In our family, there are two very special boys having birthdays really soon:

           OCT 1 -- RYDER JUDE PALMER will turn two years old

           OCT 3 -- JUDD REDMOND PLATT will turn five years old

Happy birthday to them both!!

Gentri, Heber and Leo are currently on vacation for 5 days in Kitty Hawk, South Carolina.  We will stay tuned for photos on their blog.  Hope they have a great time!  The Palmer people continue to commute to school from Logan to Perry.  The boys are doing great in school, although they have had some strep throats this week.  Steve and Loni and company are doing great.  Judd is planning a friend birthday party, and is very excited.  Ford is now crawling and pulling himself up to the furniture.  The guy is a go-er!  Matt D. is working hard in school at Cedar City, haven't heard from him since last week.

Dad Lawrence was just called to teach the 12-13 year olds in sunday school in our ward.  Can't seem to get enough of the teenagers and teaching.  Mom is called as secretary to the young women in our ward.  Recently, they had to speak in church.  Since you may not have been there, here is the written version of mom's talk:

I am Lori Lawrence.  I am married to Matt Lawrence and I live next door to the west of this church building in the tan/ peach brick house across the church parking lot.  So you will know me a little better: 

               We both grew up in Grantsville, attended Grantsville schools until college, where I attended and

graduated from Utah State University (Go Aggies!!). Matt graduated from BYU twice—has bachelor’s

and MS.  (Go Cougars??)

 We were married & After college, we moved back to Grantsville to begin our married life together. 

As we started our family, Matt worked in marketing for a Forms corp and I taught at good ol GHS.  We began our family and eventually enjoyed raising three daughters  Carly, Loni, and Gentri and a son:  Matt.  They have all grown up.  The girls are married, and Matt is attending SUU in Cedar City.  We enjoy 7 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.  Eventually, Matt’s job as a Forms salesman became obsolete and he began teaching LDS Seminary.

As our family grew, I left teaching and changed careers:  working in insurance and investments for the last 23 years.  So oddly, I graduated with a teaching degree and have worked mostly in marketing.  Matt graduated in marketing, and has worked mostly in teaching.   

 A phrase of our  times is “Get Real”  When you hear the phrase "get real", it usually implies that it's time to be

 honest, genuine, authentic.  Getting real is the act of giving yourself a reality check. If a person is trying to convince you of something unrealistic, you tell them to "Get Real." and to stop behaving as though they’re living in a fantasy world.  

This can be applie to us--as children of God, followers of

Christ in the true and living gospel. 

In our customary Church vocabulary, we often speak of

going to church, reading the scriptures, going to the temple, and going on a mission. 

Elder Bednar, in his book “Increase in Learning” suggests we Get Real   about our spiritual and church activities   -- not just Going to church, but rather to worship God and renew covenants as we attend church. 

       --Not just reading the scriptures, but studying with an attitude of feeding our spirit and pondering

deeply the concepts and how they apply to us.

       --Not just going to or through the temple; but having IN our hearts the Spirit, the covenants, and

ordinances of the Lord’s house. 

      --Not just going on a mission; but being a missionary and serving throughout our entire life with all of

 our heart, might, mind, and strength. 

A good question is:  Do we “Get Real” about the Gospel of Jesus Christ?   Do we Get Real knowing that the world offers us nothing that will save us?  Do we Get Real

about  our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and the blessing and promises that can and will be ours,

 based on our faithfulness? –

Jacob (Jacob 4:13) in book of Mormon times wrote:  ‘’…for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. 

Where fore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; …for the

salvation of our souls.”

There are two key elements of our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness that are the doctrinal foundation

for knowing and understanding things as they really are. 

     1.  Obtaining a body

      2.  Understanding and utilizing the atonement

1.  In OBTAINING A BODY:

In D & C 88:15 the Lord reveals “…the spirit and the body are the soul of man”  A truth that really is and  

always will be is that the body and the spirit constitute our reality and identity.  (DC 93:32-33)

In “The Family:  A Proclamation to the World,”  the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles declare that as

spirit sons and daughters of God, we “accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical

body and gain early experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize (our) divine destiny

as heirs of eternal life.” 

Joseph Smith also taught of the import of having a physical body:

“We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial

kingdom.  The great principle of happiness consists in having a body.  The devil has no body, and herein

is his punishment.  He is pleased when he can obtain the tabernacle of man, and when cast out by the

Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, showing that he would prefer a swine’s body to having

 none.” 

Our bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be

obtained in our premortal state.  Our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and act

in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus

Christ are amplified through our physical bodies.  In the classroom of mortality, we experience

tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of

physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity.  Simply stated:  there are lessons we must learn

and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, ”according to the flesh” (1 Nephi 19:6, Alma

7:12-13).    When the body and spirit are separated, we cannot receive a fullness of joy (DC 93:33-34)

  The Father’s plan is designed to provide direction for His children, help them become happy, and to

bring them safely home to Him with resurrected, exalted bodies. 

