After half a century of entertaining audiences around the world, the Osmond family are well known for their musical talent and showmanship. Less well known, however, is the story of how they got their start.
It all began in the 1950s, when four of George and Olive Osmond’s sons started singing to raise money to buy hearing aids for their two deaf older brothers. They were good, and people noticed. They performed at Disneyland and then on The Andy Williams Show in the early 1960s, and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the next 50 years, the singing Osmond family just kept singing, delighting audiences of all ages around the world and recording 51 gold records along the way—truly remarkable in a business where many stars shine brilliantly for a time, then dim and fade away.
The Osmonds have achieved something more important than stardom. They have kept their family strong. As they continue to entertain us, their love and support for each other show us true family solidarity. The eight sons and one daughter of George and Olive Osmond, along with their scores of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are an enduring testament to the power of unity, the strength of faith, and the security of love in a family.
Like each of us, the Osmonds have known heartache and disappointment as well as success and happiness. But rising above it all is a star that hasn’t dimmed—their love for each other still shines warm and bright.
By ANNIE HUANG, Associated Press WriterMon Jul 28, 4:05 AM ET
A powerful typhoon lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains Monday, disrupting air traffic and triggering landslides and floods that killed at least one man in the southeastern part of the island.
Typhoon Fung Wong hit Taiwan just before dawn, packing winds of 105 miles per hour. It left the island, heading for the Chinese mainland, about nine hours later.
Television images showed rescue personnel wading through waist-deep waters to extricate people from their homes in Hualien in eastern Taiwan, where the typhoon made landfall.
A man drowned when he slipped into a flooded rice paddy in Taitung County in southeast Taiwan, the disaster relief center said.
Authorities evacuated more than 1,000 isolated villagers and barred traffic at low lying, vulnerable bridges, the center said. They provided 300 pumping machines to move water out of flooded areas, it added.
An unidentified village chief in Nantou County in central Taiwan told Sanlih Television that rampaging flood waters had reached a mountain village, prompting some 1,000 people to prepare to evacuate.
In normally bustling Taipei, streets were deserted after authorities ordered businesses, banks and the local stock exchange to close.
The city's domestic airport was shut down, but at the international airport in suburban Taoyuan county some long-haul and regional flights using larger aircraft were still taking off and landing normally, according to the Taoyuan airport's Web site.
The state-run Taiwan Power company said more than 43,000 homes had lost power around the island and several roads were blocked by landslides.
The storm dumped more than 26 inches of rain in Hualien. It is expected to make landfall on the southeastern Chinese coast early Tuesday, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Fung Wong hit Taiwan just a week after tropical storm Kalmaegi killed 19 people and left six others missing on the island.
Typhoons frequently hit Taiwan between July and September, often causing casualties in mountainous regions prone to landslides and flash floods.
Tell me from the heart, In your eyes I see the pain, It's tearing you apart, Let me take it all away, You know someone believes in you, When they love you no matter what you do, You know you are home And you're not alone, When you hear me say...
Whenever you're in trouble, Whenever you may need me, I will fight for you, I will help you through, Whenever life's decieving, I'll give you new meaning, No matter where you are, You're always in my heart, Whenever you're in trouble I will be right here...
Sometimes you're gonna find, Nothing goes the way you planned, But whatever's on your mind, I will try to understand, You know someone is by your side, When they help you through the darkest night, You know you are home, And you're not alone, When you hear me say...
Whenever you're in trouble, Whenever you may need me, I will fight for you, I will help you through, Whenever life's decieving, I'll give you new meaning, No matter where you are, You're always in my heart, Whenever you're in trouble I will be right here...
Now's the time! To share what you're feeling inside, No matter how long it takes, No matter how many mistakes!
Oh, now's the time! To reach and you will find, That whenever you need me to care, I'll always be there!
Oh, whenever you're in trouble, Whenever you may need me, I will fight for you, I will help you through, Whenever life's decieving, I'll give you new meaning, No matter where you are, You're always in my heart, Whenever you're in trouble I will be right here... Whenever you're in trouble I will be right here.
