The Spirit of Christmas / Judy

Someone once said that when God wants to change the world, he doesn't send kings or generals, he sends a baby. This month we consider the birth of two special babies that changed the world:  Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. We celebrate Joseph Smith, but we worship Jesus Christ.

     I think what we call the "Christmas spirit" is actually the spirit of Christ or the spirit of the gospel—we are more loving, more generous, perhaps more tolerant and forgiving than we are the rest of the year. Isn't this how the gospel teaches us to treat others? As Boyd K. Packer has said, "These are the weightier matters of the law."

     I've been stuck in traffic during this season and seen people in the surrounding cars smiling and laughing. I've had sales clerks show extraordinary kindness and patience. I've known families who sacrificed to give their children a special Christmas.

     One year when our children were still at home, one of our teenage sons wanted a silver trumpet more than anything in the world. He was in a gifted and talented music program and still had to use an old, dented loaner. He was convinced that with a new instrument, he could play much better; that his music would soar.

     As much as he wanted that trumpet, that's how much we wanted to give it to him. But it cost as much as our whole Christmas budget. One night when he was out, we talked to the other kids and asked them what they would think about basically giving up their Christmas for him. To our surprise and immense delight, they all agreed.

When Christmas morning came, and he saw that gleaming trumpet in its velvet-lined case, his eyes got big and he slowly reached for it. All he said was a soft, "Oh my." The other kids' excitement was palpable. As I hugged the daughter closest in age, I could feel her heart pounding even though she and the others received only small token presents. To this day our grown-up children say that is one of their best Christmas memories.

     To quote Norman Vincent Peale: "Christmas waves a magic wand over the world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful and engaged in a conspiracy of love." Maybe this is why, when the missionaries come, some people recognize the spirit they bring with them because they've felt it before—every year at Christmas.

Sweet Hour Of Prayer / Judy

"how’s your prayer life?"

Sweet  Hour of Prayer

      Did you know that the most oft-repeated commandment in the scriptures is to pray? And, yes, it is a commandment. It's not because the Lord needs to hear from us, it's because we need to draw close to Him.

     We once had a stake president who said that the first step to inactivity and even serious transgression was always to stop praying. "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear…" (Alma 13:28).

       We're encouraged to pray about everything--from ourselves to our families to the crops in our field (Alma 34: 20-27). We should never feel we are "bothering" God with our petty problems. And when help and answers come, we are counselled to acknowledge His hand in our affairs. For example, have you ever prayed for help locating a lost item, had an idea about where to look, found the lost item, then said, "Never mind, Lord. I got it."

     We learn in Primary that there are three possible answers to prayers: YES, NO, and NOT YET. Of course we always want it to be YES, but there are times when that would not be the best thing for us and NO is the answer that we need, if not the one we want. As for NOT YET, sometimes that is the hardest one of all because it takes patience and humility on our part. But like the expression says, "Don't mistake God's delays for God's denials."

     In the Jan Karon books about the village of Mittford, the minister talks about the prayer that never faileth: “Thy will be done." This is illustrated in the movie Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis. When his beloved wife, Joy, is in the hospital suffering from cancer, one of his colleagues says to him, "Are your prayers being answered?" Lewis responds, "I don't pray to change God's will; I pray to change my own."

     Finally, we should remember that prayer is a two-way communication. When you telephone a loved one, it's discouraging when they do all the talking and you never get a word in edgewise.

After saying Amen, stay still a few minutes and listen. Give the Lord a chance to respond or tell you something. Then it really does become, "sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls us from a world of care…"

The prayer that never faileth: “Thy will be done."

There HAS to be an America / Judy

There is nothing special about this country

Apart from our willingness to stand alone for virtue

        

       "A real patriot is the fellow who gets a speeding ticket and rejoices that the system works."

        At the time of America's Bi-Centennial in 1976, we were living in Europe as part of the 8th Med Battalion, assigned to Mannheim, Germany. The Fourth of July that year was, appropriately, on a Sunday. Usually, the men wore civilian clothes at church, but that day there had been early-morning parades on post and they all came in their uniforms. The opening song was The Star Spangled Banner, and we stood to sing it in that congregation of servicemen and women. My heart swelled to be there and it was a defining moment of my life.

