Melva Gifford

This weekend, I start two excellent examples of lessons being taught to children. The first lesson was talking about relationship between baptism and taking the sacrament. The second lesson was about the Holy Ghost. These were great teachers that I saw sharing important messages specifically geared to children, but also sharing important message with the adults. I would like to share what they taught in this blog, so we can all learn from their great examples.

Objects for lesson:

1 cup of water.

½ cup white vinegar

combined into a glass jar with the lid.

Have food coloring and

¼ cup of bleach.

The teacher, the wife of my nephew is an excellent teacher and she gave the following illustration to teach principle of baptism and sacrament.

She told about a little girl who got baptized, and at one point of her life was completely cleaned from season. But the following week, she had a fight with a sibling and made a mistake. This teacher then dropped a drop of food coloring into the jar of vinegar/water. the teacher then talked about the little girl making the second mistake later in the week. The teacher added a second drop of food coloring into the water. She talked about how we might commit sin after we have been baptized. He then discussed how sacrament can help us repent all over again and our slate can be cleaned.

She then poured the 1/4 cup of bleach into the colored water and stirred it and we all watched the food coloring disappear. The previous combination of white vinegar and water combined with the bleach made the food coloring disappear. She compared this to the sacrament being taking every week where we commit to repentance and the slate becomes clean once more like unto baptism and we can strive to become better people each week. I thought she did a delightful job teaching this lesson and want to share this blog for wonderful example.

If you stand excellent example of how the relationship between baptism and sacrament has been taught, please feel free to share it in the comment section this blog.

In trying to create a second source of income. I am trying to learn about buying a tax deed, and then either rent the property or reselling it after I fixed it up. Here are some things I’ve learned the last few weeks before a certain auction.

Some states use a company to manage the selling of their properties. Tax deeds. I will reference the specific company. I am using as XXX

1. The spreadsheet on xxx is not as up-to-date as the APN links. You can waste a lot of time doing property research from the spreadsheet and then find that APN-links themselves indicate that the properties have been withdrawn by the homeowner. Pay attention to the APN information over the spreadsheet before you do excessive research.

2. A prominent amount of the properties exceeds the 10% recommended exchange-rate of the worth of the property to the bid amount.

3. A prominent amount of properties that you may have been interested in, are withdrawn a week before bid. Of the 14 properties within my price range four are still available. Depending upon who my fellow bidders are will see if I can get in those four.

4. One good way to avoid emotional bidding is on your spreadsheet of properties do a calculation in one of the columns where you multiply the amount of the bid by the worth of the property. Then you get a percentile. If it is over the recommended amount i.e. 10% and you know that property may not be a good investment. You make that decision before you look at it and become emotionally involved. You can do these calculations, all in one group by copying the formula down on each line of the spreadsheet and duplicate it on the other columns.

5. A lot of properties I look for on zillow do not show home information, I’m assuming that these are lots, not homes, even though it didn’t say ‘vacant’ next to the property in the original spreadsheet.

6. If you’re bidding for a property with a bid under $6,000, the worth of the home (maybe at $64,000) the real estate person will get about $1920 for the sale at their 3% commission. The more money they can make may motivate them to go the extra mile on your behalf. They might be motivated to help you create your support team. (Property manager, title search lawyer, and local contractors)

7. The higher the bid, the more properties that are still available a week before auction. The lower the bid, the more likely the property has been withdrawn.

8. Be cautious with xxx. They had to return my check and addressed the check to themselves that was sent back to me. So at the moment of my check sent from them that is addressed to them, not to me. At the moment, this makes the check worthless. Spend plenty of time in advance of the auction to get the money to xxx as if they mess up the check your money is in limbo. Also, with some of us who are quite thickheaded, instructions can be a little bit confusing in regards to how to make the deposit.

9. Be cautious of the hours as xxx is on Eastern standard Time, and does not accommodate for customers in the Western states. If you work during the day, you may want to call before work, but the waiting times can be lengthy.

10. The response time from xxx is sluggish. Be prepared to do anything far in advance as they may or may not respond to your emails or phone calls.

11. None of the properties on the spreadsheet will show a face photo of the property from zillow. Zillow only shows from the air. Still trying to find photos of facing the property. I haven’t figured out how to manipulate Google maps or Google Earth.

12. One real estate person told me that about a 50% chance of a home steel being occupied by the original homeowner and that a new homeowner will probably have to bribe the current resident to exit the home in order for you to move in or to make changes to the home.

13. Another real estate agent told me that the repairs of a home might range between 10,000 and $20,000. At the time he quoted this estimate to me. We did not discuss the worth of the property for the quote he gave me.

14. A estate agent said that some counties combines utilities, so there should be normally one source for utilities. When you turn them on, so that real estate people can show the house and contractors can work on improving the house.

I have a hard time remembering which symbol represents a credit. Is it + and – symbols for credit. Here is one idea.

Credit is a – sign. Visually, the – sign. It could look like taffy  being stretched apart or something being  pulled away from is source, thus stretching it until it breaks away from its source. Taking money away or less money is a negative/– credit. The + sign is easier. + Is added or debit.

That might help me.

–          Make a list of the type of coverage you want to work for.

–          Look up articles that say who the best companies to work for.

–          Form 10 questions in the field of your interest that you can ask your networking contacts

–          avoid calling the business on Monday mornings, says that is a very busy time

–          On your resume catch typos and misspellings.

