You can see our float at 55:00!
Friday, July 24, 2026
Friday, July 17, 2026
The back of my head is famous
Go to 5:16. There's the back of my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocoCury6TsM
Friday, April 03, 2026
Monday, December 29, 2025
Phyllis Stutzman's album "At Peace"
I recently found a record at a thrift store, Phyllis Stutzman's At Peace. I love this album! Released in 1972, it is peaceful and simple, with heartfelt, faith-filled lyrics. It is mostly Phyllis and a guitar, with occasional bass and/or light drums. She sings her heart out.
She wrote six of the thirteen songs, including "At Peace" and "It Would Have Been Much Easier."
Why have I never heard of Phyllis Stutzman? I did some investigating. The back of the album gave some clues. A Jerry Weaver of Hesston, Kansas' Whitestone Mennonite Church wrote a tribute to her, so I searched for any info on a Phyllis Stutzman somehow related to Hesston and Mennonites.
I found her obituary and her FamilySearch page. She died in 2018. It doesn't mention anything about her music. She was a mother and a nurse.
To my knowledge, At Peace is the only album she ever recorded.
Finding little-known gems like this one is one of the reasons why I like vinyl records. You can't find everything on Spotify!
Here is more info about the album on Discogs. If you would like to hear her music, click here.
Thank you, Phyllis, for recording a great album.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Nancy Lynn Diehl Williams (1936-2017), "My Lady's Things"
Several years ago, my wife and I acquired this painting from a lady who said it was painted by her mother-in-law:
On the back of the painting, it read, "My Lady's Things," the name L. Diehl Williams, and her address in Brigham City. I admired the photo for years. Yesterday (July 10), the idea occurred to me to photograph the painting in case the painting were ever to get damaged. After taking the picture, I grew curious. Who was the artist? What else did she paint? So I googled her name.
I found her information on Family Search, an obituary, and the Springville Museum of Art website. To my amazement, I discovered that she was born and died on the same calendar day… July 10! That was the same day in which I was learning about her for the first time.
Coincidence? I don't think so. I'm curious to see what more I can learn about her. If you know of any of her relatives, or know (about) her, please reach out to me: elephantnavel@gmail.com.
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Elder Bednar on Choosing Reality
Here is a talk from Elder Bednar 2009 about technology. He told the Young Adults of the Church to read this talk in preparation for him speaking to them on Sunday. His talk will be called "Things as They Really Are 2.0" Here are a couple of paragraphs that I think you will love:
"Sadly, some young men and young women in the
Church today ignore “things as they really are” and neglect eternal
relationships for digital distractions, diversions, and detours that
have no lasting value. My heart aches when a young couple—sealed
together in the house of the Lord for time and for all eternity by the
power of the holy priesthood—experiences marital difficulties because of
the addicting effect of excessive video gaming or online socializing. A
young man or woman may waste countless hours, postpone or forfeit
vocational or academic achievement, and ultimately sacrifice cherished
human relationships because of mind- and spirit-numbing video and online
games. As the Lord declared, “Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment
… : Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy
talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13)."
"You may now be asking yourself, “But, Brother Bednar, you began today by talking about the importance of a physical body in our eternal progression. Are you suggesting that video gaming and various types of computer-mediated communication can play a role in minimizing the importance of our physical bodies?” That is precisely what I am declaring. Let me explain." ...
"You may now be asking yourself, “But, Brother Bednar, you began today by talking about the importance of a physical body in our eternal progression. Are you suggesting that video gaming and various types of computer-mediated communication can play a role in minimizing the importance of our physical bodies?” That is precisely what I am declaring. Let me explain." ...
"If the adversary cannot entice us to
misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to
beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and
physically from things as they really are. In essence, he encourages us
to think and act as if we were in our premortal, unembodied state. And,
if we let him, he can cunningly employ some aspects of modern technology
to accomplish his purposes. Please be careful of becoming so immersed
and engrossed in pixels, texting, earbuds, twittering, online social
networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet
that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss
the richness of person-to-person communication. Beware of digital
displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that
can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience."
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Sunday, September 08, 2024
"God cared enough to create endless oceans and seas"
God cared enough to create endless oceans and seas
He cared enough to build up hills and mountains
He placed every flower and animal in perfect harmony
He made it possible to be forgiven of our sins
He sculpted every blade of grass, every leaf and tree
He knew these things held such great worth
He cared enough to let our choices be free
God cared enough to put me on this earth
[Composed by someone I love very much.]
