1 An Easter message

Yesterday was Easter. We share here the Easter message issued by the First Presidency over the signatures of Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The picture shows the tomb in Jerusalem where the body of Jesus Christ is believed to have been laid.

At this Easter season of hope and renewal we testify of the glorious reality of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The empty tomb brought comforting assurance and provided the answer to the question of Job, "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14).

Because of the Savior’s resurrection we will overcome death and become the beneficiaries of His mercy and grace. In a world of trouble and uncertainty, His peace fills our hearts and eases our minds. Jesus is in very deed "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

We give our sure witness that Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human family He stands as our Advocate, our Savior, and our Friend.

2 Quote of the week

From Elder Neil L. Andersen, the newly sustained member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, from his maiden address on Sunday, April 5, 2009

I take solace that in one qualification for the holy apostleship where there can be no latitude extended, the Lord has deeply blessed me. I do know with perfect and certain clarity through the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, the Beloved Son of God. . . .

Brothers and sisters, He lives. He is resurrected. He guides His holy work upon the earth. His prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

3 This week in our family

Mon, Apr 13: Mandy's birthday [Gail]
Mon, Apr 13: Andrew Riley's birthday [Lyle]
Mon, Apr 13: Kay and Karen being sealed in Lima Peru Temple
Wed, Apr 15: Tax Day
Fri, Apr 17: Luke DeMartini's birthday [Ray]
Fri, Apr 17: Doni Rene Riley's birthday [Lyle]
Sat, Apr 18: Marc's birthday [Lyle]
Sat, Apr 18: Melissa's birthday [Gail]
Sun, Apr 19: Rhett's birthday [Kay]
Sun, Apr 19: Shauna's birthday [Dean]
Sun, Apr 19: Wyatt Lee Packwood's birthday [Gene]
Mon, Apr 20: Next issue of newsletter

4 Bits and tidbits

Rough couple of weeks
On Tuesday, April 7, Shandi Burdett (Lyle's family) posted: "Man its been crazy around here the past couple of weeks. Saturday March 28th Shawn was in a car accident and totalled my car :o(


"He was all right except for a few bumps and bruises. So we have been dealing with insurance companies and finding a new car. We had a small savings built up that we were trying to save up for a down payment to buy a house . . . well that will be put on hold for awhile now. We went and bought a Ford Explorer, it was a 1-owner car and Shawn had it checked out and seems to be in perfect working order :o) We've had it since Sunday and everything is going great with it!!

"Also last Wednesday I ended up in the hospital with a kidney infection and kidney stones :o( Not fun stuff, but I am feeling much better now. I have to go see a urologist soon to figure out what the cause of my stones are/were."

Coloring eggs
On Thursday, April 9, Nicolle Higley (Kay's family) posted: "As a kid I loved to dye Easter eggs. As an adult I still really enjoy it. Last year Easton thought it was cool but just dropped all the eggs in and we were done in like 5 minutes. This year Easton was a lot slower and enjoyed it more. Gretchen learned that the higher your hand is the bigger the splash. She was done in no time flat. I got to do like 5 eggs. I was sort of sad. Oh well it was still fun. Maybe I should buy some dye and do some of my own eggs when they are both sleeping."


Easter egg hunt
Nicolle also posted: "This year Andrea had her Easter egg hunt, but it was way low key. In fact, it ended up only being Melissa and her girls, Andrea and her kids, and then Gretchen and Easton. It was just candy thrown on the grass, no Easter eggs. It was still fun.


The Easter bunny
Yesterday Eliza Challis (Dean's family) posted: "Since the Easter Bunny is a pretty busy fellow and not quite up to par in speed and efficiency like Santa Claus, he comes to our home on Saturday instead of Easter Sunday. He knows that we like to keep the Sabbath Easter celebrations focused on the true meaning so he comes a day early which lightens his load for Sunday.

"On Friday night Paul told Peter he had to be good so that the Easter Bunny would bring him presents and candy. Really Paul simply wanted Peter throw some garbage away for him and was using the Easter Bunny as good motivation. Except that it slightly backfired. Peter was freaked out by the thought of the Bunny watching him to see if he was being good or bad. He snuggled up close to me and told me he didn't like the Easter Bunny and he kept looking over his shoulder to make sure the Bunny wouldn't get him.

