9 Mar 2022, Wednesday

 9 Mar 2022, Wednesday

Prioritized Daily Task

*I learned from the life of Apostle, missionary, and pioneer Charles C. Rich and his wife, Sarah Pea, not to judge anyone until you know them.

Charles Coulson Rich was born August 21, 1809, in Campbell County, KY, he died November 17, 1883, in Paris, ID - He married "Sarah Dearmond Pea" who was born September 23, 1814, in Looking-Glass Prairie, St. Clair, Illinois, United States on  11 February 1838 in Far West, Caldwell, Missouri.  She died on December 12, 1893, at age 79, and is buried in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho.

Charles C. Rich received his patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith Sr.  He was blessed that Satan will no power over him and this blessing will reach his children.  You don't hear or read of this often but it is true.  My patriarchal blessing promises blessings to my children and posterity if I do certain things, which I try to do.  The Lord blesses those who love and serve Him to the 3rd and 4th generations.

Sarah Pea and her family were introduced to the gospel by a couple of traveling missionaries at a meeting and Sarah requested and received a copy of the Book of Mormon.  She stayed up most of that night reading and studying the book.  The next morning she knew it was true.  She wanted to be baptized but the missionaries had passed on.  She went to her father and asked when are they coming back.  He told her, he did not think they were.  She and the rest of the family were greatly disappointed.  That night Sarah went to bed and had a dream.  She dreamed she was standing in front of their home and down the road she saw two men at the top of a hill.  They came down and approached their home and introduced themselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The next morning she told her dad she had a dream and the missionaries are coming back.  He told her no, Sarah, they said they were moving on and will not be coming back.  She said, Dad other missionaries will come.  He did not want to disappoint his daughter but he did not believe her.  A few days passed and she was out in the front yard when she saw two men at the top of the hill coming down the road.  She went inside and told her dad to come outside and see, that is what I saw in my dream, the missionaries are coming.   The two men stopped and introduced themselves as missionaries from the Church.  Sarah was given another disappointment; the missionaries told her they would like to come back in the spring and baptize her.   It was December in Illinois and all the lakes, ponds, and rivers were frozen solid.  Sarah would not be deterred, she talked the missionaries into baptizing her anyway by taking an ax and hammer and cutting a hole just large enough for Sarah and one of the missionaries to get into.  On the 15th of December Sarah was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in ice-filled water.  The missionary, Elder Hinkle, was a friend of Charles Rich and when he got home he told Charles about this wonderful girl he had met. So Charles decided to write to her on 23rd March 1837. *** He wrote, Miss Pea,  It is with pleasure I now pin a few lines to you, although a perfect stranger.  ... I hope may be received by you and the beginning of a happy acquaintance with you ..... I will let you know the reason for my boldness in writing to you ... Elder Hinkle recommended you highly to my attention ....  as one I could take comfort to live and one that could take comfort in me ... as you have been recommended to me I would be pleased to meet with you and discuss the subject. .... If these lines are received by the same feeling as I write them I trust you will be single and unengaged.  ... When you have read this and meditated on it I feel you will write and respond to me.  ....  I remand yours with the best of respect, Charles C. Rich.           Sarah receives by mail this invitation to be married to a complete stranger.  She did not know what to do; how do I respond to this; who is this stranger?  She did what she always did when she needed help, she prayed.  The Lord impressed her to go to the Bible for an answer.  She took the family Bible and randomly opened it to a random page.  She took her finger and randomly pointed to a place on the page that was open, it was Ruth chapter one, verses 16 and 17.  Without any other commentary she just quoted those two verses, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:  Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me." and signed it respectfully yours, Sarah Pea.                                                                  Don't judge anyone until you know them.  Sarah knew the gospel and Church were true.  She was not going to be deterred by the winter and the ice from being baptized.  She was not entangled in the things of the world or tempted by them.  While on the other hand, I (James Leonard McAlpiin) was looking for a reason not to be baptized.  I was so entangled in the things of the world I did not want to give them up.  It meant making a covenant by taking on me the name of Christ and by going into the water and being baptized.  But when I had made the covenant and commitment there was no going back or abanding the covenant and commitment I had made.                                                          Time passes fast, Charles and Sarah Rich are gone.  This is now my turn on earth and it will be ending someday, your turn is now and I trust and pray you will hold fast to the iron rod and endure faithful to the end.                                                                           ***I heard a similar story from my Mission President, Joseph J. Jenkins when I was a young missionary about James R. Boone and Charles A. Callis, Mission President of the Southern States Mission for about 25 years, 1908 to 1933 when Charles A. Callis was called as an Apostle.  The young Elder Boone sole all he had to go on a mission.  He went without a purse or script.  At the end of 4 years, and still had money from the sale of his livestock in Florida.  He told President Callis he still had money and was not ready to go home.  President Callis told him to go home and get married; your mission here is over.  (about 100 years after Charles C. Rich and Sarah Pea)  Elder Boone did not know anyone to marry but he did remember one sister missionary, Ruth Flake, that had been impressed with.  She had gone home earlier.  He wrote the mission office in Atlanta and got her address.  He wrote her and asked if she would marry him.  The story below is from LDS IN EARLY SOUTH LEFT RICH GOSPEL LEGACY By Deseret News Oct 15, 1994, and Ruth gives her thoughts on the proposal.  (This article corrects some misconceptions and errors I wrote in my journal years earlier about his 12 sons being Eagle Scouts.  It appears from this article only 9 of his sons were Eagle Scouts.) (From this article there is another correction I need to make to my journals.  It is that the Florida Stake of the Church was not the first state to be organized east of the Mississippi, it was the 4th. "The Florida Stake, established in Jacksonville, on  January 19, 1947" was the fourth stake east of the Mississippi, and the first in the South."                

