Jeff Westover

Ask about Grandpa

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One of our long term projects is a video we’re producing about the life of William Riggs. His video will likely be the first family member we feature whose last name is not Westover.

I was quite young when Grandpa Riggs passed. But I do have a living memory of him.

The interesting thing to me about Grandpa Riggs isn’t so much my limited memories of him but rather the fact that his influence continues to be felt and cherished even now, nearly 50 years after he passed.

He led the most ordinary of lives and yet he endures in the memory of his children and grandchildren in a special way.

You should ask about Grandpa.

I guarantee you’ll hear stories of integrity, of faith, of enduring adversity, of humility and of strong family ties.

Grandpa Riggs was not a man of means and he held few positions of prominence. Outside of his family I’m not sure many remember him. But within the family he is legendary and his story is one you must simply discover. Listen to how is he talked about — I guarantee it will teach you a lesson about yourself.

Grandpa Riggs inspires me today in many ways. His brand of honesty, high personal standards, and strong-but-quiet influence are rare qualities.

I have had the opportunity to learn about Grandpa Riggs from my father, my grandparents, my cousins and from my great aunts (his daughters). I have a few collected writings about his life and was recently studying them as part of the video project. And while I cannot claim much in the way of personal experience with him I feel his influence profoundly. Through my family I have come to appreciate him.

This thought came to me in the middle of the night — a night when I went to bed with Grandpa Riggs on my mind.

I was contemplating his situations in adversity — the fact that he lived in poverty much of his life and successfully raised a family under those conditions. I thought of the trials he faced in losing an older child to death and in handling the long term illness of his wife. Of all of his life circumstances there are several that I could dwell on but for whatever reason his missionary service keeps coming into my mind.

Will Riggs was one of our earliest family members to serve a proselyting mission — but we have a scant record of his experience and service.

Here we are, more than 100 years since he served, and I’m wondering how his missionary service shaped and influenced the rest of his life. How wonderful it would be to know more about that experience.

Grandpa Riggs left only a brief one-page summation of his life behind, that I know about. Perhaps there is, somewhere out there, a journal or recollection of his personally from that period in his life. I just don’t know.

In thinking about this as we work on his video I am inspired to ask about the missionary service of all family members.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could archive something from living family members who served that could be written for future generations?

I long ago learned not to ignore these kinds of feelings when working on family history. They come from somewhere.

So part of our effort this year will begin to collect and archive some missionary experiences from family members. I will reach out to others in the family I know that have served and I ask here publicly for your efforts in this regard.

Who knows? Perhaps when your 100 year anniversary of service arrives a great grandchild might be curious enough to want to read it.

Jeff Westover

Family History Goals for 2017

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Looking back at goals set in the past is some times a difficult exercise — especially when we fail.

We set ambitious family history goals for 2016 and in many respects I feel like I failed miserably.

We did not produce all the videos we hoped, we didn’t do well in our efforts to unite the family more on Family Search, we did not take as many names to the temple as we could have, and our big family history trip did not happen.

But the purpose of setting targets is not make you feel bad. While we didn’t meet our goals last year we were not idle either — and that is the real value in setting goals.

We did manage to share the collection of war letters from Carl Begich, learned a little bit more about the life of Gardner Snow, shared our venture to RootsTech 2016, produced the video about the life of Ann Findley Westover, engaged the family is sharing brief audio stories of their mothers, shared the pioneer story of Grandma Sophie, produced a video about the story of William and Ruth Westover, and we expanded and refined the personal history of Maurine R. Westover, a collection that now includes more than 40 videos and detailed notes.

We also visited the temple a great deal in 2016 and manged to complete more than 300 ordinances for family members of different branches of the family.

I wonder what would not have been accomplished in 2016 if we had not set the targets we did. In all, it was a very good year for family history.

As we move forward I feel we must continue to set high goals to improve our results and to reach and engage more members of the family.

