We are renting out the farm next year so they are preparing the ground for sugar beets. Another chapter of life is closing. It's been bittersweet to watch them till up the alfalfa. It helped when my affection for the gulls kicked in. The California gulls have been busy getting the mice in the fields and also bugs and worms, doing what they do so well, eating.
Similar to what they did, eating crickets, that helped pioneer saints rescue their crops that first season in the Salt Lake valley. Their story was my first introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, nick-named the Mormons.
Sometime between age 8 and 13 when we were living in the house in Campbell CA, I watched a movie on TV one afternoon called Brigham Young. It was the story of his efforts to transport the saints to somewhere safe. I was thunderstruck by the miracle of the gulls. The birds helped save their crops that were being devoured by crickets.
I thought, "God still watches over His people and answers their prayers just like He did in the Bible."
I asked my mom about it and she told me about the "Mormons."
I eventually married a descendant of pioneer saints. Those California gulls were heaven sent to early saints in 1848 and I feel like they were heaven sent to me too. I think they are beautiful.
2 comments:
The sight and sound of gulls in fields always makes me nostalgic.
Oh, I loved that picture of the gulls even before I heard the story of your introduction to Mormons. I think I'll frame it so I have a beautiful visual aid to remind me and my children of your conversion story, which by the way, you should write in its entirety for us. Thanks!
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