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We got home last evening about 10 pm 
after spending a week in North Carolina. This visit really put a capstone on our mission. The high-light of the week was joining Todd and Tabatha Harrell on Wednesday for their sealing in the Washington DC temple.
Tabatha was also sealed to her parents, Jeff and Debbie Pierce. (Jeff and Debbie received their sealing in the Raleigh temple last fall.) There were a lot of joyful tears shed.
Wendy treasured her invitation to be an escort for Tabatha, her first such opportunity. Beside ourselves, persons at the sealing were Todd and Tabatha, Jeff and Debbie, Branch President Danny Henderson and his wife Sherry, Theron and Shirley Shepard, and Ethelene Pierce.
(Pictured: Tabatha & Todd; Jeff, Tabatha, Todd, & Debbie; Wendy, Tabatha, Todd & me; Theron, Shirley, me, Wendy, Sherry, Pres. Danny, Bailie Henderson (who came along), Tabatha, Todd, Ethelene, Jeff, Debbie, Tabatha's sister Anita Whitman and her son Zachary)
We flew SW Air to Raleigh, flying out at 6 am our time Tuesday morning May 17th. (We had to leave home about 3:30 am.) The Shepards picked us up at RDU and we headed with them for Washington DC. They drive a nearly new Lincoln sedan that has a very comfortable ride. We got to the motel about 10:30 pm after our GPS (Gertie) took us on a scenic tour of the main part of Washington (Washington and Jefferson memorials, capitol, etc.–not our desire, but interesting). All of us were in the same motel and we saw all of the party, then went to bed.
In the morning, we left for the temple about 8am with the Shepards. We had a little trouble finding our way, but managed to arrive at about the scheduled time (8:30 am). We beat Todd and Tabatha, who also got lost. (Washington traffic and streets are difficult.) We were with them in the preparatory meetings with temple leaders, and attended the 10 am session. The sealing was at 12:30. First the officiator performed the sealing for Todd and Tabatha and then sealed her to her parents. We took time for a little visiting with all the group outside the temple and for pictures. Then we with the Shepards headed back for NC.
Shepards took us back to RDU where we
picked up our rental car. It was a Ford Escape with about 9000 miles on it and a lot of fun to drive. For old times sake, we went by our favorite Andy’s in Apex, near the temple, for our dinner. It was 9:01 pm when we came in the door and they ha
d just closed. But the manager, who was our old buddy, agreed to served us anyhow. (We went there almost weekly.) We had our favorite cheeseburgers, fries, and strawberry cheesecake frozen custard. He told us that Andy’s has decided to expand nationwide and for $200,000 someone could become a franchisee and open an Andy’s in Utah. Could that really happen–they’re so much better than In-and-Out. We got to Shepard’s place about 11:30 pm and arranged to sleep in the next morning. Tuesday and Wednesday had been very long days.
After a very late breakfast, Wendy and I sat down and made a list of everyone we wanted to see. First, we called and visited Randall and 
Karen Brown. There we learned that Riley Gore was in the Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greensville with heart and breathing problems. We visited Randall’s turkey barns while there. We stopped at Nethercutts (she has been ill), then went out to Jeff and Dorothy Futreals. Dorothy had been receiving more treatment for cancer that morning and he had a long seige of illness through the winter. We were glad to they were feeling up to visit with us. While there we also saw Daryl as he stopped in to pick up Cade who was there with his grandparents. We were impressed with how personable and expressiver Cade was with us, and were glad that Daryl seems happy ion his new marriage. While in the area we also stopped to see James and Hannah Batts, who insisted that we again accompany them to lunch Saturday at the Wallace Western Sizzlin’.
On Friday we went first to see Riley Gore, who we had learned had returned home from the hospital the previous afternoon. He seemed pretty good and Judy was quite animated and excited to visit. Their son Lenny was also there. We spent some time with James and Connie and Chris Whaley. In the evening we drove with the Shepards to dinner at the River Front restaurant down on the coast at Snead’s Ferry.
On Saturday, we saw Linen Elston, and went to lunch with the Batts. We visited with Carl and June Owen who were helping Travis get ready for Jr.-Sr. Prom, then drove out to Kenansville to a party for the 6th birthday for Christian, a boy that Todd and Tabatha are preparing to adopt. The party was at Todd’s parents place. We met the older brother Joshua also, and saw many Pierce and Harrell relatives and friends, ate a barbecue dinner, watched Christian open presents (It might have out-done Christmas). After leaving we visited Startas and got reports on their missionary son and their daughter at West Point.
On Sunday we attended church at the Branch (more on that later), went out to the Whaleys where we ate and saw Connie and James, Maria and June-bug and most of their kids, Chris, and Connie’s sister Carol. We then dropped in on the Hendersons, and finaly Jason and Erin Kokinda and their kids and baby. We spent our last evening with the Shepards.
Monday morning we left for Raleigh where we dropped in at the Mission Office. We saw both President and Sister Cotterells, and Sister cooper, and met the new mission office staff and APs. President Cotterell invited us to sit in on the start of the weekly office meeting and to bear our testimonies. Leaving the Office, we drove to Wentworth to the Community College Library. Arriving about 1:30 pm, We saw Bob Carter, presented him with a copy of a Table of Contents for the Guy Lewis materials we had shared with the library and reviewed a five volume set of books on Lewis genealogy that Fred and Dorothy Lewis had given the library. We had planned on seeing Fred and Dorothy, but Fred was sick so we didn’t go there. Having a little time, we drove to the site of the Battle of Alamance, saw a movie abouit the battle, walked around the grounds and saw a 225 year old restored cabin. We drove back toward the RDU and got a room in Chapel Hill for the night.
