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With a feeling of humble gratitude, I acknowledge the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father, who has so quickly granted our family the intent of our recent fasting and prayers. Heidi's visa to enter Spain did come so that she has been able to travel to her mission field according to the original schedule. And Garrett seems to have hit it off with his new speech therapist and the work of helping him with his speech seems to be still progressing.
I also am grateful for the faith and prayers of members of our family. I hope that we can continue to unite both in giving thanks to our Father for his goodness to us, and in calling upon him for needed blessings. Perhaps he will be inclined to grant future petitions when we acknowledge and express gratitude for his hand in our lives and when he knows that we care about certain matters, following the lesson of the Savior’s parable of the importuning widow (Luke 18:1-8-- Painting: Parable of the Unjust Judge, by John Everett Malais (1863)).
I have been lying pretty low for the last 10 days. I started with a cold about Tuesday last week. I thought I was starting to get better on the weekend, but still didn’t feel very good. Sunday night I noticed some crackles in my breathing. On Monday, we got to Dr.Gale, who said I had pneumonia. He gave me an antibiotic and told me to take it easy and that I should be starting to feel better by toward the end of the week. I think I am a little better and most of the congestion is gone.
I have missed two Thursdays at the temple, Church meetings last Sunday, Round Table, and several family things. When I have felt up to it, I have been working away at fami
ly history.
I did have a nice family history moment this past weekend. I found a 1998 obituary in the Charleston WV Gazette, for Dr. Jack Geary Robertson, who was a Clendennin WV dentist, and a distant cousin (Earrie Robertson, Alvin Benton Robertson, George Washington Robertson, James Carson Robertson and his wife Mary Lewis, John Lewis, our ancestor). Something jumped out at me in the write-up. One of his sons, John Benton Robertson, was said to be living in Springville, UT. I was able to look up Jack Geary Robertson in New Family Search and found that his baptism and endowment were performed in the Provo Temple on 14 Oct 1999, EXACTLY one year to the day after he had died.
So, I naturally assumed that we had a distant cousin living among us who is a member of the Church. Using Public Directories and White Pages I found a Springville address and phone, and the first name of his wife, Aleen. The house was in the Springville Hobble Creek bottoms just east of SHS and not more than 6 or 7 blocks from where David and Rebecca lived. However, the phone had been disconnected, with no current Springville listing. On a hunch, from the White Pages which documented that they had lived in Provo, Orem, Springville, and Riverton, I grabbed a Salt Lake phone directory and found a number for John B and Aleen Robertson in Riverton. I called and got John and he turned out to be THE John Benton Robertson I was trying to connect to. He had an interesting history. He was a convert to the Church at age 21 while going to college at West Virginia University. A year later, he went on a mission to Chile. He eventually found Aleen at BYU. They have four children, and the oldest has just received a mission call. John is currently serving on the High Council in his stake. He has done quite lot of family history work on the Robertsons, including spending a lot of time with older members of his family taking notes. (These things he dutifuly recorded in the Notes section of his PAF record which he shared with me.)
I was excited to get answers to several questions I have had about the family and about the area of West Virginia in which they lived. I learned a few unsavory things about certain family members, that I had suspected but perhaps really didn't want to know. And, I can pronounce Kanawha (the county in which Charleston is located) like a native. They say “k’NAW”.This part of the family was really quite high achieving--lots of Doctors and lawyers, successful business-men, Ph.Ds, Baptist and Methodist ministers, etc.
Today is Jeron’s 16th birthday, and it marks a sort of a little milestone for me. In March 2005, I happened to identify a CD with some money in it and began to use it to give some money to each grandchild at their birthday time, for them to save for missions and/or college. There was just enough money in the CD so that I was able to give $500 to each child on their birthdays that year. Sometime during that year, I made the determination that I was going give a total of $1000 to each grandchild. After the year was over, we have continued to give $100 each birthday. On the birthday when one of the older grandkids reached age 18, we gave them the reminder of the $1000. We have given grandkids born after March 2005 $100 on each of their birthdays this far.
The milestone is that Jaron is the last of the 29 grandkids born before March 2005 who got the original $500 gift. So for these grandkids, we have finished the commitment we made. We will start to do something else for their birthdays.
Somehow this reminds me of the $25 US savings bond that my parents purchased in my name when I was a little boy. It was to help me with college expenses. Knowing that such a fund existed helped fix my mind on going to college. Late in the Spring of my first year at BYU, when I ran short of money, I wrote my mother asking that they cash in the bond and put the money in my checking account (the account was in the White Salmon bank). Somehow I discovered during the time I was home that summer that they hadn’t cashed in the bond at all. They thought that I might need the money more next year. I think that this repeated itself the next year also. That little savings bond was just like the widow’s meal oil that sustained Elijah and never was able to be used up. Most important, it symbolized to me my parents desires and commitment that I get an education and make something of myself.
Times and money amounts are different and the $25 was probably harder for my parents to come by that any money we have given to our grandkids for their birthdays. But the hope and the love is the same.
I recall my mother once saying, with an unusual sense of humor, that one of the blessings of her life was the ability to sit down beside a large pile of work and read a book. She read everything that came across her life–the Portland Oregonian, any Church book, scriptures, books on politics and American history. She had a special interest in and had read dozens of books on Washington (that is, the State) history. She was in some kind of women’s reading club, and she regularly ordered books by mail from a State library. She always had some kind of reading project that she was working on.
I observe that our family has several members who have inherited her reading gene.
I am grateful for gift of five books from family this past Christmas. I am trying valiantly to use these gifts fully and well.
