Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

Well, tonight I sat next to the Lieutenant Governor, Gary Herbert, of the State of Utah. The event was the Annual Recognition Banquet of the Payson Chamber of Commerce. Since I am the “President” of the Chamber, I had the opportunity to introduce him, sit next to him, and talk with him during dinner.

He was a very nice person, and we had an enjoyable discussion. Of course, he is also a politician and that was memorable too. I am sure that we heard a lot of things that were for our benefit but even knowing that we enjoyed talking with such a high ranking official in the State of Utah administration. Having run for office, I did feel some affinity with what he is going through right now as he is running for re-election with the Governor. It was a nice evening.

I was impressed enough by the following email that I got from Mom Cox about Easter and its most important meaning that I post it here for all:

Dear Family,

This has been a wonderful Easter for me because of our special stake conference. I want to share with you those things I have been thinking about. I hope you won’t think that it is too lengthy. It really is from my heart and I am hoping that it will somehow be meaningful to you.

Today is Easter Sunday and it was stake conference. This was the best stake conference I have ever been to. Last night there was a meeting, but it wasn’t nearly as beneficial to me. However, I did gain one insight from last night’s meeting and that was regarding trials.

President Anderson instructed us that trials are given to us for three reasons:

1. Some trials are because the Lord wants to help us to grow and become stronger
2. Other trials are caused because of our own choice to sin
3. And other trials come upon us because of the sins of others. It could be family
members, government or otherwise

The key to handling our trials is the way we choose to deal with them. We can either let the trials destroy us or we can choose to become better and stronger because of them. If we seek the Lord as we face our trials He will bless us with strength and the ability to choose that which will enhance our spirits as we travel through this journey of life.

This morning this Easter Sunday I will report the messages that were imprinted upon my heart.

First: Part of this year’s challenge from President Anderson was in increase our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ that we might know and trust in him and know the Savior’s ability to bless us with peach and strength. At the beginning of the year I intended to make an effort, but then in my mind I didn’t plan to do anything specific about it. However, since November I have been reading JESUS THE CHRIST by James E Talmage which was written in a room of the Salt Lake Temple. Since it is a book of over 700 pages with a great deal to ponder about it has taken me a long time to read it. I decided to read it because I was told the missionaries are required to read it while on their mission and that it is considered by church leaders as almost scripture. When I was young I had tried to read it, but there were so many big words and I didn’t know very much about the Gospel. Over the years I have acquired more vocabulary and know more about the Savior. My testimony, appreciation and depth of understanding of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ has increased significantly as I have read this book. Indeed my faith and comprehension of the sacrifice of our Lord has grown considerably.

The March Ensign was all about Jesus and I immersed myself and feasted upon those words like I have never done before. I find myself more interested to hear his words and to learn of him.

Usually when I set out to accomplish something. I make a plan of how I will do it and go about it in a methodical way. The amazing thing about this is that it seems to me that it just happened without any set plan on my part. Perhaps, I was the victim of the prayers of our Stake Presidency. But whatever I have been richly blessed by our Father in Heaven. I can now testify of my faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice with more excitement and fire than ever before. He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Advocate with the Father, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Jesus is the Christ.

Today President Anderson enlarged upon the stake challenge of an understanding of faith. He spoke of the 4th Article of Faith involving faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost being a pattern rather than an event. The sacrament is our opportunity each week to cleanse ourselves of our sins as happens with baptism. Through our faith we can repent, renew our baptismal covenant and be worthy of the Holy Ghost being a part of our life to testify of Jesus Christ, to comfort us and to strengthen.

Secondly: The Timpanogos temple president spoke. I was touched to think of the reasons why I go to the temple.
1. Because I love the feeling there.
2. Because I should and I want to obey
3. Because I receive inspiration and guidance there
4. I feel like I am home when I am there
5. My soul is refreshed
6. I receive strength and peace of mind
7. I go to pray for each of my family and place their names on the prayer roll
8. It is God’s way of teaching us
9. It is a house of prayer, faith and learning
10. Two most crowning eternal events in my life happened there:
My own endowment
And sealing to my husband
11. Opportunity to serve others
12. Association with others
13. I am a special guest in the Lords’ house. The Savior walks the halls of His temples.

