August 16, 2015

Bonnie: We have had a wonderful Sabbath Day. At Sacrament Meeting there were excellent talks, one I especially liked about the prodigal son. Then, there was a musical number where a young man sang "Because I Have Been Given Much". He was accompanied by an excellent pianist who had no music--none--and it was beautiful! Then we gave a ride home to a man who lives by the airport. We knew we had to go to the office for Elder Russell's birthday so I was nervous about the time. So after we finally dropped him off, we had to wait for a train, probably 10 minutes!! So we finally were able to pick up the Ericksons and get to the office. When we got there, the Elders weren't there. They finally showed up after about 20 minutes. Bob will tell you about the party. So, then we had to go straight to the fireside meeting at 7:00 tonight. It was amazing. I'm so glad we could go. A woman who is a literal descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith spoke to us, along with her son. She has quite a story to tell about how she found the gospel. She has had to deal with generations of lies and hatred of Brigham Young and Mormons from her family. But, she has overcome it all. The Holy Ghost led her to the church through family history. She bears testimony of how love and forgiveness need to be part of every family and that the family needs to be unified in love for each other. It was powerful. Her returned missionary also spoke to us. What a wonderful evening. We got home about 9:30 so it's been a long day, but one I really enjoyed!
Love, Mom/Bonnie

Bob: Had a small surprise birthday party for Elder Russell, one of the Assistants. He is going home in 3 weeks. His mother sent him some gifts, but they got held up in customs and didn't arrive.  She wrote us an email and said she would pay for a cake, and anything we could do for him. She said there is no budget. So Bonnie and I wrote her back and said we would take care of it. She responded thanking us and saying how much she loves her son and how he has always exceeded her expectations for him. The Ericksons, a set of sisters, Elder Gunnell, who is flying out in the morning, Elder Russell and his companion Elder Marchant, and Bonnie and I were there. It was pretty nice. I put the pictures below.
The Fireside was long, but a good one. She is the great, great granddaughter of Joseph and Emma Smith. There are about 2400 direct descendants of Joseph and Emma Smith, and only about 10% of them belong to the church. Joseph and Emma's son, Joseph Smith III became the first president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He didn't want to do it, but after several attempts to persuade him to do it he finally agreed. Seems almost impossible to me that Joseph Smith's finally fell away from the church he started. Not sure what that means, but Satan has his influence.
When we took the young man home after church we drove around the airport to get to his apartment. Lots of things down in that area. We'll have to go back and take a longer look around.
Set beside a Spanish guy at the fireside. The only hymn we sang was 'Praise to the Man', a song about Joseph Smith. The Spanish guy had a very loud voice and sang with a lot of gusto. His pronunciation wasn't always clear, but he sounded very good.
Hope everyone has had a great day and felt uplifted today.
Love,
Dad/Bob

The Cake

Elder Russell