The word of the day is confident

While I was driving home from Katrina's Thursday evening, I was thinking about how much I enjoyed the few trips that Verlin and I took together the last couple years of his life. One was the trip to Idaho/Wyoming with the 12th Ward Young Men/Young Women that Teresa wrote about on her blog when the youth did the performance about the life of Joseph Smith. The fun part of that one was that neither of us had to do the driving. We just sat on the bus together and enjoyed each other's company.

Another enjoyable trip was when Verlin and I traveled to Michigan to pick up some boat parts that he had purchased. We decided rather than pay for shipping we would drive and pick them up and then we could spend some time with Bryce and Heidi in Ann Arbor. We spent a couple days traveling there, stayed a couple days and then drove down through Illinois and Iowa before heading home. We visited the cities of Nauvoo and Carthage.


Carthage Jail--Carthage, Illinois







We then went through the area in Iowa where my great great grandfather John Carnes lived and died. I had a copy of a map that showed the cemeteries in the area but it was not an up-to-date map. I looked at a road atlas for Iowa and saw the general vicinity near Keosauqua and told Verlin that I thought we could find the cemetery if we just start driving. It should be in this particular grid someplace.



Without questioning he just started driving. At one point we thought we were very close, but just weren't sure where to turn next. We came to a small lake and didn't know which way to go. I was kind of disappointed when we turned around without finding the cemetery. As we headed back toward town Verlin saw a house off to the side of the road that had a sign advertising services for fishing, bait, boating, etc. He turned in but we saw no one around. It was not even 8:00 a.m. He pulled up near the house and stopped the car. We sat there a minute and I said, it looks like no one is around. He said, then go knock on the door. I was reluctant to do so since I had no idea who lived there, it was very early and besides I was not one to stop and ask directions from anyone. I would rather just find things for myself--or have him do the asking. He refused. He said if I want to do genealogy research I am going to have to ask someone for help. And he sat there.

I summoned up enough courage to go to the door and knock. No one answered. I was about ready to leave. I didn't see anyone outside anyplace. Maybe they were on vacation too. Just as I turned to walk away the door opened. A woman with her hair wrapped in a towel opened the door. She apologized and said she had just stepped out of the shower. She asked how she could help. I apologized for imposing on her so early in the morning and explained that we were looking for a small cemetery called Prall Cemetery that was supposed to be close by. We thought the local residents would surely know where it was. It was very small and was not an active cemetery though. Sure enough, she didn't know where it was. But--she knew who to call. She said she would call the library and find out if anyone there could help me. She made a phone call and got a gentleman on the line and handed the phone to me. To my surprise, she had called the Church's Family History Center in Keosauqua. The man who was there had heard of the cemetery and knew how to direct us to it from the location we described to him as our current position. Within a short time we were parked at the Prall Cemetery and I had the opportunity to see Grandpa John's grave. We enjoyed some time in the cemetery and then proceeded on our journey.









Verlin took me to the Family History Center/library in Keosaqua and we spent a little time looking for more information about John Carnes, one of the founders of the town, but we didn't find anything new.

Next, I asked him to help me find the Maple Grove Cemetery in Bell Fountaine, Iowa where John's wife was buried 22 years before his death. Again, Verlin stopped at "a house" where a woman was pulling weeds in her garden. It wasn't as hard this time to explain our quest. She took me into the house and made some phone calls and gave me the name and address of the woman who knew all about those little country cemeteries and had indexed the names of the people who were buried there. We then drove to her house and she pulled out her books. We didn't find Alvina's name in the list but she said there were many many graves that had illegible headstones or no headstones. That is probably where she was buried. In spite of the fact that we probably would not find Grandma's grave, Verlin drove around until we also found this cemetery and we spent a little time looking at the graves.



This may seem like a little thing, but it is a reminder of two important things. First, Verlin was very good at acting on the promptings he received through the Spirit. Sometimes they were hard to do but we were always blessed when we did as he was prompted. Second, Verlin always encouraged me to reach beyond my comfort zone and placed much more confidence in my abilities than I did. I will work to be more confident in what I can accomplish with the Lord's help. I am grateful that I am still learning from Verlin's example.