Hunters and Fishers

27 June 2018

In 1972 about a week after I was baptized, standing in the hallway of the Church the missionaries quickly added a  little verbal "P.S." to the bottom of my baptismal certificate. 

                     " Oh yeah, you also have to do genealogy... four generations".   

They said it very quickly in hopes that I didn't hear it or that I just didn't know what it was.    In their 20 year old minds this could be the "deal breaker" for any new convert.   

But I did understand it.  I did know what genealogy was.   Therefore,  with equal speed I acknowledged the requirement, 
                       
                             "Oh, OK.   I can do that!  My grandmother has been involved in genealogy for 20 years. I can get it from her. "  

Wide-eyed they replied,    "Really? Great!"  Then they walked away in awe wiping beads of sweat from their foreheads.  

My grandmother, Helene Brooks Green, was an amazing woman.   She was one of those kind of people that never found an obstacle that she couldn't hurdle gracefully.   There was nothing that she couldn't do.   I saw her sew, recover furniture, make drapes, garden, run a farm single-handedly (her husband was a dentist... he had the in-town job. They lived out of town on a farm so that she would be most happy!), ran a tractor to mow the acreage,  at 52 years old raised a second family consisting of 3 grandchildren ages 2,3,and 4 (this was while my father was in dental school and my mother taught school... they lived in Kansas while I lived with my grandparents in Oklahoma), and she would die the wool right on the back of the sheep just to please us children.  There was nothing that Helene couldn't do!  

In 1952 her youngest son, James, asked her, not only a life altering question but a FAMILY altering question.  He asked, "Mother, where did we come from?"   Her reply was loudly recorded in heaven, "I don't know.... but I will find out!"    

At that very moment, Elijah and all the forefathers touched the heart of the child!  The heart of the child, Helene, was instantly turned to the fathers!  I can only imagine that we who were on the other side of the veil leaped for joy and felt that the family's journey had been put back on a corrected course!  LDS Member-Ancestors, Nancy and Phoebe Brooks,  in 1838 decided to not go to Missouri to join the other Saints due to the persecutions and mobs.   They stayed in Michigan with their husbands and children and eventually became members of the Reorganized Church.  I often wonder..... at this point, did "the fathers" in the Spirit World have to come up with a new plan to "turn the hearts of the children" on earth?   As a family, those who had lived on the Earth and those yet to be born,  did we gather together to form that plan?   Did several like Helene confidently stand and commit to doing all the research, finding the names, collecting all the documents? 

And how many of us stood and promised to find the Church and the Temple?  I really don't know the answer to any of these questions.   All I do know is that a plan was in place. 

 I have no doubt that our family (me included) behind that veil began preparing the work.  We only had 20 Earth years before I would find the Church and begin submitting names for those sacred ordinances and promises to be fulfilled.  Helene began that genealogy hobby two years before I was born and it seems that all fell into place. 

When I began to duplicate EVERYTHING that Helene had I realized that hours and hours of work was before me.  I filled out 100's of family group sheets.   There were many experts in Cardston that helped me to organize it all.   I recall discussing my genealogy work with Aunt Durraine Leavitt, one of Cardston's seasoned genealogists.   I proudly explained that I had just about finished submitting all the names that were on my 4-generation pedigree chart.  In her quiet way, she pointed to a name on that chart and asked if that couple had any children.   I assured her that they had a large family.   She then brought me to a huge realization when she asked,
               "Don't you think that this mother would like to be sealed to ALL of her children? And what about those children?  Were they married and did they have children?"    

An overwhelming amazement washed over me responding with a question that really did not need answering, "You mean I have to do ALL of these?"   

Aunt Durraine then issued a sweet reminder that I suppose that I had agreed to long, long ago when she asked,
                                 "Well, that's what you are here for, isn't it?!"  

One of the ancient prophets, Jeremiah taught, "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."  Jeremiah 16:16  

Since Aunt Durraine's tutorial I began throwing in my Family History nets into the pool of genealogy libraries.   I would pull up hundreds, if not thousands, of ancestral names poised for receiving sacred ordinances.   The task seemed daunting at times but every year I would continue to be the "fisher" for the family.   After 46 years, I no longer seem to be the "fisher" but instead I have become the "hunter".  I no longer bring in hundreds of names at a time.   Now,  I just pick them off one at a time!    I am not saying that I am finished.  It is just harder to find those I'm looking for and I need to be more patient in my researching.   

Now here I am in Salt Lake City at the foot of the Family History Library.   I love going in there.  I can almost hear my ancestors, "Hunt for me today....Cast in your net.... find me.... please!"