Holy Ghost
Rays of Light
I was intrigued when I heard the talk by Alexander Dushku in the April 2024 general conference. He spoke of the rays of light that most of us receive versus the explosion and pillar of light that came in response to Joseph’s first vocal prayer.
Read MoreHoly Ghost Experience
I went to La Grande today (16 June 2024), it being the 3rd Sunday of the month, expecting to speak in La Grande 3rd and 4th Wards. The stake speaking assignments were given to the high council and other stake leaders back in December and January.
Read MoreNurturing and Training
Mothers have the responsibility to nurture and train their children. This principle applies to the animal kingdom as well.
My grandson (Karson Lloyd) told me about his friend, whom he described as a spiritual giant. Each morning at 5:00 the man took his scriptures, climbed up the mountain near his home, and sat on a rock where he read and studied.
Arguing with the Holy Ghost
Sunday March 17th. Margie’s 76th birthday. We arrived at the meetinghouse at 8:00 to take part in choir practice, and told the conductor that we would be leaving promptly at 8:40 so that we could be at the Pine Valley Branch at 10:00 where I was to speak.
Read MoreDormancy and Goals
What a great life this has been. I am happy. I have a testimony of my Savior. My covenants are intact. I have achieved my goals.
I wanted to be five things:
1. A father: I am the father of 10, grandfather of 56.
Conversations, Verbal and Unspoken
From the Holy Ghost, unspoken: “It’s 6:35.”
Spoken, to Marjorie: “Oh, my goodness, it’s 6:35. The missionaries invited me to participate in tonight’s lesson with Michael Townsend. I told them that we were probably going to the temple today, and wouldn’t be back in time. Because of the snow we didn’t go. I just have time to get there. I don’t want to go. It’s so late. A sense of responsibility is an awful thing. The elders appreciate me. I’m going to leave you for a bit.” (I put on my shoes, and am out the door).
An Instrument in His Hands
While I was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, my ship was dry docked, so I was a permanent member of the branch on shore. That made me available to my branch president for spur-of-the-moment assignments.
Read MoreSaving the Sailor
An incident occurred while I was a sailor serving on a ship based in Japan. The branch of the Church met in a little chapel on the base at Yokosuka. One Sunday I was standing at the door greeting people as an unfamiliar sailor approached. I welcomed him to church, and he said, “How do I go about joining this church?” My friend and I replied that he’d have to take the six missionary discussions, and that he and I would be happy to give them to him since there weren’t any full-time missionaries serving there.
Read MoreLeaving the Ninety-and-Nine
One Sunday morning when I was bishop, I was seated on the stand. Sacrament meeting had begun. As I looked out over the congregation I realized that one of my flock was missing. Sister Mensing, a widow in her sixties, wasn’t in her usual place. That struck me as odd. Many other people had missed church before, and I hadn’t done anything about it, but this time something inside me impelled me to check on her. I rose, and walked out of the meeting to my office where I telephoned her.
Read MoreDanny’s Power Lesson
Danny came to see us yesterday evening. Ivy was here, too. Marjorie and I had a wonderful time as we sat around the dining room table and visited with our kids.
I have written and compiled quite a number of books for my family. One series is entitled, Danny’s Books. Danny told us what got me started on my book projects. I hadn’t heard this before.
Best Thing That’s Happened
I’ve been trying to work through a conundrum. I’m trying to answer a question: What’s the best thing that’s happened to me? What’s the best thing that’s happened to you?
For my part I can’t decide if my answer should be Marjorie, the Book of Mormon, or my baptism.
The Day Dawn Is Breaking
5:00 A.M., the 17th of November. It’s dark outside. Extremely dark. I’m sitting in my living room with five electric light bulbs burning. I’m in a pocket of light in a dark, dark world.
But the earth is spinning. Way down under the eastern horizon the sun is coming. Light is on the way; but light can’t bend, and there is nothing to reflect it toward me. I have nothing but experience to tell me that a dawn is coming.
