Author Archives: Rebekah Richards

About Rebekah Richards

Born before the internet age, I recall reading my way through the set of encyclopedias in my parents home. In addition to non fiction, I also enjoy a good novel and love the written word. Music was a staple in my childhood home, I love to sing and often sing too loud. When I was 11 years old I went with my grandma and dad to visit Grandma's family in West Virginia where they had lived for generations. I fell in love with "my" people and have spent a lifetime learning their stories. I graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in History and am passionate about people and their stories, those who have paved the way for the life we live, those who impact our lives daily and those whose lives our decisions will affect. I am the sister to six wonderful siblings, the wife of my best friend and the mother to four very above average children. Most of all I find deep hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ and want to follow Him.

What shall we do?

In February of 1846, most of the residents of Nauvoo were making preparations to evacuate and abandon the city, their temple, and their homes in the face of intense persecution.  Just two days before their anticipated departure, Eliza Ann Graves Rich went into labor earlier than anticipated giving birth to a tiny, frail baby who was so small she was described as “no bigger than a pint of cider”.  (Sarah D. Pea Rich) Her husband’s responsibilities and obligations required his immediate removal and he didn’t know what to do. “I can’t take you; it would mean certain death to you and the baby.  What shall we do?” he asked.   Eliza replied, “Bless me…and if you promise me I will be safe, I am not afraid.” (Charles C. Rich, Leonard J. Arrington, 90)

Eliza’s mother came to care for Eliza and her new baby as the wagons began to roll across the frozen Mississippi. The baby was slow to gain health. Winter turned to spring and 

then summer and Eliza and her mother began to run low on provisions. There were those who rejoiced and contributed to her difficult circumstances so Eliza and her mother weren’t sure what to think when the wife of one of those in the mobs arrived with flour, sugar and other supplies. At first, Eliza feared the food was poisoned but in her desperation she chose to trust and the supplies sustained her, her mother and baby as they waited to rejoin their family heading west. (Letter from Sarah D. Pea Rich to Mary Bratton Rich)

Receiving unexpected, generous care in our need is a glimpse of heaven and a glimpse of how the Savior loves us. “One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people…His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation…we can literally change the world—one person and one interaction at a time….the best is yet to come for those who spend their lives building up others.” (President Russell M. Nelson, April 2023)

We feel and reflect the Savior’s love as we walk in kindness and compassion for all of His children and believe the best is yet to come.

God of Hope

Over fall break, my husband and I went to the Manti temple to participate in an endowment session, see the newly renovated interior and remember the joy we felt and experienced in that temple.  Nearly twenty seven years ago, a storm that closed the Salt Lake airport brought snow, bitter cold, and wind.  My brother, a cousin, and an uncle and aunt never made it through but with those who were already here, we gathered in the largest sealing room of that temple, knelt at an altar, a symbol of the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and made covenants making us husband and wife and binding us to God and each other forever.  

Many years and several children after our sealing,  sat in a sealing room of the Ogden Temple as a young husband and wife knelt across a similar altar to enter into covenants that would bring the blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ to their marriage and family. Once their sealing was complete, their two young children, dressed in white, were brought into the room and joined their parents at the altar. The scene was so sweet and I felt a twinge of jealousy that I would never have my children gathered around an altar like that. Then my breath hitched as a rebuke sounded in my mind, “I gave you this blessing before you knew how much you would want it.”  He had given me hope before life would test that faith and hope.

Our loving Father invites us to enter into covenants that bring promises we may not even now know how much we will desire in future days. It is His promise that “In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

“As we enter the Lord’s house, we feel the Spirit of God, verifying our hope…. the ordinances powerfully confirm that every righteous person will receive every promised blessing. There is sublime hope as a young couple kneels across the altar to be sealed, not just for time but for eternity. There is an immensity of hope for us in the promises made to our posterity, whatever their current circumstances. There is no pain, no sickness, no injustice, no suffering, nothing that can darken our hope as we believe and hold tightly to our covenants with God in the house of the Lord. It is a house of light, a house of hope…I testify that our hope is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, all our righteous dreams will be realized. He is the God of hope-the triumph of hope.” (Elder Neil L. Anderson, October 2024)

Every blessing we seek and hope for can be realized through Jesus Christ, the God of hope.

