I am trying to figure out what to do with my blog...........this might be the start of a trend.......we'll see.
I had a wonderful experience yesterday (26 July 2014) that I want to share with you. I attended a reunion which was to include all my maternal cousins.
Turns out only about half of us could make it. We met at the church where our
parents attended as children in a small northern-Utah town. We shared a light
lunch enriched with lots of conversation. Someone had prepared slips of paper
for each person to tell a memory or something they knew about one of our
ancestors. The following two hours were filled with the kinds of feelings I
anticipate we will have during eternity! As we talked of our ancestors who had
embraced the gospel regardless of the cost and marveled at their courage and determination,
I was filled with a feeling of deep gratitude for them and wondered if I would
ever be able to express to them the love and gratitude I feel for them.
This same group of cousins has been
working for two years on a family history book which will include histories of
my grandparents, their six children, spouses and the grandchildren. It is
nearing completion and will be available soon. The excitement and anticipation
of each participant was very evident. It will be wonderful to have these
histories available. But there has been an additional blessing: our
relationship as cousins has been enhanced; we feel greater love for one another
and some who have been separated for a time are a little closer now. This whole
process has strengthened us as a family.
No one was in a hurry to leave, and
several of us were wishing it could go on longer. After our good-bye hugs, as
some were leaving, we entered the chapel, where so many of our ancestors had
worshipped, and with my sister at the organ, we sang hymns of prayer and
praise…our favorites and those of our parents. I couldn’t help but think of all
those who have gone before me who had sung those same hymns in that same
place—four generations worth! I also wondered if they might not be there with
us at that time? It felt just right to close our hymn-singing with family
prayer. Again, we said our good-byes and finally climbed into our cars………only
to reconvene at the cemetery! It is sobering for me to walk through a cemetery.
There is always such a feeling of peace and calm. As I read the headstones I
again felt a deep gratitude for these people. They had embraced the gospel in
different states and countries, some had left successful farms and businesses,
some had endured the persecutions in the early days of the Church. All had
followed a prophet into the West, and remained faithful throughout their lives.
I look forward to
spending eternity with these people! As I learn the trials and struggles of
their lives, their joys and sorrows, I have come to know them. I look forward
with hope that I will have “run my race” as successfully as they have completed
theirs. How can I possibly feel that my hardships and troubles are “too much”?
They have passed a brightly burning torch to me. It is now my duty to see that
I pass it on undimmed.
