Thoughts and stories, by Pal

This has been a most inspiring Sabbath Day.  Early this morning, I went to a Sacrament Meeting in a town about 20 minutes away, with a young returned missionary with a wonderful bass voice, and his fiance'.  I played the piano while he sang "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul".  The senior couple who also talked have had amazing experiences, being on missions in Mongolia and also the Phillipines, and worked for the Church in Hong Kong, helping get land to build LDS Church buildings in many Far Eastern countries.  They related many exciting and inspirational experiences.   After the wife spoke, this young man, Caleb, sang his song, and really put a lot of feeling into it.  Then when we sat down, he was wiping tears from his eyes, and his chin was quivering.  I could see that just singing that beautiful song about the Savior had really touched his soul.  And it touched the congregation as well.  Then the husband of the couple spoke, and had some ...

This article has a lot of wisdom in it!  Some good ideas on how to not spoil children. A Recipe For Raising An Unspoiled Child By Nicholeen Peck  · August 24, 2016, in Meridian Magazine “Porter you are being whiny and you need to stop it.” my husband said in exasperation one evening after treating the children to a whole day of fun times, snacks, and even some souvenir t-shirts. Spencer, my husband, had had enough. The funny thing was that this whiny moment of Porter’s was the first occurrence of whininess and entitlement all day. I pondered the situation and realized that my husband had been set up to get to angry that night and Porter had been set up for whiny behavior too. He was behaving like children behave when they are spoiled and so was my husband. I started asking myself, “What could have changed this moment? Why are all of these normally self-governed people behaving this way?” How The Spoiling Happens No one wants to let their ...

I found this great entry on Brian Mickelson's blog, while checking out which of my blogs had been read this last day.  I wasn't following his blog when this was written.  But I'm including it today, as today I will be starting my Church Service Mission in the Records Preservation Unit here in St. George.  From now on, many of my posts will be on various aspects of finding our ancestors!  It is one of my very favorite topics!   Photo of my dad, Orson Pratt Miles, taken when he was about 40 years old, about  1931, in his barber shop.  Tomorrow, September 7, 2016, would be his 125th birthday!  I hope to honor his memory by how I live my life! From the Other Side of the Veil: “Please Try and Help Us…” 5 Replies I had an interesting, though not-as-dramatic-as-it-is-going-to-sound, experience on Saturday… I had spent a week and a half  planning  to do family history  work. But projects got in the way, and nothing came...

This article is about someone helping in the recent flooding in Louisiana.  It gives such an interesting account of how the Church organizes and helps in disaster situations.  I hope we all help anytime we have the opportunity! Being a Mormon Helping Hand in the Louisiana Floods By Carolyn Allen  · September 4, 2016 in Meridian Magazine Cover image via LDS Newsroom. Much has been written about the mid-August 2016 flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though the news of it was slow to hit the media, by now the bizarre conditions that created it, the 11 deaths, the extensive damage to homes and businesses, the billions of dollars of catastrophic damage, and the monumental number of volunteers arriving to “muck out” homes and businesses are starting to surface. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced this past weekend that there is now an estimated 8.7 billion dollars in damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure throughout the ar...