Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Today, being July 24th, we think of our pioneer ancestors.  Also there are many who are as a pioneer to their own family, being the first to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I have spent time this morning reading stories of some ancestors which have been submitted to Family Search, on Family Tree.  If any of you have not registered so you can access Family Tree, I encourage you to go to www.familysearch.org, and register.  If you are a member, you need the last 5 numbers of your current Temple recommend which is the last 5 numbers of your membership.  Or if you don't have that you can get your membership number from your ward clerk.  If you are not a member, you can sign on without that, but you will not be able to get some of the benefits the Church has made with different groups, such as free access to Ancestry.com, and other genealogical sites.   After you have signed on, in looking at your own private family tree, click on...

How appropriate this is for July 24th, in just 3 days!  This is for all you readers who have pioneer ancestors , or you are a pioneer in your own family, or country.  You can send in your own story! Today I begin a training period so I can go back to our local Family History Center, and be a volunteer to help others.  From about 1992 to 2011, I volunteered, and 2 times served a 1 year mission there.  But since then, there are so many new things in technology that I need to catch up!   I took a class recently on how to upload photos and other memories on to Family Search, in Family Tree, and I have had so much fun doing that!  Both Wayne and I have had health problems over the last year or two, but we are at a time things are going better, and I want to get back to one of the things I love most -- FAMILY HISTORY, AND GENEALOGY! ! ! LDS Church’s #IAmAPioneer Campaign Recognizes Past and Present Pioneers From Mormon News Room. The Church of Jesus...

We told some about our couple Senior Mission to Sweden  in blog #51 which I posted on December 27, 2013, early in my blog writing.  You can go back to that entry, and read more about Senior Missions.  I said then we would put more about our Senior mission in later blogs, and I just realized I haven't done that!  So today I'm including part of a letter I just sent to our grandson who will return from his mission in 3 days, -- our last e mail to him on his mission! Our grandson Ben Lieske, a few years ago. Elder Ben Lieske, taken when he first got to Taiwan.  He may have changed some when we will see him in just 3 days, returning from his mission in Taiwan. This is the e mail I sent to him.  It tells the story I want to tell, about our ride home on the airplane from Sweden, in 1996. ----------------------- 3 days from this moment, will be 3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22nd, and you will be scheduled to come in to the St. George Airport in less t...

Try these suggestions about prayer.  It will lift your spirit and bring you joy! The Prayer That Will Always Be Answered By Joni Hilton  · July 15, 2015, in Meridian Magazine Prayer is one of the most misunderstood activities in the world. It is a direct link to our Father in Heaven, an opportunity to repent and realign our plans with God’s, a holy moment when we can express humility and gratitude. Yet most of us—even those who understand what prayer really is—fall into the “wish list” trap, praying over and over for the same blessings we feel our lives lack. Some cease to pray when life goes well, others become angry and blame God when things go wrong. Many people pray rote prayers without personal connection, others just “send good thoughts out into the universe,” and still others pray simply to feel good, with no expectation of a response. As Latter-day Saints, we know there is a loving Heavenly Father on the other end of the line, so to speak, a...

About age 16, I developed a tremendous interest in genealogy.  It was about the time I received my Patriarchal Blessing.  The old county library, long since demolished, had a section of genealogy books about early New England and I loved to pour over them. The old Library in St. George, where I spent many hours.  Reading was the main entertainment during the long hot summers here in St. George.  I had Aunt Sarah Wallace, my father's sister, and Aunt Vina Brooks, my mother's sister, who each had done considerable work on my two sides of the family.  In those days there were no copy machines, and I had borrowed and copied many sheets of the long pedigree charts and family group sheets.  I would look for those names in the books, and find it most fascinating.  Those names were of our ancestors who came to the United States in the 1600's, mostly Connecticut and Massachusetts. At Christmas time I had dinner at a friend's home and her brother was...

I was privileged to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1955, just before I was married.  I had gone to BYU the winter before, and had been writing to Wayne in the army.  I signed up during the winter to go with the group from BYU to be among the group scenes.  We were joined by the missionaries who were then in the Rochester, New York, mission.  We spent one week on a bus driving back there, two weeks there, and one week driving back home.  We didn't fly at that time, as people do now. The Hill Cumorah as it probably was in 1800's.  Taken in 1910.      While there for 2 weeks, we learned missionary lessons so we could go among the crowds who came to the Pageant and talk as missionaries.  I was in a group that stayed at the Joseph Smith Farm Home.  The night before we left on June 28th, Wayne proposed to me, and gave me a diamond ring.  He had come home from the army on July 4th, and we had been writing for 14 months an...

This new blog by Brian Mickelson is really great, and goes with the one I posted yesterday, on transitions in life -- including coming home from a mission and getting on with life. MyPlan.lds.org, and a Pattern for Transitions… by  BJM My friend and colleague recently posted a link to  MyPlan.lds.org , where returning missionaries will put together and follow through on plans that will make their transition from full-time missionary to returned-missionary a little easier and more effective. Interestingly, their first "learning experience" relating to returning home successfully will take place  before  they enter the MTC. Another learning experience will take place when they've been out in the missionary field for about half of their service time. Then, various learning experiences will occur each week of their last six weeks in the field. These plans will be shared with their mission president and home-stake president so that they have built-in support for...