My Family History Journey

Day #7 Family History Journey

Today, I had clinical for BYU N342 at University of Utah Hospital, Huntsman Cancer Hospital and Craig Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital in Salt Lake City. I started the day at 3:30 am and clinical ends around 4:15 pm. I love working with my nursing students. They are truly remarkable in their consistent efforts to learn the Healer’s Art.

I spoke with family member while driving home today and it was very good conversation. At the end of the conversation I felt prompted to talk about receiving help from the other side of the veil. My comment was well received and acknowledged as valid by my family member. She agreed to read an article I told her I would send on that topic.

As I drove home tonight from Gil’s parents home, I listened to one of my favorite talks on the power of Family History by Elder Dale G. Renlund. He gave this talk in April 2018 General Conference. It was entitled: Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing. I encourage you to watch/listen to this talk and then read it over and over again. He shares the following list of blessings that come from doing Family History:

  • Increased understanding of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice;
  • Increased influence of the Holy Ghost7 to feel strength and direction for our own lives;
  • Increased faith, so that conversion to the Savior becomes deep and abiding;
  • Increased ability and motivation to learn and repent8 because of an understanding of who we are, where we come from, and a clearer vision of where we are going;
  • Increased refining, sanctifying, and moderating influences in our hearts;
  • Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord;
  • Increased family blessings, no matter our current, past, or future family situation or how imperfect our family tree may be;
  • Increased love and appreciation for ancestors and living relatives, so we no longer feel alone;
  • Increased power to discern that which needs healing and thus, with the Lord’s help, serve others;
  • Increased protection from temptations and the intensifying influence of the adversary; and
  • Increased assistance to mend troubled, broken, or anxious hearts and make the wounded whole.

Which of these blessings have you been praying for in your life?

The talk that got me truly started on my Family History Journey happened in April 2015 at BYU Women’s Conference. It was the keynote address of the conference given by Sis. Wendy Watson Nelson, the wife of President Nelson. Listening to her speak that day in the Marriott Center, it was like hearing about Family History and covenants in a completely different language that spoke directly to my heart, mind and spirit. At that time of my life, I really tried to do the 21-day challenge but I think I ended up doing it for a couple of weeks, not 21 days. However, that desire to do Family History, has not left and I have tried multiple times to consistently do Family History on a daily basis.

As I wrote on Day #1 of my journey, I very committed to succeed this time. I feel like I need and the Lord needs me to do this because there are things my Heavenly Father wants me to do that will require my faith and sincere effort in keeping my covenant to gather Israel and consecrate my time, talents and everything I am to Him.

Pres. Nelson has said, “Anytime we do anything that helps anyone … make and keep their covenants with God, we are helping to gather Israel.”4 Well, I am going to propose to a couple of my family members that they do a version of Sis. Nelson’s 21-day Family History experiment because they need several of the blessings Elder Renlund shared in his talk.

DAy #6 Family History Journey

This will be short. I got up at 4;30 am and worked on finding out more about David Lewis and Mrs. Lewis on my Grandma Watt’s line. I think I might have found a couple who might be David and Mrs. Lewis. I am going to keep praying about it and researching it for a few more days.

Day #5 Family History Journey

Family Search is an amazing example of so much innovation and technological advancement. There is a new way to help with Family History by improving the accuracy of Family Tree. It gives you 10 places to review and help confirm the accuracy of the listed place. I have learned a lot about geography and how to do research on finding places. Just click on the link above and it will take you to the page if you have a Family Search account. Signing up for Family Search is very easy and you don’t have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

They are trying out some new features on Family Search. I was able to post 3 pictures about a Parkin Family Campout in August 2002 and write a little bit about the pictures. I tried to use the feature to tag people in the photos but that didn’t seem to work as well, could be user error. Here is a link that allows people to see the post on Family Search. https://www.familysearch.org/eurona/feed/?invite=Y2lzLnVzZXIuTU1NTS1CQlFK&locale=en

Here is another fun article on Family Search about Cousins.

Family Tree Hub_ Cousins_v3 (familysearch.org)

cousin-calculator-2.jpg (5100×3000) (familysearch.org)

The home page of Family Search will show ancestors who are missing information, sources in a section called Recommended Tasks. I am trying to find out about Mrs. Lewis, my 5th great-grandmother on my Grandma Watt’s side. The line stops with her and her husband, David Lewis. I am going to need some angelic help on this one, I think.

