cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail., Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"Last Sunday evening Audrey got her Patriarchal Blessing. It was one of those `once in a lifetime experiences' for me. Audrey, you may ask me `Why was this such a unique experience for me?' To start with, you asked both Andrea and I to be with you. You planned in advance, getting a recommend prior to coming to Houston for Spring Break, and having Mom arrange for an appointment with Patriarch Hardy. Other than my own blessing, this was the first time I have heard a Stake Patriarch give a blessing. I was very impressed with the whole process, and as you know, the tears were flowing as the prayer ended.
I received my Patriarchal Blessing on December 31st of 1969, a year and a half after graduating from High School, at age 20, and while I was home for Christmas Break from the University of Utah. I don't remember what prompted me to get a Patriarchal Blesssing. I do remember fasting and praying. I remember going to get the blessing and having Patriarch Brown ask me some questions about my family and background. I remember leaving his home disappointed, feeling that the words were general and had no particular signifigance to me. I remember going home and telling my Mom something to this effect.
For those who may not be acquainted with what a Patriarchal Blessing is, I quote from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:
As with the temple endowment ceremony, the word sacred means one does not share the information with the world at large. My normal tendency is open everything, and so before I read this description I had thought about just writing out my Patriarchal Blessing. I won't, and yet I will share examples of the insights I have received from these `general and disappointing words,' which had `no particular signifigance' to me.
I had put my Patriarchal Blessing aside, and had not looked at it for several years. Then when we lived in the Dallas 1st Ward, I remember getting it out to read it again. This was when I outlined and Marti wrote the musical `Swedish Roots,' which was about 1979. As I read, I remember how strong the words struck my mind and heart:
Then years passed, I put aside all of my genealogical work, and did not think about my Patriarchal Blessing. Landmark came and went, along with all of the work I did with Dr. Pete Vail and Dr. John Sangree to define stratigraphic depositional processes and how the world has been put together. One day we had a lesson in one of the Church Meetings about Patriarchal Blessings and I reread the words again. This time I discovered another reference to world:
`Know of the world' certainly seems to be a keyword description of my life as a geophysicist. And there were two other references to the earth (recall: I was now in the Bishopric, had the opportunity to give my Mom a particularly stong Priesthood Blessing with Harold Hiskey following her stroke, and I had been traveling all across the planet for Landmark Graphics Corporation):
And:
So does this mean the fact that an old man, probably a farmer, in Cedar City said these words to me when I was 20 and he gave me a Patriarchal Blessing, that I was predestined to `know of the world' and thus to be a geophysicist, to `Honor my Priesthood' and thus not turn down a church calling (so far), or to `be preserved and protected' as I have had the opportunity to travel `about upon the earth?' No! It means he saw though time, saw my potential, via the spirit gave me a goal, and gave me encouragement. He explicitly stated:
Just because Lehi and Nephi saw the future of their descendents, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, it does not mean their descendents had lost their free agency. The ability to `cite our mind forward' (Alma 13:1) is a gift, and it is one of the blessings given to a Stake Patriarch. In no way does a Patriarchal Blessing interfer with free agency, any more than the Prophet warning us to get out of debt, or to live the word of wisdom, or to stay morally clean, interfers with free agency. We choose whether or not to obey the commandments, and we get to live with the consequences of our choices. Because others also have free agency, we also get to live with the consequences of their choices. This goes back to Steve Joseph's comments to me about life not being fair (0009.html).
I read Andrea's Patriarchal Blessing for the first time this morning. She received it on January 31st of 1971, about two years after I received mine. Hers was from Patriarch Elwood J. Corry, in the other stake in Cedar City. In it are the words:
And when I match these words against the promise given to me in my Patriarchal Blessing I find peace and great comfort:
One document, ten paragraphs, sixty four lines, and 3,837 characters. My Patriarchal Blessing continues to be a guide and a comfort and a source of peace and joy. To the best of my knowledge, Paul, Melanie, Nate, and Heather are the others, among you kids, who have received your Patriarchal Blessing.
Audrey, I realize you had a lesson about Patriarchal Blessings, and this is what got you thinking about getting yours. With yours, Andrea's, and mine, this means seven out of fourteen of us, or 1/2 of the `hosts of Nelsons' have received this important blessing. I encourage each of you (and each of your children) to obtain your own Patriarchal Blessing, even if you don't read (spiritually comprehend) this Thoughtlet until you are my age. These blessings provides us a unique opportunity to reach out and to be touched by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So after last Sunday at 6:30 PM, what else happened this week? When we got back to the house, my long time friend Riley Skeen was here waiting for us. Rob came over, and we all had a nice dinner and a good time catching up. Riley says hi to all of the rest of you. Marathon might close the Cody, Wyoming office, and Riley might actually take a transfer to Houston. He has quit 6-8 jobs because he has not wanted to transfer to work in the Gulf Coast, i.e. New Orleans or Houston. I received descriptions of Nate marriage proposal to Heather, as well as Paul's marriage proposal to Kate. Melanie and Jared, still waiting for yours. As I `cite my mind forward,' and because I wrote so much about the Patriarchial Blessing, I will include your descriptions of your marriage proposal's in a future Thoughtlets (probably 0013.html, 0014.html, and 0015.html).
