Thoughts and stories, by Pal

  ‘This looks like something straight from Salt Lake!’ 1 missionary’s crazy impressive video editing By  Emily Abel   November 17, 2021 04:09 PM MST tter Pinterest Email Print Missionaries in Syracuse, New York, are using cameras, stabilizers, microphones, and even drones as they create videos to share the gospel. YouTube screenshot “You need to put at the beginning that this was produced by missionaries—because this looks like something straight from Salt Lake!” That is what a bishop in the New York Syracuse Mission said when he saw the video Elder Jared Bender created encouraging member missionary work. And we couldn’t agree more. From the high video and audio quality to the creative edits and easy to follow dialogue, this video created by Elder Bender and his fellow missionaries could easily be mistaken as something produced by a seasoned professional on the Church’s payroll. Elder Bender from San Diego, California, loved making videos for social media before his missi...

 I love Meridian Magazine and you probably have seen, I reuse many of their inspirational articles, and I always give credit to whomever wrote it.  This is another really good one! Fact-finding or fault-finding? By  Joni Hilton  · November 25, 2021 We live in an era of sharp division, harsh words, and violent flare-ups. We see it in the streets and sometimes in our own families. Somehow, we have forgotten how to agree to disagree. Instead of fact-finding when we encounter someone with a different view, there is fault-finding. Someone’s differing view suddenly defines the person. Hatred of an opinion has become hatred of the person who holds it. We seem to have forgotten “hate the sin but love the sinner” as our society sinks into personal attacks and cancel culture. Why must our dislike for a political position have to become dislike for the person who holds it?  Do you dislike people of other faiths?  Folks who cheer for other teams? People who like the mo...

  I don't know if we'll have this same problem, but we definitely have various views about Covid, and many other things.  We avoid politics and religion when together!  The picture below is of my husband Wayne and me -- in the yellow shirts.  On the back row are our 9 children, and the 7 sitting are the children of my husband Wayne's identical twin Blaine, who passed away 17 years before.  This was taken on our 60th Wedding anniversary party, in September 2015. Perspective: The socialist at the dinner table How to survive a holiday gathering when your daughter invites Karl Marx to the party By  Jennifer Graham @grahamtoday     Nov 21, 2021, 10:00pm MST Share this story Share this on Facebook (opens in new window) Share this on Twitter (opens in new window) All sharing options For a long time, I thought the biggest — and most troubling — difference between my eldest daughter and me was how we feel about horses. I’ve been obsessed with the...

 This is all about being full of joy and happiness! Fully Alive: Feeling One with Christ By  Anne Hinton Pratt  · November 17, 2021 Cover image:  Yongsung Kim, “Seeds of Joy,”  https://havenlight.com/ . If your inner self were a landscape, how would it look? Green lush valleys, beautiful waterfalls, and majestic mountaintops? or dry barren wasteland? Have you ever wondered how your life would look if you were FULLY alive? Potential Privileges in This Life and Beyond In the scriptures we get phrases that describe the feelings and blessings that come to us when we ascend to this high “mountaintop.” Here are a few: [We can be]“ filled with that  joy  which is unspeakable and full of Glory.” [1] “He hath filled me with his  love , even unto the consuming of my flesh” [2] “…their souls were illuminated by the  light …” [3] “…the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with  fir...

It would be wonderful for someone to do this for missionaries in all countries with a lot of poverty. What a lot of good would be done, for now, and the future! Why are There So Many Missionaries from Zimbabwe? By  Maurine Proctor  · November 18, 2021 When our daughter, Michaela was in the MTC in Johannesburg, South Africa, several years ago, we thought something was quite mysterious. Almost every other missionary with her was from Zimbabwe. Not only that, but they seemed to know each other well, like old high school friends who shared the same stories. That trend has continued with young men and women from Zimbabwe stepping up to serve missions in unusual numbers, and there’s no secret why. It is the same reason why suddenly women are making the long treks to see doctors while they are pregnant, which often saves their and their babies lives. The same reason that medical supplies are available to the sick in Zim and some of the starving have food. This is no small thing in a ...