01 Mar 2009 #0909.html

Regional Stake Conference

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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.

"This week Colby made 15 chess moves, while Rob made 10 and Roice made 4. It looks like the future is in the hands of the next generation. I woke up Monday to great news from Sara:

"Hey Dad and Andrea - I just got Rachel's invitation and I think I might be able to work out timing so I can go to the Utah reception. I thought it was Wed, not Thurs, which makes it easier to navigate... My Friday final has a make up day on Tues and the other final is on Wed night. I still have a conference on Sat so it would be a quick trip, but would need to figure out if logistics could work. I could leave anytime on Thursday and need to get back anytime on Friday. With southwest, it's only $200, which is great. It looks like Sandy is really close to Salt Lake, but not sure if I could coordinate with y'all so I wouldn't have to rent a car. Anyway, let me know what you're doing. Here's a tentative itinerary: Arrive SLC 2:15pm on 3/12 Depart SLC 7:55pm on 3/13 Sara"

I responded with:

"Sara, We bought the ticket for Heather to do approximately the same thing, and will do so for you also. We will have a rental car and will pick you up at the airport, find a place for you to stay, and get you back to the airport. If you have already bought the ticket we will just pay you back. Love, Dad cc: Andrea"

Jialin sent several notes about calling Jiafeng. I modified a contract for Maureen for Jiafeng. It is all so frustrating (see 0913.html). I usually do the China e-mails first thing in the morning. I was at Layton's office from 10:30-1:00. I reviewed plans with Dan and made some calls on NAPE prospects. In the afternoon I met Wulf at Dick Coons place. I told Wulf about a seismic acquisition design problem I was working on for a possible survey in Jim Hogg County, and he called Warren Lyle to help. The NetWork will work if I can get some cash to make things happen. Jeff Jurinak sent a follow-up note (see 0908.html) about getting ConocoPhillips to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding the material we went over with him a few weeks ago (see 0901.html).

Randy was gone all week on his annual golf outing with his relatives. There were some questions about prospects and we communicated by e-mail. Randy has decided Layton does not sign confidentiality agreements, and so my job was to tell some prospect generators this. On Tuesday there were several early morning e-mails with Jialin about contacting his brother about the Tarim payment. I was in the office early for an 8:30 meeting with Richard Nehring. There was also some conversations with Hugh Fraser at Geokinetics about the seismic acquisition plans. I worked from 1:00 to 3:00 on the Wharton County exploration opportunities. In the evening I went to the temple with Jeff Jurinak. We did endowments for the Milkovich brothers from Bingham Canyon. Rachel sent me a text message while I was driving, which I thought was very funny, and so I responded and wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words:

Prayers: Thank you for your prayers Silent or out loud (a) Know this that all prayers Are always allowed (b) (a) Rachel Nielson's intention on an text e-mail, 24 Feb 2009 (b) Dad2's response making fun of the use of the word allowed, 24 Feb 2009

Kristofer Tingdahl sent a nice note about not being able to attend the reception:

"Dear Roice! I was reached by the good news of your daughter's wedding by an invitation! I am honored by the invitation but after careful consideration, I have to decline the invitation as we are not able to travel to Utah (although I'd love to this time of the year), and we are not available on the 14th or March. Again, thanks for the invitation and I wish you all luck in the coming events, and Rachel and Garrett a long, blessed marriage! Best regards, Kristofer"

Jeff Jurinak sent a note saying he uses Facebook to post his photos. Maybe I will need to join someday. Russell Shirts sent some funny cartoons about the "Honest Mistakes" of Cabinet Appointees having not paid their Federal Taxes. Frank Hamtak sent a note about the reception:

"Roice Thank you for the reception invitation but Cindy and I will be unable to attend. What a lovely girl, you have to be very happy, and it is good that they are getting married as in the photo his hand is already in her pocket. Cindy and I expect that we will soon be loosing the ability to name several more stars. Best to all Frank & Cindy"

