Ole Anderson and the "Loaf of Bread"

Among the signs of the true church and evidence of God’s work in the world, are the manifestations of His power. Usually we are helpless to explain or even fully understand His powers. In the scriptures these divine acts and special blessings are referred to as “miracles”, “signs”, “wonders,” or “marvels”.  I believe the desire for a God and His angels to intervene in our personal lives is human nature.  There are just some things we can not do alone! I came across another “miracle” in our family history. I’ve heard this story numerous times throughout my life from different family members. The following is the best documented version I’m aware of. Aunt Mary copied the story on 19 November 1996 from Raymond and Verletta Anderson’s genealogy. The miracle occurred in the life of Ole Anderson while he was on his first mission to Denmark in 1895. Ole Anderson was the father of AR Anderson. The story is being told by Owen Anderson (AR Anderson’s brother). Father, Ole Anderson, was very desirous of going back to Denmark after he came to Utah. He had a strong desire to bring the gospel to his and mother’s families that were left there, as well as others of his friends. In those days missionaries traveled without “purse or script” which meant that they took very little money with them and depended on the people of the world for heir full support. This incident was told to me by my sister Annie Van Cott, and which was also published in the Danish paper in Salt Lake called the “Biekuben” after father’s return from his mission. “Late one dark and stormy night father and his companion were walking along a country road in

Denmark. They did not have much success that day and had not been given a meal since the day before, and they were hungry and wet. As they walked along they met a man coming toward them with a small bundle under his arm. When he approached them he gave the bundle and said: ‘This is for you.’ They took the bundle and before they knew it he had disappeared in the dark. The bundle was a loaf of warm bread wrapped in an embroidered dish towel. The two missionaries thankfully ate the bread and father folded the dish towel and put it in with his belongings in his steamer trunk when they returned to their place of living. He thought no more about the dish towel.  When father came home from his mission and mother unpacked his steamer trunk she came across the embroidered dish towel. She asked father where he got it and he told her the story of the man and the loaf of bread. She was very much surprised and told him: ‘Father, I remember baking some bread one day and I wrapped a loaf of bread in this dish towel and placed it on the window sill of the open window to cool for our supper. When I went to get the loaf of bread, it was gone. I thought the Indians had taken it off the window sill, dish towel and all, and thought to myself; Let them have it. They are more hungry than we are. That was almost a year ago.’ Father told mother that when the man gave them the bread it was still warm.” Moroni wrote to the people of our dispensation, “Behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, … and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are” (Morm. 9:11). Moroni proclaimed that Jesus Christ did many mighty miracles, that many mighty miracles were wrought by the hands of the Apostles, and that a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever must be a God of miracles today! (see Morm.9:18; Morm. 9:9) With Moroni of old, I believe in a God of miracles. Just as important as the “mighty miracles” performed by Christ are the smaller “private miracles” like Minnie and Ole’s “warm loaf of bread”- each teaches us to have faith in a power greater than ourselves.

Birth of AR Anderson Jan 5, 1894

Arthur Raymond Anderson Jan 5, 1894

Arthur was number 9 of 15 children. His mother was -Rasmine Nielsen and his father was Ole Anderson both from Denmark. The children included: 1) Annie Marie Anderson Jul 1881-Jul 1881; 2) Annie Marie Anderson Nov 1882-Nov 1970; 3) Gustave Adolph Anderson Dec 1883-Mar 1969; 4) Hyrum Anderson Aug-1885-Nov 1885; 5) Rebecca Anderson Dec 1886-Jan 1903; 6) Olaf Andrew Anderson Aug 1888-Mar 1890; 7) Joseph Wilford Anderson  Feb 1890-Nov 1957; 8) Charles Ole Anderson Aug 1891-Nov 1893; 9) Arthur Raymond Anderson Jan 1894- Jan 1982; 10) Emily Elizabeth Anderson May 1895-Oct 1972; 11) Owen Benjamin Anderson May 1898-Jun 1993; 12) Florence Manerva Anderson May 1899- Dec 1959; 13) Myrtle Adena Anderson Sep 1900-Aug 1946; 14) Duwayne Leroy Anderson Jan 1902-Apr 1967; and 15) David John Anderson Jan 1904-Apr 1904. Six of his siblings died by the age of five!