In looking back, I think we should as well prioritize a little better the work we are doing. Really, the temple work should come first. While the 300+ names we worked with last year is a good accomplishment this year I would like to make that temple work more of a focus. I think with the help of others in the family we can perform 1000 ordinances in 2017 — and I think that should be our primary goal.

I do feel the efforts of storytelling through word and video should continue. In 2017 I would like to take on the ambitious project of producing a video documenting the life of William R. Riggs — and in this video I would like to include interviews with members of the family with memories of him. I would like to as well tell the story through video of Arnold and Mary Westover.

And I feel an introduction of sorts should be made of Albert Smith and his family. That’s a big story and one that will eventually produce a video. But I think this year an introduction of some sort would be most appropriate.

I have some smaller targets for 2017 to pursue as well. For example, I want to find a more visual way of showing our family tree.

And I’d like to find other members of the family who would be willing to write and share their own efforts in family history and what they know right here on the website.

Jeff Westover

Grandma Knows

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This past week we had the opportunity to do the baptism for Sandy’s grandmother, who left this life six years go.

I knew going into it that it would be a tender moment for Sandy but I was quite surprised that it ended up being the same for me.

It left me to ponder, after it was done, and as we walked out of the temple we had a very interesting conversation that ended with the question: “Does Grandma know?”

Too often the thought of death is one we avoid. The natural man tends to think of death with great finality. We know as members of the Church that there is a deeper meaning but even still we do not spend enough time pondering these bigger questions.

Therein lies another rich blessing of doing family history and temple work.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul advises “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

After we had completed our work for Grandma and a few others in the baptistery that day I watched in wonder as the waiting room for the Logan temple filled with people. Across the glass the work of baptisms continued without stopping. There were two witnesses and a recorder, as well as those lined up to go into the font and those waiting in white for their turn. On our side of the glass sat rows of people line up for their turn to enter the font room, while still others were busy getting white clothes to change into or to check in for their turn for the whole process.

Everything was in order and working efficiently. There was a lot of work being accomplished thanks to the sacrifices of everyone there.

As I watched that I pondered the other side of this process.

What is it like? Do they feel what we feel? Are they accepting what we are doing on their behalf?

It made me contemplate a little deeper what Joseph the Prophet meant when he said, in a letter to the Saints, “And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect — neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”

It is easy to see, as we do their temple work, how “they without us cannot be made perfect”. But what does it mean that “neither can we without our dead be made perfect”?

And just what does it mean to be “made perfect”?

At one time, the Prophet Joseph spoke of the words of the Savior from the book of Matthew when he said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect”. The Prophet related that the word “perfect” is better translated as “complete”.

“Be ye therefore complete, even as your Father in Heaven is complete”.

That changes things a bit, doesn’t it? Would it not apply as well if we think of the phrase as “they without us cannot be made complete, neither can we without our dead be made complete”.

Indeed, it makes more sense. The thought condenses the grand scope of it all and makes it easier to comprehend – at least for me.

Brigham Young taught —

“Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes, they do. Do they both inhabit one kingdom? Yes, they do. Do they go to the sun? No. Do they go beyond the boundaries of the organized earth? No, they do not. It no doubt appears a singular idea to you that both Saint and sinner go to the same place and dwell together in the same world. You can see the same variety in this world. You see the Latter-day Saints, who have come into these valleys,—they are by themselves as a community, yet they are in the same world with other communities. When they are in the world of spirits, there is the Prophet and the Patriarch; all righteous men are there, and all wicked men also are there.”

What happens then when either the righteous or the wicked arrive in the afterlife? In other words, where is Grandma?

“The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers” (Joseph Smith)

In other words, they will see those who have a knowledge of the truth and who are free through the Atonement of Jesus Christ in that they are happy – and they will want that for themselves.

