Don't get shot

A young man got shot at 5 pm in a Safeway parking lot 2 weeks ago after doing some degree of auto-derby with the federal marshals trying to bring him in for a parole violation.   I'm not a fan of avoidable violence, be it vehicular or firearm.  But I had a harder time feeling sympathetic for the fugitive than the marshals.  So I tried picturing this man's situation and up-bringing (if you're really interested this inteview with his mom is illuminating), and how, but-for-the-grace-of-God, I could avoid having this happen to anyone I am close enough to love.

The paper's coverage was almost as unsettling as Gingrich winning in SC.  I'm fearful society will get what we deserve.  So I had a talk with my sons and I got the following published as a letter to the editor. 

Don't get shot

    As I read about Jimmy Georgeson's death, my first thoughts were how to prevent this from happening to my sons. I felt duty-bound to review with them consequences of steering a full-sized vehicle at a federal marshal or otherwise physically combating police in the performance of their appointed duty.

     I'm trying to instill in my sons the desire and skills to live meaningful lives that do not attract violent intervention by law enforcement. I teach them to have confidence in their ability to control themselves; to trust public servants to work for their best interest or else work within the system for change when needed, and to accept and grow from any social debt they may be assigned. I will not stand with a poster in front of a sympathetic newspaper reporter pretending injustice.

     May we help our sons everywhere contribute to making the world a better place. This paper does them a disservice by sanctifying a troubled young man and vilifying marshals that as far as I know were following their training while their lives were at risk in the course of serving the public.
— Marvin Olsen, Central Point

ps,  I'm grateful my daughters are already so self-confident, emotionally well-developed, and perceptive of the context that they will not take offence at this being written about sons. 

How blessed I am to have kids that make the world a better place. Especially my world.

BTW, Esther has started to blog regularly at http://raininglemondrops.blogspot.com/ 

Talks in church

I was honored to share the program today at church with my son Zachary.

He talked about the Duty to God program.


Here's my talk:
I have great parents, but they can be pretty direct at times. My mom read over this talk, then asked what if anytihng I wanted people to get from it.


I'd like you to come away from this with a desire to pray hard for greater charity.
Since it is father's day, I want to talk briefly about my love as a father.

I left the computer logged on to my facebook account so Emily hacked it and wrote that she was my favorite daughter. So now Esther kids me about that.

I remember wondering from time to time whether my parents loved me better than my siblings. I'm pretty sure my mom loves me best. Maybe that's why she is so direct with me. I think a sign of good parenting is for each sibling to suspect they are their parent's favorite. In reality we love each of our kids equivolently. Have you ever thought who Heavenly Father loves the best?

I am the father of 6 wonderful children. They are all very loveable in their own ways. Sometimes they are easier to love than others, but that love doesn't actually depend on them being loveable. Our Heavenly Father's love isn't dependant on our being loveable
Emily is at Oregon State. She is getting married in a couple of weeks.
Esther just graduated from Crater and is going to BYU in a couple of months.
Our 3rd daughter, Karna had a birth defect and only survived 4 days.
I claim Zachary, although his sisters think he came from another planet.
Erik and Gideon are Pam in Californina this weekend. Erik will be entering middle school in the fall. Gideon has Down syndromeh and is especially easy to love.
My subject today is developing charity Moroni 7:48.

A common definition of charity is: Provision of help or relief to the poor. My dad does this by being a volunteer driver for dial-a-bus transporting the disabled for medical appointments. He gets a lot of satisfaction from this, and I admire his eagerness to serve. Another service he has done has been doing full-time missionary service. He has spent 10% of his life between the missions. This Provision of relief to the poor in spirit didn't start when he left as a 19 year old to Sweden, and wasn't limited to the time he spent later with my mom in San Diego and Baltimore. He planned ahead, worked hard, and lived frugally so that he had sufficient financial resources to go on missions, and he lived with faith, discipline and devotion such that he had the faith to serve.
But within the context of the gospel, charity has another broader meaning.
Charity with a capital C is the pure love of Christ.
1. Love for Christ
2. Love from Christ
3. Love like Christ

As we understand the atonement, and our debt to the saviour, we feel great love for Christ. We will show our love for the Lord through our acts of service, patience, compassion, and understanding for one another.
Having a Charitable spirit is a great blessing for us. It is the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love and the most joyous to the soul. Nephi learned from an angel about Charity when talking about the fruit of the tree of life:

1 Ne 11:22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.
23And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.

