Blog # 49

Kevin V. Hunt

Today is May 20, 2025 and it is a day of personal celebration for me.  And being a historian, I look for any opportunity to write about and to otherwise celebrate any possible historic event – and to remember it again and again with the passage of time.  And so, on this day, I celebrate again the anniversary of my journal writing – begun May 20, 1973 – fifty two years ago.  Wow!  How is that possible?

And a major milestone … I have made an entry for every day of all of those 52 hyears … By my calculation, I think that equates to about 18,993 daily entries – now contained in 142 hand written or printed books. Wow … that is a lot of living that I have been able to capture and save for me and for my posterity – now and in the future.

I have written much in the past about my journal habit and so I will pull from my writing of the past.  I have included here a blog article posted back in 2020 in response to an invitation received from a Prophet – even President Russell M. Nelson.  At that time, he invited me and all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to reflect in gratitude for our many blessings.  I took up his challenge and posted ten different articles on various subjects or blessings for which I have gratitude. 

Journal writing is definitely one of the greatest of my blessings.  Journal writing and subsequent reading, pondering, and sharing those past entries has been one of my greatest accomplishments and enjoyments.

To those who have known me over these 52 years, you have likely heard this story over and over again. You are probably thinking, “This broken record again …?” And if that is the case, you can stop reading right now. But, if you need some new motivation to begin or to continue your journal writing mission, read on!

GRATITUDE FOR MY PERSONAL JOURNAL

By Kevin V. Hunt (Published December 3, 2020)

#GiveThanks  GRATITUDE BLOG #10  GRATITUDE FOR MY PERSONAL JOURNAL

One of the great blessings of my life is my personal journal.  I will forever be grateful for inspiration on May 20, 1973 to begin writing in a journal.  And I am grateful that I have been blessed with the motivation and fortitude to keep doing it.

On that May day, I was in a young adult Sunday school class -taught by J. Darwin Gunnell.  In that class, he quoted then LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball. 

Above: President Spencer W. Kimball

President Kimball had spoken much on the need to keep a personal record.   Darwin Gunnell challenged all of us in the class that day to go home that very day and to start writing.  He said that we should find a notebook of some kind and begin writing.  He challenged us to make a daily record.k

Above: Bishop J. Darwin Gunnell of Mesa, Arizona

I heard those special words that day and took up the challenge.  I went home and found a little “record book” that was blank. 

And in the book, I wrote the following words:

               “Sunday, May 20, 1973

“Today was kind of interesting.  In Priesthood meeting, all of the Aaronic priesthood met together and talked about the sacrament.  Last week’s service was discussed.  Someone asked what happened.  Bishop said “When Sis. Hunt is out of town the ward falls apart.  Between Priesthood and Sunday School I frantically tried to make some signs advertising the Scout Chuckwagon Dinner.  In Sunday School, Bro. Gunnell challenged all of us to keep a diary – so here I am.

I spent the afternoon trying to get our order in for Scout camping equipment.  Bro. Leon Jones finally got his Jamboree money over to me.  In sacrament meeting, Bishop Killian talked and called us all to repentance.  He said we should all stop gossiping.  I had it brought rather forcibly to my mind that I was a gossiper.  I spent the evening at the Temple Visitor’s Center for Paul Ellsworth (he was going to baccalaureate).  We had a going away party afterwards for Fred Mortenson who is leaving for the Taiwan Mission.”

So, that was my first journal entry, such as it was.   That was actually a pretty decent entry – for my first one.  The entry talked about people then in my life, the influence of various people, events or activities that I was involved in, and people I was associated with.  It had some information about history – which then was the common practice – but now looking back it documents church meetings as they were and no longer are.   The entry did not contain too much information, but it was the start.  It was the beginning of something really great.  And from that day, I have continued the challenge and have been committed to it.   I wrote the next day and the next … and I kept writing.  And now, 47 years later, I am still writing … and I have made an entry for literally EVERY day since that date.

The early entries of my journal  were pretty generic.  They were short and did not have much information.  It took me a while to really get into the writing and recording mode and gradually the entries became much more detailed and comprehensive.  And now, I generally write more than a full typed page entry for each day.  And now, the journal collection takes up a great many shelves in my history;/museum room.

My first 100 volumes of my journal were hand-written.  Did it take work and effort?  You bet it did!  Sometimes I was so tired at the end of the day that I could hardly write – let alone write a readable entry that made sense.  Did I write mundane stuff?  Yes, I did, and I still do.  In writing every day, there is a lot that is routine or “normal” stuff that happens repeatedly.  But, also, there is much that is of great worth for me now and in the future.

As I completed that Volume #100, My daughter, Kaylea, called Ron Hoon at the local TV station and told him about my journal project.  Ron found it rather interesting that I had written so much and for so long.  He featured me on one of his regular shows.  He and his cameraman came and spent a couple of hours with me.  He said that the segment would likely be about two minutes in length.  But it ended up being eight ad a half minutes as it aired.

