Week 11; Transfers

March 30, 1988

On Thursday, we gave a short Book of Mormon presentation to Leslie down on Corina. Unfortunately, we did not have a marked copy of the Book of Mormon with us, so we will have to drop one by tomorrow. I don’t know why we went all the way down there only to give here a short presentation instead of taking a little bit longer and teaching the first discussion.

On Friday, we tried to see one contact, but he was not at home.  Transfers are next week, and my trainer is convinced that he is out of here.  I guess that explains why the work has fallen off.

The Menlo Park Stake had its conference this weekend.  After the adult session on Saturday night, our ward mission leader, as he was driving us home, said that he wanted to take us out for pie.  As we were trying to think of a place to go for pie, our WML said that he had been craving Chinese food all night, then he mentioned a place called Chinese Delight, which he said his car automatically goes to everyday, and then he goes from there.  Moments later we were pulling into the parking lot and we all said "What the heck, let's do it."

Earlier in the day, Elder Golf and I rode all over our area -- some elders, a long time ago, divided the area into five subdivisions, and we went to all five -- dropping off thank you notes and trying to see contacts.  Additionally, we hopped the zone boundary to visit Golf's aunt in Mountain View.

On Sunday, we had the general session of stake conference today at the Menlo Park chapel. President Douglas was in attendance and was asked to bear his testimony. Afterward we attended a baptism for a family of five. The lucky missionaries were Elders Victor and November. The whole thing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. It fired me up so that I can’t wait until my first baptism, even more than before. That strengthened my determination to work hard.

This area has been dead since October. Golf and I have not worked very hard these past two months. I wonder how hard he worked with his previous companions. If we had worked harder and given it our all, while living the mission rules, we might have had success. But we did not give it our all and our Father in Heaven did not give us all his blessings. If Golf is transferred, I hope my new companion will be a hard worker, one that will give his all so that we can breathe life back into this area.

On Monday morning, Elders Golf and Lima had a minor bike accident. They were riding down Hamilton Avenue, which parallels University Avenue, when they saw two guys point at them and start running after them. Golf and Lima sped up to make their escape by turning right onto Hale Avenue. Golf was in the lead and was hugging the curb; he saw the cause of his demise at the last second.

At the corners of many streets in Palo Alto the sidewalk is flush with the street and underneath is a drainage culvert. Golf saw too late that he had hugged the curb too tightly, he tried to turn away but he was out of room, so he smashed into lip of the sidewalk. His back wheel flipped up and he walked his bike four steps before Lima smashed into him from behind.

Lima had heard the noise of Golf’s collision with the culvert and he thought, “No, he’s not dumb enough to hit that.” Alas, they both fell in a heap, fortunately for Golf, his arm kept his face from hitting the pavement. Neither suffered any major injuries, just bumps and bruises, their bikes, on the other hand, were not so fortunate.  Golf's front rim, which struck the culvert head on, was bent inward, a total loss; Lima’s front forks were bent out of shape. As they lay twisted on the ground, a police car pulled up and the officer asked if they were okay. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, back at the flat, I was passing off the fourth discussion to Elder Fox. Elders Victor and November came down later and November and I passed off the fifth and sixth discussions. Tonight we went over to our ward mission leader's home and they invited us to stay for dinner. We earned our keep by teaching family home evening after dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we went to see two of our contacts, Todd and Lloyd, but neither were at home.  In the afternoon, I went with Elder Fox to see one of their contacts who had become one of ours with the ward boundary changes.  Nicholas had some questions about baptism, as taught in the second discussion; he thinks a lot and seems to be teachable.

Transfer calls came around noon.  Elder Golf is finally getting out of here; all week he has been impatient to move on.  Elder Fox is going as well; he has been called to be a zone leader in Los Gatos -- couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Last night my companion got a call from his trainer.  I was in the other room, but I could not help but overhear some of what was said.  It was no surprise to hear that he was happy to be leaving, but then he said that his last two months here had been a joke.  Yeah, that might explain why we haven't been working all that hard.  That really got to me, that he would consider my training period to be a joke.  I don't think my companion ever really accepted my quiet personality.  I love the guy, but what a jerk.

I'm sorry, I never wanted to write negative things about my companions, but, wow.  When I wrote in my journal last night, I had been in a mood to be magnanimous.  I admit that I am feeling less so, today.

