Prisoner of War: A Glimpse into an Unseen World (8)

Before starting my next paper I was to do, the Issue Paper, I thought about what sort of topic I wanted to write on. I died just a little when Sister Steadman said that this paper had to be between 8-10 pages of research and analysis. Wow, that sounded like a whole barrel of fun. I have been back from my mission for about 3 months now, and I'm not gonna lie, my vocabulary seems to have declined, as well as my ability to write in correct form. 
Anyway, needless to say, I was a little bit worried about this paper. When Sister Steadman said we could write about our ancestor, immediately, the name Forrest LeRoy Packard popped into my head. Forrest is my great-grandfather on my mom's side. All I knew of this man is that he had 18 children altogether and that he was a prisoner of war on Wake Island who survived to tell the tale. This is all I knew. But I knew there was a lot more to the story, so I dove in. It all started actually at the library here on campus at BYU. This lady was teaching us how to research and find valid sources to use in our writing. 
As I was searching the internet, I found articles about my great-grandfather written in the Ensign, periodicals, records, pictures, all sorts of information I didn't even know existed. I went on to familysearch.org and found that someone in the Packard line had uploaded journal entries, letters, and poems that Forrest had written. All of this had been uploaded in the last 4 months. There were pictures and descriptions. I called my grandfather, Floyd Packard, who was the son of Forrest, and had an interview with him. I learned how hard it was for my great-grandmother to raise 11 of the 17 children alone for 4 years. In fact, when Wake Island was attacked, it took over a year for my great-grandmother to find out that her husband was still alive. I just learned so much about my own family that I didn't know.

As far as writing this paper is concerned, the most amazing thing happened. Page length was not an issue at all. In fact, I didn't even look at how many pages I had written until I was done with my final draft. (Most times, I am just adding any little bit of information just to get the page requirements) I totally enjoyed being able to share my story and the things I was learning with my reader. It was actually enjoyable to analyze because I got to put myself in the head of Forrest and try to think as he would.

Great Grandpa Packard sitting the chair surrounded by his sons

I think most important to me, I learned about what kind of heritage I come from. My great-grandfather and grandmother were faithful members of the church with burning testimonies. They set the stage for generations. All 17 kids were married in the temple, and I guess you can imagine how big our family line is and what an impact faithful examples have made. I loved coming to know my family on a very personal level. I feel some sort of deeper connection and understanding, most specifically to my great-grandfather, Forrest Packard. I imagine that God often allows our ancestors to be our angels and helpers. I know Forrest knows all about my life, and how neat that I now know more about his and we now have a better understanding of each other.

Life is Beautiful (7)

