I call him Bobby because Robert is my dad's name. This is the most important interview I've done. Bobby was an athlete until age 22, when his pelvis was crushed by a stadium gate. He turned his losses into a new life, eventually getting a PhD in social work, specializing in studies of resilience. I think everyone should hear this story. This is Part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZC_5wI20yk … [Read more...]
Salvador: The Truth Behind the Fiction, Part 4
May 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
...[B]ut the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-13 (KJV)I am struck by how much I DON'T remember about Chulac and the miracles I saw there. As I have spoken with others to help me remember without my own filters, I have thought about Joseph Smith's various accounts of the First Vision. My actual memory f … [Read more...]
Salvador: The Truth behind the Fiction, Part 3
May 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. (Oliver Cromwell)Daniel Choc was one of Dale Grover's most ardent supporters, having lived on the plantation for two years, the beneficiary of Dale's good work and training. He had returned to his home in Patzicia when I met him in 1975. He--the same age as the missionaries Dad was training to speak Cakchiquel--became Dad's main assistant. Often, Daniel became an angelic voice whispering translations to the mi … [Read more...]
Mothers’ Day Tribute–Nancy Young Layton
May 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. (Doctrine and Covenants 58:3-4)The Savior’s disciples once asked why a certain man had been born blind. Had he committed some premortal sin, or … [Read more...]
Salvador: The Truth behind the Fiction, Part 2
May 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Atonement of Christ is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and those branches do not touch that root, if they have been cut free from that truth, there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them. [Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator,” Ensign, May 1977] We Blairs were Dale's disciples. In some ways we were more Dale's disciples than Christ's. We saw Dale as a holy man who willingly surr … [Read more...]
Salvador: The Truth Behind the Fiction
May 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
“At some point, God will ask you to sacrifice on his altar not only your stories about your own life but your version of his stories as well. Your softly lit watercolor felt-board version of scripture stories and church history must, like all your stories, be abandoned at his feet, and the messy, vibrant, and inconvenient truths that characterize God's real work with real people will have to take center stage. If they don't, then how will God's work in your hungry messy, and inconvenient life e … [Read more...]
On a Day When I Miss My Dad
April 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
I put a photo of an ultrasound into Dad's coffin on February 27. The viewing before his funeral hadn't started yet, and no one was watching. The ultrasound was of the fetus who is still becoming Olive Aisley Wagstaff, my next granddaughter, my father's fourth great granddaughter. On February 18, the day before Dad died, I told him that Julie, my baby girl, had heard her baby's heartbeat. Dad said a typically "Dad" thing. "That's wonderful!" That little conversation happened just before I tu … [Read more...]
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