I recently found this great statement by President Monson recognizing the essential importance of families:
“When we have sampled much and have wandered far and have seen how fleeting and sometimes superficial a lot of the world is, our gratitude grows for the privilege of being part of something we can count on–home and family and the loyalty of loved ones. We come to know what it means to be bound together by duty, by respect, by belonging. We learn that nothing can fully take the place of the blessed relationship of family life.” (TO THE RESCUE, p. 33)
(Isaiah 58:6-7)
Over the last few weeks, I discussed with family members an inspiring idea mentioned in my High Priests meeting a few weeks ago as we studied the subject of fasting. This is that each month prior to the regular Church Fast Sunday, we communicate by e-mail about matters that might be important subjects for our family to fast about. Then each family makes sure that they fast purposefully for these (and any other personal family items) by 1) dedicating their fast together in prayer at the start of the fasting period, 2) continuing to pray individually and in the family for these items over the course of the fast, and finally 3) praying for these items together just prior to breaking the fast.
We followed this process. I sent an initial e-mail out to our family on January 30th, a week before most of us have Fast Sunday, asking for subjects for a family fast. Then on Thursday Feb 3rd I sent a follow-up e-mail drawn from family responses:
“As I mentioned earlier, one thing that we are praying for, and will fast for, is help with Heidi's visa to enter Spain. Currently they are having trouble getting visas approved and missionaries are having to go stateside or to alternate missions for at least 1 month before a visa is approved. So, we are praying such that if it be the Lord's will, Heidi's visa will come soon so she can enter Spain as originally planned. Thanks, Quin”
“We thought it might be nice for people to remember Garrett. He is doing so much better with his speech, but maybe we could fast that he will be cooperative and work hard with the new therapist he will start with soon. This is a nice idea, Dad. Em”
I have checked back with most of the family, and everyone I talked to had good experiences with the fast. Some families said that this family process gave them incentive do things they had not done consistently, such as gather the family together on Saturday to dedicate their fasting. Some of the grandchildren did a better job of not eating during this period. Joshua went a full 24 hours for the first time (and did it voluntarily without prompting). He told his dad that he had learned that if you keep busy, you don’t notice that you are hungry.
For Wendy and me, it was a sweet and satisfying experience. At our age and conditions, it is easy to let fasting slip by. Wendy has this pre-diabetic condition where she gets shaky if she goes without food. I have been struggling with some stomach irritation. Also, we both have meds every morning that are supposed to be taken with food. But, inspired by the rest of you, we made fasting work this time, without any negative effects. We dedicated our fast Saturday evening and went a full 24 hours, and had a sweet prayer time at the end. It was inspiring to us to consider that in our homes, all across this country, prayers were being offered and faith exercised unitedly by members of our family, and especially by our grandchildren. It is hard to put in words the meaningfulness to us of this latter connection–that in Boston and Arkansas and South Weber and Utah County, our families and especially our grandchildren are uniting at the same time in the same prayer for particular needs of family members.
Congratulations go to Ryan who has just completed his Eagle board of review (Jan 29th), Justin who passed his First Class board of review (Jan 23rd) and Jonathan who has now become a scout.
I was amused at Jonathan when he was visiting here, holding the smaller boys spell-bound telling scout jokes.
We have had several nice family times in the last couple of weeks. We have tried to be available to give Emilie some extra support. Twice we took Garrett to his speech therapy play group in Salem. This is an hour in a program for under threeish children who need help with their speech. The staff were several very supportive ladies. They made us a part of the program as we helped Garrett make items to take home. Garrett was 
impressively cooperative and attentive with the whole program. A week ago, they were working on the sssssss sound and helping him to “hide his tongue” in order to say the sound. He was getting it quite a lot, b
ut had to be prompted sometimes.
We had Alison, Heidi, Jonathan, Aaron, and Christopher here for about 24 hours starting Friday afternoon. (Quin and Eric were at Klondike Derby.) The boys stayed with us and played while Alison and Heidi went shopping for missionary clothes and then to a dance concert at BYU. All of the Blakes also came for dinner and Ethan, Lindsay, and Adam stayed on overnight. Early in the morning Heidi went to a Provo temple session with one of her roommates who also has a mission call. It was fun to have these people here.
We s
pent Sunday with the Soderquists for Heidi’s talk in their sacrament meeting. We picked up Nathan on our way (Gloria was sick and stayed home). Heidi was wonderful and enthusiastic in here talk. Besides us, attending were Matthew and Kim and family, Scott and Emilie and family, Angela and Bruce and family including Staci who had come up from Provo, Andrew and Britain, Dorothy, Jeree, Kris and David, and Leroy and LePriel Soderquist with Aunt Greta, and also Quins sister ShariLynn and family, along with other friends of Heidi’s. Most all of this group also came over to the house after church.
I went to Dr. Carter, my cardiolgist, yesterday, and he discontinued my having to take Plavix. Hurray! I am relieved to not have the bleeding and bruising anymore that seemed to come with that medication. I am feeling better in other ways, too. My episode with heartburn, that was problematic during the holidays seems to be lessening, and I am learning how to control and prevent it better (don't eat so much, so fast; quit eating after dinner; avoid spicy foods). I have felt able to exercise on the treadmill several times in the last few days, walking for about 20 minutes and expect to gradually pick up the speed and length in the next weeks.
Pictures: Display that expresses our feelings, Wendy holding Brandon Lewis Blake age 26 days, Blake kids twice (notice how Justin can continue reading the paper with no interruption--how Lewis-like--he comes from a fine tradition), Heidi with new mission clothes, Quin and Alison with Heidi at the family gathering on Sunday
Home teacher
Two families. My companion is Alyssa's friend Michael.
