Connecting with God

Connecting With God By Robin Finlinson

A Mesa Temple Visitors Center Mural With Local Native American Roots

Speaking to Native Americans in 1963 at the mission home dedication in Holbrook, Arizona, Elder Spencer W. Kimball offered an eye-opening reason for them to remain steadfast in their faith. “The Lamanites and we, the other children of Jacob [Israel], will work together in the building of the great temple in Jackson County, Missouri,” he explained, when the time comes. He noted their remarkable artistic talents that will help beautify that most magnificent temple ever built, and their opportunity to perform saving ordinances for their ancestors in it.

Connecting with God literally puts us in connection with all of His children, across racial and language divisions, land barriers, and even centuries.

Photo by Robin Finlinson Little Fawn Grey Loring and Denna Squire point to their grandmothers, pictured along with several other ancestors of theirs in a mural at the Mesa Temple Visitors Center. Guests at the center can learn more about “the Papago”, Fawn’s grand parents—the Santeos—and her daughter Wi-bwa.

Photo by Robin Finlinson Several members of the Papago Ward in January, 2022, in front of the ward building on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation. The original adobe building was replaced on the same land in 1997 and dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley. Bishop Doug Norton is pictured at the end on the left. Little Fawn Grey Loring is shown near the center in a maroon shirt.

Little Fawn Grey Loring and Denna Squire, who represent two lineages of Jacob, recently met for the first time thanks to a mural in the new Mesa Temple Visitors Center. The mural was

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Learn more about our community: Hover phone camera over the QR code or visit wrcsafe.com/morrisonranch. created from a photo taken in 1927, the year the Mesa Temple was originally dedicated. The photo includes Little Fawn’s grandparents, Denna’s great grandparents, and other relatives of both. Their families were friends and attended church together for generations.

Regarding those in the photo gathered in front of the original Papago Ward building on the Salt River Reservation, Denna shares, “It’s a story of people of faith.”

Denna’s great grandfather Asa York Tiffany was the bishop at the time, serving as such for 20 years. His father and one of his sons also served as bishops in this ward.

Asa had the gift of tongues. He served a mission in New Zealand and struggled initially with the Maori language. After earnest study, prayer and fasting, he communicated fluently. But one day he attempted to speak in church, and couldn’t. Realizing he’d not been sufficiently humble to utilize