Arthur wrote in his life history: "I was born January 5, 1894, in a little adobe house on the east bench of Pleasant Grove, Utah. My mother and father built this little two-room house themselves. They even mixed the clay and made the adobes. It is still standing today." 

Here is the story taken from Ole Anderson history book about Rasmine and Ole building this house where Grandpa was born.

A revival of hope and courage now possessed father and mother. This was their own land. "We'll build two rooms here, said father (Ole) and later we can add on to them."  Nearby a small clearing was made where the two children sat and played during the day, while the parents made bricks. An old blanket was stretched across the tops of the brush to keep the burning rays of the sun from them. It was exceedingly hot that September, and the rattlesnakes were plentiful. Whenever mother saw them gliding toward the children, she shuddered but carefully and gently guided them away with a long willow that she kept near. She never killed a creature of God's. None of the children were bitten by the, although they had many close escapes. By November they began to lay up the roof. First the rafters were placed, then the boards and shingles. "One day as I was nailing on shingles," Father (Ole) said later, "I ran out of nails and asked mother to go to town some two miles away and get some. I would look after the children while she was gone. The two toddlers were playing inside the walls of the house. After awhile I did not hear them, and as I looked down between the boards, I saw Gustave asleep in one corner but could not see Annie anywhere. I called but no answer. Then I got down and went around the house but could not find her. I rand down into the hollow, but she was not there. Then I thought of the ditch which was over two feet deep with water. I became frightened and started running along the bank. A few rods to the north, I saw her walking slowly along the narrow trail by the edge of the creek, almost asleep. I was afraid of call for fear she might turn suddenly and fall. I ran quietly up to her and took her up in my arms. Annie Where are you going? I asked. To mamma! she said, opening her eyes in astonishment. When mother returned with the nails I told her, The lord sure took good care of our little girl today!"  (Taken from Ole Anderson and Rasmine Nielsen Family History Book pg 137)

Arthur continued in his history saying, "I can recall seeing the soldiers on parade as they came home from the Spanish American War in 1889 (The numbers were transposed- should read 1898)." Below is a picture of the Spanish American War parade in Salt Lake.

The Spanish-American War was a short conflict of  six month duration in 1898, between the United States and Spain.  The Spanish-American War represented a significant turning point in America's position in the world. Besides acquiring Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and the Philippine Islands in the Pacific, territorial possessions that created new defensive responsibilities, the United States demonstrated that it had built up its naval capacity sufficiently to defeat an established European power.  Spanish-American War

It is important for we descendants of Grandpa and Grandma Anderson to learn more about them and how they lived. Robert D. Hales said:

While our individual salvation is based on our individual obedience, it is equally important that we understand that we are each an important and integral part of a family and the highest blessings can be received only within an eternal family. When families are functioning as designed by God, the relationships found therein are the most valued of mortality. The plan of the Father is that family love and companionship will continue into the eternities. Being one in a family carries a great responsibility of caring, loving, lifting, and strengthening each member of the family so that all can righteously endure to the end in mortality and dwell together throughout eternity. It is not enough just to save ourselves. It is equally important that parents, brothers, and sisters are saved in our families. If we return home alone to our Heavenly Father, we will be asked, “Where is the rest of the family?” This is why we teach that families are forever. The eternal nature of an individual becomes the eternal nature of the family. (The Eternal Family, October 1996)

What else happened in 1984-besides Grandpa being born: 

• Feb 3 – Norman Rockwell, American artist and illustrator was born. 
• Mar 12 – For the first time, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles. 
• Apr 14 - 1st public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope (moving pictures) 
• May 21 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Émile Henry is executed by guillotine. 
• Jun 24 - Decision to hold modern Olympics every 4 years 
• Jul 4 - Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH 
• Aug 14 - Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge demonstrates wireless telegraphy (radio) using Morse code at a meeting of the British Association 
• Oct 30 - Daniel Cooper patents time clock

May 12, 1961- Elder AR and Alice On Their Mission

Elder Arthur and Alice Anderson received their mission call to the East Central States Mission on December 13, 1960. Also see: April 24, 1961- Elder AR and Alice On Their Mission. Here is the letter from President David O' McKay inviting them to go on a mission. In part President McKay wrote:  "The Lord will reward the goodness of your life, and greater blessings and more happiness than you have yet experienced await you as you serve him humbly and prayerfully in this labor of love among His children." I wonder how Grandma Alice felt about President McKay's blessing on Friday May 12, 1961?

