Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Hello, dear readers!  February 16, 2020. It has been too long since I've written a new blog, and I'm going to try and change!  My excuse -- I began serving 2 shifts a week, on Wednesdays, and Fridays in the Layton FamilySearch Center, just about 15 miles north of where I live in West Bountiful.   My mother, Ruth Allen Miles, in college, in the 1920's. Colorized from a beautiful old black and white photo. To serve here, I needed to take 12 classes, 90 minutes each, to begin training to be able to help patrons who come there.  I took most of those classes back in November, but some in January, and I began serving on January 13th.   I absolutely LOVE IT !  I love the many things I'm learning about technology, and what has been inspired for our day, and finding our ancestors, and relatives.  I particularly love being able to put in photos and comments on the Person Page of dear ones who have passed on.  I've put many pictures ...

This is a very touching story of how some were saved in the Tsunami in 2004. What Surviving a Tsunami Taught Me About the Lord’s Awareness of His Children By  Becky Douglas  · January 9, 2020 It had been a beautiful Christmas Day.  The glorious unwrapping mess in the living room was finally cleaned up, the Christmas dinner had been enjoyed and cleaned up and our nine children had all gone upstairs to play with their new treasures. As I cleaned up the last few peanut shells sliding down between the cushions on the couch, I could hear peals of laughter coming from upstairs as the kids played together with a new game. I’m sure you know the feeling on a wonderful Christmas evening: exhaustion, gratitude, happiness, warmth. Little did I suspect that in a few short minutes my life would be turned upside down, although not as much as the lives of more than a million other people across the world. The year was 2004, soon to be 2005. 2004 had been a...

This is a very interesting article!  It is our deep desires in life that determine what we do, and what we will become, both in this life, and the life to come! The One Thing That Prevents the Lord from Helping Us Change by Robert Reynolds, excerpted from "Unstuck: How the Savior Frees Us from Our Favorite Sins"  | Jan. 08, 2020 Makes You Think Mormon Life This excerpt originally ran on LDS Living in July 2016. While attending NYU Law School, I passed two homeless girls in the West Village. When one asked for money to buy food, I bought them hamburgers and fries. As we ate, they told me about their life on the street. Their stories were heartbreaking. Beneath multiple piercings, tattoos, and filthy clothes, I saw two sad and lonely young women in their early twenties. They described the dangers of sleeping in parks, being robbed on the street, and bad experiences they’d had in homeless shelters. “What do you girls need, then?” I asked. ...

I returned from a cruise with staff of The Book of Mormon Central, just before Christmas!  I loved it, and learned so much about it!   They have so many helps to study The Book of Mormon, and this is a beginning.  We are beginning with the Title page, and Introductory pages.   I hope you enjoy the entries from The Book of Mormon Central, and go to their website, and start getting their helps on your own e mail! SCRIPTURE STUDY 7 Short Videos to Kick Off Your Book of Mormon Come Follow Me Study By Book of Mormon Central  January 1, 2020 View this post  on Book of Mormon Central . The Come Follow Me curriculum for this year is covering the Book of Mormon. Fortunately, Book of Mormon Central has produced a massive amount of content that can help individuals dive deeper into the Book of Mormon. This content includes over 500 videos which are featured on our  YouTube channel  and included  in our scripture app ca...

Again I'm posting some true family Christmas stories.  I hope you enjoy them! More family Christmas stories is a blog I repeat each Christmas.   It was published last year as entry # 304, and I have added more pictures this year.  More Family Christmas Stories, first published Dec. 3, 2013. This was posted last year on December 3, 2013, as blog # 24.  I hope you enjoy these family Christmas stories. The "Pull Out The Rug" story down a bit, is about our son Allen when he was about 8 years old.  The picture above is when he was a navigator in the Air Force, and his wife, Holli.  He served for almost 7 years, also in Desert Storm. There are several stories about Christmas in our family, and you may enjoy these: ----  (The photos are different from last year.) My mother, Ruth, was just 6 years old when her father passed away.   In the summer of 1914, her father, John Butler Allen, got a sliver in his eye.  Later...

I'm reposting a story that I've mentioned each year since I've done my blog! This true story about my Christmas when I was 5 years old, is truly a favorite.  Reposted from:  #  555. A Child's Christmas Prayer Answered -- first written on December 1, 2013, on blog # 21. This a true Christmas story, from my childhood. The Christmas of 1939, here in St. George, Utah, was going to be quite humble at our house. My father had been in World War I and had suffered off and on with "shell shock", which now is called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He had been in the Veteran's hospital in Salt Lake City during the year, and my mother, Ruth, had given birth to my sister, Mavis, on December 1st. In those days, mothers stayed down much longer with a difficult birth. My mother had been allowed to turn over in bed on the 10th day, and got up on the 17th day, so Christmas found her very weak. My grandmother, Ruth’s mother, was living with our small family, and...

Why Obsessing Over the Second Coming Can Be Problematic by Robert L. Millet, Excerpted from "Living in the Eleventh Hour"  | Nov. 30, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life While as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are taught to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ, we don't have to anxiously obsess over it. In his book,  Living in the Eleventh Hour ,  Robert L. Millet explains how members can still look forward to the second coming without cataloging every event between then and now.  How should we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ feel about the fact that we do indeed live in the eleventh hour, the Saturday night of time? How does it make us feel to know that we are living through an era when more and more of the prophecies are being fulfilled? The Savior declared to Sidney Rigdon: “The poor and the meek shall have the gospel preached unto them, and they shall be looking forth for the tim...