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."

A House Is Not A Home But it Helps

As most of you are aware Ryan and Samantha and their sweet family recently moved into a new home.  Well, it's not new, but it's new to them.  They were able to find a beautiful older home on a large lot not far from where the used to live.  It is actually in River Heights.  It sits on a large a beautiful lot with lots of space to run and enjoy the great outdoors and yet be so very close to all of the conveniences the city has to offer.  The way they were able to sell their other home so quickly and to find another one which the liked seems almost like a miracle.  I hope they recognize the presence of an Unseen Hand in this move.  There is still a lot of work to do and with a lot that size there always will be, but working together is what will make for the happy memories which hold families together forever.  They are indeed blessed.  We are blessed as well.  They live just 1.4 miles from our place. Just a nice walk on sunny day.  We will have many of those soon, I hope.

This is a view of their new home after the recent snowfall here in Cache Valley.

The kids soon found a way to enjoy being outside even in the snow.  This is the first of many snowmen, that will be made  at this address over the next several years.

Annika did most of the work on this one.  She bundled up and stayed warm as she worked on the snowman, but she still ended up with rosy cheeks for her efforts out in the winter cold.

This picture shows the three enjoying a treat  in the kitchen after a while playing in their new yard.

They will be joined by a new little one in a few months and we pray all will be well and happy for them in this new adventure in their new house which they will, no doubt, make into a wonderful home.

Basketball Dreams

In small towns and in rural areas in days now past young people often spent their spare moments playing basketball.  Many homes had a basketball hoop installed on the side of the driveway where the neighborhood kids would get together and shoot some hoop.  It started when they were very young and could barely carry a basketball let alone shoot it into the hoop mounted ten feet off the ground, but that did little to dissuade these wannabe basketball stars.  Our home was no different.  We had a  basket and backboard mounted on a pole on the driveway at our home too.  Actually I remember several of them, each filling the need until it no longer was serviceable.  Then a new one was installed.

The kids and their friends from round about spent many, many hours developing their shooting and rebounding skills as well as their sportsmanship or lack of sportsmanship as the day would have it.  They also proved their competitive instincts and we always said it was good exercise for them.  There were the occasional bloody knees and split lips and sometimes brothers didn't treat brothers like brothers, or maybe that's just what brothers do to each other,   Early on, their driveway-developed skills were put to use in the community sponsored pee-wee basketball leagues and then on into Junior High and High School basketball, not to mention "Church Ball."  This was not just a boy thing either.  Our Alison, as slight as she was, proved pretty tough on the basketball court and the boys didn't cut her any slack either.  From day to day we never knew what was going to happen, who was going to get a scraped knee or a black eye, or even if it was to be just a playground accident or a blow intentionally landed to make a point.  It didn't matter much what the weather was like, come rain or snow,or gloom of night the boys could often be seen and heard playing basketball at our house.  In the winter time the games were often transferred indoors into our family room.  There a Nerf basketball would take the place of a real one, but other than that not much changed.  Actually, I think some of them learned their " basketball moves" a little better from the family room indoor sessions than they did out side on the cement.

 It mattered not the season, hoop was hoop and if they couldn't get in the school gym or the Church gym there was very often a neighborhood game in our driveway.

