FATHER'S DAY 2014

I can definitely see the hand of the Lord in my life as I consider the parents and home where I was sent to live.  I am grateful for parents who listen to the spirit and act on promptings they receive (like moving to Utah when we all thought they were ruining our lives!).  

I actually wrote this post (no it is not an obituary) a year ago but thought it was appropriate to share today!

FATHER'S DAY 2013

I am surrounded by men who exemplify what Fatherhood is all about.  Of course, I must start by paying tribute to my own father.  

For 53 years this man has been my rock! 

 I can never remember a time that I didn't have him on a pedestal.  

3 Things I love about my dad:

1)  HE LOVES MY MOTHER!  
I have always known this fact.  I have always known that she is the most important person in his life.  Her comfort  and her happiness are paramount.  He loves to be with her--he wants her with him.  I can remember as a child that sometimes I thought it was so "dumb" that mom always had to go with him on business trips--we needed her more than he did, right?  
Sister Elaine Dalton, a previous YW General President said the following in 
October Conference of 2011, 

"“The most important thing a father can do for his [daughter] is to love [her] mother.” By the way you love her mother, you will teach your daughter about tenderness, loyalty, respect, compassion, and devotion. She will learn from your example. . .what qualities to seek in a future spouse. You can show your daughter by the way you love and honor your wife that she should never settle for less. Your example will teach your daughter to value womanhood. You are showing her that she is a daughter of our Heavenly Father, who loves her. "
Of all the qualities mentioned by Sister Dalton and that my dad has taught me,  I hope I have learned to befiercely loyal and devoted to those I love--just like he is!

2) HE LOVES TO WORK AND PLAY!  
I have often joked that work is my father's play. At 78 he is still one of the hardest working men I know.  Whether it be in the office, in a church assignment, in the garden--he can outwork even the youngest and strongest in our family.  His schedule would weary a 25 year old.  His stamina is unbelievable.  Too busy? Too tired?  Not in his vocabulary or mind set!
If I have heard this quote from Heber J Grant once, I have heard it a million times from the lips of my father:

“Our primary purpose was to set up . . . a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with. . . and independence, industry, thrift and self respect be once more established amongst our people,” President Heber J. Grant said during the October 1936 general conference. “The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, 3).

Work is a principle that has been taught, demonstrated and praised in our home.  To work hard and do a job right and well is a hallmark of what our parents have taught us.

While no one works harder than my dad no one PLAYS harder either.  It is agreed in our family that no one plans a better vacation than my dad.  No holds barred!  Go big or go home!  Have the whole experience and make it a memory.

From allowing us to taste lobster in a fancy restaurant as kids to ordering cheeseburger pizza for all the great grandkids in Branson--you don't miss any minute of an experience when you are with dad.  A bakery or an ice cream shop is never passed by! Purchasing Amish quilts or Santa hats--because it is part of the experience--is part of the fun!

He has always been so generous in providing opportunities for us to have fun as a family--no matter how large the family gets!  It is something I hope I can do for my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren!

3) HE IS A GREAT TEACHER

 My dad has a gift to teach!  He has a gift with words (both verbal and written) and expressing his thoughts and feelings in a way that is clear and interesting and understandable.  He is always looking for teaching moments and ways to share his testimony.  His abilities as a speaker are legendary and in demand.  More than once I have had someone recall a talk that dad had given in a Stake Conference or a lesson from a gospel doctrine class that impacted their lives for good.  His teaching capacity goes beyond the spoken word into action.  He lives what he teaches and that in itself is a sermon.  You can feel confident if you are following in his footsteps that you are headed in the right direction--spiritually or physically.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!  I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!

REMEMBERING GRANDPA

The older I get the more that I see the hand of the Lord in the little details of our lives.  As I consider my heritage--the parents and grandparents who have influenced my life, I am most grateful for a kind Heavenly Father who knew exactly the family I would need.  

Grandpa passed away on June 14, 1986.  Flag Day!  Every year this connection has made it easy for me to spend a few minutes thinking about this great man and his service in the Kingdom, to his family and to many others who crossed his path.

Recently in an assignment that I have in Church Hosting I became acquainted with another woman who serves on a committee with me.  As we visited, we made connections and they eventually led to Grandpa and Grandma.  This woman's father, I believe his last name is Power, was in the military and to this day--he is in his 90's--recounts stories of the kindness and acceptance and direction he received from Grandma and Grandpa.  He has told his daughter many times of his gratitude for that relationship.  

Grandpa has been gone for 28 years and still people are talking about his influence in their lives.  Quite a tribute to quite a man!  How blessed we are to be part of this family.

