cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Diane Cluff, and Maxine Shirts.
"It has been a joy to be with the missionaries as they have taught the discussions to Nobert Schmidt. The first discussion was taught with Steve Feil, on splits with Elder Kasten, and Chris Schmidt at Christus Hospital. I had gone over with Chris and his step-father-in-law to give a blessing to Chris' Mom a week before. She was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. I walked over to Chris' house and rode with him to the hospital. Norb was with us and a couple of times on the way over and back I asked him if it wasn't time for him to be baptized. Then on Sunday I was told Norbert Schmidt did plan to take the discussions, that he had fallen, and he was now in the hospital. Chris and his Dad spared verbally during the first disussion, and as a result the lesson went all over the place. The next Sunday I learned he had moved to a hospital on Memorial for some physical therapy. Chris drove the elders and me down to Dairy Ashford and Richmond where the elders taught about half of a 2nd discussion. Then I grabbed hold of the process, took the Elders down in the afternoons, and we finished the 2nd on that Wednesday, came back on Thursday to teach a 3rd. The following Tuesday the Elders taught the fourth discussion, and then on Thursday afternoon they taught the fifth discussion. I could go into the contents of each of the lessons, and I won't.
I will just talk about some of my feelings and reactions. Whenever the Elders would ask Norb Schmidt who he would like to say the prayer, he would point his finger at me and say `Him.' Then he would explain to the Elders he met no disrespect to them, but I am older, and he relates better to me. He is 83 1/2 years old, and he makes sure everyone knows about the 1/2. I found it flattering to be so comfortable with someone who is 31 years older than me, that they would go on and on about it. I knew his wife's congestive heart failure scared him. He loves her dearly. His eyes would moisten up when he talked about her during the lessons. He felt bad about being active in Alcoholics Anonymous for over 20 years. He had been the President of Arrow Shirt Company in the 1960's when it was the biggest shirt company in the world. He was a social drinker, and when a power struggle took over the Board of Directors and threw him out he found refuge in the bottle. So when Darrell and I called at his door several years ago to challenge him to join the church he was still feeling sorry about things he had done. My interpretation is we scared him more. And he appreciated my straight forward approach. I knew it was the right thing the afternoon the Elders taught the Fourth Discussion and asked him to say the prayer as we left. What a wonderful, sincere, searching prayer. My eyes were wet as I gave him a hug good bye, and so where his, and so were the Elders. A testimony is such a fragile thing, and when the Holy Spirit bears witness, it is such a strengthing experience.
As I mentioned last Sunday, Chris taught me a wonderful lesson. The Elders had planned to teach the last, sixth, discussion on Tuesday. However, Chris wanted Mrs. Schmidt, him, and Michelle to be involved with the missionary lessons. Don't understand why I missed this. It was probably the best lesson the missionaries taught, although the spirit was not as thick as during some of the discussions at the hospital. As I look back on the last few weeks, there is a wonderful change in Norbert Schmidt's countenance. The Doctors were able to discover, operate, and repair a torn ligament in his right knee. He was walking with a walker at church today. And his face shines. He knows it is important to be baptized by someone, like his son, who holds the Priesthood, and there is a shine to his countenance.
When I called my friend Blaine Taylor, in the Richmond- Rosenburg Ward to tell him about the baptism, his wife, who knew the Schmidts and had visited their home before the recent hospitalizations and thir moving into Chris and Michelle's home, asked `Does he comprehend the lessons.' Absolutely! His answers are unique. Norbert Schmidt did teach Gospel Doctrine when they lived in New York. He also funded Chris' mission to Norway, supported his wife going to church all of these years, and has always been very positive about the church and it's influence in his life. And he wants to be sealed for time and all eternity, for he truly does love his wife. And it has been a wonderful blessing in my life to be able to participate in teaching him the gospel.
Norbert Schmidt's baptism this evening was a special event. There were about 40 folks in attendance. Chris was very nervous and ended up having to do it twice. There was a good spirit. His home teacher of 17 years from New York flew down for the baptism. His home teacher from Blaine Taylor's ward in Richmond-Rosenburg came up. I gave the talk on baptism. Elder Kasten talked on the Holy Ghost. Chris performed the ordinances. His grandaughters, Laura and Anna, gave the opening and closing prayers. There was a good spirit and it was a good evening.
Earlier in the day, at sacrament meeting, Gary and Roetta Jones talked. She read from her journal from September several years ago. Gary had been laid off by Champlin (I think), and had given her a blessing. In that blessing he promised her that everything would be OK and he predicted he would get a job to go to China. So the following February when I hired Gary to go to China, Roetta felt it was the Lord sending Gary to China. It was a really interesting talk, and it would be fun to read the actual journals and compare them to the events as recorded on notes in the boxes in the garage. Despite my faith and belief in the church and this kind of thing, I always question mine and other people's memories, and sometimes this leads to even stronger confirmations by the spirit that something is true. Gary talked about working in his Grandfather's mines when he was growing up. He talked about disaster training exercises, and what it was like coming out of a 1,600 foot tunnel, and when you pass the last corner, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I keep telling myself I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and yet it doesn't seem to be getting any closer.
