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Dear Gloria,  For the past week I have been listening to the book of Mormon each day while running instead of listening to pop music. It has really helped me feel better on a consistent basis than before when I was listening to music and not reading the Scriptures quite as much.  Since all of this began, I have been reading the Scriptures every day but I have found that listening to the book of Mormon has really been a special experience. It is almost like it has a power to keep my mind off my troubles even when I’m not reading the book of Mormon.  I have to say, when I was reading Ether and I was learning so much about faith in chapter 12, I was worried that as I got back to the beginning of the book of Mormon I would not have as much material to help give peace to my mind as before.  However, one of the beautiful things about the book of Mormon is that it has things that we can apply to our lives that we may not even expect. I know the book of M...

The Destination: Brazil The Cities: Sao Paulo, Sao Jose dos Campos and Rio de Janeiro The Mission: Meet with our Business Consulting Client and figure out what they heck they need to do better to actually generate some cash The ACTUAL Mission: Work with our client for 3 out of 8 days, while trying to pack in 9 official days of Spring Break fun into the remaining 5 days. Status: COMPLETE. Surprise surprise, but I can now say that I have officially done the most basic thing ever, and went on a school class Spring Break trip! As part of our semester long coursework, the MBA program here at Illinois has all of it's students signed up for an International Consulting course, where we get to work with different companies doing different things over the semester, and then we make strategic recommendations for them at the end of the term. Last semester we did a local consulting class for businesses here in the US, but we got the opportunity this semester to go international. So basi...

Dear Glo, The other day I was running 8 miles and I was listening to Ether.  I already wrote about Ether 12 but some of the other parts of the story in Ether meant a lot to me. The Lord guides them to the ocean and he tells them to build boats to get across the ocean.  He tells them to gather everything up they will need to take with them.  The boats they build are tight like unto a dish.  Then, the brother of Jared asks what they shall do for air and the Lord tells him to make two holes in the top and bottom and to open them as they need to to get air.  Then, the brother of Jared asks what they shall do for light?  Can you imagine what they are in for. Being locked up in submarine like boats for almost a year, with animals and bees and fish and their boats are "tight like unto a dish".  They were and had a hard trip.  Then they need light and the Lord asks the brother of Jared what he(the brother of Jared) wants Him to do about the problem of...

Today in church, a man was assigned to speak, and when he got up, I asked John who he was.  I had never seen him before.  Boy, you just never know the life experiences of anyone until you find out a little bit about them.  Brother Mangino is about as Italian-American as it gets.  He looks Italian, he sounds Italian, and his life story is Italian.  I couldn't help but think about Globee Baby on her mission when I heard him speak.  As John has said about investigators:  you just never know who will join the church.   John called Brother Mangino afterwards and asked him  for a copy of his talk for me.  Here it is: Good morning everybody, I was asked to do a talk on the Holy Ghost and how it blessed our lives. Gospel Principles 21 The gift of the HG is the privilege-given to people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, been baptized, and been confirmed as members of the church—to receive continual guidance and inspirati...

This is a letter I wrote to Glo, I don't know if any of these thoughts are worth keeping but it is so much of my ideas right now and I feel bad not recording it. Dear Glo, How are you?   I hope you are doing well!  Did you have any investigators at church today?  I have been praying for you that you can find good people to teach and to bring to the gospel and Jesus Christ. We had a great talk today by a fairly new member named Brother Brian Mangino who spoke about how he came to know the church was true when he was 60 years old after living a pretty rough life.  Now he is married and he and his wife joined the church and are doing well.  I am thankful you are serving a mission so you can find people like him. I was listening to Ether the other day and I wanted to write about what meant so much to me when I read and listened to it.  Obviously it has great meaning to me especially now because of what I am going through.  Here are...

Last night, I took this picture: We were at the Detroit temple for our usual Thursday night shift, but John needed to go in 30 minutes earlier than normal because he was serving for the first time as shift coordinator (the coordinators need to be there before the workers arrive in order to hand out schedules and make sure everything is in order).  There was no need for me to go in the temple that early, so I sat out in the car.  However, as John walked in, I quickly grabbed my camera and took the photo. I do believe this picture is worth a thousand words or more, and our experience is not unique.  It could be applied to other times in our lives, and to the lives of our friends and family. As much as people try to tell us that we are not alone, ultimately we are.  When we stand before the judgment seat someday, it will just be us and the Savior.  John has relied heavily on many people over the past few months, listening to their counsel, bending their e...

Here is a letter I wrote to Pres Price today.   Some of it is in letters I have sent to Glo that I put on the blog but I hate to write so much of my spiritual thoughts and not put it into the history books of our family. Hello Mike, Thanks for always calling me and checking in with me.  It is really appreciated. I just wanted to share with you some of the things I have learned in the temple with all the trials I have been facing lately.   When I was a kid, my mom who though not having gone to the temple, told us Kennedy kids that in the last days, before Jesus would come, the holy temples would be safe from the destruction and the devastation of the second coming.  When there would be wars and rumors of wars, pestilence and earthquakes and the calamities of the last days, the temple would be a safe place.  As a kid and young man and even as an adult I have always wondered when the second coming approaches, How will we all hide out in the temple to...