Come and See

Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, believe in modern revelation and living prophets.  So what do these modern prophets have to say?  They teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to us and specifically counsel us on challenges which are particularly relevant today.  One of the ways they do this is through General Conference.

General Conference is an event which happens twice a year, every April and October, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.  I had the opportunity of attending in person as a full-time missionary of the church serving on Temple Square (just next to the conference centre).  It was a wonderful experience to be there in person, but the great thing is that anyone around the world can also experience General Conference and hear what the Prophet and Apostles have to say.

The conference is translated and rebroadcast to many countries all over the world.  It is also available to watch on the internet, and the words from all of the speakers are written and published in a magazine and online so that we can re-read and study the words to increase our knowledge and our spirituality, to allow us to come closer to Christ and to know Him.

There are so many talks in recent years which I still remember and refer to often.  One of my favourites is called "Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer" by the apostle Richard G. Scott.  I gained a much deeper understanding of the ways in which our prayers can be answered, especially in relation to making major decisions.  

I am looking forward to watching General Conference in a couple of weeks when the rebroadcast will be shown at the chapel in Glenorchy (off the Brooker Highway), on April 14th and 15th.  If you are in the area I invite you to join me :)  Or you can watch or read the talks on the internet in the comfort of your own home.  Even if you have no intention of ever becoming a mormon, I invite you broaden your cultural understanding and "Come and see."

Book Club - How to be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book (audio version)

Welcome to another edition of book club.  Okay I may have cheated a little this time, as I listened to the audiobook - I much prefer listening to John Bytheway than reading his books.

This book is "reverse psychology" at its best.  It is, of course, really about how to be happy, but is presented in a humorous, entertaining way.  I think sometimes it helps also recognise the things we do that take us in the opposite direction.  By pointing out the things that will make us miserable, we might find ourselves going "oops, I guess I do that sometimes..."  It can help sometimes to recognise our bad habits before we try to develop the good ones.

John Bytheway (it feels too weird referring to him without his full name!) aims to be as entertaining as possible in writing this book, and it seems to be aimed mainly at (Latter-day Saint) teenagers.  He uses word play and alliteration quite a lot.  

The book is broken up into short segments on each point of "advice".  The headings of such segments include: 

Think about your problems

Relive bad memories

Hold onto grudges

Don't set goals

Be a breath of stale air

Believe that things will never change

Be easily offended

(the list goes on...)

In each segment he gives the advice on how to be miserable, but he also warns against and points out the opposite things, which will actually make us happy!  So being well informed, we are able to make our choice:  Do I want to be miserable, or happy?

Here's an example of the writing style:

To be miserable, don't set goals.  If you're trying to be miserable, it's important that you don't have any goals.  No school goals, personal goals, seminary goals, or family goals.  With nothing to shoot for, your life is shot.  Your only objective each day should be inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again.  Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive.  If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, and then you might want to set another goal!  And then your miserable mornings are through.  To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind.

The book is also filled with inspiring quotes and useful scriptures all about how to be happy...which of course we want to avoid!  Right?

It may take a little bit to think in opposites (kind of like The Screwtape Letters, though not as much), but at least in the audiobook his tone of jest clearly highlights the fact that he really means the opposite, and it is a light-hearted way of reminding ourselves that there are many  things we can do to choose to be happy.

What are your thoughts?

If I were Mr Speaker, I'd have a few things to say.

One day this week I was home from work early, decided to rest on the couch and watch some tv and came across Australian parliament Question Time.  I would normally go to great lengths to avoid watching this, but I decided that as a federal government employee and an Australian citizen I should probably take a little more interest in the workings of parliament in this country.  And so, despite cringing even from the very beginning, I watched it.  

While I still don't know a lot about parliament, I learnt a little bit about the running of question time, including the role of Mr Speaker.    Thank goodness there is a Mr Speaker or parliament would turn into a group brawl.  His job is to decide who is speaking when and for how long.  He can interrupt the politicians, tell them to sit back down, or to keep their remarks relevant to the question.  A bit like a judge in a court case perhaps.

The trouble is, the parliament members do a terrible job of adhering to his instructions.  The day I watched they seemed to do okay towards the start, with even the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, obliging when she was told to stop talking and take her seat.  But they seemed to get worse and worse, even continuing to talk (rather loudly, might I add) over Mr Speaker, who was asking them to stop speaking, even after repeated attempts.  


This display of very childish behaviour led me to think about what improvements could be made in parliament question time, and what I would love to do if I were Mr Speaker (or Ms Speaker?).  Here's a few ideas I thought of:


1.  I would tell the members of parliament to stop shouting at me, as that is very disrespectful and rude.  When does that happen, you ask?  Often members of parliament direct their remarks to Mr Speaker, even though they are really talking to and looking at a member of the opposing party, and being quite antagonistic in their remarks some members even resort to shouting instead of speaking.  So if they kept using my title in such a tone of voice I would abruptly remind them that I am not deaf and I do not appreciate their shouting.


2.  I would install a mute button for the speakers' microphones and volume control, so that instead of having to speak over the member to ask them to stop (which they often ignore whilst they keep on shouting), I can mute their mic, and up the volume on mine to say in a booming voice "The Honourable <insert name/title> will cease speaking!"


3.  I would introduce the 3-level behaviour control system.  You know the one - step 1 is the warning, step 2 is a direct request to stop the behaviour, step 3 is time out for the rest of the session.  As I was watching, so many parliament members were being horribly disrespectful to Mr Speaker in continually ignoring his directions and warnings.  I really think if more discipline was enforced, like it is in schools, we would have more order and productivity in question time.  


I noticed that Mr Speaker already acted like a teacher at times, such as trying to give directions amongst shouting between several members of parliament at once, and instead glaring at them and waiting for them to listen before continuing.  


Seriously.  A room full of yelling, shouting adults, not adhering to order, but instead choosing to do lots of "I'm right!" "No, I'm right!!" type yelling at each other.  


Wow, such dignified professionals.  I'm glad we're paying them so much.