Week 24 and back to work
Hi ho, it is Granddad again
What a wonderful week! Monday the Temple was still closed, so we wandered around until our FHE at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center. Elder and Sister Bradford, the site missionary leaders, spoke on Emma and Joseph. It was uplifting even though there was nothing I had not heard before. There is nothing wrong with being reminded of truth.
Sister Bradford spoke about Emma. She was an amazing partner for Joseph. Grandma and I read Alma 13:1,3-4 this morning and I think the sisters of the restoration meet the same criteria and have the same blessings (except for being ordained to the Priesthood) as the brethren. Each man or woman who receives the blessings of the Gospel is a choice spirit of supernal faith and worth.
Elder Bradford spoke about one thing only, Joseph Smith History 1:37-39. Each of Moroni's visits took about 2 hours with Joseph in the early morning of September 22nd. The first thing discussed each time? Malachi's prophecy regarding Elijah. The critical part of the text as given by Moroni was "I will reveal unto you the Priesthood by Elijah". As you know, Elijah came in 1836 to Kirtland and the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored in May or June 1829 by Peter, James and John. So, what is meant by 'revealing the Priesthood' referred to here? It is the ultimate purpose of the Priesthood of God, sealing together families in an unbroken chain from Adam to the last child born on the Earth. The purpose of the Earth? Serve as a home to the eternal family of God in mortality. The world would be a wasteland at the Second Coming and fail to meet it's purpose if there were no sealings completed.
How anxious our ancestors must have been before the first baptisms for the dead were completed in Nauvoo in the 1840's. The first endowments and sealings were performed for the living in the 1840's in Nauvoo (Possibly Kirtland in 1837). What joy must have been felt as the other ordinances for the dead began to be performed in the 1860's and 70's. If we are not anxiously engaged in providing the blessings of baptism, initiatory, endowment, and especially sealing to ourselves and our ancestors, why was the Church restored? Thank you to all those in any way engaged and having received these ordinances themselves.
On Wednesday morning in sealings I had some deep and poignant feelings as well as insights about the blessings of the ordinance. Suffice it to say outside the Temple, the promises are amazing, but the power to receive them and then choose to accept them is up to us. This is tremendous when you see what are the promises and how strongly Our Father, the Son and our Heavenly Mother desire us to qualify and accept them. They love us an infinite amount, enough to let us choose after doing all they can for us.
Thursday as a group we went to the Corning Glass Museum. It was fantastic. (I love glass!) There are five ways to work with glass. Below are examples of all of them.
Pipes fire formed and then each piece attached to a steel pillar. It consists of hundreds of pieces.
Another view
These are fire formed chess pieces from pipes. The artist has Jewish and Catholic parents, so the two sides of the chess set are the two religions. Each piece is unique and individual.
Fun glass ceiling fixtures
Fun glass forms, an orchid in a bowl and a vase
Amazing
All of this is glass, the main portion is layers and the front a single piece.
Fiber optic bowl - each strand is cable that is cut off and carefully attached before the bowl is formed.
3500 yr old glass necklace. Also note the glass bugs
Egyptian beaded neckband
Pillar covered with pieces of glass tiling
Tiffany spider web lamp. (The large one) Fantastic
Glass fire place and below and art above
Beautiful old pieces
All glass pieces for the pictures
Ancient bottles and vial.
Sculpture of glass blower and display
Ancient glass vials
Glass urn and table
Glass table and cut glass boat
Fantastic vials and urns
Description of what you will see
Example of micromosaic piture. It takes hundreds of hours and thousands of pieces of glass to make one
Modern art
Micromosaic and other art
Additional modern examples
These are layered glass
Glass dress on a glass body.
More layered glass
This was a sculpture by a man who lost his son. They represent him, his wife and his son. Very poignant
Glass birds tearing apart a glass chandelier, representing the lost art of decorative glass
Swarm of glass butterflies
Drink cups as light fixture
What do you think this is?
Sorry about the glare. this is where he removes the bowl from his pipe.
We ate lunch at a BBQ place and I thought this was a great sign. Many people live their lives this way. Remember that this was Thursday afternoon:
Friday I was Initiatory Leader for 2 hours. The schedule here is NEVER set in stone and certainly not the same for any line from week-to-week. Because of what patrons we had and the way we were scheduled, I felt impressed to see what my initiatory workers had to do next which determined who was a patron and where others started in the booth so they would be able to leave early to get where they needed to go. This may sound like a little thing, but the Lord works by small things to perform his wonders.
Between Conference sessions Saturday, I was prompted to look at our Terry family. I knew they came through here, but had no idea any stayed. In fact, we have three ancestors hanging out in East Palmyra waiting for the resurrection. We undoubtedly have cousins living in the area because one of their thirteen kids was buried in Port Gibson. Joshua died in 1827 but Elizabeth in 1848, well after Joel and his family joined the Church and had gone first to Nauvoo and then Utah. They must have known about Joseph and even might have known the Smiths. They didn't live more than a couple of miles from the Harris Farm on the north side of the Erie Canal and he was rich and prosperous (part of his wife's problem with his hanging out with the Smiths, who weren't either one, was social position.) I wonder how social position and wealth affected our great-great grandmother Elizabeth?
