A Surprise Package

16 Sep 2017

I received a surprise box of genealogical goodies this week! Someone found me on ancestry.com and sent me some of the belongings of George Akridge, my 2nd cousin, 1x removed. He was born in 1906, but didn’t marry until he was in his late 50s and had no children. (His wife’s family kept all these things and instead of just getting rid of them, the family wanted a relative to have them.) The couple pictured on the bottom, right, were George’s great-grandparents on his grandmother’s side (they were born in the mid 1800s.) The baby gown is more than 100 years old and was worn by George Akridge as an infant. The workmanship in it is beautiful!

Of course, as often happens, there are lots of unidentified photos. (sigh) Some are tintypes. If only we had names for those faces!

In our Monday morning, mission-wide devotional, Elder and Sister Crowl, who are zone leaders in World-Wide Data Security, talked some about what their zone does. They are responsible for the accuracy and the security of information on familysearch.org. It was really interesting – and, of course, they get some weird requests from time to time (some are pretty funny!) as well as taking care of all the legitimate queries that come their way.

President Fenn told us about his mother’s decline as a victim of Alzheimer’s in her later years. The family tried as best they could to care for her themselves. (His parents had always been faithful, active members of the church; had been temple workers; and, had served missions – and, it was difficult to lose his mother to this disease long before she actually died.) He said that eventually she no longer recognized his father and was sometimes alarmed and frightened to see him in her home. Once, about a year before she died, his father called him and said he’d locked himself in the bathroom because his mother had come after him with a knife. (Because Pres. Fenn didn’t live nearby, he had to call the St. George police for help – and tell them “Please don’t shoot my mother.”) In spite of events like this, he spoke of sitting by her bedside in the hospital, holding her hand in her final days – and, after she passed, catching a glimpse of the family and friends waiting on the other side of the veil to greet her.

The work we are doing in this mission is a tremendous blessing for both the living and the dead, and we’re grateful to be a part of it!

Interestingly, I had an opportunity Monday evening to attend a special lecture at the University of Utah called Music and the Mind – about the research being done regarding the impact music has on the mind, and how the use of music can improve evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of various cognitive disorders (like Alzheimer’s). They have learned a lot in recent years.

Thursday night we got to see a live, two-woman (and a band) musical-theater performance, about the life of Patsy Cline, at a community college nearby. It was an excellent performance and we enjoyed hearing the many tunes that she made famous. The woman who played Patsy Cline was made to play that part!

Our mission is having a special event next week to commemorate the anniversary of the angel, Moroni, appearing to Joseph Smith, and, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We’re looking forward to that!