Sept 25, 2011

Sister Gilbert/memorize Apostles

In Sunday School when I was somewhere around 8 years old I had a very special teacher by the name of Sister Gilbert. Her family owned the Dairy Queen in town and was one of my favorite places to visit since it was only a block and a half from Grandma Poulson’s.  One day in class Sister Gilbert challenged us in the class to memorize the Presidency of the church, The Quorum of the12 Apostles, Church Patriarch, The Assistants quorum of the 12 Apostles and then the Presiding Bishopric of the church. She also challenged us to memorize our Stake Presidency and Patriarch. To the first person to pass it off she would give a silver dollar that she had gotten in her Dairy Queen business. A friend of mine by the name of Jon rode the same bus as I did each day to school so we decided to take her up on the challenge. I remember working really hard to memorize each name specifically correct. The day I went to church early to pass it off I found out that Jon had also gone early that day and was at that very moment in passing it off. Sister Gilbert gave me a chance also even though Jon had done it correctly and basically won the silver dollar. I also passed it off correctly so she gave me a silver dollar as well. I can’t list them at this time but there were names in that group such as “O Leslie Stone” and “Hugh B Brown” that seemed to stick with me quite easily through the years.

I have always treasured that Silver dollar and for years it was the only one that I had until one day I was doing chores and had climbed the hay stack to feed the cows./ Our baler made the bales round so the stack was a in huge triangle  shape which was fun to slide down after pushing a bale off with which to feed the cows. This day however was a little different because as I slid down off the stack something hit me in the back. It was a silver dollar. We asked several possible people who might have lost it but never did find out who the dollar belonged to so I ended up putting it with my other silver dollar from Sister Gilbert. Years later after Lynn had gone on his mission we were going through my coin collection and I discovered that Lynn didn’t have a silver dollar so I gave the one to him that I had found on the haystack. I still have the other one to this day. It reminds me of the dedication of a Sunday school teacher who knew how to catch the interest of her students and help them to learn valuable lessons at the same time as they were in reality building testimonies of the Prophet and the Apostles.

Sept 24, 2011

Charles W Dahlquist Gen YM Pres: SB's, LDS/BSA Relationship

Nov. 10, 2005 I had an opportunity to attend an instruction session with Charles W Dahlquist, the General Young Men’s President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was about the LDS?BSA Relationship. Many rumors had been circulating for several years about the LDS church removing Scouting from it’s program. I had been in a meeting at Thanksgiving Point several years ago and had been told at that time that the church had no intensions of doing any such thing. However the rumors persisted and at this meeting Brother Dahlquist told us that it was not true and if anything was true it was that the LDS was moving closer to Scouting. He explained that the units of the church that were trying to move away and do just the Duty to God program would fail since the leadership principles taught in Scouting were essential to that program as well and if ran with Scouting would be much more successful.  (It was interesting to me since the original name for Duty to God seemed to have been pulled from The Scout Oath anyway.)

He also explained many other special points that I had so wanted to hear since we had been trying to teach it in scouting for several years. He explained that we need leaders in Scouting that have the four T’s. T number one was a testimony. Every Scout leader needs to have a firm testimony of the Gospel and at each activity teach the boys by ending with a Scoutmaster’s minute which would help the boys to gain a testimony of their own. The second T was training. Every leader involved with the boys needed to be Wood Badge and where possible Philmont Trained.  Those who come back from Wood Badge have a testimony of Scouting and a working knowledge of how to teach it to the boys. The third T was tenure. He explained that the average tenure of scout leaders in the church is 6 to 9 months. “You cannot influence the life of a boy in 6 to 9 months.” He explained that we need to call leaders for a minimum of three years. The fourth T is Time. Every scout leader must be able to spend time with the boys. Summer camps and weekly activities being a major part of that time but also just time to spend with a boy who may need a little extra help.