Jedidiah M. Grant was a member of the First Presidency, and still quite a young man, when he got very sick. If you recall he was the leading figure of the Mormon Reformation of 1856, a time when members of our own family took to rebaptism in elevating their commitment to the faith. Just days before he passed away, he had this experience of the “other side” as related by another member of the First Presidency from the time, Elder Heber C. Kimball:

“[Brother Grant] said to me, [Brother] Heber, I have been into the spirit world two nights in succession, and, of all the dreads that ever came across me, the worst was to have to again return to my body, though I had to do it. But O, says he, the order and government that were there! When in the spirit world, I saw the order of righteous men and women; beheld them organized in their several grades, and there appeared to be no obstruction to my vision; I could see every man and woman in their grade and order. I looked to see whether there was any disorder there, but there was none; neither could I see any death nor any darkness, disorder or confusion. He said that the people he there saw were organized in family capacities; and when he looked at them he saw grade after grade, and all were organized and in perfect harmony.”

That order that President Grant described is very similar to the order we see in the temple.

But if Grandma is there and part of this ordered effort to teach the Gospel, does she accept it?

This question was answered by several presidents of the Church, including Lorenzo Snow, who said:

“The great bulk of those who are in the spirit world for whom the work has been done will receive the truth. The conditions for the spirits of the dead receiving the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world are a thousand times more favorable than they are here in this life.”

Why? Because they lived here and live still. Perspective has changed. Circumstances have advanced.

In other words, yes, Grandma knows.

Interestingly, I found this story of the Logan temple that is now more than 70 years old:

“Elder Ballard sat at our baptismal font [in the Logan Utah Temple] one Saturday while nearly a thousand baptisms were performed for the dead. As he sat there, he contemplated on how great the temple ceremonies were, and how we are bringing special blessings to the living and the dead. His thoughts turned to the spirit world, and he wondered if the people there would accept the work we were doing for them.

“Brother Ballard said: ‘All at once a vision opened to me, and I beheld a great congregation of people gathered in the east end of the font room. One by one, as each name was baptized for, one of these people climbed a stairway over the font to the west end of the room. Not one soul was missing, but there was a person for every one of the thousand names done that day.’
“Brother Ballard said that he had never seen such happy people in all his life, and the whole congregation rejoiced at what was [being] done for them” – Nolan Porter Olsen, from the book, Logan Temple: The First 100 Years

It is interesting to note that President Brigham Young said that in the spirit world there exists both “the Prophet and the Patriarch”. By that he means the organization of the Priesthood and the organization of the Family.

The many things I have experienced in working on Family History so intently these past five years have taught me that our family is organized on the other side.

I have long told my wife how much I wish she had known and had met my Grandma Westover, and that they both would have enjoyed each other immensely. When Sandy’s grandmother died six years ago, I mused whether or not these two beloved grandmothers would meet on the other side.

I do not know that they have. But it would not surprise me in the least. That’s how connected our families are within the spirit world.

Sandy’s Mom this week had a dream of her mother. Due to its sacred nature I will only touch on it in passing here other than to say this is the first time since Grandma passed that my mother-in-law has seen her mother since she died.

I don’t consider that a coincidence or a game of the mind. I consider that a sacred reality of the family and a testimony of this great work.

Included in the names we did work for this week were several from my mother’s family. I knew none of them and I possess very little information about their lives.

But I left the temple feeling my Mom was aware this work was now done – and that a greater effort lies in the days ahead to further free her family there still in “spirit prison”.

This is how we are made complete or “made perfect”. This is how our dead help us.

Join us in the month of December in going to the Temple for our family.

We are challenging all members of the family, no matter where they live, to audit the temple work recorded at Family Search for any and all family members. Find a name a take it to the temple.

If you cannot find a name, then contact another family member you know who might hold names in reserve. I have dozens ready to go right now.

We are targeting December 3rd as our Westover Family Temple Day. But really it can happen at any time in December at any temple of your choosing.

Let’s end this year with a rush of names that we complete in the temple. Let’s give our family on the other side something to cheer. Then we can set fresh goals for the year ahead.

Jeff Westover

A Family Temple Day

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We are looking to engage family in the work of family history through organizing a Family Temple Day in December 2016.

