Jan. 11, 2012

1st Counselor in BYU 166th Ward

In early February of 2006 I received a phone call from BYU asking my wife and I to come over and meet with a Pres. Bowman of the BYU 3^rd Stake.  I had known a number of men in the ward who had served at BYU and always felt sorry for them that they couldn’t attend their home ward. I didn’t know what it involved but was sure that the travel each week would wear on a person after a short while. Tia had attended a ward at BYU but we had never gone to church with her while she was there and only knew that she met in a classroom. So it was with a bit of fear and trepidation that we came over and met with President Bowman. He talked to us for a while and then said that Jim Lundberg of Mapleton had been called to be a Bishop and requested that I serve as a counselor to him. I knew Jim even though he was in a different ward because I was in the Bishopric there when he and his family moved into the ward.

We accepted the call and then he began to tell us that he had served at BYU now going on 8 years but a typical length of service was 3 years in a Bishopric. He told us how he loved serving here and that we too would grow to love it. Our assignment would be with the 166^th ward located in Liberty Square apartments in Provo around 500 East and 500 North.  I didn’t know that Jim had been on the High Council for two years in the Stake and so he was very familiar with the comings and goings of service over here. Well the following week we came to Sacrament Meeting and sat up in the back of the large room where the service was held each week. The Bishopric was all seated down in front unlike the usual up in front like I was use to in the other Bishoprics that I had served in with the Mapleton Stake. The podium was now below most of the students and on the same level as those in the front row. A table divided us from the student where during the week lectures on biology were conducted including the dissecting of mice and other things.

We were sustained and then asked to talk and then after the meeting observed as the students were crying with the release of the old Bishopric. Now we were faced with the daunting task of learning the names of 152 new students who would soon be leaving school for the summer. There was a set of triplets that were members of the ward and they looked so much alike that I just knew I would never know them but by carefully watching what they wore and when their name was called I was soon able to at least get them correct each week. Later I put their pictures on the computer and scrolled back and forth through them until I knew the identifying freckles on their faces that were easy to see and thus easy to keep straight which one was which despite what they wore. Later in fact Lindsay was called as the Relief Society President and we became very close to her. They were the ones who greeted Brittany during the summer term into the ward and made her feel such a special part of the ward. The next two summers were not the same since they had gotten married and were no longer part of the ward and the students didn’t seem to get to know her as well those years.

Well we learned their names long enough to get to love them and then each year in August would start fresh with mostly new students. With my love for photography we would have them come for FHE and do picture sessions with the FHE groups each week. We became lonely in fact when for some reason they wouldn’t be there during some weeks. Then I would photograph them at the ward socials and was able to get to know them that way even better. Then in 2007 I was introduced to Facebook on the internet and began posting the pictures of our events on that website. It has been great also because as the youth would leave at the end of the terms I would still have contact with them. We have had a great time and so when it came time to be released in Jan on the 11^th I  knew that I now felt totally different about service at BYU.

I had opportunities to extend callings and to get to make assignments and was always so grateful for the willingness each would have as they accepted the assignments. I never had to worry about whether the would get done either and grew to love ov 450 students which we were able to get to know in the three years I served in the Bishopric. Marie would always come to church with me as well and she and I both fell in love with each student. Now I have been called into the High Council on Jan 11, 2009 and am greatly loving this call as well since I still see the old ward members and also see them in other wards now too.  It is really neat to be able to continue serving here at BYU and with a ward over whom the Bishop that is serving was once the High Councilor assigned to our ward when I was in the Bishopric.  There are many stories that I can now add to my list and would put them here but then it would be too long to read so I will separate them out.

(Every now and then I rewrite one I had already written but not realized it. Here is the second version of this story.}

BYU 166^th Ward Socials.

The time that I spent in the Bishopric as first counselor to Bishop Jim Lundberg were some of the greatest years of my life. We got to learn, temporarily, the names of nearly 500 students.  I think I will always remember their names and their faces but matching the two parts together when I see them from time to time now just doesn’t happen except for a few that we really got to know well.

