Bev Psalm 37: X

 

X-rays were in my life this week in May,

   as I fell into a crumpled pile.

Xerus-like, my burrow was between the sink

   cabinet, wall, and toilet, sitting on the scale.

Xenophile’s what people called my husband;

   he loved foreign food, languages and places,

   not that bathroom floor.

X-mas was a common word that we both hated,

   Bob would not even dress up like Santa because

   Christ was the focus not the unknown X.

   However, he did have a white beard, rosy cheeks

   and a little belly.

Xeric describes the place where his consecrated

   Grave is located, no green lawn or flowers

   Just a barrel cactus growing there at Binghampton.

Xerophytes grow in deserts with a limited water supply;

   here he died leaving me, planted in the desert

   wondering, Why did Christ choose to live in the

   desert of Judea?

Xanadu it wasn’t, yet now I realize it did have water,

   Living Water, Jesus Christ, and the celestial

   Kingdom is our Xanadu.

Xerox’s machine uses light on a photoconductive

   surface to yield the image developed with resinous

   powder. Christ is the Light; it is His image we want

   on our soul, developed by the will of Heavenly Father.

Bev Psalm 2: Dates Matter

 The Anniversary of Receiving My Patriarchal Blessing

Beverly Elaine is my name.

Ephraim's promised blessings proclaimed.

Verily, my gifts, talents and purpose

Exposed from darkness, to the light of known.

Reveals an open-ended Heavenly Tutorial,

Loving guidance, understanding Who I really Am.

You are cherished, a blessed being of light.

Eternal in nature, on earth for a brief moment.

Look unto Christ in all your thoughts, Walk with Him.

Abraham quoted here, reminds me, "Will

I do as God Commands?

Never give up, be aware, seek knowledge and obey.

Elect of the Lord, ascending up to exaltation.

This Girl Detective is on the Hunt!!!! I am searching for my ancestors who are end of line mysteries, by watching RootsTech 2022 a Virtual Event with lots of Virtual Vendors and over hundreds of sessions. 

Also, I've just signed up to discover where my parents lived in Pasadena, California by volunteering to index the 1950 US Census that will be released on April 1, 2022. 

Focus is What is Needed in 2020

Life is like a Camera

Just Focus on What's Important

  and Capture the Good Times

Develop from the Negatives

  and If Things Don't Work Out

Just Take Another Shot

Bob takes Selfie 1961

Bob Still Taking Photos in 2020

     My High School friend, Bob Burke, received his first camera in 1961 and the first photo he took was in the mirror. He still uses this as his FaceBook portrait, and his daughters say, "Hey that's the oldest selfie on FaceBook." Well, oldest meaning earliest one taken, dated then posted. 

     Now all his photography is done on a digital camera. He's never without it. He posts photos he's taken online, mostly at the request of friends, where there are weddings, sports events and travel photos numbering in the 10,000's. A lifetime of FOCUS.

     Now it's time for BEE in the Desert to FOCUS in this blog so that it is relevant to the 2020 Pandemic; self (read that physical) distancing but definitely NOT social distancing. Here we Go: Family Memories, Bee Culture, and insights into the scriptures.

#52Ancestors Week 9 Where There's a Will...

Where There’s a Will…
     As a Genealogist you might suspect that I’d talk about Wills and Probate records. You’d be wrong. My humble farmer ancestors almost always left no wills, but of course where they did, I was grateful.

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

     This is probably the second most common thought that might pop into someone’s mind when finishing that first phrase.
     I’ve been reading 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and young Nephi and his older brothers are sent by their father to go back to Jerusalem and get the records and genealogies of their ancestors from a cousin who is a truly wicked and evil man. After a couple of tries by the older brothers, they were going to give up but Nephi said, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare away for them that they may accomplish the things which he commandeth them.”
     The Lord then commanded Nephi to go back to the house of his cousin and being led by the spirit, “not knowing beforehand the things which” he should do, he discovered a drunken Laban, his cousin. Long story short, he was commanded to slay Laban. Why? Well it has to do with why record keeping, scriptures and genealogy are so important: “It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.” (1 Ne 4:13)
     This is exactly what happened to other groups that set forth into the world without records, like the Jaredites and Mulekites who immigrated to the Americas before the time of Christ. Their descendants did record their stories on stone, but to this day no one can read them perfectly thus don’t know their stories.

