Tribute to my Grandmother

My Grandmother was born in the early 1900's in Hyde Park, Utah.  Her parents named her Minnie Neona Christensen.  But, everyone called her Leona.  I am not sure why, I guess it just fit her better or maybe she just liked it better.  When she was a young girl, her family moved to Idaho as the government opened up the Snake River Valley in southern Idaho to homesteaders, and allowed irrigation rights from the Snake River.  A desert land that had been covered with sage brush, was gradually turning into green and fertile fam lands, as farmers settled and began irrigating the parched earth.  Grandma's family had some hard luck getting settled in the valley.  They finally settled in the town of Heyburn, on the north side of the Snake River.  Though times were hard for her family, her mother, Retta, made sure that the children took music lessons.  Her father, Joe, had bought their mother a piano when they lived in Hyde Park, and they were sure to bring it with them.  Grandma took piano lessons and loved to play the piano.  She became quite accomplished and used her skills and talents to bless the lives of many.  Most of her callings in the church were related to her accompanying on the piano.  I remember her when she was quite old, being called to play the piano for primary.  She enjoyed it and was glad to still be of service.  Music was also a big part of her own home as she raised her children.  Many evenings, the children would gather around the piano singing as grandma played for them. 
Grandma married William Burr Christenson, so technically, her name is Minnie Neona Christensen Christenson, which is kind of interesting that she just had to change the spelling of her last name when she got married.  Grandma and Grandpa raised nine children, my dad, Larry being the 4th child.  The home my dad was raised in in Heyburn only had two bedrooms.  Grandma and Grandpa had a room, the boys had the other room and the girls slept in the living room.  Though their life was humble, they were happy and they never went without food, due to the efforts of their parents.  The house was situated on a 10 acre parcel of land.  They had a huge garden and many fruit trees.  Grandma canned and dried much fruit and produce so that they would have enough to eat throughout the winter.  Grandma also loved to quilt, so there were always enough cozy handmade quilts on those winter nights, when the cold seeped in through the walls and windows.  She made quilts for my first two babies, which I really appreciated.  I still have them.
Later after many of the children were grown up, grandma and grandpa sold their little farm and bought another house in Heyburn.  That is the  house that I remember.  Grandpa still had a huge garden and grandma also had rows and rows of flowers.  I loved walking through the flowers and picking snapdragons.  They  had a 'slippery slide' in the back that we liked to play on.  Grandma would always give us a piece of waxed paper to sit on when we went down the slide so we could slide faster.
My grandmother loved doing genealogy.  And she did a lot.  One day, after she died, my dad brought some of her records to my home in Utah for me to see.  I made a lot of copies.  She was very dedicated in this work.
 I miss my grandma and wish I had spent more time with her when I had the chance.  She was a great woman and left a wonderful legacy.

In His Own Due Time

Christopher was born on June 2, 1988, being the third child in our family.  He was welcomed by me, his dad and two sisters, Natalie and Alicia.  Natalie and Alicia loved having a little brother and he loved his sisters.  BUT, well, they were girls.  Eighteen months later, he was there to welcome, his sister Nicole, and then at age three, he welcomed his sister, Michelle.  So, there he was, two sisters on each side.  It was about that time that he started including in his daily prayers a request for a brother.  In 1994, I was again expecting a baby.  When we told Christopher, his prayers became even more sincere.  Finally, he felt that his prayers would be answered.  It only made sense, right?  On August 7th, 1994, our beautiful little Melanie was born.  I am sure he was a bit disappointed, but he did welcome her with an open heart and assured us that he did love her new little sister.  That brought us to a total of six children, five girls and one boy.  I did not really think we would have any more children, six was plenty, right?  Then in 1996, I found that I was pregnant once again.  And on November 27, 1996, Christopher's prayers were finally answered as we welcomed Bryce to the family.  Chris is eight years older than Bryce, but is happy to have a brother.  It is a lesson on how God does answer our prayers, just not always in the time frame that we may want.

