Thoughts and stories, by Pal

  For those of you who may be following my notes on the New Testament, this is Chapter 4.  #1279 was on Chapter 1, and #1282 was on Chapter 2. Chapter 4, New Testament, Matthew 8 - 12.  (12)  after name indicates latter day apostles. These chapters continue telling about Jesus teaching, preaching, and healing all manner of sickness in the area around the Sea of Galilee.  Capernaum was a prosperous town, located on the famous Roman road, the Via Maris, which linked ancient Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia.  It was the home of Peter, and his brother Andrew, who became Apostles.  More miracles are recorded at Capernaum than any other site.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie (12) tells us of Peter’s mother-in-law being healed by the Savior to teach that “Jesus’ specially selected disciples were married men with wives and children and families of their own, as his specially called servants should be in all ages.” It appears that “Son of man” was the Savior’s pre...

This is such a dramatic example of living faith, which happened just last month during the beginning of the Corona Virus saga! In the Time of the Virus: The Parting of my Personal Red Sea By  Lynne Perry Christofferson  · April 15, 2020 Photography by John Derek Perry. There will be many stories told of this time–of the days when a powerful virus jumped oceans and swept across continents. When life as we knew it came to a shuddering halt, and we incorporated new phrases into our vocabulary: social distancing, self-quarantine. Though my own story is not earthshaking, I feel compelled to tap it out in sentences that will one day speak to my grandchildren, telling them of the parting of my personal Red Sea in the time of the virus. I awoke Thursday, March twelfth, in a hotel in Casablanca, having arrived in Morocco with my brother John just the night before. Squinting at my phone to check the time, I found a text from my oldest son: “Did you he...

This story, in LDS Living today, is such an inspiration, and I wanted to share it with you dear readers.  It made me shed a few tears! What a Stranger's Prayer in an Emergency Room Taught One Latter-day Saint Dad About Miracles by Nate Checketts  | Apr. 12, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life The following has been published in full with permission from Nate Checketts.  Four weeks ago was without question the scariest night of my life. It has taken me that long to revisit in detail that night and the events that followed it. I have made several attempts, facing down the blinking cursor but unable to get through the memories without fear and worry filling me again and leaving me in a state of panic. But as I have reflected on the experience again and again, it has been clear to me that it is meant to be shared. Not because I have any desire to draw attention to us as a family, but because I have felt prompted to do so a...

To anyone who has ever had a house fire this information is valuable! (and others also!)  We had a house fire many years ago, early in the morning at 4:30 a.m. in May of 1969.  I know it was then, because our daughter Tacy was just 4 weeks old. My husband, Wayne, was an early morning seminary teacher then, and his usual pattern each morning was to awaken at 4:30 a.m., have a shower, and then go downstairs to do lesson preparing for it.  This one morning he decided to go and study first, in our home in Sandy, Utah.  That was so inspired!  Within a couple of minutes he heard some crackling sounds, and was right next to our large storage and utility room, where the furnace and water heater were.  He went in, and saw flames around 3 feet high starting from a sleeping bag that was close to the pilot light flame at the bottom of the water heater!  He immediately pulled the sleeping bag away, and hollered to us and woke us all up.  We called th...