Delicious Family Dinner at Keith and Kim's

Sunday evening, March 20, 2011, we had a family dinner at Keith and Kim's to celebrate March birthdays--Keith's and Kathryn's. John and I enjoyed being treated to dinner. James, Kira, Talisa, and Grant

Julie and Jason

Keith and Kim

Mark and Kristilyn. We're thrilled that they are expecting twin girls in August.

JOhn and Kathryn Ann

Kira wearing Julie's shoes

Julie and Kira. It took a little while for Kira to warm up to us but by the end of the evening she was very affectionate. She wants to do everything everyone else does. She had to sit at the children's table instead of in her regular place. I love the hugs that the grandchildren so freely share.

March Full Time Missionaries

We have had a wonderful two weeks with our young missionaries. They are skilled, intelligent, obedient, and eager to serve. John’s student is from South Jordan and my student is from Grantsville. She had served in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission but had to come home because of serious medical problems. After three months the problems were resolved so we are fortunate to have her in our mission. She came with a documented biography she wrote of her great-grandmother and a handwritten five-generation sheet. When she left she had 815 names in her file, many of them sourced. One day as we were reading a history she paused and said, “I’m feeling things I’ve never felt before in my life. Is this the Spirit of Elijah? If I had tear ducts, I would be crying.” We have sacred, testimony building experiences almost every day as we are guided by the Spirit with help from both sides of the veil. What a privilege it is.

One remarkable pioneer story of the week was of Elizabeth Churchill. She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria in England but chose to leave those circumstances and married a sailor named Cassity for love. They had five children. Eventually they joined the LDS church along with her married daughter and her husband Edward Bowden. Cassity died in Nebraska before the family crossed the plains and eventually settled in Tooele. Edward Bowden’s wife, Elizabeth’s daughter, died and he became blind. In order to care for Edward and her grandchildren, Elizabeth married Edward Bowden, her daughter’s widower.

Go Forth Day is always special because the new missionaries receive their zone assignments and then all the missionaries, trainers, and many of the mission presidency and staff attend a temple session so that they will again feel the endowment of power to accomplish what is required. After the endowment session, John and I had the privilege of serving as proxy parents in a short sealing session in which the young sister and three young elders were proxies for children being sealed to parents. In many cases they were proxies for family members for whom they had personally researched. (For the duration of their missions, young missionaries are only permitted to participate in sealings as children or as witnesses, if they are elders.) My young trainee is only four years younger than Melody. These young missionaries are more like our children than our grandchildren.

This has been a week of intense gratitude for the blessings we have. We are very aware of the world situation with our nephew Ben Rogers in Afghanistan, and Dave and Tam Rogers (John’s brother) in Japan. Dave and Tam arrived at their assignment to be the mission home couple in Fukuoka, Japan, just days before the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit. They are safe but extremely busy as they learn their responsibilities and work in reassigning and finding housing for reassigned missionaries from Sendai and Tokyo. How thankful we are for email and other communication.

We are grateful for our families and for our friends for the examples that they are in our lives. As missionaries we are surrounded with remarkable people who have consecrated their lives to the Lord. Some serve with difficult physical problems. Many are single, divorced, or widowed. It has been surprising to me how many missionaries serve for a year or so then return to their occupations because their family has been covering for them in their absence or they don’t have money to live unless they return to work. Missionaries come for all over the world and from every occupation. This week I was visiting with a couple and learned that her husband is a member of the family that owns the Dole Pineapple Plant on Oahu, Hawaii. She is from Laie and they met at Church College of Hawaii where he was attending as a non-member.

The fact that we are a married couple, living at home, and completely retired is less common. We are blessed to have each other and our supportive extended families. When we see the trouble that much of the world faces then look at how our children and nieces and nephews are living their lives and raising their children, we are filled with hope and profound gratitude. The rising generation is remarkable and the church is in good hands. They are choosing the path of peace and safely with their priorities properly in place. How blessed we are for our association with them.

Barney Pioneer Story

John found this story this week and thought you might enjoy reading it.

Marcy (or Mercy) Jane Lucas Barney (2nd Great Grand Aunt)

Birth: Dec. 25, 1802 Clinton County Ohio, USA
Death: Mar. 20, 1886 Escalante, Garfield County, Utah, USA

History - Marcy moved to central Illinois with her parents in 1829. There she married John Williams, February 10, 1831, and they had six children while living near Mt. Pulaski, Sangamon (now Logan) County, Illinois. LDS (Mormon) missionaries visited the area in the early 1840's. According to her grandchildren, Marcy wanted to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but her husband forbade it because of the persecution he had seen around the area. He died September 20, 1844 in or near Springfield, Illinois.

Marcy, with the family, then removed to Kanesville, on the Missouri River where the body of the Saints were gathered. A great deal of courage was manifested in this move as the father's will, which left considerable property to the family, did not permit the family to leave the county [Logan County, Illinois] until the youngest child was of age. This provision was made to keep the family from joining the Church. A strong watch was kept over the family day and night to see that they did not leave. However, one night at the hour of twelve, during a change of guards, the mother took the family and reached a river steamer at daybreak.

Bishop Bigler, later bishop of Nephi, was on board looking for a sister. Some power told him that Sister Williams, the mother, was a Saint, so during the night he came and awakened the family, telling them to get bag and baggage and get off the steamer at the first landing for he had a vision. Without asking any questions, they landed [got off the steamer]. Next morning they again boarded the first steamer going their way. They had not gone far when they beheld only the smokestack of the other steamer protruding from the water. A terrific explosion had destroyed the ship and all including the crew and passengers.

Marcy married Henry Barney in 1846. He was already a member of the Church, having joined in 1840. Marcy must have known Henry Barney at least as long as she had known John Williams, because the Barneys, Lucases, and Williams were all neighbors in Sangamon/Logan County, Illinois in the 1830's.

The family immigrated to Utah in 1849, coming with ox-teams. The journey was uneventful. They were in St. Louis at the time of the Cholera plague* during which deaths were as high as 365 in one day. They arrived in Provo in October of 1849. They stayed there [in Provo] two or three years and then moved on down to Southern Utah.***

Knaphus Handcart Monument

This replica of the Handcart Monument on Temple Square which was lasered into a small crystal block was given to us on March 4, 2011 by Allen and Juli Anne Gerritsen, Church Service Missionaries. Allen is a grandson of Torlief Soviren Knaphus and they had these specifically commissioned for their family. Knaphus did many sculptures for the Church including the Hill Cumorah Monument, bas relief on several temples, and the figures of the children looking at the flag on the Salt Lake County Building. When asked which was his greatest work he indicated it was the vast genealogical research which he had done himself through many trips to Norway and copying records from their source. We saw a 3 foot by 4 foot pedigree chart listing thousands of Knaphus’ ancestors. We have the privilege of working with consecrated people with remarkable stories.