LDS CHURCH'S $357,000,000.00 MILLION REAL ESTATE SHOPPING SPREE

Two huge commercial real estate properties were purchased this past week by the LDS Church through their real estate companies, Hawaii Reserves LLC and Farm Land Reserves.  The LDS Church purchase a resort hotel on the island of Maui for 149 Million dollars and thousands of acres of land in Washington State for 209 Million dollars.  Total price tag for this week's real estate shopping spree: 357,000,000.00.

What I find so interesting is that not even Bill Gates came up with enough money to win the bid over the LDS Church to purchase the land in Washington State. Here are the news articles.   

LDS Church outbids Bill Gates in bid for bankrupt Easterday Assets

https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2021/06/23/mormon-church-group-outbids-bill

and this

It was reported this week that the LDS Church purchased a resort hotel on the island of Maui for 148,000,000.00 dollars. Here is the link to the business journal article.   The resort hotel was completed in 2016. The Church believes it has the responsibility to invest their money wisely and this includes investing in the stock market and buying and managing real estate. This hotel that rents for almost 1000.00 a night is the latest real estate holding they have acquired. 

I would assume that most members would have a hard time believing this. They might say, well it is not actually the church that bought it, but an "affiliate" of the Church. Well, the definition of affiliate is an officially attached or connected (a subsidiary group or a person) to the organization. 

Sidenote: 

What is interesting is that these business deals are never reported to the LDS members. However giving money to help Black Americans is all over the national and local Church News. While that is great to help the NAACP organization (which happens to promote Critical Race Theory) is less than 3 percent of what they spent on real estate this past week.  

WHEN WILL THE REMOVALS END? - LATEST CASUALTY THAT WILL BE DEMOLISHED.

 Cue Miley Cyrus's song: "WRECKING BALL"

 "I came in like a wrecking ball."

The North Visitor's Center which is the home of the Christus statue will be demolished later this year and replaced with restrooms to support events in the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall as well as  gardens and space for reflection, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced in a press release Thursday.

“This area will become a peaceful, quiet space on Temple Square,” said Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations for the Church. “The plans for this area will also provide a more direct and clear view of the Salt Lake Temple from the northwest area of Temple Square, enhancing the prominence of the temple.” 

Restrooms will be added to support events in the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall.

 

One of my favorite things as a youth was going down to Temple Square and walking up the long circular ramp that lead to the Christus Statue. It was like traveling through space. I will miss this experience as well as all of the murals that were on display at the visitors center. This Temple "renovation" is hardly a renovation at all. Renovation means to restore to a former better state (as by cleaning, repairing). This Salt Lake Temple "Renovation" seems to be more about tearing things down and replacing it with something completely different. 

One more announcement. Earlier in the week the First Presidency also announced the discontinuation of the Priesthood Session as well as the Women's General Session during General Conference. The official reason stated in the new release was:

"This change is being made because all sessions of general conference are now available to anyone who desires to watch or listen."

Just because all sessions of general conference are now available to anyone who desires to watch or listen is a really odd reason to eliminate these sessions.

I will miss going to Priesthood Session with my Dad. 

LDS CHURCH's "THE FRIEND"- VACCINATION COLORING PAGE FOR CHILDREN TO COLOR

The LDS Church's printable coloring page for kids to color of a little child getting vaccinated.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/friend/2021/06/i-can-be-brave?lang=eng

What a fun activity for children to do! It is a coloring page of a little child getting a shot, most likely a vaccination shot. It is published in this months June 2021 THE FRIEND magazine. Is this a "FRIEND"-ly way to help child get used to the idea that is safe to get the vaccinated? It is entitled "I CAN BE BRAVE". 

I find it interesting that the Church chose to publish this coloring page just before the vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration meet this week on June 10,2021 to discuss whether to authorize Covid-19 vaccines for children 11 and younger. We are starting to see the mainstream media  report the need for little children to start to get vaccinated even though the numbers of people getting Covid is rapidly dropping. 

We are being told by those we should trust and those who "know better than us" that unvaccinated children are a vulnerable host  for coronavirus. Here is the latest new CNN newsreport. 

Almost all vitamins, medications and other vaccines have the list of warning labels. Even the most basic like Vitamin C and aspirin have warnings on the bottles to protect the manufactures of any adverse side effects so they can shift the risk from themselves through warnings. If you choose to proceed then you assume the risk. You can't blame anyone because you were sufficiently warned. 

The same kinds of warnings for childhood vaccines all have the list of side effects. Here a few of the side effects for just the measles vaccination.  

On the other hand, for the Covid vaccines were are just told that they are safe and effective.

 
Surely there is nothing wrong with these emergency authorized vaccinations that all normal FDA requirements have been waived and that the pharmaceutical companies are not liable for any injuries caused by the vaccine.

Are we suppose to submit our children to participate as basically "lab rats" for a vaccine that does not publish what the warnings of the side effects could be on a child. Remember, if your child should have complications, the companies are not liable for any injuries caused by their vaccines.

If you want to read additional research: here is a good link:

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/tag/1200-studies-truth-will-prevail/

CELEBRATING OUR GOVERNOR'S OFFICIALLY DECLARED PRIDE MONTH IN UTAH

This past year, Mother Nature has not been very kind to the State of Utah. 

• Earthquakes, 
• Fires, 
• Devastating Wind Storms
• and now Water Drought 

Coincidences or Consequences?

