Rose, Lily and Hawthorn

Many years ago Japan was walled in as a nation. During that time, learned men studied nature and met with little groups of men and women at night and taught them lessons of life.

One morning, when one of these learned men was about to leave the gates of the city to go out to study nature, a workman stopped him and said, "When you come in tonight from your studies, will you please bring me a rose that I may study the whorl of the petals as you pointed out last night?"

"Yes," said the learned man, "I will bring you a rose." He had not gone far before a second man accosted him, saying, "Will you please bring me a hawthorn twig tonight?"
"Yes," said the professor. And, even before he got through the gate, a third accosted him, saying "Will you please bring me a lily that i might see the lessons of purity that you gave us last evening?" And the professor answered, "I will bring you a lily."

Just as the sun was setting in the west, the professor entered the gate of the city, where the three men met him. To the first, he gave the rose; to the second he gave the hawthorn twig; to the third he gave the lily.

Suddenly the man with the rose said, "Why, here's a thorn on the stem of my rose!" And the second said, "And here's a dead leaf clinging to my hawthorn twig!" And the third, encouraged by the fault finding, said, "And here's dirt clinging to the roots of my lily!"

The professor took the rose from the first, the twig from the second, the lily from the third. He broke the thorn from the stem of the rose and handed the thorn to the first; he plucked the dead leaf from the twig and put the dead leaf into the hands of the second; he took the dirt from the roots of the lily and gave the dirt to the third.

Keeping the rose, the twig and the lily, he said, "There, each of you has what attracted you first. You looked for the thorn and found it. It was there. I left it purposely. The dead leaf was left on the twig, and you saw it first. Purposely I left the dirt on the roots of the lily, and the dirt was the first thing you saw. Each of you keep what attracted your attention; I will keep the rose, the twig, and the lily for the beauty I see in them."

--David O. McKay

Spreading the wealth

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Halloween Poem

AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Since this is the time for goblins and bats
Halloween spirits and ghosts and cats
Weird happenings and witches brew
These are things we wish for you
May the only ghost that comes to stay
Be the Holy Ghost to guide your way.
May the only spirits you chance to meet
Be the spirit of love and warm friends sweet
These are you Halloween wishes for you
May God bless you in all you do!

HOW I FINALLY TAUGHT THE BIG GUY A LESSON

I did not provoke the fight, so I feel no remorse for what I was forced to do. We were arguing, and since I was right and he was wrong, he decided to fight to cover his stupidity. He swung at me first, but because I was in top condition, I was able to act quickly and block the punch neatly with my head. I then jumped to the ground, knocking him down on top of me. I placed my ear in his mouth and poked his finger several times with my eye. His teeth hurt so much from the strenght of my ear, that he became irate and tried to kick me, but I cleverly blocked the onslaught with my ribs and face. I scrambled to my feet and ran to my car in hopes I would get away and save this man from my deadly hands. Before I could start the car he pulled me from the still open door. I then proceeded to swing at him, but only managed to hit myself in the head. To this I said: "what's this? Two against one?" That was the final straw - I lost control! There will be no mercy!!! Taking him in my death grip, I pounded him in the knee with my stomach - Then hit him two or three times hard in the fist with my teeth! He had had it! I could tell. After that he didn't even try to pick me up off the ground. HE WAS TOO CHICKEN!!!!

PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING IN LIFE!!

