I tried to get along with LDS members here. They're different than TENNESSEE members, more disciplined. They're seemingly more introspective, paying attention to homes and families. Very little for single folks like myself. At church is one thing, but we're busy, Jim Micheletti. I would go home and look at blank walls. I didn't know who I was. I went to the mountains and asked. I received much revelation and inspiration about the pre-existence (see story), more of my purpose, and a commandment to begin GENEALOGY more seriously than ever before. I started with my mother. I didn't know where she was. I heard she passed away in Arizona. My sisters called a bishop who called Salt Lake City, who referred me to a bishop in Nashville. He told me and my head was spinning around. I never got a chance to see her for years since the nervous visit in 1984. (see pictures above of her given me by others). I did her temple work, and sealed her to my father. The temple work for Muriel E. Micheletti was done in Smyrna, Tennessee by a member lady there. Mom "showed up" in my living room and across the street at the chapel whlie I was playing piano for services. She looked and smiled. I remembered that she just got her endowments. Ohhh....she accepted it in the spirit world. It was a strong witness that lasted about 8 days and then left, never to come back. In Provo, Utah after fighting as to why I should have such mean parents who disregarded me, found excuses to stay away, justified themselves, fell prey to my oldest sister Theresa's complaints and false accusations against me, I finally broke down, went to the Provo temple and had both of them sealed together. It sealed my identity of myself together more over time after I did this. Whew. What a life! But I keep adopting myself into others' lives when I don't belong. What is the meaning and purpose of Jim Micheletti's life? Can I have my own path even though on one level I am an orphan? I cried and played music and reached into heaven. After finding my mother's burial site, I wrote a eulogy of her. I did not go to her funeral for fear of my sisters' badgering and provoking and guilt complexes and disregarding me and my children. But I wrote my own commentary on her and it is included in the story. I have honored my mom and dad many times through the playing of dinner music at an Indian restaurant in Provo and the restaurant in Peyson, Utah. Mostly, I can still play MALEGUENA, music written from Spain, in honor of my mother's influence. I teach music lessons and refer back to when I was a boy under her musical guidance.
I WAS BLESSED WITH MUCH REVELATION, INSPIRATION AND ANSWERS TO MY PRAYERS. I saw myself in the pre-existence with a group of Heavenly Father's children. I thought of ALMA 13
3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being
called and
prepared from the
foundation of the world according to the
foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to
choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great
faith, are
called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
4 And thus they have been
called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and
blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great
privilege as their brethren.
5 Or in fine, in the first place they were on the
same standing with their brethren; thus this holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared—
6 And thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his
rest—
7 This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being
without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from
eternity to all eternity, according to his
foreknowledge of all things—
8 Now they were
ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end—
9 Thus they become
high priests forever, after the order of the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of
grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen.
and I saw myself called to the front. People looked upon me. Come find us. Do the temple work.
I was stunned, amazed, and left marvelling at what I saw. I came back down from the Uintas Mountains with a new set of personal commandments on my two tablets of stone with MICHELETTI on them. Begin serious family history NOW. I did.
I made courageous calls across the United States to various Micheletti's. I told them my story. I began to open up. I began to accept myself and my purpose. I began to appreciate myself more. Besides, it is a commandment upon Latter Day Saints, to seek after their dead. I had never done much before with the serious intent I had now.
Look what happened!
In two weeks at the Family History Center at the LDS chapel, I looked on ANCESTRY.com and beheld the names of Kathy, Russell, Larry Pontinen. They were our favorite cousins. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't thought of them in ages. I had been in such darkness. I wondered how they would respond to a phone call. I trembled for a week. I might get chewed up and spit out.
I made the call, first to Russell. He recognized my name immediately. I told the story. He couldn't believe it. He referred me to Kathy Pontinen. Memories were coming back.
I called her. I told the story. She filled in some details including that she spent time with my mother during her last years before passing. She told me about my mother!
Kathy and I talked and talked. On Sunday afternoons, LDS folks were returning home from church to "their" families. I had someone finally in my bloodline I could talk to. I did.
After a time, I found TOWE LONGREN, the Family History Center director for the entire continent of FINLAND. I sent her what I had on the Pontinen line. She found stacks of connections and sent them back. I couldn't believe it. Names of MY blood for the temple to do ordinances. I faxed them to Kathy PONTINEN.
After some months the holiday time came around. Why don't you come for Thanksgiving? Wow. Oh, my gosh! I can go someplace and belong somewhere! The first Thanksgiving I couldn't get enough money for the airplane ticket. But next year! YES! I was trembling and in the LATINO branch of the LDS church, I told my elders quorum president, Brother Moreno, (all spanish of course). He couldn't believe it! In two days he came back with sufficient airplane money and I was off, trembling, crying, sleepless, and panicked. I can't believe it. I will go "outside" the LDS circle and connect with someone I am related to. What will it be like? Will I be rejected? I trembled all the way to the airport. President Moreno drove me there.
SEE THE PICTURES, as I visited and filled in the gaps and fused more of the broken pieces of who and what I am back together to a bigger understanding. Kathy introduced me to her husband, her children (my SECOND cousins), and we had Thanksgiving. So much to talk about and remember, glue the pieces together. She knew much mroe than I. According to her my sisters "glossed over me" and pulled me away from being asked about by Kathy. But now Kathy knows the rest of the story.
PICTURES.
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