Matt Kitterer of the "U" Development Office sent this note:

"Roice, I hope you had a nice weekend with your daughter and her wedding shower festivities last weekend. I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with me last week. I have discussed your offer to host the next Geology and Geophysics luncheon in with John Kaloudis, Development Director at the and Earth Sciences. He was very excited to hear of your offer. We also discussed your availability to visit campus on March 9th or 10th. I have copied John on this e-mail. I expect that you will hear from him soon. Best regards, Central Development Office University of Utah"

On Wednesday, February 25th, Wulf sent a map to include in the confidentiality agreement for Dick Coons' East Cameron opportunities. Later in the day Wulf found a well which showed Dick's prospect is probably not real. This exploration stuff can be very frustrating. I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Solis at 8:30. He was very pleased I have lost 20 pounds in 2 months. It is probably because of the thyroid pills he has me taking. He says I will be taking them for the rest of my life. There was correspondence with Donna Covey about our taxes for 2008, and an e-mail correspondence with Jim Siebert about Grant's baptism on Saturday and the meeting with ConocoPhillips.There were several e-mails with Hugh Fraser about a possible 3-D seismic survey in Jim Hogg County in conjunction with John Glen and associates. I was at Layton's office from 10:30-4:00. Worked on Klutts Prospect, the Liberty County Prospect, the Wharton County opportunities I've been chasing, and I got Dan Layton to go with me to Choice Exploration's offices. Dan is really not interested in having partners, and so it did not go anywhere.

On Thursday there were more e-mails from Jialin about Tarim. I worked up the confidentiality agreement for Wulf to take to his friends. Jim Siebert came over and reviewed some of the work I have been doing on the patent in the morning. He was very positive about how it is going. I took Dick Coons down to Greenway Plaza and we met with Jim Allan and Paul Hoffman at 1:30. I know Jim and had met Paul before. He remembered it was when he worked for Davis Oil and when I was attempting to sell Prospects back in 2001 (see ../0151.html). Maybe this type of information is why I am interested in keeping up the Thoughtlets. This meeting was a total disaster. Because the well Wulf had found changed the 1 TCF opportunity, we changed to another opportunity. Jim and Paul had not been told about the change. Dick's presentations tend to ramble, and he was caught up in attempting to find a color bar in the SMT software. Jim and Paul felt like we were wasting their time. We took back our Confidentiality Agreement and retreated. Wulf was quite upset and vowed to never let another Prospect Presentation go like that again. There is always good things that come from even the worst of experiences, if we will just keep our eyes open. For instance, that afternoon I was able to finalize the confidentiality agreement for our upcoming meeting with ConocoPhillips (see 0910.html). Thane Hafen sent me this note, which I think is great:

"Montana Restaurant: > > This is a great story! The radio station America FM was doing one of its 'Is Anyone Listening?' > bits this morning. The first question was, 'Ever have a celebrity come up with the 'Do you know > who I am?' routine?' > > A woman called in and said that a few years a go, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Montana, > she had occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about > 45 minutes; many ranchers and their wives were waiting. > > Ted Turner and his ex-wife Jane Fonda came in the restaurant and wanted a table. The hostess > informed them that they'd have to wait 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asked the hostess, 'Do you know > who I am?' The hostess answered, 'Yes, but you'll have to wait 45 minutes.' Then Jane asked if > the manager was in. When the manager came out, he asked, 'May I help you?' > 'Do you know who we are?' both Ted and Jane asked. > 'Yes, but these folks have been waiting, and I can't put you ahead of them.' > > Then Ted asked to speak to the owner. The owner came out, and Jane again asked, > 'Do you know who I am?' The owner answered, 'Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? > I am the owner of this restaurant and I am a Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of my > friends and neighbors who have been waiting here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant > tonight or any other night. Good bye.' > > Only in , is this a great country or what? > > To all who received this, this is a true story and the name of the steak house is: > > Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse, 204 W. (406) 284-6929 > > If you ever get there, give this fellow a sharp salute, buy a steak, and tip the waitress. Keep passing > this on. We should never forget our national traitor!"

