David the recurring dream

Every so often, I have a dream about a weird guy named David. The setting is always the same. I'm a single man, a student at some college with brown buildings. David and some other people come visit and throw rocks at people. He always throws a rock at somebody I know at least in passing and who doesn't deserve it and hits them on the head. He's clearly trying to prove a point. Then he comes to talk to me. He's very ugly. wispy blond hair that is about chin length. it just falls limply around his greasy, grumpy face.  Blue vest, dark short-sleeve shirt, pants, no glasses, or maybe thin black glasses. He has the most infuriating low monotone voice. It is instantly apparent he has no friends, was bullied, and is trying to get back at all the popular or successful people like the ones who have wronged him.  He always has a bucket, which with he caries his big black rock that he throws at people, and then upon which he stands to tell me his message. This time, when standing on the 5-gallon bucket, he was still a couple inches shorter than me; I know because I got right in his face and folded my arms as if to let him know I thought he and his message were dirt.

I let him tell me what he wants to say, which always ends up being a very stupid message. I always reluctantly and very arrogantly give him time to tell me his message. This time, after much preamble and after making sure everybody around us (usually they're chaos because people are throwing rocks) is quiet and listening, he said, "Sometimes we want to help people, but we don't", which in this dream apparently was the same thing he had told me the dream before. Then I yelled at him for a while about how maybe he shouldn't expect so much from people in college who have zero money, maybe he could consider that we're trying to help in whatever ways we can. He never seems to listen to me. I told him that he had already told me that, and that if he didn't have something new to say, he should just go home and leave people alone. He appeared to have followers and cronies who were around to protect him.

And at some point, I always lose my temper and bop him on the head as hard as I possibly can in retaliation for what he did to that guy. I can never hit him very squarely, though, which is extremely frustrating, and i never phases him. I always yell at him for thinking it's okay to throw rocks; maybe he would get more people to listen to him if he didn't try to hurt them first. I would be more interested in what he has to say if he would stop throwing rocks at people.

Hopefully by writing this out, i will learn whatever it is Im suppose to learn from this, and then never have this stupid dream again.

Jacob 5

I finally have an idea about this chapter.

The original tree initially had dying branches, so they worked on it and got some young and tender branches to grow. But they could only grow so much. So they cut them off, grafted them all over the place, and grafted in wild branches in an effort to let the roots put forth their strength into the new branches. Which worked. The fruit was good.

They let it go for a long time, and upon returning discovered the fruit to now be bad. The little tender branches had become wild and bad, and the wild grafts had stopped producing good fruit and were not producing bad fruit. So they systematically cleared away the bad branches and grafted back in those young and tender branches to their original tree, and put the wild grafts back to their original trees. It worked.

Parenting, perhaps? We have roots and they can be very strong. But our children can only grow so much with us. Their initial branches are young and tender, but need space to move. As they get older and more widespread, they can adopt wild grafts into their roots, which can be a good thing, as long as they don't overpower their roots. As soon as they do, the produce bad fruit. In which case, they need a pruning, and an re-insertion of the original young tender branches that worked in harmony with their roots. I'm already getting bored typing this out, but it's perhaps an idea.

My plan and goal

I speak a lot as the Bishop, and I need to do a better job (read: actually do it period) of recording any revelations, thoughts, promises, etc. that I discuss with people, so that I can follow up.

I talked about tithing and fast offerings last sunday, and told people that the Lord has an opportunity to take the reigns of your family finances if you are willing to let Him in by paying tithing.

I said that fasting is a good way to give you the strength to overcome sin and temptation.

I think that may be all I can remember. Which is why I need to do a better job of recording thoughts that I've had.

3 Nephi 12:7-8 ish. blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Spirit. The way we hunger and thirst and are filled is by making the sacrament.