Goblin Valley

This weekend we took the scouts to Goblin Valley and had a fun time.  It was an interesting combination of easy camping and backpacking.  We drove in Justin Heideman's spacious motor home, but made the boys pack everything in and out of the campsite.  The scouts had a great time climbing the goblins.

Yesterday I attended my first political convention as a delegate. It was interesting on several accounts. The first was the combination of personal and cerebral. Successful candidates and officers had to have a combination of an ability to connect with people individual, to project a charismatic image to a large group, and to have enough background and thoughtful imagination to give people a sense that they could do a capable job. It is a difficult arena requiring risk, hard work, and a willingness to sacrifice. I found myself grateful that there were competent leaders available who were willing to become involved.

It was heartening to see a hall filled with dedicated people who had made an effort to become informed politically. It is affirming to join with a group who share many common political values. With that there is also a danger. There is an invitation and encouragement to join with the group and rely on the collective sense of similar thinkers rather than applying a personal and independent analysis. It felt like a seductive Siren call to join in the emotional comfort a being part of a team. My academic training encourages critical examination of issues and conclusions and this setting with acclamations and short rousing sound bites is not well-suited to that.

I also felt gratitude to be part of a working democracy. I volunteered to help count the votes to get an inside view of procedural integrity. As I read of challenges getting people in young democracies to have faith in questionable systems, it is heartening to be in a democracy which works.

In Utah County, where I live, a nominated Republican is highly likely to be elected.  In that scenario, the nominating conventions and primary take on a particularly important meaning.  I was encouraged by the process I witnessed yesterday.  Candidates were given close scrutiny, the delegates seemed to be well-informed and strong participants, and the stronger candidates were quickly weeded out from the weaker ones. In the one contest we decided, the two chosen candidates were (in my opinion) the two best suited to move our county forward.

A great weekend

This weekend leading up to Easter has had some great spiritual moments for me. It started with our new assignment in the MTC. Deon and I will be serving as German Shift Leaders for the TRC (Teaching Resource Center). The means we will coordinate volunteers who work with the missionaries as practice investigators. To begin our experience, we had a teaching session with two sets of missionaries, two sisters who had been in the MTC for three weeks and two elders who had been there a bit longer. It was wonderful to feel the Spirit of the missionaries again which I remember enjoying so keenly while I was serving as a Branch President there. The messages were simple and the German still developing but the Spirit was really wonderful for me.

On Easter Sunday, I spoke in church about Come Unto Christ. Again, I felt the spirit strongly and really enjoyed the extra measure of the Spirit I feel when I speak in church and sing hymns with the choir.

After church, we invited over a former (and future) student of mine who recently returned from a mission to Germany/Austria. We asked her to teach us a lesson in German was if we were investigators so that we could get a more authentic feel for what our MTC missionaries are working towards. It was great again to feel the Spirit of that work.