This is the East Palmyra Cemetery:
Me with great great grandparents. Greater grandparent to my right.
Aunt Anna.
Great great grandmother's headstone
Great great grandfather's headstone
And someone recognized Parshall's Revolutionary War service
This is East Palmyra today - lots of churches, little else.
Great land. No wonder our ancestors came here to farm.
What they got was much more.
Felt impressed to go to the Stake Center for Priesthood and it was for me personally. That's the way the Lord arranges things. It is all for us personally because we are His children and He loves us individually. As I do you.
Love Grandad
What a wonderful week! Monday the Temple was still closed, so we wandered around until our FHE at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center. Elder and Sister Bradford, the site missionary leaders, spoke on Emma and Joseph. It was uplifting even though there was nothing I had not heard before. There is nothing wrong with being reminded of truth.
Sister Bradford spoke about Emma. She was an amazing partner for Joseph. Grandma and I read Alma 13:1,3-4 this morning and I think the sisters of the restoration meet the same criteria and have the same blessings (except for being ordained to the Priesthood) as the brethren. Each man or woman who receives the blessings of the Gospel is a choice spirit of supernal faith and worth.
Elder Bradford spoke about one thing only, Joseph Smith History 1:37-39. Each of Moroni's visits took about 2 hours with Joseph in the early morning of September 22nd. The first thing discussed each time? Malachi's prophecy regarding Elijah. The critical part of the text as given by Moroni was "I will reveal unto you the Priesthood by Elijah". As you know, Elijah came in 1836 to Kirtland and the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored in May or June 1829 by Peter, James and John. So, what is meant by 'revealing the Priesthood' referred to here? It is the ultimate purpose of the Priesthood of God, sealing together families in an unbroken chain from Adam to the last child born on the Earth. The purpose of the Earth? Serve as a home to the eternal family of God in mortality. The world would be a wasteland at the Second Coming and fail to meet it's purpose if there were no sealings completed.
How anxious our ancestors must have been before the first baptisms for the dead were completed in Nauvoo in the 1840's. The first endowments and sealings were performed for the living in the 1840's in Nauvoo (Possibly Kirtland in 1837). What joy must have been felt as the other ordinances for the dead began to be performed in the 1860's and 70's. If we are not anxiously engaged in providing the blessings of baptism, initiatory, endowment, and especially sealing to ourselves and our ancestors, why was the Church restored? Thank you to all those in any way engaged and having received these ordinances themselves.
On Wednesday morning in sealings I had some deep and poignant feelings as well as insights about the blessings of the ordinance. Suffice it to say outside the Temple, the promises are amazing, but the power to receive them and then choose to accept them is up to us. This is tremendous when you see what are the promises and how strongly Our Father, the Son and our Heavenly Mother desire us to qualify and accept them. They love us an infinite amount, enough to let us choose after doing all they can for us.
Thursday as a group we went to the Corning Glass Museum. It was fantastic. (I love glass!) There are five ways to work with glass. Below are examples of all of them.
Pipes fire formed and then each piece attached to a steel pillar. It consists of hundreds of pieces.
Pipes fire formed into this sculpture
We attended a glass blowing show. It was great. From a blob to a beautiful vase.
Friday I was Initiatory Leader for 2 hours. The schedule here is NEVER set in stone and certainly not the same for any line from week-to-week. Because of what patrons we had and the way we were scheduled, I felt impressed to see what my initiatory workers had to do next which determined who was a patron and where others started in the booth so they would be able to leave early to get where they needed to go. This may sound like a little thing, but the Lord works by small things to perform his wonders.
Between Conference sessions Saturday, I was prompted to look at our Terry family. I knew they came through here, but had no idea any stayed. In fact, we have three ancestors hanging out in East Palmyra waiting for the resurrection. We undoubtedly have cousins living in the area because one of their thirteen kids was buried in Port Gibson. Joshua died in 1827 but Elizabeth in 1848, well after Joel and his family joined the Church and had gone first to Nauvoo and then Utah. They must have known about Joseph and even might have known the Smiths. They didn't live more than a couple of miles from the Harris Farm on the north side of the Erie Canal and he was rich and prosperous (part of his wife's problem with his hanging out with the Smiths, who weren't either one, was social position.) I wonder how social position and wealth affected our great-great grandmother Elizabeth?
This is the East Palmyra Cemetery:
What they got was much more.
Felt impressed to go to the Stake Center for Priesthood and it was for me personally. That's the way the Lord arranges things. It is all for us personally because we are His children and He loves us individually. As I do you.
Love Grandad
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