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.
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