A Covenant People

Yesterday, in sacrament meeting, was a nice opportunity to share some thoughts and experiences of the past year with others.  Thanks to Jill and Polly for their late-night suggestions.

Friday, Jack, JoyDean Thurmond and I had dinner with our trio of Elders;
Elders Sirman, Mullay and Scott. After they left we noted the
commitment we had felt from each of them in their
conversation. They know why they are here and what they are
to do. They’ve made a choice to make a difference. I hope you
meet them in your homes as well.

In a general conference a number of years ago, Elder Russell
M. Nelson taught,
"Jesus often established his own identity, then the identity of
his followers."

Elder Nelson then quoted Jesus Christ’s words to
the people of ancient America.   Jesus said, 
I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
All the prophets … have testified of me.
And behold, ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of
the house of Israel; and ye are of the covenant which the
Father made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in
thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to
bless you . . .; and this because ye are the children of the
covenant.

Elder Nelson further explains:
“And to ensure that we do not forget him, children of the
covenant receive his doctrine and claim it by covenant.”

. . . . “Rewards for obedience to the commandments are
almost beyond mortal comprehension. . . . And
hereafter, . . . children of the covenant, and ‘each
generation would be linked to the one which went on before
… [in] the divine family of God.’ ”

Regardless of our lineage because we have desired to know
of the gospel and then made covenants beginning with our
baptism and confirmation we are a covenant people. There
have been other covenant peoples in other times and in other
places. Through our baptismal covenant we, too, are a
covenant people.

I would like to share a couple of examples of the rewards that
have come from listening and heeding promptings. I trust that
in sharing these you will be reminded of the simple ways with
which you have been blessed and together we will reaffirm the
fact that through covenant peoples the earth is blessed.

The simple things that we can do can make a difference among
the people of the earth. In surprising ways, every day we can
make a difference for good because we are a covenant people.

Please don’t misunderstand, a covenant people is not the
only people doing good.

A covenant people is not the only one group inspired and
prompted by the Spirit.

A covenant people has made a sacred and binding covenant
to do so.

About this time last year a cousin in North Carolina wrote and
asked for a clarification of the information on some of our
ancestors. On the Newfamilysearch I had just begun to systematically
review the records that I had for our family: verifying for
completeness and correctness and then checking for possible
duplications.  Her question was about our shared maternal line
and I was just beginning on my father’s line. After checking,
correcting and clarifying for her I went back and kept moving
on as planned.

A couple of weeks later a cousin in Idaho
wrote with an inquiry and I left the paternal line long enough to
sort out the question.  Another cousin in Canada with no links
to the LDS church asked some questions about her grandfather,
my mother’s brother, who had been presumed dead in Australia.
This continued enough that I became curious about some
missing information on my mother’s brothers and their
descendants.

I started remembering people I hadn’t thought of for years and
mostly never met--living relatives I had only heard of from my
mother.

While I was traveling over the holidays these thoughts spawned
more curiosity. Where are these cousins now? I reread my
mother’s travel diary of her return to her homeland of Scotland.
I wondered, “What is Uncle Malcolm’s companion’s name,
what are the names of their children.” The realization hit me.
We have gathered information for his wife and their children
but we don’t know his other family. They are our family.

Let me quickly tell you what happened because three cousins,
one a participating member of our church, one a member and
perhaps not participating, the third descended from an
uncle who had left the church when he married and none of his
descendants have any knowledge of it.  Add then a fourth
cousin in Maine.

The latter part of January I was back home. After asking my
sister about our cousin Charlie she said, “All I know is that he
is in real estate in Maine.” After the conversation, without
thinking, the immediate response was to google the keywords
“Charlie Hunter Maine Real Estate.” #1 on the result list was
“Maine Real Estate, Broker Charles Hunter”. When I clicked
on it, I was stunned there was the picture of broker Charles
Hunter and he looked like pictures I’d seen of my aunt, his
mother.    He responded to my message within 5 minutes. It was
a wonderful conversation. He asked about descendants of our
uncle for whom he was named but never met.

The next day I received this message from Charlie: “. . . just
got off the phone with Gerry and Donnalee boy was it nice
talking with them, it seems as if a void has been filled in my
life which has made me extremely happy. …."   I, too, was
thrilled.

That experience was but one more step of what has continued
to this day.

The next Friday afternoon as I sat at my computer
the thought came, “I really want to find Uncle Malcolm’s
family, even if I have to spend some money.”