Resurrection Experience of Zeke Johnson

Resurrection Experience of Zeke Johnson
Digitized By Glen W. Chapman

I have been requested to relate an experience I had in 1908 cr1909 in San Juan County.
I was just making' a home in Blanding and the whole county there was covered with trees and sagebrush. I was working hard to clear the ground to plant a few acres of corn. We had five acres cleared and started to plant the corn. My little boy Roy, 7 or 8 years old was there to help me plant the corn.
I'd plow around the piece and then he 'd plant the furrow with corn, Then I'd cover it and plow again. While I was plowing on that piece of ground, I discovered there were ancient houses there, that is the remnant of them. As I was plowing around I noticed that my plow had turned out the skeleton of a small child. the skull and the backbone, most of the bones of course were decayed and gone. Part of the skeleton was there, so I stopped immediately as my plow had passed it a little. I turned and looked back against the bar of the plow between the handles. As I was looking at that little skeleton that I had plowed out and wondering, all of a sudden to my surprise I saw the bones begin to wiggle and they began to change position and to take on different color and within a minute there lay a beautiful little skeleton. It was a perfect little skeleton.
Then I saw the inner parts of the natural body coming in--the entrails, etc. I saw the flesh coming on and I saw the skin come on the body when the inner parts of the body was complete. A beautiful head of hair adorned the top of the head and in about a half a minute after the hair was on the head, it had a beautiful crystal decoration in the hair . It was combed beautifully and parted on one side. In about a half a minute after the hair was on the head, the child raised up on her feet. She was lying a little on her right side with her back toward me. Because of this I was able to discern the gender of the child, but as she raised up, a beautiful robe came down over her left shoulder and I saw it must be a girl.
She looked at me and I looked at her and for a quarter of a minute, we just looked at each other
smiling. Then my ambition was to get hold of her, I said "Oh you beautiful child," and I reached as if I would embrace her and she disappeared.
That was all I saw and I stood there and I wondered and I thought for a few minutes. My little
boy was wondering why I was there because he was down at the other end of the row anxious to come and plant the corn. Now, I couldn't tell that story to anyone because it was so mysterious to me and such. Why should I have such a miraculous experience. I couldn't feature a human being in such a condition as to accidentally plow that little body out and see it come alive. A body of a child about five to seven years old, I'd say.
I couldn't tell that story to anyone until finally one day I met a dear friend of mine, Stake
Patriarch, Wayne H. Redd of Blanding. He stopped me on the street and said "Zeke, you have had an experience on this Mesa you won't tell. I want you to tell it to me." Well, I told it to him. Then he had me tell it to other friends and since then I have told it in four temples in the United States and many meeting houses and many socials, fast meetings, and at conference times.
I wondered, and it worried me for years as to why I was allowed to see it, a common man like me - uneducated. Why was I, just a common man, allowed to see such a miraculous manifestation of
God's power.
One day as I was walking alone with my hoe on my shoulder going to hoe some corn, something
said, "Stop under the shade of that tree for a few minutes and rest." This just came to me and I thought I would, so I stopped there and this was given to me.
It was in answer to my prayer. I prayed incessantly for an answer as to why I was privileged to
see that resurrection. I was told why. When the child was buried there it was either in time of war with the different tribes or it was winter time when the ground was frozen and they had no tools to dig deep graves. If it were during time of war they couldn't possibly take time to dig a deep grave. They just planted that little body as deep as they could under the circumstances. When it was done the sorrowing mother knew that it was such a little shallow grave, that in her sorrow she cried out to the little group that was present, "That little shallow grave, the first beast that comes along will smell her body and will dig her up and scatter her to the four winds. Her bones will be scattered all over these flats." There just happened to be a man present holding the priesthood (a Nephite or a Jaredite, I don't know which because they had both been in this country I've been in their houses and know it.) This man said, "Sister, calm your sorrows. Whenever that little body is disturbed or uncovered, the Lord will call her up and she will live. Since that time, I have taken great comfort, great cheer and consolation and satisfaction with praise in my heart and soul, until I haven't the words to express it, that it was I that uncovered that little body. Thank you for listening to me. I just can't tell this without crying.
Zeke Johnson
Son of Joel Hills John
This report was given to Glen W. Chapman the compiler By Bruce Johnson the grandson of Zeke
Johnson in the year of 1976.

Life

"Life is fragile and, therefore, should be handled with prayer." Pres. Harold B. Lee

This too shall pass!

Popcorn Parable

AUTHOR: Unknown

Behold, at the time of the harvest, the ears of corn did bring forth kernels which were dried and prepared for the popper's hand.

And then it was that the popper did take the kernels, all of which appeared alike unto him, and did apply the oil and heat.

And it came to pass that when the heat was on, some did explode with promise and magnify themselves an hundred-fold, and some did burst forth with whiteness which did both gladden the eye and satisfy the taste of the popper. And likewise some others did pop but not too much.

But lo, there were some that did just lie there and even though the popper's heat was alike unto all, they did bask in the warmth of the oil and did keep all they had for themselves. And so it came to pass that those which had given of themselves did bring joy and delight to many munchers, but those which kept of the warmth and did not burst forth were fit only to be cast into the pail and were thought of with hardness and disgust.

And thus we see that in the beginning that all appear alike, but when the heat is on, some come forth and give their all, while others fail to pop and become as chaft to be discarded and forgotten.