On Friday I worked with Jim Siebert some more at 9:30. Jim was still there when Mark Bashforth and Jeff Johnson came over at 10:00. There was a lot of interest in The Energy Technology Exchange, and Jim joined in the conversation. However, nothing has come of it since this discussion. Wulf sent this note at about 11:00:

"I spoke with Ross yesterday to tell him that we had received well information we had not previously had and that our TCF prospect is now under detailed review. He agreed that its best not to buy leases now as drilling costs are still too high and will surely go down in another year. I also told him that we had several additional opportunities but that these required access to the TGS 2-D grid. I suggested that Petsec may already have some of the needed 2D data and of course he doesn't know about that. So, I warned him to expect a conversation with Roice about a deal to give us access to the 2D grid to reprocess for velocity and statics analysis related to gas. Wulf Massell"

Later in the day, as follow-up to the morning meetings, I sent out the following e-mail:

"Mark and Jeff,

I put the things we discussed this morning at:
http://dynamic.walden3d.com/NetWork/twiki/pub/Main/Energy_Technology_Exchange/index.html
which is off of this page:
http://dynamic.walden3d.com:8080/twiki/bin/view/Main/MarkBashforthIdeas
which is off of this page:
http://dynamic.walden3d.com:8080/twiki/bin/view/Main/EnergyTechnologyExchange
I encourage you to each register, and to practice editing with the TWiki. You need to use raw edit, as the WYSIWYG editor is not working correctly. Let me know if you have questions.

I enjoyed our meeting a lot. I feel good about the interest and the direction. I look forward to our meeting next Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM.

Best Regards,

Roice
c: 713.542.2207

cc: Jim Siebert"

Friday night was the annual dinner with a General Authority for Seminary Teachers and their spouses. I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words based on this talk:

Devotion: Give first class devotion To first class causes Starting with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(a) (a) Elder Quentin L. Cook quoting Elder Marion D. Hanks, Seminary Night with a General Authority, Katy Stake Center Relief Society Room, 27 Feb 2009

Saturday Jeff sent a thank you note for the talk when we went to the temple on Tuesday. Also Jiafeng sent the following:

"Hello, David Kessler, I am YanJiafeng.How are you David, I have a document to you, I hope you will be interested in. Best Regards, Jiafeng"

I went over to Grant Siebert's baptism, and wrote the following possible stanza for Prime Words based on Ashley's talk:

"White: You wear white When you are baptized Entering the light Choosing the right"

Saturday night was the Adult Session of my first Regional Stake Conference. It was a nice evening, with interesting talks. President Allen gave an interesting PowerPoint presentation about where the church is at in our area. The Sealy High Priest Group Leader gave an interesting talk, from which I extracted this possible stanza for Prime Words:

"Veil: The veil separating us From those who have died Is definitely penetrable And this occurs with joy"

During the Saturday night session I got thinking about The Energy Technology Exchange. Mark talked about two different branches, a commercial arm and a non-profit arm. The idea came to mind that the the commercial arm would be focused on services and shares would be purchased or earned from technical contributions. However, The Energy Technology Exchange Foundation, the non-profit arm, would have 1 share per participant. The idea is similar to the two houses of congress, where the non-profit arm is like the house, and the profit arm is like the senate. I wish I was smart enough to pt this all together so others would get excited about it. I fear this whole project is going to languish away until it dies.

