Thursday, November 1, 2012

Memo #4 (written October 3, 2000)


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!