Letter From James 4/2016

Hi Dad,

Yep all of the animals are here.  On my camping trip down in Victoria I saw a lot of Kangaroos and Koalas.  Up here in Darwin there are Crocodiles, many lizards, frogs, spiders, snakes, and wallabees.  I have seen them all and am trying to take photos when i see them.  Lots a cool birds are up here too.

Right now I am talking care of all the public areas at a resort.  I mostly clean toilets, sweep, vacuum, and drive around in a golf cart.  I also get to do two hours to drive to Jaribu and back everyday for the bank deposit, mail, and linen.  I get paid $21 in base pay, an extra $2 an hour in leave, and an extra $1 in retirement.  All the money I make before July 12th will be tax free.  After July 12th the government has said that the tax for backpackers will go up to 32.5 cents a dollar from the first dollar earned.  The rumor on the street though is the Australian parliament wont but that through.  I hope not.  I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the Australian dollar keeps rising.  4 months ago it drop AUS/US .71/1 which was great for me changing money over.  Now it is AUS/US .77/1 so if it keeps rising will be great for me when I transfer my money back.  It is crazy that I am making so much money for cleaning toilets!  And i am probably one of the least paid employees at the resort.  Backpackers are here in Australia to take all jobs that Australians don't want want to do.

We''ll have to see how the tax laws turn out.  I have learned that Americans can now apply to extend their visa into the second year if you do 3 months of farm or remote work.  I believe I have the remote category covered but regardless I think I will go down and pick grapes from November to February in Victoria and South Australia after this season in the Northern Territory.  I have heard that you can save $1000 a week during the grape season if you work hard.   Plus that will put me in the area to camp out and climb at some of the best climbing crags in the world.

My day to day life.  I wake up at 4:30, well before sunrise, and get ready and have some breakfast.  All food and accommodation is provided for $200 a week.  I have my own room and bathroom with AC, TV and fridge.  At 5:30 I start work while it is still cool.  At 7:00 am I take a 15 minute break to eat a hot breakfast then I break again at 11:00 for lunch.  At 11:30 I drive to Jaribu then at 2 PM i'm off.  I take a nap which I have been working on techniques to lucid dream every night and every nap.  Then yoga, run, and work out to train at climbing once I get back down to Victoria.  Then dinner at 5 which is usually pretty good.  Then I will kick it in the break room with other staff playing pool and ping pong.  I try to be in bed by 8:30. I get Fridays and Saturdays off where last week I went on some pretty cool tours. 

Friday night is poker night and I am quickly building reputation as being a poker shark.  I have stayed in till the last hand (4 hours) all three games and I have taken home $150 dollars in the past three weeks ($20 buy in, cash game).  One of my roommates back in Melbourne (I met in Bali) was a professional poker player online.  He has won something like $200,000 in the past 5 years of playing .  We would play small cash games but he would give us really good pointers.  In the end you need to know the probabilities which takes playing and watching poker a bit.  Then make a pattern of value betting on a good hand (pre flop, flop, turn, and river) then match that exactly when you bluff.  When you are successful in a bluff show your cards so you get under the other players skin, and then they will think you will be bluffing more and will then call your value bets.   Then noticing inconsistencies in other players will usually mean that they are bluffing.

Today I finished a book called Wall of Death.  It is about the history of one of the most difficult alpine problems in the world The Eiger Norwand in Switzerland.  Or the Ogre North Face.  It was a thrilling book of brave mountaineers taking on this mountain.  So many of the early climbers died.

I have now have many more traveling plans.  It's a big world out there with so many things to do.  Right now my mind is dancing around ideas to teach English in Chiang Mia, go to meditation retreat for a few weeks, check out the mountains of India and Nepal.  Get my divers license maybe in Cambodia. Asia is wonderful place where money seems to stretch 10 times as far as it should.

Getting back to your questions I haven't answered.  No rock climbing here in Kakadu.  At least none that have been establish.  The coldest it will get this winter (July) is around 28 degrees Celsius.

Yeah when I drove up to Alaska.  You should do that drive!  Whew! I guess that could count as my first day I went out traveling even though I don't really count it till I left for Thailand.

Good to hear everyone is doing their thing.  I can't wait to hear about your time in Costa Rica and Panama.  I want to hear about it!  I hope Mom likes her time going outside of the country!

It is fun to get foreigners view of Americans.  They all think we're so stupid for the most part.  And they love talking about all the things that Americans have wrong.  It is funny because they act like they know so much about America!  But they really only know this plastic media version of American that is very misleading.  And off of that false idea of how America works they can talk and talk about how stupid Americans are.  In a lot cases I totally agree with them. Most seem jealous in a hidden way that they can't own guns haha. But when it comes to politics this election is very strange indeed.  I try not to pay attention.  I find myself believing that politics are just there to give the public the sense that they have some type of say of what goes on.  Taking the camera off the oil, banking, and weapon industry billionairs who don't want the average American knowing who they are or what they are doing.  It is a scary world we live in. 

