Oh! Remember, Remember to keep the commandments of God
The greatest gift that God has given us is our mind and
memory and the freedom to choose what we will do with that wonderful
gift. Just think of the possibility that our minds can have the
capacity to grow learn and record thoughts and information eternally.
Our first thoughts and experiences are the start of our memories and
they continue to be recorded throughout our lives and will rise with
us in the resurrection. What is recorded in our minds and memories
will determine what we are and what we can become.
I am so thankful for my parents and my early family
life that gave me the basic memories that have guided me through my
life. Those memories of the love of my parents and brothers and
sisters and basic teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ gave me the
start and attitude of storing good and wonderful memories to treasure
always. The good experiences and recordings served as a base with
which to compare that which was not good and should be a lesson to
help choose that which is good.
I am very thankful that I grew up in the programs of
the church learning line upon line and precept upon precept and that I
had good parents and good ward and Stake leaders to help me record in
my memory the teachings of the Gospel. When I needed these principles
and memories they were there to not only guide my life but to teach
others those truths and principles.
I am thankful that my memory has recorded the joy and
love that I experienced when Naoma and I were sealed for time and
eternity in the Mesa Temple. It has recorded the expanding of my
capacity to love and increasing of my joy at the birth of each of our
children. All of the little experiences during all of the years of
raising our family have been faithfully recorded for all time and
eternity. Every place we have traveled has become ours and is part of
our recorded memories. All of these things have formed our concept of
life and have been part of the joy of living. I am so thankful that
our Father in Heaven sent us hear to gain earthly experience. It has
been a wonderful experience of love and joy in overcoming challenges
and our own faults as we lived together as a family. We both worked
together in trying to build toward an eternal family. Our years of
service in the church have been recorded in our hearts and minds and
has increased our capacity to love and the joy of service has filled
our lives.
I am so thankful for 12 years of teaching seminary to
five different classes each day. I am thankful that I had to prepare
five different lessons to face five classes of about 30 students each
daily. Each day I had to prepare a lesson in the New Testament, The
Old Testament, The Book of Mormon, Church History, and a book of
Mormon Class in Spanish. Those wonderful Scriptures, stories and
teachings were recorded in my heart, mind and memory. They have guided
and colored all of the experiences that I have had in my life.
The covenants we make with our Heavenly Father usually
involve things that we must remember always and record them on our
hearts. Especially we must remember the Savior and keep his
commandments. The marvel of this is that our capacity to learn and
remember is infinite and without slowing down. The more we learn the
more we can learn because it creates a base on which to place more
learning and understanding. Based on the teachings of the Savior our
minds can discern between truth and error and seek out the truth in
all the branches of learning.
What a waste it is for a person to impair his mind with
evil thoughts which turn into actions and terrible memories. When a
person is born with a mind that cannot develop as it should, perhaps
the Lord will make them whole when they have finished their probation
and they can continue their learning through eternity. Of course that
depends on what caused the mind to be impaired or if it was caused by
the persons choices and thoughts.
I remember one summer when we were working on the
Riqueña Farm we were planting potatoes in the good bottom land near
the river. At noon the Teams of horses were given a rest so we would
take our lunch and go the short distance down to the Presa (a dam in
the river) that formed a wide deep pool in the river that was perfect
for swimming on a hot day. I remember that this particular summer Chu
(short for Jesus)was usually there waiting for us to come and swim and
eat our lunch. Chu was a strong slender man who was a powerful swimmer
and good diver. He could dive in and disappear and finally come up a
100 yards from where he went in the water. He could swim with great
speed with long overhand strokes that took half his body out of the
water. He would enjoy going along with a whoop! Whoop! At every other
stroke raising his strong body high out of the water. But in this
strong athletic body was the mind of a little child. After tiring of
sporting in the water He would come out and sit mildly on the shady
bank near where we would be eating our lunch. He would shyly accept
one of my sandwiches and very slowly and daintily eat it. Every once
in a while he would close his eyes and in a mild soft voice repeat
Nursery Rhymes in perfect English. One might be "Little Jack Horner
sat in a corner eating a Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb and
pulled out a plumb saying what a good boy am I". He would eat a little
more and quote another Rhyme. Perhaps it might be, "Little Miss Muffet
sat on a Tuffet eating her Curds and Whey. Along came a spider and sat
down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away".
When we would ask Chu where he had learned these rhymes
he would look at us mildly with a faint smile on his peaceful face. We
could not converse with him in Spanish or English. He seemed to
understand simple things but could not reply to a question. When we
were ready to go one of the boys he was with from Casas Grandes would
say, "Vamonos Chu" and he would get up obediently and go with them
home. He would be wearing some cut of pants for a swimming suit but
nothing else to cover or protect his dark suntanned body. His head was
always shaved so we did not ever see his hair. He was indeed a
meek, mild child in his mind. Every one in Casas Grandes treated him
kindly and seemed to love him for his mild disposition.
In later years I would see him sitting peacefully in
the shade of the big trees in the park. I often wondered who had
raised him as a little child. Loving him and softly reciting Nursery
Rhymes to him. Maybe in some Orphanage or some institution for the
mentally retarded. His simple mind had recorded with love those
English words. He could quote them without a flaw and many different
ones. Not on request but only when those loving thoughts came to his
mind and gave him pleasure. He seemed to always quote them while he
was slowly enjoying a good sandwich.
In my mind I classed Chu with those little ones that
need no Baptism and are saved in the kingdom of God through the
atonement of Jesus Christ. He could not commit sin nor was it
his disposition to do so. Indeed he was one of those meek, spoken of
by the Savior, who are to inherit the earth.
