Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I just received this e mail message from my sister, and I want to pass it on.  It truly is inspiring.  The Temple is truly the place for the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to give the right inspiration to people.  I have felt that Spirit there, and I believe when we have problems, that is truly the place to go, and pray.   (I have added the colored highlights, and Temple pictures.) I think if you are not aware of this event, you will find this email interesting. The Temple in question is the St. George Temple. This is Brother Blaine M. Yorgason's "vantage Point" of an experience that he had a little more than a year ago.   A beautiful picture of the St. George Temple, where Wayne and I were                                     married on September 24, 1955                               ...

I READ AN ARTICLE ON LDS LIVING ABOUT HOW TO START AN LDS BLOG -- THESE ARE THE STEPS I FOLLOWED, AND IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS, I'D BE HAPPY TO 'TALK' WITH YOU ON E MAIL AND HELP YOU!  (I POSTED MY E MAIL A FEW BLOGS AGO, BUT IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IT IS:  )         paralee.eckman@gmail.com    (It also is on "view my profile")  Please only those interested. There are a lot of things you can do to follow the counsel of prophets and share the gospel online. Some of our favorite (and some of the easiest) ways include using  Facebook  and  Twitter , but if you're ready to take the next step in personal online member missionary work try this: start a blog.  The LDS blogging world is actually already quite well-established, and has been nicknamed by the online community " the Bloggernacle ." Joining is as easy as typing out your testimony. Follow these six steps to get started on your own LDS blog:  1. Select a websit...

Wayne's grandfather, Johann Wengren Eckman was quite an interesting character.   His wife was the "gun toting grandma" told about in blog # 75, written on January 21, 2014 . I will include here pages from our book which are print screened.    This is a grandfather who was born in Sweden, married, and joined the Church there.  His parents and several other siblings and relatives had come already.    Please see post #75, which tells of his parents who were the first generation to come to the United States.   I said that I'd tell more of his playing the key harp .  Here it is: When Wayne and I (Pal) went on our mission to Sweden in 1994-1995, we were able to visit the grave of this grandfather in the small town of Brunna.  The photo is above.   The following is from a newspaper article written about him in Sweden when he was 91 years old.  The article was written in Swedish and Wayne translated it.  The article wa...

I hope you enjoyed the history yesterday of my mother Ruth.  I have two histories of her.  The first was in a book that Wayne and I wrote about our own lives.  In it we had a section of our parents, and in that version, there are some interesting things that are not in the ancestor's book.  Some of what is below is "print screened", which is to copy exactly what was on a certain page, including pictures.  I'll include some of that history, along with today's telling more about my beloved mother and father.   The picture below is of my Grandma Levinah E. Allen, who had an inspirational, and also difficult life.  I'll tell about her later.  This is in my mother Ruth's words: Yes, mother did teach another 5 years, and after 40 years of teaching school, she did substitute teaching about 10 years until she was 75 years old, and her hearing was bad enough she couldn't hear well enough to teach.  She helped support several g...

I have written about my mother, Ruth, in blogs:   # 80, # 73 (mostly pictures) # 33, # 30, about when she was on the very first extraction mission, # 24, of a Christmas she had as a child, # 16, what I learned from her about controlling anger, # 7, telling of "The Suet Pudding Story", including my dad and Grandma Allen, and # 6, the story about "Closing my book" , which was when she was taking care of a dear friend as she was passing from this life. All these stories are great, but I want to give a synoposis of the early part of her life today. Today I've   just been to the funeral of a lady who lived to be 95, and the viewing of a man who was Wayne's first principal here in St. George, when we moved down here in 1981.  It makes you think about your own family who are gone, and also wonder what people may say about you in your own funeral!   I will tell more of her parents and grandparents later. My mother was born Ruth Allen, the 8th child of John Butl...

I had two sweet "tender mercies" today as I attended the St. George Temple.   As I sat down in the waiting room, for only about 5 minutes, I picked up a Book of Mormon, and opened it.  The verse my eyes fell on was 3 Nephi, 15:9:  "Behold, I am the law, and the light.  Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." ENDURING TO THE END:  I have often wondered what I needed to change, to be in that category.  Hopefully, trying to live the Gospel, go to the Temple, and other rather ordinary things will help qualify all of us.   I did receive a new insight this morning, and I want to concentrate studying more of what our Prophet and apostles teach us, particularly in the Conference Ensign Issues.  I would encourage any of you readers to do the same.   This world is steadily getting more evil, and we need anything we can find, and then ponder about, to help us know the "...

I found this great article this morning on LDS Living, and it is from the blog: LDS Smile  (ldssmile.com)   --- I want to give them credit for it, and I have condensed it a bit, and written a comment of mine, or two --       In Lds Living it was entitled :   "How to not be offended at Church" When Writing the Story of Your Life, Don’t Let Anyone Else Hold the Pen JANUARY 29, 2014  BY:  JOHN HUNTINGHOUSE "One of the most disheartening e-mails we receive on a daily basis are ones that go along the lines of “a member has done something to me that make me angry and consequently I have stopped going to church.” All of us face our own fellowshipping/members issues. We will almost always find ourselves in various situations where we could choose to be offended by the actions of others whether intentional or not. I have found myself in plenty of these situations and sometimes I am the better man, realizing that it wasn’t inten...