What If You Didn’t Have the Holy Ghost?
Marjorie wondered today, “What would it be like to not have the gift of the Holy Ghost?”
I answered, “I can tell you. I spent a couple of decades there. It’s dark, scary, depressing, and confusing.”
Five Barley Loaves–Preparation
Jesus, in an effort to be alone, “went up into a mountain” (John 6:3) “into a desert place apart,” and the people “followed him on foot out of the cities.” (Matt. 14:13). He taught them and healed them, and evening came. Not wanting to send the multitude away weak and hungry, He told His disciples to feed them. Andrew said, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes.” (John 6:9). With those five barley loaves and two small fishes Jesus fed “five thousand men, beside women and children.” (Matt. 14:21).
Read MoreThe Holy Ghost and Honeyguides
In Africa there is a species of bird that has learned how to work symbiotically with humans.
(Side note: The word “species” is both singular and plural. “Specie” refers to coin money.)
The bird is a honeyguide. Honeyguides use beeswax. Honeyguides don’t like to be stung by bees any more than people do, so they have learned how to use people to do the dirty work.
Family History Consultant
I recently finished researching and straightening out all of the vital statistics, and seeing to the temple work, of all of the descendants of the eighth set of my 3rd great grandparents. That leaves eight more to go. I had a prayer. I asked which of the remaining eight sets of 3rd great grandparents is most anxious to have me next do their work.
Read MoreWho Is the Holy Ghost?
Who is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, and along with the gifts of being able to repent, and the gift of a personal resurrection, is the greatest gift given to mankind. These three gifts surpass all, and are available to every soul who is willing to receive them.
Read MoreExperiences with the Holy Ghost
I recall several times when the Holy Ghost has spoken to my mind in a quotable sentence. The first time was in answer to my desperate, first-ever prayer. It said, “Everything is going to be all right.” That proved to be an understatement.
Read MoreThe Setup
Unlike with the other articles in this collection, I am not the author of the following. This is a wonderful Holy Ghost story as experienced by Duane G. Chadwick.
In 1948 before the Book of Mormon was translated into the Cook Island Maori language, my companion and I were invited to come to a Maori school teacher’s home and speak in a cottage meeting. I don’t remember asking for the appointment and he hadn’t shown prior interest in the church but we were happy to accept the invitation.
Give the Holy Ghost a Chance
Marjorie and I are dutifully doing the “Come Follow Me” program. This year it is the Old Testament. We began at the beginning of the year, and read multiple chapters from the Bible each evening. We are currently in 2 Kings, which is far ahead of where we’re supposed to be. We not only do the suggested reading, but also many of the chapters that are skipped in the program. At the end of the year I want to be able to say that I’ve read the Old Testament again. That will be so, except for the dull chapters that explain the details of the Mosaic Law and the trappings of the temple.
Read MoreThe Holy Ghost in Our Neighborhood
I was excited last week when Thomas asked me to speak at his baptism on the topic of the Holy Ghost. The next evening we read an article in one of my books entitled “Coincidences,” and it occurred to me that perhaps the story might be useful in my talk.
I don’t actually believe in coincidences. I do, however, believe in the Holy Ghost, and that He engineers things to happen in our lives when we most need them, and especially when we ask for them.
Making Time
In his closing remarks in the October 2021 general conference President Russell M. Nelson asked us to do a most unusual thing. Four times he made this remarkable request: He asked us to “make time for the Lord—each and every day.”
Read MoreThe Priesthood
I found myself thanking the Lord for my Priesthood this morning. It is a privilege to hold. It is an honor. It is a responsibility. It is an incalculable blessing.
Read MoreThe Daily Recipient
Elder Anthony D. Perkins, in his October 2021 conference address used the term “daily recipient.” That caught my fancy. A daily recipient of what? —The Lord’s grace, His blessings, His comfort, His guidance, His joy.
Read MoreSheltered from the Storm
My two granddaughters each came home from their missions with a pit bull story.
