Alabama Heritage
February 7, 2008 | Items of Interest | No Comments
Bill, we received another beautiful “Alabama Heritage” magazine. One of the contents is written by Lynn Barstis Williams and is on “Richard Coe’s Birmingham”. Forgotten moments in Depression-era Birmingham come to life in the works of Richard Coe. Thank you again for these truly beautiful magazines.
Lorrena?
February 6, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [1]
Mom where did you get that Loreena was haunting you. You sent me her name and I already did her work in the temple.
Attention Bill
February 5, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [2]
Bill, Jason would like to be on board the website. Please do whatever it takes?? Thanks.
President Hinckley’s Misspelled Name
February 5, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
For a Prophet that I loved so much, I must have misspelled his name at least a dozen times on this site. Please accept the correction. Hinckley. I am still have chills and tears everytime of think of him, as I try to imagine all of the excitement that must still be taking place in the eternal worlds without end. Imagine. A Prophet of God is walking those sacred hallways now, and is being introduced to all of the great prophets that have gone before him; Adam, Noah, Peter, James, John. And of course, those of our dispensation. How happy must have been the reunion of Joseph Smith and President Hinckley, because they knew each other before the foundation of this world was laid. Well, I could talk on and on about it. It thrills me. We had a lesson at Home Evening about the Tree of Life, and how Lehi beckoned to his family members to come to him and partake of the sweetness of the fruit of the tree, but some of the members would not go forth and partake of it. I feel that so strongly. I want all of my family to know the great glow that the gospel can bring to one’s life, when it is being tasted and the sweetness found to be everything that Lehi’s dream indicated. I suppose that’s really all that Luis and I ever wanted, and when it didn’t happen, or at least hasn’t happened up until now, the sadness overwhelmed the gladness, and that’s why I’m so happy now that I am released, and can truly share with all of you, if no other way that on this website, that the Gospel is true. All of you are members of the true church on earth. Your legacy is great. You were special spirits in the premortal world, and that’s why you were sent to a family that was to receive it. That goes for the grand-children and great-grandchildren. Little James Michael is a fourth generation LDS. Although not officially a member, his grandmother is sealed to his great-grandparents, and his mother is a member, and thus the sealing has the effect through her. The legacy is there for our posterity. The most we can do now is to continue to work for our kindred dead.
Teyla and Scriptures
February 5, 2008 | Kid Brag | Comments [3]
Here is the picture of Teyla reading her scriptures.
The other picture is her with her new glasses. She found them at Goodwill and wanted them because everyone else wears glasses but her (and Maria who could probably do with a pair). They have a light red tint to them and make her look smart
They other pictures is just a typical Teyla with her cup. When she is tired or drinking her cup she pulls her hair. If you are sitting next to her or holding her, she will pull YOUR hair.
Take this little quiz
February 5, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [6]
I was surprised at my results. I will say that Ron Paul came in last for me. We disagreed on almost everything. The two the I had the most agreed on , I looked back at what we agreed on and chose my most important out of those two top, and my results surprised me.
Some Pictures
February 5, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [1]
http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/080205newprophet.html
If you read below the picture of Pres. U, everyone is really questioning him about the accent. I told you Bill, everyone would really get confused about the accent. 
Deseret Morning News: 16th president of the LDS Church — President Monson
February 5, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [2]
Article is HERE.
Some pull-quotes:
Asked how he reacted, knowing he would lead the church upon President Hinckley’s death, President Monson said the thing he found most helpful was “going to my knees,” asking God to “go before my face, on my right hand and on my left hand.” He said he asked for God’s “spirit in my heart and angels round about me to bear me up.”
At age 67, President Uchtdorf was one of the younger members of the Quorum of the Twelve and said he is “joyfully overwhelmed” by his new responsibilities. “It’s something which is a great honor. I’m very humbled by the call. I know this call must have come from God, because human beings might have had a difficult time to do the same.”
Thank you Julie
February 4, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [1]
Julie–Just wanted to say thank you for the gift that you sent for the baby..The overalls are too cute, thank you so much….
Nana-I tried to post some pictures but I couldn’t get it to work, but I’ll keep trying..
New LDS First Presidency Announced
February 4, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [6]
Thomas S. Monson is the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it was announced today at a news conference in the Church Office Building. President Monson, 80, succeeds President Gordon B. Hinckley, who died 27 January.