For the transfer, we drove Elders Golf and Fox up to Edgewood chapel in Redwood City to meet the transfer van.  This mission is small enough geographically that the mission mechanics can pick the elders up at different points in the mission and take them to other points to meet their new companions.  Golf and Fox would ride in the van, which was pulling a trailer with their luggage, south to the next zone.  My new companion got out of the van after riding south from San Fransisco (the City).

Elder Lima's new companion was not on the transfer van as he is actually being transferred in from the Fresno mission.  He was recently diagnosed with cancer and will be getting radiation treatments at the Stanford Medical Center.  We took my new comp, Elder Lake [as usual, names have been changed to protect the innocent -- it may have been obvious that I have been using the phonetic alphabet, but I couldn't have two Elder Limas] back to the flat so he could unpack, then we went to get a pizza before returning to Edgewood chapel to pick up Elder Lima's new comp.

When we got the pizza I noticed that Golf had left a note in my wallet reminding me that I still owed him a few bucks from a previous pizza purchase -- I had also found a note in my closet.  I was surprised that he hadn't talked to me personally.  There were a few times during the last two months that he gave me the "silent treatment"; I guess he wanted to see how I would like it.  It wasn't a particularly effective approach.

Enough about my trainer.  I've got a new comp, who seems like a good guy, and a chance to start over.  Life is good.

Love

Douglas

--

As I wrote a few weeks ago, around Christmas time I got a card from my trainer in which he thanked me for everything he learned during our two months together, and also that we sat together at lunch during the mission Christmas conference.  To this day we are still friends.  I want to add that, during those two months, he was sick a lot, so the lack of hard work was not all the result of his attitude at the time.  After few weeks in his new area he had another bike accident, this time it was because he simply passed out while riding.  It appeared that he was dealing with some persistent virus -- like Mono, or something.  A few years after my mission I had a case of Mono that left me feeling fatigued for 15 months, so I can imagine what he might have been struggling with.

Tactics and Strategy

In April 1975, Colonel Harry G. Summers, U.S. Army, was visiting Hanoi in Vietnam, where he had a conversation with a Colonel Tu of the North Vietnamese Army.  "You know," said Summers, "you never defeated us on the battlefield."  After thinking for a moment, Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."

Summers would later write that "One of the most frustrating aspects of the Vietnam War from the [U.S.] Army's point of view is that as far as logistics and tactics were concerned we succeeded in everything we set out to do. . . .  On the battlefield . . . the Army was unbeatable.  In engagement after engagement the forces of the Viet Cong and of the North Vietnamese Army were thrown back with terrible losses.  Yet, in the end, it was North Vietnam, not the United States, that emerged victorious.  How could we have succeeded so well, yet failed so miserably?"

Summers would write a book seeking to answer that question.  "At least part of the answer," he wrote, "appears to be that we saw Vietnam as unique rather than in strategic context.  This misconception grew out of our neglect of military strategy in the post-World War II nuclear era."  Instead of providing answers as to why the U.S. should fight in Vietnam, military and civilian leaders in the 1960s, only provided answers as to what means should be used.  "[I]nstead of providing professional military advice on how to fight the war, the military more and more joined with the systems analysts in determining the material means we were to use."

Somehow, it became an Army precept that the service did not make strategy, or worse, that there was no such thing as Army strategy.  Strategy was driven by budget considerations and became a function of resource allocation.  "The task of the Army, wrote Summers, "was to design and procure material, arms and equipment and to organize, train, and equip soldiers for the Defense Establishment."  In Vietnam, Summers would conclude, "a failure in strategic military doctrine manifested itself on the battlefield.  Because we did not focus on the political aim to be achieved . . . our so-called strategy was never a strategy at all."

Indeed, the desire of the civilian leadership in Washington was to send a message to the leadership in Hanoi; rather than seeking to defeat North Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson hoped to persuade Ho Chi Minh to end his support for the Viet Cong insurgents in South Vietnam.  The president is supposed to set the policy and the generals are supposed to formulate a strategy to achieve that policy; because the policy was to send a message to Hanoi, the military commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland opted for an attrition "strategy" against forces of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.  "Westy" hoped to inflict enough losses on the enemy that they would unable to continue the fight or be persuaded to quit fighting. The result: Tactical victory, but strategic defeat; instead of eroding the will of the North Vietnamese to fight, it was the American will that was eroded.

