Russell M. Nelson's Autobiography

[Gabriel]

I abandoned my little Russell posting project a while back.
Nevertheless, I have just found a second witness for those interested in reading directly from the source (without having to shell out an exorbitant amount of cash.)

From Heart To Heart An Autobiography Russell M. Nelson : Russell M. Nelson : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/from-heart- ... -m.-nelson


I, for one, am extremely glad that this book is now online.

A hat tip to the redditor who posted the link.

[Marcus]

And I’ve been feeling guilty for a while that I didn’t show a greater appreciation for your efforts! I read every single post, and enjoyed your efforts immensely. Thank you.

[Rivendale]

I abandoned my little Russell posting project a while back.
Nevertheless, I have just found a second witness for those interested in reading directly from the source (without having to shell out an exorbitant amount of cash.)

From Heart To Heart An Autobiography Russell M. Nelson : Russell M. Nelson : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/from-heart- ... -m.-nelson


I, for one, am extremely glad that this book is now online.

A hat tip to the redditor who posted the link.

You should have kept going. The dream about the grandpa visiting after death was worth many installments. We find out you have to get permission to do things in the afterlife. You wear suits. And your free will is violated by making you get resurrected. Oh and when the dad returned for a visit in the dream he reassured his son he can't see him all the time because he is too busy. Resulting in a sigh of relief for the dreamer.

[Gabriel]

And I’ve been feeling guilty for a while that I didn’t show a greater appreciation for your efforts! I read every single post, and enjoyed your efforts immensely. Thank you.

I think that my OP may have come across as a bit terse because I posted it in a bad cell area from my phone.

On the contrary, your support Marcus, and that of everyone here has been wonderful! -- not to mention the quality peer-review and fact-checking in the comments sections that many here have provided. My issue wasn't lack of interest, but lack of time: It's one thing to write a book report, it's quite another to write and do justice to a book under the burden of knowing that few, if any, will ever have the opportunity of reading. Thus, my posts tended to a regrettable verbosity in order to provide as much context as possible. Of course, I also wanted to stem off any suspicion of quote mining. At the same time, I had to muzzle my opinions about many other interesting sections of Russell's autobiography that I didn't have time to share.

Also, I spent a lot of time in private discussions with another member of our forum. He has done a hell of a job scouring newspapers, SEC Reports, Yachting and medical journals, Utonian student newspapers and yearbooks (even going so far as to email the Marriot Library to try to get some clarification on an apparent discrepancy in one of the UofU yearbooks.) I posted little that wasn't run by him first. At his suggestion, I even refrained from posting one article that wasn't backed up by enough solid evidence (which would have been a HUGE blunder had I put it online). Thus, the My Weekly Russell project was a team effort. I was just the pretty face of our dynamic duo.

These articles were also augmented with some quality fact-checking by yourself and others. I especially enjoyed Gadianton's insights. I am proud of the work we did. I am especially glad that everyone now has access to Russell's autobiography (if for no other reason than that it confirms that we didn't engage in any shenanigans when quoting Russell.)

You should have kept going.

I promised my wife that I would quit by New Year's. There are penalties for breaking promises to my wife, which I will not utter here.

At any rate, now that Russell's autobiography is online the field is white already to harvest.
Anyone who wants can thrust in their sickle with their might. It's also my hope that many members of the church will avail themselves of the opportunity to read it. [by the way. Little-known fact: Dallin Oakes also wrote his autobiography titled "The First Thirty-Nine Years." He completed it before he became president of BYU.]

The dream about the grandpa visiting after death was worth many installments.

I agree. But as Russell's later biographers wrote about that dream in their books, I didn't want to spend time on it. We were primarily focused on what was either omitted from or altered in his official hagiographies. Besides, every Mormon with a pedigree has some such folklore passed down to them. My formula as to their veracity (or lack thereof) is that those who claim to experience them seem to go on living exactly as they did before.

In my opinion, if one were to read only one chapter of Russell's autobiography, I would suggest that the skeleton key into his psyche can be found in Chapter 35 (page 261 in the printed book and page 138 of the PDF file). I believe that Nelson has some serious toys in his attic.

[Rivendale]

Wife be dammed keep writing. Your writing style is absolute poetry.

[IHAQ]

You’d be hard pressed to find someone with a higher opinion of Russell M. Nelson than Russell M. Nelson.

[Marcus]

Wife be dammed keep writing. Your writing style is absolute poetry.

Nope.

[Dwight]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mormon/comment ... rd_to_his/

Someone over on the Mormon Reddit has a post that says President Nelson ghostwrote the foreword to his autobiography and it was attributed to Spencer W. Kimball. This is coming from Spencer W. Kimball's journals being made available. I imagine that things like this is why there are rumors/reports that GAs are now being discouraged from keeping journals, it's not very faith promoting to see how the sausage gets made or the other side of the story.

[Gabriel]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mormon/comment ... rd_to_his/

Someone over on the Mormon Reddit has a post that says President Nelson ghostwrote the foreword to his autobiography and it was attributed to Spencer W. Kimball. This is coming from Spencer W. Kimball's journals being made available. I imagine that things like this is why there are rumors/reports that GAs are now being discouraged from keeping journals, it's not very faith promoting to see how the sausage gets made or the other side of the story.

What an interesting find, Dwight!

Here’s the passage from Spencer’s journal [bolding mine]:

2/27 Nelson brought a suggested forward he has written for me that he would like approval to use in a compilation he has prepared on his life’s story. He has written a very interesting account of his activities, some of which included experiences with me, and I assured him I would be happy to read it and give him approval to use it. [[a fulsome foreword for a man to write about himself!!]]; visit LeGrande Richards in hospital.

Upon reading the above I was put to mind an observation made by Gadianton over a year ago. This is his comment regarding Dantzel White Nelson’s Overview to Russell’s autobiography:

I think she probably did write it, but there certainly isn't a single thing in here one wouldn't expect after having read what he's said about himself. I mean, you learn nothing new from this outside voice. If he would have given her a list to put in her own words, then this is what we'd be reading.

[Dr Moore]

Who among the Utah medical elite could resist such an opportunity embellish his own embellished embellishment?