Day#4 Family History Journey

It is 4:15 pm and I am just doing my Family History and blogging for the day. I didn’t get up at 4:15 am because Gil and I went to the Utah Jazz vs. Atlanta Hawks basketball game Vivent Arena last night. The Jazz won the game and we had fun watching the game from the Security National Mortgage suite at the arena with some of Gil’s co-workers. We did get home late and since I didn’t have my Intermountain job today, I decided to sleep in until 5:15 am.

Gil and I got up and went to Vasa. I did a light workout because I meet with a personal trainer at 8:00 am. That was an interesting experience in my weight loss/preparing to do the Lotoja relay journey. I learned that I have 32% body fat and that is after I have lost 25 pounds! I hate to think what my body fat was when I weighed close to 180! Brayden, the personal trainer, said I have weak gluteal muscles and tight hip flexors. He proposed that I continue the cycling classes and meet with him once a week. I told him I would think about it but I think I might do it as I tend to not push myself very hard in training and I get frustrated when Gil tries to push me.

I got a chance today to talk to my mother, Serena. She is such a wonderful woman who still serves many in her community through her work with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, her ministering for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, her service and concern to her family, her indexing work and serving in the temple to mention a few of the things she does. Is it any wonder that I am on not content to just take it easy even though this is my “day off?” My mother told me that she had already texted her siblings asking them about how they celebrated the holidays when they were young so she could answer the Storyworth question for the week.

My father responded to the Storyworth question: What are you thankful for? with the following list:

My wife

My children

Our family

Our house/home

Our friends

Our garden

My health

Jesus Christ, my Savior, My Redeemer

My Father and Mother in heaven

My earthly father and mother

My brothers and sister

My extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins)

My wife’s family

Good food

My membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Priesthood authority

My sister-in laws and brother -in-laws

My ancestors – my family tree

My church leaders

My physical body

My life

This beautiful earth

I am so very grateful for truly amazing parents, Max and Serena Watt.

I just got back from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple where I was able to do ordinance work for distant ancestors. I love using the Ordinance Ready application in Family Search.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple at Sunset

Tomorrow night after serving dinner at the VOA Homeless Youth Resource Center, I am going to be watching this presentation on Zoom. LDS Earth Stewardship is a great organization that is working to help members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints be more aware and active regarding issues of how we use the bounteous resources of this earth.

2021 FALL FORUM”Conservation and Reverence for the Earth”, with Dr. Paul Alan CoxThursday November 11th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Attend in person at BYU (Provo, Utah)
or join us online via Zoom“Reverence for the earth is taught both in scripture and in the temples. Care for the planet and compassion for the plants and animals we share it with can become an act of worship if we explicitly acknowledge the Creator and our contingency as stewards of His masterpiece. Modern revelation reaffirms our responsibilities to protect and care for the creation.” Dr. Paul Alan Cox has lived in remote island villages searching for new medicines. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, sometimes known as the Nobel Prize of the Environment and was named one of TIME magazine’s eleven “Heroes of Medicine” for his discovery of a new HIV drug candidate. His conservation foundation, Seacology, has set aside over 1.5 million acres of rain forest and coral reef in 60 countries around the world.

Cox was both a Danforth Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard where he received his Ph.D. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson, Wyoming, a not-for-profit research institute focused on finding new treatments for ALS and Alzheimer’s disease.REGISTER TO ATTEND IN PERSON
REGISTER TO ATTEND ONLINE VIA ZOOM

Day#3

I decided to study my husband’s family line and found some really cool stuff about his fourth great grandfather who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in England. His name was John Parkin 1. He is buried in the Bountiful Cemetery. I think I might take my in-laws up there on a drive.

John Parkin’s 5th great grandmother is listed as Sarah Harrison born in Derby, Derbyshire, England around 1652. She has no parents listed. I am looking for her parents as well as other children she and her husband, John Parkin, may have had.

Day #2

Monday, November 8

Heavenly Father is already blessing me and my family! Yesterday was a very good day. The extra hour of sleep as Daylight Savings ended was an added bonus. Fast and Testimony meeting at church was a great experience made sweeter for having Gil with me. Bro. Earl taught Sunday School and he is someone I consider a master teacher.

During Sunday School discussion of Come Follow Me Sections 125-128, I was able to share some of the insight I have gained from studying about Family History based on verse 18 in section 128.

18 I might have rendered a plainer translation to this, but it is sufficiently plain to suit my purpose as it stands. It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time.

I haven’t spoken much to Gil about Family History journey but I think he was very touched by the discussion and some videos that Bro. Earl shared from the Come Follow Me lesson. I know that having him by my side yesterday during Sunday School was a direct blessing from the Lord.