The ability to prevail on the battlefield, but still lose was a lesson that should have been learned during World War II.  A classic example was the Battle of the Coral Sea, a naval battle in which aircraft carriers fought each other for the first time -- which might be one reason why the Army failed to learn the lesson.  In the two day contest, the U.S. Navy lost a large carrier sunk while sinking a smaller Japanese carrier.  The tally sheet gave the tactical victory to the Japanese, but the Americans had stopped an attempt by the Japanese to invade Port Moresby on the southern coast of Papua, New Guinea, thus gaining a strategic victory.

Believing, falsely, that it had employed a counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam, the U.S. Army after the war purged anything and everything to do with counterinsurgency.  The Army repeated the mistake of the post-World War II years by focusing on tactical proficiency in order to defeat a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.  The proficiency achieved was put on full display against a different enemy, and on a different battlefield, during the First Gulf War, which liberated Kuwait from the forces of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Twelve years later, that tactical proficiency was again displayed in the invasion of Iraq.  But after the fall of Baghdad, the Army was hard pressed to cope with the chaos that immediately followed, or the insurgency that rose out of it.  An Army that had wanted nothing to do with counterinsurgency, flailed around for four years trying to find a way to end the war in Iraq.  It was not until the so-called surge in 2007, that a counterinsurgency strategy was implemented under the command of General David Petraeus.

What lessons can we learn from the experience of the Army in Vietnam and Iraq?  How can we apply those lessons in our personal lives?  Do tactics and strategy matter?

To answer the latter question, one might consult the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.  For whatever reason, Mormon chose to spend a lot of the precious space in his abridged record on the wars between the Lamanites and the Nephites.  For example, in chapter 49 he details the defenses created by Captain Moroni at the cities of Ammonihah and Noah.  In an earlier battle, the Lamanites had destroyed Ammonihah in one day, and Captain Moromi correctly surmised that the Lamanites would return to that city expecting another easy battle.  Instead, the Lamanites were deterred by the city's strong defenses and they chose, instead, to attack the city of Noah.  Again, Captain Moroni anticipated this move, and the city of Noah was even more strongly fortified; the Lamanites only attacked the city of Noah because they had taken an oath to do so.

What is our strategy?  What tactics do we employ in order to achieve that strategy?

Sometimes we lose the battle, but we still have the opportunity to win the war.


Sources:

Gordon, M. R. & Trainor, B. E. (2012). The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, From George W. Bush to Barack Obama.  New York: Random House.

Summers, H. G. (1982). On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.

Week 10: Slowly but Surely

March 23, 1988

On Thursday morning, we were out on our way to see one of our contacts and we saw some Jehovah's Witnesses, who also happened to be out and about.  Our contact was not at home, and on our way to our next stop we spotted the JWs talking to one of our ward members, so we circled back to bail him out.  As we walked up to his doorstep he was saying, “I don’t know of a scripture that supports my beliefs but I’m sure there is one.”  Then he saw us, “And I’ll give you two Mormon Missionaries.”  They turned around and just freaked out when they saw us.  "No, no," one said, "we don't want to talk with Mormon elders."  They gave us and the member a pamphlet and beat a hasty retreat.

On Friday, we had a teaching appointment set with Lloyd, our only investigator.  We showed him the video How Rare a Possession, but didn't teach him a discussion.  As we watched the video the spirit was very strong, and I prayed in my heart that Lloyd would feel it.  I don't think that I have ever prayed as hard for someone as I did then.  I wanted so much for Lloyd to feel the spirit.

Before we started the video, he told us that he was Catholic and would probably stay that way.  He just likes to have us come by and talk with him and he's not really very interested in changing.  He hasn't read any of the passages marked in the copy of the Book of Mormon that we gave him.  He was recently in the hospital for a heart operation, so this was the first time I met him.

Also on Friday, I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the third time, the first time on my mission.

On Saturday, we went on team-ups with the assistants to the president.  Elder Baker and I tracted a street without success.  We did talk to a physically handicapped individual -- he had been in a drunk driving auto accident.  We told him that his body would be made whole in the resurrection.  His response was that Christ was dead, which is his problem with Christianity.  We testified to him that the Savior lives.

