Wilford Gurr's Journal Pages

I was very young when we moved to Provo into a little frame home a half block North of the Bonneville Ward Chapel and about the same distance west of us was the home of my Grandpa Aaron Edwards and Grandma Mary Edwards and their only son not married was Clyde and I used to spend much time over to their home. I remember sitting on Grandpa's lap and playing with a wonderful Gold vest pocket watch, with a gold cover on it and I really thought that was about the world's greatest treasure. They also had dozens of Pigeons that I really loved to watch and play with. Clyde also had several 10 lb. Sugar sacks full of the most beautiful marbles, which are the greatest treasures in the world to a 7-year-old boy. Uncle Clyde was about l5 at the time and he was really a hero to me and he taught me so well to play marbles that by the time I was in my early teens nobody could beat me and I had more marbles even than uncle Clyde did at that time.

I remember how scared I was when I started school in the 1st grade, as I guess it is kind of a scary time for all children when they leave home for the 1st time. My first grade teacher was a Miss Ellen Farnsworth, and as I remember she was a very kind and thoughtful teacher and it wasn't long until I really liked going to school. We soon moved up onto the Provo Bench and I attended the Mountain View school and my 2nd grade teacher was a Miss Nuttle and liked her very much, but didn't live there very long until we moved down in to the Provo River bottoms and I still went to the Mountain View school and still had Miss Nuttle as my teacher and I really liked her. While we were living in the River bottoms we had a nice little farm and a nice home on it, but I remember coming home one day and found our dog had rabies and he was about to attack me when my mother came out and grabbed me and pulled me into the house as fast as she could and we had to stay in the rest of the day as our dog really looked scary and foaming at the mouth. I remember him running around the house and wouldn't let anyone out around him. We really felt bad to lose our dog. But we were happy that none of us got bitten by him. At this time, I had l sister Thelma and she was a cute little girl just 2 years younger than myself. We then moved back to Provo on 3rd north in a nice brick home with running water and an indoor bathroom.

While living in this nice home, my Dad was working for Anderson Garage, and even at that young age I knew he was coming home most every day with severe headaches and stomach cramps were so constant that I thought that I didn't want to grow up if I were to have to face and go through the terrible pains he had to. Well for a couple of summers after school let out we moved up to Strawberry Lake up in the mountains above Heber where Andersons had a sawmill and my dad was running it and my mother cooked the meals for about 20 men who worked there. There were huge piles of sawdust and it was perfect for Thelma and me to run and jump into and just about bury our selves in it. Then Dad would have to haul the lumber he milled down to Provo where we supplied some of the lumber yards with lumber. I remember cougars, elk, deer, bears, and so much wildlife there at the time, we thought it was just about a perfect place to live, and we hated to move back to our home in Provo, when the summer was ended. I remember one exciting time for my dad when we were leaving Strawberry Lake one time, we saw some of the biggest fish we had ever seen coming down a long flume that carried water out of Strawberry lake to the Provo River. We raced along the Flume and my Dad jumped in and as one of the Big ones came along he jumped on its back and got his fingers in it's gills and he was riding that big 5 ft lake trout like a bucking bronco and even though the flume was only about a foot deep he couldn't stop that thing for nothing, and it took him what he estimated to be a quarter of a mile before he could wrestle that thing to a stop and then he really had the fight of his life to get that fish out of the flume and onto our model T. Ford car, and came close to losing his fingers that were caught in that fishes gills. Well we had some exciting times during the summers up at strawberry lake. During the next school year in Provo, my Brother Ray Dean Gurr was born, and he was a cute little curly headed blond and we all surely loved him. Bengt F baptized me just before he was born by Elder Rowland Hardy on April 24th, l927, and confirmed the same day by Larsen. I guess I should mention that before this I had to repent as my Mother saw some smoke coming up past her kitchen window, so coming out to see what it was she found me smoking on the one and only cigarette that I had ever tried and after putting me to bed and making me tell my dad all about it when he came home, I felt so bad and I was very impressed by how bad it made them feel and so that was the first and last cigarette I ever did try. This same friend, I hesitate to mention his name, Virgil Lambson, was not a member of The Church, and his Ideals and mine were not always the same as mine, but to show the danger we can get into by some of our friends influences I will mention this experience we had. He always wanted to slough school and wanted me to go with him. One day he finally talked me into it and we instead of going to school we took our lunches and decided to hike up to the Y. Upon the mountains above Provo, and we thought that we could do that and still get back to our homes by the time school would be out, well we walked and we walked and finally arrived at the foot of the mountain where the trail started up to the Y. And we were still determined to go up there, so we hiked and hiked and the sun was getting lower and lower toward the west and we still wouldn't give up and kept going as it seemed like we were almost there but we knew it would not be as hard going down as it was climbing up there as some places, we had to go on all fours so we kept climbing and finally arrived at the Y. Which wasn't at all like it appeared to us from school every day, but still we felt good at having accomplished our goal and we ate the last of some of our lunch we had saved, just as the sun was going down. We knew we didn't have any time to lose so started down those long miles we were from home as fast as we thought we could safely go, and I'll have to admit we were making good time down old Timp, but with all that we still had many miles before getting to the bottom and it was getting darker and darker, Virgil was out in front leading the way and at times I felt he was going too fast, and I felt he was taking too many chances, but I kept up with him as I was very sure footed and was very fast on my feet, finally we came to where it seemed the trail wasn't quite so steep so Virgil opened up and was making very good time, but the trail was a little steeper than we thought and he couldn't slow down or stop and was going faster and faster and I knew we were in trouble, and finally he went end over end and it being dark I was sure I would find him badly injured which I did as the large sharp and jagged rocks on old Timpanogas Mountain, have to be handled carefully and with respect. Well by this time we were in the foothills and still miles from home, and Virgil was bleeding and badly injured and couldn't walk and it was pitch dark so I was really saying my prayers and wondering what our families would be thinking so many hours after we should have been home. Well as I was praying and wondering what to do I saw a light a small distance down the Mountain and I told Virgil I would get help there and be back as quickly as I could so I made my way down in the black night and headed for the light, which looked so good in the distance and seemed to be as a beacon of safety, which it proved out to be, as A lone but very kind man was living up there in a small house up in the foothills with just a horse and buggy to go down a rough road into Provo. He took his lantern and we made our way back up to where Virgil was and we were glad to find him still alive and feeling a little better so between all of us and the kerosene lamp we got down to the cabin and this good Samaritan hitched up his horse to the buggy and hauled us on down to Provo and to our homes where our worried, but grateful families were waiting for us to get home from school. Virgil recovered nicely in a couple of weeks and we were still very good friends. I was influenced quite a lot by him, and many times not always in the ways I wanted to go. I some times wonder if I could with being a little more faithful in my firm love for the Gospel, if I couldn't have made a greater difference in his life, I don't know what ever happened to him, but I do hope that my influence for good was greater for him than it appeared to be at the time. I want to mention the gratitude I felt for that man letting his light shine in that lonely darkness as a beacon for me to bring us safely home to our families. And I want to mention my gratitude for Heavenly Father then and now for providing beacon lights to help us find our way through the terrible darkness we sometimes find ourselves in. He himself is the greatest beacon light for me and for all of us to use and to follow faithfully and safely in our lives.

I have always had a very deep feeling of love for my mother and dad and also my brother and Sisters so I have always tried to be a good brother and also son. I hope I have also been giving my love and devotion to the Church and to Heavenly Father. I don't ever remember not having a testimony and knowledge that They, Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ were as real as I myself.

I want to mention one other incident while I was going to the Timpanogas School I think it was in the 3rd or fourth grade our Teacher arranged for a circus to bring a very large Snake to our school and they were telling us a horrible story of how they captured this big snake, a Boa -Constrictor or a Python I don't remember which, but I do remember a gruesome story they told of how they captured it by putting a live donkey in a cage with bars out where the big snakes were and then one of them went into the cage and swallowed the poor donkey, but then with the donkey inside of him the snake couldn't get out of the cage and that is how they caught him. At that time it was a horrible story, and come to think about it, it still is. While we were living in Provo we moved into a total of 10 homes in a period of not more than nine years. Our Family now consisted of a new addition of another beautiful little girl Mary Lou, and I don't think that there could have ever been a happier family anywhere, than we were.

I think one of the last homes we lived in before moving to Beaver was a nice brick home up on East Main St in Provo, just a mile or so from the State Mental Hospital, which we could see from our home. I believe it was in this home that Philo T. Farnsworth one of our relatives and the father and inventor of Television worked out a lot of his ideas in our basement with wires and gadgets all over. My dad who was still working at the Anderson Ford Garage, and would bring home discarded model T. Ford coils and they furnished the miles of copper wire that he used in working out some of his ideas for television. It was also at this time Philo's Brother Ron Farnsworth's wife Violet who also was my Dads Sister took ill and Died leaving two children Edwin and Beatrice, So uncle Ron brought them to live with us for a year or two. We really liked these two cousins very much and they became like our brother and Sister. I will mention just one of the many exciting times we had with them. We had an old ford car sitting out in our back yard and Edwin and I was always playing around in it and one day Edwin asked me, I wonder if there is any gas in the gas tank and he asked me, why don't you look in and see and I said it is too dark I can't see in there so he handed me a match and said now look and so I did and so without too many explanations we all know what happened. I didn't have any hair or eyebrows or lashes for several months after that. But how grateful I was when I found out I still had eyes and could see and a nose and could smell. At about this same time I had a little job cleaning out the rental boats at the mouth of Provo River where it runs into Utah Lake and that was a fun job as there was a lattice work in the bottom of the boats and anything that was dropped went to the bottom of the boat through the lattice work and couldn't be retrieved, so I would often find a lot of coins from pennies to nickels, dimes quarters, half dollars, and sometimes even silver dollars. My dad ran the boat concession and I really loved cleaning boats for all of the money and treasures I was able to find. This boat harbor was called Provona Beach and it was one of the most beautiful beaches, at that time as the water was sparkling clean and the bluest of blue lakes. As I remember there was also one of the highest diving boards and platforms anywhere and they put on many exhibitions of world class diving competition there and they were always Breathtaking events as some of the dives were from as high up as 50 ft. For me this was a very happy time and I think it was for our whole family, even my dad with all of his problems, headaches and stomach pains, it seemed to me to be almost constantly with my poor Dad. I remember many happy times, for him also as we would go up our beautiful Provo canyon, and also Strawberry Lake, we went regularly and often. I was always a very happy and positive personality and I always enjoyed our family and all of the things that we were always doing together. I was taught to pray from the very beginning of my memory and I have always felt that my prayers were always answered and I have always felt close to Heavenly Father and my beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. So as a result of this I have had great peace and joy in my whole life, and with these feelings I found it always easy to love everyone and easy to forgive any person that ever did anything I felt was not quite fair or right. I don't know exactly why even at that time, I had these feelings. But I do know I had them even though I was always very competitive and wanted to be a winner and would compete vigorously to be one. Because of this I became quite good at playing and winning thousands of marbles and games I was involved in. And this sometimes got me into a lot of trouble with those boys that were bigger than me and as a result I have memories of having them beating me up and trying to get their marbles back by doing so, but I don't think as I remember, they were ever able to do so, but I did get many bloody noses and black eyes and beatings by those who were much bigger than me, but even then I think I gave a good account of myself.

In the year of l928 I went with my Dad to Los Angeles as he was taking a load of Utah fruit and vegetables to sell and pedal and then would bring a load of oranges and grape fruit back to Provo and we would pedal the load of Citrus there. Well on the way back home we came through Buckhorn and visited with Uncle Tom, (my dads brother and Aunt Marie my mothers sister). Somehow I don't quite remember the details, but Uncle Tom talked my dad into moving down to Buckhorn and moving on to a 160 acre farm and home that used to belong to Grandpa and Grandma Edwards, and the home in which I was actually born. Well Dad was supposed to go on back up to Provo and get our furniture and Family and I was supposed to stay with Uncle Tom and Aunt Marie and wait for Dad and Mother to get back to Buckhorn. I had never been away from my family before, so I guess that was the most lonely and miserable month of my life either before or since. After the first few days I would lay out on an old wagon all day long and watch the dust trails come around what was called Mule point and watched it until it would disappear after covering about 8 or l0 miles across the valley and taking about a half hour. In those days there were just little dirt and dusty roads and maybe 15 or 20 cars a day cross the valley, and that is how I spent day after miserable day counting those dust trails and hoping one of them would turn down the lane that led to where we were and finally one did and that ended that most miserable time of my life. I was really one sick little boy.

Well I will mention a few experiences we had in the next 3 or 4 years in Buckhorn in the summers and winters and going to School in Beaver, which was just 20 miles north of us. We acquired about 40 head of dairy cows, a big flock of turkeys, chickens, pigs, sheep, and horses. We had many acres of Alfalfa a large garden, and that represented a lot of hard work milking twice a day and separating the milk and cream and so I learned a lot about farming and the huge amount of work the are then also, we would haul many loads of pine and cedar wood by team and wagon out of the nearby mountains and saw it up and sell it in Beaver for fuel in the hard and cold winters there. I remember helping my mother take the turkeys out into the fields to eat and on one occasion a very large Eagle swooped down and picked up a turkey as they often did. (There were lots of big eagles in those days). This one had this big turkey and as I remember I yelled and sicked old Ring our dog on the eagle and I think the Turkeys feet were about 6 feet about the ground when old Ring jumped up and grabbed the feet of the turkey, and bringing them both down to the ground and the eagle was so large it was about to kill our dog, and I remember my mother taking a piece of a fence post and going right into the fight going on and hit the big eagle over the head so hard it was out cold. We didn't know what to do with it so my mother grabbed on foot and I the other and it was all we could do to drag the eagle and while we were dragging him back to and empty coop where we were going to keep him until Dad could come home and take care of him. He came too and was starting to go after us so my mother had to hit him over the head and cool him off again, and then we finally put him in the empty coop and he was one angry eagle when he woke up. Eagles were a problem and would carry our smaller sheep way up in the air and drop them and that would break them open and then they would come down and eat them.

This was really a hard life for my mother. On one occasion she was going to sew some clothing and as she was about to put her feet on the treadle she stopped just in time from putting her feet right into the middle of a large rattlesnake, which was curled up in the middle of the treadle. Buckhorn had cities of Rattlesnakes and we used to watch them crawling in and out of their holes by the hour. On another occasion Mother was sitting on a couch and cushions under an apple tree reading when she looked up she saw my dad throwing a shovel at her, but instead of hitting her it cut the head off of a large rattle snake that was under the cushion she was sitting on and was hissing and reaching to try to bite her, but because of her loss of hearing she, couldn't hear it and if she had of moved it would have released the snake enough that it would have surely bitten her, so dad by throwing the shovel was blessed to hit the snake just right. I think all of the snakes in Buckhorn are one of the reasons that I am filled with a lot of enmity towards them. I used to dream often of being in large pits filled with them and I would be knee deep in them and could feel them biting my legs. Wow what nightmares. I don't quite know how many things to write about in a life history, but I better quit thinking of so many things or I would be writing volumes. There are dozens of other stories of snakes and even porcupines, crows, Hawks, Coyotes, bears, cougars, Lions etc. But I think I will stop here and go on with some other stories and memories of this period of my life.

Buckhorn and Beaver are very cold places in the winter, and I guess I didn't take long in contacting scarlet fever and was very ill for quite a long period of time, and after I did start getting a little better it left me with rheumatic fever and I couldn't walk or run or attend school or any other activities so this was a very sad and trying time for me and our whole family. I was trying to do school work at home, and would dream of being able to walk and to run again. I will tell one experience I had with a very memorable Christmas. It was Christmas morning and we had always had such wonderful Christmases. My Mother and Dad would always go all out for Christmas, and we children loved Christmas time so much. This particular Christmas about 1929 or 1930, I had Rheumatic fever and couldn't walk but was still excited about it being Christmas, so when we all got up Christmas morning and everyone was busy opening their presents, I was feeling bad as everyone was getting lots of packages and presents to open and I was hardly getting anything and I was feeling pretty sad and after all of the presents were opened and I was sitting over in my usual corner and couldn't walk or move, and I just had to start crying with the way I was hurting with all of my bones and joints aching with Rheumatism and not able to join in with the others in enjoying their nice presents and me not having any. Well when my dad saw my misery he came over and picked me up and carried me over to the window, and said that they couldn't figure out a way to wrap my main present so they then proceeded to show me why they couldn't wrap up my present, but I could now look at what must have been the most beautiful present my wonderful Dad and Mother could have ever gotten for me at that time. Standing out in front of that window was the most gorgeous riding HORSE I HAD EVER SEEN IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE AND SHE HAD ON A NEW SADDLE AND WAS ALL READY AND WAITING FOR MY DAD TO SIT ME IN HER SADDLE WHICH HE DID IMMEDIATELY AND YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW I FELT BEING ABLE TO MOVE AGAIN WHERE EVER I WANTED TO GO. Well I might have known that my Dad and mother would have thought of and sacrificed to get for me the one thing in the world that they knew would make me the happiest boy in the world. I called her name Pet and she really was just that. She was the smoothest riding and the fastest and gentlest and responsive riding mare that I had ever seen before or since. I believe she was about the best medicine for my body that my Parents could have ever got for me. Now I could run and go like the wind.