"But Saturday morning Peter woke up earlier than usual and ran into our room and with excitement said that we had to go see the candy the Easter Bunny left him. He totally remembered and was much happier about the idea in the morning. The holidays just keep getting more fun now that Peter is a little bit older and knows more what is going on.

"My favorite part was seeing Peter discover all the candy the Easter Bunny had 'hidden' around the room. His eyes just lit up in excitement. Aaron enjoyed sucking on the toy dinosaur that the Easter Bunny brought him. (That Easter Bunny sure was smart to give him the dinosaur because that will conveniently come in handy for this month's Cub scout Pack Meeting that is dinosaur themed.)"
Spring has sprung
Several weeks ago Crystal Price (Lyle's family) posted: "At our house we don't do the typical Easter celebration. We want to spend the time really reflecting on the death and resurrection of Christ rather than bunnies and baskets. So I stole this idea from a church friend who's blog I've been lurking on.

"Last Friday, being the first day of Spring, we had a Spring Celebration! We had 'spring' decorated donuts and fruit smoothies for breakfast. Then I had an appointment that morning. Came back home and had a little egg and candy scavenger hunt.



"The boys thought this was so much fun. We had to have it inside due to the weather. In Washington even when it's spring it is too cold outside sometimes.

"For dinner I made salmon, baked red potatoes and corn...oh and snail dinner rolls. Look you roll them up and they look like this . . .

"Sorry the pics fuzzy. I got a glare off my stone. The antenna are carrots. The boys really enjoyed these too!"

5 Our family 50 years ago

Excerpts from the April 1959 diary of Dorothy Batt Cleverly (1915-1982). The full text of her diary can be found online at Dorothy's Idaho Diaries and is updated daily, exactly 50 years to the day after it was originally written. The family at the time lived on a 40-acre farm in the Deer Flat area south of Nampa, Idaho.

Mon, Apr 13. Ray stayed home to help Ivard do ditches & little Kids were to school when I got home from work. little Kids came home from school again they aren't haveing school for a couple of days because so many are out sick. I got up at 3: & Ivard & Ray had gone to Marshing to watch J.V. get beat. Gene was catch.

Tues, Apr 14. I came home from work & went to bed & Dale tended Jackie. Ivard, Dean & Ray cleaned corrigates all day & started to water beets. I got up at 3: & Ivard & Kids hauled the cans up to garbage dump then we all went to Nampa and Ivard bought us all a hamberger french fries & root beer for our supper and we went home & had a big dish of icecream.

Wed, Apr 15. Sent Lyle a 14 page letter. We changed our 2 new tires & put old ones on pick up & went to Dobbs Motor & traded it in on a 1958 pick up & Ivard got the Idaho licence for it.

Thurs, Apr 16. I came home from work & Ray was home sick, he said. I laid down an hr then Ivard Jackie & I went to get a load of hay. We came home at 2: & Ray had house all scrubbed & cleaned good & another batch of clothes washed & both hung out. He fixed lunch & we ate & I went to bed at 3: & no one woke me up until time to go to work at 10:10.

Fri, Apr 17. Got letter & picture from Jerry. Ivard took new pick-up in to have lights checked & fixed & got his drivers licence (Idaho). We went & got kids from school & had ice cream on way over to Notus to ball game. Adrian won. Kay wasn't there, he had flue.

Sat, Apr 18. Kay was in bed all day with flue.

Sun, Apr 19. I came home from work & went to bed. Today was conference & no one went. Ivard tended water & him & Gene went over & got their last load of hay over to Symiths. At 6:30, after Gene got chores done, I took Kay & Gene over to Ad's.

6 What in the world

Planning ahead?
It seems that Pope Benedict really plans far ahead. A story out of the Vatican that ran in Saturday's Deseret News said that "Benedict plans to tour the area of Italy's worst earthquake in three decades after the Easter holiday." Thirty years from now? The airlines in Italy must really be booked.

The sentence might better have read: "After the Easter holiday Benedict plans to tour the area of Italy's worst earthquake in the past three decades."

One other oops!
On April 6, the day after general conference, a caption in the Daily Universe at BYU accidentally misspelled the word "apostles" as "apostates." An unfortunate error indeed. And most embarrassing for the student writer and editors who missed the mistake.