I think God allows situations to happen in which we realize how short life is. It helps us to redirect our thoughts and actions. Things that seemed to be important don't seem to matter as much as memories, time with family, spiritual experiences. I had one of those "wake-up calls" just the other day. I was on my way to meet my friend for dinner. I had called him to assure him that I was coming, but that I would be a little bit late. 
Before I hung up, he said,"Hey... be careful when you're driving." 
Of course, I came back with a smart-alic remark," What?! You don't like my driving? What are you implying with that sort of comment?!"
He replied in all seriousness that I should just be careful and aware while driving over. Instead of being offended, I decided to just take his advice and only go over 5 over the speed limit as opposed to 10 or 15.
I was to meet him in Salt Lake, so I had quite a drive there as I started in Provo. It was starting to get dark and I had had a long day, so I turned on the radio looking for something good to listen to. I went through all the dials twice, not finding anything to listen to. 
Eventually, I just thought," Well, if there's nothing good on, I'll just turn it off." 
So I drove in silence except for the occasional nasally voice of my GPS system telling me where to turn. It was completely dark and I was 5 minutes away from my destination. I was driving behind a truck and he was going slow, so I looked to pull over into the left lane. A car was passing me on my left and I saw a truck to HIS left not check his blind spot and almost run into him. 
In my mind I was thinking," I need to avoid that truck because he looks like a hazardous driver."
I switch into the left lane, intending to pass both of the trucks- the one in front of me and the one that was a sketchy driver. Well the truck that had almost run into the other car pulled right in front of me into the lane I had just switched over to. As I looked at the bed of the truck, I saw tons of work equipment piled into the truck, but the thing that was most prevalent was the height of the ladder that was weakly strapped down with a few bungie cords. 
In my mind I thought," Seriously?! If that ladder came off, that would kill someone. This man is a huge hazard!"
I do have to say I had the thought that I should switch lanes, but there were cars on either side of me and I dismissed the thought, but not for long.
As I continued behind this truck, I saw one end of the ladder catch air and stood straight up. I knew it was going to fly up out of the truck any second. Sure enough, the air caught it just right and the whole ladder came flying out of the ladder and landed right in front of me sending up sparks and making a horrid high pitched sound. I didn't know what to do. I had no where to go. I had cars on both sides of me and a motorcyclist in back of me. I slammed on my brakes, waiting to either hear the sound of breaking glass as the ladder hit my wind shield or to feel the jerk of the motorcycle crashing into the back of my car. I don't know how it happened. As I slammed on my brakes, the cars next to me sped on, the motorcyclist switched lanes, and I moved into the left lane, without checking my mirrors or blind spot and the ladder went skidding across the freeway. While this was all happening, I don't think I realized how dangerous and fatal it all could have been. When I think back and realize how close I was to the truck and think about how that ladder bounced and was coming straight towards me and then somehow swerved and missed me and my car altogether, I just know that there is someone watching out for me. I shouldn't have come out of that with clean hands. But I did. I showed up to the restaurant a few minutes later and relayed my tale. I was able to shake it off pretty well, but the whole experience has left me thinking. My life really is not my own I realized. I can have it one day and the next it can be gone. I know that I have someone that really is looking out for me. It's time like these that I really can see how beautiful a life is.

Brainstorming (6)

THESIS: Although he wouldn't have hand-picked the trial of going through a prison camp to learn the lessons he did, his experience with hard manual labor, loving his enemy, and spiritual experience before and after his imprisonment lead him to leave Wake Island as a more devout and steadfast disciple of Christ.

Personal Responsibility (5)

In President D. Todd Christofferson's talk titled "Free Forever to Act for Themselves", he presents the point that we have responsibility for our own lives and we choose to act and follow God and his commandments and laws or we choose not to and determine our own captivity. I thought it was interesting that instead of just talking straight up about agency, he emphasized agency by helping the audience realize and understand the role that God plays in each of our lives. One of my favorite lines that he uses is," Misunderstanding God's justice and mercy is one thing; denying God's existence or supremacy is another, but either will result in our achieving less-sometimes far less-than our full, divine potential." He explains the choice that we have to make and the consequence for that choice. We really are free to choose.
Throughout his talk, President Christoffersen uses a form of repitition to make a point. He does this in the middle of his talk when he says," But as a consequence of being perfectly just, there are some things God cannot do. He cannot be arbitrary in saving some and banishing others. He “cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”He cannot allow mercy to rob justice." He emphasizes what God cannot do in order to be a just God. This helps the audience understand the personal responsibility we have in achieving eternal life with God. 
In addition to repitition, Christofferson makes several references to different stories or analagies in order to make his point, as well as proving his credibility. He starts his talk with a line from Shakespeare. Later in his talk he uses a scienctific law of gravity to prove his point about believing without seeing. Lastly, he uses the example of a man who doesn't want to work at all for himself, even when help is laying at his doorstep. These examples helps the audience to see that Pre. Christofferson is well rounded and is knowledgeable in many different aspects. It also increases our trust in him and helps us to make connections as he is speaking to us. 

Families are Forever (4)

I read this article about families called "The Stories that Bind Us." Ok, I may be a sucker for articles, especially short technical articles, so this one was enjoyable to read and actually interesting. The article talked about what keeps families together, like what is the secret reciepe for strong families? In the article, Bruce Feiler said,"After a while, a surprising theme emerged. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative." Isn't that so interesting?! Just knowing stories from your grandparents or how your parents meet can create strong family ties and bonds? I knew that this was true though. 