Well I think that I had better mention that even when we were out in Buckhorn during the summer, we would always go into Beaver to attend our meetings and my parents were always such good examples in never missing family prayer and reading scriptures and giving us opportunity to participate in many of the ward activities. On the 6th of March 1932, I was ordained a Deacon, by C. Edwin Pace a High Priest and our Bishop was Wesley W. Farrer in the West Ward, Beaver Stake. I was always very active in all of my callings in the Priesthood and if there was ever a time when the family because of illness or other reasons couldn't go to their Sunday Meetings. There was many times that I would ride my new riding Horse Pet the full 20 miles into Beaver by starting out real early on Sunday Mornings and attending my meetings and then have to ride the 20 miles back to Buckhorn and sometimes it would take me all day to do that. 20 miles is a long way even by horseback.

The warm summer made it so I could begin to walk, but it would still be another year or so before I could start running, so I think I had my fair share of pain during my earlier years but when I did finally begin to run it felt so good that I began to run every where I went and I really became very good at running and could always win just about every race that I entered and on the fourth of July I always won enough money winning races to have all of the spending money I needed. I remember one 4th of July waking up and there was 14 inches of snow on the Ground and we really had a great 4th of July running our races in the snow and I think the snow made it a very memorable holiday. I was also active as a boy scout and remember hiking to the top of Belknap which is as I remember over l2,000 ft. I remember what a hard time we all had to get to the top as the air was very thin and it was difficult to breath, especially when climbing up such a steep mountain. I also remember a long pack trip we took up to Puffer Lake and it was about 7 or 8 miles of trail and some of it was pretty steep also and one of the pack horses let me hold onto his tail and it really made my hike a lot easier, but I don't think it was easier for the poor pack horse and I think he may have had a sore tail for some time after that. While we were up to the Lake we were doing a lot of wading in the rivers and catching fish under rocks etc. While I was in the act of stooping over a big snake floating down the river wrapped around both of my legs. In my horror I don't know if that snake ever did come down. The guys tell me the last they saw of it, it was still going up and out of sight behind some trees. I think that snake was even more scared than I was if that were possible. Well Dear family and friends I hope I am not boring you to tears. But this completes another four pages of my life history and next month I will try and leave Beaver and Buckhorn and get to Caliente Nevada and my High School days. We love you. Dad and Mom.

I was talking to Julie, and she wanted me to keep writing some of the stories about some of the instances and things that stand out in my memory, so I will mention another little episode that I remember very well and that was when we were living in Buckhorn one summer, I think that I was about 11 or l2, and LaVar Hutchings a cousin was staying out with us for a few days so we decided to take our riding horses and a horse and a little buggy we had and spend a day or two upon Black Mountain which was to the west of Buckhorn and so we put some food and blankets in the Buggy and tied our riding horses to it so they would be following behind the Buggy and we started off for Black Mountain which looked a little like witch mountain, or at least it did look forbidding and mysterious to us. We also took with us our 22 rifles and plenty of ammunition, as there were bears and cougars up in those mountains, and also mountain lions and who knows what else in those early days of settling Utah. We were even thinking we might run into some Indians. Well anyway we were thinking that we were well prepared for anything that could happen so we kept going up a deep canyon, that had an old wagon road going up through it, and we thought that we could make it up to the top of Black Mountain in that one day of traveling, But the Sun seemed to go down real early that day so we had to stop in that deep canyon and it was by that time getting dark and we couldn't find a level place to get off of the road, so we tied the 3 horses to the Buggy and fed them and built us a fire and had our dinner and we were feeling a little scared as we could hear wolves and coyotes howling and we thought we could see bears and lions all around us. We couldn't find a level spot to make out our bed so we kind of put them on a hill by the side of the Buggy and I guess it was almost like we were trying to sleep standing up. We didn't realize how hard it is to sleep on a hill. We were really nervous and so we took our guns to bed with us and had them all cocked and loaded for any emergency that we felt could come up at any minute. I had just dozed off and was sleeping pretty good when LaVar began shooting as fast as he could and it sounded like we had just declared war. We then both began shooting as we could see eyes all around the dark canyon and the more we would shoot the more scared we were and we about used up all of our ammunition before we could stop shooting. Our poor horses must have thought we were shooting at them as they about broke their ropes that were tying them to the Buggy. And them and we were about scared to death. Well I don't know how we ever went to sleep or what time, but I guess we finally did after 2 or 3 more shooting sprees. I don't remember how many times we found ourselves slipping out of the bottom of the bed and trying to get some covers back over us as it was cold in the mountains, but we do remember we were down under the buggy and the horses when we woke up the next morning, but how grateful we were that it wasn't still dark. We built a fire and warmed up and ate our breakfast and then found that we couldn't get much further up the canyon, with the Buggy, so we decided to ride on up on the horses and leave the buggy where it was. We did want to say we had been on top of Black Mountain.

It took us several hours to finally come to the top of Black Mountain, but then we had to go down a few miles into the most beautiful valley that covers several miles long and a mile or so wide as I remember and there were wild flowers everywhere and meadow and a nice stream of water and we thought we had found Shangri La. Well we ate our lunch and then took in some of the valley on our horses and we both thought we had never seen anything so beautiful. If we could have gotten our buggy up there we would have spent another night or two up in that beautiful valley up on Black Mountain. We knew we did not want to spend another night down in the canyon where our buggy was so we headed back as fast as we could to where we had left our Buggy and headed for home and it was still after dark when we got home. But I will never forget that night in the canyon and the more we shot our guns at all of the eyes around us the more scared we were, but also I will also never forget the beautiful valley on top of beautiful Black Mountain, and every time we drive through Buckhorn on our way to Provo or Salt Lake I never forget to look up and remember that night 65 years ago with one of my favorite cousins LaVar Hutchings. We had so many great times together out in Buckhorn flats. He has been gone for many years now, but I still have many fond memories of LaVar.

I don't know if I should write any more of my life in Buckhorn or not, but maybe I will tell just one more. I was riding old Pet down through the fields on one occasion and Our old dog Ring was running along side of us, as I remember we were about a quarter of a mile from our home and all at once old Pet jumped sideways suddenly so as not to step into a big Badger hole. I was riding bareback and lost my balance and was falling off the side and holding on to old Pets main but my feet landed right on top of old Ring and he pulled my feet right out from under me and I went down flat on my back out in front of old Pet and her front feet landed right in the middle of my stomach and her back feet hit in the same spot and I was really badly cut and hurt. I couldn't stand up and after laying there for awhile I saw my Uncle Tom walking down through the field a little way off and I tried to call to him but I couldn't even make a squeak so I waved as hard as I could at him,. But he just waved back at me and went on towards his home. Well I was in so much pain and I had to crawl like a snake for the block or so I had to go to get back to our home. That was about as much pain as I can ever remember having, but if I thought that was pain all I had to do was wait until a woman that called herself a nurse and she was just traveling through Buckhorn and heard I needed some help. Well when she saw my whole stomach was about torn away she didn't know what to do, but she had a bottle of horse liniment in her satchel and she poured that all over my whole stomach, and then I really knew what pain was and as I started screaming she said Oh does that hurt? Any way I will never forget that little or big episode in my life. I later had an experience with my brother Dean sitting in the back of our little buggy and our Horse old Dan ran away and I was afraid at any minute I was going to lose my brother Dean He was only a baby, and by some miracle he was saved, even I don't know how. We had to have the help of a loving Heavenly Father to ever come through Buckhorn Flats.

As we were living in Beaver during the year of l932 and 33, it seemed to be and extra cold and long hard winter and it was right in the middle of what we called the Great Depression, and it surely seemed like that, as our coal and feed yard was having a very difficult time in keeping the doors open. My Dad had to haul coal and feed from the nearest Railroad stop which was in Salina Utah and we had to go up over the high East Mountains to get over there and can only estimate the distance as approximately 80 to l20 miles or so. So it was no easy task of keeping our coal and feed yard supplied and especially when there was just no money available for people to pay us for what they needed and My compassionate Dad couldn't turn anyone away that needed fuel or feed whether they could pay for it or not, so by the time spring came we had to close up our supply yard and sell whatever we could and this was about the time our school was letting out for the summer and we decided to make the move to Caliente Nevada, a Union Pacific main terminal between Salt Lake and Los Angeles and there seemed to be some work and some money available in that small Rail Road town. So we piled everything we couldn't sell in to our Model A. Ford truck and moved to Caliente in the summer of l934.

We had very little money so we had to move into about the cheapest place we could find in the whole town of Caliente, which was a Cave back in the mountain and had two or three rooms, and was fairly clean, and between my Dad and Mother they fixed it up into what would be for us a comfortable and a place we could call home and we always felt secure and safe and warm in our first home in Caliente. There was an abandoned bus on our lot and my Brother Dean and I fixed it up for our bedroom, and it seemed to us like it was always adequate and a good place to sleep for us.

We didn't, (as I remember) have all of the food we wanted or needed, so there was much of that first year that our poor mother had to feed us on bread and onions and a little milk. But in these rather tight circumstances, it doesn't seem like we ever considered ourselves to be poor, because we were a very close and loving family and we were in spite of these problems what I thought was one of the happiest families in Caliente. I don't ever remember my Dad or Mother ever being unhappy and worked their hearts out to make all of us feel that same security and happiness under any circumstances. And this I know is because they were living and keeping the commandments and had a wonderfully close relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ and with Heavenly Father, and the love that they had for them, they by their good examples and their love implanted in each of us children the same love for Heavenly Father and our Savior that they themselves had. We had Christ like Parents and that is the whole secret to our love and happiness even in the poorest circumstances. Not only in our lives then, but all through our lives, I think we as their children are all happy families, not just because we don't have our share of life's ups and downs and many problems, but because of the love and trust and faith that they had in Heavenly father and our Savior and implanted this great blessing in each one of their Children. We were very Grateful for our wonderful Family then and now.

Our Very optimistic Dad would never ever seem to get discouraged, so the bad economic times was never too much of an obstacle to him. There wasn't any work available even in Caliente, so having a little experience in selling wood as a fuel, we immediately began hauling wood out of the nearby mountains and we rigged up a big table and a large round lumber mill Saw blade and a belt running to a model T. Ford rear wheel for power and we were in business and we were able to haul the wood from the mountains and Saw it up and sell it for 20.00 a cord and we were able to more than compete with the Coal business and began to even prosper a little and buy and afford good food again. Not only that but we had the opportunity of managing some apartments down in the middle of town and just across the road from 13 railroad tracks that were busy all times of the day or night. The large malleys with 9 large tall as a man drive wheels and the massive huge boilers to power them. Were awesome to see and when they poured on the coal it was such a tremendous roar and sound and not only that being right next to the tracks, Our little apartments would shake like an earthquake and like they may fall down. So for a while we were almost wishing we were back in our cave home. Well I guess we soon got used to the quaking and the earth shaking noise and it soon seemed that we almost needed the roars and rocking's to help put us to sleep.

I would like to mention some of the people we met when we first came to Caliente. It has been so long it is kind of hard to remember back 63 years, but I will try to remember some of them anyway. Mortimer and Margaret Willis and their family Don, LaRue, and Mary were, I feel, one of the most important and prominent families in Caliente. I think most of the people felt that same way also as Mortimer had helped in completing the new Ward building and doing all of the plastering inside and all of the Stucco on the outside. It was nearing completion when we moved to Caliente, but the Ward at this time was meeting up in a lumber Barn type building upon a high hill just south of town, and in the rear of a solid wall of mostly Saloons and some stores and a movie theater. And many of the people that walked to the Church rather than walk an extra several blocks to get around that solid wall of Saloons would walk through them to get to where the meeting house was. We often heard some comments of how strange it seemed to see a group of little girls, in their little pink dresses wending their way through the tables of drunken men that were drinking or playing cards or whatever. Strange as it may seem in those days even the drunks would never think of even touching or molesting in any way any of the little girls or others that were using the Saloons on their way to church.

When I first saw LaRue I was 14 years old, but even at that young age I felt some stirrings that I was in the presence of an angel and that she was different than any girl I had ever met and that feeling never did change, and 9 years later when we were married I knew I was right, I was in the presence of an angel and 53 wonderful years later, I know I am still in the presence of an Angel and I have always been what I feel is the worlds most blessed and happy Man.

Well I am getting ahead of my life too fast. So I will mention another Family that had a great impact for good in my life and that was Al and Leah Williams and their Daughters, Thelma and Ellen, and Clara, a cousin that they were raising as part of their family.

Another lovely family was Clave and Hazel Walker and Children Verlene, Eldon, and Marlin.. Also Loren and Maude Robinson and their family of nine children. Aquila, Leon, Luella, Helen, Leah Jean, Jim,. Margaret and Don. Other special families I will just mention a few of the special families and friends. Joe and Ella Bettridge, and Tom and Leola Bettridge, The Websters, The Jeffs, The Lee's, The Huntingtons, The Ortons, The Gentrys, and many other families in our wonderful Caliente Ward that really made a difference in our lives.

I will try to remember some of the most important parts of my time in Caliente. I think one of the most important was that Leah Williams was a very accomplished Music instructor and even though she didn't have much to work with she did make me so I could read some music and could sing base after a lot of training from her. Aquila was a very excellent Tenor and La Rue Sang either Alto or Soprano so beautifully it could bring tears to my eyes. Thelma, my sister and Thelma Williams were both good sopranos and Verlene had a beautiful Alto voice. So with this group of singers, Leah Williams really worked up some beautiful arrangements of some excellent church music and we sang for many of the wards such as Pioche, Panaca, Alamo, and we even performed in Cedar City and on the Radio station there also. Well we were really blessed with a lot of opportunity to develop into a really good Choral Group over several years, of happy times together. Leah Williams also taught a Genealogy class in our Ward for the young people and was a real blessing to me as I then wrote my life history, and learned the importance of keeping journals and other things that have been a great blessing in my life.

The first year of High School was a little hard for me as because of my missing so much school in the 2 years I was so miserable with Rheumatic fever. I was now in a measure of good health however and it was really an exciting time for me to realize that I could now run and do a lot of things that I didn't think that I would ever be able to do again because of all of the pain I had suffered with for so long. I will mention that High School was a challenge for me as I was encouraged to take typing, Shorthand, business, General Science, World History and I think I was the only Boy to take Shorthand and typing in a large class of girls, but I am glad that I did now as it has always been a blessing to me to be able to type and especially now that I am trying to do some life History and Journals on these marvelous computers. I guess I was always pretty good at Spelling also as I remember competing against many other schools and it was a lot of fun especially since our Lincoln High school in Panaca Nevada seemed to be near the top in all of our spelling competition and it was a good experience for me to participate.

I would like to mention some of the wonderful memories of our little Caliente Ward that we felt was about the most perfect and even the most righteous ward in the whole Church. My Dad (Wilford Senior) was sustained and ordained as Bishop of Caliente Ward with Mortimer Willis as first Counselor and Joseph Bettridge as 2nd counselor and I don't know if there has ever been any finer and more dedicated men than each of them were. They were loved and supported by everyone. And under their dedicated Service They were able to complete and Dedicate our New Caliente Ward Chapel. As I recall President Grant was the one to come to Caliente and Dedicate our Ward Building. He stayed with us in our home and what a thrill that was. We loved President Grant. He was really A strong Word of Wisdom advocate, and I remember him telling many stories, but just one I will mention as he told it to us. After he had delivered a particularly strong sermon on the Word of Wisdom, A Man came up to him after the meeting and Said President Grant, You wouldn't let a cup of Coffee keep me out of the Celestial Kingdom would you? And President Grant without any hesitation, replied No would you? That has always been a great strength and guide in my life. As I remember his report there were just over 320,000 members of the Church in all the world at that time and 3 temples. President Hinckley reported in the 1995 October conference there were over nine million members, 50 Temples operating and 5 more under construction and many more in the planning stage and over 50,000 Missionaries throughout the world. This is such a thrilling and exciting time for me and all the members of the Church. What a great time we all live in. Well our time in the Caliente Ward was a great time to live in too. We had just a few Deacons, Teachers and Priests and so I think I and Don Willis, Aquila Robinson, and one or two others passed, prepared or blessed the Sacrament about each and every Sunday, and I for one feel it was one of the greatest and happiest times for all of us as we participated in all of the Ward Socials, Dinners Dances, choir, and I guess as 3rd Nephi put it. There was never a happier group of People than the Nephites were for 200 years after the appearance of Christ to them in America. I feel Caliente Ward members were like those people also.

Our Junior Chorus also enjoyed meeting together and practicing and singing every week, and we were always having parties and going to dances, so there was never a dull moment We in our Junior Chorus seemed to Date and go with each other and enjoyed our times together, so it seemed like we were kind of an exclusive group, and I dated Thelma Williams, Verlene Walker, LaRue Willis, almost excluding everyone else, but as a mission was one of the most important goal for me at that time, none of us were ever really serious in our dating and so I think it was really just a really fun time for all of us.