A typical day at “Camp Boone,” home of the Boone family in Jacksonville, Florida, many years ago, began with Dad singing, almost on pitch, “The worst part of all is to hear the bugle call, ‘I can’t get them up, I can’t get them up, I can’t get them up in the morning.’” But feet hit the floor, signaling the expected amount of confused scrambling in a family of 13 children:

“Fred’s got my socks on.”

“No, I haven’t—these are my socks.”

“I can’t find my shoes.”

“Maybe that’s what Coley threw at the dog last night.”

But their arguments were short-lived; no one wanted to be the last downstairs. The milkers got their buckets and headed out to the cows; sons Joseph and George were assigned to the chickens. Flake, the oldest, made sandwiches for sack lunches, while Mom fixed breakfast.

Meals required a lot of food in a family of 15, but Mom enjoyed her role. “At no time did we ever feel burdened because of having a large family, but blessed at being trusted with Heavenly Father’s spirit children,” she says. “Our sons and daughters have been loving and obedient.” Each of the children expresses gratitude that the family was large enough to include him.

A look at the family’s lifestyle shows the reason for such attitudes. As soon as the “livestock people” were back from their chores it was time for family prayer. Dad would call, “All in.” When everyone had assembled, he counted, “Flakey, Coley, Frederick, Dan; Joseph, George, and Hyrum Man; Melinda, Martha, David, John; Ruth Elaine, and Tiny One.” (“Tiny One” is Michael, who is now over six feet tall.)

“Now we add, ‘Sammy Lambie,’” reminds Mom. Samuel was adopted in 1971 as number 14.

“Dad never forgot family prayer, and never forgot to ask our Father in heaven for blessings,” says Melinda. “He always asked the Lord to bless people who had wronged us, like someone who had stolen a car from Dad’s used car lot. He never showed bitterness for what we did not have or what we had lost—only gratitude for what we did have.

“One morning when we were leaving for school we found our dog poisoned. Father just sent us on to school, but that evening he asked a special blessing for the people who had killed our dog. I have appreciated Dad’s example of praying for those who had hurt us.”