        Along with our personal love for her, we know America also has a great destiny. God has revealed and repeated over and over again: “For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God.” (Ether 2:10)

        To quote Marion G. Romney: "God gave us victory in the Revolutionary War. We are indebted to him for our nation’s independence. He has prospered us in every righteous endeavor. He established the Constitution of the United States 'by the hands of wise men whom [he] raised up unto this very purpose.' (D&C 101:80)

       "He himself with his Beloved Son appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith to open a new dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ here. He has established his Church here and has sent and is sending representatives thereof into every nook and corner of the land—and as far as possible to all the earth—to declare and teach the laws of Jesus Christ, the God of this land."

        So according to the Book of Mormon, we have both a promise and a curse—be righteous and remain free or become wicked and "be swept off." Knowing this, sometimes it's scary when we see things happening around us. But I have to say I still have faith in the United States of America and in the goodness of her people. And I'm not the only one. I once heard a new citizen from Asia say, "There has to be an America. What would the rest of the world do without her?"

Ben’s work is honest and true, excellent in both art and craft, and exquisitely Mormon --Theric Jepson / Lloyd

A Motley Vision

Mormon literature and culture

I. Writing in A Motley Vision:  Mormon literature and culture (4.25.13), Theric Jepson reminds readers of Ben Abbott’s quality production of Questions of the Heart at UC Berkeley and encourages their donations to support his current updated production.

Ben Abbott on the hunt

4.25.13 | Theric Jepson | one comment.

For those who remember thinking Questions of the Heart sounded awesome and sometimes wonder how it would be different were it made today, now that so much has changed, Ben needs money to show you.

Check it out.

All I’ll say is that Ben’s writing and performance the first time around were powerful and I myself would love to know how he synthesizes what’s happened over the last two years.

Many of the characters in the play are friends of mine. In the last two years, one has come out of the closet and appeared on national television as a faithful, woman-married gay Mormon man. One gave up on his marriage. One is now fully active in his ward. One is getting married to his longtime boyfriend this summer.

And those are just the personal stories. The gay/Mormon relationship has changed in many ways since March 2011 on the macro level as well.

Ben’s work is honest and true, excellent in both art and craft, and exquisitely Mormon.

And that’s it. That’s all I’ll say.

Check it out and decide for yourself.

II. After the first night of Questions of the Heart at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse, Theric Jepson addressed the play’s accessibility to a non-Mormon audience. Reader comments seemed to agree.

A brief review of
Questions of the Heart‘s language
in which Theric gets to say
I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!

4.1.11 | Theric Jepson | 3 comments

.

During his one-man show Questions of the Heart (tickets still available — tonight’s show includes a Q&Q with the creator), writer/actor Ben Abbott speaks, I believe, 100%ly in the actual words he recorded during his interviews. One character early in the play speaks of loving those fabulous Primary ladies as a child, then clarifies that this is back when Primary was held in the middle of the week. What the original interviewee did not say (and what Abbott does not insert) is what Primary is, who goes to it, why ladies seemed to be in charge — none of that! Later in the play his characters use distinct Mormon phrases like “taking the sacrament” or “temple recommend”! They use uniquely Mormon meanings of common words like “gospel” and “ward”! And yet never once does Abbott slow things down to give the Gentiles in the audience definitions or explanations or anything else of the kind! He just trusts his audience to keep up. And, based on audience reaction, so they did.

I overheard Kelly Ann speaking with the play’s designer and her assistant about the Mormon diction and phrasing, and they couldn’t think of anything at any point during the play that would have been inaccessible to someone not Mormon. In the end, the only people worried about Mormon sprachen were the Mormons. Everyone else ate it right up and simply enjoyed the show.

I knew it.

COMMENTS 

1.RecessionCone 4.1.11

The audience who attends an experimental one-man play in Berkeley is cosmopolitan enough to learn about foreign cultures on their own terms. But let’s not forget that Berkeley is just as weird as Provo. =)
Sometimes, it’s appropriate to explain strange Mormon terms. Sometimes it’s patronizing. It depends on context and audience.

2.kelly ann 4.1.11

I’m indeed going back on Saturday afternoon to just enjoy the show, as last night I knew I would be critiquing it. I love that it spoke to everybody, Mormons and non-mormons as I believe it has an important message for both. I really hope that it will become more than experimental.

