Ghosts of Missionaries Past

In Dickensian fashion, the missionaries of the Restored Gospel to the British Isles noted the great calamities resulting from the rich oppressing the poor. Their work began in 1837. I will quote them using as my source Truth Will Prevail: The Rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British Isles 1837-1987, Editors: Bloxham, V. Ben; Moss, James R.; Porter, Larry C. (LDS, University Press, Cambridge, England 1987) (TWP). I will attempt to transcribe the quotes as the missionaries wrote them leaving out the [sic]s and original sources:

Heber C. Kimball:

Wealth and luxury abounded, side by side with penury and want. I there met the rich attired in the most courtly dresses, and the next minute was saluted with the cries of the poor with scarce covering to screen them from the weather. Such a wide distinction I never saw before. TWP, 52.

Oh! When will distress and poverty and pain cease, and peace and plenty abound? When the Lord Jesus shall descend in the clouds of heaven - when the rod of the oppressor shall be broken. 'Hasten the time, O Lord!' was frequently the language of my heart, when I contemplated the scenes of wretchedness and woe, which I daily witnessed, and my prayer to Heavenly Father was, that if I had to witness a succession of such scenes of wretchedness and woe, that He would harden my heart, for those things were too much for me to bear. This is no exaggerated account: I have used no coloring here. They are facts which will meet the Elders of Israel when they shall go forth into that land [Britain], and then I can assure them that they will not be surprised at my feelings. TWP, 53.

Cymru, March 2018 II - Accomplishment: Abergavenny, Blaenavon, and Llanfoist

There was time for a nap this afternoon as I felt so much contentment from having achieved my main purpose. It wasn't just visiting the replacement headstone we had put up, but I cleaned it and planted daffodils too.

There remains one more thing on my to-do list in Llanfoist. We'll see if tomorrow works out. It may just be perfect! Otherwise, I would stay in bed. (Check the weather forecast.)

At four o'clock, GMT, I seemed awake enough to call my wife at home. I then went back to bed and slept two more hours arising with the dawn and discovering the key to the back garden in this little place I'm staying for the first weekend. Out in the garden (backyard), I found the postcard pic for the Blorenge, the mountain that begins the Welsh Industrial Valleys to the West.

Hiraeth 2016: Dydd 23, St. Davids

St. David is the patron Saint of Wales. Many legends and a cathedral have sprung up on him, but the essence of the Saint is his teaching:

"Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd"

"Do ye the little things in life"

I'm with you there, Dewi Sant! While he has a grand cathedral, the essence of the man permeates the soul of Cymru.

St. David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire

Helping Hands - Projeto do Brasil SUD

Maybe I'm not paying enough attention, but I didn't realize that the Mormon or LDS service project for local communities at large, "Helping Hands," originated in Brazil. I was watching this video (in Portuguese) and it said that the internationally used, yellow vest, with hands in blue and green, represent the national colors of Brazil as an acknowledgment of the program's Brazilian origins!

Que coisa!

Then I realized that I had the evidence in pictures of my two youngest children as LDS Missionaries in Japan and Ohio, USA, wearing the yellow, green, and blue!

My son, A-5, shoveling snow in Japan wearing the "Helping Hands" or "Mãos que Ajudam" vest.

My son, A-6 (second from right), recently returned from Ohio, wearing the Brazilian "Helping Hands" colors on a t-shirt with a few others.

Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk at Our Stake Conference

Elder Larry J. and Sister Teresa Echo Hawk

We had Stake Conference in the Centerville, Utah South Stake this weekend. That's when all the members in each of 11 wards or local congregations of 300-400 members each meet together wih the leadership of the Stake for religious instruction and inspiration. These days, we don't always get visitors from the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that's not because we're just a few miles north of international HQ. There are just many more stakes these days all over the world than there are GA's to go around.

Elder Echo Hawk indicated in the Saturday evening session for adult men and women that he sees the stats from a Stake before he visits a conference. Ours look pretty good, probably the best he's seen in his travels. That probably does come from being a few miles up the road from HQ. We're well settled in. It's not that we don't have room for improvement; he noted that we weren't ready to be translated beings and lifted up into heaven. In fact emphasis on basic principles of faith and the atonement of Jesus Christ and seeking after all our friends and neighbors who do not fully participate in the principles was a strong challenge.

