Movies, Films and Video Recordings contained in this historical website.

On August 3, 2008, Clayt (CCW) interviewed me (CRW) regarding our ancestors, the Ballif's. The video is above and here is the transcript of that interview:

Please start towards to bottom of the first page. This is the portion of the above video in which CRW discusses Serge Ballif's conversion, his rejection from the community in Switzerland, and his journey to Utah for the Gospel:

September 21, 2008, CCW interviews CRW about the Williams Ancestry:

On July 13, 2008, Clayt interviewed CRW. CRW talked about the neighborhood he grew up in:

Can you imagine what that would sound like if they all lived here and practiced regularly?

LAUGHTER

You know these last two days have been choice I spent considerable time doing personal research about my beloved aunt Florence. I've talked to her dearest friends, i've talked to her family. and believe it or not i visited with her and listened to her personally. what an amazing time of life we live in that you can sit in front of a video tape recorder and listen to aunt florence talk about her early life which included carrying a wooden bucket over to the tithing office and bringing it back full of maple syrup. to her home which is located where the church office tower now rises 26 floors into the sky.

I think that these kind of things have made it possible for me to think about my own association to aunt florence and to realize that she just wasn’t and ordinary person. You know, I've known her very well and Im happy that i have you might ask how well have you known her? I'd like to say and this just a guess on my part but i believe aunt florence must have been the third person in my life to put her arms around me.

The reason this is hard for me today is that uh after saying goodbye to mother and dad I still had aunt Florence. she was my 2nd mother. the Gilbert Williams home was my 2nd home and that family was my 2nd family. Clayt and I shared our mothers their cooking most of all we shared their love.

aunt Florence is pay to me for a job i thought was hard was a banana a kiss on the cheek and then she would say "you are a dream of heaven."

Laughter

You know this didn't go over very big then.

Laughter

So i think of now, i'd like to have the sweet things of aunt Florence. we lived so close to the Williams that aunt accused my mother of destroying her budding opera career. aunt Florence would practice her sing scales in her bedroom. and my mother would be back in our bedroom which was just about 12 ft across the alley and would mimic her as she would do her scales.

laughter

And this would end with laughter and no more music

Aunt Florence life has been special from the very beginning as i mentioned the home she was born and raised in is where the Church office buildings now stand. the family later moved to where the Deseret gym is. these landmarks today destroy some important landmarks of yesterday. i think of people think of exciting honey moons. what i can't imagine a more exciting one that uncle Bert and aunt Florence had. Uncle Bert was given the assignment to go to San Diego and be the manager of the Utah exposition in the worlds fair. he took his bride and they spent their honey moon living in a little apartment just above the exposition where they took care of that responsibility and got to know each other.

Ever since that time her life has continued to be exceptional. We've heard today about some of her wonderful accomplishments and services. As I reconstructed her life I find that she followed very closely a philosophy stated by man she ki sheck:

She said, "We ____

Don't understand, blank....

We become what we do. This I believe is supreme logic and law of land. Practice that you should do things the very best you can with the best possible way. If the recipe calls for milk. she used whipped cream. If the recipe calls shortening, she used butter. She used the best ingredients of all and that was herself. For the five dollars of butter some sequins lots of time and love she turned this $5 sweater into a priceless artifact. She did the same with human beings. This is the way she worked with people.

I talked to Wilma Wholesteim who started to work for the Williams back in 1929. I was just 2 years old. She worked with 'em util i was 5 years old. And in talking to her today she said, "aunt Florence was no ordinary person she said I recognized that I was on a different social level than the Williams's but aunt Florence did not recognize this."

She said that Mrs Williams gave me the incentive and the help to have a better life than i would have had without her influence. I am better because of her.

CS Lewis said, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. ... Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

— "The Weight of Glory"

There are many ever lasting splendors who are such because of the way we were treated that way by aunt Florence.

She knew most things. She would decorate for the daughter of Kate flors a little German xxx. with the same flurry silve that she would decorate the grand ballroom of the hotel Utah for rotary convention.

Edna Felt who just talked to aunt Florence every day for at least the last 65 years, commented that they'd never had a serious disagreement. That they never had a lasting argument for ever had any type of unkind feelings. But my family and I have visited aunt Florence regularly over the past many years. we found as mentioned here today. that we come away with far more than we take with us to give to her.

A French scientist named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

I'm surely glad that I've had a long life with someone who discovered this great course early in her life. and that of those powers.

and towards the Hardy's i can just imagine parties occurred Wednesday mornings as uncle bert was surprised on his birthday. wiht the reunion with aunt Flossie. i'm a great believer in the hereafter. i'm convinced that theres judgement that goes on with all loving all knowing master. I can imagine an interview that took place this last

I'd like to paraphrase a little scripture. I 'll tell you what's going on.

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I like to offer my thanks to Adele and to Dick to Doug and to Clayt for sharing their their wonderful mother with me.

I'll personally miss her. and I think that as I think about missing her, I hope that I'll try to recall the things that she has left for me. in the book of Corinthians Paul wrote, "I may speak in the tongues of men or of angels. But if I am without love, I'm a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of Prophecy and know every hidden truth. I may have faith strong enough to move mountains. But if I have no love I am nothing. I'm a dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burned. But if I have no love I'm none the better. Love is patient love is kind an end and he's no good (???). Love is never boastful or conceited nor rude never selfish not quick to take offense love keeps no score wrong does not gloat over the men's other sins. But the lights in the truth, there is nothing love cannot face. There is no limit to its faith it's hope and it's endurance love will never come to an end are their Prophets their work will be over are there tons of ecstasy. They will cease is their knowledge. It will vanish away for our knowledge and our prophecy life of partials and the partial vanishes when fullness comes but I was a child my speech my Outlook my thoughts were childish when I grew up. I had finished with childish things now, we see only puzzling Reflections in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. My knowledge. My knowledge now is partial then will behold like God's knowledge and me in a word. There are three things that last forever. Faith, Hope, and Love. but the greatest of all is Love."

And Florence left a great legacy and a Heritage for all of us. Her grandson Clay asked her one day not long ago what her secret for happiness and success was. I like to have you hear what she answered:

"Love is the basis for all things."

Carolyn Pearson wrote "How presumptuous we mortals are pronouncing one another dead. Because eyes are closed and lips are sealed in that narrow bed."

A man once came to clear our definition. He knew all the words. All the places. All states of being. For he had traveled below all things and above. Death he said is darkness is hate. And life is life is love. Oh look again a vital sign is bright and gives us this word. She loved. She loves. She yet will love. And love pronounces that she lives.

You know, I can envision a thing that happened this last Thursday morning. There was a man The Keeper of the gate to the kingdom of the standing there and his Superior came by and said you shouldn't be chewing gum and he said I'm not chewing gum. It's a chocolate caramel.

May we all live worthy of this wonderful woman that we too may regain her presence. I pray humbly in Jesus's name, Amen.