I also remember the vivid picture of a tall gaunt
graying man. He walked slowly along, his feet were bare and his
shoulders were stooped and his face downcast from searching the ground
as he took each slow step along his way. His clothes were worn and
patched in the extreme but he always seemed to be clean. He carried a
cut off, worn broom stick under his arm. I suspect more for self
defense than to walk with. I never dared to observe him closely for he
was the famous "Loco" of Dublan. His name was Cleofas and as usual
everyone in town knew of him and his strange malady. I often observed
him passing the mill walking along the Railroad Track often pausing to
search out and pick up a Cigarette Butt that he collected to carefully
smoke later. If someone passed close to him he would pause and watch
them carefully as they went on by. Some of the Bullies of the
town who knew him well would go speak to him on purpose to hear his
vindictive and obscene replies. If they said, "Que Hubo Cleofas", he
would recite a muttered obscene verse with each line rhyming with
Cleofas. If they said, "Que hay Cleofin". He would pronounce a
vindictive Ryme about them and their ancestry with each line rhyming
with Cleofin. If they laughed at his evil verses he would threaten
them with his stick and if this didn't work he would open his pants
and expose his genitals with obscene gestures, cursing them with more
evil verses. Soon he would be so angry that he would pick up rocks and
send his tormentors running and dodging for shelter. He could throw
those rocks with speed and accuracy from long practice. He seemed to
be old to me as a boy. but he must have been about 45 years old. His
graying hair and gray stubble of a beard made him seem much older to
me.
Rumor had it that he had been sent back to Mexico from
an Institution for the mentally insane from some place in the US. Also
it was said that some of his family took care of him there in Dublan.
They later moved to Colonia Juarez and I saw him occasionally
wandering the street around the Academy.
I have often wondered how a person could come to such a
degraded state of mind. Surely Satan must have gradually possessed his
mind and filled it with evil thoughts and verses driving out his
sanity. What a waste of a human mind and a human life. He must have
lost his mind after many evil experiences and after losing his
conscience and was totally degraded by guilt and evil thoughts.
One of the dear friends of my growing up years was
Hector Spencer. He was a fun loving carefree boy who was raised in a
loving family. His father gave him a black Shetland Pony. Her name was
Merrylegs. She was about four feet tall and very fat and round and was
very good natured and fun to ride. Later she had a Bay Colt that
Hector named Deer. When some of us boys would pass the Spencer place
on our way to the Old Fredrickson Hole Hector would get on Merrylegs
and bring Deer along and we would all go swimming down in the river.
It was great fun to get on the Shetlands and swim them in the deep
water. They loved to swim especially Deer. He was a little taller than
his mother and was a very good swimmer.
In High School Hector was full of fun and a bit
mischievous but was an intelligent and a good student. Sometimes in
English class he would whistle a high soft whistle that Sister Nelle
Hatch could not hear. She was getting rather deaf especially for the
higher pitch sounds. Some of the girls would giggle at his high
pitched tune and Sister Hatch could not discover the problem.
Hector and Eloise Coon were married and had a nice
family of five. Three beautiful little girls and two boys. Hector
became our Bishop in the Dublan Ward. He was also very active in the
stake missionary work with his father. He could translate the talks of
the General authorities when they came to conference so well that some
of them cautioned him not to improve upon their talks. He was famous
for his great knowledge of the Scriptures and gave excellent talks
both in the ward and in our conferences.
One Sunday we were all sitting in church and enjoying
the service. After the Sacrament Bishop Spencer got up and told us all
that he had been converted to the doctrine of polygamy as taught by
the Church of the First Born over in Galeana. He advised us all to
investigate the doctrine and come with him over to join the Lebarons
in Galeana. A great shocked silence filled the hall until many of the
people began to weep softly. All of us were filled a deep shocked
sadness as the Bishop walked out of the building. Hector's cousin
Eldon Robinson, who is also my cousin, got up and added his Testimony
to that of the bishop and walked out after the Bishop. I don't believe
that the meeting was even dismissed with prayer we just all got up and
went home in shocked sadness.
I asked myself, "How could this happen to my dear
friend Hector. Surely he must be able to see the great error he had
made and sure he could understand that he would lose his lovely wife
and family and his eternal exaltation.
The Stake Presidency called him in and talked to him
many hours but to no avail. They took him to Salt Lake to be
interviewed and talked to by some of the General Authorities of
the church. I was told about the interview. For over an
hour the Apostle talked with Hector and could make no progress.
Finally they knelt in prayer and Hector broke down and shed tears of
grief and repentance. When he came back he seemed to be repentant and
was still acting as Bishop of our Ward. After about a month he moved
to Galeana and left his family. We heard that he had a young wife in
Lebaronville and had been married for some time. He was excommunicated
from the Church and we all learned that it was very dangerous to
associate with those that had the spirit of Apostacy and the spirit of
Satan.
Hector soon became bitter against the church and wrote
in the company of Billie Pratt some anti Mormon literature. That did
not last long and Hector became disenchanted with the Lebarons and
left them. We heard that he had gone into spiritualism or something
like that and had completely lost his Testimony and was becoming an
Atheist. He has drifted here and there and left his Lebaron wife and
married another. He is now living in Alaska with no religion at all in
his life. He has visited his family occasionally but they are not
close to him.
I wonder if Hector's recorded memories of his boyhood
and growing up years and those dear memories of his wife and family
ever come up to remind him of what might have been. "The saddest words
of tongue or pen are these sad words it might have been".
May we realize that each thought and experience is
recorded in our memories for ever and in that day that we are called
to be judged we will recall with clarity our every act and thought and
be held accountable for them. May they all bring us good feelings of
love and joy and not remorse, grief and guilt. If we live the
commandments of the Lord as best we can then our recorded memories
will bring us joy and love of the Savior and our Heavenly Father.