Part of the reason that it was so fun was because it wasn’t work to get to know them and it wasn’t work to get them to accept and fulfill their calling. It wasn’t work to get them to give talks in Sacrament meeting and in fact several asked if they could. It wasn’t work to plan socials because they did it themselves. It just wasn’t work to be a part of such great wards. (I say wards because they would have around 90 % turn around each year as the youth would move to other apartments to meet more people and find their eternal partner.)

We had some great socials. Since Bishop lived in a neighborhood with a pool we held most of the opening socials there. Towards the end we were getting a little shy of doing it there because it seemed as though toward the end of each one someone would crack their head on the bottom of the pool getting large cuts from the impact. It was almost a guessing game as to whom it would happen to the next time we planned a social at the pool. We only had four there but that was enough. I believe that we actually did have an accident free event the last time. We also had two socials at a church owned home in left fork of Hobble Creek canyon. Both times they were fun nights filled with games and socializing. I even cooked 8 Dutch Oven cobblers for the first one. (Then learned my lesson.) We had one for Halloween in Payson at a barn and one at Shepherd’s home in Mapleton for an opening social to a summer semester. We held two at the white church in Mapleton, one at a park near BYU in Provo (on my birthday where they brought an ice cream cake for me) and one up Provo canyon where the youth floated the Provo River on tubes. We held several with other wards of which one was a large dance in the Liberty Square clubhouse for Halloween and two were held at a sledding hill in Midway. Again one of them was also held at the pool in Mapleton since both Bishops lived there and the two wards combined memberships were fairly low in number and we had one other social at the pool in Liberty Square. (It was around late summer and a couple of the men wanted to throw me in but luckily for me my camera around my neck prevented the mischief from happening.) Some of the socials were held at the clubhouse on Fast Day where we had meals to break the fast. We also held two or three of them in the Wilkinson Center for Fall semester closing social’s just prior to the break when they would go home for Christmas. We held one at the Mapleton City Park near the white church. The two best though were when we rented a bus and took groups to the Manti Temple for baptisms and endowments in the Manti Temple.

In my collection of images you can find pictures from all of the events and one member commented once to me that they really appreciated my taking the pictures for them. Marie and I had to miss one that was a talent show held in a building at BYU since we were photographing a wedding that night. Other than that one I think we were able to attend every single event that they planned during those three years. I even learned about Facebook and began posting the pictures from each event there after they had occurred so the youth could see the image so that I had taken. Before that they had to wait for a closing social to see a slide show of the images from that semester.

Jan. 10, 2012

Hauling Hay for Harold at 6 am alone

We had a very good neighbor and friend named Harold Spencer. He came form the Mormon colonies in Mexico and went to work for Brother Rasmussen our neighbor. Our neighbor had a pretty daughter named Carolyn that he fell in love with and married. They then moved into the home next to ours in Duchesne. (By next I mean about a half mile away toward town.)

Harold and my family worked together a lot doing the farms. Harold would do hay with us and we would do it with him. I grew up basically helping him every summer. We would often do chores for each other as well when someone needed to go out of town or for some reason wouldn’t be home to milk the cows.

One summer when I was about 16 or 17 we had decided to haul the hay off one of Harold’s fields at 6 AM one morning. There were some of the other boys from town that were also going to come help. I got up early and milked the cows so I could get the tractor and wagon over to Harold’s place before everyone started to arrive. When I got over there I couldn’t find anyone so I just headed out into the filed with the tractor and started to load the hay. Probably an hour and a half later later I had a full load of hay on the wagon. It took longer because I would have to drive the tractor to the next set of bales, stop and get off and put the hay on the wagon, get on the wagon and stack the hay, and then get off and move the tractor forward to another set of bales. Due to that process I would also carry the bales further than normal since I didn’t want to move the tractor as often. Then as the wagon was nearly full getting the hay up on to the second and third layers of the hay on the wagon also took a little longer and I would often have to get up after each couple of bales to move them into place so I could get room to load the next couple of bales. I was getting pretty tired but finally had the bales loaded and about a quarter of the field of hay loaded onto the wagon. I got on the tractor and headed back to the yard when the others finally started to arrive. They told me that they thought that they were early and were not suppose to be there until 8AM. Well I don’t know who was right or wrong but at least I had some help which I was beginning to fear might not happen.