James A. (Alfred) Cullimore


1906 - 1986

• Born 1906 Lindon, Utah
• Baptized as a child; Aaronic Priesthood as a youth; Melchizedek Priesthood as a young man
• Mission to California 1925-1927
• Married Grace Gardner 1931, Salt Lake Temple; three children
• President of British Central Mission 1960
• Assistant to the Twelve 1966-1976
• First Quorum of Seventy 1976-1978
• Married Florence Prows 1977, Salt Lake Temple
• Named Emeritus General Authority 1978
• Died 1986 Salt Lake City, Utah

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    This biographical shetch is adapted from "News of the Church: Elder James A. Cullimore Dies" in the  Ensign, Aug. 1986, page 74.

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    Elder James A. Cullimore, an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, was memorialized by members of the First Presidency, of his quorum, and of his family at funeral services in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square Wednesday, June 18.    He died in a Salt Lake City hospital on Saturday morning, June 14. He was eighty years old.
    President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, conducted the funeral and read a brief note from President Ezra Taft Benson, who had himself been hospitalized briefly because of a flu-like illness and was unable to attend.
    “God bless this great man. I loved him dearly,” President Benson said.
    President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, spoke of Elder Cullimore as a man of good cheer, a man of talent, a man of peace, a man of love, a man of God. He was a man without guile who loved everyone and was eager to serve wherever called.
    Elder Marion D. Hanks of the presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy testified that his brother in the priesthood “still lives, and always will.” He quoted from Isaiah 61:3, which speaks of those who are “trees of righteousness,” and noted that Elder Cullimore was one of those.
    Elder Cullimore’s son Kelvyn outlined his father’s exemplary service as husband, father, Church leader, and employer, referring to him as “a beacon light that has set each of us on the path to peace and happiness.”
    Elder Cullimore had served as a General Authority for more than twenty years, having been sustained as an Assistant to the Twelve on 6 April 1966. He was one of the original members of the First Quorum of the Seventy when it was organized in 1976, and was named to emeritus status in 1978.
    James Alfred Cullimore was born 17 January 1906 in Lindon, Utah, one of twelve children of Albert Lorenzo and Luella Keetch Cullimore. His father was a bishop and also owner of a grocery store, where young James received his early experience in retailing.
    He served a mission to California in 1925-27, then returned to his schooling at Brigham Young University, where he had attended one year before his mission. He was elected student body president for 1930-31.
    It was in 1931 that he married another BYU student, Grace Gardner, in the Salt Lake Temple. She died in 1975, and he married Florence Prows in 1977, also in the Salt Lake Temple.
    After receiving his bachelor of science degree from BYU in 1931, James Cullimore attended New York University School of Retailing on a scholarship, receiving a master’s degree in 1932. He worked as a furniture buyer for Gimbel Brothers department store in New York City, then for a Chicago department store. He also worked in Sioux City, Iowa, before taking a job with an Oklahoma City store in 1937.
    In 1946, he opened his own Oklahoma City furniture store, which quickly became successful.
    James Cullimore served the Church in a variety of positions during his business career, including as a branch president in Sioux City and Oklahoma City and as president of the West Oklahoma District. When the Oklahoma Stake was organized in 1960, he was called as its first president. He had served in that position for only a matter of weeks when he was called as president of the Central British Mission.
    Following his return from England, he was called to be a member of the Church’s Priesthood Welfare Committee. Then in April of 1966, he was called as an Assistant to the Twelve.
    Elder Cullimore served as an Assistant to the Twelve until October of 1976 when all the Assistants were released and called into the then newly reorganized First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1978, in recognition of his long years of service and due to factors of age and health, Elder Cullimore was granted Emeritus status and named an Emeritus General Authority. As noted, he died in 1986.

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Bibliography
   “The Reconstitution of the First Quorum of the Seventy,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, p. 9
   “The Sustaining of Church Officers,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, p. 10
   "News of the Church: Elder James A. Cullimore Dies" Ensign, Aug. 1986, p. 74
   2005 Church Almanac, p. 7

This article was in the 1974 August Ensign.  I thought it speaks well to the theme of our blog!

Oklahoma City Experience

BY ELDER JAMES A. CULLIMORE

Assistant to the Council of the Twelve

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Oklahoma City Experience

I believe sincerely that our lives are guided by the Lord as we serve him, keep his commandments, and do what we can to help build up the Church and kingdom of God on earth. President Joseph Fielding Smith said in his opening talk at the April 1972 conference of the Church, “There is no cure for the ills of the world except in the gospel of the LordJesus Christ. Our hope for peace, for temporal and spiritual prosperity, and for an eventual inheritance in the kingdom of God is found only in and through the restored gospel. To those who have received the gospel we say, Keep the commandments. Walk in the light. Endure to the end. Be true to every covenant and obligation and the Lord will bless you beyond your fondest dreams.”

