Feedback please

In the new ward they want the clerks writing on the ward newsletter in rotation with the bishopric members. This is my first time at it. I have to e-mail it out by tomorrow. I would love to get some feedback on how I did, and any recommendations. It's scary writing for the world. Here it is, it is titled Spiritual Crocodiles. Thanks!


Our beloved Apostle, Elder Boyd K. Packer, describes himself as an animal lover, and loves to study the animals of Africa in particular. Elder Packer had the opportunity to visit Africa on one of his church assignments. There he learned a lesson that I ponder often. I encourage you to read the talk in its entirety. The original talk was given in 1976, but it is even more applicable in our day and time. If you have the internet, I highly recommend you view the video presentation of the message at; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPfO13XONM

Elder Packer was in Africa and had a chance to view the animals in their natural habitat. It was a particularly dry summer, and sources of water were hard to come by. Elder Packer was taken by a guide where he watched a group of antelope try and drink from water that had collected in elephant footprints. The antelope would get close to the footprint and run. Elder Packer thought that the antelope were afraid of lions, but could not see any around. He asked the guide about this, and got a single word answer, “Crocodiles”. Elder Packer thought the guide was joking, and asked him again. The answer again was, “Crocodiles.” Elder Packer’s response to this was, “Nonsense, There are no crocodiles out there, anyone can see that.” The guide and Elder Packer drove to another watering hole where an embankment overlooked the area. They got out of the car and the guide said; “There, see for yourself.” Elder Packer couldn’t see anything except the mud, a little water, and the nervous animals in the distance. Then all at once he saw it!—a large crocodile, settled in the mud, waiting for some unsuspecting animal to get thirsty enough to come for a drink. Suddenly Elder Packer became a believer! When the guide could see that Elder Packer was willing to listen, he continued with the lesson. “There are crocodiles all over the park,” he said, “not just in the rivers. We don’t have any water without a crocodile somewhere near it, and you’d better count on it.” Elder Packer then speaks of the watering holes of life and says;

“Those ahead of you in life have probed about the water holes a bit and raise a voice of warning about crocodiles. Not just the big, gray lizards that can bite you to pieces, but spiritual crocodiles, infinitely more dangerous, and more deceptive and less visible, even, than those well-camouflaged reptiles of Africa. These spiritual crocodiles can kill or mutilate your souls. They can destroy your peace of mind and the peace of mind of those who love you. Those are the ones to be warned against, and there is hardly a watering place in all of mortality now that is not infested with them.”

I relate to this topic because I am in the business of responding to those in need. Never a day goes by that I do not respond to the request of help from someone is some form or another. I receive the calls for service or assistance through a radio. Some calls sound like, “Respond to a family fight”, or “Respond to an alcohol offense”. There are thousands of different calls I go to ,and they are all different. However if there was a spiritual radio, I imagine that the calls would sound like this, “Respond to a spiritual crocodile attack, one soul down, and another badly injured.”

Elder Packer says, “Some of us are appointed now, as you will be soon, to be guides and rangers. Now we don’t use those titles very much. We go under the titles of parents—father and mother—bishop, leader, adviser. Our assignment is to see that you get through mortality without being injured by these spiritual crocodiles.”

As we quickly enter a new school year, a lot of us are going into new situations, or have loved ones that are. It may be a new school, a new sports team, a new job, some new friends, or more spare time. I think as we reach this milestone it gives us a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the danger of spiritual crocodiles. They are so well camouflaged, that they can hide in places we can’t imagine. Elder Packer was surprised that a crocodile could hide in the footprint of an elephant, but was assured they can. These crocodiles can hide among our best friends; enter our homes through an internet cable or a TV Set. The places spiritual crocodiles can hide is without number. Fortunately, there is spiritual first aid for those who have been bitten. The bishop of the ward is the guide in charge of this first aid. He can also treat those who have been badly morally mauled by these spiritual crocodiles—and see them completely healed.

