Paris, Pioneering, and Pleasant Passages

Dear family and dear friends 24 July 2022

Today, is a holiday in Utah.  It is pioneer day, marking 175 years since Brigham Young came into this valley with a vanguard company and pronounced, “This is the right place.”  

Today, we listened as one of our neighbors, Mark Jensen, shared an experience of learning with us a few years ago, as we weathered a neighborhood “Trek” experience, of watching his petite wife work to push Mark (tall, robust frame, well over six feet) in her handcart, as did Jens and Elsie Neilson, in the Willie Handcart Company in the mountains of Wyoming.  Youth rallied and pushed, as Mark’s wife DeEtte struggled to make any progress.  He likened the youth to the angels that Elsie felt pushed along with her efforts. (See M. Russell Ballard, in conference, October 1996)

Here are a few of our angels, awaiting a third:

This past week, in a “parting of our own Red Sea” moment, time and space opened for my husband and I to drive to Washington State to visit grandchildren and children that we are missing and hoped to see before school began anew. 

 

Hikes with a sister

 and grandchildren, perusing over childhood stories with siblings, 

attending the temple for a sister’s birthday, 

parks, meals, moments to listen, to try and catch up, amid tennis and table tennis, golf, piano time, games, and reading together gathered a haven of memories for months to come.  

This, on heels of a small reunion with a few daughters at a pioneer home in Paris, Idaho (just north of Bear Lake) is

 reconvincing me of the grounding power of gathering.  

One of the activities in Paris, a favorite of some daughters is a group game of cards where in the midst of several sets of teams, solitaire is played ad confusion and hubbub. 

I agreed to partner with a “fast and sure” daughter, steady as she blows, who is good at keeping pace.  In the midst of much noise I blurted, “This is so exciting!”  I am unsure how, always, to keep focused and moving forward when there is ever and apt continual competition for personal avid attention. 

Thomas Rhoades, 11, one of our neighbors, shared thoughts from one of the leaders, President Larsen, who taught our neighborhood youth in a summer youth “Pioneer Trek” to carefully load personal handcarts, and yoke them with the Savior, to better balance the load.  I also pondered, with a daughter in Washington, about organizing full schedules for her children.  Sometimes, it seems that it truly can be the “load” that offers traction through challenge.  (Bednar, April 2014) Perhaps this idea fits in coming home to approach a garden with more weeds than vegetables, along with facing other tasks that ever gather and mount.  I like to contrast my tasks with pioneer duties.

Val needs you to know this is our own "raspberry" shake.  A water bottle, you shake it!

I think of Mary Ann Price Stucki, mother to my paternal grandmother Pearl. 

[Above, a lady bug accompanying the wildflower placed on Dad's grave, portrait of his mother and father on a DC temple mission, and Grandma Mary Ann's grave marker, Paris Cemetery July 2022]

Mary Ann was the original steward to our Paris pioneer house (which is surrounded with other extended family members' heritage homes.)

Grandma Mary Ann Price Stucki weathered nearly 50 years of widowhood on firm 37 dollars a month, 

taking in boarders, making hats.

 

[Above, a hat rack in our summer Paris house, and some great great granddaughters bearing her name, her likeness, and determination]

Mary Ann connected us to Adam and Eve in family trees, a pillar in her own right. I cherish a letter sent by my 88-year-old uncle, detailing Great Grandma Mary Ann's conviction that Christ has won our world with love.  

A friend asked us today, “What kind of pioneer can I be this week?”

Blessings to courageous neighbors, friends, family who hitch their carts with ours, angels, shouldering heavy burdens, ever working to make others’ lighter. 

 Sincerely, Laurene and Val