Listening to the Spirit

My mother, Marva, helped my dad with his auto body business.  She liked keeping the books and managing the front office, while he ran the auto body shop in the back.  She did not work everyday, but she would go in to the office a few times a week to take care of things.  One morning, she hurried through her morning tasks at home because she knew that she needed to get in to the office as there was much to be done.  She got the dishes and everything finished and headed up Overland Avenue towards work.  As she was passing Dworshak Elementary School, she saw that there was a child out in the busy street.  She stopped to help him get back to the school yard and realized that it was her nephew, Chad,  the son of Bill and LaVaughn Craythorn.  She got him back safely to a teacher at the school and then got back in the car and drove on to the office.  When she got there, she found that there was not really anything to do.  She could not figure out why she had felt the urgency to get in to work.  So she went on back home.  Later, she realized that she had been given the thought to hurry in to the office simply so she would be at the right place at the right time to give the aid that was needed and to possibly avert a tragic accident. She was thankful that the Lord had trusted her and that she had listened.

Creativity Shines Through

Alicia has always had a creative mind.  When she was little, she loved to paint, draw and color.  She loved poetry and story books.  When she was in the first grade, her teacher was Mrs. Wilmore.  Every week, the children were given a poem to memorize.  She loved to learn these poems and excelled at memorizing them.  I was so proud of her and her memorization skills and was excited about her enthusiasm.  I proudly went to the school on the evening of her first parent teacher conference, expecting great accolades from Mrs. Wilmore.  Instead of talking of her obvious achievements, she pulled out one of Alicia's math papers.  She made a point of showing me how Alicia had completed a few of the problems, then gotten out her crayons, colored the cute pictures on the borders and then handed the paper in, forgetting to finish the rest of the problems.  It made me feel really bad that she did not have anything positive to say.  She could have mentioned how nicely Alicia had colored the pictures.  AND, she did not say one word about her memorization skills.  REALLY, is math the most important thing in the world?  Alicia had and still has many gifts and talents, math just isn't one of them.  I know, I know, math is important, but so is coloring, right? 

Kind and Generous Heart

Nicole attended kindergarten at Aspen Elementary School in Orem, Utah.  Aaron Hatch was a neighbor of ours and was also in her kindergarten class.  On occasion, Aaron would stay at our house for a little while after school.  One day, I had been to the store and picked up some sugar cookies with sprinkles.  I knew that Nikki loved sprinkles and that they would probably both like a cookie as an after school treat. So, I made sure that I saved two cookies for Nikki and Aaron.  I noticed that one of the cookies had more sprinkles on than the other one.  After they had eaten their lunch, I brought out the cookies to let them pick one.  Nikki looked at the cookies, and being quite the sweet tooth said, "Oh, I want that one," pointing to the cookie with the most sprinkles.  Aaron said that he wanted that one as well.  They both had their eyes fixed on that most desirable cookie, and then Nikki said, "You can have one."  Then she took the other cookie.  I like this story because it shows Nikki's kind and generous heart manifesting itself at an early age.  She has continued in that manner throughout her life, loving and caring about others and putting their needs first.

Defense of a Young Testimony

Gary was born and raised as a member of the LDS Church.  He knew the church was true at an early age and was not afraid to stand up for his belief.  When he was a young boy, primary was held on weekday afternoons.  The church that Gary attended was across the street from the school.  So on primary day, he just walked across the street to primary.  One day, Gary mentioned to another boy on the bus that he was going to primary the next day so he would not be riding the bus.  The other boy, whose name was Ricky Long, said that he was going to primary that day as well.  Gary knew that Ricky did not go to his primary.  So he made it clear to Ricky that he would be attending primary at the true church and the church that Ricky attended was not the true church.  Ricky told Gary that his primary was too at the true church and that Gary's primary was not at the true church.  Now, there are many church buildings that have been built to accommodate the congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Gary and Ricky happened to attend different buildings.  They both thought the church building they attended was the true church.  They got off the bus at the same stop where their words almost came to blows as they maintained the truthfulness of their respective churches.  When Gary went to primary the next day, he told his teacher that some other kid said that he belonged to the true church and that he didn't even go to their building.  That is when he learned that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was much larger and greater than he had ever imagined.