Selected journal pages, family letters, and ward pieces from his father years
The journal boxes were not one clean diary. They were a working stack: letters to family, ward pieces, testimony notes, temple pages, mission reflections, and private attempts to say what mattered before too much time passed.
This chapter keeps the commentary light and lets the recurring lines come through in his own words. The same themes keep showing up: decide for yourself, act today, love your family better, get your own answer, and start again when you have to.
These excerpts are lightly normalized for spelling and punctuation so they read cleanly. Use Book Editions for fuller source-first versions and correction review.
"We can never start over but we can always start again."
Today Is the Day to Start
Family letters, 2002
When he wrote family letters in 2002, he kept pushing toward motion instead of drift.
Excerpts
"Time is running out for some of us, and it is never too late, but it gets harder to come back as we let the idea of 'we will do it later' enter our minds. Because later never comes true. We only have today."
"Life is too short to always be bad. It's time to be good, and today is the day to start no matter what has been before."
"You are such a survivor. I love you for that... We all learn and make mistakes, and you are willing to continue, and that is what happiness is all about."
"Pray about it and we can always work things out. Give me a plan, as I always say."
He did not trust borrowed religion. He wanted people to know why they were doing the right thing and to get their own answer.
Excerpts
"A testimony never stands still. It either increases or decreases."
"The way it increases is to share it and live it. There is no going back, only going forward."
"It's very important to know why we do the things we do... that is one of the true purposes in coming to church is to gain or to strengthen your testimony."
"If the Prophet has told us to change some things in our life, then we need to go home and pray to receive the same vision he has had... We have to get our own vision and then we will act in any capacity to get it done."
