The New Regime

Normally, I pride myself on being a fairly positive person. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling very positive right now so I apologize in advance for the somewhat negative approach of this post. I just watched the speech of our new President Elect. Our country has just elected the most socialist leader that we've had to date. Why am I concerned by this? Well, I'd like to share a quote by someone I respect greatly both for the position he held as Prophet, Seer and Revelator as well as the position he held in government as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Of course I speak of Ezra Taft Benson. In a BYU devotional he gave in 1968, he told the following story:

“I have talked face to face with the godless communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Khrushchev for a half day when he visited the United States, not that I’m proud of it. I opposed his coming then, and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor. But, according to President Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed a desire to learn something of American Agriculture — and after seeing Russian agriculture I can understand why. As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren will live under freedom he arrogantly declared in substance:

“ ‘You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.’

Mason Weaver, a favorite author of mine, said something similiar when defining the difference between socialism and communism in his book, It's OK to Leave the Plantation he said: "A communist is a socialist in a hurry. Socialism is a gradual process on many fronts. It will grow on you like cancer. Communism is the result of a revolution and is very rapid. We are ready for communism, but are defenseless against the onslaught of socialism."

It honestly scares me when I think of the shape that our economy is in right now and I imagine what more social programs will do as they continue to tax our economy. Our society has become so inundated with the mentality of entitlement. Citizens of our country are slowly trading their dignity, self reliance and self respect for the easy road of handouts. Of course, many will ask, "what of those in need? Shouldn't the government help them?" The answer is no. That is not the role of government. That is the role of private charities and churches, most of which are very good at it. (The welfare program of the LDS church is truly phenomenal.)

In his book, The Mainspring of Human Progress Henry Grady Weaver said:
"Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own ... The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional 'do-gooders,' who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others - with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means."

I could go on forever about the danger our country is in. But I won't further bore those of you that actually read this far. I apologize again for my negative nature. I'll try to make my next post happy and joyful. But, for now, enjoy this tongue in cheek video that Glenn Beck made to commemorate the new regime.

Sweet, Sweet Honeymoon

Well, Robyn and I got home yesterday from our honeymoon. We had an awesome time and it was way fun but it's also good to be home again. We haven't gathered all the pictures of the actual wedding day yet. I'm sure we'll post those somewhere soon but for now I thought it would be fun to share where we went for our honeymoon. We rented a great little cabin in Ogden canyon for the week. It was a cozy little place to be away from everything and it allowed us to feel like we were away from it all, without really being away from it all. We were about 20 minutes outside of Ogden so we went into town to go out to eat and even went out to a movie once. We also were able to do picnics in the woods and go to a cute little diner called Eats of Eden in Eden, Utah which was about 3 miles from our cabin.

Without further ado, here are just a few of the pictures we took on our honeymoon.

This was the view of the front of our cabin.

This was the view outside the windows from the main living area of the cabin.

View from the back porch

Inside the kitchen

The main living area

Robyn and I took a hike and had a picnic in a national forest area that was about a half mile away from our cabin

Isn't she precious?

Me posing for a picture.

The classic Robyn pose.

Anyone that knows Robyn knows that this is how much of our vacation was spent.

Robyn doing an artsy shot of the leaves.

This creek ran through the property of the cabin we were staying at.

We're just so cute.

What I've Been Up To

On top of putting together the plans for the wedding, Robyn and I have some other projects we've been working on. The first one is a little project we've been helping Disney with called High School Musical 3. Below is a little sample to show you how it's coming along.

Diagram of an Engaged Couple

Look at the above picture. Aren't we precious? Before you read any more I want you to study it and determine if you can tell that we are engaged. Look for any visual cues that may differentiate us as an engaged couple rather than a couple that is just dating or already married. Just do it, it will make more sense after you read on, but for now just study the picture.

Okay, now I have a story to tell. Yesterday, Robyn and I went to go get our marriage license. We had to go to the county offices in Provo. There are about 8 kajillion buildings and we were struggling to figure out which one was the one we should go to. We walked into one building and quickly figured out that was not where we were supposed to be, when a woman came out of an office and asked if we had found what we were looking for. Robyn said "no" and was about to ask where to go for marriage licenses. But before she was able to ask, the woman said, "marriage licenses are in the next building over."

This prompted a discussion between Robyn and myself as to how precious we must look. We talked about how we want to buck the trend and stay just as precious forever and always. (Note: We do recognize that what we term precious, others term gross, and that is just fine.) Clearly preciousness must be the indicator to let this woman know that we are engaged. But it got me thinking, "Are there specific attributes that show our preciousness?" So I decided to take the above picture and do some diagramming of some of the attributes that I think show our preciousness. Let me know what you think. Are there other attributes you would add? Are Robyn and I just so dang precious you can't handle it?