Provo temple ordinance worker
Wendy and I serve on the first two shifts on Thursdays. For the first one, we need to be at the temple for the preparation meeting at 6:20 am. We get up about 5 am and try to be ready to leave our house by 5:40 am. Its about a 20 minute drive, so that gives us time to get dressed and be a minute early for the meeting. On the first shift lately, the leaders have been asking me to cover various “lines” where other workers are sick or missing. On a couple recent mornings I have had the assignment to work for awhile with a new trainee, which was enjoyable. In the afternoon I have a regular assignment to be the lunch back-up for the two endowment room coordinators, and after that officiate at the 1:40 endowment session. Wendy has also been assigned to that session, which makes it more fun. We sometimes serve at the witness couple for that session if there is no married couple who can do it.
Stakehouse scheduler
Our Bishop Voorhees is the agent bishop this year and asked me to be the building (stakehouse) scheduler for 2011. It has taken some thought to be able to find an effective way to record and organize this work. I am doing it manually and think I am starting to be on top of the schedule. And it is sort of fun to talk to the prople who call, and try to be helpful for their needs. Our stake leaders have made it clear that “calendaring isn’t scheduling,” so that when wards or organizations build a calendar they should not assume that they have rooms in the stake building until they have “scheduled” the locations they need with me. The Church, on lds.org, is in the process of rolling out a new calendaring/scheduling system, but it seems to me that the current release does not support the scheduling aspect in a very helpful way yet. IF ANYONE IN THE FAMILY KNOWS HOW TO MAKE SCHEDULING WORK ON THE ON-LINE CALENDARING SYSTEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
Unit Commissioner to the 12trh ward/member of Stake Aaronic Priesthood Committee
Ward Scouting Committee Advancement Chair
Right now I am working on a project to reestablish a significant group of ward merit badge counselors. This includes a need for some recruitment and training (orientation and youth protection) to be done in our ward, with the cooperation and approval of the district training staff.
I keep plodding along on Lewis family history. I am still working on the descendants of Mary Adline “Polly” Lewis, who married James C. Robertson. Most of this family is still in West Virginia, where Mary and James moved in the 1840s.
I seem to be working in the opposite direction from most people (and quite a few people ARE working on their family history.) I am coming forward from early ancestors–almost everyone else is starting with themselves and trying to work back. Sometimes we meet in the middle. I have a pretty good handle on the families of James and Mary, their children and grandchildren. Now I am taking each grandchild with their spouse and trying to bring the information forward as close as I can get to the present. James and Mary had 7 children and at least 59 grandchildren. These grandchildren were born between 1866 and about 1900. Between Ancestry.com and West Virginia vital records, the information is quite good. Ancestry is very good on census, military, and Social Security death records, plus submitted family trees give lots of clues about marriages and family composition. Sometimes I find a recent obituary. West Virginia vital records include births, marriages, and death certificates. I am guessing that I am about half-way through detailing the descendants of the grandchildren. Just last evening I finished working on the family of Nancy Jane Robertson Canterbury who was the second oldest child (of 9) of George Washington Robertson, the 3rd child (of 7) of James and Mary.
I work in three steps. First, I copy everything I find about the family (direct descendants, spouses, and spouses’ parents) into a WordPerfect document. This is the actual content of a record in addition to the source. The document file for the family of Nancy Jane has 64 pages. Second, I create PAF records for all of these people, including their pedigree/family group information, but also adding actual source content as Notes. When it is needed, I also write explanations for my conclusions or summarize my findings about a person as a part of the Notes for that individual. In my recent research, I was able to add 74 names to our PAF record for persons from Nancy Jane’s family. The third step is to enter the information about these persons in this family who meet the criteria for temple work into New Family Search. (I usually don’t submit names of persons who were born after the year 1900.) Often the entry work takes the form of adding to information already present, making corrections, or combining duplicate records. I reserve all temple work that is yet needed for these persons and get the cards printed. In the case of Mary Jane’s family, I found temple work that needed to be performed for 6 men, 12 women, and 9 couples. It took me about three weeks to do this for Nancy Jane’s family.
Some of the personal information contained in these records is interesting, uplifting, depressing, etc. Two infants died of malnutrition and two husbands of descendants shot themselves (one was ruled an accident). Then there was a couple who had split up, who each reported to the census taker that they were widowed. However, death records show that they both were still living. On the happier side, there was a loving obituary write-up for a women with several children and 17 grandchildren where it was said that she made everyone feel special, but the truth was that “it was she that was special.”
I am still hoping by summer to have my Lewis research to the point of being able to publish a book along the order of the Agee book. (Picture: headstone in the Bob Canterbury Cemetery, Roane Co., WV, for a grandson, Bobby Ransan Canterbury)
President Danny Henderson of the Mount Zion Branch just contacted us, about what advice I gave to a couple when, as a Bishop, I performed their marriage. I performed about a dozen marriages while Bishop. Here is what I typically said before performing the actual ceremony (sometimes I also gave the couple a written copy of this advice)---
What we are doing here today in creating a marriage is important. Married people live longer. Married people are more successful in their lives and careers. Married people report greater happiness than unmarried people. Even more important, when children are raised together by a happily married couple, they stand the best chance of growing up happy, well-adjusted, and successful. My wife JoAnn and I have been married almost 38 years. We know something of the ups and downs of married life. I would like to draw upon my own experience and suggest six ways to keep your marriage bond strong:
1. When you build up your partner, you help yourself. Love comes and love stays when you treat your partner in a loving way. I do not believe that we fall in or out of love--we grow in love and stay in love IF we treat our partner in a loving way. It’s the way we treat our partner that determines how we feel about our partner. There is absolutely no place for grouchiness, unkindness, yelling, browbeating, or any kind of abuse. When we are in our homes and with our family, we need to live the Golden Rule--our Lord’s recipe for successful relationships: ”Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” When you build up your partner, you help yourself to be happier and keep yourself in love.
