Tom and Debbie's Mission Blog: Joy in Our Posterity and Much More

The last few months have been filled with much joy in our posterity. It has included 3 high school graduations, 2 baptisms, and 1 mission call. There have been many school performances, recitals and sporting events for our grandchildren, a three day tending of three granddaughters, two visits to the Saratoga Springs Temple Open House, more baptisms for the dead, many birthdays, and a cousin get together for eight of our 6 to 10 year old grandchildren. They all touch our hearts.

The photo below show what we think are two of the highlights. It is the first mission call for a grandchild, 18 year old Joseph Digerness, and our three year old granddaughter, Emily Digerness, reading the Book of Mormon that she bought with her own money. She wanted to read it at the same time that her Oma and Opa were reading theirs. There is truly hope for the younger generation, if they can be true to the things that they are taught by righteous parents.

18 year old Joseph receiving his mission call and 3 year old Emily reading her Book of Mormon

Before sharing the details from the past few months, I want to share some powerful insights that I have recently received that helps me to understand my role in the lives of our posterity. I neither take credit for the successes or struggles of our posterity, knowing that their complete story has not yet been told. However, I do rejoice when I see them choosing to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the essay that touched my heart and mind.

"Are We Losing?: A Gospel Perspective on Imperfect Families" By Joseph Grenny

In this essay he talked about the challenges of seeing members of our families making choices that are inconsistent with our beliefs and values. I was impressed with his perspective. He said that most of us are driven by three false beliefs:

Righteous families don’t have problems
Bad behavior equals bad children
This is my problem to solve
In his words, "Once these deceptions were exposed, I came to see that the world is set up to succeed. The Plan is perfect. The intent of The Plan is that “none might be lost.”. And the Father of The Plan is really good at what He does. My part in The Plan is not to engineer the salvation of my children, it is to help gather Israel. My role is not to be The Savior of my children, it is to stand with The Savior as a savior on Mount Zion."

High School Graduates:

Let's start with Joseph. He turned 18 last November and just graduated from Hillcrest High School. Joseph has been raised in a single mom home for the last five years. In fact, it was the house that we sold to his parents when we left for our mission. With a wonderfully supportive ward and a very committed mother, Joseph and his siblings have progressed very well. Four of them are our primary participants in our visits to do baptisms for the dead. Joseph has been wonderful to bring his siblings while we bring the other cousins.

He has earned a scholarship to Utah State, which has been deferred for two years. He graduated from High School with many college credits already earned.

Joseph at graduation, full of special medallions and awards

Joseph with his grandparents at his High School graduation

Because of his age, he was able to complete his mission papers and receive his mission call on May 17, before he graduated from high school. He was called to serve in the Honolulu Hawaii mission, beginning his MTC experience on August 14, 2023. He studied German for several years in high school, perhaps he will find some Germans in Hawaii.

Joseph, right after reading his paperless mission call electronically.

Four days later, Joseph received the Melchizedek Priesthood, the first of our grandsons to be ordained to the office of an Elder.

Joseph after being ordained an elder

Two weeks later, he graduated from seminary as a four year graduate. We are pleased with the focus and direction that this young man is taking. His next steps will be receiving his temple endowment and starting his mission in the coming weeks.

Joseph after his seminary graduation

Eight days after Joseph graduated from high school, his cousin, Nick Mills, graduated from Kearns High School. The following shows Nick with proud grandparents and on the graduation stage. Both of these graduations were held at the Maverick Center. which held graduations for three high schools each day.

Nick with Opa and Oma

Nick, ready to receive the hard earned diploma

One week after Nick, our grandson, Jame Preston DeVore, graduated in Lehighton, Pennsylvania on June 9. We were not able to be there in person, but we were able to attend by Video link. James won't be 18 until August, so he will begin his schooling for a semester before serving a mission. He has a scholarship for Penn State. He will be attending the Scranton campus, commuting from his home each day. He was able to walk in a white gown, representing his acceptance in the National Honor Society.

A well timed screen shot from the video streaming of James Preston's graduation from Lehighton Area High School

Baptisms:

We had a baptism in Cache Valley two months in a row (May and June). Olivia Digerness turned eight on April 27 and was baptized on May 6 in Hyrum, Utah. She was baptized by her father.

