Working on my days off

This week I've ridden, oh, I dunno how many miles, but I'm up to 2,310 total, to Forsyth, MT.

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This week I worked two days, and then three evening shifts. On the second evening shift, the boss announced that the mother in law of one of our staff passed away. Then he came to me and some others to fill in for his midnight shifts. I ended up with two. So I worked my fifth shift in a row Friday evening, 4-midnight, and stayed then on the midnight shift until 8 a.m. Now I'm working the second mid shift. There were my days off this pay period. So I won't have any days off this time around. Again. This week I have four days shifts, and then another evening on Friday. I'm getting too old for this. It really gets to me. I live on caffeine to stay awake and benedryl to sleep. I bought some melatonin today to sleep with. I used it at Jamee's house and it worked great. No addiction, no groggy feeling after. Safe with other meds, too. Not that I'm on any meds, you understand...

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More from the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: That I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected."

In other words, we are commanded to protect certain things in our lives and if we use all our endeavors to protect them, the Lord will bless our efforts. If we do not, we will be cut off from his presence.

Once in a youth conference, we took the kids out into the woods at night and blindfolded them. We had set up a rope course around trees through shrubs and over rocks and logs. Each youth was given a raw egg and told to protect it and make it to the end of the course with the egg intact. Their eggs represented their virtue. We had "angels" going around giving them directions to find the right ropes, as we had several false leads tied off the main line and they could easily end up in dead ends. We also had a "devil", me, going around tempting them to go down forbidden paths and trying to trick them into giving up their eggs. I finally resorted to just poking their eggs with my finger. They would tuck the rope under their arms, and hold the egg in both hands, trapping it and concealing it from me. But all I needed was a small hole in their "protection" and I could fit my finger in and pop the egg. See the symbolism?

You not believe how many youth would actually hand over their egg to me just by me asking. I would use my soft voice and say, "Here. You're coming up on some rocks and it's very tricky. Let me hold your egg while you use both hands on the rope. Once I had the egg, I'd either break it or just steal it and walk away quietly, or laugh maniacally at them, depending on how much they could handle. Some girls actually almost cried to think they had been tricked so easily. Some guy got mad at me. Tough, dude. Obey and this won't happen.

If they lost their eggs, they had to go find the stake president or bishop and confess what happened and promise to do better and he would give them a new egg and they started the course over. I don't know of one youth who lost his egg twice. Once they knew my voice and modus operandi, they never fell for me again.

“I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible."

This is amazing. Another account of people who claim Joseph was a liar and a cheat and a fraud, and then going after the plates. If he's a liar, then there are no plates, so why look? They must have believed he had them, which implies they believed he'd told the truth of his vision, too, but they loved money and the devil more than God.

When we first moved to Tennessee, we were going to Bybee to see the Bogert's on their property. We had to cross the Nolichucky River, which sits in a wide flat plain at that point. The bridge over it is low and the banks are sandy and open. As we crossed it, I spotted a large black cat, about 3 feet tall on the far bank, with a huge long tail, all bushed out like it was spooked. It was a panther. Before I could point and say anything, Stevie, who was about 11, blurted out, "Dad! Did you see that huge black cat over there?!"

Others in my office have seen them, too. One guy had to chase it off with his shotgun before it attacked his dogs. He called the state department of wildlife to report it and had this conversation:

"I want to report a large black panther."
"No, they don't exist in Tennessee."
"I saw one in my yard."
"They don't exist in Tennessee."
"Next time it appears in my yard, I'm going to shoot it and show you."
"You can't shoot them, sir, they are protected."
"I though you said they don't exist in Tennessee?"
"If they do exist they are protected. But they don't."
"Then if they don't, fine. But if I see it again, I'm shooting it before it attacks us."
"You can't, sir. They are protected."
And around and around.

These people are the same ones who called Joseph a liar and then went after the plates.

"I have gold plates from God. I'm translating them now."
"No, you don't. You're a liar and we're coming to get them from you."
"But you said I don't have them. So why try to steal them?"
"You don't have any. And we're coming to get them from you."
"But you said..."
"Shut up. Somebody shut him up."
And around and around.

"But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.”

And I had this conversation with a guy at work.

"So where are the gold plates now?"
"As Joseph said, the Angel Moroni came and took them back and has them in his protection."
"Oh, how convenient. The angel took them to heaven and now nobody can see them for himself."
"Yes."
"You'd think, if they were real, that God would show them to the world."
"You mean like the original Bible documents?"
"...what?"
"The original Bible documents. Where are they?"
"We have documents back to the second century."
"Those are not original. They are copies of who knows what. Even the books of Moses are not original documents. Where are the original plates or papyrus or leather on which Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, John the Baptist, and Paul and the other wrote their sayings and prophecies?"
"Uh...
"If the Bible is the word of God, and it is, despite the fact that we don't have the original documents, then you can't use a different standard for the Book of Mormon. Either the Bible is true regardless and so is the Book of Mormon, or they are both false. How do you know the Bible is the word of God?"
"I read it. I prayed about it."
"That's all I'm asking you to do with the Book of Mormon. I can testify that the Bible is true because I read it, too, and prayed about it, too. Same with the Book of Mormon. Just ask God. He'll tell you. Unless you are afraid to get his answer."

He was not interested in this conversation any more, but he's still my friend.