Legal Stuff like Laws and Wills 

     Listening to a panel of BYU professors discussing this story of Nephi slaying Laban a question was answered for me. It had to do with a Hebrew law that permits, no actually makes it imperative, to punish by death a person who lies, then steals, then bears false witness before others. Like I said, Laban was a truly wicked man who stole Nephi’s family riches, and took away their father Lehi’s good name, and accused them falsely of being thieves and robbers. Nephi was thus legally in the right and had the moral authority to carry out a sentence of death. How horrible it must have been to be asked to cut off a cousin’s head with that man’s own sword.
     In our day, a will is the legal document that protects the family and descendant’s rights, and it must be testified to all along the legal process. This helps us as genealogists in finding the legal heirs.

Doing A Difficult Thing

     I wonder how often we’ve been asked to do difficult things and had the faith to go ahead and do it. Such was the Field’s family move to Mexico. We had prayed about it and knew that it was right for all of us. Then we set about the legal process to make it happen: getting the right visas, setting up a bank account with direct deposit, got a debit card we could use to withdraw money to pay bills in another country, prepared our household goods for either storage or shipment, selected the records we would need to take with us (in my case, genealogical records that I was working on), and got a P.O. Box that forwarded mail down to Guadalajara. Yes, it was a hard thing to do, but we persevered and it was a grand experience. I will continue telling that story here on my blog from time to time.

Gratitude to Amy and her #52Ancestors Prompts

     I’m grateful for the weekly prompts from Amy Johnson Crow in her #52Ancestors for 52 weeks to get me posting each week. Sometimes it will be personal history recorded and sometimes stories of my ancestors; other times it will be stories about our living in Mexico, the land where many people suppose that some of the Book of Mormon stories take place.

Miraculous Monday

A Strenuous Saturday

     You sometimes wonder if God really does know your every need and then a miracle happens and you see his hand in your life. Saturday I searched for and found, then organized my photos taken between 1995 and 2001 when my family lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, because I said I would on my last blog post. What an overwhelming task.  No I hadn’t written dates or people’s names on the back. I’d taken them to the FamilySearch History Center where they have a world class scanner. But it took me hours just to sort them by year, mostly using the paper package they came back in after developing. Most of them at WalMart. Yes Guadalajara has a WalMart. Fortunately they wrote the date on that package. By this time I realized I could only scan a few things before my energy ran out: the cover and a page from three books, a photo of my mom and her friend and a couple pages from a booklet from the 1980 World Conference on Records held in Salt Lake City.

     Remember how in my last post I hadn’t really felt my life worthy of telling about; I’m just a plain regular person. While hunting for Mexico photos I found this booklet from the 1980 World Conference on Records by George D. Durrant entitled:

THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL AND FAMILY HISTORY by George D.Durrant: Born in Utah. Resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. Director, Genealogical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ed.D., Brigham Young University. Author, lecturer, teacher.

He says, “When I was asked to talk about the importance of a personal and family history, my first thought was, "Why me?" Why not get someone whose life has been filled with excitement and accomplishment and whose family has been among the elite?”

I suspect everyone has this same reaction. Durrant has become quite famous and influenced many students at BYU over the years. He now has 37 more years of personal history and stories to tell. So I begin my personal history by blogging starting with my family's life in Mexico.     

A Sacred Sunday

     Saturday was exhausting and left me in a great deal of pain. So much so, that I wasn’t sure if I could attend all of my meetings on Sunday. I am our Ward Employment Specialist so I attend Ward Council a couple times a month at 7:15 a.m. But recently I noticed that if I am found doing the right thing, am in the right place, at the right time, I am blessed to be physically sustained to endure the day better. Usually this occurs on Sundays.