Olivia with her father, Jared, before her baptism

Olivia in her baptism dress with her grandparents

Serenity Parker turned 8 years old on June 2 and was baptized on June 10 in Nibley, Utah. She was baptized by her father.

Serenity with her parents, Kari and Michael, pre-baptism

Serenity in her baptism dress with her grandparents

We are proud of each of these precious granddaughters for choosing to make covenants with their Heavenly Father. We are grateful for their parents for teaching them the gospel and providing good examples for them.

More Baptisms for the Dead:

We have 7 grandchildren in Utah with temple recommends. We love taking them to the temple to perform baptisms for their ancestors. Afterwards we enjoy a nice meal with them. Although the logistics sometimes are complicated, we always feel a powerful spirit in the temple and increased love with our grandchildren. After several attempts, on June 7 we finally got all 7 together at the same time, including our two new deacons.

April 22 we got all of the boys and Ashton's parents

On June 7 we finally got all seven grandkids to the same baptism session. We also had over 40 ancestors baptized, most were direct ancestors from Tennstedt, Germany

Saratoga Springs Temple Open House:

The Saratoga Springs Temple Open House began in April and runs until mid July. However, we found out that the reservation for evenings and Saturdays were filled soon after the Open House was announced. We had wanted to take as many of our posterity as possible to see the inside of a temple, especially those who are not yet able to enter. We arranged the first date for our granddaughter, Tiare, since she wanted to see a temple. We scheduled when her father, Moroni was off work and on a day that her Uncle Ben could come. We finally went on May 9. On the way home, Tiare said that she wanted to go to Church. She used to go with her other grandma, but her grandma wasn't taking her anymore. Based on this visit, Moroni agreed to start taking her to Church on Sunday mornings. At first, Moroni waited in the foyer. Then they invited him to go to Priesthood Meeting. Now, on July 2, he shared his testimony in testimony meeting. This seems to have helped trigger spiritual thoughts in Tiare and eventually in Moroni. Ben told us that he felt a special spirit in the celestial room, the same as he has felt in other temple open houses. We are pleased with the positive impact that this temple trip has had.

With Moroni and Tiare in front of the Saratoga Springs Temple

Photo from our parking spot, including Ben

We finally scheduled a time for more of our posterity to attend the Open House on June 26. We decided to tie this to a one day cousin retreat for our 6 to 10 year old grandchildren. Half of them know that their older siblings are doing baptisms often with us. In total we had 15 of us participating including a few parents. Moroni and Tiare came again. Tiare said that she loves the "marriage room", her favorite room in the temple.

With a few more of our posterity. 14 in the photo, one missed the photo.

Cousin retreat for 6 to 10 year olds:

After the visit to the Open House, we sent parents home and kept the 8 grandchildren between 6 and 10 years old. There were a few others that didn't make it, but this was all that we could handle in our two vehicles, so it worked out well. We then took them bowling with pizza and then finished up with milk shakes at the Iceberg. We loved seeing them interact with each other, something that they don't usually have the opportunity to do. Each car had plenty of activities to enjoy while driving to and from the temple and to the other activities.

At the bowling alley. One lane for 4 boys, counting Opa. Another lane for the 5 girls. Fun was had by all!

Eight grandchildren and Oma with their favorite milk shakes

We finished up the day by taking everybody home, getting back into one car after the first 5 were dropped off. We then continued dropping off until we got back up to Nibley with Serenity. Then we returned to Layton to celebrate Dawson's 9th birthday with him which would occur the next day. By the time we got home, we were exhausted but happy. Mission accomplished!

Tending grandchildren for three days in Hyrum, Utah:

We had agreed to watch Jared and Melanie's three children so that they could get away for a few days. This occurred on June 15 through 17. Even though this takes quite a bit of work on our part, it is a time when relationships with grandchildren are greatly enhanced. We get to assume the parents role while giving them almost constant attention, a luxury that most parents do not have with all of their other responsibilities. As a result, we have a lot of fun and conversations. We were able to do Come Follow Me study with them, help them with their own scripture study and prayers, and participate in lots of activities with them, including bedtime. Their other grandma took them for several hours on Friday, which gave us and them a break. On Saturday we drove them down to Midway, Utah to participate in the Moeller Family Reunion and then returned back to Hyrum. Their parents had already returned, so we dropped them off and headed back home to South Jordan. Once again, we were exhausted but felt that our mission was accomplished. These are three wonderful young ladies. The photos reflect many of the activities that we had together.

