Sunday

23 miles, total 2,271.

Went to my first ward council meeting in about 6 years, between being in seminary and stake young men, I've not had an early Sunday meeting.

Went to shift positions in sacrament and pulled a muscle in my back and twisted my tail bone. I hate middle age. Got up and hobbled out and sat down for a while but I started getting a "benedryl headache". I had one midnight shift Friday which screws up my sleep habits for a week, so have to resort to something to sleep for a few days. But it starts giving me a headache after a while. So I came home early and laid down.

Tomorrow, I'm driving a hydrologist from New Orleans around our area to see our flood prone areas and the rivers they forecast for. Going to Chattanooga tomorrow, and down into Georgia for a while. The heat index has been up to over 104 for several days. Extremely high humidity. Then Tuesday I think we'll go up to Newport (yippee) and then on to Roan Mountain on the Appalachian Trail and the world famous wild rhododendron gardens. Cooler, but thunderstorms up top.

Then Wednesday through Friday I work evenings. I like evening. I don't like missing my family, but they pay just like midnights and I'm a night person. The only trouble is the severe weather usually hits then.

And that's my upcoming week.

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Joseph continues with his testimony and description of the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon:

“Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.
“Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.
“I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.
“Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner His kingdom was to be conducted in the last days."

Very matter of fact. I don't much to comment on except to wonder why it took so long? Other than Joseph gaining the experience he needed and the line upon line instruction. Why does God sometimes show us what he wants us to do, and then prepare us for it, and other times NOT show his what he wants and let us beat our heads against the wall trying to figure it out? Or is it something I said or didn't say, do or didn't do?