[Commons] [School] [Garden] [Kitchen] [Meditorium] [Library]
parable/seer-stone.htm

I'd Never be so Foolish

A Fictional Novelette

An introduction

Yesterday, my cousin came to visit. For about the last two years, she has been a self employed long haul truck driver, so every once in a while when she is in Ohio, we meet on the road and talk. She'll get as close to Columbus as her route will allow, and I will drive out to meet her on the road somewhere. We have the most beautiful conversations, I wish they would never end, but she has to get on down the road and make her delivery. I have learned so much from her.

Usually when she is in town, we only have an hour or so together, but this time she had a terrible pain in her leg, so I met her out at the Flying-J truck stop at the 122 mile marker on I-70 and took her in to the Reynoldsburg Med-Ohio to see a doctor. After, finishing up with the doctor, and having the Chinese dinner that they offer in the deli at the Flying-J, she asked me out to her truck saying that she had a gift for me.

Before giving me the gift, she told me the story about how she got the money to buy her truck.

Some years ago, she was working in the mail room at the church office building. The prophet and general authorities receive hundreds of letters on any given day, and do not have the time to read them all, let alone to answer them. The main part of her job, was to screen the mail. She would read each letter, and handle it appropriately. Some letters would get forwarded on to the general authorities, some would get forwarded to the senders stake president, and other letters would just be put in the recycle bin.

One day as she was reading the mail, she opened the letter that was inside a small cardboard box that carried a Boise Idaho postmark.

The letter

Boise, Idaho

Dear President Hunter:

I am returning to you what rightfully belongs to you and to the church. I am sorry for taking something that has been so precious to the prophets through the years.

When I worked as a secretary for brother Benson, he was late getting to the Saturday afternoon session of general conference. It was the last one he attended before he got too sick to function any more. A few minutes before conference was to begin, he called me in to the office, and told me he was late, and could I please lock his things up in the vault. I told him I would be glad to help out. I was left alone in his office to take care of closing things up.

There were a few papers; some draft versions of his talk, some correspondence about the expansion of the church into Russia, and a small carved box. I put the papers in the vault first, and came back to put the box away. As I picked it up, it seemed to sing to me. It felt like I had walked out of an air conditioned building and into the sunshine, heat, and comfort of a brilliant Utah summer. I have had many spiritual experiences in my life, but this one topped them all.

I just had to see what was in the box. I opened it and saw two stones that looked like eggs, they seemed to draw me into them with their clarity. In a moment, the whole story of my life passed before my eyes. I knew without question that I was looking at the Urim and Thummim. Once I had saw my life with such clarity, it was unbearable to think of living without their light, so I took them, believing that I could use them better than the prophet.

I knew that church security and the law would be after me as soon as they found out about what I had stolen, so I asked the Urim and Thummim how to evade being caught. My wife and I immediately left our home, and set out on the road, being lead by the Urim and Thummim as to where to find lodging and sincere seekers of truth who would help us on our journey.

After a time, we settled into a routine. We would ask the Urim and Thummim to lead us to a family who were seeking further light and knowledge, we would drive to their home, knock on the door, and tell them we were sent by God to help them solve such and such specific problem that they had been praying about. Or we would move into a ward that was struggling with some sort of problem or other. We would help out for a month or two, until the membership clerk got around to asking about our membership records, then we would move on.

The Urim and Thummim always kept us safe, and guided us in all ways. It warned us about when the brethren were about to locate us, and we would move on. It provided financial resources for us.

It was a glorious time. We became nomads, wandering the earth, fulfilling the will of our creator in all things. We had always wanted to serve a mission as a couple, and the Lord had opened the way. It was a beautiful and happy time. The happiest we have ever been.

We missed our family, and I would often use the Urim and Thummim to check up on them. One day, however, when I asked to be shown the whereabouts of one I my grandsons, I saw him in an intimacy with his wife. It had never crossed my mind that I could use the Urim and Thummim in this way, and I vowed never to do it again, but the memory stayed with me, and before I knew what I was doing, I had watched all of my married children and grandchildren in similar situations. I began to watch other people too; President Bush, movie actors, Senators, GA's.

Now I find that everything and anything I had never before been drawn to is freely and easily available to me. I feel drawn by the evil. I have not yet committed adultery against my wife, but I have seen that if I do not get rid of the Urim and Thummim that I will.

So I am returning the Urim and Thummim to you. Please accept my deepest apologies to you and to the church. The stains on this paper are from my tears of deep regret. I cannot live any longer with the memory of what I have done. I have looked into hell, and so I could never kill myself, but I cannot live any longer with the temptation and the memory of my guilt. After I mail this box to you, I am going to go sit on a bench by the gazebo in the Albertson Memorial Park. There will be a lightning strike, and I will be sitting in the exact spot where it will hit. It will be said that it was a bizarre act of Nature, and I will be guiltless of taking my own life. I hope the Lord will not hold me guilty for President Benson's poor health. He never did recover from the shock of loosing the Urim and Thummim.

I have also enclosed $132,000, this money was brought to me by the Urim and Thummim, so I figure it belongs to you also.

