BOOK OF MORMON STUDY YEAR

 I'm so happy to be studying the Book of Mormon this year. I'm already listening to it on my phone every night. I can't believe it, but every time I study it, it's like I've never heard some passages. Like, did they add this this year? It's like new every time I study the Book of Mormon.

FAMILY HISTORY

 I completed my grandfather's biography in May, after working on it for seven or eight months. I thought it would take about three months. Silly me.

It consumed me.

I became obsessed with writing about my grandfather, going down all the research rabbit holes, and perusing all the photos and documents I could find. It turned out to be 200 pages!

I call it my Opus.

Now I'm researching and writing my father's biography. Luckily, Dad was the family historian and saved everything. I mean, EVerything! Newspaper snippets, tickets, documents, photos, and emphemera of his life and the lives of his parents and his brother are contained in files and photo albums. And I'm lucky enough to have it.

Unfortunately, the albums aren't always in chronological order. This has been a bane for me. I've gotten up from my computer more than once because of frustration because events don't fit the timeline.

But I pray about it. I pray Heavenly Father will help me through it and I pray my dad will guide me in the right direction. Often, a light bulb will go on and I will see the light!

Also unfortunately, my father kept our albums growing up in separate kids' albums--he had eight. Each time a new child was born, he would start a new album. Therefore, my little sister, the youngest, has all the photos after 1966. That means my birthdays, my sibs' birthdays, holidays, proms, and any other events are in her album--and she doesn't want to share. Then she told me she looked in her album and all the photos are stuck together. ARGH! None were shared and now none can be shared. 

I am the oldest and have a photo album from 1954-1956, when my brother was born, and one from my grandparents until Easter 1960. After that, I'm at the mercy of my siblings, some of whom are not forthcoming with pictures. Some are. Once I get past 1960, I don't know if I'll have much to go on for writing about my dad.

I've learned that pictures are worth a thousand words. I've written from photographs. They jog memories, and can lead to research of the time period.

I hope and pray my siblings will share. Some have. I hope the ones who haven't will.

And tomorrow I'm going to go to the local Family History Center and see about volunteering. I will be almost totally immersed in family history then.

Family history . . . it's important. Ask me why.

GOSPEL DISCUSSION ON BYU-TV

 I've been studying the Book of Mormon and am reading/listening to 3 Nephi, just in the beginning. Today, Sunday, I watched Gospel Discussions on the Book of Mormon and got ahead of my reading. It gave me so much understanding.

One thing the professors spoke about was how Lehi, 3 Nephi's brother, was stoned, and also raised from the dead. This occurred just about the time that Lazarus was raised from the dead--in similitude with what was going on in Jerusalem at the same time. I never caught that before.

I'm judging a writing contest and someone is writing a book on the signs of Christ, like the similitudes, etc., and this made me think of all the ones I don't know about.

I had never heard of the concept before I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was a diligent Catholic for a long while, even attended Catholic school, and I never heard of this until I attended a lecture by Gerald Lund at a CES conference way back in the 1990s at BYU. It fascinated me.

I am thankful for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm grateful for those two missionaries, Elder Poulsen and Elder Ellis, who knocked on my door in late 1980. I'm grateful for my Savior and my Heavenly Father for leading them to me, and for me to have enough curiosity with the first lesson to want to learn more.

RACIAL HARMONY NEEDED!!

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/prophet-naacp-leaders-racial-harmony-america-op-ed

Prophet Joins NAACP Leaders in Call for Racial Harmony in America

In a piece published Monday on Medium.com, President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and three leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are calling on all Americans to embrace Jesus Christ’s simple but challenging model that can lead to racial peace and harmony. The prophet is joined by Derrick Johnson (NAACP president and CEO), Leon Russell (NAACP chairman of the board) and the Rev. Amos C. Brown (NAACP chairman emeritus of religious affairs).

“Unitedly we declare that the answers to racism, prejudice, discrimination and hate will not come from government or law enforcement alone,” they write. “Solutions will come as we open our hearts to those whose lives are different than our own, as we work to build bonds of genuine friendship, and as we see each other as the brothers and sisters we are — for we are all children of a loving God. … Oneness is not sameness in America. We must all learn to value the differences.”

JANUARY 4, 2020

Since it's the beginning of a new year, I (used to) usually take time to write in my blogs and catch up on my life.

Every once in a while, I find myself thinking, "I should put this thought on my blog." But lately, I've been thinking things like "I'm going to do this when I retire."
I'm hoping 2020 is the year I retire. To be positive, 2020 IS the year I will retire. I just don't know what month. I have to give work 3 months notice.
I have an appointment this week with the Social Security office. There weren't any open appointments in December (you should go three months before you turn 66) so January was the first available I could take. Gosh, am I that old? (Yes.)

