The Book of Jared

The other side of the other side of the prodigal son.

The story of the prodigal son is retold time and again in Sacrament meetings around the world as a parable about God's forgiveness. There is, however, another way to look at the parable, rather than skipping to the end, we should look at the beginning and middle. Firstly, to whom was Jesus speaking…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.


The Seven Signs Revisited...

I responded to her question with this post, but I have been giving it some more thought over the last few days, and I think now that the signs really don't matter. The signs are given as a warning to the unbelievers, to show that God is in charge, and that Christ will return. We are shown what trib…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.


I learned a valuable lesson today...

I walked up to the rental counter, pushed my way through the long queue to get to a woman holding a clipboard, wearing a rental car company name tag that read "Becky". "Is there a manager on duty this morning?" I asked a little louder than I should have. "There are four on this morning, and if you…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.


Come all ye sons of God...

I have to preface this by saying that I am a big part of the problem here. I come across as really outgoing, but there are deep seeded reasons that I don't really connect with members of my own gender, and I have even more difficulty because my life has not been a typical "Utah Mormon" life. That…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.


Time to get a grip...

Christopher Hodapp, in his book "Freemasons for Dummies" [amazon.com], identifies the masonic grips as "A special identifying handshake used by Masons to identify each other, different for each degree." These handshakes were used, according to tradition, by ancient stonemason guilds to identify mem…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.


What is the value of a temple?

Let's start at the beginning, how much does it cost to build a temple? This is a tricky question because temples come in all shapes and sizes, but most guesses I have seen range in the $20 to $25 million range. This is, indeed, a lot of money, but it is also probably eclipsed by the annual construc…

Written by Jared on Friday December 16, 2022.