Caliente was almost a town of magical memories for me. It was surrounded by some very beautiful mountains, and canyons and Panaca was also, and had a beautiful Mountain colored blue gray and was called Court Rock, and was located just across the road from our Lincoln High School and Football field and during our lunch hour some of us would always go over and eat our lunches in some of the caves or crevices in that big beautiful Blue Rock. And then if we had any time we would do a lot of climbing up to the top of that beautiful huge mountainous rock. It was just sitting out in a large field and there weren't any other mountains any where near it, and it was a very important part of our High School memories of Lincoln High School. I want also to mention another very important part of Panaca was called Cathedral Gorge about 2 or 3 miles west of Panaca, and many happy hours was spent by many of us at that most beautiful and spectacular place, It covered many miles of beautiful blue gray and yellow tone clay formations, carved out by thousands of years of winds and rain. There are miles of pinnacles, spires, narrow deep winding trails just wide enough to squeeze through some of them and some of them a hundred feet deep. It is really a beautiful place to go for hours and hours of exploring the miles of narrow trails and carvings and fantastic shapes of Cathedral Gorge. Then up in the mountains to the East of Panaca in the fall of the year we would take our scoop shovels and gunny sacks and fill them with the largest and yummiest pine nuts we have ever seen anywhere. Some of the trees would have the ground under them covered a half inch deep with nuts already out of their cones and we could scoop up sacks full of them in very short order. This was almost an annual tradition of pine nut gathering time.

As I was saying, Caliente was also surrounded by beautiful mountains and canyons such as Kershaw which was about 4 or 5 miles west of Caliente and where we rode our bicycles or automobiles, or even walked, many times a month and it was so beautiful with plenty of water running down through it and beautiful trees, and hanging vines every where. Our crowd as we called our singing group would use this beautiful place for many of our parties and picnics. Our families also had many nice times playing in the streams and water places and hiking from there up canyons and mountains surrounding Kershaw.

I should mention here that Don Willis, Keith Webster, Aquila Robinson, Abe Church, and myself, had the opportunity of purchasing an old Chevrolet sedan and we fixed it up so it would run and cut the top off and we named it Jezebel, and any of us could use it at any time we wanted to, by putting in the amount of gas we were going to use and leaving it as full of gas as when we would pick it up. I want to tell more about this car and what a blessing it was to our Crowd and the many fun times we spent in Old Jezebel.

As I mentioned, I would like to say a few things about Jezebel, and some of the fun places we went, and some of the things that we did in the few years that we used that very fun car. Ash Springs was out west of Caliente about 45 or 50 miles and we used to go out there regularly as it was one of the nicest warm water rivers and just the right temperature all year round, winter and summer, and I guess we used Jezebel more for going to Ash Springs than any other place. The actual Ash springs river ran for many miles through the whole Paranagat valley and there were many places that were available for swimming and tubing, but the part of the Ash Springs river where we would swim and party most of the time was about l50 ft long and about 25 to 50 feet across and had some huge cottonwood trees around kind of a park like area with picnic tables etc. From one of the large cottonwood trees we had a large rope hanging down over the water from a branch that was about 25 foot up in the tree and a loop on the end of the rope to hold onto and we would have the most fun swinging way out over the water and seeing who could go the highest and furthest. We spent a lot of delightful hours out at Ash Springs, as families,. a crowd and many times as a Ward activity, scouts etc. I will mention that the front seat and rear seat of the car Jezebel wouldn't hold all of our crowd so we would some of us, some of the time would stand on the full length running boards on each side of the car. One problem we had was that getting up out of Caliente to get to Ash Springs was a long steep 15 mile up hill mountain and up some of the steeper grades Old Jezebel just couldn't quite make it so those of us on the running boards would have to get off and push until we would come to a little less steep road and could push and jump back on before it got going too fast, which it did sometimes and sometimes we didn't make it back on and the driver would have to slow down until those who were left behind could catch up and get back on. But then when we would get to the top of that mountain, it was another 15 or so miles down the other side and we could pour on the steam and really make good time all the rest of the way to Ash Springs. We also would take Jezebel to school on occasion and to Cathedral Gorge and that was a lot of fun. Then on the East side of Caliente was a dirt road up over a steep hill and down the other side where it would cross the Railroad tracks out of Caliente and then continue on up the Canyon. Well some of the time we would challenge those of us in the car to see if when a train pulled out of Caliente, we would see if we could beat the train to this railroad crossing. Some of the time we could beat the train if we didn't have too many people on Jezebel and many times when we just barely made it, and some times were glad we could stop as old Jezebel didn't have very good brakes. Well needless to say that car played a very important part of the lives of all of us that had the use of it during the growing up years in Caliente.

School in Panaca was a very important time for all of us and riding our nice School Bus, was a daily ritual for about 40 of us as we all would walk down to the Band Stand in the center of town every morning and ride the bus the 15 miles to Panaca. It was a fun time to visit and enjoy the company of others on the bus and as I remember it was a great group of young people and there was seldom if ever any real problems among us on the bus or at school. It was a really good bunch of boys and girls.

During all of my High School years our Dad had the contract of driving the school bus so whenever he was unable to drive, it became my wonderful opportunity to drive the school bus in his place, and because of my good record and reliability and reputation in the town of Caliente, my driving of the School bus was never challenged or even questioned, which in our schools of today would be unthinkable for one of the students 16 to 19 years of age to drive their bus to school and attend classes and then drive the bus home after school. In to days world of Lawsuits and suing every one for every little thing I and my dad would have been in court half of our lives. Well anyway I really did have a very rare opportunity and I guess one that I don't think many high school students have had and it was a great blessing to our family as during the last 2 years of High School our poor Dad was really right down and could hardly drive at all. So along with driving and going to school I would come home and work at J. C. Penny store and work there restocking shelves and sweeping floors some times until 10 or 11 P.M. and then go home for a few hours of sleep before driving and going to school the next day. I was blessed with a lot of strength and good health and was able to do it. During the summers when I was not driving the Bus I help my dad, haul and saw up wood so we would be able to take care of our wood business during the winter. Then again some summers he wasn't able to go so I remember one summer I had to go alone into the mountains and get a load of wood and then after getting home would have to unload the logs and carry them up and stack them in a huge pile as our dad was unable to lift or do very much heavy work. At this time we were living in a basement home down across the road from LaRue Willis and her family. So we got to see them often. We had a large yard and by the end of this summer I had hauled and stacked a huge pile of wood I would think would measure between 15 and 20 foot high and 25 foot through front to back and 50 to 60 foot long. Some days as I was alone up in the mountains loading these large logs I remember my face being sunburned and caked with sweat and dirt and chopping and pulling down dead trees with the truck and after splitting them with large steel wedges driven into them by swinging a big 12 lb sledge hammer with all of my might and then having to load them upon the truck which when fully loaded was between 8 and 10 foot high and I would lift and strain on those logs until many times I would see stars and black out temporarily. I really to this day can't see how I ever did it, or even why I ever did it except for the love of my wonderful Dad and mother and small brother and sisters. Why I am going into detail about all of this is at the end of the summer just as we were ready to go back to School I remember I had to go over to Cedar City which was a hundred miles east of us in Utah and I wanted to mention the terrible scare I had when I returned home and it was about 12 to 1 A. M. In the morning and pulled up to our basement home and there was mud and water everywhere and by flashlight I saw the whole basement was a big swimming pool and the refrigerator and a lot of other furniture just floating around in the basement filled with water. I didn't know whether or not my family were floating around in their bedrooms or not, but to me it was a terrifying thing to see. Then out in the yard I don't believe there was one log or stick of wood left of the huge pile of wood that I had worked all summer to stack up and the hardest work I had ever done in my life before or since. Well while I was looking over all of this devastation someone I can't remember who came with his flashlight and told me that Caliente had one of the worst floods in history come sweeping down the Canyon and had filled up and flooded out of the banks of the fifty foot wide and 40 ft deep wash that ran through Caliente. He also told me to my great relief and Gratitude that my family were all over to the neighbors homes and were all O. K. Well this was one episode in our lives that none of us will ever forget, but for which we were all so very grateful that we were all still together as a family and none of us lost. I will mention though they had a real scare as the water swirled around them in their beds and then the struggle they had getting up the stairs as the water was coming in with great force down the basement stairway.

Well as I remember about this time we had been building a new home up on Spring Heights and I will tell some of the parts I remember about our building. Dad and I and measured out two of the Apartments that were being sold and moved by any one who wanted to buy them, and they were selling them for a good bargain price and We figured that we could dig and pour a Basement and then move these two apartment buildings up on it and by remodeling and moving walls on the main floor above the basement we could save a lot of time in completing our new home. We had a Fresno type scoop that we pulled with out truck and we dug our basement by me driving the truck and Dad holding onto the handles of the large scoop and the truck pulling it out of the basement and that way by the thousands of scoops we pulled out of that basement we leveled up our hillside lot and also had our basement. We had put thousands of hours in to this and getting the basement poured with cement and then moving the apartments up on to the foundation. We decided that we could have built the home months sooner if we had just built it from the ground up and forgot those stupid apartments. We put black paper and wire all over the inside and outside walls and then had Brother Mortimer Willis do the plastering inside and the stuccoing on the outside with our help, My first experience in plastering, and that made it into a really beautiful home, with as I remember 2 bedrooms and bath upstairs and a large living room and dining room and large kitchen and service porch and a very large front porch all enclosed with beautiful large stuccoed arches making it a very beautiful home inside and out. Then the basement had a nice apartment and also had 6 bedrooms, 3 on each side of a Hall way for renting out rooms and the apartment. Upstairs and down, there must have been at least close to 4000 square feet. We also had a central heating system with a large coal and wood burning furnace and it was one of the most beautiful homes in Caliente at that time, and we had it almost completed at the time of the great flood. So because of the flood we moved into the new home much sooner then we would have done otherwise. I will include some more of Caliente History next time as I remember it.

LIFE HISTORY CONTINUED: Feb. 96. I would like to mention another car that I had the opportunity to buy and it to played quite an important part in my life also, It was really a classy green four door sedan with plush upholstery and it had air springs and shock absorbers. It was a Chandler. I guess that is why I was popular with the guys and the girls. Later I had a Harley Davidson Motorcycle, I think it was about the only one in Caliente. That is what started me on my whole life long love for Motorcycles. I used to take all of my friends, girls and guys on rides up some of our canyons We really had a lot of good times. I don't think I ever had any serious accidents in my life. I did however ruin my only Sunday suit as most of the roads in Caliente were gravel and going around a corner on gravel is about like going around on Ice so I did ruin my suit and my knees and elbows. I took LaRue up one of our steep canyons and the exhaust was so hot and when we stopped and was getting off she still has a scar on her leg where she touched it to the exhaust pipe. I told her that was my brand on her and she would always be mine. Just kidding. We have always had a motorcycle until we went on our mission to Hawaii. Well that is another story I will tell another time.

In l936 my Dad was feeling pretty good some of the time and he got a contract to haul sand and gravel out to the desert between Caliente and Alamo, as they were putting new bridges and culverts. In those days machinery wasn't as available as it is now, so we purchased a gravity dump bed and put on our wood hauling Ford truck and built up the side board to where it would hold about 3 yards of sand or gravel. That 3 yards was a big load in those days and I think they paid us 7.00 per yard to make the haul of about 20 to 30 miles one way out to the valley between Caliente and Alamo. That would be about 2l.00 a trip not counting the cost of gas or maintenance, or the two hours of shoveling Sand and Gravel upon a screen upon the dump bed and every shovel full had to be screened and thrown up about 7 to nine foot. How we ever did it I don't know, but somehow by working l6 hours per day we were able to keep them in sand and gravel so they would always have what they needed to pour their concrete. Today it would be like trying to fill a bathtub with a teaspoon, to keep material to the cement contractors now. On one occasion my Dad and family left me alone for 3 days to keep the Sand and gravel screened and hauled. I really had the test of my life. I had to keep going night and day to keep enough material on the job. It was really slow going up the long 15-mile hill, much of it in low gear, so boring you could almost go to sleep even when you were fresh. I could hardly take time to eat for that 3 days and two nights, after working all night and day, on the 2nd night, in about the middle of the night I was on a slow stretch of road, I don't even remember running off the road, and running off of the road didn't even wake me up even though I was nearly to tip over, it is a wonder I didn't, but I awoke with the sun shining in my eyes, and was feeling a lot better. I must not have slept very long as my lights were still on and I was afraid the battery was dead, but there was enough spark to start up by hand cranking the motor, I continued on working this way, until my Dad and Family got back from Utah. My family was always so appreciative of me that I guess I would have worked myself to death for such a great family. I think I almost did a few times. Well because `of this wonderful job we had. We were able to make some money, we saved enough to buy us a brand new car and we paid cash for it. We paid $600.00 for a brand sparkling new Oldsmobile from Anderson Garage in Cedar City. I was just with today's prices. With just the $3000.00 rebate they offer today on a new Oldsmobile, we could have purchased and paid for 5 brand new Oldsmobile's, or with the price of 30,000.00 for the cost of a new one today we could have paid for 50 brand new automobiles. Well I think these observations are too much to think about, so I guess I had better quit thinking.

I don't think this new Oldsmobile hurt my popularity too much either as it began to be the means of our crowd to go to Ash Springs and to Stake conferences and even to some General conferences. I will mention one trip to Ash Springs, and the crowd had already gone out there earlier in the day and Dean Roberts and I were driving out to Ash springs to join the them, it was about 10 P.M. and was a very dark night and because I was very tired, I was letting Dean drive and I was sleeping. He was traveling about 70 miles an hour and for some reason I don't know why I opened my eyes just in time to see hundreds of little tiny lights on the road just ahead of us and I yelled to Dean to stop quick, and he just answered why? Then by that time we plowed into a large herd of sheep that were bedded down on the highway. Well sheep were going all over us, over the top of the car and out to the sides, and underneath us, just like a motorboat plowing through water. Well we were going so fast that we had through the whole herd of sheep before we could stop. There were dead sheep laying everywhere. The sheepherder wanted us to pay for his dead sheep and we wanted him to pay for our brand new Oldsmobile with its smashed grill headlights, and fenders. Well he never did, and we never did pay for his dead sheep either. I think times so are much different now as the owner of the sheep would probably be liable for all damages and then for another 3 million punitive damages for having his sheep bedded down on a Highway. Well enough of that.

We had to pay for fixing our Car as we didn't believe in Insurance at that time. Dean Roberts didn't have any money and we didn't want his family to have to pay, as they didn't have any money either. After we got the car fixed we still had a lot of nice trips and one trip in particular that I am thinking of. Some of us were able to make a trip to Hurricane Utah to stay at the home of Verlene Walker, as their family was living there at this time. I think Hurricane was about 140 miles from Caliente so we felt a certain amount of freedom to be able to make a trip in our new car and to be trusted by our parents to be able to go as a mixed group of boys and girls and not worry about us. And I might add that they didn't have to as I don't think I have ever known young people with a love for the Gospel and the highest standards and they or I would never even think of doing anything wrong. So we really appreciated the freedom then that I youth of today ever have. At least we as parents and grandparents seem to have to worry more in these perilous times than ours did then. And yet our children and Grandchildren are some of the finest and choicest young people to ever be born on the earth and will surely accomplish all that is necessary and that has to be done to usher in the Millennium and the 2nd coming of our Savior.

I guess because I had worked so hard in helping take care of our family and building our home and purchasing our new car that our wonderful Dad and Mother, never did question my using the car or going places, so we did go on a lot of fun trips in our car. I think because of my driving the school bus and my Dad being the Bishop of our Caliente Ward, helped all of the families to trust my driving and the way I lived and loved the Gospel, that they always let their sons and daughters go places with me at any time they wanted to.

I wanted to mention one trip in particular after I was made assistant Scout Master, to Bruce Barnham, one of the most respected and I think loved men in my life and also in the town of Caliente. He was a great example to me and I still try to live and do some of the things that he did, and live the way he lived. His wife, I can't remember her name, but he was so devoted to her and she was always first and foremost in his life. She early in her life as I recall had lost both of her legs while crawling under a train that started up rapidly while she was under it. She had wooden legs but they were not like they are today and she had much difficulty moving around. His devotion and love for her was an example of the way I wanted to treat my wife and care for her, as also the way my dad treated our mother. In my senior year or first year after graduation I was asked to be the Scout Master. I like Bruce Barnham, spent a lot of time helping our scouts pass their merit badges, tie knots, swimming, life saving, and all of the other things that scouts are supposed to do. On one occasion I was asked to take our troop down to Lake Mead to a big gathering with other scout troops. We would be competing in such things as life saving, fire building, tying knots and many other things. As Scout Master, and as driver of the school bus, I asked for and received permission to use the school bus to take our scout troop to this Boy Scout Pow Wow. We had between 25 and 35 Scouts and many of them were non members. Our troop did pretty well in all of the competition and then one day we had an opportunity to take a boat trip which I estimate about a hundred miles from the north end of the lake where we were camped to Boulder Dam. Well we all loved boat ride so much, except some of the boys who were sick most of the way. I remember the lake was rough and we were pounded all the way to the Dam and back to camp and it was from early morning to nearly midnight when we got back and the wind and spray about froze all of us but we felt it was worth it. Too much thinking again. This is not what I planned on writing, but now I will tell about what I was going to. The next day I took our troop in our school bus down to Boulder dam and as we passed a small airport near the Dam advertising flights over the Dam and Lake Mead, they all began teasing to fly over the Dam. So after some negotiating we felt it would be worth the price, but as I remember the old plane in which we flew was not all fun but was scary as the air currents and the bumpy ride felt like it was tearing the plane apart, and we all felt happy to be back on the ground. Well I will get back to the main part of this story. We had a great time touring through the Dam and then back to our school bus for the long trip back to camp. We were driving along at a pretty fast rate of speed when a two door cloth top coup went driving passed us weaving back and forth in a very erratic manner and as we watched we saw that car careen off the road at full speed and land on its top in the bottom of a deep dry wash. We stopped the bus and all of us ran down to where the car was upside down and we surely weren't prepared for the terrible sight we saw. There were two young ladies in there both unconscious and blood everywhere. One of them the driver had her scalp and hair almost torn completely off and was bleeding profusely and we knew she could not live very long with out immediate attention, and the other one also was bleeding from facial cuts and one of her leg bones were broken and was hanging out side of her leg and broken arms dangling. Well by this time other cars had stopped and one car had gone into Las Vegas to call for an ambulance. Our troop of boys and myself were sickened so much it was almost hard to take action, but we finally all of us lifted the car to where we could get to them and as carefully as we could carry them up to the road and laid them on blankets, and put cloths over their open wounds to try to stop the bleeding. The ambulance finally came and took them away still never regaining consciousness. This was the most terrible accident that I had ever witnessed before or since. In spite of all of the training all of us had received in first aid, I or the boys, we were completely unprepared for anything like the terrible accident we witnessed on that day. Needless to say I was a very careful driver after that and I am sure it was a day that those scouts or I will never forget. After returning home to Caliente we never did find out if those two young ladies ever recovered or not.

