Froggie Learns the Gospel
Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."
These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas,
beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some
benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.
"Sunday's practice of 'Froggie Learns the Gospel' in Primary class was a disaster. Thor Larsen was not at primary, and the class was very wild. Oh well! I was still in the middle of the lesson when Julia Bancroft came in to take a digital photo of the class for the poster below:
The lesson had me have the kids promise to do something, one at a time, and then I would give them a sticker that said "I can keep my promises." We were just at the stage where they turned the tables on me and wanted me to do something for them so they could give me a sticker. So they wanted me to write the alphabet on the blackboard in cursive, which I was about half way through when Sister Bancroft came in. Then they made her do something so they could give her a sticker also. Good thing two kids were absent, and there were two extra stickers. After this she got us all organized, and had the kids say "Brother Nelson is the best Primary teacher" while she took a couple of photos. Maybe this activity was why they were so wild and why they were climbing the wall when I attempted to practice 'Froggie Learns the Gospel' with them. Maybe they had Easter candy left over, and maybe they just learned last week that they could get away with being wild. Anyway, it was a challenge.
Monday evening I could not get the TV to work for 24. Andrea was off getting ready for the annual Seminary Breakfast for teachers. I could not get the TV to work upstairs nor downstairs, and was about to give up when she got home and was able to get it working. Boy do I feel dumb! Oh well! Later Monday evening there was an extended e-mail from Julia Bancroft, which I include for anyone who happens to be put in charge of the Activities Committee and wants an example of how to do a better job than I did when I had this calling:
<![CDATA['Hi all talented Latter-Day Night Live performers! We are just 6 days away from an evening of fun and
laughter, this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the stake center. As promised, here is the order of the program
(subject to any last minute changes that night). I encourage you to print this out for future reference.
YOUR SCHEDULE SATURDAY!
All performers to church by 6:45 p.m. to get good seats. (Kids will be sitting on floor in front.)
Preshow Music by MidLife Crisis Band. Show starts at 7:00ish Mormon.S.T.
Opening Prayer, Ellen Camp
Opening Skit, "Nottingham Country Idol"(Shane Gillette, Steve Salt, KelleyAnne Miner, Ben Davis,
Sam Sarlls, and Andrew Salt)
Intro by Pat Heaney,welcome all, welcome Sealey Branch, tell people to turn off cell phones,and
Intro of hosts, Greg and Robyn Branning
Opening Remarks/Jokes by Brannings
Song by MidLife Crisis Band
Acts:
1) Jim and Debbie Siebert (Papageno Opera Piece, full stage)
2) Karen Hursman (Monologue, "Football", at mic in front of curtain)
3) Black Family (Veggie Tales Song, "The pirates who don't do anything," full stage)
4) Connie Snow (Solo, "Bringing on the Rain," full stage)
5) Brothers Nelson and Larsen, and CTR 8 class (song, "Froggie Learns the Gospel, full stage)
6) Brother Beckstrom (magic act,full stage)
INTERMISSION: art by Ken Turner, Mason Branning, decorations by Cynthia Songster, quilts by
McPherson, Nelsen, and Jones
7) Siebert, Feil, Graham, Bancroft (song and accordian, Whale of a Tale,full stage)
8) Tyler Camp (original guitar solo, "Stuck in Texas," on chair at mic in front of curtain)
9) Mid Life Crisis Song
10) Latter Day Dancers (led by Sarah Barber, "Dance Camp with Paula Abdul [played again by
KelleyAnne Miner), full stage)
11) Leigh Townsend (Solo, full stage)
Closing Comments by Brannings
Final Comments by Heaney (thank performers, performers can take their posters, thank all, thank Sealey,
announce NC and Sealey Temple Day, Friday May 18th)
Closing Prayer,Brother Camp
Mini Concert by band as clean up
And that is it! A few (ok, many more) important details.
A) For those wishing to practice on the stage, the stage will be open from 3:30 to 4:30 that afternoon for
rehearsal with the spotlight and sound. The Sieberts have the stage reserved from 3:15 to 3:30, and the
band has the stage from 4:30 p.m. on, so if you'd like to practice with lights and sound, be there anytime
from 3:30 to 4:30.