The new world leader of the Church has called to serve with him in the First Presidency, the top governing body of the 13-million-member faith, President Henry B. Eyring, 74, first counselor, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 67, second counselor.
Tribute to President Hinckley
February 3, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [2]
I found this on an LDS mailing list:
You may get something out of a little speech I gave a year ago, a sort of personal tribute to the man. You may, if you wish, share it with others.
My Counselor, My Lifeline
Weston First Ward Conference
Weston, Massachusetts
January 14, 2007
By Ronald B. Scott
Way, way back in 1967, a few months after I returned home from serving a two-year mission to New England, I enrolled in a creative writing course at the University of Utah. The set-up for one essay assignment went like this:
· While hiking, you have become stranded on a cliff, a couple of hundred feet below and above safe ground.
· Rescuers have located a rope, but it is just long enough to reach down to you; there is no way to secure it, so you won’t be able to rappel down; the only way to go is up. It will be a tough –footholds and handholds are scarce. Count on lots of falls, short ones if the man belaying –holding the rope –is reliable. He is your lifeline.
· As for your lifeline, your belayer, – the person holding the rope — you have a choice. Choose who you would trust most with your life? Explain your choice providing as much descriptive detail as possible.
Predictably, most of the kids wrote tributes to a mother, a father, a brother, or a favorite uncle. A few pragmatists selected peers who were also skilled mountaineers, or strong linebackers.
My choice was so unusual – he was neither a relative nor fearsomely strong — that the teacher read my essay to the class. Now, 40 years later Bishop Zenger asked me –just last night – to tell you about the man I chose and why I selected him way back when, and to cover the years in between…so I will resort to verbal snapshots:
· Although I had known, been aware of the man for most of my life, I didn’t start paying attention to him until I was a pre-teenager. He was the soft-spoken first counselor, the number two man in the stake presidency for what seemed like an eternity. When I first heard him speak from the podium at stake conference – and every time thereafter — I assumed he was the visiting general authority. He sounded like a general authority. Calm, self-assured, kind.
· He was very, very good counselor which meant he was always very, very good at listening. Later, he briefly, very briefly, served as stake president.
· He was a few years older than my own father. In fact, he’d taught dad in seminary, and later hired him. The man I would designate as my lifeline returned from a long and tough session with his tight-fisted boss. He had been negotiating raises for two chronically underpaid long-term employees. Things had not gone as well as hoped and he was indignant as he quoted Luke off the top of his head: “for the labourer is worthy of his hire…” He was something of a scriptorian.
· My first lasting impression came during a routine family dinner in his home. I was a middle-teen then. His blessing on the food included a brief family prayer. It was like no other prayer I had heard before. Or since, for that matter, except from him. I had the distinct impression that he was having a one-on-one, frank and open exchange with the Lord…Of course I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but I was pretty certain my lifeline could. It was a truly awesome thing to…to hear…and to feel.
· A year or so later I found myself wrestling with God, like lots of young people do. Old people too. I had read just enough history to be troublesome; absorbed just enough philosophy to have doubts, and knew just enough math to know that some things in life just don’t add up.
· And, so there we sat on the lawn behind his modest white-clapboard cottage in East Millcreek talking about the meaning of life, God, and, especially, the church. Because I was close friends with one of his children we had a few impromptu chats over the years. Assuming, as I did, that my lifeline was on a first name basis with God I wanted him to tell me that God had told him the church was true. Believe me, I would have taken his word for it, no follow-up questions would have been necessary.
· I couldn’t get up the courage to put it to him quite that bluntly, so we waltzed around “testimony” issues and my “doubts” and so on for quite a while until finally he said something like “Well, you’ve told me all about your questions and doubts, how about telling me about what you don’t doubt. There must be a few things about the gospel, the church you believe to be true.” Sure enough there were. I ticked off a few fairly safe ones and a couple of provocative ones for good measure. He looked me square in the eyes and said: “Here’s what you do. Hold on tight to what you know to be true and let it lead you to all the rest.” I’m here today because of what he said way back when. I’m still applying his advice.