In the afternoon, Elder Golf and I stopped by to see a graduate student that he and his last companion had tracted into.  He had read the passages in the marked Book of Mormon he had been given, but to him it seemed more like a novel than scripture.  He confessed that he had had so many things going on that he couldn’t get into the proper frame of mind.  We encouraged him, when school is out, to sit down as read the Book of Mormon when nothing is really going on.

On Sunday, we had a dinner appointment after church, it was good.  I studied in the morning and started reading Truth Restored.  In sacrament meeting we had another homecoming, this time for a son of one of the counselors in the bishopric.  We had a good discussion in Gospel Essentials class during Sunday school.

We didn’t get any work done on Monday.  Elders Golf and Lima were busy filming videos that they are going to send home.  Golf made a huge, staged mess in the kitchen and living room and then came out with the video camera and complained about the geek who had messed up the apartment.  Naturally, he had to clean up after he finished filming.

I finished reading Truth Restored, it is a short book, but it was great.  I loved it; it gave me such a sweet feeling that is hard to describe.  I felt so much empathy for those early saints, and great joy as they rose above their trials.  I also got a little homesick reading about the church in the Salt Lake Valley.

On Tuesday afternoon, as we were heading out, a man waved us down.  He told that that he had been fishing down in Santa Cruz, when some men stole his wallet and siphoned his gas, leaving him just enough fuel to get as far as East Palo Alto.  He needed some money in order to get enough gas to get to his home in Concord.  I gave him seven dollars, which he said that he would pay back, and we did give him our address, but I wasn't really concerned with the money.  It felt good to help out, and who knows, maybe we planted a seed.

As we were talking, this fellow told us that he had concluded a year ago that there is a God.  This happened when his wife ended their marriage.  Since then, he has been getting into religion just a little.

After talking to this man, we headed off to see a contact, only to find that he was not at home.  Then we took a long bike ride down to Corina to see Leslie, a lady that we had tracted into a few weeks ago.  She was busy, so we gave her some pamphlets.  Slowly but surely, steady wins the race.

Today, we spent a few hours driving around Palo Alto with Elders Fox and Lima.  Golf, Fox and Lima are making videos to send home, and we hit all the sights in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and on the Standford campus.  Each time we have gone over Highway 101 into East Palo Alto, Fox has done his airline captain routine and asked us to roll up the windows and lock the doors.  All over downtown Palo Alto are some clever and even humorous murals.

It was kind of a waste of a good P-day, though I did get some good photos.  I think this video making has also been a distraction from the work that last few days.

Well, that's it for this week.

Love
Douglas

Week 9: Sweet and Sour

March 16, 1988

Things may be looking up.  Yesterday, we committed one of our investigators to hear a discussion on Friday.  Finally!  I'll get a chance to teach a discussion.

Last Wednesday night we had President and Sister Douglas up for dinner; we fixed sweet and sour chicken and cashew chicken.  It was great.  We got the idea after an apartment dinner where we made the first dish in our wok.  They turned out great and we thought, "Hey, let's invite President and Sister Douglas!"

The week before the dinner, we sent a menu to our mission president who, apparently, hates broccoli with a passion.  Everything on the menu we sent had broccoli in it, to include items like sparkling broccoli cider, broccoli sherbet and cream of broccoli soup.  When Sister Douglas handed President Douglas our fake menu she said "Here honey, look what we're eating."  He looked at it and said "I don't believe it!"  She then let him off the hook.  They both thought it was funny are are going to put the fake menu in their scrapbook.  They thought the real menu was great, too.

The next day we had my first zone conference up in San Mateo, at the Hillsdale chapel.  One thing that was talked about was the idea of expressing love on door approaches.  The last couple of days we have tried that, and it is hard.  Love is an important part of being bold or, rather, if you are not loving, you are not only being bold but you are being overbearing.  If you are overbearing you have no right to be heard.

President Douglas spoke about the mission goal for 100 baptisms a month.  Last month we had close to 80, the month before that we had 60.  He said that 100 baptisms should be a minimum, but we have yet to reach it.  He then made an analogy of a baseball player who has hit a home run; he knows he can hit home runs and so he won't try for just a base hit; he will go for the home run because he know he can hit them.

