I was looking at the news today and found this article where, Christopher Metsos, an alleged Russian spy/espionage ringmaster had been released on bail.
The article got me thinking about spys or federally wanted people in general. (Maybe because a friend of mine says I am a Russian spy...)
Which in turn led me to the FBI website where I found the "FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list. I also went to the website to see if I could find a picture of Christopher Metsos on there. (I couldn't find him, by the way).
As I was clicking through all ten of the "Most Wanted" pictures, I found this little gem:
James J. Bulger
He is an avid reader who is interested in history.
He maintains his physical fitness by walking leisurely on beaches and in parks.
And this is where it got a little strange... He and his female walking companion love animals. Yet, apparently he hates humans because he is wanted for numerous (19) murders.
He has been known to alter his appearance through the use of disguises...so watch out when you are walking on the beach, you might see him. Or maybe you'll just think it's him. You never can tell.
And this is how my mind works when I read the news and think.
"May I refer to a modern “last days” testimony? When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of his brother:
“Thou hast been faithful; wherefore . . . thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.
“And now I, Moroni, bid farewell . . . until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.”
A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down, still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators.
As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?
Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."
"I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world . . . that the Book of Mormon is true." Jeffrey R. Holland
I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. I know it is the keystone of our religion and I know that as we read it it will bring us closer to God than any other book.
Have you read the Book of Mormon? Would you like a free copy of it? Go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Request a Copy" under Book of Mormon. I know that as you read it and pray about it you will gain a truthfulness of the message that you read. It is true, I can't deny it.
Even though my dad probably won't read this blog, Happy Father's Day! I love you!
"Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown." Author Unknown
"Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes." Gloria Naylor
"There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself." John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994
It seemed like just yesterday that my sister was small, but the years have flown by and now she is a young woman.
Today is her birthday!
I love you, my dear sweet sister and I hope you have a wonderfully happy birthday!
In this photo, my cousin is sitting on the left and my sister, who is about five, is the little one on the right. I love my sister's expression and how she is "playing" for the camera. She always had such a sense of humor when it came to cameras. Also, it was always a special treat to have our cousin visit since we lived several hours from where she lived. If I recall correctly, during this visit she was visiting with a friend from college.
I also love the memories that come flooding back as I look at this photo of the house I grew up in.
The house was wonderful although, looking back, it was small. It had a big L-shaped porch, a beautiful big picture window in the front, a red front door and another door to the right of it which had one of those old time doorbells that you twisted. The house was an old farmhouse and was one of the original houses in the area.
The house also had a front porch swing. During summer thunder storms, my family and I would sit on the swing and watch as thunder, lightning, and rain boomed around us. It was magical. Of course, we would sit out there other times as well, but the rainy times are some of the most memorable.
Such great memories of a wonderful time in my life. Happy Birthday, B.!
Recently, my mom and I were looking at an old photo album which belonged to my Great Grandmother. As we were looking on the backs of the photos, we noticed that many of them had been postcards which were cut down or had been ripped out of a previous album. None of the photos, save one or two, have information about who is in them or when or where they were taken.
Below is one such photo.
From the picture, we learn that this woman is leaning against a car and holding a notebook of some sort. She has a pair of scissors hanging by a thread around her neck. We guess that this might be my Great Grandfather's sister, Bertha, because she was a seamstress and perhaps the scissors are a clue to that?
Any clue as to what year the cars might be?
Next, we have two photos of this couple. The woman in these photos is the same woman in the photo above.
I assume that this couple is married because, if you look at the photo on the left, the woman has a ring on her finger. But, we don't have any further information about them.
Were they vacationing when these photos were taken? Was one of houses the house that they lived in? In the photo on the right, did you notice the person jokester peeking up behind them in the center? Is that a younger brother or a neighbor? Or perhaps it's a son?
I'm guessing it is around the 1920's according to her hairstyle, but if this is Bertha she died in 1918 at age 29. The man is wearing a very short thin tie and has a cigar (which was common for men anyway!). They both have a similar style of round glasses- which are the same glasses the woman is wearing in the first photograph. I also love the man's checkered socks in the photo on the left! Very stylish!
This photo is also of the same couple, but at a later date because she looks older. Were they camping when this photo was taken? Or maybe they were just out for a Sunday stroll... They must have been with someone else, because who would have taken the picture? I notice there is a pond behind them.
