cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"Friday night was the first time I have been to the Peanut Butter Cannery in a couple of years. It seems like our assignments to work up off of Hafer road used to be much more often. Let me digress for those of you who bother to read these and who have no idea what I'm talking about, before continuing with my epistle.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has an extensive welfare program to take care of members of the church. Any member who has financial problems, and is making even the slightest effort to avoid the dole, or any of the entitlement forms of living off of government handouts, is given basic food and financial support through the welfare program. They go to their Bishop for an interview, and he determines their need and their attitude. Virtually anyone in the church who is in need is given support. However, they have the opportunity to do something in exchange for that support. They might be given an assignment to do janitorial work at the church building, or in some other way to help someone else who is in need. The Relief Society President is often asked to go into these homes and to do an inventory of what is needed in terms of clothes, food, medicine, etc. This inventory is given to the Bishop, who signs it, and the person or family needing assistance goes to the local Bishop's storehouse and gets the supplys they need. This is only intended for temorary relief. For instance, when Rick left Andrea on Christmas day and took all the money they had, she went to her Bishop and he provided food until child support checks came in. The Bishop also helped pay hook-up fees for the utilities when Rick had them shut off. In Houston, the Bishop's Storehouse is as the Peanut Butter Cannery.
Each congregation, Ward, is in a Stake, like a Diocese in the Catholic Church, and each several Stakes in an area typically share a welfare assignment. In Corvallis Oregon they can salmon, in Cedar City they can corn and beef stew, in Dallas we raised cattle and hay and for several years we cut firewood to clear some of the timber lands. All of these products are distributed through out the church welfare system, so the Bishop's Storehouse is like a cheap looking grocery store. The church is pretty much independent of any of the standard distribution channels. However, if they run out of milk, or eggs, or toilet paper, they will go to local wholesale outlets and get the needed supplies. I remember the Cedar 3rd Ward had assignments to haul hay at the Stake Farm. I didn't help with this because of my allergies. I think Dad killed beef from the Stake Farm to can stew at the Cedar City Cannery, which is out by the Baseball fields and the Indian Village just on the east side of Coal Creek just east of the city park where the 4th of July Celebration is held. I loved to work at the Stake Farm in Dallas, and when I was the Elder's Quorum President in the Dallas 1st Ward ended up coordinating a lot of trips to the Stake Farm. It provided me a place to get out in the open, to exercise until I felt like dropping, and to feel like I was back on Dad's farm. I was fascinated on learning there was a Peanut Butter Cannery here, when we moved to Houston.
On the first Sunday of each month we are invited to fast for two meals, and to provide the money which would have been sent to the Bishop as Fast Offerings for taking care of the poor. This is where the funding for the Bishop's Storehouse and the Church Welfare System comes from, supplemented with tithing funds. Since all of the labor is voluntary, and the funds come from Fast Offerings, this system of support is much less expensive than any of the government entitlement or welfare programs. At numerous times since the great depression, U.S. Presidents and Members of Congress have toured church facilities and studied the church welfare program as an alternative model for government welfare. I remember when I was in the Bishopric being assigned to go to the Bishop's Storehouse and distribute food. The assignment was an 8 hour shift. People would come in with a list prepared with their Relief Society President and signed by their Bishop, and we would walk down the isles with them, pick the items checked off of the shelf, and hand it to them. Like most things in the church, this is symbolic. Symbolic of God giving us everything we have. Symbolic of Christ being there to help us when we ask for His help (remember His teachings:
in Matthew 7:7-8 or
in Matthew 25:32-40). I had some very spiritually moving experiences doing this work. Once a brother from our Maplewood 2nd Ward, whom I had worked with a lot when I was the Elder's Quorum President there, six years before, showed up and was assigned to work with me. He moved to Texas from Michigan, where he had been laid off from working in an automobile factory. His Dad was union, he was union, and he never learned how to work. He had let himself become a professional welfare leech. By the time I had handed him and his teenage boys the last things on his list, we both had tears in our eyes, and he voluntarily looked me in the eye and said to effect, `Roice, I am going to clean up my act. It was a miracle in my life you were here and assigned to hand me these items, and just by your presence and your example remind me of where I wanted to be when you were my Elder's Quorum President, and where I am today. Thank you!'
