Learn With Joy

In his most recent general conference address, Elder Gong invited us to remember our ancestors and to participate in temple and family history work. He said this: “In this age of ‘I choose me,’ societies benefit when generations connect in meaningful ways. We need roots to have wings—real relationships, meaningful service, life beyond fleeting social media veneers. Connecting with our ancestors can change our lives in surprising ways. From their trials and accomplishments, we gain faith and strength. From their love and sacrifices, we learn to forgive and move forward. Our children become resilient. We gain protection and power. Ties with ancestors increase family closeness, gratitude, miracles. Such ties can bring help from the other side of the veil.” In a world that looks for meaning in social media, and often fails to find it, we should remember to turn our hearts to our family and ancestors for connection, inspiration, and an opportunity to serve them. I love to look through Family Tree, seeing the pictures of my ancestors and reading about their lives, and I am saddened that for many of them I simply have no information except a few dates and perhaps a single image. It reminds me of the important need to keep a record that we can pass on to our descendants so that they can learn of our faith and our struggles and hopefully “look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents” (Jacob 4:3).

                One my ancestors that I do have some stories of is named Claudia Jones, and reading Elder Gong’s talk led me to ponder her life this morning. She was the daughter of Dan Jones, the famous missionary from Wales, and Jane Melling. She was born in 1849 as her parents served as missionaries in Wales, and when she was only 2 weeks old she left Liverpool, England with her parents who were bringing about 250 Welsh Saints to the United States. Such began what was from what I can tell a difficult life for Claudia. She endured the hardships of pioneer life in Utah, and when she was only 12 years old her mother passed away. One story recounts that after this, “her father was bedfast with consumption, which so many of the missionaries contracted through exposure. Her father would tie a string to her big toe at night to wake her for what he wanted. She had a brother five years younger whom she practically raised, as her father died in 1862, just eleven months after her mother.” So before she turned 13 she lost both of her parents and was left responsible for her younger brother Joseph. Not only did she lose her parents that young, but according to the information in FamilyTree she had six siblings who all died before her parents did. Three of those died while she was alive. So while there were at least eight children born to her parents, only she and Joseph lived to adulthood. The Lord blessed her, though, in that of her of her own eight children all but one lived outlived her. She and her husband were known for their goodness and help they provided to those in need. Many poor would come to them when they ran a grist mill and they would give away the last bit of their flour to help them. And so often Claudia would have to borrow from others to feed her own family. One account records, “Claudia was a competent nurse, everyone would send for her, there seemed to be magic in her hands, children would take their medicine for her when they wouldn’t for anyone else. Friends would travel a long way in wagons to visit them, and stay a day or two. She did many kind deeds for others.” She became ill and died at a relatively young age of 54 in Provo, Utah. I am amazed at these incredible struggles she faced and the faith she had to keep going. I hope at the end of my life it might be summed up simply with the same words: “He did many kind deeds for others.”     

                Elder Gong summarized his talk this way: “We each have a story. Come discover yours. Come find your voice, your song, your harmony in Him. This is the very purpose for which God created the heavens and the earth and saw that they were good.” I am grateful for those who have come before me and whose choices throughout the centuries have influenced my life to give me the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of temple ordinances and the atonement of Jesus Christ I can be bound forever to past and future generations, a truth that led the Prophet Joseph Smith to exclaim, “Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:19)