Gil and I visited his parents later in the afternoon. We were able to take his mother, Brenda, on a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was nice to visit with her and be outside. We saw a cloud coming up the canyon and it engulfed us, lowering the temperature a good 10 degrees before we got to the van.

After we got back to Brenda’s house, I was able to show her on her phone how to make an appointment to go to the Draper Temple. We made two appointments for December. Using the Ordinance Ready app in Family Search, we found 6 names to take to the temple for those visits. We also looked at some of her ancestors in Family Search and found a great, great, great, great, great grandfather who lived in Ireland. She hadn’t know she had any family from Ireland. We used the Discovery Search on the Family Search site, so easy to navigate.

I have had a goal for several years to help Gil’s parents write their life histories and to record their stories. I have typed up some of the stories Gil has told me and a couple from Brenda but for some reason, I really struggling use the app to record his memories. I am going to contact the Riverton Family History library today and see if their recording studios are open and available so I can take Gil, senior, and Brenda and start recording their stories.

My parents have been doing Storyworth and I am learning so much from their writing. My sister, Anna, has been spearheading the Storyworth experience and I need to help her by writing a letter to my aunts and uncles asking them to contribute to my parent’s story. That is my goal for tomorrow.

This article from the Family Search Blog talks about the Benefits of Journaling and how journaling is an integral part of doing Family History. I am also learning so much about how to upload and download pictures, link resources to my entries and how a blog works. I certainly have a lot to learn but it is a truly exciting journey.

Afghan Refugees, Monday, October 25

Afghan Refugees

Tonight I attended an event at the Utah Islamic Center to welcome Afghan refugees to West Jordan, Salt Lake County and Utah. It was a truly touching experience and I am so grateful to the many people of the community who responded with food, clothing, and monetary donations.

I attended because I am part of the West Jordan City Diversity Committee. Brandi Khan, a member of the Islamic community, is also on the West Jordan City Diversity Committee and she invited me to attend the event. I am very interested not just because I want to be welcoming as a member of the Diversity Committee but I also want to find out what needs the refugees have and how I and others in the West Jordan Community can help them.

It brought tears to my eyes to hear the words of welcome spoken by a representative from Governor Cox’s office, Dirk Burton the West Jordan Mayor, and Ken Wallentine, police chief. Chief Wallentine called the Afghan refugees his brothers and sisters.

I got to hold a beautiful little baby while his/her mother got some food. The children are beautiful and I even saw a young boy with bright red hair, not unlike the color mine used to be.

I am so excited to take part and contribute to helping the Afghan refugees find welcome, peace and opportunity in West Jordan, Utah.

An Amazing Sunday

Today has been a really good day of rest for me though I really haven’t rested much. I was able to attend Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society in the Welby 1st Ward, my ward. I had time to study scriptures this morning. I was able to attend Ward Choir practice and sing with some ward friends beautifully written music. I am always in awe of those who write song lyrics and melodies! Then was able to listen in on a Zoom connection to a meeting of the Utah Afghan Youth Collective. So many people willing to volunteer and organize in order to aid recently arrived Afghan youth as they transition to life in Utah/America.

Samantha helped me in the kitchen this afternoon. We made banana nut bread, apple crisp, pasta e fagioli, green chicken chili, and scones. We took dinner over to my in-laws and had Navajo Tacos using the scones. My kitchen is an absolute mess now but I don’t need to cook tomorrow.

I studied this morning from Learn of Me Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide: An Annotated Study Workbook by Stephanie Dibb Sorensen. I was reading in Matthew about the Savior giving the Sermon on the Mount. Using the BYU Scripture Citation Index I found a talk given by then Elder Russell M. Nelson in October 2002 General Conference “Blessed Are the Peacemakers”

I was so struck by this talk and its content and context. Elder Nelson gave this talk just a year after September 11, 2001. He basically gives the blueprint for addressing racism, racial disparity, war, conflict, and even the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Some quotes from his talk:

Peace can prevail only when that natural inclination to fight is superseded by self-determination to live on a loftier level.

He taught the Golden Rule: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”15 This principle is found in nearly every major religion. Others such as Confucius and Aristotle have also taught it.16 After all, the gospel did not begin with the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem. It is everlasting. It was proclaimed in the beginning to Adam and Eve. Portions of the gospel have been preserved in many cultures. Even heathen mythologies have been enriched by fragments of truth from earlier dispensations.