In Our Midst

In April of 1829, Oliver Cowdery arrived in Harmony, Pennsylvania at the home of Joseph and Emma Smith and offered his services as a scribe to the young prophet who was struggling under the weight of supporting his family, enduring persecution and translating the plates that held a record of the people of ancient America.  As Joseph and Oliver began to work together, the Savior repeated the words He had spoken to his disciples in the New Testament, “…where two or three are gathered together in my name,…behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.”  (D&C 6:32)


Sunday morning our ward gathered in the chapel, as usual, for sacrament meeting.  As I greeted friends and neighbors and found my seat, the easily recognizable face of President Dallin H. Oaks entered the room and with him came a spirit of reverence that exceeded that of our normal meeting.   The words of the song, “If the Savior stood beside me…” came to my mind as I felt the presence of one of His representatives.


The Savior is beckoning to all the children of God to gather to Him.  He has restored His church with authority to bestow His covenants and His promises.  The “swift messengers” of Isaiah’s prophecies are called and sharing this message throughout the world.  “And then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in…And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I also will be in the midst.” (3 Nephi 21:24-25) 


“I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment!…Jesus Christ took upon Himself your sins, your pains, your heartaches, and your infirmities.  You do not have to bear them alone!  He will forgive you as you repent.  He will bless you with what you need.  He will heal your wounded soul…Your afflictions will be ‘swallowed up in the joy of Christ.'”  (President Russell M. Nelson, October 2024)

He is in our midst!

Reverent Joy

As a girl, I sang “Take me home, country roads…Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River…” to an eight track of John Denver songs my grandparents played in their car as we traveled to their mountain cabin.  Recently,  just like the song, my husband and I drove the Skyline Drive of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park.  The road was carved through the trees with occasional overlooks viewing the valleys below.  
 
Though the colors were just beginning to change, the four thousand plant species hosted by those mountains provided a beautiful display.I instinctively felt awe and reverent joy as I marveled at the genius of the Master artist Who works in so many different mediums.

From the rugged heights of the Rockies and its evergreen forests, to ocean beaches, desert red rock cliffs, dense foilage, and landscapes too numerous to list, the children of God retreat to His works for peace, solace and inspiration. Among His works we begin to sense His majesty, His power and the love He has for His greatest creation, His children. It is for us that all of His works were made, “both to please the eye and to gladden the heart.” (D&C 59:18)

As exquisite and awe inspiring as these creations are, they are only shadows of our “awesome wonder at the good news of the Father’s gift of His Son!” At our recognition of the immensity of this gift, “…We will feel to wonder with grateful awe at the ‘exquisite and sweet’ joy of what Jesus’s magnificent gift has made possible in our lives and in our eternities!” (Elder Patrick Kearon, October 2024)

Our Father is the God of creation, the God of beauty, the God of hope, the God of redemption, the God of joy.

Eternal Influence

Last week I sat in the chapel of our ward and relived childhood memories during the funeral of Dian Ferrin.  Dian and her husband, Cal, were my childhood Primary teachers.  They taught our class on Sunday and their oldest daughter, Gayle, did weekday “Merrie Miss” activities for us at their home.  Their home was just an orchard away from the church building tucked back in the trees with a large garden but to a small girl it seemed like it was a world away.  I learned to make pizza dough in their kitchen, gardening in their yard and we practiced sewing skills around their kitchen table.  

Hanging on the wall above the table where we sat was a framed map of the world.  When I was a girl, the map contained a few pictures of missionaries from their family with a string running from a picture to the place they had served.  One of the pictures was of Gayle.  As we sat around the table, she would tell us stories about her service in Sri Lanka.  She described a world unknown to us where it was sometimes difficult to obtain clean water and often the only safe beverage available was orange soda.  She showed us pictures of homes built unlike any we had seen and of the country and people she had come to love.  

