books

There’s No Time Like the Present

| cnaglis63

I have been blessed with confidence to try new things, new experiences, new skills and this was not so early in my life. When I tell people that I used to be uncomfortably shy, they are in shock and can’t believe it because of how outgoing I am now.

I’ll share something that may make you uncomfortable but know that we all go through hard things in our lives. The first two years of my life were really rough with torture and abuse from my biological father. I quickly learned that if you tried to make yourself invisible, the abuse might not be so bad. If I cried out, it escalated but if I laid still, it might be the end of that session of beating.

My mom, who also was being abused by him, was able to get away from him shortly before I turned two years old. An unlikely person took us in and when my mom met a fellow who came to help her move, he told me that he fell in love with me when he saw me. He knew that I was his little girl. Yes, he married my mom and then adopted me. I was a scared little rabbit, afraid of loud noises and quick movements. I hid behind my parents at every outing until I was fourteen years old. Everyone always commented on how shy I was. In reality I was terrified of everything.

My friend, Opal, one day said to some people, “She’s not as shy as you think.” I went home and started thinking about my life and my fears. I asked myself, “Do you always want to be hidden away and never be brave?” It was easier to stay in the background and work hard at home and try to stay out of harm’s way. How was I to learn? How was I going to get out of this cycle?

I told myself that I was going to have to try something and be braver than I’ve ever been. Try talking to someone by initiating conversation, try learning something new. I remember in grade three, we had song books and they were full of folk songs of the day. I loved going outside behind the big propane tank and singing my heart out. After the age of fourteen, I started really breaking out of my shell and it continues to this day.

This past Thursday, our shift coordinator, texted me to see if I knew ASL (American Sign Language). I don’t but we had a patron coming to the temple who requested ASL. Here’s where my trust in the Lord comes into play. I told the coordinator that I would look after it. Then I contacted my friend, Margaret, who learned ASL in college. She made a video for me showing me how to do the signs for the ordinance so that I could interpret for the patron. I learned it in about 10 minutes and then that evening went to my assignment. I was able to interpret for the patron with no issues. Erik was very proud of me and the other workers were stunned that I only learned it that afternoon. I was pretty excited and thought, “HA, a new skill unlocked!!” Many thanks to the Lord for helping do His work.

This week I was working on special gifts for departing missionaries. My sewing machine broke down mid project. My frustration was peaking and I was plotting out a course of action to carry on. I started by taking the front case off of my machine to see what was the issue. Then I called Jon’s Sewing Machine Repair in Wolcott. They thought they knew what the issue was but I thought that it would be better to take it in for some spa time.

My sewing machine that I brought on our mission.

Here’s where the timing gets tricky. The USA was about to be blasted with a huge storm and Wolcott is 45 minutes away from us. This was Wednesday and Erik checked the highway cameras (later finding out that they were the wrong area for where we were going). It was partly cloudy skies in Palmyra and we jumped in the vehicle by 9 am. We headed north through Marion and by the time we were in Marion the snow was coming down quite heavily. The roads were snow covered and I was really rethinking our life decisions. We turned onto the 104 and were driving northeast. The snow came even thicker and after halfway to Wolcott, we made the decision to turn back. We were in whiteout conditions and there were other vehicles who also decided to get off the highway. We turned south onto highway 14 and pulled into someone’s driveway. Suddenly a snowplow was driving south and I told Erik, “Quick, follow that snowplow!” We followed the snowplow to Lyons and by then the snow had tapered off to nearly nothing. Erik said, “The things we do for quilting!”

On the 104 heading east and it got progressively worse.
Driving south to Lyons. Such a difference!

The clock is still ticking and I am not making progress on projects that need to be completed. I received inspiration to ask one of my fellow temple sisters, if I could borrow her sewing machine to get this work done. She agreed and low and behold, the machine is a Bernina which is the same brand I brought on our mission. Today I was able to use my walking foot on her machine to put the binding on Penny’s quilt. Tender mercies!

Penny’s quilt
Front of potholder
Back of potholder with my custom made temple fabric.