Wherever it is found and however it is expressed, the Golden Rule encompasses the moral code of the kingdom of God. It forbids interference by one with the rights of another. It is equally binding upon nations, associations, and individuals. With compassion and forbearance, it replaces the retaliatory reactions of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”17 If we were to stay on that old and unproductive path, we would be but blind and toothless.18

This concept of treating others as one would like to be treated is easy to understand. And it acknowledges the precious nature of each of God’s sons and daughters.19

Because of the long history of hostility upon the earth, many feel that peace is beyond hope. I disagree. Peace is possible. We can learn to love our fellow human beings throughout the world. Whether they be Jewish, Islamic, or fellow Christians, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or other, we can live together with mutual admiration and respect, without forsaking our religious convictions. Things we have in common are greater than are our differences. Peace is a prime priority that pleads for our pursuit. Old Testament prophets held out hope and so should we. The Psalmist said, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”28 “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth.”29

Father Abraham was uniquely called a “Friend of God.”30 Peace was one of Abraham’s highest priorities. He sought to be a “prince of peace.”31 His influence could loom large in our present pursuit of peace. His sons, Ishmael and Isaac, though born of different mothers, overcame their differences when engaged in a common cause. After their father died, they worked together to bury the mortal remains of their exalted father.32 Their descendants could well follow that pattern.

So descendants of Abraham—entrusted with great promises of infinite influence—are in a pivotal position to emerge as peacemakers. Chosen by the Almighty, they can direct their powerful potential toward peace.

I am a descendant of Abraham. Today I chose to follow the path of peace. I am getting involved in helping Afghan refugees just arriving in Utah. I am still not entirely sure exactly how I can help but, I know I can help. I am also going to work to help others who desire to serve, find ways to serve and lift.

Elder Nelson ends his talk:

Now, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what does the Lord expect of us? As a Church, we must “renounce war and proclaim peace.”37 As individuals, we should “follow after the things which make for peace.”38 We should be personal peacemakers. We should live peacefully—as couples, families, and neighbors. We should live by the Golden Rule. We have writings of the descendants of Judah as now merged with writings of the descendants of Ephraim.39 We should employ them and expand our circle of love to embrace the whole human family. We should bring divine love and revealed doctrines of restored religion to our neighbors and friends. We should serve them according to our abilities and opportunities. We should keep our principles on a high level and stand for the right. We should continue to gather scattered Israel from the four corners of the earth and offer the ordinances and covenants that seal families together forever. These blessings we are to bring to people of all nations.

By so living, our Master will bless us. He provided this promise: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”40

Ours is His supernal cause. Ours is the cause of eternal glory for all humankind.

Jolene and Dennis Mackay spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. Wonderful and thoughtful talks that greatly inspired me. Sis. Mackay quoted from Alvin F. Meredith III, of the Seventy, Look Down the Road. The quote that hit me like a ton of bricks was from the story of Peter Walking on Water: While he (Peter) focused on the Savior, he could do the impossible, even walk on water.

All the things that I want to, have to, need to get done/accomplished are only possible if I focus on the Savior.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Today I was with my father-in-law when he was told that he is no longer a safe driver. I know he is grieving for such a huge loss of his independence. He is grieving for the way his body is letting him down.

I have always enjoyed working with and being around the elderly. My own grandparents taught me so much in my childhood and young adult years. Then I had the privilege of being a nurse on a busy medical floor where I cared for many elderly patients. In the late 90s, Kim Dumas, a colleague of mine on West 8 at LDS Hospital, and I started a business called Golden Years Consultants. It was a business that helped families of older adults find the care they needed to remain at home for as long as possible.

The experience I gained then is going to help me as I try to assist my father and mother-in-law and other in-laws through this difficult transition in life. The true challenge is helping my in-laws find purpose and joy in life even as they are dealing with loss, grief, disappointment and poor health.

Quote of the Week:

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said at the Silicon Slopes Summit on October 13: “Sometimes people are so looking forward to the next thing..that they forget the real joy of life is the journey.”

I feel that for the last couple of months, I have been so focused on my next task that had to be done, class to be taught, appointment to attend, shift to work, that I have been missing the ‘joy in the journey.’ I haven’t been blogging consistently or doing my Family History or even spending much time in my garden. Even recognizing that I was living too much in the ‘future,’ I am still struggling to live in the moment. To be able to choose my activities so that I am doing those things that help me be in the moment–daily meditation, daily prayer and scripture study, weekly temple attendance, journaling, physical activity, getting outside, spending time with family, and doing Family History–is still challenging despite my personal understanding that I am happier when I do those things.

How do you stay in the moment? Find joy in the journey?

Y Mountain on October 14
September Bike Ride in Draper Utah