Grandma Bates, and a Heavenly Visit

In today's episode, I share some information about myself, and also a spiritual experience my Grandma Bates had- a sacred moment when her grandmother, who had already passed away, appeared to her. It's a beautiful reminder that this life isn't the end, and that our loved ones aren't very far away. (LDS, Family History work, geneology, disability, life after death). 

Transcript

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Hi, this is Kim Smelly, your host for many Mighty Messages, and today I wanted to introduce myself and also tell you about a spiritual experience that my Grandma Bates had. Welcome to Mini Mighty Messages, and my name is. Kim Melee, and today I just wanted to tell you a little about myself and why I'm doing a podcast. So a couple years ago, one of my friends said, you've got a great voice. You should do a podcast. And at the time, I'd only listened to two podcasts, so I thought. That's strange. Um, but the idea stated my mind. And so I, I knew that was the Holy Ghost telling me that yes, uh, heavenly Father wants you to do a podcast. And actually a couple, uh, weeks after that, I woke up at. 1:00 AM and the name many Mighty Messages popped into my mind and I thought, wow, okay. Heavenly Fathers telling me the name of my podcast. So, uh, and then I just spent, um, two years just asking people here and there, um, how to do a podcast. And so it's been an interesting experience. Uh, I'm working also, so I have two jobs, so that's also why it took me so long. I thought, okay, I will do a podcast to kind of introduce myself. Um, I went out to dinner one night and I asked my husband, so is there anything interesting about me? And I wrote down the things you said are interesting about me. He thinks my job is interesting. I'm a clinical mental health counselor, so a therapist, and so I, um, do therapy with adults. Let's see, he said we have seven kids and, uh, six grandkids. Our oldest child is 35 and our youngest is about to turn 18, so there's quite a span there. And then we have, uh, five grandsons and one granddaughter, and we've been married 36 years. So yes, that's a long time and I can't believe it's been that long. Um, he said my spiritual experiences are pretty interesting, which is true. I've had a lot of really interesting spiritual experiences, so I'll have to share that with you sometime. And he says that I am generally a really happy person, and so that is true. I've been blessed with really great mental health and um, I'm grateful for that. I was going to tell you a story about myself, but I think I will start with my Grandma Bates. So my parents were married in New York and they lived in Greenwich Village. So if my parents had stayed together, I would've been born in New York and lived in Greenwich Village. Um, but instead my parents weren't getting along and, um. Decided to get a divorce. My mom moved back to Salt Lake City where she grew up and she and I lived on one side of my grandma Bates's house. And she and my grandpa lived on the other side. And, um, I just love my Grandma Bates. She is like a second mother to me. She's since passed away. Um, another thing about my grandma Bates is she was blind. She wasn't always blind. Um. She went blind when she was, I think she was 34 years old. Um, another thing about my grandma Bates, is she wrote the song, book of Mormon stories after she was blind. And she wrote that when I was little. So if you know the song and you know the hand motions to the song, I remember doing those when I was little. Um, so she is an amazing person. When she went blind, she had five kids and she said, crying only made my eyes red. And so she decided to stop crying and try to do the best she could living and raising her children. But before she went blind, she had an experience where she saw her grandmother. Her grandma is named Elizabeth Loff Bear and her grandma died December, 1943 and appeared to her in December, 1950. My grandma bait said one day she was in her dining room. Her grandma, Elizabeth Bert appeared to her, and I'm just going to read her account because I think it's better than if I told it. One morning about the 1st of December, 1950, my grandmother, Elizabeth Leof Bear, who died in December, 1943, appeared to me and said, do the Firster name. She did not look anything like she did when she died, and she was surrounded by a white yellowish light, similar to early morning light. I knew who she was, I suppose, by her personality rather than by her appearance. I said, but grandmother, I was just at the temple and there are no more names in your file. Again, she said, do the Firster name, and she showed me a stack of genealogy sheets about three inches high, which she held with both hands. Again, she said, do the Firster name, and she was gone. Thinking about our conversation, I realized that we did not speak words but communicated by transferring our thoughts. My grandma Bates tended me every day because my mom taught school, and so this is a story I heard. Many, many times over and over, and I loved hearing about this story. It helped me know that this life wasn't all there is. It helped me know that we live after we die. It helped me know that genealogy is important, and doing temple work is important. And the, they didn't communicate by speaking, but with their thoughts, so that was interesting. Another thing is that she was standing above the floor. It's just a really amazing story, and I love that story. In 1951, my grandma Bates had a severe fall on the ice. She had severe toxemia, which killed the optic nerves, so she went blind and. She said that she was never in the dark, but she could always see this yellow light, kind of like the early morning light. I was gonna read that part to you. It was Jan on January 1st, 1951 that I had a severe fall on the ice. A complete toxemia, which resulted from injuries caused glaucoma, which killed my optic nerve. Resulted in total blindness. Though I went to about a dozen eye specialists, none gave me hope of sight, nor could any explain why. When my optic nerve died, I saw white, a white pastel yellow color instead of black. I have been extremely grateful that I have never been in the dark. It is as if all the lights were on or that it was a beautiful sun shining morning, but I can't see anything so. My grandma is, was and is an amazing person, and she had a strong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints of the Word of Wisdom and of the Book of Mormon. She would go around and speak about the Book of Mormon and the word of wisdom, and she's just a wonderful person. So I thought I would share that with you today. Thanks for joining me, and I will see you next time. This is Kim Smelly. I hope you enjoyed this mini Mighty Messages podcast today, and just remember you are loved.