311. A "sort of" journal entry -- of my thoughts tonight.
Tonight, Wednesday, December 17, 2014, we had a choice experience. I'll have to admit that I haven't kept a journal for several years. When we had our golden wedding in 2005, we were in the process of writing a book of our life stories, and we finished it in 2006. It was a hardbound book of 635 pages, and included histories of each of our 9 children up to that point, with pictures of their children, our grandchildren, and a few of our great grandchildren born then. I had kept journals for many years, and drew stories from them for our book.
The next year we did a book of our letters to each other over a 14 month period while Wayne was in the army. We met on a blind date in August, 1953, very soon after Wayne returned home from his mission to Sweden. He didn't write to me until 8 months later when he was in Trieste, during the Korean War. But we began writing, and ended up writing 2 to 4 times each week, before he came home on July 4th, 1955. Those letters were truly telling our life history to each other also, as we had met only once before. My best friend from high school married one of Wayne's best friends, in Salt Lake, and they had introduced us, and we just rode around while they reminisced about their high school days. That book was over 200 pages.
The next year we published a book of all the family history stories of Wayne's ancestors -- over 200 pages, many of which are on this blog. The year after that we published a book of all the histories we had of my ancestors, many also of whose stories are in various blogs. We gave each of these 4 books to each of our 9 children, and also to 29 grandchildren. Needless to say, it put us in some debt, but it was worth it. After writing all those, I didn't have much incentive to keep a daily journal. It was as if we had told all there was to tell about our lives. I have since realized that many choice experiences are still happening, and hopefully will continue to happen as long as we live!
This was taken on Sept. 20, this year, when we celebrated my 80th birthday, which actually wasn't until October 6. Our 9 children are all on the middle row with us. Various in-laws, and grand and great grand children are the rest of the people there, and also quite a few weren't able to make it.
But tonight I realized, I haven't written many personal things in this blog, and tonight I will just tell of a special experience we had tonight. A young man, probably 22 years old, in our ward, has been mentally challenged his whole life. But is is almost a genius in playing the organ! He was given piano lessons as he was a young teenager, but a dear lady who moved into our ward 8 or 9 years ago, began teaching him to play the organ. He now has given his own concerts in our Tabernacle here, and plays the organ for missionary firesides in the Tabernacle, and also plays for Sacrament meetings in our ward. He has received a mission call! He will work in the St. George Temple, helping in the kitchen, or wherever he can be used, and also play the organ in the Temple! Tonight he received his endowments in the Temple, and we went to the session. My heart just was filled, to see how happy he is.
We have so many things going on in our own family now -- you can imagine with 9 children, and 29 grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren. Each of them has their own story unfolding. This year alone we will have one granddaughter and her husband, and another grandson graduating from a university. We have 3 grandchildren on missions. We also have one daughter who will be married (her second time) within about a month. We have other small and large dramas happening in the family. I don't want to tell personal or private things in this blog, but I want to express to whomever reads this, how grateful I am for my life! For the life of my dear husband, and all our posterity. And I'm especially grateful for Wayne's and my ancestors who heard the truths of the Gospel and accepted them, and went through many trials and persecutions. The stories of our loved ones, now living, and who have passed on, become the makers of who we are. FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!
If you have time, and/or interest, notice in the "labels" sections, surnames of Miles, Church, Butler, Wilson, Allen, Atterbury, (my ancestors), and Eckman, Dayton, Harrington, Chamberlain, Henwood, (Wayne's ancestors) and others -- Those are stories from our books. The neat thing about this blog is that the pictures are in color! In our books, all pictures were in black and white. Be sure and write in your journal, so someday you can also write your OWN STORY! EVERYONE'S STORY IS INTERESTING, AND IMPORTANT TO YOUR POSTERITY.
The next year we did a book of our letters to each other over a 14 month period while Wayne was in the army. We met on a blind date in August, 1953, very soon after Wayne returned home from his mission to Sweden. He didn't write to me until 8 months later when he was in Trieste, during the Korean War. But we began writing, and ended up writing 2 to 4 times each week, before he came home on July 4th, 1955. Those letters were truly telling our life history to each other also, as we had met only once before. My best friend from high school married one of Wayne's best friends, in Salt Lake, and they had introduced us, and we just rode around while they reminisced about their high school days. That book was over 200 pages.
The next year we published a book of all the family history stories of Wayne's ancestors -- over 200 pages, many of which are on this blog. The year after that we published a book of all the histories we had of my ancestors, many also of whose stories are in various blogs. We gave each of these 4 books to each of our 9 children, and also to 29 grandchildren. Needless to say, it put us in some debt, but it was worth it. After writing all those, I didn't have much incentive to keep a daily journal. It was as if we had told all there was to tell about our lives. I have since realized that many choice experiences are still happening, and hopefully will continue to happen as long as we live!
But tonight I realized, I haven't written many personal things in this blog, and tonight I will just tell of a special experience we had tonight. A young man, probably 22 years old, in our ward, has been mentally challenged his whole life. But is is almost a genius in playing the organ! He was given piano lessons as he was a young teenager, but a dear lady who moved into our ward 8 or 9 years ago, began teaching him to play the organ. He now has given his own concerts in our Tabernacle here, and plays the organ for missionary firesides in the Tabernacle, and also plays for Sacrament meetings in our ward. He has received a mission call! He will work in the St. George Temple, helping in the kitchen, or wherever he can be used, and also play the organ in the Temple! Tonight he received his endowments in the Temple, and we went to the session. My heart just was filled, to see how happy he is.
We have so many things going on in our own family now -- you can imagine with 9 children, and 29 grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren. Each of them has their own story unfolding. This year alone we will have one granddaughter and her husband, and another grandson graduating from a university. We have 3 grandchildren on missions. We also have one daughter who will be married (her second time) within about a month. We have other small and large dramas happening in the family. I don't want to tell personal or private things in this blog, but I want to express to whomever reads this, how grateful I am for my life! For the life of my dear husband, and all our posterity. And I'm especially grateful for Wayne's and my ancestors who heard the truths of the Gospel and accepted them, and went through many trials and persecutions. The stories of our loved ones, now living, and who have passed on, become the makers of who we are. FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!
If you have time, and/or interest, notice in the "labels" sections, surnames of Miles, Church, Butler, Wilson, Allen, Atterbury, (my ancestors), and Eckman, Dayton, Harrington, Chamberlain, Henwood, (Wayne's ancestors) and others -- Those are stories from our books. The neat thing about this blog is that the pictures are in color! In our books, all pictures were in black and white. Be sure and write in your journal, so someday you can also write your OWN STORY! EVERYONE'S STORY IS INTERESTING, AND IMPORTANT TO YOUR POSTERITY.
Comments