Sunday, April 24, 2016

We Thank Thee, O God, For A Prophet




President Howard W. Hunter. 
Our mission choir leader told us an incredible story today as we prepared to sing "We Ever Pray for Thee our Prophet Dear" in Sacrament meeting. She said that she and her family decided to go to a BYU fireside held in the Marriot Center because the speaker was going to be the Prophet, President Howard W. Hunter. They didn't want to pass up this opportunity to hear the Prophet speak. At this point, President Hunter was quite frail. At one point in his remarks, a gunman rushed up to the podium and put a gun to Pres. Hunter. Apparantly, he wanted Pres. Hunter to denounce the church and the Savior, etc.  It all happened so fast and no one seemed to know what to do. One of the body guards later told her that the position of the gunman made it impossible for them to rush at him without him hurting President Hunter. She said that you could see Pres. Hunter gripping the podium and shaking his head as the gunman made his demands. Then, from somewhere in the top of the Marriott Center, someone started singing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet". From that small group, others joined in. Soon the whole Center was singing. As the singing continued, you could visibly see the stance of the gunman change and weaken. Eventually, the body guards captured him and took him away. Since our choir was going to be singing a song about Prophets, our choir leader wanted us to realize that we as Saints can support the Prophet - as we pray for him and as we follow his council and teachings. 

President Thomas S. Monson

We love the Prophets. We love Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration. Through Divine protection, he lived long enough to accomplish all God wanted Him to accomplish. Jesus Christ is at the helm of His church and this brings great comfort and hope. We love the prophets God has called in ancient days and now in these days from the Prophet Joseph Smith down to and including Pres. Thomas S. Monson. Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ direct this work and Their Prophets. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. The Book of Mormon is true. God has a Prophet on the earth today. How grateful we are for these things. 

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Annual Hot Dog Roast and Prairie Fire in Nauvoo

This is the south side of the prairie grass block that is the site of the controlled grass fire each year in historic Nauvoo. At the end of the summer this grass was 7-8 feet tall. It has been matted down through the winter months. 


Lots of people show up. This is just one part. The fire dept. is there to to supervise. 



Looking at the picture below, they started the fire from the far corner. The man in the bottom right has gone from that far corner to start the fire. And boy was it hot. We all stood withing 20 feet of it just commenting on the height of the flames. That quickly changed to backing up as fast as we could.