On Tuesday, dropped off our car and boarded our plane at about 1:30 pm for Phoenix, flying by and over the midwest storms that have spawned so many tornados. The flight into Salt Lake at sundown was extraordinarily pretty, with the green valley, and snow covering the top halves of the mountains. We arrived home about 10 pm and all was well.
Wendy brought a house plant to our marriage. We don't know its name--maybe Matilda. She got it as a start from a friend at work a little before we met, so it is about 6 years since it was potted. It lives inside our living room bay window.
It has grown a lot and appears healthy. A few days ago, hidden down among the shiny green leaves, we were surprised and excited to find a bloom on the plant, perhaps a once in a lifetime occurrence.
See the little pink flowers about a centimeter across.
We also got our garden planted this week. We attended a class sponsored by our Relief Society on "square foot" gardening and planted beets, lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, kohlrabi in foot-square blocks, also beans and peas, and one Zucchini plant, according to "square foot" gardening rules.
We also put in 13 tomato plants. The plants from the nursery were very leggy, 16-18 inches long, and bent over sidewise. We were instructed to dig on elongated hole and lay the plant in sidewise. The store-person promised that in short order the parts of the plants that were above ground would straighten up to face the sun. It was amazing. Within just a few hours all but about two of the plants had vertical stems.
We got lots of help and could not have done this without this help. Scott helped me move the three panels that had been toppled over, out of the way, so that we could come up with a plan for doing the fix. There was quite a lot of engineering involved. We had to decide whether we could keep the panels intact or take them apart and start the rebuilding from scratch. The former seemed much simpler and offer a better looking finsihed product. However, being able to keep the panels intact and reinstall them “as is” would depend whether we could get the cement bases for the two old posts out so as to be able to reinstall new posts in the same holes.
I thought that this was worth a try. Then we had about a week of rain. When the ground had dried out I dug around the concrete and discovered that they were wedge-shaped, and larger at the top. I discerned that it might be possible to dig to the base of the concrete (about 24") on the garden side and undercut the concrete blocks so as to be able to tip them to the east, then to slip a heavy rope or chain around the block just below the widest part and lift or pull them out of the holes. I was also hoping that the holes would not have to be enlarged so much that the concrete for the replacement posts could be contained in a small sized hole.
On Thursday evening, May 5th, Andrew was here and he helped me finished the digging the holes on the east side of the concrete. Then we were able to loosen the blocks and tip them partly over into the holes, using a pry-bar.
The next day using a heavy rope from Vic Hansen, we got it around the tops of the blocks of concrete in a sort of slip-knot fashion. We thought that we could leverage the blocks out of their holes with a long bar inserted through a loop in the rope just above the slip-knot. It tuned out however that our two muscle guys, Andrew and Travis Reynolds (just-returned missionary and former SF High football player), holding each end of the bar, hefted the concrete blocks right out of their holes and out to the street, without any prying or leveraging or any other help. Vic (who is about 80 years old) and I were glad to stand back and admire their strength and our engineering prowess.
In preparation for a work session on the next day (Saturday), I purchased the two replacement posts, 12 new brackets to attach the stringers for the panels to the new posts (the existing ones had been twisted), 3 bags of sackrete, and a couple of 8 foot 2x4s to use as braces while the concrete was setting. On Saturday morning, Andrew and I removed the cedar slats on the fence panels that were next to the posts so that the panels could be reattached and attached the new brackets in their right positions on the new and remaining posts. Because the post holes had become quite enlarged, Scott and I came up with a strategy to use buckets around the posts and just fill the insides of the buckets with concrete. I found two 5 gallon plastic buckets (paint and detergent) and removed the bottoms and handles, leaving only a cylinder.
On Saturday afternoon May 7th, Brad and Travis Bates and Scott came over to help. We put the bucket cylinders into the two holes then dropped in the posts. Using a chalk line and level we positioned the posts and three panels and attached the stringers to the brackets on the posts, then braced the posts in their correct positions using the 2x4s attached on the other ends to garden grow-box frames. We positioned the bucket cylinders and replaced the dirt in the holes up to the outside top of the cylinders, then mixed the concrete in a wheel-barrow and filled up the inside of the cylinders next to the posts. It took less than 90 minutes for this crew to put the fence back in position.
Work stopped again as we had more rain in the next few days. On Friday, May 13th I removed the two braces and replaced the remaining cedar slats that were next to the posts. Then I repainted the whole west side of the fence. [Picture of the finished product]
As an 18-year old Freshman at BYU, I joined the Mens Chorus under Ralph Woodward and participated in a Spring tour to New Mexico and Arizona. We gave concerts in Ward houses and stayed in the homes of members. The first night out we were in Farmington, NM. After our concert I was taken home along with one other choir member to a family named Jack (I still remember the family name, probably because of an experience in their home that then seemed extraordinary). We got up in the morning to eat breakfast with them before our buses left their town. Before starting breakfast we knelt together with them for family prayer. The dad called upon a small son, perhaps 8 or 9 years old, to offer the prayer. I was amazed to hear the maturity of this boy’s prayer, representing the family as voice, giving thanks for blessings this family had received and asked for things they needed this day. I guess I had never heard a child pray in this way before. (We blessed the food but didn’t have family prayer in our home.) This experience expanded my vision of what family could do to train their children in spiritual things.
