February 12, 2012

This is a special note because Hailey and Ashley are helping me write today. Their mom and dad (David and Susan) are helping the family take care of their grandfather Sheldon Fransdson. He passed away this morning and the family is together working out the arrangements for his graduation. He will be missed by all here, but he is going on to meet with his sweetheart Barbara. This is a story that Hailey wants to share. I am so smart. I can play with Kamy. I can run faster than my cousin. I can jump. I can ride horses. I can slide. The end. Well Hailey that is a great story for a kindergartner. Ashley says her story is “my stuff”. Then, she says that her stuff is special. My favorite smurf is clumsy and favorite smurfette is noisey. Ashley also likes her silly band. Mom and dad feed us, help us, help us know when its Christmas, take care of us, take us to Church, Hailey go to school, help Ashley take naps and go to bed and learn the colors including pink and red.

January 29, 1973 we were sitting at home in Orem and Grandma Lucy called from the ranch in Mangas, New Mexico to tell us that my father Grandfather Charles Glenn Jacobs has passed away. We got in the car and drove down to the ranch only to find that they had gone over to Holbrook where my sister Lynda lived at the time. Dad wanted to be buried on the ranch, but since he couldn’t argue at that point, the decision was made to take his body over to Holbrook where there was a mortuary, and assistance from Lynda’s LDS ward. Scott and Diane were old enough to have a clear understanding of the purpose of the activities. Grandmother Lucy shared a recollection on several occasions, in which Scott was standing next to the open casket for a protracted period of time, so she asked if he wanted to go sit down. He replied, “not yet, we have to wait until grandpa is resurrected”. Diane was also busy at the funeral home. She was drawing a masterpiece. In this drawing she included Me, mom, Scott, herself, Kaye and Daniel. In the background Grandpa was in the casket. We were all looking at the casket and crying.

One of the most trying times in our lives is when we have to watch as a loved one goes on before us. We feel lost without the presence of an individual we have known throughout all our lives. Then, we look to the understanding we have received through our testimonies of the scriptures, of our Heavenly Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We watch as clear evidence is provided physically and spiritually regarding the questions; where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going? For those who may have had a temporary forgetfulness come over them regarding our eternal travel, this is the way it works. We come here straight from the presence of our Heavenly Father. Prior to our arrival in our mortal form, we commit to our Father in Heaven that we will do all that we can to honor him through service as mortals. We get here after we have temporarily lost the knowledge of our prior exisitence. We begin all over again. We have promptings from time and we have an inate sense of what we are supposed to do. We do our best to remember, to live the way we promised in the preexistence, then we move through the veil and back to His presence where the books of life are opened to us (not scriptural, but I believe these “books” are all in our memory tapes. We accept the findings cheerfully, acknowledging that we have come up short in some areas, and are ready to receive our eternal status. Now this is where the atonement of Christ comes in. We can’t be in the presence of our Heavenly Father if we have the least amount of sin in our lives. It is though the willing sacrifice of our Savior, the only perfect one to reside on the earth, his resurrection, and atonement that we are able to be unspotted and able to continue an eternal existence.

From the several occasions I have been very close to the veil and the opportunities I have had of sharing undisputable knowledge of the presence of spirit messengers (I believe through the Holy Ghost), I have a solemn and complete witness and testimony that we are in the hands of spiritual directors throughout our lives. Our job is to accept them, attempt to abide by the inspiration we receive, and live every moment of our lives helping others and being full of charity for those with whom we share this mortal existence.

My friend, Sheldon Frandson, has lived an exemplary live and truly been an example of worthy principles. He will be missed here by his family, but he goes with a pleasant and honorable legacy and will soon be received into the eternal embrace of those who have gone on before to await his eternal blessings.

May God bless us all as we attempt to do the will of our Heavenly Father,

D. Duane Jacobs, Gpa Jacobs, Uncle, father, cousin, and friend