Temple and Ministering

The Temple and Ministering 

Dear family, I want to talk to you about the temple.  

It seems to me the last several conferences have emphasized three significant activities – ministering as the Savior ministered, making the temple a greater priority in our lives, and making our homes the center of Christ’s life and teachings.   

The first two of these are what I would like to write about today – the temple as a place of ministering to the living and the dead. 

We all remember what President Nelson said about ministering in  conference, let me remind you of what he said about the temple: 

Both of these, temple activity and ministering, are to prepare us and our families for the second coming of the Savior.  

So, let me begin by telling you a story of one of my ancestors. 

 Some of you may have heard this story before. Because it has such wide applications, I have told it many times; to you I apologize. 

Aethelred was one of the early kings of England.  His grandfather, Alfred the Great, had unified England and driven the Viking invaders from her shores.   

When Aethelred ascended the throne in 978, England was still at peace.  Aethelred was only 10 years old at the time and totally unconcerned about affairs of state.  He was most interested in hunting, fishing, riding, fencing - all the interests you would expect from a young man. 

The first to recognize this weakness in English affairs were the Vikings.  Thus, they once again prepared for war. 

Unfortunately, Aethelred’s councilors weren’t very astute either.   

Consequently, England was totally unprepared for war.  In the end, Aethelred lost his kingdom and had to pay tribute to the Danes for many years thereafter.  As a result, he came to be known in all the history books as Aethelred the Unready. 

The take away from this story is always the same.  We must be ready or great opportunities will pass us by - in school, in business, in spiritual matters.   

In our situation today, President Nelson is telling us we must be ready for the second coming of Christ. 

But this is not the end of the story.  About 1975 Mary Lou and I were invited to do some special sealings in the Oakland, Calif. Temple.  Many of the royal families in England were having sealings done for their families.  They had had their temple ordinances done many years before, but their children had never been sealed to them.  Thus, we were there to perform these sealings. 

Mary Lou and I knelt across the altar as various royal couples were sealed to their children.  Suddenly, the officiator read out the names of Aethelred the Unready and his wife.  

We were astounded!  I had told his story a dozen or more times, but here we were kneeling across the alter acting as proxies for him and his wife!  

Suddenly he was not just a character in a story with a great moral ending, but a real human being to whom we were ministering. 

I have wondered many times since, if this time he really was ready.  I think probably he was. 

Since President Nelson’s talk on ministering to the living and the dead, I have wondered who was sent to minister to Aethelred and his family.   

Had someone ministered to him soon after his death?  He was a Christian.  Had he accepted the gospel and been waiting for a thousand years for someone to do his temple work so he could get out of his spiritual prison?   

Or was the minister William Moore Allred, who was a direct descendent and the first of all Aethelred’s family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and be endowed.   

William Moore Allred had joined the Church in1836 and was sealed in the Nauvoo Temple in 1846, as the saints were preparing the journey West.  

Any way, I hope one day to know. 

President Nelson has indicated that ministering as the Savior did and increasing temple activities are two keys to our being ready for the Second Coming. I think the temple can serve both. 

First of all, the temple is a beautiful place to minister. The moment you walk through the temple doors you are surrounded by beauty. The Church has spared no expense in making it a celestial place of worship.   

We see the finest of décor, beautiful lighting and chandeliers, murals that depict local flora and fauna, paintings depicting various scenes in the life of the Savior, hand sculptured carpets, stained glass windows, masterful woodworking, in short, everything to please the eye, gladden the heart and uplift the spirit. It is a beautiful place to minister. 

The temple is also an ennobling and uplifting place to minister. 

My grandfather was not an active member of the church as a young man.  He was, as another grandmother used to say, a villain.  When he was in his late thirties, he was sent to prison for a few months for selling whiskey to the Indians.   

Not a happy time for his family, but when he got out, he was a changed man.  He decided he was going to get active in the church and take his family to the temple.   

Thus, with the help of a good bishop and stake president and others in the ward ministering to his family, he was able to do just that.  

One of his sons, my father, worked as an officiator in the Salt Lake Temple for many years and the Jordan River Temple after it opened.  

My mother said of her father-in-law, “He was one of the finest, gentlest, generous, and most caring men she had ever known.”   

Yes, the temple is an ennobling and uplifting place to minister. 

The temple is also a peaceful and comforting place to minister. 

You finish your temple work and you set in the Celestial Room immersed in the comfort and peace of that holy place.  Outside the world spins ever more wickedly, ever more out of control, ever more downward, but here in the temple the Holy Spirit resides.  You feel it, and if you are mindful you can hear it whispering answers to your prayers and peace to your soul.  

If you really listen, you may also hear a whisper of gratitude from those for whom you have ministered that session.   

The temple is a peaceful and comforting place to minister.  

The temple is also an instructive place to minister. 

