July 17, 2011

What volunteer work have you done?

Scouting was mostly a church calling when it was a position in the ward but it became a Community service when I worked on District committees. I have spent over 25 years in some sort of a district, council or region office for the Utah National Parks Council and the Western Region of Scouting. While I was a Varsity coach I was also a Varsity District Chairman and on the council Varsity training staff in Palmyra and Hobble Creek districts. Then when I was a Scoutmaster I also served as Campimg Committee Chairman, Hobble Creek District Scout committee staff and chairman, Timberline staffs, training staffs. Later when not assigned ward postitions I continued to serve in those callings and I was asked to serve on the Council Timberline staff and Western Region Junior Leader Training staff. I was also asked to serve on 3 woodbadge staffs as a coach counselor, Senior patrol leader and Scribe. During Woodbadge in 1998 I was assigned to photograph Silver Beaver recipients for the council which I am still currently doing. I am also an Eagle Scout counselor. Because of such heavy involvement in scouting I have limited my other community service possibilities.

July 16, 2011

Community Service

What community projects have you worked on?

Several Eagle Scout projects and lots of other service directed by scouting for the community including the planting of hundreds of trees on the face of Maple Mountain after the first fire in 1988.

July 15, 2011

What callings have you held in the church? With whom did you serve?

Youth with Bishops Jensen and Peterson

Deacons Quorum sec, counselor, President.

Teachers quorum counselor and President.

Region Youth Conference Committee Member

Region Youth Conference Chairman

Priest Quorum Secretary and 1st assistant

Priesthood Music Chorister

Blazer Leader

Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Teacher

Missionary with Presidents Carlos E Asay, and George Lovell.

Missionary

Trainer in Mission in Garland

District Leader in Stephenville

Co Zone Leader in Midland

District Leader in Pampa

Trainer in Grand Prairie

Mapleton 4^th Ward Elders Quorum with Lester Long

Elders Quorum Second Counselor

Mapleton 4^th ward with Bishop Roylance

8 Year old Primary Teacher

Cubmaster 4th ward

Mapleton 4^th ward with Bishop Jan Wynn

Bishopric Executive Secretary 4th Ward

Bishopric Second Counselor 4th Ward

Varsity Coach 4th Ward

Mapleton 1^st ward with Bishop Anderson

Scoutmaster 1st Ward

Mapleton 1^st ward with Bishop Rod Peterson

Bishopric Second Counselor 1st Ward

Bishopric First Counselor 1st Ward

Mapleton Utah Stake with President Harper

Mapleton Stake High Council

Mapleton 14^th ward with Bishop Paul Creer

Troop Committee Chairman

High Priest Group Instructor

Mapleton 16^th ward with Bishop Jensen

Primary Valiant 10 Teacher

New Scout Patrol Scoutmaster

BYU 166^th Ward with Bishop Jim Lundberg

BYU 166th Bishopric 1st Counselor

BYU 3^rd Stake with Presidents Rowley and Clark Monson

BYU 3rd Stake High Council

Mapleton 14^th Ward with Bishop Blake Peterson

July 24 Ward Coordinator for 14th Ward

July 13, 2011

What are some of your favorite scriptures, quotes, or sayings?

Ether 12:27

“ 27And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

Use it up, Wear it out , Make it do, or Do without.

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

July 14, 2011

What is your creed for living a good life?

Live the gospel as best as you can and pray to your Heavenly Father every day.

July 12, 2011

Why do you have faith in God?

Because of the teachings of the church in my life and the many spiritual experiences and tender mercies of the Lord during my life. I know that my Heavenly Father lives and loves me and that my Savior Jesus Christ also lives and loves me and that the Holy Ghost has confirmed that they love me many times as well.

How have you built your faith in God?

By learning from all of those experiences and through prayer, scripture study and working to have the Spirit of the Lord with me each day.

July 11, 2011

Have you had any special priesthood blessings?

I have had many special priesthood blessings. My father gave me many during my youth and I have had many since then as well. I have received special blessings accompanying each of my calls to serve in the church and have had many promises fulfilled that were given during those times. My greatest Priesthood Blessing however was when I received my Patriarchal Blessing from my Grandfather Patriarch Charles S Hansen. I was 13 and can still feel his hands as they were laid on my head and can still recall his voice as he slowly gave me the blessing pausing long enough for Grandma to write what was spoken and then continuing on until the blessing was finished in like manner. I the sat there as Marsha  received hers. 

