Missouri - part 3

Monday, October 283, 2024

On Friday we got up early, dropped Charlotte off at school and then headed to the temple to do a session. It was wonderful to see a new temple and I’m really enjoying the new endowment.

After the temple, Ally gave us a tour of St Charles, the place that has been her home for the last couple of decades. I don’t know how long she has lived there, but its been a while.

Downtown St Charles was fascinating and it has a lot of history. It has cobbleston streets and many of the shops are original from when the town was founded over 200 years ago. Lewis and Clark started their expedition from St Charles.

We ate a wonderful lunch, enjoyed the shops and parks, bought a delicous cookie, and then we picked up Charlotte from school and got ready to go to “Boo at the Zoo”. St Louis has an amazing zoo that is free to attend. That is a bit deceitful, because they do charge for parking, but it is an amazing zoo. I think Ally may have been a bit dissappointed because while they had the place decked out with Halloween themed exhibits, most of the animal exhibits were closed. It would have been nice to see the animals but the theme was wonderful and some of the animals were still on display.

We then went back to our two hundred year old Air B&B, had a good rest, and then got ready for Charlottes baptism. I was very interested in meeting Josh who has been the source of so much pain in Ally’s life.

The baptism was both wonderful and strange. It was strange because Josh had nothing to do with the entire baptism. He performed the baptism itself, but chose to not get involved in anything else. He left everything else up to Ally. It was truly the Leavitt show. Ally Leavitt gave the opening prayer, Brandon Leavitt gave the talk on Baptism, Ally Leavitt and Lisa Leavitt were the witnesses, Fred Leavitt gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Brandon Leavitt performed the confirmation.

At the baptism Josh was on his very best behavior and said all the right words, but I received no vibes from him. He didn’t give off bad vibes but he never gave off good ones either. As he was performing the baptism, I didn’t feel the Holy Ghost at all. I got nothing. I admit that it might be on me, and that I was obviously prejudiced because I know everything he has done to Ally, but I got nothing.

At the same time, I felt the Holy Ghost strongly through out the rest of the service. Brandon gave a powerful talk, I felt guided by the spirit as I gave my talk and the spirit was powerful as Brandon confirmed Charlotte. It was a great baptism.

After the baptism we headed to a place called “Heavy Smoke BBQ”. Apparantly St Louis is famous for ribs, and Heavy Smoke is the ultimate place for ribs in St Louis. It was amazing. By far the best ribs I’ve ever had. It was one of those cases where I was upset that I got full because I just wanted to keep eating.

We all sat at the same table and at one point Ally asked Josh about letting Charlotte come to San Diego with the rest of the family at Christmas time. That is when we saw the real Josh. The vibes coming off of him now were pure evil. He almost started becoming incoherent. To be fair, it is his year to have Charlotte, but all he wanted to talk about was last Christmas. I didn’t catch all of his arguments, but this is the gist of what I got.

Last year he had to have three Christmas’s, one for his family, Christmas day and one for Charlotte after Christmas. While that is unfortunate, it isn’t the case this year. He is by himself and while he has the legal right to keep Charlotte, it will only be him and Charlotte and for them, Christmas could be easily moved to a different day. He wouldn’t hear any of it, but kept going back to last Christmas. The only reason for not letting Charlotte go would be to hurt Ally.

In any case, he wasn’t budging, and Ally let it drop before she broke down. It put a bit of a downer on a wonderful day and a wonderful lunch.

It was also very strange when we left. Charlotte was going back to Texas for a week and all of Josh’s family came and said goodbye and to hug Charlotte but Josh didn’t say anything. No hugs, no goodbye’s, nothing.

From “Heavy Smoke” we headed to the airport, hugged and kissed Brandon, Ally and Charlotte goodbye and we flew west and they drove south.

It was an amazing week.

--------------------trivia--------------------

Blue eyes and red hair are both recessive genes so blue eyed red heads are very rare.

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Missouri - part 2

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

On Thursday morning (Oct 17) I thought it would be a good use of our time to look for the properties where our ancestors lived. It was off season so none of the sites opened until 10:00.

I figured that I would have a ton of ancestors who had lived in Nauvoo but I was wrong. I did find twenty people but they were all from two families, the Leavitts and the Davenports (Thomas Rowells second wife). There was no information on where the Davenports lived but the Leavitts lived in two areas. They had a farm outside of Nauvoo and thy rented a place in town.

The visitors center gave us a map that showed where the farmland was but it showed no roads. To find the property I started at the mississippi river and clocked eight miles east down Young street. Eight miles took us onto a gravel road and then we were supposed to go north for a mile. The problem was, that where we were to go north, there was no road. There was a bit of a trail and we were in a rental so off we went.