Brothers and Sisters, I encourage you to use this as an opportunity to personally, and as a family, evaluate and discuss where spiritual crocodiles lurk in our community. I encourage you to plan and discuss how to avoid these dangers. I know that if you are willing to try this, not only your souls will be safer, but you will be physically safer, and your families will be blessed. I leave you with the parting words that I have shared over a thousand times at shift change with my co-workers, “Stay Safe”

Brother Marchant

Fair Time

Well the symbol that summer is almost over is here, Fair Time!. I am only excited because this has been a rough summer in our house. We are all hoping that with school starting it brings some consistency to our home. I dread fair week because work is so busy. But despite being incredibly busy at work we are half way thru the fair already. Wednesday was the fair parade, and I was able to get the family a killer spot in the middle of a road I shut down. So while everyone else had to camp out their spots forever, the spot I got them wasn't available till the road was shut down.

After I got home from the parade we took the kids to the fair. They have had a rough summer and so they earned their trip to the fair. Unfortunately I had to work grave yards and our time ran out before the kids had their fill, but it didn't stop them from having fun while they were there.

We went on family night so all the rides only cost a dollar. The trade-off was that you had to wait in line forever.

The first ride the kids got to pick was this enormous slide. It got picked because the line was the shortest. The line to the Ferris wheel was over an hour long. Needless to say, no Ferris wheel for us. As you can see from the video, Kallie comes down first followed by Brian



This next ride is called, "Gee Wizz". We waiting in line for 30 minutes for it. The closer we got to the front of the line the more nervous she got. Then as she was about to get on she said, "Dad, I don't think I wanna go on this." After investing 30 minutes in line I didn't want to see her quit right there so I asked her if she would be brave and go for me. The little trooper did just that. For the first 3/4 of the ride Kallie looked absolutely terror stricken. But as the ride went on her face turned into a perma-grin. And, when the ride was over she ran up to me and said, "Dad, that was my most favorite ride ever, can I go again?" You can hear a little bit of the commentary by Natalie and I as we watch her decide she likes it. Just for viewing purposes they are the two on the left, you can't miss Brian in his baby blue Utah Jazz hat.



We ended up going on this ride again for our last ride. This time Dad had to go because Kallie needed to show me how cool it really was. Daddy liked it, his tummy did not (it stinks getting old)

Below is a picture of the kid's getting ready to ride for the first time. Kallie is so brave to sit there when she was terrified to go. I am so glad it turned into a good experience for her.


This one I didn't have the best light to get the kids, next year when I upgrade my iPhone then I will have a flash. But here are the kids in front of their "favorite ride".


Usually I dread the fair, but I did really have a good time taking the kids this year. Now I just have to get them back to Disneyland!!!!

Another neat experience!!

It was a really good night at work. It had been steadily busy all night long. The night had started out with a vehicle fire and just kept going after that.


From there I dealt with a whole bunch of different things. Kids out past curfew, vandalism, and runaway juveniles. The night rolled by quickly and I was home and ready for bed. Lately I have been having trouble falling asleep with all the crazy shifts I have been working, so the Doc prescribed me some sleeping medicine. So I took me medicine and headed to bed. I had only been asleep for 30 minutes when Natalie was waking me up. Today was Stake Conference. I had not planned on going since I usually plan on going to bed during the day so I am ready to go for work the next night. Well Natalie wasn't waking me up to go to Stake Conference. There was a member of the Stake Presidency on the phone. Let me give you a little bit of background.

I posted previously about all the ward re-alignment of borders that had occurred and how it had affected our family. Well just to give you a general idea about what was going on. This Stake Conference was for ALL of Tremonton and the surrounding cities. The reason being is the church has authorized the creation of another stake. Too add even more to that, the two current Stake Presidencies had reached their time of tenure, so both of those were being re-organized. So the work to be done involved creating a new stake and the leadership of said stake. Also to call two other new stake presidencies. Because this was a major ordeal, the church sent two authorities to oversee the changes. They sent Elder Ronald A. Rasband (Senior President of the Presidency of the Seventy) and Elder Carl B. Cook (Area Seventy for Northern Utah).

Now back to my phone call. The Stake Presidency is aware I am a police officer. The conversation went a little bit like this. "Brother Marchant are you going to be coming to Stake Conference today?" I explained that I hadn't been planning on it due to my work schedule. "Would you consider coming, we have a little bit of a security concern, and Elder Rasband has requested that you attend. Despite my sleeping pill and 30 minutes of sleep there was no question about what I would say. I told them that I would be right there.