I think I will tell another story with a happier ending. Aquila, Don, Abe, Kieth, and I went on a long hike up from Kershaw and followed a Canyon up for several miles and it had an abandoned narrow guage railroad track. We observed a large round rock precariously close to rolling over the edge of a steep hill. It was as big as a large house and looked like with a little help we may move it over the edge, so we all began to dig the dirt out from under the bottom edge of it, keeping a sharp eye on any movement it may make, to allow ourselves some time to get out of the way if it did start moving. Well it did finally shift a little so we decided it was time to get out from under it. And by placing a log to pry on, and a log to pry with, we were able with one last supreme effort to get it over the edge, and start its several miles of tearing out large trees like they were match sticks, tearing out abandoned and already ruined railroad bridges and tracks. That great round boulder that must have weighed between 50 & a hundred tons, destroying everything in its path as it went tearing down that canyon for miles. What an exciting sight to boys who loved to roll rocks down the mountains as much as we did. I don't know if any rocks that large have ever been rolled down a mountain by men or boys, but one thing I am sure of and that is, that there have never been many of them, that would equal in size and distance, that we boys rolled off the mountain that day. I wish I had a video of it. I think that it could have really had a great place in a James Bond movie. This is another 4 pages of my life history as accurately as I can remember. All of this is before my 22nd birthday. I hope I don't have to remember this much in the next 22 years. I will continue more next month.

I think I had better get out of my teen age years and the good times and hard times that really filled up my whole life with mostly happy and wonderful experiences of growing up in what seemed to me to be about the happiest and the most blessed family that any children could ever have the privilege of growing up in. We had so many wonderful memories of the love that our wonderful mother and dad had for each other and for each one of us in our family of 4 Children, Wilford, Thelma, Dean and Mary Lou. As I think back over the years we were growing up however that I must have been a real pain at times, being the oldest in the family and thinking that I had the responsibility of helping to raise my brother, and sisters and see that they turned out O. K. So I guess I should tell all of them I am sorry for all of the problems that I surely must have been to them. I will mention that my sister Thelma was my biggest problem and I'm sure I surely must have been hers, as it seemed she could become so angry so quickly over some of the most insignificant things. And she would almost turn blue with anger when I would hold her down and wouldn't let her kick my shins and scratch my arms and face as she had some really sharp finger nails. I'll have to admit though that I still have many scars from when I couldn't hold her and she would scream that she sure felt sorry for any girl that ever married me. Well I really loved her so much and I hope she has forgiven me and what a great sister she has been to all of us. Dean was also a joy to all of our family and a great blessing to me and we had a lot of help in our lives from this great brother. I can't remember Dean ever being anything but a hard worker and one we all felt was a great example of what a brother should be. He always treated our mother and father with the greatest love and respect, and I am sure we all as his brother and sisters were influenced by the love he always showed for our angel mother and dad. Then our beautiful sister Mary Lou, what a joy she was in our happy family, and still is. She always showed so much love to all of us and especially to her mother, and sister Thelma. This was the family I grew up in and I have always remembered each of them with love and appreciation and tried to follow their beautiful examples.

Well I surely did and have felt the beautiful blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ all through my life, thanks to my Angel mother and dad and this great family. But the time was getting near when I would be leaving my family and going on a mission and I think because of our great love for the gospel and faith, that this became possible. My Dad was the Bishop for several years, of the Caliente ward and because of his and our faith he was being blessed with better health and felt that he could support me on my mission. He was feeling better at this time than he had felt in years, and as I remember he was deputy sheriff in Caliente at this time, and we had our nice home completed and all seemed like our Family were ready and prepared for me to accept a mission call. My Father the Bishop turned in my papers to Church Headquarters and then in a few weeks we were all excited to receive the long awaited letter and call from President Heber J. Grant that I was being called to serve a mission for the Church for two years in the Hawaiian Mission. What a great exciting time for me and our wonderful family.

In June of l940, my family dropped me off at the mission home in Salt Lake City, where I spent a strenuous week of concentrated schooling in what I would be expected to do in the coming two years as a missionary. I was also expected to learn the Hawaiian Language. One week didn't seem very long to do all of this, but we did sit in the training sessions long hours each day and as I remember it was one of the hottest record breaking heat waves to ever hit Salt Lake City in June and this was before Air conditioning was heard of. So it was miserably hot and even all night, and there wasn't a place in all of Salt Lake City where we could cool off. But it was a very exciting week also. President Joseph F. Merrill set me apart as a missionary and gave me a wonderful blessing and a lot of counsel and advice that I really did appreciate very much.

Finally the day came for us to leave for Hawaii so there were 8 of us missionaries boarded the train in Salt Lake City going to San Francisco. We had a very emotional farewell as we said our good byes to our families and friends. We enjoyed the train, playing games and eating, especially the eating part. We finally arrived in San Francisco where we spent 3 adventurous days there attending the Worlds Fair on Treasure Island and seeing some fantastic, but one of the shows that we had a feeling we should not go to, but did was a show of beautiful girls. It was a really good show, but not too good for missionaries as I remember. The day arrived for the 8 of us to board the beautiful ship Matsonia and it was a thrill to feel those great powerful motors begin to push us under the great golden gate bridge and out into the beautiful Pacific ocean. We spent 5 fun filled days and 5 nights on the blue pacific. We played Shuffle Board, Ping-Pong, swimming and many other fun games, and the food, wow it was so good. All kinds of meats vegetables, fruits, candy and nuts and all we could eat of them not just at meals but 24 hours a day. Our steward ran our baths for us and kept our table in our room filled with sandwiches, fruit and everything we could think of we had in great abundance. I myself gained 25 pounds in the 5 days to Hawaii, the very most I had ever weighed in my life of l75 lbs. On the last day of our voyage they served us Poi that they said was the main thing we would be eating for the next two years. I made the mistake of taking a big mouthful and trying to chew it before swallowing it. It took me about 10 minutes to get down that first mouthful and I felt like I was going to lose everything I had eaten before on the whole trip.

I remember my first sight of the beautiful Hawaiian Islands and thinking, this must be the Celestial kingdom, as I hadn't done much traveling and this just had to be the greatest and most beautiful and luscious and green sight I had ever before seen in my entire life. We were met at the docks by a whole group of missionaries, and Saints and that was about as wonderful a greeting and welcoming as anyone has ever had. I don't think now a days they do anything like they did for us 8 missionaries that day, as the covered us over with leis of the most beautiful flowers grown anywhere, along with showering us with their love as only the Hawaiians can do.

President and Sister Cox and Elder Williams our District President put all of us in their cars and our Luggage and took us to the mission home in Kalihi just outside of Honolulu. We unloaded our luggage and then Elder Williams took us up to Diamond Head, which is about the best known and picturesque landmark in Hawaii. From there we could see I think all of the Islands dotting the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean. From there we went to the Pali the high mountains where we could look down on Honolulu on the west and Kamuela on the East, both very beautiful cities. While we were on the Pali we all walked over to a lookout point where there was a 1500-foot cliff going almost straight up and down, and the wind was about the most powerful and steady force we could even conceive of such a power in the wind. Elder Williams told a story of a Hawaiian Princess that was trying to escape from and enemy and she jumped over the Pali and the power of the wind let her safely to the bottom. We could almost believe it did as we could barely walk against it. We then went to the Hawaiian Temple in Laie and it was amazing how beautiful it was situated against the massive green mountains in back of it and the immaculate pools of water, flowers, shrubs and trees, and lawns surrounding it. We then traveled through miles of sugar cane and then miles of pineapple fields and it was a beautiful trip that we had around the Island of Oahu we thought we were in paradise. Then Pearl Harbor and the beautiful United States navy of we were told, more than 80 battle ships, cruisers, submarines and Aircraft carriers. It was a thrilling sight and how different from what it would look like a little more than one year later when the Japanese cowardly sneak attack left it complete devastation and thousands of our service men were killed and wounded. I just had to enter that thought as today it was such a massive and beautiful picture of the power of the United States navy. Will write more on this later. We then went to the Dole Pineapple plant and had a fun tour of that and all of the most delicious juice we could drink.

We then returned to the Mission home and I wanted to mention one very strange thing about this mission home. At one time it was a large mansion and had several rooms, but in each room there were roped off areas and when we ask why, we were told that the floor looks beautiful but all there was left of the floor was the varnish. The wood had been completely eaten out from under the varnish by termites and if we were to step on those roped off areas we would go right through the thin varnish veneer. We were all interviewed by President Cox and I was assigned as my first missionary companion, Elder Worley and one of the finest and I thought missionaries anywhere. We were assigned to the Nanakuli Branch and Elder Williams took Elder Worley and me to a little small mission home in Nanakuli just across the road from the beach and ocean, and about 40 miles north of Honolulu.

I will mention our Nanakuli branch was very small, but we had some very strong and wonderful Latter Day Saints there. Brother and Sister Kamakaokalani, and then there was a Houli family the Fishers, Houli means white American family. These two families I will mention especially as they practically took us everywhere and were always feeding us and were kind and caring of the missionaries. Brother Kamakaokalani was branch President of the Nanakuli branch.

Just a few experiences and things I would like to mention. We were given a lot of freedom as missionaries at that time that our missionaries today do not have. About the next day after receiving me as his new greenie companion, Elder Worley wanted to take me swimming on one of the beaches that wasn't too far from our mission home. So we walked a couple of miles to it and as we walked we noticed that the waves were tremendous and awesome to me. I had never been in an ocean in my life at that time. When we got to the beach I was very anxious not to go in but finally My Hoa Elder Worley says to dive under the big waves so I tried diving under the first big one and I thought I was dead on the spot, as tons of water curled down on top of me and drove my face right into the sand as all of the water from the shore had been sucked from the beach and when I tried to dive under that 20 foot wave towering like a mountain over me I dove what I thought was under it and I dove right into the sand and then it came down on me like 10 tons of brick and about tore my arms and legs off as is tried to kill me and was turning me over and over like a top spinning and churning me for what seemed like hours instead of just minutes. Well I thought my back was broken and when I finally got me feet under me on the beach I found that Elder Worley hadn't fared much better than I, so we just sat out and as we talked to some others that were also staying out, they told us that just before we came a navy ambulance had just taken away two sailors who had tried to go in and the large wave that hit them broke both of their backs, and they were still on their way to the hospital.

Elder Worley and I were so sore the next day that we studied after awhile I was feeling trapped and lonesome, so I went up on a hill behind our mission home and as I was looking out over that vast expanse of ocean, a frantic, home sick feeling about overwhelmed me and I thought, what in the world am I doing out here on this little dot of island sand, and how in the world could I ever get back over those several thousand miles of water if I had to. For some time I was one homesick little missionary, never having been away from home before and after about getting killed the first time I tried to go swimming I didn't really know if I wanted this or not. I guess I must have been a real pain to Elder `Worley. Well after a few days of walking and tracting and having some nice missionary experiences I felt better. Walking 10 miles in a day can make you forget home which we had to do every day in the sticky hot, humid July weather in Hawaii. President Cox felt sorry for us I guess as he had two brand new bicycles shipped out to us and boy did they feel good to us and lifted our spirits considerably. Now we could go 20 miles a day if necessary, but it was still hot and when we would get home, we would put on our swim suits and run across the road and into the beautiful Ocean waters and by this time I was getting so I could handle many of the large waves. So our swim would cool us off and bring us back to life after a hard day of tracting in Nanakuli. On a normal day we could have our study time and chores of the morning done and be out tracting by 10 A.M. So about 3 weeks into my mission I was beginning to feel better and was enjoying cottage meetings and missionary success.

One more experience before I quit writing this month and that was on one long hot day of riding bicycles and tracting, we were getting home after sundown and by the time we started across the road to go swimming it was getting dark, so as we usually did we ran into the water with out thinking or checking for big waves. We found out to our horror that this was a huge mistake. We knew we had better get right back out as soon as we could as the ocean was the roughest we had ever seen it at this place. However before we realized it we had been pulled out several hundred feet into the ocean. We were still only about waist deep as this was a shallow water beach for a considerable distance out. However the power of the waves were taking us out further and to the south where we didn't ever swim as there were some coral beds that were sharp and dangerous. We tried to hold onto each other and we were praying all the while, but each wave would tear us apart and then between waves we would try to find each other in the dark turbulence if the water and waves. We tried but couldn't keep ourselves out of the coral beds and each wave would roll us end over end up through that sharp coral and we didn't know if either one of us would ever come up again after a huge wave hit us. Well after what we estimated to be about an hour and a half we were pushed up through the coral to where we could grab on to some of it and not be pulled back out further, and we would make some progress between waves toward the shore and finally two badly cut up and bruised, but grateful missionaries climbed out on the beach and home promising ourselves and Heavenly Father that we would never do anything that stupid again, however we sometimes don't keep those kind of promises.

In those days there was only mail delivered after spending a lot of time on the train and then on the boat so it was sometimes a month between letters, but we would maybe get two or three and then it was always such a wonderful time when we could hear from Mother and Dad and family and friends. We were treated so wonderfully by the people of Nanakuli and especially the members of the branch, and it was our work to teach classes in primary, Sunday school and meetings, so Elder Worley and I were kept busy trying to strengthen the members and do as much tracting and cottage meetings as we could above the branch assignment. They were good and loving people, but were very satisfied and happy with their lives as they were, and that sometimes was very frustrating in trying to change their lives and ways. We have had a lot of contacts and some baptisms, but most of them are young people or children and we wish we could bring these wonderful blessings to whole families. We are planting seeds all of the time and hopefully they will bring forth fruit. I think this is a time of gleaning and that always takes a lot of patience and hard work. I will mention that the Hawaiian mission is not the most expensive mission as I have been able to do pretty well on 35.00 per month, but some times about the end of the month we have to be pretty frugal, especially if the mail with our checks come in a week or some times 2 weeks late. So about this time we are on the lookout for gleaning in the pineapple fields that have already been harvested or pick avocadoes or mangos that are growing almost wild along all of the roads where we ride our bikes we can always bring home plenty of these and they are good.

Kona Kailua Hawaii was one of the best times of my mission in the Hawaiian Islands and I will mention just a few of the things that happened to me there. Elder Pack was our district leader there and he was also my senior companion. We had an old car that we were able to get around pretty good in and we had what seemed to be a pretty good mission home, but the west coast of the island of Hawaii was very dry and for our water supply we had a large water tank and we had to depend on the rain to keep enough water that would drain off of the roof, to keep us in water, and during the dry season we would have to limit our baths and showers, and the tank was always so full of what we called little wigglers or worm like little things that we would tie a little tobacco sack on the water tap to strain them out of our drinking water and if we didn't clean our tobacco sack out often enough, it would be full of little dead wigglers and they would flavor up our water and we would have to hold our noses to get a drink. Why we never did get sick is still a mystery to me. Our shower was a little four walls outside built under the water tank with just some boards on the ground to keep us out of the mud as there were no drains. What I want to mention about this little out door shower was there was not a light in it and when we would try to shower at night in the dark we would take a flash light with us and when we would shine the light in there the whole floor would be moving with scorpions trying to get out of there. I shudder to think what would happen to a poor missionary who would step in that shower in the dark without knowing what was in there.

Our mission home was right across the road from the Kona Inn a very nice hotel for those days, but a very poor one by today's standards. The management of that Hotel were very nice to the missionaries and we were invited to use their Pool all we wanted to and the mission rules were not against the missionaries going swimming so we used the Kona Inn Pool regularly. It was built right above the ocean on some cliffs and the tide and waves were down below the pool, which had some two-inch pipes as a fence around the pool, and there were just 2 pipe rails all the way around the pool and they were about 2 feet apart. Why I am mentioning this is to show how foolish we were one time when there was a huge storm and waves that came crashing way up over the pool and we were foolish enough to go swimming and we thought we were having a ball when we would try to hold onto the pipes near the ocean and the huge waves would tear us loose and send us clear to the other end of the pool and we would be stopped by the pipe rails on the other end and then when the wave came back out it would tear us loose and we would go scooting back to the other end and grab the pipe rails to keep from being swept into the ocean which would have been the end of us. The power of those waves were awesome but a lot of fun until one extra large one almost pulled us through the pipe rails and then we had enough sense to get out.