Love,

James     

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 5:52 AM, Nelson, Scott R. <srnelson@visionbankcard.net> wrote:

Hi Son,

How are you doing down under?  What an adventure you are having!  I hope life is treating you well.

Nothing too amazing is happening here.  We are going to Panama in less than two weeks!  Jon and Julia are in the middle of finals.  Jon and Sara are flying to Hawaii this week.  April and Shawn are happy.  Steve and Becca seem to doing the family thing.  I called Steve last week.  We like to talk politics and international affairs.

Hope all is well!

Love,

Dad

From: Karen Nelson [mailto:karen_nelson@byu.edu]
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 2:10 PM
To: Nelson, Scott R.
Subject: RE: Money Transfer

James,
How are you doing? I saw your crocodile post today. You are now in Kakadu national park? Crocodiles, Kangaroos, spiders and snakes? Have you seen all of them? Do you get to rock climb at all or too dangerous out there?

I hope you are doing well! I was thinking about your graduation the other day and then how you were packed up and drove off for Alaska. You’re a great person and I love you so much!!

How’s the temperature where you are? Not getting cold yet?

Sending love,

Mom

What are we willing to give up.

This is in response to an email below.

Ah.  I am trying to look inside you head.  You debate.  You construct an argument mingling it with scripture and then you argue it.  You think you are right.  Everybody thinks they have it right.  I have to go to source like Elder Romney said.  There is too much sophistry of words out there.

We are commanded to sacrifice one thing.  It used to be two.  But, now it is one.  Animals are now left out since the Savior did his great and last sacrifice.  That one thing that we are commanded to sacrifice is a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

We do give things up.   But, the Lord prioritizes the order of what I give up.  Each person has a different order.  To me, when the scriptures say to deny myself all ungodliness and become perfected in Christ, it means the following:

Giving up the ungodly act of judging others.

Giving up the ungodly act of objectifying women.

Giving up the ungodly act of letting shame control me.

Giving up the ungodly act of resisting evil and not turning the other cheek.

Giving up the ungodly act of being proud.

Your things that you know to give up are:

Money to pay a full tithe

Bad food to be healthy and thin.

Time that takes away from your quest to be rich.

Are you not living the higher law?  I am.  Dave is.  I make mistakes and repent.  I partake of the sacrament and have all my sins washed away.  What is the higher law?  Without looking in the scriptures I would reckon that it is:

Loving your God with all your heart, might, mind and strength.

Loving your neighbors as yourself.

Following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Being meek, humble, easily entreated, kind, patient and long suffering.

Using persuasion.

Being gentle.

Consecrating your life to God and the Church and His Kingdom.

Moving from grace to grace and receiving grace for grace.

Scott

Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 8:29 PM
To: Nelson, Scott R.
Subject: Start today. What are you willing to give up.

If you want to be free. Start today to become an entrepreneur. Why do you think MLM's are so popular. Everyone knows what they need to do to be free. They want to be free. Just like eating healthy, they just are not willing to give up the crap.. Oh they will eat healthier foods with their crap, but will not give up the crap. Remember it is not what you are willing to do, it is what you are willing to give up.  What are you willing to give up?

It is What You are Willing to Give UP, that sets you free. Just like Sin.

What sins are you willing to give up to be worthy?

What money are you willing to give up to be a 100% tithing payer? You see even paying tithing is really about giving up something....not giving something.  

What foods are you willing to give up to be healthy and thin and in the 3%?

What time are you willing to give up to be rich?

I think it is called the law of sacrafice.  It is the key to so many things you want, including moving on to higher laws. 

Why Home Teaching Should be Less then 30 minutes

I have heard over the years to keep home teaching between fifteen and thirty minutes.  I usually disagreed.  I am now doing an about face!  Here is my reasoning.  In any given home teaching relationship there are four main participants and perhaps others.  First, let's take the home teaching family.  Let's assume it is a couple.  The issue is time.  Each spouse will be different regarding how he or she is using his or her time.  There might be a few people that have huge amounts of time but I would bet that most people are time crunched.  They have more things to do than they have time.  Now, the same goes for the home teacher.  He may or may not have a lot of time for home teaching.  His wife needs to be taken into the picture as well.  Even if he feels he can spend the time, does she really need him home to do other activities (family time, chores, etc.)?  Whose time is more valuable? Is the home teaching program more valuable than other time related things that need to be done?  The answer is no.  Time is precious and each person will value the way he or she uses his or her time differently.  We can't judge this.