Whilst “Snowmageddon” is raging around us, I have inside work to be done and we are grateful for heat and power that has not waivered. Our landlord has a snow removal service clear our parking lot and he has been busy. I have run out of my Russian pickled cabbage salad and my herring potato salad, alas! It’s going to be time to try to get to a grocery store again.

On Friday, we decided to go to the temple to do work for our own ancestors. We printed out names and headed to the baptistry. After completing the work for those names we were able to head to an endowment session and get more work done. I was thinking about the timing of the next year and about where we will live. We will submit our next mission application later this year and the Lord told me that I was getting ahead of myself and not to worry.

I love our friends and family who send us real estate listings for us to ponder. Looking at listings and thinking if the layout suits us or would we need to to do extensive renovations. I look forward to the day when we will not be nomads. It has been ten years since we had a home base. For now, I will follow the Lord’s command and go where He wants me to go.

Okay, I have questions for you. Do you each have a book of remembrance for your family? I have to tell you about the one that made such a huge impact on my life. When I was 11 years old, a book was published called the C.F.B Lybbert History. This was the size of family tree sheets and was pivotal in influencing my life. In this book was a collection of impactful stories from members of the family and their downline. There were family tree sheets, photos, and important documents. It was truly a labor of love and it was published 52 years ago.

This is from the introduction to the book: Christian Frederick Bernard Lybbert (1834-1923) was born Flade, Horns herred, Hjorring amt, Denmark, the son of Joachim Frederick and Margarethe Elizabeth Wilhelmine Evart Lybbert. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1854 and served a mission for the Church. He married 1) Marie Anderson (1833-1906) in Denmark. They immigrated to Utah in 1865, with his mother. He married 2) Anthonette Marie Olsen (1845-1932) in 1866 in Salt Lake City. They had eleven children, 1867-1890, born at North Ogden, Spring City, Levan, Vernal, and Naples, Utah, He died at Logan, Utah. Marie Andersen Lybbert died at Naples, Utah; and Anthonette Marie Olsen died at Vernal, Utah. Descendants listed lived in Utah, Alberta, Canada, and elsewhere.

Includes ancestors, chiefly in Germany, and ancestors of Anthonette Marie Olsen in Norway.

Waldemar Christian Lybbert (1869-1944) was born at Spring City, Utah, the son of Christian Frederick Bernhard and Anthonette Marie Olsen Lybbert. He married Ella Dora Darnell (1875-1964), daughter of Martin Van Buren and Susan Katharine Nickles Darnell in 1892 at Logan, Utah. They had eleven children, 1893-1917, born at Naples, Utah, and Frankberg and Glenwood, Alberta, Canada. He died at Glenwood, Alberta. Descendants lived in Alberta, Washington, Idaho, and elsewhere.

There haven’t been any new books published that I know of and it made me consider that it’s time to make a new book that would include our family from my grandma Lois and all her progeny. My grandma had five children and there have been four more generations. Books of remembrance can include anything of importance to your family history. While watching “Come Follow Up” on BYU TV on Sunday, the lesson talked about books of remembrance. A guest author was on the program who was from Pakistan. He brought his book and showed parts of it. I loved that the Punjabi alphabet was illustrated like how we would do in English, “A is for Apple”, “B is for Banana” and so on. There was also a beautiful photo of his grandmother. I called my sister Tanya and asked what she thought of doing this for our family. She agreed and is going to produce a sheet of interest and get people’s juices flowing. We could include recipes because these are an important part of our family history.

The most amazing thing is that the Christian Frederick Bernard Lybbert book is available as a digital version on Family Search. I will enjoy reading through it as an adult. I really believe that it is important to record your life. I know that my children don’t know a lot about my life or their father’s life. I too have questions for people who are dead and it’s too late to ask. Okay, it’s not too late to ask but will you get the answers you are looking for?

There’s no time like the present to start preparing your life history so that future generations will know you better and have an understanding of where they came from. This summer I learned about my biological father’s side of the family. I have loved connecting with them and one of my cousins has been instrumental in helping me understand my ancestors. I understand on where I get some of my features, my likes of foods, my love of handwork.