3.Kent Larsen 4.2.11

FWIW, Abbott’s work seems to have gotten notice in the San Francisco Chronicle today:

-- UC Berkeley student Elijah Guo's senior thesis, a dramatic work called "Time and Materials," is based on the works of Robert Hass and includes brief nudity; it's paired in performance (at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday in Zellerbach Room 7) with a monologue by Ben Abbott, "Questions of the Heart: Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity." "We talked it through," said Guo about himself and Abbott, "and decided that those Mormons who could handle gay Mormonism, but not naked breasts, would be able to leave partway through."

III. Earlier Theric Jepson interviewed Ben and Barbara Abbott in two posts for A Motley Vision. The first for his series (A) Couple-Creators. Then a sequel for Ben’s opening play (B) Questions of the Heart. I’ve excerpted parts of each interview that give context for the new vision of Questions of the Heart that is scheduled for both the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and the Indianapolis Fringe Festival. Links for both posts will allow you to read the reviews in their entirety.

A. Couple-Creators: Ben and Barbara Abbott

3.29.11 | Theric Jepson | 4 comments

When Ben and Barbara moved into our ward last year as newlyweds, I knew I wanted to interview them even though they are still at the beginning of their careers and less established than other artists I’ve interviewed for Couple-Creators. I thought a) it would be nice to get a sense of how my questions get answered at the beginning of a marriage rather than a decade (or decades) in and b) it would be nice just to get to know them better.

Th: Let’s start though with Your Story. Because your existence as Mormon Couple-Creators is not only newly coupled, but, in Barbara’s case, newly Mormoned as well. So tell us how Ben & Barbara came to be.

{Break}  I know - not fair to break here. But check the entire interview. It's really fun.

Th: Theater is one of the more collaborative artforms and so I wonder how you’re looking forward — how do you hope your careers to track together? How do you intend to get this to work for both of you?

Ben: Well, it’s weird.  Even though we both work in Theatre, we both definitely work in our own spheres.  Especially since we’re both young and new, and just trying to get work from other people at this point.  Even when we’ve worked for the same company we haven’t really worked together.  So at this phase our goal is basically to get work in the same area at the same time. When one of us has a great opportunity, the other follows and then tries to get something going in that area for him or herself.

Babs: We’re sort of figuring it out as we go along.  I think ideally, we would have a sort of home base — either a city with lots of theaters that we’ve networked with, or a place like PCPA which has one resident theatre in the area, and from there we can do freelance work all over.  We’re both willing to travel for shorter periods of time.  We just have to be extremely flexible.  With grad schools, for example, we set out looking together for schools, but ended up deciding to go to Indiana so I can go back to school and Ben will audition for theaters in the area and work.  We have entertained the idea of starting our own theater company someday.

{Break}

Th: Creating as a couple has always struck me as a particularly Mormon pastime in the sense that someday, the goal is, you will be capital-c Creators. In that sense, how do your artistic efforts reflect your faith (and vice versa)?

Babs: I really haven’t come to the point of connecting my creativity to capital-c Creativity.  I hang out in a much simpler plane of existence right now: I like making pretty things.  Of course, I am oversimplifying it.  I absolutely love designing.  I love collaborating with other designers; seeing all the elements together on stage work so well together.  The pure joy that comes from a job well done, or a good design, even if it has to come out of struggle and frustration, is worth it.  I like to imagine those elements are the same in capital-c Creation… just even better.

Ben: It seems to get harder and harder for people to find a common ground where they can even understand each other, but in a play you create a common experience.  From there you can talk.  I think that in Theatre you can build bridges that just aren’t there usually and thus people can experience things like empathy, forgiveness, understanding etc.  Ultimately, we’re creating a space where scenarios can play themselves out and the participants can expand and learn and grow in this created environment.  That sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

B. Questions of the Heart: Gay Mormons and theSearch for Identity

3.30.11 | Theric Jepson | 7 comments

When we left off yesterday, we were segueing from the couple-creators portion of this interview to talking with Ben Abbott about the new one-man show he has written and is starring in this weekend (with, of course, some additional insights from his wife Barbara). If you will be in the Bay Area, click on the poster to buy tickets. Hurry — the show is expected to sell out.

{Break}

Th: How has working on this project changed you?

Ben: These are not easy questions.  I’ve thought this before, but it’s just been magnified a hundred times that empathy and understanding are so much more important than being right and having the answers. Also, I think my testimony in the Church is so much more flexible, like a skyscraper that’s able to wobble in an earthquake, but not topple. I don’t have to know all the answers to everything or be right about everything for my testimony to be intact and strong. I’m more comfortable than I used to be with difficult questions, and being able to say, I just don’t have an answer to this or that, but that doesn’t bother me.

