"My Grace is Sufficient"

"My grace is sufficient".  That is a reoccurring theme that we have felt over the past month.  It has been reflected in our experiences and pondering.  We find it especially relevant in our temple and family history service and in compensation for our weakness.  It is clearly part of Our Heavenly Father's plan and is the reason for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

17 of Debbie's Great Grandfathers who were baptized and confirmed on the same day.  By the grace of our Savior, they now have the opportunity to be liberated from spirit prison and receive all the blessings offered through temple ordinances.

I use as the theme of this blog, the following scripture found in the Book of Mormon. 

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  (Ether 12:27)

As mortal men and women, we are full of weakness and limitations.  However, this all has a purpose. It helps us to be humble and to access His strength through our faith.  Through His Grace, we are able to see miracles occur on this earth as long as we remember the source of those miracles.

Let me share these thoughts in a few different settings:

In the our service in the Temple

In the temple we are instructed, as ordinance workers, to administer the ordinances with exactness. However, we often see small errors by the officiators or the patrons. To this we are instructed that the Lord accepts the ordinances, even if there are errors.   This is a perfect example of His Grace. When we strive for exactness but come up lacking, He makes up the difference and accepts our sincere efforts. 

In the temple we also serve many patrons with disabilities.  Some are missing limbs, others are not able to stand, still others cannot speak appropriately.  In all of these cases we are instructed to do the best that we can in each situation and the ordinance work that is performed will be accepted.

We also had the privilege of performing baptisms for 17 of Debbie's great grandfathers in the same day with the assistance of our grandson, Joseph.  As we performed the confirmations, the spirit was overpowering.  We were all in tears as we felt the clear presence of many of these ancestors.  We were taught today at Church that as we receive ordinances for our ancestors, it is similar in a small way to the atonement of Jesus Christ.  We are doing the work for them that they are not able to do for themselves.  That is exactly what our Savior does for us. He has paid for our sins and opened the door so that we can return to the presence of the Lord, something that we could never do on our own.  This is certainly His Grace for our benefit.

In Family History Work

In our Family History work, we strive to discover and identify our ancestors without knowing where to look. Yet he places hints and helps along the way that we discover after diligent efforts and much prayer. Again, His Grace is sufficient after our efforts. We have seen this so many times and have had some very specific experiences this past month that reminds us of this principle. 

• One of my earliest concerns in doing family history research for my German ancestors has been the data relating to Johann Martin Rückert’s birth and his ancestors going back.  As I originally looked into Family Search, I could see that there had been a few different versions of the ancestors of Johann Martin Rückert, born in 1704 or 1708, depending on the version.  In each version, his father had the name of Friedrich as part of the name.  His parents differed in each version and of course the corresponding ancestors to each.
  
  
  In our very first visit to the Burgbernheim parish (which included the parish of Hochbach) in July 2016, we searched out the microfilm of the supposed marriage of Johann Martin’s parents in 1704. It was mostly unreadable and caused more confusion than answers.  Eventually I learned that it talked of a marriage of Johann Rückert, son of Georg Rickert of Obern Biebert and Anna Margaretha, daughter of Hans Michael Rückert of Ergersheim.  I have spent the last few years to try and identify this relationship, as it seemed inconsistent with other information.
  
  
  As I have learned of Familienregisters, I have seen many Rückert families, but none with Johann Martin as a son.  I saw no birth of Johann Martin Rückert in the supposed year of 1708 in Burgbernheim (Hochbach).  While stuck in this dilemma, I asked my cousin Gloria to see what she could find out about this relationship.  She did some significant research in archion.de, identifying a different Johann Martin Rückert, born in 1718 to a Johann Rückert and an Anne Marie.  Still nothing conclusive.  However, she did find a marriage record of Johann Martin in 1743, identifying his father as Johann Rückert of Hochbach.  She also identified a death record of Johann Martin in 1784.  His age in that death record linked him to the May 1718 birth record.  After all of her research, her conclusion was “I think I raised more questions and really didn’t solve the one you asked”.
  
