Finished a Couple of Good Books

Since we have no cable TV and now turn off cell phones and internet at 9:30 pm, I'm getting a lot of reading done. I just finished a couple of good books. The first was for my Provo-based book club. It was "Crossing the Wire." The book was written to a juvenile audience, about a young 15-year old Mexican boy who struggles to get across the border to the United States so he can work and support his family. At first it was concerned that it would make me sympathetic toward illegal immigration. It didn't. It sure made me appreciate what we have here in the U.S. It also made me aware of the never-ending and corrupt route it is to come to the U.S. from Mexico - if you do it illegally. Good book.

The next book was "Saint Behind Enemy Lines," an autobiography written by a friend of Jenny's from her Baltimore days. I had read it before when Jen gave it to me, but decided to re-read it since the author, Olga Campora, is mentioned in this month's visiting teaching message. It's about a woman who grew up and eventually joined the church in communist Czechoslovakia. Wow, talk about lack of freedom! You couldn't gather in meetings, talk about God, or even profess to believe in God without fear of problems or incarceration. Her description of life there was quite bleak. Lack of choice and freedom really stinks. It sucks the life out of a person. She found the gospel through a yoga instructor while in college. She was baptized in a river at night so no one would know. She later started teaching yoga and holding yoga camps with her teacher and they taught gospel truths to people so they would be ready when the gospel came to their country. A number of their yoga students joined the church. The Velvet Revolution in the late 80's opened doors for them and changed lives. A really good read - again. Glad I picked it up again. Now mom wants to borrow it.

Things I'm grateful to have in America:

1. Ability to give spiritual thought in my classes at BYU
2. Church meetings every week
3. Going to the temple 1 mile away when I want to
4. No fear of government intervention in church or religious beliefs - yet
5. Food
6. Work
7. Savings in the bank
8. Ability to pay our bills
9. Elections
10. Ability to send my kids to college and on missions
11. Our flag
12. Malls
13. Bright, cheery schools
14. Our own home and yard
15. Garbage pick-up every week
16. Cars
17. Garden in back yard
18. Food storage
19. Scriptures and Ensign and New Era and Preach My Gospel
20. Freedom and everything that comes with it!