The Little White Handbook
Some called it the White Bible. I called it “Shiroi Tebiki”. Well, I found it in a box a few weeks ago, and have since used it twice. We needed to consecrate some oil the other day for a blessing and wanted to double check the correct procedure on it. I had put the White Handbook in my desk for future reference so I knew right where it was.
I’ll be double checking in it again on Monday. My Uncle Steve passed away this week and my dad just asked me to be the one to Dedicate his Grave.
“Why me?”, I asked.
“Because Scott is giving a prayer, Kurt is giving a prayer…” dad replied.
“And what are you doing?” I asked back.
“Watching.”
And there you have it. I’m generally not scared of having to do things like this, and this case is no different it just came across as a bit of a surprise. And the first thing I did was make sure my little white handbook was around for checking on the correct way to do it.
Uncle Steve was my dads younger brother, probably 58 or 59 years old. I don’t even know what he did for work but he had a good career, a nice little house on the East Bench of Salt Lake not far from where he grew up. A cute wife and a few dogs finished up the family. No kids. I mainly saw him at the usual Family get-togethers and he was always fun for a conversation, so we weren’t that close. I will miss him though.
Death in the family is never an easy thing to handle. Even if you weren’t close you see the effect on people who were, and on a personal level it brings you to a sense of you own mortality. I had a good friend die in a car wreck a few years ago. I hadn’t seen or talked to her in a while, but we had been close and still were, even if we didn’t really talk often anymore. That was a rough time. Good luck with the grave dedication. I’ve never really thought about ever having to do that, but the fact is you never know what your priesthood duties are going to call on you for. Gotta just stay worthy, and keep the white book close by.