Jan 5, 2012

Baptism Interview at the County Fair and baptism.

The summer of 1961 was as special as any summer could be for an 8 year old member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that was where I was during that year. I can somewhat clearly remember working hard to make sure I had the Articles of Faith memorized and was ready for any question that the Bishop could throw at me when I had my baptismal interview. I also remember waiting for the call to go into the Bishop’s office as had all of my friends prior to that. I was the youngest in the group and consequently the last.

The day finally came when the call came and Bishop Moon set an appointment with me. We were to meet at the county fair ( a pretty important event in those days in Duchesne County) and I was somewhat surprised that it wouldn’t be in the Bishop’s office. I was to learn at a fairly young age that the Lord’s work could be done anywhere that there was peace and quiet. However you wouldn’t expect there to be much peace or quiet at the county fair with the concessions booths, exhibit halls buzzing with people and all of the livestock barns full of noisy animals. However when the Bishop and I met in the cab of his pickup truck it seemed that the world was locked out and it was just the two of us. I cannot remember what was asked or if I thought that I day failed any of the questions but I do remember sitting there in the passenger side very intent on the interview. (It is kind of like the day I was married, the most important date in my life and the main thing I remember was pacing in front of the temple because my bride and sweetheart still wasn’t there and they were driving from Mapleton to Manti that day to be there.)

Anyway I must have passed since I was baptized at the start of the next month the day prior to fast Sunday. It was the 2^nd of September 1961. We went to the font in the old Stake Center in Duchesne where I spent Sunday’s for the entire segment of my youth growing up years. I even reported to the High Council in that building the day after I got home from my mission and the day I gave my talk in Sacrament meeting and the day I headed off to Snow College for my sophomore year for which I was two weeks late. A lot of other things took place in that building as well and it was a major part of my life. But there was a baptismal font in that room down the hall towards the Junior Sunday School room. We had an opening exercises in the Cahpe; after I had gotten dressed in my white clothes and we watched as other children my age from the stake were baptized. I don’t remember how many but I do remember sitting there by the font watching two or three before it was my turn. Dad then led me down into the water, of which I was very afraid of in those days, and we proceeded to do as we had practiced. I let dad hold my wrist with the one hand and I grabbed his arm with my other hand. He said the prayer, something he had done for all of my other older siblings and then proceeded to baptize me. As I came out of the water having survived the drowning the witnesses kindly told my dad that my toes had come out of the water. So we repeated the event a second time and I survived it as well but the witnesses then informed my dad that he had missed a word in the prayer, a prayer that has to be said word for word as the Lord had directed Joseph Smith. So we tried it again and that time dad said the prayer correctly and stepped on my toes so I wouldn’t come up. I am sure it was as hard on my dad to have to have done it three times as it was for me and I guess that was what really ended up making it so special in the long run. My fear of the water after two times was gone and I listened closely to the prayer the third time and we were there in it together until it was right.

I have baptized several investigators in the mission field, all six of my own children, done baptisms for the dead and even had an opportunity to baptize a new convert in the ward here at BYU and everytime I have practiced the prayer repeatedly and stepped on the toes of the one I was baptizing because I remember so well the events that occurred on the day I was baptized at a tender young age of 8 years old. 

Jan. 4, 2012

33 Degrees Below Zero

We recently had a spell of cold weather this winter when the temperature outside were 10 degrees below zero and Clair reported toward the end of the spell that Duchesne had finally gotten above zero during the day. It reminded me of one year in my youth when it got below zero for several days and I still had the assignment to milk the cows and do the chores. I started doing chores around the barn when about eight years old. I would go to the stack yard and pull some hay down into the manger for the cows and then return to the barn to milk the cows. I became the main one to milk the cows though later in my teen years when the last son (Lynn) prior to me left for his mission. It was during one of those years when the temperature had dropped to well below zero for several days and one of them was at minus 33 degrees and Dad and I were the ones left to do the chores. They were not real hard but I never really considered them to be real pleasant either. However when the temperatures dropped during that winter they were even far less pleasant. I felt sorry for myself having to go milk the cows in such cold weather but felt even more sorry for the cows that had to eat, sleep and be milked in such weather. Cows are not really very particular where they leave their piles of processed hay and grass (manure) and even less particular about where they sleep either and the two places are often the same. It was always a joy to have to press your head in front of their hind leg to prevent them from kicking while you were milking them but the fact that they had been laying in manure made it even worse. That also meant though that their bags were also many times also laying in manure and so we would have to take rags soaked in warm water and wash their teats and bags before starting to milk them. It was more than one time during these cold winter days that the rag would still be frozen while hanging on the wall in the barn and putting it into the warm water was necessary not only to get it wet but to thaw it out from the previous session of milking. Those cows probably enjoyed the warmth of the water and the warmth of our hands as we milked them but I often worried how it felt as they were released from the barn back into the cold air outside of the barn. Maybe that’s why they would then go lay down in another warm pile of processed hay (manure) that would then be there to wash off the next time we milked.

