After All

On our family’s last camping and fishing trip, a steady rain prevented our three-year-old from leaving the camper. Finally he asked, “Does Heavenly Father make the rain?” When I replied affirmatively, he followed with, “Mamma, what’s Heavenly Father’s telephone number?”

Mary Taylor
Fallon, Nevada

Tommy, age four, had been to Primary and came home eager to tell his mother all about it.

“Mommy,” he beamed, “Mary said the opening prayer, and I said the shutting one.”

Fern P. Carter
Ogden, Utah

While proselyting in a small African community, we visited a member’s home where the children, in the absence of their parents, invited us in to have some refreshing drink. As we prepared to leave, one of the children asked, “Would you like to wait for mommy to come home, or do you have to go prospecting again?”

Elders Lance Jacob and Duane Gorrell
Bulawayo, Rhodesia

Our young children have their own versions of our favorite carols that they have acquired quite by accident through misunderstanding of the real lyrics or through rearranging of some of the words. At times their interpretation is more meaningful than the original, giving new depth to time-worn songs. I especially love their rendition of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” closing with “Good tithings we bring to you and your King. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New You!”

I haven’t corrected these childish errors, because I love and want to remember them. During this special season they help me stop to ponder, renew, and change. And this year we will again be wishing and working for a Merry Christmas and a Happy “New You!”

Loraine Tolman Pace
Pullman, Washington

Riding one afternoon in an elevator with some very obvious visitors to the new General Church Office Building, I remarked to a fellow employee, “They must be tourists.” “Oh, no,” explained one of the ladies, “we’re Mormons.”

Charlotte G. Mitchell
Salt Lake City, Utah