More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

Faith Through the Generations with Sharon

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 42

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What memories from your past connect you most deeply to your faith? Today on "More Than Coincidence," we sit down with Sharon, an 81-year-old from Springfield, Ohio, who shares the enduring impact of her family's Christian values passed down throughout the generations. Raised in a devout household, Sharon's reflections offer a beautiful testament to how faith and family history shape our spiritual journey.

Sharon takes us on a captivating exploration of her extensive family history, revealing how her West Virginian roots and Swiss Huguenot ancestry have deepened her connection to Jesus Christ. Discover how knowing her heritage has enriched her faith, giving her a sense of belonging and continuity in a lineage of honorable individuals. This heartwarming episode emphasizes the significance of family history in the gospel and how it serves as a powerful anchor to our Savior. Join us for an inspiring conversation about faith, heritage, and the remarkable legacy carried through generations.

Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)

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**Transcripts available on website!

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and his presence in our lives. I'm your host, lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Good morning everybody. Today on the podcast we have Sharon. How are you, sharon? I'm fine today.

Speaker 2:

Good Will you introduce yourself for us. I am Sharon Woodrum Patterson. I'm 81 years old. I was born in Springfield, ohio, clark County. Born in Springfield, ohio, clark County. And let's see. The first daughter of my parents, hattie Mildred Crane, crane, townsend, and married Kesley Woodrum, so her name was Woodrum.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm really grateful that you came to be interviewed today, and so I'll ask you the question, Sharon what memories do you have in your life that prick your heart in remembrance of our Savior Jesus?

Speaker 2:

Christ and anchor you to him. Okay, I've always been, I think, reading the scriptures and having a loving family that thought the same thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. It was very strong in my life. My father came from West Virginia and his family. They were very religious in the fact that they read the Bible, they knew the Bible and they practice very sound, honorable lives. My mother was also raised by her grandmother and she went to church and had a very honorable life and had a very honorable life. It's just a little odd that the genealogy is just kind of unusual, that she's raised by her grandmother, never knew her parents Right, so that had to be a very you know hard thing to get through.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but yeah, we all knew about Jesus. My, they were practicing Jesus. My, uh, my grandpa Woodrum would read the bible every they had like family home evenings every night. Yeah, for 15-20 minutes he would pass the Bible around and the kids would read out of it. Yeah, and that's amazing.

Speaker 1:

I can barely get through like one day of family time.

Speaker 2:

in the evening they lived on a little 20 acre farm in Lincoln County, west Virginia, those. This book that I'm reading here is about hillbillies. Yeah, and my, my grandparents were hillbillies and my grandparents were hillbillies, but they were religious people. Yeah, you know, they did not drink alcohol. That's the one thing they did, but they chewed tobacco.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a lot of them did. It is West Virginia, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But they had a strong religious background and that comes from our ancestry back in the woodrums and stones on that side. So the heritage, our heritage and our family history is very very strong in our family. One when I met my husband, he only knew his first and second. He knew his grandparents and maybe his great grandparents. He didn't know anything beyond that where I did and I had been to their graves in.

Speaker 1:

West.

Speaker 2:

Virginia and I wasn't a member, but yet I already knew my heritage. But since then I've been searching it all the way back to George Washington's family.

Speaker 1:

Yeah you've done a lot of family history research? Yeah, I have.

Speaker 2:

And it was dumped in my lap when we lived in Gunnison because my parents had collected it or knew who to write to for it or to get the death records, birth records, Right right.

Speaker 1:

Why do you feel like knowing your heritage and knowing your ancestors is so important and why do you think that that is such a big part of the gospel and how we can have that be an anchor point to Christ for us? Because we know that the prophet and a lot of people have been saying you know, do your family history, do your family history, but why do you personally feel like it's so important and that's an anchor point?

