My grandfather’s interactions with the Prophet Joseph

I have been LOVING doing family history. I feel so close to these ancestors as I study their stories. I’ve been having so many amazing things happen, I wish I could just spill them all out, but Im going to have to write one at a time. I want to share these stories for my family to see. I hope we remember what great sacrifices our ancestors made to have the gospel. They wanted the gospel and they wanted us, their posterity, to be blessed by the gospel. I have found the greatest stories of faith in my own ancestors.

One of my 5th Great grandfather’s name is Alvah Alexander. He was a member of one of the 1st quorums of the seventy. I was reading his bio today and came across this piece he wrote about his interactions with the prophet Joseph Smith.

“I came to Nauvoo in the fall of 1842. At this time I met the Prophet Joseph Smith, and knew him from then till the time of his death. I was only a boy of eleven when I first knew him, but I always loved him, and no amusements or games were as interesting to me as to hear him talk.

I remember one day I was at his home playing with his children, when he came home and brought two men. These men had been arrested for abusing Joseph. He brought them in and treated them as he would one who had never done him a wrong; gave them dinner before he would allow them to depart. Just before they sat down to dinner he brought his children up and introduced them. Pointing to me he said: ‘This is a neighbor’s little boy’.

When the officers were taking Joseph to Carthage, at the time of his assassination, my father and I met them. We stepped to one side of the road to allow them to pass.

Captain Dunem, who was with Joseph, stopped and told my father that Joseph said he never expected to return. And he never did, for he was foully assassinated at the Carthage Jail.

When they returned with the body, I was among those who went to meet them. I saw him lying in state at the Mansion House. I was deeply affected, as my love for the Prophet was great. As a boy, my testimony that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet was as strong as it is now as a man; and I verily testify that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of the living God.”

I also know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. I am so grateful for this wise grandfather writing down his experiences so that they may bless our lives.

Family – this is (grandma Isabella’s mother) Lacy Bell Hatch’s great grandfather. 

What e’er thou art act well thy part

Sir Knight and I don’t have many weekends left till we move across the country so we are taking every chance we can to attend the temple. Its our favorite place to go on a date. Its amazing how going to this place increases my love for Caleb. I remember when we got sealed in the Draper temple, the man who sealed us told Caleb that by taking me to the temple he is telling me he still wants me forever. I love that.

Sunday we went to church and I left Lincoln alone in nursery for the first time. Caleb came out of Elder’s quorum (a church meeting for men) and said, “How was relief society (relief society is a meeting for women) today? I bet it was nice without Lincoln.”  I said, “I missed him.” Caleb laughed. But really, one day when I no longer have babies to hold at church, or a little one to pace around the halls with, I am going to miss it terribly. I love this stage of my life. I looked forward to it since I was a little girl. I know right after Lincoln was born, and I was super tired, it was difficult at times. But I do feel like I am good at enjoying the stage that I am in. My days are not crazy with several children, like I hope they will be one day. It is just Lincoln and I playing, learning, eating, napping, reading, cooking, and cleaning together. It is heavenly. It is what I came here to do and be – a mother.

One day while I was nursing Lincoln in the mothers room at church I saw a sign someone had placed above the door it said, “What e’re thou art act well thy part.” It reminded me of this talk. I reread it when I got home and decided to share a paragraph from it on instagram (@paigerchickybaby).

As daughters of God we are each unique and different in our circumstances and experiences. And yet our part matters—because we matter. Our daily contributions of nurturing, teaching, and caring for others may seem mundane, diminished, difficult, and demeaning at times, and yet as we remember that first line in the Young Women theme—“We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us”—it will make all the difference in our relationships and our responses.

Happy Monday!