The Grandma Jar

Yesterday I had an awesome experience meeting with a group of Sister leadership to hear Elder Renlund speak. According to Shaun Nelson, our stake president, the first presidency found that Elder Renlund had a free Saturday (Heaven forbid he take a day off) and so they contacted our area seventy Elder Nemro to see where Elder Renlund could do the most good in our area. After counseling with local stake presidents they decided to invite all the sisters holding leadership callings to attend a meeting in the afternoon. And to have Elder Renlund speak to the region youth in the evening. Sharlene Harsh, our Stake Relief Society President saved us seats on the 3rd row. My favorite quote of the day from Elder Renlund is “the church is an Atonement delivery system.” I’ve pondered on that idea ever since. Awesome. The second thing he told us, that I hope I remember the rest of my life, is that the only emotion that he has never felt when associating with the Prophet and the Council of the...

Farm hand—Picker I started my work history as a farm hand. I picked cherries in Orem and raspberries for our neighbor Pete Christiansen. Raspberries are delicate and fall apart easily; especially when they’re warm so we picked the berries at 6:00 am. I don’t remember minding the berry picking but I hated the early hours. Pete Christiansen was a small lady from the Philippines. She had a green thumb and could grow anything. She watered her berries with irrigation water and once chased a water poacher with a large Philippine machete! Westwood Mink Ranch—Fleshing machine loader When I was growing up in Highland, Utah mink ranching  was a flourishing industry. Mink ranchers raised mink for their fur; mink coats were a coveted luxury purchased and worn by the world’s elite. Political correctness and animal rights advocates diminished mink’s popularity in the US in the 1980s but there is still a healthy mink fur market in China and Russia. Mink ranching is a year-round opera...

I was born April 18, 1954 on Easter morning. What was the world like the year I was born? Government: Dwight Eisenhower was president. Richard Nixon was Vice President.  The Supreme Court rules in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka to end segregation in public schools. Transportation: General Motors produces its 50 millionth car . Eisenhower proposes an interstate highway (freeway) system. Medicine: Harvard doctors perform the first kidney transplant operation. Life expectancy was 68.2 years. Sports: Sports Illustrated published its first issue. The Giants win the World Series. Religion:   David O. McKay was the prophet. His councilors were Stephen L. Richards and J. Rueben Clark. There were 1, 301, 240 members of the church; 219 stakes, 1,993 wards; 42 missions, 4,644 missionaries; 8 temples; 23 Book of Mormon translations.  The Pledge of Allegiance was modified; the line One Nation, Indivisible" beco...

What do you consider your greatest academic achievement? I thought long and hard about this question. I love academics. I earned an Associates degree from Salt Lake Community College in 2000. Steve and I graduated together and received our diplomas from Elder Dallin H Oaks. Elder Oaks was the keynote speaker at graduation but he didn't hand out the diplomas. Part way through the awards he stood up, delivered about 10 diplomas and then sat back down. I'm not sure why we were so luck. It may have been because Steve was the President of the college institute but never-the-less, it was a thrill. I graduated with Samantha from BYU in 2002 with a Bachelor's of English (Sam's degree was in History so she made me walk with the History department). In 2005 I graduate from BYU with a Master's Degree in English. I'm very proud of this accomplishment but the academic accomplishment I'm most proud of is passing math 105. My math love/hate re...

Every year I challenge myself by making New Year's resolutions --and every year I . . . But it's January 8, 2017, this year I resolve to be a better grandmother. I have lots of plans and one of those plans is to post every week to the grandma jar! Last week I was rifling through some family history material and found a pink notebook. I opened it to find a treasure beyond measure. Several years ago Mariann's girls gave Grandma Black (Eyvonne) a grandma jar. A grandma jar is a bottle filled with questions about one's life. In this notebook I found 66 pages of gold; 66 pages of mom's answers to these questions. She addressed the notebook to Marin, McKaida, and Marjorie but we are all blessed by her answers. As I typed up her answers it was as if God had given me a little more time with her--I felt her presence as I typed her words. I can't describe how much this notebook meant to me and so, once again, I'm renewing my effort to leave that type of legacy for...