Today I spoke in Church. I was assigned 15 minutes on Knowledge, but the third speaker didn't show up, so I spoke until I had used up all of my prepared material, and then spoke for a little bit more, bore an extensive testimony, and clocked out at 25 minutes. I think it was the best talk I've ever given, and received many compliments. I was referenced in Relief Society, and even made it into someone's quote book! I feel good about the experience, and am grateful I had over prepared.
On Saturday, I had the opportunity to return a woman's stolen purse to her. I had found it on the side of the road cycling home from my school. She was very grateful, as it had her license, social security card, and a bunch of prescription drugs.
On a heavier note, I've become aware of a blogger from the Sacramento area, who was excommunicated from the LDS church for acting on his homosexual desires. As I understand it, he was in a relationship with a male, and his membership was removed, canceled, revoked, whatever phrase I'm supposed to use. He posted on his blog how depressed he was, and his plans for committing suicide.
It was pointed out by The Weed in This post. MoHoFoSho's blog post is located here. No one has heard from him, or even knows if he's alive.
I pray for this boy.
I wrote this a few weeks ago, well aware that there would be a week where I wouldn't be able to write a full post. So, just to give you something to read... here it is.
Discovering Lucy Hannah
We urge our young people to begin today to write and keep records of all the important things in their own lives and also the lives of their antecedents in the event that their parents should fail to record all the important incidents in their own lives. Your own private journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you. Do not suppose life changes so much that your experiences will not be interesting to your posterity.
We know we're supposed to write in journals. We've had countless lessons (at least, those of us who are mormon, and I think all three of my readers are) on why it's important to keep a record. For our posterity, for ourselves, so the angels above us silent notes taking have a book to be taking notes on.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, because I discovered
Lucy Hannah White Flake.
Storytime!
The second-to-last time I went to Institute in Auburn, I had a real,
actual conversation with my teacher. The next morning, I went to
Summer Seminary (I'm pro at the double life) and we started talking
again. I (or Max. Not sure, but should probably give him some
credit...) anyway, someone told him we were going on a trip. He asked to where we were vacationing, where in
Arizona, what family are you from...really? Me too!
We have the same third great grandfather. (I think) Maybe someone who
knows his email address can forward this to him, and he can come and
correct it? Anyway, we got really excited, and he spent the first 10
minutes of class teaching us about William Jordan Flake.
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| William Jordan Flake 1839-1932 Photo Credit here. |
He's kind of amazing. He gave freely of his resources to people who
needed it, and then burned the books that kept a record of the things people owed him. He did what he was called to do
by the church, he went where he was needed, and when he was sent to
prison for his belief, he turned the miserable place upside down,
starting with getting rid of the rancid meat they were being fed and
improved the work, and counseled the other inmates.
Yes, William is a great man. But his wife, Lucy...
It was her autobiography that Brother Bushman lent me.
The two hundred pages of this wonderful record are filled with the
stories of her life, of the lives of her husband and children. My
heritage is found in these papers.
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| Lucy Hannah White Flake (1849-1900) Photo Credit here |
She faced her trials, of which there were many, with a faith,
dignity, and perseverance that I hope to somehow ingrain in my
character, and someday teach my children.
She thought for herself, and formed her own opinions, writing “I don't
believe in equal rights. I would like the franchise, but I am
perfectly willing to let the men kill the snakes, build the bridges,
smooth down the high places, and hold the offices.”
Not that she idled her time. Quite the opposite. “Our nearest store
was in Salt Lake City, two hundred and twenty miles away. We had to
make what we could, such as lye, soap, starch, candles, thread,
yarn, cloth, clothes, socks, stockings, gloves, and in many
instances, our shoes. I had learned to spin when a little girl...we
wove all the cloth we wore, our blankets, rugs, etc. We wore our
clothes as long as we could, then the best parts were taken to make
clothes for smaller children, and the scraps for a quilt. When they
were too near gone for any of these they were torn into strips, the
ends sewed together, and woven into rugs.”
My 'feminist' friends may say that she wasted her life taking care of
her family, but that, to me, is not waste. Righteously raising a
family is the best that anyone can ever do in this life.
What most impressed me is her response to her husband when he asked “Lucy, dear, could you share your husband with another woman?”
What most impressed me is her response to her husband when he asked “Lucy, dear, could you share your husband with another woman?”
Now, I'm certainly not going to profess to understand the law of
polygamy, but I will promise to you that I believe Lucy, William, and
their eventual sister wife received personal revelation that they
followed as best as they could.
She struggled with that. Of course she did. She wrote “I flung my
arms around his neck, and held him, as though I would never let him
go. My eyes were brimming with tears. Of course I was not willing. He
was mine. Mine by all the laws of man and God...Why should I let
someone else come between us?”
But something changed. After days of praying, and struggling with
God, she came to a decision. When William returned from a three day
trip, she took him out for a walk.
“Will,” She asked “Who is the young lady we are going to
marry?”
“We?” He gasped.
“Yes, we. We were made one a long time ago, you and I, who are we
going to marry?”
She recorded later “I was his first and for ten years his only
love. If in that time I had not found a place in his heart and life
that no other could fill – then I had failed.”
She didn't fail. “On October 9, 1868, William and Prudence were
married by the same power that had sealed us for time and eternity.”
Lucy often cared for Prudence's children their mother was ill. They
worked together, they raised a family.
Now, I don't know my future, but I doubt I'll be called to make the
same sacrifices Lucy ever had to make.
It was through her writing that I learned to love my ancestors. Her
son, Charles Love Flake, was my 2nd grandfather (I should
check this, but new.familysearch.org is down) and he is as impressive
as his parents. I felt a real pain when his death was written of.
When I think of the benefits of journal writing, I think of this
example. A woman, righteously striving to care for her family,
keeping a journal that in 200 hundred years would help her great,
great, great granddaughter overcome some certain struggles.
But I couldn't write anything so inspiring. I don't do anything worth
writing down. I spend too much time thinking about living that I
forget to actually live, let alone keep a record of my life.
Or at least, I thought that, until I read this, another snippet from the article I hope you take the time to read fully here.
“No one is commonplace, and I doubt if you can ever read a biography from which you cannot learn something from the difficulties overcome and the struggles made to succeed. These are the measuring rods for the progress of humanity.”
This is a blog that will keep me in touch with the people I left
behind. It is a platform from which I can promote my volunteering, my
cycling, and my religion. It is practice for the writing that I will
do someday as I carefully record my autobiography. It might inspire
some. It might make some think less of me. It might help some.
It will help me.
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| Photo Credit here |
Music: Marvin Goldstein's Favorites From the Children's Songbook and Jenny Phillips' Arise and Shine Forth: Songs for Youth 2012
Worry: I'll get lost again on my bike when I go out tomorrow.
Amy Barton, girl who writes essays on Family History for fun/because she can't sleep.
Let me know in a comment any tips you have for keeping a journal, or any stories you have of reading someone's journal.
Also, I'm so using this as tonight's gospel study.
Also, I'm so using this as tonight's gospel study.
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