On the sweetness of Mormon life.

You are driving to St. George probably for the first time when you see a sign for a town coming up.  Its called Kanarraville.

Hey, one of your daughters says, I think that’s where Elder Hollands talk happened.

She’s right, so you put it on.

The town is beautiful from the road.  There is a storm, the black clouds heaped up in great piles over the mountains and silver sheets of rain.  Meanwhile Elder Holland’s sonorous voice from the speaker.

Don’t give up, boy.  Don’t you quit.

 

 

A great little short short story about looking at maps.

How many people have you killed?

Disclaimer: the following is the middlebrow blog version of a ghost story.  Not intended for brooding purposes.

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Years gone by my first little daughter died of cancer. This is what I wrote on the birthday she never quite made it to that year.

Today you would be 23.

Happy Birthday, Betsey Pearl.

We put flowers on your grave.

It’s another photo album birthday for us.  I don’t know how birthdays go where you are.

Happy Birthday, Betsey Pearl.

I’ve been having flashes of a dream about an old dead hollow tree trunk in a fen; a swirl of bats issue from the hollow in the twilight. There was some kind of minor problem with it that I was addressing.

In my other dream flashes, we were preparing a church program at a small, flat rectangular building. Probably a small branch building, one of those where its just one room that gets used for church but also everything else. There was a grape vine that sprung up next to one of the walls and was causing some kind of trouble with the building, so I dug it up.

Last night, the dreams converged.

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General Conference Retrospective

Elder Gong talks about being buried in your own temple clothes. One of the not yet entirely lost customs of the old Church was making your own temple clothes and then laying out your dead in theirs. These little acts are very meaningful.

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Brother Dushku had the Spirit make a powerful impression on him by one day telling him to sit down and shut up.  It is one of his treasured spiritual experiences.

My point is that there are many ways to receive heavenly rays of testimony. These are just a few, of course. They may not be dramatic, but all of them form part of our testimonies.

Brothers and sisters, I have not seen a pillar of light, but, like you, I have experienced many divine rays. Over the years, I’ve tried to treasure such experiences. I find that as I do, I recognize and remember even more of them. Here are some examples from my own life. They may not be very impressive to some, but they are precious to me.

I remember being a rowdy teenager at a baptism. As the meeting was about to begin, I felt the Spirit urge me to sit down and be reverent. I sat down and stayed quiet the rest of the meeting.

My own treasure house contains many such. I have also been blessed that way.

The Divine Character Includes Humor

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