Not everything is going to be wonderful and perfect and our progeny need to understand that we did not live perfect lives; that we had struggles and trials. There are many mysteries to be unraveled but that may be for the future after the coming of our Savior. This past week I received an incredible sacred experience in the temple. I know that He lives and that He loves us. Hold on tight to what you know as truth and righteousness.

I feel this strongly! We are part of something greater than ourselves. I love my family and look forward to spending time with them again. Enjoy your week, staying warm as needed. My sister told me that they had an experience of living with no power for 12 hours and they see what they could do better if needs be.

Much love to all!

Tick Tock

| cnaglis63
Peter Whitmer farm

We realized that we only have a short time left on our mission. Before we know it, we’ll be packing up, sorting our belongings and trying to fit everything back into the car. We have purchased a roof top carrier to help with our packing. When you move out of your normal surroundings, you quickly discover the creature comforts that you use to make your life easier or just what you are accustomed to.

This past week we had a phone call with the missionary sister who will be moving into our apartment. She was interested in knowing what was in the apartment and what she needed to bring. Her husband is trying to wrap up his law practice and she is doing the leg work for preparing to leave on their mission. I remember feeling that exact same way last year. Because I love to cook, I was worried about the kitchen appliances and what would be available. Fortunately for us, moving to the USA proved to be an easy switch for the most part. Electric tea kettles are an anomaly here, whereas I like my kettle that has different temperature settings for the water. Certain herbs shouldn’t be brewed with boiling water. It’s what you are used to.

Our New Year’s Eve party with the senior missionaries was fun. We played a couple of games and me not being a game person, I’m not sure that I can remember what they were called. I think one of them was “Ranter-Go-Round” or could be “Chase the Ace”. The second game was “Left-Center-Right”. Lo and behold, I won that game! Of course, there were plenty of treats to eat and then we broke up the party early because the snow was really starting to come down thick. Two sets of Historic Site missionaries live 45 minutes away at the Whitmer Farm and we wanted them to get home safely. I brought Canadian treats to share with everyone.

This was week two of shortened work days at the temple. On Saturday morning Erik and I were baptistry coordinators and then for the second shift we were the shift coordinators. I wanted to apologize to the workers because the regular shift coordinators bring a picnic each time they work. I wanted to say, “Sorry for not bringing the Pierce Picnic!” Rene outdoes herself with two types of chicken salad, various cookies, and crackers and tortilla chips for dipping into the salads and during Christmas, she brought 4 different types of fudge as well. Her dad was the master fudge maker and Rene wants to get her fudge as good as his. The workers are very well fed during that shift.

I realized that I may not need my winter parka that I brought with me. Palmyra sits at the 43 parallel and we have pretty nice temperatures in the winter. The snow on the other hand can be ridiculous in New York state. Up along highway 104 which is close to Lake Ontario, they received between 4 and 6 feet of snow last week. Lake effect snow is no joke! I have been wearing my fleece jacket this winter and I have been plenty warm. Our friends, the Rutkowski’s, are serving their mission in the Historic site of San Diego, California. Their winter is all sunshine and roses, haha! Oh, and they have a hot tub at their apartment building.

Study Guide

I love January because we start a new round of “Come Follow Me” at church. This year, the church is studying the Old Testament (Antiguo Testamento). I really enjoy the Old Testament. Every year I start reading it on August 15 and finish it on February 14. The thing that I love about the Come Follow Me program is that it encompasses scriptures from other books as well. I purchased a study guide developed by Shannon Foster (The Red Headed Hostess). It’s called Seek. Plus there are other authors who give their own perspectives and knowledge on the history of the Old Testament which I look forward to reading. At Deseret Book, they have so many resources for studying the Old Testament and one that I haven’t read yet is about “Seeing the Women in the Old Testament”.

My mind has been swamped with feelings of wonder as I learn more about my ancestors from my biological father’s family. I have learned where they settled when they came to Canada and am getting help from cousins with information about the family. I still have cousins in Kyiv, Ukraine. Our great grandparents were Doukhobors in Russia and were pacifists who ate a plant based diet of Russian and Ukrainian foods. One of the grandparents told the family that they were White Russians, the ethnic Belarusians.

