Guest Blog: Eliza's Fire by Princess - Part 2

If you read part 1 of this post, this all makes perfect sense. If not, back up one post and then read them both.

And here is the script from my portrayal. I never told it quite like this, but you will get the general idea. 

My name is Eliza, and I was born in England in 1824. When I was fourteen years old, I sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria. My family was very proper and English, which is one of the reasons my mother was so upset when I married Joseph Burton, a poor delivery boy. 

One day, while Joseph was out making deliveries, he came upon a missionary who shared about the Book of Mormon. I was not very happy about this. There were a lot of rumors about the book and the church that went along with it. My mother told me if I joined that church, she would never speak to me again. 

So when Joseph told me he was going to be baptized, I was very upset. That night, I knelt beside my bed to pray, and ask God if what Joseph was doing was right. Immediately, my room filled with light, and I took that as a sign that the Book of Mormon was from God. I ended up getting baptized before my husband. I was twenty-five years old.

A few years later, we decided to travel to Utah. Unfortunately, Joseph died before we set sail, so I was alone with my seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter. We spent a month on a ship to Massachusetts, then a few days on a train to Iowa before joining the Martin Handcart Company. 

There were some delays getting our handcarts ready, so we did not start our trek until the beginning of July. Several people tried to encourage us to wait until next year, because we wouldn't reach Salt Lake before winter hit, but we weren't worried. It was the middle of summer! We were more worried about sun burns than snow storms. 

The trail was not easy, especially with two young children. Our handcarts were cheaply made and broke often. We ran out of food. People got sick. And then it started snowing. My little boy lost two of his toes to frostbite.

When we got to the Sweetwater River, I had to tie my children to a tree so they would not follow me into the water. At this point, some of the rescuers had arrived from Utah and were carrying people across, but I was too stubborn to ask for help. I crossed that frozen river five times–first to carry my son, then back to carry my daughter, and finally to retrieve the handcart.

When we got to Utah, my new bishop introduced me to a widower named Nathan Staker. Nathan already had seven children of his own, and the bishop suggested I marry him so those children could have a mother. Even though Nathan was twenty years older than me, and a stranger, I decided to do what the bishop said. 

Nathan and I moved here, to Mt. Pleasant, and were one of the few to successfully grow an orchard. One day, my little girl drowned in the ditch. We sent for the apostle Orson Hyde and he brought her back from the dead. My life was full of many miracles including my seven children, many of whom have descendants living in Mt. Pleasant today. 

Guest Blog: Eliza's Fire by Princess - Part 1

Last year, I wrote a book about one of my pioneer ancestors. I could talk for hours about what that experience has meant to me. In fact, I kind of have. I recorded my own audio book and made an hour-long podcast. 

But that’s not what we are talking about today. 

Back in July, I decided I wanted to visit the Relic Home in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. It’s a little museum about pioneers about a mile from where my ancestor (Eliza) is buried. So, my two youngest and I stopped at the cemetery first, and then went on to the Relic Home. (It was pioneer day, hence the outfits.) 

It felt a little strange opening someone else’s door, so I inched it open just a crack and peeked my head in. The only thing I could see was an old floor and a picture hanging on the wall. Many of my fears subsided as I discovered I recognized the face in the frame. It was my ancestor’s husband. 

So we had a beautiful time at the Relic Home. They didn’t have any info about Eliza that I didn’t already know, but I got to learn about other pioneers she would have interacted with and see some really awesome stuff. If I hadn’t had my kids, I could have spent hours in that place. 

When we went to leave, our tour guide asked me if I had heard of Mt. Pleasant’s Walk with the Dead day. When I said I hadn’t, she quickly told me about a Halloween themed family history event that took place in the cemetery. Volunteers would stand by a grave dressed like the person buried there and tell their story. She asked if I would come and portray Eliza. 

I said yes and just this last weekend, I finally got to do it. It was challenging pairing down a story I knew so well into a 5 minute presentation, but I loved getting to feel close to Eliza again.

I think my biggest takeaway from this experience was that people do want to talk about their ancestors. I can’t tell you how many times I would finish my speech and people would immediately tell me a story about someone from their family tree. It was such a neat and spiritual experience. The people may be dead, but their stories can live on if we continue to share them. 

A huge shoutout to my husband, kids, and mom who came to support me. I haven’t really done anything like this since high school, and I appreciated my little fan club who not only cheered me on, but worked with people to get my books for sale at the event and now in the Relic Home while I was busy acting.

If you want your own copy of the book, find it on Amazon, the Relic Home, or come see me at my book signing on November 7th in Spanish Fork. :)

Pink Night at Copper Hills

Baby Doll was so good at the game tonight!! I snapped a few pics for you. She is #33, remember? Long blond ponytail and pink shoes... 😀

 

Calling Elder Curly

First letter from the MTC in Provo:

Week 2 has been so fun, but so tiring. I got to the MTC on Wednesday afternoon. It was kinda sad but it was exciting to finally get here! 

Day 1: We just did a welcome meeting and mostly went over rules, procedures and where everything is. It was crazy to see all the people I knew on zoom IRL. 

Day 2: Was our first full day. We had a great first class, shout Sister C! Then went and did some baptisms and initatoroy. My comp Elder G baptized me. He is 10 inches shorter and 150 lbs lighter then me so it was hilarious. Even the name recorder guy was laughing. I confirmed him for a guy named I Won-bung. Let's just say it was a struggle to be reverent. Got to see some football boys to which was fun. 

Day 3: We had class in the morning and temple in the afternoon. We did sealings which was great! We had a little workshop about self reliance which was good. Having so much fun with the boys at night. I need to get more sleep though.

Day 4: We did temple in the morning. We did an endowment session. I may or may not have slept through half of it. It was really good though. We had afternoon class after, shout out Sister G! After class we played some volleyball with the district. I tore it up. 

Day 5: Sunday was so spiritual. We got to do church which was awesome and then we did this thing called Go and Do. We did an hour and a half straight of personal study and I got so much out of it. We then had a devosh with the GOATs president and Sister O! Our district review after was so spiritual and I felt the spirit so strong! Really cool stuff. 

Day 6: We had our first full day of classes. It was hard to stay locked in after so long of classes, but I'm learning a ton. Played some more volleyball and had some cool opportunities to do missionary work over the phone to people back at home. 

Day 7: It's P-Day!!! We have some service and then we are playing sand volleyball and have a devosh. It should be super hype! 

Don't worry the emails will be shorter once I'm in the field. 

Spiritual thought: 

Be like Sam! I have been reading in the Book of Mormon obviously, and I have been thinking about Nephi's brother Sam. He is so righteous but not over the top. He follows the commandments and the prophet but doesn't do anything crazy. I think Sam is someone in the scriptures we can all look up to because it seems like a realistic goal. 

2 Nephi 4: 11

"11 And after he had made an end of speaking unto them, he spake unto Sam, saying: Blessed art thou, and thy seed; for thou shalt inherit the land like unto thy brother Nephi. And thy seed shall be numbered with his seed; and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother, and thy seed like unto his seed; and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days."

-Elder C