Then for many years, I would type the entries for each day.  Ad when I got about 300 printed pages, I would take them to a local print shop for hard binding.  I did this through journal volume 126.  Then the printer quit doing the binding.  I was kind of stuck.  I continued to type the entries of each day and just collected them in weekly packages in directories for each year.  And just recently I discovered Lulu.com which provided a medium where I could publish these journals and other books.  I created books that are right at 500 pages each.  And on the cover of each, I included photos of events that happened in each journal book.  I just got the money to order the nine books that I created in this way.  The books will arrive soon.  I am kind of excited about receiving them.  It will be nice to have a full collection of every journal of the past 47 years.

My mother, now age 88, recently went to live at an assisted care center.  And as she did so, I became heir to her many hand-written journal books.  I knew that she started keeping a journal about the time that I did but I had never seen them all together and I did not know how many she had.  I was surprised and pleased that she too, had over one hundred volumes.  Random as well as selected entries became a major part of a printed history book that I created about her life for her and her posterity.  I am grateful that my mother religiously kept her personal journal.  It will be a blessing for many of her generations.

I also recently created a history book about my father.  He died a couple of years ago a month before his 90^th birthday.  I had never known my father to write anything (I think I had about four letters from him in my life-time and those were all three or four liners).  As his book project was nearing completion, I was talking to my brother.  When going through some of dad’s things, he came across a very plain book with no title.  He opened it and learned that it was a journal of his two-year church mission and contained an entry for every day of the mission (except the last week – when he ran out of paper in the book).  Wow!  I could not believe such a find.  What a treasure.  My brother “loaned” me the book.  And over the next couple of months I transcribed or typed the entire book and included this in its entirety in his book.  On each page, I showed a photo of his own writing at the top and then then below it, I showed my typed translation.  I am so grateful that I found this wonderful record.  Pretty amazing!

I have noted that I created many books about my ancestors.  In the books there are photos, histories, and other material.  It has been wonderful to read of the lives of so many of my ancestors..  All great material!  But the very best material was that written by the people themselves.  It is so great to read in their own writing and style of their life and times.  I am grateful for those precious records.

I have written previously about the joys and benefits of journal keeping but this is a subject that can and should be repeated over and over.   As I talk about journals and records, I like to begin with a note about Jesus and his view on record keeping.  The Lord Jesus Christ himself emphasized the great importance of record keeping to the Nephites and Lamanites as he visited them following his death and resurrection in Jerusalem.  He visited the Americas as a resurrected being.  He talked to Nephi, his newly appointed Chief Apostle [here in America] … (and these are the words of President Kimball in his exhortation to the Saints about record keeping):

.  “And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not written this thing.”

“I am glad that it was not I who was reprimanded, even though mildly and kindly, for not having fulfilled the obligation to keep my records up to date.

“Early in the American life of the family of Lehi, his son, Nephi, said (about 600 B.C):

“Having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days. …  “And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.” (1 Ne. 1:1, 3.)

This great record included not only the movements of his people but events from Nephi’s own personal life.

President Kimball continues:

“Accordingly, we urge our young people to begin today to write and keep records of all the important things in their own lives and also the lives of their antecedents in the event that their parents should fail to record all the important incidents in their own lives. Your own private journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you. Do not suppose life changes so much that your experiences will not be interesting to your posterity. Experiences of work, relations with people, and an awareness of the rightness and wrongness of actions will always be relevant.”

“No one is commonplace, and I doubt if you can ever read a biography from which you cannot learn something from the difficulties overcome and the struggles made to succeed. These are the measuring rods for the progress of humanity.

“As we read the stories of great men, we discover that they did not become famous overnight nor were they born professionals or skilled craftsmen. The story of how they became what they are may be helpful to us all.”

President Kimball then gives his counsel to each of us – and I am grateful for that inspiring counsel:

“Your own journal, like most others, will tell of problems as old as the world and how you dealt with them.

“Your journal should contain your true self rather than a picture of you when you are “made up” for a public performance. There is a temptation to paint one’s virtues in rich color and whitewash the vices, but there is also the opposite pitfall of accentuating the negative. The truth should be told, but we should not emphasize the negative.  The good biographer will not depend on passion but on good sense. He will weed out the irrelevant and seek the strong, novel, and interesting.

“Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully. You are unique, and there may be incidents in your experience that are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other life. There may be a flash of illumination here and a story of faithfulness there; you should truthfully record your real self and not what other people may see in you.

“Your story should be written now while it is fresh and while the true details are available.

“A journal is the literature of superiority. Each individual can become superior in his own humble life.

President Kimball asks,

“What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?

“Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.”

And then here was the clincher … the challenge from a prophet (and just as good today as it was back then):

“Get a notebook, my young folks, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events.