I was very impressed with the Sunday Regional Stake Conference. It was simultaneously broadcast to Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. There were four General Authorities and their wives on the stand. The speakers were Bishop Edgley, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, Willian Oswald, Second Counselor in the General Sunday School, Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. The talks were like General Conference talks. Andrea asked if they had an audience they were talking to. I expect so. They did good presentations. I wrote a little bit about it in my March e-mail, and Andrea pointed out I said messed up one of the Whitmer names, and something else. There was a summary in my monthly letter, which I wrote in the afternoon after we got back from Regional Stake Conference:

"Dear Family, I've thought about Thomas Barnabas Sharp several times the last few weeks. I looked for his history today, and could not find it, as I must have returned the original to Marti. All of us will benefit if one of his descendants finds and transcribes this history and puts it on the TWiki site (http://sharp.walden3d.com/). Thomas Barnabas Sharp is Marti's paternal Grandfather. Since I could not find the history to quote from it, I am going to tell a very abbreviated version of what I recall. When T.B. was a young man he received a copy of The Book of Mormon. He read it, was converted, and was baptized in a lake, where they had to break the ice in order to perform to do the baptism. He came out of the water feeling warm and it changed his entire life. Over his life he became the Presiding Elder for The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, now known as The Community of Christ, between Texarkana and Shreveport. His experience was life changing, and he dedicated his life to sharing his testimony. However, he did not succeed in getting some of his children to have a similar conversion. Specifically, his youngest son, Emmit Frederick Sharp, Marti's Dad, often said he "had enough religion when he was growing up to last him several lifetimes." Emmit had no interest in any church involvement and found it amusing Marti joined the "Utah Church." I always respected Emmit's intellect and his scholastic accomplishments. I struggled accepting his addictions, especially tobacco and pornography. The one time he came to a Sharp Reunion we were at, Emmit sat around and told off-color stories. I thought they were very funny. His siblings did not. As his ex-wife, Robbye Chloe Llewellyn Jackson, and I clashed, I came to understand it was more Emmit's influence on Marti I was attracted to than "Grandma Jackson's" influence. Today we participated in a Regional Stake Conference, which included 74 Stakes, 4 Districts, and 8 languages in the states of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Each of the four talks by General Authorities brought to mind my recent musings about Thomas Barnabas Sharp. Bishop Edgly's talk focused on a couple whose daughter had died in a swimming pool accident when they visited the Father's Mother in a Nursing Home. He talked of their anger and their pain and and their sorrow, and I thought of how Thomas Barnabas Sharp must have felt about Emmit's choices. Bishop Edgly talked about how a true knowledge of Christ makes our challenges bearable and provides hope and relief. William Oswald, Second Councilor in the General Sunday School gave an excellent review of the positive impact of Peter Whitmer and his 9 children's impact on the restoration of the gospel of Christ. Peter's son David was one of the first modern-day 12 Apostles. There were hard times, including a series of bank closings where many leaders of the church faltered. I found it interesting how Elder Oswald compared those times to the challenges in today's financial world. Although all living members of Peter Whtmer's family were excommunicated by 1838, Peter reaffirmed his testimony of the Book of Mormon 70 times after his excommunication, including on his deathbed. I thought of the stories I have heard about the fiery sermons of Thomas Barnabas Sharp, and about his dedication to The Book of Mormon. Quentin L. Cook, one of the current 12 Apostles, talked about the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments. He talked about studies which show neither grade point averages nor SAT scores predict success. He pointed out these studies found the key to success is childhood happiness. I thought of Thomas Barnabas Sharp, his first wife's death, and how several of his many children never accepted his second spouse. At least neither Andrea nor I have had to cross this bridge. However, I know my mistakes and other people's mistakes have negatively impacted the childhood happiness of each of you. I am truly sorry. Dieter F. Uchdorf, Second Councilor in the First Presidency, was the concluding speaker. It was an excellent talk, which I wish more of you than just Melanie could have heard. He talked about how promptings will come if we are ready and how - because life is so