Time Experience Thoughts

Passion -- Cade’s blessing Focus -- Christmas 2010 Honor -- Sean’s, Kyle’s birthday (Soldiers and Scouts) ~ T hink, T ough(ness) -- Ryan’s birthday 2011 H abits, you can do H ard Things -- Ryan's baptism 2011 E xcellence -- Start of school, Sept 2011 A ttitude -- Kansas/Thanksgiving, Nov 2011 N umbers -- Kansas S kills – Kansas W ork, W ork Hard, or Hard W ork -- Christmas 2011 E . . . R . . . I . . . S . . . L . . . O . . . V . . . E  . . . (I've got a couple hundred more...)

Lola Lenore (Bull) Allen, 1928–2011 Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at Union City, CA Opening "The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out." (Joseph Smith) Lola Lenore Allen – Grandma Lee to most of us – has experienced over time the joyous heights of what life here on earth can offer; also, she has suffered (patiently) the painful depths of some of life’s most difficult trials. The nature of her experience -- and especially her response -- has seared into her very soul the most important of life’s key lessons. Of all women who bore their suffering well, Grandma Lee stands out as one of life’s preeminent, exemplar queens. Thanks On behalf of her daughter (my wife Becky), her sons Fred and Craig, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and her entire family on this and the other side of the veil – and especially Lenore’s lone surviving sibling, her sister Jolinda Resa -- I expres...

Lola Lenore Allen, September 17, 1928 - December 26, 2011 Graveside Service/Funeral for Lola Lenore Allen, Friday 3:30 p.m. Hello all, We will conclude the funeral for Becky’s mother, Lola Lenore Allen, with a Graveside Service today, Friday, December 30, 2011. The service begins at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon at Rose Hills. See address below. Rose Hills Memorial Park (Cemetery) 3888 Workman Mill Road Whittier, Calif. 90601 Thank you for all your messages of love, Scott P.S. We held her funeral on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 in Union City, CA.

Over the last two years we have fallen in love with one of the sweetest Christmas carols, The Little Drummer Boy. Last year in California we sang it with our grandsons who, in turn, sweetly sang it for my mom keeping the beat on bongos from the recreation room. This year in Kansas we all sang it again just after Thanksgiving for Scott’s mom, and her sister convalescing at home. We were asked to make a presentation at this year’s ward Christmas party. We chose to focus on this song. Last week we enjoyed a sweet spirit as two little children sang about the little drummer’s gift to the Savior. Scott added three beautiful overhead slides helping everyone visualize the scene. Interpreting the song (see below), Scott suggested we can think of ourselves as the little drummer boy. So, what is our drum? What gift of ourselves might we give this babe who grew to become the Redeemer of all mankind? It is in and through our continual gifts to Him that we, through His grace, become more like ...

See three new power words f or the boys below -- for discusssion during our week together in Kansas visiting Grandma Dot for Thanksgiving. (New words in blue.) ~ Passion Focus Honor ~ T hink, T ough H abits E xcellence A ttitude N umbers S kills W . . . E . . . R . . . I . . . S . . . L . . . O . . . V . . . E . . . . . .  

Lest We Forget 9-11 By Scott L. Vanatter, poem written 9 September 2011 Everyday evils are often, even purposely,      Forgotten. Ultimate evil, barely even conceivable by us, rarely      Pierces the mind.      Though it is all around the world. Every day. It's tuned out.      Some other thought takes its place, any other thought.      Attack. Remember      The day, Remember      That act. Never forgetting      The surreal sight,      The first image, that second image,      Unremitting, unreal images,      Unknown questions, unformed thoughts,      Disconnected shock.           Terror, numbed fear.      The horror. The horror.  ...

Power Words ~ Passion, Focus, Honor ~   T hink, T ough H abits E xcellence     A N S W E R   I S   L O V E

Her Heart’s Desire Poem by Scott L. Vanatter for Becky on her 57th birthday The power and clarity of her word, The strength and surety of her promise,   Shows us that she knows. The breadth and depth of her experience, The focus and extent of her knowledge,   Helps us grow as she grows. Because of . . . The light and truth that fill her mind, The yearning and warmth and conscience of her heart,   Our soul’s comfort overflows.     Basking in the shower of her love, we are whole.  # Her Heart’s Desire (2.0) Poem by Scott L. Vanatter for Becky on her 57 th birthday, alternate version. Ver. 2.0 is another take on the same ideas, only more declarative. Becky prefers the original above, as do I. ~ Her words are clear and powerful. Her promises are sure and strong.   We know she knows. Her experience is broad and deep. Her knowledge is focused and extensive.   We grow as s...

Permanent Things: Toward an Understanding of Mormons Editorial from the Newsroom at LDS.org. Religion in America is in a state of flux. The 2008   American Religious Identification Survey   shows that the number of those who claim no religious affiliation nearly doubled from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. In addition, Pew’s 2009   Faith in Flux   survey found that “about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.” A study published in 2010 entitled   American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us   maintains that in America “it seems perfectly natural to refer to one’s religion as a ‘preference’ instead of as a fixed characteristic.” CAPTION © 2011 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved In this shifting religious environment it is easy to talk of the fleeting and superficial rather than the deeper foundations of spiritual life. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S...

How Priesthood Leaders Have Blessed Me and My Family And Helped Us Come Closer to Christ Talk by Scott Vanatter at Oakton Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting, June 11, 2011 INTRO Melchizedek priesthood leaders are taught that “…this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth . . . the key of the knowledge of God.” That “…in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.”(DC 84: 19-20) Good morning brethren. My topic is, “How Priesthood Leaders have Blessed Me and My Family -- and Helped Us Come Closer to Christ.” My family and I have been blessed by inspired words of ward and stake priesthood leaders. We’ve also been blessed by their dedicated lives – by what they do, by who they are. Their eternal perspective, and their connection with us, has created within us a lively, real world hope. This ‘hope in Christ’ provides us calm assurance that we can do it -- we can live the gospel, repent and progress and come unto Christ…. [1] ORDINANCES As impor...