Week 25 - Our intense week
Dear family and friends
What a busy week. We worked seven shifts instead of our normal six, the extra one for friends who had family in town. Next week we take Saturday afternoon off in exchange.
Monday, Elder Keith Layton spoke about having a personal Arc of the Covenant. The Children of Israel kept things in the Arc to remind them of their blessings and covenants like the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna from being fed in the wilderness 40 years and Aaron's staff which budded or became a living tree.
He talked about what was in his personal Arc and why. We need to remind ourselves of what the Lord has done for us by keeping sacred remembrances. It may be a photo or a blanket or a ring or a rock. Whatever you keep, it should be meaningful to you. He has something to remind him of when his wife almost died and he learned he had nothing to bargain with the Lord, simply a plea to the Father to spare her. He also has a reminder of when, as a young missionary with no discernible language skills, he prayed in faith for the gift of tongues. The Lord sent him to the only senior companion in Guatemala who spoke no English and the worst area. After 3 months the branch grew, he spoke Spanish and had a life long friendship.
we did this as a real fireside.
My own Arc has memories of growing up in a loving home in Bountiful, the young woman who waited for me and we both grew while I was gone, our Temple covenants, the safety I received while in the Army, the justice and mercy of the Lord's Church, the power of the Priesthood to perform miracles, the blessings from Heaven that children and grandchildren are and the privilege of serving.
What will you put in your own Arc?
One last remarkable event occurred Monday. At closing, Elder Williamson was looking at someone to pray when I received the impression I would be asked. And then he called on me. He later told me he was going to call on a year missionary when he received that same impression. The Lord cares about ALL the details.
At the Temple I received a distinct impression to continue to seek a publisher for Welsh Shoemaker about Hugh and Mary Owen Roberts. I sent an email out late Monday and while I was sleeping a publisher expressed interest. The Lord knows what He is doing.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I officiated or followed in a session on each shift. I also prayed in the prayer circle in each one of the five. A humbling experience.
It has also been very dry here. No rain in a week, so this is what the grass looks like.
If you have no roots, when things get tough you dry up and blow away. Water your testimony everyday by reading in the Book of Mormon.
Thursday we visited Lewiston Mound, a Hopewell site on the Niagara River. In Iroquois, Niagara means "narrow neck". There were over 2000 Hopewell sites in middle and western New York in the 1840's catalogued by a scholar named Squiers. Few are left. This one was supposed to be a tumulus or burial mound. Not likely. The Hopewell civilization lasted from at least as early as 500 BC to about 400 AD. Some scholars go earlier and later, but those are also the dates for the Nephites. The Lewiston mound, unlike other Hopewell tombs, was not on level ground but a rocky hill at one of only strategic two access points below Niagara Falls before you reach Lake Ontario. It sits at the head of a very steep gully. The only reason for that position was a fort defending the gully. My opinion besides being common sense.
View from the bottom of the hill.
This is a very steep hill
Unlike all New York rock walls of the 19th century used for shoring up hills, this wall uses no cement. It is more like a fieldstone wall except that it runs just below the top of the hill and is falling down in places. In additiion, it is not the standard field wall which is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top.
There is a semi-circle of rocks on the far side of the trees most of the way up the hill. It is open at the back toward the top of the hill. If an enemy took the position, a murderous fire could be aimed at anyone inside the rocks.
And there were fun wild flowers which Grammy would have loved (to make into arrangements.)
This is the gully with the Niagara River visible at the bottom. It is about one hundred feet above the river where I am.
Saturday was long as we completed a second straight double shift. Sunday I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in Fast Meeting. After Church we went to Deruyter to search for Grandma's great-great great grandmother Roxie Frink. We were having no success until I uttered a silent prayer. At that point the thought came that I use the cemetery index listing other graves we had found to zero in on where she was. We were able to find the plot where she was supposed to be and her son and others were buried, but her headstone was missing. We were grateful for the guidance, however, since we had been an hour walking up and down the aptly named Hillside Cemetery.
The Lord cares about ALL of the details.
Love Grandad
What a busy week. We worked seven shifts instead of our normal six, the extra one for friends who had family in town. Next week we take Saturday afternoon off in exchange.
Monday, Elder Keith Layton spoke about having a personal Arc of the Covenant. The Children of Israel kept things in the Arc to remind them of their blessings and covenants like the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna from being fed in the wilderness 40 years and Aaron's staff which budded or became a living tree.
He talked about what was in his personal Arc and why. We need to remind ourselves of what the Lord has done for us by keeping sacred remembrances. It may be a photo or a blanket or a ring or a rock. Whatever you keep, it should be meaningful to you. He has something to remind him of when his wife almost died and he learned he had nothing to bargain with the Lord, simply a plea to the Father to spare her. He also has a reminder of when, as a young missionary with no discernible language skills, he prayed in faith for the gift of tongues. The Lord sent him to the only senior companion in Guatemala who spoke no English and the worst area. After 3 months the branch grew, he spoke Spanish and had a life long friendship.
My own Arc has memories of growing up in a loving home in Bountiful, the young woman who waited for me and we both grew while I was gone, our Temple covenants, the safety I received while in the Army, the justice and mercy of the Lord's Church, the power of the Priesthood to perform miracles, the blessings from Heaven that children and grandchildren are and the privilege of serving.
What will you put in your own Arc?
One last remarkable event occurred Monday. At closing, Elder Williamson was looking at someone to pray when I received the impression I would be asked. And then he called on me. He later told me he was going to call on a year missionary when he received that same impression. The Lord cares about ALL the details.
At the Temple I received a distinct impression to continue to seek a publisher for Welsh Shoemaker about Hugh and Mary Owen Roberts. I sent an email out late Monday and while I was sleeping a publisher expressed interest. The Lord knows what He is doing.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I officiated or followed in a session on each shift. I also prayed in the prayer circle in each one of the five. A humbling experience.
It has also been very dry here. No rain in a week, so this is what the grass looks like.
Thursday we visited Lewiston Mound, a Hopewell site on the Niagara River. In Iroquois, Niagara means "narrow neck". There were over 2000 Hopewell sites in middle and western New York in the 1840's catalogued by a scholar named Squiers. Few are left. This one was supposed to be a tumulus or burial mound. Not likely. The Hopewell civilization lasted from at least as early as 500 BC to about 400 AD. Some scholars go earlier and later, but those are also the dates for the Nephites. The Lewiston mound, unlike other Hopewell tombs, was not on level ground but a rocky hill at one of only strategic two access points below Niagara Falls before you reach Lake Ontario. It sits at the head of a very steep gully. The only reason for that position was a fort defending the gully. My opinion besides being common sense.
Saturday was long as we completed a second straight double shift. Sunday I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in Fast Meeting. After Church we went to Deruyter to search for Grandma's great-great great grandmother Roxie Frink. We were having no success until I uttered a silent prayer. At that point the thought came that I use the cemetery index listing other graves we had found to zero in on where she was. We were able to find the plot where she was supposed to be and her son and others were buried, but her headstone was missing. We were grateful for the guidance, however, since we had been an hour walking up and down the aptly named Hillside Cemetery.
The Lord cares about ALL of the details.
Love Grandad
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