Our new mission president and his wife, J. Patrick Anderson and Cynthia M.Anderson.
we found out from him that a new ruling had just come down from the Brethren in Church Headquarters to say that as of the end of June 2011 Senior couple missionaries will be allowed to visit a special family event once a year while they are on their missions. He asked us to pray about attending this event to see if the Lord approved of us going. So after praying about it, we felt it was right to take the time off to go to this reunion. When On Tuesday July 19 we told President Anderson of our decision, he said “Good!” We were excited to be able to go, but what a whirlwind of getting ready to leave in one day, rescheduling several appointments, calling to make arrangements for a place to stay at our daughter’s home, getting the car ready for the trip, and then packing. But we did it!
Sister Howlett’s family gets together every 3 years to enjoy the family legacy and renew our friendships with kin. At this one we would be able to see several of our children, grandchildren, and see our newest grandchild, Tyler Howlett. There are five children of the Ira Elwin Merrill and his two wives, Nora Adeline Chandler and Barbara Hess family. All were invited, but it seems only “Patty and Kathy’s” (Sister Howlett and her sister Kathy) families could come. Uncle John, however, supplied some information about his activities that we got as part of the printed materials relating to the family. Despite its limitations it was a great reunion, and a super surprise for us to be allowed attend it.
The next day Wednesday July 20, we traveled 14 straight hours, stopping only for gas a couple of times. Since we had brought some lunch, we just ate in the car while we traveled. Elder Howlett did most of the driving, but Sister Howlett spelled him off for a time.
We brought along two MP3 players that we had bought to help members in the ward in Garden City be able to listen to the scriptures or talks of the last General Conference.
Since we had taken a lunch with us, we only had to stop a couple of times to fill up the gas tank. We were prepared to stop somewhere for the night, but that wasn’t necessary since we were able to make steady progress and arrived in American Fork at our oldest daughter’s house about 8 p.m. (The extra hour because of the time-zone change helped.) It was a good trip.
Our daughter, Susan and her husband, Nels, always open their home to any family or friends in need of a place to stay and a meal. They even gave us their own bedroom! Our second daughter, Karen was already there with her four children. When we called them, while we were in route on Wednesday morning, we heard all the family in the background cheering happily that we were coming.
On Thursday afternoon, 21 July, we were able to meet at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple with some of the adults coming to the reunion. Our daughter Susan and her husbsand Nels and our daughter Karen were there. We also met our son, Mark, his wife Sherlyn and their 19 year old son Brandon there in the temple. Brandon has already received his mission call to the Brazil Vitorio Mission entering the Mission Training Center in October 2011. So it was a joy to share this endowment session with him and the others.
At the restaurant from left around table: cousin Patti Muerer, Elder Howlett, Brandon Howlett, David Whitford, Kathy Whitford, Mark Howlett, Sherlyn Howlett, Karon Felt, Nels Beckstrand and Susan Beckstrand.
Sister Howlett’s sister and her husband, Kathy and David Whitford made it in from California to join us and also her step-cousin, Patti Muerer from Salt Lake area attended with us. It was a beautiful session - especially enjoyable because we were with family. After the endowment session we all went out to dinner together. It was fun sharing a meal together and getting to know each other all over again. These special times are choice experiences.
Friday, 22 July, we awoke to find that the youth in the family were scheduled to go on a baptismal session at 9 a.m. in the Draper Temple this day. Draper is the town where Elder Howlett grew up, so this temple is very special to our family. Therefore Elder Howlett got up quickly and prepared to go to the temple to see if his help was needed. (Sister Howlett stayed behind to help in preparations for the reunion meals of the day.) It was thrilling for him to meet some people in the temple that he had known years before. It was especially wonderful that those people were now workers in the temple, and they were following the example of Elder Howlett’s dad who had served 25 years in the Salt Lake Temple starting from the time Elder Howlett was in high school.
What a privilege it was to help out where he could as a witness and helping with confirmations of our grandchildren and grandniece that were able to go. It was very interesting to see how they do the youth baptisms for the temple files. While the youth are still dry in their temple clothes, they are confirmed for the previous set of baptisms, and then when they are finished with the confirmations, they are baptized for a new set of people’s names. It works very well and moves the work through much faster enabling more youth to be in each session. It was a marvelous opportunity for Elder Howlett to be a part of this baptism session. There were eight youth in our family who could go.