We started our first day walking to the neighborhood park and then continuing on to a home with lots of goats. The kids love to feed the baby goats. This was enjoyable for all. However, after walking downhill for more than a half of a mile, Debbie wasn't ready to walk back home uphill. So, I walked back to the house and got our car to bring everyone home. This gave them extra time feeding the goats.

They loved feeding the baby goats. The older goats kept butting in, but they finally found some peace with just the baby goats for awhile.

Debbie watching over them while I came back with the car

Debbie brought punch balls for them to enjoy. They thought they were really fun to have on their trampoline also.

3 yr. old Emily jumping with her punch balls

8 year old Olivia in the middle of one of her somersault flips on the trampoline

We played croquet and board games and watched a movie after dinner. Finally we settled down for Come Follow Me study. These girls are so respectful and understand well the topics that they have studied as a family. Oma taught them about the Garden of Gethsemane. The next day Opa was able to teach about Peter denying the Savior. They had an amazing understanding of the Apostle Peter.

Oma is in her element teaching children

After staying up late, they slept in and we had a chance to study before they woke up. As we were studying, three year old Emily came up. We told her that we were reading our Book of Mormon. She immediately went to her room and brought up her individual Book of Mormon. She has an allowance and had saved her money to buy her own set of scriptures and a small scripture bag. She loves her scriptures and sat quietly looking at her Book of Mormon while we studied.

Emily, looking at her Book of Mormon

The other girls finally got up and dressed and their other grandma picked them up to visit their great grandpa. This gave us a few hours open, so we went to the Logan Temple and topped it off with Aggie Ice Cream from the Utah State creamery.

In front of the Logan Temple after a nice session

Enjoying our Aggie Ice Cream

Ellie then went to a friend's birthday party and we had time with Olivia and Emily. We decided to play another game of croquet, some more trampoline, and more card games. We found that when we played Old Maid, Emily loved getting the Old Maid, so we were all happy.

The croquet players. Emily won both games that we played

That night we enjoyed dinner again and had another wonderful Come Follow Me discussion. Each night, Debbie would read and pray with Olivia and Emily and I would spend time with Ellie reading the Book of Mormon. These were times with wonderful discussions that we never have in our normal interactions with their family. Saturday morning we had breakfast, made brownies and had lunch before heading down to Midway for a family reunion, including croquet. They enjoyed finishing off a tub of ice cream before we left.

Three sisters enjoying their ice cream together

School Performances, Recitals, and Sports:

The springtime is full of many grandchildren activities. Many are part of the end of the school year performances. These include choirs, plays, class presentations, dance and piano recitals, and a season full of softball and baseball games. We love to see them grow in confidence and ability. This brings great joy to us. The photos and captions describe many of them:

Jacob in his middle school choir performance

Joshua in his High School Choir performance

Abbie in her "High School Musical"

Aria at her school performance about "Utah"

With Aria after her performance

Ellie playing her piano recital piece a day early for us so we wouldn't have to come back again the next day

Serenity, on the right, in her dance recital in Logan

Evelyn on the set of her dance recital "Into the Wild"

Abbie, on first base, in her softball game

We watched Dawson play baseball, but this photo is of him with his championship trophy as his team won the championship

Ashton getting a hit on his baseball team. This hit drove in the first two runs of his game. We are really impressed how much he has progressed. He is fearless as he faces some pretty good pitchers

Good Samaritans:

In all that we do, the Lord is always looking after us. He often sends angels to bless us. We have had a few recently.

We made a trip to Cache Valley just about every week for two months. This included two baptisms, three birthdays, a dance recital, tending grandchildren and more. We are blessed with a Toyota Prius that gets excellent gas mileage. In fact this photo shows daily gas mileage of 57 mpg or more for four days in a row.

We have been averaging nearly 60 mpg during this warmer weather

However, on the day of Serenity's baptism, we drove up on a Saturday morning to enjoy this special event. On the way home, while in Sardine Canyon, we felt a flat tire. We pulled over and tried to fix the tire. We found out that we did not have a spare tire in our car. We had bought this car new more than 2 years ago and never had the need to deal with any tire issues. The car was equipped with a sealant fluid to fix flats and a compressor to add air. Unfortunately, the tire had a nail puncture which created a slow leak. Unaware that we were driving on a low tire, the inside wall of the tire blew out. We were in a tough situation. While I tried to contact road assistance, we got a knock on our window. A very kind gentleman offered to change our tire for us. As we explained our predicament, he called a Big O tire store in Brigham City which was only 6 miles away and found that they had a replacement tire. He offered to take our tire off, take it to Brigham City, and return back and mount it back on our car. Incredible!

