Ruth Zina Anderson Christensen
Ruth Zina Anderson
Ruth Zina was born on July 20, 1909 in Moroni, Utah. She was sealed to Harold Ray Christensen on November 7, 1928 in the Manti Temple. The couple was blessed with five children: Carol, Harold Ray, Heber Glade, Ronald A, and Newell E Christensen. Grandma and Grandpa lived all their lives in Moroni, Utah. Grandma is best remembered for her cooking and handwork. She has made hundreds of baby clothes, blankets, table cloths, pillow cases, shawls, and dresses of all sizes (she sewed my wedding dress). She also made the best rolls anywhere. None even come close. My mother tells me that she would use the water poured off of boiled potatoes and that made the rolls taste so good. She bottled fruits and vegetables, and always made something delicious when you visited. She didn't have all the modern conveniences until just lately, but worked hard to keep her home clean and orderly. She and Grandpa served as missionaries in the Manti Temple.
Excerpts from the Journal of Ruth Zina Anderson Christensen:
1983, a new year. In this year may I have enough happiness to keep me sweet, enough trials to keep me strong, enough sorrow to keep me human, enough hope to keep me happy, enough faith to banish depression, and enough determination to make this a better year than 1982.
It would be well to remind ourselves that no matter who we are, we pass through life but once, and whatever record we make is made forever. Time keeps marching on. We live our lives, into the present, one moment at a time.
But, with each tick of the clock the present becomes the past, and the past cannot be changed. It is also true, however, that with the tick of the clock, a part of the future becomes the present, thus the key to a successful and happy life, is to strive always to make the most of each moment as it arrives.
If we can just practice the self discipline necessary to do this, our past can become glorious to behold and our future will be assessed.
I see a world of peace and sharing. In order to achieve this, we must return to basic values, "Love of God, Love of family, Love of brothers. Life is God's gift to you. What you do with life is your gift to God."
I hope I can do as this poem says this new year.
Your Task
To build a better world God said.
I answered How?
This world is such a large vast place
So complicated now and I'm small and useless,
There is nothing I can do,
But God in all his wisdom said,
Just build a better you.
We are not perfect, but if we strive to conquer our weakness and grow every day, we will become better. You don't have to tell how you live each day, you don't have to say if you work or play. A tried, true barometer serves in this place. however you live, it will show in your face. What you wear in your heart, you wear on your face.
If your life is unselfish, if for others you live. For not what you get, but how much you give. If you are close to God in His infinite grace. You don't have to tell it, it shows in you face.
The New Year came on a very calm and clear day. We had Newell, Zella, and the girls over for dinner.
The first few weeks of January were nice, but on the 17th, it snowed all day long and that evening. On Tuesday morning we had a foot of snow. It had broken limbs off the trees, so we had a winter wonderland.
We did not go to the Temple because the roads were so bad, and you never knew about Nephi Canyon. We hate to miss our day at the Temple.
Joseph Smith said, "the greatest responsibility in the world that God has placed upon us, is to seek after our dead."
The time is getting short for us to work and save our dead. I hope and pray that I can work harder this year in doing Temple work.
Temple's are unique among all buildings. They are houses of instruction. They are places for covenants and promises, and they are part of God's great work to help all of His children find everlasting happiness and fulfillment. In the Temple, worthy members dedicate themselves to God and humanity, to purity of mind and body and to unselfish service to the Lord.
The month of January was wet and cold. The month of February is starting about the same. On the 18th we had 30 inches of snow on the ground.
We had a very lovely young lady die in our ward very suddenly. Her name was Joyce Christensen Nielsen. She was only 52 years old. We got up to go to her funeral on the 3rd. As I was getting ready I became very sick, I thought I was having a stroke. We called Carol, and she called her son Kirk, who is a doctor, and he told Dad that we should come into Provo by ambulance as soon as we could.
We went into the hospital by ambulance and they did a lot of tests, and they showed that I had had a non-stroke, a blood clot had stopped in my vessel on the left side of my head, then broke loose and moved on. It caused my speech to be affected. Harold could not understand one thing I said, and until it passed through, I was not getting enough blood to my brain. Several other doctors read the scan and agreed with Kirk.
I am so thankful for the Priesthood. My brother George, and Harold gave me a blessing before I left home and the boys came down and gave me one. I have great faith in the power of the Priesthood. I am doing better every day, and I am also getting older.
It is said to be 70 years young, is something far more cheerful and hopeful then to be forty years old. And here I am, 73 years old. Yes, I am growing old.
Months and years are after all so very much alike, that they pass away without special observation, and we begin to get old before we think, and then we sit down to a simple sum in arithmetic, the subtraction of the year of our birth, from the current year, and we are astonished at the answer. Children grow up around us, but we get used to that and are so busy we seldom stop to compute their ages and realize the swift flight of the years, and we find that we are growing older. Old age takes away our enjoyments, only they enlarge the prospect of the coming eternty.
Great it is to dream.
When we stand in youth
by the starry stream
But the greater thing is
to fight life through,
And say at the end,
"The dream was true."
Edwin Markham
February and March were months of storm and cold. We have water everywhere.
