The Gospel According to Jeffrey

an AI’s rendition of George,  based on a photo of his youngest son and a written  description of  George’s physical appearance (credit:  MidjourneyFree AI ) My Great-Great-Granddad George was a trolley conductor in 1890s Brooklyn . He seems to have been a pretty good guy, but then one fateful day in 1901, another trolley came barreling down the hill and T-boned his. George lived to tell the tale, but getting thrown from the trolley doesn’t seem to have done him any favors. The newspaper articles about George start there, but don’t culminate until some two years later, when he thought his wife (Great-Great-Grandma Adelaide ) was having an affair. Sadly, George shot and killed the family friend he believed to be her lover, John Lacy . A few months later, George was in court pleading insanity. Unfortunately, the DA was apparently effective and the jury ruled him sane. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and, a few days later, sentenced to life at hard labor in...

As many people know, there is currently a small but quite vocal movement that is trying to override the revelations received by prophets and Apostles, to change the doctrines and/or practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I won’t mention this group by name—their unique brand of apostasy certainly doesn’t need any more publicity—but in response to some of their recent actions, an online acquaintance of mine, Michael Davidson , recently posted the following on Facebook: “[T]he discussion point is whether there is a faithful example of an individual acting outside of the scope of their legitimate stewardship positively impacting Mormonism.” Long-time readers should know that I often post long responses to my blog, but in this case there’s another reason for responding here: it’s a really neat story, and I figured I’d like to share it with all my friends instead of just the members of the group in question. In short, I am an individual who once ...

Just over a year ago, in late 2011, I was called to meet with the first counselor in our ward bishopric and extended a call to serve as a Primary worker. My assignment was to be one of two instructors for the 10-12–year-old boys, a class with about half a dozen active members. The first counselor, Brother Gardner, informed me that the bishopric tried to call Primary workers for about a year, which I immediately assumed was wishful thinking. My wife, Anna, had previously been called into Nursery “for about a year” and wound up serving from before our son David started Nursery (age 18 months) until well after his fourth birthday. Nevertheless, I accepted the calling and was sustained on 1 January 2012. Yesterday morning, I arrived at the ward building at 9:30 a.m. for our annual “Meet Your Teacher” breakfast. I dropped my daughter Leah off at her CTR 7 table and was about to drop off David at the CTR 5, when the new first counselor in the bishopric, Brother Asay, told me he needed to ...

First of all, this post is best read if you’re familiar with the concepts in my recent Primer on Family History . If you’re not familiar with my love for the pastime, or are just wondering how I got into it in the first place, check out that post. I hope you’ll find it informative. So now, let’s deal with my personal history in family history programs. Back in 1991, when I first became a Christian, I was encouraged (like all members of the Church of Jesus Christ) to begin researching my family history. (Wonder why? You must not have read the Book of Jeffrey entry. Seriously, check it out!) ;-) I don’t remember how long it was before I learned of Personal Ancestral File 2.1 (or “PAF,” for short), but I immediately knew it would be a wise investment. You see, Personal Ancestral File was an application developed by the Church, designed to help people track their family history. It was quite crude, by today’s standards, but it was a great program at the time. When I arrived home from my...

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen my status update, some 36 hours ago, in which I stated that I think I’ve finally decided on a new family history program. This status led to a rather humorous discussion of what I meant by that, but the point is that I’m finally ready to move into the 21st century, when it comes to tracking my genealogy and family history. So here’s a little background, so you can understand just where I’m coming from. Back in 1991, I accepted Christ as my Savior and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . One of the basic tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ is that God loves all of His children, not just those that are lucky enough to learn His plan during their short time on Earth. However, we also know that Christ taught that baptism is essential for entrance into the kingdom of God (see John 3:1-5 ). So what about all those that died without ever having the chance to be baptized, or even to accept Christ as Savior...