Category Archive

Over the years I’ve heard rumors that the Star Wars character, Yoda, was patterned after the LDS prophet, Spencer W Kimball.  For those of you who are not familiar with Spencer Kimball, here is a picture of him:

Compare that picture with Yoda and you can see a slight resemblance (minus the green face!):

Recently, we took my niece, who is a huge Star Wars fan to the local Art Museum for a Star Wars Exhibit.  I learned there that this myth was false and that Yoda was actually patterned after Einstein as shown in the picture I took at the exhibit:

So next time you hear that rumor floating around, now you know the true story!

Since I served a 2 year mission in Germany, I am fairly familiar with the culture there and the shame the German people feel as a result of the tragedies surrounding the Holocaust.  From my experience, most of the common people of Germany did not know what was going on during the war.  They just knew that Hitler had bailed them out with Government programs and promised them a better life, which he did.  However, things slowly but surely turned south as the government took over.

Today is the national day of rememberance for the German Holocaust, so I thought it appropriate to share this compelling story by David Faber, who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.  I listened to a broadcast of his experiences of hiding from the Nazis with his family, watching his whole family eventually get captured and killed, and his experiences with getting captured and going to concentration camps with the atrocities he experienced there.  His experiences can be heard on the Focus on the Family website, or also in his Book entitled “Because of Romek” (Romek is his older brother who sacrificed his life to save his family from the Nazis”.  There are some graphic stories on there, so be aware of that.

The Book of Mormon has a scripture that talks about how Satan lures righteous believers into becoming apathetic in their faith and testimonies.  It is found in 2 Nephi 28:21:

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

I think it is important for us to reflect on these experiences from the Holocaust because the terrible inhumanity that occured then didn’t happen all at once.  It happened little by little and people were “lulled” into acceptance of such evil. 

Take some time and listen to his experiences and pray for strength for yourselves, friends, family, and our societies.  It is important to share these experiences with our loved ones just so people can be aware of what can happen if we are not careful to “put on our armor” each day through prayer, scripture study, and a relationship with God.