Seek after the Best Gifts

List Your Unique Gifts and Talents - Be Grateful

Below are a few scriptures that talk about gifts...spiritual gifts. Well, I suppose that because all things are spiritual to the Lord, that word gifts might be broadly interpreted. In my last blog I talked about the spiritual gifts that you have and asked you to make a list of the specific blessings that are included in your Patriarchal Blessing.  

SCRIPTURES: 

Paul says, “For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper (own) gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.”

–1 Corinthians 7:7

“But covet (seek earnestly, be zealous for) the best gifts; and yet I show you a more excellent way.” –1 Corinthians 12:31

            Moroni says, “Wherefore by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.”

 –Ether 12:11

“Follow after Charity (the pure love of Christ), and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.”

–1 Corinthians 14:1

           "It is in this spirit I prophesy that  “The windows of Heaven will open and pour out upon you blessings you have never before anticipated, when you diligently read and study His specific blessings for you in your patriarchal blessing; you will draw closer to God and fulfill the measure of your creation.” In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

THOUGHT: We are given several gifts and talents when we came to earth. You may say that you don’t know what those talents or gifts are, but if you seek prayerfully God will reveal them to you. There are some that may not be considered spiritual gifts, such as ‘perfect pitch’ or a ‘way with numbers.’ Other talents can be developed over the years because of your intense interest in a subject such as ‘drawing or painting what you see’ or ‘understanding the way the computer works.”  But, remember the Lord says in D & C 29:34, “For verily I say unto you that all things are spiritual,” and he refers especially to his laws and commandments in this section. We have seen where our Latter-day prophets come to their callings with special experiences, occupational backgrounds, gifts and talents that are needed in the moment they serve. We, too, must prepare ourselves to build up the kingdom. Do you recognize that God prepares you to serve also?

            If we know who we are with our unique set of gifts and that we are God’s spiritual sons and daughters, then we must realize that we have inherited His Godly traits or characteristics. We have His spiritual DNA. Do not let your gifts and blessings be dormant in your life; find them and pursue them. Our elder brother, Jesus Christ, has shown us the more excellent way and says, “Come follow me.” Line upon line, precept upon precept let us become more like Him.

            Let us follow Christ, know our gifts and talents, understand the blessings our Father in heaven has given to us so that we may help build the kingdom of God on earth and prepare the world for His coming.

Your Potential Revealed

Seeing Yourself as God Sees You

Your Patriarchal Blessing is your personal scripture. God is talking only to you. In it He will reveal your own unique potential. In our searching for these things, God will continue to bless us with increased understanding of who we really are and see ourselves as God sees us.

SCRIPTURE: “And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with.”   –Doctrine and Covenants 46:32

Remember to begin this reading of your patriarchal blessing 

for your potential with a word of prayer

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Does your patriarchal blessing tell you about your strengths, weaknesses and spiritual gifts? It does, but it requires careful reading. The strengths, weaknesses and spiritual gifts mentioned there are uniquely yours. Of course, we are all part of the human family and thus share many of these things, however it is our mission to “know ourselves and know who we really are” and then set about doing what the Lord wants us to be doing. This doing  may be different at each stage of our lives. As a young person just entering college and preparing for an occupation and finding an eternal companion it will have a different emphasis than for the grandparent at the end of life making physical adjustments and refining spiritual gifts.

MY SUGGESTION: Make a list of the specific blessings in your patriarchal blessing. These are fairly easy to find when they start our with, “I bless you that…”  Then there are the promises of blessings made to you by the Lord that may be more subtle. In my next blogs I will talk about admonitions of the Lord and how to discover what weaknesses are listed in you patriarchal blessing; these are the weaknesses that the Lord wants you to turn into strengths.

            Now, take that list of blessings and compare them with the spiritual gifts that the Lord gives liberally to his children that obey his commandments.

            Here is a list of the spiritual gifts that we are asked to seek after that are listed in

1 Corinthians 12:4 and Doctrine and Covenants 46:13:

1.   To know Jesus is the Christ by the gift of the Holy Ghost and that he was crucified for the sins of the world

2.   To believe on the words of others

3.   To know the differences of administration

4.   To know the diversities of operations (whether they be of God)

5.   Wisdom

6.   Knowledge (that all may be wise and taught and to have knowledge)

7.   Faith to heal

8.   Faith to be healed

9.   Working of miracles

10. To prophesy

11. Discerning of spirits

12. To speak with tongues

13. Interpretation of tongues

The purpose of these gifts is, “for the benefit of the children of God.” –D & C 46:26

QUOTE:

This above all:

To thine own self be true,

for it must follow as dost the night the day,

thou canst not then be false to any man.

 - Shakespeare (Hamlet) inspired by Socrates (Know thyself)

In the Doctrine and Covenants 59 the Lord tells us how as faithful saints in Zion we shall be blessed.

In verses 4-6 Heavenly Father says:

“4. And they shall be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time—they that are faithful and diligent before me.

“5.Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him.”

In verse 6 He gives us this commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Do you love yourself? How can you love others if you don’t love yourself? In order to love others we must come to know those things that are loveable in ourselves. Of course, this sounds a bit egotistical. However, if we take this seriously we come to realize that you have to be comfortable in your own skin before you can reach out to others with charity, the pure love of Christ.

