This page from our family photo album is dated 1937 —

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Elders Sam C. Rudd and Vern G. Taylor
Tracting in Brazil

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From the Relief Society Magazine, December 1954 –

“As Little Children”

By Virginia M. Kammeyer

Sally was mixing fruitcake when Bill passed through the kitchen on his way to the basement. When he came up twenty minutes later for a drink, of water, she was watching a television program and dreamily cutting dates onto the kitchen table.

“Watch it!” Bill said. Sally jumped and looked in surprise at the pile of fruit on the table.

Bill had bought the TV for their sixth wedding anniversary, and Sally had wanted it placed so she could see it from the kitchen while she worked. The results, so far, had been disastrous. Sally had sliced her finger while she watched “Aunt Maggie’s Cooking Bee”; she had poured Worcestershire sauce into a caramel pudding while observing the “Name the Game” program, and the purple stain in the linoleum was grape juice she abstractedly poured on the floor while viewing “Break and Take.”

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Heavenly Voices

By Helen Kimball Orgill

There are little voices calling,
Calling from the heavenly shore,
With a constant heartfelt yearning,
Calling ever to implore.

‘Tis the voices of the spirits
Who on earth have never been;
They are wafting us a message –
We who are so prone to sin.

O, fair womanhood of Zion,
Do your souls the pleadings hear,
While the transient time is fleeing
And eternity draws near?

In the dawning of that future,
When life’s time no more endures,
Will you feel remorse in viewing
Little ones who should be yours?

O, then, heed the call seraphic,
Now, before it is too late,
That your glory may be perfect
When you pass the heavenly gate.

(1920)

From the Children’s Friend, 1929 –

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The following talk was given by Apostle Spencer W. Kimball on April 6, 1954. It is long for a blog post, and I’m certainly not adding any value to it with my own comments, but think it is worth bringing to your attention. I post it as much for the force of its delivery as for its content – note that because it was given in 1954, three years before throat cancer robbed then-Elder Kimball of most of his vocal cords, it was delivered not in the raspy whisper so many of us remember affectionately, but in the full voice of a powerful speaker.

This has been a glorious conference. It pleases me greatly to notice that at each succeeding conference there is a larger sprinkling of Japanese and Chinese brothers and sisters; of Hawaiians and other islanders; of Indians, Mexicans, Spanish-Americans and others. It makes me very happy indeed, and I wish to address my remarks this morning in behalf of those minorities.

Recently there came to my desk a letter, anonymously written. Generally the wastebasket receives all such messages, written by people who have not the courage to sign their statements. But this time I saved it. It reads in part as follows:

I never dreamed I would live to see the day when the Church would invite an Indian buck to talk in the Salt Lake Tabernacle – an Indian buck appointed a bishop – an Indian squaw to talk in the Ogden Tabernacle – Indians to go through the Salt Lake Temple –

The sacred places desecrated by the invasion of everything that is forced on the white race …

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From the Children’s Friend, December 1950 –

A Star in the Tree Top

By Sara O. Moss

There had never been such a beautiful Christmas tree in the little mining town before. Kim was sure of that. With its sparkling ornaments, its radiant lights, and the star in the tree-top, Kim could hardly wait to tell someone. It had all come about so suddenly. He was playing in the narrow street by his home, when Miss Kennedy, who lived next door and up a little on the side hill, called excitedly, “Want a Christmas tree, Kim?” He had hurried up to her house.

“You might just as well have my tree,” she said as he came in, and went on putting things in a traveling bag. “Father and I just decided to go to California for the holidays,” she continued. “You can shove it right through those big French doors and out onto the veranda, where you can leave it till you get some help to move it.”

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Hermanas

By Fay Tarlock

Previous chapter

Chapter 8

Jim’s face softened. “If I had my way,” he said in a half whisper to Graciela, “I’d take you to Salt Lake to see the golden angel on the temple, but that will have to wait a while. Anyway,” he gave her a little hug, “we have first to see that you are prepared for baptism.”

“The baptism, we are ready for that,” Graciela told him eagerly, her face alight.

“No,” Jim still held her, “it is too important a step to be done emotionally. It is forever, and I want you to be sure you know what you are doing.”

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7 December 1941

By Leone Rasmussen Brimm

I take this small world globe
And tilt it thus within my hand.
I see the blue of each ocean,
The brilliant colors of each land.

O, little world, so helpless here,
Do you know the blast of death
Has burned these lovely surfaces,
Devoured your heart with acid breath?

