25 Dec 2021, Saturday

25 Dec 2021, Saturday

Prioritized Daily Task

Luke Olin Lively's 11th birthday (I tried to call Jason, Luke's dad, to wish them a merry Christmas and Luke a happy birthday but Jason has changed his phone number, so I called Lori Lynn but go her answering machine; I left a message wishing her a merry Christmas and asked her to tell Luke, Debbie and I wish him a happy birthday.  I next called Robyn and same as with her sister Lori Lynn; I called Luke's mother Lani Lively and had to leave the same message I left on Lori Lynn's answering phone.) Lori Lynn called me back and gave me Luke's phone number.  We called him but he did not answer.  We left a happy birthday greeting and a Merry Christmas wish.

I called and talked to Roy Bryant and wished him and Elain who had surgery on her knee a Merry Christmas.  I called Frank Powell and wished him a Merry Christmas.  He is old in poor health and all alone.  Roy is my fist cousin and it is just him and Elain; they have no children.  

I got a cute video from Elain, my sister, and sent it to all the children. 

1:30 PM - Beth picking Tucker, Maggie, and Andrew up and Kent and Cid Davis'

3 PM - Christmas dinner at Laura and George's 

5:00 PM - Christmas dinner at home for Beth, Tucker, Maggie, and Andrew

9:30 PM - Debbie and I had prayer with Beth and the children before Beth took Tucker, Maggie, and Andrew back over to Kent and Cid's.  JC, their father, is taking them to the cabin Monday evening before he leaves to go back to California.  Debbie and I had prayer, I took a shower, laid my clothes out for church tomorrow before going to bed about 11 PM.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1135908583/multnomah-falls-oregon-waterfall-photo?click_key=b131a992d357773210d0ce22b55a5cd15c454714%3A1135908583&click_sum=38b4aedd&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=multnomah+falls+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-38&frs=1

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/multnomah-falls-in-autumn-colors-high-resolution-gm605761218-103858023

Without Christmas, there would be no Easter Story: Many years ago, the head chief of the Multnomah people had a beautiful young daughter. She was especially dear to her father because he had lost all his sons in wars and he was now an old man.  He had chosen his daughter's husband with great care, a young chief from their neighbors, the Clatsop people.  

To the wedding feast came many people from tribes along the lower Columbia River and south of it.  The wedding feast was to last several days.  There were swimming races, and canoe races on the river.  There would be archery contest, horse racing, dancing, and feasting.  The whole crowd was merry, for both the maiden and the young warrior were loved by their people. But without warning the happiness changed to sorrow. A sickness came over the village.  Children and young people were the first victims, then strong men became ill and died in only one day. The wailing of the women was heard throughout the Multnomah village and in the camps of the guests.

"The Great Spirit is angry with us," the people said to each other. The head chief called together his old men and his warriors for counsel and asked gravely," What can we do to soften the Great Spirits wrath?" Only silence followed his question. At last one of the old medicine men arose." There is nothing we can do. If it is the will of the Great Spirit that we die, then we must meet our death like brave men. The Multnomah have ever been a brave people."  The other members of the council nodded in agreement, all except one, the oldest medicine man. He had not attended the wedding feast and games, but he had come in from the mountains when he was called by the chief. He rose and, leaning on his stick, spoke to the council.  His voice was low and feeble.  "I am a very old man, my friends, I have lived a long, long time. Now you will know why.  I will tell you a secret my father told me. He was a great medicine man of the Multnomah, many summers and many snows in the past.  When he was an old man, he told me that when I became old, the Great Spirit would send a sickness upon our people. All would die, he said, unless a sacrifice was made to the Great Spirit. Some pure and innocent maiden of the tribe, the daughter of a chief, must willingly give her life for her people. Alone, she must go to a high cliff above Big River and throw herself upon the rocks below. If she does this, the sickness will leave us at once.

Then the old man said, "Now I have finished, my father's secret is told. Now I can die in peace."  Not a word was spoken as the medicine man sat down. At last, the chief lifted his head. "Let us call in all the maidens whose fathers or grandfathers have been headmen."