  
  In this time of indecision on this matter, we continued to have incredible success in many other family history endeavors for both Debbie’s ancestors and mine, but no more definition for Johann Martin.  In fact, I have carried a Johann Martin file with me on trips, hoping to find anything that might clear up what I saw as erroneous information in Family Search. In our last trip to Germany, I printed out Rückert Familienregisters for all of the villages that Fritz Magerlein had recorded in hopes to still find some information on Johann Martin and his ancestors.
  
  
  Finally on Saturday, July 14, 2018, I felt prompted to start looking again for a solution to this Family History mystery.   I spent much of the day searching all of the Familienregisters that we had gathered and still did not find a mention of Johann Martin or his father, Johann (or Johann Friedrich).  On Sunday, I read and reread the research done by Gloria and reviewed the images that supported her research.  I became convinced that the Johann Martin Rückert born in 1718 was truly my 4^thGreat Grandfather.  
  
  
  But how could I identify his correct parents, which appeared to be Johann and Anne Marie.  In his 1743 marriage record it stated that his father Johann was deceased, so I began looking for death records in the Hochbach records, which are available on-line at archion.de.  I found Johann’s death record on April 12, 1742, which stated his age as 62 years old, 3 months, 1 day, which would give him a birth record of about Jan. 11, 1680.  I did not find such a birth record in Hochbach (Burgbernheim).  I also found a death record on March 15, 1744 for Maria Rückert, widow of Johann Rückert, however no maiden name was mentioned. That death record showed an age of 64 years, and 15 days, which would correspond to a birth on March 1 or the end of February in 1680.  I checked for a birth at that time in some on-line records and found a birth of a Maria on February 29, 1680.  I thought I had probably found the birth of my 5^thgreat grandmother, but could not decipher the writing of her last name. The father was Michael ????ck.  I wasn’t sure of the first letter in the name, if it was B or a G or a H or a K, etc.  Fortunately, there was a good alphabetical list of births that was typewritten in the on-line records, so I began looking through them until I found the name of M. Klenck born on February 29, 1680.  I felt that I had finally found the name of my 5^thgreat grandmother and the name of her father.  All of these records that were found, identified the location as Hochbach.
  
  
  I went to bed feeling that I had made great progress, especially in identifying Maria Klenck. As I prayed and thanked my Heavenly Father for his help, my thoughts went two directions, one to the parish of Marktbergl, where Johann Martin had married, thinking that perhaps I could find his father’s information there.  The other was to look in the Printed book that we had purchased at the GFF library during our mission about the home owners in Burgbernheim, which included Hochbach.  So rather than go to bed, I decided to go back out and search a little more.
  
  
  I searched the records of Marktbergel which are on-line and found nothing that fit my needs.  These included “cards” that we had photographed from the Marktbergl parish during our last trip.  I then decided to check out the Burgbernheim book.  As I looked in the index, there was no Johann Rückert, but there was a Hanns Rückert.  When I looked him up, he was linked to the same Hochbach #4 house where my grandfather was born.  The title to that house had passed to him in 1701 from Michael Klenck!  I was elated, not only to see Hans Rückert, but also the link to Michael Klenck who had become his father in law.  I also saw that the name of Johann Rückert was used in the same book in 1730.
  
