Ever since I was a little girl, if I got up early enough in the morning, I could count on it that my dad would be sitting on the couch reading his scriptures, indexing conference talks, or typing up his thoughts for the morning with his type writer perched on his lap. He would make room for me, and when I sat down, he would wrap me up in a blanket, kiss and squeeze me tight. Then he would focus back on the work at hand, stopping occasionally to pat me, hug me again, and tell me how much he loved me.
A year or so ago, dad had one of his books published; "The Speaker's Index To 40 Years of General Conference" which was a result of his doing this every morning and every conference for years. I have used his "indexes" ever since my first talk - it is the greatest resource for speaking or giving lessons to my family or at church.
When I left home for college, I remember feeling so homesick, and going to the mail box and being so happy to find a letter there from my dad. He always wrote one letter and mailed it to all of us kids - the same letter typed up, and then signed "love, dad" in his own hand. If a brother was currently on a mission, we could count on one letter a day. If not, we still usually got two or three newsy letters per week about everything that was going on at home. Dad is the letter writer, mom's the telephone talker.
For the last year we haven't heard from dad that much - for some reason he was having a hard time getting his letters printed off. He was feeling bad about that, and also wanting to share his writings with us. He says that some day he is going to present us with books and books of his writings and journal entries - we already have a lot of them and use them A LOT - but he says that it recently occurred to him that when we get them all at once we may not read them right away. He wanted us to be able to benefit from them in our lives right now. So... my dad has started a blog!
I am loving it. Every day he has something new on it, and every day it is just what I needed to hear/read. My dad is amazing!!
What!! What is the blog address? I have missed your dad's letters more than I can say. Dave feels blessed that your dad considers him one of his kids. We've loved his Conference index book and were so delighted with all the volumes of "Danny's Book" this Christmas. Please email us his new blog address :)
ReplyDeleteNever mind...I see it on your blog list :)
ReplyDeleteI love his blog too! It is so uplifting every day. Aaron used a couple of his entries for a Seminary lesson last Wednesday. Your dad is amazing!
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