Will Is Growing Up

 

Joseph Smith Fireside

 In January of 2020, members of our stake were invited to join a stake choir to prepare for a musical fireside honoring the 200^th Anniversary of the First Vision of Joseph Smith. We practiced for two months and then Covid came and shut down all events and gatherings.

Two and half years later, we started up again. We started practicing every Sunday afternoon in September and performed the musical fireside on December 11, 2022.

I invited Barb Salmon and Kathryn Parker from our ward to come and sing too.

Patty Bielert is the Stake Music Director and had the vision for this program. She was the director of our choir. We love her in every way.  She is so smart about music and so musically talented. Every practice was like a free music lesson filled with singing the songs of the Restoration along with a testimony tidbit every week.

Barb and I began carpooling, and she would pick me up on Sunday afternoons. On October 2 as were leaving the choir practice, we said to Patty, “Thank you. It’s our favorite time of the week.” And Barb said, “It’s like going to the temple.”

Less than 5 minutes later, Barb and I were in a head-on collision where the other driver slammed on his brakes and slid into our lane and we collided. The young man lost his life. We were miraculously saved by angels and airbags. We were sore and injured, but we were alive. Barb did miss a month of practices, but then she was able to start coming again and finish with the choir.

As the performance got closer, the practices got longer. We were there for 2 to 3 hours. But the miracles kept coming. And the opposition.

After one of our practices, I text Patty and suggested that we invite everyone to include the success and miracles in their fast the Sunday before the performance. On the Sunday before the fireside, two of the four soloists were really sick and couldn’t come. Three others had Covid and were sick and others with colds. We practiced and prayed for miracles. One of the Sundays we all drove to the church for practice in a complete blizzard.

But the fireside was starting to come together. Just a few weeks before the fireside, Patty was still trying to decide who should be the narrator representing Joseph Smith. She had prayed and pondered for a long time, and finally it came to her. Of course, Tim Eaton was the one. He did so good. His voice was perfect for the part.

Cheryl Millward was the main narrator. She did such a great job. She is Barb’s cousin, and she was telling us that she felt overwhelmed but honored with the task. She said she kept thinking of other people who would be better at it than she was. Then she would think, no she asked me, not them.

I was talking with one of the soloists who sang the song as Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith. She had been one of the soloists too sick to come the week before the fireside. She said that she had been really, really sick for about 3 days, and then she quickly recovered. She said she usually takes a lot longer to recover, you must have prayed for me or something. Yes, we did.

The fireside was well-advertised for several weeks, posters, flyers, social media posts, announcements in Sacrament Meeting, and even the Vet Clinic posted it on their sign. It was Patty’s vision to have the Cardston Alberta West Stake Center filled to the stage with people everywhere. Her vision came true. When we got to the church on the day of our performance, they had only set up chairs a third of the way into the gym. They didn’t want it to look empty if people didn’t come and fill the chairs. I said to Barb, I think more people will come than that. We need to fill to the stage. She said, they will come, and they will figure out the chairs as they come.

We had a final run through on Sunday night right before the fireside. Then we went to the Relief Society Room for a break before the performance. All of the women got matching flowers to wear with our black dresses. All of the men got matching blue ties to wear with their white shirts. We looked awesome.

As our line of singers filed in right in time to start the fireside, the church was filled to the stage and they were still setting up chairs on the edges of the gym. They came. And there were so many stories of people who came – the non-member student teacher, the grandpa who is not a member of the church, the sister who hadn’t been to church in years.

I text Austin a few weeks ago, and said we should invite Joel and Kaela to come for a steak dinner and come to the fireside. Kaela is our niece who hasn’t been active in the church the past few years, and her boyfriend Joel who is a Born-Again Christian who grew up in Bahrain, a small island off of Saudi Arabia. They came and Austin grilled steaks and we had dinner. I had to leave early to go to the last practice, but they had such a fun visit. Joel asked questions about the Book of Mormon and they said they had a great discussion about it. Joel is an amazing musician, so he played our piano, and Joel and Kaela sang.

They all came to the fireside, and they said they loved it. Joel wanted to clap so bad. They felt the Spirit. I don’t think you could come without feeling the Spirit. The music was powerful. The narration was so good, and there were videos of Joseph Smith played during two of our songs.

The day of our accident, I had honestly had the thought during Spirit of God that Linda Burwell was probably in heaven having a heavenly choir practice to sing with us, “We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven, Hosanna, hosanna, to God & the Lamb.” We prayed for angels to join us. Patty told us that she hoped our benches would feel crowded with the angels who were there.

During the fireside, I listened for the angels. Then as the prelude started for Spirt of God, I could feel a new energy as I felt like the angels were filing in to sing with us. The tears came. I was able to sing most of the song. There were only a few seconds where I was crying so hard that no singing was going to happen.

Because of Barbs’ broken foot, she just sat during our choir songs. Then during the last song of the night, “Praise to the Man” she stood and sang with the choir.