I saw eviden
ce of the res
ults of this kind of spiritual training in our family Saturday. Sweet little Lindsey was baptized along with a little boy from their ward. Also in the same program, Scott gave a name and blessing to Brandon. (They did the latter because Scott’s parents and sisters were able to attend.) All of the Melchizedek priesthood holders in our family that are here in Utah participated in this blessing, myself, Nathan, Matthew, Quin, Bruce, and Andrew, plus Grandpa Blake and two of Scott's brother-in-laws. Perhaps the most exciting to me, was for how Lindsey’s brothers participated in the baptismal program for those parts that had been assigned to her family. Justin gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, confidently promising Lindsey that the Spirit would be a great blessing in her life. Ethan led the singing for two songs, smiling and following the patterns expertly and keeping the downbeats correctly. Finally Adam, confidently, thoughtfully, and in a grown-up and dignified way, said the closing prayer. I am grateful that my grandchildren are being raised with the same spiritual vision and expertise that I first saw many years ago at the home of the Jack's in Farmington NM.
We all had lunch at Scott and Emilie's after the service and Wendy brought desert, strawberry short (angel food) cake to celebrate my birthday. The Utah County families also dropped by Sunday evening for another birthday desert. All in all, this was a fine birthday celebration, to have all of this family association and their best wishes and love.
Alyssa called us last week, inviting us to a community Easter concert last Thursday night in which her choir was participating. She has become a member of the Utah Valley Children’s Choir. This appears to be a private choral musical development group with a spiritual and LDS-orientation. (See tour picture.)
The concert itself was an Spanish Fork City-sponsored Easter event, that included performances by four choirs, the children’s choir, Spanish Fork and Payson community choirs, and the UVU Institute choir. We went not knowing what to expect, but came away excited and having been spiritually fed. Each choir did about 4 numbers and there were three numbers by a combined effort. The two city community choirs were good, but being made up largely of elderly singers had perhaps a little trouble with excess vibrato and difficulty with higher pitches. The children’s choir was impressive and the UVU institiute choir outstanding.
Listening to these two young choirs particularly, reminded me of some remarks by Bro. Woodward when I was singing with him as a BYU student. He said something to the effect that young voices can produce absolutely the best choral sound and that there is an unmatched power in sacred music when sung by people with testimonies of the Restored Gospel.
I was spiritually moved to the point of tears as I heard musical witnesses of the mission, suffering, and atonement of our Savior. I resolved in my mind to seek out this kind of experience in future Easters and make this kind of thing part of my Easter observance and tradition. I was grateful that someone responsible for Spanish Fork City special events had seen the need for a tradition of an Easter choral presentation (its has been held for several years, we heard) and to Alyssa for helping get us there.
On Thursday afternoon, while we were working at the temple a storm front blew through Utah. According to weather news, it carried not much rain but had 60 mph winds and additional microbursts that blew down trees, took of roofs, etc., all across the Wasatch Front. The weather was calm when we came out of the temple. We didn’t notice anything different until I decided to go for a walk Friday morning. As I turned the corner to walk northward along 820 East, lo and behold, half of the fence along the west side of our property had been blown down. Two fence posts were broken off and three sections of the fence were lying over toward our garden.
Scott was generous to come over yesterday afternoon and help disconnect the sections and move them out of the way, and help me devise the strategy for fixing the fence. We will try to start the repair Monday evening, by digging out the two post bottoms (they are set in concrete), replacing the posts, then reattaching the three panels.
In the little community of Glenwood, Washington, where I was raised, religion was important to a fairly small part of the people, and they represented several different denominations--Baptists, Presbyterian, a couple of Catholics. We had one Seventh Day Adventist family, the Andrews, that we quite dutiful after one of their children died. Early Saturday morning we would see them driving past our place to go to White Salmon for their church’s services and were quite conscientious about not doing any of their farm work on their Sabbath. When I was small my mother took us to the Glenwood Community Church for Sunday School and eventually my dad joined us in attending.
Sunday was also a baseball day. Every little town had their own ball team in those days. My dad usually had a team to play for until WWII started and then he had long work weeks plus he was trying to work our little dairy farm. After the war he tried to play baseball again but retired after about three years because he couldn’t compete with the younger guys any longer. After that we generally we went to Sunday School in the morning and in the afternoon watched the ballgames of the Glenwood townteam when they were playing at home.
Glenwood was primarily a farming community. During harvest season, most of the farmers had their big work days on the weekends, because that was the time when they could get extra help. Of course, my dad worked at his regular job during the week plus milked the cows morning and evening. He did the haying mostly on weekends and also helped neighbors with their big jobs (i. e., threshing grain) on the weekends. He was a big, strong man and hard worker and was in much demand in the fall, especially.
My Dad must still have had a little of his maternal ancestors’ Primative Baptist sabbath teaching in his head, who opposed working on the Sabbath (Sunday). Eventually, he concluded that when he tried to do his own farm work on Sundays, there were so many equipment breakdowns that it wasn’t worth trying. So he evolved a Sunday policy for himself. He wouldn’t do his own farm work on Sundays, but he would still help a neighboring farmer, when needed.
When I was a youth, baseball was a big thing for me and my good friend Jim Johnson. As early as about the 6th or 7th grade, we would bring our baseball mitts to school as soon as the snow started to melt, to play catch along the edge of the school building to begin to get our arms in shape for the baseball season. I played with the high school team starting about the 8th grade and also played a couple of years with the White Salmon American Legion team. In May of my senior year of high school, I also started to work out with the Glenwood townteam when they practiced on evenings. I sensed I was getting stronger physically. I still remember how the ball would jump off my bat in batting practice at that time. The men guys seemed excited to have me start playing on their team.