Charity             

Joseph A. Cannon, Editor of the Deseret News, wrote in the Sep 9, 2006 issue of The Mormon Times a series called "The Gospel in Words," and  he quoted these scriptures about charity:

"And though I have all faith, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)

" Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards men." (Doctrine & Covenants 121:45)

          Cannon goes on to say that when we use the word "charity" we are usually referring back to the Greek word "agape" So often we think charity means giving to the poor or helping someone . "This is an aspect of charity, but if that is what we focus on we miss the much larger and deeper meaning of charity, or love. Another problem in thinking about the words "charity" and "love" is a tendency to think that it requires affection. While having the affection for another person makes it easier to be charitable toward them, focusing on affection again tends to cause us to miss the mark of what charity/love means.

         "For example, we are required to love (agape) our enemies and to pray for them. Does this require us to have affection for them? Recently I came across a volume of radio addresses given by C.S. Lewis in 1942 on "Christian Behavior." What follows is an extensive quote from his discussion on charity.

         "Charity means 'Love, in the Christian sense.' But love in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people. Our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves. It means that we wish for our own good. In the same way Christian Love (or Charity) for our neighbors is quite a different thing from liking or affection. It is a duty to encourage our affections--to 'like' people as much as we can, not because this liking is itself the virtue of charity, but because it is a help to it. But through natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that the way to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are 'cold' by temperament; that may be a misfortune for them but it is no more a sin than having bad digestion is a sin; and it does not cut them off from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learning charity."

In the end we love or wish ourselves good (this is a state of will) and we should come to learn what is the best in us; this self knowledge begins right in our patriarchal blessings.

Organizing Your Patriarchal Blessing to Get the Most Out of It

Getting Organized a Godly Trait

SCRIPTURE:

            “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” –Genesis1:1

In the footnotes of our bible it tell us that the word ‘created’ in Hebrew means shaped, fashioned, created and refers us to Abraham 4:1

            “And then the Lord said: Let us go down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heaven and the earth.” –Abraham 4:1

If creating order is a characteristic of the great God in heaven, should we imitate Him? 

         Well, I pondered this during the time that I started my morning pages back in 1994 and had decided to use a 3 ring binder as my journal. I wanted my patriarchal blessing to be in that format. So I organized it a little better for me to read and retyped it. Prior to this I'd just made a photo copy of the blessing itself and stuck it hither thither and yon. Sometimes, I could find it and other times (mainly because we moved a lot) it was stuck in a file folder in with hundreds of other folders, usually mislabeled, and often still in a moving box. So, getting organized was REALLY needed.Also, I wanted a new shape from the legal sized original copy of my blessing.

          I have used my blessing for more than 30 years of study and it is remarkably like the other scriptures  found in the Standard Works: when read prayerfully with the Holy Ghost as your guide, new things pop out at you; new levels of understanding seem to appear, that heretofore went unnoticed.

         I retyped my blessing into a digital document with each paragraph of the blessing on one 8 ½ X 11 page, placing a page stop at the end of each page. I typed each sentence found in the paragraph as a separate paragraph, so to speak. In the past I’ve printed these pages out and placed them in plastic page protectors in my Journal. It made searching a word or phrase easier in a digital word document, as well as making it easier to see patterns or subject matter grouped logically. I used a large size font from 14 to 20 pt depending on how long the "paragraph" was or how many sentences were in it. Believe it or not, I began remembering words and phrases in my blessing much better. I do not memorize well and often felt frustrated that I would never become a "sister scriptorian" as President Spencer Kimball asked of us a Regional meeting long ago. I made a commitment right then and there to begin doing this great task, one small step at a time. Organizing my blessing in this large type format with a sentence=paragraph, and paragraph=one page, I became more familiar with my own personal scripture, my blessing. And believe it or not, even though I still don't memorize well, I can actually say, "I love the Scriptures. I read and ponder them regularly and have many revelatory insights into even difficult passages. I've become a Sister Scriptorian." Organizing my blessing this way has helped me come to value my personal scripture as well.

On the left is what my old journal pages looked like; on the right is a new concept from 2012

         In this large format, when I set goals, studied phrases, looked for a theme for the new year, I found inspiration or answers to questions in my life. In this format, it was also easier to include pages of notes, indicating scriptures I’ve read or passages from other books where I found explanations, even definitions from several dictionaries about a word or phrase found in my blessing. Then I'd place these studies immediately following the pertinent paragraph of my blessing. At the beginning of each year, I moved just the blessing pages to the front of a new binder for the next year, leaving my studies and goals in the old year's binder, where they were archived. For reference in this blog series, I have used these notes from as far back as my 1977 archived binders. 

        New Format for 2012 Required Re-typing My Patriarchal Blessing

         This year I’ve been inspired to do something a little different with these pages of my blessing. In the previous photo you will see how I had typed these pages in previous years on the left hand side. On the right of the photo is an example of  my new version.  One of the returned missionaries in our ward inspired me when he said that he took his blessing along on his mission, placed at the back of his scriptures. What a wonderful idea, because they really are our own personal scriptures.

