2024 February 18, Sunday, Journal Entry

 We served again in the Bishops Storehouse yesterday. There are so many lessons to be learned by serving there. It really brings home the fact that many people are suffering from food shortage among other things. It really makes me grateful for all of my blessings and I'm truly thankful for the opportunity to help provide for needy brothers and sisters. More and more there are people there for the first time and are understandably uncomfortable about getting free food... But they need it. I try to create an atmosphere friendship and understanding and hope that I can make them as comfortable as possible.

I happened to read this morning and article indicating that the Church has assets well into the billions of dollars. I am one who thinks that this is absolutely wonderful and I'm grateful that the funds are there and being watched over properly. Anyway, I brought that up because I know that if anyone is getting more food than they should at the Bishops Storehouse, the church can afford it and I just hope the food is being put to good use.

Cathy and Erica are getting ready for their annual tea party that they enjoy every February. I think they have more fun getting ready for it than the party itself but it's all good.

Come Follow Me 

2 Nephi 5:27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness. 28 And thirty years had passed away from the time we left Jerusalem.

"…Nephi makes a well-documented and somewhat surprising statement, especially after recording in the scriptures the many afflictions and tribulations they had faced for so long. These are his words: “And it came to pass that we [did live] after the manner of happiness.” Despite their hardships, they were able to live after the manner of happiness because they were centered in Christ and His gospel.

Brothers and sisters, like the clay on the potter’s wheel, our lives must be centered with exactness in Christ if we are to find true joy and peace in this life."

Elder Richard J. Maynes Of the Presidency of the Sevent, October 2015

Record Keeping

Records make it possible to hear the voices of peoples from the remote past and to speak to audiences in the distant future. Nephi declared that his people would “speak unto [future generations] out of the ground” and that their “speech shall whisper out of the dust” (2 Nephi 26:16). In this way, records are able to link generations of people together that would otherwise be far apart. As Elder Richard G. Scott described it, the scriptures—and by implication the prophets who wrote them—can become “stalwart friends that are not limited by geography or calendar.”

Scriptures are a result of record keeping. I often replay or re-read general conference talks or BYU Devotional talks. 

When you really think about it records are extremely vital to society.

I haven't always been diligent in keeping records or journals but I'm doing better now. I write something in this journal each day and have done so for quite some time now.

It should be added here that records are of greatest value when they are as honest and objective as possible. One of the greatest problems we have in our day is teachers and others rewriting history and teaching falsehood to our children. Dishonesty literally destroys the essential and important value of records. For these reasons I will always try to be honest in my journal writings and any other records of whatever nature that I may be involved with.