This week I received the following letter from BYU:
Oh well! Then I got a Jury Summons for May 7th (0219.html).
Then I got a call from Shell (acutally I called and asked the
guy who interviewed me originally whether they were still
interested or not). The contracting officer explained things
I did not understand. Specifically, I have an umbrella
contract through December, and they have only authorized
10 days of consulting work on this contract. I thought I
had 10 days a month for the next six months. Maybe, if the
first job goes well, this is what will happen. In the
meantime it was really disappointing. MKS called and said
they have reviewed the Heads-of-Agreement, and will be
getting back to me with written comments. I have not
received the written comments yet. Mike Dunn called and
he is going to pay me a few hundred dollars of consulting
money to put together a presentation to sell a big data
management project to a small oil company. That is better
news.
Christian Singfield brought two guys up from Australia to work with him on the CDX business plan. I met with them on Tuesday and Friday. These were two of the most interesting meetings I have had in years. Francis Cox and Greg Palmer have built an imaging system for the meat packing industry. I have a little hands on experience here. They take digital images of a carcass every 30 seconds, totaling 3,500 carcasses a week. The have a database that shows where the sheep or the cow comes from, what it was fed, it's weight at various ages, and with the digital image they automatically calcualte the percentage fat, the marbling of the meat, and come out with quantitative measurements of the value of the carcass. They want to use their same technology to automatically classify lithologies, pore size, and other characteristics from scanning cuttings and cores using Christian Singfield's scanning tools. I was asked to talk about how my work with the Infinite Grid(SM) relates to the data management system that Christian has developed. They got it. It was so exciting to have some bright guys see what I was talking about and to be really interested in it. They are talking about some Australian companies investing in productizing the technology. It will be interesting to see what happens with all of this.
I met with Chris Dale from EVP (Energy Virtual Partners, Bob Peebler's new company) on Wednesday morning (see 0203.html and 0216.html). It was another great meeting. In fact, Chris called back on Friday and asked for a written proposal to data mine large Parish in Louisiana, and some additional data on the Knowledge Backbone(SM). He had a detailed proposal two hours later. Hopefully we will know something next week.
I spent more time last week working on the Texas A&M Census Track proof-of-concept for the Infinite Grid(SM). I believe it is pretty compelling. Hopefully I will have more to report about this next week. It seems to be taking as long at it took Nobert Schmidt to get baptized. He was teaching Gospel Doctrine in New York 15 years ago, and here he finally got baptized tonight.
I received a couple of responses to last week's Thoughtlet, which have news several of you will find relevant, so I will quote them. First from Diane Cluff:
Hard for me to believe Ben is back from his mission already.
It seems only yesterday we were all at their house in Los
Angeles when we all went to Disneyland. How fast time flies.
Yes, Diane, I sometimes put comments in just to see if anyone
reads these Thoughtlets. I knew you were the Activities
Committee Chariman, and partly I was reporting and partly I
was jerking a chain.
I received the following from Marti via Sara:
I feel like commenting about Marti not having my e-mail
address, and I won't. For those who don't know, Rachel's
graduation is in the same place Rob's is at 5:00 that
afternoon. Also Landmark is having a 20 year anniversary
and invited us all to attend and wanted me to speak to
them. However, it is during Rob's graduation ceremony so
I won't be going to that. For those I didn't talk to on
the phone, Melanie called a little while ago and she is
having 30 second contractions every 5 minutes. When they
get to 50 seconds she will be going to St. Christus
Hospital in Beaumont at the Calder Exit. I expect we will
have a new granddaughter within the next couple of days.
(Since Andrea went to bed before I finished this, and so
it was proofed this morning, I called Melanie and Jared
this morning at 7:45, and there was no answer in their
room, so I'm assuming they are at the hospital.)
Aunt Sara wrote nice note, including:
And lastly was a quiz from Haden Hudson, which I found
interesting, and which I am passing on for those of you who
like quizzes. It is suppose to be sent as a separate e-mail,
and you all are smart enough to copy it out of this Thoughtlet
and forward it to those who would be interested. And. of
course, you get to send me back your score. Mine was 30.
On Saturday Rachel went with some girl friends to
the Senior Prom. She didn't have a date, and was
really cool about it. Rachel, I am so proud of you,
your willingness to answer the Bishopric's call and
talk about Priest-Laurel Conference in Sacrament
meeting and to bear your testimony. She saw Rob at
Carmellos. He was going to the Mayde Creek Senior
Prom. Said he has gotten big, and he seemed happy.
Andrea was released as Young Women's President today.
She was only here a couple of months when she was
called, and there are several changes in the Ward
Leadership happening, and as the first step of these
changes she was released today. No calling for a
couple of weeks. She will go crazy. She made
cookies for the baptism tonight.
So I guess that is what I can think to write about. It was good to talk to Roice, Ben, Paul, Melanie, Audrey, Sara, and Mom this evening. Hope to catch up with the rest of you soon. And all in all, the highlight of my week was the baptism of Norbert Schmidt."