Just last night I was telling Greg about my satisfactions and regrets in accomplishing or not even trying to fulfill some of my daily and weekly goals. I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with this spectrum. Thankfully, the Lord has been patiently assisting me by guiding my focus and whispering repentance reminders! My problem in attaching new habits to current ones is that I'm not very consistent in my schedule (which often allows me to serve more, but it certainly has drawbacks.) One of the things I mean to do daily is spend time using family search to familiarize myself with and possibly find my ancestors and their descendants (who I ironically do not call my relatives despite the fact that I could bump into a 3rd or 4th cousin if I visited some key places.)
I mentioned already to some of you in a separate email how awesome it is to be getting a double brother in-law. I discovered my great great uncle and his sister did almost the exact same thing, marrying a sister and a brother. As I was looking at their children on family search and noticing dates I tried to pause and do the math about how long each one had lived and what sort of life experiences they had: Were they married? etc. I noticed several children who died within a year of being born and a few who lived not much longer. Well, my great-great-aunt Erma Katherine Eaton and great-great-uncle Sterling's first child to live to adulthood was born in 1929 and died fairly recently in 2009. I was significantly surprised and sad that there wasn't record of a marriage or anything like that on family search so I searched for his obituary online. He was married twice and has a son who's probably still living! It's nice to know that time can slow down and I can be made to care about details in the lives of people I have never met in this life. I of course added the newspaper's link to family search and will be updating his family records soon.
It turns of that the next son down on the list had a similar situation. In his obituary it mentions a sister who lived to adulthood of whom there isn't record on family search. I am so excited to do some digging and see if I can share the gospel with distant relatives on both sides of the veil!
I hope this message conveys the spirit of love and excitement I feel towards my family on both sides of the veil. There are so many wonderful people on both sides of the veil with whom I am anxious to form deep relationships. God has blessed me with an incredible family and I thank you for letting me be a part of your lives. God bless you all and I look forward to seeing many of you at the wedding!!!
An update: May 19th I spent much of my day at the computer working on family history stuff. Studying Erma Katherine Eaton's and Ray Eldon Eaton's brothers' obituaries I was able to find a sister of theirs who lived to adulthood, had several children, and is still living! I am so excited to have this opportunity to reach out to my relatives on BOTH sides of the veil.
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