One hour and $12 later, I knew from an abstract of his death
where he had died and when. That gave me a clue of where his
children may have been born. Knowing from the travel diary
only that he had three children, ages 2 to 9 and where they
might have been born, I then had in front of me the abstract of
the birth of the two-year old, a little girl named Madeleine born
in 1963.

Without even a thought I did something I’d rarely
done before, opened my facebook account and for the first time
searched for someone--Madeleine Hunter. 160 Madelyn
Hunters was overwhelming until I noted the unique spelling of
her name and then there were only five. The profile photo of
one stood out. She looked like my sister.     I perused
Madeleine’s friends list. Among the profile photos one stood
out, Ian Hunter--he looked like my Uncle Charlie. The next
day a very excited Maddie wrote back. Her sister had started
looking for us three years ago. For the next two weeks more
and more of our Hunter cousins surfaced and we were all
connecting and thrilled. As Charlie had said a few weeks
earlier, “a void has been filled.”

What thrills me the most is that it was not me that did all this.

These first four cousins then formed a facebook group for Hunter
Family. From that nucleus of four we are now 111. We have
come to know each other and take an interest in each other.
Our hearts have been touched. It is "beyond comprehension"
the feelings that have come in this gathering.

The number, 111, is only individuals. In reality they represent
the one of a family -- families which include children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I have come to know intimately, another facet of gathering -- as
we are gathering our ancestors we are gathering living families
of living individuals. Over time the hearts of some of these
cousins will be touched as mine has been touched and yours has
been touched and they will come to know precious truths.
Truth is truth

Elder Nelson teaches us another responsibility of a covenant
people:
“[Through the] Abrahamic Covenant Anciently, the Lord
blessed Father Abraham with a promise to make his posterity a
chosen people. References to this covenant occur throughout
the scriptures. In each age these teachings were meant to
help the people.”

As a covenant people we have covenanted to help the needy.

“As individual members of the Church, you and I participate in
the Lord’s ‘own way.’ At least once a month, we fast and pray
and contribute generous offerings to funds that enable bishops
to disperse aid. This is part of the law of the gospel. Each of us
truly can help the poor and the needy, now, and wherever they
are. And we, too, will be blessed and protected from apostasy
by so doing.” 

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. We
have the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Book of
Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. Last fall I began
reading the Book of Mormon with the prime objective of noting
everything pertaining directly to Jesus Christ. I realized that
the many times I’ve read it I had been learning the history, the
stories and looking for the doctrine that could be of help to me.
The time had come to read with Jesus uppermost in my mind
and to forget me.

In this focus when I came to Alma 34:28, these verses stood
out like they never had before. After having focused on the
attributes of Christ with a desire to know him better, these
verses hit me hard personally. Alma chapter 34, v 28, 29 ...

...if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick
and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those
who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these
things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing,
and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.
Therefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as
dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth)

In the days that followed I thought of the woman who stands at
the NE corner of Temple Square holding a sign, panhandling. I
recalled the many times I had passed her with determination not
to look at her. I passed her steeled and hardened to not notice
her. For months even years it has bothered me--all the nine years
I've lived in Utah. What ought I to do? I had become uncomfortable
relying only on charitable organizations or my fast offerings to be
sufficient response. I asked friends what they did in like circumstances,
I read about charitable organizations and city/county efforts
and continued to wonder and be troubled by my hardened
behavior. There was something wrong here. Those scriptures
did not mince words. They were clear and explicit. They
are timeless.

Elder Nelson has further taught us:
“Limitations do exist. Measures of relief are at best temporary.
Storehouses can provide only for some temporal needs. All
people cannot be brought to the same living standards. And all
needed things cannot be achieved by goods or gold.

“To care fully for the poor, we must help the poor to change.
As they are taught and abide doctrines of Deity, spiritual
strength will come that enlightens the mind and liberates
the soul from the yoke of bondage. When people of the earth
accept the gospel of Christ, their attitudes change. Their
understanding and capabilities increase.”

I don’t know how to help the poor to change. I don’t know
how to help the panhandlers of the city to change.

Then one day it occurred to me panhandlers have names just as I have
a name, our elders, my cousins, Jesus, … Eventually, I learned her
name, “Carol”, she said, "like Christmas Carol.” Autumn turned
to winter, then Christmas and spring and Easter. Then through
the heat of summer and the beginning cooling of autumn once
again.

Carol and I now have words of conversation in
addition to a small snack bag of roasted almonds and
sometimes a quarter. A feeling of friendship has replaced the
hardness, replaced by a sense of caring. We have become
neighbors in this big city.  We’ve all got troubles of some sort. 