B) TheBrannings have a request out for any BYU/Uof U jokes. Have any to share? Please contact them
at rbranning@earthlink.netif you have any ideas for them.
C) Brian McLendon is our technical director and handling the sound out front. Denny Snow is providing
the sound equipment and his expertise as well. Brian has made a disc of all the recorded music that will
be played that evening for Connie Snow, the Black Family, the Latter-Day Dancers, and Leigh Townsend.
Brian and Sarah, could you meet this Wednesdayafter YM/YW to listen to Brian's recording of her song
and make sure it is what they want?
D) Debbie Siebert, would you share this info with Gusty and Brother Feil?
E) If you have not gotten me a digital photo and two paragraphs of info for a poster, you have until
Tuesday night to do so.
F) I have Karen and Tyler performing in front of the curtain for variety. I think everyone else would best
be served on the entire stage. Let me know if you would like placement somewhere else besides where
you are listed. Connie and Leigh could go either way, but because they are big solo features, I think an
open stage would be best for their sound.
G) It will be difficult for me to find everyone before their individual act, so it may work best if everyone
planned to be backstage at least oneact before they are to perform. For example, Brother Nelson and class,
who are to perform 5th, would want to get upafter the Blacks perform 3rd, and waitoff stage during Sister
Snow's act 4.Try to keep track of who'sperforming when, so you're not caught somewhere when it's time
for you to perform. This will also allow you to see almost all the acts yourselves!
H) The gym doors closest to the primary room will be slightly blocked off, so it may be best to exit from
the doors closest to the chapel when it is time for you to get ready (the beginning of the act before you).
I) Those on my committee will receive an e-mail tomorrow going over our last minute reminders.
I know that is a lot of information, but I want everyone to feel comfortable with what you are doing.
Break a leg, but only figuratively! Thank you again for your wonderful willingness!I can be reached
anytime for questions on my cell phone at 281-744-5511. Don't try to call me at home that day as I
will most likely be at the church all afternoon and evening. Call me on my cell anytime! Thanks again!
We'll see you this Saturday at 6:45 pm!
Julia']]>
Work was slow all week. While waiting on various things I ended up putting together the figures for the next section of An Open Mind (Figures 44-56). I do enjoy this writing and putting together these figures, and so I guess it is best for me not to complain too much about work being so slow and waiting so much for data to be converted to the right formats so the pre-stack depth migration project can proceed. Tuesday there was an interesting e-mail from the group in Washington I made a couple of trips to visit over the last couple of years (0338.html, ../0520.html, and 0544.html), which I include for reference for those of you with kids interested in science for when they get a little older:
<![CDATA['from: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies <info@strategies.org>
date: Apr 17, 2007 11:11 AM
from: 52335-feedback-58@lb.bcentral.com
reply-to: List Member <roice@geodev.com>
subject: Earth Day Photo Contest for Grades 5-8: Starts Sunday
Earth Day Photo Contest for Grades 5-8: Starts Sunday
* Photo Contest for Grades 5-8
* Cash Prizes: $100, $75 and $50
* Top 10 Winners Receive Photos in Special Earth Day 2007 Frame
* Top 50 Photos To Be Published on IGES Web site
Our planet is constantly changing. Look closely and you'll see changes on the land, in the water and in the
air. Of all the seasons, changes are especially noticeable during spring, from blooming flowers to
migrating birds to thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Starting Sunday, U.S. students in grades 5-8 can be part of a unique national effort to capture our
changing world. Anytime from Sunday April 22 through Sunday April 29, take a photograph of something
that is changing in your local environment. It could be a change occurring in your backyard, outside your
school, in a local park, or off in the distance toward the horizon.
Then, research and write a scientific explanation (400 words or less) that answers the following questions:
* What is the change taking place in your photograph?
* What may be causing the change?
* Was the change expected?
* How might the change impact surrounding areas, including people?
* How might this picture look different in the future?
Entries will be judged by IGES staff based on relevance to topic (depiction of change in the environment),
uniqueness and overall appearance of the photo, and thoroughness of the written explanation.
Entries must be received by email or postmarked by May 9, 2007. Winners will be announced on the '
IGES Web site on May 30, 2007.
