Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Tonight I think I will tell some of my thoughts, and include the 3 missionary letters we got from our grandchildren this week. My husband Wayne has been in the Kolob Rehabilitation building for about 10 days now. He hadn't been well for a few days.  So I tried to wake him up early   Sunday, Feb. 15th, 2015, about 2:30 a.m. I couldn't wake him up to check on him.  He was so incoherent, and slid onto the floor, and both he and I couldn't get him up.  That is when I called an ambulance.  Six men came, and helped him up, and into the ambulance. Wayne, in 1950, on his first mission to Sweden. Soon after we got to the local emergency room, they immediately sent him to the Intensive Care Unit with some serious problems.  His carbon dioxide level was 70 and should be 30, even though his oxygen level was okay.  After he had been in the ICU for a couple of hours on a Bi-Pap machine which was supposed to take the co2 out, they called me from the hos...

Lovely peaceful thoughts for a Sunday evening!   PARENTING The Family Is Like A Book By Nicholeen Peck  · February 25, 2015 Our family memorizes a poem and a scripture each week. Every day after family scripture time we say the poem and the scripture three times each. After a week, we usually have them memorized. This brief moment of deliberate daily memorization has created an atmosphere of learning and deep discussion in our home. It’s one of the best practices we ever made into a family tradition. Some time ago we found an old poem by Anon called “The Family” which we have really enjoyed memorizing and thinking about. The poem actually offers great insight and instruction for families on how to raise good, happy children. The poem goes: The Family The family is like a book – The children are the leaves, The parents are the covers That protecting beauty gives. At first the pages of the book Are blank and purely fair, But Time s...

When we raised our children, they were all expected to go to Church except when they were ill.  As adults some are not active, and it is their choice, but as children we did not give them that choice.     Why I make my kids go to church By Jenny Evans For  Unremarkable Files Published: Saturday, Feb. 28 2015 12:39 a.m. MST View 2 photos » I understand not wanting to brainwash a child, but I worry that in the name of letting their kids choose, well-intentioned parents out there are really giving their kids no choice at all. Summary I understand not wanting to brainwash a child, but I worry that in the name of letting their kids choose, well-intentioned parents out there are really giving their kids no choice at all. “ Maybe my younger kids would rather stay home playing than attend church, but that doesn't mean they should. The benefit of church isn't in just the one church service, but in the entire pattern of gospel l...

LINE UPON LINE Why do things go wrong when we’re trying to do what’s right? By Richard Paul Evans  · February 25, 2015 The following article originally appeared on RichardPaulEvans.com.  Lately I’ve been pondering why it is that when we set out to do something good we face such difficult adversity. Sometimes it even feels like we’re being punished for doing the right thing. Last week I attended a board meeting for the Christmas Box International, a charitable organization I founded about fifteen years ago to help abused and neglected children. As our director read the list of the year’s accomplishments, my mind went back to one of our first board meetings–a painful, agonizing one. Back then, it seemed,  nothing  was going right. Community donations were a fraction of what we’d hoped for while our first shelter, which was still under construction, was a money pit–six months behind schedule and more than a half million dollars over...

From National Geographic:  This is fascinating to me!  Do we ever stop from our daily cares and activities to marvel at God's creations?  Do we contemplate what a blessing we have to live on this beautiful, fascinating, and infinitely varied earth, with it's countries, peoples, animals, and plant life, and have our testimonies strengthened?   THIS EARTH DIDN'T COME ABOUT BY CHANCE, AND SOME SCIENTISTS AND ASTRONOMERS CAN'T EXPLAIN IT!   There is so much more to learn -- it will take eternity! Gigantic Black Hole Discovered From the  Dawn of Time Astronomers find a cosmic monster that pushes theories of the early universe to the limit. A giant black hole weighing as much as 12 billion suns was found inside a quasar, a bright astronomical body like the one illustrated here with a black hole at its center. ILLUSTRATION BY ZHAOYU LI, SHANGHAI ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY Michael D. Lemonick for  for National Geographic P...

What happened to the brothers of the Prophet Joseph Smith? h On June 24, 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith, with his brother, Hyrum, and in company with 17 other men, left Nauvoo for Carthage. This statue depicts the brothers beginning that fateful journey.   (By Pal: My 2nd great grandfather, John Lowe Butler was one of those 17 other men.  You can read about his life in blogs: # 66 posted on Jan. 10, 2014, and # 206, posted on August 7, 2014) Susan Evans McCloud For the Deseret News Joseph Smith Jr. had five brothers who lived to adulthood and each made a contribution to the work, and each had a unique relationship with their prophet-brother. What was each one like? There were six Smith sons who lived to adulthood, with Joseph Smith Jr., who was named for his father, born in the middle. What happened to the brothers of the Prophet Joseph, who died in Carthage when he was just 38? The two eldest, Alvin and Hyrum, were both born in Fe...