Leaving a Legacy

The past few minutes have been spent scrolling through snapshots I took at my uncle's funeral. Some of them will be edited later on to include in my own personal history. As I looked at the faces and gestures of love shared, I began to wonder how I will be remembered when I leave this mortal world. This is not the first I have thought this, as I have survived a failing heart and am now doing well. When someone dies, it is a time for re-evaluating one's life. What will the world say about me? Will anyone remember the contributions I have made? Will I have done anything important to build God's Kingdom on Earth? The pictures I am sharing bring forth these kinds of thoughts of the legacy I know my uncle has left behind, one that I hope to grow from. 

Elder L. Tom Perry was a Marine. At the end of WWII, he was one of the first occupation troops to enter Japan. This picture of them relaxing was taken after the honorable service these young men provided at the graveside. The playing of "Taps" moved many of us to tears. The final salute to my Aunt Barbara took my breath away. 

During the photo sessions, I looked up to see this lovely sight. Look carefully. Each Marine is placing his hand on his neighbor's shoulder, I imagine to signify unity and brotherhood. They offered a moment of silence to this beloved man. It was incredibly moving.

I learned that Alex Boye' is my relative. >wink< When I saw him in the family seating at the funeral services, I expressed gratitude for his support. He told me that my uncle was the one who sealed Alex and his wife in the temple, so that made us all family. This is a photo of my "cousin" and I at the graveside. 

Alex and the Marines had a few joyful minutes together. I am sure Uncle Tom was smiling at the happy memories being made in his honor. 

One sight that touched me at the viewing and the graveside was that of the flowers. Each Church Auxiliary send flowers to the family. How beautiful! 

After the burial, I went to get my car at Temple Square. Two casually dressed gentlemen were facing this flag across the grounds from them. As I passed by, I overheard one saying ".... it was an Elder Perry or something that passed away. Apparently he was a leader of some kind in their church." I paused, turned, and walked over to them. I smiled kindly at them for their curious respects they were paying. I explained I overheard them and I just just come from the funeral of the man they were discussing. Very respectfully, one man asked, "Who was he" to which I replied, "His name was L. Tom Perry and he was my uncle." They explained they were tourists and had inquired to someone why the flags were being flown at half mast. Until then, I had not even noticed. All of the flags on Temple Square were flown at half mast! How lovely! One man asked, "He was a leader in your local church here?" Suppressing a chuckle, I smiled and replied, "Yes, he was an elder, and one of head leaders in this worldwide church and he was a very good man." They offered their condolences, which I accepted, and I left, pausing to take this picture. I absolutely love that Elder Perry's legacy was already reaching people, so quickly after his passing. 

When I leave this frail existence, when I lay this mortal by
Father, Mother, may I meet You in Your royal courts on high?
[Oh My Father, by Eliza R. Snow]

I know that when I leave this frail existence, I hope people know that I had striven to live the best life I could. I want them to know that I loved serving others because it made me happy, and brought me closer to the Savior, not just because it was expected of me. I want my posterity to know that I was grateful for the gifts God blessed me with and I desired to use them for the building of His Kingdom on Earth. Most of all, I hope to be remembered for my testimony of Jesus Christ, that through His Atonement, we can find everlasting peace, that through Him we can be saved, and by His grace, and the covenants we make in the Temple, families CAN be together- forever! How grateful I am to have personally known someone to live an exemplary life! May we all strive to become more like the One perfect man to walk this earth- even Jesus Christ. 

Living a Legacy-
Mama Dragon

Tears of Frustration, Tears of Peace

Today, I wanted to cry. In fact, I did cry! In our Primary Congregation, we have nearly 200 kids. They are divided up into to groups: Junior and Senior Primary. Like the other choristers around the world, I had this beautiful plan in place to read a quote by my uncle, Elder L. Tom Perry, about singing a song from the top of our lungs. I finished up our regular song practice with our younger kids and pulled out pictures of a man many recognized, Elder Perry. Regardless of how I tried, the talking would not stop. There were kids climbing over kids, kids playing with their neighbor, kids practicing dance moves.... none of us adults could get them to calm down! Over 50 kids ages 3-6 and they were.... exhausting!! I was working hard to make the moment special, to tell them from a personal point of view how it felt to know this man on a personal level, and nothing worked. Teachers were practically sitting on their students to get them to settle down. We had done everything up to this point, including wiggle songs, whispering, talking loudly, having them stand to sing... 