Ethnic White Russians (Belarusians)

  • Historical name: “White Rus” (Bela Rus) was a medieval term for the lands of modern Belarus, differentiating it from “Great Russia” (Muscovy) and “Little Russia” (Ukraine). 
  • Modern identity: Today, they are known as Belarusians, with their nation being Belarus (meaning “White Rus”), and speak Belarusian. 

How fascinating! I have been studying their culture to gain more understanding of how it affects my life and gives me knowledge of my forefathers. In the meantime, we are eating our way through some fantastic Slavic recipes. Oh, the Russian Pickled Cabbage Salad was incredibly good! I bought more ingredients today to make it again. I did add an onion to mine. It keeps really well and we were eating it with nearly every meal.

Russian Pickled Cabbage Salad

I bought some smoked salmon today to make another Russian salad, called Shuba. I will let you know how it goes.

Here we are starting anew again. That’s the part I love; through Christ our time to repent and renew is unlimited!

Go forth, my chosen friends! Have a beautiful week and live well; sending you love across the miles.

A Spring In Our Step

| cnaglis63

Well, today was the day to go to our assigned church congregation…Rochester 5th Branch. Driving on highway 31 and then took an exit to highway 490. Then onto the 390 and then exit onto Vintage Lane. We drove past a big wooded park. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there. The building is shared with the Rochester 2nd Ward. We have Relief Society/Elder’s Quorum first and then have Sacrament meeting. There were very few members today in attendance. Upon entering the building, we stopped and talked with the sister missionaries. One sister is from Texas and has been on her mission for three months. The other sister is from Utah and seems well-seasoned in her service.

In Relief Society (a meeting for adult women), we discussed a talk by Elder Holland given in October 2024 General Conference, titled, “I Am He”. We took turns reading paragraphs from the talk. The gist of the talk was Christ’s charity – evident in complete loyalty to divine will – persisted and continues to persist.

One of my favorite paragraphs: “Whom seek ye?” With all our hearts we answer, “Jesus of Nazareth.” When He says, “I am he,” we bow our knee and confess with our tongue that He is the living Christ, that He alone atoned for our sins, that He was carrying us even when we thought He had abandoned us. When we stand before Him and see the wounds in His hands and feet, we will begin to comprehend what it meant for Him to bear our sins and be acquainted with grief, to be completely obedient to the will of His Father—all out of pure love for us. To introduce others to faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and receiving our blessings in the house of the Lord—these are the fundamental “principles and ordinances” that ultimately reveal our love of God and neighbor and joyfully characterize the true Church of Christ.

Of course, all of this was in Spanish. I sat and prayed for understanding and help in discerning the meaning of the lesson. I started to recognize the difference in the Puerto Rican accent. At the end of the lesson, I was asked to give the closing prayer. If you could have witnessed the sheer panic on my face as I had never given a prayer in Spanish before. But I slowly got up and said, “Okay.” I managed to say some things and everyone was grateful that I did it. I told them that it was my first prayer in Spanish in church. Another hard thing done! We moved on to Sacrament meeting and they were having a testimony meeting, where anyone who felt moved upon, could go to the pulpit and share their feelings of the Saviour. It was a very sweet meeting. Erik used Google Translate with the transcript function to translate the meeting. It was a very humbling experience to know that the Lord wants us to be there, knowing that one of us needs a lot more Spanish in their life. It will give me the opportunity to have more conversations in Spanish.

The day was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. After a snack break, we went for our walk through Palmyra to the Prospect Hill. I made us take a slight detour so that I could see the lady walking her four dogs. I was able to pet and coo to them and then covered in dog hair, we moved on. I started searching for a path to connect to the path that Erik had been on, but ended up bushwhacking through the woods to get to the path. It was a good hike up there. According to climatologists, the Wisconsin Ice Advance, 15 to 10,000 years ago, covered what is now Wayne County with an ice pack about 5,000 feet thick. As a result of the progression and recession of the action, Wayne County contains a number of unique hills call drumlins; for example, Prospect Hill in Palmyra and Hill Cumorah are among the numerous drumlins in our area. At the top of Prospect, stands a tall telecommunication tower and a massive water tank. As we made our way down the trail, we took a one way street back to the downtown area. The houses are of spectacular design and landscape and are a joy to observe.