The week after I graduated from Glenwood High School I was baptized into the Church. I had wanted and prayed for this opportunity for over nine years. I quickly discovered that a new spiritual influence and direction had been added to my life. I immediately experienced discomfort with the idea of Sunday baseball. (That was when all the games were played.) I knew that I had new standards that I needed to live up to. So I made up my mind that I wouldn’t play baseball with the townteam. I let it be known that I had decided not to play, explaining that it was a religious commitment. The men expressed some disappointment, but I never looked back. This turned out to be a pivotal, life-directing choice.
Here are some of my thoughts after finishing the reading of the new biography of President Monson (TO THE RESCUE:THE BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS S. MONSON, Heidi S. Swinton, Deseret Book, 2010). I gained tremendous new respect for President Monson through reading this book. People really come first with him. And he seems to make no differentiation between people, the high and the low, the rich and poor, the popular and the unknown.
In one respect, he reminds me of President Richard Lindsay. He really cares. And he has an exception memory about people that he has previously met. I used to say that President Lindsay had a memory about people that was computer-like. His mind and heart seemed to store the most recent status report he had received about each individual of his acquaintance; when he received a new report it would replace the older report. I would meet him in the hall of the Stakehouse, and he would say, “How is JoAnn?” often naming what the last thing he knew about her; then, “How is Alison?”; then on down through the family in order. He seemed to me to be genuinely interested in each individual, and would not be satisfied until he had an update in each one. A humorous thing happened as I was serving under him as Stake Executive Secretary. One night at Presidency meeting, he announced that he had not visited with the people in the stake family (persons with stake callings) for a number of months and wanted me to schedule 5 minute appointments with each one of them. Just at that moment, the telephone in the President’s office rang and he went into that room to answer it. The First Counselor, Louis Poore, (he was the one who kept this Presidency organized and on-track) turned to me and said, “Try to get him to allow more time to these interviews. He will get hopelessly behind if you only schedule 5 minutes interviews. Why, in 5 minutes he will not even have gotten down to asking how the dog is.”
President Monson seems to have this kind of memory and concern for people and yet combines this with strong leadership and organizational skills. But he seems to be leading the Church both by example and by his teaching and preaching to give a greater emphasis to ministering as opposed to administering. But even in our work with people in and out of the Church, there seems to me to be somewhat different emphasis. For example, we have heard Elder Packer advocate for study of the gospel as the means to change behavior in people. “I have long believed that the study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than talking about behavior will improve behavior.” (“Washed Clean” Conference address April 1997). President Monson’s emphasis regarding the means to invoke changes in others seems to focus more upon love, service, and gentle invitation.
His background and experience may have helped him focus on the little person and their simple needs, and help me to give him greater respect. Some details–President Monson was raised on the west side of Salt Lake City that is now freeway and industrial buildings, in the vicinity of 5th South and 5th or 6th West. In those days, there were lots of train whistles, transients, and little old homes with widows and foreign-born persons. His own family may have been a cut above some of his neighbors (his father had a steady job) but they had no history of Church leaders (i.e., Bishops, Stake Presidents, general authorities, etc). His parents were married in the temple, but his father didn’t go back for a second time until elderly. His extended family had a little cabin at Vivian Park and the family appeared to spend summers there, Sundays included. There was an incident where a shotgun fired accidentally that narrowly missed his brother Robert, while the two of them we duck hunting in the Great Salt Lake marshes on a Sunday morning, that caused him some reflection. This happened a few weeks prior to his call as a Bishop’s Counselor and seemed to help point both him and his brother toward a greater commitment to obedience.
PARTAKING OF THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST AND QUALIFYING FOR ETERNAL LIFE A number of the speakers addressed various aspects of the process by which a person might have the blessings of the atonement in their lives and progress toward eternal life. Elder Dallin H. Oaks detailed a series of steps. The process starts with our Desires, around which we develop Priorities and make Choices. Our Actions follow, which ultimately determine what we become, including our eternal destiny, the most valued outcome, eternal life, which is made possible by the atonement and through the inspiration of the Spirit. At a most basic level, we must manage, discipline and prioritize our desires, so that they lead us toward righteous actions and eternal life. Highlights of other talks addressing this general topic included that of Elder D. Todd Christofferson, that we should be willing to accept and even seek correction from the Lord and his servants so that we might take a course in life that will sanctify us and prepare us to live again with our Heavenly Father. Elder Lynn G. Robbins considered how “to-do” and “to-be” together lead to us become like our Savior, affecting ultimately our very nature, character, and identity. Elder C. Scott Grow emphasized how Christ invites each of us to repent and through the miracle of his atonement can heal and redeem each of us. Elder Walter F Gonzales stated that two key characteristics that define followers of Christ are their love for others and their willingness to make and keep covenants. Speaking about keeping specific commandments were: Elder L. Tom Perry–Sabbath observance; Elder Carl B. Pratt–Tithing; Elder Neil Anderson--Missionary service; President Thomas S. Monson--Temple
DEALING WITH ADVERSITY/FORGIVING A related topic had to do experiencing and triumphing over trials, adversity, suffering, and the turmoil in the world. These things need to be dealt with in faith and have potential to teach us lessons and draw us closer to God (Elders Kent F. Richards, Russell M. Nelson). No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience, is wasted, if we bear it patiently, but builds our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls (Elder Paul V. Johnson). We also must exercise a lot of forgiveness (to those who may have hurt us--Elder Boyd K. Packer).
GROWING IN PRIESTHOOD POWER Another related theme was express in the Priesthood meeting. President Henry B. Eyring related how quorum unity, love, and shared conviction of the overarching priesthood purpose help speed an individual’s growth in the priesthood. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf challenged priesthood holders to live equal to their privileges, by studying the doctrines of the priesthood (scriptures), seeking the revelations of the Spirit, and finding joy in priesthood service--“the wonder and awe of what the Lord has entrusted to us.”