  
  I knew then that I was on the right track, but I still didn’t know Johann's father or his origin, I could not find his birth or marriage record.  I took one more look in the Hochbach records and my Familienregisters without success.  Then I looked one more time at the Burgbernheim book and saw a footnote that I had missed earlier.  It noted that Hans Rückert was the older son of Nicolaus Rückert of Pfaffenhofen.  Another foot note noted that Andreas Klenck was from Ermetzhofen.  Andreas was the owner before Michael Klenck and I assume that he was his father.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  I found a Michael Klenck with a father of Andreas in Family Search and linked Maria in to this existing family line.  I still need to find a Familienregister for Ermetzhofen and the Klenck surname to confirm what is in Family Search.  That should be doable with help from some of my new friends in Germany.  I also found Nicolaus Rückert in both the Pfaffenhofen Familienregister and in the Pfaffenhofen Church books showing his marriage but not showing the birth of any children.  However, Nicolaus does link back into the previously identified Rückert family.  Finally about 2:30 am, I went to bed satisfied that I had identified all of the family links for Johann Martin Rückert.
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  The next morning I had some additional time available.  With the new information about Nicolaus, I decided to look one more time through all of the Familienregisters.  I did so without success.  However, I found a Johann Rückert in Family Search linked to Nicolaus.  I felt very good about where I had arrived, but still without an actual birth or marriage record for Johann Rückert.  In one last review of the Familienregisters, I reviewed some genealogical information that I had received from William Veeh, one of the Board Members of the GFF genealogical organization in Nürnberg. He had shared some things with us because he had some Rückerts in his family line.  As I reviewed it, I saw the same Nicolaus Rückert in his family line with a son Friedrich that had been born in 1673 in Kaubenheim.  (Friedrich was the brother of Johann, the father of Johann Martin) This is a village that is not included in the Magerlein Familienregisters.  However, their records are available on-line in archion.de.
  
  

  

  
  

  
  As I reviewed these records, I found the birth record of Johann Rückert on December 20, 1679 in Kaubenheim!  This is within 20 days of the projected birth date of Johann, based on his death record. I subsequently found the birth record of two other siblings and the marriage record of Johann and Maria on July 10, 1703 and the marriage record of Johann’s parents on March 3, 1679.  This led to further identification of Johann’s maternal line (Barbara Schmeid) and siblings, all from Kaubenheim.  Some of this data was in Family Search, but with inconsistencies and duplications.  I spent the rest of the day updating and documenting all of this in Family Search.
  
  
  The conclusion of this has taken a large part of 3 days, but it resolves much inconsistent and conflicting data that has been in Family Search for many years.  I feel that Johann Martin and his ancestors have been tugging on me for some time.  Much of the temple work has been completed, but the families have been incorrectly connected.  For others, we will now begin doing the temple work, including at our sealing session this Saturday for those who have the other ordinances performed.  All of the temple sealings for these families were updated and completed on July 21, one week after this last effort began.
  
  

  

  The sealing ordinances were completed on July 21, 2018 for Johann Martin Rueckert and his 5 siblings, which included three who had died in infancy, as well as the sealing of his mother to her parents.  All of the other ordinance  work had been completed for these individuals previously.  Note that most of the other ordinances were completed in the 1930s.

  This has been a long explanation of what I consider to be a miraculous unfolding of correct family history research.  The feeling that I have carried for years was confirmed and now the records are correct and supported by documentation from the original Church Books.   I have been led by various promptings and have accessed multiple sources of information which had been gathered over the past several years.  Without all of them and the promptings of the Holy Ghost, this mystery could not have been solved.
  
  
  As in all Family History work, new discoveries lead to more questions about further generations, especially on the maternal lines.  However, I feel very strongly that the paternal Rückert line is now correct from myself back to the 1500s.

• Another Family History experience is our efforts with Debbie's ancestors.  We have had to work extra hard for each ancestor that we have discovered, one by one out of parish records.  As we recently looked into Family Search for a possible microfilm record from one of the parishes that we had worked with, we discovered more than a thousand pages of information in a Family Tree format on-line, from the region where many of her ancestors came from.  These were organized by Family name and are beginning with a grandparent from the 1600s and continuing with their posterity until the 1800s.  All of a sudden, we are finding hundreds of her relatives, similar to the success that we had found with my ancestors.  Once again, after we have extended our efforts to identify many of these family lines, His Grace has shown us many more of these family members in large numbers.

Sample of the Family Tree for Hans Heinrich Atzerodt, Debbie's 7th great grandfather.  This was one more generation than we had found previously and linked many more records that we had found to Debbie's family line in Family Search.  This also opened up over 50 additional individuals for temple ordinances to be performed,  just in this one line and we have not yet entered all of this information into Family Search.