We had two die in March in our family. Harold's sister Edith and Billie Ann's Father, Willard Thorpe. They both died on the 26th of March.
Edith's funeral was held on the 30th. It was held in Fountain Green. Billie's Father was held on the 31st and was held in Malad, Idaho.
We sometimes do not understand death. Who but God knows when to call us home. Our birth is but a sleep and forgetting. The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere it's setting and cometh from afar, not in entire forgetfullness, and not in utter nakedness. Heaven lies about in our infancy. Death is an awakening and we should not look on death as sad. Death is like a ship on the sea, we watch as she sails out to sea, and we watch until she is out of sight, then someone at my side says, "There she goes." Gone where, gone from our sight, that is all. And just at the moment when someone said, "There she goes," there are others watching her coming, and other voices take up the glad shout, "There she's coming." and such is dying.
Today is Easter Sunday and it has been General Conference also. We are sad to think that President Kimball and Romney are both ill and were not able to attend. We missed them, but we enjoyed a spiritual feast.In all literature there is only one story as beautiful as that of the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, and that is the story of his birth at Calvary, 33 years later. The birth that is called death. Like the birth at Calvary, it involved both a farewell and an arrival, both sorrow and great joy.
At Bethelem, Jesus bade farewell to all the heavenly hosts and came to a strife-torn world, with his dificult earth mission yet ahead of him. At Calvary, He bade farewell to a world of sorrow and returned triumphantly to His Father in Heaven.
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life, He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall He live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
We have had nothing but cold and storm so far this April. The mountain at Spanish Fork canyon has been sliding and the town of Thistle Junction is gone, submerged beneath the water of a new lake a mile long and between 50 to 85 feet deep. The railroad is under mud and water, so they have no way of bringing things by rail into Sanpete and the Feed Company, so they have begun work to make the area of the dam fast.
The slide area hovering above Thistle is more than 80 feet above the original elevation of the roadbed. It looks like we have a new lake, "Lake Thistle."
Much of the slide is clay mud. Between two thirds and three fourths of the slide material have given way or is on the move. Spanish Fork has been told to be ready to move if the dam does not hold and lets the water go down to their city. I think we are living in the last days, so many things happening.
On the 15th of April Dawn, our Granddaughter, became engaged to Reed Christiansen. They are planning a 23rd of June wedding.
The month of May, we are having the same weather pattern, storm and cold. I do not know what will become of us if it does not warm up so that we can have some growing weather.
We went to church Sunday, May 8th, in our own ward and enjoyed the Mother's day program and our other meetings. We came home and went to West Valley and had a very good dinner with Ronald, Peggy, and their family. We visited with Ray and Glade's family before we came home. The weather was real nice and we enjoyed our ride to West Vally and home again.
I rejoice in being a women and a Mother, especially a Lattter-day-Saint women.
I am grateful to live in a day when our Father in Heaven has made known the divine role of women and his plan for our salvation, this day of abundant opportunities for our personal growth.
I am grateful to be the wife of a son of our Heavenly Father, one who loves the Lord and honors his Priesthood.
I rejoice in being a Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother. I have five special children, 26 Grandchildren, and 17 Great Grandchildren so far.
When I see women who condemn homemaking as a constant round of drudgery, without challenge, confining, I wonder if they are talking about the same things that I do every day. I have found homemaking very satisfying, exciting, creative, interesting and uplifting. I admit it isn't always sweetness and light. There have been times when I have been discouraged. I have always tried to make my home a warm, welcome place.
Our Father in Heaven has told us that it is necessary to taste the bitter in order to more freely appreciate the sweet.
As I have become older, I have found great joy and fulfillment in the callings of the church. Especially for my calling to labor in the Manti and Provo Temples. I enjoy being a woman and a mother.
I am reminded of the story, "A Mother in Heaven." This "I beheld, or dreamed in a dream. I was suddenly being propelled through space. I was just beginning to relax, when I arrived. I was placed in a room, it was furnished with chairs, tables and carpets, and I felt that I had been there before. This room resembled the Celestial room in the Temple. As I stood in quite awe at my surroundings, I felt a presence, I knew someone was with me. As I turned to look about, that presence appeared. I should say, she was there.
I beheld a woman who appeared even more beautiful because of the love that seemed to flow between us. I remembered my own mother and the tender love that she gave me. Her smile, the movement of her hand, the tender eyes, all gave me the feeling that I had known her. She was dressed in a white flowing robe-like gown that was trimmed with other white material that differed in texture. I cannot express to you my feeling, except to say that I loved her.
I sat at her feet and she took my hand in hers, she said, "How have you been, my daughter?" It wasn't only the words that caused the feeling of recognition, her emphasis on "My daughter." I felt like her daughter, and wanted to tell her so, but I am sure that I mumbled badly to the answer to her question.
Again she asked, "Have you been happy?" By this time I was a little more composed and told her of the love for my husband and children. She touched my cheek and spoke, "Have you walked uprightly before you Father and fulfilled the vows and covenants that you made with us before?"More of Ruth's journal More . . .
Ruth Zina's mother Mary Ann Knopp
Ruth Zina's father Niels Anderson
e-mail: kongaikr@byuh.edu
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