From: Grandpa Richard M. Pratt
To: All Pratt Family Adults & Selected Others
Re: Jesus Christ
“In the beginning was Jesus, and
Jesus was with God...The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1: 1-3
“But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name.” John 1: 12
How impossible to condense on two
pages the thousands of pages that have been written of Jesus (Greek for
“Savior”) Christ (Greek for “anointed”). Hence, “Jesus Christ” in English means
the “anointed” or “appointed Savior” of all mankind, the creator of heaven and
earth and all things that in them are. So, I will simply state some facts,
praying that you all will believe them for they are so vital to your happiness
now and eternally. For further information, call me at....(since we can’t call
Dad / grandpa now, we can do what he suggests next,) or contact your local ward
and stake leaders. ( You can also look on lds.org for answers.)
In the beginning, before this earth
was, our Heavenly Parents, having successfully lived on a prior earth, died,
and were resurrected and reached the stage where they could have Spirit
Children (us). And their firstborn they named “Joshua” or “Jeshua” (Savior) or
in Greek, “Jesus”.
(Remember, Greek is the original language of the New
Testament.)
A spirit body, in order to reach
perfection, must be clothed with a body of immortal flesh and bones. This
“forever body or house: can only be had by coming to a mortal earth via earthly
parents. And the mortal earth is ruled by God’s enemy, a rebellious son called
Satan, etc., who would destroy our happiness forever by having us disbelieve in
God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Satan got 1/3 of our siblings in
the Spirit World to follow him, and they have been placed on this earth, never
to have a body of flesh, to try us and test us to see if we will do all things
that
God through Jesus has commanded us to do. Satan’s goal is
our eternal misery. God’s goal is our eternal happiness.
An immortal body of flesh and bones
is the result of mortal birth (that is a spirit at birth being placed in the
body) and mortal death (which is separation of spirit and body). Then through
Christ’s resurrection comes the resurrection of all, the judgement and final
placement of each of us in some degree of happiness. But to be as God and
Christ are entails living as they live, to obey the laws that they obey. This
brings the ultimate in everlasting happiness and a continuation of family,
romance, children, etc., forever. this is only possible because of Jesus
Christ. He died and rose again that we also may have this glorious experience.
After Jesus fed more than 5,000
people in a great miracle of multiplying five loaves and two small fish, He
tried to teach the people the necessity of obedience. Without exception, they
turned and left, exclaiming, “This is too hard.” He then turned to His twelve
disciples and asked, “Will you, too, go away?” to which Simon Peter answered,
“To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we know and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God,” meaning
that he was that one that from the days of Adam, all of the prophets had
prophesied of, His birth, life and mission, there is no other.
~ 2 ~
Without Jesus, there is nothing, no
future, death is the end, the grave is victorious. How dismal! One better eat,
drink and be as merry as possible for death ends everything if this is true.
But there IS a Savior called Jesus
Christ, the firstborn of us all and the only begotten in the flesh. Our
Heavenly Father is the Father of both His spirit body and his fleshly body.
Through His earthly mother, Mary, He inherited the ability to die and through
His Eternal Father, the power to resurrect, that is, His spirit joined again
with His earthly body, never again to die and, thereby, making our resurrection
assured, and our judgement also. Jesus commands men everywhere to repent
and believe in Him for he is coming soon (called the “Second Coming”)
to redeem all who have sought after Him.
After the Savior’s resurrection,
over a period of 40 days, He appeared at least eight times to the twelve and
about 500 other people.
On His final visit, “When He had
spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received Him
out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went
up, behold, two men (angels) stood by them in white apparel; which also said,
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-11
He also appeared in His resurrected
body to people in America. See Book of Mormon 3rd Nephi 11:6-10 .
And He has appeared in these last days to the Prophet Joseph Smith as
prophesied by Old and New Testament prophets to prepare the people of the earth
for His return in power and glory, to cleanse the earth by fire and to prepare
it for a thousand years of peace, justice and righteousness.
“For the Lord shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord in the clouds
and thus shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
See
you there!
Love,
Dad, Grandpa etc. (Richard M.
Pratt)
Grandpa and Grandma have both written wonderful
autobiographies of their lives. If you have not read them, please take the time
to do so. In Grandma’s life sketch which was given at her funeral by her oldest
daughter, Carolyn, we read:
“This is grandma’s life story. She wrote it for you, her
kids, and their kids. You should read it. She tells about how she overcame sore
trials, and of some fun things she did, as well as some of the funny things
that happened to her. She made sure that each one of her 112+ descendants,
which includes 6 children, 37 grandchildren, and 67+great grandchildren, each
can have their own copy of her book. This way, those of you who are young and
who did not get to know her very well, can see her pictures, learn about her,
and get to know her, we want to learn more about her, so that we can become
more like her. We can become more loving, give more service to the needy, avoid
sin, and trust in the Lord, just like she taught us to do.”
“Mother said that she was ‘glad to have lived in the early
years of the past century, and to have enjoyed such thins as horse-drawn
buggies, wagons, tiny twinkling candles on Christmas trees,
~ 3 ~
and all those old-fashioned parts of life in that long ago
era.’ She says in her life history that she was ‘glad to have shared new inventions,
such as cars, radios, permanent wave hair-dos, television.’ She was amazed when
we told her how fast we can now send messages via e-mail computer clear across
the ocean to her cousins in Germany.”
(Note copies of
these two books were donated to the Provo Public library and also are in the
genealogy library in Salt Lake City, Utah)
Pioneer Spoon bread is grandpa Pratt’s favorite bread,
the kind he was raised on. He got the recipe from his sister, Melba. Who got it
from their mother, Lilly Cecilia Shirk Pratt, who got it from her mother, Anna
Nell Daykins Shirk, who got it from ancestors in medieval Germany, who (myth
has it) can trace it back to Mother Eve in the “Garden of Eaten”. (tee
hee)
2cups warm water
1 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsp. Sugar (Dad like Molasses,
brown sugar or honey)
1 rounded tsp. yeast
flour to make a stiff spongy dough
(about 2 ½ cups)
Mix all in a deep bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
Stir down and pour into a well greased 9 x 9 inch pan or large bread
pan. Cover and let rise 45 minutes. Place in preheated 350* oven for 45
minutes. Remove, slice off a slab, liberally butter it. Place in mouth and
slowly chew as Paradise engulfs you. The loaf in the square pan will be about 2
inches thick. Dad liked to have lots of crust. He used a variety of flours and
at times added things like sun flower seeds or raisins.
I’m sure we all have memories of going to visit grandpa and
coming away with a loaf of his bread or a slice of his pies. He was a great
cook. His mother taught him!