It makes you wonder why all four elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water have combined together to wreck havoc on the state of Utah. Some associate these basic elements with the four destroying angels. In his vision, John the Revelator saw “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree” (Revelation 7:1). These are God’s angels who will hold great power and indicates that the four angels have power over the winds, or the elements, of the earth. Elsewhere in the book of Revelation, angels are described as having control over fire (the angel “which had power over fire”; Revelation 14:18) and water (“the angel of the waters”; Revelation 16:5).

Two days ago, our LDS Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox declared an official declaration calling for the whole month of June to be PRIDE month. The official declaration signed below ends by saying:

Now Therefore, I , Spencer J. Cox, governor of the great state of Utah, do hereby declare June 2021 as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in Utah. 

PRIDE MONTH?  Usually we set aside just one day to observe something important. Do we really need an entire month!  It might be good to remember that Pride in most Christian societies is considered a deadly sin. In fact is it one of the seven deadly sins and often is listed first.  According to the standard list, they are Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues. 

So why we are at it,  maybe next month could be GREED month? or how about LUST month? or even ENVY month? 

In Ezra Taft Benson's conference address, Beware of Pride, he says: 

"The Doctrine and Covenants tells us that the Book of Mormon is the “record of a fallen people.” (D&C 20:9.) Why did they fall? This is one of the major messages of the Book of Mormon. Mormon gives the answer in the closing chapters of the book in these words: “Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction.” (Moro. 8:27.) And then, lest we miss that momentous Book of Mormon message from that fallen people, the Lord warns us in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.” (D&C 38:39.)"

So what I find so interesting is that after declaring this entire month to embrace Pride, Governor Cox is asking all of us to. get this, to pray to God for some divine intervention. Surely to Lord will bless us to escape this drought as we proactively celebrate our PRIDE.  Yes, Heaven help us. 

WHY I WRITE THIS BLOG - which began 10 years ago today

Ten years ago today I wrote my first barerecord blogpost. I debated on whether to call it 'bare record' or 'bear record'. Both the word bare and bear are descriptive of what I hoped to accomplish on this blog.

BARE means to uncover or reveal, to exposed to view, undisguised.
BEAR means to withstand something difficult or painful, to support or hold up; sustain, bring forth, provide evidence for.

I know alot of what I have shared might have been unpleasant to some, but it has been my hope over the last 10 years to kindly point out evidence in our day that  maybe "All is not well in Zion." In addition, I  wanted to share highlights of significant events in my life as well as events happening on the earth.

I recently came across a book called 'Leading from the Edge of the Inside'. It is written by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk. In his book, Rohr talks about about three groups of people found in any institution or even a religious organization. The groups are the insiders, the outsiders, and the ones on the 'edge of inside'. Those at the core of the inside are those who are the loyal diehards. They are the 'all-is-well' group and quickly justify anything that might be viewed as less than positive. The 'outsiders' on the other hand want nothing to do with the organization and would be considered as apathetic or even antagonistic. But, those on the 'edge of the inside' know, love and understand both groups and can see the mistakes being made by the institution. Their loyalty and commitment are sometimes questioned by the insiders.  The "edgers" are in a unique position to evaluate and hopefully help the organization to look in the mirror to see the flaws and mistakes. The edge of insiders are sometimes misunderstood or disregarded because they are not on the core inside. But this does not mean they have nothing to say or that what they have to say is not valid or important. Many times it's about how the message is relayed. If done properly, it could influence the organization to correct their errors. 

A great example of some "edge of insiders" are the thousands and thousands of members of the Church who spoke out publicly about the First Presidency's decision to remove the historic Manti Temple murals. Here is a quick timeline of what happened. 

From the Salt Lake Tribune article covering the story it reported.

President Russell M Nelson said in a prerecorded message, “we have been impressed to modify our earlier plans for the Manti Utah Temple so that the pioneer craftsmanship, artwork and character will be preserved, including the painted murals loved by so many. We will leave those murals where they are located now — inside the Manti Utah Temple.”

 In an interview, Rasband called the move a divine “revelation” and said that protests, petitions and phone calls — even a march in downtown Provo — opposing the art removal played no role in the decision to retain them.

So in less than a 2 month period of time, we saw a complete reversal from the Prophet announcing that Art Masterpieces being removed from both the Salt Lake and Manti Temples to accommodate a change in the room configurations. Instead we are told that a new revelation came from the Lord reversing the first revelation to remodel the Temple.  Which one was revelation? the initial decision to remove the murals or reversal to keep murals? Does the Lord really flipflop like that?

I find it very hard to believe that all of the pleadings of the Church members to the First Presidency played NO role in the decision to save the murals like the apostle Rasband stated.  “I’m going to be so bold as to call it a revelation,” Elder Rasband concluded.

Whether or not the decision to keep the murals was purely revelation without any influence by those who spoke out publicly, I am grateful for other 'edge of insiders' who I believe helped to save the Temple Murals. I think it is important to preserve history and even more important to preserve what Joseph Smith originally restored. For those who haven't see the murals that will now be save, here is a quick description of the one of the murals that was written on an online article.

Unlike prior World Room murals depicting fighting animals, Teichert portrayed the pageant of human history in a fallen world. Beginning with the Tower of Babel portrayed in the back of the room, she painted the history of the Gentiles and Israelites on opposing side walls (including Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the crusaders, Columbus, the Pilgrims on the Mayflower) culminating in the gathering of the early Latter-day Saints to the North American Continent and their efforts to build Zion, portrayed on the front wall. All human history marches towards the restoration, the gathering of the Saints, and ultimately the establishment of Zion. To remove these murals is akin to painting over the Sistine Chapel—in terms of LDS art, history, and women’s contributions and achievement. Most importantly, the decision is irreversible if the murals are destroyed