The ramblings of a pilgrim through time, space, and life.

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Prairie Home Companion

Well, I just put out a whole philosophical e-mail and thought I would take a moment to do an actual update on life.

I am sitting here listening to Prairie Home Companion enjoying a few good laughts. Earlier I listened to Die Frau Ohne Schatten (The woman without a shadow) by Richard Strauss. It was fascinating to listen to. Made me want to learn my German. Funny how music can take us other places.

I have just finished my second week at Bank of America. Things are going very well. I am learning many more things about mortgages and all the documentations that attend. The lessons mostly center around learning the DOS-based system they use for processing all these loans. I have to admit it is a very detailed system that handles thousands of people working on it at all times with large amounts of information. Impressive as that it, they tell us it has only gone down once in the last 10 years! They have replaced one or two systems with Windows applications and they crash regularly so they are not in any rush to be replacing the old DOS-based system. Therefore, I have to learn the codes and names to navigate the system to check and update information. They teach us how to check the documents and how to put it into the system. We were done covering the documents within the first week. I have found out the position I will be in is basically an assistant underwriter. It has a whole host of names, but currently it is Home Servicing Specialist (HSS).

Last Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference. I think it was the most powerful Stake Conference I have ever been to. I have been to some very good ones. Two were in the Logan Tabernacle (one for the Logan University 4th Stake the other for the Logan University 5th Stake), another in the Springfield Missouri South Stake Center, and the last I can think of was a Stake Conference for the Chester Stake in Wrexham, Wales. The most impressive part in Missouri was the music and the unity I felt within the congregation. The Chester Stake was powerful for the fact of some amazing talks given, one particularly by our mission president. The one for the 5th Stake at USU was that it was basically turned into a stake testimony meeting. That in and of itself changed the tenor of the meeting but all were invited by name by the Stake Presidency. The last one for the 4th Stake, I can think of two conferences in particular. One had Elder Burton, the Presiding Bishop and the other was all the Presidency’s remarks. President Cherrington usually gave a great talk at all conferences. So this conference is in good company. It wasn’t the first conference I have been to with an apostle, but this one had an apostle acted as we expect them to. Elder Holland gave some powerful comments.

In Priesthood he taught us about Satan binding our tongues, the difference between lips and hearts, and the difference between forms of power and the real thing. He basically told us we are doing too many things without our hearts and without conviction. Time to step up to act in the name of the priesthood like we are expected to do. In Saturday evening, we were taught how we live in a broken world. Whether you like it or not, things are not perfect. He taught us about the Atonement and how all broken things will be restored to their proper order at the right time. Then he pounded out the importance of not whining, not complaining, and going forward in our lives with faith. He was very direct in those who complain or say something is wrong in life. He said nobody has the right to complain or wallow in the misery when the Savior took care of them for us. Time to walk in faith, get up, and be about doing good. The Sunday session proved to be just as good. He spoke about his personal experiences of President Hinckley and his prophetic calling. It was fascinating to learn more about the personal life of a prophet. He spoke to us about the importance of the gospel and the role of the church. Again, the topic had to do with looking beyond ourselves and seeing the big picture. He ended with the importance and the role of the Holy Ghost. How as latter day saints we live below our privileges and don’t claim the rights that are ours. We do not appreciate what has been given to us and need to wake up.

Even though I have heard similar talks, the basic point is the power by which he spoke, namely the Spirit of God. It literally took the message directly to my heart. I noticed at a couple of points how my bosom literally trembled at what it was he was speaking. I recognize the power which he conveyed.

In other news, we have been looking for a second car. With Amanda needing to travel long distances for school this fall, it isn’t going to work to have one car. So we are looking for a nice little car under $5,000. So far it has been a miserable failure. There are very few cars that are below that limit and what we are finding feel like questionable deals. We went to look at a little Audi A4 for $4,700 and he sold the car at noon. So we took a little Passat for a drive that he said he would sell to us for $4,000. It only has 103,000 miles on it. We took it for a test drive and something about the transmission raised all sorts of red flags for me. We will have to see if something else pops up. I may be too picky. I don’t want a car that smells of smoke or animals. I would like one which runs well. I would like one that isn’t completely ugly, like a stationwagon. Most people take such bad care of cars. Many have rips in the seats, big marks in the doors or dash, and more. I keep waiting for someone to give us one so we don’t have to take on a little more debt, but that probably won’t happen soon. We will have to keep you updated.