Do you hold within yourself
Your vision of the world to be,
Your heavens shining with just stars,
And life and music on each sea!

(1943)

George Q. Cannon is the author of the answers to these questions, asked in 1896:

One of our correspondents, in a letter recently received, asks some questions concerning the article which appeared in the Juvenile Instructor of January 15th last, in which a distinction was made between rebuking disease in the name of Jesus and in the authority of the Priesthood. Our correspondent states that he does not understand the difference between rebuking in Jesus’ name and in the authority of the Priesthood. He understands that women, and even children, may pray to the Father in the name of Jesus in behalf of their sick and afflicted, and their prayers be answered; but he understands that to rebuke or to command in the name of Jesus requires the exercise of authority from Him, or, in other words, the authority of the Priesthood.

The point in his mind seems to be whether the word “rebuke” can be properly used by a member of the Church who has not the Priesthood.

Now, while there may be, and doubtless is, some force in the point which our correspondent makes respecting the use of the word “rebuke,” we nevertheless think that a member of the Church, if led by the Spirit so to do, might use the name of Jesus and rebuke a disease or the power of the destroyer. Certainly it could do no harm to administer and use this word if so led; though to satisfy those who might have scruples upon this point, it would be better for members of the Church who do not have the Priesthood to ask the Father in the name of Jesus to rebuke the sickness.

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From the Improvement Era, January 1936 –

O Little Town

By Florence Hartman Townsend
Illustrated by Mary Roberts Warnock

“May I sit here?”

Dr. Wilson looked up quickly from the magazine she was reading. The girl was young, lovely, and beautifully dressed, but there was a look of fear in her wide eyes, and her lips were quivering ever so slightly.

“Certainly, my dear.” She made room in her compartment and the girl dropped thankfully into the seat beside her, while the porter piled her bags at her feet and in the rack at her head.

Dr. Wilson smiled at her reassuringly and the girl returned it with a feeble smile of her own.

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Gypsy Soul

By Grace B. Wilson

I cannot keep a tidy house,
Nor bake good apple pie,
Nor have a snow-white washing,
And I will tell you why:

The dewy smell of morning
Calls me to come along,
The bright flowers nod approval,
The lark sings his best song.

When shut within my own four walls
I only find defeat,
But dawns were made for folks like me,
And winds are honey-sweet.

(1951)

Scott K has shared with us a short biography of one of his ancestors, Charles Price. It’s the kind of thing many of us would like to write about our own ancestors. (Many of us have – Kevin Folkman and Clark Ricks and Coffinberry and Anne (U.K.) and Bradford Ogden and Grant Vaughn and Polly Aird and Maurine have shared some of their family history here; Amy Tanner Thiriot is doing something very similar with the women of St. George who helped with the Eminent Women project, as well as on her own blog, The Ancestor Files; … and I probably shouldn’t have gotten started with names, because I’m sure to have left someone out. I apologize to whoever I’ve inadvertently skipped over.) I’m going to pick apart Scott K’s biography – with his permission – to analyze why it works so well, and how even more of us can do the same kind of great work.

Scott started with the basic genealogical information that most of us can collect about recent generations in our family – birth and death information, names of spouses and parents and children, with a limited amount of data on the ancestor’s migration from place to place. Most of that is available on pedigree charts and family group sheets. He added to that some information about Charles Price’s career. But he did not start with a detailed journal kept by Charles Price, nor with letters written to or from that ancestor, nor with any other private family sources. We all dream of having the personal papers of an ancestor to work with, but most of us aren’t lucky enough to have access to anything like that. The material that Scott added to his basic genealogical facts all came from public sources of the kind that are available to just about all of us.

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Scott (who comments under the moniker SLK) shares this post. Later today I’ll post my own ideas about why this article is such a good model for other family historians; in the meantime, enjoy meeting Charles Price, another lesser-known Latter-day Saint. — AEP

Until lately I didn’t know much about Charles Price, my grandmother’s great-grandfather, but he is turning out to be one of the more easily documented of the “grandcestors,” for reasons that will likely become clear below. First, though, a biographical introduction; then, on to my recent discoveries about him.

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From the Relief Society Magazine, December 1936 –

An Old Fashioned Christmas

By Zipporah L. Stewart

It was June. Ebenezer Brown arose very early after a sleepless night in the old rock farm house in Eden Valley. With a heavy step he went out through the kitchen and onto the back porch. The house dog sprang out from the corner for his usual morning greeting, only to turn back disappointedly without a word from the man who did not even see him.

