15 June 2018 - Friday

15 June 2018 - Friday

Wow!  What a day!  Mom and I had the mid shift at the Visitors' Center today.  That shift was from 11:00am until 6:00pm.  We scheduled our lunch break to get off at 5:00pm to have dinner with some friends at Missionary Village.  So we had a longer morning to get ready for the day, and we took the three mile walk together.  The morning air was fresh and the temperatures were in the high 50's.  When we got back to the trailer we had breakfast, and then each took our showers, and got ready for the day.  We even had an extra hour of Scripture reading!

As we were walking to the Visitors' Center to report to work, one of the senior missionaries told us that they killed a large rattlesnake at the front side of our trailer last night about 8:00pm.  He said it was over 4' long and very fat.  They had a game night at the Pavilion last night, and our next door trailer neighbor, and his wife, were cutting through our trailer lot when the rattler made itself known.  No one was bitten, but the snake lost his head over the incident!  I am glad mom and I elected to stay home where we were kept safe!

Then, as mom and I served at the Visitors' Center, we had a flurry of visitors come just as we arrived.  Mom got to share her testimony three times and handed out three copies of the Book of Mormon.  We have such a wonderful, and life saving, message in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that it is such a blessing to be able to share this message with those who are willing to listen.  I was also able to hand out a copy of the Book of Mormon to a wonderful young man.  

He had been in Salt Lake City for pilot training for Sky west Airlines.  As he was in his second week of training, he had emergency surgery.  He was with his mom and his dad and had stopped here out of curiosity.  His mom asked me to pray for him that he would not need chemotherapy.  I was grateful for the invitation, and then shared with him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He told me he had wanted to read this book and happily accepted my gift.

After our shift in the Visitors' Center we were scheduled to have dinner with some missionary friends.  At about 4:00pm we found out that one of their grandchildren had been in a terrible car accident, in Colorado, and was not expected to live.  They immediately left for the hospital in Denver, about 5 hours away.  Mom and I have been praying for them and their family.

We cannot take any member of our family for granted.  I am convinced that any petty arguments or differences are just not worth the effort.  Our love and devotion for our families is essential to our eternal happiness.  Embracing the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help us insure happiness in this life, and eternal happiness in the life to come.  Just remember, always, who we are and who we can become!

Now, my pioneer story, tonight, has to do with Cyrus H. Wheelock.  He was one of the early converts to the restored Gospel, and was baptized in 1839.    He served a mission in Vermont and was the first president of the Northern States Mission.  In 1856, he was returning from a three year mission to Great Britain.  Many of those he knew, and loved, were in the Martin Handcart Company.  

He was home only three days from his mission when he was sent out as a rescuer.  At one evening meeting after finding the Martin Handcart Company, and having helped to bring them into the sheltered cove, he offered a memorable prayer.  It was so remarkable that Josiah Rogerson vividly remembered it 50 years later.  Filled with empathy for the beleaguered pioneers, and with heartfelt emotion and grief, he raised his hands heavenward and pleaded with God to have mercy on the suffering saints.  He asked God to instantly remove him out of the way by death, and let the company go on, if for any reason the sins of his own life were at the root of their present plight.

It was such a heartfelt measure of a man who would do all in his power, including giving up his own life, if required, to save others.  He settled in Mount Pleasant, Utah Territory, and wrote several church hymns while living there.  One of those hymns was; "Ye Elders of Israel".