· A few years later I was ready to accept a mission call to Japan or Hong Kong or Korea. I was the youngest of my circle of friends, seven or so —and nearly every one of them was called to serve in Asia. Or so it seemed. My lifeline just happened to supervise all the missions in that area of the world. And so, putting one and one together, I assumed that’s where I was headed too. I was floored when my call arrived in the mail and it specified New England. A week or so later, My lifeline called to congratulate me and get my reaction — I’m reasonably certain this memory is paraphrased only a little. “I’m pleased but very surprised,” I confessed. “I expected a call to a mission in Asia.” There was thoughtful silence on the phone line. He broke it with a simple question: “What’s the date on the letter from President McKay.” I gave him the date. “Ah,” he said, audibly relieved. “I was out of town then.” I laughed loudly. “I thought missionary callings were supposed to be inspired.” “Oh they are,” he insisted. “They’re like an inspired game of darts: if you know the young man, it just helps you aim the dart a little better.”
· I served the mission, returned to college, wrote my essay about him, and went off to New York to write for Time. But, good journalists keep track of people and they take copious notes. I kept track of him; I read all his speeches; saved news clips about him. I learned that he had once wanted to be a journalist — that he too had once dreamed of writing for Time Magazine before he was persuaded, right out of college, to join a large international organization based in Salt Lake City, one where he spent his entire 70-something year career.
· He hadn’t laid eyes on me in at least six years, perhaps more, when I ran into him at a press conference in Manhattan. He was now a senior officer and I knew he had personally directed an effort aimed at drawing more African Americans into his organization. I was very proud of him. His plan was working well. So we reporters wanted to know all about it, especially where it might lead the organization. Like the good counselor he had always been would be for many more years to come, he humbly redirected our enthusiastic, flattering questions to his boss.
· He is a serious man, but he does not want for a sense of humor. As I mentioned he knows something about prayers and praying. A friend, a particularly snappy, colorful dresser and now a stake president in New York was asked to give a closing prayer in a business meeting that included my “lifeline.” “That was a particularly fine prayer,” he said. “And the Lord may have taken you more seriously if he wasn’t distracted by your snazzy tie.”
· Over the years since, we caught up many times, directly, indirectly and almost. There wasn’t time to chat, or even shake hands. He is very busy. Very public. Aides surround him wherever he goes. Well- wishers too. They deserve time with him and I don’t intrude. I had my turn up close and personal sitting on the lawn in his backyard 40-plus years ago.
· We nearly collided in the service concourse under a sports arena in Worcester a few years back. He shot me one of those sidelong “I know you from somewhere” looks as he continued on down the hallway and I gave him one my best “you know me but you have places to go, people to greet” smiles. I suspect he would have recognized me straight out if I had not lost so much weight since he last saw me — yeh, right — and if the hairdresser had not messed around with the color of my hair.
He is old now. Really old. In his late 90s. Yet, his mind is very sharp. As he battles cancer, he races on like a man possessed, determined to stand for something right up to the very moment he keels over in his tracks.
He has always stood for something. Stood up for truth, decency and kindness. Stood up for people, the lucky and unlucky, the rich and poor and insisted that they talk to each other.
Like a good boy scout, he has striven to leave the “camp site” in better shape than he found it. He has succeeded. Ever the good counselor he continues to listen well and respond with breathtakingly simple advice.
Such was the case last Spring when he stood before us to give a speech he had once gamely entitled “My Last Will And Testimony.” His voice was ripe with righteous indignation as he opened with these words, which I have condensed a bit:
“When a man grows old he develops a softer touch, a kindlier manner …I have wondered why there is so much hatred in the world. We are involved in terrible wars with lives lost and many crippling wounds. Coming closer to home, there is so much of jealousy, pride, arrogance, and carping criticism…Racial strife still lifts its ugly head. I am advised that even right here among us there is some of this. I cannot understand how it can be.
“I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor be … in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible? … Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children.”
I stand here today as a witness for my counselor, my lifeline. He is honorable. He is inspired. And, he is awesomely inspiring. He takes people as they are and helps them transform their weak spots into hard ones, and forge their hard ones into steel.
When his day is done, as it soon will be, the record will show that no mortal man – except Joseph Smith and Brigham Young — had a greater influence on the Church of Jesus Christ than the man I described in a college essay 40 years ago when he was a young apostle.
