appreciate having to visit here and remember some long dormant memories I've put away for over 20yrs.
Now adays, theSam!!'s POS cutouts involve Multiple female cutouts of JennaJamison!!, LisaSparxxx!!, etc and instead of Arrows to theTopKingdom.
I just have an heavy duty express elevator, gotta lift all that Tonnage!!
( . Y . )
luvs, d:oP
theSam!!
samuellflyinghorseanchorage, ak
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