The purpose of this day would be to advance the completion of family ordinance work. Wherever you are and whatever temple closest to you that you can attend would be all you would need if we coordinate the family names needing work.

For example, I presently have about 148 family ordinances in my possession that need to be completed. All ordinance work must be done in order. In November, we are going to complete the baptisms, confirmations and initiatory work for those names. This is being done by just a few of us.

Where the work gets bogged down will be with the endowments. 30+ names will take my wife and I months and months to complete endowments. But a concentrated, coast-to-coast family temple day in December could mean we can complete the work for these family members by the end of the year.

We are proposing a day such as this for Saturday, December 3rd, 2016. Please contact me if you can participate and take a family name or two to the temple on that day. Additionally, if you have a stockpile of names that need work done, please share so that we can spread out the work.

Family History
Jeff Westover

Signs, Wonders and Miracles

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So I’ve been teaching a Family History class in our ward.

The emphasis on teaching in the Church right now is interesting. And the Family History efforts have been no different. A week before I started the class I looked online for some direction and found a manual. I read the first lesson from the manual, put it down and looked at the scriptures I had jotted down. I left it alone until the day before my lesson and then went back online to retrieve the manual again.

It was gone.

In a panic I called my contact in Salt Lake and she told me they didn’t want us teaching Family History from a manual.

So my lessons have been structured week to week by feedback I have received from our class members. I’ve been pleased, having better than 20 plus people every single week. I make sure that I’m assessing their skill levels and that we’re setting goals each week to accomplish something.

The results in just over a two month period of classes have been astounding.

Of course, we have a wide spread of skill and knowledge in the class. Many have plenty of experience in this work. Some have none.

But there are miracles for all. Even me.

Last week I was demonstrating in class how to attach records to names in Family Search.

As my example I showed them a name I was working on from my mother’s Carson family line. We had all his genealogical data — we just needed to provide the records to make his name temple ready. I was just trying to show them how to do that.

While in the process of doing this I caught my eye on something — this particular individual’s mother experienced a name change from the 1900 census to a state census in New York from 1905. I made a mental note to check that when I got home. When I got to it I couldn’t believe where it led me. I learned that her husband died somehow in the spring of 1900 and that she remarried. Two of her children that were in later records named Carson were not actually Carsons — they were Lindermans! This led to a whole new family line I never knew about — and within about 2 hours time I had more than 60 additional names to go to the temple.

This may not seem a miracle to some. But to me it is a small example of the kind of revelation there is behind this work.

I’ve seen it in class students these past two weeks. One, an admitted slacker when it came to family history, finally approached his father after a class challenge on an activity we came up with for old family photos. This led to a fruitful conversation between this brother and his father — and it unleashed a fountain of information he never knew his father had. When he asked his Dad why he never shared any of this precious family history with him the answer was plain — “I didn’t think you were interested”.

Last night I ran into another brother at the grocery store who had just returned from seeing his parents in Massachusetts. In class he asked for advise about what to do when he saw his Mom and Dad. I advised him to first make a list of his most important questions and to pack a computer, a scanner, and a camera to take with him. I haven’t seen him for several weeks until last night. And he was a bit of a different man. He returned enthused and fired up — talking to everyone he can about the family history discoveries he made. He came home, he told me, with suitcases full of journals, photos and documents.

Miracles? Maybe not to some. To those on the outside, those who are disengaged from this great work I find a real lack of relatability to what I’m saying here. They just don’t get it.

But what I’m seeing happen with others and with myself is that family connections heal and inspire. They teach and humble. They influence for good, no matter what the stories are. And they restore love between family members. This brother told me that he couldn’t talk to his family about the Church but he could talk to them about family. And that’s what he did and is doing. He can feel the “restoration” — as he put it — of relationships and love as a result of these conversations.

Tell me again this isn’t a work of miracles.

October is Family History month. I encourage you to do something — anything — related to family history this month. Pull out a picture and have a conversation. Share a memory. Call a senior member of the family and just talk.

Get a little miracle going in your life.