April 11, 2010

Did your mom and dad ever find something you had hidden.

No since I had to clean my own room or live in it as it was. Mom would come to the room once in a while and dad would be there every day to get me up but I don’t remember them ever even searching my room for anything. In reality there wasn’t really anything for them to find other than my Life Saver roll collection and the only thing that found it was a batch of ants that took every bit of sugar from those rolls and left them empty for me to find when I returned from my mission. So I was the only one that was ever surprised by something that I had hidden in my room.

I had hidden things in the barn as well but they were never found either. The one thing that I remember hiding was an old shotgun and the only reason I hid it was to keep my siblings from finding it in case they might want it. In the long run none of them did and so I ended up with it. It is just an old relic that has no value and I wouldn’t dare fire a shell in it but it is fun because it breaks apart into two pieces which was what caught my attention and imagination with it in the first place.

April 10, 2010

Relate a favorite spring memory.

I would have to say that my favorite spring memory is a compilation of many that happen every year. I love the spring blossoms of pop corn popping on not just the apricot tree but also the apple, cherry, peach and pear trees that were all around our farm. Then there were also the flowers that would bloom each spring namely the Iris, hollyhock, tulips and other flowers that mom would always have planted around the farm. There were always a lot of bees flying around the blossoms that would make me keep my viewing at a careful distance but that distance didn’t diminish the downwind smell that would come from those trees full in bloom. That would have to be my favorite spring memory

April 9, 2010

She wants a limerick about you now. Well I am not good at this since it is so very much an English assignment. So write one about yourself for me please.

But now I will tell about something else that happened in my life.

Here is another story from my life stories collection that I am writing.

Riding Old Chief

One time as a young boy I wanted to ride a horse all by myself. So my father saddled up our most faithful and gentle horse named “Old Chief”. He then led us out into the field near where he was working on building a chicken coop and would be handy in the event of something happening to me while on the horse. I was given the reins and recall that Old Chief just walked around in a big circle. He must have been going in a circle because I was holding the reins with one side short. Anyway I don’t remember if I wanted Chief to trot or if wanted to but either way he did and then slowly ran faster and faster but still in a circle. Of course by then my desire to ride by myself was gone but my Dad must have just been enjoying it or too busy to worry about it for a few minutes. However he finally did start to worry about it and came running over to Old Chief who obediently slowed to a walk and stopped. I continued to ride horses for years even though more dangerous rides were yet to be experienced years later.

April 8, 2010

Make up a limerick about yourself.

There once was a boy named Kent

Who always slept in a tent.

He wouldn’t get out

He couldn’t get out

Since his brother and cousin

Had tied him in without cussin.

OK I am now convinced that the author of these questions is without doubt an English teacher.

April 7, 2010

Did you ever bring home or try to adopt a wild animal?

Only frogs and snakes and that was a very few snakes. I also use to collect tadpoles from the pond on our farm. Once in a while I would even find a fish that I would try to bring back to the canal that was left in the ditch after the water was turned out of the ditch. There were plenty of other animals that I could have tried to catch but you would probably agree that skunks, porcupines and badgers would not be the best animals to bring home. I did kind of want to catch a cottontail rabbit but they were way to fast. There was a flying squirrel that I would have loved to have taken home from Yellowstone campground up near Altamont but it too was not easy to catch. So I was plenty content to keep the cats and dogs that were really my best friends and pets.

April 6, 2010

As a child what did you want to do when you grew up?

I think that I wanted to be a rancher and a cowboy. Wow, things sure didn’t work out that way but I have enjoyed what I have done. I suppose that I never really had any desire to be involved as a professional sports player since I was not even a good baseball player as I discovered the only year that I played little league baseball I wasn’t the star player by any means. I knew also that I liked to take things apart and try to put them back together and that was probably the thing that really ended up directing me into the professions that I have had. I knew I loved photography but it wasn’t something I had a desire to do for a profession because I didn’t want it to become a job that I might detest in time.

April 5, 2010

Did you ever feel a hatred for another person? Explain.

Having grown up in a small town it was not easy to hate someone else because by so doing you did away with one of your very few friends. In other words there were not enough people to have friends pushed away by disliking them. There was however one young man that I strongly disliked for many years even though by the time I graduated even that was gone. It was the boy I have told about before who, as a third grader, he beat me up , a sixth grader. I had to ride the bus with he and his brother every day but thank goodness I had a best friend, Jon, whom I sat by each time because he got on the bus first in the morning and got off last at night, in fact his stop was just before our stop in the morning and the next one after us at night. It was his friendship that gave me a way to avoid Jay and as we got older things seemed to work out to where we did become friends. That was probably because I started to go to his house with hs brother that was my age, Dale, and we would play together. I really do not know why we had the fight or why he disliked me but it really didn’t matter as we grew older.

April 4, 2010 Easter Sunday

I have a question that was to be asked today about building and flying kites but I am electing to change it due to the fact that today is Easter and as I sat in priesthood meeting I had an impression to write the following instead.

My testimony.

I am writing this testimony tonight because of an impression that I had during priesthood meeting while listening to Pres. Eyring as he talked about our persisting in prayer and other obedience to God’s commandments.

I have been very blessed by the Lord through my life. I was born of righteous parents into the true church of God and that was only the beginning of my many blessings. During my youth I was blessed in being given instruction in the gospel in my home and in primary and mutual. I had callings early in my youth that taught me to be a teacher and a leader. It began with responsibilities in the Aaronic priesthood in the Deacon’s quorum presidency. Then as I was assigned to work on Youth Councils and help plan two conferences at BYU I learned many things and cherish those experiences. I was later called as a Primary teacher responsible for the Blazer class and the 11 year old scouts. I didn’t even have my own Eagle Rank and yet was being asked to teach them to earn their Eagle. I did earn me Eagle Rank and so did several of the young men that were in my class.