2. When your partner is acting their worst, they need your strength and your love the most. Everyone has good moments and bad moments. A smart husband or wife is sensitive to the times when their spouse is not at their best, then makes a special effort to be up-beat, loving, patient, and supportive. This evens out the highs and lows and makes for a more positive family life. When your partner is acting their worst, they need you to be extra strong and loving.
3. If things aren’t going right, change yourself. Many marriages have been wrecked by one of the partners being too anxious to change the other. That just doesn’t work. YOU can only control what YOU do, and feel, and think. If the time comes when things in your marriage relationship aren’t going right, change yourself.
4. “I only have eyes for you.” When we were unattached and fancy free, we could be interested romantically in many people. Marriage requires us to focus all of our romantic interest in our spouse. Strong marriages are based on trust. I absolutely trust my wife to be faithful to me and the marriage vows we made. She has lived to earn my trust. I too have disciplined myself to be only attracted to her. With absolute faithfulness and trust, marriages stay strong, and provide a supportive foundation for the success of each of the partners and happiness and development of children. Now that you are making marriage vows, I urge you to only have eyes for each other.
5. As individuals, never, never, never give up on the promises you are each making today. In society today, there are influences that make it easy for persons to rationalize giving up on a marriage. All marriages have challenging times. The difference in whether a couple succeeds in their marriage may be as a simple as each of the pair refusing, no matter what, to break the marriage promises the individual made. I hope that each of your will resolve to yourself, “I can’t control what anyone else will do. But as for me, I am a person of my word. I promised and I will never, never, never go back on that promise.”
6. The strongest marriages take on God as a partner. Marriages succeed best when each spouse has their own strong moral compass, when the couple shares a deep-felt religious conviction, and when each spouse understands their marriage vow as a sacred covenant, not just made with each other but also involving God as a third partner in the marriage. I urge you to add strength to your marriage by making sure that God is a full partner in your relationship. I pray that He will bless you to this end.
Bishop Robert E. Lewis
Taylorsville Gardens 1st Ward
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
April 16, 2003
The Deseret News recently reported that “Mormon Mommy” bloggers are being read with interest by a surprising group of non-LDS women (“Mormon 'mommy blogs' getting noticed” by Sara Israelsen-Hartley, Religion News, January 18, 2011; see the origInal article by Emily Matchar “Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs--I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?” http://www.salon.com/life/internet_culture/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs).
Matchar reports that she and several friends and other women obsessively do a daily read of blogs by “Mormon Mommy” bloggers.
“Their lives are nothing like mine -- I'm your standard-issue late-20-something childless overeducated atheist feminist -- yet I'm completely obsessed with their blogs. On an average day, I'll skim through a half-dozen Mormon blogs, looking at Polaroids of dogs in raincoats or kids in bow ties, reading gratitude lists, admiring sewing projects.
“I'm not alone, either. Two of my closest friends -- both chronically overworked Ph.D. candidates -- procrastinate for hours poring over Nat the Fat Rat or C. Jane Enjoy It. A recent discussion of Mormonism on the blog Jezebel unleashed a waterfall of confessions in the comments section from other young non-religious women similarly riveted by the shiny, happy domestic lives of their Latter-day Saint sisters.
“"They have lovely homes, picture-perfect kids, loving, super-attentive husbands, and things seem very normal and calm," writes a commenter named BrookeD, who admits to reading five Mormon blogs daily.
“"I thought I was the only one!!" responds another commenter.
“"THANK YOU," adds a third. "I'm another closet non-Mormon reader of Mormon mommy blogs."”
Matchar tries to be analytical, objective, and even critical, but still has a strong emotionally fascination that she has a hard time explaining.
“But the basic messages expressed in these blogs -- family is wonderful, life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate the small things -- are still lovely. And if they help women like me envision a life in which marriage and motherhood could potentially be something other than a miserable, soul-destroying trap, I say, "Right on." I won't be inviting the missionaries inside for hot cocoa now or ever, but I don't plan on stopping my blog habit any time soon.”
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS ATTRACTION? I know I love to read the blogs belonging to the Mormon Mommies in our Lewis family.
Wendy spent a few days in Newport Beach CA with her faithful girlfriends. She left on Wednesday Jan 5th and got back on Tuesday Jan 11th. They went to one temple session at the Newport Beach temple, toured around, went out to eat several times, and did a lot of visiting. The weather was mild, without the rain that had been so heavy earlier. Here is a picture she took of a beautiful sunset looking out over the Pacific.
While she was gone I had some time to work on Lewis family history. I have been trying to document the descendants of Mary Lewis, a sister of our ancestor William Lewis, and her husband James C. Robertson, who was also a brother of William’s wife, Sarah. The Robertsons moved from Floyd/Patrick county Virginia, to the area of Charleston, Virginia, now West Virginia in the late 1840s and have mostly stayed in that area. They had large families and I have been gathering data about their descendants for about a year now, with the end not really in sight yet. This morning I finished the entry work in PAF of information I had gathered about the descendants of McClelland Erman Canterbury, born 1891, the 5th child Nancy Jane Robertson, born 1869 who was the 2nd child of George Washington Robertson, the 3rd child of James C and Mary.
