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Finally got the chance to deliver my dad's hat to him:

The Liahona was more than just a compass. From 1 Ne 16:27-29 we learn that it also had the capacity to display printed text. “it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” I have no idea if it was like a computer screen, magic 8 ball, or if the brass surface could be repeatedly inscribed. Curious workmanship indeed.

I’ve always thought that about Church magazines; but then every so often you stumble on some nugget online and find it’s from the 2015 Ensign or something. I have a low tolerance for schmaltz, and I tend not to read Church magazines because they seem to tend to have a lot of it. But I admit, I seem to miss out on a lot of pearls as a result.

Despite the unreliability of CBS News, this appears to be widely circulated and known. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vivek-ramaswamy-expected-to-depart-doge/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/19/ramaswamys-future-at-doge-is-in-doubt-as-he-prepares-to-announce-bid-for-ohio-governor-00199173 Funny how the news outlets see this as some sort of omen that the whole DOGE concept is in danger.

The one thing I like about Trump is his ability to embrace what is done to him and stick it in the face of his haters.

Finished the "Far Side" style hat I made for my brother too: (...which basically looks exactly the same except the hat band. But it has a liner, etc., too inside.)

FYI, I did the experiment with my son. Even with a very heavy winter blanket and his hat in front of his face, there was virtually no distortion of his voice and only a slightly noticeable difference in volume.

The Book of Job is the oldest text in the canon. It even predates Genesis. Job is an allegory and was written as a temple txt. Let me outline it this way: -Job lived in a near paradisiacal state. He had everything he could want. -Satan came into his world and caused heart ache and evil. -His integrity was tested by three friends to see if he would retain his love and loyalty for God. -special blessing were pronounced upon him for his righteousness - Finally he was rewarded to a higher level than before when he fell into his world of pain. Does that sound familiar? Incidentally it’s one of my favorite books in the Bible.

This is mathematically impossible if you start where Brother Rush does, with Herbert Hoover. The feather that would be Trump and a second feather both get "eaten" by one of the heads at the same time (while they "thought also in themselves to reign" - suggesting they were hoping to, but never got there), and the heads rule. The last two feathers rule briefly after the three heads. So sure, three feathers after Trump, but nothing like a sequential, elected president. The only way to both keep Brother Rush's assertions and be consistent with the text of Esdras II, chapters 11 & 12 is if you claim the Trump is not really the one in power, that he and a second person (Vance? Harris?) have been gobbled up by the three heads and the heads are ruling without us knowing about it / recognizing it; or you claim that Trump himself is one of the three heads and that Trump already ate two others (feathers) who looked to rule. In which case, this is Trump's reign: So, ya know, if Trump succeeds in acquiring Greenland, and Canada. and the Panama canal, and the Gulf of America, and then the rest of the world, we'll know that two little feathers got eaten without our notice. Otherwise....

The context of Ether 3:23 had led me to believe that the Jaredite U&T was just two of the clear stones the Brother of Jared had previously created. But you're right, the text doesn't explicitly say that. The U&T that Joseph Smith recovered from the stone box as shown to him by Moroni, seems to have been the Jaredite U&T. See D&C 17:1. And yes, I don't think the Church has ever come out and said (or even hinted) that it still has that relic. So, this is Rough Stone Rolling, p. 70: Lucy Smith said that Joseph received the interpreters again on September 22, 1828, and that he and Emma did a little translating, but the need to prepare for winter intervened.46 [Footnote 46] [cites Lucy Mack Smith, Biological Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and his Progenitors for Many Generations. Liverpool, Eng.: S.W Richards, 1853., 125-126. Although the assertion clashes with other accounts, David Whitmer said Moroni did not return the Urim and Thummim in September. Instead Joseph used a seerstone for the remaining translation. Kansas City Journal, June 19, 1881, Omaha Herald, Oct 17, 1886; Interview (1885), in Whitmer, Interviews, 72, 157, 200. Of the translation process, Emma said, "The first that my husband translated, was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color." Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma Pilgrim, Mar 27, 1870 in EMD [Dan Vogel. ed. Early Mormon Documents, 5 vols. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996-2003], 1:532 I don't recall the BoM suggesting that the Liahona led Lehi or any Lehite to a pair of Nephite interpreters--am I missing something? It does seem like a pretty safe bet that the Nephite kings had some sort of interpreters, because Mosiah I is able to read the Jaredite stone (Omni 1:20) and Ammon later tells Limhi that Mosiah has one and is therefore a seer (Mosiah 8). Maybe that was the Liahona, maybe it was something else--I'm not aware of the text specifying. But Mosiah still chooses to use the Jaredite interpreters (which Limhi's people had found along with the 24 gold plates) to translate the Jaredite record (Mosiah 28). Joseph seems to have evolved to the point where considered any sort of physical media to be an inferior means of receiving revelation.