For submission instructions, entry form, and suggestions for using this activity in the classroom,
please visit:
http://www.strategies.org/EarthDayPhoto
CONTACT
Dan Stillman
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
(703) 312-7138 (Phone)']]>
Wednesday during one of Dave Johnson's visits with me I invited him and his wife to 'Latter-Day Night Live.' We had an interesting conversation about me trying to convince him, an Evangelical, that Mormon's are not a cult. He brought up something he had read about the Angle Morone. I corrected his pronunciation to 'Moroni.' On Thursday I even sent him a copy of the above e-mail from Julia Bancroft. I was finally able to get the dGB software up and working on Thursday, and it took until Monday to get a data set to work with. Oh well!
On Thursday evening I caught up my swallows sheets and filing past Thoughtlets while watching a Chinese film about the Arabian Nights. Pretty neat movie with flying carpets and Petra. Friday evening we stayed home and watched 'Numb3rs.' It was about some guys who mishandled toxic waste. There was a section where Professor Epps friend said 'Fire in the hole,' there was a little explosion, and then he went over to a PC and brought up beautiful time-slices from a 3-D seismic survey showing the location of barrels of toxic waste which had been buried under an elementary school parking lot. Nice advertisement for my profession, even if it was totally unrealistic from the seismic source, to the lack of receivers, to the time to process the data, to the display on a PC laptop. Oh well!
Saturday morning there was a very interesting article on page A24 of the Houston Chronicle. It was titled 'Panel deconstructs limbo, sees hope for unbaptized,' with the subheading 'Eliminating the long-questioned medieval concept has papal approval.' The article has significant theological implications for the Catholic Church, including undoing the foundation doctrine of original sin, infant baptism, and other things which the Book of Mormon clearly explained were abominable teachings when it was first published 177 years ago. Between this and the sexual issues around the Roman Catholic priesthood, it seems to me like thinking Roman Catholics must have serious questions about the basis of their faith. Because this article is so important doctrinally, I am going to type it out for your review and for the record:
<![CDATA['ROME - Limbo has been in limbo for quite some time, but is now on its way to extinction.
A Vatican committee that spent years examining the medieval concept on Friday published a
much-anticipated report, concluding that unbaptized babies who die may go to heaven.
That could reverse centuries of Roman Catholic traditional belief that the souls of unbatpized babies
are condemned to eternity in limbo, a place that is neiterh heaven nor hell. Limbo is not unpleasant,
but it is not a seat alongside God.
Catholic doctrine states that because all humans are tainted by Original Sin, baptism is essential for
salvation. The idea of limbo has fallen out of favor for many Catholics who see it as a harsh and
not befitting a merciful God.
The Vatican's International Theological Commission issued its findings - with the approval of
Pope Benedict XVI - in a document published by the Catholic News Service, the news agency of the
U.S. Bishops Conference. The commission is advisory, but the pope's endorsement of the document
appears to indicate his acceptance of its findings.
Limbo, the commission said, "reflects an unduly restrictive view of salvation."
"Our conclusion," the commission said in its 41-page report, is that there are "serious theological
and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and brought into
eternal happiness." The commission added that while this is not "sure knowledge," it comes in the
context of a loving and just God who "wants all human beings to be save."
A church decision to abolish limbo has long been expected. Benedict and his predecessor, the late
Pope Jon Paul II, expressed misgivings about the concept. Benedict, when he was still Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger and the church's top enforcer of dogma, said he viewed limbo as a mere
"theological hypothesis." Never part of formal doctrine because it does not appear in Scripture,
limbo was removed from the Catholic Catechism 15 years ago.
In the 5th century, St. Augustine declared that all unbaptized babies went to hell upon death.
By the Middle Ages, the idea was softened to suggest a less severe fate, limbo.
The document published Friday said the question of limbo has become a "matter of pastoral urgency"
because of the growing number of babies who do not receive the baptismal rite. Especially in Africa
and other parts of the world where Catholicism is growing but has competition from other faiths such
as Islam, high infant mortality rates mean many families live with a church teaching them that their
babies could not go to heaven.
Catholic conservatives criticized any effort to relegate limbo to oblivion.