It is important to keep our lives in tune with the Holy Spirit at all times that we might be assured of the promptings of the Spirit and that we might be able to recognize those promptings. I believe as well that the Lord expects us to make many decisions on our own, as we feel directed by the Spirit. He has said, “… it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant … men should … do many things of their own free will … For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” (D&C 58:26–28.)

As I look back over my life I can see the guiding hand of the Lord in many things. Let me relate just one such instance. Sister Cullimore and I have lived most of our married life in the missions of the Church. At one time, when we lived in Oklahoma City, we were concerned that our teenage children were not able to have proper association with other children of their age who were members of the Church. Their association was almost entirely with nonmembers, and although they were wonderful young people we worried about them being able to marry in the temple without proper association with members of the Church. Our concern was so great we were considering leaving my employment and moving to an area where they would have this association.

About this time Elder Joseph F. Merrill of the Council of the Twelve was traveling through the mission with the mission president, and he stayed overnight with us. Sister Cullimore poured her heart out to Brother Merrill about our concern over the children. Elder Merrill said, “Don’t be concerned about it; this is where the Lord wants you. I promise you that if you teach your children the gospel, see to it that they attend their meetings in the Church, set a proper example for them in your home, and then when they are ready, see that they attend a Church school, they will marry in the temple.”

I had already made some rather serious commitments in reference to a change in employment that would have necessitated a move from the area. The next morning, after the conversation with Elder Merrill, I coincidently met a real estate dealer who told me of a building available that would be suitable for a furniture business. (I had previously asked him to watch for such a building for me.) In three days I had signed the lease on the building and given notice to my employer that I was leaving. Within thirty days our business was opened.

The Lord blessed us abundantly in the business. We saw the Church grow in the area. Our children have each married in the temple and are all active and involved in the Church.

[illustration] Illustrated by Ralph Reynolds

Keaton, James A. Cullimore, and Family History!

 This week we saw a lot of success reaching out to less actives, we were able to see three of them. The most notable of them being our lesson with David Knight. He is the first person that Elder Ormsby baptized on his mission, but unfortunately he is a less active. We saw him and we were able to get Brother Flinn a member of the bishopric out on that teach with us.

The lesson ran really smoothly, but halfway through Brother Flinn brought up James A. Cullimore he said that he was a very good speaker. He also asked me a few other questions about him. I actually have a pretty crazy story to tell you guys about that.

      I have been hearing a lot about  James lately, but it peaked when elder Frederickson told me this. I will copy and paste what Elder Frederickson said in his email that he sent out this week.  

"I also had a really cool experience this week with family history. I decided to use some of the Work of Salvation internet hour to go on Family Search and work on the My Family book. I was reading up on one of my great-grandfathers on my mom's side of the family. Naturally, I wanted to see if he served a mission.

According to the document, he did... and his first companion was James A. Cullimore... Elder Cullimore's great-grandfather. WOW. When I read that, I felt something extremely powerful. As if there weren't enough crazy things about the fact that Elder Cullimore and I were companions! When I was skyping my family yesterday, I asked my grandma about all of this and she confirmed it and added that James Cullimore and my great grandfather were best friends. Wow. Talk about the Spirit of Elijah! I immediately formed a bond with my great-grandfather, a man I never met, and strengthened my bond with one of my best friends. What a blessing Family History work is! "

    That just blew my mind elder Frederickson's great-grandfather served with mine how crazy! and they were best friends. I bet President didn't realize all of these things when he decided to have elder Frederickson train me.

Blessings in Haiti

To say that we have been blessed to be involved in these projects/opportunities would be a gross understatement.

We are still doing a lot of training – but we are seeing progress.  It  has been a special experience to work with the Area Seventy, the Mission President, the Stake Presidents, and the Bishops/Branch Presidents.  This is a very strong  group of priesthood bearers and the Women in the Church are equally strong.

This trip – as much as any before we have been made cognizant of the hopelessness of the people and the extreme poverty.  We think that Myanmar was just as poor as Haiti – but in Haiti there just seems to be more lack of pride and desire to be better.  This is not true among the Church Members like it is among the general population.  The dirt and grime and garbage and filth is so prevalent.  While we steel ourselves so it will not bother us too much it certainly “gets to us” from time to time.