Then as I served my mission in Texas I was given responsibilities there that continued to teach me and give me experience in the Lord’s love for me. Then upon returning home and completing my education I married Marie in the Manti temple on June 20, 1975. We moved into Verl’s home in Mapleton where I began using my education as a TV repairman. It was only the beginning of several vocations that I would have and at the same time I was called to be a Primary teacher again. This time though for the 8 year old class. That also was only the start of many church responsibilities. Through the years I have served as a primary teacher again as a 11 year old teacher, Elder’s Quorum 2^nd Counselor, Ward Executive Secretary, Cubmaster, Webelos Leader, Scoutmaster, 2^nd and 1^st Counselor in three Bishoprics, Stake Young Men’s 2^nd Counselor, High Priests Group instructor, and twice in the High Council. I have also had many responsibilities in scouting including serving on Timberline courses for 16 years, serving on Woodbadge staff for 3 years, also serving on District, Council and Region staffs. Finally I have also had the opportunity to work 12 years with Young Women’s camp as a Priesthood advisor. I do not list these to brag but rather to show where the Lord has shared with me his tender mercies in giving me experience in the gospel and through these years I have been given many experiences where I have known that the Lord has been there to guide my way and give me a testimony of His work and of His life. I have come to know that He lives and that He loves each of us. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church. I know that He has given us prophets to guide us and give us hope. I know that Joseph Smith was the first prophet of the latter-days and each one after him has been a true prophet also. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and was given to be a second witness of Christ and of His love for us. I know that the Priesthood is the power of God and have witnessed miracles of it’s use for our benefit. I also know that God is our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is our brother who atoned for our sins if we will but obey God’s commandments. I also know that I have been blessed beyond my worthiness with a special family. I am thankful for you my children and your spouses and for your children. I often am thankful to my Heavenly Father that he has given me such obedient children. Yes I know that you are not perfect and I know that you realize that I too am not perfect, in fact far from it. I have made many mistakes and had to repent from them just as each of you when having made mistakes but that too is a testimony to me of the Lord’s love for us. That He will forgive us knowing that we are weak and need his strength to work through to our perfection. Thank you to each of you and thank you to each of your spouses for your efforts to be valiant in the service of the Lord. I love each of you and I love my Heavenly Father and my Brother Jesus Christ in whose name I bear this testimony to you.

April 3, 2010

Tell about a practical joke or prank you played on someone.

I think the only prank that I can remember right now that I have pulled has been calling into work sick. Then of course going into work. It seems that I have never had a consistent problem with going to work after the bosses but rather before they are ever there so it always works because then I get to see the puzzled look on their faces when I am there at work before they get there. It is simple but effective. Obviously I am not real inventive when it comes to puling April Fool's tricks and pranks or I might have been able to remember a few more of them.

I tried the Oreo trick on my family but they were all too smart to fall for it. I have never liked putting exlax in food for others since I might forget and eat it myself. I did have a boss one time however that would always eat peoples cookies from their lunches so one day the guys made a full plate of cookies and left them sitting at the table and of course he ate them and then was traveling to the john the rest of the afternoon. That was on day shift and by the time we came in on swing shift he had gone home. The technicians were all having a great time telling about it though.

April 2, 2010

Tell about a practical joke or prank someone played on you.

Lynn and Charles (Skewes) tied me to my bed. Here is the story as I told it in my life’s stories.

Alive or dead dream - tied to bed

When growing up I lived on a farm in Duchesne, Utah. Our home was the last one at the end of the road on blue bench about two miles from town. It seemed like a long way when I was young and now it is hard to believe it is really quite close to town. My cousins from the city (Bountiful) would come to visit us each summer. (The city meant they were from the Wasatch front where houses didn’t seem to end from one end of Davis County to the other end of Utah County.) They always enjoyed coming to Grandma’s place in Duchesne for the summer and often staying with us during a good share of that time as well. However they were full of pranks and I as the younger and probably bothersome part of the equation would often end up on the wrong end of the pranks.

One summer morning prior to awakening to the activities of the day I remember dreaming about playing Cowboys and Indians. That is something now that I hardly dare to even talk about considering political correctness and lawsuits but was a very real part of my childhood. Later in my teen years I came to love the Indian people very much as we had with us during the school months a foster sister from the Navajo nation.

This dream however had me high above the sheds behind the barn in the old cottonwood trees that stood so tall there along the canal bank. I was one of the unfortunate ones that got hit by one of the arrows and lost my balance falling from the tree onto the top of the straw covered shed. You see the shed was made of large logs laid next to each other on a wooden log structure then covered with one to two layers of baled and loose straw. The top of the shed was quite bouncy and soft so landing on it didn’t hurt but I remember laying there trying to determine if I was dead or alive. I just couldn’t figure out why I knew about everything that was still raging around me in this war but I couldn’t move either and so I was somewhat perplexed. The roof of the shed seemed to be moving also lightly tossing me back and forth as lay there mortally wounded. Well my dram ended and I awoke to still being very much alive but unable to move in my bed as my cousin Charlie Skewes and brother Lynn had tied me into my bed with bailing twine and were in the process of moving my bed and I into the clothes closet. No wonder I was not only unable to move from where I lay but the shed was moving also since the real world and my dreams had crossed paths that morning. I still don’t remember how I got out of the bed but I suppose if nothing else my mother probably persuaded a couple of pranksters to release their prey.