As we experience the endowment, we are instructed in very significant gospel doctrines.  We come to understand the importance of free agency, the atonement of Jesus Christ, the principal people involved in the creation, the principle of return and report.   

And we make covenants with the Lord to live moral lives, to sacrifice for others, to help build the kingdom of God on earth, to keep the commandments as outlined in the scriptures, and to learn all we need to know to enter back into the presence of our Father and his son Jesus Christ.   

As we review these doctrines, perhaps the persons for whom we are ministering are reviewing them also.  At least our ministering is providing the opportunity for them to do so.  

Yes, the temple is an instructive place to minister for the living and the dead. 

Finally, the temple is also healing place to minister to ourselves.  Yes, we need to be ministered to, too. 

We sit in the Celestial Room silently praying to be ministered to by the Savior – praying He will listen to our pleadings, heal our souls, forgive our sins and short comings, strengthen our resolve to do better, give us answers to our problems, help us to survive in the world outside. 

And we look around us and we see many others with their heads bowed, silently praying also to be healed. 

Yes, the temple is a place where we can be ministered to also, as well as a place for ministering to others. 

Dear family, I would like to see us do as President Nelson has proposed and make the temple and family history a higher priority in our lives.  Let us remember his comments from General Conference. 

I close with my testimony that the temple is indeed a beautiful, inspiring, uplifting, peaceful, comforting, instructive, and healing place for ministering to the living, the dead, and ourselves.   

  

    

Ebenezer Richardson

I have been wondering about what to write in this next blog. I think since many of us took the trip to see the Richardson house in Plain City, Utah, I would like to tell the story of Ebenezer Richardson.  You will remember parts of this story, but sometimes it is better to read it than to hear it.

                      Polly Uretta Richardson                         Asa Newton Allred


This story was written by an unknown author, but in parts it bears the characteristics of Polly Ann’s personal history.   I have made some corrections.

Ebenezer Clawson Richardson and his wife Polly Ann Child were the parents of Levi Asa Richardson.  He married Polly Erminne Child, and they were the parents of Polly Uretta Richardson. She married Asa Newton Allred, the two of whom are my grandparents.

Ebenezer Richardson was born August 7, 1815, in Dryden, Tompkins County, New York. He died September 20, 1874, in Plain City, Utah, at his home. Ebenezer was baptized by the prophet Joseph Smith in 1834. He was endowed January 30, 1846 and was sealed to his parents October 23, 1884. 

Ebenezer grew to young manhood in a family of 11 children, and when he was 18 years old, he met and married a beautiful, dark eyed, brunette girl, Angeline King. They both were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in the fall of 1834 were baptized by the prophet Joseph Smith. The first child, a little girl named Mary Amanda, was born to them August 24, 1834, in Greenwood, New York, where they continued to live for sometime. Angeline gave birth to Josiah on  April 16, 1844.

They soon migrated to Kirtland, Ohio, where the majority of the saints were living. This was the year that Ebenezer was called to enter the covenant of plural marriage, and he took to wife Polly Ann child, a beautiful educated girl of 22, as his second wife. This marriage was performed by the prophet Joseph Smith.


Ebenezer had moved along with the saints from place to place. In Far West he became a bodyguard to the prophet Joseph Smith. At the time of the Hans Mill massacre he was sent with another man to Hans Mill to assess the condition of the saints there.  As he began his return home, he was shot through the chest by one of the mobbers. The bullet went through his body and lodged in his back, just under the skin. His companion cut it out with a knife, administered to him, and through their faith they were able to go on their way.

The Saints were horrified when the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram, the patriarch, were martyred, but the church soon had at its helm the able leader Brigham Young.  During this trying time, there were many who were unable to stand the mob violence and persecutions and left the church.  The Richardsons remained faithful and accepted persecutions as the will of God.

The family moved from String Prairie to Galena, Ohio and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1844 Lowly, Ebenezer's mother, died of a chill fever and was buried in Nauvoo.  Finally they were driven from Nauvoo, and we find Ebenezer and families in Council Bluffs, Iowa, (Winter Quarters) in 1846. Here Angeline gave birth to a little daughter, Lola, in 1848 and another daughter, Jane. Both of these little girls died in 1850 and were buried in the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Cemetery. While in Council Bluffs, Ebenezer married as his third wife, Phoebe Wooster Child, a beautiful girl and sister of Polly Ann.

Ebenezer Clawson Richardson and his wife Polly Ann Child were the parents of several children, one of whom was Levi Asa Richardson.  As mentioned previously, he married Polly Erminne Child and they were the parents of Polly Uretta Richardson. She married Asa Newton Allred, [the two of whom are my grandparents].

Alfred Bosworth, was born to Polly Ann and was also buried in Council Bluffs beside little Jane and Lola. In 1849 Phoebe's first baby Amanda Malvina was born, and she felt favored of heaven at being able to keep her. This was to be her only girl, for in due time she became the mother of 10 more children, all boys, and raised all but John.

