Church Education, What Have Ye Done To Me?

I went to a BYU Alumni event last week to hear the venerable Dr. Susan Easton Black (pictured right,) address “Martin Harris, More than a Lost Manuscript.”   She has submitted the topic to Oxford.  It’s all very exciting.  

"Hot dog",  I'd thought. "This'll be a plate of scriptural meat for sure."  (I always think  in witty puns, you know.)

Karren Ashley and I headed to the beautiful Hinckley Alumni Building to first labor through a plate of mystery meat to arrive at the real entree, Dr. Black.

She quickly went through a timeline of Martin Harris' life accompanied by a Power Point presentation, and then and then . . . Wait!!

 She's bearing her testimony!  She's winding down!  She's done!  Noooo.  They're now giving her the lovely parting gift!  That was just the appetizer, wasn't it?  I have the attention span of a gnat and yet it's over?

These people have never been to a Church Education presentation.  That was nothing!  (I’m using way too many exclamation points.)  I wander off to my car, drift home and wonder what happened.

I guess it's all in perspective. I think I'll just have a Diet Coke and watch an episode of NCIS.

More Maui Matters

I love Maui for a lot of reasons.

One of them is that according to LDS Church History, My Great-grandfather Angus Munn Cannon served a mission and saw God in a pineapple field here.  Apparently a lot of natives took on his name but not for the reason some of you naughtier people might think.  They just needed an extra name, so they took on “Cannon” which is not a bad name if you need another one.  If anyone makes any smart remarks, I want you to know that he was known for his good looks.

I sort of have halfheartedly looked for the account from time to time.  I have a copy of a journal in which it was referred to at home, but I never could find it.  I’m going to have to check it out again when I get home.  Maybe I’ll go the easy route and make some phone calls instead.  We’ll see.  I just keep forgetting.  But I digress.

Today we went to the back woodsey area of Maui.  If you look at a map of Maui, it looks like the head and torso of a woman.  We got up to the back of her head.

Up there it’s really rustic.  There is a beautiful bay around which people dive, snorkle and scuba dive and beyond is just windy, beautiful, lush areas which look like Heber might if it had lots of rain.  The roads become too narrow to go much beyond.  

Later we went to dinner at Kimo’s which is a very nice restaurant in Lahaina.  It is right on the water and though my IPhone takes decent pictures, they certainly don’t do justice to the view.  Let it just be known that should you drop by, Kimo’s certainly will be on the list of spots to visit.  

Musical Mormons Thanks to Brigham

One of the nicest legacies of Brigham Young within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Mormon love of music, singing, playing of musical instruments, and the enjoyment of the performing arts.

Christmastime is crazy in the Church with these.  And we're pretty good at it, too.  We've got more pianos per capita, I think, than about just about anybody else, too.

The irony of this is that before his conversion to Mormonism, Brigham had been a Baptist  and had been taught to shun music in all its forms.  He more than made up for it.

It's been great this year again as I've enjoyed really good Relief Society dinners in both Julia's and my wards with music and with plays in the Daybreak 8th and 14th Wards.