Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I had a very choice experience at the opera!  Last Friday night I went to "The Elixir of Love" at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.  The lead tenor was my great friend Eric Taylor, who I met several years ago in St. George.  I accompanied him there a few times, and we became dear friends! A year ago when I was still in St. George, he came and visited me at his Christmas vacation.  I asked him to sing for my dear friend Fae Pickleseimer, who was 97 years old.  He sang several songs to her, and she loved it!  She since has passed away.  Last year I traveled to Salt Lake City in January to hear him sing the lead in "La Boheme", which was also wonderful! The link below is of Eric Taylor singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4Njh5HlsI He sang this in a Metropolitan Opera audition, and won the Western States: A link below is to the audition and his story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLvwMgXOMpo "Hier soll ich d...

At the end of this is an article that Wayne wrote and sent to the local newspaper on January 12, 2016, just about 5 weeks before he passed away on February 21, 2016.  He was doing his bit for missionary work up to the last of his life.   This was blog # 576, on Jan. 12, 2016 .  I found this on Facebook, and it is well worth reading!   Great thoughts on why we DON'T QUIT the Mormon  Church! -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints --  Perhaps this beautiful new Temple in Provo, about to be dedicated, is making some people nervous.  It has been reconstructed in the shell of a Stake Center; the beautiful building which burned from the inside awhile ago. Dustin Lee Burnham  (posted by him I think) August 18, 2015  ·  Quitting the Mormon Church In a local newspaper in Provo (Utah), there had been an ongoing series of articles written by individuals who wanted to persuade, mem bers of the Church of...

I wrote on Sunday that I would write about my notes from our West Bountiful Stake Women's Conference, held Saturday, January 27, 2018.   I will write what I can here, but I have references to a 32 minute you-tube talk about grace, and a speech he gave at BYU on Grace.  I encourage you if you have time to check them out, by copying and pasting the links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLXr9it_pbY The following link is the above talk written out to read: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox_his-grace-is-sufficient/      I had never met Brad Wilcox, but I had heard so much about him over the years.  My son Wayne had been his teacher for Spanish when Brad was in the MTC, and having struggles learning the language at that time.  Later he was a wonderful missionary, and became a Mission President in Chile.  I was anxious to go up after and speak to him.  When I told him I was Wayne's...

On this, my 1,000th entry on my blog, I am starting a different plan.   I have written many family stories about ancestors, etc., and also included many beautiful thoughts I have taken from others who have written for LDS Living, and Meridian Magazine and other places of interest.  I have always posted who wrote them, etc., and I hope I haven't done it wrong.  But for those of you who want to read these thoughts, I know you can do on your own if you take the trouble to do it.  You can check out many subjects under "Labels" on the blog to find many timeless articles on various subjects. Below is the link to sign up for Latterdaylight.com -- which daily has a scripture, and quote from a prophet about the scripture.  It also has a daily guide for reading the Scriptures in a year's time, and things that have happened in the LDS Church on this day, since it began.  It also has a link to watching or reading a Conference talk, and has recently started a book,...

This is so interesting to me!  I will be visiting Egypt, Jordan and Petra, and also Israel in April, and I'm trying to learn all I can about the area! SCIENCE  --  RED SEA: Archaeologists Discover Remains Of Egyptian Army From The Biblical Exodus The discovery of the remains of a large Egyptian army at the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, 1.5 km offshore from the modern city of Ras Gharib, has been announced this morning by Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry. The team of underwater archaeologists was in search of ancient shipwrecks and artifacts from the Stone and Bronze Age trade in the Red Sea when they came across a huge pile of human bones dated back to the 14th century BC. The team of underwater archaeologists was in search of ancient shipwrecks and artifacts from the Stone and Bronze Age trade in the Red Sea when they came across a huge pile of human bones dated back to the 14th century BC. Over 400 different skeletons have been discovered by the team of scientis...

This article is totally encouraging and wise!  I really love Darla Isackson's writings.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland even quoted her in a conference talk!  My dear mother, Ruth Allen Miles, used to say "This too shall change, (or pass away)!"  That applies to both sad and happy times. But new happy times will come also, and it is exciting to see where our lives lead us.   "Life is what happens while you're planning for something else!" One Prayer That God Never Answers By Darla Isackson  · January 24, 2018 In an article in  Guidepost  magazine, author Elizabeth Sherrill told of the difficulty of moving out of the home she had loved for fifty years. Sorting through and wanting to hang onto the accumulation of a lifetime, she contemplated the myriad changes she and her husband had experienced and the big one they were about to make. This sentence from her article is my theme today: “One prayer God never answers is fo...