Yesterday my 8th grade son brought home a paper from school that had squares and triangles that he was supposed to cut out and then arrange to prove the Pythagorean Theorem. Unfortuanetly, the example triangle that was used in this assignment made it difficult to tell the difference between the b2 square and the c2 square. So I decided to create a new version of the assignment using a 3,4,5 triangle
If you have not started reading the Book of Mormon in response to President Hinckley's challenge it is not too late to start.
Kris said "I haven't started- Am I too far behind to get started?"
In response to that Ryan said "it might be helpful to have a chart for those who would like to start reading Sept. 1"
I previously created a chart that started August first and now to help anyone that has not started yet I have made a chart that starts September 1st.
If you start reading before the start of September you will be ahead of schedule.
If you have family or friends that have not started yet give them a copy of this chart and encourage them to get moving.
UPDATE: There was an error in my program that caused the book of Enos to be left off of the chart. This has been fixed. The link above will download the corrected chart.
President Hinckley has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of this year. I have created a chart to help you track your progress. The chart has a box for every chapter in the Book of Mormon. The height of each box is proportional to the length of the chapter. As you read each chapter color in the box. The dates next to the chapter boxes tell you where you need to be to finish by the end of the year.
The MinuteManProject has focused a lot of attention on Immigration. Yesterday some co-workers asked my opinion on this topic.
I told them that I believe that all men are created equal and that no matter where they were born they should have the freedom to live whereever they want. As part of allowing open immigration we need to drastically reduce the government handouts that are available to immigrants. We should also reduce the handouts available to native citizens.
One of the things that led me to this belief was an article I read many years ago about a family trying to come to America from Cuba. With a little searching I found the article, Bringing the Border War Home. It was published in the October 1995 issue of Reason magazine. Whenever I read this story it brings tears to my eyes.
Read the full story.In the national din over immigration, Lizbet Martinez's story barely rates a whisper. She's just a little girl, born in Cuba in 1983. Her mother was a dentist, her father a truck driver, and Lizbet was their first child. Like all new parents, Danne and Jorge Martinez found that having a child changed their lives in ways they couldn't have imagined before she was born. Sleeping through the night was a thing of the past. And a simple trip to the market suddenly required so much planning and preparation that it seemed like a military operation.
Yet it was only when Lizbet was old enough to go to school that the most profound change of all became obvious. Like many, probably most Cubans, Lizbet's parents led double lives. At work, they dutifully chanted the praises of the Cuban Revolution and its all-powerful leader, Fidel Castro. But at home, behind closed doors, they cursed him for turning Cuba into an economic waste land and political dead end, a country without a future.
That was fine when it was just the two of them. But now Lizbet would be leaving the house each day to sit in class with a teacher who owed his job to his membership in Cuba's Communist Party. What happened if the little girl repeated something she had heard at home? How long would it be until her parents were fired, or their ration cards were confiscated, or their house was seized, or they were summoned to the Ministry of the Interior for questioning?
Here is an article about where Lizbet Martinez is today.
The following is an excerpt from the Libertarian Party position on Immigration:
The Libertarian Party has long recognized the importance of allowing free and open immigration, understanding that this leads to a growing and more prosperous America. We condemn the xenophobic immigrant bashing that would build a wall around the United States. At the same time, we recognize that the right to enter the United States does not include the right to economic entitlements such as welfare. The freedom to immigrate is a freedom of opportunity, not a guarantee of a handout.
Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.I took the quiz and was pleased to find out that I don't need to change my religion.
Easter
12 Oaks 1st Ward
March 27 2005
I. Introduction (Talk Slowly)
A. Greatest event in History When did it occur
B. From Ensign
Subject that I have been interested in for nearly 20 years
C. Simplified to fit time
Other possible interpretations
Supporting evidence for the conclusions
II. Week of the Resurrection
A. Resurrection on Sunday
All four of the Gospels agree that the empty tomb was discovered early
on a Sunday Morning. For example In Mark 16:2 we read And very early
in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre
at the rising of the sun.
