Thoughts and stories, by Pal

This was in LDS Living on Dec. 15, 2014.  Also to our friends in Indonesia who are reading these blogs, we have a grandson, Elder Jacob Lieske, now stationed in Jodja, or Yogyokarta.  He arrived Sept. 24, 2014.  We hope you get to meet him sometime.  Elder Holland grew up in my home ward, and he is especially dear to us -- and the whole Church! Elder Holland: To My Friends Who Want to Believe EXCERPTED FROM ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND'S NEW BOOK "TO MY FRIENDS" -  This is an excerpt from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's new book, To My Friends. This is not the full excerpt from this chapter. To read the rest of it, go to  deseretbook.com and order a copy of this fabulous book! On one occasion Jesus came upon a group arguing vehemently with His disciples. When the Savior inquired as to the cause of this contention, the father of an afflicted child stepped forward, saying he had approached Jesus’s disciples for a blessing for his son, but they were not ...

Tonight, Wednesday, December 17, 2014, we had a choice experience.  I'll have to admit that I haven't kept a journal for several years.  When we had our golden wedding in 2005, we were in the process of writing a book of our life stories, and we finished it in 2006.  It was a hardbound book of 635 pages, and included histories of each of our 9 children up to that point, with pictures of their children, our grandchildren, and a few of our great grandchildren born then.  I had kept journals for many years, and drew stories from them for our book.   The next year we did a book of our letters to each other over a 14 month period while Wayne was in the army.  We met on a blind date in August, 1953, very soon after Wayne returned home from his mission to Sweden.  He didn't write to me until 8 months later when he was in Trieste, during the Korean War.  But we began writing, and ended up writing 2 to 4 times each week, before he came home on July 4th,...

This beautiful article has changed my thoughts on priorities of helping and feeding the poor.  I have condensed it somewhat, to make it not quite so long, and I have highlighted certain parts.  I hope you enjoy it. SCRIPTURE STUDY “Feed My Lambs”: Jesus’ Last Great Teaching By Robert A. Rees  · December 15, 2014, in Meridian Magazine *The phraseology in this paper is taken, variously, from the King James, New English, and New International versions of John. In his 2014 General Conference address, “Are We Not All Beggars,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland reminds us that in announcing the focus of his ministry, Jesus proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and … set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). Elder Holland says, “Jesus’s first and foremost messianic duty would be to bless the poor, includ...

President Gordon B. Hinckley had a lot of great things to say, particularly regarding how we can be happy in life. So here’s a compilation of tips from him!  This was on LDS Living on Dec. 3, 2014, and written by Samantha Shelley. 10 Happiness Tips From Gordon B. Hinckley BY  SAMANTHA SHELLEY  · DECEMBER 3, 2014 from LDS living 1. The purpose of life is to be happy! Life is to be enjoyed, not endured. Adam fell so that we might have joy! Don’t forget that when life gets busy or stressful or overwhelming. If you aren’t happy, you probably need to make some changes so you will be! 2. Happiness cannot be achieved if we are selfish or constantly complaining! Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others…By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves...

This was on LDS Living, on Dec. 10, 2014.  Very Interesting! What Do We Know About The Wise Men - Who Came To Honor Jesus? Written by Dr. John L. Lund 2014-12-10 When you go to Israel, also plan a stop at Petra, Jordan.  It may be the home of two of the "wise men". No one knows for sure how many wise men went to Bethlehem to honor Jesus as the newborn king of the Jews. Tradition says there were three wise men and there may have been. We do know that the wise men came from the east of Bethlehem "following yonder star." However they did not arrive on the night that Jesus was born. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Understanding which English words the King James translators chose to use to reflect the meaning in Greek is important. Eight times in Matthew 2:8-21 the words "young child" are used when talking about the wise men looking for Jesus. The Greek word used is "pad ion" and young child is the best tra...

This was on LDS Living on Dec. 9, 2014.  We just got back from spending 2 days in the Salt Lake Area.  Last night we went to the Christmas Concert put on by the Tabernacle Choir, (our son is in it) and whose guests were The Muppets!  And also a great singer, Santino Fantana, who has sung with them before.  You can go to www.mormontabernaclechoir.org and click on "videos and listen" and then click on "watch videos" and it comes up "1 day countdown until the Christmas Concert", with Ryan Murphy, and the Count from Sesame Street.  Be sure and go right now and watch it!  It is so cute! Before we went to the Concert, we went to Temple Square, and saw the lights, which were beautiful! and we also watched 2 videos -- The Nativity, and another one, both of which can be found on lds.org.  All this really gives us the true feeling of Christmas! 20 Things You Didn't Know about Temple Square at Christmastime KELSEY BERTEAUX - 5 HOURS AGO More than...