Jan. 9, 2012

Summer Camp: Pine Island, three campfires/alone time.

As a scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America in the Utah National Parks Council in Utah I had numerous experiences that were lessons for my life. Some of these lessons I realized almost instantly while other took on greater value through my life.

One such experience has just recently (tonight, I am writing this at 3 am) come into my mind and I have suddenly found a use for it in a new business that I am starting. I have been involved in many Multi-Level Marketing programs in my life and have never succeeded at them mainly due to the fact that I really haven’t wanted too. But there are other reasons as well of course but now I am in one where I want to succeed and in fact must succeed and will by putting the principles learned on this campout to use now.

You see I went on the camp to try out an experiment that I had been told about in one of my scouting leadership trainings at Camp Maple Dell in Payson canyon near Payson, Utah. The instructor told us about a camp where he had taken 8 scouts on a summer camp. These were each boys that had been unable to go to their own troop camps for some reason during that summer and he still wanted them to have the experience. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and with that background and knowing each boy also were members he wanted to be able to teach them some principles learned in the church about themselves and their value and destiny. He decided to have a special set of campfires during that week to teach them how to put on a campfire and also to teach them the gospel.

He told us that he had a great experience with that camp. The first night they got to camp he told them that they had 50 minutes to plan for the campfire and then he would get the last ten.  The second campfire that they would hold on Wednesday of that night they would have 30 minutes and he would have 30. Then the final campfire for the week on Friday night they would get the first 10 and he would use the last 50.

The first campfire went something like this as I remember his story.  They used the first 50 minutes and did skits and songs and told stories. Then he took the last ten and told them that they were somewhat experiencing what their ancestors had experienced as they crossed the plains to come to Utah. They were camping out, cooking meals over fires and hiking through the wilderness. Although it was really no where like what some of the pioneers experienced they were still doing the same types of things. He then related some stories about his ancestors that were similar to the experiences of these boys.

The second campfire they sang more songs, played more skits and told more stories and then he took the last 30 minutes to tell them the story of Joseph Smith who at age 14 had questions about God and which church he should join. Joseph he reminded them was about their same age when this all started for him. He then told the story and how because of his faith and desire to know the truth was actually visited by the Savior and His Father. He bore his testimony about the truth of that experience and ended it. It took 30 minutes.

The third campout they sang a few songs and did a couple skits but they only had 10 minutes. He then talked about Jesus Christ and His life and what it would mean to them if they studied His life and tried to become like him. He talked about planting the seed of faith and letting it grow in them and about how they would need to nourish it and help it to flourish. He took 50 minutes and the boys all sat there totally listening to what he had to say about the Savior. Well little did he know that one of the fathers was standing outside of the campfire in the trees listening to this event and taking it all in rather well himself only from a different perspective. You see this father was a sportsman and always put sports before scouting in his sons life. He felt that it was more important to learn to play sports that to just go camping and earn merit badges. Well after the campfire ended he came into the light and talked to the scoutmaster and told him how he had watched the boys as they sat there listening to him and how every one of them were glued to his words. He had never seen a group of boys sit for so long and not lose attention to the speaker. The scoutmaster then simply replied to him “You could never do that of a football field could you?”

Well, that story stuck a cord in me and I decided to follow a similar plan for my summer camp that year with the scouts. I got the committee together and told them where I wanted to go for camp that year and we began planning.  I had camped as a boy near Palisade Lake in the Granddaddy Basin of the High Uintah Mountains. It was a special place for me as I had camped there several times and knew the lake quite well. As it turned out though the committee member who was in charge of getting the tour permit and lining up the area could not find that camp in the basin. So I relented and told him we could go to one nearby called Pine Island lake and so that is what was planned.  I then told the boys of the place and how I wanted to do the campfires. They agreed and went about planning their portions of each campfire program.

