"Beam-ectomy should precede all mote micro-surgery. Just saying." Ginger Conrad paraphrasing Jesus Christ.

Paradigm Shift

“The list of health problems I think it would very hard to live with is SO much longer than the list of foods I previously thought I couldn’t live without,” Merrill Alley.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Writing these letters is getting easier and feels more natural now. Sometimes I use lessons from Primary manuals to help my fill out ideas I'm trying to illustrate. In this letter, I used part of a lesson from the Primary 2A manual.


Hi Tyson!

It was so fun to see you at the pizza place. I can’t tell you how impressed I was with your nice manners. You are growing up to be a respectable boy. Good manners and respectable actions are so important for missionaries AND successful businessmen. You won’t have any trouble in that department.

I was also excited to hear you are taking up karate. Uncle Jason, Uncle Spencer, and I loved the sport. When I learned how to flip a man twice my size, I was so jazzed. Learning to discipline my body and mind, I acquired skills that helped me in many situations. Besides it's lots of fun to do flying sidekicks and yell kiai. Did you know that kiai is very important to the sport; it's not just yelling. Ki means energy and Ai means join. In other words, kiai is a merging of your energy. When you yell kiai, you instantly squeeze and send an instant release  of your stored energy. What in the world does that mean? Kiai helps you kick and hit better, because it pushes your energy into the movements. So…the only time in the world, when your mom will be happy with you for yelling is during karate practice. Sooooooo…practice, practice, practice-but don't practice on other people, especially your sister. Also, don't practice on cats or dogs. Jason, Spencer, and I had a huge punching bag in the basement.

We sure hope you put as much energy into loving school as you do loving karate. School is sometimes hard, but is so worth the hard work. Maybe at seven you can't see that it will ever get you anywhere, but it is vital to your future happiness. So if you run into difficulties, ask your mom and dad to help you. Some of the most intelligent people in the world had a hard time learning to read and do math, but they had parents or other mentors that helped them out until they could do things for themselves, like Disney, Edison, and Einstein. I don't know if you have difficulties in school or not, but I do know that ANYONE can become the smart kid if they do their homework plus a little bit extra.

You say, "EXTRA? why would I want to do EXTRA?" Well, you like Lego; I know. Did you know Lego is math? Fractions, multiplication, statistics, engineering, and geometry are part of playing with your favorite toy. Yup! BUT...you have to do your homework before you get out your Lego. And then there's reading stories. The very act of getting lost in a new story stretches your synapses. Whether you read to yourself or someone reads to you, you are learning how the English language is put together and how to solve problems. Who doesn't like a good story!

We are enjoying our tiny cottage by the river up here. Although we see a lot of two legged and four legged tame animals (humans and dogs) instead of squirrels and such, we have seen some ducks on the river. I've never lived in a city before. It's kind of interesting, but I'll always like the country best. Wide-open spaces and quiet are more important to me than close stores.

We are going to visit people from our mission tomorrow. Since it's Super Bowl crazy here, we have been invited to watch the game after church. I don't generally advise watching television on Sunday, but this is a special occasion. However, I'm not too sure it is keeping the Sabbath Day holy. What do you think?

With your baptism coming at the end of the summer, you ought to start thinking about things like keeping the Sabbath Day holy. What does that mean? Since the beginning of the world, one day each week has been set apart for learning and thinking about God and for doing good to others. Keeping the Sabbath day holy means we do things that remind us of God, such as going to church, reading the scriptures, and doing other reverent things. it is not always easy to know whether an activity is something we should do on the Sabbath. The best way to know what to do is to follow Jesus Christ's example.

The Pharisees were people who didn't like Jesus Christ and what he did. They tried to trap him into saying things that were wrong or against the law. They asked him if it was wrong to heal someone on the Sabbath day. They wanted him to say it was. Jesus pointed out that if the Pharisees had a sheep that fell into a hole on the Sabbath, they would help it out. Since people are more important than sheep, helping people is a good thing to do on the Sabbath. You can read about this in Matthew 12:10-13.

If an activity is something that Jesus would do, such as helping or being kind to others, it is a good thing to do on the Sabbath day. So, I guess I answered my own question. I'll go visit the people, which the people in Jesus' day called fellowshipping, but I won't watch the football game.

Well, Tyson, we are pleased to call you our grandson. We love you and pray that you will be safe, healthy, faithful, scholarly, kind, gentle, gospel-strong friend, a loyal brother, and an obedient son. Choose to be happy, too.

Love Ya Lots!