At the beginning of the month, I posted on the 2007 Mutual Theme for the Church, "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly..." We are going to provide content throughout the year in an effort to help individuals garnish their thoughts with virtue. In the original post, I included an audio reading of the Foreward and first section of James Allen's "As a Man Thinketh." Well, I am not a professional reader, so forgive any mistakes, coughs, or mouse clicks, or page turns that you might hear. But this content is public domain and so there is no copyright violation. I've finally finished the rest of the book. You can download it from this page and also find a lot more content in our Readings and Podcasts section of LDS Teen Help and Help for Guys. Undoubtedly, I will one day move these mp3s into a different folder called books/AsaManThinketh or Asamanthinketh or jamesallen or something to better organize them so that I don't have lots of mp3s sitting around unorganized. I will then probably update the Readings and Podcasts section links but forget about this post. When that happens, check the Readings section.

As a Man Thinketh

• Foreward
  
• Thought and Character
  
• Effect of Thought on Circumstance
  
• Effect of Thought on Health and the Body
  
• Thought and Purpose
  
• The Thought Factor in Achievement
  
• Visions and Ideals
  
• Serenity
  

Thanks, and keep looking back for more content.

Labels: books, lds, MP3

Two points of some interest to some people:

1. I recently found the Google Gapminder tool. It is amazing. It was featured in one of the TED Talks. Go to the tool's site, and change the X axis to children per woman (fertility to rate), slow down the speed a little bit and click play. You'll notice the entire world, 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries, move into the upper left corner, signifying longer life expectancy and fewer children per woman. The exception? The entire continent of Africa come 1990. They are by default purple dots. The entire continent will experience a decline in life expectancy. The creator believes this is due to the AIDS epidemic. It's amazing the data that is out there for free.

2. LDS.org will be switching over to the new site design this coming Tuesday between 2 and 3 am. All links to the Gospel Library content will eventually need to be updated (they'll be kind and leave the old links up for awhile). Our sites will have a lot of updating to do. By the way, even if you don't link to LDS.org stuff, there's a great add-on for Firefox called Check Page Links. Every so often I go through our pages and use this tool and it tells me which links are dead, which are alive. You'd be surprised how often content changes places.

Labels: data, gapminder, lds, visualization, webmaster tools

I made a list for a family member of sites that I like to visit that have good content, especially for Latter-day Saints. Most of the sites have material that you can download for free. I gave directions on how to access the material in, what I thought to be, very easy to understand language. I'm just copying and pasting into this post. If you have other sites that you think should be listed, let me know. I know that I don't know about all the good sites out there.

1.Starting from http://www.lds.org, you can:
a. Download MP3s for free (Conference talks, scriptures, church magazines, hymns). On the left side, click on Gospel Library and then click on Audio.
b. Search the scriptures (word, phrase, or topic). On the left side, click on Gospel Library and then click on The Scriptures. At the top click on Search.
c. Search conference talks (word or phrase). On the top, click on "Search." In the bottom menu, select Ensign and then type in your word or phrase and search.

2.Starting from http://speeches.byu.edu, you can:
a. Download MP3s for free (BYU Devotional Addresses). On the left, search or browse by speaker, topic, media type, and/or year. After finding a devotional, you can read it and/or download an MP3.
b. Build a DVD of up to three talks for $12.95. On the left, click on Build a Custom DVD. Add up to three talks using the menu options.

3.Starting from www.byubroadcasting.org, you can:
a. Download MP3s for free (an almost endless variety from talks to television programs). On the left, you can either click on "Find a talk" at the top to search for someone or something specific or you can use the menu "All Links" at the bottom left to find MP3s from a particular conference or program. If you choose a recurring program, such as BYU Education Week, you will need to click on Media Archive after getting to the page of that program.
b. Watch BYU TV or listen to BYU Radio. In the upper right corner of the page, there is a golden menu called "Live Streams." Click on whatever you would like to watch or listen to.

4. Starting from www.byu.tv, you can:
a. Watch any program from BYU TV that aired in the last few weeks.

5. Starting from www.ldsaudio.com, you can:
a. Purchase MP3 books, music, and talks. You can search for an authors, singers, topics, titles, etc. This is a for-profit company not run by the Church.

6. Starting from www.ldsces.org, you can:
a. Read any Institute or Seminary Manual. Click on either "Seminary Study Guides" or "Institute Manuals" in the top menu. Underneath the picture of each manual, you can select PDF or HTML. If you are just browsing, you will probably select HTML. You can click on the chapter in the new popup window and read what the manual has to say.

7. Starting from www.deseretbook.com/mormon-life, you can:
a. Find supporting information for lessons. On the right side of the page is a section called "Gospel Study." Underneath each section, you will find a list of the quorums and auxiliary organizations of the Church and the lesson each is scheduled to be giving that week. You can click on the link to read more information for that lesson. If the website is on a different schedule than your class, you can click on your organization name on the very right side, (For example, Relief Society) and you will find all past lessons and information.

8. Starting from http://scriptures.byu.edu, you can:
a. Find and read all General Conference references to any scripture.

