Thursday, July 31st
Mormon Historians Richard and Claudia Bushman, along with Mormon Tabernacle Choir Organist Bonnie Goodliffe, started off our long weekend of events with a fireside. In addition to the fireside we had a display of Mormon artifacts that included articles from the Bancroft Library.
We had first editions of The Book of Mormon and The Book of Commandments as well as early printings of hymnals, biographies and autobiographies of early church leaders, and other early records of California Saint history. The exhibit also included paintings of important individuals who helped with the settling of the San Francisco area. My favorite was John Meirs Horner, a farmer who sailed on The Brooklyn. He was faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ while also a successful businessman who provided produce to the Gold Rush Miners. Horner owned 5,250 acres of what is now Noe Valley in San Francisco. Along with the artifact display was an LDS Art Exhibit. I was amazed at the talent that we have in our area. If you missed the art display, click here. Here are my friends Mary and Brandon standing in front of Brandon's work of art. (Brandon organized the entire exhibit.)
Friday, August 1st
Elder Quentin Cook, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife Mary were the guests of honor for Friday's events. We had a guest dinner before their fireside that evening. I was in charge of seating assignments, name badges, the youth servers ... You get the drill. It was a super fun event and a tasty dinner (The chicken filo was perfect.
It was fun getting a glimpse into the lives of Elder and Sister Cook. Elder Cook served as stake president of the San Francisco stake for several years. They raised their family here and love the area. Sister Cook served as Stake YW President and loves the youth so much. Our Young Men and Young Women sang a medley "As Sisters in Zion/Armies of Helaman" for the fireside and it was so neat to watch and listen to them. I love serving with the youth!
Saturday, August 2nd
As you know from my previous post about Breaking Dawn, I didn't get much sleep between Friday and Saturday ... But Roger, Sarah and I met up with members of our stake for a Mormon History Walking Tour starting at Portsmouth Square. Although I had done the tour twice before it was neat to hear our docent, William Homer (Author of California Saints: 150 Years of Mormons in California), give the history of the area. He gave me new insight and appreciation for Samuel Brannan, the man who led the Brooklyn Saints to California, established the community of saints in their new California home, had an integral part of the '49 Gold Rush and was California's first millionaire, but later fell away from the church and died a pauper. We ended at the Wells Fargo Museum. Sarah loved riding the kid-ride stage coach as well as pretending to be a coach driver with Daddy. It was super fun all around.
Although we didn't make it to the Tall Ship Tour (Sarah was DONE!), Rog and I made it down to the pier later that evening for a cruise around the bay (Thanks Addi & Blake for babysitting!) It was a beautiful evening with more great food (Candy, you are fantastic!) It was fun to finally be done with all my assignments and stressand just enjoy the night with my husband.
President Carter has promised that we won't have quite this caliber of events for another 13 years ... the 175th anniversary of the ship Brooklyn arriving in San Francisco. We'll see if we are around for that one :)
No comments:
Post a Comment