MY STORY: Born in 1934, son of a Methodist raised mother and a Quaker background dad, we lived in the White Bluffs community of Eastern Washington State near the bend of the Columbia River. At age 9 we were bought-out by the federal government to establish what was then known as the “Hanford Atomic Works” to support the development of the atomic bomb. Our family moved to the Yakima Valley, the “fruit bowl of the nation.” At a Sunnyside protestant church, I accepted Jesus Christ as “my person savior” and have not departed from that very heart-felt position, as per my up-bringing in a faithful Christian home.

As a teen-ager I meet and dated a very clean-living, modest Christian girl by the name of Dorothy Harris, of Sunnyside. Upon asking her what made her different than other good Christian girls I had become acquainted with in high school, she replied, “Oh, I might get it wrong. You better just read the Book of Mormon.” Well, being three book reports behind in my senior year English class and not much of an interest in reading books anyway, I thought it might be worth a try. Asking permission of Mr. James Landers, who probably felt sorry for me, let me use the book for a report. I did! I was amazed at how that reading gave me so much better understanding of the Bible teachings I had been brought up on. I marveled and sought to know more, even as a young naive kid!

Since then, I have served as a Latter-day Saint missionary the Native Americans in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada, Blacks in South Africa and Botswana, Polynesians in Samoa, and fellow residents at the Riverton Utah Employment Center, the latter three in recent years with my wife, Ulene. We are the parents of eleven successful Christ-involved children, four girls and seven boys.

My career has been instructing (some administrating) of primarily public school, religious education, the “Science of Personal Achievement” by Napoleon Hill, the “Choice” seminar of the Arbinger Institute established by Dr. Terry Warner of BYU-Provo, and speaking at conferences, variety of church groups, community associations, and individual counseling on family relationships.

My education has been primarily “in the college of hard knocks,”as a living mortal soul with the Christ and the Father watching (while praying for prompting of the Spirit). My more formal back-up education of Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degree in Family Relationships – with schooling at Washington State University, Brigham Young University and George Wythe College.

I consider myself as an “unprofitable servant” compared to what the Lord has done for me, but willing to listen and learn truths from any source, be it of a philosophical, scientific, or mortal-secular origin, but most readily from the Spirit of the Lord and His Scriptures. I know Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are both very real and all powerful and all knowing.

Interesting note I want to share as it seems like a miracle experience:

Since about 1970 (?), my brother Jackson and I, have lived many miles apart, and had very little contact, mostly only an occasional phone call. When I checked out his blog November 11, 2022, I marveled how closely his writings and mine were alike, he with his approach to basic essentials and me to my similar understandings and perspectives. Hence, his story of that “second witness” that I will include herein, impacted me when I read it in September 2022 and his blog that I read for the first time more recently. We are thinking so very much alike but from different topics!

George Pemberton at Legacy Retirement in South Jordan, Utah