Janice Kapp Perry, “Be Still and Know That I Am God,”
Ensign, Sept. 1994, 24 1. In times of deepest trial, I plead to find relief. On bended knee I seek thee And pray I may find peace. And in that darkest hour comes the solace I have sought. I hear the faintest whisper: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
2. I raise my eyes to heaven, I feel thy presence near And know that one who loves me Has heard my searching prayer. Thy gentle voice reminds me life’s battles must be fought. I hear thee now more clearly: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
3. I rise with sweet assurance; My pain to thee is known. Thou knowest of my suff’ring; I do not walk alone. Thy perfect love has healed me, because I have been taught By one who bore all sorrows: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Janice Kapp Perry, “A Missionary’s Prayer (I Will Go and Do),” New Era, Mar. 1984, 44–45
Father, I hear thy call, I turn my thoughts to thee, forsaking all; Recalling promises we all must keep. I put my hand in thine and go to feed thy sheep. Lead me to those who seek, and give me faith and strength to boldly speak. In humble dignity I will proclaim, that men may come to know and love thy holy name. If there be trials, Lord, to help me grow, If thou wilt guide me I will conquer, this I know! I will go and do the things which the Lord commandeth, for I know that He giveth no commands to His children, except He prepare a way, except He prepare a way.
Father, I clearly see that ev’ry lasting joy has come from thee. Help me to serve thee well and thus repay, Thy loving kindness I receive from day to day. Knowing that thou art near, and I may seek thy help through daily prayer. I’ll walk in confidence that I will see thy Spirit touch the lives of seeking men through me. If there be trials, Lord, to help me grow, If thou wilt guide me I will conquer, this I know! I will go and do the things which the Lord commandeth, for I know that He giveth no commands to His children, except He prepare a way, except He prepare a way.
Dr. Alfredo Quinones’ hands used to pick produce; now they remove tumors
By Bob Dotson
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 7:51 a.m. MT,Wed., July. 23, 2008
“Dr. Q” has a theory about how to cure cancer that he can’t wait to tell me.
I look around at his lab assistants, their faces a rainbow of colors — intense, smart, listening. Their parents come from many parts of the world. Dr. Q has chosen them to test his theory: that a team of scientists from a diversity of backgrounds might find a cure for cancer more quickly, because each would see the problem differently.
The lab at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore we’re all gathered in belongs to Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa — “Dr. Q.” He is one of the best brain surgeons in the world, but two decades ago, his hands were picking vegetables for $22 a day. Quinones was a migrant worker, living under an old camper top in the middle of a California field.
“Sometimes I would cry myself to sleep thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ ” Quinones recalls. “I have a cousin who told me, ‘You're never going to be anything but a migrant worker the rest of your life.’ But it just ignited this fire in my belly.”
He learned dozens of jobs, with a blazing desire to be the best at whatever life offered. It was Dr. Joe Martinez Jr. who steered him toward medicine. “Alfredo came to work in my lab his senior year at the University of California at Berkley," Martinez recalls. “He knew nothing about the brain, but learned at an amazing rate. He was one of the two best students I ever taught.”
Quinones studied math and science because he didn't have to write perfect English to do well at them. Martinez told him that with his grades, he should try for one of the very best medical schools in the country. He made it to Harvard and graduated at the top of his class.
“I think what drives Alfredo is fear,” Martinez says. “Fear of failure.”
“It's OK to be afraid,” Quinones says. “Because you know what happens when you're afraid? You work like crazy. One thing that this country absolutely, absolutely values is hard work.” And that's what he tells kids who wonder whether they can beat overwhelming odds too.
Now Dr. Q breezes into a patient’s room. “Aww-right! Here's my team!” he shouts. His medical students gather around the bed. Quinones teaches them to treat all patients as friends, reminding them: “Don't forget the human side.”
And Quinones tries to remember that himself. Like his patients, he has had more than his share of uncertainty and tears in his life. Many nights his mother had no food for the table because his father lost the family's gas station in Mexico. “He used to tell me, ‘If you wanna be like me for the rest of your life, don't go to school,’ ” Quinones says.
Heeding his father’s warning, Quinones graduated college at 18. He became a teacher, but found that, like his father, he was not earning enough.
