Wednesday, May 4, 2011

What I am Telling my Kin-A Voice of Warning

This is an email I sent to my family a bit ago. I now publish it to the world here.

Brothers and Sisters,
I love you. Because I love you, I am sending you this communication. 

I have come to a crossroads in my life. I am faced with the decision: "Do I believe what I have been learning, or not?" When posed in this manner, the answer to this question can only be YES! With this decision comes a call for action on my part. This is why you are receiving this email.  Let me back up and explain my position.

In August of last year, I decided to change my career from manufacturing engineering to personal financial coaching. This launched me into an educational phase to enable me to be able to perform in my newly chosen profession. Some of this training has been formal (BYU personal finance class and mentor/coaching programs) but much of it has been personal, self-study. I took this route because there does not exist a program that would prepare me to do what I want to do the way I want to do it. This opened my studies up to general literature, both secular and religious. Rather than try to regurgitate what I have learned, and come to believe, I will summarize some my findings:

Secular:
Upon attempting to understand how this economy and even society that we have created works, I come to the following conclusions:
  1. We are heading for a collapse of our entire economy. It will likely be driven by a collapse of the US dollar, in part due to our national debt. I cannot predict the future and am not privy to the workings of the upper echelons (who are creating our future, to an extent). However, I believe the time between now and the entire collapse of the US economy will be measured in weeks or months, not years. It could happen any day, and could happen overnight. At least it could be set in motion over night. 
  2. There will be blood running in the streets of America. This thing will get ugly. This is a black swan event unlike any other in the history of this nation.
  3. There is no way to avoid what is coming.
It goes on and on. I can refer you to books and resources ad nauseam. Numerous people in the know are attempting to warn us, in spite of the general media seemingly overlooking reality. We need to heed their warnings. For a sampling of some of the web activity that I feel is applicable, please see my twitter profilehttp://twitter.com/#!/BenPack

Spiritual:
Let me start this one with a quote by President Benson from April conference 1980 (here is the whole talk: "Benson~Prepare for the Days of Tribulation"):

Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.

Until a few weeks ago, I am afraid I would have to have classified myself squarely in the group who are "not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord." I had no idea what had been prophesied regarding the future of this great nation. My studies in this area have primarily been from "Prophecy, Key to the Future" and "Inspired Prophetic Warnings" both by Duane S. Crowther. I am in the midst of reading the latter now (both readily available on Amazon.com). The primary sources he uses are the Doctrine & Covenants, Book of Mormon, Journal of Discourses (JD), and History of the Church (HC). The Bible also finds its way in, both old and new testaments, but not as much as the others. I am now much more acquainted with the revelations of the Lord and I BELIEVE THEM. For brevity's sake here is my synopsis of some of the revelations:
  1. We are heading for a collapse of our entire economy and political system.  Exact timing has not been prophesied other than repeated council in the early days of the church that "the time is nigh at hand." 
  2. Tribulation: earthquakes, thunderings-great noise, lightnings, tempests, waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds, fire, pestilence, famine, bloodshed, cities sinking in the earth, desolating sickness or scourge, plagues, hail storm that destroys the crops of the earth.
  3. There will be blood running in the streets of America. This thing will get ugly. This is worthy of a quotation. Upon rereading this quote in preparing this email, I wept in anticipation of what is to come of the people of this great nation. Per Joseph Smith:
I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of man has said that the mother shall be against the daughters, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand.
HC 3:391 or JD 6:239-240

4. There is one way for us as a nation to avert or at least delay this disaster. It is for us, as a nation, to turn to the Lord and become righteous, including our government. Unfortunately, my faith in this happening is nonexistent.

It goes on and on. The Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon are laden with prophecies describing what WILL happen in the future. Is the future now? No, why not? I believe it is here and deserves our careful consideration. 

What does this mean to you and me?
We must turn to the only people on this earth that can help us navigate through this. Once again I quote from President Benson's talk "Prepare for the Days of Tribulation."

The counsel from Church authorities has been consistent over the years and is well summarized in these words:
“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …
“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.
“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.
“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.)
 We must do everything in our power to heed this council. It starts with living righteously. I believe that regardless of our activity level (or even if we are not members), we can all turn to God. We must all start from where we now are and we can all do better than we are now doing.  

Some of the actions that I have taken in recent weeks and am taking now are:
  1. Striving to repent, live righteously, and put my own house in order by:
  2. Putting together a serious food/fuel/clothing storage. The counsel is for 'at least a year ahead' not 'up to a year ahead'.
  3. Putting together a serious garden and home preservation capabilities.
  4. Buying rabbits, bees, and goats (to provide meat, milk, and honey). Some of these I will keep at my parents farm.
  5. Possibly buying a hunting rifle-deer frequently come down and leave evidence of having been on my lawn in the winter.
  6. Pulling out all of my investment $$ and, as soon as I have enough, paying off my house. Until then I plan to put my savings into real assets and avoid the dollar (this includes avoiding bonds, most stocks, and even real estate aside from my own home). Probably this will be precious metals. I am still in the process of learning how, why, and where to do this.
  7. I am warning my neighbors (starting with my family).
  8. I am continuing to study and learn.
  9. I am living it my way-no keeping up with the Joneses either in worldly pursuits or religious traditions.
  10. Fervent and frequent prayer.

Do not follow my council on this because I am telling you this. I am not in a position to give investment advice. Everything in this document I present as my opinion. You must dig for yourself and seek to find out what is right for you and your family. It is possible that we will pull through this this time and put off the inevitable until a future collapse, or it is possible that the collapse will take years to play out. Certainly there is a lot to transpire per prophecies by the leaders of the Church, but I fear it will occur much more quickly than we imagine.

Hopefully you receive this in 'mildness and meekness,' but in all seriousness too. D&C 38:41 states: "And let your apreaching be the bwarning voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in cmeekness."  I have great faith in all of you, my extended family. I know there is not a bad person in the bunch! If what I have presented elicits feelings of fear, perhaps preparations are in order.  We are warned that many within the Church will fall away during the persecutions and tribulations that are coming. May we all begin today to prepare for the days of tribulation that lie ahead. As we are prepared, may we look forward with anticipation to the events that will necessarily transpire prior to the coming of our Lord and Savior in glory and greatness is my prayer.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

P.S. 
Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel may benefit from it.

Love,
Ben