Live Deliberately

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential facts of life,

and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,

and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Henry David Thoreau while at Walden Pond in Concord MA

3 February 2015

Dear Elder Heflin,

Happy 19^th Birthday, Riley.  We are thinking of you in cold CT as we enjoy verano in

Valparaíso, Chile.  We hope you are back in the saddle after a week of flu and that snowstorm of the century!  

We have been reading both El Libro de Mormón and The Book of Mormon for one month now.  We’ll finish them in two more months.  Here are some references to check:

2 Ne 15:25; 19:12,17,21; 20:4; 24:27; 25:17; 28:32 and Jacob 6:2,4,5 and Mosiah 1:14.  

Our merciful and long-suffering Lord is ever ready to help. His “arm is lengthened out all the day long” (2 Ne. 28:32), and even if His arm goes ungrasped, it was unarguably there!
 "According to the Desire of our Hearts," Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, October 1996. 

We have found that the footnotes are more helpful for the Isaiah chapters in the LdM.

We also found some good references concerning counsel from the Lord: 2 Ne 15:19, 27:27 and 28:9 and 30. Also, Jacob 4:10 and Jacob 5:22. 

“He not only knows what is best for you.  He also anxiously wants YOU to choose what is best for you.”  From last October conference talk by President Uchtdorf, “Living the Gospel Joyful.”

So, “Why?” you ask, did we begin our letter to you with a quote by Henry David Thoreau?  Because when your Mom was 3, we lived at Ft. Devens, MA, for 3 months while Grandpa completed an Army course before heading to Korea for 1 year.  

Our favorite place to visit in the area was Kimball Farm Ice Cream.  They gave you such huge amounts for a reasonable price.  We lived on the post at Devens in a motorhome which we parked at Robbins Pond.  It was a time of reflection for us, like Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond.  Spring was coming and life was simple.  A bus picked Angie up for Kindergarten; and Chrissie, Patty and Grandma enjoyed nature around the pond, while Grandpa went to his training.  We used the restroom/showers available at the pond.  One day we drove to visit Walden Pond near Concord, MA, and saw the spot they thought might have been HDT’s simple home.

We also took a trip in to Boston.  On Sundays, we went to church in Ayer. We went to Worcester and enjoyed the trees filled with blossoms. 

 We have some connections with your companion, Elder McBride.  Growing up in St. David, we played sports in Pima.  Grandpa mostly remembers Rodney Green as a great football and basketball competitor.  In the area were the McBrides and Cluffs.  We remember Reuben McBride and Cal Cluff.  At the U of A we knew Rick and Ramona Goodman Lines and Lynette Mattice.  Maybe he knows of them.  Philemon C. Merrill, Grandma’s ancestor was born in New York in 1820, was baptized in 1839 by Joel H. Johnson, and is buried in the Safford Cemetery.  He was in the Mormon Battalion and settled St. David, AZ.

If you are able to go into FamilySearch and look at your family tree, you will find connections to your mission area:

1635 – John Merrill (12 generations back from you) was buried in 1712 

in the Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, CT.

20 March 1630 – Thomas Holcomb left England on the “Mary and John” – a ship carrying Puritans to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

30 May 1630 – landed at Nantasket.

 Roger Clap who was on board kept in his diary, "So we came, by the good hand of God, through the deep comfortably, having preaching and expounding of the Word of God every day for ten weeks together, by our ministers."

1633 – Thomas settled at Dorchester.

December 1, 1634 – drew land in lottery and on March 14, 1634 made a Freeman.

1635 – 60 dissenters, among whom was Thomas Holcomb, went to establish homes in what was later known as the Windsor settlement.

Thomas Holcomb (b 7 Apr 1605) and Elizabeth Ferguson (b abt 1612) had 12 children.

Four of their children are connected to our lines:

1. Mary Holcomb(1635) has descendants Gibson line through Burr, and Merrill and Robinson lines through Griswold.

2. Abigail Holcomb (1638) has descendants from the Merrill line through Phelps.

3. Joshua Holcomb (1640) has descendants from the Arzberger/Cartwright line through Alford.

4. Nathaniel Holcomb (1650) has descendants from the Cartwright line through Messenger.

December 1, 1844 – Ann Cook and Daniel Stark were married for Time and Eternity in Suffolk Hall in Boston, before a large Mormon congregation.

4 February 1846 – Left New York on the Brooklyn with Elder Samuel Brannan.  Some historians think that “Captain Richardson hoped to escape the graveyard of ships that sank at the Horn and to make port at Valparaíso, Chile [!!].  Fierce winds carried them backwards three days and nights. In desperate need of supplies, they headed for the island of Juan Fernandez.  The fruit trees were loaded with fruit.  This was the best cure for the scurvy plaguing the Mormons aboard the Brooklyn. Five weeks later (146 days after leaving NYC) they landed in Honolulu (29 June 1846).  Upon reaching San Francisco, they were housed at the deserted Mission Delores.  They bought land in San Jose and later….”

So here we are on our missions… trying to do our best each day to fulfill “Our Purpose”… hopping cheerfully out of bed and shouting “This day is a great day to bring souls to Christ!”

Love you, Riley.