July 10, 2011

Have you any faith promoting experiences (receiving answers to prayers, meeting church leaders and so on)?

I have many of them but the two I usually tell comes from Timberline experiences.

The first is about an instruction from the Lord.

At Timberline there are several times during the week when we have activities out in a large clear area. We would play games such as Capture the Flag. It was during one such event that I had the boys all out on the field near the top of Bristlecone Camp ground. It was near the edge of the cliffs that ran along the back side of the camp. I could hear the thunder coming from an approaching storm which couldn’t be seen due to the mountain behind us as well. I was listening to the thunder come closer when I had a distinct impression to move the boys from that clear area of the camp to a tent located a couple hundred yards further away from the cliffs. It was almost as though a voice had spoken it to me to move them to the tent. Well I yelled to the Senior Patrol Leader to move the boys but he didn’t hear me. The voice impression came stronger a second time so I yelled in such a way that he couldn’t help but hear me. We then all ran to the tent and the rain started to come down so I asked him to get the sides of the tent rolled down and the staff then began to drop the sides. I was helping and standing in such a way that the view of where we had just come from was in my side field of vision. We had barely started to drop the sides when lightening hit the field where we had just been playing. I then knew why I had been instructed to get the boys to the tent. I am sure someone could have been hit had I not heeded the warning. My assistant scoutmasters were worried and ran down the hill from camp since they had seen the strike as well and knew we were suppose to be down there. They were so glad to not find us there and knew the same thing that I did that someone would have been hit had we still been there. As I later thought about it I thought about the Bristlecone Pines from which the camp had been named that line those cliffs and how they have been hit many times through their lives. Lightening strikes along that area was a very common thing. I knew the Lord had been watching out for us that day.

The second is about bothering the Lord.

I was again the Scoutmaster at a Timberline course at Bristlecone Scout Camp. It was a week where we had been blessed with a lot of rain on one day. It had rained with such intensity that one of the patrols had been getting their lessons from the counselor in an outhouse by their camp. I can’t imagine how they must have suffered and have often wondered how much they learned from those lessons. It was also so wet that we decided to have a fire building contest just to see if anyone could build a fire when the wet seemed to be all wet. (The winning patrol did it in just under a minute.) It was also Thursday, the day when we traditionally would hold our Mountain Top Experience. So many of the plans had been changed that day due to the rain that I finally started to pray so that the rain would stop for our Mt Top experience and Flag retiring that followed it.

I must have said the prayer in my mind a hundred times even up to the point when we assembled on the flag assembly field to begin the event. I then had the thought “Quit bothering the Lord, He will stop the rain when it is time.” So I quit and began to pay more attention to the event and giving instruction for the evening. We then began to hike to the top of the mountain and it was still raining but a few hundred yards into the hike as we went along side a cliff where we could see down over Price the rain stopped and a most beautiful rainbow then came into view as the sun broke through the clouds which had been raining on us. I then thanked my Heavenly Father for his blessing. We got to the top of the mountain and the wind was now blowing very hard. Duaine Williams began his presentation of the Title of Liberty and the wind was blowing so hard that he was really having to hang onto the flag which he was using  on the flag pole. I then thought “Thank You Heavenly Father for stopping the rain, now if the wind would just stop.” The wind stopped so suddenly and completely that Duaine was shocked and lost his train of thought as he stared at the flag limp against the side of the pole. I then thought “OK Heavenly Father I know who is really in charge of this camp and it isn’t me”. The wind then again with the same intensity as before but I knew the Lord was watching over my camp.

July 9, 2011

As you look back over your experiences in the Church, what lessons have you learned that you would like to pass on to your posterity?

I have learned that the harder you try to fill your callings the greater the blessings you receive from the lord. Here is a simple example from the past week.