If only...they had written it on the film- at the time.
All these questions, but so few answers. A few minutes for them to write down names and dates would have saved us hours of investigation.
This is a Sepia Saturday post. I invite you to read the other Sepia Saturday posts here.
Thanks for visiting my blog!
Post Edit: If this is Bertha she was born on 7 Oct 1888 in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio. She married William R. Henderson on July 11, 1906 in Steubenville. They had one son, William O. Henderson, born 1909/1910. Bertha died May 14, 1918.
"Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only be aware to stop and savor it." Ratatouille
I have many reasons that I love coming home. The following are two of them- the first reason is that I absolutely love visiting with my family and the second is that I make things, as in food things, that I don't normally make when I am living in my apartment. Actually, my mom and I make them together. We spend time baking and mashing and stirring.
And since the results taste great, we spend time eating too.
Want to try some?
This bread started "singing" when we took it out of the oven.
"How do you tell how good bread is without tasting it? Not the smell, not the look, but the sound of the crust. Listen, oh the symphony of crackle. Only great bread sounds this way." Colette (from Ratatouille)
Homemade strawberry jam is so much tastier than store bought!
Milk on it's way to becoming yogurt.
Cherries, you are so sweet!
A bowl of cherries from the trees in my parents' backyard.
You can join below. Pretty please? It'll be fun, I promise. Just click on the little blue "Click here to enter" below and add your blog. I would love to read it if I know about it!
But I think life would be so much easier without clothes.
Think about it for a minute....
If you didn't need to wear clothes, you wouldn't have to wash them so there would be no washing machines, which cost a lot and there would be no water used to fill up the machine (and paid for).
Then there is the whole ordeal of buying clothes (or making them) and trying them on to make sure they fit.
You wouldn't have to spend money on laundry detergent, stain removers, bleach, fabric softener, etc.
You wouldn't need a dryer, which costs a lot too. You wouldn't be using, and paying for, the electricity to dry the clothes (that is unless you hang them outside anyway).
There would be nothing to fold, so you wouldn't have to waste spend time doing that.
You would not need to buy hangers. There would be no need for closets or dressers or irons or ironing boards or sorting of clothes into colors vs. whites...think of how much time and money you could save by not doing all these things!
I could go on, but I think you get the point and it's a pretty good one, is it not?
When I was younger I didn't have such a problem with it, but in the past month I have had a lot of changes:
1. I changed apartments and I am no longer living with my two roommates who I had lived with since September of 2008.
2. I received a new calling at the beginning of May which is overwhelming and kind of stressing me out. Just a little bit. It's getting better though.
3. School ended today and I will miss the kids that I worked with.
4. I am starting a new job in ten days. And I am nervous about it.
5. Our institute director is moving to Boston. Tonight was his last class. I will really miss him.
6. A couple in my branch who started dating shortly after I moved here, are now married. I served with him as FHE co-chair and I taught them the temple preparation class. It feels like they were my little sister and brother. It wasn't the same without them in the branch on Sunday. But they have moved on to better things and I am very happy for them.
From institute tonight, I realized that I need to control my anger better.
I need to have more faith.
I need to work harder because as Elder Paul Pieper, who was the presiding member of the Seventy at our recent Stake Conference, said: "there is no virtual Celestial Kingdom."
I need to do better.
This quote directly below is from institute tonight and it really stuck out to me. As I was thinking about it, I remembered the quote on charity by Elder Marvin J. Ashton which seems in many ways to be the opposite of anger.
"We've all felt anger. It can come when things don't turn out the way we want. It might be a reaction to something which is said of us or to us. We may experience it when people don't behave the way we want them to behave. Perhaps it comes when we have to wait for something longer than we expected. We might feel angry when others can't see things from our perspective. There seems to be countless possible reasons for anger.Thomas S. Monson
"...But really, true charity is much, much more.
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. It makes the thought of being a basher repulsive.
Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other."Marvin J. Ashton
I am grateful for faith and a loving Heavenly Father. And even though it's hard, I am grateful I can change.
"...I know that he loveth is children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." (1 Nephi 11:17), But I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who does know all things and has our best interest at heart.
He is an avid reader who is interested in history.