By the time they had all graduated from high school we had seven pictures of our Bear Lake Bear basketball players hanging proudly on the family room wall.  Each of our children, including Alison, played varsity basketball.  Some started and starred, some got a lot of minutes off the bench, some got just a few here and there, but basketball was a big part of life growing up in small town Bear Lake Valley.  Some of my favorite memories include singing Christmas carols as we traveled over the snowy and drifted roads to Afton, Wyoming about Christmas time every year. There Justin once got an elbow to the cheek so hard it cut clear through and he could stick his tongue out the side of the bloody hole in his cheek.  But the game went on.  Another time I arrived at the Reed Gym in Pocatello just in time to hear the game announcer saying over the loud speaker, "Eborn for Three"   I remember the announcer on the radio describing Philip's play during one of these Star Valley games as : "That Philip Eborn is putting on a clinic for us here tonight."  That was a parent feel-good moment.  I remember the night Justin scored thirty points against the Preston Indians to give them some much needed humility.  I remember Alison, getting flattened, and I do mean flattened, by that big Indian girl from American Falls, and having to be checked out at the hospital emergency room.  She, like the others, didn't seem to let a little bit of adversity affect them.  I remember going with Stephen to the High School Gym when he was on the team in high school.  We would shoot three hundred three pointers every night.  He would shoot and I would shag the balls.  Needless to say, he got to be pretty good.  Coach Parks knew when to put him in the game - when they were down about ten and needed someone who could score that many points in about two minutes.  Unfortunately, he then would take him back out again until they got behind by ten again.  Stephen even won two three point shooting contests at the holiday community basketball tournament when he was a junior and then again as a senior in high school.  There's a whole other story about that, but you'll have to ask him about that.  Ryan played on the team that won the state championship game in 1995.  The Bears played against Moscow in the Mindome in Pocatello for that victory.  I still remember the crowd chanting, "Here we go Bear Lake, here we go."  For one of the few times in Bear Lake Valley history everyone in the valley was on the same page and pulling together.  It was such fun.  I remember my sweet little southern wife standing in the crowd and witnessing  what to her was an obvious bad call from the referee.  "You stupid idiot!"  she shouted at the top of her voice just as the entire gymnasium suddenly fell deathly silent as if to make sure the referee heard her vocal judgment of his work.  I remember the night Jason was put into the game with just twelve seconds to play after sitting the bench for the rest of the game.  Iris waited for Coach Belnap to come out of the dressing room doors after the game.  She was going to give him a piece of her mind.  Coach Belnap escaped out a rear door and eventually Iris calmed down, but not until she had tried to call Coach Belnap a few time from home.  Wisely, he didn't answer the phone.  Otherwise we may have had a fatality that night.  Instead the Belnaps have remained our friends.

Jared could dunk the ball pretty well as a senior.  His senior team went to state, or at least they were supposed to have done, but after reviewing the score of their last game, one might wonder if they really showed up to play.  Another memory of Jared's play was in Church Ball, where he shattered the glass backboard.  Not the only time he did that.

All these trips to watch our kids play basketball along with many of our friends and neighbors helped to make the long winters seem shorter in Bear Lake and gave us a sense of community that maybe little else could have done.  Alison tells of the ride on the team bus the night of the invasion  of Iraq in Operation Desert Storm with all of the team singing :"I'm Proud to Be an American."  Eventually we ended up with a display of our "Magnificent Seven", each decked out in the uniform of the Bear Lake Bears hanging on our family room wall..  It wasn't the only thing in the world nor the most important, but for those years, especially from December through February it almost seemed like it was and that not much else mattered.. Looking back, these were really good times, never to be forgotten. 

There is much more to tell, but then I'm not writing a book, just blogging a bit.

Have a Great Day!!!

These past few days, I've been thinking about a very special blessing in my life. Iris had her 66th birthday on Sunday. and today is Valentines Day. Over the years I have been grateful to have her by my side. She is a joy to be around. She has one special quality among many other great and good ones. She smiles and laughs a lot. Just think of the last time you talked to her on the phone. She laughed and you knew behind that laugh was a smile. Often I may be in another room reading or working on the computer when I hear hilarious laughter coming from the living room where Iris is watching a TV show. When the grand kids come to visit, the first thing they see is a welcoming smile. At church or shopping or wherever she goes she greets people with a smile. She is unafraid to let people know that she cares about them. There is nothing phony about her smiles or her laughter and it makes the world a better place, especially my world.

Many of us go to great lengths to get proper exercise and the rest of us probably wish we had the will power to do more to stay fit. I would suggest that exercising the muscles that make a smile might be the very best exercise we can get. Smiling may come naturally to some, but it can be developed by all. It's a choice. We either choose to smile and be happy or not to smile and be unhappy. It's all up to us. We have, no doubt, more reason to be happy than most any people. Let's all tell our faces how happy we really are and let it show.

Below I've included a few lines written by others that will make our every day better. Applied these thoughts are invaluable to you and everyone around you.

　

The Value Of A Smile

A smile costs nothing, but gives much.

It enriches those who receive,

without making poorer those who give.