I hurried and got dressed, filled my pockets with weapons, handcuffs and bullets and headed to the Stake Center. I met in the Stake Presidents office and met with a person that I thought was church security. It turns out I was talking to Elder Carl B. Cook. He told me that Elder Rasband had met with an individual, and that he got a really "negative prompting". I was asked to not confront the individual, but to follow him and take appropriate police action if warranted. We went out into the lobby and the individual was discreetly pointed out to me. All of the sudden I got a really negative prompting and my warning bells went off. The individual was skinny, wearing a knee length trench coat and a backpack. The individual was pacing like a caged lion outside the Stake President's office. I grabbed an ushers badge in an attempt to blend in and kept an eye on the guy. Thankfully, Elder Rasband was already in the chapel mingling with the crowd so I didn't have to worry about a confrontation in the hallway. My next concern was that he was going to try and make a scene at the pulpit as the meeting began. But right before the meeting he made a bee-line to the back of the building. I followed the man and he went onto the stage at the very back of the meeting room. He picked a back row seat and I hid behind some curtains.

After waiting for about 30 minutes here, all the sudden the man got up and started walking towards the front of the church. I followed him and he set up in the lobby on the east side of the chapel. The man sat there until the meeting was almost over. It would take an idiot to not know he was being followed at this point, but I didn't care. I was glad he knew that if went somewhere, I was going with him.

As the closing hymn started the man got up and booked it around towards the stake presidents office. I thought he was going to wait for President Rasband, but he kept going. The man kept going around the building and exited on the north side of the building. He walked around the building to the east side of the church, got in a car and left. I ran the guys license plate on my iPhone and found out that the man was from Ogden

I really feel like the man knew I was following him, but I was grateful that nothing happened. I reported to Elder Cook when the meeting was over and told him what had happened. He thanked me, and was off to set apart new Stake Presidents.

Once again, I have been blessed with an opportunity to participate in a once in a lifetime experience because of my job. What a great opportunity to serve..

Everyone kept telling me how good Inception was..... They were right.

I first wanted to see Inception when I saw a preview for it when I went and saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It looked intriguing to me. And then life got busy and I didn't have a chance to see it. But that didn't stop me talking to people about it. And I didn't hear a single negative thing about it. In fact, it was just the opposite. Everyone kept telling my how good it was. So I let Natalie know that I wanted to see it, and we finally had a chance to go see it. I am not going to say anything about the movie, because I don't want to ruin one single bit of it. But both Natalie and I loved it. In fact I liked it so much I could not imagine how someone could have ever thought of the idea of it. I definitly recomend that you see this. The movie is long, about 2 and a half hours long. But well worth the time. The thing I liked most about this movie was how much Natalie liked it. It makes me feel good to drag her to a show I find interesting and think that she is going to hate, and to be suprised like that. Inception is a must see, at least once.

A once in a lifetime experience.

We have been so blessed to have had a temple announced for Brigham City. I was a bit hesitant when I heard about where they were going to build the temple. But I have gained a testimony that "this is the place."

Because of the immensity of the event of the groundbreaking, a request was put out by the Brigham City Police Department for police assistance. I figured that I may not ever get the opportunity to work such a special event as the groundbreaking of the Temple.

I volunteered to work, and was truly blessed for making the sacrifice of being awake when the sun was out (since I am a graveyard person at the moment). I was stationed on the south east corner of the tabernacle. And It was a wonderful experience. The neatest part that I wasn't expecting was being able to hear everything that was said.

I have followed the posts and have been watching the news because of how excited I have been. I am going to post a few pictures and I will add above them my thoughts.

(This was the first picture of the temple that was released. I watched as this picture sent shock waves through everyone that saw it. It is obvious that the design is inspired and I think it is absolutely beautiful)

(I found this picture today. And despite trying all the tricks I know, I can't find a bigger picture than this. This is my absolute favorite picture of the temple. I know, not hard there are only two. I think the mountains in the background make this picture awe inspiring. And I know exactly what Boyd K. Packer was talking about now that I see how the Tabernacle looks behind the Temple. Elder Packer said that he had nothing to do with the location of the temple. And he recalled when he went with President Monson to look for the temple site.

"He called and said, 'I'd like you to come with me. We're leaving in 30 minutes.' … We came up and stood on this site and memories, memories, memories! Now I can see in my mind's eye a temple sitting here in about two years time. It will be gorgeous. It will be white. You will see in the design of it reflections of previous temples that have been built, particularly the Salt Lake Temple. And you will know that it will be a beacon from all over the valley.")