A couple of my impressions are 1) there is an ever-increasing amount of family history information available on the web:
–Ancestry.com adds new records all the time
–An increasing number of persons are submitting their own family information to ancestry.
–Other web resources are being added, for example in the last few months the State of West Virginia has created a website to display their Vital Records, that is, births, marriages, deaths. This has really enhanced my West Virginia Robertson efforts.
–New family Search has made the search of temple and other Church family history records much more coherent and accessible
2) A lot of the temple work has already been completed for people I am researching. I try to clear names as I enter data about individual families into PAF. I find myself in sort of a gleaning and cleaning mode. Most families in which persons were born prior to about 1900 (this is a sort of cut-off for being able to submit names for temple work) have at least part of the temple work already completed. I mostly make corrections, pick up stragglers, and fill in gaps. Sometimes it is sealings that are yet undone, other times extraction has done the sealings or baptisms leaving other missing ordinances. Or part of a family needs ordinances while some members have their work fully completed. It also appears that the earlier that persons lived, the more likely that their temple work has been completed.
On Sunday, January 9th, I participated for the second week in row in the priesthood ordination of a grandson. This time it was Justin being ordained a Deacon. They did this ordination at Emilie and Scott’s home, because of the new baby. The Bishopric made quite a production of this (in a good way). The Bishops counselor conducted this as a service. Also present was the Bishop himself, the YM 2nd counselor/Scoutmaster and the Deacons President. After an opening prayer, the latter two did a sort of orientation as to the responsibilities of a Deacon. Then they asked me and Emilie for testimonies, and the Bishop also did a sort of welcoming testimony. Finally came the ordination. The whole business made me (and also Justin I assume) feel impressed with the importance that the ward leaders place upon the priesthood and its young men and their efforts and commitment to help the young men to feel wanted in the priesthood. I have had some more interaction with Justin lately and am impressed with his desire to do what is right and how much he is growing and maturing. I am glad that he is in a ward that cares deeply about its young men.
I am working on a project to recertify MB counselors in our ward. We have about 35 persons in the ward who we list as merit badge counselors, but they need to be reregistered. BSA (and maybe also our Council and District) has added requirements, that these persons need to be formally trained in their role, that they must complete scouting’s Youth Protection Training, and that they must submit a signed application (to allow BSA to do a BCI (Bureau of Criminal Identification) check. I attended a training session for Merit Badge Counselors at Round Table last Thursday evening, with the idea that we will do the training of our MB Counselors ourselves in our ward.
The last Monday while Wendy was gone, I went to Ogden and visited my sister Dorothy, staying overnight, then picking Wendy up at the Salt Lake airport Tuesday evening on my way home. Dorothy and I talked a lot about genealogy, worked together on the Guy Lewis records table of contents project, and solved a lot of this country’s political problems.
My assignments yesterday at the Provo Temple gave me lots of times to reflect and to study the scriptures. A memory of the Ammon League came back to me, from the days when our children were all still home. The Ammon League was made up of persons (namely, myself, Alison, Angela, Valerie, Matthew, and Emilie) who were pledged, like Ammon and his brethren, to wax “strong in the knowledge of the truth,” to search “the scriptures diligently that they might know the word of God.” We hoped that through this study and through “much prayer and fasting [that we might have the] spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when [we] taught, [we would teach] with power and authority of God.” (Alma 17:2-3)
In the Ammon League, along with its junior auxiliary Enos’s Eagles (myself, Michael and David, as I recall), we studied the scriptures together on a number of Sunday afternoons. As I thought about this bit of this family lore, I concluded that all members of the Ammon League have remained true to their pledges, and we still “rejoice exceedingly to see” each other, and what adds more to our joy, we each are still "brothers and sisters in the Lord," along with many others we have since added to our fold (Alma 17:2).
Our exemplar, Ammon, was a model of faithfulness, after his conversion. Here are some of the highlights of his exceptional life from the triple combination Index:
• angel appears to A.
• begins preaching the word of God
• with brethren, travels throughout the land
• desires mission to Lamanites
• refuses to be king
• chief among the missionaries
• taken bound to Lamoni
• becomes servant
• saves the king’s flocks
• discerns king’s thoughts
• teaches king
• thanks God, overpowered with joy
• cannot be slain
• ministers to people
• organizes church
• frees brethren from prison
• A’s converts never fall away
• leads his people toward Zarahemla
• is swallowed up in joy
• is provided for through faith
• is a man of God
• A’s faith wrought miracle
I invite comments with recollections of the Ammon League by its members.
We traded in our Town & Country on a new car yesterday. Its a 2010 Chevvie Traverse, a crossover, with 6 seat belts for grandchildren (plus 2 for us), all wheel drive for safety and traction in the snow and ice, fold down seats, roomy back. and many other nice feature. It has a really nice, solid, comfortable big-car feel to it as we have driven it.
The car has 14,000 miles on it and formerly was a Hertz rental car, so we paid some 12-15 thousand less than if brand new. We will miss the Chrysler however--it was a faithful friend. It had almost 187,000 miles on it. Over 90,000 were ours including the 40,000 for our mission.
We drove the Traverse to SCL this morning to take Wendy to the airport. She is going to spend 6 days in California with her close girl friends. These are the ones who stuck by her and were so supportive through the tough years she had. They will stay in a condo in Newport Beach, owned by one of the ladies, Leslie, and her husband. I guess I will make my time pass until next Tuesday by concentrating on family history.
I got some over-the-counter meds (and also advice from Dorothy who is expert) that have greatly the reduced the heartburn problem.