Satan does not have a body.  Because of his rebellion, he has denied himself all of the mortal blessings

 and experiences made possible through a tabernacle of flesh and bones.  He cannot learn the lessons

that only an embodied spirit can learn.  He cannot abide the reality of a literal and universal resurrection

of all mankind.  His eternal progress has been halted.  Just as water flowing in a riverbed is stopped by a

dam,  this word Dam, illustrates his inability to continue developing and becoming like our Heavenly

Father. 

So, for each of us “Getting Real” could mean that our mortal clock is ticking.  We should be taking full

advantage of each opportunity for learning.  We should enjoy each revelation taught us by the Spirit

about who we are and what we will become.   It makes me think of the primary song “I Know my

Heavenly Father loves me”. 

Whenever I hear (place hands to ears) the song of a bird (open and close fingers like a bird’s beak)

Or look (look up) at the blue, blue sky (raise arm in arching motion),

Whenever I feel the rain on my face (make raindrop motions with fingers)

Or the wind as it rushes by (move both hands in back and forth motion),

Whenever I touch a velvet rose (pretend to touch or smell flower)

Or walk by our lilac tree (walk in place),

I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heavenly Father created for me (outstretch hands and arms).

He gave me two eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings,

He gave me two ears that I might hear the beautiful sound of things,

He gave him my life, my mind my heart, I thank him reverently.

For all his creations of which I am part, Yes I know Heavenly Father loves me.

We know what is right and what is wrong, and we have the individual responsibility to learn for

ourselves “by study and also by faith” (DC 88:118) the things we should and should not do and the

doctrinal reasons you should and should not do those things.    We are often reminded in recent General

Conferences of those things that do not help us toward these goals: 

       --hours wasted in excessive video or cyber activities, online socializing which postpones vocational

or academic learning and achievement. 

       -- The sacrificing of cherished and  real relationships avoided in

hours spent in spirit-numbing video and online games.  Additionally, we need to consider

jeopardizing our physical well-being by involving ourselves in substances and activities dangerous to the

 freedom and health of our bodies.  And consider those who make their body a strange kind of billboard

by placing on it designs, words, through ink tattooing.  

Consider what we do as we are placing at risk the very instrument God has given us to receive the

learning experience of mortality.  We need to truly get real about minimizing the importance of our

physical bodies. 

2.  Understanding and Utilizing the Atonement

How do we completely understand the atonement?  Elder Bruce R. McConkie, in spring of 1985 tells us

 that the supreme act the Savior performed for us was the key event that placed the Plan of Salvation

into motion.  This most transcendent event could only be performed by a God, and through it, all of the

 terms and conditions of the Father’s eternal plan became operative.  Through it are brought to pass the

 immortality and eternal life of man.  Through it, all men are saved from death, when the body rejoins

the spirit in the Resurrection.

We know our Saviour suffered in Gethsamane, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to

suffer.  We know that his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed our souls if we repent

from the pains and penalties of our sins in our bodies on this earth, and made mercy available to us.

We know – with a body already drained of strength – the Saviour was led away by a rope tied at his

neck, as a common criminal to be judged by Annas, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate.

 He was accused, cursed, spat upon, and scourged with a whip which had sharp bones and cutting

 metals woven into it.  He bled from a crown of thorns, and then carried and collapsed from the weight

of his own cross.  Great mallets drove stakes of iron through his feet, hands and wrists to adhere him to

 the wooden cross, as it would be placed to stand vertically on Golgotha Hill.  All the infinite agonies  of

Gethsemane then returned as he spent his final six hours before giving his Spirit relief of death.   

This Atonement, which the Saviour accomplished, provided the way for all who believe and obey the

gospel of God, all who are true and faithful and overcome the world, --All to become as our Maker

and sit with him in everlasting glory in Immortality.

How do we Get Real about this singular group of events? I know in my own life it will be to study and

pray, and ponder.   To realize for myself that these concepts are true, apply to me.  I want to have

the Holy Spirit bear witness that it is all true—for me to understand the importance having a body in

which to learn and experience here and now—and for me to understand the miracle the atonement

provides for me; for my own eternal progression. 

And it will take faith  like Elijah, like Nephi who wanted so much to understand Lehi’s dream that the

Lord gave him the very vision.  If I had faith like Joseph Smith—who humbly prayed—and then brought

about the Restoration of the Gospel for our time.  I desire the faith to obtain the Real Truth (DC

 93:24 “..and truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;”  

 that I may “..know how to worship, and know what to worship, that I may come unto the Father in the

name of the Saviour Jesus Christ,” (DC 93:20)