Feb 9, 2012

Leesa's wedding and flash bulbs

My photographing weddings began when I was 18 years old. Leesa and Tim were married in June of 1972 just prior to my going on my mission to Texas. (Stan and Nadine were married in July of that same year and Lynn and Julie in November after I was in Texas of that same year. It was a big year for mom and dad.)

Anyway I was asked to take some pictures for Leesa at her reception. I had my old Konica camera, which at the time really wasn’t old because I had only had it for a year. I had a flash unit for it that was one that used flash bulbs. They could be used once and then had to be discarded. I only had a certain number of them so I didn’t take very many pictures. I always was disappointed that only a couple of them turned out from what I could remember, it must have been a bad experience because I forgot a lot about that night. Anyway Leesa tells me now that there were a lot of them that were good. I don’t remember if I took any at the temple that day but I must have in order for her to say that since I only remember two of them that turned out OK from the reception. I really didn’t have the lighting equipment that was needed for that kind of a job.

Feb 8, 2012 Added from the Poulson Pigeon blog

I am adding this to my blog from the Poulson Pigeon blog so that it can be recorded with my history. It is the story of one of my ancestors who was married to Briant Stringham, one of the Prophet Brigham Young's good friends and a prominent man in the history of Utah and the pioneers.

Harriet Maria Ashby Stringham, (my great great grandmother on my Father's side of my family.)

Harriet Maria Ashby was born on April 8, 1834. She is the daughter of Nathaniel Ashby and Susan Hammond Ashby.

Harriet was born in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts. Her family was converted to the church by Erastus Snow and Parley P Pratt, and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1843.

The family built a home in Navuoo (which is now owned by the church and is called the Ashby-Snow home). It was two blocks north and one block east of the Mansion House where the Prophet lived. In her personal journal she wrote about "often seeing the Prophet riding by on a fine black horse, sitting very erect and looking gentlemanly in a tall beaver hat and circular cape. Once he came to my home and my father loaned him twenty-five dollars, which he returned later."

One of the most poignant stories of the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith is in her personal journal. She wrote:
"Previous to our leaving Nauvoo (they fled when the mob persecution became to strong and said they climbed on a fence on the other side of the river and could see the temple lit up and hear the boom of cannons) I remember the sorrow felt and shown by the people for the martyrdom of the Prophet and his brother, Hyrum. The Prophet had been taken to Carthage, and mother sat through the night at her bedroom window filled with terror for the safety of the people, now their leader was away. So slow are we to comprehend the dealings of the Lord. His work, which is never more to leave the earth, until His Son appears again. No schemes will ever be deep enough or strong enough to prevail against the word of God. (What a beautiful testimony) The dismal howling of dogs with the uncertainty and fear prevailing, made the night most memorable.
In the morning mother came upstairs to our bed saying word had been received of the death of the prophet and his brother. It has always remained in my memory the unusual brightness of the sunshine on this morning.
When the bodies of the prophet and his brother lay in the Mansion House, Mother took us to see them. They were lying on a bench side by side, dressed as in life, the blood dripping from their wounds."

Her father died three days after leaving Nauvoo on the plains of Iowa. The family spent the winter of 1847-48 in Winter Quarters. Her mother continued on with eleven children and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September of 1848. She died in 1851 after living in the Valley for only 3 years. She left her family in the trust of Briant Stringham who was married to Harriet's sister.

Harriet married Briant Stringham on April 20, 1852 when she was barely 18 years old. They had eight children. Briant died in August 1871 when she was pregnant with their eighth child.
Harriet's daughter, Elmeda Stringham Johnson is the mother of  Rozilla Johnson Poulson "Nana" my grandmother and mother of my father, Kermit Poulson.

Feb 8, 2012

LD Singers

When Lynn and Leesa were at Snow College they sang in the institute choir called the LD Singers. The following year when I attended I  also tried out for the choir and made it in to sing with them. It was a lot of fun and we traveled all over the upper part of the state singing at different wards especially ones where an LD Singer was one of the ward members. We went to Temple Square and watched one of the Sunday morning session of the choir broadcast. We had some really fun trips. I was also in the group after my mission and they came to my wedding and sang during the reception. I have a lot of good friends from those two years.