After prayers, it was time to go to school. Flake would take the youngest to grade school in the car, then return for those who went to junior and senior high schools. Dad received his high school diploma when he already had 11 children, and the children were strongly encouraged in school.

When school was over, the group split into the “house help” and the “car lot help”; each had assigned chores. “We soon found that pea shelling, corn husking, apple peeling, and even dishwashing could be more pleasant if one read aloud while the others worked,” says Mother Boone. “We were not plagued with television for many years, and when one was given to us it was only used for special programs after all the homework and chores were done.”

Other evening activities included softball games and making ice cream. Hyrum relates, “Several evenings each summer we went to a lake resort where we would swim until dark and then have a picnic. This was the favorite home evening activity for all but the cow milkers. We would get home around 11 P.M. and Father would say, ‘Time to milk the heifers.’”

Brother and Sister Boone started having family home evening when they were first married. Minutes kept from 1959 reveal that each family member had an assigned part. Activities ranged from turning a somersault to giving a book review, singing, or telling a joke. When the Church encouraged wider use of the family home evening program, the Boone’s family night was so well-known that they were called to demonstrate techniques to their ward and stake.

Such recognition makes the Boones a model family in many ways, yet they still are very real people, responding to life’s challenges. Martha, for example, remembers one growing experience: “Every evening after family prayer we kissed Mom and Dad. One evening as Dad bent down to kiss one of my younger brothers, he noticed that someone had cut his hair. When Dad asked who, no one answered, but I ran outside to hide among the orange trees. One of my older brothers came to take me back to ‘face the music.’ Everyone had scattered by then and Dad took me into his bedroom where, after learning details of the haircut, he gave me a good spanking. It really wasn’t that bad, but I remember it well, because afterward, he knelt in prayer, with me kneeling facing him, crying, my folded arms and bowed head resting on his legs, while he prayed for me and for himself as my father. He explained the punishment was as much for running out as for the haircut.”

Flake remembers that punishment came in varied methods: “Once when I wrecked a car all Dad said was, ‘That should teach you that you can’t beat the law of averages.’ On the other hand, I got my pants well warmed for hitting Coley on the head with a button. Now the fact that it was a big button and I threw it as hard as I could (as Coley said, which was probably true) at point-blank range may have entered into the punishment somewhat.”

Hyrum also remembers some effective discipline: “Once we were playing in the living room when ‘direct disputations’ arose in loud tones. ‘Direct disputations’ were forbidden. Dad came in from the bathroom where he was shaving. His face was covered with lather and there were tear furrows down each cheek. He sobbingly asked if he had failed to teach us any better. I was appalled to be a part of such a quarrel and never received a reprimand so severe or so effective in my entire life.”

The discipline, obedience, and sacrifice that James R. and Ruth Boone taught their children have been evidenced in many successes within the family. The children averaged less than one day per year absence from school, several going 12 years without missing one day. One hundred percent Church attendance records were rarely broken. Scouting activity gave rise to the name Camp Boone, with nine sons achieving the Eagle Rank. Including parents, the family has served a total of 28 years on missions.

This heritage of service is rooted in the lives of their parents. It was toward the end of his four years’ service in the Southern States Mission that James R. Boone met Ruth Flake, also a missionary. He had a leadership responsibility, and she remembers that Elder Boone was very strict.

But after their missions the two corresponded and met on September 30, 1937, to be married in the Salt Lake Temple. They had been together only one day before their wedding. Thinking of love as a prerequisite for marriage, their son Hyrum once asked his mother if she loved her husband then. She answered, “Certainly not as I later did, but I understood that any righteous woman could learn to love any righteous man. I was convinced of your father’s qualifications and knew my own desires were to live the commandments, so went ahead.” Son James relates, “I never heard a cross word pass between them.”

They made their home in Jacksonville and Ruth has served in several Church responsibilities, eventually being called as president of the stake Relief Society.

