08 Dec 2002 #0249.html

Zarahemla

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Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,

cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, and Maxine Shirts

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

"Hard week for me emotionally, and I won't talk about it much at this time. Wish I handled emotions better. It almost seems like I care too much. Oh well!

Usually I find the hard weeks have a silver lining. The following was in the LDS Daily News e-mail which we receive:

===== BYU RECEIVES RECORD-SETTING DONATION See http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/41151 Three hundred and thirteen million dollars is the total commercial value of the in-kind gift of industry-grade computer software BYU is to receive from a partnership of General Motors, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and Sun Microsystems. The campus-wide gift, the largest single corporate donation BYU has received to date, will most immediately benefit the College of Engineering and Technology. BYU President Merrill J. Bateman and Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles attended the announcement along with representatives from General Motors, EDS, and Sun Microsystems. =====


Paul was on the team that put the virtual reality presentations together tied to this gift. He got a bonus, which they can use, he anticipates a summer 2003 internship in Detroit, and a scholarship or internship to pay for his Masters Degrees coming out of this project. It was a big week for Paul. Congratulations.

I've been reading the Doctrine & Covenants every morning as my personal scripture study for the last few months. The following caught my attention, and thought it would be a good theme for what I want to write:

`Verily, thus saith the Lord, I say unto you, if those who call themselves by my name and are essaying to be my saints, if they will do my will and keep my commandments concerning them, let them gather themselves together unto the places which I shall appoint unto them by my servant Joseph, and build up cities unto my name, that they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come. Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite the city of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zarahemla be named upon it.' D&C 125:2-3


I decided to write about some of my far out ideas and dreams, so those of you who didn't know before, will know how crazy I really am. As I read the commandment to build a city across from Nauvoo, I could see in my minds eye the new temple at Nauvoo looking across the Mississippi River. I could imagine the kind of project Ray Gardner, Bill Bavinger, Rick Duran, Jeff Winston, Dave Peterson, and others have been discussing with me for the last 32+ years, and see it being implemented on the shores of the Mississippi River. I could imagine how the work we did on the Barker Project or Maudeen Marks Ranch (see www.walden3d.com/w3d/design/W3D89A), the Columbus, Texas Project, the Shirts' Canyon Project, the Hurricane Project, the ideas I generated for use of Carl Nelson and Dad's farm land (see ../gifs/MinersvilleRoad.gif for a map where the yellow outlines the city shaped like a volcanic flow, one story by the freeway, or bottom of the picture, and probably about 15 stories by Grandma Nelson's house on the farm, located at the top of the picture, with irrigation water running down the top of the structure and water falling off into a pond out in the valley, where the housing units on the east are sunrise units and the housing units on the west are the sunset housing units, and the stores and entertainment and amenities are all along the ground floor, like a big mall), and the thousands of pages of notes and material I have collected over the last 30 years are finally put to use on a project like Zarahemla.

There were several phone calls with Basil Nwankwo, the Exploration Manager of Emerald Energy, and Dr. Vince O. Eleri of VRMT International, about defining how we are going to be working together on a go forward basis. If Emerald and I enter into an agreement, and if the reserves are there like we project, then I could have the resources to build something like Zarahemla. VRMT set up several meetings with Escopeta Oil & Gas who have a large lease in the Cook Inlet of Alaska. We signed agreements to agree this week, which if they are executed, and if we find some of the 4 TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet of Gas) we expect to find, will result in a 2% ORRI (Over Riding Royalty Interest) for Dynamic Resources. Of course, most of this would go into building the company for the first few years. It has been 161 years since the commandment to build Zarahemla was given, and so I don't expect a few more years will matter much.