One of the Sacrament Talks I am remembered for by many members of Nottingham Country Ward was about the Peanut Butter Cannery. I was assigned to give a talk the Sunday after a welfare assignment. I got bored picking bad peanuts and rocks off of the conveyor belt and let my imagination wander. I imagined each peanut was a human being, and the conveyor belt represented this life. God was looking down and picking the bad peanuts off and throwing them into outer darkness. Then I counted the number of peanuts in 2"x2" several times and averaged the number. Then I measured the width and length of the conveyor belt and timed how long it took for a peanut to travel this distance. Then I divided this time into the time interval our shift lasted, to get the number of full converyor belt's of peanuts which we worked that evening. Knowing the size of the conveyor belt and the number of peanuts per 4 square inches I was able to calculate the number of peanuts that we canned in that assignment. It turned out to be about 5 million, which was about the membership of the church back in the early 1980's. I also remember we canned about the number of cans there were stakes in the church at the time, and so each can represented a stake's worth of members. If you ask one of the long time members of the ward about being a peanut on the conveyor belt of life, they will recall this talk.
It was nice to have Andrea with me and to do this assignment together. I was suprised when I was asked if Marti ever went to the Peanut Butter Cannery with me. As much as I love doing this type of service, and as many times as I have been, I do not recall Marti every going up with me. Expect she was raising you kids. Maybe my memory is getting bad, or maybe it is selective. To me, this question helped me understand what different wavelengths we were on, in Dallas, Missouri City, and Katy. The same differences were there with fasting, prayer, and temple attendance. One of the sad parts about this time with Andrea, is that I did get in trouble for messing around. I kept pushing piles of peanuts over on Andrea's side of the conveyor belt. Then when I moved to another area I put a whole bunch of jars on the conveyor belt at one time and it locked up the label machine. While I was tightening lids, I didn't know to take off the plastic gloves, and I got three large blisters on my hands. Oh well! Maybe it is part of my masochistic nature to hurt myself.
Joe Roberts went to at least one assignment at the Peanut Butter Factory with me. I called him and invited him to go with us this time, and he was going out of town on Saturday and 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM Friday night was too late for him. Maybe next time.
Outside of the Peanut Butter Factory, it was a very busy week. Monday I worked at home, with a break in the evening to go to Matt's Athletic Banquet with Andrea, Heather, and Rachel. I had bought a card for our second anniversary on Saturday when getting food for Mother's Day lunch (0120.html), and that ended up being my anniversary gift for Andrea. It is hard to believe we have been married 2 years. I had a neat meeting with Texaco at Chroma on Tuesday morning. It turns out I had trained one of the interpreters we met with back in 1984 on how to use the Landmark. I am going to be working up one of their key new projects using Chroma technology in return for the retainer we get from Chroma. It is exciting. Wednesday morning I was downtown at II&T at 9:30 for the follow-up meeting with Ray Barrett of BP. Our discussions went really good, and my sense is Dynamic is going to do some major projects with BP. I was back at Taylor High School at 12:15 to meet Tyler Camp. He had me give the Intelligent Habitat Project Presentation I gave to the Venturing Crew (../0018.html) to his Environmental Science Class. Lindsey Weber was in the class. Most of the kids seemed asleep. I would love to mentor kids who are awake and interested in learning something. I am so glad I don't teach High School. I appreciate those who do, and feel sorry for them, at least based on this class. In the evening Matt had his scout activity at the Firestation. Charlie Fee from Bear Creek Ward, who had been in the Elder's Quorum Presidency with me in Maplewood 2nd Ward and was our first draftsman at Landmark Graphis, brought his computer and talked about AutoCAD to the Team. It was a good activity. Brent Peterson, our Young Men's President, had a Presidency meeting afterwards, and it was 10:00 when I got home.
