June has been a precious month for taking care of family and personal activities. We cherished our family reunion with all of our posterity. I had three special days with my cousin Henrietta Wheeler from Minnesota in the Family History Library. I have scanned many family photographs, letters, and documents and donated many family histories, photographs, and books to the Church History Library so they will be preserved for years to come and be available to many more people. We enjoyed attending the temple, seeing the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant, and visiting graves of family members in various cemeteries. We have had excellent inservice training from Elder Kucher and Sister Pethel on sources and Family Tree. The counselors to our mission president, Pres. Peterson, were released this week. Pres. Pinon is going to be serving as a temple president in Mexico. The Stalveys are returning to South Carolina. They have given outstanding service to the mission during their tenure and will be greatly missed. Together John and I have indexed over 40,000 names during our mission in addition to our regular assignments. We are enjoying working on the 1940 Census.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Family Pictures
These are pictures from our family reunion in June, 2012, in Heber and Park City, Utah.
Front Row: Talisa, Keith holding Kira, Kristilyn holding James and Lillian, John holding Grand and Moredecai, Kathryn holding Emily, Keith holding Ruby, Daniel, Katrina holding Anna.
Second Row: Kim, Mark holding Amelia, Melody, Brandon, Julie, Jason, Desi expecting in November, Neal.
Mark and Kristilyn, Jason and Julie, Brandon and Melody, Mark and Desi, Kim and Keith, Katrina and Neal, Kathryn Ann and John.
Julie, Desi, Kim, Kristilyn, Melody, and Katrina
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
2012 John Rogers Family Reunion
This was the main living room. We had a large dining table, a dining table in the sun room, and lots of space around the counter. The children were thrilled to run in and out of the many doors and play hide and seek.
We saw several deer in our yard on various days.
On Sunday we attended a family ward in Heber and were warmly welcomed. I went with the older six grandchildren into Primary. The teachers were fantastic and the lesson on reverence was well presented. The children were completely at home because even though they had never seen any of the people, the church is the same. They sang well and participated freely.
Foosball was a fun activity. This picture shows Mark, Keith, Jason, and Mike.
Saturday night our children asked us to report our mission since we haven't been asked to do it in our ward. We have extended our mission another year again after serving for three and a half years. Sunday afternoon Debbie DuPaix and Christian Bjarnson took lots of family pictures. They were excellent photographers! Desi's sister Felicia and a friend visited from BYU which was a delight. Each family was responsible for a meal and treats for the rest of the family and we ate very well. The cousins played well together and we enjoyed one another. It was hard to tell which child belonged to which parent because all of the adults took care of all the children and made the event fun. As they were leaving Talisa wanted to know if they couldn't go to Daniel's house that afternoon to play some more. We played games like Catch Phrase and Word on the Street after the children were in bed. Julie brought a computer consellation program viewed on an I-pad so we could identify the stars and planets in the clear skies. We're grateful that all of our children would make the effort to be together even though it was a very long trip for some of them. Grant commented on Monday morning, "Can't we just stay here together forever?" We all had to go our separate ways for now but our ultimate goal is to be able to be together forever. We are blessed with a remarkable posterity.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
No DNA Pethel and other insights from the TZ
The June, 2012, issue of “The Journal”, our mission online newspaper featured Elder Melvin and Sister Miriam Pethel. He is the assistant zone leader to our Training Zone Leader, Elder Marvin Kucher. With the Pethels’ permission, I am sharing this article. If you have any information which might help find Elder Pethel’s family, it would be appreciated.
“We have had the choice privilege of serving in the Training Zone for the past 6½ years. We have enjoyed meeting new missionaries, made many choice friends, and feel extremely blessed. We love those we serve and appreciate their examples and willingness to serve our Heavenly Father. We are especially fortunate to serve with our Zone Leader, Elder Kuchar. We feel we couldn’t ask for more blessings from our Heavenly Father, but have hoped and prayed for years to find Elder Pethel’s lineage.
“Elder Kuchar teases that Elder Pethel has no DNA, and if you looked at his pedigree chart you would understand. He has no information on his father’s line, John D. Pethel. We would like to tell you about our adventure with Elder Pethel’s brick wall.
“When he was about six, the State of California took the five chil¬dren away after his parents’ divorce. Frances, Roy and Hazel were placed in foster homes or adopted. He and his brother, David, returned to live with his dad, who told them his mother, Marylena Marguerite Kaesler Fochman, was dead and was unwilling to share anything about his family. David was killed in the Korean War. After his father’s death in 1970, we found child custody papers giving us a clue where his mother had lived, and her father’s name, William Kaesler.