Out through the yard gate past the barn and over the old creek bridge and through the cow pasture he strolled, to a clump of wood at the right of a field of corn that he, with Jim, had planted just yesterday.

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Hermanas

By Fay Tarlock

Previous chapter

Chapter 7

Synopsis: The story “Hermanas” (sisters) is narrated by an American woman living temporarily in Mexico. She has befriended Lolita, a widow, and her lovely daughter Graciela. At Church Graciela meets Jim Flores, studying to be a doctor, and the two become deeply in love. Graciela, after attending secretarial school, obtains a position with a banker, and meets a wealthy Mexican, Senor Munoz, who becomes interested in her. Lolita consents to the arrangements for a marriage between her daughter and Senor Munoz. The American Senora visits Lolita and asks for an explanation, but she fears that she has pleaded for Graciela in vain. Jim tries to see Graciela, but his efforts are useless, and he plans to leave Mexico. The American Senora asks Lolita and her daughter to come to her home on a matter of great importance.

Graciela’s dark liquid eyes begged me to believe she had no other plans, but I kept my attention on the mother.

“You did not know, perhaps, that he came to me this afternoon to say goodbye. He is leaving Mexico.”

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(The title is a hypothesis, not an announcement.)

Opening in February and running through September 2012, the exhibit “Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture” will be on display at BYU’s Museum of Art. According to the Tribune report, the exhibit will “feature more than 250 Islamic items from museums and collections in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The objects range from functional items, such as bowls, to the sacred, including handmade pages from the Quran.” The intent of the traveling exhibit, which will go on to Indianapolis, Newark, and Portland after its stay in Provo, is to touch hearts with understanding; says its director, “Any kind of education and knowledge of each other is good to build bridges.”

Which got me to wondering …

If we were to put together an exhibit of Mormon objects for an exhibit in Kuwait and Qatar and Tunisia – the origins of some of the objects in the Islamic exhibit – what objects would best introduce us to Muslims? What would touch their hearts, to “bring pleasure without preaching,” and best represent the Restored Gospel? And why?

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From the Relief Society Magazine, January 1944 –

The Least of the Flock

By Vesta P. Crawford

Benjy shielded his eyes with his hand. The bright glow of the setting suns truck his thin brown face. He could see Obed, the shepherd, standing at the gate of the fold. It was time for the sheep to come in from the hills.

Benjy had been watching the lambs. Now he scrambled down among the rocks and began calling them by name. “Rabath! Nam! Mescal! Tobe!”

White heads bobbed up from among the dark stones. Woolly white bodies moved among the bushes. Benjy turned and carefully picked his way up the hill. The lambs followed. Their bleating sounded clear as a flute. On the hill, the walls of the sheepfold stood out against the pale sky.

Obed stood by the wall, a puzzled look on his wrinkled old face. “Benjy, lad, one of the lambs must be lost. Have you idled through the day? Did you fall asleep on the hillside?”

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For background, see here
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From the Relief Society Magazine, November 1961 –

A Christmas to Remember

By Betty Lou Martin

Fluffy, white snowflakes danced merrily down from heaven, making the ground a mass of white. Julie Carroll smiled as she remembered her youngest son Scottie’s description of the snow. “The ground is like one great big birthday cake, Mommy,” he said, “with lots of fluffy, white frosting, and the lights in the houses are its candles.”

How two boys can be so different, Julie surmised. Roger, nine, and the elder of the two Carroll children, was a realist. To him, black was black and white was white, with no deliberations. Scottie, on the other hand, was an incurable dreamer. He was also blessed with a sincere compassion and love for other people that reached beyond his six years. Often Julie was amazed at the wisdom and understanding that he showed for others.

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The Only Way Out

Peter (sent for the milk) – “Oh, mercy, I’ve drunk too much of it; what shall we do?”

Small Brother – “Easy. We’ll drop the jug.”

Conforming to Proprieties

A little girl aged three had been left in the nursery by herself, and her brother arrived to find the door closed.

“I wants to tum in, Cissie,” said Tom.

“But you tan’t tum in, Tom.”

“But I wants to.”

“Well, I’s in my nightie-gown, an’ nurse says little boys mustn’t see little girls in their nightie-gowns.”

After an astonished and reflective silence on Tom’s side of the door the miniature Eve announced triumphantly: “You tan tom in now, Tom; I tooked it off!”

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From the Relief Society Magazine, December 1955 –

Bells of Christmas

By Pearl Montgomery

Pete Duncan hung around my desk after the other children had gone. He was still shy though school had been in session for two months. It was plain he wanted to say something.

