Fire

Fire is an interesting study. Oxidation, combustion, and explosions are all the same process. All three are simply oxygen uniting with another substance, but at different rates. The result is that new substances are produced by the union of oxygen with the original substance.

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The Clock’s in High Gear

I’ve observed that time is passing faster and faster. My 89-year-old non-member cousin put his finger on the cause. He observed that the clock is in high gear, and boy, is it ever. You’ve noticed it, too.
The Lord Himself said that “I will hasten my work in its time.” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:73).

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Making Time For The Lord

The Lord has said, “I will hasten my work in its time.” (D&C 88:73).
My own 89-year-old non-member cousin has observed that “the clock is in high gear.” And, boy, is it ever. It’s interesting that even he can see it.

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Parable of the Gathering

My brother’s ranching outfit faced a gigantic problem. They obtained the grazing allotment on the national forest that another rancher had held for many years, and which he was releasing because of his retirement. This was an exciting opportunity. The allotment covered a vast area, and it was beautiful up there in the mountains.

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Pearls Before Swine

I am nine days away from finishing my current reading of the Book of Mormon. I read 10 pages per day. I’ve done that all year, and therefore finish the book every two months. I’ve read the book six times this year. This will complete my 83rd reading, and my 47th reading in this decade (2011-2020).

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Family Letter, October 2020

At 2:20 I sat bolt upright in bed when a bull elk bugled right above the house. I wasn’t able to see him in the dark, but he bugled eight times before resting for a while. Periodically he’d tune up again. After 4:00 I put my sweat suit on, wrapped my blanket around me, and went out into the back yard and stood under the aspen tree. By the light of the three-quarter moon I imagined that I could see two cow elk eating potatoes about 50 yards away, and two more above them. The bull was over by where the old barn stood. He bugled about once every minute for the 15 minutes that I stood there. In the morning light, the cow elk turned out to be the wheels to Adam’s pivot.

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Ladders

President Russell M. Nelson says that “most people do not embrace … truth–either because they do not know where to look for (it) or because they are listening to those who do not have the whole truth or because they have rejected truth in favor of worldly pursuits.” (Ensign, May 2020, 89).

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Watchers of a Beacon

The fourth verse of one of our popular hymns says that “We are watchers of a beacon whose light must never die.” (“For the Strength of the Hills,” Hymns, pg. 95).

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Am I Essential to the Plan?

President Nelson has asked us as individuals to do several things this year. He has asked us to each read the Book of Mormon, and to ask ourselves questions as we do so; questions such as, what would my life be like without the Book of Mormon, or could Joseph Smith have written this book? We’re to come up with our own questions.

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Broadsided and Severely Injured

Let me tell you of one young woman who has demonstrated remarkable strength in the face of great tragedy. On April 17, 1999, a big van broadsided a car and severely injured 16-year-old Emily Jensen.

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Branch Converts 450 In One Year

Some years ago a faithful convert, Brother George McLaughlin, was called to preside over a small branch of 20 members in Farmingdale, Maine. He was a humble man, driving a milk delivery truck for a living.

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Introductions

The Spirit giveth light in this church. I am thinking of a wonderful new convert in England. In response to my asking, he told me about his conversion. He explained how he was kneeling at his flower bed on a Saturday morning preparing the soil for spring planting. All of a sudden an unseen voice from behind asked the simple question, “Sir, do you love the Lord?”

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Convert Converts 60 More

One hears much these days about the slow death of the churches, and yet the Lord declared that this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached…for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14.) Can it possibly be accomplished? I recently had an insight into that possibility.

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A Sample of LeGrand Richards

While I was on my first mission in Holland, I was invited to speak to a Bible class of businessmen in The Hague. They met every week, holding a Bible class.

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Top-Baptizing City

No one in our Utah town knew where the Countess had come from; her carefully precise English indicated that she was not a native American.

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Rescue at Sea

You never know whom you will save.

To illustrate my point, I would like to go back in thought to my native Holland where

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Unto What Were Ye Ordained?

Just before arising this morning I had a strange dream. I got up thinking about it, and promptly forgot it. Two hours later I was sitting on the couch, having prayed and studied, and wondered what I could write about. I’d just read something about the Priesthood, but no topic came to mind. I closed my eyes to doze, and suddenly there was my dream again.

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Principles of Horticulture

I studied horticulture when I went to college, so I become interested when I read verses like this in the scriptures: “Wherefore lay to with your might and call faithful laborers into my vineyard, that it may be pruned for the last time.” (D&C 39:17). Over 60,000 missionaries are out pruning right now, and Church authorities think that number is on its way to 80,000.

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Preach My Gospel

The stake presidency asked a couple of weeks ago if I would speak to you in this setting on ways to implement Preach My Gospel in our homes. I said, “Sure.” I even knew what Preach My Gospel is. It’s this new book, published by the Church just last year.

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Pit Bulls and Protections

Abby Farber and her missionary companion were serving in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was a dangerous area in many respects

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Comparisons

Thoughts at Aaron’s missionary farewell. 23 May 1999. When I was 19, I knew nothing about the gospel.

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Best-Kept Secrets

How long is it possible to keep a secret? I know of several that were kept for thousands of years.

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Weak and Simple Things

I’m the intermediary for mail between 16 missionaries from Vanuatu and their families. Here is a beautiful email that just came from Dack Tivles that I’m to give to his parents. Dack is serving a mission in Paris, France.

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Walking in Darkness

Last night my dear wife had a problem. She couldn’t sleep. So at 3:00 a.m. she went out into the living room, turned on the light, and read until 4:45.

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Come and See

The day after John baptized Jesus, he was standing with two of his disciples as Jesus walked by. He said to them, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

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Blessings Follow the Sacrifice

In 2009 two brothers named Tivles lived side-by-side in a remote village in the South Seas’ island nation of Vanuatu. A pair of missionaries made an exploratory hike out of their normal area and found the two Tivles families.

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Cornelius

The story of Cornelius, as told in Acts chapters 10 and 11, is an interesting study. One wonders why and how he developed such faith. His story marks a pivotal point in the history of the Church.

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Jacob Chapter 5

Each time I reread the parable of the tame and wild olive trees in Jacob chapter 5, I receive more insights, and become more and more impressed with it. It’s a masterpiece. It was written by the prophet Zenos, somewhere in the Holy Land, sometime before 600 B.C. It spells out in some detail what would be the future of the Americas, of all places.

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Proclaiming the Gospel

In the middle of the night several nights ago, my mind must have been dwelling upon this writing project and the question of how best to spend one’s time. My mind surfaced just long enough for the Spirit to speak one word and to embed it in my thinking. That word was “Proclaim.”

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