The trail eventually turned into a gravel road and then into a paved road and then after one mile it joined a main road. After a mile we were looking at a bunch of fields and we would have had no clue exactly where the Leavitt farm was, but Brandon had menioned a book he bought for Ally called “Glorious Truths About Women of the Restoratoin”. In this book they use several quotes from “Sarah Leavitt Autobiographical Sketch.” As it turns out, I have read this autobiographical sketch but I totally missed this paragraph.

“We swapped farms with a man, got one by the big mound, seven miles from the city, it was a fine pleasant place.”

Remembering “the big mound” we looked around and there was a big mound right in front of us. As I remember, the Leavitts never did get a house build on it. They had a bunch of bricks stored on the property but before they could make it into a house, the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo.

At some point, someone built a house because right on top of the “big mound” is a nice house. It doesn’t look like much of a mound in these pictures but it is very obvious in real life. Just so no one else has to go through what I did, here are the coordinates for the “big mound”.

40.568684, -91.266141

The trip back into Nauvoo was much less exciting than our trip out of town had been. We then looked for Frederick Keslers addresses in town. We found the addresses but none of the houses remain. One was an empty lot and the other was a new modern house. We then looked for the address of where the Leavitts rented a place. The entire neighborhood was gone. The house would have been a block or two from here.

Next on the agenda was what they call the “Temple City” tour. Basically you visit the house of an architect, a Bishop and a farmer. The architect was the home of William & Caroline Weeks. That is a cool story, you should read about it here. The Bishop was at the Edward and Ann Hunter home. The farmer was William and Esther Gheen. The tour talks about how each of these people contributed to the building of the Nauvoo temple. Along the tour was a stone carver. They had a pavillion along the path that talked all about the shaping of the stones.

From here we headed to Parley street to check out the Sarah Leavitt quote. As we were driving we got a call from the Littles offering to take us for lunch.

James Little was our temple president as we served in the temple before it shut down for renovations. They decided to serve a temple mission in Nauvoo. Their mission was scheduled to end the week after we were there so we were excited to see them. We briefly saw them in the temple on Wednesday night but we were glad to go do lunch with them and while we were pressed for time, we do need to eat. While we knew we would see the Littles, I still include them in our list of random meetings of people with connections to us.

After lunch we headed back to Parley street and the trail of hope. The trail of hope has been known as “The Trail of Tears” for most of the history of Nauvoo because this is the road taken by the saints as they were driven out of Nauvoo in February by mobs. The road leads right to the banks of the Mississippi where they crossed the frozen river. Our kids refer to it as the trail of sweat because when were there last time it was 90° with 90% humidity. It was a perfect day this time.

We then checked out the little gazebo with the names of all the people who died on the trail between Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Valley. I saw Jeremiah Leavitt but Lisa was quite dissappointed because one of her ancestors is not listed.

We then spent the rest of the day at the Family Search Center until it was time for our sealing appointment in the temple. After the tempe we were treated to this beautiful sunset and then we headed back to St Louis. For the first twenty minutes we drove along the mississippi river. It was quite beautiful.

--------------------trivia--------------------

A typical fair weather cumulous cloud weighs about 1.4 billion pounds.

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Missouri

 Monday, October 21, 2024

Saturday evening we returned from a five day trip to Missouri. The purpose of the trip was to be at Charlottes baptism but since we were going, we decided to take a couple of extra days and spend them in Nauvoo. We had a lot of very cool experiences.

To give you an overview, we landed in St Louis late on Tuesday, rented a car and then drove to the Air BnB where Brandon, Ally and Charlotte were staying. Wednesday we drove to Nauvoo and spent the night in an Air BnB and then Wednesday we spent the day in Nauvoo and drove back to St Louis. We dropped the car off at the airport and Brandon picked us up. Thursday we checked out St Charles where Ally has lived for the last twenty years or so.

Friday was the same but in the evening we went to Boo at the Zoo at the famous St Louis zoo and then Saturday was Charlottes baptism. We flew hom Saturday evening. It was a whirl wind trip but very eventful.

Now for the details.

We met a lot of people on this trip with wild connections. The first one was in the San Diego airport. We were eating lunch enjoying a pulled pork sandwich when this couple comes up to us and says, “Are you Kira Palmers parents?” We said we were and it turns out that they were in Kira’s ward in Calgary and very good friends with them. Unfortunately I forgot their names but here is a picture of them. They had been in San Diego visiting family or friends or someone.

Other than Kira’s friends in San Diego, nothing interesting happened on Tuesday. We landed late in the evening and thankfully the Air BnB was only twenty minutes from the airport. Brandon and Ally waited up for us but we all went to bed shortly after we got there.

Wednesday we drove straight to Carthage. We were there nineteen years ago right after Brandon got home from his mission. Ben was on his mission and Kira was married so we only had the four kids with us. Carthage jail was the unchanged, but they’ve built a nice visitors center there. The tour of the jail was very solemn. It was well done.