However, I might be looking at another ankle/foot surgery--removing the screw.
I just had surgery in August 2019. It's only been 4 months, almost 5, and the doctor is wary of taking it out sooner than 6 months. So am I.
It appears the sharp tip of the screw is protruding through my bone in the front of my ankle and catching on something--probably a ligament. I don't know. But the two bones which were being fused have fused together well. If the screw comes out, it will leave a hole that will knit together just like the bones that were fused. I hope.
So I don't know when I'll retire this year. My 10-year anniversary is November 22, but I really don't want to wait that long.

I'm so tired of my life being about my ankle. I really thought this last surgery would end the pain and suffering. Please, God, let the pain and suffering end.

My kids and I are planning a trip to Maine and the Hill Cumorah Pageant in July. It's the last ever pageant. (That's so sad!) We were in the pageant in 2000, so it will be 20 years since we were in it. We used to go every year. I want to say the last year we went was 2007 or 2008. After that, all the divorce drama happened, so my memory is a little sketchy.

After participating in pageant, it was the thing we compared every other good thing to for a long time. "It was nice, but not like being in the pageant."

While rehearsing for the pageant, it was as if we lived in Zion. It was definitely a Zion community. No worries about anything. Very spiritual. I'm sure heaven will be like that--where everyone loves everyone else, and works to strive to be Christ-like.

Maybe I'll retire July 1. Then I won't have to worry about being gone so long from work while I'm on vacation.

The Prophet is Dead. Long Live the Prophet.

By Susan Knight

I was recently reminded of the saying, "The King is Dead. Long Live the King."
It is said in the United Kingdom, and probably has been said in any monarchy. But it's true about our prophets, too.

President Thomas S. Monson

President Thomas S. Monson died on January 2, 2018, at the age of 90. What a perfectly precious  human being he is. I think he has best shown Christlike love of any prophet I've lived under. When I say that, I mean . . . I've always wondered what the personality of Jesus Christ was like. Did you ever wonder that? Was He reserved or outgoing? Did He have a sense of humor, or was He serious all the time?

What we do know is that service was at the top of His list of everyday living. Wherever He went, He personified service--healing the sick, the lame, the blind. He was also a very forgiving God--forgiving the woman taken in sin; forgiving the man who had palsy. He went out of His way to do service.

The Savior Laughing

Did he have a sense of humor? I think of how he told of forgiveness by comparing it to the mote in one person's eye and the beam in another's eye. Hyberbole. Yes, humor.

And He told parables that enthralled the population. Scores of people surrounded Him and followed Him.

Thus was President Thomas S. Monson.

Service was personified in "Tommy Monson," as he liked to refer to himself. He went out of his way for the widow, the lame, the elderly, the forgotten.

His sense of humor abounded in every talk he gave. You could see his tongue in his cheek.

And his stories . . . I couldn't wait to be enthralled by his stories every Conference weekend.

I think, in my humble opinion, that when I think of Jesus Christ now, I will remember President Monson. I believe their personalities were similar.

President Russell M. Nelson

I will miss President Monson, but I welcome our new Prophet Russell M. Nelson. It was formally announced yesterday. I have waited for him to be Prophet for 34 years. Yes, I already had a testimony that he would be our prophet one day. Yet, he was a newly-ordained apostle when I had that vision.

As "Elder" Nelson grew older--and older--I didn't think my vision would come to pass, yet we are here. President Nelson is 93 years old. I don't know how long he will serve, but I always knew he would serve as president of the church.

I had a vision I have only shared with a few people. Perhaps I'll write about it one day.


President Monson is dead. Long live President Nelson.

HAPPY SPRING!

Merry Christmas 2016

Remember the Reason for the Season

General Conference 2016

I love finding memes online with quotes from General Conference. Here is one of my favorites:

Other prophets have also commented on the Word of Wisdom:

Elder Richard G. Scott:
Do you scrupulously avoid the use of stimulants and substances that conflict with the intent of the Word of Wisdom, or have you made some personally rationalized exceptions? (General Conference, Priesthood Session, Oct. 2008)

Ezra Taft Benson:
We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the “kings meat”—and whose countenances show it. – (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson , p. 476-477.

Harold B. Lee:
The Lord’s word of wisdom . . . counsels the simple diet of fruits, grains and vegetables in season, with meats used sparingly, has been given you as a revelation of God’s great law of health. . . . (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 205-6)

George Albert Smith: 
(In the summer he ate no meat, and even in the winter months he ate very little.) Let me plead with you, search the Word of Wisdom prayerfully. Do not just read it, search it prayerfully. Discover what our Heavenly Father gave it for. He gave it to us with a promise of longer life and happiness, not if we fail to observe it, but if we observe it.