One of my missionary companions in Kona, I will mention as he was a very good Tennis player, and he is the one that started me on my life long love for the game of tennis. He was also at one time Utah State champion in Tennis, so I started out with a very good teacher. On one occasion we had the opportunity of talking with Doris Duke Cromwell, (the richest girl in the world), and her companion Errol Flynn a real popular movie Star at that time. Errol Flynn also loved the game of tennis and challenged Elder Worley to a game of tennis and I think he was very surprised when he found out that a Mormon missionary could beat him, which Elder Worley did many times. We really felt we had a good experience with Doris Duke Cromwell and Errol Flynn and were able to tell them a little bit about the Church, that we wouldn't have been able to without the game of tennis opening a way for us.

Our Mission home was built on solid rock and I was commissioned by President Cox to modernize and remodel our mission home so finding that picks and shovels were useless in digging drain fields for sewers and sceptic tanks, we purchased dynamite and I having a little experience in the use of it in our Delamar mine out of Caliente, I had quite an experience in blasting trenches and hole for our sewer system. Also along with our missionary work It took several months of puttying and painting walls and cupboards and floors. I mention in my mission journal that I painted the walls in my bedroom and emerald green and the floor grey and I thought that it was the most beautiful bedroom in the mission and I really loved it. This was all during the early months, of the year 1941.During this time I was District President of Kona with 4 or 5 pairs of Missionaries to try to supervise and they were really a great bunch of Elders. We had a lot of beautiful experiences there.

As I mentioned Kona was a very dry part of the Big Island and dependant on the rain to fill the water tanks of all of the people. After one really long drought, as District President I was asked in a conference to pray for rain and knowing the Hawaiian people I knew I would be blamed if it didn't so I had decided that I wouldn't pray publicly before them for rain, which I would surely be if it didn't rain. So in praying after a conference I had no intention of doing so, but during my prayer I was strongly prompted to pray for rain, which I did and for which I wondered why I did when I in now way was going to. After the meeting I was reminded that I shouldn't have done that, and I was thinking Wow, why did I do that? Well the next day I was still feeling that way and I was prompted to get down on my knees and ask again for rain. This I did and while I was praying, it started to rain. Oh how grateful I was for that wonderful answer to my prayer, and that I had listened to the promptings that I received at that time. I don't think I have ever been more grateful to see it rain that at that time.

I was transferred to the Parker Ranch on the north central part of Hawaii and it was a lot higher and cooler and kind of covered a large part of the north end of the Beautiful Island of Hawaii. This Ranch included the whole town of Kohala and is where we had our mission home in a large Gymnasium in a room above the kitchen area. This Ranch had thousands of head of beef cattle and hundreds of employees. And was and I think still is the largest individually owned ranch in the world. There was hundreds and thousands of acres of Grass lands and it was so tall you could hardly see the cattle grazing in it. And being at the foot of the large snow capped much of the time Mouna Kea. It was cool and nice most of the time and such a welcome change from the heat of Kailua Kona. Our District covered all of this ranch and some small communities out side of it including a little settlement about half way up Mouna Kea, and where some of our members lived, and we were to go up there once or twice each month, and there was only one trail and no roads up there. We either walked up the 10 miles or rode horses which we were able to do most of the times we went up there as many of the ranch managers were good members of our Kohala branch, and were almost always able to provide horses for us to ride up the mountain. The reason I mention all of this is I wanted to mention one of our experiences with horses. On one occasion I was on one of the biggest horses I have ever seen I could just barely reach the saddle horn and had to stand on something to get my foot up to the stirrup, and when I got on him I felt pretty small and like he didn't even know I was on him.

Well we had a very nice trip up to the little settlement, but I would like to mention what it was like coming back down that mountain on that big animal that made me feel so small. He was fine going up that mountain trail, but when he knew he was headed for home, he took the bit in his teeth, and I might as well have been trying to stop a train. I had one of the wildest rides I think anyone has ever had in this world. He was almost flying over small trees and big rocks as large as small cars and over washes and gullies and all I could do was to hold on with both hands and pray for help. I don't believe he ever did hit the trail only as he crossed over it and how he ever got down that canyon with out killing himself and me I will never know, except he and I both were carried on that wild ride of 8 miles and only coming to an end when the large heavy timbers in the gate we had to go through stopped him cold doing what it seemed like 50 miles an hour or more. The timber gate stopped him, but it didn't stop me as I went sailing on over the gate and on down the trail for another 50 feet or more. That is one wild ride on a runaway horse that neither I or that huge wild horse will never forget. We both had to have divine protection or we would have both been killed if not the wild ride flying over cliffs trees and gullies, the heavy gate should have broken his neck and mine, but we both survived.

Just two more things that happened to me and my companions while serving on this beautiful Parker ranch. I was standing up on a chair on a table putting a new net on a basket ball hoop in our Gymnasium mission home when the whole building began creaking and rocking back and forth violently and as I fell off the chair you would think I was Charles Barkley hanging on to that hoop after a slam dunk. That was just the beginning of the worst series of earth quakes I have ever experienced. We had just gotten into our beds when another hard one hit and our beds on casters were rolling all over that wooden bedroom floor, and they kept coming for the next several days every 2 and a half minutes as we could time them on our watch. Thank goodness they became less severe and we could even sleep through most of them, and during the next few days we would jokingly about when it was time for another one we would both say we want and earthquake and sure enough we would get one before we would quit speaking.

The other thing I wanted to tell about while I served on the Parker Ranch was one Sunday morning during our Sacrament meeting and on December 7, l941 several jeeps full of soldiers with sirens screaming pulled up to our little Church building and ordered us out of our meetings and to our homes as the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and momentarily would be bombing us and all of the other islands. The told us to stay under our beds and listen to the radio for further instructions. This one day made a big change in our lives as missionaries as we were recruited by the military and issued garand rifles and showed how to shoot them, and I was placed in a little box lookout post high up on the mountain with a telephone to call down to the military any lights that may appear on any part of the Island visible to me which I was to do all night when I was on duty and very shortly after my call the offending light would disappear. One night when I was extremely tired I had a night mare as I laid down on the floor of that little lookout shack and it caught fire and I couldn't move and I could feel my legs cooking and the grease pouring out of them, and I remember thinking that if I don't die now I will be shot for falling asleep, knowing the penalty for those on guard duty of falling asleep. Well I never did hear of any missionaries being shot, but I do remember that terrible nightmare I had when I did fall asleep. I hope the army doesn't see this confession.

I know I am spending too much time remembering too many things about the time I was on my mission in Hawaii I guess it is hard to know where to stop. But I will now go to the Island of Molokai and tell just a couple of things there and then will end my mission, and get on with the rest of my life. I was still district president on Molokai but there were only two of us, I and my companion. We had to walk every where we went as we didn't have a car or even bicycles and I want to say that Molokai is one of the hottest and driest of all of the islands and is one of the main and largest producers of pineapple of all of the islands. So it is covered with pineapple fields everywhere. So walking through miles and miles of pineapple every day we some times had to use it for water or choke to death. Pineapple is very good, but I can say is is a very poor substitute for water, but I think it saved our lives many times. Another main reason for the Island of Molokai was on the north end and way down below some very high perpendicular cliffs that surrounded the whole leper colony. The only way into the colony was a winding narrow trail cut into the cliff and it was also the only way out except by boat. We as missionaries were provided mules to ride down to Kaloupapa, and we loved it down there as there was a really nice mission home down there next to the chapel, and the branch President who was not a leper kept up the mission home and the chapel, and it was immaculate and one of the main reasons we liked it so much is the refrigerator was always filled with the best foods and cold drinks and just waiting for the missionaries. The people down there just loved the missionaries and wanted to have us stay down there as much as we could. They had the stand in the little chapel roped off to separate the lepers from the missionaries and those on the stand which made them and us feel bad that we couldn't mingle with those dear brothers and Sisters who have all of the same feelings of love for the gospel and for their Heavenly Father as any of the rest of us. I think that it was good for us to see this love in spite of the terrible disease, which many of them had to endure for much of their lives.

I will skip over a lot of the great mission experiences that I had and just say that it was one of the greatest blessings of my life to have that privilege of serving on that mission. I was blessed with many wonderful experiences and opportunities before and during the war and also of helping serve our country by helping our service men as much as we could. When my time was completed I was sent home on the U. S. Troop carrier S. S. Mt. Vernon and there were over 10,000 men on board I was five decks below main deck and we his one of the worst storms ever recorded on the Pacific, and there were forty automobiles and trucks broke their morrings and were thrown over board. The war was still on so we were on a zig zag course and traveled at night without lights. I was so sea sick for 2 days I thought I was going to die and then for the next 3 days I was afraid I wouldn't and I couldn't eat anything and I think I lost more weightgoing home than I gained going over. I was one happy missionary when we finally pulled into Los Angeles. Sorry to spend so much time writing these pages. To be continued:

Well it was a wonderful two and a half years serving in the Hawaiian mission and now it is good to be back home and to see my wonderful family again and get on with some of the other important things in life. I am writing this part of my life history on this day of June 6, l996 and we are living in Mesa Arizona, so I do have a lot of very important things that have happened in my life that I would like to record as I am trying to remember some of the more important ones.

I went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad as what they called a fire lighter and I would have to build fires in the huge furnaces to get up steam to power the locomotives. My Dad was working at this time as a deputy sheriff in Caliente and he had been better health wise while I was on my mission than he had been for many years. However this was to change as we were soon to find out. Our family felt however that he had really been blessed and been able to take care of the mission expense and also the family needs while I was gone.

About two or three weeks after I returned home LaRue Willis who had been working all during the war at Hill Air Force base, up in Ogden came home to Caliente for a visit. When I first saw her I then knew that she was the girl I would marry. She was so beautiful to me I could just not stay away from her. I might mention that my mission President Waldron and told me that If I wasn't married in three months after getting home I would be breaking the commandments. Well he didn't have to tell me that as when I saw LaRue I wanted to get married right then. She wanted to wait for a few months, but she finally said yes to getting married on Nov. 25th l942, which was still less than 3 months after the time I got home from my mission. And we were married in the St. George Temple. She has been and still is the most beautiful woman in the world to me 54 years and 60 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren later. What a beautiful wife, mother and Grandmother she is.

Well that is getting ahead of my life history too fast so I will mention that after we were married we moved up to Ogden and LaRue continued working at Hill Air force base and I went to work out at 2nd st. In Ogden as a plumber. I wanted to mention that this was in the middle of the winter and the foundations of all of these homes were poured in the summer and then it about filled them up with snow and then the floor joists and floors were put on and the studding and roofs were all installed before any of the plumbing had been installed as there was a shortage of plumbers during the war, and so now the plumbing had to be installed by crawling around on our bellies in the frozen snow and do the plumbing underneath the floors. Well you can imagine how I loved that, just coming from the warm Islands of Hawaii and crawling around in the frozen snow under those houses. It was always wonderful to get home at night and be with LaRue even though we had just been married and had fixed up a little apartment in Uncle Collis and Aunt Florence's Garage and the only heat we had in it was a wood cook stove, on which we had to cook and keep warm as well. I don't know if I was ever warm any of the time as I was freezing all day at work and then coming home I would be freezing all night also and then back to work and freeze all day. It was one of the coldest winters I could ever remember in my whole entire life. I could go through anything for my new sweetheart LaRue and so I was very happy even when I was miserable and freezing.

Well I guess I was not the only one who was miserable as LaRue finally figured out why she was so sick and miserable all of the time, and one day she came home and broke the news to me that we were going to have a baby. I don't know why but that had never even entered my mind. So this helped us with our decision, that we would quit our jobs and move to Salt Lake as I felt like I had to get something that I could be warm again. So we rented a little upstairs apartment on Edison Street in south Salt Lake, and I went to work for Union Pacific Railroad again and this time as a boiler washer. It was a miserable job also, but at least I was warm for the rest of the winter and then hot for the whole summer when I received a phone call while I was at work and LaRue was in Labor so I broke all speed limits getting the 12 miles home and getting her into the car and then to the Hospital where 20 minutes after arriving there our first wonderful son Robert Dean was born. What a joy that was to his mother and me.

About this time we heard that my Dad was real sick again and they wanted to bring him to Salt Lake to go to a Dr. there and so we arranged for him and my mother to move into our apartment and we would move into their home in Caliente and take care of my sister Mary Lou who was the only one not married in our family and also take care of the chickens and Cow and all of the chores that there was there. I think Dad and mother enjoyed our little apartment and it seemed that Dad was a little better. But after returning home he seemed to go down hill really fast and we finally put him in the Hospital. Just returning home from a mission I felt I and our family had enough faith that we could keep him alive, but after a couple of weeks in the Hospital and seeing him suffer and go from his normal weight of 220 lbs. Down to 95 lbs. We Prayed as a family that he could be released from this terrible suffering, which he was May 8-1944. Just 2 days after his 46th birthday. He had the privilege of seeing two of his grandchildren, our Robert Dean and Clyde and Thelma's Sharon. We had his funeral in Caliente and then his burial in the Provo cemetery. To me it was a sad blow as it was for my poor mother and the rest of our family and to so many of the people in Caliente who had learned to love him so much as their Bishop, and good friend.

` La Rue and I moved from Salt Lake immediately and we moved into the Webster's

Basement apartment. We had purchased a nice truck with which I hauled cement and building materials from Cedar to Caliente where I did a lot of odd jobs for people there pouring concrete walks, driveways, basement walls etc. I also worked plastering with Mortimer Willis my Father in law. I will mention right here that the war was still going strong and my draft board was in Hawaii so they had never bothered me, but non the less I was bothered in my conscience and

I decided to go down to California and enlist in the service, when I tried to enlist I was told that they were desperately in need of airplane tire builders and ask me if I would be willing to take a job building Air plane tires out at B. F. Goodrich, and I told them I would be glad to do that and that I would go home and get our family and furniture and would be back right after Christmas which was just a couple of days off. I remember how beautiful the orange groves looked in California and when I informed LaRue and my mother and family that I was going to move to California, there were a lot of mixed feelings of joy and some sadness.

June 20,l996 Life history continued:

We already had a job waiting for us in East Los Angeles. So we had a nice Christmas in our little apartment in Websters basement and our new little 16 month old Son Robert Dean was the cutest little guy and really made this our 3rd Christmas for Mom and me together, one of our best and nicest and happiest Christmases ever, LaRue was 3 months along and we were expecting our first daughter Pat, so it was a very happy time for us, but for my poor mother and Mary Lou it was a very sad and lonely day as it was their and our first Christmas without our Dad and that did take a lot of the joy of Christmas away for our Dear Mother. Well on the day after Christmas LaRue and I did all of our packing and loaded everything we had in our truck and headed for sunny and beautiful California, and we will never forget the cold snowy grey day in Caliente and then traveling down into the sunny and warm, green beauty of the orange groves of the San Bernardino Valley. We stayed the night in a hotel in Los Angeles and then the next morning I went to work at B. F. Goodrich Tire Company building Airplane tires. La Rue didn't like staying in the Hotel so during the next week we spent all of our spare time finding a place to live and that was almost impossible during wartime in Los Angeles. But we did finally locate a little l bedroom and a small combination kitchen, and living room. We had to share a bathroom and laundry with several others of these tiny, but new and nicely furnished apartments, this was hard for us to have to walk outside to get to the public bathroom facility, and especially for LaRue at night and 3 months along with Patricia Ann.

Well thank goodness this situation only lasted for about 3 months and we were able to move into a quite a nice little home that had more room and our own private bathroom. So we moved into this little home just before our daughter Patricia Ann was born on June 15, l945. We were living in the Montebello Ward and I was asked to be Elders Quorum President. We really enjoyed the Montebello Ward. When we were in Caliente, we had worked on some three-bedroom homes and with lots of cupboards, closets and really nice homes and even furnished the lots to build them on and then they were sold them for $5000.00. I just wanted to mention that as today's prices these same homes would be 70,000.00 thousand dollars and up. And sometimes the lot alone would be that much. Remembering these nice homes we decided to buy a lot and build us a home. So we purchased a nice large lot in what was then called Bandini. I think we paid 800.00 for our nice large lot. I was working nights building airplane tires and during part of the day I would get some sleep and then worked on our small home. And even though it was very small it was nice and we were happy to move into that first home that we built for our selves. It wasn't quite as large and nice as others we had built, but at that time it was about all we could afford. We were very happy here as it was our home. Another reason for happiness was that the war was over and so was the need for Airplane tires and so we were now building automobile and truck tires. We were on piecework and we had to build about 80 automobile tires in an 8 hour shift. I was one of the fastest tire builders and I could build my 80 tires in about 6 hours. Which was a big mistake as it wasn't long until management raised our quota and made us build more tires. I still liked my job and was making good money for that time.