exciting - it is sometimes hard to focus on things which have eternal value and increase. I really enjoyed how he used his experience as an airline pilot to point out the importance of having a destination or in other words a goal. He stressed the value of technology, like www.lds.org and www.mormon.org, with their excellent materials to support those struggling with addictions like pornography or same sex attraction. I was particularly impressed with his challenge for each of us to relight the fire of personal conversion through daily prayer, daily gospel study, and having a current temple recommend. I wondered how Thomas Barnabas Sharp would have reacted to this good, solid advice. The reason I have been thinking about Thomas Barnabas Sharp is much more than just the similarities in how we have not found the way to pass on the fire of our personal conversion to all of our children. On Tuesday, the 17th of February, Andrea and I were asked to meet with The Houston Temple President, William R. Bradford, who is a "retired" General Authority. President Bradford interviewed us, called us as Houston Temple Ordinance Workers, and set us apart. We start Thursday, the 19th of March, and have been assigned to work the shift from 12:00 until 5:00. This is the same shift Sister Wright, Jared's Grandmother, works. Hopefully this will work out with my consulting work at Layton Energy. The setting apart was very special for both me and for Andrea. President Bradford quoted from my patriarchal blessing, specifically: "I bless you with health and strength and you will be preserved and protected as you go about upon the earth"; and "You will be able to teach your children in such a way that they will be led to follow the teachings of the Master and live true and faithful and rise up to bless you because of your devotion to the Lord's work and to them." President Bradford's words about how the service we provide in serving in the temple will help our children know that I know the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is truth were overwhelming. And then I thought about good men like Thomas Barnabas Sharp, who recognized and who preached the truth as he knew it, to the best of his ability. Then I thought of the awesome responsibility and eternal consequences of performing his baptism, initiatory ordinances, endowment, and eternal sealings to his parents to his children and to his spouses, and the word overwhelming seems insignificant. For those of you who have not read from the Bible in a while, I encourage you to do so. For those of you who have never discovered the truths in The Book of Mormon, or The Doctrine & Covenants, or The Pearl of Great Price, I encourage you to do so. As our family Patriarch, I promise each of you who knock, there will be an answer, and you will know Jesus better as a result of your asking in sincere prayer. As far as how February went, it was busy. I did get Andrea's cell phone set up so she can forward photos to the Ceiva (RN.66859A74@ceivamobile.com). Thanks to those who sent photos. We were in Salt Lake from the night of the 20th through the morning of the 22nd. It was nice to meet Garret's Mom. We had fun playing with Sophie and talking to Audrey and Joshua. Andrea enjoyed the shower. I was able to say hi to Kate. It was fun to watch some of Rachel's bridal photos be taken. I enjoyed dinner with Sara, Des, and Des' Mom. Hard to believe we will be back in Salt Lake this coming Friday. I sure hope each of you will make an effort to support Rachel at the Salt Lake reception on the 12th, or at the reception at our house on the 14th. Jared was accepted to the Houston Dental School, and I am looking forward to babysitting and playing with - soon to be - 4 Wright grandchildren. I've posted two more Thoughtlets (see http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets/2009/0905.html and 0906.html) and am already 2 weeks behind on keeping up. Oh well! I took an investor group to NASA to see Robonaut (see http://www.walden3d.com/Robonaut). They were interested and not enough to invest. I'm talking to several other groups. There has been some activity relative to what I call "The Energy Technology Exchange" (see http://dynamic.walden3d.com:8080/twiki/bin/view/Main/EnergyTechnologyExchange). Maybe there will be something specific to report next month. Dan Layton has committed to drill another well, and has his Landman looking for acreage over about 15 drilling opportunities I've identified. Exploration is fun and exciting. If you are in Houston you might like to go down to the Galleria with me and see my office at Layton Energy. I hope you each have a wonderful March. I look forward to when we are able to spend time with each of you. Love, Dad / Roice / Uncle Roice"

Based on this first Regional Stake Conference, I anticipate the future will hold many more Regional Stake Conferences."

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.)

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Copyright © 2009 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.