Many times I have sat in priesthood meeting as assignments were passed out to work at the stake farm, cannery, DI or meat packing plant. As a youth and early in my marriage I spent many hours at the church farms hauling hay and weeding beets. However many times I have not been able to fill an assignment due to work. Well a couple of weeks a go the High Priests asked for volunteers to fill meat packing assignments. I knew I was currently unemployed and had the time and even though it really wasn’t on my list of things that I couldn’t wait to do I knew I could do it and so I volunteered for the 6 AM assignment. I found it to be really quite fun and I was home by 9:15 and had my entire day left to do what I needed t do here. Well that day I had four phone calls for new photography jobs. The income I received from them was far more than what I had given in service at the meat packing plant that day. You just cannot get ahead of the Lord. Always be willing to give your time to the Lord even if you don’t always recognize the blessing that I know you will receive.

July 8, 2011

What are your feelings about God?

I love Him. I know he is my Eternal Father and even though I still cannot totally grasp that knowledge I do know He loves me and watches closely over me. My blessings have been so great that I cannot begin to identify all of them but they are a continuing testimony of H is love for me.

July 7, 2011 Marsha's birthday in 1956

When did you receive a testimony of the Savior?

I think my testimony came a little at a time. I have had so many times that I have known for a certainty that He lives and that my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ loves me that I know my testimony has been built by each of those experiences. I was blessed in my youth to have felt their presence many times and it has not been less in my adult life either. My testimony probably came real early in life but has only grown stronger through the years. Does this mean that I have not made mistakes? No, but it does mean that I have felt their love even when I have made those mistakes and grown from them as well.

July 6, 2011

Are there any insights from studying the scriptures or attending conferences you would like to pass on to your children?

I have had a recent experience that I have come to wish that I had done much earlier in my life. For some reason there isn’t a lot of emphasis put on reading the Old Testament. In the mission field we studies the scriptures everyday and had a daily reading schedule that included the New testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. It never included the Old Testament. So for the last few years I have wanted to read the Old Testament from start to finish and finally decided to do it. I now understand why it isn’t pushed but I have enjoyed the experience as it has given me a new perspective on the historical part of the history of the Jews and Israel. It has not been easy since I cannot place many of the places where the history is taking place and it is very hard to understand the relationships of how the prophesies are given and what they mean but in the long run I have gained a greater appreciation for the Bible and those stories that we do hear all the time. I can now place those stories in the Bible and know a little more of the history surrounding them. I am almost done and mat never read it from beginning to end again but am glad that I have done it at least once. I have a greater appreciation now though for latter-day prophets that can give us help just as the ones did in the bible but hopefully we will listen better to our prophets than the children of Israel did to theirs. My insights that have come from reading the Old Testament then is that we have our guidance form prophets just as they did so please use them in your life and follow their teachings.

July 5, 2011

What experiences in the Church do you treasure the most?

There are so many that I cannot begin to think of which I treasure the most except for my marriage. There were the meeting we attended as a family both in my youth and marriage, youth conferences as a youth and an adult, special ordinances like baptism and priesthood ordinations for myself and my children and grandchildren, and the treks and camps. All of these things and many more are experiences that I treasure but cannot place a value of more or less in my memory to be able to say this is what I treasure most. The one that is at the top of the list and will be for an eternity is the day I was married for an eternity to my special love of many of my years as a youth with whom I was able to experience many of the other activities. Due to the eternal nature of that experience it has to be the top.

July 4, 2011 Gertrude Ilean Hansen Poulson's birthday in 1916

When and where were you endowed? What do you remember about your endowment?

Many missionaries can go through the temple after they receive their mission call and attend several times prior to their mission. In my case however I received my call on one Saturday, went to Provo and bought clothes on the next Saturday and then went to Salt lake City the following Saturday to enter the Mission Home. Since we went on Saturday and then to church on Sunday (during which we were able to go into the special room in the Salt Lake Temple and have the a meeting with several of the general authorities) and so on Monday morning we went through the temple at which time I received my endowments. For the first time through of the two we did that morning I was asked to be one of the witnesses. That was a special experience even though I have no idea who the female missionary was that was the other witness. It was all pretty much a blur for me in my memory and that was the last time I was able to go through the temple since there was no temple in my mission and I was not able to attend again until after my mission. 

July 3, 2011

When were you baptized? What do you remember about the event?

Here is my account from my personal history stories.