We had a theme song “Oh That I Were An Angel” that I still love to this day even though it is seldom sang anymore. I have heard of a few people that have heard it and some that have even sang it but there are really very few.

We had several activities as well as a group and for one of our socials we went on a Sunday morning to the Manti Temple and had a Testimony meeting up on the East side of the temple. It was a very special experience.

Another time we went sledding down Ephraim canyon at midnight. That was the night that as I was going out of the mountain part and onto the flats that a bunch of deer crossed the road at  the same time and a couple of them even jumped over me. I was glad that they could see me because I could barely see them in the darkness of the early morning without the aid of any moonlight. It was a pretty fun experience. 

Feb 6, 2012

Junior Sunday School

When I was young and up until Ben and Jeff were young we used to have two sections of church each week. We would start at around 10 am and have Priesthood Meeting and then sunday school and junior sunday school. It went, if I remember correctly, until about noon and then we would go home until 7 pm when we would return for Sacrament Meeting that went until about 8:30 pm. MIA was usually Tuesday nights for the teenagers at 7 pm and went until around 9 pm. Then on Wednesday nights we had primary right after school around 4 pm  and Relief Society at 7 pm for the women. Our quarterly Stake Priesthood meeting were held around 7 am on Sundays when we had them. 

We had a lot more responsibility as young priesthood bearers because we passed the sacrament in adult sunday school and junior sunday school and then again that night in sacrament meeting. So as Teachers we prepared the sacrament twice and as priest blessed it twice, once in one of the sunday school sections and then in sacrament meeting. Junior Sunday School was a lot like Primary now in that we sang songs and had lessons and did the things that the children do now. It seemed though that back then we sang in Stake conference as Primary children at least once every other year if not more often. I really didn't like doing that when I got to be 11 years old because I was just to old for that kind of thing and singing those silly songs. Boy what I didn't understand back then. Passing and blessing the sacrament was fun in the Junior Sunday School however because we were so big, even though we just left there the month before or so when we were deacons. As priest we really towered over the primary children and we were only in there long enough to bless the sacrament and then we were excused to go to our regular classes.

I remember that when I went into the mission field that I served in one area where we traveled 60 miles one way to church, it was from Stephenville to Cleburne. Because of the distance the church allowed them to have Primary meeting and Sunday School at the same time and Priesthood Meeting and Relief Society also during the second hour of Primary and then everyone went in for Sacrament Meeting and so they only served the sacrament once during the last meeting.  We would then at then end of that three hours travel back to Stephenville and have a fireside of some sort that night. I really enjoyed that schedule even though it meant leaving for church sunday mornings at 7:30 AM. They would then still hold MIA during the week in Stephenville at one of the members homes.

It was the only time I had ever been on a consolidated schedule like that but it worked really quite well.

So when the church moved to the consolidated schedule a few years after we were married it was really fun to have it that way again. There was one thing however that I noticed after the church made the move that a lot of members did not observe the sabbath day quite the same. It became to easy to come home and relax and watch sports and do other activities that are not totally keeping in observance of the sabbath day. We used to stay pretty much in our church clothes on Sundays since we had to get dressed again and go back just a few hours later. I do remember however on the farm that we changed a lot of times since we still had to go milk cows and do the chores and that we didn't do in our suits. 

Jan 29, 2012

1st Ward Handcart Trek: Dairy Fork

While our children were in their teenage years we had the opportunity to go on three treks. Each of them had their own special challenges and experiences.

The first one we were involved with was one where our ward rented handcarts and took them up to Dairy Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon. Jeff and Linda Baird were chosen to be the youth leaders on the trek and had some real challenges.

I don’t remember how many families we had or carts but there were probably around 8 or so. The first day we were to trek to a site at the bottom of the hill and camp there. As we were traveling we were also going to only eat what food the pioneers would have most likely eaten. Our first trial was one family where the parents had taken watermelon and hid it in a stream so that when they got real tired and rested they could have a cold piece of watermelon to refresh them. It was not good when they were the only family eating watermelon at that stop. We also trekked a lot faster than we had thought possible so we actually decided to go to the top of the hill to a large meadow where we had planned to stop the second day and stayed there that night. It was an interesting place because the meadow was filled with wild onions that would start to let off scent when walked upon. We actually ended up putting onions in our stew that night for supper.

