Thoughts and stories, by Pal

We here in St. George, Utah, just love Elder Holland!  He and I grew up in the same ward, and my mother was his Sunday School teacher.  He was around 7 years younger than I am, so I didn't really know him then.  But he is so loyal to local St. George friends, and he calls us "Wayne and Pal".  His mother also lived in our ward when we had a daughter on a mission, and she wrote to our daughter, as her calling was writing to the ward missionaries.  She has since passed away -- Alice Holland, a wonderful lady!  Elder Holland's Take on 'The Dress' +5 More Things We Learned About Him This Week SOURCE: LDS LIVING In a recent conversation with  Hugh Hewitt , Elder Holland shared some interesting insights. Photo from  lds.org Hugh Hewitt runs a nationally syndicated radio show heard in more than 120 US cities every weekday afternoon with more than 2 million listeners. Last week, he got the chance to  chat with Elder Jeffrey R. H...

From LDS Living:  There are a lot of great and wise ideas in this article! 4 Mistakes We Make When Dealing with Trials (That Only Make Them Worse) DANIELLE BECKSTROM -  The most common challenges we face in life—those we see and struggle with on a daily basis—are often self-inflicted. But they don’t have to be. Daily personal challenges are common enough in our culture— things like negativity, doubt, anger, loneliness, jealousy, and selfishness. Despite their commonality, these trials can be the most dangerous and degrading to the soul. They wear us down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I am not saying that we are to blame for every negative thing we face in life.  But I am saying our attitudes and responses to adversity can lead either to intense satisfaction and lasting peace or continual dissatisfaction and discontent. Don’t let your response to a trial prove to be the biggest trial of all. There are several prevalent mentali...

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: 'Faith, Family and Religious Freedom' By R. Scott Lloyd LDS Church News Published: Thursday, Feb. 26 2015 10:10 p.m. MST  Church News Whatever their doctrinal differences, Christians need to work together in addressing society’s ills, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared Feb. 26 to a faith-based audience at Chapman University, an institution founded in 1861 by members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Elder Holland was the featured speaker at the 10th anniversary celebration of the university’s Fish Interfaith Center, addressing the topic “Faith, Family and Religious Freedom.” He delivered an address 10 years ago when the interfaith center was launched. “Whatever our religious affiliation, we all share concerns, dozens about the spread of pornography and the spread of poverty, of abuse and abortion, of illicit sexual transgression, of violence, crudity, cruelty and t...

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...