75 Generations Back

Last Thursday at the end of my visit to Dr. Howard (my chiropractor) he pulled me into his office to show me  something he had found on his line of genealogy. I thought..."this must be good if he is going to all of this trouble to show me." Well, it WAS good. I couldn't believe what I saw.  He showed me this screen shot of his 75th generation back. 

I know it is hard to see, but at the left are the names of Saint Joseph Ben Jacob and Mary Bint -  the actual Joseph & Mary, parents of Jesus Christ. Marriage date says 0001 BC in Nazareth, Israel. Mary's birth date says 0018 BC. I had no idea a line could go back this far...at least I had never seen it before. I was pretty amazed.

Here is a zoomed shot that is easier to see.

Dr. Howard told me that his desire to do genealogy just took a giant leap forward. I can see why. Janice told me that our line goes back to Ol' King Cole. Could it be true? I thought he was just a nursery rhyme.

Power Outage and Tender Mercies

One thing I try to do daily is to look for tender mercies from the Lord. They are all around us...we just have to recognize them. Such was the case yesterday in the temple. 

About an hour before our shift was to end, the power went out. This was about 10:30 a.m. Many rooms in the temple do not have any natural light, so that can be a problem when trying to carry on a normal routine in a power outage. Fortunately, a back-up generator kicked in, so most places had some light, although dim. All over the temple there are plug-in flashlights for emergencies like this. I could see that they lit up during the power outage, allowing some light. 

Here is a list of some tender mercies I noted:

1. The film never stopped working in the two sessions that were in progress at the time. They were able to carry on as if nothing happened. The lights and phones wouldn't work, but the film was not affected. What a blessing that was!

2. At our last veil of the shift, I could see that there was some emergency lighting behind the veil. It was interesting to see how the light shone through the fabric. To me, it felt like an invitation to go into the light of the Celestial Room. [However, the Celestial Room was fairly dark...only natural light in there.] 
The Lord is the light of this world. We were in His house. He was lighting the way.

3. A sister who comes every week in a wheelchair finished the session and was in the Celestial Room. Her husband works on our shift. He was concerned that the elevator would not work and she would be stuck there on the 2nd floor. She doesn't have a normal wheelchair. Hers is more like a very heavy reclining gurney. Her spine has dissolved away so she can't walk at all or sit up straight. Just the thought of having to carry her down a flight of stairs seemed impossible even with several men assisting. Fortunately, the one elevator she needed to take was working. It was pretty dark inside it, but it was working. The other elevator was not working. That's a definite tender mercy! 

I had to use that same elevator to get to my locker on the 4th floor to change into my street clothes and to gain access to my purse with my car keys. I have no idea how to get to the 4th floor locker room without taking the elevator. I was so grateful that it was working.

I don't know how long the power was out or if the next shift was able to carry on without any problems. I'm just glad that in spite of the power outage the Lord's work was still able to continue while I was there. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. 

I love this quote by Elder David A. Bednar:

The Girl With No Name

I am currently reading a book entitled "The Girl With No Name." I have found it very interesting. It is about a young teen Jewish girl named Lisa who had to leave Germany, her blind brother, and her parents behind so she could find safety in England as a refugee when Hitler was trying to exterminate all Jews. She was sent to a suburb of London where she was fostered by a couple who couldn't have children. Communication was a problem because of the language barrier, but eventually Lisa caught on. 

One day, Lisa made a poor decision to sneak off to London with a male friend at a time when Germany was routinely bombing the cities. While traveling alone on the bus back to her home, the bombing started again. The bus driver told everyone to leave the bus and get into a shelter. Unfortunately, the danger caught up with her and she didn't make it to a shelter. She was found unconscious next to a man who died trying to protect her. She was taken to a hospital for treatment. Lisa had a broken arm and had received a head injury. Because of her head injury, she couldn't remember who she was, where she lived, or anything about her life previous to this. The doctors told her that eventually her memory should return.

This story makes me think about how hard it would be to one day wake up and not know who you are or where you belong. How do you move forward after something like this? How do you return to those who once loved you if you can't remember them or anything about them?

Interestingly, leaving our pre-earth existence and coming here to Earth has some parallels to this story. We were sent here for a reason. [Lisa was sent to England for a reason.] Once we passed through the veil at birth, our memories of our previous life vanished. [Lisa's previous life vanished after her head injury.] As infants, we are greeted by parents who have taken on the responsibility to teach, love, and protect us. [Lisa was cared for by her new parents - her Foster parents whose job it was to teach, love, and protect her.] Although we can't remember our pre-earth life now, sometimes we can get glimpses of who we are and why we are here. One day, after we pass through the veil back to heaven, our memories will return in full and we will be reunited with our heavenly parents. [So far, Lisa has started to get glimpses or minor memories of her past life. I haven't finished the book yet, but I'm assuming that her full memory will return and she will be reunited with her family.] 

Oh what a glorious day that will be when we are reunited with those we love in Heaven! I'm looking forward to the day that I can be reunited not only with my heavenly parents, but with my earthly parents who passed on several years ago. 

I love the poem by William Wordsworth where he says:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And cometh from afar;

And not in utter nakedness,

From God who is our home:

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

I believe Woodsworth's words are true. We are all trailing clouds of glory and Heaven does lie about us even though the memory of our life in heaven has been temporarily removed from us. 

I strongly feel that after we have endured this life and have done all we can to strive to do and be better each day while lifting and strengthening others along the way, we will be rewarded greatly by a loving father who wants nothing more for us than peace, joy, and eternal life with Him in His kingdom.