Marsha and Scott's family 1/1/2012

I hope I get the names spelled correctly.

 Dusty, Amber and Kai

 Marsha, Scott

 Kai, Marsha, Scott, Max

Jace, Riley

 JJ, Jace, Genny

Riley

 Richard, Max, Lauren

 Riley, Kai, Jace, Max

Max

Jan 3, 2012

Our wedding was responsible for another wedding.

While attending the graveside part of the funeral on Dec 29, 2011 for my Aunt Carma Hansen Allen (mother’s younger sister) I was surprised by a story that of my cousin’s husband told me which I had never heard before.

Dave Thomas was dating my cousin Jeannine Allen. She was about my age and one of the cousin to whom I had the closest relationship. Just before my marriage Dave had decided to date some other girls and Jeannine told her mother she wanted to call him on the phone but in those days it was not proper for the girl to take the lead on dating and courtship type things. She was sure that he didn’t like her anymore. Her mother told her that if he loved her he would call. Well shortly after that while attending our wedding Aunt Carma saw Dave and Jeanine kneeling across the alter while Marie and I were actually kneeling there during the sealing ceremony. It took her quite by surprise so when she got home she told Jeanine that it was OK for her to call Dave. That then took Jeannine by surprise and she had to have her mother explain why the change of heart. After her mother told her what she had seen she called Dave and from what he told me they went on a date the following Sunday during which he kissed her for the first of many times to come.

After telling me the story he told me and that is why your marriage was responsible for Jeanine and I also getting married.  He told me thank you several times after that until he had to go to be one of the pallbearers for Aunt Carma.

It is interesting to note that Dave was one of the scouters that we photographed just a few years ago when he was awarded the Silver Beaver award which my Grandfather Hansen and I had also been awarded before. He was the second or maybe third in Grandpa’s posterity to receive that award . I was the first of the grandchildren to receive it. That award has even made Dave and I closer since that time even though we have always been good friends since the day of his marriage to Jeannine.

Jan 2, 2012

The day I hit the wall on my bike during the 100-10

Scouting, as you may already know, has been a major part of my life. From the time I spent in Scouting as a youth with Brother Ray Hansen and Brothers Phil Barney and Trooper Hooper (both of the last two were Utah State Highway Patrolmen), to the time I now spend as an Eagle Scout Councilor. I have had many years of good experiences of which many of them will be told through out this book of stories.

The ones I will relate today go together since they are just two years of the participation in the same event.

After I had attended WoodBadge in 1986 I returned to me district to work as part of the Varsity Roundtable committee. A short three months later the other two members of the committee moved and I became the Chairman and recruited 7 other men in the district to help me. We wanted to find a high adventure activity that the Varsity members of the district could participate in that would also spark interest in a merit badge that they could earn as part of the participation in the event. It was decided that the cycling merit badge would be fun to earn and that an event where we would ride 100 miles in 10 hours would also be a lot of fun for them. So we planned the 100-10 Bike trip which we wanted to have as an annual event. I participated in it for the first two years and then due to employment and other changes was not able to participate in it again.

The first year was quite memorable because I trained for it by riding to and from Signetics in Orem each night and morning. Steve Claybrook and I were both on the committee and we both worked at Signetics so in March we started to ride to work together on our bikes to and from work. It almost killed me the first night since I knew it was cold outside to I wore a lot of protection and thus after the 14 mile ride my bodies core temperature had risen pretty high since it couldn’t get rid of the heat through all of that clothing. My face turned beet red and it took quite a while to cool down once I was at work. We were faithful though and rode every night that the weather would allow until the event in June. That year though as Steve and two of his sons rode to the starting point on the north end of Springville one of his sons was hit by a truck and so Steve ended up at the hospital with him instead. They rode together the next year however. My assistant was Orin Bawden in the Scout troop in our ward where I now served as the Scoutmaster. We had planned the event so that the younger scouts could also participate and thus we would have a lot more youth able to be a part of it in the district. He rode along in his van to help any who might struggle or who might need to have repairs made to the bike. He ended up picking up one young mad about 50 miles into the trip who just flat out couldn’t go another mile. I rode with the rest of the troop and of course helped mark the path around Utah lake that ended up being exactly 100 miles by the time we got back to Springville. That year was fairly uneventful after the wreck before it started. I remember that Ben and Jeff and I rode it in about 9.5 hours. It was a lot of fun and turned out to be a great idea.