     It was fast and testimony meeting Sunday and I’d attended the council meeting, and was praying that God would help me to serve others, remain positive about my circumstances and help me on the anniversary of my husband, Bob’s, death on May 9^th.

     You never know how an approaching date can affect you. Brother Platt told the story of his brother’s tragic death a year ago and how he’d never understood why people reacted to this type of anniversary, until this year. With tears, and anguish on his faith he said he kept reviewing all the events leading up to his death. It was hard. You could tell his heart was broken, even knowing the Plan of Salvation and that he was spiritually still alive, just on the other side of the veil.

     This reminds me of how Heavenly Father must have felt watching his son, Jesus the Christ, during that week leading up to his death and resurrection. How important it is for us to remember those events. They are sacred to God, and to us. We remember them every Easter.

Cast of Characters

Here is a photo of our family of five taken in Ontario, California just before we left for Mexico in 1995. It is the cast of main characters for my Mexico stories that I’ll be sharing on this blog over the next months.

Bev, Bob, Brianna, Ruthe and Harriett the cat

A Miraculous Monday

     In just one hour, my life changed and I saw God’s hand in my life! There definitely are stories that only I can tell. Here is the one that made a Miraculous Monday.

     Two months ago the Pima Council on Aging sent a representative out to my house to assess my needs. This past month my physical needs changed drastically. I can hardly walk safely and am using walkers, walls, door jambs and furniture to get around in my house, so I don’t fall. On Monday morning Gerry, their representative and my case worker ran late for her appointment with me because of the Ina Road closure at highway I 10. This construction work is disrupting traffic for the next two years. Sigh. She called at fifteen minutes after the hour saying she’d be at my house located seven miles west of I-10 in another fifteen minutes.  Why do I tell you this timing? This is where the miracle begins.

     Mandy, my ward Relief Society President called minutes after Gerry called, asking if her family could come over at 6 p.m. for Family Home Evening and give service for me ie., dusting, vacuuming, doing dishes and cleaning floors. Wow, sure I said. I’d no more hung up from her call, when my landlady, Kim, who lives next door, called and said it was a hard thing to have to say, but that I would have to move out of my house in July. Of course, my heart plunged and I asked if she could come over and meet with the PCOA lady who was just then walking up to my door, so we could all talk.

     The short of it is that Kim has a smaller house right across the street from us where her tenant’s lease will be up July 1^st.  Because they need to refinance this property where we live, I need to move. They will gut this place and use it as a place of business. She said I could take anything from this place that I needed to use at the new house. This includes ramps, window air conditioners, raised toilet, etc.

     Gerry had already looked at my bathroom and said it was dangerous for me to be getting in and out of the tub to bathe. The new house has a master bedroom with a bath that has a walk in shower! Problem of safety solved. AND ALL OF THIS FOR $120 LESS A MONTH FOR RENT. NO FIRST AND LAST MONTH RENT AND NO SECURITY DEPOSIT REQUIRED EITHER. My prayers have been answered.

Further Potential Miracles May Follow

     Timing and communication are so important. Monday evening I was able to relate to the RS President what was going on so she could present the circumstances of my housing to the Ward Council. Kim has a single wide trailer at the front of my new address, and the tenant there will be leaving also. It is my hope that through my LDS network, we can find her a new renter and help them get moved in and I'll have a lovely neighbor.

     Gerry’s needs may be met because PCOA is hunting for Direct Home Care Workers who live West of the I-10 freeway. They will screen and train them. Right now, they are having trouble serving me or the people in this area because it is too far to drive and they don’t pay mileage. As Ward Employment Specialist and through the LDS Employment Center, I may facilitate connecting people with needs to those who have solutions. So Cool. Whee!!

