What is Charity? Moroni 7:45

What is Charity?

I had a conversation with my wife about this Christlike attribute to refresh my memory and increase my understanding of what power it brings into our lives and to others. So I decided to write it down and share it with others.

Charity is such both a pragmatic subject and at the same time the most important attribute of all. I've found the definition in Moroni but and I'm gonna try to connect each descriptions to an example.

From Moroni 7:45 and I quote, "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Charity Suffereth Long

It means to feel pain and sustain loss, injury, harm or punishment. The Lord Jesus Christ, through his agony in the Garden of Eden, emotional and physical beatings and stripes, journey to Golgotha with the crown of thorns on his head, and finally lifted up on the cross, withstood all the physical and spiritual temptations that would've stopped him from completing his work. His sufferings he sustained, bore the painful sin of the world on his shoulder. Yet, he still loved the very people that crucified him.

Charity is Kind

It means of a friendly, generous, warm-hearted nature showing sympathy or understanding. We can become friendly but lack sympathy. It's this parable of the Good Samaritan that clearly explains what kindness is. The same kindness the Lord had with his friend Lazarus. And its the first thing the Lord did upon his visit with the Nephites - he'd asked to bring their sick, lame, blind and would cure them. He felt the pains and misery of those that are to be cured.

Charity Envieth Not

The Lord Jesus Christ never desired for material things and praises. Whatever comes, that he accept. But King Saul failed to this matter. After realizing that David was the Lord's chosen king, he felt so bad with David that he made several attempts to kill him. He started acting like Cain of the old, whereupon he envied his brother's sacrifice and in turn killed Abel. Envy is such a powerful poison that if not carefully safeguarded, one can literally bring down his soul to condemnation.

Charity is not Puffed Up

Puff means to increase or seek to increase the importance of or reputation of by favorable publicity. This defines who the Pharisees were during the meridian of time. They thought they were the most educated of all, expert in all matters of Moses' law. They tried to gain public approval by publicly humiliating the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their pride, they stereotyped the Lord Jesus Christ as one lunatic man. Their vast knowledge of the law was tantamount to how they look like and how the speak. Little did they know, their teacher was the Lord himself, who had commanded Moses' to write all these laws that will govern Israel. Knowledge do bring someone confidence but when humility fades away, Charity is gone.

Charity Seeketh Not Her Own

Greed is what's bringing this country down. It's all about ourselves. It's all about us. The Lord Jesus Christ exemplified to us what service is. He was always mindful of our welfare then and now. Nothing can be found in the scriptures where he chose not to heal a person whether or not he requested to be healed or not. He chose to live like us despite his assured Godhood. He laid down his life for us to be saved from our sins and return to his presence. A very unselfish act indeed. He wants us to become like him. He did not withheld anything from us that pertains to our salvation and exaltation.

Charity is Not Easily Provoked

Patience and Understanding are the elements of this attribute. Lawyers and Pharisees have been trying to provoke the Lord several times to see if they can let him cross his words or teachings but they always end up marveling at his response. The Lord knew of their wickedness, but he still taught them his eternal principles.

Charity Thinketh No Evil

This is a hard one. In today's social conditions, it had become the norm to accept evil in exchange for good. We have branded good evil, and evil good. Information are available publicly for free containing things that provoketh men to think evil. Morality had eroded and it all started with a bad thought. Job never blamed God when he lost his family and friends and brought to a condition of being despised because he was turned leprous. Ronald Reagan at the time of his attempted assassination, while in the emergency room staring at the ceiling gasping for air, uttered a small simple prayer that the boy who shot him would be well.

Charity Rejoiceth Not in Iniquity but Rejoiceth in Truth

The Lord was angered when he saw merchandisers and gamblers right in front of His Father's house. But he was just ensuring that the temple was pure and holy. It is that truth in which he was defending for. King Solomon prayed for wisdom for he was worried then because of this burden he had taken to be a ruler over all Israel. It had helped him to distinguish between truth and fallacy. Between right and wrong.

Charity Beareth All Things

Does it mean to bear our own burdens without complaint? Does it mean to bear other's burdens? Does it mean to endure suffering and pain brought by experience and still hold on to Hope? Yes. Job was once at the best time of his life, until the Lord tried him even to the point of loosing everything he had, and obtaining a disease that would left him despised of anybody. He knew the truth of that experience will enable him to become a better person. And he became perfect.

