Sunday, September 27, 2009

My Heritage


Our Heritage: A Brief History of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

From Chapter 7 page 86:

"For those who joined the Church outside the United States,
this was a time for gathering to Zion, which meant traveling by
boat to America. Elizabeth and Charles Wood sailed in 1860 from
South Africa, where they had labored several years to acquire
money for their travel. Elizabeth kept house for a wealthy man,
and her husband made bricks until they obtained the needed
funds. Elizabeth was carried aboard the ship on a bed 24 hours
after delivering a son and was given the captain’s berth so she
could be more comfortable. She was very ill during the journey,
almost dying twice, but lived to settle in Fillmore, Utah".

This is the story of my great great grandparents! Only they have a name wrong. It's not Elizabeth Wood, but Ann Day Wood. Elizabeth is her sister. Charles and Ann Wood met in London, married June 11, 1848, sailed to South Africa a year later and were among the first converts in 1853 from that part of the world. The second time she was thought to be dead on the ship to America, she was prepared for burial at sea. Her brother Richard stepped up and and said he did not think she was dead. He related a dream which he had before leaving Cape Town, South Africa in which he was the only one who did not get to Utah. The people stepped back while the elders administered to her, after which she began to breath and finally recover. They spent 73 days at sea on the ship "Alacrity" and because they came from Africa, a large crowd gathered at the pier in Boston curious to see colored people. They were disapointed. They arrived at Winter Quarters in the middle of July in 1860 and six months after making the trip from Africa they made it to Salt Lake City. True to the dream of Richard Day, all except him arrived in Utah. My great Grandma was born in zion in 1871, who is the mother of my grandfather, my mom's dad.

I'm proud of my pioneer heritage.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Grace

"You've likely been asked if you've been

SAVED by grace.

But, has anyone ever asked you if you've been

CHANGED by grace?"


Brad Wilcox

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Traveling Family!


At Ensign Ranch while floating the Yakima River, (class 1.5) while it was raining, I asked my boat people about their seminary experiences as I started teaching just days latter. We had been singing the theme songs to TV shows in the 70's and 80's. I started to sing about The Book of Mormon, making it up as I went. While I didn't remember the original words out there, I started to create verses on Friday while driving around dogs. Here's what I came up with.
This is sung to the theme of The Adams Family.


There’s Lehi and Sariah,
And Laman and Lemeul
And Sam and Nephi,
The traveling family

Lehi had a vision
And so he left the city
And all his gold and riches
And lived inside a tent.

But they forgot the plates
So all the boys went back
But Laban wouldn’t share
So Nephi cut his head off.

Sariah wanted grandkids
So all the boys went back
To get the cute girl
And never did complain

One day outside the tent
While they were in the desert
Lehi found a ball
Of curious workmanship.


If worked if they were righteous
And stopped when they were bad.
The ball was like a compass
And our 4 standard works

Laman and Lemuel were whiners
But Sam and Nephi were good
They kept the commandments
And did just what they should.

They walked around for 8 years
Until they saw the ocean
Then Nephi built a big ship
To get to the Promised Land

The Promised Land was pretty
But Lehi died soon after
So Nephi became the leader
Of all the cool good kids.


Laman and Lemuel were wicked
They tried to kill Nephi
Cause he was their younger brother
And ruled over them.

Their plan was unsuccessful
Cause Jesus preserves his people
By warning them of danger
If they follow him.


Written by Rebecca L. Rose
Sept 2009