Most of my week was spent working on the PetroChina project. It will be interesting to see how well my ideas are accepted. I have put together a bunch of work, and need to wrap it up by Tuesday evening. It is totally fascinating what they have sent to me. PetroChina is the 4th largest oil and gas company in the world based on in place reserves. The oil reserves are about 5 times what we predict the recoverable reserves in OPL-229 to be. I have now signed a confidentiality agreement, and so it is only appropriate to write about what is in the public domain. PetroChina received 80% of CNPC's (China National Petroleum Corporation's) assets when they went public in Hong Kong and New York a couple of years ago. I'm working on helping them be more efficient. I was describing in general terms what I am doing with Swede Nelson early in the week. He has great experience and provides me great advice, even though I don't tell him hardly anything. He suggested PetroChina should look for assets outside of China, and that the best place for them to look is South America. He further said one of the main things they need is heavy oil to make asphalt to support their efforts to improve infrastructure. The Chinese oil is lacustrine (from sediments deposited in large interior lakes like the Great Lakes) and waxy and light and it is hard to make asphalt out of it. There is a billion barrel heavy oil field that is going to be up for bid in a few months in Ecuador. He recommends I point this opportunity out to them. The commission would be sufficient to build a Zarahemla.

I described something I have been following ever since I was doing the consulting work for Boeing. It is based on a 1978 quote from Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer, who wrote:

`If the laws of celestial mechanics make it possible for an object to stay fixed in the sky, might it not be possible to lower a cable down to the surface and so establish an elevator system linking earth to space?'


NASA and Boeing think so, and they have publicly announced proof-of-concept studies. The work will be based on the 1991 discovery of carbon nanotubes at Rice University. These are the strongest material known. A carbon-nanotube string half the width of a pencil can support more than 40,000 kilograms (about 105,000 pounds), or the weight of 20 full-sized cars. The space elevator will consist of a flat carbon-nanotube ribbon 100,000 km long (60,000 miles long), hanging from orbit about 35,000 km above the Earth's surface. Of course, the best place to do this is at the equator, and the country with the highest mountains at the equator is Ecuador, where a Zarahemla could be built by the heavy oil fields. Some believe the space elevator will be a reality within 15 years. Once it has been running a few years a round trip ticket might only cost $20,000.

Last week in Gospel Doctrine, Marion Pickerd taught a lesson on Ezekiel 43-44 and 47 where the scriptures say:

`And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.' Ezekiel 43:2


These verses go on to describe the big earthquake at the temple mount, when a river will be formed which will flow to the east and heal the waters of the Dead Sea. This is the same earthquake which Dr. Amos Nur of Stanford University documented and predicted in his self funded study of earthquakes of antiquity in the Holy Land. Amos is on the Board of Directors of Emerald Energy and VRMT. I recall as I read these verses last week having my minds eye wander to the source of light shining on Jerusalem and on Zarahemla. I don't find where I have referred to this before, so I will repeat myself. Several years ago I heard about some Russian Cosmonauts shining a big mirror at the earth for the purpose of creating daylight 24 hours a day. I don't recall what scriptures we were studying at the time, and yet it involved prophecy that there would be sunlight 24 hours a day in Jackson County, Missouri, not that far from the proposed Zarahemla. I recall telling Todd Staheli that he and I were going to build a mirror to provide continuous light to the New Jerusalem and the Old Jerusalem. He told me I was crazy, and we have still been best friends for many years.

Some time ago I mentioned Buckminster Fuller's plan to build mile diameter geodesic spheres called Tensegrity Spheres. Quoting from Critical Path, page 336:

`A 100-foot-diameter, tensegrity-trussed, geodesic sphere weighing three tons encloses seven tons of air. The air-to-structural-weight ration is two to one. When we double the size so the geodesic sphere is 200 feet in diameter, the weight of the structure increases to seven tons while the weight of the air increases to fifty-six tons - the air-to-structure ration changes as eight to one. ... When the Sun shines on an open-frame aluminum geodesic sphere of one half-mile diameter, the sun penetrating through the frame and reflected from the aluminum members of the concave far side bounces back into the sphere and gradually heats the interior atmosphere to a mild degree. When the interior temperature of the sphere rises only one degree Fahrenheit, the weight of the air pushed out of the sphere is greater than the weight of the spherical-frame geodesic structure. This means that the total weight of the interior air plus the weight of the structure is much less than the surrounding atmosphere. This means that the total assemblage of the geodesic sphere and its contained air will have to float outwardly, into the sky, being displaced by the heavy atmosphere around it. ... Such sky-floating geodesic/gensegrity spheres may be designed to float at preferred altitudes of thousands of feet. The weight of human beings added to such prefabricated "Cloud Nines" would be relatively negligible. Many thousands of passengers could be housed aboard one-mile diameter and larger cloud structures. The passengers could come and go from cloud to cloud, or cloud to ground, as the clouds float around the Earth or are anchored to mountain tops.'