The first day we went in was a bit taxing on the boys since we had to hike about 7 miles up and into the basin then over to Pine Island lake. I had taken all of the maps of the basin and knew where Palisade lake was located but went ahead and camped at Pine Island. It was a bit rough for one group of the boys because the scout assigned to bring the tent for them didn’t have the poles so they had to devise a way to string it up into the trees with ropes. It worked but it took a while for them to get it up. We finally got everything done and they did a little exploring and fishing and then we ate supper and started the campfire. It went pretty much just like the campfire program that I was taught and we went to bed.

The next day just because I had to prove to myself that I could go cross country and not get lost I set out with my maps and hiked the ½ mile through the trees to Palisade lake. I then followed the trail around through the woods back to camp. As a scout I always took a camera (little Brownie Instamatic) with me on our camps and one year had photographed a tree that had fallen across a small marsh. The trunk had broken several times and because of some of the larger branches holding it up it formed an M shape across the foot deep water. I had taken a picture of it but over the years as I looked at the picture I could not remember where along the trail I had photographed it. Well as I returned along the trail back to the camp, coming to it from the opposite direction of the day before when we hiked in, I suddenly realized that I was seeing that exact same tree and it was only 100 feet from where we had set up camp. I suddenly realized why my assistant could not locate the other lake because I was to find that tree just to satisfy my years of yearning about it. I stood back and in what I thought was about the same place took another picture. It had been over 25 years since I had photographed that tree. (When I got home I compared the images and the tree had lost a lot of the smaller limbs but basically looked the same however the background trees had all significantly changed. It was a lesson on how many years some of those dead trees have been in that forest, much longer than I had ever before expected.

The next day we hiked up to Four Lakes Basin, a place I had always wanted to go as a youth but never made it. Some of the scouts and one scoutmaster swam in the lake but only for a very short time. It was terribly cold. One of the other adults and I hiked up above the lake around the cliffs and back down coming back to the lake form the opposite side. He was tall and had long legs and I found it a challenge to jump across some of the rocks that he seemed so easily able to cross. However as we came back down I found that I had the advantage since I could easily go downhill while his knees prevented him from going quite as easily. After returning to camp I spent time also preparing for a hike that we would take the next day cross-country to Governor Lake. I had a great fear as a youth of getting lost when up in the mountains and so partly for myself and a lot for the boys I had decided to do a cross-country hike using the maps and letting them use their compasses to direct us. I had three patrols that year so I had each patrol responsible for part of the hike. So after a great campfire program and it went just like it was suppose too, I told them of my plans for the following day and we went to bed.

The next day was great. The boys found their way to the lake. We even had plenty of time to stop and fish along the way. We spent the entire day and got back late that evening just in time for them to make supper, eat and go to bed. I felt that it was a great success especially for me. I had now dispelled all of the fears of my youth through two experiments that week. One, for me personally, on Tuesday and then one for the boys on Thursday.

As we held our scoutmaster planning that night before retiring I told the other three adults that were with me that I would be gone the next day and they would be responsible for the boys. I would leave before everyone got up and would return in time for supper and for the final campfire. I arose the next morning before 6 AM and left the camp. There was a smaller lake higher in elevation from Pine Island and yet quite close to it so I hiked up toward it looking for a place where I could be alone and yet not so far away that I couldn’t keep a little bit aware of what was happening in camp. I was almost straight up from the camp so every now and then I could hear what was happening but not well enough to really disturb what I had planned. I spent the entire day thinking and praying about each boy and leader. After I had spent time on one of them I wrote a short letter to him telling him of my testimony and things that I felt he needed to know. I did this for each scout and each leader. I found myself several times during that day wondering if I was really listening to the spirit or just writing things I thought that they needed to know. I proceeded however and did it for each one of them. (It was fun that during the day I was visited by a little hummingbird three times, It could see my red scout shirt and came up to see if I was a flower and had something to offer it to eat. I have often wished that I had.) I also prepared my part of the campfire that night by collecting a small flat rock and a small pine cone for each person. My talk was going to center on planting a seed of faith and my testimony about the Saviors visit to the Americas after his crucifixion. The rocks at that time we are told in the Book of Mormon were rent,  cracked and even thrown around as the earth was in such tumult over the Saviors death. The rocks we were camping and hiking around that week were a testimony to me about the truthfulness of that account.