Babs: In many interviews the subject of personal revelation is brought up by the interviewee and each of them received answers unique to their situation, even if it was to leave the Church, or to stay with their same-sex partner. There just isn’t a cookie cutter shape for what a Mormon or any other Christian should look like or do; therefore — and I know this is such a cliche statement — we can’t judge others based on our shape and our actions. I’ve developed a stronger sense that Heavenly Father really loves and interacts with us on an individual level, and my testimony of personal revelation has been greatly strengthened.


Th: After the show closes on Saturday, what’s next for Questions of the Heart?

Ben: Well like I said, the more people I interviewed the more people I wanted to interview. This show really is only a very small sampling. What I really want to do is continue the research. I would love to find a theater company interested in producing Questions of the Heart, but I would also love to spend another year or so interviewing and learning more. I have so many questions now that I didn’t have before I started. It’s a one-act show now, but perhaps it can be developed into a full length. I’m talking in circles, but basically, what I have now is a vehicle I can continue working on, and there’s so much work to do, I’d love to find a way of researching full time and getting this issue into our dialog as a community. I would love to perform this in both Utah and the Castro district in San Francisco and see what I learn. The difficulty now is that I’m graduating and thus leaving this wonderful support system, so I’ve got to figure out either how to plug into a new one or how I can proceed just on my own. If there’s anyone out there interested in financing this kind of work, let me know.

{Break}

Th: What sort of buzz are you hearing in the communities you’re addressing — theater, LGBTQ, LDS? And how do you expect (slash-hope) they will respond?

Ben: Mostly people seem excited about it.  I can’t really speak for them, but from the feedback I’ve received, the LGBTQ community seems glad that I’m raising these questions, and interested in what my take is on this as an outsider; the LDS community I think is hungry for someone to really look at this issue in a way that doesn’t wreak of anti-Mormonism (I’m thinking specifically of 8: The Mormon Proposition [link to AMV review])because that’s an immediate turn off; and the theater community is interested to learn more about something they don’t know much about and are hoping that it’s a good show.


Th: I’ve bought tickets for Thursday’s show, but for people who are squirmy or never seen a one-man show or who otherwise still need convincing, give them your best shot. (This is probably a good spot to mention the nudity thing.)

Ben: OK, so since you mentioned the partial nudity, the first thing I need to say is that it’s not me!!  I stay fully clothed the whole time thank you very much. My show runs with another one act senior thesis project called Time and Materials which is a stage adaptation of some of former Poet Laureate  Robert Hass’ poetry, and in that show there is a brief moment of a topless woman. My show is going first so that anyone who objects to brief partial nudity can politely excuse themselves at intermission.  But if you do come I would really encourage you to stay for both shows. Time and Materials is worth seeing and we don’t want there to me a mass exodus at intermission as that wouldn’t be fair to them.

Why come to the show?  When was the last time you went to a show that actually surprised you, and both affirmed and challenged you in intriguing ways?  No matter who you are, you will hear things in my show that you strongly agree with, things that you strongly disagree with, and things that you hadn’t ever considered.  The neat part of theater is that you’ll be in an audience where everyone has a different opinion, and you’ll all be experiencing and reacting to the show differently, and I think there’s a lot to learn from that. These are wonderful characters, and I was both enlightened and challenged by each of them. I also want to point out that I have no interest in doing or seeing a show where I just get talked at the whole time, or lectured, or just constantly challenged. That’s not my kind of show. I still think that on top of everything we should be able to go to the theater and be entertained, and because of that, this show is fun and moving. And hey, if all else fails, there is the partial nudity in the show after mine.

Babs: And Ben is too modest to say this but he really is a very talented actor.  Not to mention the script is great.  There’s a balance between the serious and funny, heartwarming moments.  It’s just a good and honest show.

Questions of the Heart—Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity / Lloyd

This is a blatant plea for money. My son, Ben Abbott, has written and performed in a one-man play called "Questions of the Heart—Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity." It was his honors thesis while a student at UC Berkeley in theater. The link below is his crowd funding effort through IndieGoGo, and there is an explanatory video with it.

Get Ben to the Fringe!