The first girl and her companion were walking along a narrow road in North Carolina without sidewalks when a van began following them in a menacing manner. The van was driven by a cursing and swearing woman. Inside the van were four snarling and barking pit bulls hurling themselves at the windows trying to get at the girls. The woman rolled a window down and out jumped a pit bull. The dog landed on its chin. The girls heard a loud pop, and the dog didn’t move again.
What’s In A Name? #2
My name is James Elwin Kerns. I value my name because “James” and “Elwin” are the given names of my grandfathers. I consider it an honor to bear those names.
Where do names come from? My oldest brother, Tom McCornack Kerns, got our father’s name, and the maiden name of our mother. My other brother, Tim Lorance Kerns, got a name that our parents liked, plus our father’s middle name, Lorance. “Lorance” was given to our dad by his mother, whose name was Lora. Our youngest sister, Ellen Lora Kerns, got the name Lora, plus the name of our illustrious and honored great grandmother, Ellen Condon McCornack. The middle name of our eldest sister, Jean Bernice Kerns, was our mother’s middle name which in turn was the first name of our mother’s mother. Our grandmother’s name was pronounced “Bur’-nuss,” but our mother’s middle name, though spelled the same, was pronounced “Bur-neese’ .”
Angels and Sunrises
The calendar says that yesterday was the first day of spring, but I’ve always thought that the first day of spring was supposed to be today. I must take note this morning of the time and position of the sunrise.
Read MoreGroping in the Dark
Our former stake patriarch, Elmer Perry, once told of a terrifying experience he had while driving on a dark night on a highway with no center line or shoulder lines during a heavy rain storm. With limited vision, and no lines to guide him, he couldn’t tell whether he was on the road or not.
Read MoreSpiritual Traction
Ulisses Soares used a term in his October 2020 general conference address that arrested my attention. He spoke of “spiritual traction.” I want to explore that term.
“Traction” is defined as “adhesive or rolling friction, as of wheels on a track.”
Unseen Influences
I have turned my chair so that I can watch the sunrise unfold. I have observed that my sunrise is made dull, ordinary, or magnificent by the positioning of unseen clouds below the horizon which determine whether the rising sun can shine on the tops or the bottoms of the clouds visible from my position. The sun is currently well below the horizon and is able to shine on the bottoms of the high cirrus clouds, but is unable to penetrate the lower cumulonimbus clouds. Everything changes by the minute causing me to rush outside again and again to take a new series of pictures.
Read MoreQuiet Places
President Russell M. Nelson said that “Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.” (Ensign, May 2018, 95).
Read MoreTeach Me
It has occurred to me that I have learned few things at church. Nearly everything that I’ve learned has been taught to me by the Spirit. The value of church meetings is not in what I learn there, but in being put in touch with the Holy Ghost. That is the major purpose of church meetings: to put a person in a setting and in a frame of mind where the Spirit can reach him.
Read MoreMarji’s Baptism
Marji, in a few minutes your dad and other holders of the Priesthood will sit you down in a chair and give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost teaches, protects, warns, comforts, brings peace, testifies of truth, and gives answers to your prayers, problems, and predicaments.
James’ Fall
I need to record the experience of my fall last Thursday. It’s all I can think about. I experienced a miracle and a blessing. But for that fact, I’d be in the hospital.
Read MoreDo It Now
Marjorie attended BYU’s 2008 Education Week. One lecturer told how his father-in-law called home one day and asked if his teenagers were snowmobiling. A daughter answered the phone, and told him that they were. He told her that he had an uneasy feeling about it, and asked her to go tell them to put the snow mobiles away.
Read MoreLiving Life in Crescendo
I began life as a shy child. As a teenager I was nervous, and scared of crowds and the future. I wasn’t happy. I wanted to be, but everything looked dark. I wanted to be a good person. People thought I was good, and thought that I was happy, but I really didn’t like who I was. I had no idea how to change things.
Read MoreAfflictions or Blessings?