In our mortal state on this earth 

• In our mortal state we are given so many weaknesses and limitations and trials. Yet He asks us to Come Unto Him and He will carry our burdens or make them light. We see so many, even among our children, who have come to the earth with limitations, yet through His Grace, they can all return to His presence if they will simply do the best that they can.

• As each of us sin, we come up short. However through His atonement and love we have the opportunity to repent each and every day. Through His Grace, we can be made clean and return to Our Heavenly Father's presence. 

Elder Holland taught it as follows:  “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him … ,” Moroni pleads. “Love God with all your might, mind and strength, then … by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ.” Our only hope for true perfection is in receiving it as a gift from heaven--we can’t “earn” it. Thus, the grace of Christ offers us not only salvation from sorrow and sin and death but also salvation from our own persistent self-criticism."

In each of these situations we are promised blessings "through our faithfulness". Our kind Heavenly Father judges our faithfulness based on individual criteria, considering the talents that we have been given. Recently I read the parable of the talents while in the temple and noticed the following:

Matthew 25:15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

Each was given different talents and each that applied his talents appropriately were told to "enter thou into the joy of thy lord." This is by the Grace of the Lord. 

We certainly have enjoyed some wonderful events recently that help us recognize the Lord's plan and the value of families.  We recently were able to see the birth of our 38th grandchild.  Grant Alexander Ferguson, born to Gina and Danny on July 25, 2018.  It is always a joy to see a child come into this world, especially when it is to a faithful young family such as Danny and Gina.  We are proud of them and have enjoyed this new addition.

Oma with little Grant on the day of his birth

Grant Alexander Ferguson on the day of his birth

Oma with Grant a week later

Grant at one week old, awake and alert

Gina with Grant at just over 2 weeks (Cousin Mark's wedding reception)

We also celebrated the wedding of our nephew Mark and his new wife, Hannah.  Both lived in our previous ward.  They are both returned missionaries and young people with their lives heading in the right direction.  Before their marriage they were serving as ordinance workers in the temple.

As we sat with them in the temple and observed their sealing, we were taught by a wonderful sealer, David Christenson.  He taught us about the patriarchal priesthood, a subset of the Melchezidek priesthood.  He explained the role of a patriarch and a matriarch in a clear and beautiful way.  We certainly were taught from on high in that sealing room.  As a side note, Mark had developed a friendship with Brother Christenson since the time that he received his endowment before his mission, when Brother Christenson was part of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple presidency.  Brother Christenson also served as a temporary mission president in Brazil (for 6 weeks) during a transition period during my (Tom's) mission.  It was great to see him again.  We have always enjoyed his mixture of humor with deep spiritual insight.

Mark and Hannah coming out of the temple

Debbie carrying Hannah's bridal train outside of the temple

Doing the famous Rueckert wedding pyramid.  Mark on the top, brothers, friends and relatives holding him up.  Tom is in the middle of the pyramid.

Personal Revelation by the Grace of the Lord

Since April Conference we have tried to improve our ability to understand the Lord's will in our lives.  President Nelson told us that "this is the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint . . . that it is our right to have the manifestations of the Spirit every day of our lives."  He told us how he has been impressed about "how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will."  This is also part of His Grace being sufficient.  He will reveal all that we need to know in our journey on this earth.  Debbie has prepared the following chart and it is hanging on our mirrors and refrigerator, describing the steps that President Nelson has outlined for us to receive revelation in our lives.

Steps to prepare ourselves to receive more personal revelation

As we have strived to hear His will in our lives, we have found some amazing results, all by the Grace of Our Lord.  For example, we have been having dates with each of our grandchildren.  Our grandson, Caide, told us right after Christmas that he wanted to go horseback riding.  We have prayed earnestly to have a positive influence in Caide's life.  After we enjoyed our horseback ride together, Caide immediately wanted to return again.  He has always loved horses.  We hung around the pens and petted the horses and talked to those working there.  I felt impressed to ask if they ever needed help.  This led to a conversation with the head person who said that they didn't pay much, but that they would like someone on Saturdays.  This fit perfectly with Caide's availability and desires.