RECOGNIZING THE SPIRIT/RECEIVING REVELATION AND TESTIMONY Elder David A, Bedner reviewed two patterns of revelation, as analogous to 1) turning on a light– darkness disappears immediately, and 2) dawn–gradual discernment of light. The latter is most common, in which the Spirit whispers revelation gently and delicately. Care must be taken to not impair our ability to discern these subtle messages– avoid inappropriate media, pornography, addictive substances and behaviors. We also must more forward step by step, acting in faith, hope and charity to receive more revelation (President Deiter F. Uchtdorf–Sunday am session). A testimony is like a living organism and must be nourished and protected to thrive (Elder Cecil O. Samuelson).
CARING FOR THE POOR/CHARITY AND SERVICE Adding impetus to the expectation that we minister to the needy, the sick, and the suffering were speakers Elder H. David Burton, Silvia H. Allred, President Henry B. Eyring (Saturday am), Elder M. Russell Ballard and President Thomas S. Monson. Members were invited to participate in a coming Worldwide Day of Service, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Church’s welfare program.
SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGES, PARENTING/CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN Elder Richard G. Scott gave a very moving personal account of his own marriage and family and used that to testify of the “supernal joys” of family life. He urged young men to give highest priority to finding an eternal companion after their missions (as did several other speakers) and for married couples to be faithful mentally and physically and be kind and supportive of each other. President Thomas S. Monson told of restoring a couple to a loving relationship through inspiration to take them back to the temple to witness a marriage. Elder Richard J. Maynes gave instructions on ways families can establish celestial traditions in their homes. Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke of the “incredible’ women of the Church who work in equal partnership with their husbands to meet the needs of their family. He specified two principles for women in the Church: 1) no women should feel the need to apologize because she is devoting full-time to raising her children, and 2) we should not be judgmental if the decision is made for a women to work outside the home.
I was intrigued and pleased by President Monson’s conference announcement that a temple will be built in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a young missionary, I served 16 months in that part of Canada. I was in Selkirk for 2 months, Dauphin for 8, and Winnipeg for 6. As best I can recall, when I was there in 1958-9, Selkirk had a tiny Sunday School, Dauphin had one member family (we added another while there), and Winnipeg (the capitol–a city about the size of Salt Lake) had one branch of 200 or 300 members and with the only chapel in the whole province.
Currently there is a stake headquartered in Winnipeg with 6 wards and 7 branches. Metro Winnipeg has four buildings. It appears that Dauphin now has a branch and a building of its own as do most of the other branches.
According to Google Maps, Regina, Saskatchewan, now has the closest temple to Winnipeg, 571 miles and 7 hours away. The temple in Minneapolis/St. Paul is about 8 hours driving time as is the temple in Bismark ND.
I could not determine that this temple would serve other that members of this one stake. Regina is the nearest population center to the west and has its temple. Thunder Bay, Ontario, the nearest large city to the east, has one ward and belongs to the Minnesota Duluth Stake. It is 700 miles and a 9 hour drive from Thunder Bay to Winnepeg and only a 350 mile 6 hour drive from Thunder Bay to the temple in St. Paul, MN.
If the Church can build a temple for one stake (perhaps 3,000 members at most) in Manitoba, it seems to me that Bentonville AR must be near the top of the list for other places to put temples.
(Picture: Regina Saskatchewan temple)
Wendy and I have put a priority on having read all of the last general conferences addresses together before the next conference. We, of course, read from the conference issue of the ENSIGN. Generally we do this while traveling in the car, she driving and me reading out loud. We stop at any point to discuss or comment on what we have just read in order to digest the material a little better. While in NC, traveling a lot, we usually finished a couple of months ahead of time.
With a little less driving required of us now, we announce that we finished reading all of the addresses including those from the General Relief Society Meeting, this morning as we drove to attend a session at the Provo temple. The very last talk was one of the best. It was by President Monson, entitled “Charity Never Faileth.”
He concluded with a very insightful definition of charity--“true charity is love in action.”
“Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited... Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.”
So well stated. I hope I can live this commandment better.
We look forward to General Conference weekend. I wonder what the important themes and messages will be this time. We will be together as a family on Sunday evening at Matthew and Kim’s, to share our understandings of the things we heard. I hope that we can get some input, by phone, from Valerie’s and David’s families also.
The Soderquist remained here overnight, then in the morning, Alison and I worked on getting her started on taking over the computer files that contain our master family history records for the Evans side of our family.
JoAnn had worked quite a lot on this research and transferred her findings into a PAF database a few years ago, but this has not been updated since. Alison has the document file box that JoAnn left and now intends to go through that and make sure that all of the content of the source material it contains is incorporated into an Evans Master PAF file.
While we were together we added transcriptions of a couple of 1928 news articles about the death and funeral of Marion Keeth Benson which Valerie has just received from a Keeth relative, along with some other records I had found on these people in ancestry.com (census, burial).
There is really a lot that could be done to develop these records further as she and others get the time. Much of this would consist of gathering information already developed from other researchers, then sifting and incorporating it into our family master record. We know that there exist extensive additional records created by Jill Woodbury (on Keeth/Benson); a Barker lady (Averett/Mason). Apparently Chad Argyle has done some work on Evans family history. Ancestry.com is just full of family tree records on the Averett family and others, whose submitters could be contacted.
