Jane Benson Perkins PB

I ordered Jane's PB on the church's website and it arrived today. It was done in Manti, Utah 4 June 1896. She was working in the Manti Temple at the time. I checked the 1900 Census and she is living alone in Manti. John died in 1870 and she never remarried.

Jane was born 4 July 1824 in Wrightington, Lancashire, England. Her family joined the church in 1837 when the first missionaries went to England. About 1847 she married Amos Fielding and a year later they had a son, Amos Hyrum.

They finally left for Zion to join all the other saints. Amos was the PEF (Perpetual Emigration Fund) officer, so he left on an earlier boat. Jane and her son arrived later in St. Louis, Missouri, where they found Amos had taken another wife. When they arrived Brigham Young immediate granted a divorce for the abuse Jane and her son had to live through while crossing the plains. Jane became the second wife of several men at different times, but eventually ended up in Parowan living with her brother's family.

In 1860 John Perkins was sent by Heber C. Kimball, three days after he arrived they were married. John died 10 years later, Jane wrote in her journal that John was her favorite husband. After all her children were married off, she moved back and forth between Mancos, Colorado and Monticello, Utah, until she went to Manti to become a temple worker. She died in Mancos on 5 December 1900.

After emailing a copy of the PB to another relative who has been doing research on this family he told me that Jane had 4 PB, which I didn't know you were allowed to have. I thought you could only have one, but I guess in the Pioneer days they let them have more than one. This one is #3. When I get a copy of the others I will post those. I will warn you if you try to read this, there is no punctuation, it's just one long run on sentence.

Dave has gone coupon crazy

Tonight Dave and I went around to different Morrison's grocery stores and picked up 26 jars of pasta sauce because Dave found a coupon for £1 off.

The pasta sauce was 99p, so we bought other things, like the palmolive shower gel (it was on sale for 70p), to get a discount on the discount.

Dave found a coupon for free Campbell's soup, I think because it is a new product here in England. There are only a few flavors, but we mostly get Cream of Chicken to make Yummy Potatoes.

Dave also got a coupon for Honey Shreddies (they are like Chex) and Tesco had a sale on them, so they were free.

The tv show Extreme Couponing has finally come to England on the Discovery Channel. Dave signed up on some forums that tell you which stores are having sales on specific products. Then he either gets emails about coupons or sees them on other websites, so he prints them off. We have a good start on our food storage, but it will only last for two years, then we will have to start over when we get back to America.

The problem is that couponing is new here in England, so most of the time you can only use one coupon per transaction. One thing we have found that works is if you get to know which checkout ladies will let you use more than one coupon and which don't.

If you are in the States here are some blogs that have great couponing: The Krazy Coupon Lady and Living Rich with Coupons.

Mormon Humor

Sistas in Zion have this funny blog post where they asked their followers to finish this sentence, "You might be a Mormon if..." Go read the answers here. One of my favorites is, You might be a Mormon if...you can quote Princess Bride word for word! =O)

cake flavors

I saw this cake on Pintrest and it is from Martha Stewart.

But of course I did not want to make the cake from scratch, so I just got a yellow Betty Crocker cake and used food coloring.

Well, I learned my lesson. If you want the colors to look like the picture, then you need to follow the real recipe. It was still yummy!

Dave's been sick, so I had to add this picture of him hiding under the covers.

9 September 2001

Since this is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, everyone has been talking about where they were and what were they doing 10 years ago. But I would rather say where I was two days before. I had the privilege of attending a CES Fireside where President Hinckley spoke at the Conference Center in SLC.

As quoted in the November 2001 Ensign: He encouraged young people attending the 9 September fireside to be faithful and optimistic. “I am suggesting that as we go through life that we try to ‘accentuate the positive,’ ” President Hinckley said, asking “that you turn from the negativism that so permeates our modern society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom you associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults. … “No matter the circumstances, I encourage you to go forward with faith and prayer, calling on the Lord. You may not receive any direct revelation, but you will discover, as the years pass, that there has been a subtle guiding of your footsteps in paths of progress and great purpose.”

My impression from the fireside was that things are going to be hard, but if you do what Heavenly Father asks of you, then you will be blessed. It was actually a short fireside and we got out before the hour was up, which is unusual. Afterward, most people gathered at the reflecting pool to talk about how strong the Spirit was; peaceful, calm, and excited.

Then two days later I understood. My testimony was strengthened that we do have a Prophet of God on Earth that receives revelation from God and was warning us about the hard times that were about to happen. He didn't promise us protection, but I do remember feeling peaceful about what was to come. Needless to say, my life has not been easy since that time, but I have felt that I have been doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do, which is where the peace comes in.