Visiting Dad

I visited my dad on the way home from work yesterday. He fell a while back and had his hip replaced and has been in a special care facility since then. After wondering if he was going to even survive the ordeal (he just turned 87), he seems to be doing fairly well, although I'm not sure how mobile he will be. It has been very difficult for him to be away from his wife for this amount of time. The end of this year they will have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and I can't recall them being away from each other for more than a day. In spite of all that, he seems to be doing fairly well.

Dad's broken hip is made much more difficult by his dementia. Seven or eight years ago he started suffering from memory loss. About five years ago, mom started suffering from the same illness. It is now to the point that they can remember me and my siblings, but not much detail about our families. Or much of anything else. Since dad has been at Evergreen, Roger has stopped in nearly every day before work and I have stopped in nearly every day after work. Unfortunately, dad can't remember who has visited him during the day, so others may be visiting him, but he can't pass that information along to us. I have enjoyed my visits with dad. He knows he can't remember things, and he feels bad about that, but I am able to reassure him that it is not his fault. We are able to talk some about his life growing up, but even some of those details are getting fuzzy. I am so glad for the resurrection when his memory will not only be returned to him, but will be perfected in such a way that we can't comprehend. It will be fun to talk about these days with perfect recollection.

One thing which has affected me is that many years ago he wrote his life story. On a typewriter. And not a self-correcting typewriter, either. It took him years to do it, but it is a true 118 page literary work. It contains not only experiences from his life, but his thoughts and ideas. I am not sure what possessed him to write it, but I'll bet he was prompted to do it, even if he didn't know it at the time. I find it miraculous that he finished his history only about five years before his dementia started setting in. I know he wrote his life story not only for himself, but also for his children and grandchildren because he not only made copies for each of his children, but also made one for each of his grandchildren and gave them out as Christmas presents. It is a testimony to me to know that his legacy will live on for generations after his earthly life has ended.

Reagan's Baptism

One of the “tender mercies” which the Lord has shown me happened February 16th. Reagan turned eight on February 10th, which meant she was able to be baptized. Matt and his family decided to travel from Spokane to have her baptized over here, since most of the family is here. It was a wonderful experience to see our oldest grandchild baptized by her father. I think baptism is one of those events in which “he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6). Reagan is a sweet and wonderful girl who was definitely ready to be baptized. One of the things which impressed me was that a week ago she, on her own, decided to let her hair grow, have it cut, and donate the hair to “Locks of Love,” an organization which makes wigs for those who are undergoing cancer treatment.

The second part of this event happened after Reagan’s baptism, when we all went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday. Kelsey and Tanner (both are five) are inseparable as friends and just love being with each other. All of the grandkids were given a cup of tokens, which are used for the rides at Chuck E. Cheese. Kelsey and Tanner went off, hand in hand, to spend their tokens. They came back to eat birthday cake a while later and were counting their tokens. Together they had seven token left. They asked me if I had any, which I did not (what grandfather would keep tokens from his grandchildren?). They had realized that if they divided up their remaining tokens, one would have three and one would have four. A few minutes later Tanner came to me with a token and said, “Here grandpa, take this token because we don’t want to fight over it.”

I knew at that time that the Lord had taught me a lesson from these two little children. They were willing to give up something that was very, very important to them in order that they would not have bad feeling towards each other. I have thought about this even frequently since then and have used it in several talks and teaching instances. Sometimes I wonder if I would be willing to give up something that was very important to me in order to become more like Christ. And which things in life are really important to me? Grandkids are so cool!

Why am I doing this?

I have decided to start this blog so that I might record the events and thoughts I have and especially to make a record of how apparent the hand of the Lord has been in my life. It seems that things happen on a daily basis, both big and small, in which I can see how truly blessed my life is. Many times I notice the hand of the Lord in the larger events, or in the happier experiences of my life, but often the smaller events, or the experiences which may seem to be more challenging at the time, go either unnoticed or appear to have no spiritual relevance. I hope that by writing these things down that I will recognize the hand of the Lord in all aspects of my life, not just the more obvious ones.

Yesterday I gave the same talk in two different wards. Actually I gave a talk last month on the same subject. The subject of my assigned talk was a talk given by President Eyring in last October's General Conference, "O Remember, Remember." In preparing my talk, it became obvious to me that spiritual experiences happen to us on a daily basis, sometimes without us even recognizing them. The key to recognizing them is with the help of the Holy Ghost. In the book of John we are told that "...the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14: 25-26) I believe that the Holy Ghost even has the ability to help us remember things which we may not have recognized at the time.

This is my attempt, as Pres. Eyring said, "to find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him."