Another avenue that probably also should be pursued is generating (or gathering) biographies both for people long since gone and also for relatives currently living. Jill Woodbury has apparently created some extensive biographies in her work. Biographies really help to make family history live. Ideally the records for every person in our family history should include a biographical sketch, that contains something of the dynamics of a person’s life, what motivated them, what obstacles they overcame, what they accomplished, their strengths, etc. It sure is easier to write biographies on people that you know or knew personally. This would be the ideal time to write something about Grandma Gourley, Aunt Lois, Dan, Jane, etc.
A further objective might be to decide upon a course of action to coordinate and share information and findings. The time might be right to work jointly with Evans cousins on some of these things. Perhaps there might be some dividing up of responsibilities (research on specific lines, working on biographies, keeping records of current family members, gathering pictures, newsletter, publication, temple submissions,etc.)
We had lot of company last night and today. Most of the men and boys in the family here had gone for a hike-in overnighter to a yurt in the Uinta Mts. (I didn’t feel quite good enough to go to that.) Alison came down from South Weber with Rachel, Amy, and Christopher in the afternoon.
She helped me prune the little fruit trees we have in our back yard. Here is the nectarine tree after she finished. Doesn’t it look a little like a sheep after shearing?
For dinner we also had Emilie with Lindsey, Adam, Garrett, and Brandon, and Kimberly, with Alyssa, Megan, Erin, and Brianna with us. The guys were sure outnumbered.
Alison and Kimberly and all their girls (except for Brianna) then left us to attend a play at BYU (a version of Jane Austen’s PERSUASION). Emilie stayed until about 10 pm and the remaining grandkids played together. We had the luxury of having Emilie play the piano for us for a while. Also, part of the time she played accompaniment while I sang some solo pieces that I had worked on while taking voice lessons from Ralph Woodward while a young BYU student. I probably haven't these pieces for more than 50 years. There were some dramatic pieces like "Edward" and the Shubert's "The Erl King" and religious pieces, Chopin's "Christ Be With Me" and Gounod's "There Is A Green Hill". I was surprised that I still could sing most of them.
Look at the buds on the apricot tree starting to show "popcorn." We hope that the tree bides its time in coming to full blossom, to wait until these next storm systems pass, so that we will have some fruit from it this summer.
On Tuesday, Wendy and I took a trip to the Manti temple along with (Sister) Charlene Bloomgren, who was a records preservation missionary in Raleigh NC at the same time we were there on our mission. She was living in the Charlotte NC area when called on her mission, but has since come to Utah to help take care of a sister who was ill and is currently living in Orem.
It seems to us that the Manti temple is one of the jewels of all the temples, and is certainly one of our favorites. It is so extraordinarily pretty inside and out. The interior seems fresh and lovely yet has a pioneer flavor to it. I love the room with the Minerva Teichert mural.
After finishing our endowment session, we were able to have a temple worker take us to see some of the sealing rooms and also the two spiral staircases on the west end of the temple. These were constructed by pioneer craftsmen and circle up for six stories without center support.
Wendy and I were appalled to read a Deseret News article that reported a seeming unanimity among “scientific experts” that having children make persons less happy. (Studies say children subtract from happiness, so what do we really feel? Michael De Groote, Deseret News, Friday, March 18, 2011)
Statements by the author in the article included “Scientific studies have found that having children does not increase happiness. In fact, experts say it has the opposite effect. The more children you have the less happy you are” and “These results are confirmed across decades of research, with results published in 1957, 1970, 1975, 1978 and so on.” Several studies in scientific journals were summarized with none reported that contradicted these findings.
How could this be? Our experience in having our greatest joys come from our posterity seems so opposite.
We puzzled, “Is this conclusion really representative of all of the family research that has been conducted?” “Is this newsman really qualified to interpret the totality of research on this subject?” (In fairness to the author, he uses personal experiences with a sick child to perhaps raise doubts about the above study conclusions.) “How did the researchers define happiness?” “How did the average respondents define happiness?” Finally, “If these studies really validly describe attitudes in our society, what does this say about our society?”
This article has generated lots of reader comments (which I usually avoid), mostly along these lines:
“Marriage and family magnifies life. Before we had children, we were happy. Then children came along and my intense joy was higher than I ever thought it would be; but also, worry and sorrow were greater than I had ever known before. Being a parent is a tough job but after six children and 14 grandchildren, I'd do it again--just try to do a better job of it! The most intense joy I ever feel is with my children and grandchildren. Nothing else compares.”
“I will never regret having had children, only that I was not a better parent. My greatest joys and my greatest sorrows have revolved around my children. Maybe the problem is that the researchers are asking the wrong questions. Should they not be asking whether the joy has balanced with the sorrow; whether parents have become whole by giving life to and guiding another along in life?”
“Studies can be wrong - dead wrong. The first fallacy in these so-called studies is the presumption that the scientists can even "measure" happiness. Without a baseline, they can only pontificate on whether or not children "subtract" from our happiness. Happiness is a subjective thing, it is a sublime emotion, and it is rarely attributable to the moment in which we "feel" happy.”
“The people in this study don't know the difference between "happiness" and "joy".”
“If your definition of happiness only encompasses a selfish desire to satisfy yourself (have more money, spend more time on yourself, buy yourself nicer things, etc.), then I would agree that children definitely make you less happy. But if your definition of happiness is more unselfish, then children will bring you immense happiness.”
“I was single until I was 36, and then got an instant family--three stepchildren, and we had two more in two years. It has been hard work, but it has been worth it... The most serious problem I had when I was single was worrying about whether Captain Picard would be rescued from the Borg. Now I have a life. That's something these ivory-tower researchers don't seem to understand.”