More than forty years have passed since I first sat at their table.  The large map that hung on the wall was on display at her funeral and the few pictures have grown to more than fifty “Ferrin Family Missionaries”.  As I ponder the map, I admire the vision of Cal and Dian.  The map was enormous when they bought it with so few pictures to place but they could envision the grand scale of what they were building.  Through the family they raised in their home almost completely hidden by an orchard and grape vine fences, their influence has reached around the globe, sharing the hope and good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ by those who lived it and experienced it at home.  
 
If we tried to track and measure the good that has come from Cal and Dian Ferrin and the good that comes from those who learned from them, we would find that their influence has become “eternal”. The influence of our lives doesn’t die with us, it lives on and on and on…eternally.
 

Dream Home

Following the call of a prophet, William Lyman Rich was eleven years old when he arrived with his parents, in 1864, with the first group of settlers to the Bear Lake Valley.  The first winter came early, the frost killed their vegetable gardens before they could be harvested, the wheat did not ripen and snow soon blocked the pass to Cache Valley.  It was a dismal start for the new settlement.  

Eventually, the community of Paris, Idaho began to grow as did William.  In 1877, he married Ella Pomeroy and they worked and saved for the opportunity to build their “dream home”.  That dream became a reality in 1886 when they moved with their four young children into a new two story home, nicely furnished with the help of an interior decorator from Salt Lake City.    
 
After two weeks in their lovely home, William received a call to be the bishop of Montpelier, Idaho which would necessitate an immediate move to the town where two competing factions would make his calling even more difficult.  In the middle of the winter, William and Ella “prayed for strength as they moved their family into the only house available, the 

worst one I ever saw–a ricky, leaky, dirt-roofed tiny one, where Mother and baby Mabel were sick most of the time.” (daughter, Zula Rich Cole)

The winter ended, William’s farm implement business thrived and they obtained better housing while William served as bishop of Montpelier.  While the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of joy it is also a gospel of sacrifice.  It is the sacrifice He made for us and the joy our redemption brings and it is the real, though token, sacrifices we make to follow HIm, receive His redemption and become like Him. 
 
William and Ella did return to Paris but never did live in their “dream home” again.  Yet when there is a family reunion or the family goes to Paris to visit old sites and grave yards, a stop is invariable made to take a picture of their “dream home”.  The home and the choice they made to leave it stand as a monument and testament of their faith for generations of their posterity.  It is a legacy they could have never forseen in their moment of decision.  Whether now or later and often both, sacrifice “brings forth the blessings of heaven.”
 

The Ball Doesn’t Lie

For the past eleven years, my brother, Boyd, has hosted a fundraiser golf tournament for the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Utah which begins with a clinic.  In past years, I have watched Boyd teach the clinic with his skilled children as examples of what he is teaching.  This year, my brother, Danny, taught the clinic with two PGA tour players from northern Utah, Patrick Fishburn and Zac Blair, as examples.  
 
Patrick at 6’4″ and 220 lbs is powerful off the tee.  Zac is 5’6″, 155 lbs and scores with his wedges and putter.  With such differences, Danny pointed out that in golf there are only two fundamentals, the angle of the club face and the club path at impact with the ball.   Everything else a player does: grip, alignment, or swing is about using their particular body and abilities to consistently generate the best angle and path to create the shot they desire.  “The golf ball flight tells you the story of impact.  Pay attention to the story the golf ball is telling you.  The ball doesn’t lie,” he taught.

Each child of God comes to earth with different circumstances, different capacities and opportunities, different strengths and weaknesses and we all come with one invitation to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ, and become like Him.  As mere mortals we seek to imitate the Master and so often our efforts result in figurative golf balls all over the course, nowhere near the hole.  Yet He stands near teaching us to use our given circumstances to strengthen us and our capacities to create the club face angle along the path that will move us closer and closer to being like Him.  This life is a game we can all win.  “He inviteth [us] all to come unto Him and partake of His goodness; and He denieth none that come unto Him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and He remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God,..” (2 Nephi 26:33)

As we practice and tune our hearts and our minds to the whisperings of His Holy Spirit, He will show us all things that we should do to create the impact that propels our lives along His covenant path.  Our story will then tell of His mercy, His compassion, His attention to the details and His wisdom in shaping our lives with increasing access to His power that will give us all that He has.
 