Soon a dozen girls stood before him, among them his own loved daughter. The chief told them what the old medicine man had said. "I think his words are words of truth," he added.

After a long silence, he turned to his medicine men and his warriors, "Tell our people to meet death bravely.  No maiden shall be asked to sacrifice herself. The meeting has ended."

The sickness stayed in the village, and many more people died. The daughter of the head chief sometimes wondered if she should be the one to give her life to the Great Spirit. But she loved the young warrior, and she wanted to live.

A few days later she saw the sickness on the face of her lover. Now she knew what she must do.  She cooled his hot face, cared for him tenderly, and left a bowl of water by his bedside. Then she slipped away alone, without a word to anyone.

All night and all the next day she followed the trail to the great river. At sunset, she reached the edge of a cliff overlooking the water. She stood there in silence for a few moments, looking at the jagged rocks far below. Then she turned her face toward the sky and lifted up her arms. She spoke aloud to the Great Spirit.  "You are angry with my people. Will you make the sickness pass away if I give you my life? Only love and peace and purity are in my heart. If you will accept me as a sacrifice for my people, let some token hang in the sky. Let me know that my death will not be in vain and that the sickness will quickly pass."  Just then she saw the moon coming up over the trees across the river. It was the token. She closed her eyes and jumped from the cliff.

The next morning, all the people who had expected to die that night arose from their beds well and strong. They were full of joy. Once more there was laughter in the village and in the camps of the guest.

Suddenly someone asked, "What caused the sickness to pass away? Did one of the maidens...?"  Once more the chief called the daughters and granddaughters of the headmen to come before him. This time one was missing.

The young Clatsop warrior hurried along the trail which leads to Big River. Other people followed. On the rocks below the high cliff, they found the girl they all loved. There they buried her.

Then her father prayed to the Great Spirit, "Show us some token that my daughter's spirit has been welcomed into the land of the spirits." Almost at once, they heard the sound of water above. All the people looked up to the cliff. A stream of water, silvery-white, was coming over the edge of the rock. It broke into a floating mist and then fell at their feet. The stream continued to float down in a high and beautiful waterfall.

For many summers the white water has dropped from the cliff into the pool below. Sometimes in winter, the spirit of the brave and beautiful maiden comes back to see the waterfall. Dressed in white, she stands among the trees at one side of Multnomah Falls. There she looks upon the place where she made her great sacrifice and thus saved her lover and her people from death.      

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/164451823862973082/

The Multnomah are a tribe of Chinookan people who live in the area of Portland, Oregon, in the United States.  Multnomah villages were located throughout the Portland basin and on both sides of the Columbia River. The Multnomah speak a dialect of the Upper Chinookan language in the Oregon Penutian family.

Reading in The Pilgrim Hypothesis is very interesting, many of the people of the British Isles, why they are descendants of Joseph/Ephraim and probably some of the other 10 tribes of Isreal that went north about 728 BC.  With miracle of the 102 Pilgrims who sailed from England by way of, Holland, only 51 survived the first year.  John Howland, a young single man, who was swept off the ship in a storm, the miracles at Cape Cod, Corn Hill, encounters with the Indians, Salem, and Rhode Island.  There is just too many to write it off as coincidental.  One, I thought may have been a little much, inferred Moroni was in what today is the state of New York when he buried the gold plates.  It could very well be true; the gold plates were found there.  The others leave no doubt such as the ones below, I copied this from The Pilgrim Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard;        

1620 AD - Mayflower Pilgrims arrive in the promised land                    1820 AD - Joseph Smith has his First Vision                                            1630 AD - Massachusetts Bay Colony (Puritans) arrive on the promised land                                                                                                          1830 AD - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is established.     I would say this could be just be coincidental, except for all the other things that happened.

And the miracle of John Howland, the young man, who was swept off the Mayflower in a storm, why he was not lost at sea, why he lived, married Elizabeth Tilley and had a son named, John Jr. and a daughter, named Hope.  Six generations later John Jr's. 4 great grandson, Joseph Smith Jr. and Hope's great granddaughter, Emma Hale, were married.  This is too much to be coincidental.