We stopped at a small but rather amazing museum across the street from the jail. It would have been nice to spend more time there but our time was limited and we had to choose between the museum or Nauvoo. Nauvoo won.

I did take this picture for Kira though. Kira is a firm believer in “cupping” and I was quite amazed to see that they were “cupping” more than 150 years ago. Yes, I know it was used for boils but it was still cupping, exactly what Kira does to herself.

From Carthage we headed straight to the vistors center in Nauvoo, learned everything we could about our ancestors and then took a wagon ride tour. We then took a tour of Joseph & Emma Smiths first home and the Mansion House. These were just recently purchased from the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).

When we finished that tour, we saw a missionary couple named Elder & Sister Sommerfeldt. This couple was not only on this tour with us but they were also on the wagon tour. They were always with friends and we didn’t want to interrupt them but since they were now alone we asked them where they were from. They were from some town in Utah. We asked if they had any family in Alberta. Fara’s first husband was a Sommerfeldt and Alma Sommerfeldt was quite possibly my favorite teacher in high school. He taught me math.

He said he grew up in Lethbridge and Alma was his uncle but as we got talking we could tell that we connected on the Lybbert side as well. His grandmothers name was Ella Dora Lybbert. It was a different Ella Dora than my ancestor but with that name we had to be related.

We pulled out our “Relatives Around Me” app and we are second cousins. My Grandpa Lybbert (Lester) had a sister named Ella Dora and she was his Grandma. Elder & Sister Lybbert weren’t just missionaries, they were Mission Leaders (the new name for Mission President) of the Independence Missouri mission. There was a big Mission Leader Training session going on and they were in town for that.

After chatting with the Sommerfeldts, we checked out the Nauvoo House. This building was also aquired from the Community of Christ but it is not safe for tours and no work has been done on it yet. Frederick Kesler was there when Joseph Smith buried the orginal hand written manuscript in the South East corner stone in 1841 and then he was also there forty one years later when Lewis Bidamon opened the corner stone. Unfortunately, much of the manuscript was damaged by water. Bidamon was handing out the pages to anyone who wanted one. Frederick Kesler asked for a page and some guy ripped his page in half and gave Kesler half of a page. It is kind of sad but nearly ¾ of the manuscript has been not been recovered. This is Lisa chilling by where the cornerstone would have been.

We then attended an endowment session in the temple. There was a full moon which made the temple look very cool but this picture doesn’t look nearly as cool as it did in real life.

We then headed for our Air BnB and met the third person with connections.

Rachel has a cool story about how her and her husband ended up in Nauvoo. While the story is cool it turns out that Rachel grew up in Northern Alberta. When I say north, this is even quite a bit North of Edmonton. I don’t think we are related in any but we know people in common and she is from Alberta.

You just can’t help some people

Monday, October 14, 2024

A while back we had an old 81 year old man move into the ward. He didn’t show up at church so we started tracking him down. It took a while to get the whole picture but we eventually learned that George had moved from Utah and moved in with his daughter who was having serous health issues. The problem is that his daughter, Allison, was renting a room in a house where all the rooms were being rented out so she had a ton of roommates.

Over the next several weeks George showed up at church from time to time but Allison was very sick and in and out of the hospital. She is not active in the church.

A couple of weeks ago Allison got evicted and since then the ward has been working closely with George to try and find housing for them. They didn’t want to go into a homeless shelter because Allisons immune system is compromised, George is a veteran but San Diego has a lot of vets so the waiting list is long. We suggested that they move to where the waiting list is shorter but Allison has children in the area living with their father and she won’t leave, and George won’t leave because he’s worried about his daughter. Finally some government agency found housing for them but it isn’t available until Oct 22. Meanwhile this Father and daughter are parked up on Hill Top park living out of their car. She is constantly in and out of the hospital and the home nursing people actually go to their car to run tests, give her IV’s and other medication. It is bizarre.

They are reluctant to accept any kind of help but have agreed to some food and the bishop talked them into accepting a week in a motel. The bishop put out the word asking for help. I never offered to take them before because we only have the bunkroom and we need that for when kids come to visit, but with an Oct 22 end date I figured we could help. I talked to Lisa and she hesitantly agreed that we could take them for a couple of weeks. This was last Thursday.

The bishop and I both called them last Thursday and they never answered or returned calls.

I finally got in touch with them Friday and they politely refused help saying they didn’t want to impose on us. I finally talked them into coming for brunch on Saturday morning.

Allison went into the hosptial Friday night and according to George she refused to stay in over night but according to Allison, George was abusive and wouldn’t let her stay over night. She checked out at 2:00am.

Saturday morning she was sleeping and George didn’t want to wake her up. I told him to call me as soon as she was awake and I would feed them and set them up in the bunk room. They never called. I finally got a hold of Allison (they share a phone so you never know who will answer) and she thanked me again but politely refused any help. She then proceeded to totally bad mouth her dad saying some pretty mean things about him. I finally got her to agree to dinner on Sunday.