Charity Believeth All Things, Hopeth All Things and Endureth All Things

There's some good amount of optimism needed to believe in things, once truth is felt and understood. King Lamoni and his people believed in the words of Ammon to be the words of God. They hoped that their grievous sins will be forgiven for they have taken away many lives with their hands. The Lord knew of their Faith and Obedience and had forgiven them. And they have endured and made covenant with the Lord by laying down their weapons of war, even to the burying of it to serve as a testament between them and the Lord that they were committed to that promise. We know in the course of time, they didn't dig and retrieve their weapons when they saw their brethren coming to destroy them. Instead, they prayed while the massacre was going on.

Flood In the Philippines

Just spoke to my uncle last night who lives in Northern Luzon, Philippines, specifically, La Union province. They were having heavy rains non-stop for two weeks and literally soaked the whole Northern Luzon where one bridge who use to be 100 feet above the surface of the river, have been submerged in water.

The whole region cannot move, people were stuck in their houses busy taking out the water with buckets. All major cities in that region were flooded at least at the waist level, and damaged lots of houses. The hurricane that came with the rain made it worst. I'm glad my folks are okay. I feel bad for those who badly affected. They said this is the first time that it happened in the history of Northern Luzon, the size almost of Georgia, USA.

Center Lane - 300 feet violation

How can anyone know that when they go into the center lane of a road and cruise through that they have gone more than 300 feet? If you did went over 300, a bald cop with carnival lights on top of his black and white car just shows up behind you. Next thing you know, a pair of black shades crosses your driver's window and a voice, so confident as if it can eat you, willfully ask for your driver's license. Next thing you know, you are handed a yellow piece of paper which is equivalent to about $241.25 USD. That's what I've gotten, for going over 300 feet on a center lane.

How can you tell if you've gone 300 feet in the center lane? You can't even measure it using your speedometer. Would be great if there's an iPhone app for this since I always need to cross the center lane to avoid the heavy traffic on both sides - specially in the intersection of Pleasant Hill Rd and Peachtree Industrial Blvd - Duluth, GA.

Of course the Solicitor at the court, doesn't need to hear what my reason was and bluntly laid out the law stating that once you are in a center lane, no matter what the conditions are, and you go over 300 feet, you'll get a ticket. It's amazing how the government makes money easily. And the Solicitor does a good job at ensuring you still get to pay, even if the violation was suppressed to a lesser degree. He does make sure, before you get out of the courthouse, you pay.

Buying a House

It took me 6 months to find the house I want to buy 2 years ago and made an offer on it. I bought the house February of 2008. It was a good deal despite the painting I have to do for most indoor parts of the house. 

Met my friend at church this Sunday and learned that the house they wanted to buy in Alpharetta didn't work out. The same agent helped them find a second option but the negotiation sounded like a ripper. The seller has to stay for two more months in their house and wanted to sell it now and have asked my friend and his wife to pay for the two months mortgage till they get out. Obviously their agent is not good at all. 

I suggested to my friend that he should start looking to work with other agent(s). What I did when I was looking for a house was to start working with two agents. They both showed many great houses. One of them had over 20 years of experience and she knows well her job. The other he just started 4 years ago. The former tried to dig as much as information from me as she can. She asked about my hobbies, lifestyle, and the criteria I wanted for a house. What I liked about her is she did what I wanted her to do. I wanted her to look for a house within my budget but has to start looking closer to where I work and then search away from the city till she find some houses that I can look at. We looked at about 30 houses with different styles, floor plan, landscape, neighborhood, you name it. The other agent somehow made it clear he's not as experienced as the other, he didn't ask alot of questions. So I chose the lady agent. It helped me alot to know what I want because of her many questions.

She also educated me about the best sidings, best floorings, symptoms of bad and good roofs, lightings and fixtures, paints, kitchen style, garage doors and every aspect of the house may it be inside or outside that would increase the value/resale of the house. It was all good and she prepared me enough in the future in case I will be buying a house again.