          In an earlier blog I talked about the importance of a name and that gave me a new idea of what to call my patriarchal blessing. I’ve retyped my blessing under the title “The Book of Beverly.” Now each page is given a chapter number and each sentence becomes a verse. Some of my chapters have only one or two verses, but others have many more. This makes it easy to locate, memorize and quote certain passages. It is also easier to “footnote” the notes in my studies, indicating what verse from my blessing it is connected to by chapter and verse (example: see Bev 4:2, etc)

          I took this project one step further and I copied each page with a 50% reduction, cut the pages so they fit my scriptures, then stapled them between two sheets of heavier paper. I placed this “Book of Beverly” at the back of my scriptures. 

Now I include the Book of Beverly at the Back of My Scriptures

       Having your Patriarchal blessing in both sizes will help you use, understand and appreciate it more than ever before.

QUOTE:

            “Now my brethren and sisters, let me urge that we, old and young, begin to appreciate our (patriarchal) blessings.”

 –Hyrum G. Smith, Conference Report, Oct 1922 page 50

         

   

Journal Keeping

From Dear Diary to Journal 2012

     I've been keeping a journal for many, many years. I suppose it began as "Dear Diary" when I was in grade school. It's fun to read what I wrote and how 'boy crazy' I was at that age. I was a member of Camp Fire Girls from fourth grade through 9th grade and we had to record our projects in what was called a memory book. My adult journals reflect  this early memory book experience. Those books were turned into the main office and judged once a year for 'advancement' in rank. Sometimes I wish I had those books, but they've been lost over years. Camp Fire placed an emphasis on the binding of the memory book and many of my friends had wooden covers that they had burned creative designs onto with wood-burning tools. Over the past 15 years, my journal covers have included pictures, drawings, collage cut outs and all sorts of other weird stuff. Most recently I've become a purist. Or should you read that as lazy? 

The Morning Pages Phase

     Have I written daily in my journals? No. Weekly? No. Regularly? No. However when I lived on Kwajalein, an island in the Marshall Islands, a friend introduced me to a book called "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron. The writing of three handwritten pages every morning when I first woke up, although difficult at first, became a source of inspired writing towards the end of the course. I carried this love of writing over into my journal. The habit of writing daily, also carried over and I write in my journal much more regularly now. Over the years I had every size of journal, but during this time of morning pages, I settled in on a three ring binder with ruled notebook pages to write on. I'd use the pockets front and back for news articles and photos that I wanted to keep (this is where the Memory Book concept kicked in) and included plastic page covers for many other odd things. Somehow, I kept the things I saved in these plastic page covers mostly to photos, artwork, written or printed work, so you won't find pressed flowers in my journals!

The Beginning of the Year is the Start of a New Journal

     Every December, I reread my Patriarchal Blessing, prayerfully. I've found that certain phrases will stand out to me and I seem to sense that these will be important in the upcoming year. You would think after thirty years of doing this, that I'd know every word, phrase and sentence by heart. Well, it is just like the scriptures, I discover new insights each year. This year was no exception. Below is a photo of my 2011 journal showing a quotation that I used as an inspiration for the year 2011 as well as a plastic page with  the phrase from my blessing that I used as a theme. As you can see there is nothing very creative here, but it worked for me. I keep my patriarchal blessing in the front of each year's journal, moving it over at the beginning of the year. Next I have a section where I keep my goals for the year.This placement is convenient for keeping up with those goals since I write often in my journal.  There is also a calendar there with important dates on it, including when I want to reach certain steps in reaching a goal. I use my blessing to set goals every year and it really works well. In my blog I will show how I've made a study of my blessing in the process of truly trying to understand what the Lord expects me to be doing. My examples may give you some ideas on how to make the most out of your own personal scriptures, your patriarchal blessing..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Ring Binder Journal and Theme Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord's Portion - Ephraim

“We are the Lord’s Portion”

In the Pistis Sophia, an ancient document, it says, “There is an appointed place for everything in the Cosmos.” Cosmos means organization, order. And that “there is a numbering of souls for each world: and a dispensation is not completed until the teleos(completed) number has been fulfilled.”

The numbering of this dispensation of total people is linked to the number of the children of Israel. Our lineage is declared in patriarchal blessings to be from Joseph, with the majority from the tribe of Ephraim. We are the Lord’s portion.

In Ephraim:Chosen of the Lord, the authors tell us that, “The Lord has not revealed to mankind the duration of the time we spent in pre-mortal life. The extent of the programs that were made, has also, in His wisdom, been kept from us. However, He has revealed the formula He used when he preplanned the sequencing, the duration, the configuration, the assignments and the promised inheritances of His children upon the earth. He revealed to Moses:

“When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).” [1]

If Ephraim is the Lord’s portion, then what a huge responsibility we have. Everyone who has every lived must have the opportunity to hear the gospel preached

---

[1] Ephraim, Chosen of the Lord: what it means to be of the tribe of Ephraim, by Wayne R. Shute, Monte S. Nyman and Randy L. Bott, © 1999 Millennial Press, Inc., Riverton, Utah, p. 9

Naming Patterns in Genealogical Research

A Personal Story about Naming a Baby

I like to think of myself as a creative person. When I was young, I often thought that I’d name my children beautiful names that were spelled in a unique way. However, when I was in my thirties and actually faced with suggesting a name for an unborn child that my husband I hoped to adopt, I became symbolic at the least and family name oriented at the most.

