The Spader Origin

My cousin Audrey and I are currently helping my grandpa Spader with a big project. He will hand write his memories of growing up then Audrey and I type them, edit them and are compiling them with pictures to go along with some of the stories. One story that I had the chance to type up tonight really hit home with me. It is not one of my grandpa's memories but actually a brief history of where the Spader family came from.
In a reader's digest version my great great grandpa Frank Spitter and my great great grandma Gerri Spitter were taught by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over in Holland. They were baptized in a river with a thin layer of ice. After being baptized they felt that it was the right thing to do move their large family, 8 children total, to Zion in Salt Lake City. Frank left his family for a year to get a job and find a place to live in America. After a year he sent for the rest of his family to come. Gerri traveled with her 8 children across the Atlantic by boat and then by many trains to finally arrive at the main station in Salt Lake City.
As I was typing up this story I felt the Spirit so strongly. I imagine what I felt was what my great great grandma felt when she stepped off the platform, looked up and saw the Temple and the Angel Moroni atop shining in the afternoon sun and fell to her knees giving thanks to her Heavenly Father.
I am so grateful for her wonderful example, as well as the examples of my grandparents and my parents. I normally don't cry when I feel the Spirit but tonight as I was typing up the words my grandfather wrote I couldn't stop.


Eventually the name Spitter was changed to Spader as the word "spit" translates to the English word "spade" or "shovel." And THAT is where the Spader family came from.