Sorry but this was proven to b a hoax sometime last year.

Newsom did what he felt was best for his constituents: avoiding starting beef with the new boss on his first day while his state is on fire.

That was Sally Chase. IIRC her brother or uncle was a Methodist minister, and it was while digging a well on their property that Joseph had found one of his stones in the first place. IIRC, there's a quote out there from Brigham Young to the effect that Satan is a master of natural law (including that which appears supernatural) and is capable of generating whatever apparently-miraculous manifestation he wishes, unless a higher power intervenes. (If you compel me, I'll look it up; though I'm lazy at the moment). I'm not sure that it's as easy as saying "this means of revelation is always spurious"--that there's a discernible difference between a "Urim and Thummim" versus a "seer stone", and that the former is always godly and the latter is always satanic; or that the former is capable of doing things that the latter intrinsically cannot do. We know that God has given revelation through glass created by the Brother of Jared and touched by God's finger; we know He did it through the throwing of stones ("casting of lots"); we know He could give it through the Hebrew U&T (however they worked); we know He could do it do it through Oliver Cowdery's use of a divining rod; and the record seems pretty clear that (whether or not it was the source for some/all of the BoM text) Joseph Smith did receive true revelations through his seer stone. Further, he seemed willing to label other people's seer stones as "Urim and Thummim"--for example, per the autobiography of Wandle Mace, we have that instance where seer stones are brought to Nauvoo by some British saints; and Smith reviews them and "pronounced them to be a Urim and Thummim as good as ever was upon teh earth but he said, 'they have been consecrated to devils'". Ultimately I think it's the source of the power, not the means through which the power is manifested, that makes the difference. Another thing worth noting is that we have references to Joseph Smith having/using/showing people his "Urim and Thummim" well into the Nauvoo period (see generally, here). If that was the Jaredite interpreters, and Joseph never did return them to Moroni . . . then where are they now? And if the Church really does have them hidden away in the First Presidency vault, then why would they go along with this dog-and-pony show about some other seer stone being the instrument of translation? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Be really, really careful with the JSF. Their founder was not a good guy. Key personnel involved in the foundation today are not honest people. I'm sorry, I can't elaborate. I would almost never refer someone to the cesspool that is Reddit, but . . . there's a thread on the JSF's founder over there; and among the other nonsense that usually abounds in Reddit, someone has actually posted something that's pretty close to the truth. So, the true story about them *is* out there and can be discerned by a healthy combination of skepticism and revelation. Back to the primary sources, though: FWIW, both Emma Smith and David Whitmer supported the idea that the U&T (Jaredite interpreters/"spectacles") were used on the 116 pages; and the seer stone following the loss of those pages. But they are, of course, relatively late recollections. Still, the notion that the story of the seer stone's role in the production of the BoM was intended to discredit Joseph Smith strikes me as problematic for several reasons. First, David Whitmer didn't think seer stones were shameful. He, and his family, loved the idea of seer stones. Shortly after Joseph Smith gives his brown stone to Oliver Cowdery in spring of 1830 following completion of the Book of Mormon translation, Whitmer family son-in-law Hiram Page starts getting revelations through his own stone--and most of the Whitmer family is initially firmly in support of him, until D&C 28 reins them all back in. Whitmer's diminishing confidence in Joseph Smith's leadership coincided with Joseph Smith's resorting to the seer stone as a means of revelation less and less often. For his part, David Whitmer had his own seer stones; which he passed on to his descendants and which they used with some regularity. For David, citing the role of a seer stone in the origin story of the Book of Mormon does not diminish the book's credibility or miraculous nature; it enhances it. Second, I think it's assuming facts not in evidence to suggest that either Whitmer or Emma Smith "hated" Joseph to the point that they were willing to deliberately publicly lie about him. Yes, they disagreed with him--loudly and stridently, at times. But they were both fiercely devoted to Joseph Smith's early status as a prophet and the cause of Mormonism. Emma lionized him to the end of her days; and Whitmer--from what I see of his statements--tended to look back on his associations with Joseph with more regret and "pity" than actual animus. Third, both Whitmer and Emma were fierce proponents of the Book of Mormon to the end of their lives. I don't think there's anything in their histories suggesting that they would have deliberately tried to undermine or bring shame upon the authenticity of that book as an authentic, ancient, divinely-restored record. The fact that people disagree with Joseph Smith about various things, does not render them wholly dastardly. Fourth, the seer stone-as-translation-instrument account was confirmed by Martin Harris even when at times when he was quite friendly to the Utah church and would have no motive to tell an origin story that he thought would somehow debase the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith's ministry. And, finally: A lot of this pooh-poohing of any source who didn't cross the plains with Brigham tiptoes around a rather uncomfortable truth: Most of the people who were involved with the Smith family when the Book of Mormon was being written, didn't come to Utah with President Young. The BoM witnesses didn't. (Harris, of course, came decades later). The Smith family, didn't. Those of the Hales who converted, didn't. The Whitmers didn't. The Stowells didn't. The majority of the Twelve (as originally constituted in 1835) didn't. If we dismiss the accounts of all the people who were there and saw the BoM being translated, on the grounds that they failed to stay faithful to the Utah Church and are therefore somehow suspect in their recollections; then on this topic we're forced to retrench into a sort of historical know-nothingism. Because Joseph Smith himself isn't telling: He flat-out said that "it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon". Yep. There have have been a number of articles about this; and not all of the accounts perfectly reconcile. There are a *lot* of inconsistencies--how many stones were there, what did they look like, when and where was each one acquired or used or given away (see, e.g., here). But I think the all-too-common response to simply throw all of it out and say "It was the Jaredite interpreters, and nothing but the Jaredite interpreters, all the time" is just not correct.