So, on his 19th birthday, he clawed to the top of a 16-foot fence and jumped — illegally — to an uncertain future here in the U.S. “All I wanted to do was come in, make a little bit of money, send it back to my parents,” he says.
I ask Quinones how he feels about illegal immigration today. Should we build walls? Should we keep illegal immigrants out of our schools?
“Can we build walls?” he asks rhetorically. “Sure, we're gonna build walls. Can we make ’em taller? Sure, we can make ’em taller. Would that be a solution? As long as there's poverty, and as long as people are dying of hunger in other places, it's human nature. They will try to find better ways.”
Ironically, the brain surgeon followed his heart, not his brain: He became a U.S. citizen rather than return to Mexico a hero. He felt he owed this country for all the opportunity it had given him.
So now, each evening, as other doctors head home, Quinones goes to his lab, looking for clues in the brain tumors he's taken out.
“What if you never find the cure for brain cancer?” I ask.
“It doesn't matter whether you're successful or not,” answers Quinones. “What matters is that you give the world the best, and the best will come back to you.”
Want to contact the subject in this morning's “American Story with Bob Dotson”? Here's the contact information: Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, M.D.
Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Oncology
Neuroscience and Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Johns Hopkins University
Department of Neurosurgery
4940 Eastern Ave/ B 121
Baltimore, MD 21224
Office: (410) 550-3367
http://www.hopkinsneuro.org/brain_tumor/doc.cfm/expert/Alfredo_Quinones-Hinojosa
It has been far too long (a few years too long) but I felt I was finally due for an update. :)I do have some exciting news...I am getting married!! The lucky man is Jeffrey Vaughn and we are getting married August 8th in the Dallas Texas Temple.It is amazing the things the Lord has in store for us!I am such a blessed girl.
Just a little bit about us....I met Jeff two years ago when he came in to a store I managed and I interviewed him for a job.At the time, he was a nice Southern Baptist small-town Texas boy.We became good friends and I started inviting him to some church activities...I thought he would make a great Latter-day Saint the moment I met him. :)One of our first dates, we had a very long gospel discussion--I basically taught him the entire first lesson.Afterwards, I asked him how he "felt about all of it" and he replied "well, it sounds interesting but I don't think it's for me."He wasn't interested in talking with the missionaries, but he did accept a book I gave him that would teach him more, "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard (one of my favorites, I recommend to all investigators).I had also told him I was only going to date and marry a guy that would take me to the temple.Jeff has always been a very spiritual guy...even though he didn't agree, at the time, with everything I believed, he also told me he felt very strongly about us pursuing a relationship.That's when we both decided to put ALL of our trust in the Lord.This was definitely NOT where I pictured my life going, dating a non-member, but I also felt really prompted to continue dating him.I started praying for a BIG miracle that I felt completely unworthy of.It was easy to pray for miracles as a missionary, but all the sudden I felt like I was asking for far too much.
Well, I didn't give up on him and a few months later HE called up the missionaries and asked them to come over. Through lots of fellowship, very long gospel discussions, lots of prayers, and amazing missionaries, Jeff accepted the gospel and was baptized about a year and a half ago.It was amazing experience to be a part of....the Lord did bless us all with a miracle!!Our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles...I see that everyday in the way that Jeffrey has embraced the gospel...it is amazing.I am so grateful for the unmeasurable amount of love God has for us.Now, about two years later... we are going to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.It seems I am always learning over and over again, that what I have planned for my life is good, BUT what God has planned is ALWAYS better!
We’ve all heard the saying that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” And the truth is, sometimes the best way to get through a trial is simply to keep going. Choosing not to become emotionally or spiritually stuck actually helps us summon the strength we need to move forward with life.
No one knows this better than pioneers who blaze new trails. Whether making their way across fields of discovery, over rocky ridges of prejudice, or through mountains of misunderstanding, pioneers make better trails for those who follow by forging ahead, even when the way seems impossible. Today we recognize such pioneers who have made our world a better place.
More than 150 years ago, a band of brave pioneers walked more than 1,000 miles to find a place of peace in the Rocky Mountains. Faith was the fuel that drove the covered wagons and the handcarts across a barren landscape. Remarkable are the stories of their courage and unflagging determination as they toiled across the seemingly endless western prairie.
