"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Memories are Like Wind Wolves
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Your Memories Can Live Forever on FamilySearch
Miss Universe of the Dead
My friend, Aaron Marie Gillett, said she may never be a
proselyting missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but
that she could become the “Miss Universe” of the Dead!”
I told her that with all of the new digital tools available
to us we could really become experts in finding our deceased ancestors.
Everyone can have a free account on FamilySearch Family
Tree and can register for free for RootsTech 2023, the online genealogy/family
history conference March 2 – 4, next week. As members of the Church we have
access to free accounts on affiliate sites of FamilySearch: Ancestry, My Heritage,
Find My Past, Geneanet, and Filiae.
The theme for 2023 Family History Temple and Family History
Consultants as well as Stake and Ward leaders responsible for this great work is:
Your Memories Can Live Forever on FamilySearch
Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate, said
recently that, “The exchanging of stories isn’t just fun or desirable, it’s
something essential to our well-being.”
So when your daughter says to you for the 15th
time, “Mommie, tell me the story of the Lost Opal,” you tell it one more time.
She was part of that story, and it truly does mean more to her that just a
fairy tale. It tells her that prayer works. When we lose something precious, the
Holy Ghost will reveal it’s location to us when we pray with the faith of a
little child.
I shared this story in a display for our Stake Relief
Society event this past Saturday. The theme was “Let Your Light So Shine Before
Men, That They May See Your Good Works and Glorify Your Father which is in
Heaven.”
In 3 Nephi 18:24 Jesus Christ told the people on this
continent after His resurrection, that “Behold, I am the light which ye shall
hold up…”
Because He wants every person who has ever lived upon this
earth to have an opportunity to hear His gospel and accept or reject the saving
ordinances thereof, we as Latter-day Saints research our own ancestors and by
proxy, baptize them in our temples, thus releasing them from spirit prison. This is an essential part of Heavenly Father's Plan. Note that we only do this for our own ancestors not anyone else's.
Let us all put our memories into FamilySearch and Let Our Light so Shine!
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Let My Light So Shine!
I've always wanted to be found doing what I was supposed to be doing; being where I was supposed to be; and participating in any church event when asked to participate. So enthusiastically, this former museum curator began gathering photos, stories, ideas, craft projects that I could share when the Stake Relief Society asked for displays, food and talents.
I wrote this lyric poem to try to share my talents, but alas, they don't want so much "stuff" now I will be limited to 1/4 round table. The theme is "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
A Tri-fold display to let my light so shine
By my good works to glorify God.
Three sides are doubled to tell the story:
My life, my talents, my gifts, my passionate focus
First love, is solving the mystery
Who am I?
Finding my ancestors
Helping to find your ancestors
A calling from God before my birth
Revealed in my Patriarchal Blessing
Now focused in FamilySearch Family Tree
Attaching sources, recording memories
Like the Tree, I branch out to
My Heritage loving AI photos of me
DNA and 17 family trees on Ancestry
Two search engines, different algorithms
Basic research now enhanced
Mountains of data, sifted and sorted
Fold3, Newspapers.com, and FindaGrave
all reveal their hidden secrets, mysteries solved
My second love, a gift or talent?
Using art to share a story
Writing lyric poems, inspired,
Creating sculptures of paper
Sharing gospel light on social media
FaceBook, Instagram, a blog: Malachi 3:16
Bee in the Desert, symbol of my nature
Busy, Busy, Busy
Flower to flower, pollinating as I go
This symbol love began early
The Camp Fire Law said Worship God
How, I wondered?
Searched first one church then another
This lost lamb, now is found in the loving
Arms of the Good Shepherd.
Humble and meek, I pray to serve
My ancestors, then symbols become real
In temple covenants.
Family is my Trifecta
Continuing traditions by sharing
Dolls, sea shells and gem collecting
Combining and overlapping dolls, camping with an artist's eye,
Photography captures memories, creates digital art
My Spiritual DNA revealed
It brings into focus why I am here,
To Worship God, Create Beauty and Honor Family
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Happy 111th Birthday Mom!
Happy Groundhogs Day!
My mother, Vivian Ruthe Utterback Eckles Gillette, was born sharing this funny holiday, and she reveled in it. Her mother called her a "Corker" on a picture postcard sent to her dad, Thomas J. Hicks in Taney County Missouri. I had to look up the meaning of that idiom from 111 years ago. It means an outstanding person or thing; one that is excellent or remarkable. The synonyms include: beaut, bee's knees, cat's meow, jim-dandy, peach, standout and sweetheart. This is the photo on that card taken in 1919, Kansas City, Missouri