IF MARAVILLA ONLY KNEW…

There is nothing knew under the sun

Everything has been seen before, as in Those designs take me back to the 1950s—there really is nothing new under the sun. This world-weary view was already expressed in 1382 in the Bible translation attributed to John Wycliffe’s followers: “No thing under the sun is new” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Another well know saying is, “History repeats itself” But now, think about this? Isn’t there something different this time?

Talk 2/9/20: The take off report for this talk comes from Elder Bednar’s “Watchful Unto Prayer” Conference talk of October 2019.

We all can remember Elder Bednar’s talk about cheetahs stalking Topi. It’s a riveting talk that takes us into the jungles of Africa or the grasslands of Africa to see cheetahs carefully stocking Topi for a meal that will last several days.

As I re engaged myself with this talk I contemplated the dangers that we might encounter throughout our lives. Here, in most areas of the United States it’s difficult to get into serious trouble. Especially for those whose goodly parents are able to get into good neighborhoods and schools.

I was teaching an English high school junior class At Galena high school. When the students came into the classroom they looked at me and said Hey you’re that cop can you tell us some stories. I told them about Maravilla. I apologize if I’ve told this story to some of you already but it’s worth repeating and remembering

I met Maravilla for the 1st time when entering his hospital Room at Renown to check his many chains and locks to which he was secured to his bed. His right hand was covered with a compression bandage and suspended above him from ties to the ceiling.

We didn’t say much to each other and I sat down to read his report. He had been shot by officer Kirkland while he was attempting to murder another prisoner who he stabs some 30 times.

Kirklin is known to be an accurate and excellent rifleman but Maravilla’s hand crossed the path of the bullet that would have struck him in the heart.

Maravilla is an assassin. He was then just 24 years old and on an assignment. At the hospital he was heavily guarded but as the other officers had gone to lunch or dinner I had a quiet moment with Maravilla. I wanted to know more about him.

It was just a few days after Christmas and all of us officers had been talking about our wonderful family Christmas gatherings and seeing our loved ones.

I said to him all of you know that Kirkland will kill you, how did he happen to miss and hit your hand. He told me his hand Cross the bullet’s path Just before striking his chest. He had fragments of bullet and bone lodged in his chest. I said why did you do it right in front of Kirkland? He then began to tear up and muttered, Crying, I wanted to die.

I am a student of human nature and have engaged in some crazy stories with prisoners over almost 30 years, I was on the edge of my seat.

He said the person he was ordered to kill was his best friend. They were both young Southern Mexicans with ties to the Mexican mafia. They met playing handball on the yard. They also work together in a kitchen and they eventually managed to become cellies.

Maravilla had grown up in Southern Texas where his father brought them from Mexico, There were 9 children when his mother died. His father remarried and eventually there were 18 Children in the home.

He said he felt lonely as all of them were older when he was 7 years old. One day he found a picture in a magazine of a red Mustang. He determined that if he was ever going to be noticed and honored in that family he would have to get that red Mustang.

He got into a freight car in the rail yard thinking that is how he would somehow get the red Mustang. He said that other people would get on the train and were shocked to find this little boy. They were nice and shared what little they had with him. He didn’t know where his home was. even who he was. He just became a milk carton kid.

Eventually that boxcar was pushed on to a spur in the Los Angeles rail yards where the Mexican mafia gangs hang out. They of course took him in and taught him how to squeeze through small openings and unlock doors from the inside.

I tell this story Because,, We can become lost at any age. And we lose most of our young men in their teenage years.

Driving around one day with his friends in a suburban they saw a rival gang coming out of church with the congregation and they began shooting at each other while the parishioners crouched in fear. Maravilla killed a young man. And was sent to prison for the rest of his life.

When I met him he had already killed 2 others for the gang and he wanted out. He hoped they would leave him alone. But there is no getting out. So they probably ordered him to kill his best friend just for that reason. He determined that his only way out Was to be shot by Kirkland.

At this point he was crying so much that I was almost crying too and I didn’t want the other officers to come back and see us both crying so I stopped talking to him.

I don’t know what became of Maravilla but in reading the account of Ammon with king Lamoni. Remember how angry King Limhi’s father was with him for defecting and befriending a Nephite that he was about to slay his own son. That is so common in the criminal world. It’s always blood in blood out.

Now think about this, most of us have made similar promises. In civil marriages we swear till death do us part. And as police and military and Saints we swear to uphold and defend the Constitution and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with our lives.

Consider these words from the October 1979 conference report Spoken by the President of the Quorum of the 12, Ezra Taft Benson.

Ezra Taft Benson
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles The Lord has declared this “a day of warning, and not a day of many words” (D&C 63:58). My message is a witness and warning about some of the evils which threaten America—a land I love with all my heart. There are other countries with this same problem. You who have seen these dangers in the land you love will have a deep feeling for what I will say. America is a place of many great events. Here is where Adam dwelt, where the Garden of Eden was located. America was the place of former civilizations, including Adam’s, the Jaredites’, and Nephites’. America is also the place where God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith, inaugurating the last gospel dispensation on earth before the Savior’s second coming. This consecrated land has been placed under the everlasting decree of God. That decree is recorded in the sacred Book of Mormon, a new witness for Christ, in these words: “For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. … “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:10, 12).

Thus, in our contemporary world, each of us needs to be aware of beguiling bad that pretends to be good. As Isaiah warned, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
In a paradoxical period when violating the sanctity of human life is heralded as a right and chaos is described as liberty, how blessed we are to live in this latter-day dispensation when restored gospel light can shine brightly in our lives and help us to discern the adversary’s dark deceptions and distractions.
“For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.”

Further, the Lord decreed this land to be “the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, … the holy sanctuary of the Lord” (Ether 13:3). To serve God’s eternal purposes and to prepare this land for Zion, God “established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom [He] raised up … and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (D&C 101:80).

The heart of the Monroe Doctrine consists of these words: “The American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”
The Lord had promised, “I will fortify this land against all other nations” (2 Ne. 10:12). President Joseph Fielding Smith said that “the greatest and most powerful fortification in America is the ‘Monroe Doctrine.’ … It was the inspiration of the Almighty which rested upon John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and other statesmen, and which finally found authoritative expression in the message of James Monroe to Congress in the year 1823” (The Progress Of Man, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., pp. 466–67).

But whenever the God of heaven reveals His gospel to mankind, Satan, the archenemy to Christ, introduces a counterfeit.

Isaiah also predicted there would be those who would “seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us?”

Communism introduced into the world a substitute for true religion. It is a counterfeit of the gospel plan. The false prophets of Communism predict a utopian society. This, they proclaim, will only be brought about as capitalism and free enterprise are overthrown, private property abolished, the family as a social unit eliminated, all classes abolished, all governments overthrown, and a communal ownership of property in a classless, stateless society established.
Since 1917 this godless counterfeit to the gospel has made tremendous progress toward its objective of world domination.
Today, we are in a battle for the bodies and souls of man. It is a battle between two opposing systems: freedom and slavery, Christ and anti-Christ. The struggle is more momentous than a decade ago, yet today the conventional wisdom says, “You must learn to live with Communism and to give up your ideas about national sovereignty.” Tell that to the millions—yes, the scores of millions—who have met death or imprisonment under the tyranny of Communism! Such would be the death knell of freedom and all we hold dear. God must ever have a free people to prosper His work and bring about Zion.