He also talked about Safety. 17% of all registered Scouts in BSA are LDS. However 50% of the accidents are in LDS units. We have got to be safety aware and practice Common Sense. There are three factors influencing this statistic. One is a lack of training. Two is a lack of tenure. The Third is a lack of the use of Common Sense. He told of a young Scoutmaster that died while on a rock climbing activity. The initial report said that there were three trained repelling adults, and that it was just an accident. The second report though told of the challenge the boys had issued to the Scoutmaster to come down as fast as he could so he took a running leap and the first anchor failed followed by the other four as he fell to his death leaving behind a young family. Common Sense.

He also talked about Fund Raisers and that the best one would involve the boys having to work for money to go to scout camps. There are three ways to fund scouting. The first is the $50 allowance in the ward budgets. The second is having the boy pay his own way and the third fund raisers. He explained that we too often leave out the second one abd the most important one at the same time . We need missionaries who are not afraid to work. There is no better way to train them outside of the home than in scouting. Teach boys to work.

He also explained that we are to never leave a boy behind because he may not be active. He told us to be sure to register every boy and then turn it over to the leaders to capitalize on that investment through getting the boy involved in Scouting.

I loved every minute of the meeting and have probably left some important parts out but want you to know that my love for scouting came because of leaders who were not afraid to include me in some of their “own” time. That is another story.

Sept. 23, 2011

American TV: An Apartment that I had to get on Top

When I worked at American Television Service one of my main responsibilities was to repair problems with antennas.  One such experience found me in Provo repairing an antenna on the top of an apartment building. As I got there I realized that the building was taller than most that I had been on in the past. I went inside to try and locate an entrance from the interior of the building that would lead to the roof. There was no such thing. So I removed our 24 foot ladder from off the truck and extended it to the full reach and it was still too short. I finally had to back the van next to the building and then put the ladder on the top of the van. I tied the ladder feet to the railing on the ladder and then the ladder reached to about 1 foot below the edge of the roof. I figured that would be sufficient and grabbed my tools and a new antenna and cable and climbed to the top. I took everything I might possibly need, that I could carry, since I wanted to only have to do it once. I climbed onto the roof and repaired the antenna. I can’t remember what I had to repair but I can vividly remember what I thought as I went to get off. Getting on the roof hadn’t been too bad but when I looked over the edge and the ladder was afoot below the edge it wasn’t going to be quite as easy to get back onto it. I put everything within reaching distance, threw down what I could so I wouldn’t have to carry all of it again and then laid down on the roof. I slowly inched off the edge until my legs could swing down and stand on the ladder. I then steadied myself, took a deep breath and gathered everything up and started down the ladder. I always felt blessed when I got to the bottom one wrung at a time rather than in one heap from a lofty leap. I was blessed to never have to do that again. 

Sept. 22, 2011

Accidents: Ball Bearings under the car

There has been many times through my life that I have been blessed by the Lord and didn’t realize it until some time later.  One for instance was while I was working at Signetics. I had gone to work on graveyard shift, as was the case for the last seven years that I worked there, and spent a regular night at work. The Blessing had been given that night on the way into work in the car but wasn’t realized until I left to go home the next morning. As I went to find the car I was approaching it from the back when I noticed a steel marble behind one of the tires. I bent down under the car to pick it up and noticed there were actually several of them. At that point one of the employees who often rode into work with me realized that they were actually the ball bearings form the car. I ended up having to get the car carried over to my mechanic in Mapleton so that the bearing could be replaced.  Now, You may ask what was the blessing in having your car break down and leave you stranded at work, and I will promptly answer that the blessing was that I made it to work in the first place. Obviously the bearing had fallen apart while we were riding into work the night before but the bearings had stayed and worked properly until the car was stopped and sitting in the parking lot at work.  It is at times like these that I am so very thankful for a Heavenly Father that knows my time table and knew that I could spend extra time going home from work that I couldn’t spend in getting there.