I returned with my letters, rocks and cones to camp around 6:30 PM and called all of the scouts back from fishing etc. so we could have supper and be ready for the campfire as planned that night.  The campfire went well and as I talked to the boys about the rocks and the cones I handed each one of them one to keep and take home so they would remember what we had talked about. (Years later as an adult one of the boys told me he still had that rock and pine cone.) I waited until the very last and then put them on silence for the rest of the evening. I gave them their letter and told them to go to bed, and without talking to anyone else, read the letter, say their prayers and go to sleep.  Later that night after they had all gone to bed one of the scoutmasters came to me and said, “How did you know that I had been struggling with the very things that you told me in that letter?” I told him how I had spent the day and had often wondered if I was really listening or just saying what I thought that I should say and for me his question had just answered mine. I then knew that the Lord had directed my thoughts that day for each of them.

We hiked out the following day and I will always cherish the experiences I had at that camp. The Lord had taught me something that I would end up needing years later.

Well as I lay in bed tonight I suddenly recalled this camp and with my studying the last few weeks I realized that for me to succeed with the business of helping other people that I would need to let the Spirit direct me in much the same manner it had for me during that day on the mountain above Pine Island Lake. I will need to get to know them through a conversation with them and then in a way go to my mountain and find out how the Lord would have me act in their behalf. I won’t be able to tell many of them I am sure that it was the Lord directing me but I can later bear testimony of it as they become friends and I know more about their religious beliefs. Until that time it will just be setting an example for them and living the gospel so that it is evident to them why I live as I do and why they are so important to me.

Jan 8, 2012 following Stake Conference

Stake Conference Jan 7-8, 2012

Today the Stake Presidency was released. President John K Frischknecht, Ist Coun. Collin Allan, and 2^nd Coun. Scott Summerfeldt.  The new presidency was then sustained as President Scott Summerfeldt, 1^st Counselor David Jensen and 2^nd Coun. Ryan Moss.

The visiting General Authorities were Elders Marlin Jensen and Christopher B Munday. Elder Munday had a great sense of humor only bested by Elder Jensen’s. It was a lot of fun listening to them. They gave us some great counsel and I have decided to pass it on to you as well.

Pres and Sister Frischnecht both spoke about families first followed by our visiting authorities.

Elder Munday spoke yesterday of the importance of families and most importantly teaching children the gospel. He said that we need to teach not just the what of the gospel principle but also the why. He told a story when one of the general authorities (Elder Nelson) came to his stake in England and asked for two youth speakers to give talks and bear their testimonies of the gospel. He picked the two youth that he knew would best represent the gospel (and make him look good). They got up and both gave the basic same talk about all the things that we do not do in the gospel. After they sat down Elder Nelson looked over at him and simply said, “Interesting.” That dwelt on his mind for some time after conference was over and finally he came to the understanding that those he had chosen knew the whats of the gospel but did not understand the whys. He determined that from that time forth he would teach the whys. The whats of the gospel are the word of wisdom, temple marriage, home teaching, plan of salvation, etc. The whys are the reasons why  the Lord gave them as commandments. Health and strength by obedience to the Lords giving the word of wisdom. Forever families and our becoming Gods are two of the whys for temple marriage. Looking out for the welfare of our fellow men is the why for home teaching and becoming like God the why for the plan of salvation. He admonished us to always teach the whys with the whats as we teach our children and as we minister in the gospel.

Elder Jensen then spoke about our need to tell our stories. He said that as we tell our stories the spirit of the Lord can teach our children and grandchildren and beyond why we have testimonies and where we may have struggled to learn to obey the commandmants. They will be strengthened by knowing our stories.