There's no restriction as to how many agents you can work with but not until you decide to put an offer on a house and agree to work with an agent exclusively. This gives you a better situation as to choosing who's providing you better service and promoting competition between them. 

From what I remember this is what we did with my agent.

1. Worked with a financial officer to determine how much I can afford. He suggested I can 

    use 80% of my income to buy a house but in my mind it was ridiculous. There's just so much 

    things I need to pay for and I'm not gonna dedicate my savings in paying my mortgage.

2. Identified my budget in a given range. I chose to dedicate 35% of my income for the          

    mortgage. 

3. Choose geographic location

4. Scheduled bi-weekly tours to houses on sale with different floor plans.

5. Visited both houses on sale and on foreclosure. Foreclosed houses seems to have more things 

     to be fixed and not worth it and its sold as is.

6. After checking 30 houses, we chose my top 5 and visited them again until I end up with the 

    one best suited my taste and needs.

I'm really glad I worked with an agent who knows what she's doing and I would definitely recommend working with an agent who's got a lot of years of experience.

Private Mortgage Insurance Inquiry for SunTrust

I called up the SunTrust mortgage customer service this afternoon to inquire about when can I stop paying my PMI. I asked how much I have paid on my loan and I was told that it would take some time to go through my statements and checking for escrow payment changes. He said it would take about 30 minutes to sum all my payments. I said I can wait. But then he immediately followed up saying that he cannot promise me that he would be on the phone the whole time since their will be other calls that he needs to attend and he cannot let them pass. Then he suggested that I can do this myself by going to their website. This is the whole point of my call. I don't want to bother scavenging through my statements and sum my total payments. I told him that and he responded that he can use his 15 minutes break to do it for me and call me after but he can't promise. 

Our conversation brought back my nightmares with Comcast. SunTrust, Comcast sounds the same isn't it? Funny. But he called back after 15 mninutes! For 3 times he mentioned how much interest I've paid. It wasn't I was asking for..... and at the background I hear these pages turned one after another. I feel like Customer Service is part of the White House. 

I gave up on that question and instead asked when can I stop paying my PMI since I didn't have enough to pay 20% of the loan when I bought the house. He gave me an answer where I'm like still buying the house. My loan to value is currently 96% he said which has nothing to do with my question. I heard the pages flipping again at the background as if he was trying to find the answer his trainor gave to him. He kept on explaining the loan to value definition then he asked if I have any more questions and I immediately said no and thank you. 

I feel bad for these companies hiring people for their Customer Service Department and not able to deliver what their customer wants. That was a waste of time for both of us but he still get paid. I wonder how many times does he flip through the pages while he's on the phone with customers. I wonder if that was even their 200 pound manual.  

Teenagers to fight Terrorism?

What in the world the Boy Scouts of America are doing? They have created this platform to train teenagers as early as 13 years old to combat terrorism. These boys have no clue what will be the effect of this program to them in the future. Their brains are gonna be wired with the illusion of adventure but in reality its violence that they are trying to experience. Teens and Violence are a bad combination. This organization is building a bomb right in the heart of these young ones.

It just shocks me that this program existed and has been running for couple of years now and evidently not a single parent have made comments on it. These kids for sure will build up addiction for guns.  If their head is not straight, upon reaching their adulthood, I hope that they won't end up in school, or stores, or church's pulling the trigger as if everybody is a target.

I wish Boys Scouts of America will shape the values and morals of these kids first and let them come in for an anti-terrorism program once they are emotionally and intellectually stable.

Chris Allen Made It To The Finals!

I have not voted for Chris Allennot even once but my fiancee does... and he made it to the American Idol Finale! I think he deserves it. He'd tried hard to be competitive and has immensely improved! I knew Danny would be in trouble since he's just been sounding the same everytime. Adam on the other hand, no doubt, has great talent even when it comes to doing make up and dressing up.

I feel bad though for Danny. But the three of them are all good. If you would ask me who to vote for in the finals, I would go for Chris.

US Immigration Law is only an option?

My blood starts boiling when I see illegal immigrants/aliens marching on the streets protesting for the need of "amnesty". I believe in the laws of the land. If you break it, it will judge you. But while politics is packed with hidden agenda, immigration law becomes a shaded area. I do not agree that illegal aliens brings good business to the nation, which alot thinks become a defense to keep them in place. 