He had his wife and four children in his car. They made room for us and we all traveled to Brigham City and the tire was replaced within minutes. With a quick trip back and quick work by our guardian angel, we were on our way. We were astounded at the goodness of this individual and his family. The timing was excellent and we arrived home in South Jordan with only a small delay.

Our Good Samaritan changing our tire

We hold a Come Follow Me study group each Tuesday afternoon for several of our friends and neighbors. It is held on Zoom. One day, our friend saw me tipping on the chair that I was sitting on. She had repaired a chair for us years ago and thought that it was still the bad chair. Later that week, she called and said that she needed to talk to me. When she arrived, she presented us with this new chair that matched our table set perfectly. She had found it at Deseret Industries covered with paint. She removed the paint and cleaned it up. It was as good as new. Once again, blessed by an angel in our life!

Our new chair from our dear friend, Judy Tripp

Some time away from our Grandchildren:

We did find some time in between grandchildren activities to enjoy some time together. On April 30 we celebrated 24 years since our sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. We did go to the temple the day before, but since it was a Sunday we just enjoyed a quiet dinner at home. We tried to make it special:

Low Sodium anniversary meat loaf dinner using our china

24 years sealed together. The best thing that we ever did!

One of our favorite activities is to enjoy stage plays. In May (8 days after our anniversary) we went to the Hale Center Theater to enjoy the play "Hello Dolly". This is the play that our high school performed 53 years ago. Both Debbie and I were in the orchestra for that play. This show brought back many great memories. For me it was probably my introduction to stage plays.

Reliving our past with great memories

My favorite play has to be Les Misérables. I first read this book while I was living in Brazil after hearing several General Authorities quoting from the book in General Conference talks. The book is full of profound text that teaches major lessons about integrity, compassion and service in the middle of the French Revolution. We have seen several stage plays and movies about this story. So when we saw that this was coming to the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, we got two tickets as a Christmas present. As we watched this play on June 28, all of the lessons from this story came back to my heart. The music is superb and the message is even better. It was also our first visit to the Eccles Theater.

At the Les Misérables stage play

Remembering our daughter and ancestors on Memorial Day:

We enjoy visiting graves on Memorial Day. This year we added two more graves. One of my mother and another of our daughter, Camila. They each passed away in the past year. This is a time for us to remember and ponder our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents who came before us and made possible the many blessings that we enjoy possible.

By our daughter's grave in South Jordan (Camila Garcia)

By Debbie's parents' graves in West Jordan

By Debbie's grandparents (Moeller) in West Valley

By my Mother and Father in Salt Lake City Cemetery

Newly planted headstones after my mother's burial

Debbie by her Great Grandparents "Stoll". We just found this burial site this year in the Salt Lake Cemetery on the same area where President Gordon B. Hinckley and David O. McKay wer buried.

New Headstone for my Aunt and Uncle who left no posterity. This was arranged and paid for by our cousins. Also in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

My grandmother's grave in the cemetery across from the University of Utah

We have also experienced some additional deaths of two of my aunts on my mother and father sides, Auntie Lona Mae Lauritzen and Aunt Lajuana Rueckert. These were the last two of their generation. We have now seen the complete transition to our generation as the oldest of our lines.

Around the World in 80 Minutes:

Early this year Debbie and I were called to be the Chairmen of the Activities Committee in our Ward. In May we pulled off our first ward activity, "Around the World in 80 Minutes". We had an amazing committee of 14 individuals. 15 ward members brought displays from countries of their ancestors or other personal connections. Then we had a nice dinner of soups, salad, and eclairs. During dinner we were able to see a slide show of ward members in many different countries around the world. We finished the activity by using the Family Tree App and identifying "Relatives Around Us" to show how we are all related even though our roots come from so many different places. We thought that the activity worked out very well and had excellent participation from our ward members. A few photos of the activity follow:

A Japanese Display

Sweden with wonderful food samples

Multiple tables of displays in each foyer

More displays and food in the other foyer

This brought some of our oldest members to enjoy the activity. This display was from Africa.