We had a great night and an evening fireside that worked out really well. Jeff and some of the others whom had had Timberline Training used their expertise to put on quite a fun show.

The next morning we got up and it looked like it was going to rain so we quickly had breakfast and then loaded the carts. One family loaded their cart from the back not watching how they placed the weight and it suddenly tipped backwards spilling all their equipment on the now wet ground since it had started to rain.

After everyone was packed up we started on over the ridge and down the other side. It was now raining pretty good and as we started down the road on the other side of the hill it was getting really muddy. Marie even slipped once and almost went under one of the wheels. We decided to stop the carts and see how much further we would have to go to get to some level ground where we could set up camp to wait out the rain. Then we had the second major trial of the trek. One of the families decided they were going to turn around and not wait for the three or four of us whom had gone down to check out the lay of the land. They decided to start pushing their cart back up the hill and go down to the other side. Well, carts are meant to be pulled, not pushed, and consequently one wheel came off. This caused some major stress as everyone was getting soaked and since they wouldn’t wait for the decision it was placing major stress on the leaders and especially the youth leaders. Jeff at that point started to suffer from the stress and became somewhat ill. We finally had to put him into a truck and take him back. We had decided, due to the actions of the one family, to go back down the hill to where we had planned at first to stay the first night. There we would set up the games and everything that we had planned and do them there.

 We got all of the carts turned around and started back up the hill as the rain stopped and it became a beautiful day. The roads were still muddy but dried out fairly fast. We went back to the place where we were going to camp and set up our tents. It would be interesting to note at this point that the mishaps to the carts were all in just one family, the family that had put watermelon in the creek and decided they were not going to wait for their leaders decisions in the rain.

That night for our campfire we had a lesson (talk) from Sister Karen Long who gave experiences from the actual handcart treks showing where there were also families on them that would not follow the council of the leaders and caused a lot of hardships to some of those treks as well. Jeff got better after we had gotten him warmed up with the heater in the truck and was able to then again lead the trek. He didn’t really want to very bad but did it and did it well.

It was at that camp where two boys from our family decided to hike out to the café at sheep creek, across from where we started to trek up Dairy Fork, since it was only about three miles away. There they had a hamburger and then came back to brag about it. It caused some major problems as well. We also found out that they were taking food from other families as well since they were so hungry.

Well things got calmed down and we played a number of games and then after the campfire program went to bed. We arose the next morning and decided to do a service project for the area before we went back home. We decided to clean up some campfire pits that had broken beer bottles and trash in the campfire pits. Once again we got to see the difference in people as it became apparent that some of the boys were doing as little as they possibly could. We finally assigned them to areas where they were the only ones and they had to have it cleaned up before we could leave. We ended up actually cleaning up the trash along the road as we trekked back to Sheep Creek where we loaded the carts for transporting back to town. We met back at the church and had a real good meal made by the mothers of the youth and it all ended on a great note with a lot of valuable insights to people personalities and how the Lord will sometimes step in and teach them small but effective lessons.

Jan. 28, 2012

Kick the can / No Bears (Yesteryears Night Games of today)

When I was young and lived on the farm, we were quite a ways from town so there was very little light to give illumination to the yard. Well that made it very dark outside especially if there were no full moon. During the summer we liked to play outside games. Our yard had a lot of great places to hide and it was really a lot of fun to play the Hide and Go Seek types of games. The two I remember best were “No Bears Are Out Tonight” and “Kick the Can”. I used to love to go around the backside of the house so that I could come in from a different vantage point than what might be expected, plus it took a lot longer to go around so everyone else would already be distracting the one who was it. Mother loved trees and bushes so the yard was filled with great places to hide behind. We even had a hedge that could be walked around and gain closer proximity to the safe point. It was always fun and to this day I do not know why we didn’t get hurt a lot of times where it was so dark and there were ditches for watering the lawn and plenty of other obstacles upon which to trip. It was even more strange since we played it many times with friends who didn’t know where those obstacles were located. However I do not ever remember a single incident where someone was hurt, but that could be due to selective memory I suppose.

