Grateful
This afternoon, I don't feel the urgency to write as a journal but rather the impressions of gratitude which are filling my heart. It is our son, Adam's, birthday and I have been thinking about his birth, life and what he has brought in to this world. It's actually been drawn out because yesterday, here in Australia, was the 28th, which is his birthday, but the dateline is different in the states so they are celebrating at this moment. I've teased several people that I can tell them what their day is going to be like because we've already lived it. And yes, I do recall reporting on this odd fact before.
I'm grateful for all of our sons. I'm grateful for my sweet wife and that she agreed to be my eternal companion way back in 1975. I'm grateful that I was willing to listen to the spirit when it whispered that she was the one. We'd only known each other for less than a month when I proposed. It must've not been just my good looks and abundance of wealth that captured her attention. Okay, maybe it was.
Evelyn was born and raised in Utah Valley and we both were on the same page as to our marriage location, the Salt Lake City Temple. My parents had been married there in 1947 and it was an easy decision. I had become acquainted with Elder Paul H. Dunn a few years before, while attending Ricks College. For some reason he had shown an interest in me at that time and while I was serving a mission in Texas. He volunteered to officiate at our wedding and the date was scheduled, October 9, 1975 at 6:00 AM. Yes, you read that correctly. It was a Thursday and that was the day that the general authorities gathered in the Salt Lake Temple. Because their meetings were scheduled to begin at 7:00 AM we would have to make our appointment for that early hour. Through all of the years that have followed, I've never had too much sympathy when young brides have complained about the lack of time to get ready on their wedding day. Evelyn had to be prepared when I drove to her home to pick her up at 4:45 in the morning. Alright, enough of this reminiscing and I have already recorded those moments in other records.
Back to gratitude. This evening we will be meeting with some of the YSA and missionaries to sing at the Goodwin Centre. When I stand off to the side, where I can see everyone, it is a beautiful feeling. Evelyn playing the piano while some sweet young people singing to older folks, many that are unable to do anything more than nod along. I am filled with such feelings of sweetness because of the knowledge that I have regarding a great plan of happiness. Thankful that I will see these people again, and with a health and beauty that mortality has taken away. There will be a resurrection and I am confident that many, if not all, will want to know the full message that has been alluded to in those poetic hymns. Then we will sing, and shout, together. Then I can tell the fellow I met this morning, who at 90 years of age, said he didn't have any belief in Christ, that there really is a plan in this moment. There really was something, and somewhere, before we were born, that this world didn't just come into being through some accidental gathering of matter. That our spirits which inhabit our mortal frames will not cease to be when our hearts are stopped. That there is a place of peace and rest.
I'm also grateful that it is nearly 34 degrees Celsius outside and there is zero probability that I will slip and fall on the ice. There is also no need to arise early to shovel off the deck, plow out the upper driveway and take the snow blower down the hill. Although I do wish that I could clear off LaVor and Barbara's driveway.
I'm grateful for all of our sons. I'm grateful for my sweet wife and that she agreed to be my eternal companion way back in 1975. I'm grateful that I was willing to listen to the spirit when it whispered that she was the one. We'd only known each other for less than a month when I proposed. It must've not been just my good looks and abundance of wealth that captured her attention. Okay, maybe it was.
Evelyn was born and raised in Utah Valley and we both were on the same page as to our marriage location, the Salt Lake City Temple. My parents had been married there in 1947 and it was an easy decision. I had become acquainted with Elder Paul H. Dunn a few years before, while attending Ricks College. For some reason he had shown an interest in me at that time and while I was serving a mission in Texas. He volunteered to officiate at our wedding and the date was scheduled, October 9, 1975 at 6:00 AM. Yes, you read that correctly. It was a Thursday and that was the day that the general authorities gathered in the Salt Lake Temple. Because their meetings were scheduled to begin at 7:00 AM we would have to make our appointment for that early hour. Through all of the years that have followed, I've never had too much sympathy when young brides have complained about the lack of time to get ready on their wedding day. Evelyn had to be prepared when I drove to her home to pick her up at 4:45 in the morning. Alright, enough of this reminiscing and I have already recorded those moments in other records.
Back to gratitude. This evening we will be meeting with some of the YSA and missionaries to sing at the Goodwin Centre. When I stand off to the side, where I can see everyone, it is a beautiful feeling. Evelyn playing the piano while some sweet young people singing to older folks, many that are unable to do anything more than nod along. I am filled with such feelings of sweetness because of the knowledge that I have regarding a great plan of happiness. Thankful that I will see these people again, and with a health and beauty that mortality has taken away. There will be a resurrection and I am confident that many, if not all, will want to know the full message that has been alluded to in those poetic hymns. Then we will sing, and shout, together. Then I can tell the fellow I met this morning, who at 90 years of age, said he didn't have any belief in Christ, that there really is a plan in this moment. There really was something, and somewhere, before we were born, that this world didn't just come into being through some accidental gathering of matter. That our spirits which inhabit our mortal frames will not cease to be when our hearts are stopped. That there is a place of peace and rest.
I'm also grateful that it is nearly 34 degrees Celsius outside and there is zero probability that I will slip and fall on the ice. There is also no need to arise early to shovel off the deck, plow out the upper driveway and take the snow blower down the hill. Although I do wish that I could clear off LaVor and Barbara's driveway.
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