NOTHING. WORKED. Trying to get through my assigned time, I hastily finished my lesson, telling the next teacher (a member of our bishopric, or a clergyman), "Good luck,"collected my teaching items, then returned to my seat. Things did not go much better for him, as all of the children (who usually are very well behaved) decided that today was the day they would be, well.... kids! (What are they thinking?!) >wink<

While the room was switching to the older kids (ages 7-11), I stood at the piano, my back turned to everyone, and closed my eyes. As I fought tears of frustration, I offered up a prayer that went something like this: Oh Uncle Tom, I am so sorry! This was supposed to be a special tribute for you, and it turned into a hot mess. I have let you down. I am so very sorry. 

As soon as I thought those words, I felt his response of laughing. Laughing! Of all the nerve, why would he laugh at me when I was trying so hard to do something for him?! I felt a whisper from heaven tell me: Young Lady, >laugh< they are kids! Enjoy them! 

Well! I'll tell you what I did! I.... sighed. He was right. They were little kids and probably busting at the seams with the break of rainy weather and beautiful sun shining. I would be too! 

As I turned to welcome the older kids with a song, they immediately settled in their chairs, becoming reverent. All of us leaders were ever so grateful. one of them quickly commented that they were a breath of fresh air. When it was time to pay tribute, these children listened wholeheartedly as I shared stories of my relationship with someone incredibly special. I bore witness that as we sang, the Holy Ghost would let them know if the message of the song held eternal truths, as my uncle taught. It was beautiful and moving as they did indeed sing "from the top of their lungs with enthusiasm." How I rejoiced in that moment in knowing that he could hear us from heaven.

I did not video these students of mine, but other choristers around the world recorded their primaries. One local Portuguese Branch song leader sent me a video of his children singing in their native language. I was moved to tears as these children paid tribute to such a revered man. What a kind service! How grateful I am to be part of such an organization that teaches truths such as "Families can be together forever." How grateful I am for this message being my uncle's legacy. 

Singing with enthusiasm, 

Mama Dragon

Singing for Elder Perry

Central top row is my grandmother. To her right is her husband, my grandfather. The tall young man to her left is Uncle Tom, her little brother. This is shortly before my father would have been born. His sister is the little girl in the middle and his brother is the little boy, left of Grandpa Perry.

This has been a very tender time for my family as we have bid a mortal farewell to the head of our family, and a great leader in our church. I have had some incredibly moving experiences this past week in preparation for not just the funeral, but also a special family project I am working on. This project has taken much more time than I realized it would, and time away from me writing here. It is winding down, though and in a few days the final product will be completed. Since the family members I am presenting my gift to most likely do not read this blog, I think it is "safe" to share it here, without giving it away. I feel a sense of renewal as I have taken these past couple of days for myself by way of grieving and being with family.

The project started out as an idea I had to collect stories from my personal friends. These would be stories they have of how meeting or hearing something my uncle said has influenced their lives. I would collect the stories, make a special scrapbook, then present it to his children, so they can see the personal influence their father had in so many lives. 

I was in conversation on a social media page that was discussing his passing, when I said something to the effect of, "May I use these stories in my book?" It then snowballed a bit as I invited others to send me their personal stories.  

In another group I belong to, there are more than 8,000 music leaders for the Primary Organization of my church. One sweet sister* named Cindy shared this idea of what she would do with her Primary children the following day: 

"Looking for a simple and sweet way to address and honor Elder L Tom Perry? I just listened to his talk from April conference. About marriage and family. In it he says "imagine children all over the world... Singing Families Can Be Together Forever... From the bottom of their lungs with enthusiasm!" 

Tomorrow I'm going to tell that simple statement from his talk and we'll sing the song, just as he says. And that's it! 3 minutes of sweet by powerful truths taught by one of our beloved apostles!"

One by one, other choristers chimed in and said they would do the same thing. They loved the idea of paying tribute to someone that was so well loved and honorable. Two hours later, about 200 people had joined the posse, and my heart burst with joy. I told them of the scrapbook I was doing, and how I would love to share their follow-up experiences in a few days. By the end of the evening we had over 500 wards (local congregations) saying they would be participating in the tribute. 