We ended up with about 60 members of the choir. I bet at least 50 more people had come for a practice or two but hadn’t stuck it out. A couple weeks ago, Patti thanked us for being part of this choir, and that each of our voices were important, and that she knew we were exactly the group of people who were supposed to present this fireside. It was such a privilege to be part of it.

On the way home, Austin told me about the miracles he had seen that day. First, he had been up sick in the night in the bathroom from 3 to 5. Then he laid on the couch from 5 to 6, and then he prayed and told Heavenly Father he needed help as it was too important of a day to be sick. Not only did we have church, the dinner and the fireside, but Carly was able to receive her patriarchal blessing on Sunday afternoon.

When he had gone out to cook the steaks, it started to snow, and it was starting to get heavy.  He came back in and knelt by this bed, and pleaded for it just to be a light snow so people would still come. The elements were tempered and there was such a light snow for the afternoon and evening.

He also felt it was a miracle and blessing to have Joel and Kaela come to dinner and come to the fireside.

As I turned in my choir binder, I was sad it was over but so thankful to have had the experience.

Alumni Basketball, Thanksgiving & Austin's Birthday

Austin turned 49 years old!

After a birthday breakfast, Austin and I went to Calgary for a consultation with a surgeon for his hip replacement surgery. They took x-rays and then met with the surgeon to talk about the upcoming surgery.  Grandma Nunn had made Austin a birthday dinner a couple days before his birthday.

We got to have Hanna come home for a week for U.S. Thanksgiving. It was fun to have her home. She played in the alumni basketball tournament at the high school. Lucy's varsity team played against Hanna's alumni team. We won't talk about who won.

Watching those girls play brings back lots of memories from all of the years of basketball.

We also cooked a mini Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate. Hanna baked her first pie.

 

Lucy Finally Asked a Date to Sadies

Lucy took a long time deciding who to ask to the Sadies Dance, and then the choices were limited. She ended up asking Mikey Blackmore. She had him come to the office to get a pizza and wrote on the inside of the box. 

She dressed as a cheerleader and Mikey as a football player.

A big group of kids met at the Holland's house for pizza, and then her friends went to Regan Norton's house to get ready. They had a fun night!

 

Halloween 2022

This year for Halloween, Carly was one the 7 Dwarfs (or 9) with new names. Carly was Salty. Lucy was a hippie with her friends. Will was a moose and Jill was a Canadian. 

I went to a fun Relief Society witch party before Halloween.

On Halloween, Carly and I went to the Leavitt Trunk or Treat to hand out some candy. We didn't get any trick or treaters at our house. Lucy and Carly each went to a Halloween party.

 

Hanna Flies to Toronto

 When Hanna was on her mission, they would offer free English classes, and then they would share a spiritual thought at the end. They met a really great couple through English class that they taught them the gospel and they got baptized. Alonso was baptized first, ordained to the priesthood, and then baptized his wife, Marine. 

Time goes by and they are prepared to go to the temple to receive their endowments and to be sealed. Hanna and her who taught them, Anna Churchhill, made plans to fly to Toronto to go to the temple with them.

They flew to Toronto on Friday night and were able to visit some friends. Then Saturday morning they were going to have breakfast with more friends before the temple, and they got a text that Alonso and Marine had been detained for immigration that morning.

So it turns out that they were applying for refugee status and they had a hearing that week, but their attorney told them he would go to the hearing and that they didn't need to come. So they didn't go. But neither did their attorney. So Saturday morning at 7 am, the day they were going to the temple, the police came to their door and took them to prison.

Hanna texted us, "Satan sucks." "I guess the church is true." "PTSD from the mission."

Hanna and Churchhill still ended up going to the temple session with all of the other members of the Brampton Ward who were planning to go with Marine and Alonso. She said it was really an amazing and emotional session, and they all hugged and cried in the Celestial Room at the end of the session.

On Sunday morning, Hanna and Churchhill were able to go and visit them in prison. They could only visit with one of them at a time, so first they saw Marine through the glass and then Alonso. Hanna said she hasn't ever cried so much. Marine said that when she got there to the prison, she knelt and prayed and at first everyone stared at her, and now the other ladies pray with her. Another member had brought her a Book of Mormon the day before, she had that to read also. They also had a good visit with Alonso. They are good people. They gospel is written in their hearts. And Hanna experienced a true Christ-like love for them.

Hanna sent us this teary picture after leaving the prison.

Hanna went to church to two of the wards she had served in. On Sunday night, they went to Niagara Falls, which she said was very cool. On Monday, they did a little shopping before they flew home.

Marine and Alonso got released from prison a couple days later and had a day before they were sent back to Mexico, so they did go to the temple to receive their endowment and to be sealed. So Hanna was happy they made it to the temple, but still so sad that she wasn't there for it.

"I was in ^bprison, and ye came unto me.

 Or when saw we thee ^asick, or in prison, and cam"e unto thee?

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have ^adone it unto one of the ^bleast of these my ^cbrethren, ye have done it unto me."

Alma 36:21  21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.