An article about the blunder appeared in the April 7 Deseret News. In that article the final paragraph began, "No matter how the hollowed word was mistakenly replaced with its rogue opposite. . . ." Hollowed word? Were they suggesting that the word "apostles" is hollow, empty, and devoid of meaning? I think they meant "hallowed."

7 A final word

The spring and fall general conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among my favorite times of the year. They are like having two extra Christmases every year. The rich spiritual banquet we were served a week ago was no exception.

My mind reverts to an experience I had attending conference sixteen years ago. For a number of years in the 1980s and 90s a small group of us with ties to Brazil would meet on Temple Square and attend conference together in the Tabernacle. Wives sometimes participated, particularly those who traveled from out of state. As the years progressed, a number of our children also joined the group.

One year one of my fellow missionaries and I had a touching experience while waiting to get into the Taber­nacle before the Sunday morning session of the October 1993 conference. Even though we had arrived by 7:45, we had to get in the line outside the north gate of Temple Square and there was some doubt about whether we'd get inside the Tabernacle.

Two ladies from Clinton, in the northern part of Utah's Davis County, were standing behind us in the line. As it became in­creasingly uncertain that we'd get in, even though we all had priesthood leader or partner tickets, the ladies made some com­ment about how the origi­nal two people in our group had grown to about ten or twelve people, and they hoped we weren't the last ones let in. We had them get in front of us, and as we visited with them found out they had never been to a general conference before and they said, with­out ever revealing why, that it was critically important that they get in.

One of the ladies was a sister to Kent Hood, the bishop in the 36th Ward in our stake who had died of cancer. Bishop Hood had been Kay and Claudia's bishop.

When it became clear that we would not get in, a couple of us walked over to the head usher, Gary, whom we'd be­come acquainted with over the years as we'd come to conference to­gether, and explained the situation and asked if there were any way he could get the two sisters in. After the session had started, Gary asked each of the approxi­mately fifty people in front of us if they'd mind if these two ladies went in to the two remain­ing seats he had inside. No one ob­jected, so he took them in, and their tears and gratitude compen­sated fully for our not getting in.

They found us after the session and gave us big hugs and, with tears streaming down their cheeks, thank­ed us again for help­ing them get in. It was a wonderful experience, far more than this rough account of the experience begins to convey.

A few weeks later I wrote the following thought in the little newsletter I then published for my own family: "Elder Neal A. Maxwell has writ­ten, 'The very usefulness of our lives depends upon our willingness to serve others' (Even as I Am, 62). . . .

"This past week I saw another ful­fillment of that true principle. A couple weeks ago I reported an expe­rience [we] had the Sunday morning of general con­fe­rence while waiting to get into the Tabernacle. By talking to the head usher, we were able to help two ladies from Clinton get into the morning session. One of those ladies, Marsha Hamble­ton, sent me a nice thank-you letter this past week:

"Dear Brother Cleverly,

"I wanted to send you a note to thank you for your great kindness, rendered to myself and my friend this past conference.

"I am one of the two ladies you helped get into the Tabernacle on Sun­day morning of general confe­rence.

"I can't begin to tell you the great impact of your service. We were to attend that particular session of con­ference under divine instruction. Little did we know just how divine it would be. Though I can't share with you the details of why we were to attend that conference, I will tell you that if it hadn't been for you and your associates we would not have been able to enter.

"The work of the Lord is in full force and sometimes a simple act of service and sacrifice can mean a great deal to someone. That particu­lar morning you did an act of service which meant the changing of a heart.

"I can't express the gratitude we felt. As we sat in that con­ference with tears stream­ing down our faces how thankful we were to the strang­ers still waiting in line out­side. The Lord, personally, had you and your friends help with that task that morn­ing to meet both a promise and a gift of love. You will never know the ex­tent of your kind­ness, but believe that on that morning you and your friends were serving the Master.

"Thank you for being the kind of men that can feel the Spirit and then respond to it. Thank you for being the kind of men that the Savior would guide and direct. Thank you for your rescue!

"Thank you again for your great act of kindness. It will never be for­gotten, neither by me, my friend, nor by the Lord. You were truly an instrument in His hands that day.

"Please extend our gratitude to all involved. God bless you always.

"Isn't it wonderful how the Lord focuses on little details, on quiet whisperings of the Spirit that nudge us to be in the right spot at the right time, on simple impres­sions to be doing some little thing for another person, on incred­ible little coinci­dences that are a part of His divine tapestry."