We had the Blake kids over Saturday night and took them to their ward meetings Sunday 11-2. Emilie had a very early appointment on Sunday morning to have her baby (C-section). Brandon Lewis Blake was delivered at 8:02 
am, 8 lbs 8 oz, 21 1/2 inches. I was relieved that everything went well in the birth and grateful for another handsome grandson.
Justin was recognized and graduated from Primary this day.
Immediately after church we drove everyone over to Mapleton to be a part of Jeremy being ordained a deacon. I am sure proud of Jeremy for preparing himself well for the priesthood and Matthew for such a super job with the ordination.
Later, we took the Blake kids over to Payson to meet their new brother.
The aims of Boy Scout programs are to develop young men of moral strength and character, good citizenship, and physical, mental and emotional fitness. Our Church uses the scouting programs to prepare its young men to grow in their priesthood, and to lead lives of service to their families, the community and the Church, to become Great Priesthood Men in their adult lives.
We have a tradition of Scouting in our family. Pictured is Grandma JoAnn's Eagle Mother Scarf which we keep in a frame and display in our home. We are so proud of the accomplishments of our sons and grandsons. We add a name and star when a young man in the family completes his Eagle.
At this moment, eleven of our grandsons are in scouting and are using these programs to develop and build themselves for the future (besides having a lot of fun). Here are their reports as to their progress in scouting:RYAN
Current rank: Life
Need for next rank: (Eagle) Board of Review
Working on now: Report on completed service project submitted, waiting for Eagle Board of Review
How many merit badges: 26, including 12 required
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Doing things with the troop
What is the most important thing you have learned: To keep working at things
JARON
Current rank: Life
Need for next rank: (Eagle) Service project
Working on now: Decide on service project
How many merit badges: 36, including 12 required
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Camping
What is the most important thing you have learned: To be prepared
MCKAY
Current rank: Life
Need for next rank: (Eagle) Service project, finish Citizenship in the Community MB
Working on now: Have written up a Service Project–need to get approval, go to Scouting University in February to finish Citizenship in the Community MB
How many merit badges: 22, including 11 required. Earned 2 historic MBs and 5 scouting anniversary ribbons
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Campouts
What is the most important thing you have learned: Need to be persistent
ERIC
Current rank: Star
Need for next rank: (Life) 2 required MBs
Working on now: Citizenship in the Community and Communications MBs, only 2 or 3 things left on each
How many merit badges: 12, including 5 required
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Outdoor things, campouts
What is the most important thing you have learned: Personal management/budgeting
JEREMY
Current rank: First Class
Need for next rank: (Star) 1 required MB, 4 months leadership assignment, service hours
Working on now: Historic MBs--3 finished, Carpentry ready to pass off
How many merit badges:11, including 3 required
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Everything
What is the most important thing you have learned: Camping skills
JUSTIN
Current rank:Second class
Need for next rank: (First Class) Do a cookout and finish off a couple more requirements
Working on now: Have plan to work with SM and patrol to finish cooking requirement
How many merit badges: 6, including 2 required
What is your favorite thing about scouting: Being out with the guys my age
What is the most important thing you have learned: First aid
JAMISON
Current den: Webelos
What have you finished for your Webelos badge: One more requirement on one item remaining.
How many activity badges have you earned: 3 finished, 6 all but done
What is your favorite thing about cubs: Do lots of fun stuff–especially the sports they do
What is the most important thing you have learned in cubs: First aid and Handyman
JONATHAN
Current den: Webelos
What have you finished for your Webelos badge: (Webelos completed, almost done with Arrow of Light)
How many activity badges have you earned: 12
What is your favorite thing about cubs: Webelos engineer
What is the most important thing you have learned in cubs: Readyman
ETHAN
Current den: Bear
How many achievements have you finished for your Bear: 12 (Bear completed)
How many arrow points have you earned: 3
What is your favorite thing about cubs: Making things
What is the most important thing you have learned in cubs: Everyday things, like service, making things
JOSHUA
Current den: Wolf
How many achievements have you finished for your Wolf: 12 (Wolf completed)
How many arrow points have you earned: 4
What is your favorite thing about cubs: Going and being with my den, fishing with Grandpa
What is the most important thing you have learned in cubs: To do your best
AARON
Current den: Wolf
How many achievements have you finished for your Wolf: 6
How many arrow points have you earned: Still working on Wolf badge
What is your favorite thing about cubs: Everything
What is the most important thing you have learned in cubs: Lots of things
ISN'T THIS ALL GREAT?
I had an unforgettable Christmas as a boy of about 8 or 10–at least I learned some things about “wanting.” I had been studying intensively the Christmas catalogs from Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Wards since their arrival some time before Thanksgiving. The more I studied, the more I wanted a train set. I had such a vision of joy to imagine starting and stopping and watching a little train, all my own, pulling its load of cars around and around a track. I just could not imagine anything more wonderful.
I presented to my mother my need to receive a train set for Christmas on several occasions. Finally she informed me that she and my dad had budgeted $5 each for Dorothy and me for Christmas toys (our grand-children will not even be able to relate to the tinyness of this amount, but times and the availability of money were different then). There were no train sets in either of the catalogs for this amount. The least expensive set cost eight dollars, and was cheap-looking O-gauge passenger train with a short oval track. I was shocked at this news.
Finally my mother bargained that if I wanted to use money I had saved (I had 4 or 5 dollars hoarded away), I could add that to the $5 they would pay and get a train. Even with this arrangement, the O-gauge passenger train wa the only one I could afford. My sadness turned to joy and I agreed to this bargain, even though she warned me that this would be the only present I would get.