“I wonder if the degree of satisfaction we derive from raising children is a function of the amount of real sacrifice of time and one-on one effort we make for our children.”
It is Sunday evening. We went to all of our Church meetings today, plus choir, plus I attended ward scouting committee. I think I am feeling a little better, and could take deep breaths without it hurting. I even made a joke today and teased Ross, a priest age young man who sits beside me in ward choir, about something. I think it was the first time I have felt like making a joke since about January.
Today was branch conference day in Mount Zion. We knew because of something June Owen had said in her Facebook. This was one of the highlight Sundays of the year, the day when the branch would put on a big feast for their stake visitors. (We were there for the last two branch conferences.) We got really homesick for Mount Zion today. This evening, we finally reached somebody from the branch by phone, the Shepards, and got a full report of the day’s activities. They had 140 in attendance (when will they become a ward?). Bro. Jeff had felt good enough to barbecue a pig for the conference meal (him feeling good enough to cook a pig is also good news). They have a new Stake President that the branch is “breaking in”, to quote Bro. Theron. Pres. Glue (spelling??) was just sustained last week and this is his first ward conference. We enjoyed hearing about the new Relief Society Presidency with wonderful counselors, Sister Judy and Sister Nancy, Bro. Daryl’s wedding, and also little update about Todd and Tabatha and the boys they may adopt.
I looked for the Chandlers in TV shots of the stands for the BYU-New Mexico game but never spotted them. They sure saw the game of a life time with Jimmer’s 52 point performance. I loved his intensity and that of the rest of the team. It was like they just willed the win. Lets hope for another game of a life time in the finals against San Diego State this evening.
I think that Jimmer is changing the face of local basketball. We watched three state high school basketball games and also saw a game of Joshua’s little team a few days ago. Relentless dribbling by little guards, in which they charge up the floor before the defense is set, penetrate, and try to score with a scoop shot lay-up. Sometimes they pass back out for a teammate three-pointer. Even in Joshua’s league, teammates were setting high picks to free their point guard to penetrate to the basket. It’s a different game. Fast-paced. It would have been fun to play this way.
We had two nice family home evenings Monday night. We did a Skype visit with David and family early in the evening. The highlight was getting a visual tour of their new house. It looks like it will be a nice place to live, also a blessing to the boys as a place with some space to grow in.
Speaking of Boston, the D-News has started to carry a weekly column in its car section by the PBS car repair personalities Click and Clack-the Magliozzi brothers. Today they were talking about how to get around the winter-time disadvantages of low profile times to a respondent from Boston. They recommended a second set of wheels with snow tires for winter driving, which he could wear on his car until the Boston Spring comes (in late June?? they said).
Later in the evening, we went to Matthew and Kim’s for their family home evening. They gave us a chance to report on our mission. It was fun to be there and feel the good spirit in their home.
In the aftermath of the pneumonia and flu I have had for the last few weeks, now I have a fun condition called pleurisy. For the uninitiated, this is an inflammation of the PLEURA, which is a double sac around the lungs and inside the rib cage. I got this diagnosis when I went back to the doctor Wednesday because I didn’t seem to be getting any better from my bout with the flu, etc., and my lungs felt like there was sandpaper in the linings. And coughing, which I was doing a lot of, and even breathing deeply, hurt to do. I am now back on high dosages of Ibuprofen for a week to reduce the inflammation and being real inactive, taking cough medicine when needed. I think I overdid my activity by going to our double temple shift Thursday and sure was sore that night. I have been mostly comfortable since then but have been doing everything at a very slow pace, taking more naps, mostly sitting or lying down. I can work at the computer, so I have continued to work on family research much of the day.
Here is the view as we left the Provo temple last Thursday afternoon, looking out over Utah Lake.
The family temple session on Saturday, Feb 26th was very sweet. (We have tried to do this each year near Michael’s birthday.) We went to the Ogden temple. Wendy and I went to the 2 pm endowment session. I saw Bruce as I came in, as he was working a mid-day temple shift. The family gathered for a 4 o’clock sealing session, Bruce and Angela, Quin and Alison, Matthew and Kim, along with Dorothy. We were able to do over 50 sealings–quite a few couples and some children to parents.
At one point, I felt quite a spiritual rush as we were doing sealings for some members of the Lewis family who had moved to the Palouse country of eastern Washington State. Significantly, as Wendy pointed out later, these same families (Robert Myra Lewis, Jay or Jenty King Lewis, Thomas Edward Lewis) were the subject of what I called “An Unusual temple experience” in our mission book, on 15 May 2009 (p. 152).
After the temple, we went back to Angela and Bruce’s place, where quite a few of the grandkids were. We had the usual menu. Alison had ordered a bunch of pizza from Domino’s. Wendy had made four cherry pies, and in the absence of Daniel and Paul, one was left over.
Sunday evening we took the leftover pie to the Blakes and then two pieces to Nathan and Gloria, so that they too could share in the remembrance.
I finished reading the Christmas present book Ka
rl Rove autobiography, COURAGE AND CONSEQUENCE. It was a long read with a lot of detail. It was quite interesting and enlightening, but also a little 
discouraging as it documented the history of many of our current political problems and the opportunism and lack of values in many prominant political figures. The book tended to reinforce my impressions that Pres Bush was a man of principle, that he told the truth about the presence of or attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, that there was a lack of integrity on the part of many Democrat legislators who supported going into Iraq and then abandoned their positions for political advantage. There was also a chapter in which Rove did an assessment of Pres. Obama based upon the Bush administration’s dealings with him while he was a senator, that does not show Obama to an advantage.