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Saturday, November 04, 2023
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Saturday, October 07, 2023
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Iosepa Display at Pioneer Village in Lagoon
Entering Pioneer Village in the amusement park of Lagoon, located in Farmington, Utah, one can see a small building immediately to the left, nestled up against the water slide area. Inside that building is a collection of tokens, currency, and other artifacts from Utah’s history.
In the far left corner is a display case entitled, “Iosepa.”
A description inside the case reads:
A Single Trace of Iosepa
Amidst the windblown scrub of Utah's Skull Valley, 20 miles south of the Great Salt Lake, lies a cemetery, a few foundations, and a solitary fire hydrant which stands as a silent sentinel testifying to a long-forgotten time. These are the only remnants of a once-proud society of lesser-known Mormon pioneers of the Hawaiian Kanaka tribe who left the islands in 1889 to be nearer to the spiritual homeland and temple of the Latter-day Saint faithful in Salt Lake City. With church assistance in the form of agricultural expertise, financial management, and property acquisition, the Hawaiian settlers were relocated to the only block of land which remained unencumbered close to the city and large enough to meet the needs of a subsistence agricultural economy. Unfortunately, it still remained approximately two days' ride from Salt Lake City.
The religious faith sustaining the settlers must have rivaled any found in their more-famous Latter-day Saint brethren in Salt Lake City as the new inhabitants of the fledgling town of losepa had recently left the relative paradise of Hawaii. They were greeted in Utah by life-threatening elements and physical hardships. A new work ethic was needed to survive and later thrive in elements which varied from searing and unending heat in summer to semi-Arctic winters which must have seemed interminable. The settlers built their lives around what they could raise in crops and livestock from the alkali flats and cedar plateaus surrounding the town.
The LDS Church regulated the financial affairs of the town of losepa, so named in honor of the prophet Joseph F. Smith. They incorporated the losepa Agricultural and Stock Company, headquartered in a small general store in the middle of the 1280-acre ranch. In order to facilitate commerce, a small run of script notes bearing denominations of 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and one dollar were produced by a Salt Lake City printing company. This script was used to pay colonists for their work and was subsequently traded by them to pay for goods and services at the store. In the rare occurrence that a settler needed to shop in Salt Lake City, the store would exchange cash for the script in the economy.
The losepa 50-cent note is the sole survivor, a single traveling trace of losepa and the commerce of the desolate spot. Signed by John T. Caine, treasurer of the cooperative and past editor of the Salt Lake Herald and Henry P. Richards, its president, the note exhibits characteristic wear of late 19th century paper, yet it is in surprisingly good condition when one considers the rigors it has been subjected to. Caine had served an LDS church mission to Hawaii in 1855 and after his tenure in losepa went on to be elected as a United States Representative while Richards played a major role in bringing Polynesian converts and their culture to the Salt Lake Valley.
losepa grew in spite of many trials, including the well-publicized cases of Ieprosy which struck three of the colonists in 1893. In order to contain the potential spread of the volatile disease, a house of isolation was built on the outskirts of town. To attract attention for the delivery of food and water, a flag was run up a pole as a signal. The town reached a maximum population of 228 late in the 19th century. It became an amalgamation of Polynesian and western cultures, with poi, island delicacies, and Latter-day Saint influences routinely mixing at public festivals. However, the continued hard lifestyle began to take its toll as the growth in the cemetery began to outstrip growth in the town. Many second-generation Hawaiians simply decided to leave losepa for more lucrative careers outside of the community. The town's death knell sounded when the construction of a new Latter-day Saint temple was announced in Hawaii. At first, a few settlers left to help in the building of the temple but a wholesale exodus followed in 1916-17. The motivation for living in the suffering climate of Utah was removed as members of the faith could now practice their religion fully in their own homeland, where it required substantially less consistent effort just to remain alive. The demise of the town occurred just four years after losepa was honored as the "Most Progressive Town in Utah" and it was finally taken over by the Deseret Livestock Company in 1917.
Visitors to the site in current times are no doubt greeted by the same skyline and landscape that threatened the dedicated and hardy Hawaiians in 1889. Little has changed. A small cemetery, some stone and shards of glass remain, along with a unique piece of paper with a quaint motto, redeemable for "an assortment of farm products at retail prices."
The losepa script note, a solitary specimen of a period of dynamic Utah history, continues today as the only artifact extant not subject to the wind, stinging sand, and drying sun of the Skull Valley area. In time, this small symbol may be all that exists to remind future historians of a little known town, fading into oblivion, that once was losepa.
by Bob Campbell
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sunday, July 16, 2023
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