Provo/Homestead Reunion, August 8-Day 1

The reunion started with a trip to the Provo Temple at noon.  I, the author, might have missed this but rumor has it a good time was had by all.  There was also youth baptisms for the youth!

 Next, we had a guided tour through the MOA.  It was mostly for the kids.  They decorated baskets and the adults talked...not a bad situation if you ask me.

There was a beautiful quilt display in the basement.  My personal favorite was the costumes from movies display.  It was shocking to see how tiny Hollywood women are.

Just saying...

Happy, 77th Wedding Anniversary, Ivar and Mildred!

Wedding Day!

Submitted by Charlotte Bluemlein
 

How Big is Your Jesus? by Ella Petersson

This is a article that my Aunt Ella Charlotta Sandberg Peterson wrote in 1973 for a Swedish Christian magazine.   I've always been kind of interested in her because our names were so similar and now because we both have such a strong belief in Christ.

Ella Charlotta Sandberg Peterson is on the far right. This is the Carl and Klara's family (except for Ivar and Sven, who were in the US).-brought to you by Charlotte Bluemlein

HOW BIG IS YOUR JESUS?

by

Ella Petersson

(Written in Swedish and translated by Sven Sandberg)

In our little chapel we have a large painting on the wall back of the altar. It is the well-known scene of Jesus knocking at the door. Painted in soft mellow colors the picture gives an impression of goodness, love and peace. I never tire of looking at it. I have a feeling that it talks to me. If I am afraid or uneasy about something, I hear the words: "Be of good cheer and fear not for I am with you." When I come tired and discouraged to the service my eyes seek Jesus's, and I seem to hear him say: "Come to me all you that are tired and heavy laden, and I will give you peace."   When I come happy and with a song in my heart, I hear: "Rejoice, again I say, rejoice in the Lord."

One Saturday evening my little grandson, three years old, was with me when I went to the chapel to decorate the altar with flowers. When he entered and saw the painting he stood there by the door awhile still and quiet and just looked. Then he asked me many, many questions about the picture and all the details, and I tried to explain it all as simply as I could. We then talked for a while about Jesus like we had done many times before.

The next time he came with me he hopped and skipped up to the altar as fast as he could, stretched up his little hand and happily shouted: "Hi! Jesus." How would you have reacted? I got just a little bit shook up for it then to me seemed almost sacrilegious, so I said: "Honey, I really don't think you should greet Jesus in that manner." He then asked how he should do it and I couldn't think of an answer. To his second, "How Grandma?" I lamely replied that he could say, "Good day, Jesus."

When we came to the chapel a week later he slowly walked up to the altar; bowed deeply" and said: "Good day, Jesus." He showed no happiness over seeing Jesus again like he had the time before, and I then realized that I had made a very big mistake, and it was a lesson to me that I will never forget. I think that we should come to Jesus like the little boy did the first time. Jesus was not stiff and formal. When he cured the lame he said: "Take your bed and go." After awakening Lazarus from the dead simply: "Untie him and let him go."

I think that Jesus wants us to be ourselves for he knows us well, our faults as well as our good points. Well-chosen words are not the most important thing when we pray. What counts is that we pray sincerely from the very innermost of our being. Prayer with clasped hands is not enough. We must also act. "Plowman pray with your hand upon the plow when you pray for the crop. We should pray often. It is possible to pray while doing the day’s work. I have done this for many years. I pray while peeling potatoes, doing the dishes, cleaning the home. One can always speak to God. He understands.

Now back to the painting on the wall back of the altar. I had a new little girl come to my Sunday School class who, when she first saw the picture exclaimed: “My! What a big Jesus you have. At home we only have a little one." -- What kind of Jesus have you got? Do you have a big powerful one that you can trust, confess and pray to? One that is an important factor in your life? Or do you have a little Jesus that you keep hidden, one that you are just a little bit ashamed of, but you do take him out and pray to him when things get really difficult? At other times you get along very well without him. But –in the Bible it says: "He that confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father. But the one that denies me, him I will also deny before my Father that is in Heaven."

This article was first published in a Swedish Christian magazine in 1973. The author, Ella Petersson, is my sister.

Ivar Sandberg Family in Sweden

Back Row:  Eric, Karl Ivar, Inge Borg, Nilly, Karl (father), Sigrid
Front Row:  Sven, Klara, Gerta (baby), Lennart, Ella

Anna Inga Britt was born 1918 and lived 5 months.  This picture was taken in 1914 in Sweden.

Klara dressed the boys in their fancy clothes and told them not to get dirty but if you will notice all of the boys have a lot of dirt on their clothes.