The conference ended with a testimony meeting which was powerful.  A few days earlier I had gotten my hair cut by a member; she asked me how I wanted it and I said, “shorter,” and she then gave me a buzz cut. Some of the missionaries at the conference made comments, so when I got up to bear my testimony I said, “About the haircut, I only asked for a trim.” The whole room erupted in laughter. I can still see Elder Fox's face as he busted up laughing and, of course, President Douglas laughed the loudest.

On Friday and Saturday, my comp was sick, this time with the flu.  On Friday morning I went out with Elder Fox, and we came very close to teaching a first discussion to one of his and Elder Lima's contacts; unfortunately, she was busy cleaning her house, so it didn't happen.  So close, yet so far.

At lunch the zone leaders came and down and we finished off the leftovers of the sweet and sour chicken and cashew chicken.  In the afternoon, I studied.  I studied all day on Saturday.

We got out tracting on Monday morning.  In the afternoon we had an appointment with Fay.  She had read the first scriptures marked in the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given her, up to about page 65.  She thinks it is all a bit like the Old Testament.  She said that she is not interested in changing her religion as she is happy being a Midianite.

Fay is incredibly busy as a midwife, particularly this time of year, but we set up a return appointment for the middle of April.  We are praying that the Book of Mormon will really get to her.  She said that she believes it is true, that she has no problem with it.  Midianites, apparently, believe in continual revelation, too.  We are praying that as she reads the Book of Mormon that it will touch her or prick her heart.

On Tuesday we went on team-ups with Elders Fox and Lima.  Fox and I tracted a street that used to be in our area, but is now in theirs.  We got one call back.

This morning we had a zone activity.  We had breakfast at the stake center on Valparaiso Ave. in Menlo Park, and then had a car wash.  After that, we went to a park and played a game of capture the flag, which was fun.

After that the four of us went "thrifting".  There are quite a lot of thrift stores here and a favorite pastime of missionaries in this mission is to go "thrifting."  I found a suit for $12, that almost fits, but it could use some alterations.  A suit bought at a thrift store is called a "thrifter," and a lot of the elders out here have at least one.

We'll, gotta run

Love

your missionary

Douglas

Week 8: Conflict

March 9, 1988

It has been an interesting week.  On Thursday at our district meeting our zone leaders said we were filing out our presidents letters incorrectly.  This led to some contention between my comp and one of the zone leaders.  On Friday we called the office about an unrelated subject, but while on the line we asked the finance clerk about the letters.  The way the finance clerk explained it, my comp thought he was vindicated, but he apparently misunderstood.  Thinking "we" were right, "we" called the zonies and left a message on their answering machine.

The zone leaders called the mission officer secretary, who happened to be the one who designed the letters, and he said the zone leaders were right. The zonies then called us to pass the word; while one of the zone leaders talked with our district leader, my comp got a little bit obnoxious, as was loud enough that the zonie must have heard him. The finance clerk subsequently called me on another matter, a question on my rent check.  Before giving me the phone, my comp said that the secretary disagreed with what the finance clerk had told us.  Ten minutes after talking to me, the finance clerk called back to say that my comp had misunderstood and that the zone leaders were correct.

I have to say that I was turned off by my comp's attitude.  He was mad at the zone leader for not admitting that he was wrong, but how can you admit that you are wrong when you are not?  Maybe it doesn't help that I like the zonie, I think he is a cool guy.  Well, with the controversy settled, things calmed down a bit.

Just in time from another controversy.  On Sunday, the ward boundaries were changed and a new ward was formed.  In the process, we lost a part of our area and two investigators to the Palo Alto First Ward.  We weren't the only ones to lose investigators, everybody was affected, and this led to some more contention in the district.

The Elders in the Menlo Park First Ward have three baptisms scheduled, but they are now in the Menlo Park Third Ward.  The senior comp in that ward is a bit of a go-getter -- his brother was an A.P. on his mission and he has this idea that he will be a failure unless he also makes A.P.  Naturally, he is more than a little concerned with numbers and he is lobbying to stay in the MP 1st.  My comp, and the district leader and his comp in fact, are pretty mad at this, but I could care less.  Rather, I am bothered by all of the contention.