We watched an uncle teaching his nephews and niece how to use a wiggle board. He said that they have been around for many years but I have never seen one before; fascinating! A person very carefully gets on and then wiggles themselves to create a forward motion. That will develop excellent core strength.

Moving Day!! It’s time to pack up and move one block over. We are moving from a one level apartment to a two-story apartment. I jokingly call it the servant’s quarters. The photo shows the back view of the house. The little set of stairs is the entrance to our place. Our friends, the Gurr’s, moved into the front part of the house. The church that you see used to be the First United Methodist church. It went out of business and the building was sold in 2019. Our landlord, Jeff bought the church and this house which is known as the Parsonage House. Our little apartment has a renovated kitchen. You go upstairs to the bathroom, laundry and bedroom. As the Gurr’s and ourselves started the moving process, we also visited each other’s units. I was gobsmacked by how large their unit is; three bedrooms upstairs! Plus, I was struck by the beautiful staircase and millwork going upstairs. Our staircase is narrow and steep, hence, why I call it the servant’s quarters.

Erik had started bringing our belongings over while I worked on packing and cleaning the previous apartment. Remember how I said that it wasn’t very clean? Well, I was about to rectify that scenario. I took the screens off the windows and scrubbed the window sills and screens. I pulled the bed apart (quite literally) to move it all and clean along the wall behind the head of the bed. Oh, the lovely things I found! Vacuuming and washing baseboards was very satisfying.

Laundry was going on and then Erik suggested that I come to the new place and start organizing our belongings and the kitchen. With another car load, I arrived and started the work. I couldn’t understand the flow in the living room, so I jumped up and started rearranging the furniture. Our landlord said the we were free to do whatever we wanted. Every couple seems to like it a different way.

My haha moment of the day was right at the beginning. When I got up to deal with my hair and get ready for the day, I found a big twig in my hair! All the bushwhacking yesterday gave me a “friend” to bring home. I slept all night with it. I’m just becoming one with nature, haha!

We were both pretty exhausted at the end of the day and were looking forward to a good night’s rest.

I had an excellent night’s rest in a lovely comfortable bed. We have accordian blinds on the bedroom windows and poor Erik was awaken by a bright sliver of light beaming through the edge of the blind and going right onto his face. He complained about it and said that we need something to cover the edges of the windows. I told him that he simply needed to roll over and face away from the light; just like I have to when he is reading his Kobo at night, tehe!

More sorting today and finding places for our belongings as well as trying to decide how we want to live here for a year. It would be delightful to find more comfortable living room furniture. Rob Fergus told Erik that he should try thrift stores because that is how he furnished his home office. Another search party will be organized.

It was raining by the time we left to drive to the temple. Thank goodness I had put my rain jacket on. We met more new people and also are starting to recognise people from the past two weeks. I told workers that tomorrow is Erik’s birthday and I will be bringing cake and ice cream to the temple for everyone to share. I was told that Wegman’s has a good bakery and does nice cakes.

On Wednesday morning, we drove to Fairport where the Wegman’s store is. We stopped at Lowe’s to buy a little tape measure for Erik. I was stunned because people are allowed to bring their dogs in with them. We saw a short haired red dog going into the store. Once we entered, we saw a Great Dane checking out the red dog. Then after wandering looking for organizational items and the tape measure, I saw a white Golden Retriever. I told her what a pretty girl she was and I was rewarded with the Golden butt wiggle. Her dad said that everyone always tells her that she’s pretty and she knows it!

Upon entering Wegman’s, I headed to the bakery department to find out about cakes. Erik chose a chocolate cake and I had them write, “Happy Birthday, Erik”. I’m pretty sure that you can’t have cake without ice cream so we bought a couple tubs of vanilla ice cream.

I saw a recipe that I thought Erik might like for his birthday meal. Lemon Ginger Chicken with Pineapple/Mango Salsa. I made some coconut rice and spicy mayo to accompany the dish. The part I loved was that this recipe too, can be made vegetarian by substituting ingredients. Erik loved the meal and then we headed to our shift at the temple.

