Follow the Brethren: Blog

Thought you’d all like to know that we are yet following the latest counsel of the Brethren.

 

This week, Elder Ballard encouraged church members (specifically graduates at BYU-H) to participate in new communication mediums such as blogging:

 

“We cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches.”

 

He also said:

 

“Now, to you who are graduating today, along with the other students at this wonderful university, may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.  Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true.  You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including Newsroom at LDS.org, and send them to your friends.  You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church, and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports. This, of course, requires that you understand the basic principles of the gospel.”

 

You can read Elder Ballard’s talk here.  

 

Thanks for setting up and participating in the family blog! Let’s take it one step further and personally make sure we share the gospel through our conversations on the Internet!

 

P.S. Do you think my parents would ever use an iPod like Elder Ballard?

I am so excited I am about to burst

Here's an early Christmas present for all of you:

I have recently completed a family history website that has some information about our family!

I am planning on adding a lot of stories and information to the website as I collect more, but is some good stuff on there already.

Go to walkerboot.com and start exploring! You can also help me out by emailing me anything you want me to put on the website.

Thank you!

:D

(One more thing: The website isn't perfect--I already have found some links that don't work correctly. If you find mistakes of any sort (grammatical, historical, something doesn't show up right, you're confused, etc.), PLEASE , PLEASE tell me about them so I can correct them. Add a comment to this blog or email me.)

McLaughlin Group on Mormons

Ugh. I can’t believe how much mis-information about the church is out there. I’m surprised how many people get their information from anti-Mormon propaganda.

 

Still, it is fascinating to see. Watch the video at the end of this post, or here.  

 

On a political front, I find it interesting that the hard-line left wing call so many people bigots, racist, and discriminatory, while they then turn around and discriminate against certain religions, as illustrated by liberal in the video. And the right wing isn’t much better in their hypocrisy when it comes to their parties’ foundational beliefs. It seems that people are less concerned about who will lead better, and are more concerned by party affiliations and the whole “my team wins” mentality.          

 

 

Grandma Post

This is an email from Grandma--thought it was of interest.

This computer is supposed to make life simpler, and more organized, but itis doing just the opposite. Jim took our old tower in and had a new power supply put in. He can play solitaire on it and use some a word processing program and his drawing program to draw airplane plans. The older computer I use to keep our budget on. And I have some old family history on. This new one Wally has put photo shop on and lots of other programs we don't know how to use. We have 3 untitled DVD we can't remove from the computer. We tried to burn a picture, Wally tried and Simply Mac tried on two different computers. With two different people trying. All that happened was the bugler alarm kept going off and they didn't know why. Then the salesman said that we should sign up for a course on answering our questions. They can't answer any when we go in. I think it is very funny. Raymond gets called once a week or more asking about the same questions. He is so patient. If it were me I would just hang up. Heather has helped and we hired a girl to help, but she is too busy now. Melody comes over to help also.

Jim just used the old one unless Wally is here to help. I try emails, but I can't find them to see when was the last time I wrote and to who. I did buy a card program. For Birthday cards, etc. It has a lot of awful language and pictures. I hope I can learn how to change the words and find some decent pictures. So far nothing has been quite right. I hope you see the humor in all this. Are we just too old to learn?

We enjoyed seeing Michael and Julie perform in the primary program. Theyboth did sooo good. We had them come to eat so we could see their costumes. They are costume masters. Jacob was a package of a certain kind of gum. I think Mike was the devil. His face was black and red and his hair wasblack and spiked, Rosie was a back creature in leotards with a silver andblack mask that she expertly painted on. When I was at the Y. I hid and wouldn't go to a party because I was supposed to wear leotards. I felt undressed. How times have changed. Julie was a cute giraffe.

We're still walking and flying, the wind hasn't helped us much lately.We did enjoy visiting with Brenda while Jane was keeping stats at the high school tournament. The took 3rd place.