I have to go back to Thursday, when my comp and I had an apartment inventory with the district leader and his comp.  I raised the issue of my quiet personality and asked if it was a problem.  My comp immediately laid into me, ripping me from one side to the other.  The first thing he said was that if I didn't talk to the members, and if I am quiet, they will think that I am not excited about the gospel and don't want to teach, and they won't want me to teach their friends.  What a load of rubbish.

Next, my comp said that if I don't love myself that I am sinning.  I don't understand what that has to do with anything, my personality is what it is, it doesn't mean that I don't live myself.  Though I do have to admit that I have often struggled with doubts about myself.  When almost everyone you know, it seems, treats you like trash, your self esteem can be so low as to make it rather easy to hate yourself., and I have done far worse than that.  [There were a few occasions when I thought that God hated me, and I considered that to be worse.]  When your self esteem is that low, you're not in the proper frame of mind, and I think the Lord takes that into account.

My comp went on to say that you have got to think you are the greatest person in the world.  While it is important to love yourself, and perhaps even have some pride in yourself, I think he was taking it a bit too far.  To think that we are the greatest person in the world would seem to be getting into the area of false pride.  Now, maybe I'm taking what he said the wrong way, we do need to think that we are great, but not the greatest person in the world.

I don't mean to say anything bad about my comp.  Since the apartment inventory, things have been much better, and we seem to be communicating better.  In response I kept stressing that I could only do the best that I could, that they should not expect too much from me because I can't give more than I am able to.

We did some tracting on Saturday and did find another contact.

We are working with the ward mission leader on a better way to work through the members and to get them more excited about missionary work.  We have been stressing 1 Nephi 7:4 (Nephi and his brother gained favor in the sight of Ishmael) and are working on a five step plan.  We have member progress sheets and everything.  We would like to set up a member missionary class, but the bishop said that there are too many Sunday School classes as it is.

Well, that's basically it.  Life is good.

Love
Douglas

--

Several months after this letter, President Ezra Taft Benson gave his well known conference talk, "Beware of Pride." (see: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng)  I believe it was one of the last talks was gave at a general conference.  Whether this talk had anything to do with subsequent events, I do not know, but at Christmas time that year I got a card from my trainer expressing thanks for what he had learned while we were together, and then at the Christmas conference of the mission, he and his comp sat as lunch with my comp and I.  We became friends and have remained so.

President Benson warned that "Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice."  He than said that "The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness.  It is the broken heart and contrite spirit."  He then quoted the poet, Rudyard Kipling:

The tumult and the shouting dies;

The captains and the kings depart.

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

What Are We Emitting?

Winston Churchill once said that the one thing that frightened him the most during World War II was the German's u-boat campaign against allied shipping in the Atlantic.  "The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war," Churchill claimed. "Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome."  The Battle of the Atlantic was as much a war of scientists and engineers in their laboratories as a war between sailors above and below the surface.

Two "weapons" which helped win the Battle of the Atlantic were radar and something called "Huff-Duff."  The former, of course, is relatively well understood; a transmitter sends out a radio signal which bounces off objects and returns to a receiver.  The latter may be less well understood; it refers to high-frequency direction finding (HF/DF) equipment which attempted to locate the source of a radio transmission.  By using antennas at different locations, Huff Duff received a radio transmission at different angles and used the differences to determine a bearing to the transmitter.  What made Huff Duff so successful during the war was the speed with which it could determine the bearing to a u-boat transmitting a radio message; this allowed allied warships to locate and attack the enemy submarine.

The battle of the laboratories continued during the Cold War, and the U.S. Navy spent a lot of effort on what it called "emissions control," or EMCON.  The purpose of EMCON was to prevent the Soviets from homing in on the radar and radio transmissions of U.S. Navy ships.  EMCON could be as simple as turning everything off, radar, radio and other equipment that emitted an electronic signal.  During World War II, the Germans developed a radar detector and such detection equipment became more sophisticated during the Cold War, to the point that it was no longer necessary to use radar to search for the enemy as you could track him through his electronic emissions -- assuming that he had not turned everything off.

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been another wave of technological progress with wireless communications.  Rear Admiral William Leigher, USN, a veteran cryptologist who recently carried the title "director of warfare integration for information dominance," stated in a 2013 interview that the electronic emissions problem is significantly greater now that it was in the past.