What Christ did for us demonstrated his great love for us.

Jesus Christ is the perfect example of charity. In His mortal ministry, He always "went about doing good," teaching the gospel and showing tender compassion for the poor, afflicted, and distressed (see Matthew 4:23; Mark 6:6; Acts 10:38). His crowning expression of charity was His infinite Atonement. He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). This was the greatest act of long-suffering, kindness, and selflessness that we will ever know. This is the Love from Christ, and is the the Christ-like type of love we should show in return to Him and to all people.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton observed: "Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other."

We get opportunities to do this as we interact with people around us. I to tell about one time I later recognized I was especially bad about this, in hopes that you can learn from my bad example. Sports Authority had ascics 1150s on sale. I only had a few minutes, so I was in a hury and went straight for the shoes. I pulled out a 10.5 and and 11 to decide which size fit best. A very young cheerful sales attendant cornered me in the isle and asked whether I pronated or supinated. I didn't want to act like I wanted any help. I turned my foot to show the supination wear pattern on my heal and with a chuckle said I suppinate. She said definitively "then those aren't the right shoe for you". I've run about 17,000 miles since moving here 8 years ago, and about half of those miles were in shoes like this. So I told her they worked just fine for me, and if it was alright, I was just going to try them on for a minute. I could tell she felt dis-respected. I didn't acknowledge her as potentially having useful information for me. I was focused on my needs and thought of her as only there to serve me in the way I wanted, not as an important individual trying to do her job as she understood it. If I could have do things over again I could have listened to see if she had new information about the product, or explained that while I suppinate when walking I am actually neutral when running, that I have lots of experience with this shoe and with feet and running shoes in general, or that I am such a cheepskate I was going to buy this shoe whether it was just right for me or not because it was on sale for less than $50. Too often I have blinders on and focus on accomplishing a task, and miss the larger task of having a meaningful experience on earth is other of God's children.

I am much better about focusing on other peoples needs at work. People there are sometimes in pain or otherwise not at their best, or some may have self-destructive habits or attitudes. They aren't always automatically easy to love. At work, part of our formal mission statement is
to reveal God’s love for all,
especially the poor and vulnerable,
through our compassionate service.

I'm not sure what it means to "reveal" love. But I still think that is a petty cool mission statement to be working under. So when someone starts to feel difficult to work with, I summarize that mission statement by telling myself "God loves them, and I'm trying".
Home life can be one of the hardest places to consistantly feel and show charity. It can be hard to be on your best behavior 24/7 around the people you are the most comfortable with, and there can be conflicts of will. I frequently try to inject my desires into my kids to get them to do chores, homework, learn the articles of faith, or to come running with me. There is a lot of overlap of responsibilities and priorities. By seeing each other as Christ sees us, and treating each other as Christ would, marriage and familiy life is one of my biggest opportunities to practice Charity.

Being Charitable is a distinguishing feature of a diciple of Christ. He said: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34-35). In relationships with family members and others, followers of Christ look to the Savior as their example and strive to love as He loves, with unfailing compassion, patience, and mercy.

The scripture I was assigned is Moroni 7:48
I want to start with verse 44 and 46. They state how absolutely vital charity is:
if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

46Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

Mormon then gives some explaination of what charity is and is not:
45And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
47But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

He then gives advice on how to develop Charity:
48Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.