Removing the concept from church teaching would lessen the importance of baptism and discourage
parents from christening their infants, said Kenneth J. Wolfe, a Washington-based columnist for the
traditionalist Catholic newspaper The Remnant.
"It makes baptism a formality, a party, instead of a necessity," Wolfe said. "There would be no reason
for infant baptisms. It would put the Catholic Church on par with the Protestants."
It would also deprive Catholic leaders of a tool in their fight against abortion, Wolfe said. Priests have
long told women that their aborted fetuses cannot go to heaven, which in theory was another argument
against ending pregnancy. Without limbo, those fetuses would presumably no longer be denied
communion with God.']]>
I mowed and edged the lawns on Saturday morning, and then started to write words to go around the figures I put together for An Open Mind during the week. It was time to cut 10 giant leaves from the big plants in the back yard, and to take the four original Ken Turner paintings from the house and my office down to the church before I knew it. Sister Bancroft was at the church with her committee and other volunteers. What a production she has turned this into. By the time I had got Ken's paintings set up and the other props in the church, I had seen several acts practice, and so I came home and practiced myself. Several of my class was sick, and so I recruited Dylan Hutchings to be the narrator, Mackie Branning to be the Muskrat that baptized Herman, and one of Mackie's friends to be one of the missionaries. Rachel Sarls came dressed as a butterfly, and held her butterfly with pride. Grant Townsend said he did not want to be Herman any more, just before the curtain was opened. I told him to just listen to the words and do his part, including lifting up the big Book of Mormon I made for him earlier in the afternoon. Madison Graham decided to be in the skit when I arranged for her to be the moonlight and to hold a moon over Herman as he read The Book of Mormon. Andrea said the microphone was not loud enough, and I think the idea got across and folks enjoyed listening to 'Froggie Learns the Gospel.'
Andrea did take three movie segments, which are at:
http://www.walden3d.com/photos/NottinghamCountryWard/07_CTR-8/mov08774.mpg, http://www.walden3d.com/photos/NottinghamCountryWard/07_CTR-8/mov08776.mpg, and http://www.walden3d.com/photos/NottinghamCountryWard/07_CTR-8/mov08778.mpg. The evening was extremely well scripted. The acts were OK. The jokes were OK. the sound system did not work very good, and maybe I'm getting deaf. The deserts were wonderful. Ken's new paintings are superb. There were a lot of compliments. And I was still kind of glad Dave and Lynn Johnson did not come. However, I wish Rob would have taken my invitation and joined us. Oh well! I stayed after and helped clean up. I also vacuumed my classroom and set up chairs for Primary Sunday morning.
Sacrament meeting was very special. Especially because of Wanawan Cahoon's first talk, and her description of growing up a Buddist in Thialand, meeting Ryan after his mission, finding Christ, joining the church, and her struggles teaching her Primary Class. Jim Siebert also gave a wonderful talk, and both of the youth speakers did a good job. Primary class was still a little bit wild. However, Brother Larsen was there to help me, and so it was fine. I was surprised how well the kids responded to singing all four verses of "In Our Lovely Deseret," because of the second verse and it's teachings about the Word of Wisdom. In the evening I Home Taught the Minors and Dong Liu. Hope Minor is in 5th grade, and her brother Scott is in 8th grade. I took them each a copy of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies photography/essay contest. They were interested, especially Hope.
On Monday there was a nice e-mail from Sister Bancroft, which reads:
<![CDATA['Subject: Thank you, thank you for Latter-Day Night Live!
I just wanted to thank all of you for your hard work and effort on behalf of our ward talent and comedy
show. It was a wonderful night of fun and laughs. All the performers were amazing, and our committee
members were superb as well. Our goal was to bring the ward members closer to each other in a fun,
exciting way, and we did just that. On a personal note, I truly enjoyed working with each one of you.
Thank you again for all your outstanding efforts for our ward family.
Julia']]>
And thus ends a week centered around 'Froggie Learns the Gospel.'"
Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet"
(little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me).
Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They
were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me.
Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes
were shared with my family because I know how important the
written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and
forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of
daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love.
It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids
and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.
Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to
work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to
make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of
misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will
aggressively
pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets
behind a password).
The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at
http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets,
or you can e-mail me with
questions or requests at
rnelson@walden3d.com
(note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails
within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)
