:Family Matters

May 15, 2010

I suppose there was one good thing that occurred this last week as I dug through file cabinets and boxes trying to find my birth certificate. (All to no avail.) I did, however, find a few things that might be of interest to family and friends who knew my father. Here is a copy of a letter that MGSK sent me in 1991. It was written in 1982.

“Dear Brother Smithson, as I respond to your request of the Sunday just past to share with you on of the treasured memories of my youth. I bear humble testimony to you that I know the Gospel is true and has been restored in its fullness in these latter days for all those who will give heed to His teachings while living here upon the earth as well as those who have been called in death who would have accepted had they heard the Gospel preached in its fullness while alive and able to participate in the necessary ordinances that can only be performed here on earth.

Like Nephi, I feel that I was born of goodly parents and I received a christian upbinging from my staunch Methodist mother. My father was rather cool to all denominations and would have nothing to do with the various sectarian churches that we came in contact with while I was growing up in the Verde Valley area of central Arizona. Though we had very little in worldly possessions and my dad’s health was such that he could do little more than a minimum amount of physical labor on our small rented farm or in a wage earning capacity, he was kind and good to us and perfectly willing for us to attend church or Sunday school with my mother. With one exception I do not ever remember of seeing my dad in a church house or attend a religious meeting of any nature. The one exception remains vividly in my memory and on this occasion an evangelist was holding nightly meetings in the community little red school house located about a mile from our home and where my brother and I and my two sisters attended school during the week and were dragged off to Sunday school by my mother. The evangelist or preacher as we called him visited our community once every year and held nightly services in the little school house for five or six nights at a time. He had built the enthusiasm of his audience up to a fever pitch on this perticular occasion to such an extent that my mother was able to persuade my dad to attend the last meeting of the week involved. My father refused to dignify the occasion by sitting as the rest of the family did but chose instead to stand just inside the back door of the building, and leaned up against the wall. The eloquent soul stirring sermon that the preacher made and the subsequent “alter call” brought several of us younger folks and one or two adults up to the front of the room where we stood as examples of the faithful who were willing to accept Christ as our Savior while the pleadings of the minister continued in an effort to save the others from hell and damnation. As my dad had not appeared at any previous meetings, the minister seemed to direct all his attention onto him and walking slowly back to the end of the building where my dad was standing, he took him by the arm to try and persuade him to accept Jesus as his savior, especially now since his oldest son had let the way. But my dad was resolute and slipped out the door that he had kept so handily at his side when he entered the building for the sermon.

My Father passed away jut a few years after that occasion and I remember how sad it made me feel, when told by some ministers that he indeed was one of the many lost souls which the devil had claimed for his kingdom. I did not understand this reasoning but as I knew no better I put up with it with a very sorrowful heart.

With this preface you can understand what a beautiful thing I found the true gospel to be, wherein it taught me that my dad whom I loved very much, was not condemned to hell because he had not accepted the pseudo teachings presented to him and that he would have the the true gospel of the Savior preached to him in Paradise and that could act as a proxie for him in the necessary earthly ordinances and under the circumstances described be as efficacious as though performed here on earth on his own body. This indeed is a glorious truth restored in these the Latter Days and I rejoice that I could not only be baptized for my dad but also with the aid of my good wife was permitted to kneel across an alter in the Temple, House of the Lord, where one with the Keys to so do, sealed my dad and my mother for time and all eternity to themselves and to their children, who I hope and pray will accept this great gospel while here upon the earth, so that we can be a family together throughout the eternities. I truly believe that His sheep will hear His voice and respond elatedly to His Alter Call.
Sincerely, your servant in the Gospel

Bro. Ford Gano

MGH was able to be with Dad and Lucille when they did the proxy work for his father in the Washington D.C. Temple in 198_. I asked him to write about this experience which he did.

Washington Temple Experience

I was with Ford and his second wife, Lucille, at the Washington Temple when they were doing the work for Ford’s father Paul Elbert Gano. During the sealing I had the distinct feeling that his father was there in the room with us observing and approving what was being done. I also had the impression that I knew him in the pre-existence.
These were not just idle thoughts, but definite spiritual promptings.
I believe I wrote this in my journal at or near the time it happened when my memory of it was fresher, but I can’t put my hand on it right now.
DeVon F. Andrus
Cedar City, Utah
16 May 2010