Randy Newman’s mother had a terrible affliction. Day after day her neck hurt so badly that she could barely function. Turning her head was a painful ordeal that she avoided. One morning she awoke and realized that she would be unable to go to her job at the bank. She phoned her supervisor, and said that she wouldn’t be in. That day the bank was robbed. The robbers herded everyone into the vault and shot them.
Read MoreWho’s Doing the Whispering?
The ultimate thrust of all God’s purposes is for His children to feel the Spirit. If we don’t home teach, attend Sunday School, sing the hymns, go to church, or hold Family Home Evening we don’t feel the Spirit that those activities would otherwise make us open to. The best way of all for me to feel the Spirit is to be in the temple. If I don’t go, I miss the opportunity to feel the Spirit. The second best way for me personally to feel and hear the Spirit is to ponder, pray and write. When I’m studying a subject to the extent of having to organize my thoughts into a coherent article or talk, the Spirit always teaches me. I learn as I write.
Read MoreInvisibility and Other Protections
We’re going to memorize a scripture tonight. It’s one of my very favorites. It comes from Doctrine and Covenants 84:88. Can you repeat that with me?…Section 84 is the section of the Doctrine and Covenants that contains the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. Repeat each line after me. It goes like this:
Read MoreIf Not Me, Who?
One Sunday as the bishop surveyed the congregation from the stand at the beginning of sacrament meeting, he became unsettled when he noticed that Sister Mensing was not in her usual place. The meeting was already under way, but the bishop was so bothered by the faithful widow’s absence that he arose and went to his office to call her. There was no answer.
Read MoreWhat’s the Value of the Holy Ghost?
While on company assignment a few days ago, Tory Baxter stopped at a service station in an out-of-the-way place to use the rest room. While there, the Holy Ghost told him that he was going to be asked to help someone, and that he was not to do so. As he went back to his vehicle he was approached by a clean-cut young man carrying a gas can. The young man explained that he had run out of gas down the road and needed a ride back to his car. Tory told him that he was driving a company car, that it was against the rules to have unauthorized passengers in the car, and that he, therefore, couldn’t help him.
Read MoreHelps From Heaven
Our Father in Heaven is fixated upon one primary, ultimate, supreme goal. All of His great love and wisdom is concentrated upon doing all in His power, short of force, to return us, His children, to Him. He says, “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39). In our quest to find Him, and learn to implicitly follow and obey Him, He has given us helps, which if properly utilized, cannot help but safely lead us home to His presence.
Read MoreListening for the Spirit
John Burroughs, the naturalist, was once walking through a busy city park when he heard the beautiful song of a bird. He stopped to listen. As he did so he noticed that none of his companions nor anyone around him had heard it. He took a coin from his pocket and tossed it in the air. When it hit the pavement with a metallic ring, every head turned. That was a sound to which their ears were attuned.
Read MoreNot Coincidental
Yesterday (5 May 2019) Marjorie and I left early to go to stake conference in La Grande. We had been asked to arrive an hour early so that the visiting area authority
Read MoreGet The Spirit
On a Saturday evening in March, Brother Quebbeman, the stake executive secretary, called to inform me that President Chadwick wanted to come see me Sunday at 3:00.
Read MoreWrought Upon
Some people get “wrought up” about things. As I started another reading of the Book of Mormon several days ago, I noticed a related phrase I’d never tuned into before,
Read MoreWhy Did We Go?
Journal entry, Sunday, 28 October 2018
Friday morning we suddenly decided to go to Rexburg to see Eli, Isaac, Ila, and Briton.
A Sledgehammer and a Gong
Two or three weeks ago David Huntsman asked me to take his son, Raul, to dialysis on this date. (Saturday, 14 July 2018).
Read MoreEnvironment
As I prayed this morning, waiting for the sunrise, I thanked my Father in heaven for the beauties with which I’m surrounded.
Read MoreBlessed by the Spirit
In the last 50 years as I’ve given blessings to the sick and set people apart in their callings, I have given hundreds, and probably a thousand or more priesthood blessings.
Read More