Thoughts and stories, by Pal

  From an unstable childhood to a confident missionary: Why 1 young man is determined to share the joy he’s found with others By  Danielle Christensen   January 18, 2022 02:08 PM MST Twitter Pinterest Email Print Elder Gutierrez was baptized in June 2019 and is serving as a full-time missionary in the Texas San Antonio Mission. Courtesy of Elder Gutierrez Dominic Gutierrez remembers the first time he felt God’s love like it was yesterday. As a teenager in Safford, Arizona, childhood memories of abuse and homelessness had caught up with him, and his feelings of loneliness seemed inescapable. He didn’t think he had a purpose and didn’t believe that God existed. But then one day, he remembered something that would change his life forever. Previously, his friend had given him a copy of the Book of Mormon, which Dominic stored away in his room. But on this occasion, he decided to crack open the cover and turned to the introduction. Seven words in, he felt something he never ha...

  ‘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...

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 ...