Not a Missing Link

Is any one else out there just fascinated in learning about their family history? Or do the stories of your ancestors bring you emended satisfaction? Do you have an unquenchable desire to know where you have come from? ME TOO!!!! I love learning about my family tree! It is a lot of fun for me! As members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we call this "the spirit of Elijah" because it is a fulfillment of Malachi's Old Testament prophecy "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:5-6) "the spirit of Elijah" is the latest craze! With family history sites and experts located everywhere it isn't hard at all to do genealogy work, even within the comforts of your own home! (Just as an FYI the largest source of family history data is found on familysearch.org) In fact my eight year old niece (or so she was at the time) used familysearch.org for a school project! She found that we are related to William the conquerer, Joan of arc, a royal line in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, and eventually hit a biblical line that went through all the way to Adam and Eve! In this blog I just wanted to share with you some experiences and stories I have had or I have heard with my family history! (And anyone can find stories about their ancestors and have neat stories to tell just like I do! It is fun and easy)

I will start with more recent and move backward in time! One of the most influential moments of my life! I was preparing to go on a week long church camp out called "trek" (a reenactment of the early Latter-Day Saints journey west to avoid persecution) my own father sat me down at the kitchen table and asked me a direct question (I remember this conversation quite vividly in my mind!) he asked me what I wanted to be remembered for and being a 13 year old boy I said I wanted to be known as the fire starter. He reply that that was a good goal but explained he had a higher vision for me! He told me he wanted me to be known as a hard worker! In everything I do now I think "how will I be remembered? Will they know me as a hard worker?"

When I was in high school I was involved the Student council admin (or StuCo for short) Meaning I was roped into doing a lot of things! (Now I probably would have done most of them anyway but being in StuCo I had no choice in the matter) well we volunteered at the relay for life as a relay team! And I had an awesome experience! I even wrote it in my journal! (Yes I have an awesome daily accounting of my life known as my personal journal...... It is a pretty good read!) in my journal I recorded the following "early in the evening I had bought luminaries for grandpa Paxman and uncle Ross. When it was time to light the luminaries I could feel in that moment that though I may not know him, grandpa knows me and is watching
out for me! I had never felt closer to him than in that moment!" My grandpa Paxman died of melanoma when I was 2 years old! From every thing I have been able to gather about him he was a great man!

I was walking around a small town in southern Alberta during a basketball tournament! My team was playing at the time so I took some time to unwind relax and prep for the next game! I walked into this own shop and an old native man stopped me! He said "you're a Forsyth aren't you?" I replied in the affirmative. He then said he just knew! That he had dealt with my grandpa Forsyth a lot and could just tell I was related to him! We had a nice conversation and just before I left he said "you come from good stock"

One of my favourite stories is about my great grandpa Neil Snow Forsyth! He served in the Canadian military during world war 1 as a veterinarian for the mounted regiment! (Simply put he took care of soldiers horses) he wrote the following experience in his journal (yeah he had an awesome record of his daily dealings too!) he recorded the story of one night! He was laying in his bed just about to fall asleep when he heard a
voice whisper sit up quick..... Odd, no one else was in his room, but he heard it again, so he sat up! No sooner he had stood up than a piece of white hot shrapnel had fallen right were his pillow had been!

Or another favourite story of mine about my great great grandfather, William Paxman and his wife Katherine Ann Love! They traveled in the late 1800s to New Zealand as missionaries (kinda like how I am in Georgia as a missionary now, but way more cool) this couple lived with the Maori people for years! They even helped them discover the Book of Mormon (or #DiscoverTheBook) by translating it from English into the Maori language! These aboriginal people became so fond of my great great grandparents that when the little Paxman girl sadly passed away she was buried in a traditional grave yard! I love stories like these and I have so many others that I know of! These stories bring me a sense of excitement about where I came from and who I am! In a very real way these peoples lives have influenced and effected who I am today! I love learning about them and perhaps.... Just maybe years down the road my life and my journal will be interesting to one of my great grandchildren.

WMI? FAMILY HISTORY IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!

