Jana Riess

Mormons have long been instructed to keep a record of our lives. One of the previous presidents of the church, Spencer W. Kimball, actually told Latter-day Saints in the 1970s that angels in heaven would be reading their journals someday.

You know, that our lives living in this particular time and place in history would be so inspiring that even the angels of heaven would want to know, how did you conduct your life?

You know, that our lives living in this particular time and place in history would be so inspiring that even the angels of heaven would want to know, how did you conduct your life?

You know, that our lives living in this particular time and place in history would be so inspiring that even the angels of heaven would want to know, how did you conduct your life?

Which is really an interesting thing that maybe if you do journal, you don't want to have that be the bar. Like that's a lot of pressure.

Which is really an interesting thing that maybe if you do journal, you don't want to have that be the bar. Like that's a lot of pressure.

Which is really an interesting thing that maybe if you do journal, you don't want to have that be the bar. Like that's a lot of pressure.

Right? No, you don't want to think that. But it does elevate the act of diary keeping to a sacred degree.

Right? No, you don't want to think that. But it does elevate the act of diary keeping to a sacred degree.

Right? No, you don't want to think that. But it does elevate the act of diary keeping to a sacred degree.

This is not just, and I went to the football game today and I saw so-and-so. This was casting your daily life in some kind of almost cosmic, holy umbrella.

This is not just, and I went to the football game today and I saw so-and-so. This was casting your daily life in some kind of almost cosmic, holy umbrella.

This is not just, and I went to the football game today and I saw so-and-so. This was casting your daily life in some kind of almost cosmic, holy umbrella.

Scrapbooking in LDS culture definitely has been a thing. Digital scrapbooking has kind of supplanted the stickers and having a crop night on a Friday night kind of thing that we used to do back in the day. But the impetus of recording this, of making it beautiful, making the record itself into an artifact that can be passed down, that's still very much present.

Scrapbooking in LDS culture definitely has been a thing. Digital scrapbooking has kind of supplanted the stickers and having a crop night on a Friday night kind of thing that we used to do back in the day. But the impetus of recording this, of making it beautiful, making the record itself into an artifact that can be passed down, that's still very much present.

Scrapbooking in LDS culture definitely has been a thing. Digital scrapbooking has kind of supplanted the stickers and having a crop night on a Friday night kind of thing that we used to do back in the day. But the impetus of recording this, of making it beautiful, making the record itself into an artifact that can be passed down, that's still very much present.

So there is a precedent for Latter-day Saints to do missionary work. There is a precedent for them to keep a record of their lives and their families for their posterity, so their descendants. And All of that, I think, feeds into the early success of Mormon women who are getting into this platform 20 years ago.

So there is a precedent for Latter-day Saints to do missionary work. There is a precedent for them to keep a record of their lives and their families for their posterity, so their descendants. And All of that, I think, feeds into the early success of Mormon women who are getting into this platform 20 years ago.

So there is a precedent for Latter-day Saints to do missionary work. There is a precedent for them to keep a record of their lives and their families for their posterity, so their descendants. And All of that, I think, feeds into the early success of Mormon women who are getting into this platform 20 years ago.

It's such a love-hate relationship. So on the one hand, you do have this emphasis from the church that this could be a tool that is used for good things. So in 2007, one of the highest leaders of the LDS church, M. Russell Ballard, gives a speech.