My sister Abby Palmer had to give a talk at The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Mesa Arizona a few weeks ago. She was
assigned to speak on family history. She gave a beautiful talk about
three women who have impacted her life. These women are also near to my
heart and have become some of my best friends (even though I haven't met two of
them). I would like to share a few quotes and stories that Abby talked
about in her speech, and hopefully give you a glimpse into their lives...
"I decided the first person I’d talk about is my Grandma
Gudny. She was not only the first member of my family to join the [The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints] but she was one of the first women
in Iceland to join the church. In the 1850s the predominant religion in
Iceland was Lutheran and law officers called the church 'the church of the
devil'. They were very vigilant at keeping Mormon missionaries out
of the country but they didn’t have any control over Icelanders teaching other
Icelanders, which is how most of them learned about the gospel. Gudny was
in her 60’s and she had two daughters who were members of the Lutheran
church. She kept it a secret from them that she was attending church
meetings, so when she told them that she was going to be baptized, they were
shocked. When she was 65 she told them that she would be leaving Iceland
with some of the other members to go to Salt Lake City. This is an
excerpt from her journal when she is talking to her son-in-law Svein after he
begged her to stay with them:
'Svein, you and [my daughters] are my family. I love you
all very much. This is not an easy thing for me to do. I am not
going to Utah on an adventurous trip. I am too old for such
nonsense. I am going to Utah because I am a member of the Church of
Latter Day Saints, and the Prophet of this Church has called me to make this
sacrifice. The Church cannot survive unless all its members gather
together. There is need for a strong nucleus in one area. Fifty years
from now this may not be necessary, but for now, we are needed in Utah.
This may not be what you want me to do; it may not be what I want to do; but it
is what God wants me to do. If there isn’t any transportation across the
plains, I will walk. I am strong and healthy, and I know I can reach my
destination in safety. Do not worry about me being alone. There
will be a large group of converts on the ship to America, and I will have my
Icelandic friends by my side. Then of course my greatest friend will
accompany me, God will be there.'
So Gudny said goodbye to her children and sailed to
America. After over a year and a difficult journey she finally made it to
Salt Lake. I love the passage from her journal when she said, 'It may not
be what I want to do, but it is what God wants me to do.' Her country was
against her religion and her own children didn’t believe at the time that it
was true, but she was still willing to do whatever was asked of her. She
lived to eventually see 14 of her descendents come to Utah." (Palmer,
2014).
My Grandma Gudny had unwavering faith in God and a testimony of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. She wanted to follow the prophet's counsel,
because she knew it would not only bless her life, but millions of lives that
followed her.
"The next woman who has been a great example to me is
my Great Grandma Thorderson, who we call GG. She is 95 years old and the
matriarch of our family on my dad’s side. She wrote an autobiography
about her life and when Nate and I got married she gave me a copy of it.
I had read parts here and there but last week I sat down and read it cover to
cover. It was so interesting to me to read about a grandma that is still
alive and that I’ve known my whole life because when I think of the word
ancestor I usually imagine it to be someone I’ve never met before.
Reading her story made me sad that I didn’t know more about the details of her
life until now. I think one of my favorite things was how real she was,
even about her flaws. I’ve always thought about if my kids or grandkids read
an autobiography about me, I would just want to include all of the good things
I did so they would think I was just this amazing person. I still think
GG is an amazing person after reading about her life, but it helped me to see
that everyone struggles; even someone who in my eyes has always been
perfect. I know a lot of the time I feel like I’m not a good enough mom,
or a good enough member, or a good enough person, so I really appreciated that
she included everything, no matter how it made her look. I won’t include
her whole story for times sake, but to summarize, GG didn’t really go to church
growing up because her parents drank and smoked and it wasn’t a big priority to
them. She met my Great Grandpa Parley when he was a teacher at her school
and they got married shortly after she graduated. He always went to
church but he didn’t care if she did so she was never very active. When GG was
53, Parley died and she continued not to go to church.
When she was 68 she was meeting with her stake president.
She told him how she felt that she didn’t know much about the church. He
invited her to attend some missionary training classes and told her she didn’t
have to be a prospective missionary but it would be a good way to learn more
about the gospel. It was after this that she made a real commitment to
the church instead of going on “borrowed light” like she had for years.
Her stake president later asked her if she’d like to go on a mission and she
did. She was called to serve a genealogy mission in Michigan. She
taught people how to do their family history and helped them get their family
names prepared for temple work.
Seven years later she was asked to serve another mission and
this time she was called to Georgia as a proselyting missionary. Since then
she has been a temple worker and held many church callings. She has a
very strong testimony of the gospel. It hit me pretty hard when I read
what she said about 'going on borrowed light,' because that is how I felt a lot
of the time growing up. My whole life I never even knew that GG
wasn’t always active in the church. If you met her now you would never guess
it. I love that she figured it out for herself on her own terms and she
is someone that I aspire to be like.
This last example might be a little hard for me to share.
Even though I have never met this woman here on earth, I have had some cool
experiences while preparing my talk and learning more about her, so I feel very
close to her. She’s my Great Grandma King.
In 1979 my Great Grandpa King died suddenly. Grandma King
and him had always planned on serving a mission together, so after she had been
a widow for 10 years she talked to her bishop about going. She put her
papers in and got her estate and will all taken care of before she left. She
got her mission call to Charleston, South Carolina. My dad was in high
school at the time and his family was living in Michigan. Since Grandma
King lived in Utah she came and stayed with them for a few weeks before she
went to South Carolina. My grandma and her sewed all of her clothes for
the mission and she got to spend some time with her grandkids she didn’t get to
see very often.
She had been on her mission for about three weeks and she was
serving in a suburb of Charleston. She was 66 years old and her companion
was also an older widowed woman. Her companion had met a man that was
about 25 and had been to his house to teach him before. Grandma King had
just been transferred to this small town so this was her first time going.
They hadn’t given him a Book of Mormon yet so my grandma wrote her
testimony in one to take to him. They had been at his house for about a
half hour and when they were preparing to leave they were both beaten and then
shot to death by him. He put their bodies in the trunk of their car and
drove it to the mall, which is where they were later found.
My grandma still had the Book of Mormon on her and there was
blood on every page of it. When I was finding out more information about
her from my uncle, he said something to me that has really stuck with me.
He said, 'The greatest blood that’s been spilled in our family was spilled on
the greatest book'. I have always had a testimony of the Book of Mormon
but now it is even more important to me. My Grandma King and her
companion were the first female martyrs of our church; she put her life on the
line sharing her testimony. She had decided that there was nothing better
to do than to serve the lord and after less than a month on her mission she was
called on a different mission to serve with her husband, which is what she
wanted to do in the first place." (Palmer, 2014).
My grandma King (Elizabeth Layton Webb)
Grandma King with her loving husband and Savior.
The Book of Mormon with Grandma King's blood on every page in 1979.
Grandma and Grandpa King
Reference: Palmer, Abby. Nov. 2014, Family
History, 19 Nov 2014.
