Boston Marathon - Results

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3 hours, 1 minute.

That's how fast my son ran the Boston Marathon. His goal was to get under 3 hours, so he's disappointed in his effort. I say he did wonderful. He came in 1336 out of nearly 25,000 runners. Not bad in my mind. When it comes to running, and all the nutrition and exercise that goes into it, I think he's amazing. His mother and I are rightly proud of him.

Now, to answer the question I posed just before we left for Boston. Who was the first person EVER to be baptized? My sister tried a guess, and it was a pretty good one. She guessed John the Baptist. However, that's not it. Where did John the Baptist get the idea for performing baptisms? And, another thing to consider, Jesus said, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Born of the water and the spirit. So, does that mean just those who lived at the time of Christ and since, and have been baptized can enter? Or does it mean what he said, NO ONE can enter without baptism?

What about all those who have never heard of Jesus?

What about all those who lived before Jesus lived?

Instead of giving the answer, I think I'll post this question again and see if all my faithful followers (all one or two of you) can think of the answer with all the clues I just provided.
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About Paul West

Paul West is a freelance writer and novelist. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Paul claims to be a "Prune Picker," though he now makes his home in Taylorsville, Utah.

You can follower him on Twitter: @PaulWWest

Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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My wife, son, and I are going back to Boston next week to see our son run the marathon. We're also going to visit a bunch of her relatives, and I do mean a bunch! Being Italian, she has close 2nd and 3rd cousins, aunts and uncles, and great aunts and great uncles - well not really, but you get the idea.

I'll be back the following week, so if anyone has any comments or needs me to get back to them, I will do so as soon as I return.

By the way, just to leave you with something. I just found another link that I think is great!!! It's how not to avoid making mistakes when writing and querying. Check it out.

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-more-mistakes-not-fewer.html

Now, for my gospel question of the week:

When was baptism first instituted and who was the first person ever to be baptized? Yes, he is mentioned in the Bible.
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Here's another link to some great writing advice. Check this one out too.

http://ldspublisher.blogspot.com/2008/04/storymakers-tim-travaglini-putnam_15.html
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I was surfing through my writer book marks and found an interesting article on the BookEnds agency blog. I thought my fellow writers, and wannabe writers might find it interesting. Go check it out.

Book Ends Literary Agency Blogspot
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I guess Candace is the only one who’s going to respond to my last week’s question. That’s okay. I know religion is difficult for some to discuss calmly.

Candace has it right, however. Jesus does have a body of flesh and bones. Recall how He said to his disciples after His resurrection, “a spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye see me have” (again, I have to apologize that I don’t have my scriptures in front of me to give you the proper citation).

Joseph Smith confirmed that when praying in the Sacred Grove near his homestead, two glorious beings appeared to him, one pointing to the other, “This is my beloved son. Hear him.” Joseph saw the Father and the Son. They both had tangible bodies of flesh and bone, and we will too when we are resurrected someday.

Thank you Candace.

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Okay, now for the fun stuff. I started writing this part earlier this morning, but a computer glitch wiped out my file. So here goes again.

G. Parker, I think her name is Gaynell, tagged me last week, and now I need to tag some other people. I hope they haven’t been tagged, already, but here’s my list:

1. Basic Guy - I know his name, but not sure he want’s it known, but he’s written a novel too.
2. Ann Bradshaw - I read her YA novel some time ago - can’t recall the name, but it was fun.
3. Bhaswati - she’s a writer living in India. You should see some of the art on her blog site
4. Candice E. Selima
5. Rebecca Talley
6. Tristi Pinkston - I just finished reading her first novel NOTHING TO REGRET (excellent I might add).
7. Cherie Chassaing - she’s my baby sister. She’s trying to sell real estate in Penn Valley, California.

All of their tags are listed on my sidebar.

If you are part of the above, and haven’t been tagged yet, then you need to follow up and tag 7 others.