I want to mention one of the things that we did while living in this little home was that our Bishop, Stanley Kimball and his family really befriended us and had us over to dinner many, many times and when he found out that we had built our own home, and was a plasterer He asked me to supervise the addition of the recreation hall on our Montebello Chapel. At that time members of the Church were asked to donate money and many hours of time to build new Church buildings etc. So being as it would be a big sacrifice for us as it would mean many hours every day after working on my job and then being away from LaRue and 2 children many hours each day making it a lot of work and sacrifice for her also. So for the next year I was working building tires and then for several hours a day I would be down working on our chapel and recreation building. Walls had to be moved to open up into the recreation hall and concrete had to be poured, and I remember that some nights I would be there all night working on the concrete. I as supervisor had to be there all of the time to keep working whether any one showed up to help me or not, so there were many nights I would be there all alone. We did have a lot of good faithful brothers and it was a joy working with them and we felt good about what we were doing and each week there would be a lot more done and the members felt very good to see what they were accomplishing each week. The Stake High Counselor assigned to our ward was F. F. Kunz and he really kept a close watch on the progress of the building. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was also keeping a close watch on me. I was young and had enless energy and could do about anything and everything that needed to be done. Plumbing, wiring, and of special interest to Faye Kunz was that I was really good at plastering and even at running plaster molds and there was a lot of fancy plaster molds around most of the pilasters, Posts and ceilings. I was the only one in our ward who could do the plastering and the moldings, and the other brethren helped by hod carrying, keeping scaffolding, and keeping me plastering continually. The whole recreation hall was plastered inside and out plus several new class rooms we built around the hall. It seemed like an impossible job for one plasterer to do, with all of the ornamental molds that had to be formed and run, but by keeping at it the building was finally completed and we were all very proud of the new building now completed and ready to be dedicated.

I found out the reason F. F. Kunz kept such a close watch on me, as he came to me after we completed the building and wanted me to not only go to work for him, but wanted me to be one of his plastering foreman as he had a large crew of plasterers and was one of the largest Plastering companies in Southern California. He offered me 25.00 a day to start and so that was a fortune at that time. And that started me on what would be a major part of my life's work Faye Kunz was one of the finest men and friends I have ever had or known and I worked for him for about 10 years and so we were being blessed in countless ways for our accepting the calling to supervise the building or the Montebello recreation Hall and classrooms. Heavenly Father can be and is the best, wisest, and the most lovable employer I have ever worked for. I have never had to turn down a call to do anything, that we have been called to do. I have just about completely let him make all of my decisions, in any thing we have ever done and I can truthfully say he has given me every blessing I could ever desire, he does this even before I think of asking for them myself. Could we ever, ever find another in whom we could put our whole trust and love.

Life History continued 7-1-96

We really enjoyed our little home in Montebello, and being Elders quorum president we had a lot of good opportunities to attend a lot of Ward parties and Quorum parties as well. We had a lot of friends there and we took in a lot of beautiful parks which were close and canyons, which we enjoyed very much as there was beautiful streams of water, and they were warm and the children Bob and Patricia really enjoyed splashing in the shallow warm streams of water, which we took them up to real regularly. We also had some of the nicest drive in theaters, that had play ground equipment and little trains, and other rides for the children, and we didn't have to worry about R. rated movies. In those days our drive in theaters had only nice family oriented movies.

LaRue and I were very happy in our new Bandini home and, we were young and really involved, and expecting our 3rd child. And we were so thrilled and blessed, when our beautiful Carolyn Joyce, came to us on November 23, 1948. and we had been asked by our Bishop Stanley Kimball to supervise the building of a new recreation hall and class rooms on to the Montebello Chapel, which I have already told about and it should have come after we moved into our little new home and we worked hard during the next year in getting it completed.

After completing the chapel as I stated before, I went to work for F. F. Kunz plastering Company, so I was doing a lot of driving up to Pasadena as that is where he was located, and then we could go from there to anywhere in the whole Los Angeles valley, and that is one big valley. We were making good money and really enjoying our beautiful family and each other. It was a good life for us. Our nearest Temple was Mesa Arizona and as Elders Quorum president I was able to arrange for some very nice excursions for our Montebello ward. Little did we dream that about 40 years or so later we would be living in beautiful Mesa Arizona and enjoying it like no other place we have ever lived. I guess I should add that we have never lived anywhere in our lives that we haven't said that same thing, the best place we have ever lived. This earth is a beautiful place no matter where we live or travel on it.

While we were living in our new little home in East Los Angeles, or Bandini we had a lot of friends and neighbors. One family we really enjoyed very much was Bob and Helen Brooks. Helen was a sister of A. J. Robinson, and we had known her for years in Caliente, and LaRue was very close to Helen, and also our neighbors, one who was right next door to us, the Hunts and the reason that I mention this is that he made beautiful brooms for a living in his garage. One night our family came home from the drive in theater and it was a terrible shock to us to find the police and fire trucks parked all over, some of them, even in our yard and we then found out that Mr. Hunt had started up his car in the garage and committed suicide. He always treated our children so nice and it was a shock to Bob and Pat when he was no longer there to visit with them. We had tried to tell the Hunts about the Church and the gospel and were so saddened by this little episode in our lives. We hope that his work will have been done and that he has accepted this wonderful Gospel.

It seemed like a long drive to Pasadena so we started looking for a home a little closer to our work, and about the time we decided to look, Faye Kunz called and said, Wilford there is a home for sale right across the road from us and we would like you to look at it. So the next morning when I got to work I went through two homes on one lot and another large lot, adjoining the lot the homes were on, and they were all fenced in and even though I felt they would have to have a lot of work on them I being young was ready to go to work on them right then. Well to make a long story short Brother Kunz was so kind and advanced us enough for a down payment on these two nice homes for just $15,000.00. The front home had three bedrooms on the main floor and kitchen, living room, dining room and all really nice size rooms, a finished basement with bedrooms and bathroom and large play room. So we felt we were really getting a good deal. Plus our large yard and large extra lot made a wonderful place for our children to play and grow up in. We were also closer to our nice canyons, and streams of water, and our Drive in Theater, was just a few blocks from us where before, it had been several miles from Bandini. We felt this was a great gift from our loving Heavenly Father. I was also just across the road from the plastering yard and I only had to walk over and then drive a company truck to work and that was a big saving of traveling time and also gasoline.

Well just shortly after moving into this new home, we had an even greater blessing come to us. Another beautiful daughter, Karen Eilene joined our family on Feb. 19, 1950. We now had 4 beautiful children. One handsome son, and 3 beautiful daughters. We were living in the Pasadena Ward, and I was asked once again to be an elders quorum President, and we really enjoyed that calling as there were a lot of young families, and we fit in really well, and had a lot of good experiences. Our Mesa Temple was still our nearest and was over 300 miles, so we with young children didn't get to go there while in Pasadena, also there was talk of a new Los Angeles Temple, and that we would have the privilege of donating our money and our time on it.

As I mentioned we had a nice little concrete swimming pool over in our home we built, so about the first thing I had to do was build another one here in our Pasadena yard, so I decided to do a little different and I built it out of heavy plywood and then put paper and wire on and plastered it smooth inside and stucco on the outside of it, and it was a very nice pool all of the time that we lived there, close to 8 years. Then we decided we wanted a bigger kitchen so I borrowed one of Faye Kunz's large trucks, and I had some heavy cables, so after some preparation, I thought I could pull the old kitchen right off of that part of the foundation, we could enlarge our kitchen. The only time I had to work on the houses, was after getting home from work, and sometimes it would be dark, and some times midnight, before I would quit working on the house. When I pulled the kitchen off of its foundation, it made one of the most horrible noises of screeching, breaking, tearing apart of lumber and wood I had ever heard, but I thought well I had better keep going. After I got it down I was up in the attic with a large sledge hammer trying to knock the rest of the ceiling down. All at once I looked down, and there were about 12 or 15 men down their with flashlights, and I thought for sure they had come to lynch me. They asked me to come down which I did fearfully, and they informed me that they would surely appreciate it, if I would quit working on the house by 10: P.M. So they could get some sleep. I told them that I would never make that much noise again and I didn't. When 10 P.M. came I would keep going but very quietly.

We worked hard for a few months and finally we had a really beautiful new kitchen with built in breakfast nook, new cupboards and appliances and LaRue and I both were very happy for the nice large kitchen we now enjoyed. We also did some considerable remodeling and painting of the basement and the up stairs and also stuccoed the outside and we really had a beautiful new and livable home that we really enjoyed so much and we loved Pasadena, and our Pasadena ward. I also really enjoyed my new job of plastering mostly on commercial buildings, hospitals, schools, churches civic buildings, and all kinds of Hotels and business buildings. Everything in those days was plastered, as sheet rock hadn't even been thought of at that time. Even all of the homes were plastered so there was never a shortage of work for me.

I will mention a few of my happy memories of Pasadena and our lives as some of the busiest not only in our working as a plasterer and a plastering foreman for one of my best friends Faye and Melba Kunz, which I want to go in more detail later, but we also were very busy trying to help our Pasadena ward as Elders quorum president and for awhile as Sunday School president, and it was while we were busy in this capacity that we were told that our Ward was being divided and that we had the assignment of helping to build a new East Pasadena Ward Chapel. So here we go again building one of the largest and most beautiful chapels I think in the whole church and, and I think that it is still one of the largest and most beautiful chapels that we know about. We spent a lot of time building that chapel and plastered every inch of it inside and it was beautiful brick on the outside. This beautiful building was to be our new ward as it was built just several blocks north of where we lived on Blanche St. which was just l block south of Colorado blvd. Which was the main Blvd, through the beautiful City of Pasadena, and also the route of the beautiful Pasadena Rose Parade which they followed all the way east about 5 or 6 miles and then changed over to our Blanche street and passed our home one or two times to a large School yard, where they parked all of the beautiful Floats until they could be moved. We remember walking over to the school yard and spent a lot more time enjoying them all over again up close and it was such a joy to see such beauty of those huge rose and flower covered floats..

After we had now become members of the East Pasadena ward our new bishop was Richard Summerhays, and our Stake President was Howard W. Hunter. President Hunter asked me to be Elders quorum president of the East Pasadena Ward. This was the third time I was Elders quorum President and LaRue and I both really enjoyed these callings as we were young and had a lot of socials and parties that really kept us happy and busy. Faye Kunz was still in the High Council and each new years day he would have us park one of his largest trucks with a floor built up on the top of the high side boards and we would park it right in the middle of one of the corners of Colorado Blvd. And watch the beautiful new years Pasadena Rose Parade from one of the choicest vantage points to see everything beautifully. President Hunter and his family were our guests for two parades and were great friends of the Kunz family and ours. Years later after he was made President of the Church, our family had the privilege of shaking hands with him, and before we could get up to where he was, our daughter Pat was out in front of us, and if you can believe it, President Hunter remembered and recognized her. We thought that was really special from this great Prophet.

Our new homes and large yard was right across the road from a very nice grade school and we were very pleased with It and with the teachers of Bob and Pat, and they were so happy and cute together. Bob was about the perfect little brother, and it was so good to see that Pat was in such good hands, and he always looked out for her whether in school, or church or where ever. We always had our family nights, or fireside chats, even before the Church started and set apart Monday night as family night, LaRue and I had already started and were holding our Family night and can you believe we were doing it every Monday night. We always thought that we must have had a part in the official Monday night Family home evening program that came years after we were already having it in our little family. I wanted to mention a little episode that was always very amusing to Mom and me and that was we were reading the Book of Mormon and we told Bob and Pat that we would give $5.00 to each of them if they would read it through. And could tell us about what they had read in the Book of Mormon. They were both excited by the prospect of five whole dollars, but we didn't expect that they would make such an important thing out of it, until one day the school teacher sent a note home with Bob and said how impressed she was with what a good reader he was and how every chance he had he was always reading out of his AMormon book of prayer@ and would we please ask him to not bring his AMormon book of Prayer@ to school as she felt that it was possibly interfering with his school work.. Well we hated to stop Bob from taking his Book of Mormon, (AMormon book of Prayer@) to school, but we thought it might be best to do what his teacher asked. But I want to say we were proud of him and his great life long love for our wonderful Book of Mormon. He received his 5.00 by finishing before Pat but we were also proud of her as she wasn't very far behind Bob, and we were glad to give her 5.00 also. We also have given that same challenge to each of our children, and I don't think there are any of them that didn't read it and collect their 5.00. This has always been a pleasing and very amusing thing for Mom & me to look back on and remember.

Patricia, Carolyn , and Eilene were the cutest little girls, and in our early years in Pasadena LaRue always enjoyed dressing them alike some of the time in the most delightful dresses, and in Church we as a family were always a center of attention and seemed to be admired by our Ward members and this made us feel at home and loved in our new East Pasadena ward. It seemed like we just couldn't go very long with out having another baby so I would like to tell about a scary time when LaRue was a few months along with Jerry. It seemed from the beginning that there was something that didn't want Jerry coming into our family so there were many times that we felt that we may lose him before he could be born. One night I will tell about, LaRue was in so much pain and felt she may just be losing our 5th little one. She couldn't sleep so had gone into the spare bed room and when I saw her go I knew we were in trouble. I don't know all the words I prayed, or the length of time involved but I do remember the fervent way I felt as I rebuked what I perceived to be an evil spirit trying to destroy our baby and commanded the evil one, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. I then perceived one of the most menacing, ugly individuals I have ever seen before or since come through the closed door between our bed rooms and stopped at the foot of my bed and seemed to want to destroy me with his horrible looks, and I felt he was about to do it. With what power I could muster I told him to leave & never come back . My hair was standing on end, but he left, And he never did come back, and on Dec.11, l951, our wonderful son Jerry Marlin joined our happy family.

Jerry was the first and only time that I was in the delivery room at the time of birth and it was not a good experience for me as I couldn't stand to see my sweetheart LaRue go through such a horrible ordeal. He was breach and a very difficult birth. We always felt that he was our Divine Intervention son, but then to me every one of our sons and daughters were by divine intervention. There are a few more things that happened while we were still living in Pasadena that I would like to mention just a few more of them before leaving this part of our lives. F. F. Kunz was really into health juices etc. So he had purchased a carrot juice machine and he faithfully made gallons of it every day and he gave us gallons and we drank it too. Pretty soon the guys at work started ribbing me saying my nose was beginning to twitch, and my skin was turning yellow, so I thought that this would be a good time to switch and to start drinking something else. We surely did like the carrot juice though and we have never lost our love and taste for carrot juice.

Another memory I have of Pasadena was riding a lot of Motorcycles to work and that was for the main purpose of going through the terrible traffic on the Los Angeles and Valley Freeways, and I wanted to mention a couple of experiences that happened . One of them was really funny but scary and the other one was just plain scary. I was trying to remember the name of one of my workers who also had a large Motorcycle and on one particularly heavy traffic day, all five lanes were stopped so we were traveling between the cars and making really good time, when all at once one of the drivers ahead opened his car door just as my buddy reached his car and he was going so fast that he hit the car door perfectly and took the car door right off and I following thought that it was one of the funniest things, I had ever seen next to the startled surprised look on the car drivers face. He was really in shock and to me it was really one for the funniest home videos that could have ever been taken and would surely have won the prize on that show. Of course that was before video cameras were even thought of.

LaRue and I have always enjoyed riding motorcycles and so most of our married life, we have always had a nice motorcycle of some kind, from Hondas, Harley Davidson or Yamaha and we would always take one with us where ever we went up in the mountains or on trips and on all of them we would be taking ours and any other children that were with us for rides on the Motorcycle. Well we had a large two lot yard in Pasadena and we were always taking ours and the neighbors children all around our big yard. Every one of the children loved riding so much.

I wanted to mention a period of some few years that we sold our motorcycle and I will tell of a little episode that scared us so bad that we didn't know if we ever wanted another one or not. This took place on a Christmas Eve. I had taken my son Bob as I very often did on a Saturday when he wasn't in school and He and I would clean up or patch some of our plastering jobs for F. F. Kunz Plastering Company. This Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday and we wanted to get this job cleaned up over in Hollywood and so we rode our Motorbike to work. ( AI think Bob was about 10 years old at this time@), and he was a good worker and a big help to me all of the time. On this Christmas Eve we finished up early as we thought we could do, but before we finished it had started to rain, and by the time we started for home it had let up a little bit, but the roads were a lot more slippery than they appeared to be and as we were entering one of the busy freeways there in Hollywood going around a turn in the entrance of the Freeway our wheels slide out from under us and I found myself on top of the motorbike which was sliding up the road at about 35 or 40 miles per hour and as I was so scared for Bob as I didn't know what had happened to him and as I looked back he was sliding up the Freeway entrance ramp on his stomach and arms stretched out in front of him, and cars swerving everywhere trying to avoid hitting that little guy sliding up the road. How they all missed him I will never know it could have only been another of the countless times of Divine Intervention that saved that little son of ours.

Well because of a heavy coat which he was wearing and gloves , he or I was not hurt and if it can be believed, even our motor bike was only slightly damaged, and we were able to get home and needless to say that was a very merry Christmas for our family, filled with love and gratitude to Heavenly Father for this wonderful Christmas miracle that we will never forget and because of this we sold our motor bike and it wasn't until we left California and moved to Utah that we ever did have another one.