     My daughter who is now 30 and living in another state is overjoyed because I have a deadline to get rid of some of my “stuff.” I’ll be selling and donating a lot of household items to pare down into a 2 bedroom place.

     Miracles happen, many needs are met, and many people are served because God sees the whole picture and inspires people to call and react at exactly the right moment in time. Don’t you just love it when everything comes together just like that A-team slogan?

This is an introduction to the stories of my life in Mexico interspersed with stories where I see miracles occuring in my daily life.

Cinco de Mayo

Stories of an LDS family in Mexico

This day conjures up festive dancing, celebrations of joy, fireworks and my memories of Mexico. My family lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico from 1995 to 2001. Determined to write the stories only I can write, this month I will blog about those stories formed in Mexico.

Festive paper banners at Hacienda Sta Lucia

My blogging had stopped in June of last year. Not only had I lost the desire to write, but I could not even get signed back in when I tried last April 1st. Some Joke.

"AVOCADACIOUS"

Yesterday, I saw on TV where avocados have their very own upscale restaurant called “Avocadacity.” I too have a history with these omega oil rich teardrop globes of creaminess. My sister Loni has a humongous tree in her California backyard and once in a while she’ll pack up some and send them to me. Oh my how much more glorious they are than those we find in our local store. My love of avocados, chocolate, chilies, tortillas and Mexican food led me to helping the Guadalajara American Legion Auxiliary publish a cookbook. I will share some of those recipe’s this month.

A local organic sample compared to my Sister's Avocado

Why did I start Blogging as BEEintheDesert?

For those of you just joining me or who have followed me on Twitter, I should probably tell you why I started this blog. A paragraph in my patriarchal blessing (an LDS thing; see my series of blog posts from 2011-2012) says, I’d be determined to serve the Lord…to bring to pass much righteousness upon the earth, and to be an influence for good amongst my fellow associates and friends. Good grief, I thought! Upon the Earth? How could this old lady have an influence all around the world? So I started this blog.
Everybody now has an international following whether on YouTube, a Blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., or even just demonstrating holding up signs and appearing on the TV News. The whole young Millenial world is socially connected. This is the Theme of the recent film entitled “The Circle” starring Tom Hanks, and Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame. This connectivity is both good and bad. What it comes down to is a sense of personal integrity, and who we really are.

Reasons Why I Keep a Journal

1. As a memory aide
2. For my mental, emotional, and psychological life…it’s healing.
3. To record important events or insights, joyful, or sad and reasons why.
4. To recognize God’s hand in my life.
5. For an overview of life lessons learned so that one day my descendants could benefit.
6. To discover who I really am and what my purpose in life is.

33+ Journals not including childhood diaries

So you can imagine how I felt when my daughter says, “Mom, you’ve gotta get rid of some of your “stuff.” She gestures over at my notebooks in the shelves and says, “Just scan them.” Then she opens uo one at random and exclaims, “Oh!” My journals are a lot like Camp Fire Girl’s Memory Books with lots of extra memorabilia in them, as well as hand scribbled written pages.

When told about this incident, my friend Pam began bugging me to go through the journals, extracting the stories, insights, etc. and write my personal history. YIKES.
Like everyone else, I think, who’d want to read it? Mine is just a life lived, nothing very great. Pam said, not true, you’ve influenced many of your friends. Okay, Pam, now I’ll start by telling the stories about an LDS family living in Mexico to begin with during May.

A Horrible Lemon Monday

I can blog again now after a horrifying day last Monday where everything went technologically WRONG. I spent all day trying to get my printer to acknowledge my new wi fi provider. Frustrated beyond description and very angry, I turned to family history research because that always calmed me down. But HORRORS, the sources weren’t attaching properly. So I called FamilySearch for help. They said, eliminate all your cookies…from the beginning of time! I fought this, but finally gave in and did what I was told. NOW I CAN SIGN IN TO MY BLOG AGAIN!!!! The Lord works in mysterious ways. Lemonade was made out of a horrible Lemon Monday.