With all this in mind, with all the people involved, with every one's different schedules involved, with every one's different time prioritizations, home teaching should be a fifteen to thirty minute event.

Q: What if the person is lonely and needs longer visits?
A: I no longer believe this is in the scope of the monthly home teaching visit.  This is because of all the reasons stated above.  Of course, we should always follow the injunction in James 1, that true religion, undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction.  The lonely person may require more visits, etc.  But, nobody should be required to run faster than he has strength (Mosiah 4:27).  This need, I believe, should be taken off line and discussed by the home teachers.  Perhaps the solution will need to be at a different level, especially if both home teachers have huge time constraints.  Perhaps sacrifices will be made and there will be more visits (but, not the official home teaching visit).  And, perhaps assignments will need to change to meet the needs of each person involved.

Regarding the Church and its Decisions

Regarding the Church and its Decisions

The relationship between the Church and the gospel is an interesting one.  It is hard for individuals to discern light and darkness when we are too close to the issues at hand. The Church wants to keep the body of Christ pure, and not do the following, “and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness.”  (4 N. 1:27) Ultimately, I believe this to be one of the reasons why the Church made its decision.  It is a good reason.  Protecting the children from conflict is good.  People in open rebellion or apostasy not being able to bless and baptize their children into the Church of their fathers, now that upsets everyone that is fence sitting or has fallen (succumbed?) to the manipulations by the powers controlling what America is supposed to think.  Golly, we should very disturbed that vote by the people against same sex marriage in several States has been trampled upon.  We should be very disturbed that Congress wasn’t deferred to by the Supreme Court to start new amendment proceedings to enact legislation to create a new protected class.

Alma 46:7 “And there were many in the church who believed in the flattering words of Amalickiah, therefore they dissented even from the church; and thus were the affairs of the people of Nephi exceedingly precarious and dangerous,…“  Members of the church have never been immune to following after the Amalickiah’s of the world.

It always boils down to testimony.  A strong testimony requires that the Spirit is with us, that we are connected to God, that spiritual experiences are happening in our lives, that we have pondered and prayed about “the matter” (whatever the issue is) and have received our own witness from God regarding “the matter”.  One who doesn’t do these things is ripe for darkened mind syndrome.  I just coined that!

Ponder and Memorize D&C 93:20

D&C 93:20  For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.

So, it takes time to receive a fulness.  Jesus, in earlier verses received a fulness, over time.  If I were to tie 'keep the commandments' to 'therefore, ..., you shall receive grace for grace', the Lord seems to be saying that it will ultimately be by His grace that we will be able to progress.  So, how might this work?  What is receiving grace for grace?  Perhaps we receive His grace (the strengthening power of the atonement) to overcome a weakness that we have had our whole life.  God graces us with the ability to make that weakness a strength unto us.  We deny not that this change occurred only through God's power.  We have just received grace (or a grace). Because we received the first grace, we are then given another grace to overcome the next area of weakness.  Is this receiving grace for grace?  This is how we are able to keep each of Christ's commandments.  They are impossible to keep otherwise.

So, ask God what commandment He wants (commands) you to work on and work on it relying solely on His merits (grace).  Once you experience success you will be given another commandment through the Holy Ghost.  Your progression has now started!

Redefining Faith and Hope

I’ve been toying with a new definition of faith (among faith’s multi-faceted-ness).  Faith is believing that Christ did what he did and because He did what he did, we can trust in Him in all things.  Hope comes from faith, that the future will bend away from the natural order of things.  Hope in a resurrection goes against the natural order of things.  Hope that miracles are strategically placed in front of a wayward child to cause maximum probability is bending the natural order.  Our charity demonstrates our faith in Christ.  Charity requires faith because it declares that we believe and are willing to be meek.  Meekness is a state of egoless-ness or having cast off the natural man.  When one has charity one can’t be easily provoked.  We see the evil (slander, etc.) come our direction but see clearly that no response is the best response.  We see that the person dishing out the injustice is acting from an unconscious state and it means nothing about us.

This is what I am working on.  And it requires grace.  There is no way for me to get this down on my own.

Ponderize - Week 2 - Helaman 3:23

Ponderize - Week 2 - Helaman 3:23

Now this is an impressive verse of scripture:

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

How does one wax stronger and stronger in their humility? To me this might mean that, over time, when the offence occurs, whatever it may be, I no longer react in the same negative way as I used to.  I have become ego-less, having cast of the natural man.  To be in such a state would be wonderful, wouldn't it?  Why would this fill our souls with joy and consolation?  When we diminish our egos God fills our souls with joy.  We have turned off our automatic response mechanism, the thing that continuously refuels the natural man within us.  That is a goal worth working toward!