Debra James

Business Manager, Payroll Administrator, Tax Technician, Family Historian

[Debra James @stormbee15]

@donnyosmond If……

[Dallin H. Oaks @OaksDallinH]

Great blessings come to families if they pray together, kneeling night and morning to offer thanks for blessings and to pray over common concerns.  #GeneralConference

[Matthew Watkins @ITalkOfChrist]

This is Pres. @OaksDallinH's father. Here's the heartbreaking history of his passing.

"Once while Dallin was in the crowded waiting room of his father’s medical office, a patient asked him if he was going to grow up to be a doctor like his father and heal people.

“No,” he answered. He was going to be “a high priest like my father and bless babies.” ...

"In October of [1939], Lloyd became ill and spent sixteen days in the hospital. Near the same time, Stella came down with a serious case of flu and remained at home, unwilling to let Lloyd see how sick she had grown. At first, doctors concluded that Lloyd had cancer. Soon, however, his brother Weston came to Twin Falls to take him to Salt Lake City. Stella wanted to see Lloyd again before he left. “I called the hospital,” she wrote, “and requested they bring him home an hour or so before starting for Salt Lake.”

"After being helped home, Lloyd lay on the sofa, lovingly but soberly greeting Dallin and his siblings. “I wondered why he seemed so sad and clung to each so fondly,” Stella wrote. Three days later, Lloyd phoned her from Salt Lake. He had a new diagnosis—tuberculosis—but told Stella “he was feeling fine and cheerful.” By Thanksgiving Day 1939, Weston had gotten him to the Bethesda Tuberculosis Sanitorium in Denver. During the time Lloyd languished there, he and Stella wrote letters to each other, Stella often commenting on the children’s progress...

"Dallin, his mother, and other family members had high hopes the Lord would heal Lloyd and bring him home again. They relied on fasting, priesthood blessings, and an unwavering faith. “You shall be healed, Lloyd. I KNOW IT,” Stella assured her husband. “You are very precious to the Lord, and He needs you at your post in Zion again. We all need you, darling, and I firmly believe that God is pleased to perform miracles for us when our lives are dedicated to His service. . . . Lloyd, my heart is simply singing for joy, for I know you are going to be healed soon to be a living testimony to those all over who know of your great illness. We have seen Our Father’s power so often that we can never doubt that you can receive His blessing.”

"But it was not to be. Early on the morning of June 10, 1940, with Stella and sister Nettie at his side in the sanatorium, Lloyd Edress Oaks—faithful husband, father, Church member, and doctor—finally succumbed to the disease he had probably contracted while caring for a patient. Lloyd was thirty-seven years old at the time of his death, leaving Stella, age thirty-four, with three small children: Dallin, seven; Merrill, four; and Evelyn, just fifteen months old...

"Dallin was staying at the farm home of Stella’s parents when he first got news of his father’s death. It crushed him.

“Grandma Harris and I were alone when she told me that my father was dead,” Dallin wrote. “I ran into the bedroom at their old farm home and knelt down and began to pray that it wasn’t true. When I had been there just a few moments, Grandpa came in weeping. He knelt down beside me and put his arms around me and promised that he would be a father to me. . . .

“Although I cried many tears over the death of my father, then and later,” Dallin reflected, “I never recall blaming the Lord or feeling bitter that he had been taken. I attribute this to the faith and assurance given me by my mother and grandparents, whose attitudes reinforced the sweetness of my memories and turned the potential energy of resentment into joyful anticipation of being reunited with him one day.”

-- From Pres. @OaksDallinH's biography by Richard Turley

[Dᴀɴɪᴇʟ  @mydUkeS]

Grandparents can fill in the gaps when families lose or are missing a member.

Parents and others like grandparents are the master teachers; their most effective teaching is by example.

@OaksDallinH #GeneralConference

[The Cougar Chronicle @TheCougChron]

It has been said that this Church does not necessarily attract great people but more often makes ordinary people great.

- Carlos A. Godoy

#GeneralConference

[Church News @the_churchnews]

"Our relationship with the Savior enables us to approach difficulties with smiling faces and grateful hearts," said Elder Carlos A. Godoy.
https://t.co/5U1FZZu6L0

[D. Todd Christofferson @ChristoffDTodd]

The counsel “Look to God and live” (Alma 37:47) not only has meaning for us in eternity, but it also makes all the difference in the character and quality of our mortal lives.

In looking to God, we can find peace in difficulty, and our faith can continue to grow—even in times of doubt and spiritual challenge. We can receive strength in the face of opposition and isolation. We can reconcile the ideal with present reality.

Looking to God means that He is not just one of our priorities; rather, it means that He is our one highest priority.

