Mother & Moroni

On a recent visit to my parents home I helped mother edit her personal history on the computer and print a hard copy. She took me downstairs to show me the labeled photos which she had organized in a book. She told me these were the photos she wanted in her personal history. She showed me her file cabinet full of papers and pictures in manila envelopes.. Most were organized dated and labeled.

Then she showed me seven or eight soft bound histories of my ancestors from grandmother to great great greats. Impressed with the collection histories, I wondered what will become of these timeless books. Some day when my mother is gone, how will these histories be divided up? Would it be smart to keep all of them together? Would it be smart to divide things up so each could have something? Who would have the room for the histories and collection of papers in their home?

I held each bound history and realized that all the words represented someone’s life. I also noted that someone had to publish these histories which represented a great amount of work and research. I felt blessed that so many of my progenitors chose to keep journals. Maybe my gift of journal genes came from a long line of writers, who recorded daily events, challenges and their testimonies I felt so blessed to feel that in some small way I was like them.

I wondered, what will become of my 30 journals which are sitting on my shelves at home?



Will they mean anything to my children? Who would store my journals? Will they get boxed up and sit in at attic? The chances of someone reading all the journals is very slim which puts pressure on me to condense my life and write a personal history. Will my posterity read my personal history? What’s the best way to preserve my history. A three ring binder would burn easily in a fire just as a CD would melt.. Would I need to have multiply copies in various places? It’s hard to think past the next two generations and project 100 years into the future. What will the technology be like in 200 years? Could a CD or computer chip be read on obsolete equipment. No one would know me unless I leave a record. If I leave a record will it be preserved?

My thoughts turned to Moroni and the Book of Mormon who faced the same dilemma. How could
he preserve the plates for future generations. Who would read hundreds of plates? The Lord in his
wisdom set forth a great plan. They would be stored in a stone box in the ground and chiseled in
gold. Moisture couldn’t hurt the gold, fire wouldn’t find the box. It would be hidden from man until a certain time. I wondered how long it took Moroni to condense the plates of Nephi into the Book of Mormon. Time was on his side. The Lord provided an odd circumstance. All his family and friends had been killed ; he was in exile, hiding from the Lamanites, who thirsted after his blood. What a perfect setting, yet very lonely, he had solitude, time to ponder and work with no
interruptions while he followed the Lord’s commandment to inscribe history.