Polly Ann was the mother of five boys and one girl; she raised four to adulthood. Angeline became the mother of 12 children, raising eight to adulthood.

They arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1850 and settled in Bingham's Fort just north of Ogden, now called Five Points. Polly's history indicates that this was west of Salt Lake. They moved there because of Indian raids. Soon Ebenezer bought a small farm where the Union Depot in Ogden now stands. Times were soon better; their flocks and herds and harvests all increased.

They moved around a great deal, from Ogden to Riverdale, to Ogden Valley and then finally to Plain City. While they lived in Ogden he became a deputy sheriff, and the experience is told that a large company of men entered Ogden without paying the customary toll. Ebenezer, along with Bill Brown, rode out to meet their camp and collected the money.

Shortly after coming to Utah, Ebenezer and Polly Ann went to California in hopes of finding gold and increasing the families’ prosperity.  Ebenezer Clawson, their son, was born while in California.

Early in 1869 the Richardsons moved to Plain City where a home was bought for Angeline.  Nearby, Polly Ann and Phoebe shared the big rock house purchased and remodeled by Ebenezer for his other two wives and children.

Ebenezer played the violin and fiddled for dances. He liked to josh with the young people. He was a large man in stature and had dark, curly hair.

In 1857 Ebenezer was called to go on a mission to South Africa. He helped to convert and baptize the Gilson family to Mormonism while on his mission.  They migrated to Utah and moved to Ogden to live. In due time in 1859, Ebenezer married Elizabeth Gilson, daughter of William Gilson and Charlotte King. The other wives, although close to each other, did not take kindly to his young bride. They felt that they were entitled to all the help he could give them in raising their families. 

Five children were born to Elizabeth, but not being happy with conditions as they were, she took her five children and moved to Oregon to live. 

Because of financial difficulties, Ebenezer returned to the mines in California, and while working there his foot was crushed by a falling rock. When word was received of the accident, Polly Ann and her son Warren went to California by wagon and brought him home. It was a long trip back, and even though they were accompanied by a doctor, blood poisoning set in and he died. Ebenezer lived about a month after returning home, he was 59. Death came on September 27, 1874, in Plain City, Weber County, Utah. He was buried in Ogden Cemetery. He was the father 34 children. 

This next story covers much of the same material, but also adds some important information .  It was written by Ebenezer's grandson, Jack Morgan.


"Prosperity and pleasure of a modern-day Utah seems far from the severe reality of generations past, generations when sagebrush, alkali, hard work and difficult times were not an unfamiliar bill of fare.

Plodding through the ruins [of the old rock house], where once a people shared their lives, or fondling a relic from its storied past, languishing in mystic silence, here we pause momentarily and dwell vicariously as one who knew the real life story.

Those first years in the desert land of Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas were difficult even to people not unaccustomed to hardships. They located first at Bingham's Fort, west of Salt Lake City, then due to increasing Indian raids, chose to move to Ogden. Ebenezer bought a farm, and for two years they struggled to eke out a living, though their efforts seemed fruitless. Each year found them more impoverished than before.

The California gold rush of 1849 caused no small feeling of unrest and wonderment even among the saints, and many of them were drawn to the gold fields, despite Brigham Young's attempt to sway them. Apparently, the promise of Fortune made its impression on the mind of Ebenezer Richardson also, as he labored in vain to provide for his families, and by 1852 he knew something had to be done.

In Council with the three wives, Polly, Phoebe, and Angeline, it was decided perhaps California gold would give them a new start. It was also decided that Polly and her one son would accompany him while Angeline and her children, who were not old enough to help out on the farm, would remain, along with Phoebe. In Polly's words, "There was quite a company going, we had a pretty hard time getting there."

Historians have since expressed more vividly what Polly meant by "petty hard times." Ahead lay the barren wastelands now nearly depleted of grass and water supplies by those having gone on before. Powdery dust swirled mercilessly  from underfoot and wagon wheels, making breathing arduous. The grassy marshlands of Humboldt Sink offered only temporary relief as Humboldt Desert lay just ahead, then the painful hours that carried them eventually to the waters of the Carson and Truckee River's.

Journals do not record the length of their stay in the gold fields or whether or not they struck it rich, but prosperity seemed, at last, to return with them to Utah. Polly said, "We worked hard and sacrificed a great deal and by 1854, we were getting along pretty well."

The Richardsons continued to prosper until about 1857.  The future looked secure for the first time in 20 years, but it was short lived. In 1857 Ebenezer was called on a mission to South Africa, leaving his three families to fend for themselves. Along with this, the old familiar sequence of events that had driven them from their homes in Missouri and Illinois, now seemed to envelop them once again, and many of the saints were certain they would be driven out by spring of 1858, as they had been so many times before. [By Johnston’s Army]

Soon the dread message came. Brigham Young had sent word for the saints to move quickly to the settlements in the lower part of Utah. This they did, leaving only a few behind to dispose of the settlements, if necessary. Needless to say, suffering people were made to suffer more.