Lemon Ginger Chicken with Pineapple Mango Salsa 

Workers at the temple were happy to see a birthday cake for Erik and told me how tasty it was. Wegman’s makes good cakes (is what I am told). I did purchase a gluten free piece of cake to join the celebration and it was very nice. I did meet a father and sons who came to the temple from Minnesota. I learned that they had lived in Canada for 20 years. For 15 years in the Red Deer Stake! He had gone to Canada (Ottawa) to go to law school and ended up practising in Red Deer. He knows my cousin, Todd Law. I asked what took him to Minnesota and his boys said, “You won’t believe what he did!” He left law and became an organic farmer in Minnesota!

Thursday brought a little bit warmer weather. Erik was finishing up little details at the other apartment and I was doing my workout. By the time we left to go work our shift at the temple, I was feeling a little tired. It’s not exactly a good way to start things. I kept nodding off during our preparation meeting before our shift. Our leftover cake was kept in the break room fridge and Erik made sure to have a piece before it was all gone.

Friday morning was a different type of morning. We donned our white scrubs to go help clean the temple. I’m not a real social morning person. I’m not grumpy but I like to start my day slowly and let my body get used to the day. There are squirrels in the area and I could see that some of the spring bulbs were being unearthed by the critters. There was a pansy that was nearly all the way out of the ground. I couldn’t leave it like that so, I dug a better hole for it and replanted it. Erik suggested that maybe I should be helping with the gardening. We had to fill out a form letting the temple maintenance people know what our skills were and also what we liked to do. My eyes hadn’t woken up yet and I couldn’t read the paper without some reading glasses. Erik filled in my paperwork for me. I was laughing because we had to rate everything from 1 to 5. I told Erik to put a 0 for me on a bunch of things. I really don’t know anything about commercial HVAC or boilers and pumps. Cleaning is my forte. After a couple of hours, we left to go home and figure out the rest of the day.

I wondered because of it being Good Friday, what would be going on in the area. Our landlord, Jeff, said that nothing should be different. Nothing except my heart as I pondered the Saviour’s crucifixtion.

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

— John 15:12–13

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 dozen white, organic eggs
  • Skins from approx. 10 onions 
  • 2 Tbsp. vinegar
  • Approx. 2 quarts water
  • String 
  • Clean cheese cloth, gauze or nylon stockings cut into 4” pieces
  • Herbs, leaves, flowers and other botanicals to decorate

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Place onion skins in large stockpot.
  2. Make sure eggs are clean. Dampen eggs slightly and apply leaves, flowers and botanicals to decorate. Place inside of piece of nylon stocking and tie both ends. Make sure the egg is wrapped tightly so that the botanical decoration stays in place.
  3. Place prepared eggs into the pot with the onion skins.
  4. Cover with water so that it is 1” above eggs. Add the vinegar and place the pot over medium-high heat.
  5. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. Check eggs for desired color.
  7. Remove from heat, let cool and store in fridge overnight.
  8. When ready, carefully remove eggs from the fridge. Next, remove the stockings and design pieces. Dry off and oil if desired for shine.

I was reading about the Latvian Easter tradition of using natural botanicals and onion peels to dye eggs. These eggs are beautiful and a lovely tradition of using what God made for us. I enjoy researching culture from Latvia and Germany because that is where Erik’s parents were born.

Holy Week is known as “Quiet Week” in Lativa. I love that because it reminds us to be still and contemplate the life of the Saviour and what our relationship is with Him.

Saturday morning was so lovely and warm compared to what we had been having for weather. Very cloudy but warm. Threatening looking clouds that would have us checking for tornado warnings in Alberta were swirling all through the sky. Today we were working a double shift at the temple. I was determined to stay awake for this preparation meeting. The temple was full today of patrons and we were kept hopping. Erik was concerned because I didn’t get a break and ended up working the entire day without a break. My legs started complaining and I noticed that one ankle was swollen. Hopefully, a good night’s rest will help a lot.

I hope that you feel and enjoy the blessings in your lives. I know that we all will experience hard times and pain. I rejoice in knowing that Jesus Christ suffered for all of us and took upon himself our sorrows, pains and all hard things. Through the atonement, He brought the opportunity for exaltation and eternal joy. Have a blessed week!