There's Always Something To Be Thankful For

October is just about over. Halloween is right in front of us. In a few more days kids will be running around in costumes and asking for candy. A few hours after that, it'll be November.
When you think November, what's the first thing you think of?
For me, the first thing that comes to mind is Thanksgiving which is, as the title of the holiday says, thanks giving. It's a day to give thanks.
I know it's not November yet, but it's close enough.

If you look around at the world today, it can seem, at times, that there's not really much to be thankful for? Sure, a lot of good things happen but a lot of terrible and confusing and frightening things happen too?
Are we supposed to be thankful for everything?
Yeah, I guess we should. But it's hard. In America we have this presidential election coming up and it's simply chaotic.
There are refugees swarming into cities around the world, looking for help, shelter and comfort.
There are hungry families, people struggling and scraping for the bare necessities, shootings, and other terrible, horrible things happening all over the globe.
So why are we even celebrating Thanksgiving?
Because there's always something and if we have to work a little to see what it is, it makes that thing (or things) more meaningful.

I'm reading a book called And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran, a resistance leader in France during World War II. Jacques was an extraordinary person. Not only did he survive a concentration camp after being ratted out by a member of the resistance group, Jacques was blind.
He'd never really had strong eyesight but before the age of eight he got in an accident that left him blind.
He said about his blindness,

Every day since then [his accident and surgery on his eyes] I have thanked heaven for making me blind while I was still a child not quite eight years old. 

I bless my lot for practical reasons first of all. The habits of a boy of eight are not yet formed, either in body or mind. His body is infinitely supple, capable of making just the movement the situation calls for and no other; ready to settle life as it is, ready to say yes to it. And the greatest physical miracles can follow from this acceptance.

I am deeply moved when I think of all the people whom blindness strikes when they are fully grown, whether it is caused by accident or injury in war. Often they have a hard lot, certainly one harder than mine.

You know, if I knew someone who had become blind that young, I would probably think something along the lines of "oh my goodness, that's terrible! Think of all the things they didn't get to experience and see!"
But if you look on the flip side, it is easier to make habits when you're younger. If you've been doing something one way for a long time, it's pretty easy to keep doing that.
So if Jacques Lusseyran, a man who went blind very young, can say that he's thankful that he went blind young instead of old, well then, I think I certainly find something to be grateful for even in the wild, crazy, scary world we live in.
And, believe it or not, those trials can strengthen us.
Thanksgiving is a holiday where we think about what we're truly thankful for but that's not the only time we should be counting our blessings. We should be doing it all year around.

Happy (sort-of-not-really) almost-ish Thanksgiving (to anyone from Canada, hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving) and don't forget to just take a step back and be thankful for the blessings you have.

Be thankful for what you have. Your life, no matter how bad you think it is, is someone else's fairy tale.

~ Wale Ayeni

A Letter to the Movie Industry (Or a gripe about the movies of today)

So, there's a lot of movies out there today. They premiere all the time. But I've noticed something, something kind of big.

A lot of movies that come out aren't exactly wholesome or family friendly. And those things are really important to me, the opportunity to watch a movie with my family and feel good about it.

I search "2016 Movies" on Google and I looked up the ratings (as in G, PG, PG-13, and R) for each movie listed there (which were not all the movies of 2016). The results: no G rated movies, which is, very sadly, not that surprising; 11 PG movies; 25 PG-13 films; lastly, 13 were R rated (which, in my personal opinion, are 13 films too many).

So I thought I'd go back a few years (specifically 2012) to see if we had better movies, in a rating sense. I would like to say we did, but I was really surprised to find this out: no G rated movies (sad but again not that surprising, which is just sad); only 6 PG movies; 17 PG-13 films; and the killer, 23 R rated. Why???

So, I guess, we're doing a little bit better…maybe since, I'm sure those weren't the only 2012 movies and I didn't list the ratings for all the 2016 ones.

Honestly though, why do we have so many R rated movies? I mean, this is really sad. We went from Gone With the Wind being banned from several states because Rhett Butler says, "I don't give a darn" (except he didn't say 'darn') at the end of the movie, to this.

Personally, I don't think we should even have R rated movies. I mean, if you "can only be 18 or older" to watch it, then why make it?!

I believe in movies that are family friendly, which seem to be almost obsolete these days. I mean, really, we don't need all the language in a movie to make it cool and you really don't need the sexual references hidden in the film to make it funny. In my opinion, those things just make it, I don't know, less cool.

Look, something happening today is that kids see movies they probably shouldn't. There are some kids who've seen PG-13 movies and they are not 13 years old. (Just so you know, so you don't think I'm a perfect-go-by-the-rating type person, I saw some PG-13 movies before I was thirteen, they were Harry Potter films, but they were screened first.) I know, the PG-13 films are the cool ones (I agree to a point) but please realize that these movies were rated for a reason.

Kids are impressionable. There are messages being sent to the audience and sometimes those messages aren't that great.

There are great movies out there, I'm not saying every movie is a terrible one. I'm just saying that movies have a rating for a reason. And you know what, the reason we have so many PG-13 and R rated movies is because we support them by watching them.