Once again Polly records the following comments: "We were called on to move south when Johnston's army came to Utah. So each of us women with our families had to accept the best we could and go too. We could not take much with us, so of course we suffered more hardships."

Angeline's older boys were to guard the family property in Ogden, or destroy it as the case maybe. Because of the impending crisis at home, Pres. Brigham Young called all the missionaries back to Utah. When Ebenezer arrived late in 1858 the  crisis had been settled and his families had returned to their homes at Alton. [Plain City]

The next 10 years brought prosperity, during which time they moved several times settling in 1869 in Plain City, west of Ogden. Here Ebenezer built a home for Angeline and her family. About 4 miles away, he built [bought] a large stone house for Polly, Phoebe, and their families.  These three families enjoyed a warm mutual love and regard for each other, always associating together in a pleasant and friendly way.

Here, years of prosperity were enjoyed, until one evening, someone set fire to the shocks of grain and all the machinery. Ebenezer, seeing the blaze from Angeline's house, hurried to put out the flames, but to no avail. The loss of crops and machinery meant little means were left to replace equipment or repay mortgages. 

Once again, Ebenezer turned his eyes toward California with hopes of another start. After having worked [in the mines] there nearly a year he suffered a severe injury. having been struck by falling rocks which crushed his ankle, causing blood poisoning.

Upon receiving word, Polly and her son, Warren, took a team and wagon and left immediately to bring him home.  Such an undertaking by a woman and her child with its inherent hardships and perils defy imagination; 1000 miles of uncertainty, coupled with anxious concern for the condition of her beloved husband.

Ebenezer was near death when Polly arrived, but his wish was to return to Utah to be among the saints. Polly immediately enlisted the aid of a doctor and began the thousand mile trip home, arriving in late summer of 1874. On September 27, shortly after their arrival in plain city, Ebenezer Richardson passed away. 

           The Stone House referred to in the stories. Grandma Allred lived here as a child
   

Following his death Polly and her sister Phoebe remained in the stone house with their children for about 10 years. One of Phoebe's granddaughters said the Richardsons had one of the finest apple orchards in the country. The income from this, plus monetary aid from their sons, meant they could live in comparative ease.


In August 1884, Levi, the fifth of six children born to Ebenezer and Polly Richardson, was married to Polly Erminne Child. Shortly thereafter his mother, Polly Ann, sold her share of the stone house to Phoebe and went to live with her children [Levi and Polly Erminne Richardson, my great grandparents] for the remaining years of her life. On January 19, 1905, Polly Ann Child Richardson died of natural causes at the age of 84, a saint, a lady, a representative of the courageous breed of pioneers. Ebenezer mand Polly Ann were my great grandparents.  Levi was my grandfather" 

[They were my great, great grandparents.  There son Levi, who passed away September 19, 1943, was my great grandfather] 

Polly Ann lived with my great grandparents for many years before her death. My grandmother. as a child, would often sit enraptured by her stories of the early events in church history. She would tell of the hardships of being driven from place to place, of the constant persecution, of the near death and miraculous recovery of her husband after having been shot by the mob, of being driven from Nauvoo and watching the temple burn as they crossed the ice-covered Mississippi River.  

She would tell of the love she had for Joseph Smith, of his greatness as a leader, and of his kindness and gentleness as a man.  Her testimony was always of the truthfulness of Joseph’s first vision, of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and of the truthfulness of the restoration of church in these last days.

She would speak of the Prophet Joseph Smith with tears in her eyes, of the sorrow she felt when Joseph was martyred, of the miracle she witnessed when Joseph’s mantle fell upon Brigham Young.  She testified that when the public discussion of who would replace Joseph as the prophet and new leader of the church took place, Brigham stood to speak, and his visage and his voice took on the aspect of Joseph himself.

Grandma was captivated by Polly’s stories, even as I was with hers.  Her testimony came largely from the testimony of her grandmother, even as mine did from the testimony of my grandmother.  She knew her grandmother could not lie, and I knew that mine would not, could not lie either.  I have always known Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration, that the Book of Mormon was true, that Jesus was and is the Christ – the Savior of the world.  I of course came to know these things more surely as I grew older and received the more sure witness from the spirit myself.  But how grateful I will always be for the testimonies of these great women in my ancestral line.

And I pass this on to my descendants in the hopes they will feel the same.

For a more full account of the lives of our Allred ancestors, see the Asa Newton Allred Book by Willard and Gene Mounteer.

(I am sorry the printing is so fouled up on this.  I tried to fix it but all to no avail)