The name I suggested to the birthmother was one that I’d loved since I’d heard it back in the 1960s. It belonged to my first husband’s boss’ third child, Brianna. I’d given that name away many times in the intervening years when someone asked for an unusual girl’s name. That little six year old grew up to be a well-known rock band’s manager. She was dark haired and a delight. The week before we received knowledge about our possible baby I’d met a very intellegent high school senior who was bagging groceries at a Kroger store. She spoke several languages, captivated my husband and me and was getting ready to study abroad.

Putting this together with the birthmother’s name, Michelle, I decided that if it were a girl the name could be Brianna Michelle and if a boy, Brian Michael. It turned out that the birthmother had a brother named Brian and a favorite uncle named Michael. This name was perfect.

Applying Naming Patterns After 30 Years of Research

            I’d never given naming patterns much thought for the first 30 years of my genealogical research acivities. I’d simply go to a given civil or governmental jurisdiction and extract all the surnames that were known to be in my family living in the area. This activity produced voluminous notes, lists of births, deaths, marriages, etc., that may or may not have been part of my family. After all of those years I can now state categorically that it worked. I had names of children that died between census years, marriages that ended in the death of one or the other spouse and have been able in almost every instance to reconstruct allied family names, you know the ones of brothers and sisters or aunts and uncles.

            So when I heard about Naming Patterns that were prevelant across the country in the 19^th century, I did a little research. Here it is not the surname that is a focus, it is the first names given to babies.  These patterns can often provide an important clues  to the identities of  elusive family members. First of all you must determine if the surname is English, Irish, German or other culture. Apparently each county has a naming pattern that is common.

            These patterns are  especially useful in cases where you don’t know the names of the parents of a particular ancestor. By looking at how the father named his children, you can have an idea as to what his parents (and siblings) names may have been. While the above guidelines were by no means set in stone, and sometimes varied, the pattern was usual enough in the 19th century to be of real use to genealogists searching for ancestors.

            Arlene Eakle, a well known researcher says that, “New England families of English background named the eldest son after his father 82% of the time.  Yet, David Hackett Fischer in Albion’s Seed discovered that families who had the right to bear a coat-of-arms in England, lived a three-generation naming pattern:  the first-born son was named for his paternal grandfather, the second son was named for his father.  When members of these families came to Virginia, they continued this same pattern.  By 1780, over 90% of the first-born sons in Virginia and Maryland were named for their grandfathers.”

            By looking at naming patterns when searching for the parents of an ancestor, you can keep a closer eye out for potential candidates by looking at their first names.

Of course, you should always verify and document all information, and never assume to know an ancestor’s name simply by what it would be according to the list.

 Watch out for Godparents and Non-kin Names

Here is something you must watch out for also. Consider the role of godparents for a christening.  Among Anglicans, children tended to be named for the godparent of the same sex.  Until 1865, parents did not serve as godparents in the Church of England.  Using non-kin to name your children affects relationship formulas found in other cultures.

Using one given name was the general rule in American families before the Civil War.  And the census records seem to support this rule.  Except among Scots-Irish families, where two given names are common.  The census enumerators in South Carolina and Texas dealt with the problem by using initials (haven’t you hated those enumerators?) to avoid writing cramps.  Except Roman Catholic families, where three and four given names are common.  Except German families, where a christening name and a given name precede the surname.  Again watch carefully.

A Popular Hero or Good Friend Might be Honored, Too

 A child might also be named after a good friend or a popular hero of the times. I have Andrew Jackson Hicks in three sucessessive generations of my mother’s family, as well as George Washington Eckel in my  father’s family. But the one example I think is most interesting is the possibility of  my early Richard Hicks named by his father William Hicks after Judge Richard Henderson. Who the heck was he, you ask? Well, he hired my William Hicks along with Daniel Boone to blaze the Wilderness Road into Kentucky. Henderson was the founding father of Nashville, Tennessee and was unique in that he wanted to form his own country, purchasing land from Native Americans to do so. He wanted to call it Transylvania. (this was in the 1750s prior to the Revolutionary War) That famous duo Lewis and Clark had a different take on this adventurer. They fought him tooth and nail in congress after the war and he failed to achieve his dream. However, my William Hicks was given land for his trailblazing. The land was located on the north side of the north fork of the Holston River in what is now Sullivan County, Tennessee. This was so early that he appeared on the first land grants issued after the war in North Carolina for that area as “bordering William Hicks line.” If I was William, I’d sure want to name my kid after such a charismatic leader and thinker!

The English and Irish Naming Patterns are the Same

The first son was named after the father's father

The second son was named after the mother's father

The third son was named after the father

The fourth son was named after the father's eldest brother

The first daughter after the mother's mother

The second daughter after the father's mother

The third daughter after the mother

The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister

18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs & Patterns

I have found this link to this excellent source explaining German Naming Patterns: http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm

The article is copyrighted by Author: Charles F. Kerchner, Jr., 3765 Chris Drive,

Emmaus PA 18049-1544 USA

They Help Us Find the Missing Pieces of the Puzzle

        Because the power of the Priesthood is binding on earth as in heaven (D & C 128:8) both sides of the veil are anxiously engaged in the work of genealogy or family history. The sooner our forefathers have the Priesthood, the sooner they will go forth in the spirit world seeking after their descendants and then prompting them, from their side to accept the gospel. Having received the gospel and baptism they will go to the temple for themselves, to begin performing ordinances for additional family members. Those on the other side of the veil will help these new converts with miracles, if they simply just begin to order our own pedigree in NewFamilySearch.