Sunday, I called and texted several times during the day with no word from anyone.

Monday (today) we are flying out of town tomorrow so we have no plans to contact George or Allison.

My conclusions: George is a frustrated, loving father who is trying his best to help out his stubborn and self destructive daughter.

Allison is crazy. She calls her dad abusive but would rather live in his car using his phone than stay in a comfortable warm bed and eat a hot meal.

--------------------trivia--------------------

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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Dad, Tell Me About the Time (42)

 Tuesday, September 3, 2024

What do you love most about your spouse?

I think the thing which most attracted me to Lisa is her ability to make friends whereever she is. I probably like that so much because it is the exact opposite of me. We can move to a completetly different country and within the first week she has several friends. We can be standing in line at Disneyland and she is buddies with the family standing in front of us and the family behind us. On top of all that, she will know there names and never forget them. She will usually have found someone that we know in common. It is rather amazing to watch.

What was the most challenging part about going from single life to being married?

There is very little about my single life that I miss and very little about being married that I find hard. Of course, it is always a challenge when you need to compromise on what it is you want to do but that is a part of life in general, not just being married.

What advice would you give your grandchildren about marriage?

When we moved to San Diego we had no family here and we didn’t know anybody except for an older couple who moved here from Edmonton. Bob and Virgina Lundrigan became defacto Grandparents for our family. Bob had a saying that I totally agree with. He always said, “long courtship and short engagement”. I completely agree with that. Generally speaking, you should get to know your future spouse really well before you decided to marry them.

I have observed that when you’re dating someone they can hide their true self from you for a long time and you don’t really get to know them until you have dated for at least six months. I would suggest that you don’t even consider proposing until you have dated for at least six months and then when you do get engaged, make it a short engagement.

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (41)

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

What is something your spouse does exceptionally well?

Lisa is very organized. She is a planner and whether we are going on a trip or if people are coming to visit us she has every day planned. She has plans for what we should do, where we should go and when we should do it.

Even though she plans every hour of every day she, is also flexible and understands that things change.

What is the most challenging obstacle you overcame together?

When I was laid off from Kyocera and went back to Hi-Z, our lives changed dramatically. Norb died and Hi-Z went downhill slowly but surely. Within just a few years my income was cut in half and my savings dissappeared. I should have bailed on Hi-Z but I was still hopeful that things would work out at Hi-Z. It didn’t. Within just a few years my income was cut in half.

Lisa and I faced this challenge together. I could have got a job in another city but we both wanted to stay in San Diego so I started a my own company and she went back to work. It has been a huge adjustment for both of us but we have seen miracles and we see the hand of God in our lives. It will be interesting to see where this all ends up.

What is something your spouse does that makes you laugh?

Lisa loves to try new things and will often come home with stuff that she just had to try. If Oreo comes out with a new flavor, she will buy a pack to give it a try and because we don’t want to eat the whole bag of cookies, she will give away the rest of the bag.

She saw cotton candy grapes and had to buy those (we did not give away the rest of the grapes, they were good). Last week she came home with donut peaches. They were actually quite good.

How does your spouse inspire you to be better?

Lisa lives her life in a way that I hope to be able to someday. She is always aware of other people’s feelings and needs and will often drop flowers off at someone’s house where she knows they are going through trials. Lots of times she doesn’t even know that anything is wrong but will feel inspired to stop by for a visit and learns that they are having a hard time.

Lisa’s prayers are very sincere and always about other people. She can’t see a problem and not do something to help. She will spend extra time at school and give up her own personal time to help a student. If she sees a student do something special at school, she will take a picture and send it to the students’ parents.

I can only hope to be that aware of other people and the trials and needs they have.

Do you share any inside jokes?

I’m sure we have a ton of inside jokes, but none are coming to my mind at the moment. Let me think on this and I will come back to it.

What is one thing you know about your spouse that no one else knows?

Lisa is a very open person when it comes to her feelings so she has few secrets. Most of the things I know about Lisa that no one else knows, are things that she wouldn’t want anyone else to know.

Morning Walks

Monday, October 7, 2024

In an effort to improve our health, Lisa and I have been going for morning walks almost every weekday. We’ve been doing it for several months now and we love the time together. The world is a different place at 6:00 am and we are starting to get to know some of the regular walkers out there. Now that autumn has arrived, and the sun is rising later we are starting to see some amazing sunrises.

While Kira was here, she joined us on every morning walk and that time alone with her made our walks even more special. One morning last week it was quite foggy. The picture doesn’t do it justice but the effect of the sun trying to make its way through the fog was beautiful and very surreal.

I love our morning walks, and I want them to continue, but I need to figure out how I can add a run or bike ride that is a little more physical.