Grandma Alice kept a diary while on their mission. Here is her diary for May 12, 1961. (See copies of her handwritten diary to the left and a typed copy below.) 

"Up at 6 A.M. did a little Reading. Had Breakfast and went down town to take the window down to put glass in while going down the steps I fell and about broke my neck there was 13 step I couldnt get up for a min or two. then we went and saw Dewy Morgan about giving the sunday school lesson. from there we went up to. george andrews Hammel and wife place about 15 miles on High way 7 then you park your car and walk the rail road for 1 1/2 miles. that the only way you can get there. we left at 1.30 back to the car 45 min walk came and got dinner so tired you couldnt hardly move at 5 pm Louis a little Jeu girl came up and put my hair up and A.R. went to the hospital to see the smiths and the Long family quiet a day."

Alice "walking the rail road" to teach the Hammel Family.

I believe Grandma Alice might have thought as Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven” (cited in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972, p. 98).
-

Elrain (Granddaughter to AR and Alice) and Larry Thompson are currently on a Church History Library Mission as Church Service Missionaries.They are focusing on Global Acquisitions. Elrain recalled finding Alice's Mission diary - "When we moved mother (Mary) out of her house we hauled all her stuff down to Floyd's. He has been going through mother's stuff. And this diary was in a 3 ring binder. Grandma Anderson has used it as a journal." Elrain and Larry are in process of placing this Missionary Diary into the Church History Library.

April 24, 1961- Elder AR and Alice On Their Mission

Imagine you found a cure for cancer. How urgently would you spread the news of your discovery? Who would you tell? The gospel of Jesus Christ is the cure for so many of life's ills that Elder AR and Alice Anderson wanted to share the good news of eternal life with the same urgency to those folks living in the East Central States.

Alice kept a diary while on their mission. Here is Alice's diary entry for April 24, 1961. (See copies of her handwritten diary to the left and a typed copy below.)

"Up at 7. Am. It was quite cloudy. We got breakfast for the Elders. We washed. We left to go see the Song family at 9:30. Am which was about 40 miles from our apt. but the roads were very good so far but the last 5 miles were auful. We only could drive so for, and the rest you walk up hill and through mud and water no car can get through and we got back to the apt abt 1.30 pm so tired we could hardly make it up the steps but we hope we did  do some good. I think we will bapt one of the boys next Sat 29 apr  Left the apt to go to the Hospital at 3.30 Pm to see other SONG boy and his wife and her mother Mrs Smith which was operated on Sat night and very sick. AR Anderson ministered to her and they told us about one of our members who was very sick Mrs. Dewy Morgan. So AR Anderson a ministered to her. The Morgans very fine people came back to the apt at 6 pm left again to go to the Carl Thorps home by 7 pm It was a real day. We also went to see the Ladds Family  very fine people but he is a drunked. He said he was going to quiet well he did for over a month but when went back to day  he told us he had started again. Our a aprt is on the top floor with 25 steep to go up and down over time you go out well to day we went out 6 times so that made it 210 steps to get out we had a very good night and sleeped well."

Elder & Mrs. Arthur Anderson April 15, 1961 West Virginia

“Missionary work is hard work ... Missionary service is demanding and requires long hours of study and preparation that the missionary himself might match the divine message he proclaims. It is a labor of love but also of sacrifice and devotion to duty.” President Monson: Prepare To Be A Missionary

Elrain (Granddaughter to AR and Alice) and Larry Thompson are currently on a Church History Library Mission as Church Service Missionaries.They are focusing on Global Acquisitions. Elrain recalled finding Alice's Mission diary - "When we moved mother (Mary) out of her house we hauled all her stuff down to Floyd's. He has been going through mother's stuff. And this diary was in a 3 ring binder. Grandma Anderson has used it as a journal." Elrain and Larry are in process of placing this Missionary Diary into the Church History Library.