            Orson Pratt, in The Seer pages 141-142 said we must seek out the genealogical family records that contain the information about our kindred, both the living and the dead. When we have found these it is our duty to perform for our family members in the “holy temple, all of the ordinances and sealing powers which were instituted in the councils of the Sons of God before the world was, for the salvation, redemption, exaltation, glory and honor of the dead who died without a knowledge of these things; for you, without your fathers, cannot be made perfect, neither can the ancient fathers who held the Priesthood be made perfect without the children.”

            “The time is near at hand when the fathers who hold the Priesthood in Heaven, will be united with the children who hold the Priesthood upon the earth; but there are many generations intervening, who held not the Priesthood, but died in their ignorance; the grand chain of Patriarchal government, according to the order of generations, will be broken and the union will not be complete, unless the hearts of the fathers are turned to seek after the redemption of the generations of their children who have laid down in their graves in the days of darkness; and also unless the hearts of the children are turned towards their fathers. Thus through the united exertions of the Priesthood in heaven, with the Priesthood on earth, the intermediate links, of the great chain of generation will be restored, and the union of the fathers with the children will be made perfect; and each successive generation will stand in their own order, exercising their patriarchal authority and swaying the scepter of righteousness, according to the holy order of the Priesthood forever and ever.”

SCRIPTURE: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”—Revelation 20:12

In D & C 128: 6-7 the meaning of this was clarified by Joseph Smith. The dead were judged out of those things written in the books which contained the record of their works, and refer to the records which are kept on earth. (such as birth, marriage, death records, census and war records; journals and family histories and books written by them might also be included) In section 127:9 the Lord says, “For I am about to restore many things to the earth, pertaining to the priesthood, saith the Lord of Hosts. And again let all the records be had in order that they may be put in the archives of my holy temple, to be held in remembrance, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

 What is our Responsibility?

MY SUGGESTION: There are about 6,881,113,487 alive in November 2010 and only 310,691,528 live in the United States. 106 billion people have been born on the earth, making the population currently alive roughly 6.5% of all people who have ever lived on planet Earth. The United States only has 4% of the world’s population alive today. The membership of the church is 14 million. Over a million LDS missionaries have served in the world, and more members live outside of the United States than in.  They speak 22 different languages. These amazing numbers mean that every member must find at least 491 living people to whom the gospel can be preached if we are to fulfill the Lord’s command to take the gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue and find 7,571 who have died who need to receive the saving ordinances.

Did you see that estimate? 106 billion people have lived on the earth. Every one of these spirit children of our Heavenly father are beloved by Him and His son Jesus Christ. WE PROMISED THAT WE WOULD FIND THEIR RECORDS AND PERFORM THE ORDINANCES IN THE TEMPLES ON EARTH FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!!!

With our current technology, we can actually see the possibility of doing this great and marvelous work that will bless ALL the NATIONS of the EARTH and everyone who ever lived in them. But we are not alone. God will help us and those Priesthood holders on the other side of the veil will also help. Guess we’d better get to work.

SET A GOAL:  Find one whole family and see that their temple work is done during the next 6 months. 

We can set a goal and publish our search for a specific person, record or event on the internet via FaceBook, Twitter, a blog or a website where the browsers can find it. Here are two of mine:

Finding Richard Hicks Wife's Name

Find the wife of Richard Hicks born in what is now Sullivan County Tennessee about 1760. His son Thomas Hicks was born 1 Aug 1784. Richard bought land from John Hall of Burk County, North Carolina on 15 Dec 1794 140 acres of his 640 acres located in the Fork Settlement of Sullivan County. Both Richard's father, William, and John Hall were from Baltimore, Maryland. Correspondence from Hall to Micajah Merryman are located in the Merryman Family-Micajah Merryman collection owned by the John Hopkins University.

Two of John Hall's daughter's married a Hicks while they were in this part of Tennessee. Hall moved on but the records show that Richard Hicks stayed on this 140 acres of land through 1830. The two daughters names were Diana born born about 1769 and Elizabeth (date unknown) In naming patterns Elizabeth shows up in Thomas Hicks family as a first born daughter indicating that perhaps it was Elizabeth who might have been his wife. In Hall's will 5 shillings were given to the heirs of Diana Hall. Elizabeth Hall may have been born about 1762. The wording of that will is difficult to understand: "To my daughter Elizabeth White, (?) Hicks, to her and her heirs I bequeath five shillings.  Did this early Elizabeth first marry a White and then a Hicks?

Finding the Marriage Record of Rev. Francis Melvin Hickman in Franklin County, TN. 

