Thoughts and stories, by Pal

  Inside Church Headquarters: A glimpse into the Church’s welfare and humanitarian efforts From the bishops’ storehouse at Welfare Square, the Presiding Bishopric talks about the Church’s worldwide welfare and humanitarian efforts By  Sydney Walker     3 Dec 2022, 10:00 PM MST From left, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor; Bishop L. Todd Budge, second counselor; and Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé chat with volunteers and missionaries at the bishops’ storehouse at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022.   Laura Seitz, Deseret News     Editor’s note: This is the next part of an Inside Church Headquarters series on the Presiding Bishopric. Walking down aisles of food at the bishops’ storehouse at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, the  Presiding Bishopric  greeted missionaries and volunteers one by one, praising them for keeping the facility clean and organized.  One of those missionaries was Elder Jordan Co...

  Who? When? Why? – Old Testament Take-Aways By  Kathy K. Clayton  · December 7, 2022 The approaching end of 2022 and our completion of “Come, Follow Me” for the Old Testament is a compelling time to review some of the mighty, pithy sermons of that timeless and enduring volume of scripture. Following is a list of twenty sentences and phrases that encapsulate in just a few words, significant life lessons from Old Testament stories. The culture and context of those stories are ancient, but the application is modern and immutable. I have kept this list for decades and referred to it often. I no longer remember to whom it can be attributed, but I offer a lasting thanks to whoever had the insight to assemble these one-line sermons. I hope they speak to you and spark personal reflection as they have for me as you consider who said them, what the context was, and what the application might for you and for us all today. “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against Go...

“To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” By  Brant Bishop  · November 30, 2022 Shortly after his beautiful bread of life sermon, many of the Savior’s disciples murmured and turned away from following him. (John 6:60-66) To most of us—born and raised in a cultural tradition that understands Jesus in light of his completed life, miracles, sacrifice, and resurrection—that sermon is a wonderful testimony of Jesus’s divine nature and saving power. But those words challenged the cultural traditions of Jesus’s day, and were a very real stumbling block to those who first heard them. After all, in asserting that he was the true and living bread sent down from heaven, Jesus was explicitly claiming to surpass in importance Moses and the miracles wrought through him. And in teaching his disciples that his flesh and blood offered them eternal life in him, just as he had life in the Father, Jesus offended the finely-honed Jewish sensibilities against blasphemy. “Many ther...