One experience is worth repeating:

On Friday afternoon we finished our last meeting  at 4:00 p.m.  We were pleased because we had so much reporting to do and projects to write up – we were anxious to get to our hotel.  We stayed adjacent to the airport this time – for the first time.  The distance from the Bishops Storehouse where we held our last meeting to the airport normally takes 30 minutes – 45 minutes at the most.  Odney, our associate in Haiti was driving and he knows  all the shortcuts.  We had been traveling just about 30 minutes and were getting close to the hotel.  We came down a road and a garbage truck which apparently had engine problems was parked across the road – with no space to around it.  Odney found out that because it was Carnival weekend the driver had determined that nothing could be done till Monday so we could not get through.  We had to circle back and take one of the main roads.  With Carnival causing extra traffic, we knew in a few minutes we were in a pickle. When we got to the main  road it took us two hours to travel three blocks.  After making several attempts at other routes and doing all Odney could we were stuck.  We realized about three hours into the problem that we were very low on gas – but the fourth hour we were riding on empty.  It was pitch black outside – no street lights, of course.  Odney’s phone was dead.  We had used mine, but when we pulled Dad’s out to have him call his wife, we discovered his battery was dead.  No phone, low on  gas, pitch black, total gridlock.  It was the first time in our six trips to Haiti that we felt some fear.  The masses of people walking by and the thousands of motor bikes whizzing around and no place for us to turn.  One false move and we could have been in  trouble.  We both decided to pray – pray first that we would not run out of gas and secondly that somehow the gridlock would break up and we would be able to move more than just a car length every ten  or 15 minutes.  Within about 20 minutes the line of cars in front of us began to move on a slow pace and we made some progress.  Within a few minutes after that we passed the first gas station we had seen for over four hours.  We were able to get some petrol and with a big sigh of relief were able to move  forward.  There is no question in our minds that the Lord answered our prayers – it was to direct and obvious to be anything else.  Finally after five hours we arrived at our hotel – it was an indescribable  relief – in  many ways. This may not  sound  very hair-raising – and, frankly, unless you were there and experiencing  it, it would be hard to comprehend.  But we were there, and we were concerned, and we were grateful to arrive at our destination.  A blessing from the Lord.

We will be in the Dominican Republic next week.  We will be in meetings in Santo Domingo – resolving some problems that have developed and making plans for future Wheelchair Distribution.  So we will be in a much more pleasant and comfortable environment.  We will be out visiting food projects just one day.  The week will be a nice reprieve.  But probably not as many journal entries.

Try out

This is gummy and I am experimenting with how to do this.

Being taught and reminded by a child...

Being taught and reminded by a child...
Just before Thanksgiving, Addie talked to me about a BIG project she wanted to do.  It was a VERY BIG Christmas project, and would require quite a bit of time for her to spend with me.  I talked to her about waiting until next year-so we had all year to work on it, but she was determined to do it this year (2013), which didn't give us much time.  She didn't want her mom or anyone else to know what it was.  It was a SURPRISE!  I talked with Courtney and found one Saturday that she could come and spend the day working on her project.  As it turned out, she spent the day and night and she worked hard for about 14 hours!  She sewed and sewed, pressed and  pressed, folded and folded, then wrapped and wrapped, till she had made and wrapped Christmas pillowcases for our entire family!  She is a great example of giving from her heart and I was thrilled to be a part of her BIG plan!  It was lots of fun to spend the entire day and night busily creating and letting her give of herself to others!  I am so proud of her for her desire to serve, for sticking with it, and finishing 21 pillowcases! Then she gave them out early for all to enjoy! She truly exemplified the TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS, GIVING OF HERSELF.  Being a small part of her big plan let me feel the Savior's love in my life to a greater degree this Christmas season, and was a reminder to me of the greatest of all gifts, our Savior Jesus Christ!

 

A Good Reminder

This past Christmas season, I was hoping to be able to serve and help in small ways and praying for the opportunity. One morning I was at Walmart with Pierce buying mostly non-essential items for Christmas and found myself standing in line behind a woman and a toddler who was very concerned about the price of her purchases. She was watching the total with cash in hand and correcting the clerk when anything was entered incorrectly. Almost everything in her cart seemed essential.

When the cashier presented the total, it was more than the woman expected and she began to look through her cart to see what she didn't really need that could get her total to what she was expecting. I told the woman that I was happy to cover the difference. She protested saying it was too much and I insisted. I ended up paying about $6 so she could get everything she needed. She was incredibly grateful and a little embarrassed and I was grateful to be able to help.

The tender mercy that was really shown to me was that as I walked out to the car, I was reminded that only a few years ago, that lady was me. When we were in school, that was exactly how I did my grocery shopping, watching every penny, shopping sales, buying only essentials for our little family. I was given the chance to reflect on not only how blessed we had been during that time of our life to make it through grad school with 4 kids, but also how far we had come in such a short time.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the things we don't have or feel like we need during the holiday season, but in that line at Walmart, I was reminded of everything I already had and was able to take a few moments to be truly grateful for all the monetary and spiritual blessings in my life.