(I thought about Hayden’s gift two years ago that started me on that very path by starting the blog of my stories. I hope they mean something to you and to your children.) He told about his great grandfather getting a piece of horehound candy in his stocking one year and that was all any of them got that Christmas. So he decided to put a plan into action where he could enjoy that candy all year. He would lick it a couple of times and then wrap it in some tissue and put it by his bed and each night before bed he would take it out and lick it a couple of times and by so doing it lasted a full year.  He then said “And in me is a part of him.” He then told a couple other stories to illustrate things that he had learned form his grandfather and father ad then again said “And there is a part of them in me.”

  

Both talks were really good and we were there a full two hours that didn’t seem that long.

Today several bore testimonies from the former Stake Presidency and the new one as well.

Then Elder Munday spoke about the fact that they had all mentioned that their wives were so much a reason for their being where they were. Then he said that there was a quote that hangs in their home in England that reads, “She who sits and waits also serves.” He then spoke to the youth and admonished them to be faithful to their parents and the gospel and to the young men to serve a mission even if they don’t want to do it. He also spoke about having personal priesthood interviews with each of your children every fast Sunday. He explained that as a Bishop he once had a father and son come to him and the father told him that his son had told him something last night that he needed to tell the Bishop. After the interview he asked the father how he had gotten his son to tell him first about the problem and he then explained that he had always had PPI’s with his children even from before they could really talk and that was why he son came to him first.

Elder Jensen then talked to us and explained that as a Mission President he found that the Bishop’s were not using the Elders to speak in Sacrament meeting and he found out that the Bishops didn’t use them because they couldn’t give good talks. His wife then went to work to find out how they could be taught to speak better He explained that she found out that the best speakers always did 4 things. 1. Give an introduction to the topic. 2^nd. Tell a story and preferably one from your own experience and 3^rd back it up with a scripture that supports the story and then finally bear your testimony in closing about that principle and the gospel.  This is something that might well be taught to your children, especially as they get into their youth talk giving years. Teach it by doing it every time you talk as well so they learn from example also before that time. He then gave his talk following those very steps. It was really good.

At the end he summed up his testimony by saying something to the fact that when all is said and done if he has someone who will call him Honey, and children that he helped to make call him dad and grandchildren who call him Papa that it will be good enough for him. What a testimony to the strength of a family. 

Jan. 8, 2012

Finding Steve's home in Palmyra

While I worked at Signetics I was asked at one point in my career there to be a maintenance supervisor. I was on dayshift and was the supervisor over the Thin Film manufacturing area. I had about five people who reported to me and with whom I would hold daily team meetings before we started our shift. I was the one who had started the practice of having a team meeting each day because I found it easier to start everyone on the same page that way. I would go in a little early and get a run down on all of the equipment that was down and then hold the team meeting where I would make assignments and then send the technicians out to interface with the other shift before they went home. As part of my duties I was also required to do semi-annual reviews on everyone. One year I remember being pretty upset about one of the reviews since my supervisor had ranked one of my men pretty harshly. I knew I couldn’t really refute what he said but also knew it was very unfair since I knew that he was one of my best techs. It was somewhat obvious to me that my supervisor didn’t like him and wanted to get rid of him so he was trying to make him mad enough to quit. At least that was how it appeared to me. After the interview I could tell that Steve was pretty upset but there was not any time where I could get with him since his shift was over and he quickly left work. I decided snce I knew that he lived out in Plamyra that I would go out and see if I could find him at home and talk to him. I didn’t know where in Plamyra just that it was in Palmyra. SO I decided that I would just let Lord take me there. I drove and when prompted would turn and then finally when I began doubting my ability to listen to the spirit I stopped and asked a farmer where he lived. I was one street away and a lot closer than I thought possible.

Well he was on a tractor in the field so when he saw me he stopped and I went out and got up on the tractor with him o we could talk about it. I don’t recall now anything that I said but it was fairly apparent that he knew he wasn’t wanted and yet by the time we finished talking we both felt good about it. He stayed with the company a few more weeks until he was able to find another job closer to home and left to work there. I will always remember the incident however not so much for the outcome but rather the experience of knowing the Lord loved us both and I was able to be directed to within a few yards of where he lived.

Jan. 7, 2012

Guess who? 

Then look at the last couple of pictures.