I am trying to get rid of all the things we won't use again. I have a box of build it projects that is up for grabs. Maybe Rudy will want them. I have a lot of paperback priesthood manuals that Chris might want. Let me know if you want anything. I have old marriage manuals. I am having fun going through them all.

Grandmas and grandpa Walker

Margaretta Clark Short Story

I entered this story in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers short story and poetry contest and received runner-up in the short story division.

It's a fictionalized version of what happened to Margaretta Clark.

Click here to go to the story.

Fall Flowers not Winter Wonderland

I just noticed that today's temperature high in Utah is supposed to be 48 degrees. Brrr. It is a cool 85 degrees here in Phoenix.

The weather change in Phoenix is much different that what i'm used to. We don't have the same type of seasons as I am used to in Utah. When thinking of Octobers in Utah I remember the smell of autumn leaves, the smell of rain hitting the ground, the salty smell of the gym, the leather of the basketball and the warm smell of the heater vent in the kitchen, and of course, sitting on the floor in Grandma's living room reading a book as the warm Sun comes in and fills your soul.

Instead, I get the smell of orange blossoms, the smell of fall flowers, the smell grass, the smell of the freeway from the current inversion and, of course, allergies. Yeah.

Has it snowed? What is the weather like where you are? And who wants to come to Arizona for Christmas?

how do you invite more people? some people think that the email might have been spam, but even those who didn't weren't sure if this thing is safe. I however find it extremely safe seeing as i can just hide my profile so that nobody even knows who i am. Even my family couldn't recognize my tone. well, i didn't say much...but anyway.....yeah, how do i send out the invite?

Life In the Walker House

For all of you who care, here is a description of how life is going in the house I live at.

In the morning, we read scriptures, then Clarissa and William laze around for a while, and then hurriedly get ready for high school and manage to get out the door somewhat on time, usually half-dressed. I leave for the long bus ride to school.

Daniel leaves for school, Mom leaves for her walk. Mom has substituted taught a few times, and comes home with the stories about the girl who starts screaming in the middle of class and the school psychologist has to come in. The school psychologist happens to be my friend's mom, which is sort of random. But she does enjoy it. Dad goes to work, does scout and other church stuff, and frankly, I'm not sure what else. I see him around.

Clarissa and William never come home from school, involved in their various pursuits of either basketball and drama, but not both. Imagine Clarissa playing basketball, and William doing costumes and stage managing for an upcoming musical. Doesn't work out so well.

I suppose Daniel is enjoying school. He doesn't complain and comes home with funny books that everyone else takes and reads and finishes before he gets a chance to. . .

On Monday we get an email from Emily and on Wednesday we hear from Ben. They are both doing good.

And then there is Liz up in Logan. She calls on rare occasion. Her life is being taken up with weeds and a guy.

And that's life in our house. I enjoy it.

October Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday!

Grandpa, Melody, Sharon, Jill, Susan, Steve Liddle, Julie Pontius

And that's all I know this month, but October is a busy month for birthdays.

Here's a cake:

Hey Everyone! I've made it! I finally found out how to do this! everything is happy! :P don't forget the little people when you become famous!

Hello!

Hi! This is Heather and thank you for inviting me to this blog! I do very much like blogging quite a bit and I think this is a very wonderful idea.

I will try to think of something very wonderful to write about, but for now, I think I am going to do some homework.

Hey Walker Family!

Welcome to our own Walker Blog, and the 21st Century. I think this could be a great way to keep everyone updated on our busy lives and how our cute kids are doing. So, at least humor me and let's see what we can do with this. Thanks to Heather and my sis Natalie for their blogging inspiration, plus Melody's idea to have a continual family email update. I have sent an invitation to all the people I have addresses for, so I am sure that a lot of the family doesn't know about this wonderful blog. Please spread the word and send me email addresses for any children, grandchildren, married, single, missionaries, black sheep, thumb-suckers, whatever. We want everyone to be involved.
steph