It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it.Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.  Some people are too tired to give you a smile.  Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. ~Author Unknown


It takes a lot of work from the face to let out a smile, but just think what good smiling can bring to the most important muscle of the body... the heart.

The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart." - St. Jerome
Peace begins with a smile.~Mother Teresa
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. ~Janet Lane
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.~Mother Teresa
I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
If you don't have a smile, I'll give you one of mine. 

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.~Andy Rooney
You're never fully dressed without a smile.~Martin Charnin
A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life's worthwhile.

A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks.~Charles Gordy
The world always looks brighter from behind a smile.

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day

Smiling makes you feel better about yourself, even if you don't feel like it. Lauraine Snelling

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. Addison Joseph

A smile is a little curve that sets a lot of things straight

A smile is a light in the window of the soul, indicating that the heart is at home.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Mark Twain

Annika's Baptism Day

Annika had her eighth birthday a few weeks ago and on Saturday we had the opportunity to attend her baptism.  She is a beautiful girl and we were very happy with her decision to be baptized and to officially become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know our Father in Heaven was smiling down on her that day.  She is a very smart and responsible girl for her age and we love her so very much and are glad she is our granddaughter.

Pretty Annika on her baptism day.

 Ryan was honored to be able to perform the baptism and the confirmation.  He did a great job and we are also very proud of him.  He is a good father and husband and I am proud to say he is a good and dedicated teacher as well.

Ryan and Annika prior to the baptism.

Many of the family were able to attend.  We appreciate all of the support that is shown on these occasions.  We understand that life is busy and sometimes distances are great and we know those who couldn't make it were with us in your thoughts and in spirit.

Annika surrounded by some of the girl cousins who were there to see her baptized.  Aren't they all beautiful?  We are blessed to have them in our lives.  They make the world a better place.  We love them all so very much and pray they will always want to be close and that they will be happy forever.

Carpe Diem

Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace,  that has become an aphorism. It is popularly translated as "seize the day". Carpe literally means "to pick, pluck, pluck off, cull, crop, gather", but Ovid used the word in the sense of, "to enjoy, seize, use, make use of". 

This is how I've tried to view these long, cold winter days of January.

Gathering Rosebuds in Winter

As a child I developed a deep love and appreciation for the beauties of nature, especially flowers.  I remember  gathering large bouquets of alfalfa blossoms for my mother, which she received just as graciously as she would have done an expensive bouquet from the florist.  If you knew  my mother, she was even  more pleased with the alfalfa blossoms.  She reciprocated by covering my birthday cake with green frosting and freshly picked dandelions in place of candles.  I recently came across this picture and the poem below.  I couldn't help but feel the presence of my mother, and others beyond the veil of this life as I continue to wander about plucking rosebuds.

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying. 

Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

English lyric poet (1591 - 1674)

And yet they live on.

A part of my latest bouquet.

It's Time

As most of you are aware, the Logan Temple has been closed now for a couple of weeks.  We decided not to go anywhere this year during the break while they are installing new carpet and making a few other needed repairs at the Temple.  I think our decision was based mostly on our arthritic bones and the lack of desire to spend a lot of time in a car traveling around. We did make it down to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and also took in a play at the Capitol Theater there, which we truly enjoyed even though we didn't get home until after one o'clock in the morning.  That's not good for a couple of senior citizens,  but we do have the luxury of having each other and being able to sleep in if we need to, which we did the next morning. Otherwise we have stayed pretty much at home in our nice warm house and tried to stay busy.  I keep myself relatively busy reading or working on family history, however the other day Iris washed all of our Temple clothing and/or took them to the dry cleaners.  My job was to polish our shoes.  I never in my life anticipated a time when I would be polishing white shoes to go to work, but that's what we do these days.  A little break certainly has not hurt us, but both of us are ready to get back to our duties at the Temple when it reopens on the 24th of January.  It is such a wonderful place to work and to know that we are doing what we can to help others.  And besides that, it seems we see more of our friends there than about anywhere else.  We love seeing family and friends at the Temple.  And to top it off our aches and pains seem less problematic when we are there for some reason.  We are blessed beyond measure!!!