Thoughts and stories, by Pal

This is a brief history of my own grandfather who died before I was born.  He was 11 years old when they came to St. George as original pioneers.                  INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM GUSTAVUS MILES  WRITTEN BY HIS DAUGHTER, SARAH MILES WALLACE, SISTER TO ORSON PRATT MILES (my father) William Gustavis Miles was born at Salt Lake City, Utah, the first child of Samuel Miles Jr. And Hannah Colborn Miles.  He was born of goodly parents, his grandparents on both sides being faithful Latter-day Saints until the day of their death, and so were his parents.  His father was only seven years of age at the time the family joined the Church and when ten years of age he had read the Book of Mormon through.  His parents and grandparents were real Pioneers and suffered many afflictions as most of the L.D.S. died in the early history of the Church.    (Written by my Aunt Sarah)  I remember heari...

I love Patriarchal Blessings!  When I was about 18 years old I had the amazing blessing of being able to type blessings for an elderly Patriarch here in St. George for a couple of years.  His wife had passed away, and I would take a hand written copy of the blessing and type it out.  They didn't use recorders at that time.  He would quote a sentence, and then wait for it to be hand-written, and then go on, perfectly continuing on with what had just been spoken. I ENCOURAGE ANYONE READING THIS TO AGAIN READ YOUR OWN PATRIARCHAL BLESSING.  IF YOU HAVEN'T RECEIVED ONE YET, IT WOULD BE SO IMPORTANT TO DO THAT AS SOON AS CIRCUMSTANCES PERMIT! !  MY PATERNAL GRANDFATHER, AND HIS FATHER WERE BOTH PATRIARCHS IN PIONEER ST. GEORGE, UTAH.  I'LL POST A BRIEF HISTORY OF EACH OF THEIR LIVES IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.   This is a wonderful talk by Pres. Monson, which tells some very special stories, and when he needed to call a new Patriarch, and his rece...

This inspiring article was printed in LDS Living (www.ldsliving.com) on September 26, 2014.  I saved it for a day such as today!  It really helps us realize how much we have to be grateful for, even on a bad day.  For me, personally, writing this blog has been something I'm grateful for.  It helps me think of positive and inspiring ideas, and lifts my spirits to record them. Actually today isn't a bad day for me--I get my sling off my right arm after having shoulder surgery 6 weeks ago, and I'll be doing physical therapy and hopefully regain the complete use of my right arm.  But these thoughts are worth saving, and remembering.  I hope you all have a wonderful day! 10 Things to Be Grateful For When Everything Seems to Be Going Wrong JANNALEE ROSNER -  When life gets rough, be grateful! There are always blessings in our lives that we miss seeing when our vision is clouded by bad luck or discouragement. We've all heard the phrase that w...

  PAL’S THOUGHTS TO POSTERITY ON MY 80TH BIRTHDAY ! I decided today to put in my blog, the counsel I wrote to my posterity when we wrote our family book in 2006, with some minor changes.  We had our Golden Wedding the year before, and were working on what became a 635  page hard bound book of our lives, and some of our ancestors and posterity.  The book referred to was given to each of our children and grandchildren.   So here it is: ----- It seems strange to be thinking of thoughts to leave to  my posterity, as I feel I still have ten or so more years to  live. If I can live to the age my mother did, almost 91, and  longer, I plan to do as much genealogy as I can, and try to  be a help to my family, and others as much as I can.  This was taken just before we left on our mission to Sweden, in 1994.  Top row, L to R: McKay, Allen, Anita, Delsy, Wayne M., and Wayne and me.  Front row: Jeremy, Pamela, Tacy, an...

I just had to pass this on today -- It is so great and timely! New post on  Brian Mickelson.... How to Not Be Offended by General Conference… by  BJM No, I'm don't usually feel offended or hurt during General Conference. In fact, I never do. I mean, I do get a little sting every once in awhile because I need to change, but more often I feel comfort and peace and I feel excited to get to work on what needs to change in my life. What I do see online, however, are people expressing thoughts along the following lines:  How could President Packer say that? He obviously doesn't know what it is like to __________...  or  This is the problem! Elder Anderson just made matters worse when he said __________... In fact, I'd imagine that people are going to get a little worked up about Elder Cook's priesthood session address where he stated to unmarried young men (that are in the marriage age realm): ...the longer you remain single, after an appropr...

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 4th, and Sunday, Oct. 5th, we will be watching all 5 sessions of this wonderful Conference.  Thursday, October 02 2014 Mormonism in Pictures: Preparing for the Worldwide General Conference By The LDS Newsroom The   Conference Center   has 21,000 seats; they will be filled five times between the 4th and 5th of October 2014 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ semiannual general conference. More than 100,000 people will experience the worldwide conference from inside the Conference Center — many for the very first time.   Millions of others will watch and listen to the proceedings from overflow facilities on historic Temple Square, in Mormon chapels throughout the world, on television and radio, and from Internet and satellite communications into 190 countries, nations and territories. It takes several hundred people, behind the scenes, to prepare the Conference Center for the...