Baptism Interview at the County Fair

Rural communities and counties seem to have their own special characteristics. I remember all the years that I was growing up our Duchesne County Fair. I liked going to it when I was young because of the candy and other treats that we were able to buy at the booths set up around the fair grounds. We always had a ferris wheel and a rodeo also. I remember only once going on the ferris wheel but I remember quite a few rodeos. In fact the stories form my father about his days in the rodeo were always a lot of fun to listen to and repeat.  I should probably include my memory of some of them in these stories also. Anyway each August near the time of my birthday we would get the chance to go to the county fair if the hay were in the stack yard and the chores were done. I went to a number of rodeo’s and always enjoyed them but the things that I remember most are the exhibits that were in the old buildings. You could walk from one building after looking at all of the jams and jellies that had been made to the next building with the quilts and handmade throw rugs to dollies made by many grandma’s loving hands.   There were also pressed plant specimens and other forestry  and 4-H exhibits that I would actually have of my own later when I turned 12. There was one year though that I will always remember because my Bishop, Bishop Phillip Moon was a sheep farmer and so the county fair was always a place to exhibit his prize livestock as well. But he was still a Bishop and a busy farmer also so he did his duties where ever and whenever he could. At the county fair that shortly followed my eight birthday I remember Bishop Moon calling and setting an appointment for me to meet him at the fair to have my baptism interview. We held it in his truck and I still can also remember that even though it was in a truck it was conducted with the spirit of the Lord by a very loving Bishop. I don’t really remember the words or what I was asked but I do remember the feeling of climbing out of that truck relieved that I had passed my interview. I must have recited several of the Articles of Faith  perfectly for I had studied and memorized very hard so that I could and I must have remembered some of the primary lessons because I am sure I must have been asked about the gospel and what it meant to me in my life. I can’t remember how long it was either but I remember it was long enough for an 8 year old taking his first big test. Later at the start of September I was baptized by my father just as all 8 year were supposed to be baptized. (At least that is what it seemed like to me at that age. I have since learned otherwise.)  Dad baptized me but the two of us had a hard time getting our act together. The first time he missed a couple of words and the second time my toes came out of the water or maybe it was the other way around but the third time we succeeded. I was baptized in the Duchesne Stake Center font only a few days after the county fair.

July 2, 2011 Alma's Birthday

What religion did your parents and grandparents practice?

My parents were both raised as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that was the religion that we practiced in our home. Marie’s parents were also raised that way and practiced it as well. Both sets of my grandparents were also members of the church and had raised my parents that way. Dad was also raised as a rancher and fell into some bad habits with his brothers of swearing, not attending church regularly and of smoking. My mother however happened to be attracted to him despite the habit and he fell in love with her and was willing to change his ways for her. He still did some swearing through his life but I remember him best from going to church with him to other wards as he visited them due to his High Council assignments and then of having him in the Bishopric during part of my youth years. He was also very involved in scouting for many years and may be part of why I have learned also to love it.

July 1, 2011

If you had it to do all over again, how would you change the way you raised your family?

I am not sure I could change things from what I did. I sometimes think that more family vacations would have been good but there is only so many vacation days from an employer and I would not change the way I used my vacations since I was able to be with my children at Scout and Girl’s camps for the majority of those times. They were so special and the experiences are among those that I treasure most.

June 30, 2011

What advice would you give to your children about being a parent?

The best advice that I can think of for my children is to depend on the Lord and to seek His help every day before starting the day and as you end it to give thanks to Him for that help.  The second thing I would give is to be united as parents and to not be afraid to use discipline as a united effort. Then the last thing is to love them regardless of their decisions and always support them but be sure you support them with the Lord’s guidance because even though they are your children doesn’t always mean they have done things correctly and are not at fault. Gather all the facts and support the truth.

June 29, 2011

What was the most difficult thing about raising a family?

Wow this is a loaded question.

I almost think that the most difficult part of raising a family is that it doesn’t come with any instruction manuals that are current. Each child comes with their own personalities and their own set of challenges for their parents. We do have our own parents examples that we can use for reference materials and we have had classes along the way in learning how to discipline and love each child with their own needs. We have also had specialists to help with repairing injuries and helping with speech therapy. We have had Bishops and other church leaders to give wise council but in the long run the greatest help in raising our family has been a loving Heavenly Father that has blessed us so as difficult challenges come along we have been able to make it through and love the outcome.