He had two marriages it is thought, one in TN and one in AL. The one in question, although both are needed, is the one that occurred about 1860. He had three children by this wife who died before 1870; their names were John W., Alexander and Joshua. I did find a marriage for F.M. Hickman in Franklin County, TN which is located on the AL border. It was only the index however and stated page 311 as the place to look. Perhaps someone from TN near the archives in Nashville, TN could look this up for me. "Frank's" brother William Pierce Hickman was also a Methodist minister and worked out of Athens, AL as well as TN. Does anyone know if the Tennessee Conference of Methodist  Church has online records? 

Working Together we can Solve Puzzles

Ephraim's Third Great Opportunity

REVIEW: In my blog entitled Ephraim's Great Blessings and Opportunities for Service posted January 14,  I quoted Erastus Snow in the Journal of Discourses saying, “Such (noble spirits in the pre-existence) were called and chosen and elected of God to perform a certain work at a certain time of the world’s history and in due time he fitted them for that work… and so he elected the seed of Ephraim to be that peculiar people…that holy nation, a kingdom of Priests, a people to receive the covenants and oracles, and to be witnesses to certain nations of the God of Israel.”

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Are we that holy nation, that kingdom of Priests? 

ISAIAH 41: 4 GIVES US SOME CLUES ABOUT US TODAY

While studying Isaiah 41:4, I found several translations:

 “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first and with the last; I am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 Authorized King James Version of the Bible

“Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 New International Version of the Bible

“Who is at work accomplishing this, foreordaining dynasties? I, the Lord, first and last, am he.” –Isaiah 41:4 The Literary Message of Isaiah, Avraham Gileadi, Hebraeus Press, 1964, NY p351

This last translation caught my attention. So, I looked up the meaning of foreordaining and dynasties:

foreordain: to ordain beforehand

ordain: to ordain (as a priest) 1. orig., to put in order; arrange; prepare; 2. a) to decree; order; establish; enact  b) to predetermine; predestine  3. to invest with the functions or office of a minister, priest, or rabbi.

dynasty: 1. a succession of rulers who are members of the same family  2. the period of their reign

The  Priesthood Today - A Kingdom of Priests

            This little study opened my eyes to the role of the Priesthood today. We live a life that allows us to go to the temple and receive the endowments that the Lord has in store for his people. There we are sealed to our spouses and children; then sealed to our parents; and then back generation by generation each family is linked. Yes, a dynasty, our family; yes, each man in each family receiving his ordination to the Priesthood, thus making us a Kingdom of Priests. As priests and  priestesses we officiate in the holy ordinances in the temple. We set in order our genealogies.

            And the Lord placed us specifically in the family that we were born into for this very purpose. Why? Because every family must be linked back through the generations, ordered or arranged as predetermined,  lest the Lord at his coming will smite the world with a curse. (Malachi 4:6) and we without our dead may not be perfected (D & C 128:16-18). Why would the Lord smite us with a curse? Because we agreed to make sure that every person who ever lived upon the earth had the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why we seek our the dead, identify them and then provide vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves because they no longer have a physical body...baptism and other temple ordinances. The curse would be that this opportunity was cut off because of our disobedience. We couldn't progress and neither would our deceased ancestors who accepted the gospel in the spirit world.

Moroni's First Visit

            Moroni in his first visit to the Prophet Joseph Smith quoted prophecies of the Old Testament. First he quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi and also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, with only a little variation in it: “Behold I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

            “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises (as found in your patriarchal blessing) made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.”

Elijah did appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland, Ohio temple during a Sabbath day meeting after passing and receiving the sacrament to the Twelve. The Priesthood was then restored to the earth on that glorious day of  April 3rd 1836.

QUOTE: “It would indeed be a great calamity if we should fail to do the part assigned to us in the accomplishment of the divine purpose as children of Abraham and descendants of Joseph and Ephraim, namely, performing the work for and in behalf of our ancestors who died without a knowledge of the Gospel, the work which they are no longer able to do for themselves, namely baptisms and other ordinances in order that they too may become sons and daughters of God, both in spirit and body.”

–Rulon S. Wells, Conference Report April 1932, p71

 

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

In my next to last post I began talking about Ephraim's other responsibilities and told you that in the New Testament the Greek word translated as “perfect” into English, is the word ‘telios’ and it means ripe, mature, ready, complete or whole. 

I thought about that a lot. Quite frankly, it made sense. Obviously in this life none of us will receive perfection. Enoch's people finally lived so righteously that their whole city was plucked from the earth and removed. So it stands to reason, if we are still here, we ain't so perfect. But, more than that, how discouraging it would be to KNOW we'll never be perfect because right out of the gate we sin. We sin big; we sin small. We repent, fail, repent again. And as we grow older we discover things that we are doing wrong we never dreamed of as wrong or sinful, yet now we become aware of those things. THERE WOULD BE NO HOPE. 

There is a process called perfecting the saints and it is based on learning. Yes, coming into a greater knowledge of truth and God's laws. We learn line upon line, precept upon precept. This is where hope comes in; hope in Christ. But the meaning of telios brings hope.

The word telios and it's meaning of ripe or mature or complete when taken in a spiritual context means that we've gained enough knowledge to go from entering into that gate of baptism and the strait and narrow way, then moving on to receiving our endowment in the temple, next entering into a new and everlasting covenant of marriage there, and finally, returning often to the temple to provide those ordinances for deceased family members. This is what a mature Latter-day Saint does. We then can find hope that when we call upon the Savior He will qualify us and we will receive perfection-in-Christ.