Agnes Caldwell, only nine years of age at the time, never forgot how it felt to walk so far. Later in life she recounted: “I can yet close my eyes and see everything in panoramic precision before me—the ceaseless walking, walking, ever to remain in my memory.”1 The strength she gained at a young age from enduring to the trail’s end served her well for the rest of her long life.
When life gives us our own trails to blaze, when the going gets tough, we can draw strength from those pioneers and so many others who chose to keep going. Chances are that we’ll find we are stronger than we may think, and we’ll keep going too.
Program #4115
1 In Andrew D. Olsen, The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers (2006), 77.
When Joseph Smith was 14 years old, he wanted to know which church he should join, so he asked God in sincere prayer. In response to this prayer, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph and told him the true Church of Jesus Christ was not on the earth and they had chosen Joseph to restore it.
From that day, Joseph labored in God's service, working to establish The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to build up God's kingdom on earth in the latter days. Faithful members of the Church witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Jesus directs His Church today through revelation to a prophet on the earth. Joseph Smith was such a prophet. Although Joseph accomplished many things during his life, most important was his commitment to being a disciple and witness of Jesus Christ. He wrote, "After the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!" (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22).
Those who receive the Prophet's testimony by the power of the Holy Ghost will know the truth of the work he was called to do. They can also know the peace and happiness that come through the Savior Jesus Christ, whom Joseph Smith worshiped and served.
Which Church Is Right?
Joseph Smith was born in 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. At the time this narrative begins, he was 14 years old, living with his family in New York, and earnestly considering which church to join. The following is Joseph's experience, written in his own words.
During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness. . . . I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?
While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to "ask of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
Joseph Smith's First Vision
In accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.
After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other--"This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)--and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."
He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home.
Persecution
Joseph obeyed God and did not join any existing church. As he told people what he had seen and heard, he began experiencing opposition and persecution.
I soon found . . . that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects--all united to persecute me.
It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.
However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.
I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it.
So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.
I had now got my mind satisfied so far as the sectarian world was concerned--that it was not my duty to join with any of them, but to continue as I was until further directed. I had found the testimony of James to be true--that a man who lacked wisdom might ask of God, and obtain, and not be upbraided.
I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious, because I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision.
During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three--having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me--I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature.
Moroni's Visit
Persecution continued as Joseph refused to deny that he had seen God. On 21 September 1823 after retiring to bed, Joseph prayed to know his standing before the Lord. The angel Moroni appeared to him.
On the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one.
While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.
He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.
Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me.
He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.
He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
Also, that there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim--deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted "seers" in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.
After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus:
"For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."
And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: "Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."
He also quoted the next verse differently: "And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."
In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when "they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people," but soon would come.
He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here.
Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken--for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled--I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.
The vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited.
After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.
I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.
He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he had done before.
By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before; and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father's family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them.
After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced; when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night.
I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.
The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.
I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there.
The Sacred Record
Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.
Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.
I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.
On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box.
Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days.
As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.
Joseph worked a number of jobs and provided a comfortable living for his family. In 1825 he took a job in Chenango County, New York. There he met Emma Hale, whom he married on 18 January 1827.
At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.
I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight. . . .
On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver Cowdery came to my house, until which time I had never seen him. He stated to me that having been teaching school in the neighborhood where my father resided, and my father being one of those who sent to the school, he went to board for a season at his house, and while there the family related to him the circumstances of my having received the plates, and accordingly he had come to make inquiries of me.
Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for me.
In April 1829 Joseph Smith, with Oliver Cowdery as scribe, began to translate the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. After Joseph finished, other people were privileged to see the gold plates. These witnesses have also recorded their testimonies, for "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established" (2 Corinthians 13:1).
The Priesthood Restored
We still continued the work of translation, when, in the ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of the plates. While we were thus employed, praying and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying:
"Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness."
He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me.
Accordingly we went and were baptized. I baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me--after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood--for so we were commanded.
The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second. It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were ordained under the hand of this messenger, and baptized.
Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.
