Happy Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day!
In a quiet summer evening a couple weeks ago, a member of the Bishopric came to our home and asked us to speak in church. We accepted, and THEN he told us our topic. PIONEERS. I tried to hide my cringe. I'll be honest, it's not my favorite topic to speak about. Don't get me wrong, it's a great topic, it's just not a great topic for my "speaking style". I like to take a personal experience and turn it into a story using a gospel principle. I don't have any personal experiences about wearing a bonnet, or pulling a wagon, or collecting buffalo chips. Well...I take that back. Miles and I used to wander through the pasture in front of our house with one of those big ice cream buckets and...and pick up cow patties. Miles had a much better eye than me for finding the old ones. It took me a few time to learn that fresh ones aren't easy to pick up. Anyway - so the bishopric member left after a nice chat. Ian and I looked at each other with blank stares. Although we both have Pioneer heritage, we are not current on any personal family stories. I murmured a bit just before going to bed.

In the morning, just a few short hours after being asked to speak about pioneers, Ian went to work and checked his email. And that's when a miracle happened on his behalf. (Probably because he didn't murmur). He opened his email and saw an email from his mother.

"I have had this life history in storage for years. I finally dug it out today and retyped it so I can email it and save it to a CD. I hope you save it and copy it to a CD too, and let your children have a copy. "A MEMORIAL WRITTEN BY TAMMA DURFEE MINER MARCH 13^TH,1881 WRITTEN IN SPRINGVILLE, UTAH"

How is IAN related?

Tamma Durfee had a son: Mormon

Mormon had a son: Albert Uriah Miner

Albert Uriah had a daughter Laurel (married Delmar Dickson)

Laurel and Delmar had 4 children: Dee, Elaine, Diane and John.

Dee had 4 daughters: Diane ,Judy, Debbie, and Janean

Diane (married Craig Service) had 5 children :

Steve, Ian, Tres, Tyler, Holly

So there was Ian's talk for him right before his eyes: Tamma is Ian's Great Great Great Great Grandmother. She was baptized in 1831, was there when they layed the cornerstone to the Kirtland Temple. She attended meetings where the prophet Joseph Smith was speaking. She crossed the plains, had 14 children, 5 of which died. Her 17 year old son, Orson, drove the wagon across the plains for her, and died when he got to the Salt Lake Valley. And much more about Tamma's life as an early Latter-day Saint was there for Ian. It was a miracle...for Ian. It was awesome...for Ian. I still had to come up with something. So I checked my email for the next couple of days looking for my miracle. Nothing. That'll teach me to murmur!Albert Uriah Miner

ON ANOTHER NOTE:
The Blue Angles are in town for the weekend and they are doing practice drills over our house. Lucky us, we don't have to pay $50 for a ticket to watch them.