I have been thinking about the power that is in momentum and the advantage of using that power in our lives.

The law of Inertia as I remember is that any object that is stationary tends to stay that way until power is applied that is equal to its weight or a little more to make it move, if there is no resistance. If there is resistance then it is necessary to apply enough power to over come the resistance plus the weight of the object. Once the object is moving it tends to move in the same direction at the same speed unless that speed and direction is overcome by resistance and (or) the pull of gravity. This is an eternal law that we constantly use without even thinking about it. Thus it is much easier to roll an object rather than drag it in the dirt. The law of gravity makes it much harder to go uphill than to go downhill. The law of gravity can overcome a great deal of resistance especially if the object is heavy and is given a little start or momentum downhill.

Most of our worthwhile goals in life are usually uphill with plenty of resistance. Therefore it requires plenty of power to get started and power to keep up our momentum even after we get going. If we stop it requires much more power to get going again especially on a steep incline near the top or near to reaching our goal.

When I was a young boy I went hunting with Dad and Uncle Steve Farnsworth. On one of these hunts as we were sitting around the campfire in the evening, Uncle Steve challenged me to a contest of standing broad jump.

He drew a line and told me to jump first. I stood with my toes at the line and jumped as far as I could landing in a squatting position to increase the distance. My heel marks marked where I had landed leaving what I thought was a hard mark to pass. Uncle Steve was about 65 years of age at the time but very active and had lived his active life of work and hiking in the mountains. He stepped up the line and easily jumped a few inches past my heel marks. He laughed and said that he was going to teach me how to jump two feet farther than I had jumped. I was very interested in learning to do that and accepted enthusiastically.

Uncle Steve then picked up a big rock that weighed about forty pounds. He walked to the line spread out his legs and began to swing that heavy rock up in front of him and down between his legs then with a mighty swing upward with the rock he jumped up and out letting the rock pull him. Then in the middle of the jump he pushed the rock down and back propelling himself a little farther with the push. He landed at least two feet farther than his old mark, making his total jump over eight feet. Then it was my turn to learn to use that rock to help propel me through the air. At first I didn't do so well but soon got the hang of it literally, because I had to learn to hang on to the rock and let it pull me then just at the right moment push it down and back to send me on in the air. It took plenty of power to swing the rock up and out and jump at the same time letting the rock pull me with its momentum. Then pull down and back hard enough to get a little more time and distance in the air.

On many explorer hikes I would challenge to boys to contests of Triple Jump and you guessed it, Standing Broad Jump. I don't think I had any of the boys beat me at either contest. I was in good shape physically and had many years of experience on any of them. Many years of running the Basket Ball court had given me the power to win the Triple Jump. I had learned to control the rock so that I could give it momentum and have it pull me then use the power of stopping it and throwing it back to propel me forward. It takes more power to throw the rock forward and jump at the same time and them still more power to throw it back, but it is certainly worth it to gain an extra two feet of distance in the jump.

In our lives we need to develop our spiritual power to begin our climb and gain momentum to carry us along overcoming the resistance and the pull of gravity. We need to keep our spiritual power constant through spiritual experiences and keeping the commandments of the Lord so that we don't lose the momentum. Many times the rough places in the road will slow us down and it is then that we need to rely on the Lord to help us increase our spiritual power and overcome all adversity or resistance.

We can use the weight of a calling in the church as a rock to propel us farther on our spiritual climb if we learn to give it enough momentum to pull us a ways, but we need to give it all of the power we have to get it going and build up the momentum.

I went with Anthony and a group of explorers and scouts on a trip to the mountains. We camped at our property down by the old Corral under some big cedar trees. It was a good rainy year and the whole country was running water. We pulled into camp on little high place near the edge of the hill. I was the first one there in  our old red Volkswagen Van. I chose to back into the shade out of the water because I was going to sleep in the van. I asked Anthony if he wanted to sleep with me in the van and he declined saying, "No Dad you snore too much". The rest of the group arrived in two pick up trucks loaded with boys and their camping gear. They both backed their trucks onto the high place forming a cozy camp.

It continued to rain every afternoon but we enjoyed each day that we stayed there. Each day we would ride out to different places on horses and we all enjoyed it very much . We ;road over to the Gavilan river fishing a couple of times. The day we were to leave we had an early breakfast and packed up. The two pickup Trucks were all loaded and started out to go home. They just moved of the high place a few feet and sank into the mud and stopped. The spinning of the back wheels and the roaring of the powerful motors just dug them deeper into the mud. All of the boys piled off the trucks to push to help the trucks get out but nothing happened. I told them to take it easy and that I would pull them out. They looked at my Van and shook their heads doubting my statement and thinking that it was impossible for that little van to pull a big pick up truck loaded with gear.

I backed up a little on the high place and got a run on it and with the momentum I crossed the soft place filled with water and pulled onto solid ground about thirty feet in front of the stuck trucks. I got out my Nylon tow straps that I always carried and tied them all together. That made the tow line long enough to reach the stuck trucks and to spare. I hooked one end to the trailer hitch on the van and told the driver of the first truck to hook the other end onto the truck so that it would not be cut when I pulled. I gave them instructions to start the motor of the truck and when I hit the end of the tow line to pull forward with power. I gave myself about 15 ft. of slack in the tow line so that I could get up plenty of momentum. I put the van in low gear and gave it all of the power it had to get up good momentum.

When I hit the end of the tow line the nylon strap stretched slowly bringing the van to a stop under full power. The weight of van plus the power of the momentum and the pull of the motor pulled the pick up truck along in the mud for about six feet. After repeating the process a few times the truck finally came on to solid ground and could travel under it's own power. Next came the second truck and we pulled it out amid the cheers of the boys. The Nylon tow strap let us use the momentum and the weight of the van to move the truck through the mud with  the help of the trucks motor. We could not have used a chain because the shock would have been too great and would have broken something and probably would have put me through the windshield.

We must learn to build up momentum in our lives in all that we do so that  we can overcome the resistance in the form of the opposition of Satan. We can  learn the lesson of the Nylon Tow Strap and use the flexibility yet the ultimate strength in helping other people out of difficult situations.

We must also have very good brakes in order to stop the momentum if we start going down hill. The  pull of gravity or the pull of evil can build up too much momentum and take us to destruction if we don't have the power in the forn of good brakes to stop the downhill momentum.

The Lord advises us to not run faster than we have strength. This includes building up too much speed that we cannot control. If we learn to use momentum for our help and benefit it can be a big help in our lives. We must use prudence and wisdom in all things. Too much of anything is not good. Even in our spiritual and religious lives we must not shoot beyond the mark. It takes patience and practice to use momentum for our good.

May the Lord's blessings be with you all. Accept our love and best wishes for you. Use wisdom in all that you do and follow the council of the Prophets of the lord.