Talk given on Sunday and Pioneer Heritage

I was asked to talk in sacrament meeting today. I had the pioneer spirit and told about my ancestor, Ricardo Rodriguez and his migration to the United States, with my grandmother, Maria Canchola. I also had the program set up to have pictures of my ancestors on the front of it. It was very effective and part of my talk.





The sister in the ward that does the program was so nice and helpful to put my ancestors' pictures on it. Top is my great grandmother, Maria Elena Eduiges Ulloa, a recent widow in the photo, and all but two of her sons, my grandfather and Uncle.The couple is Ricardo and Maria. The other one is Maria with all but her two youngest, twins born that same year the photo was taken, in 1925.

Actual program/bulletin is shown below.


The stories about our pioneer ancestors are ones that should be read and reread to our children. They will remember the sacrifices that were made in their behalf. I appreciate mine who came in the times that they did, and gave me the opportunity to prosper and live in this free land. That is something that is precious to me above any thing else.

My heart is full and cup runneth over.

A Day to Remember and Celebrate

I can almost taste and smell the spices, cumin, garlic and the corn tamales of this table spread. They are smells of home cooking, like when I was growing up.


I don't expect too many of you out there in reader land to remember that today is the anniversary of my sealing to my parents five years ago, October 30, 2004. It is a date written on the pages of my heart. It is a special day in my life too that I celebrate each day!

This week I was able to do some sealing work as a reminder of my own. I am always blessed to be able to perform these ordinances for those who have gone before. I have a testimony of the work that we do for our kindred dead blesses us on both sides of the veil. It binds the family as well as our hearts!

I remember the first anniversary of this date. It was a grand re-celebration for me, and my children who live close by in Utah. I planned fresh homemade tamales and it was a Sunday. I had labored all day on Saturday to prepared my meat and tamales. I did and had them frozen and then cooked them on Sunday for our family dinner. I went to church and put them in the cooker. I thought of my sons, who lives in Ohio and Washington and realized they were in church at the time and would call them later.

Well, the day came and went so I called them on Monday before their Family night. Each one was unaware that we had a family celebration of sorts the day before. I mentioned it to Michael first and told him I had made tamales and I had everyone over for the anniversary. He said, he had the strangest craving on Sunday for my tamales! Now how is that for turning the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children? I was overjoyed.

I made arrangement to send Michael some of the ingredients that he was unable to find in Ohio where he lives. They had their own feast after the fact. I still think this is quite an amazing incident. Now, that had to be a hidden treasure to say the least. There was always something delicious to eat that my mother made.

Then, I called Matt and Beth, after talking to Michael. They also reported they had the same strange cravings for my homemade tamales too! How can that be, without having something like the power of the sealing to effect them both so profoundly and at the same time, without even knowing we were gathered for our family heritage feast?

That had never happened in the past, and I marvel at the wonderful feeling of connection unbeknown to each of them. This one is definitely a binding experience with our family. My last few entries have to do with my ancestors and it could very well be that they were also celebrating on the other side too. The veil is thin, a I bear witness of this to be true.