“It’s not as simple as EMCON that I might have done in the mid-’80s or early 90s,” Leigher warned.  For one, you can't just turn everything off because you need your sensors to detect incoming missiles and your jammers to disable them.  In the future, suggested Leigher, instead of shutting systems down to avoid detection, a Navy ship might deliberately change the signals it emits to make the enemy think that it is something else -- during World War II, the allies tricked German u-boat commanders into turning their detectors off by suggesting that aircraft could home in on its signal.

Fascinating as all of this is, I'm sure there are many of you who are wondering just what it has to do with anything.  As humans, with or without the aid of electronics, we are always emitting something.  People see us and hear us, and we send signals through body language as well as through the things that we say -- or even the things that we don't say.  Social media allows us to interact with people around the world, even people we don't know -- even people that we are not aware of.  We might try a form of EMCON by avoiding people, on social media or in person, but that would leave us isolated and, in any case, probably wouldn't actually work.  Even when we keep to ourselves we are sending out signals.

It would be more useful, then, to take a look at what we are emitting.  (I have a friend who is a seminary teacher and she recently posted about a comment she made during a class; she was talking about vulnerabilities and weaknesses and said something like "We all have a crack, where is your crack?"  The question "What are you emitting?" seems to be just as risky, but I'll go with it anyway.)

Through our body language and our words we may signal happiness and friendship, generosity and other good things, or we may signal anger, suspicion, selfishness, etc.  We may signal other things via social media by what we choose to post, or what we choose to like or share.

In recent efforts by members of the LDS Church to share the gospel via social media, people have been using the hastag "sharegoodness".  We can share goodness, or we can share things that are less than good.  We may even share goodness on the one hand, while also sharing some not so good things on the other, in which case we are sending mixed signals that may serve to confuse.

When Alma the Younger started his mission to the Zoramites, he took along with him Amulek, Zeezrom and two of his sons.  One of these sons left his mission to chase after a harlot; Alma later said to this son, "Behold, O my son, how great iniquity ye brought upon the Zoramites; for when they saw your conduct they would not believe in my words" (Alma 39:11)

Alma went on to say, "And now the Spirit of the Lord doth say unto me: Command thy children to do good. lest they lead away the hearts of many people to destruction" (Alma 39:12).

People are watching us, whether we like it or not.  If they see in us a good example, they may become interested in learning more about the church.  If they see in us a bad example, they may be less likely to become interested.

We, of course, are human, and we will make mistakes -- and there are those who will deliberately seek to push our buttons in order to accuse us of hypocrisy -- but let us strive to be a good example, let us strive to share goodness.  Let us be ever mindful of the signals we send when we post, like or share things on social media.

--

Freeberg, S. J. (2013) "Navy Battles Cyber Threats: Thumb Drives, Wireless Hacking, & China." Breaking Defense.  Accessed September 10, 2014 at: http://breakingdefense.com/2013/04/navy-cyber-threats-thumb-drives-wireless-hacking-china/

Week 7: "It Gets Better or Worse Depending on Your Attitude"

March 2, 1988

We just had a slow week.  My comp was feeling sick and it rained a lot.  It's too dangerous to ride our bikes when it rains, that's what my comp tells me.  We got out on Saturday morning to deliver thank you notes and do some follow up on some contacts.  We dropped off a pamphlet to a lady who had inquired about our family home evening program.

On Sunday, we had a DA at the Branson's.  They made us earn our food by telling them our most spiritual experiences on our mission.  They excluded MTC experiences so, having been out here just a few weeks, I had few experiences to choose from.  The best I could come up with was how strong the spirit was the other day as I was reading Helaman chapter 5 -- I don't think they were impressed.

At church, the bishop's son had his homecoming -- he just got back from the New York, New York City Mission.  In Gospel Essentials class I taught the lesson because the regular teacher was out of town.  I literally tore apart Ephesians chapter 6 about the armor of God.  The ward mission leader said I did a good job.

On Monday, my comp was sick.  On Tuesday, my comp was sick.  He's had a cold for about a month and a half now.  On Tuesday morning we gave him a blessing -- hm, that's the second comp in row who has needed a blessing.  Maybe its the curse of being my companion -- ha, ha.