Jan. 27, 2012 Portrait of Christ

In my previous post I mentioned that mom and I had just finished reading a book called "Heaven is for Real". In it it mentioned a girl that had seen Christ and 4 years later painted a picture of how she remembered Him. This is the image that she had painted.

Jan. 27, 2012

Jesus Shoots Down Power

This past week Marie and I have been reading a book called "Heaven is For Real". It is the story of Colton Burpo who during an extremely severe illness was in the operating room and went to Heaven for 3 minutes. He was three and a half years old and a few weeks to two years after he recovered he continued to tell his parents about Heaven. It is a very special book about a very special child or a child just like all other children in the eyes of Jesus. One of the chapters talks about how he saw Jesus shoot down power from Heaven upon his father who is a minister in the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska. He told his father that while he would be giving his sermons he could see Jesus shoot down power upon his dad to help him preach his sermon that day. I find this all very interesting and wonder what his dad would do if asked to listen to the missionary discussions. Anyway it is a very special look at Heaven from the eyes of a child who had been there. 

Well the reason for this post is that I like the way he explained help from Heaven while we are teaching. I was asked to teach the High Priests Group last week and I was to use the talk by Elder Christofferson on Repentance. I spent Saturday making some models from match sticks that I could use to represent the five parts of repentance that he choose to expound on in his talk. While preparing it I thought about how to present the materials just as I always do and wasn't coming up with much other than the little match stick representations to show a burning of bridges talked about in the third point. Well as I gave the lesson my mind was taken to Ammon, Lamoni, and Lamoni's father's story and there were several parts of that story that fit perfectly into illustrating those 5 points of repentance including the burning of all the bridges in every direction as you repent so that you can't go back and repeat sins committed. Well when the Lamanites buried their swords and weapons and kneeled before the attack from the other Lamanites they had definitely burned their bridges. As I thought about the lesson later I realized that in all my preparations for the lesson that story had not crossed my mind at all yet like a Shot of Power from Jesus it came when I needed it most. 

Jan. 26, 2012 Happy Birthday Loren!!

Jeffrey and Jonathan Nackos

Jeff Nackos had been on my Timberline staff one year and did a really good job. I had asked him again a second year and he wanted to do it since we had recruited his younger brother John to go to Tline that year as a candidate. We started our staff development meetings in Jan and as time went on Jeff became more and more involved in some other things and wasn’t sure he should continue with our staff. He decided to stay however for his brothers sake so that he would be there with his brother, We had actually had John signed up the year before but then he couldn’t go at the last moment.  Well this year as we got closer to the course we filled up rather late and I knew I needed all of the youth staff that I had which for several months had really been in question. I had told Jeff if we didn’t fill up that he could be on the list to drop out first if he still needed. Well just a month or so before the course date John had been on an overnight camp up Hobble Creek. He and a friend decided that they needed something from town so they got in the car and took off a little too fast for that canyon. As they came around one corner the driver lost control and rolled the car. John had his seat belt on and the window open but somehow his head was caught between the road and the rolling vehicle. He was killed instantly if I remember correctly. I went to his funeral with several of the staff members and remember a story one of the speakers gave about John. When John was just 5 years old he had been sick and in the hospital. The speaker was his Bishop at the time and was called to the hospital to give him a blessing. He recalls that he was blessed to be able to live and he did pull through from a point where he was at deaths door. The Bishop then recalled that as he left the hospital that he had a very distinct impression that John was only going to be here for a short time and that he would be taken at a later date. John was a very loving and friendly kid and had lots of close friends as he grew older. Then at age 14 he was taken and the Bishop was now no longer his Bishop but told his parents about his experience at the hospital which he had never shared before with anyone. He also felt though very concerned about the situation and was granted a dream where he saw John walking down a green pasture between two older men dressed in white. He recalls seeing John turn toward him with a huge smile and then letting him know that he was doing just great and for his parents not to worry about him. Jeff was hit very hard with this accident however and came to me and told me that he wanted to be off of the staff. I then told him we were completely full and I really needed him and promised that if he would come he would do a lot better. Well he did come and during the week there were several times when it was very obvious that he was struggling with John’s death still very hard. Each time it happened however the rest of the youth staff would get around him and help him. Toward the end of the week he told us how he was so glad he had come because they had helped him through a very difficult time and he was very thankful for their friendship.