One other point I’ll mention before undertaking a sizable relocation. My dad once told me the story of an old man who sat along a major highway back in the day. A traveler stopped and said, “Hey feller, I’m headed to that town up ahead and wonder if you can tell me what the people there are like?” ”Well,” says the old timer, “why don’t you tell what the people are like where you came from?” The traveler replied, “Those people?! Why they are some of the meanest people you’ll ever meet! Most of them need a good punch in the face and the rest also deserve but you haven’t found out why yet. They’ll talk behind your back, savage your reputation, separate you from your friends, and leave you wondering if you have any sanity left. I wish a pox on the whole bunch of thieving, lying, cheating slobs!” ”I’m sorry to tell you,” the old man started, “but you’ll find a lot of people like that where you’re headed.” The traveler swore under his breath and moved on. A few hours later another traveler headed to the same town stopped by the old timer. “Hey feller, I’m headed to that town up ahead and wonder if you can tell me what the people there are like?” ”Well,” says the old timer, “why don’t you tell what the people are like where you came from?” The traveler replied, “Those are some of the finest people you’ll ever know. They’re hospitable to strangers and even more generous with friends. They’ll cry with you, celebrate with you, root for you, and remind you there’s better days ahead. I’m almost sorry I left.” ”You’ll be happy to hear,” the old man started, “that you’ll find a lot of people like that where you’re headed.”

One theory bandied about (and I'm still looking for the reasons for the theory) is that there were letters or symbols permanently engraved along the circle which the second spindle pointed. Thus the "writing" was not something that appeared on a previously blank surface. Thus, the "diligence and heed" required that you be there when it was pointing to the letters/symbols. If you didn't rush to it as it activated, you'd miss the message. Again, not sure why this came about. But I have some things that I'm going through that supposedly indicates that this is the nature of the Liahona's communication.

Darn it! I thought this was about the actual liahona/compass.

Please do this first.