The main reunion began just before noon and we enjoyed seeing several of our children and nephews come with their families. Susan and Nels with their five live in American Fork, Utah and hosted the reunion. Mark and Sherlyn with their five came from Washington State. Karen and Dan with their four came from Idaho.
Jacob and Melanie, who also live in Utah, came with his son. And our youngest son, Michael, and his wife Harmony came from Ohio with their new baby boy, our newest grandchild. We were so happy to have them all come. We had five of our nine children there. Kathy and David arrived and two of their five children came with their families. Kevin and Tanja came from California with their four children and Andrew and Amy came from Idaho with their five children. So it was a gathering of family mostly from the Western part of the United States, but one son from Ohio was able to make it, and we came from our mission assignment in Kansas. There were also a few individuals and families from the extended Merrill family who came for a part of the time, and their participation was appreciated. What fun we had.
On this day we enjoyed several activities. We had two delicious meals,
games of all sorts for the kids, dads and moms and lots of visiting. A sisters’ meeting (for all sisters 12 and older) is always a highlight for the women where they share ideas, love and family helps.
Sister's group meeting: 1st row on floor: Taylor Howlett, Cassaundra Howlett, Katy Whitford, Kimberly Beckstrand, 2nd row: Sister Howlett, Harmony Howlett, Tanja Whitford, Sherlyn Howlett, Karen Felt, Susan Beckstrand, Melanie Howlett, Amy Whitford, Kathy Whitford.
That night there was also a talent show MC’d by our two youngest sons, Jacob and Michael which was great fun to see.
There were many planned or impromptu numbers, and a family dance which most of the teen-agers loved to take part in. It was a busy day.
Saturday July 23 was the last official day of the reunion. It was a day of taking pictures of the whole group and each individual family. A family friend, Marie White, came to take all the official pictures, but many of us still wanted our own cameras used. She and her son did the honors on several candid and group shots. Sadly we didn’t get all of the family groups on our own camera but the entire group shot was beautiful.
A great photo of the whole group attending the reunion, with Kathy and David Whitford and Grant and Pat Howlett in the center as the parents/grandparents of the whole group there.
Again delicious meals were served, more games for the children and fun games for the adults, and then a very important business meeting was held. It was especially good that we were able to call our son Eric and his wife Chris in Groveport, Ohio to be in on a conference call with the group since we were hoping they could be in charge of the next reunion and have it in Ohio. At least one adult from each family attended this meeting and we came up with the idea of setting up a mission statement for our family, talked of any finances needed to keep the group going and a plan for the next two reunions in 2014 and 2017. After this meeting we had a electronic slide presentation which Kathy made with music, text and pictures of all three of our parents, Ira Elwin Merrill and his two wives, Nora Adeline Chandler and Barbara Hess. Also pictures of former reunions were included. It was a great presentation.
One of the great contributions accomplished by Kathy and David Whitford and Eric Howlett were several copies of the combined histories of our parents in one booklet and copies of another booklet listing service rendered by all the family. These were sold to the family members in attendance at the reunion.
Last of the day was a special testimony meeting. Some of the group had to leave, but we were able to have several there for a very spiritual experience. We missed several of our family members at the reunion, but for those who came it was a very special time.
On Sunday, July 24 Elder and Sister Howlett enjoyed a special trip Sunday morning to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City in order to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast. Since it was Pioneer Day it was a beautiful program of music, pictures and a short narrative of the courage and stamina of the Mormon Pioneers coming across the plains to Utah.
We thoroughly enjoyed it and we got back to our daughter’s place in time to attend church with them. In that church block we were able to meet a few Ohio Church members from our home stake who were also visiting in American Fork for a family reunion of their own. It was great to greet a few fellow Ohioans. That evening we were able to visit Elder Howlett’s sister and her husband, Elaine and George Puckett in Springville, Utah. That was a thrill to see them recovering from several aging problems, and it was a joy to visit with them.
Monday morning, July 25 we started out at 7:30 a.m. and drove 15 hours straight back to Garden City, Kansas, arriving tired but glad we could come back safely. The next day was spent resting and cleaning so we could be ready to go back to work on Wednesday.
It was a fast, hard trip but worth all the effort to be a part of our wonderful Merrill Family reunion in American Fork, Utah.
Our apartment building in Garden City with our maroon-colored sedan parked in the parking lot. So glad to be back to our mission apartment safely.
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