Burnett Family Patriarch Kenneth Burnett's Counsel to His Posterity

For years I have hoped that I would find time to create a Burnett family website on which descendants of Ken and Melba Burnett (my maternal grandparents) could share memories and family history related photos, videos, audio recordings, letters, personal histories, ancestral research, announcements of new births, etc. I haven't given up on this dream, but I have recently felt a renewed desire to share with my extended family relations (non-relatives are welcome to read this, also) a message that Grandpa Burnett shared with his posterity on the occasion of the funeral of his wife, Melba, held on June 20th, 1994.

He was 98 years old at the time. He was born in 1895 and died early in 2001 at the age of 105, having lived during part of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. When he was born, travel by horseback was common and electric lights were still uncommon. At the end of his life, space travel was common place and outages of our taken-for-granted electrical power grid were uncommon. He witnessed huge changes during his lifetime, not only changes in technology, but also in the growth of the Gospel and Church. In 1895 the membership of the church was approximately 230,000 compared with 11+ million at the end of the year 2,000. In 1895, there were only 4 operating temples, he having been born only two years after the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893, in which he and his wife would later serve as temple workers. At the time of his death in January 2001, there were 102 temples in operation. I wish to share with you his testimony and and counsel to his posterity to help achieve the objective he himself states as he commences his remarks: "I want my children and my grandchildren to hear my voice and the things that I say, I hope through the Spirit, and under the Spirit of the Lord it will sink into their hearts and they'll remember their father, their great grandfather, and some of the things he said and heard before his life is finished."

Eventually I hope to make available an audio recording of his comments for those who do not already have access to the same, as I think that his folksy delivery style and manner of speech makes this message all the more special and personal. These remarks have been transcribed from an audio recording of the funeral, with some time stamps included. Some non-standard spelling is used to emphasize pronunciation and accent.


*BEGIN QUOTE*
Brothers and Sisters, I guess this is an unusual thing in most funerals, when the husband of the deceased is given a chance to say a few words. I just hope that my Heavenly Father will bless me with his Spirit that I may say the things that's in my heart. I appreciate what has been said about my dear wife. I'm going to tell you just a little bit more about her that they didn't tell ya. They did mention that this is seventy-one years ago, almost to this very moment...(audio gap from 45:25 to 46:34)...time as her husband. Now this is gonna be hard for me to talk. I get very emotional. When you have lived with a dear companion for seventy-one years, you know who you're livin with. Now I want to tell you there's nobody sitting in this chapel today that has had a happier life than she and I. We've never bickered and we've never argued. And what I say today...I've asked this opportunity...I don't think I'll have another one. I will be ninety-nine years old if I live to the thirteenth of September. The Lord has blessed me with good health and I still have a keen and an understanding mind. And I want my children and my grandchildren to hear my voice and the things that I say, I hope through the Spirit, and under the Spirit of the Lord it will sink into their hearts and they'll remember their father, their great grandfather, and some of the things he said and ??heard?? before his life is finished and I appreciate them coming here. But I felt that this was an opportune time. For time only is measured unto man and all is as one day unto God.