I’ve come to wonder if Carol being there is for the rest of us
to find more soul in our hearts.

Elder Nelson said,
“A poet sensed the great power of the Spirit of the Lord to lift
an individual when he wrote:”
The chief of all thy wondrous works,
Supreme of all thy plan;
Thou hast put an upward reach
Within the heart of man.
(Author unknown

That upward reach, drawn from a knowledge of divine
doctrines, transforms souls! We are all givers and receivers.

Its not for me to plot and plan how I think it should be. The
Lord has his own ways and we must look to him and do even
the simplest of things as he prompts us, step by step.



Elaine Cannon, former Young Women General President said,
“In Christ’s day, people were pressing heavily about Jesus on
one occasion. A woman in trouble reached out to touch him in
faith. His disciples scoffed that Christ should question who
had touched him when so many were crowding about, and
yet, he knew her touch was different. She had connected. He
responded by healing her.” 

He will do the same for each one of us.

Sister Cannon continued:
“. . . . Rather than merely moving about Christ, wanly
waiting for his blessings, we must reach out and connect—in
faith.”

She then shared this experience.
I stood alone in the basement of the Church Office Building
about two years ago, waiting for an elevator. It was very early
on a Monday morning, well before the influx of office workers.
As the elevator lowered into place, suddenly two Church
security officers appeared from out of somewhere and held back
the opening doors.     Now, nobody does that for me, so I looked
around just in time to see President Kimball and his personal
secretary, Brother Haycock, entering the area. They moved
quickly into the secured area, and I quickly moved out of the
way.     Well, as President Kimball turned and faced the front of
the elevator, he saw me standing out there waiting for the next
one.    And he said to me very graciously, “Good morning.”
And I said, “Good morning, President Kimball.” 
And he said, “Aren’t you going to get on?” 
And I said, “Well—” and hesitated for a few moments—
“I didn’t think I was supposed to under the circumstances.” 
And then he said, “Aren’t you going up?” 
And I said, “Yes.” 
And he said, “Well, tell me, how do you intend to get there?” 
And then he said, “Come along.”     
So I got on!

As a covenant people, if we intend to get there we need to
get on and invite others to also get on and come along. We need to
figure out again and again how to Get On -- reaching out and
connecting in faith.

Back to Uncle Malcolm and his other family.
I had known of Uncle Malcolm and his “other family” all of
my life. Ironically, I have done family history research since
the year Madeleine was born. I’m ashamed to say I never
thought to note or even ask their names and ages nor the other
five children or their mother.

I had known about Uncle Billie who was presumed dead in
Australia.  From time to time we’d try another way to search
for him or find out what happened to him. We now have
evidence of his life in Australia.

When this started in the latter part of January we only knew the
names of descendants of three of my mother’s seven brothers
and two had died young.       Now we know most of the
descendants of all of them.    Last month I Skyped with a
granddaughter, a descendant of the last of the seven.   All this
has come about without a predictable plan or outline or
anyone’s ideas.  Each one has been found in a different way
by responding to a prompting.    Step by step.    We have
become friends.      The Lord has blessed us.

I haven’t known what to do about the beggars on the street and
the overwhelming number of needy around the world as well
as among us.

I don’t know what to do about the multiplicity
of issues that face our nation and the nations of the world.

I do know that the poor and the needy have names. They will
always be among us.  Indeed, we may be the poor.   It would be
better that we be poor in means than be poor in spirit.
Whatever we do, compassion must be in our hearts.

A thought on the influence of yeast . . . .
It has been amazing to me that only ¼ t of yeast is needed to
make a loaf of Artisan bread.   That small amount of leavening
is only 1 tiny part out of 740 parts of the whole.

Think of it.   Simply by the numbers,*  though we be few,  a
covenant people can make a significant difference. With the
influence of the Spirit the only limit is our faith to Get On.

Jesus said, [Luke 13:20-21]
Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures
of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Picture again as Elder Nelson quoted, Jesus Christ among the
people of Ancient America. 

The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to
bless you . . .; and this because ye are the children of the
covenant.’

Being a covenant people is to bless others. We are a covenant
people and the Lord will bless us and show us the way where
we know no way.  We will come to know the names of Jesus, the
Elders, our cousins, the Carols, . . . and the many others about us.

“It is a solemn covenant” with “Rewards [which] are almost
beyond mortal comprehension. . . .”

It is my prayer that we will increasingly show by our
behavior and our compassion that we are a covenant people.

*FYI:
LDS population,             13,824,854
World population,     6,868,260,844