Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Christmas Letter - 2013



Christmas 2013

Dear «Name_2»,

Well here it is Christmas again, and it seems like I barely finished writing you a letter for 2012. At this moment, I’m trying to think of some interesting story from my or Grandpa’s earlier days. But, first, I want to tell you once again that the gospel is true, and those who follow the path will be richly blessed by our Father In Heaven. Don’t take my word for it; test it yourself. You must be willing to really test it with an open mind and open heart. And you must remember always that your life will not be trouble-free. Troubles are part of our schooling. Problems teach us how to deal with and solve greater problems – good and bad. It would be my dearest wish that all my posterity could – and would – come to that path. There are not two complete and righteous paths – just one.
Now, I have decided on a story from my youth which I think you will be interested in. All of you (MOST of you) like horses, or, at least you like to RIDE horses. So, this is a horse story that really happened:
When I was about 14 or 15 years old, we lived on a very small farm in what was an old beat-up farm house. We had an old boar and one horse, pastured together because we only had one pasture. One night the horse and the boar got in a fight. I don’t remember what happened to the pig, but I don’t remember seeing it after we discovered there had been a fight, maybe the horse killed it with its hooves, or maybe my Dad got rid of him. I don’t remember why we had him in the first place.
Anyway, the horse was wounded in several places from the boar’s big ugly tusks. One of the wounds was located on his left hind leg almost on his hoof, but, it wouldn’t have been a wound on a hoof. The hooves are bone. This particular wound had become infected, and was full of crawling, sickening maggots… WORMS AND HORSES!!
I felt so sorry for the horse; he was actually a very good horse, but the maggots were terrible!
So I asked the vet what could be done for the poor horse, this is what he told me to do, and I did it twice a day. Morning and afternoon I took a pair of tweezers and an empty can to the pasture where the horse was. I was a little scared at first because I didn’t know if the horse would let me near him and let me pick the maggots out. You should have seen how that horse reacted to my being there and sticking the tweezers in his wound. He stood as quiet as a lamb and never even moved his foot until I was through.
I wish I could remember the horse’s name, but I can’t so he’ll just have to be “the horse”. Needless to say, he healed in a week or so, and I survived the ordeal with maggots. And that’s the end of the horse story for this time. Someday I’ll tell you all the stories about horses. Meanwhile……..

HAVE A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
AND
REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU

Great-Grandma Bateman

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