Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I had a very choice experience at the opera!  Last Friday night I went to "The Elixir of Love" at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.  The lead tenor was my great friend Eric Taylor, who I met several years ago in St. George.  I accompanied him there a few times, and we became dear friends! A year ago when I was still in St. George, he came and visited me at his Christmas vacation.  I asked him to sing for my dear friend Fae Pickleseimer, who was 97 years old.  He sang several songs to her, and she loved it!  She since has passed away.  Last year I traveled to Salt Lake City in January to hear him sing the lead in "La Boheme", which was also wonderful! The link below is of Eric Taylor singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4Njh5HlsI He sang this in a Metropolitan Opera audition, and won the Western States: A link below is to the audition and his story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLvwMgXOMpo "Hier soll ich d...

Don't we all just love Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!  I know the people from St. George do!  But I believe people everywhere just love his kind thoughts and faith! Elder Holland: To My Friends Who Want to Believe by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Excerpted from "To My Friends"  | Dec. 20, 2017 Mormon Life On one occasion Jesus came upon a group arguing vehemently with His disciples. When the Savior inquired as to the cause of this contention, the father of an afflicted child stepped forward, saying he had approached Jesus’s disciples for a blessing for his son, but they were not able to provide it. With the boy still gnashing his teeth, foaming from the mouth, and thrashing on the ground in front of them, the father appealed to Jesus with what must have been last-resort desperation in his voice: “If thou canst do any thing,” he said, “have compassion on us, and help us. “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him...

Today, I am sending a letter back to a dear friend of Wayne's that he had written to Wayne while he was in the Korean war and Wayne was on his mission in Sweden.  This friend was my dear husband Wayne's best friend from high school to the end of his life, along with his twin brother Blaine.  When Wayne was able to go on a mission to Sweden from 1950 to 1953, Arlen, his friend, had to go into the army and he served in Korea.  At that time only 2 young men could go from each ward to serve a mission.  All the rest were drafted.  The photo below is of Blaine, left, Arlen, and Wayne.   They played baseball and other sports together as young teenagers, and were friends forever. Since I have moved up to West Bountiful to live with our son Wayne and his wife, Julie, I have been going through many papers, etc., that I brought with me, but hadn't really gone through.  One box included the letters which Wayne's parents had sent to him while he was on hi...

This dear lady was a very good friend of mine for many years!  She passed away on Friday, Feb. 10th, 2017.  She was so well known for her beautiful small statues, and also some large statues in the "Monument to Women" garden in Nauvoo, Illinois.   When we moved to Sandy, Utah, in 1962, where we lived for 19 years, she was my first Visiting Teaching Companion.  I grew to love her immediately.  When I taught a class for teenagers about genealogy, and their own Family History, her son Chad filled out a Family Group Sheet showing 5 children.  If you notice in the obituary, they were able to raise only this one choice son, the age of my oldest son.  They had 4 babies die right after birth!  I don't know reasons, only that she once told me the reasons were unrelated.  She and her dear husband continued faithful, gentle, and gracious all their lives! Florence Lambert Peterson Hansen 06/14/1920 - 02/10/2017 › Service Date...

These are good ideas when we need to have a difficult conversation with someone.  Helps on how to keep good feelings and understanding. Can We Talk? How to Have a Difficult Conversation How to Have a Difficult Talk Posted by  Hey Sigmund In any relationship, whether it’s with a work colleague, friend, partner, parent, sibling, there will often come a time where a hard conversation has to happen. They’re the conversations that need to be handled gently. The anticipation of them can easily have you imagining your relationship gasping for breath in that cold wasteland fed by misunderstandings, too much honesty, not enough honesty, and drunk texting.  There will always be people who don’t deserve the gentle handling – the ones who cause more pain than joy. If a difficult conversation comes with a very real risk that they will get up and leave your life, let’s call that a reward for your honesty and be done with it. Glorious.  In any r...

Latter Day Light DAILY DEVOTIONAL January 16, 2016 Look After the Interests of Your Friends SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY Matthew  7:12 "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets . " QUOTE OF THE DAY Lorenzo Snow "Let your minds be expanded to comprehend and look after the interest of your friends that are around you, and where it is in your power to secure benefits to your friends do so, and in so doing you will find that those things which you need will come into your hands quicker than if you labor entirely to secure them to yourselves independent of regarding the interests of your friends. I know this is a good and important principle" ( Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow , p. 262). DAILY DEVOTIONAL January 14, 2016 Joy in the Gospel SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY Alma 14:4 "Looki...