Sept. 21, 2011

A Story of the Lord’s Blessings

There have been many times in my life that I have known almost immediately that the Lord has heard my prayers and sent the appropriate messenger to fulfill my needs or the needs of my family. There has been one person who the Lord has sent many times and he has heeded the call each time. I know also that the Lord ahs asked him to do it for many other people as well and that he has also heeded those calls. But for the sake of keeping it possible for the Lord to continue to bless him and so that it doesn’t appear to you as the reader that he has done it to seek earthly recognition I will not mention his or the name of his family. Just know that we have come to love them through these and many other opportunities where we have been served by them and also many times that we have been able to return service to them.

The event though I will try to spell out in detail so as to not be misunderstood as to how the Lord blessed us so greatly.

During my marriage we as a couple and family have received many blessings through good employment for myself. For many years I was able to be the total bread winner for our family. I was first employed by American Television Service in Orem for three years. I ended up leaving that employment because of consistent loss of income due to the employer going back on promises. I found myself working long hours and knew that my family was suffering from my never being able to be home with them. The boys small and I very often was gone before they woke up and not home until they were in bed again. So between the job and home I felt it important to try and change employment. I can’t even remember the final straw that caused me to quit but I do remember the morning that it happened. Marie and I had talked about it and she made the comment “You may want to quit but you won’t.”  So I put all of my extra shirts in the van and later left for work.. When I got there I talked briefly with Carl Haupt, the owner and boss and then left the keys with him and walked home. I left around 8:30 Am and got home around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was 14 miles part of which I followed the train tracks so that I wouldn’t continue to be asked if I wanted a ride. The blisters formed and I finally accepted a ride from Frisby’s for the last two miles.

I went without a job for nearly two months until I finally got employment at Signetics at between a third and a half the salary I had been making at AM TV. However one of the Lord’s blessings came within a year when I was the making more than I had been and my original salary was tripled. I worked with Signetics until the company moved to New Mexico and I wanted to stay here with my family. Bishop Anderson found out that I would be unemployed and asked if I wanted to learn how to make chocolates since they owned Kara Chocolates. I started working there 9 months before Signetics actually shut the doors.  Within a couple of years Bishop sold the candy company and a little over a year after that I also quit that job. (This time though I didn’t walk home.) I had been asked several times to work graveyard shifts for the company and did it willingly until it became evident that I was wasting time there during the night. I was asked to work but would often run out of raw chocolate or place to store the candy as I made it. The night I quit I had told them I would work on condition that there be enough chocolate there that I could produce the candy all night. Well I got there and had enough to keep me working for 1 and a half hours. So in keeping with my promise to them that I would leave I left the key on their desk and locked the door behind me. I had enjoyed working there but again missed promises were more than I needed to worry about.

Little did I realize though that my worries had just begun but so also had the real blessings from the Lord began to be manifested in my behalf and that of my family also. I worked as an Insurance agent for a few months and as a full time photographer and later at a cabinet shop (Anderson Cabinet and Mantle) and finally at my current employment with Provo Craft. There were many times that finances would seem to be all gone and we would lose the house and yet each time we would either be able to refinance enough to keep us going. I had $40,000 saved in an IRA account when Signetics shut down that ended up being used to help us stay afloat. But one day in particular before I was hired at Provo Craft the hours I had been able to work had not been bringing in sufficient finances. I remember that day so well because I sat in the den trying to pay bills and was nearly $1,000.00 short. I broke down in tears and then fell to my knees to pray for an answer as to what I should do to be able to pay the bills.  It was only a few hours later when the doorbell rang and our friend had come to see us. He inquired of our family as he always does asking me to report on each child and what they were doing. We talked for an hour or so and then he pulled a check from his pocket and said he had a feeling come to him that morning that we needed this and left it with us asking only for a big hug for thanks. After he had gone we opened the check to find it made out for $1.000.00.

That was only once of several times when we have received help form the Lord. Some of them we don’t know where they are coming from but they always come when we have done what we can to make ends meet. Then the Lord whispers in someone’s ear and we are blessed. I only hope that I have done the same when the Lord has whispered to me, although I am sure I probably haven’t done it enough. I am truly thankful for the Lord’s blessings and truly thankful for those who have heeded his call in our behalf. 