The days that followed were filled with excited anticipation. Finally it was Christmas morning. There under our Christmas tree was a box for me that contained my wonderful train set. I eagerly opened it, and soon I was setting it up. I turned on the switch and the train began to go around and around its track.
I watched it for a few minutes, and felt such a sense of boredom and emptiness. There was nothing I could do with this thing except watch it go round and round. Here was the thing that I had dreamed and fanticized about for most of my waking minutes for the last two months and I had no more interest in it.
I think I learned a lesson to be more careful about letting my wants carry away my imagination to make stupid choices about things that were of little nor no value, and that material acquisitions tended to not give much enduring satisfaction.
[Picture: this is definitely NOT a picture of my toy train.]
Christmas Eve day we visited Ogden area. It was delightful to see the Christmas preparations made by the Stanfords and Soderquists and to spend a few minutes with each of them. We also went to lunch with Dorothy (my sister). We ate a nice meal at Sandy’s, a little home-grown restaurant on Washington Blvd. The highlight was sharing 
a piece of their coconut cream pie. (Pictured: Stanfords and Soderquists in their Christmas preparations and a Christmas duet from Trinia and Tricia)
In the evening, we lit luminaries at JoAnn’s and Michael’s graves. The tradition to fill the Spanish Fork cemetery with light on Christmas Eve is on the upswing here, with more families participating each year. And there are new devices. It started with luminaries made with candles in paper sacks or quart jars. Now we are seeing many more manufactured candle holders, and multi-colored Christmas lights battery-powered. In the early nightfall with hundreds of these various kinds of little lights, the Spanish Fork cemetery looked very beautiful. Keeping the memory alive of JoAnn and Michael, who both loved Christmas so much, is meaningful to me.
We started the Christmas day with Skype visits with David’s and Valerie’s families. It was fun to interact in this way with each individual, to see their favorite gifts and feel their excitement. Then we drove to Sandy on this pretty day to see Olivia’s and Jack’s Christmas. It was noon when we got to Wendy’s sister Shannon’s place to leave a present for Annette, Wendy’s mother. Wendy gave her a bunch of home-made bibs, a much needed item. We found them (kids and grandkids) finishing a mid-day breakfast meal of Apple pancakes and sausage, which they we good to share with us. Returning home to Spanish Fork, Wendy and I opened our gifts, and Wendy finished food preparations to take to our family dinner at Matthew and Kim’s.
The family gathered for our Lewis family Christmas at Matthew and Kim’s at about 4 pm. We started the gathering with something unusual that had been requested by Elder Hales in his meeting in the last week or so with Spanish Fork area Stake Presidencies and Bishoprics (as reported to us by President Daines in our most recent preparation meeting at the Provo temple). This was, that st Christmas meetings in families this year, there should be set aside a time for a few gospel testimonies about the family and the importance of the gospel to happy families. We initiated this prior to exchanging and opening gifts and we took about 20 minutes total in expressions of gratitude and testimony. I spoke of my great appreciation for the unity and peacefulness in our family relationships, brought on by our mutual commitment to the Gospel. Bruce, Alison, Quin, and Heidi also spoke briefly, and I felt quite tender about the things said. Quin said that he came from a family who were both “believers” and “doers” and he was happy to find someone to marry who came from a family with that same commitment. Alison spoke of letter from Daniel in the MTC saying that he felt an obligation as a member of this family to serve as others have served.
In the gift exchange, as a major gift from Wendy and me to each family, we presented them with a copy of a book of over 400 pages about our mission to Nort
h Carolina. We are grateful to Valerie had prepared this book for publication, using our blog entries stating with the time of our call and continuing through the time when we reported our mission in the Spanish Fork Wolf Hollow 2nd ward.
In the early morning hours of the day after Christmas, we made an unexpected visit to the ER at Utah Valley Hospital, because of some bleeding in my bladder. I am very grateful that I was able to hold off on this, until we had had all of our wonderful Christmas experiences. I had to get a catheter inserted at the ER. The bleeding and resulting blockage probably were a result of the combination of an infection that may have caused a little blood vessel in the lining of the bladder to pop, the Plavix that I have been taking for my heart condition causing the bleeding to continue for a time, and my enlarged prostate limiting the fluid able to exit the bladder. No big deal. The bleeding has stopped. I got the catheter out yesterday, and things are normal and working. I am taking Cipro for the infection, and another new medication to help the flow through the prostate. I am not taking the Plavix and probably go off of it permanently when I see my cardiologist, Dr. Carter, in an appointment the end of January.
I want to say parenthetically that I had an almost identical episode in September 2008 three months before our mission. During the mission, I had perhaps half a dozen times when bleeding like this started, but soon stopped and did not interfere with my functioning. I thank the Lord for this amount of “renewal of my body” that I could serve continually and successfully for the 18 month period of our mission.
A number of years ago, Wendy's mother created a miniature Santa Claus house. This took her over a year to complete and required the application of all of her artistic talents.
Wendy's sister, Bonnie, now sets up this display each year at her home in Bennion. Several of our Lewis families were able to see this house on Thursday before Christmas.
Since the time I was a young man, each year I have followed my own little personal
Christmas tradition–I read the chapters on the Christmas story in the book JESUS THE CHRIST by James E. Talmage. Chapters 7 and 8 tell about the events of Christ’s birth. But many years ago, I sensed that to read the full story of Christmas I had to also include chapters 2-6, which provide the background for his birth as the babe in Bethlehem and why his birth is so important. Reviewing these chapters each year has helped to fill me with awe, gratitude, and joy for the blessing of Christmas.
Highlights:
● We lived with God as spirits prior to our coming to earth as mortals.