We did have a wonderful life in California and we loved our callings in the church and I don't think that there could have ever been a more perfect man to work for than Faye F. Kunze and his wife Melba was the same kind of person. We worked for them for about 12 or 13 years and I think we did a large share of the commercial buildings in Southern California, including hundreds of Schools and I think Brother Kunz really liked me and trusted me as I was foreman on hundreds of jobs with from 10 to 40 or so plasters on some of the largest jobs in Southern California, such as the Los Angeles Post office, the MSainai Hospital and then the largest of all that I was foreman for was the Beautiful Beverly Hilton Hotel. That was a massive job. We also did most of the plastering for U.S.C. and U.C..L.A. Colleges. I also wanted to mention that Howard W. Hunter was our Stake President of the East Pasadena Stake and He called me to be president of the East Pasadena Elders Quorum and then as a 70's president later. We had a lot of Love for our Stake President and later as the President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I also filled a two-year Stake Mission. I will also mention that we plastered our East Pasadena Ward Chapel and also many other chapels and Church Buildings, including some work on the beautiful Los Angeles Temple.

Writing our life History reminds us of a lot of things that we would never remember if we didn't do it.

As I was writing about some of the plastering we did all around Southern California, I wanted to forget some things, but there were some things that were just too hard to pass over or forget. Bob sliding up the freeway and cars trying to miss him was one of them and then another was Mom and I had some really good friends that we went out with a lot and even went on some really fun trips with them and their names were Ray Overson and his wife and two small children a boy and a girl. I can't remember Ray's wife's name. They were really good members of the Church and we had a lot in common with them and we considered them some of our best friends. They were in their 20's and really happy and doing so good and then something very sad happened one day as Ray was helping tear down a really high scaffold in a large school auditorium. The scaffold was really high and as they were taking it down it collapsed on him and he was killed instantly. We had lots of scaffolds that were several stories high and some times some injuries to our men, but that is the only time one of our crew was killed and especially some one as close to us as was the Oversons, and that was one of the hardest things we had to do was to tell his wife he had been killed. He was such a wonderful person and we know he will have a good place in the Kingdom of Heaven, but it was such a hard thing for his young wife and babies.

We had a lot of good times while we were living in Pasadena along with all of the hard work of making a living, it seemed like we always took time to travel up to Utah and up the beautiful California coast on highway one. We really enjoyed Sequoia and its massive trees and Yosemite with their awesome and gigantic mountains, rivers, trees etc. And the coast line all the way up into Oregon and Washington where on one trip we stopped to get gas in a service Station and some of the Children went in to use the Rest rooms. When we stopped Carolyn about 5 years old or so we thought was asleep in between some seats of our Station wagon. We thought that she was still asleep in between the seats, but after driving for an hour or two, Eilene says Mommy I want Carolyn. Eilene was about 3 years old. So we told her Carolyn was asleep and would wake up soon. After driving for awhile longer LaRue decided to wake up Carolyn whom to our horror was nowhere to be found. Well we really started to burn up the road on the way back to the gas station. After traveling back about 20 minutes we saw red lights flashing and speeding along really fast and in the middle of the windshield, was our little Carolyn with her nose flattened out against the windshield of this racing Police car. It is a good thing that we were coming back the right way to get her, as the Police were beginning to think that they had a case of child abandonment on their hands. We and our Carolyn were so glad to be back together again. Carolyn as like glue hanging on to her mother for the rest of the trip and when we went to an amusement park they put a little tag around the arms of all of the children with their names and parents names and I guess it was several weeks after we got home to Pasadena, that we couldn't get that bracelet off her wrist. It was really a traumatic experience for Carolyn, but it was equally so for all of us in the family. Jerry was a baby at this time so we had our hands full with our little family. Even with this young family LaRue was always busy for many years as a primary teacher, and she would have our whole Station wagon filled with our, and our neighbors children every week and most of them were non members. So LaRue was always involved in missionary work, working with children and also their parents. She also worked in the Young Women's M.I.A. and was the secretary in the Relief Society Presidency. We also had a large wheat grinder and she and I ground up tons of wheat to make whole wheat flour for the people in the East Pasadena Stake. On one occasion she was leaning over to get some wheat out of the barrel and a Black Widow spider bit her on her chest. She was pretty sick and scared for awhile but she really kept the saints there in flour.

I will mention that when I was on a Stake mission in Pasadena we found an elderly couple to teach. Clifford Manlove and his wife. And after teaching them the discussions they were baptized and as far as we know they were always faithful, but he had one what we felt at the time was rather a strange love for a huge shiny black but ancient even for that time Cadillac automobile. It filled up his entire garage and he would completely cover it with a huge canvas cover each time he put it in the Garage and before covering it he would spend hours dusting and polishing it every time he drove it. They were surely fine people though and the people of the Ward really loved them, and so did we. perfect place in the world to live. The temperatures in the 70's and 80's winter and summer. The only draw back was the terrible smog almost not noticeable at first but it kept getting worse and worse until finally the Children had to stay in the house to keep their eyes from watering and during the day at school their eyes were burning all day. This is the time we decided that it was about time for us to move out of California.

Well dear friends and family we hope this life history isn't too boring, but I will continue next month. I think it is good for us to remember. Our Love and best wishes to all of you.

Mom and Dad, Wilford and LaRue

Because of the smog, and the heavy traffic in Southern California, LaRue and I began to think about moving to some where, where we could have good climate and not too much cold winter weather. The cold and misery we went through was still rather vivid in our minds, of the few years that we suffered through when we first got married, and I was just home from the perfect warm and beautiful weather of the Hawaiian Islands. On some of our trips we always seemed to be looking up in the northwest where there seemed to be plenty of good fresh clear sparkling water and the air was always cool and also sparkling clear. I think we were more impressed with a beautiful city called Longview, in the state of Washington, and we started thinking really seriously about what seemed to be our next move in our busy lives. We did visit several other places and one that stands out in my mind was Kalispell Montana where we went to church one Sunday and the brethren in Priesthood meeting were arguing all through the meeting. We thought that the people in the ward there could use a strong spiritual lift. In my weak and prideful way I felt that we were a strong spiritual family and could be a big help to them in that ward. I was young and thought our family was perfect. There were most likely many good families in that Ward that were just as good or better than we were, but here I was trying to be their judge and pull a mote out of their eyes when I had a beam in my own eye. Pride and especially false pride is a terrible thing and is something that I have had to watch very closely and I hope Heavenly Father will help me to never judge another person.

Well Longview Washington almost had some new residents, but Mom had a little clearer view of Longview than did I. So in her wise way she suggested that we begin thinking of someone besides ourselves, and mentioned my mother, and her folks who were getting older. She suggested of all things that we look around up in Utah for our new home, where we could be closer to those who needed us most. At first I was completely resisting this horrible thought. After prayerfully considering these two choices that we had to make, we decided to go to our Bishop Summerhays, and ask for his help in making our decision. He was very helpful and asked us to make a list of the advantages of Utah and Washington state. I made up a big long list of all of the advantages of moving to Longview and LaRue made up her not so long or as impressive a list. I thought sure we were on our way to moving to Longview Washington. Pride again@. Our interview with Bishop Summerhays went very well, except he went along with LaRues short and unimpressive list, and Said Brother Gurr, I feel that your wife is right and that you should go along with her feelings.

I mentioned about 2 homes that we had on our large lots in Pasadena. The one home in the rear we rented out and for a period of time, my Brother Dean and Rosa Mae were living in that home and their little son Dennis was the cutest little guy and we enjoyed them and Dennis so much. Dennis was a lot of fun for them and us and we enjoyed going up the canyons and playing in the streams of water, and pick nick lunches. We had a lot of good friends in Pasadena, and one of LaRue's best remembered friends was Ireta Vetterline and they loved visiting each other and spent a lot of time on the phone to each other. We also had some other good friends, the Chris Myers family and their children were about the same ages as ours so we had a lot of fun with them also. In Pasadena we feel, this time of our lives were some of our happiest, and we will always have fond memories of California. We had 6 children when we moved from Pasadena and 5 of them were born in the 12 + years we lived in and loved the beautiful state of California.

We heard of a 65 Acre farm with 2 homes on it in American Fork, Utah. After extensive negotiation for a few months with the owners the Huntsmans, we Purchased the Farm that had about 15 acres of Peaches, Pears, and Apricots, 30 acres of Alfalfa and 20 acres of cleared land for planting other crops. There were also barns, coops, pens and a large concrete silo. It was located right at the mouth of American Fork canyon so it was a very beautiful location. I will mention that we moved in there I think it was about April the 14th 1957. The first night we went to bed and the next morning we woke up and there was 14 inches of snow that came during the night. It was so beautiful that we about forgot how miserable it can sometimes get to be.

Our first year we had a huge crop of beautiful peaches, apricots and pears, but so did all of the other farmers in Utah, and as a result we couldn't hardly afford to have them picked so our expenses were more than we made from the farm. We knew we would have to do something different, so we purchased a Plaster mixer, and plastering tools. We hired a plasterer and a hod carrier and we began contracting plastering homes around Utah Valley and also some in Salt Lake valley as well. Plastering was one thing I enjoyed doing and was very good at it. So we began to make enough money to support our Farm. We had horses, pigs, chickens and a cow so our whole family had a lot of chores to do. We also had turkeys and my mother Letha loved turkeys so much she wanted to move out in our #2 home on the farm so after remodeling and fixing it up nice, we moved her out to the farm and she loved it out there, and we loved having her out there also.

LaRue wasn't happy with all of the work on the farm, but she worked hard and took care of

milk, eggs, feeding of animals, picking fruit, taking care of all of us in the family and caring for a lot of the needs of our mother. Also the winter was cold and miserable for me in plastering, and for LaRue trying to take care of farm, and home chores. The next spring we planted 15 acres of peas to try and make some money. We harvested many wagonloads of peas, but very little money after paying expenses. During the summer it was another bummer in the sale of our fruit crops, and our plastering business took so much of my time that it was really hard to enjoy the farm. Also we couldn't have the time to spend up in American Fork Canyon, which we loved so much.

It seemed that our family didn't enjoy riding the buses to the American Fork schools, and the farm chores in the winter were miserable and so was plastering. As a result LaRue didn't have much trouble convincing me that I was no farmer, and all of the family agreed that none of us were. When LaRue became so ill with carrying our next child we decided to look for a house down in Pleasant Grove. We found one for rent right next to the Pleasant Grove Lumber Company. It was a large home and we moved in. We made one big mistake. We had it seemed hundreds of mice in that home and we were told that de-con was the only way to get rid of all of them so we put it every where and we did get rid of them which resulted in something much worse. The smell of all of those dead mice I think smelled up not only our house, but the whole town of Pleasant Grove. It was horrible. After using De-con to get rid of the mice in that home, we used up about every deodorant and air fresheners that money could buy, and it was still several months before we could hardly stand to go into that house, without opening up all the windows and turning on fans every where. We decided that was the last time that we would ever use De-con. We would much rather have live mice than dead ones any day.

At this time my sweetheart LaRue was several months along with our Julie Kay and how she ever made it through living in that home, is still a mystery to me. We had to be really blessed and when our little Julie was born, we really knew we were. Julie Kay was born April 14, 1958, and I remember it had been several years since Jerry was born so all of the family really welcomed our Julie and we all had to take turns showering our love upon her. LaRue had just turned 38 when Julie was born.

I think I had better mention that while we were still living at the farm and decided to sell it and move to Pleasant Grove we had the opportunity come up of purchasing an acre lot with a large brick home on the rear East back corner of it and a lot of fruit trees and was perfect for a new home to be built facing west. We had been doing a lot of plastering of homes for Allred builders, and we had contracted them to build us a large red brick home. This home was in the process of being built on 65 South 4th East on our new lot. It was just a little over a half block North to the Central School and our Grove Ward just a short half block South and both of them just a 1 or 2 minute walk to get to either of them, what we felt, was a perfect location for us to raise our growing family. We had a lot of fun designing our floor plan, and it was fun watching the rapid progress day after day, and we were especially anxious after using the De-con in the temporary home we were living in.

By this time we had hired more plasterers and were doing a lot of work for several building contractors. And we were anxiously waiting to plaster our own new home. We had two beautiful fireplaces one on the main floor and one in the basement and five bedrooms, and three baths, in our master bedroom I ran a large beautiful plaster mold around the ceiling and in the living room we had a drop ceiling 4 foot out from the walls and rounded up into the main ceiling and then we sprayed them with acoustic, our large kitchen area had a built in breakfast nook with vinyl covered soft benches and where we spent a lot of time living in what we thought was our dream home. We had a corner window that Mom enjoyed watching the children coming and going to school and church. It was a great time for us when the day came for us to move in and we had new furniture and how blessed we felt to be into our beautiful new home.

I want to say that plastering was a good thing for us, but oh what a pain it was in the winter. Every night we would have to drain all of our water hoses and then the next morning, if they weren't perfectly drained we would have to thaw them out and then many times we wouldn't have water as the pipes would be frozen. We would have to heat our water some of the time so it wouldn't freeze in the mixer, and if the sand was a bit wet it would have to be shoveled into the mixer in big large chunks of frozen sand. We also would have to build a fire under the mixer before we could get it started and running. So many mornings it may be noon before we could get to putting plaster on the walls and that was not easy for me to see men standing around eating up all the profits of some of our jobs while waiting for mud for them to go to work on. It was really hard to keep my cool, while I and everything else was freezing. Then when we would plaster inside some of the houses we would have to cover all of the windows and doors with plastic as windows and doors are never installed before plastering, So we had to buy heaters to keep the plaster from freezing on the walls and especially around the windows. When plaster freezes it never hardens and has to be scraped off and replaced and we had to do that many times on extra cold nights. Well you may think I make it sound extra bad, but truthfully I could never make it sound as bad as it really was.

I will talk about something else for awhile. We really loved our ward and the children really loved their school and they were so close they could come home to eat and have lunch. I don't know if that was good or bad, but LaRue seemed to enjoy them coming home, so I know it was good for the children.

LaRue was always busy teaching primary and at this time I was called into the Seventies presidency to take the place of Ted Tuttle who was in our ward and he was called as a General Authority in the Seventies quorum in Salt Lake. This was the third time I had been called as a Seventies President, so along with everything else I was always very busy in Church callings and that is the way it should be and I have always been grateful for all of the callings I have had in this wonderful Church.

I should mention that before, we moved from the farm, Dean and I and the rest of the family decided to build our Dear Mother a new home in Pleasant Grove on a nice corner lot on 3rd North and 3rd East and where we thought was a perfect location right between Cliff and Mary Lou's home on the South and Clyde and Thelma's home on the North. So when we moved from the farm as I remember it, she was happy in her new home, before we moved to Pleasant Grove ourselves. And Mary Lou and Thelma, couldn't have been happier than to have their mother living right by both of them, and I know mother could have never been happier either.

Dean and Rosa Mae had a beautiful new home on 1st South just a half block from us and they too were a very happy family with Dennis, Tera Lee and starting on their wonderful family of boys and it seems to me like every time we had a girl, they would have another boy.

I hope I am remembering things in my life history writings according to the way they really were and I admit that some of them may be a little off, and especially in the order and time in which they happened. The real important things however such as dates etc. will be as accurate as I can possibly make them. Please don't hold me to all the things I may say as I am only saying things as I remember them and my memory just isn't what it used to be We love you, be happy. Our Love and best wishes. Mom and Dad, Wilford and LaRue

Life History continued: I would like mention a few things about your wonderful mother and some of the sacrifices she had to make for each of you and for me. I know that all mothers have to go through a lot to bring children into the world, and some more than others. LaRue I think was one of those as she would be extra bad during the first three months and then during the whole time, it was extra hard for her as when Carolyn was born the Dr. was a really impatient and unfeeling person and in his bringing Carolyn and forcing her to come before she was ready, he really did a lot of damage and we almost lost LaRue. She was hemorrhaging terribly for several months. This made it even more difficult for LaRue for the birth of Eilene and then Jerry, who was born breach, and we then were told by the doctor, that we should never have any more children. When we moved to Utah, as mentioned before, Heavenly Father decided to send Julie to our family. Mom had a really terrible 3 months and it was really hard for the whole 9 months, Julie was such a wonderful blessing to our whole family, and as I said before we all had to take turns showering our love on her. Julie came to us April 14th l958. Then about 3 years later, Mom went through the same terrible 9 months for another beautiful Baby girl, Leesa Jean and what a prize daughter she has been and is to our family, and we also had to take turns loving this new blessing to our family.

We continued our plastering business while living in Pleasant Grove, and we were very contented and happy in our new home. We always took time off during the summers to take trips up to Yellowstone park and up into the Northwest where we still had a lot of love for that area.

Mom and I had done a lot of camping and traveling in this beautiful land of America and as the Book of Mormon emphasizes, It truly is a land Choice above all other lands. I think our Mother and Dad instilled in me, my great love affair with America and great appreciation for the beauty around us, everywhere we have ever lived, or traveled here or in any other country. In traveling in Mexico, or Canada, It seemed like we always felt good to get back to America, and home.

When we first started traveling, we had purchased a small tear drop trailer. It pulled easily

behind our new Pontiac station wagon and it had a nice bed for mom and I and one child. So LaRue and I would sleep in the Tear Drop and the rest of the Family in the station wagon. The rear part of the Tear Drop would raise up and expose a compartment that had a stove for cooking and cupboards and storage for food and dishes and a small sink for doing dishes etc. We thought we had the ultimate in comfortable camping.