The second year however became a nightmare for me almost. Steve and I again trained by riding to work but not nearly as faithfully as we had the year before. It had been an almost relaxing ride for me and actually for Steve as well as he came later and did it just for the experience of it after he had taken his son to the hospital and then brought him home again after they found he was OK.

 I again rode with my troop but not right with them this time. Now that Ben and Jeff had been on it once they wanted to see how fast they could do it and set a goal to make it in less than 6 hours. They were both robust young men in their mid to late teens and thus felt that was a good challenge. Well I didn’t try to stop them and in fact choose to ride with the last young man in our troop in stead to be able to give encouragement and help along the way. However inside of me is that competitive spirit that just doesn’t give up and after about tem moles into the ride somewhere in Provo I just could not take riding so slow so again I turned the job over to Orin since he had been right there behind us the whole time anyway and decided to catch up with my sons besides they couldn’t be very far ahead of me and I should be able to catch up in a couple of miles. I rode like the wind as fast as I could and yet for the next 45 miles I didn’t catch up because well the wind was going a lot slower by then. But after having passed up a lot of scouts and finding that at each checkpoint that they were actually getting less and less far ahead of me I kept pushing my body to go as fast as it could and finally 55 to 60  miles into the trip I spotted them ahead of me. I caught up more or less and Jeff seemed to take pity on me and dropped back a little just to ride near me.  Then just a few miles before the spot where we would stop for lunch I hit the wall. It was just five more miles to get to Eureka and I could stop but my body said to stop now. Well I didn’t because I knew in part what it felt like to hit the wall in long distant running that I had done in High School so I knew I could continue but it still was pretty hard to peddle just one more time around to keep the bike going. I rode that way for a mile or so and then finally got back to where I was able to make it on into the resting place and get under some trees to cool off and get some food into me. After about 20 minutes we started again even though I wanted to wait another ten or so I knew that I couldn’t hold Ben and Jeff and the others back any longer. The rest of the trip though was great and I did complete it in about 6.5 hours. Ben got there a lot sooner than I but I still made it. I even took time to stop and look at the blow snake that was crossing the road on the backside of West Mountain.

Those were two good years and two memorable bike rides along with the other 10 t0 15 mile rides we took as a troop to Salem in preparation for it and I shall never forget them especially that spot on the backside of Utah lake where I literally hit the wall physically and had to work so very hard to continue the journey.

Jan. 1, 2012

A Memorable High Council Assignment

Not long before I was released from the High Council of the Mapleton Utah Stake in June of 2003 we had the opportunity for our Stake Conference visiting General Authority to be Pres Packer. We were all excited for the opportunity and even wondered if Pres Harper would be released as Stake President during this visit. As it turned out though Pres Packer told us that it was his responsibility to assign the General Authorities to Stake Conferences throughout the church and had decided he wanted one close to home this time so decided to assign himself to our Stake.  We started making preparations for his visit and received our assignments. I was assigned along with most of the other brethren to be on security during the two days of the conference. I well remember the first day when he arrived and his two security guards were with him as they came from the cars to the building and ushered Pres Packer quickly into the Stake Presidents office where he then met with the Stake Presidency.

Meanwhile we were then taken into the chapel with the two security guards where we were to receive our instructions for the following two days. It was interesting to me because we started with a word of prayer and I had not thought about the fact that it is always helpful and necessary to include the Lord in our instructions especially concerning the safety of one of his senior servants in the gospel. We completed the prayer and introductions were made and then the senior security guard said to us. “I noticed that during the prayer you all closed your eyes. That is good except that during the remainder of the conference you will keep them open and watch the audience.” Generally people intending to do harm will not close their eyes but feel safer in taking action because no one else is looking and none of us had ever even considered that we would need to watch the audience.  I remember being a counselor to a Bishop once who would watch the audience for people who were not closing their eyes during prayers and he commented to me that it was interesting because most of the time when they would make eye contact with him they would quickly close their eyes but every now and then there would be some who would simply stare back in defiance. Anyway we were quickly taught the importance of keeping our eyes open and not just open but searching the audience for any movement or things that might suggest danger to Pres. Packer. We were given the names of several individuals in the Stake for whom we were specifically assigned to watch and also given assignments to patrol the halls and exterior of the building at times as well.

I remember the following two days and the Apostolic blessing that Pres. Packer left with us that day but I mostly remember watching one individual particularly because I had once been assigned as his parents home teacher when he was going through a struggle to get the apostles to listen to what he felt the Lord was doing wrong with the church. He was on the list because of his persistence in going to the church office buildings and seeking audience in various ways with the Prophet and other general authorities.  Well he was there and he didn’t stay in one seat during the conference so it became somewhat of a challenge to know where he was. He was however on his best behavior that day and there were no instances that needed correction or action. I close my eyes again now during prayers but will not forget what is required of those who are assigned to the safety of the Lord’s anointed.