This is the simple, direct testimony of Joseph Smith, giving some of the events that led to the restoration of the gospel and the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For a more complete account of Joseph Smith's story, see Joseph Smith--History in the Pearl of Great Price or History of the Church, 1:2-79.
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me....When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My BelovedSon. Hear Him!
Joseph Smith Jr.
May all who watch this video will feel the Holy Spirit that testifies Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet called of God to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For centuries, people have separated each other by setting up barriers and boundaries—the divisions we call “us” and “them.” In our interconnected society, we interact almost daily with people whose heritage, religion, skin color, gender, language, or choices are different from ours. The challenge lies in how we treat each other when we have little in common except our humanity.
Small children seem to be especially good at this. When you smile at a child, she smiles back. When you make a face, she giggles. When you wave good-bye, she waves too. Barriers disappear in this simple, satisfying exchange. Perhaps children haven’t yet learned to see those barriers. Or maybe they see more clearly what’s really important.
Anne Frank, a child herself and a victim of persecution because of her heritage, wrote that “we’re all searching for happiness; we’re all leading lives that are different and yet the same.”1
“I still believe,” she observed, “in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”2
Accepting one another—no matter our differences—is a measure of our character and our hearts. Acceptance is not about changing “us” or “them”; it’s about a friendly gesture, a smile, an appreciation for interesting company or new ideas. It is learning to accept others despite mistakes, weaknesses, or bad choices and still loving them for who they are. Acceptance comes more easily when we are at peace, confident of our own place, our beliefs and direction.
“Cultivate an attitude of understanding, and come to genuinely like people,” religious leader Thomas S. Monson has said. “I’ve rarely met a person that I didn’t want to get to know better. ... It doesn’t matter who they are.”3
Program #4114
1 The Diary of a Young Girl, ed. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, trans. Susan Massotty (1991), 324.
2 The Diary of a Young Girl, 332.
3 In Gerry Avant, “Church President to Be Sustained in Solemn Assembly,” Church News, April 5, 2008, 4.
Apparently it's all gotten to be too much for Crime Scene Investigator Gil Grissom. Or, it will.
Calling it an actual signoff rather than yet another sabbatical, EW.com reports that William Petersen will be leaving CSI sometime midseason.
"Billy is leaving," series executive producer Carol Mendelsohn said. "But he will remain throughout the run of the series an executive producer. And he will, whenever CBS asks, come back. I don't think you've seen the last of Gil Grissom."
"My biggest problem with leaving the show at any point isn't leaving Grissom," said Petersen, whose previous leave of absence came when he took five weeks off to do theater in Rhode Island. "I'm an actor, it's time to do other things. "[The hard part will be saying goodbye] to the cast and crew. [So] I'm going to stay as involved as I'm allowed to be throughout the remainder of this show. Until they turn off all the lights."
Petersen's exit will mark the latest blow to the procedural's original main lineup, which lost Jorja Fox and Gary Dourdan last season—although both will be making appearances in coming episodes (one more posthumous than the other).
"We do have a plan," Mendelsohn added, assuring fans that there will be blood—both new blood and the regular DNA-filled, splattering kind—to make Petersen's pending departure less painful.
In addition to Dourdan's brief appearance in September's season premiere, Fox will have a multiepisode arc brimming with romantic possibility, The L Word's Lauren Lee Smith and as-yet-unnamed manly type will be joining the team as new CSIs, the Miniature Killer will show her face again, and The Exorcist helmer William Friedkin will direct the series' 200th episode this spring.
"Billy will definitely be on the set for Mr. Friedkin's episode," Mendelsohn told EW.com, "whether it's behind the camera or in front of the camera is TBD."
我是在1996年12月29日受洗加入耶穌基督後期聖徒教會. 我在此留下我對這復興的福音的見證,我知道約瑟斯密確實是神的先知; 藉由約瑟斯密,神復興了耶穌基督的教會即耶穌基督後期聖徒教會; 摩爾門經是耶穌基督的另一部約書,與聖經共同見證耶穌是基督.而我們今日仍有一位活著的先知,多馬孟蓀會長
I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 29, 1996. I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is indeed Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have a living prophet today, even President Thomas S. Monson.
