Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Why a NYT Bestseller Written by a Catholic Shares How Mormons Are Getting Religion Right Are Mormons Leading the Way Again? By Joni Hilton  · August 9, 2017 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE After watching American churches crumble when it comes to gathering young adherents, and observing that many sects backpedal their positions on social issues as they grow more and more secular, author Rod Dreher proposes a drastic solution. He advocates going the other way—constructing a counterculture that embraces the ideas of St. Benedict of Nursia. His controversial suggestion has become a bestseller called  The Benedict Option. In his book, Dreher observes that communities are losing their connectivity, their sense of belonging. People no longer watch out for one another as they did in years gone by, and families are fragmented. He urges the world to pull away from the world and embrace the ancient Christian lifesty...

I read the article below this obituary about "Why Strong Women Stay in the LDS Church."  Then I read this obituary of Fae Picklesimer, and needed to remember her in this entry!   I was her one of her visiting teachers for several years before I left St. George last April.  She was delightful -- her mind was clear all her life.  She taught school with my own mother, Ruth Allen Miles, ( another strong LDS woman! ) when she was beginning teaching, and my mother was nearing the end of her teaching years.  They were great friends.  She truly was an icon in St. George, and with all knew her.  It was a privilege to know her, and be a friend to her!  Fae Garda Anderson Picklesimer Written by  Obituaries August 10, 2017 March 15, 1919 – Aug. 9, 2017 Fae Garda Anderson Picklesimer returned to her Heavenly Father on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017 after stuffing more into her short 98 years than most people fit into 125 years...

I posted this 2 years ago today, and it is appropriate now also.  Many missionaries leave for their missions in the summer, and are coming home now also.  I hope these ideas help. 479. How a Returned Missionary can Adjust to Being Home. Great advice! This is a great article for returned missionaries, with ideas on how to make the transition coming home from a mission, and utilize the skills and strengths you made while a missionary.  Also counsel on how to stay strong! How to Help Your  RM  to Adjust to Being Home by Clark and Kathleen Hinckley, Sunny Morton & LDS Living Staff  |  Mormon Life One moment a missionary is fully focused on the needs and concerns of investigators, new converts, and less-active members. They’ve worn a name tag and haven’t been without a companion for the last 18 or 24 months. Their life is so focused on inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive th...

This article may save your marriage!  It is very wise, and I wish I had read something like this early on in my marriage.  We had a large family, and the first 4 were very close in age.  Money and time were taken up with raising those precious children.  Our marriage lasted 60 + years before my dear Wayne passed away on February 21, 2016, but we could have enhanced it with some ideas listed below.  I hope it helps someone! 4 Ways to Keep the Magic Alive in Marriage by Merrilee Boyack  | Jul. 29, 2017 Makes You Think President Kimball counseled, "Many couples permit their marriages to become stale and their love to grow cold like old bread or worn-out jokes or cold gravy. . . . These people will do well to re-evaluate, to renew their courting, to express their affection, to acknowledge kindness, and to increase their consideration so their marriage again can become beautiful, sweet, and growing." His co...

I love this picture of Wayne.  I took it when he was writing about his life for our large life story book which was finished and given to our posterity the year after our Golden Wedding in 2015.   (The Gripsholm was the ship he rode to and from his mission to Sweden in early 1950's.  The little leprechaun Wayne got at a yard sale, and he loved to display it in March, around St. Patrick's Day.)  The picture was taken in the family room of the home in St. George, which I sold and now live in Northern Utah.  I had painted the wall mural you can see behind him.  That home had a lot of memories, but I didn't want to stay in St. George and live alone, away from the majority of my posterity.   It took us about 4 years, and was larger than we imagined when we started.  It includes some stories of some of our ancestors, and a brief history of each of our grown, married children to that point.  We both told about our lives, from childhood, to...