Category Archives: Thoughts

thoughts about life, in particularly my life.

Emigration to Salt Lake

James Denning was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints by his good friend, John Williams, in 1850.  The following year, 1851, James’ wife, Sarah, and her sister,  Jane Merrifield, were baptized.  In 1852, Jane Merrifield married John Williams.   We now have two young couples, best friends and sisters, preparing for their new lives as members of the this new Church in Wales.  Jobs were hard to find and Mormons were being persecuted by the local population.  To add insult to injury, Sarah and Jane’s parents disinherited them for marrying Mormon boys. Continue reading Emigration to Salt Lake

The Secrets that We Keep

I recently finished a Novel, “The Secrets She Keeps”, by Michael Robothan. The story is about two women in a London suburb, who each have a secret. Their paths cross and their lives become intertwined.  In the end one kept her secret and the other’s was exposed.

Are secrets good or bad?  Do they hurt us or help us?  I am not sure I can answer these questions completely.  But this much I do know, there are some secrets that can cause us a lot of pain.  The sad part is some secrets are carried for life and can stop our emotional growth and freedom. Continue reading The Secrets that We Keep

Letter from Emily

The other day I opened my email and found the following from my niece Emily (now serving an LDS Mission in Chile):

Hey uncle!

Hey, I´ve got a favor to ask…. So, we’ve got this investigator, (well, sort of. He’s actually not an investigator because he’s a less active member) and he’s really struggling because he had a great mormon life. He served a mission, he got married in the temple. But now he’s divorced, and has been for quite a few years, and he feels like he did everything right and he had his eternal family, and then it didn’t work so obviously the church doesn’t work. And I thought of you. Because you’ve been through that, and your still strong, and that’s so cool. He has a girlfriend that he lives with now and they have a son, and I really want to help him see that he can have an eternal family still and it’ll all be okay, and I was wondering if you could send me your testimony of the gospel and of families and God and whatever else. I mean, you don’t have to, but I think it might help him to see someone else who understands sort of what he’s gone through and still has that testimony. 

Thank you!

Love,

Hermana Andersen

Continue reading Letter from Emily

Reality, The Good Stuff

In my last post, I talked about the Anticipation of our trip to Italy.  Today I talk about the reality of the trip and how it compares to life.  All I can say is that it was worth every minute of preparation and then execution.  We saw some amazing things and though the trip to and from was long and there were days we walked for hours, I would venture to say that it was one of the best trips I have ever been on to date.   Continue reading Reality, The Good Stuff

Anticipation

I have heard that the Anticipation of something can be as and possibly more exciting than the actual event.  For example, when you tickle a child, all you have to do is position you hands as if you are going to tickle and the child will start laughing in anticipation of the tickle.

I guess I am like that child today.  I have been studying, preparing and anticipating my trip to Italy for the last 9 months, ever since I booked the Condos and flights.  In fact, I have anticipated this trip ever since I completed my LDS mission in Italy back in 1979. Continue reading Anticipation

Money

How many times have we heard that Money is the Root of all Evil.  I am reading the book, “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and there is an excellent quote about Money in the book and I thought it worth posting.  The Money Speech was the result of one of the characters making the following statement:  “Money is the Root of all the evil and he is the typical product of Money”.   Continue reading Money