I DON'T BELIEVE IT, I DON'T BELIEVE IT - by J'net Johnson

Gossip is idle talk of rumors, especially about personal or private affairs of others. It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing (unproven) facts and usually does harm to the person being talked about.

We started our family home evening, by playing the gossip game. I whispered a rather long story about Josie saddling up Delbert and going for a ride all by herself. Hannah then started the story around the group. It didn’t make it very far, the story was completely altered. This is a great way of showing how a story when repeated many times is completely different at the end.

I would like to share a brief quote about my Great grandmother Hannah David who is the mother of Dr. Joseph Hughes and grandmother of Reed G. Hughes.
“Hannah was a petite little woman with dark brown hair which was usually pulled back into a bob. She had a charming and winning personality. In Spanish Fork she was known as the peacemaker.
She would tolerate no gossip whatsoever. Her reply was always, ‘I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it.’ It wasn’t as though she didn’t know what was going on; her son, Mog (Morgan John), was her source of information. Every day he walked the two blocks east to Main Street and joined the “Spit and Whittle Club” to carefully listen to all the town news which he faithfully brought back to his mother. All this, she considered at length, reserving and discarding, according to the source, but ultimately choosing not to believe any of it. Because of her generosity of spirit, she never repeated anything that was not good and praiseworthy. Thus she earned her reputation and was loved by everyone. She always maintained that ‘if there is ever any question in your mind, always remember that the kind thing is the right thing.” Our Forefathers, history of Joseph Hughes & Delila..

Gossip is one of the meanest things that we can do and we should never be found participating in it. I remember a card that Emilee Dewey sent me a few years ago in which she told me that she could not remember me saying anything unkind about anyone. I was a little nervous about the comment because I am sure that I’ve said some mean things, but it made me think that I needed to make sure that I lived up to what she thought of me.

We can always do better and, if needed, we can tell someone that we have hurt them and we are sorry, and ask for their forgiveness. When we hear gossip, we should always come back with Grandma Hannah’s reply: “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it”. We should always raise ourselves to a higher level, just as Grandma Hannah.

Gossip Quote:
“Live your life in such a way that you wouldn’t be afraid to let. The town gossip take care of the family parrot.”

PROMISES OF THE LORD - by Doug Johnson

One of the great blessings that we have today with the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is the fact that we have a prophet at the head of the church. It is the prophet that the Lord has designated as His “mouthpiece” or “spokesman”. Prophets are entitled to receive inspiration and revelations from the Lord. We are taught that when the Lord speaks he will speak through his prophets. In the D&C 1:38 the Lord told the prophet Joseph Smith, “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken…my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”
The Lord has also given us a promise, if we are obedient to his commandments. In the D&C 82:10 the Lord said, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” It is important to be obedient to God’s commandments, if we want to receive the Lord’s blessings.
I want to share with you a story about one of your ancestors who is able to teach us about the principles of “obedience” and the “blessing” of a prophet by his example. This story is about your great, great, great, great grandfather. His name was John Thomas Richard Hicks. John T. R., as he was called, was born April 29, 1825 in Falmouth, England. His father was a sailor; however, John T.R. was only 3 years old when his father did not come back after a sailing voyage to South America. It was believed that all of the men that were on that ship had drowned at sea. His mother was Johanna Richards Hicks. Johanna raised John T. R. and his two sisters. John T. R. married Harriet Yoe on July 7, 1850. It was a couple of years later that he and Harriet were taught by the Mormon missionaries and were baptized. John T. R. and Harriet immigrated to the United States and were part of the Hunt handcart company that was rescued on the plains of Wyoming in 1856. John T. R. became skilled in making and repairing shoes. John T. R. did not just make shoes, but he took pride in his skill as a craftsman. He would measure the person’s foot and then fit the shoe to the individual’s foot. President Brigham Young and other general authorities were some of his faithful customers. John T. R. did well enough at his vocation that he was soon able to buy a building lot and to build a two room house at 340 West North Temple in Salt Lake City. John T. R. and his wife Harriet were faithful members of the church.
At a meeting one day in the Bowery (a thatched roof open-sided assembly place that stood where at the site where the current Salt Lake Tabernacle now stands) President Brigham Young was speaking on the principle of tithing. As he was chastising the saints for their lack of obedience to this commandment he said that he did not know of a man in the Church that paid an entirely honest tithe. At the conclusion of his sermon, a Brother Woods arose and said that he knew of one man who paid an honest tithe. President Young asked who it was and Brother Woods said it was John T. R. Hicks, of the 16th Ward. President Yong asked if John T. R. was present and if so, to stand up. John T. R. arose and President Young gave him a blessing then and there. He promised John T. R. that neither he nor his family nor their posterity should feel the want of food.
President Young’s blessing is especially powerful when coupled with the Lord’s promise, “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken…my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” The Lord’s promises will be fulfilled if we are faithful to the Lord’s commandments.