Sincerely,

Jason Davis

Here We go Again

That evening when my cousin left the church office building, she had a very special cardboard box tucked securely under her arm. Surely she said to herself, "I'd never be so foolish as brother Davis."

Well, to make a very long story shorter, my cousin took the money that was in the box with the Urim and Thummim, and used it to buy a tractor trailer. She has been driving around the country helping people. She will meet someone on the road as she meets me. They talk. She gives them further light and knowledge, and then goes away. Several months later, after it has had time to sink in, she will come back.

When the doctor saw my cousin, the diagnosis he made was that she should not be driving, because the stress was bad for her health. At that moment, it all made perfect sense to her. She has literally worried herself sick. She has been using the Urim and Thummim to look into the lives of those people she meets, and has been trying to fix all their problems. But each of them have their free agency, and they just can't seem to grasp the message of the gospel as fast as she would like them to. So she drives, and she worries about people. It has made her sick.

The Gift

After telling me her story, my cousin reached into the sleeping compartment of her rig, and pulled out a small wooden box. I immediately noticed the beehives and seagulls that were carved into it. I also noticed the finish. It seemed to be a some sort of oil finish, like linseed or Danish. There was no paint or varnish on the box. There were three gold-like hinges on the back, and a golden clasp on the front. My cousin handed me the box and said, will you please take it, I can't handle it any more. I held the box quietly for some time, as I reflected on my life, and what it means to me, and what it would mean to follow a stone wherever it might lead. It seemed like I sat there for the longest time, as the story of my life from the earliest beginnings in the pre-existence, until my own spirit children populate worlds, passed before my eyes. I was at once the created, and the creator.

I was loath to accept the responsibility the box would bring, but in the end, when I had weighed the pros and the cons, I said in a tiny whisper, "Yes."

I walked away from her truck with three items, the small wooden box, a letter addressed to President Hunter from a brother Jason Davis, and a clipping from a Boise newspaper which carries the headline. "Vagrant killed by Lightning"

As I started my car, I said to myself, "Surely, I'd never be so foolish..."

--
The End

This story is mostly fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or objects, is coincidental. The names may have been changed to protect the imagined participants.

>ANYWAY- I just read the 'story' of
>your cousin giving you the Urim and Thummim...
>Just how much is 'Fact' (or am I just assuming this
>'fictional' story has NO purpose on Absalom ?)

Why do so many people ask me how much of this story is fact and how much is fiction? I should post a stronger disclaimer on my web site.... I am afraid as it is that people will be breaking into the house to steal something I don't have.... But since you keep asking.....

The story came to me, all at once, as revelation, perhaps fifteen years ago. I kept it hidden inside until after my awakening, at which point it became important that I write it down, and post it for purposes known only to the Lord. Perhaps it will cause someone to wonder about whether it could happen to them.... Which just might trigger a thought, which could lead to who knows what. Perhaps it is revelation to me or about someone, and it just hasn't happened yet. Revelation is sometimes odd that way, don't really know if you're seeing the past the present, or the future....

I do not claim that any part of this story is true, although nearly every sentence has truth at it's root. For example: I know a truck driver, and we meet on the road, and we talk beautifully. The Flying J is at mile marker 122 and really does serve overly spicy Chinese food. The Albertson Memorial Park in Boise has a gazebo. Secretaries forward the members letters to the apostles back to the Stake Presidents. Etc... etc... etc...

I used considerable literary license in telling and interpreting the story. Not only did I draw on truth as much as I could, but I drew on LDS folklore and traditions to fill in non-existent details. For example: seagulls and beehives. (I deliberately confused the difference between seer stone and Urim & Thummim, making it seem as if they are the same, when they are not.)

I have no reason to believe from church history that the LDS church has ever had Urim and Thummim since Joseph Smith gave them back to the Angel Moroni. It is at best an oral tradition within the church that a seer stone was or is owned by the church. (I have read about some Fundamentalist Mormons being given access to Urim and Thummim. I also know people who have successfully chosen and used seer stones.)

Some time ago, a holy being, from mount Sinai gave me a stone, which caused me to tingle. I felt it wasn't mine, but belonged to someone I saw when touching the stone. I gave it to that dear friend, who exclaimed with delighted suprize, "It burns." I replied, "I know." I've not returned to Hill Cumorah or talked with that friend since. Wonder what the burning stone of light is up to at Cumorah?...

>I read across somethings that quoted Joseph 
>Smith saying we should all have a seer stone.
>Are there seer stones around? 

I don't currently have a seer stone, but some of my friends do. They say, that if you desire one, you should ask Father to lead you to it, and that the Holy Spirit will guide you in selecting appropriately. Seems to be a matter of what works well for you, rather than what other people might find useful.

They indicate, that the light that powers a seer stone comes from within your soul, and that since it is (partially/mostly) you that is providing the energy to light the stone, that the specific type of stone is less important than what you bring to the experience with you.

They say that they hold the stone, and meditate upon it, and that before long (1/2 hour) they begin to see flashes of light, and that with experience, they see people, and etc, and that it becomes easier with practice.

[Commons] [School] [Garden] [Kitchen] [Meditorium] [Library]
parable/seer-stone.htm

Archive/Mirror Of: The Absalom Collection