The dinner hall, amazing table decorations, of hot air balloons from different countries

Part of the Slide Show

Party with Mike Johnson:

One of my best friends growing up was Mike Johnson. He has been touring Latin America for the last several years and came back to Utah for a celebration of life for his brother who passed away last year. He invited us to join with him so that we could meet up again. It happened to be the day before our Ward Activity. Mike is an amazing caring person, once again he showed us that same care and attention.

With my good friend, Mike Johnson

Good Spring Weather:

The Spring Weather this year was wonderful. Plenty of rain and not too hot. Our tulips that we planted last year came up beautifully. We got our garden planted early and now, in early July, we are starting to harvest fresh vegetables. I love gardening because it constantly reminds me of the power of God. It amazes me that we can grow so much from little seeds that were originally created by our Heavenly Father.

Tulips in the front of our yard

And on the side of our yard

Growbox Garden on May 17

Growbox Garden on July 1

Debbie's Health:

Debbie continues to progress with her heart failure diagnosis. She is now receiving the full dose of three medications for her heart and is now up to a half dose on the remaining medication. She is able to participate in most daily activities, although she still gets a bit tired off and on. When she gets the full dose of the remaining medication, they will wait two months and then do another EKG. Then we will know if her heart is functioning at an acceptable level. If it is, she will continue on these medications for the rest of her life and hopefully live a long and productive life.

As part of her treatment they wanted to do a sleep test on her. It took months to get in, but in late May, she finally spent her night in the Sleep Center. We thought that all went well. Then one month later she was told that she will need to use a CPAP machine to improve her rest. This has nothing to do with her heart failure, but it is one more thing to add to her health challenges. She is waiting for her CPAP to come in and then we will both be sleeping with CPAP machines at night. At least we do things together!

Debbie, hooked up for her sleep test

Other Blessings:

We have been blessed in so many ways. During these past months, I have been able to give priesthood blessings to three of our children in the same week. In each case, the Lord spoke clearly and we see His hand in their lives in quite remarkable ways.

In late May, I was able to pick up our grandson, Caide, at the airport. He was flying back from Texas where he had spent several months with his aunt. He was flying back with his biological grandfather that I had never met. As I picked him up at the airport, I was also able to give his grandfather and wife a ride home. This is the father of Eddie Garcia, our son-in-law. He had not been in Eddie's life for many years. This acquaintance resulted in a long conversation that was wonderful. He called me back the next morning also. We updated him about his son and daughter-in-law's death and invited him to the gravesite. He is a good member of the Church and was interested in helping do temple work for Eddie while we do the temple work for Camila. This was a very unexpected but pleasant surprise.

Our son Moroni has had some financial challenges with his income taxes. I help him file his taxes and the IRS had made an inquiry a few years ago. As we responded to that inquiry, communication from the IRS has been almost nonexistent. Without communication they started withholding Moroni's tax refunds for the last two years. Finally, we decided to get our Congressman, Burgess Owens, involved. Within weeks, all problems were resolved and unexpected refunds with interest were returned. This was a great blessing for Moroni as he changed jobs and needed those additional funds at this time.

In our mission responsibilities we had an opportunity to call several temple recorders around the world to perform some surveys. We were blessed to talk to several recorders in Europe and Brazil. In this process we were able to talk to several individuals we had worked with on our mission in Europe, including our bishop in the international ward. Each was now a temple recorder. As we contacted temple recorders in Brazil, we again met several acquaintances from the past. We know that we are serving the Lord in this mission, but the blessings that we receive in return far exceed that which we can offer.

We have just finished our Come Follow Me study of the four gospels in the New Testament. Our goal was to get to know our Savior on a more personal basis. We have been greatly blessed with increased understanding, appreciation and direction in our lives. As we studied about helping those in need, we yearned to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord. The Lord gave us an opportunity to help another that was in need. As we followed promptings, we saw the hand of the Lord and were richly blessed to see how this answered the prayers of a young couple.

We have learned to count our blessings every day. There is always evidences of our Heavenly Father's love and his understanding of us individually. Knowing that He knows and loves us gives us the greatest joy of all!

Birthdays:

As always, we spend a lot of time visiting our grandchildren on their birthdays. These are some of the birthdays that we celebrated in the past few months. Our first visit in April with Tiancom, helped us to also give Christmas gifts to him and his siblings. We had not seen them for some time.