People have asked if it is anti-gay or anti-Mormon and it emphatically is neither. It brings up intelligent questions while sympathetically portraying both sides. Ben is straight, happily married, and a faithful, life-long Mormon. Also, since he's an actor, many of his closest friends are gay and lesbian and he loves them dearly.  When Ben made his proposal at Berkeley someone told him, "You are probably the only one who could do this with no agenda." Here is another link of an interview he did at the time he first presented this play: 

A Motley Vision:  Mormon literature and culture.     Theric Jepson

Now this play has been accepted at both the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and the Indianapolis Festival, which is a huge honor. But he needs help getting there. If you think this is a worthwhile endeavor, please support him and enable him to go to these two festivals with a donation of whatever amount you feel comfortable giving.

Videos of High School Students Receiving Mission Calls -- Background Details / Lloyd

The following video is "A compilation of pictures and videos of the 2012 Davis High School graduates (Kaysville, Utah) who have decided to serve LDS missions."

Videos from other High Schools are found on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbrVIg6nZHc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4zZH0v8DcY

Background Details to the Videos

Recently many of us have viewed on the Internet and Television videos of young men and women reading letters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) calling them to serve missions with assignments world-wide.  

This is the first in our lifetime that Mormon missionaries have received calls to begin their missions immediately upon graduation from High School and as early as their 18th (Young Men) or 19th (Young Women) birthdays.

On 6 October 2012 during a televised General Conference of the Church, President Thomas S. Monson announced without prior notice lower age requirements for missionary service. Following that conference session a press conference was held to give background, clarification and answer questions from a surprised media.

An enthusiastic response among young men and women to the change in age requirements was immediate and achieved a current constant rate of 1,400 missionaries called per week, compared to 600 per week previously.

Administrative planning and support to new missionaries has to be as dynamic as their response to serve.

List of 58 Additional Missions Being Created

Angola Luanda

Argentina Comodoro Rivadavia

Argentina Posadas

Arizona Gilbert

Arizona Scottsdale

Australia Sydney North

Bolivia Santa Cruz North

Botswana Gaborone

Brazil Curitiba South

Brazil Fortaleza East

Brazil Juiz de Fora

Brazil Natal

Brazil Piracicaba

Brazil Santos

Brazil São Paulo West

California Bakersfield

California Irvine

California Rancho Cucamonga

Chile Santiago South

Colorado Fort Collins

Ecuador Guayaquil West

Ecuador Quito North

El Salvador San Salvador East

Georgia Macon

Ghana Accra West

Guatemala Cobán

Honduras San Pedro Sula West

Idaho Nampa

Idaho Twin Falls

Illinois Chicago West

Japan Tokyo South

Kansas Wichita

Korea Seoul South

Liberia Monrovia

México Cancún

México Ciudad Juarez

México Ciudad Obregón

México México City Chalco

México Pachuca

México Queretaro

México Reynosa

México Saltillo

New Zealand Hamilton

Nigeria Benin City

Ohio Cincinnati

Oregon Salem

Papua New Guinea Lae

Perú Huancayo

Perú Iquitos

Philippines Cavite

Philippines Cebu East

Philippines Legaspi

Philippines Urdaneta

Ukraine L'viv

Utah Salt Lake City East

Virginia Chesapeake

Washington Federal Way

Washington Vancouver

Updated Missionary FAQ

• How many missionaries does the Church have serving currently? -- 64,373
• What is the average number of missionaries being called per week now?  -- 1,400 per week since 1 January 2013
• What is the current percentage of elders and sisters being called -- For calls made since 1 January 2013, 57% are elders, 36% are sisters, and 7% are seniors.

Commenting on these official Church statistics , one observer suggests:

The Church may call as many as 70,000 missionaries in 2013 if it continues to perpetuate the average of 1,400 missionary applications per week for the entire year. This may result in the Church surpassing 100,000 missionaries serving by late 2013 or early 2014 and necessitate the organization of dozens of additional missions for 2014.

VIDEO: A Day in the Life of a Mormon Missionary in London

After all the numbers are analyzed, the extraordinary value for the young men and women who accept the call to serve and also for those who receive them is inestimable.

We know this from our experience. I served a mission in Guatemala; Judy and I have brothers who served in Brazil - Japan - South Africa - Spain. Our sons and daughters, including husbands & wives, served missions in Argentina(x2) - Brazil - Germany(x2) - Tacoma, WA - Spain(x2) - Ghana. These have been life defining.  And our first grandchild receives his call this summer. This is exciting.