● In the premortal world God our Heavenly Father presented a plan for our growth and happiness (the Great Plan of Salvation/Redemption), in which we would come to this earth to receive a body and be tested.
● One of the spirits, Lucifer, rebelled and presented an alternative plan which would deprive us of our free agency, but was rejected.
● Jehovah, the most intelligent of God’s spirit children, the Creator of this world under the Father, and member of the Godhead, was chosen and foreordained to be the Savior of mankind.
● The chosen plan anticipated that all who came to this earth would be subject to physical and spiritual death, and of themselves could not overcome these problems.
● The Savior would fulfill the plan by overcoming physical death (the resurrection) and spiritual death (the atonement).
● To do this, he would need to take upon himself an earthly body (be born as a baby with a mortal mother but with God as his father), live a perfect life, fulfill the demands of justice by suffering vicariously for all of our sins, and die an innocent man and take up his body again to break the bands of physical death.
● All of the prophets prior to his birth prophesied of his coming.
● The gospel, when preached and administered in all the ages of the world, relied on his atonement to cleanse from sin individuals who would accept him through faith, repentance, and baptism, so we could once again be with God.
● The situation in the land of Jerusalem was ripe for the Savior’s coming to fulfill his sacred mission.
● There was great joy in heaven that his birth began the consummation of the Great Plan.
(Pages from my mother's copy of JESUS THE CHRIST)
Driving through Provo Friday on the way to the cabin we were diverted away from the fire that burned the Provo Tabernacle. We stopped to take a picture. The fire was a sad loss, both of expensive equipment and irreplaceable facilities, but also of a wonderful pioneer legacy.
I had a little experience with this building. As a member of the Ralph Woodward Chorale prior to our move to Taylorsville, we practiced and performed in that building, including doing a performance of The Messiah, Christmas of 1968. Singing The Messiah with this very excellent group was one of the highlights of my life and left me with a life-long love of this music.
Here is a fun little story about that building that someone told at a choir rehearal. At one time, the building had a high podium and choir seat area that overlooked the regular seating, and to which there was no access from the floor. The entrance to the podium was at the back through a choir entrance. The Provo Stake was holding a conference, and the meeting had some extra time, so the Stake President began to call people to the stand extemporaneously to talk or bear their testimonies. Of course, they had to exit the hall, walk around to the choir entrance, walk up a flight of stairs to the back of the choir area, then descend to the pulpit. This all went well until the President announced a particular brother’s name to be next speaker. People saw him arise from his seat and watched him walk to the exit. Then they waited expectantly for him to emerge from the doorway at the rear of the choir. They waited. And waited. And waited. Finally the Stake President arose and announced a further speaker. Apparently the brother didn’t want to be a conference speaker.
We had our last temple shift on Thursday and cleaned out our lockers before the two week closure. We go back in January. After the temple, we drove to Salt Lake for dinner with Wendy’s siblings and spouses.
The old refrigerator in Grandma Evan’s house died last Wednesday. We decided to give the renters (the Potters) our current fridge and get a new one for our place. We had Friday morning to start the switch. Travis Reynolds was home and helped tremendously, as we had lots of trouble getting the fridge out of our kitchen. The island that is in our kitchen blocks going out any way except for the back door which is only a 32" door. After quite a bit of effort we got it out and delivered it to Potter’s porch about noon time. We couldn’t get it inside because they were not home and the door was locked. We finally were able to find time to buy a replacement fridge yesterd
ay, but it won’t be delivered until Thursday. In the meantime, we have a makeshift refrigerator in the corner of the garage. (Picture)
Friday afternoon we hurried for the cabin, to host a party that Heidi wanted, to have a goodbye time with a group of her BYU friends at the end of the semester and before her mission. It was a lot of fun to meet these nice and clean young people and observe how much they enjoyed each other. There was a little light snow both Thursday and Friday nights, but we were blessed that it did not interfere with the travel to and from the cabin. (See pictures of Heidi and her friends.) We stayed to watch the BYU football team win its bowl game handily, then came back home in the late afternoon so that Wendy could help in the kitchen at a wedding reception for the Stamm’s daughter (Sister Stamm is our ward Relief Society President and Wendy is one of her counselors).
We sang several Christmas numbers with the ward choir Sunday. We also 
heard Cole Hunter report on his mission in Portland OR. The week before, we heard Travis Reynolds report, coming home from his mission in Barcelona Spain. Both of these guys were Priests while I was YM President, and I sure felt a fatherly joy in their faithful service as missionaries. We also finished the last session of the Teacher Development class that we have been attending, by making a 7 minutes presentation on sacrifice, demonstrating the use of discussion techniques. Sunday evening we drove to Salt Lake to attend the annual Christmas party for the family of Wendy’s mother. We brought Olivia and Jack back here to spend a couple of days with us. Last night we took them along with Scott and Emilie and family to Spanish Fork’s Christmas Festival of Lights
We have had almost stead snow here since Sunday evening. There was about 6-7 inches when we got up yesterday morning, light snow throughout the day, and probably another 6-8 inches last night. Wendy measured 16 inches total on the back patio thus morning (and that is after it had settled). Pictured is the crew shoveling the sidewalks yesterday and also how covered the truck and driveway are from last night’s added snowfall.
With a feeling of humble gratitude, I acknowledge the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father, who has so quickly granted our family the intent of our recent fasting and prayers. Heidi's visa to enter Spain did come so that she has been able to travel to her mission field according to the original schedule. And Garrett seems to have hit it off with his new speech therapist and the work of helping him with his speech seems to be still progressing.