“Yes, Pete?” I said, hoping to help him.

“Teacher,” he asked quickly and breathlessly, “do you think Lily Belle is a pretty name?”

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Hermanas

By Fay Tarlock

Previous chapter

Chapter 6

Synopsis: The story “Hermanas” (sisters) is narrated by an American woman living temporarily in Mexico. She has befriended Lolita, a widow, and her lovely daughter Graciela. At Church, Graciela is introduced to Jim Flores, studying to be a doctor, and the two become deeply in love. Graciela, after attending secretarial school, is given a position with Mr. Carson, a banker. About this time a wealthy Mexican, Senor Munoz, begins discretely to court Graciela, and Jim is very much worried. The American Senora learns that Lolita has consented to the marriage of Graciela and Senor Munoz. She visits Lolita and asks for an explanation.

In the darkness Lolita’s eyes had an intense gleam, and I was silent before her. I remembered my early days with Amporo when I urged her to eat bread instead of the stack of tortillas that looked like nothing to me but a grayish mass. Bread, I had told her, with foreign superiority, would be best for her. She had answered me by rubbing her stomach and saying, “Bread is good, Senora, but it does not satisfy the hunger.”

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From the Relief Society Magazine, December 1966 –

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cf. Yoon Hwan Choi, October 2009

The Wisdom Club

Millennial Star, 3 July 1930

In attempting to establish a branch in Pembrokeshire, we extensively advertised our Sunday evening services. A group of boys began attending regularly to annoy those in charge and to distract the attention of those who were interested. As the attendance improved, the disturbances became more pronounced.

Using a knowledge of gymnasium work which I had gained at home, these boys were invited to attend a boys’ club meeting to be held each week. The assistance of a friend as instructor, who had been trained in the Royal Engineers, added colour to the club.

The boys’ club in a short time became a men’s and boys’ club, with an attendance of between forty and fifty at each meeting. The majority of these young men are over fifteen years of age.

These young men are all friends now, and will listen attentively each meeting to a talk about the Word of Wisdom, as it is explained to them the close relationship between the Word of Wisdom and the development of physical and mental efficiency. The experiments and conclusions of a famous English physician are used as a basis of these talks.

The antagonistic spirit first shown towards Mormonism has been removed, and this work has helped greatly in overcoming prejudice of the inhabitants of Pembroke.

Elder Albert W. Horman

So I haven’t thought of anything new and creative to mark the coming of Christmas this year … I do have lots of stories, though, from magazines past, and will post one each afternoon in December.

From the Relief Society Magazine, December 1957 –

Something Lacking

By Frances Carter Yost

“How does that look?” Margaret Conway asked, as she fastened the sparkling star to the top of the Christmas tree.

“It doesn’t look right,” Joey, her seventeen-year-old son, said. “Something’s lacking.”

“It’s wonderful!” Jamie, her seven-year-old son, replied. Jamie’s little face was alight with Christmas expectation more this Christmas Eve than ever before.

“I said it doesn’t look right. Something’s lacking!” Joey repeated. His voice was packed with usurped authority.

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Wakeful Winter Nights

By Eva Willes Wangsgaard

On winds of wintry dark I hear it yet,
A woman’s smothered weeping in the night,
The muffled sobs of one who can’t forget,
Who shudders more from loneliness than fright.
For when the wilderness was under snow
That even hid the friendly wagon track,
How heavily a heart would beat, to know
The weight of thoughts forever turning back!
And cottonwoods gave poor companionship
To one who felt her child was insecure,
While ice was all their stiffened limbs could grip
And “Patience” was their only signature.
On wakeful winter nights, one truth is clear:
What courage had the woman pioneer!

(1940)

Questions answered by Parley P. Pratt in the Millennial Star –

Question: If a brother in the Church be in debt to another brother, and does not appear to aim at paying him, what is to be done? The creditor does not wish to go to law at any rate, before the unjust; but is he to have no way of obtaining his due? Or, should he lay his case before some of the officers of the Church, for them to decide whether the debtor be a transgressor or no, and deal with him accordingly?

Answer: If he does not aim at paying, he is a transgressor; for the law requires him to pay his brethren their due, as well as all other men; and if, after following the instructions of Matthew xviii., 15 and 16, he will not offer satisfaction, tell it to the Church (Officers or council,) and if the Church decide that he is a transgressor, they will, of course, cut him off, and then the brother can have restitution through the laws of the land.

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