As we begin this new year of studying the Book of Mormon, aren’t we grateful for the written words of Nephi? Especially his small plates. Our 2024 theme for the Granite FamilySearch Center will be, “A Year of Remembering and Recording,” and we encourage you to work on writing your own “small plates.”

We are doing a great work for the dead with our time at the FSC. As important is what we leave for our posterity. What better thing could we do for our posterity than to record our spiritual experiences? Henry B. Eyring said, “My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness. It will build our testimonies…you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done.” (Henry B. Eyring, “O Remember, Remember,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2007, 66-69.)

My Mom is a very healthy, alert 91-year-old. She has been writing in a journal since she was 12. She has 79 years worth of journals. They have been so helpful over the years. But they’re too much to go through to find my mom’s spiritual experiences. She has had many of them. 

There wasn’t a lot of peace in our home growing up. My mom would get answers to help her marriage and family. She was a Primary, YW, Relief Society and Stake Relief Society President. She had a lot of spiritual experiences with those callings. May I please note here every calling comes with inspiration and revelation. Every calling is important! My mom also had the opportunity to be Sister and President Benson’s nurse in their last days.  

In 2013, I asked my mom to write her small plates and she did! What a great blessing to have these spiritual experiences recorded that I have heard throughout my life. It has blessed me, and it will bless all her posterity. 

This past week, I visited my mom and told her I was going to share her small plates. She seemed pleased. The past 5 months have been very difficult for her. She’s healthy, but her 94-year-old husband has dementia and there have been some family issues.

While we visited, we talked about a lot of things. As I was leaving, she said, “Darla, thank you so much for asking me to write my ‘small plates.’ As the last few months have been so difficult, I have turned to my ‘small plates’ and have felt the same feeling I had when I had those spiritual experiences and the love and peace from Heavenly Father.” 

Elder Richard G. Scott said, “Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. That practice enhances the likelihood of your receiving further light.” (Richard G. Scott, “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge,” Ensign or Liahona, October 1993, 86-88.)

I thought she was writing her “small plates” for me, but, as Elder Scott noted, your spiritual experiences will help in a time of need. It is now helping her in her time of need.  

I bear my testimony that Heavenly Father wants us to record our spiritual experiences. Who knows whose life it will bless and change for the better? 

Let your written words be as, “the voice of one crying from the dust” (2 Nephi 33:13).

– Darla Silcox, Patron Services, Granite FamilySearch Center