I began messaging Cindy about her leading the conversation for follow-up. It was her idea and she needed the credit for that, plus she would do a great job overseeing it, I was sure. Monday morning came and the conversation was started. There was also talk of many wards not knowing about the tribute and they would like to participate this upcoming Sunday (tomorrow) in addition to the previous week. A new list was forming for those folks. 

On Wednesday, I finally had a bit of time to work on compiling everything. I decided to make a master list of all the congregations around the world that contributed. When I decided that, there were only about 100. By the time I got started to type the list up, there were.... a LOT more!!! I decided to try and copy and paste sections, one at a time, to a word document, edit out the extra items from the web page (such as "likes" and photos), then slip them into a spreadsheet. In theory, it worked. In reality, three of us at my home, including a computer programmer, could not figure out the best way to create this list. By now, it was too late to start a public spreadsheet for people to enter their info, so I was stuck. After several hours of my computer crashing, the programs crashing, tears, yelling, stress... I knew that I finally figured out the best technique to form the list. Wait....

[I need to insert here that I had planned on taking my time, spending a few minutes each day on the project until it was done, maybe in a week or so. No rush, right? Wrong. Wednesday afternoon one of the ladies in our group shared she had been in a meeting with some church leaders that wanted to do a spotlight feature on the tribute we were doing. As well as other info from others, they wanted the list from me... by the next day, so they could put together this feature in time for my uncle's funeral. They wanted to honor him... how could I say no?]

For many, MANY hours that evening, I worked on this. (That's when the computer crashed, etc). At 5:30 the next morning, I continued.... until mid-afternoon, when I finally got it done. The names were turned in, and I was wiped out! I still had more to do to complete my personal project, but the portion I was doing for the official tribute was completed. I cried tears of relief for tackling this project, then took the rest of the day to just relax.... wait, no I didn't. There was not time. I rested for about 30 minutes, then headed to the viewing, which was a very busy place to be, and many more hours to have energy for. 

Yesterday was the funeral- which I will write about later. This morning, I was going to sleep in! I was SO excited!! Then... I had a beautiful experience that encouraged me to get out of bed and finish the job. (By now there were 400+ more people wanting to join in this tribute and I committed to including them on the final tally for the scrapbook.) The experience I had this morning is something I hold sacred, so I will not share it here. Sufficeth to say, I had angels by my side and no computer problems as I spent four hours this morning completing this daunting task. I remained calm, no hair was pulled out, and only tears of peace were shed as I felt the love of my uncle surround me, along with his appreciation. 

Now, this portion of my project is complete. This project turned out MUCH larger than anyone could have anticipated, but the outcome will be even greater in the end. 

The totals for the "Sing for Elder Perry Tribute" is as follows: 
(# of wards)

Africa: Nigeria (1) & South Africa (2)
Asia: Japan (2), Russia (1),Thailand (1)
Australia (8)
Europe: England (4), Germany (2), Isle of Man (1), Italy (1), Scotland (1), Ukraine (1)
North America: Canada (15 wards in 5 Provinces)
Guam (1), Guatemala (2), Mexico (1), and All USA States except- CT, ND, VT (Not listing state #'s for US. Total 980)
South America: Brazil (1)
South Pacific: Fiji (1), New Zealand (2) 

Total US States: 47 (with 980 Wards)
Total Countries Worldwide: 20
Total Continents: 6+ Oceania
Total Wards that paid tribute last Sunday or tomorrow: (more than) 1029

Elder Perry
Courtesy of: lds.org

Note: The reason I say "more than 1029" is because some people just listed their city/state name, without a specific ward name so I may have combined some of these cities and counted them as one. For example, if three people listed only: Orem, Utah then I would just write Orem, Utah on the list one time and count 1 Ward towards the total instead of 3 Wards. 

This project has been long, exhausting, time-consuming and completely worth it as I have felt prayers lifting me, and angels in attendance. Beautiful friendships have come as a result of this task and many, many lives have been touched- not because of what I have done, but because together, thousands of children from around the world have been able to make Elder Perry's dream a reality. What a joy that brings to this one heart! Thank you, Cindy, for following that inspiration and sharing your idea with us! He is aware of our love for him, of this I am sure. 

Singing for Elder Perry Uncle Tom, 

Mama Dragon

*We call members of our church *brother and *sister, respectively, as we believe we are all God's children