–          Read resume out loud to catch any possible incoherencies

–          find keywords in the job description and put them in your resume in the software programs will look for those keywords.

–          Three references to use: boss coworker, and long-term acquaintance that can act as a character witness

–          (pick a boss who liked you). The prospective employer may ask. We improve our employees what areas would be good to help this applicant.

–          Coworkers can give letters recommendation

–          the next 60 days. Seek out and go out for all possible contacts.

–          Contact who you know who may know someone else that works the industry, that you want to work for

–          you have a lot more to offer than they want.

–          Salary.com or salaryexpect.com or size. It can tell you what kind of salary expectations associated different occupations

–          update resumes each week on job sites so that they have a fresh timestamp. Employers look for the last post

–          glassdoor: good site for job-search tells what people are saying about the company.

–          http://www.careerxl.com/ : good job website to get current information

–          O-net online, http://www.onetonline.org/ :federal government information

–          career resource network: the side that can provide

Wolfs in sheep’s clothing: 4 – 14 – 14

Currently in South Nevada. There are some protesters who are objecting to the BLM (Bureau of land management) over the rights of a rancher grazing on state/federal lands. A lot of people going to the ranch to protest government control. Apparently there are some people who had joined the crowd who are there specifically, to rile things up, and to cause an incident. Some of these agitators are from back east and may not have the same objectives as the local citizens protesting.

Object lesson: get a ball and start wrapping it with masking or duct tape. But have the sticky part of the tape, pointing out so that the entire ball is sticky. Then start playing a game of catch with the family or class members. Everyone should be surprised when they catch the ball and it sticks to their hands, making it’s hard to let go. This can be compared to two groups of people that may object to something such as a political stance on a topic. One group of people have a sincere objection, but share their opinions in a peaceful way. For example Martin Luther King had rules for his followers that they were to remain peaceful as they objected to the limited rights of African-Americans. But some people may participate in a protest who want to simply rile things up and turn the situation into a worst-case scenario by demonstrating violence.

The sticky ball could be interpreted as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The ball looks like a fun thing to play with, but when you touch it and try to play with it. It pulls at your hands. This can be compared to will and sheep’s clothing. A teacher or parent could tell the story of how a wolf dresses up in sheep’s clothing to be able to travel within the herd of sheep to then capture and kill a sheep. The sticky ball could be compared to people with a violent agenda mixing themselves up in a peaceful demonstration.

Today I want to touch upon the theme that as we object to a political topic, that we must be cautious of who we associate with. Some people may say the ‘words’ that they agree with a certain concept, but they may actually have a separate agenda than those who want to demonstrate peacefully. They may want to cause an incident.

For that reason today’s topic is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As we each work on trying to be our best selves. We may face a time where we feel we need to stand up for an important value. If we ever decide to do a peaceful demonstration (such as waving signs ) We need to make sure the following things.

1. Be careful of being played. There may be individuals who endeavor to lead us and then share flattering words to get us to follow them, but they may not really believe in what we believe in, and are only there to gain power for themselves. Many of these may be called politicians or are aspiring politicians. Or there may be members in the crowd that want to make the situation worse by offering violence instead of peaceful demonstration.
2. 2. As we do research on a certain principle. We need to remember the history of events as well as the current event. This includes a cause and effect for each action we and others preform.
3. 3. It is important for us to consider our motives behind of our actions. We want to be careful to not perform questionable acts for the sake of publicity.
4. 4. If we are individuals who do not condone violence we need to be wary of associating with people who condone it.
5. 5. We have examples of people that have suffered and died for their beliefs. Chief and foremost was Jesus Christ, the son of God. Other examples are Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Junior.

So the lesson today is to be weary of playing with a sticky all. We should always be careful of who we choose to associate with.

If you wish to contribute to this topic, please provide your responses in the comment section this blog.

I attended some Toastmasters training and took some notes and see the principles can be applicable to any organization, so I thought share

–          determine what your members are motivated by

–          success comes from the members helping with the goals

–          to increase communication skills, members to seek out opportunities to speak at various events, the community. And only gives you experience in speaking, but advertises the organization represent

–          We have five relationships in our lives: self, mom, dad, God, and money

This is a short list this round.

Good:  Analyze

Bad: Analize

I realize that I cannot analyze something truthfully when I am too closed to a situation; therefore I need to remember that anaYze does not include an I. Y means that you and I need to establish a proper distance and perspective to analyze something need to remember that You.

You have a better way of how to remember the Y? Please feel free to share it in the comment section.

Here are some tips I received at one of the workshops. I attended during my job search. If you have items add to the list, please do so in the comment section this blog. Thanks.

–          Appeal to them emotionally.

–          Practice your interview with friends or family.

–          Pre-think and prescript your responses and rehearse them.

–          Posture is important.

–          Try to keep an open relaxed stance.

–          Keep confident body language which includes eye contact

–          Leaning forward shows eagerness.

–          Answer all questions completely but don’t run off the mouth.

–          Be prompt at your interview.

–          Assassinate the competition by providing benefits that were not on the list of requirements. That way it can redefine the job. Add unexpected value. Examples: an accountant who owns a small business owner or karity teacher hiring at a care facility.

–          Follow up with a thank you letter with a physical letter. It gets more attention than an email that can be skilled. You can include a short statement how you can benefit them.