Within a week, we had a commitment for Caide to start working yesterday, August 11.  I feel strongly that this is the hand of the Lord in Caide's life, His Grace.  I talked to Caide about praying for this and we had a prayer between us before he started his first day of work.

Caide on Pongo, the horse that he picked out to ride

Caide on the horseback rid

Caide with one of the ponies and the one of the cowboys

Caide with his Oma and the horses

Caide working at the stables two weeks later

Another example was in a prayer that we had to improve our visits with Camila (Caide's mother).  We have been visiting her weekly for some time now and we have struggled to have a meaningful visits with her limited ability to communicate.  Both Debbie and I had independent answers to share picture books with her.  I also felt impressed to teach her to pray and to pray with her.

As we followed these impressions, the result was our best visit that we have had yet with her.  As we were teaching her to pray, one of the other residents in the care center came into her room and asked us to visit him and to share the gospel with him.  As we did so, we felt a very special spirit with this man, Barry.  Barry had been baptized since coming to the care center and shares a strong testimony of the gospel, even if some of his understanding is still limited.  Camila joined us in our visit and we all felt very positive about the result.  Once again, when we don't know what to do, but listen to the promptings from our Heavenly Father, we receive His Grace and answers well beyond our imagination or expectation.  God is Good!!

Debbie reading a picture book with Camila at the Care Center

Our son Ammon is expecting a child with his girl friend Jessica.  This son will be named Tommy Rueckert and should arrive by the end of this month.  Although we don't condone having children out of wedlock, we do want Ammon and Jessica to know of our love and the love of Ammon's siblings. We felt impressed to hold a baby shower for them and invited the entire family.  It was our best attended family event since we returned from our mission.  Ammon has recently made great progress in his life and we certainly want him to know that his entire family is supportive of his progress.  These events end up being a lot of work, but our family relationships are certainly worth each moment of effort.

The clubhouse set up for the shower

Mustaches and bow ties were the decor of the decorations and also of the cookies and cake

Jessica and Ammon opening presents

Birthdays, Grandparent Dates and other activities:

We celebrated birthdays this month for Jasper Digerness (turned 5) and Naliyah, who is with her grandmother in Hawaii.  James Preston DeVore just turned 13 in Pennsylvania.

Jasper opening his present

Jasper opening another present with his siblings looking on

Besides Caide's horseback riding, we also had a few other grandparent dates.  This included a visit to the aquarium with Ashton (age 7) and with Abbie (age 8)  at a Chocolate Camp at Gardner Village.

Abbie:

Class teaching them how to decorate with chocolate

Beginning to build a covered wagon

Completed Covered Wagon before covering with chocolate

Final creations

Lunch afterwards

Ashton:

Ashton at the Living Planet Aquarium with Oma

Big man Ashton

With the Penguins

Crossing the bridge with Oma

We celebrated our first family activity in our condominium on the 24th of July.  We had a new barbecue grill and tried to utilize our space on the patio and indoors.  It took all of the space available, but it worked.  It helped that they did not all come at the same time.

Indoor seating and eating

With a few more outside on the patio

We also took part in the 80th birthday celebration of my Aunt Carol, my mother's step sister.  This allowed us to renew old friendships with these relatives.  My Aunt Carol (and her brother Paul) are the children of my Grandpa Nesi, the third husband of my grandmother.  Carol is now mostly blind.

Aunt Carol and Uncle Dean

Blowing out the cake with her son and daughter and her brother Paul in the forefront

Grandmother with her step sister and brother-in-law

Tending Paisley

Other miscellaneous:

Debbie finally prevailed with me and we bought some cemetery plots in the South Jordan City Cemetery.  I still plan on being twinkled, but we got extra space in case some of our children need a final resting place.

Location of our 5 cemetery plots

Certificate of ownership

Gardening Update:

Our grow box garden continues to grow.  We have enjoyed a few cucumbers already and cantaloupes, tomatoes and peppers are on the way.  Our hanging flower pot has added to the beauty of our condominium.  We call this gardening by choice.

Cucumber growing

Mom on our patio with the garden

Better view of the garden

Hanging flower pot