Now there was...several things happened after my dear wife...and they said to me...my son just mentioned it briefly. I was serving as 1st Counselor in the Bishopric of the ?? in the Sugarhouse Stake and the Brian Ward was on 17th South and 11th East. I was in that bishopric when we built that building in the depths of the Depression. And the men were out of work, hundreds of them were out of work. And we constructed that without a single mechanical tool and only with pick and shovel. I worked hard. My dear wife and I worked hard. And after we completed the building, she said to me one day...and I can see her just as clearly in my mind's eye as if she set there now...she said, "Dad, you work too hard and I can see that its taking its toll on ya." She said, "I want you to have a rest and a change." She said, "I'm willin to take care of the six children, run your business...you go on a short-term mission." I said, "Mother, how could I go and leave you with all that responsibility?" She said, I'll handle it." So, I made up my mind. I'd do as she'd asked me. That dear woman, she stuck with me through thick and thin. I could never wish that I had a companion that would always give me any more encouragement, especially in times of...when I had discouragement. We all have discouragement. So, I filed my application. Now my family said, "Now don't you get into too much of this and take time". I think that this is the day, the hour and the time for me to tell my family, and you good friends who are sitting here today, that because of my dear wife and her willingness to assume such responsibility, I received my mission call to go to the Central States, which the headquarters was in Independence, Missourah....and they sent me, when I got there, to Chanute, Kansas. And Chanute, Kansas is in the eastern part of Kansas and that's a division point on the Santa Fe Railroad between Kansas City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now I'm gonna relate briefly of something...because if my wife had not assumed this responsibility, giving me the privilege of going into that mission...I had several experiences, but one in particular I want to relate to you. My companion, when I arrived in the mission field I went with an Elder Clegg who lived in Provo and he was about my age. I was fifty years old at the time. We drove in his car and when we reached the Mission Home, knocked on the door, a man about six foot-six, two hundred and twenty-five or thirty pounds, a mop of black hair and piercing eyes opened the door. He looked down at me and said, "We'll, ya made it." That was my introduction. His name was Thomas C. Romney. He says, "Come in!" He opened the door- he said, " bring in your grips," he said, "I'm gonna put you up for the night and give you somethin to eat, but", he says, "I'm gonna send you out in the morning," He was a kind of a gruff individual and I didn't know whether I'd ever like that man and hafta labor under. But I learned to love him with all my heart. So we did, we went in; we had dinner that night...and he said, "I guess you wanna know where it is I'm gonna send ya". He said, "I'm gonna send ya in the mornin". Now he says, "Elder Burnett I'm gonna send you to Chanute, Kansas" and he says, "you're to go by way of Topeka", and he says, "And when you get over to Topeka", he says, "you'll meet an Elder over there that I'll have waiting for ya...he's 21 years old and he's so discouraged he wants to go home". And I looked at that big man and said, "President Romney, you know that I've never been in the mission field. I don't know how ya do this job." He said, "You're old enough to be his father." He says, "You take him under your arm", he says, "you'll get along all right". And he turned to the other Elder and said, "Elder Clegg", he says, "I'm gonna send you to Barbersville,Oklahoma." The next morning after breakfast we started. We drove to Topeka. When we got there, there was a young man sitting on his suitcase waiting for us. We put him in the back seat and started for Chanute. When we got down to Chanute, I bid Elder Clegg good luck and goodbye. And the President had arranged for us to stay in a home of the Branch President who had a three-story, lovely home with some big bedrooms. And the president of the mission told me, he says, "you'll be in a boarding house and our meals will be prepared for us but that you'll have to pay for them", which we did. I never once, after three and a half months with this Elder, I never once said to that young man about what the Mission President told me about him wanting to go home. We got up in the room and I said to him, the first thing I said,"Elder, I'm an old man, according to your schedule." I says, "I've never been out here in the mission field." I says, "I hope that you feel you can teach an old dog some new tricks". I says, "Why don't we go downtown and get a map of the city, of the streets, so that when we go out to knock on doors we'll know where we've been and we won't have to trek straight back on it?" I'm just leading up to it. So we did. The very first morning that we started out- most of those homes are two or three story, they're painted white and they're all made of wood. And the very first door that we went up to, I went up on the porch with him and I got on the porch and I stood there right by the edge of the steps and I said to him, "Now Elder you go over and take that door and I'll listen." He did. Knocked on the door and this sweet little ol' white-haired, white-haired grandmother came to the door. And he gave her the missionary introduction. Did a wonderful job in the sweet way he presented it. She never said one word to him. When he got through, she pushed that screen door open and she pointed this finger right straight at him. She says, "Young man, have you come all the way from Utah to tell an old lady like me that I've been worshipping wrong all my life?" Well, I thought, "Elder, you're on the spot." He said, "Now grandmother, you keep all you've got, but I have something to tell you you've never heard of yet in your life, if you'll give me a chance and listen." And he said, "and I'm not going to talk to you right now, but I have two little pamphlets in my pocket and I'm gonna leave em with you. You read em, and after you've had time to read em I'll come back and talk with you and if you have any questions to ask, we'll try to answer them for you." When we got down off of that porch and off to the side of that house, I literally, just literally took that young man's shoulders, and I said, "Elder," I says, "You've learned a lot since you've gone into this mission field." I said, "You really know Heavenly Father is proud of you."

