Don't get mad....everything is for a reason.

Arlene here ~ So.... one day I am going genealogy and while on the familysearch website - I type in Jack Rowland Hilterbrand, don't ask me why - because I don't really know. For those of you that are not genealogy geeks yet, there is a place on the site you can see if the 'work' has been done for someone. Well.....you can imagine my shock when I saw that someone was doing Gpa Jacks 'work' in the Nashville temple. WHAT!*(*%)(#*%^ ....he has his work done!!!!!!!...it is right there, just look. Some mormons! grrrrr... You know some people just willy nilly go about submitting names and not even checking and then doing the work at random. Upset me! You are only suppose to do your own family line. What the heck!?!?! I callled Mom - tried to upset her, but she just said, "Oh, I know my mothers work has been done several times." Still bugged me...my OWN Dad. Someone not even related, someone we don't even know - doing his work. There is a man in our ward that always walks around with his big stack of blue and pink cards like a scout with 38 merit badges on his sash...in visiting, with him one time, I was talking about some genealogy sites etc and he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I could tell he was just a name gatherer and not verifying anything! I just silently hoped he wouldn't accidentally get over on "my" lines. But now some ding ding in Tennessee is doing that "my" our line.
I am at the temple getting some of those pink and blue cards and a member of the temple presidency (in our ward) visits and I tell him about someone doing MY Dad's work. He said..bring me the information. To make a long story slightly shorter...he got the phone number of some HB and Joyce Scott in McMinville Tennessee that was doing Dads work.
I come home. Call Mom...are there any "Scotts" in our line. Mom...Nope. Oh...I'm just going to give this SISTER Scott a ringy dingy on the phone and ask her how she is part of MY family...and doing my Dad's work that was already done.
Call her...she is nice...but has a friend helping her with her genealogy as she can't see good. Takes my information. I am a little turst....and his work is done...he did it while his was ALIVE!
She calls me back the next day. Well well well....She has a real strong southern accent..I wish I could type it for you....honey, get out a big piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. She then lists on the left side her line and on the right one mine...she says it like this. There is a Jamie Martin and he has a daughter Nancy Martin who is the mother of Jefferson Davis Hilterbrand and his son is Guy Jefferson Hilterbrand and he is your Granddaddy and then that brings us to your Daddy...Jack Rowland. Now you go back up there and right next to Nancy Martin you draw a line over to Alexander Martin on my line and see-uns as they be brother and sister - we are kin. You just never know the kin you got.
Then she shares - as I ask - (naughty me for being mad) about OUR kin in Tennessee. Joyce Scotts granddaddy went to a town meeting where they was having a big religious debate and he told his family - whoever wins - that's who we are joinin' up with. Well, the Mormons won. So Granddaddy and his family all joined and then when my Daddy married my Mom...she joined and they birthed 10 of us - so you have a lot of kinfolk here in Tennessee. My Granddaddy built the first LDS church here in 1909 and then they turned around and made him branch president and then Daddy helped build the church over by the mountain and they done the same thing to him.
They she said...aren't you excited for conference and to see who the new counselor will be? You know we are friends with Boyd K Packer. We're not prideful about it but just feel so humble and blessed to have been his friend over the years. We have a nursery and air send our flowers for conference and that's how we come to know him. A few years ago he called me right here on my home phone and said, "Joyce, I'm coming to Tennessee to see you and HB." He said he makes the travel assignments and it was time he came and see'd us. So at 11:15 just like he said, he drove right in our yard with his body guard and came right in our house. HB was feeling poorly and he gave him a blessing and then he walked out into our nursery and pronounced a blessing on it.
He is just the nicest man. Our branch made a quilt up for him and his wife. Yes, we talk quite often. Just so honored to have him as a friend.
I suppose you have stake conference like we do - they talk to you from SLC and then it goes out over five states. Well, Brother (she called him Brother not Elder) Packer was talkin' at ours and I could have slide right under my seat when he started talking about pioneers and then commenced to talk about the Scotts in Tennessee. Oh, I thought, this is going out over five states...I tried to crawl under the chair in front of me.
Joyce and I talked for quite a while. Yes, me and my new cousin Joyce. We have lots of kin in Tennessee. She apologized for doing Dads work and then said..."Well, we'd rather have it done twice than not at all and everything is for a reason."
What a wonderful reason....so I could meet Joyce and have the bestest visit.
I wonder if Dad has meet our kinfolk from Tennessee, yet. They are good'uns!
Oh...something else she shared. She asked how far away our temple was, I said - 5 minutes...she just sighed. Ours is two hours...but when we got married we went to Logan - took us three days and when we got there and saw it sitting on top of that hill - we just set to crying. We were so hungry we had to eat and went to a place right in the shadow of the temple. While we were in there some folk were smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and HB and I just looked at each other and HB said, "How can they do that in the shadow of the temple?"
Don't you just love our kin in Tennessee..........I do!