Most of you who have an Android phone, an iPad, or other mobile device (like iPod Touch) probably have LDS scriptures loaded so you can take them anywhere. But what about your personal scripture? There’s no place in any of the apps to insert your Patriarchal Blessing, the most personal kind of scripture you have. Shouldn’t it be just as important to have it with you wherever you go? That way you can study and draw inspiration from it anytime, just like you do with the scriptures.
I felt this same way and came up with 2 great options I’ll show you here, and a few others I’ll just mention.
The Evernote Method
Ever since we featured Aaron Goodwin’s awesome method for studying scriptures with Evernote, I’ve found all sorts of useful ways for Evernote to organize my digital life. And it’s an easy option for keeping your Patriarchal Blessing handy on your mobile devices. Here’s what you do:
- Open Evernote desktop app or the web version.
- Create a new note.
- Copy and paste (assuming you’ve already typed it up) your Patriarchal Blessing into the new note.
- Give it a title, and click sync (desktop version only).
- If you haven’t already, install the Evernote mobile app: Android, iPad/iPhone, or more here, and login.
That’s it! Now you just have to pull the document up on your phone.
If you want to make it really easy to reach, you have an option to add a shortcut to your Android homescreen (not sure if this is available on iOS). I use an app called Folder Organizer, so I dropped a shortcut in my label called “Gospel” so it’s right next to the LDS Scriptures app and really easy to get to!
The Google Docs Method
If you’re not an Evernote user, and aren’t ready to try it out, you can do essentially the same thing with Google Docs. Just paste your blessing into a doc, then get an appropriate mobile app (like the official Google Docs app for Android or Note Master Lite, a free Google Docs app for iOS) and you can read it there. See the first 2 images below for screenshots.
The downside on Android at least, is there’s no way to make a homescreen link.
Other Methods
There’s a few other things you could do, if you want it stored locally, and not in the cloud:
- Create a PDF, then transfer it to your device (put it under “Books” if you’re an iTunes user).
- Create a Word Document, then get a Microsoft Office reader app for your device.
- Create a password-protected webpage with the text of your Blessing (then put a bookmark on your homescreen).
Let me know if you have any other methods, or how these work out for you, in the comments.