Labels: internet content, lds, MP3

In Mosiah 24, there is a group of good people following the prophet Alma. They have been placed in bondage and are submitting patiently to the all of their hardships. Within one year of this, the Lord had miraculously delivered another group of people under the direction of Limhi and Ammon. This other group got their guards drunk and took off in the night and we have no record of them stopping until they were safe in Zarahemla. The scripture says "...and they pursued their journey." Now, that group was Ammon and Limhi's group. Let's go back now to Alma's group. They were in bondage also, and seemed to be extremely faithful and worthy of miracles. Yet they find themselves in bondage and again, just a year earlier, the Lord had helped another group escape and find safety. In Mosiah 24:16, the Lord said to Alma, "Be of good comfort, for on the morrow, I will deliver you out of bondage." Alma gathered the people together and the Lord miraculously caused a deep sleep to come upon their guards while Alma and his people fled into the wilderness towards the same goal as the previous group, Zarahemla. God had obviosly shown his power in causing this deep sleep and showed that this faithful group of people would be protected. But here's where the account get really interesting.

"and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley...they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God.
And now the Lord said unto Alma: Haste thee and get thou and this people out of this land, for the Lamanites have awakened and do pursue thee; therefore get thee out of this land, and I will stop the Lamanites in this valley that they come no further in pursuit of this people."

Okay, so here's my question. The Lord obviously showed his power in making the Lamanites fall into a deep sleep. This was obviously a very righteous group of individuals. They traveled one day's journey and stopped in a valley to thank God for all that He had done for them. And the Lord practically interrupts their praises and says, "Get going. The Lamanites are coming and I'm not going to stop them until they get here." The Lord even tells them that He'll stop the Lamanites. He has the power to do that. So, here's my question. Why not stop the Lamanites where they are? Why let them get to where the people of Alma are right now before stopping them? I'm not second guessing the Lord, I'm saying I think that He wants us to learn something from this. Alma's people were released from bondage and went a day's journey and started to set up camp. The Lord released them, they didn't do it on their own. Do you think that the Lord might have been thinking, "You're stopping? What are you doing?! The Lamanites are only a day's journey away! And you're stopping?!" Now, there's a lot to discuss there. We could talk stopping our journey for even good things like praising God or the difference in attitude when we have to work for our escape and when it's delivered to us. But I want to point out that we all do this. How often does Heavenly Father help us to avoid sin and temptation only to have us camp ourselves a day's journey from the enemy? When we decide that we're completely done with sin, how far away do we really get before we decide to set up camp? Do we go until we're in the safety of our capital city with friends, leaders, and guards about to protect us? Or do we travel a day and decide to set up camp, even if it's thank the Lord that we got out of that one? I imagine what really happens most of the time is that we make our escape, but leaves crumbs along the way. We set up camp a day away and thank Heavenly Father that we've grown and we're doing so much better now and that the temptation may even be leaving us. "Wow, I can't believe how dumb I was. I'm never doing that again." But little crumbs of thought and habit might catch our eye and soon we're following that same trail we took out, right back in. It's not like someone came out to get us and pull us in. We're following our own trail right back there. And what's worse, when we realize what's happened and what we've done, we flee back out (sometimes by another of the Lord's miracles) and we set up camp again a day away. But this time, we're going to point our tent the other way and put a few things in the path that will stop us from going back there again. But that's the thing. We're not moving! We stop our journey in that same spot. Well guess what? It doesn't matter what place in the path to make it harder to back down the same road you came up. If you're sitting still, your mind and habits are going to draw you back into whatever you're supposedly leaving behind and with only one day's journey between you and that horrid place, it doesn't take long to suddenly say "What? How did I end up back here? What was I thinking?" So, will it be said of us "and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley" or will it be said "and they pursued their journey?" Keep going until you're safe in the stronghold, surrounded by friends, guards, and strong walls. (Hint: Temple, Church...). Don't settle for the valley that's just a hill climb away from sin.

Labels: avoiding temptation, lds, scriptures

I don't know if I have ever participated in a conference like what we just experienced. I usually sleep through the talks of the seventies (ashamed to admit) but their talks this conference were absolutely amazing. I really don't think I've ever experienced such a conference when I have learned so much. There was a lot of meat. And what an amazing and emotional thank you to Pres. Hinckley. I hope that he felt our love for him and for this work.

Labels: general conference, lds

You'll notice on the home page of LDSTeenHelp.com, that an extremely popular painting has been replaced with a video link. I think we will change videos every week and then have a page with past videos displayed. These are just inspirational videos that are church themed. This week's video is about the restoration and growth of the Church. I realize that whoever created this video most likely did not get proper copyright permission to use the music and clips that you'll see. I'm okay with that. Also, you'll notice the YouTube logo down in the corner. The simple fact is, YouTube allows you to show videos without denting your bandwith. I know that some people use YouTube to spend hours looking at dumb videos. I hope anyone who sees that we are using YouTube will not be tempted to explore the possibilities, but rather accept the much good content already provided.

Labels: lds, video, youtube