More on Death and Faith

This week was stake conference.

Now, normally, I don’t go to stake conference. Back when I was growing up in Indiana, my dad was in the stake presidency, and the stake center was a two-hour drive away. So, conference weekend was a long boring drive, and a long boring meeting, and then a long boring wait for dad to finish his meetings, and a long boring drive home.

I’ve since decided that the Celestial Kingdom is heaven because they don’t have stake conferences there.

But this time, my wife persuaded me to go. And not just to the Sunday session, but the Saturday evening session for the grown-ups as well. And that one was the good one.

It was all about temple work. And it kinda caught me on fire.

So, today I started to dig through things at familysearch.org and found some names. See, lots of the genealogy has been done, but on my dad’s side, we’re not too sure of it’s accuracy, nor of how much actually got submitted for temple work. Grampa Hansen did the research, but he wasn’t always the most mentally or emotionally stable of gents. He went through a lot as a kid and as a young man. So, as my dad and I were discussing it, we’ve come to the conclusion that we have some sheets that are probably pretty accurate. And we need to check and see if the temple work’s been done.

Then when he comes to visit, we can do some temple work together.

Part of our long phone conversation tonight was all about Grandpa, and some of the stories of his family. He grew up in Germany, as a latchkey kid in the early 1900’s. His father abandoned the family when he was about five or six, leaving his mom to raise five children on her own, without any of the financial supports that we take for granted today, like social security or even child support or alimony payments.

He lived through two world wars, married and immigrated to America with his sons. He’s really quite the man, when you add up his struggles and triumphs.

Death and faith…


MRKH
Mark Hansen
markhansenmusic.com