" If They Do the Very Best They Know How"

Brigham Young once explained:

QUOTE: “We all occupy diversified stations in the world and in the Kingdom of God. Those who do right and seek the glory of the Father in heaven, whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect…Be ye as perfect as ye can, for that is all we can do, though it is written, ‘Be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.’ To be as perfect as we possibly can, according to our knowledge, is to be just as perfect as our Father in heaven is. He cannot be anymore perfect that He knows how, anymore than we. When we are doing as well as we know how in the sphere and station we occupy here, we are justified.” –Journal of Discourses 2:129-130.

            What Brigham is saying is that doing the best we know how is being perfect because it fulfills our part of the covenant and as we do this, Jesus Christ fulfills his part of the covenant and makes us perfect through his merit and mercy. The perfection we receive in this manner is perfection-in-Christ.”

            Joseph Smith taught a sense of urgency to those of use who are Ephraimites:

QUOTE: “I would advise all the saints to go with their might and gather together all their living relatives to this place, that they may be sealed and saved, that they may be prepared against a day that the destroying angel goes forth; and if the whole Church should go to with all their might to save their dead, seal their posterity, and gather their living friends, they would hardly get through before night would come, when no man can work.”                –Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six 1843-44, p 330

            The way to perfection is a path filled with trials and tribulation. How else are we to understand Christ’s suffering and to truly come to know Him so that we might become like Him. These trials and afflictions are for our own sake, our own perfection, so that when we stand before him on that day of judgment, we can say, “I’ve done all that you asked of me, suffered my trials patiently, and served others diligently.”

            In the process of perfecting ourselves we must help others along this same path. Our lives, our example, our testimonies and our service lift others. In our callings within the different organizations in the Church we give expression to this. Within our homes and families we help our children and relatives to receive their temple endowments and become spiritually complete or perfected.

            We must be found serving diligently each day to perfect the Saints

MY SUGGESTION: Find those phrases in your patriarchal blessing where you interface with others to give service, teach, lead or in other ways help to perfect the Saints.

            List each one of these on a separate piece of paper. The specific phrases may be listed at the top of a page so that you can then write with inspiration as you ponder and pray about how you might improve. Perhaps you might even set a specific goal to achieve this year one one of these topics.

 

I pray that we might be found doing the best we know how in our callings, in our home and family, and in our missionary efforts, and in providing temple ordinances for our kindred dead, because as one of Ephraim’s descendants, we know the Lord loves us, and has chosen us as His. Our reward will be “saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” What greater gift can we receive?

Feeling Better than I Have in a Long Time

Monday afternoon I went to an orthopedic doctor thinking I had acquired a bone spur in my right thumb when I worked for the 2010 US Federal Census. Some weeks there were spent working 8 hours a day plus overtime picking, peeling and placing labels on all those forms for people who had not mailed in their questionnaire. (Shame on all you genealogists who didn't send yours in!! There were actually fewer personal questions on this years form than the one for 1900.)

I figured that particular repetitive motion had aggravated that pinch/pick motion of the first finger and thumb and my body had revolted. Wrong. It was just arthritis. They gave me a shot of cortisone, pasted a band-aid over it and told me it would hurt like heck for a day or two. They were right. The next day I couldn't even write using a pencil or type on my computer. Today however, I woke up feeling absolutely fabulous. I swept floors, washed dishes, folded clothes, made breakfast, took out the trash and on and on. Wow! what a difference.
I think some of this feeling good was also the result of a service project from my home teacher. While I was at the doctor's appointment, he added 3 and a half inch wooden blocks to my recliner rocking chair. Now instead of pulling myself up by throwing my feet out, using my hands to brace myself and straining my knees to stand up, I simply just have to lean forward, and stand up to get out of the chair.

I have the best home teacher in the whole wide world!!!

Ephraim's Second Opportunity for Service

SCRIPTURE: “Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

–Exodus 19:5-6

THOUGHT: Jeremiah, the prophet of the Old Testament, understood Ephraim and his role in the latter days. In Chapter 30 the Lord tells how he will gather Israel and heal their wounds and says: in the latter days ye shall consider it ( a plainer translation in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible says, “in the latter days you shall understand this.)” This translation reminds us of Nephi’s statement about understanding Isaiah, when his prophecies are fulfilled (2 Nephi 25:7.)

            “…nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be filled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass.”

            Jeremiah goes on in Chapter 31 verses 6-9,20,31-34 to clarify what Ephraim will be doing in the last days.

            “For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.” Does this sound like what we hear during each general conference about becoming a Zion people? Isn’t the Ensign a cry unto the nations…well, at least by definition it is a rallying signal.

            “And I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth…” Zion is where the righteous gather, and they are gathered from all the land within the coasts or borders of each country where they live to their own wards and stakes.

            “And thus saith the Lord: shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.”  I thin this means we are to speak of Christ, write or publish of Christ, and praise the Lord or in other words bear testimony of Christ to save his people, a remnant of Israel.