My grandfather who is a native of the Philippines came to USA in the late 70's as a permanent resident and 5 years after he got his citizenship he applied for his children permanent residency, and there were 21 of them. I was 7 years old then and our family was looking forward to it. We've waited for almost 14 years till our priority date came. Everybody was ecstatic....except me because I was over 21 years old and the INS law says that if a previous applicant was under that age and the priority date came but was now over 21 then that application is now voided. My immigration application was scratched. It was a big disappointment. My family tried to talk to the consulate about my situation but they stick to the rule. So they all came here and I stayed in the Philippines while at the same time finishing college. My sisters made it worse when they tell stories about their life here and made me feel really, extremely jealous and drove me insane. 

I finally had the chance to come to USA after 8 years and I took it. But not the chance an immigration can give me but for advancing my schooling to an MS in Computer Science and the school sponsored me as an international student though my mom filed for a re-application of my permanent residency years ago (1998) which is still in process. I am now here on H1B. I'm with my family. I got a decent job. I'm getting married soon. I'm happy.

My situation is not unique. Alot of people are still in their home countries waiting for their immigration application approval and some may end up having their application voided because of age limit which doesn't make any sense at all! Why would they void? I don't understand it. And here come's the illegal aliens asking for amnesty. There are alot of working professionals here on H1B and are living the pain of waiting for their permanent residency approval. Some of them get unlucky and have to go home since their H1B got exhausted (valid for 6 years only). They work hard. They contribute to the national economy. They get paid lower than their citizen counter parts. The only drag on H1B is that you are only tied to one company. If they kick you out and nobody can sponsor you in a month or two then you have to go back to your home country. That sucks. How can the smart politicians at the white house get really illogical and bias with helping illegals get naturalized automatically?? Crazy.

Hear this. Some people wait for decades before they can come here legaly. A friend of mine was sponsored by his dad for his immigration application. His dad died before his priority date and his application was voided. Of course people at the INS just followed the rule and he's just one of the numbers in the paper. Not even mercy can step in and bend the law for the illegals at this point in comparison. 

Venetian Plaster Painting

I have this master's bathroom which I started painting with Venetian Plaster March of 2008. My curiosity kicked in when I saw how wickedly beautiful this paint looked after a finished product. So my adventure and attitue of never say die led me to try it out to my bathroom. I bought several gallons of Behr Venetian Plaster of Bacchus Red color.
Following all the directions from the paint can and from several watched youtube videos I started with the small toilet room. The instructions looked very easy but the real application process was a nightmare for a first timer! It's like building a sand castle while the tide continuously hammers on it and start over again. It was all new to me. I have two steel trowel and a plaster that hardens really fast. The first coat was a mess, I saw alot of bubbles and some areas cracking. I didn't give up so I went ahead and bought a sanding machine. Yea, sanding machine so I can cleanup the surfaces and at least make it smooth and almost even. My problem was I put too much plaster on the wall. The plaster is heavy enough that gravity pulls them while at the same time they are drying. Even though I followed the recommendations, experience always teaches you something people won't tell you. They suggested to do the following:
1. First coat - put enough plaster on the trowel and apply to wall at 20 degree angle.
2. Second coat - put enough plaster on the trowel and apply to wall between 40-60 degree angle.
3. Third coat - put less plaster on the trowel and apply to wall at 90 degree angle.
4. Apply more coats to make elevation effects more obvious.
5. Seal it with wax using the same trowel to prevent the plaster from building molds/mildew.
I followed all of them but what drove me nuts was that the plaster had higher viscosity and quickly dries out that it's so hard to re-spread them on the wall once they are applied. Also, what I found out was that the bigger the trowel the better and faster the application process is.
My small toilet room has a total of 10 coats. I sweat blood on it. I was curious how it looks so I did it but it came out really nice. I actually used an electric buffer that would polish the finished wall after applying the wax. That served as my motivation to tackle the humungous bathroom which after a year I'm still doing it. Some of my friends called me crazy since I never had any experience doing this. But at least I tried and I think its paying off.
Here's what I'm currently painting. A shot I took from my iPhone 1st generation.



And here's the completed painting of the plaster from my small toilet room attached to the master's bathroom.



