Thoughts and stories, by Pal

These images I took on a tour of Israel.    Chapter 5 – New Testament. Matthew 13 to 15.  These events took place at a time when Jesus Christ and His disciples were facing increasing opposition from many Pharisees.  Jesus began using a teaching method called parables to teach truths about the kingdom of Heaven. The word parable means “a comparison” or setting side by side.  Each compares the “kingdom of heaven” to a physical object, and could reach listeners at their individual levels of spirituality.  The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “I have a key by which I understand the scriptures.  I inquire what was the question which drew out the answer, or caused Jesus to utter the parable?”  In some parables the Savior Himself gave the interpretation, such as the parable of the sower and the wheat and the tares. Pres. Hugh B. Brown pointed out that the Savior’s parables most likely developed out of ordinary day-to-day experiences.  They were wor...

Hello, dear readers!  February 16, 2020. It has been too long since I've written a new blog, and I'm going to try and change!  My excuse -- I began serving 2 shifts a week, on Wednesdays, and Fridays in the Layton FamilySearch Center, just about 15 miles north of where I live in West Bountiful.   My mother, Ruth Allen Miles, in college, in the 1920's. Colorized from a beautiful old black and white photo. To serve here, I needed to take 12 classes, 90 minutes each, to begin training to be able to help patrons who come there.  I took most of those classes back in November, but some in January, and I began serving on January 13th.   I absolutely LOVE IT !  I love the many things I'm learning about technology, and what has been inspired for our day, and finding our ancestors, and relatives.  I particularly love being able to put in photos and comments on the Person Page of dear ones who have passed on.  I've put many pictures ...

When I was about 18 years old, I received a lovely comforting blessing from the 88 year old Patriarch, for whom I typed blessings.  He said the day would come when I would serve a mission.  At that time (1953) a girl had to be 23 years old to serve a mission.  I didn't expect to be able to go then, and I did get married about 2 weeks before I turned 21.   We began to have a family, and after having 9 children over 18 years, our lives were quite busy.  But we still had a desire to go on a couple mission when we could.  Finally, in 1993, after our last child, a daughter Pam, got married, we put in our papers.  Wayne had gone on a mission to Sweden when he was young, in the early 1950's.  He had kept up on the language, so we were thrilled when we received a call in December 1993 to go to Sweden.  But we had 5 months before we were to go early in May, 1994. In a trip up north during that time, we went to the Mission Home in Provo and a...

It was really fun for me to see how many comments we got about the family picture I posted in the last post.  I'm quite busy for the next 3 days, so I think I'll put a few family photos on, and see how many memories they bring!  This may not be as fun for non family members, but hopefully it will give you a "slice of our lives" at different moments in time! This is Blaine on the left, Grandma Gladys Eckman in the center, and Wayne, when the twins were around 18 years old, about 1948.  Grandma Eckman was 4 ft. 10 inches high.  Her husband, Grandpa Roy was 5 ft. 10 inches. This was one of the photos Wayne sent me when he was in the army, 1954, taken in Austria.  Handsome, huh?    I noticed how proud the little boy was to have an "army man" have his arm around his shoulders.  This gave me an idea of how much Wayne loved children! There are 15 of our 29 grandchildren in this photo, taken in our family room in 2003.  We love havi...