This morning, Elder Fox and I went over the bridge and down Newell to the library, while my comp and Elder Lima went to get haircuts.  At the library I, of course, went looking for the World War II history books -- and I found a gold mine of books!  Seriously, this library puts the Bountiful library to shame.  We ended up spending three hours at the library, and I had a blast looking at some books I have been searching for for years.  I'll probably never find those books in Utah.

I just wrote a letter to a friend who should have gotten his call by now.  Basically, I told him that a mission is challenge after challenge and trial after trial.  By overcoming these challenges and trials, and using them as stepping stones, we grow and return two years later as men.

I wrote my friend about something my present companion told me about -- a friend of his who left the MTC after only one week.  Another friend, who had come home from his mission after just one year, told this guy that if he didn't like his first week to go home because it doesn't get any better.  My reaction was to recall something Geoff said many times in missionary prep: "It gets better or worse depending on your attitude."

Trials will come, that is what a mission is.  I wrote my friend: "If you went home early, think of all the people you would let down: your parents, your brothers who have served successful missions, your friends, your friends who are presently serving or are preparing to serve, your ancestors, Jesus Christ, your Father in heaven, and many others."

More than a few times, when it has been tough out here, I have had thoughts about going home early, but then I said: "How could I ever look dad and Geoff in the eye."  There is no way.  Then I read Alma chapter 38.  Alma the younger was counseling his son Shiblon.  In verses 3-5 we read that Shiblon was bound and even stoned while he was serving his mission to the Zoramites.  Shiblon overcame his trials, bearing them with patience, and was greatly blessed as a result.

I told my friend about the trials I had with my MTC comp.  "But I learned from that," I wrote.  I told him about the the trials I have faced with my present comp.  "But I am learning from it."

I am sure that my friend didn't need to read all of this; I am sure that he knew it already.  But how true it all is, and this way, no one will lead him astray.  Not that there is any chance of that happening.

One of my zone leaders told me that if we look back and work hard, the time will fly, but if we look ahead, working sort of hard, counting the days, the time will only crawl by.  If we work hard, looking back, amazed at how fast our mission is going, by the end of two years we won't want to go home.  That is a successful mission.

Well, life is great!  All smiles!  Truth will prevail.

Week 6: Tough Week

February 24, 1988

It was another hard week; didn't get in any doors and we've got no on to teach.  One investigator is in the hospital and another is in the orient for three weeks on vacation; two others we cannot get a hold of, they're dogging us.

Today we toured Stanford University, it was great.  We went all over the campus and I got some good photos.

On Monday morning, we were getting ready to go out when, suddenly, I got the feeling that my companion was avoiding me.  I walked into the living room and he got up real quick and left the room.  He was in a bad mood all morning and hardly said a word, which was quite unlike him.

Then our zone leaders popped in for a visit.  One of them spoke with my companion, while the other stayed in the living room and chatted with me and my other flatmates.  It was a cool chat; Elder Baker is very knowledgeable, another McConkie, he really seems to get into him.

The zone leaders left, but my comp stayed in the bedroom for a while.  We finally got out in the afternoon, going on team-ups with Fox and Lima.  Fox and I tracted, but without success.  We were out on the edge of our area, near Los Altos Hills, and we had to walk up some steep hills.

Anyway, nothing against Elder Golf, he is a good guy.  But he has said that of the four comps he's had since coming out, three have been bad -- the only good one was his trainer.  I worry sometimes that I might be another bad companion because I have a hard time making conversation.  I feel like I'm doing the best I can, and I do try to take opportunities to talk, but it is hard.  I get too scared sometimes to ask him things that I think I really should ask him.  I guess I'm afraid of what he'll think of me.  It looks like I've still got some of that inferiority complex.

I hope he doesn't give up on the companions ship like my MTC comp did.  If he does, this companionship is history.  All I can do is the best I can, but I don't think it's good enough.

I just finished reading Drawing on the Powers of Heaven, what a great book.  I got a lot out of it -- loved it.

On Sunday, at a DA, I tried eggplant (what? I tried something new?).  It was good.  They served us omlettes with eggplant and some other stuff.

Tomorrow we have a follow up appointment on a lady we tracted into.  She lives next door to the guy who was the first door I got into.  She was busy when we first knocked on her door; we stopped by last Tuesday, but she was still quite busy.  Then she went out of town, but will be back tonight.  She is a Midonite, but she seems like she might be interested.

Well, that basically sums everything up.

Love
Douglas