The Box

One Sunday  few weeks ago, I was standing by the door to our High Priests Group classroom in the Logan 5th Ward.  One of the brethren in our ward came over to me and handed me a box..  It was meticulously wrapped in a pretty flowered wrapping paper.  The lid had been separately wrapped in the same way so that it could be removed to display the contents. It obviously contained something very precious to someone.  I was told that some.one had given him this box for some unknown reason and he didn't have any idea what he should do with it.  It contained the only possessions of a brother who had at one time lived in the Logan 5th Ward.  He was an immigrant to the United States and had come over from Finland when he was just a boy.  He had been sponsored by a church bother who lived here in Cache Valley,  Hyde Park, I think.  He had never married and so had no family in this country.  Upon examination I found that it contained several pages of genealogical records of his progenitors in Finland.  Some of them were rather difficult to decipher (no one I knew speaks Finnish) and were obviously quite old.  Others were copies and type written records of other family members.  They are a little disorganized,but with some effort I have been able to make sense of some of them.  I was not quite sure what to do with them myself, but the Spirit whispered to me that I should not just let them sit around and that I would have a heavy price to pay if I should not treat the contents of this box with respect and some degree of urgency.  The people whose records were in the box are, of course not my relations, and so in my mind,  I first thought they should be someone elses responsibility.  I have thousands of name for blood relatives who need ordinance work done in the temples.  After setting the box on a shelf for a few weeks my eye and my mind seemed to be constantly drawn to this box and its contents.  It was as though unseen spirits were  leading me to focus more and more on this box and its contents.  After some prayer and deliberation, I decided to take it to Priesthood Meeting last Sunday and discuss it with the brethren in the High Priests Group.  During the course of the discussion there were a few of these men who had interesting information about the man whose records were in the box.  Apparently he had become very active as a scout leader and some of the brethren had been guided through some very perilous times in their youth by this good immigrant brother.  One of them even said that he literally owed his life to this man.  Others felt a need to give back in some way as well.  It was decided that we would make it a project for the High Priests Group in our ward to  get this good brother's ancestor's temple work done for him.

Today, with the help of my sweet little granddaughter, Ada, we decided to tackle this project and see what we could make of it..  Ada was very interested in what we were doing and believe it or not she was a great help.  After about three hours of work we had nearly forty names ready to have all of the temple ordinances done for these people.  I told her when we started that I was going to take her on a fishing trip.  We were going to be fishers of men.  As we worked we talked about how important family relationships are in the eternities and what is necessary for the families to be together forever.  She is just nine years old, but she seemed to understand exactly how it works and why it is important.  It was three hours filled with the Spirit and with wonder. I am looking forward to the next session and to hear what the brethren have to say at Priesthood Meeting on Sunday.

Here we are at the kitchen table working on the things of eternity and a little geography thrown in.

What a marvelous experience.  Thanks Ada!!!!

Just a quick sample of some of the contents of  "The Box."