King of the Band

So this one time at band camp...... I won't hop in quite that quick! Over my years in junior high and high school I played trumpet in band! (for you band geeks out there you know now that I was the coolest person in the room and I knew it!) I loved playing the trumpet and participating in our band! Suzy (the poor band director that had to put up with me for 4 years) had to through a pencil or baton at me to get me to shut up or would call out "hey dingle-fritz" to get my attention, but besides all that she was a great friend and an amazing director! I learned a lot from her and from playing the trumpet!

For those of you not aware the trumpet is the best instrument in the band and those who play it are the funniest and coolest people in the band! (As you can tell we are humble too.) The trumpet will play most of the main lines in a song and even if we aren't the main line we play the part you get stuck in your head! The instrument is classified as a brass (meaning it is shiny and makes a lot of noise!) and is fairly simple in its form! The mouth piece is similar to any other brass instrument, it will convert the buzzing sound from your lips into the crisp soothing sound of the king of the band! Or in other words whatever is played into the mouth piece is what will come out, it is simply a messenger to the trumpets body! The body is composed of brass pipe bent in an ovular form with three valves in the middle! The combination of pressing one or more of these valves and adjusting the speed and amount of air put through the mouth piece will produce the different notes! Each valve has a tuning slide to provide for optimal clarity and pitch! That is a basic over view of the trumpet!

I had a buddy in the trumpet section we got along great! We were always talking in class and we had some of the best input! He was a very good trumpeter while I was simply a mediocre one! There were a few things that separated us, for example he had gone out and found a mouthpiece that fit his facial structure and playing while I had just taken what came with my trumpet and went with it! He would tune his instrument with each tuning slide while I would just tune the master slide! He would oil his valves and grease his slides often, I would occasionally! He practiced and took private lessons..... I did neither! He took time to make band and his instrument a priority I simply did not! (To clarify I did enjoy band and I wanted to do well but I simply didn't put in as much time and effort as he did!) the difference between us showed when we played! He always sounded smooth and crisp his lines were delicate and bold, he was all around a better trumpeter than I was! It wouldn't have mattered how nice an instrumentI had...., he still would have sounded better because he had put inall the effort to strengthen his ambusher and diaphragm and lung capacity! I was good and was able to play the music, I performed with the band and got by, however my friend excelled and has continued to play on his own!

I have found that the trumpet and it's player are much like a church! There is the body of the church it's congregation and the individuals that compose it are much like the body of the trumpet! The combination of their personal activity in the church and involvement is similar to that of the the body of the trumpet! Many individual parts must be in the correct placement for optimal sound and clarity! The mouth piece much like the leader of that church taking what he is given and putting it through the body to create the sound! The interesting thing about a trumpet is that it will not, and cannot produce music on its own it needs a master to play it!

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we make the claim to be The Church of Jesus Christ (wonder if you could have got that from the name?) he is our master he is the one that "plays" our church! It just so happens that we call our leader and prophet here on the earth today the mouth piece of our religion! He is a chosen messenger hand picked by God himself! The prophet takes what is given him by revelation and puts it through to the body of the church unchanged and pure! The master trumpeter of our church, Jesus Christ can also give revelation of the truth of what the prophet says to individuals by "placing the tuning slides!" He will press certain valves at certain times! As we study the scriptures Playing the sweetest melodies with His mouthpiece and His church! What melodies and precious notes come from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?  a sense of purpose and belonging! real and lasting happiness! humanitarian aid and a concern for our fellow man! but most importantly a personal relationship with and a knowledge of Jesus Christ! That relationship Is built as we "oil our valves and grease our slides" or in other words as we study his word and as we pray to him for help! Simply put, with a master trumpeter holding an instrument that is well tuned and perfectly up kept, the mouthpiece hand picked and the tuning slides placed just right, The music crisp and smooth the lines delicate and bold, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints plays first seat in the section of Christian Churches surrounded by seconds and thirds!

WMI? The Church of Jesus Christ of L

atter-day Saints is the chosen

instrument of Jesus Christ!