Well now, just let me give you one more. I know you like hearing missionary stories. I know most of the Church members do. After a few days of tracting and knocking on doors, nobody invited us in. I can tell you every one of those stories and sayings that most of those women have when they don't want to invite you in. They're either in the middle of the wash or gotta go get a child from school; they got a doctor appointment or a dentist appointment. I know 'em all. Well, we'd tract and we went over street and street and street. We had met a woman previously, who was visiting another woman, that invited us into her home, and she said, "I live up at such and such a number on such and such a street." She said, "If you're over there sometime," she says, "Stop at my home." Now I know I'm taking a lot of time and I just hope that I just...all right, I don't want to infringe on your time. And she said, "If you've ever there sometime, you stop at my home." So, I said to this Elder, "You remember that Mrs that told us to come over to her home?" And he says, "Yes." And I said, "Why don't we go over after we get breakfast?" So he said it was a good idea and so we traveled and went over another block and another block and another block and we got onto Santa Fe Street. I had the number right on the ticket here that I'd written down. And when we got there I said to him, "Elder, I'll take the door this morning." Now I can just see us walking up that step, there was big sign of the thing. Well, I hammered on the door. And the door started to open and I looked over here and here was the name Mrs. Woodruff on the other door. It was a duplex. We didn't see that. We were going to see Mrs. Woodruff. The lady when she opened the door, I said, "Oh pardon me madam, we were going to see Mrs. Woodruff this morning and I didn't know this was a duplex. She was elderly, had white hair. She said, "Aren't you the two men that was on this street a few days ago?" I said, "Yes." She says,"You knocked at my door then, but I had company and I couldn't invite you in. I don't have company this morning, would you like to come in?" So we went in. Very meager, very small place, but oh the feeling that was there. Now why do I say feeling? Now then you that have been baptized in the Church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I'll tell you where that feeling comes. It comes in. It'll tell ya lots of things that these (pointing to his eyes) can't tell ya. They're two eyes; this is more of a sensation. I love it to this very day. She said, "Sit down on my couch," and she had a little couch sittin there. And we sat down. She goes over and gets her rocker. She comes right up in front of us. She says, "I understand that you have a message. I'd like to hear it." I introduced ourselves. I told her who I was- my name. I told her I was from Salt Lake City. I told her that I had left my six children and my wife and my business, I had come out there in the mission because I knew my message was true. And I started to tell her about the restoration of the Gospel and by what authority we had come there to give her that message. She never said a word for quite a spell. And I was getting this all out of me. And finally she said, "Reverend, I believe every word you've said. Go on." I went on. When I had about finished, I said to my companion, "Elder, do you have anything you'd like to talk to this sister about?" He said, "No, I don't have anything additional to say." And there was dead silence. I could feel the Spirit in that home, in that dear sister's home just as...it was just penetrating. I knew what kind of a sister she was. I knew she loved the Lord. And I knew when I told her about the restoration of the Gospel it just soaked in like you'd put water on a sponge. Oh, I'll tell ya. I'll tell ya that...don't think for one minute that our Heavenly Father doesn't love his children and know em individually. Why did he send us to that door? The other lady wasn't interested in the Gospel. All right, I'm goin on. And in that dead silence....I can almost feel it. When she said, "Reverend, I believe everything you have said to me today. Now, I may be out of order, but I'm going to ask ya...since I believe what you have said...would it be possible...and is it in order...I would like you two men to give me a blessing. Think of it! Not a member of the Church- a total stranger. But God loved that woman. I told her I would do it. I said to this other Elder, "Do you have your consecrated oil with ya?" And he got up and his hand was just like this (holding up shaking hand), the Spirit was so strong. He was trying to get that little vial of oil out of his watch pocket. I didn't know if he'd make it. And I said, "Now Sister, you sit right here in your rocker," and I said, "We'll go around to the back." Now I said, "This young man will anoint you with consecrated oil, then we'll together place our hands upon your head and seal that anointing." I told her the procedure; she'd never had it done. She didn't know. So, we went around and this Elder took and anointed her head...before he even started anointing her head...I'm getting ahead of my story...before he even anointing her head...she had on big, dark glasses. And I could see when we went in there that it looked like on the side of her face the skin had been grafted. She wasn't a pleasant, nor a beautiful woman to look at but she had a heart of gold. Then she took those two glasses and put them on her lap. She said, "Before you give me this blessing," she says, "I have a question to ask." She says, "Look at my face." She says, "When I was a young girl I was pushed in the bonfire." And she said, "I wondered why God at the time had spared my life...and today I see." Now she said, "I have lost the sight of this one eye. I have a little left in this one. Will you please ask my Heavenly Father to spare what sight I've got left in that other eye to see me through my mortal journey of life?" Can you imagine any more faith than that? So we went. I had blessed the sick many times. But I had never, never felt the Spirit so. It just seemed like it come down from above into my head and into my hands that I was almost lifted off the floor. When I got through, she was took her handkerchief and she was wiping her eyes and the tears and she said, "For forty years, the tear ducts in my eyes had never been able the water to pass." Do you think there was power in the Priesthood? Sure. Well, I'm not going to (say) anymore.

