General Conference weekend is a time that families come together and listen to our Prophet, the 12 Apostles and other general authorities.  With pen and paper in hand, many of us take notes that will help ourselves and families.  We listen intently to the messages being given over the pulpit, but for some of us, it is a chore to keep the little ones quiet long enough to receive one message, let alone the wh ...

Gas prices keep soaring and there are reports that prices could hit $5 or $6 a gallon this summer.  Living in California myself, I am already seeing gas prices at $4.30 a gallon.  But we don't have to be stuck paying more than we need to.  We can use Google or Bing Maps to help us reduce our bill or at least find ways to keep it as low as possible. I'm a working mom and I have to watch my budget.  Other are ...

At a baptism, a great way to fill the time waiting for those who were baptized to change back into their Sunday clothes, is to play MormonMessages—official church-produced videos with various gospel messages and themes. Here's how we did it recently, with great success. A few months ago my youngest child was baptized. In the weeks prior to the big event I was putting together the program and the big questio ...

If you put DeseretBook.com and FREE together you get a great combo.  DeseretBook.com/free has a great collection of books available for free. You just need to establish an account with DeseretBook.com/free and you can then download any of the choices that are listed below. They will put the e-books into your account for download and they will be available for 30 days. This is for a limited time, so don't wa ...

A huge percentage of people have a camera of some type with them at all times. iPhones, Android, BlackBerry, and even many "dumb" phones are getting better & better cameras. Even actual digital cameras are small enough to carry with us at all times. Have you ever thought 'outside the box' of what you can use those cameras for? I use them for so much more than the typical 'family and friends pictures'. A ...

I was excited when I was invited to review a new family history site US Family Tree.  I'm not one to usually recommend a paid site for research or research help when there are so much you can still obtain via the internet online and all for free.  This site is different with a free and paid version makes this affordable for anyone on a budget. US Family Tree uses a tool called Advanced Tree Inspector to com ...

This is the last of my 3-part series on the hidden resources that can be found on FamilySearch.org. The Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) has come a long way since its days on microfiche, CD and the early web versions. Now that the vault in Utah is being digitized, we will start seeing some of the contents of the FHLC viewable online. As stated on the FamilySearch.org site' "The Family History Library C ...

In my last article I shared with you over 140 free family history 'How To' videos offered by FamilySearch. FamilySearch Wiki is our next adventure with free online help. What is a Wiki? As stated on the site itself; "The Research Wiki is a free collection of family history articles provided by family history enthusiasts from around the world. You can research your family history, contribute your knowledge t ...

Over the past 8-10 months, the LDS Church has made some grand changes to the classic FamilySeach site located at www.familysearch.org.  I want to share some of the hidden jewels on this site that can help you 'hack' into your family history in a new 3-Part Series.  If you just use the site for what is available on the home page, the basic search options, you will only scratch the surface of what is availabl ...

Message Boards have been around since the beginning of the Internet. They are a great tool in anything you research or if you have questions on a hot topic you are working on. Message boards are an online discussion regarding a particular topic, imagine a large electronic bulletin board. One conversation on any topic is called a 'Message Thread'. Think of a piece of thread connecting each post within a conv ...