A Prayer Answered

Sunday, August 14, 2016

I keep thinking about President Richards telling us, "Woe, woe, woe if you're not writing things down" and thinking of things I need to be writing. So much for sleeping in on Sunday morning, which I love to do. . .

When we went to the temple last Tuesday, we were a little early and they asked us if we'd like to sit in the Celestial Room for a few minutes. We said, "Sure," and I took the opportunity to pray about my Turners. I had come across the talk that Sister Naylor, in Access Services, gave before she left. She had told about Elder Waller giving a spiritual thought that Sister Disque had shared. We've worked with both of them, so it caught my attention. Sister Disque said when she went to the temple, she had prayed and asked one of her great-grandparents for help on finding people in the family, that she wanted to do their work, wanted to give them the opportunity to accept the Gospel, but she needed help in finding them. That resonated with me. I've discovered all of this Turner information since I've been here, but some of the families on FamilySearch can't be correct because the mother was having children for too many years, some of the kids are probably grandkids, but I can't figure out who belongs where. I ran off probably 200 pages of findagrave information from the Turners in Rockingham County, Virginia, but I know that isn't always completely correct or complete. I've been putting the families together from that info the best I can. But while I was in the temple I prayed and told James Turner and his wife Christina that I really needed help. This is their family as well as mine and I wanted the families to be sealed together correctly.

Wednesday, the next day, I found two more books on the Turners--one of them a book that Pat Turner Ritchie mentioned in the material of hers that I just found, and another one on the Brocks Gap Families. The "Long John Turner" book she mentioned isn't copyrighted and I copied all of it. It wasn't way long and the Brocks Gap book has information on the Cherryholmes family that we run into through marriage and the Beerys that John Turner married into in Ohio. Then getting Jim's DNA test back was wonderful. I got to sit down with Joni and she had me join three groups--a Turner research group, a Cumberland Gap group and another one. I'm really getting info back and so excited to spend some time on it. Maybe it's all just coincidence, but I feel my prayer was answered and I'm finally getting the help and answers I've needed. The time thing sure is putting me in a crunch, though.

Friday was a day of so much news we could hardly take it all in. We just had to get one piece at a time and keep going with what we were supposed to be doing. Ed called that morning wanting to get a hold of Alton to tell him about meeting Alton's companion from his mission in Scotland while Ed was in Vermont. Robert told him Alton is back in the woods and may not get calls or texts. Robert called Becky to see if he has another number and Becky told Robert that Alton had butted heads with a burro and was in the hospital with a cracked neck (again) and 17 staples in his head, but no concussion and should be o.k. But she didn't know how she was going to get him and his truck home. Wow. Robert called Arthur Ray to tell him about Alton and AR said he was taking Aunt Gladys to the hospital to be checked out--she was having chest pains and they were afraid it was from the penicillin the dentist had given her for a tooth problem. That worried us. We went to the library.

At the library, I worked with a young guy from Hill AFB named Pizzo. He wanted info on his grandfather. We found him on the 1930 census and then nothing. We tried several spellings, several states, combinations of all of them, nothing. Then I had him go to Ancestryinstitution.com and we found a social security record where he had registered as Pizzo then used Pitts for several years and then went back to Pizzo. We also found the immigration record for him and his wife! We tried Pitts and found him on the 1940 census! I couldn't believe it--we would never have just "come up" with that name. In my mind, I said, "Thank you, Elijah." That was amazing to me that we found that. We definitely had help.

Later I was on the info desk and Susan Hopkins came by and said, "You heard about Elder Birch, didn't you?" NO! He collapsed on the second floor and they took him to the hospital. What? What's going on?

Then a guy came in with almost no info. We looked and found a little on his family, but not much. He didn't know names or dates or places (and it's a little tough to do genealogy without Some of that!) and when we would find a record, he didn't know the names well enough to know if the record was for his family or not! He knew he needed to go home and find more information. He was from Florida. An older guy was with him and I never quite figured out the connection, but the guy was really interested and was trying to help him. But they both liked what they were doing and wanted to go home and get more information and get into it. I showed them how they could add pictures and stories and they just ate it up. I felt really good about the experience and they seemed so happy, even though we found so little. We parted with positive inner glows all around!

I talked to Sister Thomas when we were waiting to help guests. She told me that for several days she had seen three little spirit children near us, two girls and a boy, who called us "Gwampa and Gwamma". I know different people have different gifts and I try not to be skeptical of the things she says, but somehow I tend to take it with a grain of salt. I should probably be more believing. I'm just too practical I think.

When we left the library, we wanted to go to the hospital to check on Elder Birch, and kept trying to get a hold of Paula. We tried a new (to us) place for a bite to eat and it was good--some Oriental folks run this hamburger place and also offer Rice Bowls and yummy ice cream goodies--what a combination! And it's close to the apt. We picked up Sister Isaacson, took her up to Ensign Peak and finally talked to Sister Birch. E. Birch was in ICU, they were running tests and their kids were all coming in, but she sounded o.k. He had collapsed at home on Wed. and Paula gave him CPR and tried to call 911, but she was so rattled she didn't push "send" on her phone and the call didn't go through. When E. Birch came to, he said, "Why were you screaming my name." She told him and he looked at her phone and pushed "Send" and the ambulance crew came--what a story! We saw her yesterday and she said he's going to have an angiogram today because their oxygen machines in the OR weren't working properly. He's still in ICU and being monitored carefully. Her son was with her in the library and they both seemed very upbeat and feelings things would be fine.

I talked to Bev last night and things are on for Tuesday at their cabin. I'm so glad to be with the family one more time before we go. I also called Sister Isaacson to see if she wanted to go with me to the Choir broadcast today and we're meeting in 45 minutes, so I need to get ready. Robert is trying to pass another kidney stone again. It never fails when we have something big going on that hits him. I hate it for him.