B. Crucifixion on Friday - Three days
Count inclusively
According to Jewish custom, any part of a day was reckoned as an entire day
Saturday was the Sabbath
C. John 19:14 - Crucifixion on Preparation of the Passover - 14th of Nisan
Passover feast each year on the 15th of Nisan
Nisan first month on the Judean Calendar
Preparation of the Passover on the 14th of Nissan
New day on the Judean Calendar begins at Sunset
III. Symbolism of Passover
A. The Lord instituted the Passover celebration at the time of the exodus of
the Israelites from Egypt, to commemorate their release from slavery
after the angel of death slew the firstborn of Egypt but passed over
the Israelite homes.
B. Prophets taught that the Law of Moses was symbolic of things to come.
Abinadi condemned the wicked priests of Noah with these words:
Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow
of those things which are to comeTeach them that redemption cometh
through Christ the Lord
C. 10th choosing of the sacrificial lamb (Monday)
Male without blemish and no broken bones
Triumphal entry
D. 14th Sacrifice of Passover lamb Between 3 and 5pm (Friday)
Sacrifice of the Lamb of God
Beginning with Gethsemane on the night before yet still Friday
Crucifixion at about 3pm
E. 15th Feast Celebration of Liberation (Saturday we call Friday Night)
Liberation preached to captives in spirit prison
F. 16th Firstfruits of the harvest presented to the Lord (Sunday)
IV. Year of resurrection and date on our calendar (Check Time)
A. High priest Caiaphas and the Roman procurator Pilate presided at Jesus'
trials. This limits the year of the Crucifixion to the period of
their common jurisdiction, A.D. 26 to 36
B. John begins Ministry in the 15th year of Tibereas Caesar.
29-30AD
C. Calendars
1. Many Calendars
2. Ours is Synchronized with the seasons by adding leap days
3. Judean Calendar Lunar-Solar synchronized with the months and
the seasons
Each month begins when the thin crescent moon is first visible
in the western sky after sunset.
4. Leap Months
5. Modern Hebrew calendar follows a fixed pattern
6. Anciently it was observational
D. Astronomy
Isaac Newton first
Refined with computers
Between 26 AD and 36 AD only in 30AD and 33AD was the 14th of Nisan
a Friday.
Because John started his ministry in 29 or 30 AD and Christ ministry
was at least 3 years then 30 is excluded
E. Crucifixion: Friday 1st of April 33 AD
F. Resurrection: Sunday the 3rd of April 33 AD
G. Lunar Eclipse
On Friday Evening 1st of April 33 ad
There is an un-canonized Report of Pilate that claims at
the Crucifixion the moon appeared like blood.
V. Date of birth + length of life = Date of Crucifixion
A. D&C section 20 implies Organization of the church on 6th of April 1830
B. Then on 6 April 1980, President Spencer W. Kimball stated that Jesus
was born on this day 1,980 years ago.
C. Birth was on 6th of April 1 BC.
D. Book of Mormon Length of Life
Sign of Birth on the First day of the First year
Sign of Death on the Fourth day of the thirty-fourth year
Thirty-three Nephite years plus three days
Not the Judean calendar because it was not on the fourteenth
365-day year of the Mesoamerican calendar
33 * 356 +3 =12048
E. Exact match
Counting 12,048 days from 6 April 1 B.C., brings one to
Friday, 14 Nisan, 1 April A.D. 33 the exact Crucifixion date
deduced from the Bible!
VI. Conclusion
A. The carefully prescribed elements of the Passover ceremony precisely
foreshadowed both the events of the Atonement and the time that they
would occur.
B. Adding the length of Jesus' life calculated from the Book of Mormon, to
his birthdate as understood from the Doctrine and Covenants, results in
a biblical death date, to the very day. This precise internal consistency
between different books of scripture was noticed only recently
VII. Testimony
A. Son of God
B. Literally Resurrected We will all be Resurrected
C. The Savior Atonement for our sins
I god suffered these things for all that they might not suffer if
they would repent
D. We can repent and our sins will not be mentioned unto us at the day
of Judgment