815. Wayne, and the Gift of Tongues, on his mission in 1950s, and ways I am going to change my blog. How to get free LDS thoughts in your e mail.

First I want to let Wayne himself tell of a very choice experience he had on his first mission to Sweden, from December 1950 to July 4, 1953.

This is a picture of Wayne D Eckman, on his first mission to Sweden, 1950s.

  I’m going to relate to you now a very choice experience I had language-wise after I had been in Sweden just six months.  I could understand more Swedish than I could speak.  One fast Sunday, Elder Timpson, who was to conduct the fast meeting, became ill and the responsibility fell upon me to fulfill that task. One brother by the name of Algot Soderstrom got up and literally lambasted the Church up one side and down the other–declaring that the Church said too much about tithing, the Word of Wisdom, fast offerings, etc.  It was obvious that all of these bothered him because he wasn’t observing them completely.  There I was kind of speechless and not knowing exactly what to do.  Nevertheless, he needed to be corrected so that the congregation would not get the wrong idea.   

So I got up and told him that usually things that people weren’t doing properly bothered them–that it was like music to the soul to hear about tithing, if one was paying it regularly or was observing the Word of Wisdom faithfully or living the commandments.  After the meeting was over, that man came up to me and apologized profusely for giving the wrong impression.  Then he said, “Elder Eckman, do you know that you just spoke perfect Swedish as you bore your testimony?”  It wasn’t me speaking, but it was the Holy Ghost.  I literally had the Gift of Tongues granted unto me on that occasion. After that experience, Swedish came to me by leaps and bounds.  What a grand experience that was!  The Holy Ghost will come to our aid if we are in tune.  I am glad that I received that help because I was close to the Spirit then, and words were put into my mouth to strengthen the testimonies of those present.

Dear Readers of my blog:

I am going to make some major changes in the blog I have been writing for over 3 years.  Often I have included very nice articles from Latter Day Light, LDS Living, and Meridian Magazine.  I hope I haven't broken any copyright laws by reposting their articles.  I have always posted the authors, etc.  But I plan from now on to only write my own thoughts, and family history.

So for those of you who are interested, here is how to get those free inspiring thoughts to your own computer, on your own e mail:

To receive Latter Day Devotion, which is every day of the week -- and doesn't ever ask for donations go to:

www.latterdaylight.com   -- There is a place to sign up to receive them.

   --- Each day there is an LDS scripture, and a quote from one of our Latter Day Prophets.  Also it gives a help on which scriptures to read each day to complete the Book of Mormon in a year, and also whatever other scripture we are studying in Sunday School.  For instance, today on Sunday, February 12, 2017, it states:

DAILY READING SCHEDULE 

Read the Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants in a year by following our Daily Reading Schedule.

2 Nephi 1:31 - 2:11

Doctrine & Covenants 20:58-71

It also has interesting happenings on February 12th throughout Church History from about 1830 to the present.

For LDS Living entries: go to:

www.ldsliving.com

In the center of the page is a place you can sign up for free to receive them, and I believe they are every day of the week.

For Meridian Magazine, go to:

www.ldsmag/signup/

This lovely online LDS Church oriented magazine comes 5 days a week -- Monday through Friday.  They do ask for donations about once a year, and to me it is truly worth it!

I do realize that they probably are all in English, and those of you who translate to another language may not be able to do that.

I will continue to do my blog a few times each week.  I may from time to time print something I know is publicly available.  But I plan more to concentrate on Family History stories, and inspirational things that happen in my life, and the lives of our family or people I know.  

I decided this after reading an inspiring article in the LDS Church News this last week.  Here are some quotes from it:

Article titled:  Using social media for good--

Quoting Elder David A Bednar:--- his 4 guidelines:

1. Be authentic and consistent.

2. Seek to edify and uplift rather than to argue, debate, condemn, or belittle.

3. Respect the intellectual property of other people and organizations.

4, Be wise and vigilant in protecting yourself and those you love (the world will have access to your message or picture for all time).

He also said, among other things:

We should not allow even good applications of social media to overrule the better and best uses of our time, energy, and resources.

When I have been reading in several of these great online publications, I sometimes find I have spent 2 or 3 hours without any real accomplishments.  I do enjoy hearing about people and their lives, but I really want to spend my time doing some other things, and not spending a lot of time deciding what to share on my blog.  I have written on so many different subjects, anyone who is interested could spend a lot of time reading in my over 800 blogs!

I want to spend more of my time doing more indexing and arbitrating, and also researching stories about my ancestors, and putting them on Family Search.  I do plan to put more family stories on, and those who are interested are welcome as always to read them.  I truly hope dear readers over the world will still enjoy it.

I have always wished I received more comments from readers.  So perhaps with my new plan, more of you readers will give me your thoughts also.  I truly don't know if my blog is helping anyone or not, because I don't hear back from you.

I do hope those who are interested will sign up for your own e mail to receive those great publications.  There have always been many more good articles than I have been able to cover also.  I occasionally have included articles from "Hey Sigmund" and other blogs which I think have been okay to repost.  I want to write more of my own thoughts also, and it has seemed easier to just find something someone else has written, than take time to write my own thoughts.

So there you have it!  That is my new plan, and I will begin today.  I do want to post something about my dear husband Wayne today.  I forgot to do it yesterday, and I plan to do it each day until February 21st, 2017, which will be a year from the day he passed into eternity.  (And after, now and then!)