Here’s the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now, to say something about myself no one ever knew (well I think my sister knows a lot of this):

1) Even though I’ve lived most of my life in Utah, I still consider myself a “prune-picker.” If you don’t know what that means, it’s a person born and raised in California. I was born in Oakland, and raised in a small bay area town called Port Costa. When I was a kid, Port Costa was a fun, kind of Huckle Berry Finn kind of place to grow up. We had a railroad yard, with a round house and railroad shanties where I’d spend a lot of time watching the steam and diesel switch engines push and pull cars around the yard. There were hills with eucalyptus and buckeye trees where it was rumored Black Bart had hidden his treasures. We also had this huge blackberry patch behind some of the houses in town where I used to pick buckets full and my grandmother would make the best blackberry cobbler in the world.

2) My mother attempted to teach me to play the piano, but I could never get past the one hand at a time part. I still can’t coordinate like that. I can type up to 60 words per minute, but that only requires one hand at a time, if you think about it.

3) I attended high school in Crockett, since Port Costa isn’t big enough. I made a lot of good friends there that I haven’t seen since graduation, and I miss. When I got there, I signed up for band. I figured I could play a wind instrument and still make good music but without having to use both hands at the same time. Mr. Wigell, our band director, started me out on the French horn. I grew to love it and played it through my junior college days, where I was first chair in the Diablo Valley College orchestra. I also played the trumpet and saxophone, because really, can you see someone carrying a (at that time) $2,000 instrument around on the football field during marching band or pep rallies?

4) I began writing when I was in highschool. Even though I didn’t get the best grades in English, my teacher saw some kind of a raw talent in me and encouraged me to write. One of my professors in college did the same, but it wasn’t until around 1986 that I seriously started writing fiction. My novel, now called SWEET REVENGE, has gone through tons of revisions since then, and is almost finished, looking nothing like the original story. I’ve also begun a mid-grade novel title GERTA!!! (capitalization and exclamation points are intended as part of the title).

5) I served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam war. I was fortunate, however, that I was assigned to serve 3 years in Germany. I loved it there, and toured most of Europe. My wife and I hope to tour there next year.

6) My wife, Brenda, is from Rhode Island. We met at BYU (Brigham Young University) and were married in the Oakland Temple in 1975 (does that date me?). She is the greatest thing that ever happened to me – the love of my life.

7) We have four of the most wonderful kids anyone could hope for, and so far, two of them have given us four (soon to be six) of the most wonderful grandchildren ever.

Okay, that’s probably enough. Now, I just gotta notify everyone.
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I've begun again, sending out those devil queries for SWEET REVENGE. I hate writing them. I suck at it, actually. But, thanks to many fellow writer friends, I think my latest version of my query isn't too bad. So, I've sent it out to about 10 agents so far and I'm going to wait to see how they respond to this version before revising it again and sending to 10 more agents.

Here's hoping this one works. I really think my novel is top notch. While I've been classifying it as young adult, I think it's kind of literary as well. I say that, because it's totally character driven, not plot driven. Not to say it doesn't have a plot. It does, and it's a well developed plot, but the characters are the main focus. Will Mark get his revenge on the person who killed his family? Will Jeff get revenge on Mark for stealing his girl? And what about the two main girls, Charisse and Genie? Who will win Mark, or is he worth the fight? And what about Jeff? What kinds of wicked plans can he devise?

I'm hoping when it sells, it will sell big.

Now, to change the subject. I've run out of "What do Mormons Believe" statements. Over the past several weeks, I've quoted all 13 Articles of Faith. So now, I have a question for those of you who would like to know more about what Mormons believe:

Many Christian religions believe God is a spirit. Right? They quote a scripture in the New Testament that I can't recall right now because I don't have my scriptures with me at the moment that says in effect, "God is a spirit and we must worship him in spirit." I probably didn't quote that correctly, it's just from memory. Regardless, my question is, if God is a spirit, what happened to His body? Wasn't Jesus resurrected? When He visited His apostles following the resurrection, didn't He say to them to handle Him and feel Him? Didn't He say that a spirit doesn't have a body of flesh and bone as He had? If He is a spirit now, what happened to His body? Did He die again?

I'd like to get people's answers to that question before I weigh in on the subject.
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