Father's Day Talk: The Refiner's Fire

Posting before we leave for Church to test if anyone in the ward reads the blog - or they can read along to see how I stray from my notes:

Nantyglo, Brynmawr, Wales. 19th Century "Refiner's Fire"

 

Side Channel of Dulas Brook at Cusop Mill By Jaggery (c) licensed for free use under Creative Commons License

No jokes

Happy Father’s Day

Not happy for all

Family history – 9 generations back to Wales – troubles. Oh, yeah

Authentic and Uplifting - Elder Russell M. Nelson

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I can't help it. It was authentic and uplifting - a smile much like the one above. 

First, third, and fifth Fridays are now my assigned nights for Bountiful Temple service. My Thursday nights are all taken up by Welsh class now. I was there last night and saw Elder and Sister Nelson coming down the stairs from the Celestial room. I was already smiling and just a glance of recognition in the eyes from me curled up Elder Nelson's mouth into a flash of a smile back. He knew I knew who he was. It was a warm smile that quickly went back to serious concentration with the rest of his face to continue helping his wife down the stairs.

Brigham Young writes to the Five Jolly Welshmen

Yes! My good buddy at Keepapitchinin.org sent me a copy of Bro. Brigham's letter back to John Lewis and his jolly friends! It's in the public research files (I hadn't found it in the indices yet) so she didn't need to sneak it out of confidential files or anything.

But Springville! Why did it have to be Springville! At least Brigham didn't put "at present" in air quotes.

So far we've determined that the Jolly Welshman did not stay together. At least two of them, Henry Moore and John James, went to the Carson Valley. It also appears that our John Lewis may have gone but kept on going over the Sierra for the gold fields. And, there is a possibility that Jane was still alive and may have remarried in Jacks Valley (south of Carson). More research is needed to firm up these hints.

"Five Jolly Welshmen"

Just discovered, a treasure trove of letters to Brigham Young on-line from the LDS Church History Library. Including this:

• LDS Church History Library, CR 1234 1_b0025_f0002_00071.JPG

John Lewis arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 26, 1856, along with his wife, Jane Vaughan Lewis, their son, John Samuel Lewis (age 9), and mother-in-law Eleanor Jenkins Vaughan (widow). As we had believed, they went to Springville although we still have no information on Jane after arrival.

Crime and Preachment

This is such a great newspaper find with Mormon Missionaries and possible family both referenced even if not directly connected.

Monmouthshire Merlin & Silurian, 21 June 1856

First the missionaries. There wasn't much information easily to find about Abednego Spencer Williams (1827-1896) born in Blaenau, Monmouthshire, except that he came to Utah in the 1880s, and is buried in Ogden City Cemetery.

There's a bit more for Israel Evans (1828-1896). His story reads like an overview of westward expansion. Born in Ohio, his parents joined the LDS Church and moved to Missouri when he was only five. They relocated to Nauvoo, Illinois after the expulsion from Missouri and then left Nauvoo ahead of the mobs to follow Brigham Young. Israel marched with the Mormon Battalion in the War with Mexico and was present for the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. Instead of becoming a rich Californian, he went to Utah. He served a four and a half year mission to Wales and led a successful handcart company (only two deaths) to the Valley in the turbulent year of 1857.

The year before, 1856, when Elinor, Jane, John and family left for Utah, Israel helped the Welsh Saints who took the train from Abergavenny and provided a moving account in his journal. He helped the Saints load onto the S. Curling at Liverpool. Elinor had gone a few weeks earlier and sailed on the Enoch Train. John and Jane Vaughan Lewis were likely on that train heading out from Abergavenny and who knows which Vaughans left behind were there to bid farewell:

Handcarts & Ellsworth: Success before Disaster

Andrew Galloway's story of Edmund Ellsworth's divine inspiration for the handcart companies was recorded late in his life. It matches surprisingly well with Ellsworth's nearly contemporaneous remarks recorded in the Deseret News of October 8, 1856. There were only some brief few weeks between the success of the first two companies of handcarts and the disasters of Willie Martin. Some of that tragedy was even anticipated by Ellsworth. I encourage the reading of the full account which can also be found on the Mormon Overland Trail Database.

My particular interest was what he said about those in his company. Grandma Elinor was among them:

A Voice from the Dust

Salt Lake City Cemetery from Find a Grave

We talk a lot in the LDS Church about the Book of Mormon being the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 29 about a "voice from the dust." In fact, the Book of Mormon itself makes the claim. I believe it.

Yet there there are other voices related to these principles. One of them came to me today.

