Record Your Own History

Start today to keep a journal of your life’s experiences that can be shared with others.

The Saints were encouraged by the Prophet Joseph Smith to keep diaries and journals and the advice has been repeated by Church leaders ever since.

From the time he joined the Church in 1833, President Wilford Woodruff kept a journal, spending about an hour a day recording events and his feelings.

“I wish to say to my young friends,” he said, “that it will be a great blessing to them, and their children … if they will keep a daily journal of what takes place … around them. Let all the boys and girls get … a little book and write a little in it … every day.”

Journal entries need not be reserved for special occasions. Everyday happenings, hopes, and disappointments can be recorded to help you recall them. Here are some examples:

Oh boy, got a soccer ball today!

Today we saw a filmstrip in school about octopuses and other sea animals.

My best friend Eric moved away today. I’ll probably never see him again.

Three weeks from today Dad will ordain me a deacon.

You can start your journal in a notebook, looseleaf binder, or in a regular diary. Journals are descriptive and personal, reflecting how you feel, while diaries are a record of day-to-day events. Experiences having to do with gaining a testimony and increasing your faith and events recorded about baptism or other gospel ordinances will be of great value to you and your descendants.

Photo by Lonnie Lonczyna