Pasted from an e-mail from Chris to his family members:
Thomas is giving a talk in sacrament meeting next week, so I thought I'd share it with you all. The typos are for his benefit:
"My name is Thomas and I am named after my first Latter Day Saint relative, John Thomas, and his son-in-law, Thomas Giles. Thomas Giles was a coal miner in Wales.
Four years after he was baptized, he was blinded when some coal fell on his head. Even though he was blind, he learned to play the harp and in 18-56 he pulled his own handcart across the plains. His wife and baby girl died on the trip and he got very sick. But he stayed faithful.
When he got to Utah he went from town to town and played his harp for the saints and made them happy. He was called the blind harpist of Zion."
* * *
After he sat and read it aloud to me and Elise, Gordon wanted to do the same ... without any help. He grabbed the piece of paper and said, "My name is Jesus ... oh, I mean Gordon ..." then a bunch of nonsense.