Picking Strawberries

Dear Daniel,

Boy oh boy, lots on my mind today!  Thank you for joining me in strawberry picking.  We tried to do this last week, but ended up showing up at the strawberry patch on the wrong day, and it was closed.

We made it today though!  Had a great time with Magdalene and Austin, picking among the many, many rows.  Wish I would've gotten a picture, but I think there's something to be said for leaving the camera at home and simply enjoying the experience.

It seemed like many of the "super-red" strawberries we aimed to pick were ones that looked like this:

There are no more than six strawberries in this photo.  Do you think this is the way that the Gods intended strawberries to look like, when the earth was so masterfully created?  (See the book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price for some great gems on the creation of the earth if you are wondering why I wrote "Gods" instead of "God".:)

Part of the Word of Wisdom states this:

"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—" (D&C 89:4)

I may be taking this out of context to apply it to the verse, but the Lord points out that there will be conspiring men which will have evils and designs in mind to put into play among us.  I'm sure these strawberries likely grew with the support of sun, rain, good soil, and some added fertilizer.  In fact, they probably also had some great pesticide ("pest" meaning unwanted critters, "icide" seeming to denote death), since during the hour+ that we were there, I only found one living critter.  It was a teeny, tiny baby slug of some kind, enjoying eating the strawberry.  I showed it to you and then placed it back among the other strawberries to enjoy.

Anyways... this looks like a Three Mile Island strawberry.  At least 15% or so of what we picked look like this triple- or quadruple-berry strawberry mutation.  Is this safe to eat?  Surely it must not cause stomach ache or other issues.  But why are there seemingly 3-4 points on this one?  What makes the cells grow this way?  What will this do to my body, if on a DNA level, this berry is altered?  Is this the result of fertilizer, pesticide, or years of hybridization of the plant?  Is this intended to create ease of picking, or cause awe and great interest, thereby bringing in increased revenue?  Or is it an unintended consequence of the chemicals applied to help it grow?

Certainly food for thought.  Yes, there are no bugs on it (beyond the baby slug), and I hand picked it, so that seems to give an air of being organic.  But this definitely does not appear to be organic, unless that equals the appearance of a mutation of what a strawberry is supposed to be.

Eat with care!  I'll pray the mutation stops with the strawberries, and that we can take care of these bodies we have been so blessed to have!

~Mom<3 :) 

Kombucha vs Hot drinks

A few weeks ago, a friend shared with me what is called a scoby, or kombucha starter.  It's a fermentation of tea (?) that is supposed to have all sorts of beautiful health benefits.  I wanted to make my own, because the ones in the store are supposedly all made with black or green teas.  I've been taught to avoid those types of teas because of the Word of Wisdom.

In D&C 89 it reads in verse 9, "And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly."

Several years ago I read a book called Joseph Smith as Scientist, by John A. Widtsoe.  The main thesis of the book is to point out that the Word of Wisdom as absolutely inspired, as there was little to no scientific evidence of any of the health facts at the time regarding many of the substances referenced.  He points out that this was absolutely a revelation, and by revealing it, Joseph was indeed a revelator.  Agreed!  

With this in mind, I would like to point out a few things, and raise a few questions.  But first let me say I have no problems abstaining from the things we are told to abstain from.  I've never tried wine.  Never smoked once.  Never tried coffee or black tea, and really the thought disgusts me.  I have no desire to break any "commandments", although I believe God was very clear upon revealing this that it was to be use "not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days" (vs. 2).  Question 1: why would God reveal through Joseph something that was NOT to become a commandment, and then turn around with Brigham and say, "Nah, changed my mind.  It really IS a commandment.  Just kidding!"

After all, it is "Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints" (vs. 3).  It's given for a principle, not a law.  And what a beautiful promise!  If it were a commandment or constraint, many might falter, and be prohibited from beautiful blessings.  So it's not a commandment or constraint, right Jesus?  But wait.

The traditional narrative I was always taught was that Brigham received a revelation changing all this.  It's somewhere in our history books somewhere (or been lost to history), so we just assume it's true because it's what we've been told.  At least I've always believed that, hence never having tried it.

One documented record reports that many years after we believe Brigham to have "changed" this to a commandment, that he was still struggling with giving up his tobacco habit.  How could this be???  By saying this am I un-sustaining my leaders?  Absolutely not!  I'm just saying the documentation of this becoming a "commandment" I would assert implies differently than what we pass along by word of mouth.  Does Brigham approve of this, if we were to lay claim to our stance on him?  Would he approve, if he knew the course we have taken in turning his words into a commandment when God has indicated otherwise?  Do our current leaders today give us guidance here?  Sure.  Year after year there is undoubtedly a Conference or Ensign talk that hammers this home.  Do they have a source to point me to for when this changed from what is canonized to what we accept as true?  A scholar was granted access to our history annals to dig up some official sources, but nothing was found.  However it was found that things changed officially after Prohibition.
Some will say that our current prophet and leaders have received modern revelation on this.  Is this true?  Or are we simply following a tradition, as we did with blacks and the Priesthood?  (Poor Brigham can't get a break with this stuff!)