            “I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn.” Elder LeGrand Richards in his book Marvelous Work and a Wonder (pp 224-228) suggests that these verses were a prophecy of the Saints traveling across the plains  and settling in the Rocky Mountains. But in every nation and every land where the saints gather in to Zion, they do so by rivers of refreshing revelation, enter into the straight gate of baptism and do not stumble because of newly revealed scriptures (including the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Proclamation of the Family, General Conference addresses, and your very own Patriarchal Blessing) as well as the published authorized version of correlated scriptures with study guides, bible dictionary, topical guide, and marvelous footnotes. 

The Lord Delights in His Pleasant Child - But He is Troubled 

            But the declaration here that “Ephraim is my firstborn,” brings us joy and lets us know our relationship with the Lord. In verse 20 of Jeremiah , “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child (a child in whom I delight)? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” 

And in verses 31-34 we are told that:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

“For they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

With An Eye Towards the Temple

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Do these verses hint at what we as Ephraim must do? I think that it does. After we have made our own new covenant, the new and everlasting covenant in the house of the Lord, we have the obligation to see that everyone has this opportunity.

This is called Perfecting the Saints. We must point each newly baptized member, each child in Primary, every one of our youth, towards their own endowments in the temple. It is our responsibility to teach these new members, our children and our youth the basic principles, laws if you will, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must help them to not only understand who is their God, but help them to memorize the scriptures (write them in their hearts.)

In the New Testament the Greek word translated as “perfect” into English, is the word ‘telios’ and it means ripe, mature, ready, complete or whole. In a spiritual sense for a Latter-day Saint to be perfect in this life is to receive ALL of the covenants and blessings of the gospel and receive perfection-in-Christ.

Ephraim's Great Blessings and Opportunities for Service

SCRIPTURE: “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.”  

--Deuteronomy 32:8-9

 “Remember to Start This Patriarchal Blessing Study Moment  With a Prayer”

A QUESTION FOR YOU: Why does the lineage of Ephraim figure so predominately in the patriarchal blessings given in the church today? Doesn’t Manasseh have just as important a place in this latter day work? It all comes down to the birthright.

When ancient Ephraim received the birthright instead of Manasseh, he was called to lead, and that blessing has remained in effect for several thousand years. Ephraim, one of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, was captured and scattered  by the Assyrians, then moved further and further throughout the whole earth and all nations. It was foretold how through the lineage of Joseph, and Ephraim, that all nations, kindred, tongues and people would be blessed. How was this to be if they were so scattered? God worked a marvelous work and a wonder. In these, the latter days Ephraim is being found wherever they have been scattered. Now His leaders—the children of Ephraim—would perform a great work for their God. Ephraim’s election to perform  these special responsibilities in the last days prior to the coming of our Lord and Savior is spelled out in the scriptures and clarified by latter-day revelations.

AN ANSWER: Abraham was shown the intelligences that were organized in the pre-existence; and “God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said, “These I will make my rulers, for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good.” (Abraham 3:22-23) Erastus Snow in the Journal of Discourses said, “The Lord has sent those noble spirits into the world to perform a special work, and appointed their times,” “Such were called and chosen and elected of God to perform a certain work at a certain time of the world’s history and in due time he fitted them for that work…and so he elected the seed of Ephraim to be that peculiar people…that holy nation, a kingdom of Priests, a people to receive the covenants and oracles, and to be witnesses to certain nations of the God of Israel.”

            So we are 1.) to become a holy nation and a kingdom of Priests  2.) receive covenants and revelations, and 3.) be witnesses to all the nations. Sound familiar? Well one could say our responsibilities are to 1.) Preach the Gospel to all the world, 2.) Perfect the Saints through temple covenants and Priesthood ordination, and finally, 3.) Be sure that all of the people ever born on the earth have the same opportunities to hear the gospel and receive the ordinances of the temple, in other words to Redeem the Dead.

THOUGHT:  We live in a unique time in history where we have been prepared for our appointed work. We have the internet and advanced technology with digital capabilities, efficient modes of transportation to travel around the world quickly and easily, great universities for advanced learning where we can learn the languages of the world, scriptures that have wonderful study tools bound right into them and church publications in all of those languages, conferences via satellite transmission, and on and on.

            It is our responsibility to go out into the world to find those who are of the tribe of Ephraim. It’s kind of funny, but the book, “Ephraim, Chosen of the Lord: What itMeans to be of the Tribe of Ephraim” by Shute, Nyman and Bott, 1999, confirmed what I’d felt all my life, I believed in Jesus Christ from childhood even though my family was not religious. This book held a missing piece of the puzzle that was ‘my life.’   Now, I know that not only am a child of God, but that He has kept an eye on me and I was born with “believing blood” to be gathered out of the world to perform His work. I was indeed chosen before I was born to come into the world at this perfect moment in history to help prepare the earth for the Lord’s coming.

            

 Did You Ever Feel That You Had Something Special To Do?

           Perhaps, all people feel that there is something special that only they can do. That they must search out what it is that God wants them to do with their life. Maybe it is only one special little thing or maybe it is a really big significant thing. But either way, there’s a sense of destiny, a feeling that you are just waiting to do whatever it is that you promised your heavenly father that you would do when you were sent down to earth.

            I hope that really reading and studying your own personal message from God in your Patriarchal Blessing will help you to clarify your mission in this life.