The girls are all similarly dressed and all have scarfs.

Memories of my Mom by Charlotte

 (Mildred Left, and Vivian)

Mildred Nelson Sandberg.  -

Mildred had four brothers just older than she and she likes to play outside with them.  She liked to drive horses and drove the horse (Ole Prince) and buggy to town for her piano lessons at age 13.  She also drove a horse to plant corn and to cultivate corn and she loved it.

 

 Mildred is the 2nd from the left

She and all 9 girls in her family had six weeks of piano lessons.but she excelled in it and had more.

Her family was unusual in their neighborhood, because they  received a newspaper and each of the 16 children could go to  high school, if they wanted.  Now the neighbors felt that both of those expenses were a waste of money.

Mom worked as a waitress  and as a sitter for the local Dr.'s wife  evenings and summers while she was in high school to save money for college.The summer she graduated there was a bank crash and she lost most of her savings. Her sister,Ina, who was teaching and had a Master's degree in Home Economics from Columbia University , said she would pay tuition for two years at South Dakota State and Mom studied public school music and elementary education.

Next she taught 4th grade and music to the whole school and directed an operetta in Avon SD.

Then she and her sister,June,  moved to Minneapolis .  They lived together in Dunwoody Hall  for girls and Mom worked as a maid while attending McPhail School of Music and studying piano.  

She had a senior recital  one evening with a violinist as her guest artist.  Her mother and sister, Vivian took the train to Minneapolis to attend.

Later she worked as a maid  in Minneapolis for the family of a vice-president of Pillsbury flour.

She taught  music at our country school for a few years.

As a widow, she determined to pay for missions as much as possible and began teaching piano at home.  

She once ran for the school board in Gettysburg,but did not win.  In my personal opinion, it's because she did not campaign and went to Utah for the summer.  She had been asked to run by a committee.

She was an active member of the American Association of University Woman.  

Later received an Associate Degree from BYU and served as an ordinance worker in the Provo temple.

She believed in education and hard work and the Gospel.  

She often said,"Every girl should work and have her own money and buy anew outfit every month, if she wants before she gets married.  Then she will be a good manager when she is married."

Charlotte's Family History Project

Sunday was the annual Nelson picnic in Dell Rapids, and none of us attended.  I have been thinking about the Nelson family.  Today I read Alan Packer's talk from the BYU Family History conference and it read,"Research shows that children who are best able to handle stress are those who know the most about their family's history.  As children, grandchildren and descendants hear about the past, they are more able to meet the future." So I have felt very inspired to make sure we doing our share, to share family stories.

One of  my own daughters (Heather, I admit it as I am re posting this blog), this very morning said she did not know Nelsons came to America for religious freedom. Gilbert's book, which becomes more valuable all the time, has great stories.  I have been especially enjoying charter 8 "Mildred Nelson, Beloved Wife" 

And on that note, I am going to start sharing my stories with the family via this blog.  I might even share the time our mother stuck her tongue to the frozen water pump and had to pull it off, along with all her tongue skin.  She was so embarrassed she didn't tell anyone for years.

When we visited Denmark, I learned that only in relatively recent times has there been freedom of religion. When our family lived there , there was a state church, the Lutheran church, brought there by followers of Martin Luther.  The church has a lot of authority and if you did not belong, you may not be able to have a job, or your children allowed to go to school.  No condemnation to Lutherans as they kept wonderful record and brought the whole nation Christianity.  So when a few people became Baptist, it was hard for them.  Our ancestors were among them.

My great-grandfather Thomas Sorensen,  (grandma Ann Marie Thompson Nelson's father) "When he was 14 years old, became converted to the Baptist belief after studying the scriptures with others who were dissatisfied with the state church.  

He was baptized by a Baptist preacher and went about teaching believers personal regeneration. . He was persecuted for his belief and nick named "Holy Thomas" in ridicule.  His  parents asked him to leave home because they frowned on any religion other than their own.

He walked to a nearby village and when he became tired he rested on the doorstop of a miller who owned a place called "Rode Molle" or Red Mill.   The owner found him there and gave  him a  job in the mill. He soon became a Journeyman Apprentice.

Some years later a girl named Karen Marie Larsdatter, came to work for the miller as a nursemaid for his children. A story is told of the courtship of Thomas and Karen Marie,  The young folks where she lived could not find out who her boyfriend was, until one day she came to work with the imprint of two mealy hands on the back of her black dress.  Everyone now knew who her lover was.

Stay tuned for further adventures from the Sandberg family.

Sandberg Calendar 1999 and 2000

From the Family Calendar 1997-1998, Letter between Mildred and Ivar