Even now with Marie and I both working we are often without money but I have always noticed as that happens we get blessed with a wedding to photograph or a family to photograph and sufficient money for our needs are received.

New Entry 02/08/2010

I feel that I need add a segment to this story. We have ended up getting a Passat Volkswagon. It is more expensive than we had hoped and may end up being far more expensive before we will be able to trade it but I hope to be able to someday soon. Anyway the real story I have to tell this time was about our trip to Colorado this past weekend to Kasia’s baptism. Ben, Hayden , Tia , and Marie and I with their families all made the trip to Colorado despite snow storms predicted both going to Colorado and coming home. Hayden left first on Wednesday and went half way to Grand Junction and stayed overnight then went on in on Thursday getting there around 4 or 5 pm.  They went swimming with Hallie in the morning and made the trip a little less stressful for her. Scott, Tia, Marie and I then left around 2 pm and drove straight thru getting there around 10:30 pm.  Hayden hit snow storms but didn’t have too much trouble getting thru. He also went thru fog just as we did when we came thru later and we also hit snow from Vail to Eisenhower tunnel. We went quite slow and didn’t have any trouble either. Ben then came thru as far as Grand Junction that night arriving there about the same time we got to Jeff’s. They had hit heavy fog thru the areas where Hayden and I also had only theirs was much thicker. Well they came on the next morning after letting the boys play and enjoy themselves arriving around 4 pm Friday night. I was so thankful to have us all there safely. 

We had a lot of fun playing and having dinner together Friday night and then had fun going to Kasia’s last basketball game of the season and later to her baptism. It was such a special day and we all enjoyed it. For some reason though that day Hayden had decided to check the fluids in his car. It was good that he did because he was low on oil so after we got home from the dinner following Kasia’s baptism he and Jeff went and got some oil. The car was 4 quarts low meaning they had driven to Colorado with only one quart in the engine. The Lord had really blessed them since the extra heating from having to cross over the mountains had not caused the engine to seize. Hayden and Cheyenne left for Grand Junction Saturday evening around 5 pm and arrived safely in Grand Junction around 10:30 pm.

We  again played games and had fun but retired to bed a little earlier that night. The next morning due to bad weather reports in Grand Junction we decided to leave t 8 am instead of going to church. Ben wanted to leave at that time and I felt it best that we travel together. We had heavy storm thru the mountains just west of Denver but when we came out of the Eisenhower tunnel the roads were clear and we were able to travel a little faster. However prior to that we had lost track of Ben and didn’t know why we had lost him. We had passed a van that had slid from the road and rolled. The passengers were apparently Ok since they were standing outside the vehicle. We slowed way down and found out that as Ben was approaching that accident that his car started to slide around and so he got into the outside lane and slowed down. He later caught up to us as we were going slow enough for him to do so without added danger of driving faster.   After we had started down the other side of the mountain we were getting near to Vail Tia got a text from Cheyenne stating that sliding off the road was fun Go Team Go. We were not sure what it meant until she later informed us that they had slid off of the road. They were doing about 70 and the car went into a spin of about three turns and then hit a snow bank and rocked up onto tow wheels then back down. They had to call a wrecking truck to pull them free from the snow and get them back on the road. As he got up to speed the car started to shake and he found out that the accident had caused it to go out of alignment. They were only able to drive the remaining miles home at less than 60 miles per hour arriving n Payson around 4:30 PM.  They had truly been blessed a second time by not being injured as the car could have rolled had it been in any other area of the highway.

We came home on dry roads pretty much the rest of the way with just a little precipitation around Grand Junction. It was a true relief when we were all safely home again around 5:30 PM.  The Lord had blessed all of us but Hayden had been the recipient of his greatest tender mercies. I am thankful that we had his watchful care upon us as we had gone to this wonderful event. Jeff and Brittany also arrived safely home form a cruise that they had been on, a present from his boss. They had a great time and were also safely home. Loren and Rachelle were at home in Texas as the distance for them to come was too prohibitive.