The Leiningers: Grandpa Myres

A few weeks ago my grandpa Myres passed away. Ever since then I have been thinking so much about what a legacy he has left for his whole extended family. I think that all of his fifty-four grandchildren have inherited a lot of his characteristics and values. It's hard to even comprehend how much of an influence the Myres ethos has had in trickling down through the generations. These are the things that I think of when I think of Grandpa Myres:

-love of Grandma

-love of the Church: any time you talked to him, he'd always throw that in somewhere.

-love of BYU: he loved to talk about how that was the best school anywhere.

-love of family, especially his mother, his brother, and his kids

-love of missionary work

-love of talking to other people, particularly people he didn't know

-love of the underdog, wanting to lift people up

-love of HARD WORK, frugality, not being a "Hollywood baby" (a family favorite saying)

-not wanting to be fancy, but keeping things simple and valuing what you have

-loving and trusting people, even and especially when they are not the ideal of what you think

-love of words, books and reading

-healthy eating and life habits (exercise as often as you can!)

-always so strong, physically and mentally

-pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and making it through hard times. Because of my grandpa's example, I know that "I can do hard things."

This is not the most eloquent of tributes I could have written. But I feel grateful for his example. From watching him, I know how I want my marriage to be like in 50 years. I think about the stories I know of from his young life and childhood and am inspired to think I came from his same stock and his blood runs through my veins. I can be tough and do hard things--especially if my hard things are just a week with three kids while Tommy is out of town (cue major eye rolling, because I know that's not that hard). I know that more than anything, he loved the gospel and he clung to it because of how it had changed his life for the better and transformed his life and his family's trajectory 180 degrees, and it makes me value this blessing of the knowledge he's helped to give me all the more.

A few years ago I had to give a talk in church about "priesthood and the family," and I used Grandpa Myres' life to help illustrate the points I wanted to make. It shows a little bit of how much his example has meant to me and my testimony:

President Snow makes two points that struck me very strongly as I read the manual. He said, “The object of the priesthood is to make all people happy.” And: “The priesthood we hold has been revealed for the salvation of the human family.” Those two quotes are deceptively simple. If we examine them both closely, we can really learn a lot about the priesthood and what its purpose is on the earth today.

My Grandpa Myres, my mom’s dad, is a wonderful example of these two principles--of the priesthood being here to make us happy and for the salvation of the human family. My grandpa was born in the tiny Icelandic settlement of Mountain, North Dakota. His family moved to San Diego when he was a child, and he had a difficult childhood and family life there. He was plagued with health problems, including years of hospitalization in his early teenage years, his father was an angry alcoholic who eventually left the family, and they were never very well off. My grandpa was himself a rebellious and difficult teenager, and as the family folklore goes, my great-grandmother signed him up to go to BYU after high school because she heard it had a strict honor code that she hoped would help him shape up. They weren’t members at the time, and didn’t know very many. But while at BYU, my grandpa met many members, and eventually became one himself after being taught by the missionaries, and married my grandma in the Salt Lake temple. My grandpa took his newfound life and conversion as a member of the church very, very seriously, and a focus on the gospel has directed his entire life. He and my grandma have served in every capacity of callings in the church, served four missions, had nine children and fifty-three grandchildren, and now spend much of their time in doing service and temple work and genealogy.

This story is a huge simplification of my grandpa’s very long life, and I’ve left out every interesting detail and story of things he’s done. But I share it because my grandpa’s example of overcoming his background has always been a huge inspiration to me. By all rights, my grandpa could have, and maybe should have, followed the example of his own father (and several generations of fathers before him)--attached to alcohol, not being around much, and eventually leaving his family. But because of the gospel, and because of the power of the priesthood in his life, my grandpa is the patriarch of a huge, tight-knit, gospel-loving family, and, as he would say, he has been very blessed in all aspects of his life. My grandpa is a pretty simple man; he owned a moving company and was a truck driver for most of his life, goes to bed at 7:30pm every day, and has worn the same one type of shoes for as long as I’ve known him. But he has several things that he KNOWS and that he will tell anyone any day--and one of them is that THE CHURCH IS TRUE and we are blessed to have the gospel. So, to me, his story is a perfect example of the principles President Snow has taught to us.

Remember what President Snow said: “The object of the priesthood is to make all people happy. . . . and The priesthood we hold has been revealed for the salvation of the human family.” President Snow is basically saying that Heavenly Father gave us the priesthood on this earth to make us happy and to SAVE us and bring us back to him. My grandpa’s story exemplifies this to me, because with the gospel in his life, and because of the ordinances of the priesthood that have shaped his life, my grandpa has led a happy life, and I’m guessing will have a good chance of going straight up to be with Heavenly Father in a long, long time once he passes away. The priesthood has blessed his life with happiness and with the hope of salvation.

I got to go to his funeral in Utah. I flew out with Lucy and we met up with my mom and Dallin at the airport (thanks Dallin!) and went to the viewing the night before. It was filled with the entire extended family--which is a huge party considering his nine children and fifty-four grandchildren (only seven of whom were missing). I had only been to one funeral before when I was about twelve, so it was a really weird feeling to be there, enjoying seeing all these cousins who I haven't seen for a long time, and also crying off and on seeing my grandpa's body in the casket. The hardest moment was the family prayer the morning of the funeral, when they invited the immediate family up to say good-bye as they closed the casket. I think everyone in the room was crying then. But the funeral itself was wonderful (even though I still cried then)--I loved hearing the stories people told about him and the talks reiterating the importance of the things that my grandpa loved the most: his family, the Church, and the Book of Mormon.

I talked with one of my uncles at the viewing and we agreed that it was hard and sad to say good-bye, even though we know all is well--but just because we are going to miss him. I do miss him. Even though I only got to see him about once a year for the last few years, his presence has always been larger than life for me and his influence has been much stronger than that amount would seem. But I am very sure that he is healthy and whole again, maybe more so than he ever was in this life, and that he hit the ground running in heaven and is doing his favorite thing: talking to people and being a missionary.

The nine Myres children.

All the women who were there, aunts, cousins, and sisters.

Grandpa Myres' posterity right there. Missing seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, but almost all of us were there.

A four-generation pic of Myres women (or Haymond, Myres, Murphy, Leininger women).

Another highlight of the trip was getting to see Grandma Murphy and stay at her house.

AND getting to see my mom again. I've seen her just as often this past year while she's been in Ecuador as we do in our normal life!

Lucy got passed around and everyone loved getting to hold her. She got about nine million compliments on her hair at the family gatherings and while traveling through the airport.