Back to verse 9.  Hot drinks.  Hot drinks.  One online blogger I found today said that Brigham said Joseph said this was tea and coffee.  (Sounds like a game of telephone!)  And then somehow we know that it's black tea and green tea.  The same source I mentioned actually had arguments about which plant it is, down to the scientific name, and then went into tanic acid vs. caffeine.

A few verses after verse 9 God explains which grains are good for various animals, and delineates between wheat, corn, rye, barley and oats.  Let's put 2 and 2 together.

God knows the difference between wheat, corn, rye, barley and oats.  If He has a preference that we avoid black and green teas, and that herbals are ok, as well as hot chocolate, Stevens' Pumpkin Spice, or any other hot drink, why not delineate between them?  If He prefers that we don't drink mate (Argentina - sorry, I'm too lazy to find the accent for the e!), or Iced Tea, why not delineate?

Any why do we delineate?  It's hot drinks!  Is it warm drinks?  I would think it would have been clarified.  Why didn't Joseph clarify too, if he knew what it was?  Apparently it was obvious then, but only when we start nit picking and imposing judgment on others is when the trouble arises.  I say I'll agree with the Lord; hot drinks are not for the belly.  Agreed.  Sustained.  Done!  No trouble here Bishop.

So what of kombucha?  That's where this whole post came from.  Jury's still out.  I made mine with herbal tea, but it was certainly cooled.  It's ready now to be used, but most websites I'm reading are saying it's imperative to have the black or green tea to keep the pH at a certain level, or to maintain the health of the scoby and to not pass on pathogens.  So all my work in preparing this carefully might be in vain.

Maybe I could ask God and get an answer for myself on that?  He's actually the best resource I could go to - better than Google, for sure.  Any thoughts on this one?  

"And the serpent said..." (Moses 4:10)

Dear Magdalene,

And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; (Moses 4:10)

This was the verse which came to mind this morning - Moses 4:10.  So I go there, and I read it.

What does that verse mean?  The serpent is referring to Satan; the woman referred to is Eve, mother of all living on this earth.  Satan tells Eve she shall not surely die.  But she surely did, although it took a couple hundred years.

Interesting that Satan presents himself as a serpent, or is described as a serpent.  Jesus is also described as such, symbolically.  This is represented when Moses held a serpent on a stick, and the children of Israel were told to look upon it and they would be saved from poisonous bites of fiery flying serpents (see 1 Ne. 17:41).  Look upon a serpent, representing Christ, and be deceived by a serpent, representing Satan.  It is interesting to note that in essence, Satan is telling Eve that he doesn't exist.  Death, hell, and Satan himself don't exist.  It does not matter what Eve does, what she eats, because there are no consequences.  In essence.

I wonder how much that lie continues to be purported today.  We always think of the "sinners" who are doing all sorts of catastrophic things.  Murderers, those involved with whoredoms, drugs...  Do we realize that one of the devil's greatest tools is telling us to think he does not exist?  And if we believe that lie, what then?  Do we think it doesn't matter how we treat one another?  Do we think that understanding God's words don't matter?  Do we twist God's words, like Satan does, to work according to our desires?

One interesting instance on this is the Word of Wisdom.  God states in it that it is to be "sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom..." (D.& C. 89:2)  We have twisted these words.  I cannot find any place where it was revealed, "thus saith the Lord", that this is no longer simply a greeting.  I cannot find where any living prophet declared this to be null and void.  But now it is a required belief and adherence to this is required to partake of sacred ordinances.

In the Word of Wisdom, we are instructed to drink wine for the holy sacrament, and how to do so safely.  We are an industrious people, yet we don't know how to follow the Lord's command in using it for our sacred ordinances.  Wine-making was a major trade of early saints, and breweries were prolific in Utah in the late 1800's-early 1900s.  Regardless, can you imagine what effect it might have, drinking red wine, representing the red blood of the Savior, during the holy ordinance?  I know it "doesn't matter" what we drink - it could be kool-aid.  But we're kind of lazy, aren't we?  It doesn't matter to take the effort to make wine rather than water, to have a more exact replication of this, and because at some point along the way it was preferable or "revealed" that "water was ok", we no longer utilize this sacred symbolic tool, used limitlessly throughout the holy scriptures.

What makes me laugh is that in talking to the primary children the other day, asking about wine in the scriptures, one little boy exclaimed, "Wine is POISON!!!"

"The inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father..."  

Yes, little man!  Wine is not good!  But wait.

"...only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.  And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, or your own make."                (D.& C. 89: 5-6, emphasis added)

Well, we follow the counsel of our leaders, and we are never ever led astray.  I would simply like to know when the Lord revealed through revelation that this is no longer his requirement for his holy ordinances, as when we change God's ordinances, we corrupt them.

Ahh well.  There is no death, and the words of God do not matter to the great Tempter, and so they likely won't matter to those who believe that variety of serpent.  I hope and pray that some day our living prophets will encourage us to believe the words God has revealed, as he is the same yesterday, today and forever.  I am concerned, as when I make any effort to point out scripture to any latter-day saint, they only fall back on follow the prophet, and frankly, I find that verse no where in scripture.  But for today, I will keep an ear out to discern which voice I am hearing when I am told there is no death.

Love you baby,
~Mom<3