Speaker 2:

Because I feel like I was chosen to be in that particular line and given the opportunity. If I was given the opportunity, I would have had ancestors who were honorable and upright to follow through with. And it's just amazing, like on my mother's side, now the Townsend side, the ancestor that lived in Pennsylvania so this is the Townsend side. He was a Huguenot from Switzerland. His name was Hatfield, hatfield from Switzerland. I've traced that all the way back. He was very staunch. They would not bear arms, they didn't shoot, they didn't kill people, they did not participate in the Revolutionary War. Interesting yeah, well, his family lived in Pennsylvania, the eastern part of Pennsylvania before they were states. Yeah, just that. He had a big farm there, you know, and the New Jersey River, I think it's called that flows that divides Pennsylvania from New Jersey, is where Washington crossed the Delaware River, delaware River and came on to the farm of Hatfield. Oh, uh-huh.

Speaker 2:

And I remember when I first joined the Daughters of the American Revolution I thought well, why did he? He was a Huguenot, he didn't fight in the Revolutionary War, he wouldn't fight there. Why was he given all these awards? Yeah, he gave, he brought. When George Washington came across and was settled there, trying to escape the British. They had no food. They had in the winter of Valley Forge. Well, that was his British. Yeah, they had no food.

Speaker 1:

They had in the winter of Valley Ford.

Speaker 2:

Well, that was his land yeah, my ancestors land, hatfield and he brought food. He brought meat for the Washington's soldiers to eat. Yeah, and they were very valiant, so it was that Hatfield that also came down into Kentucky and. West Virginia area. Yeah, and, and I have, you know, great admiration for that, in fact I've been to Valley Forge. That one time we came to Virginia to visit you yeah. I says we've got to go up to Valley Forge and Gettysburg and and we went to Gettysburg.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and the Gettysburg family is my mother's side. They're from the south, the one that Pickney, Vardaman, Pickney yeah, they fought in the south Right. And my mother when she finds out they fought for the south, she was a northerner. When she finds that out she's going to turn over in her grave because she was so much against the South and slavery. She hated slavery.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's just so I think stalwart testimonies of of America is very staunch in my brain and that's been a gift for us. We have to fight for it. We have to protect it Right, and that's where my testimony comes from.

Speaker 1:

Right. So it's like doing your family history and learning all these stories and seeing the bravery and seeing all the amazing things that your ancestors have done has really kind of shown you your blessings and shown you you know the things that you've been given and that the Lord's blessed you with Right.

Speaker 2:

Right, I just think my testimony is built on my relationship with my ancestors. No-transcript. So I have to be patient with people who don't accept the gospel right away.

Speaker 1:

And I know it's true and I want everybody to go over the Kirtland Temple's dedication right.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and in the dedicatory prayer it specifically says that you know angels will have charge over you. You know if you go to the temple and other people were also talking about that if you go to the temple and other people were also talking about that I think that was also another specific thing that President Nelson himself also just brought up about how you know when you go to the temple and you do family history work, then you will have angels, you know, around you and guiding you and helping you. What do you do you feel like you have seen or felt that the spirit of your ancestors as you, whether that was when you were younger or while you were doing this family history work, or when you were, you know because you're a convert to the church and so you didn't necessarily know about temples or anything, but before and after that do you feel like you really knew these people and do you feel like you've had ministering angels? You know minister to you and stuff, as you've been trying to live the gospel and do your family history work?

Speaker 2:

Oh yes, absolutely. I believe that it's been a gift given to me specifically doing the family history work and it's part of the whole story of everyone's life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I just feel that some people don't take it seriously and that's past history. It should be rejected and left alone and don't find out about the good and the bad. Right, Right and uh.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's cool, I don't have any other things. Do you have any other final thoughts or do you mind leaving us with a?

Speaker 2:

testimony. Okay, I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and I love the fact that I know the true church and I know that and I want that for my children. Yeah, the true church. And I know that and I want that for my children, yeah and uh, but I do not, I'm not going to force my children. They have to gain that testimony themselves, right, and I'm very grateful that, uh, I have seen the hand of God in my in Mitch's surgery on his eyes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The doctor in California when he only had to have one surgery to correct the glaucoma that was building up. Yeah, and he says the doctor said to me that is the most amazing miracle that's happened. And he says this is the first time I've ever had a surgery be successful. The first time Usually you have to come back. And I said because he was given a priesthood blessing. Well what's a priesthood blessing, so I got to teach him about that, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

You know that's, I know. I know I've been blessed, and I say this humbly in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for tuning into More Than Coincidence Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to morethancoincidencerememberhim at gmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.