When their income was small and the large family had many needs, Sister Boone offered to get a job, but the decision was always, “We’ll try another week.” She says, “Though I was sorely tempted, I never went out of the home to work. How thankful I am now that I was able to stay close to the children. How grateful for a noble companion who helped me see where my treasures were. We didn’t have all the material things that sometimes seem so urgent, but we did and do have the things that really count.”

Their home is still heated by a fireplace and she cooked on a wood stove for years. For many years they had no electricity.

A model of gentleness, generosity, and temperance, Brother Boone has also been active in serving the Lord. Sister Boone has supported her husband in as many as seven Church callings at one time: At the time of their marriage he was district president; he served in this calling for 10 years. When the Florida Stake was organized he was called as stake patriarch. Only 35 years old, he was one of the youngest in the Church at the time.

His number one responsibility, however, has always been to preside as a patriarch over his family. Daughter Melinda says, “Dad, to me, represents the most worthy priesthood bearer I ever knew. Dad and Mom’s attitude of love and respect to each other made it a very natural thing to honor the priesthood. I remember a father’s blessing given so many times, the prayers of faith, and the healings. I remember the fast Sundays when Dad gave one of us a patriarchal blessing. Before breaking our fast we would each say something good about the particular brother or sister who was to receive the blessing. To me, the offices and callings of the priesthood were just as natural as eating. I thought it was something every home was blessed to have.”

On Sunday mornings the day began with scripture study. Mom remembers that for years they all could get on one big bed, where they would talk about the scriptures and have prayer together before doing necessary chores.

After attending all their meetings, the family often spent Sunday evenings around the fire, with Dad peeling and cutting oranges or cold sugar cane and handing the pieces around to each child.

The story of the Boone family may sound like a fairy tale, but actually, it is a story of struggle and hard work. “I don’t know if I will ever fully know what it was that kept them striving and trying through all the days of financial worries and times we were ill and cares were almost unbearable, but I do know that they were blessed because they never faltered,” says Melinda.

Daniel adds, “The only reason there is any story to tell is because of our parents and their principles and goals. Without them, there wouldn’t be anything.”

President Thomas S. Monson said "Brother Boone passed away nearly seven years ago, in December 1987. His great desire was to have 100 grandchildren born to his sons and daughters while he lived in mortality. His 100th grandchild was born on the day that Brother Boone was laid to rest.

As I look upon Brother Boone's life and the lives of many of you, the thought from the Lord echoes throughout my soul: `Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' "(Matt.6:19-21.)

On our way back from Disney World one summer I took my family to attend church in Jacksonville where my mission president had served as bishop and where Brother James R. Boone attend church.  He was there with his adoptive son, Sammy Lambie.  I had heard many stories about Brother Boone but had never met him before.  

I was up early this morning; Matthew called and asked if I wanted to go skiing with them at Sundance again today.  I had my personal prayer, showered and shaved; packed a few things (sealings at Mt. Timpanogas Temple early Friday morning and Clari's endowment at the Logan Temple Saturday morning).  Debbie called and we had prayer together.  I drove up Provo Canyon to Sundance and parked next to Matthew and the family.  I helped them get their skies and boots on.  Melodie put heating strips in the girl's boots and gloves.  I took a picture of the two Yurts just outside the dining area here at the first ski lift.  One is an office and meeting and registering room for the ski school.  The second is filled with lockers for the staff.  I called and checked on Frank Powell and texted and checked on Dell Holmes.  Ava spent time with me but eventually got bored and wanted to go back skiing.  I called Matthew and he came in, got her, and took her back skiing.  This time he did not have to use the harness to hold her.  She is now skiing on her own.  Madeline and Bella are both going down the black diamond slopes without falling.  When the resort closed Matthew and the family went back to the cabin to pack. Melodie and the girls are leaving tomorrow.  Matthew is staying for business.  I came home, had dinner and talked to Debbie.  We had prayer and I got to bed about 11:00 PM.