Impossible Reality

After celebrated success as a half-back football player at the University of Utah, newly graduated Preston Summerhays accepted a position teaching and coaching in the small rural community of St. Anthony, Idaho.  It was 1931 and Preston’s contract for nine months held the indefinite phrase, “providing that economic conditions will permit…”  As the Great Depression gripped the country, School District No. 2 of Fremont County was not certain they would have the means to keep school open for the entire year.

It was a tenuous time, yet with audacious optimism, during the first year of his tenure, Preston taught, coached and gathered support for St. Anthony’s first golf course.  In the spring of 1932 a ground lease was signed, “Fairways…[were] grubbed out and cleared of rocks and sand greens put in together with tee boxes…being located along the Snake river with an abundance of grass and fine trees.” (The Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho June 28, 1932)   

Over the summer Preston managed the course, organized and played in matches with teams from other towns, and offered golf lessons.  In spite of the economic outlook, “the Hollow Tree Forest golf course has been very popular this summer and fall.  Plans for extensive improvements to the course for next season are being made at this time.” (Ibid October 20, 1932). What would seem impossible during such difficult times became a reality.

Though the future may feel doubtful, we can express our own hope that through the plan of the Savior the

challenges of life will not defeat us but allow us to thrive by overcoming.  “Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.  The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.” (D&C 78:18)   Have hope, we can each triumph through Him.

Harvest of Influence

Ten years ago, I was called to be the primary president in our ward.  I pondered and prayed over counselors and one day, while turning the corner at the bottom of the hill, I drove past Shirley’s house and received the impression that she should be one of my counselors.  I paused at the impression.  I love Shirley and had watched her serve faithfully for many decades but Shirley had just celebrated her eightieth birthday.  What would she say? I wondered.  When she received the calling, she reminded the bishop of her age, indicated she hadn’t served in Primary since it had been called Jr. Sunday School and then recounted that she had been surprised earlier by a prompting that a calling was coming and she should accept.  
 

While Shirley worried that some of the issues she faced would affect her service, the children and adults in Primary listened intently to the stories of her life and the testimony those experiences had shaped.  We felt the love she had for the Lord and all of us and we were blessed to simply be in her presence.  She accepted the opportunity to serve in faith that the Lord would make her efforts enough and while being blessed by her wisdom, her steadiness, and love, I came to understand that through her lifetime of faith, it wasn’t as much what she did, it was who she had become.

This week Shirley’s backyard was filled with friends and family who spanned her nine decades celebrating her birthday, a small glimpse of the fruits of her life. A life filled with ongoing moments of faith, forgiveness, repentance, laughter, kindness, prayer, work, hope, and love that have created a harvest of influence that will last eternally.

 

Known and Seen

I sat near a young man as a sister missionary shared the story of Joseph Smith who, troubled by the many different religions of his day, wondered which of all the churches were true.  Joseph followed the admonition of James, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…”  Kneeling in a grove in the early spring of 1820, he prayed, was surrounded by intense darkness, and then using all his power to call upon God he “saw a pillar of light exactly over [his] head, above the brightness of the sun…”  In the light Joseph saw two glorious Beings.  One called him by name, pointed to the other and said, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith History). God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, came to an obscure boy in a grove.  They knew his name, They knew his past, They knew his present struggle and They knew his future.
 
As I turned to the young man next to me, the love of God for him washed gently over 

me and I knew that just as the Lord knew Joseph, He knew the young man who sat next to me, an obscure boy in the living room of a house in Farmington. In a vast sea of people in our town, in our state, in our country, in our world, it is easy to feel insignificant, unknown and perhaps, alone, but we are not unknown or insignificant to the Father of heaven and earth.  He knows every one of His children, their name, their hopes, their present struggles, their past, and their future.

“No matter where you live, no matter how humble your circumstances, how meager your employment, how limited your abilities, how ordinary your appearance…you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father. He loves you. He knows your humble heart and your acts of love and kindness….We have the faithful promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their hearts to Him. Have hope and faith in that promise.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, October 2011) 
 
He sees you, He knows you, and He loves you perfectly.