While I was on my mission in Germany, my mission President made a HUGE push to do family history. Yes, I was one of those typical teenagers that passed the "family history burden" to my grandparents. Well, as soon as my mission president made a push for family history, I started emailing my grandparents and parents for stories. It was ridiculous how much fun it was to read about my great great grandfather and how he was a professional wrestler that converted people during matches or how my great- grandmother possibly raised 17 children by herself while her husband was a POW in WW II. I gathered many of these stories on my mission. While I was traveling from place to place on the bus or the train, I would talk to people about their family and my family and the stories we knew. I couldn't believe how the people reacted. When I started with a Book of Mormon approach, the people were pretty stand offish, but when I started my initial contact with family history, the people opened right up. People want to share stories and be part of something larger than just them. 

But seriously, I was thinking back to my 3rd and 4th grade years. Seriously, most of the conversations I had with my friends were about how cool my mom and dad were going on a trip to Hawaii or how I have relatives that literally traveled the world for a year. I always tried to find something, even if it wasn't directly about me, that would make me stand out or unique. 

Today in class, we discussed our family and what types of themes or traditions we have. Sister Steadman told us about a theme that she had in her family growing up. It was a scripture in Joshua- how their house would serve the Lord. As she was talking, I thought to myself,

"Well shoot, does my family have a theme?"

Me and my crazy family (from left to right: Quinton, Kyndal, Blake, Annie, Courtney, Jace, Sydney, Melody, Carl, and Brynn)

The first image that popped into my head was me and my family sitting around the dinner table and my mom walking over with a HUGE round blue bowl with a green salad in it. All of the kids would groan in unison and my mom would say," We are a salad eating family." This happened almost every night at dinner for at least the past 10 years. I remember weeding the garden in the morning in the summer and me and my brothers purposely trying to kill the lettuce plants, but man, those things are unstoppable! So, there you have it, we are a " Salad Eating Family". That phrase is now used as a big joke in our family, but it is something that connected us. Our theme is that we do things together. We all eat salad, we all work hard in the yard, we all go to church together, etc. Our family is connected and united on many different levels and whatever we do, we do it together.

To read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?_r=0

POW in Wake Island (3)

For loving my family so much, I should know more about my family story, especially now when I still have parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents who I can ask questions to and get some information. Recently, I have become really interested in my Great Great Grandpa Packard. I know that he is the father of 18 children, that he was a hard working man that stood up for his values, and was a prisoner of war during WWII on Wake Island. That's about the extent of my knowledge on him. But I want to know his character, who he was, what he thought. What was the POW camp like? How did he end up there? How did he keep his standards high in a place where his beliefs were not respected? How did he get out of the camp and eventually return home? How long was he there? How did my great grandmother even manage raising 16 of the 18 children on her own? I know that my Great Grandfather, Forrest Packard, died early because of conditions he accumulated through his stay in the camp. But I want to know about him and my Great Grandmother. I feel like as I come to know them, I will come to understand my Grandfather and my mother on a more personal and deep level.

How did my Great Grandfather, Forrest Packard, come through a 2 year prison camp with a stronger belief in God, while others came out bitter, hard, and athiest?

Forrest Packard had been working on Wake Island for the 8 months on a building project. He was scheduled to return home the beginning of January 19**. This was before he knew his stay on Wake Island would be almost 2 and a half years longer than expected. Japaneese war planes and ships attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 19**. After taking over Pearl Harbor, they moved to the surrounding islands, one of them being Wake Island. The Japaneese were in control for the next two years and ran the prison camp my great great grandfather lived through. Prison camps were dreaded places. Disease ran rampant, food was scarce, work was heavy, abuse was prevalent. Forrest Packard was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and had been his whole life. After his imprisonment, he was more dedicated in his discipleship and more committed to living a Christ centered life. THESIS: Although he wouldn't have hand-picked the trial of going through a prison camp to learn the lessons he did, his experience with hard manual labor, loving his enemy, and spiritual experience before and after his imprisonment lead him to leave Wake Island as a more devout and steadfast disciple of Christ.

How do you know all of this about him? Is your family big into Family History or do you have journals passed down? Is this on your father or mother's side?

I think this is a great topic that is really personal and important to you. I would also look at other people's experiences to see how your great great grandpa's experience compared. 

I think you've got a really good idea to go off of.  You have a lot of questions that if they're answered, you'll have a really strong paper.  Just remember to tie it into your life and family as they've been affected by your great great grandpa today.