Thursday started with a semi-annual check-up at Crabtrees. I have a cavity, for the first time since I started going to Ron. Have to go back in a couple of weeks. I went from the dentist's over to Dick Coons', and from there downtown to start working on getting ready for the data Richard Nehring is starting to send down from Colorado Springs. I thought we were supposed to go to an Awards Meeting at Taylor in the evening, and I was wrong, and had an unexpected night to work. Friday morning I was back downtown at II&T before 8:00. Laura Kay Ethetton came down and we worked on getting ready for Richard Nehring's data. Laura Kay was able to fix a problem we had on Thursday. I left before she did and went to the University of Houston Alumni Building where I gave a talk at `TEXGRAPH'01, A Symposium on Computer Graphis - Digital Art - and Computer Vision' (http://www.vcl.uh.edu/~ioannisk/texgraph01) titled `Immersive Reality and The Impending Obsolesence of Maps. Fun group, and good discussion and talks. Felt bad I could not spend more time there. I went from there to Chroma. Peter makes me feel so good. He says he only wants to work with the best, and even though I don't consider myself the best, because I have `been beaten up so bad,' he considers me the best. He is doing a good job at Chroma. Any of you interested might want to read the article `Extreme Exploration' on page 186 of the May 28th edition of Forbes. After working with David Eichen I drove back to Matt's soccer practice. Andrea had brought my levi's and a pair of gym shoes over. I played goalee and Matt did a perfect score over my head. I talked to Melanie on the phone, and didn't get to see her since she needed to go back to Vidor. (Melanie, did you take our ward directory?) The Sister Missionaries came by at 7:30 for a new Sister from Orem to practice teaching. They sure bring a nice spirit into our home. Andrea and I left at 8:40 for the Peanut Butter Cannery assignment.
Since we didn't get home from the Peanut Butter Cannery until about 3:00, it was hard to get out of bed. However, I made it to choir practice by 8:15. We sang `The Lord's Prayer' today acapella. It was fun. After choir Andrea and I went to Matt's soccer game. He seemed tired. This has sure been a good team for him to be on. Just after we got home, Ben, Sarah, and Ethan came to visit. Ethan is growing up so quick. Two teeth, just like Ben had. I remember this because I wrote it down (Marti and I wrote it on 17 Sep 1976):
It was fun to play with him. He is a wonderful baby. Came to me like he remembered me, climbed on my lap, and was happy. The only tears I saw was when he couldn't pick up the virtual pig in the double mirror Mirage. Smart kid. Doesn't like being tricked. We went to Big City Wings for lunch and Heather was our waitress. Sarah and Ethan took a nap when we got back. Ben and I went to Lowes and bought some magnets and PVC pipe to prototype building his Star War's light saber. It was fun. Thanks for visiting. I'm sorry we were so tired from the Peanut Butter Factory.
Right after Ben, Sarah, and Ethan left we went to a swimming party for Matt's soccer team in Windsor Park. I felt like the old guy. I'm glad Andrea decided we would not have more children, as I realized I am getting too old to be a good father, and maybe I'm too afraid of failing. We left early because we were hosting the 3rd Family Relations Fireside for Nottingham Country Ward. It was a good evening, and capped a wonderful day.
This morning I went to Choir Practice at 8:30. Andrea had meetings at 7:15, and BYC (Bishop's Youth Council) after church. I wish you all could have been there to hear us sing The Lord's Prayer. Oh well! Sunday School was on tithing. The priesthood lesson was about fasting and prayer. When we got home I took a nap. Then Matt and I went Home Teaching to the Moore's and Hayden Hudson. Matt gave a good lesson on Building the Kingdom. When we got back I finished a song I started last Sunday I call Heather's Practical Magic:
Andrea lead one of the best family discussions we have had. It was nice to see some opening up and expression of feelings. It helps me learn where I need to improve. Hopefully I can learn enough to not `drive more of my kids off.' In the meantime I am very proud of each of you. I feel I have been able to provide a reasonable start, an education, and an opportunity to prove yourselves to yourselves. There are no guarantee's in life, and with this basis I hope you will all find happiness and success. I am convinced neither of these come with money, and so if I am financially successful again, as I have said before (../0010.html), it is my intention the money goes to Fast Offerings, to be distributed to those in need by the Bishop's of the church, and to help build another peanut butter cannery somewhere."