If you can't see my additions very well, you can click on it to view a larger image.

God Bless America

I've been doing some pondering. I've been pondering the future and I've been pondering the past. Today is somewhat of an important date. It marks exactly one month until I get married and exactly 7 years ago that the twin towers were destroyed by terrorists. My last post was about my thoughts on the former, so I think I'll focus my thoughts on the latter for this post.

Seven years ago today I was in the middle of serving a mission for the LDS church. I was serving in Casper, Wyoming. As you all know, the towers were hit pretty early in the morning. I was just doing my morning routine which means that I was sitting at my desk reading my scriptures. The phone rang and I answered it. It was my zone leaders. They called with a message that I didn't understand, it went something like this. "Elder Stockett, you need to get to a member's house and watch TV." Now, this is not a message you usually hear from your leaders while serving a mission so I questioned them about what the heck was going on. "There's been a terrorist attack, the World Trade Center towers have been destroyed, the Pentagon has been hit and I think they're going to hit the White House next, probably more stuff, we don't know much. We just got a call ourselves and we turned on the radio." I informed them that this wasn't a very funny joke. At this point they stuck the radio up to the phone so that I could hear for myself that they were serious. So we did as we were told and found a place to watch TV. We didn't do much work that day. It seemed pointless, everyone was glued to their TV. But, over the next few weeks we were able to accomplish alot. People were much more willing to open their hearts to God.

Today, as I pondered that experience, it brought back some of the feelings I had that day. I remember thinking that I was so grateful for my freedom. I was grateful for the men and women who were fighting against the evils that were trying to take it from us. I was grateful that we were free to share the gospel. Today I'm grateful that we haven't lost that freedom, despite all the opposition that is out there. I'm grateful that I have the freedom to go the temple with the girl I love and be married to her for eternity. I'm grateful for capitalism and free enterprise which allow me to work to provide for my future family. I hope that we, as a nation, never stop cherishing that freedom that we have.

As I was pondering all these things I pulled some books off my shelf, and I thought I'd share a few things from them. I first want to share a quote from Thomas Paine. Though I don't agree with everything he ever wrote, this quote from "The American Crisis" rings true to me. He said, "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:- 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."

Patrick Henry said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?-Forbit it, Almighty God!-I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

I've never had to put my life on the line for my freedom and I'm very grateful for those who have done so for me. One way I feel that I can personally fight for freedom is to involve myself in the political process by making myself aware of what candidate will best protect my freedom. I thought about writing some of my thoughts on the upcoming election, but I then thought about how neat it was during the weeks following 9/11 that there were no liberals or conservatives, no Republicans or Democrats, there were just Americans. So, though I will go back to being a conservative tomorrow, and I very well may write about my thoughts on the election in upcoming weeks or months, today I am just proud to be an American and I am grateful to be blessed with freedom.

The winding trail ahead.

As many of you already know, Robyn and I got engaged a few weeks ago. If you don't already know the story of how I proposed you can check out Robyn's blog and read all about it. I figured since several others have also written about me being engaged (including, but not limited to Jared, Ann and Carrie) it was probably about time that I write something myself. The story has already been covered very well so I thought I'd just share a few of my thoughts on the experience of being engaged. To help illustrate my thoughts I would like to share this picture.






This is a picture of the trail leading to the meadow where I proposed to Robyn.
I include it here because it is a place of great memories for me, obviously, but I think the picture itself carries great symbolism.

The picture shows a trail ahead, but the trail winds off to where you can no longer see where it leads. Yet you can see enough to know that it will take you to a beautiful place. Being engaged is like that for me. I don't know exactly what to expect, but I know that where I'm going will be wonderful. The trail slopes upward slightly. That means it will take work to travel along that trail. You can see mountains far in the distance. This indicates that this turn in the trail is not the end of the journey. Rather, the journey is really just beginning.

Standing where I am, looking at the trail ahead, anticipating the adventures to come I feel great excitement and joy, but at the same time there is the slight fear of the unknown. Of course, for me, the hardest part, is that I have made the decision to turn that corner and now I just have to wait until October 11th, to actually get the chance to see what lies ahead.

But the best part is knowing that when I do turn that corner it will be hand in hand with my love. In Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins addresses his nephew, Frodo, and says, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road and if you don't keep your feet there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." I don't know where this road may sweep me off to, but I do know that whatever joys and sorrows lie ahead, we will face them side by side for all eternity.