Monday morning Mike Dunn of GDC came over to review Continuum Resource's technologies. Audrey, Matt, Andrea, and I went to Rachel's last soccer game at Rhodes Stadium. Ben and Melanie, it seems like it has been a long time since I have come out to Rhodes to watch the two of you. There were definitly ghosts on the field. We went to Fuzzy's Pizza after the game and had Stephanie Bartlett and Emily Holleman with us. Tuesday was an extended demonstration to Jay Leonard, President of Platt River Associates, and his new Vice-President of New Business Development. Some of you might recall Steve was Continuum's Vice- President of Marketing and Sales until about six months ago (../9929.html, ../9934.html, and ../9945.html) Jay is interested in Continuum's technologies, including possibly using CoReExplorer(TM) as a framework for the next generation of his `hydrocarbon generation and migration simulation software.' Tuesday night I worked on getting the interactive store with shopping carts and the like for Heritage Galleries Online working. It would be nice to have our Patriarchal Blessing specify which of these activities are worth pursuing and which are not. Of course, that would restrict or overly direct our free agency, and so it doesn't fit the plan. We get to make the best decisions we can each day, and see how close we are living to the spirit.
Wednesday included one of those wonderful work experiences, sort of like happens when you suddenly realize something your Patriarchal Blessing promised has happened. Don Best of Exxon-Mobil called up and said he had just seen the 21st century of printing, and combined with the Knowledge Backbone (SM), believes he has identified the basic tools needed for education inside Exxon-Mobil for the next century. He made arrangements for a man from Consolidated Graphics out of Maryland and his local sales representative with Western Lithograph to meet him at our theater at 4:00. It was a wonderful meeting. They followed all I was saying about the Knowledge Backbone (SM), and were as excited as I have been about it. The discussion lasted until 6:00 and could easily have continued for a week. I got home at 6:40, ate, and got to the church at 6:55 for our Venturing Activity. We went over to the old folks home, power washed the patio, dug weeds, cleaned up garbage, talked to some of the residents, and had a good service project.
Thursday started with the sales forecast meeting. Perth did not join us. I spent most of the day working on defining the process of using the Knowledge Backbone (SM) as a search engine and defining how this is related to an on-demand education system. There was an emergency Vpatch conference call as I was leaving the office. I finally cut it off, went home, picked up Riley, and we went out to Matt's baseball game. I ended up spending most of the baseball game on the cell phone with Roger in New York, Steve in Alpine, and Ed Rogers, who was driving to Austin and was on his cell phone. Vpatch ended up firing Ed Rogers. Matt's team won 6 to 5. Riley put up with my not talking to him because of the phone calls. Friday morning I got Rob mad at me because I was teasing him. Rob, I'm sorry and I will strive to do better. Audrey, Matt, Andrea, and I went out to lunch. Riley came over for a demonstration, and he is very excited about our technology. It is very interesting to me how excited people get about what we have done technology wise, especially when they can compare it to what their company has done internally. As I gave Riley a copy of a CD with my presentation `The Impending Obsolescence of Maps' on it, he `accused' me of always being at the cutting edge. I took this comment in the same way a Stake Patriarch would react to comments about a helpful Patriarchal Blessing he had given years before. One thing I recognize and acknowledge is the fact ideas have been planted in my head by spiritual forces outside of myself. What successes I have had professionally (and personally) are due thanks to inspiration from God. My failures are because pride blinded the eyes of my understanding and I thought I knew better than Heavenly Father.
Audrey, Andrea, and I went to see the 5:30 showing of `Mission to Mars' Friday evening. Despite what the reviewer in the paper said, I thought it was on par with Contact as a science fiction movie, and encourage each of you to go see it. In fact, when we got home Contact was on TV, and I half watched it, while I was doing some other work. There is a big difference between science fiction and a Patriarchal Blessing. Yesterday Audrey, Rachel, Matt, Andrea, and I drove out to Turner's to talk to Ken and Nell about Heritage Galleries Online. Heather, we need to get you out there to see Ken's work and work environment. Then we went to Round Top and after driving past Winedale, Festival Hill, and Heart-of-My-Hearts Bed and Breakfast, spent a little over two hours at Ander Saustraup's Spring Festival. Andrea described the experience as weird. Matt liked playing croquet. Rachel started a journey to China, and Audrey watched with big eyes wide open. We got back in time for Rachel to go to the `Know Your Religion' youth fireside. I spent the rest of the evening working on the Store for Heritage Gallery Online.
Audrey left for Hobby Airport and a Delta flight to Cedar City at 6:40 this morning. After she left, I went to cook up some oatmeal for my breakfast. I recalled when Andrea and I stayed at Uncle Lloyd's and Aunt Luana's when we went out for Grandma Hafen's funeral. I recall Uncle Lloyd fixing oatmeal and putting apples in it. I don't remember ever having oatmeal with fruit before this. As I looked around, and decided to put blueberry yogert in with the oatmeal and milk before putting it in the microwave, I thought about the importance of example, and the natural extension of good ideas. It has been a wonderful week. There were, of course, normal unsought downsides. Matt has had a bad cough. Rob didn't want to do anything with us. Both of you will recover. There is no question about the fact the week started off with a wonderful spiritual experience. Audrey, your Patriarchal Blessing is powerful. As near as I can tell, you were not looking for a sign. You wanted to enhance the bond between us, and freely gave. Your blessing was wonderful. I did not hear Patriarch Hardy say this blessing was subject to your faithfulness, although it is. It was given as if it were a fact. You still have your free agency, you will be tried, and if you remain faithful you will see all of the promises included in this wonderful blessing fullfilled. Hopefully each of us will find guidance in our individual Patriatchal Blessings."