But now Brothers and Sisters, let me tell you, love one another. There is so much hate and envy and malice and trouble in the world today. We live in the great day of Satan. Love one another. Get down on your bended knees at night and thank your Heavenly Father for your life and then turn around and try to always keep his commandments and live his laws that you'll only be happy. You'll never get happiness if you do not live as our Heavenly Father has asked us to live. I hope my children, my grandchildren will remember the things I'm telling them here today. I may not be here another day, I don't know. I'm here on borrowed time; I realize that. But when I think...when I think...of the blessings of the Lord...and then when I think...when I say love one another...and when I think about the promise that was made to my dear wife, who lies therein that casket??, of the temple??, eternal life without sin or death. I know it with every part of my being. Now when it comes to loving one another, if you've had envy, if you've had words, if you've had problems, if you've had trouble with one another, think of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ nailed to the cross on Calvary and in turn the nail prints and the blood running out of his hands and his feet and the spear in his side...and he turned and he said to his Father, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." How can we have any forgiveness that compares with that forgiveness? I love my Savior. I love what he's done. I love for my life here upon the earth. I had the privilege of going into the mission field on two occasions and bringing this glorious Gospel to some of his children on the earth. Now I've said too much. I've said a lot to ya. But my dear children, please, I plead with you, please love one another. You'll never feel that Spirit I have felt at that time...I'd give all I possess on this earth if I could be in the feeling and possession of that true Spirit....if it ever touches you, you'll never forget it. I've been in the presence of it when it would just be so strong it would almost consume your flesh. Now the Lord bless you. I love ya. I've spoken on this program that didn't have my name on it. But I want you to know that that dear Sister that lies in that casket...I'll tell ya...I hope I'll be worthy to meet her. And when the day comes for judgment...don't prejudge people, leave it up to the Lord...and when it comes... the judgment day...and I have carried this thought in my mind from long time...and my Heavenly Father says to me, "Now Kenneth, what have you done for my cause on the Earth?" I hope I'll be comfortable and I hope I can tell him that I tried. I tried on those missions to bring that wonderful message to his children. Now may the Lord bless ya. I appreciate...I know my dear wife, if she could rise out of there she'd tell you the same thing, how she appreciates you coming here and thinking of us. Now may peace be with you in your homes. And again I say to you, love one another. True love, not puppy love. Not sexual love. True love! May that be the lot with all of you. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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