I got back to our Thursday temple assignment the last two weeks and
also to church meetings. The pneumonia seemed to have cleared up, but I still have a leftover cough and still don’t feel 100%.
This past week was cabin week for us. We took it real easy, and had as many naps as we wanted. We came down Wednesday evening to prepare for our day at the temple Thursday and then went back up on Friday until Saturday night. I read a lot in the President Monson biography, did Sudokus, and we watched a lot of basketball (Jazz, BYU, state 4A and 5A playoffs). I got one more Guy Lewis family history file indexed.
Post high school college education has at least two purposes 1) to broaden us, make us better citizens and decision-makers, to live more meaningfully, etc., and 2) prepare us for working careers. For our young men, this education is crucial for their preparing to successfully fill their major Family Proclamation role of family provider, thereby contributing mightily to their own future happiness, the happiness of their spouse, and the growth and development of their children. For our young women, this education is equally significant, both to enable them to be a provider if circumstances require, and also as a partner in the family enterprise, homemaker, and nurturer of children.
There are many choices to be made regarding this post-high school preparation. Here are some things I have learned that might be helpful to the young people in this family:
1) Career preparation does not only occur in the college setting you receive as a young person. It is a life-long requirement. Most careers and professions are changing so fast (technological advancements, explosion of knowledge, etc.), that a person must be constantly renewing their knowledge to stay current in the field, let alone excel. Therefore most career learning takes place AFTER a person leaves higher education. A related truth is that many of us will not discover what we really want to do and what we will best best at until we have experienced a career for a number of years.
2) The majors and classes offered by universities and colleges are driven by what classes students choose, not necessarily by what will lead to good future employment or careers. Therefore, for their own protection and future, students need to have their own personal awareness and strategy, as they enroll in classes and commit to a major, as to what would be a useful career direction for themselves.
3) It seems to me that in selecting a field of study, persons need to get answers to two questions:
a) The current availability of jobs to graduates with this major, and
b) The range of options that the field has for a person to grow into a niche that might match their interests and capabilities. Hence, a critical objective for a student is to find a field of study, first, that has JOBS AVAILABLE and, second, that is BROAD ENOUGH TO ALLOW FLEXIBILITY FOR A PERSON TO GROW INTO THEIR POTENTIAL.
4) Many fields of college study simply do not offer very good prospects for future long-term remunerative employment. And, some are narrow and offer only limited options for a person to grow into a niche that matches their interests/capabilities.
5) One of the strengths of broader career paths, such as, business, education, nursing, medicine, law, social work, engineering, computer science, is that they each contain a variety of jobs that possess widely differing options for a range of worker interests, preferences, and capabilities.
For me, a useful concept is that both person interests/capabilities and job/career tasks can be represented on three dimensions that each scale from simple to complex. These dimensions are People (that, is interpersonal), Data (mental), and Things (physical). Some persons have a preference for working with people, others to analyze and conceptualize, others to work with their hands. For some it is a combination of these three focuses. Likewise, job tasks tend to emphasize one of these or to combine work with these in a variety of ways. Additionally, tasks and the skills to perform them range in complexity. In addition to personal preferences for the type and level of work, some people seem to have greater capacity to develop the highest level of skills in these various dimensions of work
For example, many jobs in the education field involve classroom teaching which requires a fairly high degree of both People and Data skills. Yet there is room in the field for persons who wants a greater emphasis on Data, as librarians, curriculum writers, researchers, etc. School administrative jobs balance People and Data skills slightly differently than for classroom instructors.
The field of law has court room lawyers on one end of the continuum (high People skill) and other jobs involving reading and analyzing case histories or writing opinions (high Data), and others balancing these dimensions.
I found a nice niche in social work, in program evaluation, strategic panning, research, and information system development that required Data skills that most social workers did not have, could not develop, and did not even want. Over time, I found that I had the ability to develop a set of skills unique for a social worker, that made my services be in demand and enabled me to work at interesting tasks and provide a secure and acceptable living for my family.
THE GOOD NEWS FROM THIS IS THAT MOST OF THE MAJOR, BROAD CAREER PATHS HAVE AMPLE OPPORTUNITY TO ACCOMMODATE PERSONS WITH ALMOST ANY SET OF INTERESTS/CAPABILITIES. In retrospect, I believe I could have found an interesting and successful niche for myself in several of the above fields.
Therefore, the challenge of choosing a direction in college work may not be so much in finding the perfect fit for your major–it is how to prepare to be able TO GET IN A DOOR TO START on a career path, in which options will be available that will become a good fit for you, your interests, abilities and needs. Which field you choose may not be so important.
When the spirit sons and daughters of God shouted for joy, because the earth was finished and ready to be inhabited, who shouted the loudest? Who was most excited?
Wendy and I were discussing the pre-mortal existence this morning as she worked on a lesson for this Sunday’s Relief Society, and we think we might know the answer. The daughters. Here is our reasoning.
Young men who have an understanding of the gospel generally look forward to having a family. I am recalling the many boards of review I have attended. The best-put-together boys, when asked about their life goals will typically say, in a matter-of-fact way, something like “I hope to be able to serve a mission, and attend college, and get a good job, and have a family.” On the other hand, many girls will say, with great feeling (like both JoAnn and Wendy have said): “All I ever wanted to be was a mother.”
We can imagine when preparing to come to this world, that the best of the sons of God might have said, “I would like to be a leader for the Lord and help him with his work.” The daughters would cry, “Now I can be a mother!”
Wendy and I both sensed an unusual freedom of expression as we spoke briefly in the Mt Zion sacrament meeting May 22. Neither one of used used any notes–we just spoke from the heart.
nly preliminary to getting people into the temple.
