This Used To Count As Home Teaching

Eight or nine months ago I was sitting in a fast & testimony meeting. An older woman was up there at the podium. She said something that surprised me. She said it almost as an after thought, and then moved on to the next sentence in less time than it takes an arthritic to pop a knuckle. What she said so matter-of-factly was that she’d seen angels at the Draper Temple Dedication. That’s a powerful comment. I looked around for reactions and although I saw eyes affixed - I heard no gasp. If ever there was a time to gasp that would have been it! The whole congregation took it in stride, though. That could be because angels play such a large part in our history. Joseph Smith used to accurately tell people exactly when they’d see an angel . The two testimonies closing out this piece included full blown angel sightings too. I actually know a handful of people that have angel stories. You probably do, too. Someone you know may share such a story if they think the...

If you think about it, all prophets have a lot in common –  especially the dispensation heads . They’ve all seen Jehovah, they’ve all talked with Jehovah and, if I’m getting this right, most of them look exactly like Charlton Heston. Usually  Brigham Young  gets compared to Moses for leading a persecuted people through the wilderness. Ol’ Joseph Smith, though, has loads more unlikely similarities to Aaron’s brother – including both of Moses’ awesome water miracles! I’m not kidding! Most of these are not widely known! Here they are: 1) They both found water in a desolate, dry place Moses- “1  Then came the children of Israel,  even  the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. “2  And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. “3  And the people chod...

I went whale watching once. The waves were huge and choppy and the smell of diesel wafted through the air. I got sea sick. I turned green and lunged for the side to toss all my cookies into the uneven sea. This, of course, caused the fish to all disgorge up into the boat which caused me to toss back into the sea. It really caused a very messy back and forth. In silhouette it would have looked exactly like one of those expensive Japanese jumping fountains. If I had better reason than seeing blow holes in the distance, and if I thought of it at all, perhaps I would have tried to calm the sea that day. If I had and it worked, I likely would not currently begrudge as many fish. Weather calming is straight up scriptural. Off the top of my head, I can think of it happening twice in the Bible. In  Mark 4:37-40  Jesus calmed the sea. Jonah allowed himself to be thrown out of his water-taxi to spare his panicking sea-chauffers. ( Jonah 1:4, 15 ) Such stories ha...