In fact, a floating Zarahemla could be the sky hook that explains why the Salt Lake Temple was built with upside down arches to support being picked up and transported from Salt Lake City to the New Jerusalem in Jackson County, Missouri.

On July 1st of 1973 I wrote a song I titled Deseret:

`C. There is a city in the clouds, A place where everyone wants to go Between reflection and Mount Hope On the other side of the snow 1. Made with love and paved with gold Sir Thomas Moore called it Utopia Working together, helping each other They call it Deseret 2. The people there have one heart, one mind And they dwell in righteousness In the city they are equal, have harmony There is no minority 3. The towers glitter like the sun in the sky Showing the triumph of good A place of peace, of true freedom A shining ensign to the world'


For years I have wondered, as Mordecai, Esther's Uncle or cousin, as recorded in Esther 4:13-14:

`... who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'


I have had personal experiences, which to me are as real as holding a piece of rock and studying the geology of that rock, which have convinced me of the absolute reality of Satan. My Patriarchal Blessing includes the words:

`listen to the still, small voice, as it comes to you and you will be directed in the paths of safety and success and will be kept from the pitfalls of Satan and the evil that is in the world.'


However, my Patriarchal Blessing does not promise that those I love will be protected in the same way. And certainly, if I am correct in my statement there is a Satan, and if the far out ideas and dreams I have wrote about in this Thoughtlet are from a source outside of myself, as I believe they are, then it makes sense Satan will do everything he can to keep these ideas from being implemented. The implementation is simply a matter of turning dreams turned to virtual reality and then to reality. And if Satan is going to stop someone, even a very determined individual, there are several fronts of attack.

First is showing the world and eventually the individual he is `crazy.' Maybe I'm struggling because I see this is too close to the truth.

Second, there is an attack on core beliefs. I have not yet been able to reconcile my life with the statements of those I believe are Prophets, specifically David O. McKay's statement:

`No success in life can compensate for failure in the home.'


And President Hinkley's closing comments in the last General Conference:

`If we fail in our homes, we fail in our lives. No man is truly successful who has failed in his home.'


Third, and possibly the best thing for Satan to do is to attack and use those an individual loves. The attack need not be head on, rather it can be passive-aggressive, or full of angry words and self-indulgent behavior.

It is late, and I'm being more direct than I mean to. Maybe I just need to realize there are lots of men, much better than I can ever hope to be, who have gone before with similar ideas and dreams. I've quoted from some. And none of them had the opportunity to actually implement their dreams and ideas. So is it just a big ego that makes me think I will actually be an instrument in the Lord's hand to implement some of these ideas? Do I simply escape into fantasyland when things are too hard emotionally for me to face. I expect there is truth here. I'm attempting to paint a picture of the struggle going in my mind. I recognize the struggle is in my mind. Every twice in a while my geodesic bubbles get popped, or my nanotube ribbons get cut, I get jerked out of my fantasy world and brought face to face with my failures as a father and a husband. Andrea tells me she does not want to be married to a failure, I need to really learn about repentance, and to stop taking responsibilty for other people's choices. Unintended consequences of independent decisions! Given the context `who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?', I am still forced to face the fact there might be nothing more than daydreams in regards to my vision of a family (../0003.html and 0218.html) or a church (../0020.html), or a physical instantiation (see the words to the song Deseret above) of a new Zarahemla.

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 2002 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.