Movies do not need to be riddled with swearing, nudity, immodesty, sexual innuendos, and other trash to make them amazing movies.

In fact, the better movies, the ones that fill you with feeling and leave you thinking and send you a positive message, those are the best ones. All the trash and other garbage in movies, they kill those feelings. You really don't need to say swear after every word to get your point across.

That's why I'm always super appreciative of people who make wholesome movies without swearing and with great lessons.

Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again. I say we should make America great again in media. I think that's one great way to make America and the rest of the world great. 

Everyone loves watching a movie now and then, why not make it a great movie?

The Rewards of Studying

The other day at church I heard a story that I really liked. It was about scripture study but could really be applied to anything that requires hard work and diligence.
Now, I tried to look up the story the best I could on the information I had but I didn't have any luck so I don't know if this is a true story or not or who shared it. I didn't come up with it, I'm just retelling it. I added a title and names to the characters.

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The Book

Once in a time and place like this, there was a young man named Jeffery. Jeffery was a handsome young man who was unhappy. He used to regularly attend church meetings but as he grew older he went less and less and chose to read articles and news that cast bad light on his religion.

Jeffery fell into a spiritual and finical ditch. He needed money and the way he saw to get it was to spend time with his elderly Aunt Lise. 

Aunt Lise was wealthy and Jeffery planned to get a share of her money when she died. So on a regular basis, Jeffery went to visit his Aunt.

Besides being pretty well off, Aunt Lise was also an active church member. She went to church every Sunday and read in the scriptures every day. Over time, Aunt Lise's eyesight faded.

"Jeffery," She'd ask her nephew. "Will you read to me from the scriptures?"

"No, thanks," Jeffery would respond. He wanted nothing to do with church.

After a time, Aunt Lise passed away. Jeffery attended the reading of her will, eagerly awaiting the money.

You can imagine Jeffery's disappointment when, after all Aunt Lise's money had been given to charity, he was given her old set of scriptures and a letter.

Jeffery went home and read the letter.

"Dear Jeffery,

"If you read in the scriptures everyday you will be rewarded.

"Thank you for visiting with me, an old woman is thankful for the company.

"With all my love,

"Aunt Lise."

In complete disgust, Jeffery tossed the scriptures and letter into a corner of his room and forgot about them.

Weeks, months, and years passed and Jeffery grew older and the scriptures collected even more dust.

Then, one day, Jeffery, now an old man, passed away.

Because of all the debts he owned, all of Jeffery's stuff was auctioned off.

At the auction, the auctioneer picked up the old, dusty, beat up scriptures and read the letter to the audience.

"If you read these every day," The auctioneer promised. "You'll be rewarded."

A nice elderly woman bought the scriptures for a fair price and took it home. She looked over the book, wondering if the thing was still readable. She opened the scriptures and found, tucked carefully between each paper, a crisp $100 bill.

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There are several lessons we can take from this story. One moral is we will be rewarded if we study everyday. This story focuses on scriptures and those are important to study but we should also be gaining knowledge. If you want to be a doctor, for instance, you do a lot of studying and a lot of schooling to gain a degree. If you don't study, then you don't that degree.

Studying and diligence brings blessings.

"Blessed, Honored Pioneer!"

Today is what we Mormons call Pioneer Day. On this day in 1847, the first wagon train of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley.


They traveled through five states; that's 1297 miles from Nauvoo, IL.¹ And that's not including the travels of others Saints who crossed the Atlantic or came from New York and other eastern states. 

Trek by Covered Wagons

The trek by wagon was hard. At first everyone went by wagon. The only thing was, it was expensive. In 1856 it cost $93 per person to go by wagon.²

The Brooklyn Saints

Some Saints didn't have enough money to take the trail overland but they did have enough for a very long sea voyage. The Brooklyn went from New York, all the way around the horn of South America, and finally landed in California where most of those seafaring Saints stayed for a time.

The Handcart Pioneers

Handcarts were used by Saints who didn't have enough money for wagons and this way the Church could get more people to Utah. Handcarts were cheaper but harder.

These determined Saints came across the plains pulling and pushing handcarts; a wooden box on two wheels. (This is the part where I would have a picture but it didn't work out. Don't you love technology?)

Because of the size of the "vehicle", you couldn't exactly pack up your house and take it with you. Even with a wagon, you had a certain weight each person could take along.

So on this day, July 24th, we Mormons celebrate our ancestors and early Brothers and Sisters who pushed and pulled, walked and struggled, all the way to Zion. Thank you.

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1. lds.org.

2. https://history.lds.org/bc/content/images/historic-sites/handcart-trek/handcart-infographics-wagons-vs-handcarts-luke-perkins.jpg

If you're interested in learning more about the Mormon pioneers you can go to this website: https://history.lds.org/article/remembering-handcart-pioneers-in-the-sweetwater-valley?lang=eng. This page specifically focuses on the handcart pioneers.

If you want you can even read Gerald N. Lund's book about two of the handcart companies. His book is titled Fire of the Covenant. (It's really good.)