So, my friends, I took the challenge from my former Bishop and from the Prophet.  As already noted, I went home that day and found a little notebook and began writing.  Later I began purchasing nicer journal volumes.  And the truth is that from that day forward – from May 20, 1973, I have literally made a DAILY entry in my journal for EVERY day since that time.  That now equates to over 135 volumes and somewhere around 45,000 plus pages on my life and those I love or whom I have come in contact with.

Now I admit that I have not made the final journal entry for every day of my life. If I get behind, I now write daily notes at the end of the day – on my characteristic 3×5” index cards.  And then when I get time, I type these up into the full entries (and the notes give me the detail to do so).  This system has worked really well for me.  (When I had missionaries out, I typed the full week’s entry package in time to e-mail to them on their P-Day.)

These journals have been a great blessing to me and to our family and I am so very grateful for them.  We are very frequently found researching past volumes and it is amazing and wonderful to read these entries.  There has been much that is mundane that has been recorded but in the process of daily entries, there is much that is fabulous.  The journals show my progress made in life, how the Lord has guided my life and the great blessings given us of the Lord.  And this has been magnificent!

Some suggestions for your journal writing:

• Decide TODAY to write and to do it each day
• Develop a set time each day to write and do this religiously – this could be at lunch time, study time, just before dinner, at the end of the day, etc. The key is to be VERY CONSISTENT!
• Write even when you feel too tired to do so
• Carry the journal with you everywhere and write whenever you have a few spare minutes (especially as you’re waiting for something or someone)
• Don’t read past entries until six months or a year has passed … then the trauma will be over and you can see it all in perspective and can recognize the growth, progress, and blessings that have come in that time
• Keep consistent in the type of books or files that you keep – so that you can keep them together and can research them easily
• Develop a plan for archiving the records – and giving copies to key people or organizations (children, BYU, Church History Library or whatever)

And so, looking back over the years, was it worth it?  Would I do it all over again?  Why am I grateful that I have maintained a journal?

Here are at least some of the benefits:

• By writing in the journal I document life events that happen, who I do things with, and my feelings about those events
• I can daily acknowledge the Lord for His many blessings to me and family
• I can see growth and progress over time
• I can see that as President Hinckley often said, “Things will work out {and have worked out]
• I can research past journal for inclusion in greater projects
• I can research and find things that happened to my “peeps” on the day that they were born,, married, suffered challenges, and more
• I can feel and know of the Lord’s guidance and direction in my life
• Reading of past journal entries can provide great entertainment at gatherings of family and friends
• I can research entries about associations with specific people with whom I have developed a special bond
• I can “relive” special times and events that have been long forgotten (by me and family)
• The journal helps me to be positive about life as I look for the good things that have happened in my life and others
• Can be a repository of scrapbook type things – programs, , photos, invitations, certificates, and more if desired
• I can record in the journal , poems,  articles and talks and other documents that I create (or that I receive from others)
• Records information that others do not take the time or effort to record
• If desired, I can also add photographs that tie to the activity or event talked of in the journal
• I can use the journals as a reference for creating a more abbreviated personal or family history
• I can record my goals, hopes, and dreams – and then watch as they develop
• I can make a record of each day so that details of the day are retained – and so that the events do not just pass away into oblivion
• Bu recording a journal entry as it happens, it can be recalled when I am old and no longer able to remember those details
• I can document events, ordinances, and other things that were not properly recorded by clerks or others – so that the records can be created or updated
•  Journals can be a blessing to me, my wife, our children, our grandchildren and generations down the line
• What I write is also recorded in heaven (as the scriptures attest) – so I can write my own “Book of Life” (in my words)
• Creates bonds of love as people see that you cared enough to write about them – and a special time can be had as you read the journal together
• Provides rare proof for the “I Told You So” moments
• I can preserve personal and family history
• Can record history with major events of the community, the nation, and the world
• Documents jobs and positions held with start and finish dates
• I can donate the completed journal books and records (digitally, scans, hard copy, readings, videos, etc.) to BYU, The LDS Church Historical Society, FamilySearch and other historical societies for professional record preservation for use by generations to come
• The journal becomes a primary or original source of information
• I can know that my life has had purpose, that I have accomplished great things
• I can rejoice in the Lord and be grateful for each day and for my life as it comes and then too soon passes

I could go on and on, but I think you can get the picture.  And I affirm that I have realized each one of those blessings.  And so, my journaling has been worth every effort and sacrifice made to create the records.  I am so grateful for the inspiration to write, of what to write, the time and the personal commitment and stamina to keep writing.  The journal package (of 47 years) is truly one of my greatest of treasures.

Well, there you have it!  There is your challenge!  I hope you will take up the journaling challenge (at whatever your age) and that you will find great joy and happiness through the years as you and your posterity reap the blessings of such an effort.

I am grateful for my personal journals that document my journey on the trail of my life (along with my family and others who have joined me on the trail!