St. Francis of Moroni

One of my favorite movies is Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun Sister Moon - the story of St. Francis of Assisi.  My wife and I saw it again the other night. This 1972 film, as a product of its day, kind of portrays St. Francis as the first hippie (music by Donovan). But much better than a drug-addled counter-culturist picking flowers, St. Francis served the poor, the lepers, and of course, the birds of the sky and all creatures of our God and King. My wife isn't as taken by the film as I am. You have to remember my personality profile and the fact that it was 1972 in the midst of my teenage angst.

A good scene to sum it all up, very powerful and somewhat disturbing, is when Francesco's friend Bernardo, recently returned from the Crusades, goes out to find his old friend rebuilding the church of San Diamano:

Hands Across History

H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Presiding Bishop H. David Burton spoke at our Stake Conference today. He reviewed a little of last General Conference giving hints of stories or themes and allowing us to guess who the speaker was. I did pretty well from my practice with Ardis's Conference Wordles. I was only reverently whispering them out to my wife and boys but loud enough so the people in the row ahead of us would know that I remembered conference [My wife told me to edit that out]. (Oh, yeah, and I've been reading the Liahona conference edition em português on the bus.)

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory!

One of the odd things that is hard to get used to living in Utah, although in sort of a good way, is that with Independence Day early in July and Pioneer Day near the end (the 24th to commemorate the entry into to the Valley of the first Mormon Pioneers), there is a three-week, patriotic extravaganza. The two holidays are celebrated essentially the same with parades, fireworks, picnics, patriotic and religious pageants, etc.

To whom shall we go?

Yesterday a good friend of mine announced his declaration that he no longer believed the LDS Church was true. He prepared a short explanation that clearly has a lot more thought and detail behind it. I was impressed by the charitable tone of his presentation. It wasn't about acrimony or attempts to tear others down. It reflected his own spiritual and intellectual struggles with a lot of issues about which I have thought deeply myself. I could go down the list and address each point in one way or another. But I am neither a polemicist nor an apologist. In fact, I don't even like those disciplines. And I have too much respect for my friend to attempt to dissuade him with those tactics.

Zion in Alegrete, not just Pocatello

I'm probably going to get in trouble with a lot of people from southeastern Idaho on this one. But I want to emphasize a point that I believe the Gospel of Christ is about basic principles that require no advanced level of sophistication in religious belief or practice.

When I came back to the States after my LDS mission in Brazil, my parents had moved from Wyoming to Pocatello, Idaho. And as strange as it may seem, that was a real step up. (Now I'm in trouble with all my friends from Wyoming - but you'll have to remember that most of my growing up years were in the Seattle suburbs. And I still have trouble understanding the Intermountain West.)

Neither a NOM nor a Stake President: Breaking into the Bloggernacle II

It's probably not a good idea to address things I don't fully understand. But then, what else are blogs for?

I have been fascinated, mostly from the sidelines, by some recent debates going on in the Bloggernacle about a term, New Order Mormons, or NOM.  This apparently refers to cultural Mormons who don't believe in the literal aspects of certain tenets of the church, most dealing with the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. There were a couple of these posts recently in Times & Seasons, here and here. Also, Joanna Brooks discusses in her blog about Jon Huntsman's odd statement about being LDS. (I prefer to think he was deftly promoting the Constitutional standard as in "no religious test.") And it all reminds me of a life choice I made a long time ago.

Best Mormon History Blog - Keepapitchinin

Well, I haven't found many others to compare. But this one's great! Besides the fact that I had a guest posting published there, I've found the Blog to be highly entertaining. And while the Blog author tends to avoid political issues (heats the blood), she has indicated by some comments posted on other blogs, and links she made to this one, that she shares some "moderate" and even "passionate" views about politics and society. So I link to it on my blog list as it is at least in the moderate middle of the political spectrum if not as slightly left as I am. (Or maybe it is?)

Live-blogging LDS Conference April 3, 2011

This is a lot of fun! It helps me stay awake and pay attention to do a good job knowing my notes are going out to the whole world. I hope I'm being respectful enough to the speakers. This should be no substitute for going to the official transcriptions or the live and recorded broadcasts at lds.org. But it also pleases me that this conference blogging has had more hits than anything else I've ever posted.

Daughter Anne is fixing breakfast burritos. Of course, I have already broken into the 72-hour snacks we eat every April Conference to rotate out the old stuff so when the earthquake strikes we're not eating stale goldfish crackers, etc. But it's nice to have Anne home from BYU for the weekend.