No Such Thing as Coincidences

            Being in the primary has never been among my favorite of callings - which may be why I've been in it so long.  On Saturday there was a breakfast provided by the Relief Society for those who are visiting teachers.  While there, I was asked to teach a Relief Society lesson on this coming Sunday.  I made an impulsive decision to say yes.  I can still teach my primary class but will be missing singing/sharing time.  I'm certain that the primary leaders would much rather have me there than teaching a Relief Society lesson,  but sometimes I feel the need to be elsewhere.  On Sunday it will be in Relief Society.

            On Sunday I was given the subject of my upcoming lesson.  "By Divine Design" by Elder Ronald A. Rasband.  Hey, I remember that talk.  I had actually created a blog post (here) about it.  I obviously did not go into as much detail as I had felt at the time of the initial talk - but it was at a time when my head was full and my fingers weren't as able to work as quickly as what my mind was saying.

            I have to smile at Elder Rasband quoting Neal A Maxwell's words: "[God] does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design " and think of all the many times my brother Corey has said or written that "He doesn't believe in coincidences".  It made me think of these two pictures that he has posted more than once:

 

            Depending on how the Spirit guides me, I may or may not share this example, but if I do, I have placed the two photos side by side and have highlighted the etching above the arch to illustrate that it is indeed the same building though taken a decade apart. 

 

The family taken in 1947 are from Utah.  They were touring San Francisco and chose to have their picture in front of the church building.  The other photo is of the youth group who attended MIA (Mutual Improvement Association) and seminary at the Sunset Ward in San Francisco which met in the same building.

            The two circled heads are that of my dad and mom.  They were married in the Los Angeles Temple.  Their reception was at the building which is behind each of them in both photos.  This is one example of Divine Design.  I am looking very forward to giving this lesson.  I hope to have a lot of participation, but if not,  I have more material than I will have time.  Wish I could say the same of primary.

Picnics in the Freeway and Swimming Downtown

            After we had moved my mom into assisted living, we gutted out her house and set aside things for ourselves and the rest for a massive yard sale.  Corey had returned from Las Vegas to claime what was his and took a lot of what had once been hers.  He said he wanted all the photos.  There were many that I wanted to scan so that I could have digital copies, but I really didn't have the room for all of the hard photographs.  Corey and Joh had more room than any of my mother's other children.

            It was in September of this year that Corey and Joh came to Oregon for a brief visit.  Unfortunately, when they returned home to their house in Las Vegas, they learned that several parts of the house had received water damage due to a flood caused by a broken pipe.  They have since undergone renovation and have been forced to make decisions about weeding out certain belongings.  Through this trial, Corey has decided that he too will scan all of the photographs as hanging onto the physical photographs is no longer a priority.

            As he has been scanning, he has also been sharing various photos.  I don't know seeing them has stirred up a lot of memories for me, or if it's the subject of my classes introducing land development and building costs and so forth, or if it's a combination of both.  I certainly have done a huge amount of time traveling remembering how things were before evolution took over . . . 

            Someone had given my Uncle George the book "Salt Lake City, Then and Now"  

by Kirk Huffaker, David Watts (Photographer), Catherine Fegan-Kim (Photographer)

I want that book.  There are several pages that compare yesterdays landscape to today's

instagram.com/slctotheworld   04-18-2014

  salt lake traveler

some depict the same familiarity in both photos

Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune A view of Main and South 

Temple, looking north, is seen on May 27, 2014, and again in 1950.

while others locations show different buildings

Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Looking north east on

Main Street, just south of 100 South, in Salt Lake City, Tuesday

June 3, 2014 and the same view seen sometime in the 1860s.

I made these two pages for Jenna

before we moved to Oregon.  Of course, I do not remember all the landscape that existed before the evolution

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610856/The-ghosts-under-our

-feet-88-modernhistorical-photos-show-Salt-Lake-then-and-now.html

but I do have my own memories of certain things that perhaps others may share as well . . . or maybe not.

When I was younger, my mom had signed me up for swim lessons.  My brother, Patrick and I would carpool with the boys across the street.  I don't know how often our lessons were, but the drive was far.  Really far.  It boggles my mind to think how far the Deseret Gym was located from our house.

            The Deseret Gym is no longer there nor are any of the buildings on that entire block (see here) for all buildings were demolished and land preserved until it became the conference center

https://www.hydrotechusa.com/projects/lds-conference-center

notice the building takes up the entire block

    

            It would not be totally accurate for me to say that I used to take swim lessons at the conference center, but I did take swim lessons where the conference center is located.

            Yesterday's lunch triggered another memory about exploring and picnicking in a field that was dug up years later and has become a part of what is known as I215

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80_in_Utah

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/project_profiles/ut_i15_corridor.apxs

            Patrick and I had gone with his friend to see the "tree house" he said was there.  We had all packed a lunch and took our little jaunt into the fields just outside of the neighborhood.  The tree house was no more than a single board nailed to one, maybe two branches of a tree.  We all climbed up and sat on the board and ate our lunch.

            Our friend had brought a tuna fish sandwich that had been plastered in mustard.  Gross!  I don't know why I even remember that.

            We used to hold block parties at the dead-end section of mom's old neighborhood.  The entire neighborhood would gather together for food, games,  and of course, one another's company.  I don't know how often or if they still hold them.  The last neighborhood party I remember being in said location was the year that Roland and I were married.

            Well, that's it for this post.  Have to get back to class.  Take an assessment.  Turn in an assignment.  I'm not procrastinating really.  I'm taking a break after having spent so much time trying to figure the text myself.  The lecture is on Wednesdays with a disorganized but nice instructor that I've had before.  Fortunately, I have only one class this mod.