Travel

Today was the first day in 6 years that I was on the clock on a Sunday, and the second time in my life that I was (excluding the paper route). It ws different and I miss my family. So last Friday I was suppose to get in at 2 pm to Salt Lake and I was really looking forward to a Friday night with friends. Delta had bigger plans, flights got delayed, I got bumped, computers got hacked, and yea I landed at my usual hour of 9 PM. It was a rough day in Detroit for me. So then when I had to leave Sunday afternoon it was double trouble. I get in late and leave early this weekend went by way too fast. I am currently in Downtown New Orleans. I don't like it. I had to pay $30 a day for my car to get parked. I am suppose to spend Mon - Thurs here but tomorrow I am checking out and going some place where I can park my own car for free.

Today was a special day for me. Three and a half years ago my uncle Gordy died while I was living in Connecticut serving a mission. I couldn't make it home for the funeral. Needless to say every memorial day I say I want to go to to his grave but I have yet to make it. I think it is because I truly feel his presence with me on a regular basis. I struggled with his death for the rest of my mission. I remember going to the temple in Boston 4 months later and just having the hardest time thinking about him and that I never got to say goodbye.

Fast forward two years, I am living in Provo it is winter and one day in church our leaders challenge us to do our family history. Now for Latter-day Saints this is a huge deal because I believe, as does the rest of our church, that we have to take our ancestors name's to the temple so they can be saved by Jesus Christ. We take their names and in proxy are baptized and other things similar to that, since they didn't have the opportunity to do this while they were alive. In LDS culture this is usually something for old people to do. You hear often, "oh my grandma has been retired for 20 years she has us done back to Noah." or other equally lazy statements. So I took the challenge and said I am going to find a name that needs their temple work done. So I started to search and like most people whose family comes from pioneers it was hard to find anyone. I was exploring back to the 1700's and found a name on my Dad's side. It was neat to think of this person and their life.

Now I will tie these together. As I explored I came across my Uncle's line, he has a different dad than my dad and so whoever worked on my dad's side didn't do my uncle's. I looked and it only went back 3 generations. It only had my uncle's grandpa up, there were quite a few names of Gordy's uncles and aunt that needed work done also. So I went, since then my mind has been drawn to this family. This morning it came back to me. I was getting ready for church and realized I needed to do more in this department. So i am rededicating myself to this cause.

I love the gospel. It gives life purpose. This morning I was texting a friend at 9ish to 10ish and I just said how crazy is it that we are up right now getting ready for church? Instead of just a day off? So crazy and I am so grateful to be here on this earth with such a wonderful family by my side.

This post was super personal but let's be honest, as much as I hope people I don't know read this, most people I do know don't so I got nothing to worry about.