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- [00:03]
A
Welcome to Follow Him. Favorites this is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson. John doctrine and covenants 137 and 138. 80 years apart between these two sections. They really do belong side by side. I want to talk about section 138, John. The year that that was given was 1918. And you know the history of 1918. World War I. There's a Spanish flu epidemic. There is death everywhere. Joseph F. Smith goes to the Lord and the response becomes section 138. Well, my story has to do with that year, 1918. Everybody is experiencing death, including brother George Goates. He's a farmer who was growing sugar beets in Lehi, Utah that year. 1918. Winter comes early. It froze much of his beet crop in the ground. This story is shared by the way John by President Christofferson way back in the 1900s. 1998 for George and his young son Francis, the harvest was slow and difficult. Meanwhile, an influenza epidemic was raging. The dreaded disease claimed the lives of George's son Charles and three of Charles small children, two little girls and a boy. In the course of only six days, a grieving George Goates made three separate trips from Lehi to Ogden, Utah to bring home bodies for burial. These are his grandchildren and his child Charles. At the end of this terrible interlude, George and Francis hitched up their wagon and headed back to the beet field. On the way, they passed wagon after wagon loads of beets being hauled to the factory and driven by neighborhood farmers. As they patched by, each driver would wave a greeting, hi, Uncle George. Sure sorry, George. You've sure got a lot of friends, George. On the last wagon, freckled faced Jasper Rolf. He waved a cheery greeting and called out, that's all of them, Uncle George. Brother Goats turned to Francis and said, oh, I wish it was all of ours. When they arrived at the farm gate, Francis jumped down off the big red beet wagon and opened the gate. As his father drove onto the field, George pulled up, stopped the team and scanned the field. There wasn't a sugar beet on the whole field. Then it dawned upon him what Jasper Rolfe meant when he called out, that's all of them, Uncle George. George got down off the wagon, picked up a handful of the rich brown soil he loved so much, and then a beet top. And he looked for a moment at these symbols of his labor and he could not believe his eyes. Then he sat down on a pile of beet tops. This man brought four of his loved ones home for burial in the course of six days, made the caskets, dug the graves, and even helped with the burial clothing. This amazing man, who never faltered nor flinched, nor wavered throughout this agonizing ordeal, sat down on a pile of beet tops and sobbed like a child. He must be exhausted, John, just emotionally and physically. Then he arose, wiped his eyes, looked up to the sky, and said, thank you, Father, for the elders of our ward.
- [03:42]
B
Wow.
- [03:43]
A
Isn't that a beautiful, beautiful story of we come together for each other?
- [03:49]
B
Yeah. My story doesn't even compare, but, you know, you've heard me talk about our house fire and how the war just showed up, unloaded everything. I'll take that. I'll take that. Let me get your suit clean. Talk about following the example of the Savior. That's more than mourning with those that mourn. That's helping them do what they need to do as well. That's a great story.
- [04:13]
A
It's farming with those who mourn. Right? Farming for those who mourn.
- [04:18]
B
Bringing in the harvest.
- [04:19]
A
Wow.
- [04:20]
B
Amazing.
- [04:21]
A
This is Zion. One mind and one heart, and there was no beats among them.
- [04:27]
B
Yeah.
- [04:28]
A
We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get any of your podcasts. We are with Dr. Laura Wilkinson this week, and she is wonderful. She really highlights the power of these sections and why they were so important to the people who read them at first and then, obviously, to us today.