As of this writing, I had just finished the 4th coat on the bathroom. I have another 3 at least more to do. The bias side of my brain is insisting to just call somebody and have it finished. I'm not listening to it so I'm gonna finish it myself. I will post an update on this blog as soon as I'm done with the rest of the bathroom painting.
No pain. No gain.

Update as of 02/19/2011.

Finally finished the entire master's bathroom, all i have to do is mount the light fixture on the wall. Will post more pictures once all furnitures are up! As per Michae's request below I'm attaching the small toilet's look after 10 coats.

Synthetic Oil Myth?

I've read a couple of articles saying that Synthetic Oil is better for oil change than the regular ones. Synthetic Oild definitely has lower viscosity than the mineral oil and therefore ditsributes heat within the engine better and helps maintains a cool temperature. The myth is that when you start using synthetic oil you have better gas mileage and car performance. With my experience it wasn't.

I switched to synthetic oil 6 months ago and been monitoring it on a regular basis. While I was still using mineral oil my gas mileage was between 17 to 18.9 mpg. Just yesterday my car had 20.13 mpg. So my car was more gas efficient. I had an extra 1.23 mpg and since my car can contain 23 gal (full tank)  I gained an extra 28.29 miles. I'm not sure why it took 6 months to finally get value out of this wonderful oil. Maybe my car was still in the process of adjusting to the new oil. But it worked for me. My car is an Infinit FX 35 V6 2004.

I'm gonna continue using Synthetic Oil till my car finally give up the ghost.

Pulled Over by A Cop Just Two Hours Ago

I drove to my friend's place in Lawrenceville this evening to get my 4BG USB Stick and meet his kid and his lovely wife. Then went to eat at Bonefish close to their house and drove back home. Finally headed out to I-85S and just when I passed exit 113 I decided to hit 80MPH on a 70MPH speed limit so I can make some phone calls and schedule a visit for some church members this week. Within a minute, I saw this flashing lights behind me and I knew I will be getting a ticket. Dang.

The officer walked on the passenger side and ask me "Guess how fast you were driving?". I said 80. He responded, "At least you were honest". Which I knew I was driving that fast. He later followed it with "Do you have to do something that's why you are driving that fast?". I said yes, I needed to make some phone calls to schedule a visit to some of our church members just to see how they're doing and understand if they need anything. He took my license and registration. Waited for 5 minutes. Then he came up and was holding only my driver's license and registration. Urged me to renew my license since it will be expiring before this end of May. My verdict - "Verbal Warning". Whew.... That was comforting! In this recession, Insurance companies will always find a way to charge you more on your premium once they see a hole in your driving record. I'm glad I didn't get the ticket!

The cop told me to take my time and bid me goodnight. He did look intimidating at first just like that Mercury Guy from one of the Terminator Movie Series but was kind enough to let me go for free.

LDS Community Service Project

Yesterday was just one of those community service projects that our church got involved into. Our church annualy participates in community service projects that involves helping schools put up their picnic tables, pain them and plant and prune trees. Others will go to somebody's home and help them paint their house or any organization or family or individual who needs help. We all bring our own tools to do the work. I invited my nephew Alex and explained to him that we will be planting, putting pine straws and barks at the River Trail Middle School in Johns Creek, GA. We had fun working. We started at 9AM and finished around 11AM.

My nephew learned how to use the shovel and proper procedure in planting when the soil is full of clay. I was so happy to see him participate at this kind of activities. I hope he did understand the value of true service. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing people smile and sincerely express their thank you for a community service.

Our church globally, at the same day, reach out to those in need at least twice a year. We are better known as the Mormons. But the real name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

LA Fitness Scam?

I'd go straight to the point. LA Fitness requires you to pay around $250 or more for one time membership fee then charges you around $30 on a monthly rate. My situation 2 years ago was that I need to move to a new house and I won't be able to use my membership because of some stuff I need to take care of and I requested if they can hold on to my memberhsip and not charge me monthly because I wont be at their facility for a month or two. They didn't like it. To cut the story short, I closed my account and they removed my membership. Just last March I joined LA Fitness again because it was the closest place for me to exercise. But I have to pay again the one time membership of almost the same value!