“We wrote a letter to the postmaster in Verona, Missouri asking him to send our letter to any family member. Several weeks later we received a phone call from Aunt Bertha Sloop. To our surprise, we learned his mother was alive! She called on Christmas and he spoke with her for the first time in 36 years! When she visited us in Ukiah, a friend submitted an article to the Church News. As a result, we received a phone call from Texas about his brother, Roy Page, and then another call came from Tennessee about his sister, Laurie (Hazel) Molt!
“We know the Lord’s hand was in all this and that He will continue with us as we continue to work on that brick wall. But he now has a family—finally!”
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Elder Rogers and I continue to have excellent students. John’s student this past week goes to the Hosting Zone where she will be a great asset because she signs American Sign Language. We had 31 students in our May FTM group and they were excellent!
My last student gave me a different perspective on Church History. His ancestor was murdered at Haun’s Mill. His widow left that area with her six children, a light carriage, a blind horse, and walked 400 miles across Missouri in the middle of winter with two pairs of shoes between the entire family. Only the infant and youngest child rode in the carriage. They remained faithful to the church and eventually came to Utah.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition. The book Undaunted by Gerald Lund is fascinating. My student’s great, great grandfather and his brother were miners from Pennsylvannia. They and their families were part of the Hole-in-the-Rock saga because of their expertise in explosives even though the brother wasn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Neither family stayed in Bluff, Utah, because they were unable to make a living to provide for their families. They went on to Arizona and later to the St. George area. The brother and his family never joined the LDS Church though they endured so much in that expedition. Both families are appropriately recognized for their essential contribution in opening southeastern Utah.
“We have had the choice privilege of serving in the Training Zone for the past 6½ years. We have enjoyed meeting new missionaries, made many choice friends, and feel extremely blessed. We love those we serve and appreciate their examples and willingness to serve our Heavenly Father. We are especially fortunate to serve with our Zone Leader, Elder Kuchar. We feel we couldn’t ask for more blessings from our Heavenly Father, but have hoped and prayed for years to find Elder Pethel’s lineage.
“Elder Kuchar teases that Elder Pethel has no DNA, and if you looked at his pedigree chart you would understand. He has no information on his father’s line, John D. Pethel. We would like to tell you about our adventure with Elder Pethel’s brick wall.
“When he was about six, the State of California took the five chil¬dren away after his parents’ divorce. Frances, Roy and Hazel were placed in foster homes or adopted. He and his brother, David, returned to live with his dad, who told them his mother, Marylena Marguerite Kaesler Fochman, was dead and was unwilling to share anything about his family. David was killed in the Korean War. After his father’s death in 1970, we found child custody papers giving us a clue where his mother had lived, and her father’s name, William Kaesler.
“We wrote a letter to the postmaster in Verona, Missouri asking him to send our letter to any family member. Several weeks later we received a phone call from Aunt Bertha Sloop. To our surprise, we learned his mother was alive! She called on Christmas and he spoke with her for the first time in 36 years! When she visited us in Ukiah, a friend submitted an article to the Church News. As a result, we received a phone call from Texas about his brother, Roy Page, and then another call came from Tennessee about his sister, Laurie (Hazel) Molt!
“We know the Lord’s hand was in all this and that He will continue with us as we continue to work on that brick wall. But he now has a family—finally!”
------------------------------------------
Elder Rogers and I continue to have excellent students. John’s student this past week goes to the Hosting Zone where she will be a great asset because she signs American Sign Language. We had 31 students in our May FTM group and they were excellent!
My last student gave me a different perspective on Church History. His ancestor was murdered at Haun’s Mill. His widow left that area with her six children, a light carriage, a blind horse, and walked 400 miles across Missouri in the middle of winter with two pairs of shoes between the entire family. Only the infant and youngest child rode in the carriage. They remained faithful to the church and eventually came to Utah.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition. The book Undaunted by Gerald Lund is fascinating. My student’s great, great grandfather and his brother were miners from Pennsylvannia. They and their families were part of the Hole-in-the-Rock saga because of their expertise in explosives even though the brother wasn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Neither family stayed in Bluff, Utah, because they were unable to make a living to provide for their families. They went on to Arizona and later to the St. George area. The brother and his family never joined the LDS Church though they endured so much in that expedition. Both families are appropriately recognized for their essential contribution in opening southeastern Utah.
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