If I were stranded on a granite cliff today, I would want our leader and our prophet Gordon Bitner Hinckley manning the rope. He is my counselor, my lifeline and friend. I bear that simple witness, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Teyla Bears Her Testimony
February 3, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting. Everyone was feeling especially melancholy, with the deep feelings of having just lost our Prophet, but knowing that heaven was rejoicing, and that we would soon be blessed to have another follow in his footsteps, because the Lord will not have his Church with no captain at the helm.
Teyla wanted to bear her testimony, because she saw one of her small friends go up and do it.
She went up with Jason, and climbed up on the stool, faced the Congregation, and said,
“I believe in Jesus Christ, I love my family, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” Some of it was prompted by Jason, of course.
These were touching photos
February 3, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [1]
http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/080201photoessay.html
Note that the guy showed a view of the prohets grave looking over into the valley and he pointed out David O. McKay’s grave and mentioned how nice it would be on resurection morning.
Funeral of our dear Prophet
February 2, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments [3]
Maria and I went to garage sales this morning, and then got back home in time to watch President Hinkley’s funeral services. We left the TV on and I continued to watch the news for several hours, and sniffled and cried over a lot of it. I really loved that Prophet.
His death has jump-started me into realizing that I have to stop whining and groaning and do as he always taught. Stand a little taller. Get busy on genealogy for the rest of my days, and then leave the remainder to you.
Meanwhile, please evaluate your lives, and repent if necessary. I love you so very much, and I can’t bear to leave this earth until all of you are active in the church. I just can’t leave until that happens. I just can’t.
Teyla’s cuteness
February 1, 2008 | Items of Interest | Comments [4]
I play a game that we have named “puppy”. She’s a puppy named “Belly”, and she comes to my house, and I’m the “mommy”. She brings friends….all kinds. Two are invisible puppies named “Jelly” and “Melly”. The other night, she brought a lion, pony, pig, and two puppies. (all small stuffed animals). They have to be, because we play the whole game on my bed. We make it up, as we go along. We finally found a doctors kit, so now I have something to pretend to be “doctor”, as well as “mommy”. Anyway, we set the clock for fifteen minutes only. She has learned to set it, and when the time is up…it’s UP! She knows I won’t play anymore. Anyway, after that particular game on the night I’m pinpointing, when it was over, she pushed all of her little animals over to me, and said, “I’m going to leave them all with you, Nana! I’m so glad you love my AMINALS!”
This morning I went into the livingroom to read my scriptures, and she came in to see what I was doing, and I told her, “I’m reading my scriptures, and Teyla, I found your scriptures that you lost. They’re in the den. Do you want me to get them?”
Silly question.
I gave them to her and she instructed me to go and sit back in my chair, and she sat down on the sofa, and opened her scriptures, and very quietly sat and mumbled and mumbled and turned pages so intently. I finally tiptoed across the room and down the hall to get Carmen to come and see. Carmen got the camera and took a picture.
Teyla cuteness. It keeps us occupied.
Start Feb w/ a smile
February 1, 2008 | Funny | Comments [3]
OK, I rarely laugh in February… here’s something to start the Leap year month off right:)
The Atheist and the Bear -
An Atheist was walking through the woods.
“What majestic trees”!
“What powerful rivers”!
“What beautiful animals”!
He said to himself.
As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the
bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear
charge towards him.
He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder &
saw that the bear was closing in on him.
He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer. He
tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but
saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his
left paw & raising his right paw to strike him.
At that instant the Atheist cried out, “Oh my God!”
Time Stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.
“You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don’t exist
and even credit creation to cosmic accident.”
“I am however merciful and all forgiving to those who have proven their faith in me. How would you like me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer”?
The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical
of me to suddenly call myself a Christian and expect all the blessings to flow to me as one that has proven their faith, I know that your animal creations are all innocent and without sin in that innocence. Perhaps you could evoke Christian qualities in the BEAR so we both might grow from this experience”?
“Very Well,” said the voice.
The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear
dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head &
spoke:
“Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty
through Christ our Lord, Amen.”
Congratulations Jamey and Crystal
February 1, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
We don’t know all the details yet. What time he was born, and if you had an easy time, Crystal.
And what will you call him? Michael? Wish I could go to Birmingham immediately, but it’s too hard for Paw-Paw to drive anymore. Too many aches and pains on the last trip.
Love Nana