I love all of you and pray for each and every one of you and your families daily.

Clouds of blessings,

Mom

We were over to Chris’s tonight, and it was fun watching the family children becoming rock musicians. Chris has a video game called Rock Show. There is a lead singer, an electric guitar, a base guitar, and drummer. The kids hammed it up and had great fun. It was a great evening. I love family.

I love spending a holiday or special day with the family. Today is Easter. We have had the opportunity to be with the family today, and that has been a wonderful opportunity. I love watching my children, and now my grandchildren, as they interact with each other and as we share their lives. Yes, being a father and a grandfather has been a wonderful experience.

One of the things that happens when you go to visit family, and you stay at their haciendas, is that you sleep in a room other than your own. We spent last night sleeping in Julie’s room. That is always a new experience, sleeping in someone else’s room, because when you get up in the night, as I always end up doing, you don’t know for sure where you are at. I woke up last night, and it took me about 5 minutes laying there, looking around, before I figured out and realized I was in Julie’s room, not my room at home. There is always a moment of disorientation before you get it all figured out. Yes, I realized I was sleeping in Julie’s room.

Bonnie and I have come up to Cheyenne to see the kids this weekend. Of course, the more pressing reason is to see the Grandbabys as they change so much from day to day. We don’t want to miss a minute of their development. We want to see the kids too.

Once we got into the state of Wyoming, the wind started to blow and howl, and now, I am sitting at my kids place in Cheyenne and you can hear the wind just blowing like crazy out there. I don’t miss that, miss that at all. We have a little wind in Payson, but it is nothing like this, and this is the one thing that I don’t miss about Wyoming at all. Some day, maybe the good Lord will bless this beautiful state of have a little bit less of the old howling wind.

This is just getting plain ridiculous. I of course know that by the calendar, it is still winter. It hasn’t reach the spring equinox. Supposedly it can still snow anytime, but really, does it have to keep this pace up. This morning, I woke up to at least 1″ of snow on the ground. It was dang cold outside. It snowed today during church and of course, it snowed yesterday.

I love having all of the water that we have received this year, but really, can’t we have spring just a little bit early. It would really be nice if we had moderating weather for just a little while. Instead, snow, snow, and more snow. It at least will hopefully be a good year for water.

I guess I shouldn’t complain, but I walked around the house tonight like a caged lion and I think that part of the reason is that I really need to get to summer, somewhere, sometime. Maybe that is why I am so excited about going on a cruise in a few weeks.

Well, at least it seemed to be. The setting was right. Tonight I was sitting in the famed Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square. The big, wonderful organ was there, and there sat a choir. It looked like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it wasn’t. It was the Orem UVSC Institute of Religion Choir singing at the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Samuel H. Smith, first official missionary in the history of the LDS Church.

My son Michael was there as a singer in the choir, and I was there both as a descendant of the Smith’s as well as a proud father watching his son perform. The choir actually did quite well. It was however a long drive into Salt Lake. I can’t believe it, but as I get older it gets harder for me to make these kinds of trips. I am really beginning to show my age. Michael did a good job, and I think we have one of my kids who make it into the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Who knows?

Well, I don’t know if I spelled the name above correctly, but I had an interesting (for Payson) experience tonight. I was driving home from a meeting in downtown when I saw a deer crossing the road in front of me. That wouldn’t be a surprise, except it was 600 East and I was driving home from work.

Last night, we had seen 6 deer up on the ridge, foraging for food. This has been a very rough winter for the wild game, and they have moved down into the city looking for those tasty morsels of food that the floor of the valleys may still have. It has been a rough winter, and this is something that normally you would see here.

Well, it has been a while since I have been here. February was a very busy month for me, and since the blog sphere seems to be fading in its importance to everyone else, it has also slowed down for me. The one great thing to happen since the last comment was that winter has finally begun to moderate. The snow is almost gone, the sun shines longer each day, and I can see that spring and summer is on the way. I love the changes in season.