I get from this that earnest prayer is neccessary, as is being a true follower of Jesus Christ which to me means seeking to know Him through study and practicing His commandments. I think as we align our life with Christs we are better able to see others as He sees them, and feel what He feels. As we feel this, it changes who we are. Alma talked about this in 5:14
14And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received His image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
I listen to christian radio once in awhile, and there is a very catchy song "free to be me" that includes the lyrics in the chorus "Perfection is my enemy". I think the message is that people can get discouraged if they compare themselvs to others or think they have to be perfect for God to love them. That certainly isn't the case- He loves us as we are. But being perfected should be our goal, not our enemy. And by developing charity, according to Mormon we are purified. We become more like Christ, who is perfect. When we accept Christ, he takes on all our imperfections and we together with him are perfect.
Doc & Cov 121 talks about this, and how having charity will give us confidence when we stand before God:
45Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
46The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
May we all make progress in this direction is my prayer.
Pray for charity, love those around you, love each of you kids equivalently, don't leave your facebook logged on.
I know that God knows and loves each of this. This is one of the first and strongest things I have a testimony of. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be redeamed and return to live with our heavenly father. The scriptures are true. We are lead by a true prophet today.

Central Point weekend

cheesy self portrait

Esther was in charge of the annual LDS youth formal dance.  Pam and I got to go as chaperones.

 Earlier in the day, while trying in vain to outsprint her back to the house, Gideon and the strolled went into the rose bush.



Esther gave a great talk in church that I wanted to share:

    Two weeks ago Brother Broedser approached me and asked me if I would be willing to…. At hearing those words I turned around and  headed the other direction.  But we were inside the church, so I couldn’t run., and it turns out he is a fast walker…   As you have already noticed this precaution did not work for me…. He caught up with me and then asked me to talk about preparation. For those of you that don’t know My name is Esther Olsen, and I am going off to college this next August. So I’m pretty sure this talk is mostly for me.
    When preparing this talk I sat down and wrote out a list of skills/attributes that I thought would help me through this transition from childhood to young adulthood. First off having a firm understanding of who you are and what you stand for. Second being in tune with what the spirit is telling you. Third having one personality, there are far too many people that say one thing and do another thus crating an alter ego. And forth being able to set good goals.   I want to talk about each of these, starting with knowing who you are.
    This next year is going to be interesting for me. When leaving home you not only acquire more responsibilities but freedoms as well. I am going to see many of my peers use these new freedoms with care and respect and others that will not.  I’ve hear of people that were once stalwart in the gospel forgetting their standards. Deciding who you are today is so important. If you do not decide for yourself someone else will do it for you. What I am doing to help me remember is writing out a list of to do’s and never wills. For example on my to do list  is read the scriptures every day, and on my never will list is NO Chewing tobacco. Deciding today is important because you never know when you are going to be confronted by a certain temptation. Whether it be big or small make a decision now and then write it down.
    Many of my leaders have told me that the age range in which the most members go inactive is in  the late teens and early twenties. My reasoning for this is that they did not have a firm understanding. They were relying  on their parents testimonies. Not knowing for themselves if the gospel is true, and as soon as their faith is tested it is completely obliterated. There really is only one way to prevent this, and that is for those members to find out for themselves whether the gospel is true.  And then acting on their findings.   We need the spirit to teach us.  This will fortify and guide us.
    That brings up another great question. How are we supposed to know when the spirit is talking to us?             Having the spirit as a constant companion is great but understanding the spirit is essential. In Alma 58 verse 11 says “he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith.” The spirit talks to us mostly through feelings. The only way to become better at hearing the spirit is practice. Clean your ears and your mind so that you will always be able to hear the subtle promptings that the spirit might bring. Having this skill will prepare you for almost any situation that may come your way.
    When you are in tune with the spirit you are going to be consistent in the way you behave and act even in different circumstances.  What I believe to be one of the biggest epidemics in our high schools today is a multiple personalities disorder.  This disorder is caused by young men and woman that have a testimony of the gospel but also wish is be accepted by the world. As you all know these two don’t really mix well. Eventually one of these two sides will overcome the other.  And guess what… it is most often the world that wins over. What happens is praying and scripture study become a bother instead of a time of  renewal. Eventually these habits cease altogether. Then going to church becomes a hassle, and then they close off their ears to the spirit. And as soon as someone suffering from this personality disorder no longer has their parents watching them they forget their faith altogether. James says that without works faith is dead. Our works define our faith. What we do all throughout the day defines our testimony of Jesus Christ. That is why this disorder is the cause of so many spiritual deaths.
    What I am doing to create an antidote to this disorder is to always have the same standards.  I realize that I make many mistakes. What I have found to be most helpful is to have weekly self evaluations. During this set time I sit down and write down all that I need to work on. I then write goals for the next week. None of us are near perfect. In order to continue on our path back to Heavenly Father we need to check our headings, and realign our selves to the standards that Heavenly Father has set for us.  In second Nephi chapter nine it says “Prepare your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the righteous, even the day of judgment, that ye may not shrink with awful fear; that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness.”
    Preparing your faith for trials needs to be number one on our list of to do’s. I want you all to know that I am not perfect but I am trying. I want to be prepared for the trial that lay ahead of me. But I also want all of you to be prepared also. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