(I also just found this picture today. What an awesome depiction of the area. The picture was entitled "Brigham City Temple Square. We are truly blessed)

(It was very cool for me to see how the church protects our leaders, and too see all the steps taken to make sure everything went well. One of their major concerns was to keep the crowds away from Elder Packer. He is in poor health and they didn't want him to get mobbed. During the course of all of it, they failed to mention that Elder Nelson would be there as well. That was a surprise to me, and very cool. Considering how frail Elder Packer is, I found it interesting that he told the crowds that he would be back for the dedication of the temple.)

(Here is a view of the crowds that gathered on the Tabernacle block. The temple block was entirely covered with people, and the tabernacle block was about half way full.)

(And last but not least, I know some of you may not have been able to stay up to date with the news. So with a bit of effort I was able to extract the news video from the Internet)

Maybe if I am lucky they will need more Police assistance when the dedication comes around. Either way I feel grateful for the opportunity and the testimony gained from this event.

We can't tell what way is up or down

They say if you get caught in an avalanche the danger is you don't know what is up or down. You can be stuck under a foot of snow and dig in the completely wrong direction. They say that you can see if you can see your breath and dig towards the direction it rises, or you can spit and dig the opposite way it falls. I know this sounds gross, but this seems to be our summer. It may sound like I am complaining here, please don't mistake this, we have been very blessed,

This summer seems to be tossing us too and fro. We have had to something this summer that we have never had to do before. With the lack of a consistent babysitter, Natalie and I have had to work opposite shifts. This has been really good for the kids because they have been home for the majority of the time and with one of their parents. This makes it hard for Natalie and I to have any time together. Now add too that all the other stuff we have and had going on. Natalie had girls camp this summer. But that wasn't enough, three weeks before girls camp they announced that there would be a meeting discussing the re-alignment of ward boundaries. We were a little worried about getting put into another ward, and then everything came to a climax when I was called into the Stake President's office for an interview. Sure enough we were put new ward and I got the same calling that I had in the other ward, Ward Clerk. The only thing we didn't know was who was in the ward with us.

So the next Sunday we went to the meeting and found out that we are now in another ward. Almost all of our friends got to stay in the old ward and we felt pretty picked on. Natalie was freaked out about girls camp and not being in the ward. And to top it off, I had to go to school out of town for the entire next week. Not to mention our sweet Kallie Kay freaks out about the smallest of things, and even Natalie and I felt like this was a big thing.

The first day at church went well, and the kids really liked that the new church was two floors and they got to go to primary upstairs. Natalie ended up with a call as a counselor in the Relief Society. And then two days into that calling, the Bishop from the old ward called her and asked if she could still go to girls camp.

So our schedule wasn't lightened at all because Natalie got to go to girls camp. Now in the last week I have worked 3 graves followed by 2 days two graves, one day off, three days and and then back to graves. Rough times. The good news is that all of the days I have been able to work on computer projects for the police department, and attend some computer schooling that has given me some new knowledge and I love that.

I got a Birthday present last week when it was announced that our ward would be moving to our old building. So no more upstairs primary, but I much prefer that building.

The summer is almost over and we can feel it. The home stretch is in front of us. We have my birthday and a county fair, and then the kids are back to school.

Brian is signed up for flag football and soccer and Kallie is signed up for soccer. So chances that we get any more relaxed is probably just a dream. But we will take it head on no matter what comes in front of us.

Family Pictures

So, I am trying to make up for the lack of posts and I have been trying to think of good topics. So anyways, here are the family pictures we took about a month and a half ago. I am including them full size in the event that you dare see if you printer can handle the ugliness known as Andy. So anywho here is my smokin hot wife, my cutie kids, and some troll that tagged along with them.








Hope you enjoy them as much as I have. This is the current desktop on my laptop. This one I made smaller, let me know if you want desktop size.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Review

So when I went to NOVA training I had some time in the Evening to go see a show.  So I went to this magnificent theater at the University Mall and saw the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  I was hesitant to go because all of the critics had blasted the movie. 

I was extremely impressed with the movie.  Great Story and a good time.  The more I thought about the movie afterwards, the more I liked it.  The next day I went home, and Natalie and the kids wanted to see a movie.  I had liked the movie so much, I recommended that the family see it.  We did, and Natalie and the kids loved it as well.  I have talked to friends as well and haven’t heard a single negative review of the movie.  We highly recommend it.