Are they corrupting the meaning of one time membership fee? Once you are a member of that fitness club you will always be a member right? And all you have to do is pay the monthly charges. As some other places do. They charge you a one time fee and you have a choice to pay by day or by month that is only if you come in and use their facility.

I just don't like LA Fitness' business model on that membership thing. I don't know, I feel like they're cheating.

Delta Airline's Black Hole System

This experience I'm going to explain was about a year or two years ago when I flew to Salt Lake City, UT for our Church General Conference. I bought my ticket from Delta and was ready to fly few days before the event. Of course, GA 400 and I-85 South are so unpredictable sometimes even on weekends in terms of the traffic volume. I got in at the airport and made it thru the security check and I only had 5 minutes left before my plane leaves. I rushed to the gate thinking I will be able to make it because I had 2 minutes left before the plane leaves. But the gate was closed and nobody there was able to help me out..actually there were 5 of us who got into the same situation.

So, I went to one of the Delta help desk and ask how can I get into a plane as early as I can. They pointed me to one corner that has several telephone booths and call a specific number to talk to one of their representatives that can reschedule my flight. The earliest available flight was 2 hours after I talked to with the representative and warned me to call her 45 minutes before the flight to confirm I have a seat for that schedule. So I did and was confirmed and told to go to this terminal where I can get my boarding pass. To my surprise, I have to pay $50 because I missed my flight and fees apply for the flight change. I...was...not...happy! But I didn't have a choice but to pay it and get over it.

I was on board for my rescheduled flight and arrived in Salt Lake City smoothly. I stayed their for 5 days. It was time to leave and pack up my stuff. I got in at the airport "on time" because traffic was good plus I did my usual "arrive at the airport 2 hours before the flight". I was infront of this lady checking me in and she was not able to locate my information on their database! It appeared I have no ticket going back but I had a round trip ticket paid! She asked my flight from Atlanta 5 days ago how it went and I told her my story and frustration. Finally she figured out that "Delta Airlines" automatically deletes your travel information if you missed your first flight and I was not told about it. The Delta employee who took care of my new boarding pass for Salt Lake Flight never told me this! So the end result, was that I have to stay at the airport for 6 hours because that's the only flight available heading to Atlanta and I'm so glad she did her best to put me as the #1 in the waiting list because the plane that arrived 6 hours later only had 1 seat available! 

So both flights were terrible! I hated the fact that Delta never tried to maintain my return flight information or at least re-process it so I will have a smoot entry at the checkin and flight back.

Bottomline is never ever be late with your flight(s) if possible so that wont' happen to you. I never got any perks or compensation to make me happy about the mishap. Delta will automatically delete your return flight from their system and will make it appear you never bought a return flight ticket from them even if you have.   

North Atlanta Trading Center

Me and my girlfriend saw many times this advertisement about the liquidation sale in North Atlanta Trading Center located in Norcross, GA and sounded like there's a lot of opportunities to get a good deal from what is being sold - General Merchandise and Electronics. Their were many good brands mentioned. At a cheap price. Got excited and went to check it out the following New Years Day.

We have to pay $7 per head before you can get inside the building. The line was too long and made it look like an interesting place to buy stuff. Once we got in, we hurried up to the electronics section and to my dismay their computers, cameras, video cams looked like they were picked up from the trash and made it work. A Thinkpad laptop was being sold for $250 and all you see from its screen is a blinking cursor. Another laptop had a Windows 95 OS on it and was being sold for $300. Video Cameras had a lot of scratches and some have missing parts. The rest of the electronics items were an immitation/off brand. I felt like I was scavanging into a junkyard. I was better off waiting for big stores to put their electronics items on sale or even better go to ebay for this kind of stuff.

Even worse their general merchandise items were off branded and they were selling it at the same price when branded items from Dillards, North Georgia Outlet Mall, JC Penney or Belk puts their stuff on sale. I tried putting on a pair of leather gloves and felt like I can rip it off by only making a hard fist.

This is my first time to go shopping at this place. I'll never come back. But I'm willing to try their Georgia Home Expo Event but I'm not sure when will they have one. The last time they had it was year 2007.

I didn't waste my $7. Glad I went to know I will not be coming back for this event.