My Spring Break in Pictures

C.A.R. had their annual state conference which Esther presided over as State President.


Erik giving his State Report


Stalker Picture #1


Stalker Picture #2


Zachary was smiling while giving his State Report... weirdo.


Being eaten by the witch at Enchanted Forest.


My cute date to the banquet


Esther with the State Enthusiast


The help


Endowment




Wedding Announcements- Thanks for the help!




Zachary's Birthday


I've never seen him happier!


Stalker Picture #3


Stalker Picture #4


The imp: Proud to have stolen big brother's birthday presents

Mountain of the Lord's house

Emily went through the temple today.  I think she wanted it to be a quiet event, but here I am blogging about it.  Grandma Lake and the grandparents Olsen came.  Plus we bumped into a couple of people Pam visit- teaches.

The sun came out as we were leaving.

my suggestion for an announcement photo

Biking in the rain

The check engine light prompted us to get an oxygen sensor replaced.  Seems like a racket- a small part that seems programed to fail and cost $250 to replace even after shopping around, getting a discount, and hiring a neighbor to do the dirty-work.  Anyway, this left us with one fewer car than drivers for a day.  How did we ever survive?

I knew the weather was going to be wet, so I planned ahead, wore clothes that would dry quickly, put fenders on my bike, and wore my best rain coat.

I felt I was getting back to my ecologically sound Oregonian core.  I was thinking about how I was going to brag to my office partner.  But then I saw his bike as I went to park mine.

Dr Brandon Hull, all weather cyclist

Future time trialist?

The other car is now fixed, I'm back to driving my favorite little old Accord.  The son of one of my other partners, Matt Robinson, is back from his mission to Minnesota- that's some difficult weather for bike riding.  We rode together several times before his mission, me on my noisy steel bike with Campagnola components, but it fit me poorly, suffered from intractable derailleur noise, and the back breaks haven't worked since I ran over the tire with the car.  Matt took pity on me and gave me a Cannondale Aluminum bike that he had put together.  It's old, but hardly used- I love it.

Fruit

I really like fruit. I love food in general, especially good, wholesome food but fruit has a special place in my heart.

Summer is a beautiful season because then I get to dive into watermelons, eat blueberries by the handful and have fingers perpetually stained purple from blackberries. It's a beautiful thing.

I am pretty picky though; I don't like it cooked or dried. Fresh off the tree is the way to go for me. There are exceptions, like bananas are ok in bread, pumpkins in muffins, peaches in cobbler, apples in pie and my personal favorite blueberry pancakes smothered in marion-berry jam.

The trek started this week and since Grandpa is helping shuttle cars and what not he's been gone. Grandpa is the household supplier of food. Since his departure our stores have gone low, particularly on fruit. I was lamenting the loss of bananas (of which I eat 1-2 a day) to Grandma when she realized we were out of lettuce (salad is Grandma's favorite food).

So guess what I found when I got home from work the other day:





Bushels of bananas, bananas for me!!

Thanks G-ma :)