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Show 258 traits become, through her eyes, more fully defined and entirely believable. Clothed with the charity of a loyal daughter, they yet possess a surprising frankness which is present from the beginning of her recollections. Bardella said her father's purpose in qualifying as a lawyer was not to practice but to give legal advice, without cost, to "the general people" when they sought it, and that he "delighted" in this. Throughout his life, Milford was given many opportunities to do missionary work. These often dovetailed with his personal undertakings. Before he left to study medicine in Philadelphia, he was set apart as a missionary and "given authority to speak for the church" while in Pennsylvania. He reportedly had many opportunities to do so with the professors, who were fascinated to actually see "one of those mysterious Utah Mormons." At a later period when he had made arrangements for going to the southern states to seek out his ancestors in order to take care of temple ordinances on their behalf, he was also called on a proselyting mission, the two functions coalescing for him. "Educated, knowledgable, having an affable, pleasing manner in presenting the tenets of his faith, he was much in demand," as a missionary, Bardella said, and he spent a total of 18 years in missionary assignments. Ellis's perceptions of the "everlasting covenant of marriage" were rooted in her gospel understanding that its greatest rewards were for those who endured; and those rewards were to be garnered not here but in another sphere. Part of the durability of her |
