A week ago Friday, I went camping with the deacons. We went to a lake in the mountains and fished on Saturday. The young men started talking about the upcoming presidential election, and I was surprised at their reasons for their opposition to Democrat candidate Barach Obama. Their view is that Obama is the ultimate demon whose primary focus in life is the destruction of the unborn.

I find Obama's pro-choice position troubling, but McCain is running around saying that if he's elected things will change, when McCain has been a stanch supporter of Bush's policies for the last eight years, policies which are financially disastrous.

We caught six fish, most during a half-hour interval about 9:30 in the morning. My son D was having trouble with his fishing pole and I was trying to fix it and when trying to cast it, I caught his ear. It went in and came out. (So much for supporting the Brethren about no piercings.)

I'm still reading The Brothers Karamasov. It is a ponderous book. I checked out Cat on a Hit Tin Roof and read it in one evening. It was about people who talk and talk and talk, but never listen to or really care about anyone but themselves, and how miserable such people are and how they make everyone around them miserable.

There is a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Arizona which defines marriage as “one man, one woman.” Last Sunday, a member of the stake presidency came the third hour and asked people to register to vote, and indicated that the Brethren were in favor of the amendment, but that ultimately each person needed to choose how he would vote. The Church, on their website, has published a document entitled The Divine Institution of Marriage which explains very well why we feel the way we do and the need to keep marriage defined in the traditional way because of the safeguards it provides—primarily to prevent government interference in how our children are raised and limitations being placed on religious organizations who support traditional marriage. That website is: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage

Yesterday, I attended the baptism for a young man in our ward. A Beehive-age girl played the piano. During the service a 10-year old girl came into the meeting and sat by me. While we were waiting for them to put on dry clothing, the pianist played hymns and the 10-year old hummed along with them. It was a choice experience to be there for that.

Afterwards, we went to the temple with J and L's family. It was a good day.