There truly is no other way than what God Himself has ordained: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).
#GeneralConference #HearHim

[Matthew L. @ProdigalSonMatt]

I’ve had a rough month. With the Charlie Kirk assassination, the attack on the church in Michigan, the passing of Russell M. Nelson, and some personal trials… but this #GeneralConference has been one of the best boosts of my faith in a long time. I know that Christ lives and he heads this church. I know the church is lead by a prophet, just like it has always been in ancient times. I know the Bible is true and the Book of Mormon is true and testify of Christ. I have a personal testimony that families can be together forever and look forward to receiving the endowment and being sealed to my family on October 18th. Press forward Saints, we have work to do. We have a kingdom to build and people to uplift. #LDSx

[Ulisses Soares @Ulisses__Soares]

Jesus Christ, the greatest of all, suffered for us until He bled from every pore, yet He never allowed anger to inflame His heart, nor did aggressive, offensive, or profane words escape His lips, even amid such affliction.

With perfect temperance and unmatched meekness, He did not think of Himself but of each of God’s children—past, present, and future. Even in the midst of His greatest agony, the Savior demonstrated perfect and divine temperance.

Among the qualities that adorn true disciples of Christ, temperance stands out as a reflection of the Savior Himself, a precious fruit of the Spirit available to all who open themselves to divine influence.

“And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care” (Doctrine and Covenants 12:8). #GeneralConference

[Henry B. Eyring @EyringHB]

We learn that while in the garden of Gethsemane, the Savior did ask the Father if the trial could pass over Him—but then He also said that if it was the Father’s will, then the Savior would do it. In other words, the Savior even took on doubt and uncertainty, but He had faith in His Heavenly Father.

Brothers and sisters, your proving and strengthening will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness, or disappointment, or grief, or loneliness.

These moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.

If we remain faithful in our service, the Lord will refine us. He will strengthen us. And one day, we will look back and see that those very trials were evidence of His love. We will see that He was shaping us to be able to stand with Him in glory. #GeneralConference

[Jeffrey R. Holland @HollandJeffreyR]

My first sight-giving, life-giving encounter with real evidence of truth did not come with anointing clay or the Pool of Siloam. No, the instrument of truth that brought my healing from the Lord came as pages in a book—yes, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ!

The claims of this book have been attacked and dismissed by some unbelievers, their anger often matching the vitriol of those who told the healed man he could not possibly have experienced what he knew he had experienced.

The impact in my life of the Book of Mormon is no less miraculous than was the application of spit and dirt on the blind man’s eyes.

I came to my whole-souled conviction that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a true restoration of the New Testament church and more because I cannot deny the evidence of that restoration. Since those first experiences, I suppose I have had a thousand—ten thousand?—other evidences that what I have spoken of today is true. #GeneralConference #HearHim

[Debra James @stormbee15]

RT @ldsconf: “I testify that God knows you. He knows the trials you face. He is with you. He will not forsake you.” — @EyringHB | #GeneralC…

[GeneralConference @ldsconf]

“Your proving and strengthening may not look like Moroni’s, or Jacob’s, or the Prophet Joseph’s. But it will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness, or disappointment, or grief, or loneliness.” — @EyringHB | #GeneralConference

[GeneralConference @ldsconf]

“I bear witness that these moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.” — @EyringHB | #GeneralConference

[Dᴀɴɪᴇʟ  @mydUkeS]

#SisterSpannaus began with the story of the great woman of Shunem, who invited the prophet Elijah to dine in her home, without yet knowing who he was.
In time, the Spirit whispered to her heart:

“Now I perceive that this is a holy man of God.”

She didn’t just acknowledge Elijah’s calling; she acted on it. She built him a small room, a sanctuary, so that whenever he passed by, he would have a place to rest.

From this story, Sister Spannaus drew a gentle but profound lesson:

“We too can receive a personal testimony of God’s prophets today, and open our hearts, our homes, and our lives to their message.”

#GeneralConference

[GeneralConference @ldsconf]

“In the coming days, I invite you to kneel, open your hearts, and pray with faith to Heavenly Father, asking Him to confirm to you that His chosen Prophet and Apostles are His voice on the earth today.” — Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus | #GeneralConference

[GeneralConference @ldsconf]

“I promise you that once we know they are God’s anointed ones, our life will be easier in spite of our ongoing challenges, as we will obey their voice with trust, faith, and hope.” — Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus | #GeneralConference

[GeneralConference @ldsconf]

“The Young Women president from the neighboring Leribe Branch, Mampho Makura urged: ‘Turn to the Lord and find the strength to accept His will. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. Don’t look away but look to Him.’” — @ChristoffDTodd | #GeneralConference

[Jonathan Tavernari @For3JT]

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

We love you, Elder Holland