Elder AR and Alice Anderson Mission Call 1961

The Lord has declared that missionary work is the responsibility 

of all who follow Him (see Matthew 28:19–20; D&C 88:81). 

Elder Arthur and Alice Anderson were called to serve in the East Central States Mission. They had their mission farewell January 8, 1961. Alice recalled over 500 people attended their missionary farewell.

Here is their farewell program. My father Norman Hawks was one of the speakers. Norman is a son-in-law to AR and Alice. Norman married their daughter Faye. I found a copy of Norman's talk. Here it is.



"My brother and Sisters, no one, not in my situation can appreciate my feelings of gradute of being ask to speek tonight. I expect no greater privilage. From the kindness of brother and sister Anderson—I owe everything. They are high moments in the life of each of us, moments when we are lifted up out of our daily grind to higher levels. When we raise superior to the little things---that tantalize our lives. entagle our feet and impete are progress. Brother and Sister Anderson being called on this mission will be one of the happiest and joyious parts of their lives. Leaving their home on the farm where they developed their strength of character, and give meaning and purpose to life. Their children who has grown up under these conditions can never forget them. We all know how the bringing of Children is the greatest obligation laid upon man. What a wonderful job they have done. The Spriit of the Lord would have had to be with them. How else could they have accomplished so much. Their fondest memories cluster around their children, from the time they were able to walk, they would be out in the fields with there parents. They always worked together as a family. The days they toiled in the fields with their father and mother to help and guide them in the ways of life. Arthur always said the happiest days of his life were spent with his children, working in the field. I can still remember the first time I was in their home, it has been about 20 years. You could just feel the warmeth and spirit of the Lord, that was always prevelant. There is nothing that Brother and Sister Anderson would not do for their children. And then there is grandma---God bless her. She has such a humble understanding of everybody. What a wonderful job she has done with her children. She always works so hard. Evey summer as soon as the tomatoes were rip grandma would be up to the factory. They will surely miss her. Grandma with her genology work- with genology sheets scattered from her living room to her kitchen. What a wonderful work she is doing for the dead. The garden she had while raising her family—the fruit trees, the raspberried, the dewberries. Then her beautiful flower garden. No matter what she planted it would always grow. There lives have been adorned with deeds of kindness and service to others. What greater joy can one get, than to serve in the way God would have us. Life is madeup of problems. Try as we may we cannot avoide them, but we can learn to face them wisely and calmly. By doing so, we not only make our lives happier, but others also. That is Brother Andersons motto—He could always face and solve problems. He is truly the Anchor man of the Anderson family. 

 A TRIBUTE TO A.R. ANDERSON- by Faye A. Hawkes 
They had a good father 
  His honor they wear. 
He gave them a name 
  Free from shame, to bear. 

He taught them the good things, 
  The way they should go. 
And took them to Church 
  In the Gospel to grow. 

A lot he has done 
  For his children five. 
From his judgement 
 They have all thrived. 

He counselled in wisdom 
  And taught by the “Rule” 
Helped them in troubles 
  And sent them to school. 

His life he lived well. 
  For he can tell you many a tale 
Of his experiences one by one 
  His job here on earth—is well done. 

 Now they are going on a mission to teach the Gospel of Eternal Life. I pray that the Lord will Bless them and guide them always I do this is Jesus Name AMEN." (I made no corrections in Norman's talk. The spelling and grammatical errors are his. The original talk was typed.)

In the "olden days" the missionaries use to have "Missionary Cards" with their contact information and a picture of the temple.  Here is Elder & Mrs. Arthur Raymond Anderson's Missionary Calling Card. The Articles Of Faith were typically on the back.

“Missionary work isn’t the only thing we need to do in this big, wide, wonderful Church. But almost everything else we need to do depends on people first hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and coming into the faith. … With all that there is to do along the path to eternal life, we need a lot more missionaries opening that gate and helping people through it.” —Jeffrey R. Holland “We Are All Enlisted,” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 46–47