When Aquila and Mary Robinson, (LaRues Sister), saw our teardrop. They thought that it was pretty nice so A. J. as we called Aquila who was a welder in a Garage where he worked, built a much larger and more beautiful one than the one we had. So for a price he built us a new one also that was just like theirs and then we knew we had the Ultimate in camping facilities. We even had more room for some of the children to sleep in the Tear Drop trailer. So from that time on for a few years, A. J. and Mary and our family enjoyed many trips together.

When Leesa, our 7th child and 5th Daughter was about a year old, we decided to go on a trip to Yellowstone Park. A. J. and Mary and their family decided to go also. We had a lot of fun planning, and it would be one of our first trips in our new Tear Drop trailers. Well it just so happened that at this time LaRue was feeling sick and miserable, just starting out with our 8th child, and Leesa Jean still only about 9 months old. Mom thought it was a little unfair, that at the time she was due in Sept. 1962, that Mary and A. J. had arranged to adopt a new baby girl in the same month of Sept. After finding out Mom was expecting, we were wondering about taking this trip, But LaRue as always, didn't want to spoil our trip, so we decided she may not be any worse on the trip than she would be if we stayed home. So after school was out for the summer, We did enjoy the trip up to Jackson Hole and the sights there, and also the beautiful Grand Tetons, and Jackson Lake right down below them. We all waded, and some went swimming, As I remember Bob, and Jerry and Don Jason and Mary Lynn found a log to ride around on and we enjoyed beautiful Jackson lake and the Grand Tetons. Well about the time we arrived in Yellowstone, it began to rain and it just kept raining for two or three days. We put up a new tent that we had with us, but it was so smelly with some kind of oil or water repellent that they had put on it, made LaRue so sick. She tried to make the best of it, and as always we did enjoy some of the trip and because of the rain, we headed for home sooner than we wanted to, but of all the trips in our lives, that was one that we will never forget.

I think LaRue was so ill during this time that we had to take her to the Hospital where they had to feed her intravenously as she could not keep any thing down and she lost so much weight. After she got out of the hospital, we had to feed her egg flower soup, which I made by dropping little bits of egg into boiling water, and that is about the only thing she could keep down. I think I made so much of it I, could make it about as good as the Chinese. We were surely grateful when she was able to eat some other foods besides egg flower soup.

Well the Summer finally passed, and then on Sept. 18, 1962, Our beautiful little daughter Lori Sue, was born. She was the third little girl born to us in the American Fork hospital, and when we brought her home, our son Jerry said, why didn't we take Mommy to a different hospital? All we ever get in that hospital is girls. Well it didn't take us long to realize, what a wonderful gift from a loving Heavenly Father, our little Lori Sue really was, and is and ever has been, such a great joy to our whole family.

We were still in the plastering business and still going through the same miserable problems that every winter brought to us. At this time Bob, and Jerry were my best men in plastering and carrying mud as hod carriers, and what a blessing they always were, and never did they complain at how hard they had to work except in the winter, and then I would complain right along with them. They were young and strong and we always enjoyed working together. This was a great time for our family and we always enjoyed our almost weekly family outings up our beautiful American Fork canyon. We some of the time would take our horses up with us and all of us enjoyed riding our horses around the beautiful trails around Timpanooke and Natures Ice Box. If we didn't have the horses, we would have our Motor bike and this was always such great fun for all of us.

Life history continues:

Right after our Lori Sue was born, Our Son Robert Dean received his mission call to the Great Lakes Mission, in October l962, and we all knew, that him being gone from our plastering business would leave an opening, that would be hard to fill. We also knew that he would leave a place in our home, that couldn't be filled until his return, but we also knew that he and we, would receive many good blessings for his willingness to go on his mission.

Jerry and I tried to do all we could in keeping our plastering business going and I wanted to mention one especially scary time for us. We were plastering the Pleasant Grove Armory, and it was still winter and on this particular day it was really terribly cold. We were working inside and we had a large stove in there and had it red hot trying to keep our plaster from freezing and also ourselves. I heard Jerry scream, and saw that his large heavy coat was on fire, and he was running and screaming and trying to get out side and roll in the snow. He was running so fast that I couldn't hardly catch him, I rolled him in the dirt and we finally got the fire out. I remember taking off his coats and shirts and seeing the horrible burns on his back and how sickening it was for me and how painful it was for our poor Jerry. He is still carrying these ugly scars on his back.

This episode along with the other problems of plastering in the winters in Utah was we thought, about time for us to look for another way of earning our living. We had always done very well in our business. We had a lovely home, and I had always loved plastering as my main vocation in life. But about this time in 1962, Heavenly Father, gave us the opportunity, to acquire the Pleasant Grove Lumber Company. We borrowed $10,000.00 from LaRues folks and scraped up another $15,000.00 from our business for the 25,000.00 down payment. This Lumber Company was to play a very important part in our lives for the next several years. . When Bob came home from his mission, we were struggling to get the Lumber Yard stocked with all of the needs of the construction industry. Meaning that we had to acquire a Hyster that would be large enough, and heavy enough, to unload the large flat bed railroad cars, as that is the way we had a lot of our lumber and supplies shipped. We had a rail spur right to our lumber yard. We also had to purchase a large Diesel truck to deliver sheet rock, and pallets of cement, plaster and lumber. As I remember the Hyster was over $18,000.00 and the Diesel truck was about the same price. We also had to remodel the main store building and offices and all of this was quite a heavy burden for us to carry.

However we were blessed and had a good business, and provided many opportunities for all in our family to work there and also many other employees including many returned missionaries, and also young men preparing to go on missions. Bob and Jerry were really a great help in delivering big loads of building materials and also making trips to Salt Lake to get loads of materials that were needed from time to time. Then they and all of our family were of the greatest help, when it came time to take our inventory every year. I think they all realized what a pressure we were under and they all remember counting screws, nails, cans of paint and hundreds of things involved at inventory time. All of them spent countless hours in this thankless job.

I want to mention a few other things in connection with the Pleasant Grove Lumber Company, and one of them was that when Bob came home from his mission, one of his missionary companions came to us for a job. We loved returned missionaries, so we gave him a job and we trusted him completely, and let him use our trucks to haul some materials to his ranch for fencing etc. We later heard from Police and others that he would come back during the week end, and take truck loads of materials to use up on his ranch. This was not all, as he would charge truckloads of material at Salt Lake Hardware and Boise Cascade and others of our suppliers and use them on his ranch and even sell to some of his friends materials that he would be stealing from us. Well some of all of this unfortunate time, was our own fault, so when the Police wanted us to press charges and send him to jail. We talked to this young returned missionary (will mention no names), and after he promised to bring back some of the materials and to pay all he could for the rest, we dropped all charges and we hope we did the right thing, even though we didn't get back a fraction of what he took. We only hope that he has repented, and will have gotten, his life in order. This was only one instance of many, that some of our workers came to us and admitted stealing electric tools and other things. How we ever survived we still can't figure out. It had to be by divine intervention.

This next episode was and is about the hardest, and most discouraging thing that we have ever, had to face in our lives. As we were sleeping soundly one night the phone rang. An excited voice said, Mr. Gurr your lumber yard is on fire come down here as quickly as possible. Can you imagine any more frightening words, I went down and the flames were shooting high in the air over our main store and offices. We had hundreds of gallons of paint and paint thinner, and it seemed like they were all exploding at once. The fire department did a good job and were able to save all of our other storage buildings, and lumber and planer mill and saws etc. And also our hyster and trucks etc. Were safe. Well thanks to our insurance and a lot of help from friends we finally ended up with a more beautiful main store than we had before. But the next day after the fire I just sat with my head between my hands, for several hours and don't ever remember feeling more discouraged than I was on that day. But as always, I received the help and strength from Heavenly Father that I so desperately needed and thanks to him we were able to make it through that ordeal.

The Lumber Yard has had many trying times for us including when we moved to Florida and leased it to a couple of young inexperienced young men, and the mafia were able to squeeze into the yard and took it over and run up a huge debt of over 2 million dollars and fortunately for us they changed the name so that the debt was not to us. When they left however they stole every thing, including trucks Hyster and all of the lumber, windows, doors and building materials and hauled it all down to Las Vegas. They charged refrigerators, stoves, and all kinds of electric appliances, and hauled diesel truck and trailer loads down to Las Vegas and sold them for cheap prices. All of this time the Pleasant Grove Police were warned by the Mafia, to not interfere with the Lumber yard being cleaned out or they would be wiped out by the Mafia. My Brother Dean who was trying to save our lumber yard, was also threatened that his family would be harmed, if he did anything to try to stop them. All of this time we were still living out in Florida. But this comes at a later time in our life history. I will now go back to the time, when we were doing well in the Lumber Yard.

Life history continued.

In spite of all of the problems of the Pleasant Grove Lumber and Supply Company. We enjoyed working there and being able to work inside when it was so cold outside in the winters. We enjoyed Bob being home from his mission and the great blessing he was for 2 or 3 years working for us at the Lumber Yard and getting it to a point where we were making a pretty good living and we were enjoying our lives very much. Bob met his beautiful wife to be (Lillian West) and so on Feb. 2nd 1967, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Again we were left with out our Bob to help us at the Lumber Yard. And also a very important part of our Family also.

I think I will mention that we had one episode that was very funny, and we can't help getting a good laugh out of it every time we think of it. We had an anonymous phone call telling us that our Lumber Yard would have a break in and attempted robbery, at approximately 12 midnight. We called the Pleasant Grove Police Dept. And they said they would have one of their officers stay in side the Lumber Yard that night. This officer as he told us his story later, said he had just dozed off and was sleeping pretty good, when a big rock came crashing through the rear door window and landed on the floor near where he was sleeping. He said every hair on my head was standing straight up and I about went through the ceiling and was never so scared in my whole life. When the door opened and the would be robber came up to the cash register, and was forcing it open, the Officer crept up behind him and didn't make a sound, but just pushed the cold steel gun barrel into the back of his neck, and then he said, I think I got even with him as he almost went through the ceiling himself.

Well we were living the good life there in Pleasant Grove, and after Bob and Lillian were married, our daughter Patricia began leaving home. She had the opportunity of participating in the Hill Cumorah pageant and she really loved that wonderful time. She also went to Los Angeles on an all expenses paid trip, to represent her Pleasant Grove High School class, as she was an editor of her school paper. After her graduation she wanted to move to Las Vegas where she stayed with Aquila and Mary and went to work for one of the Airline companies. Where she was able to fly anywhere in the world she wanted to and also to get free Airline tickets for her parents.

By this time our older daughters were old enough to take care of our younger daughters, so LaRue and I decided to fly up to Alaska as we had never been there before. We flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles, and then to San Francisco, where we had a great time riding the cable cars and visiting the museums, Golden gate park, and their great Zoo. Then on up to Anchorage Alaska, which we thought was pretty neat. We had a nice hotel room, but thought it strange that it had black drapes, but we soon found out the reason was that it didn't get dark. The sun went down and it was dusk for a short time and then it was dawn and the sun came right back up. We were then grateful for the blackout drapes. We really enjoyed walking on the huge blue glaciers and doing some traveling around Anchorage, we were also happy to get back to our little family in Pleasant Grove. More life history next month: We love you. Dad and Mom, Wilford and LaRue.

Life history continued:

I will tell another Airplane trip LaRue and I went on in about the early 1960s. Pat was still working for the Airlines and acquired tickets for us to go to Mexico City. So we were still living in Pleasant Grove in our home on 65 so. 4th east and we had Julie, Leesa and Lori at home in our family at this time, and not wanting to leave them, we asked Mark and Eilene to come and stay in our home and take care our girls while we were gone. With this very generous offer we felt we couldn't refuse so we packed our suitcases and flew from Salt Lake where it was very cold to Los Angeles and then on to Mexico City where it was even nicer and warmer.

This turned out to be one of the most wonderful trips for mom and me. We had a real nice hotel, but we were having a very hard time understanding the Mexican language as neither one of us knew a word of Spanish, except uno, dos, trace. We were really blessed with one cab driver who knew the English language, thank goodness, and he kind of adopted us. Mr Glass is all I can remember him by. He took us about everywhere we wanted to go. He was really a very nice man.

One really nice day we went out to the pyramids and it was hard to believe the massive amount of huge cut stone blocks that would have to be cut hauled and carried up layer after layer until they reached fantastic heights. It is a good thing LaRue and I were younger and able to climb up those massive pyramids as I am sure we could not do it now as we even find it difficult to climb up the stairs in the Mesa Temple. It is really fun to think back at the times when we used to almost fly and be able to run as fast as we wanted to and do things that almost seem impossible to us now.

On another day we went to the Mexico City Museum and what an interesting and fun day that was as they had tunneled down through several layers of cities that seemed to be built through many hundreds of years on top of each other. And the different cultures and the tools and instruments that they used and the instruments of war. Some seemed to think that the city of Zarahemla was one of the cities down under Mexico City. It showed some of the hardened copper tools and armaments that is told about in the Book of Mormon and used by the Nephites and Lamanites. There were many gold and jeweled artifacts throughout the whole museum and we felt we could have spent a week just taking in that museum.

One Sunday we walked through the City park that was near our hotel and we were very impressed by how beautifully dressed the people were in that park. The mothers and fathers were so well dressed and their little children were just delightful. Their little girls were just about all of them dressed in white lace dresses and the boys in their white shirts. It was a very fun to see the park just filled with all of those wonderful families.

On another day we went to the Mexico City University and what a day we had as we went on a bus and got lost and had a hard time telling people where we wanted to go, but we decided we had better not try to go too many places by our selves. We loved the beautiful buildings on the campus and they had beautiful large painted murals that covered the large walls on many of their buildings. We enjoyed watching the skate boarders that just about covered the whole campus and they were really enjoying themselves so much that we made us feel good just to watch them whizzing by all around us. We learned that the Mexican people are really a happier people than we had ever thought of them before.

We were even more convinced of this when we attended the Mexico City Ballet and were so impressed by the people who seemed to love the beauty of Ballet dancing and we were so thrilled at the artistic dancing that we could hardly believe how beautiful it was. I don't ever remember ever attending any entertainment that LaRue and I have enjoyed more than we did that lovely evening at the Mexico City Ballet. Before leaving Mexico City I want to mention one other thing that really impressed us very strongly, if not very favorably. That was the traffic that seemed to us were at war with each other, as every car seemed to be battered up and every one honking their horns continually. If ever there was confusion and bedlam in traffic, we had really never seen worse. To emphasize this I stepped off the curb to cross a street and here this joker actually tried to run me over. I barely stepped back on the curb fast enough, or I would have never left Mexico alive. On the street where our hotel was just down in the next block a pedestrian wasn't so fortunate as I was. He stepped off the curb and this time the driver was able to get him. What was so strange was though they pulled him up on the sidewalk and covered him with a blanket and two days later he was still there. We don't know how long they left him there.

We really enjoyed Mexico City and seeing some of the strange ways they have of doing things so much different than we do. There bus system is really antiquated and way over loaded. They had people hanging on the sides and fenders and any thing they could get a hold of.

I think I am having too many thoughts crowding in my mind, but I seem to want to tell so much about this trip to Mexico. I will continue with our purchase of a bus ticket to Acapulco and what a miserable trip we had getting down there. We thought that we had purchased a ticket that included a meal, but evidently it didn't as every one was eating their lunch being served to them and we didn't get any. We have never been on a worse riding bus and the roads were nothing but winding around curves for a hundred miles or so. So many curves were horseshoe turns, one way and then the other and the bus driver was in such a hurry and drove so fast we were being thrown all our seats back and forth. There was nothing we could do about it and LaRue got terribly car sick, headache, and hungry that I knew we had to do something so on one of our many stops , I went to an outdoor food place, and got her a bowl of hot soup. She wondered why I didn't get me one too and I didn't tell her until later, the reason was they had to brush a whole layer of dead flies aside to get down to the soup. Knowing how badly she needed it, I got it for her anyway and strangely enough it did help her so we could continue the bus trip to Acapulco where we after two tries, were able to get into a nice Hotel over looking the ocean, where we spent a very enjoyable week.

Life history cont.

The first hotel we went too was hot and no air conditioning and no screens on the windows. It was also quite a ways to the beach and we couldn't see the ocean, so we were surely happy to get into a nice clean hotel on the beach and air conditioning as well. They had good American maid service and were always coming in to care for us, and put clean sheets on the bed every day. They also had some of the best food which we really enjoyed most on our whole trip to Mexico.

We really enjoyed the beach and also they had a nice swimming pool for the hotel guests. We really loved to watch the pelicans diving for fish. I think that was the most pelicans we had ever seen at one time, and we were amazed at how they would dive straight down and always come up with a fish. I don't think we have ever seen so many pelicans and so many diving at once. It was amazing. We also loved to throw coins off of the wharf and watch the young men and boys dive way down to the bottom and always come up with their coins.

We took an ocean cruise on quite a large ship and went way out in the ocean and the captain stopped and invited any of the passengers to dive from the ship into the ocean and I decided I would like to do that. I tried to get LaRue to dive off also, but she said it was over a mile deep and she would go right to the bottom and she was afraid that I would never come up if I dove in. Well I did and I enjoyed the warm ocean water and didn't go down to the bottom. We had our movie camera and she took some pictures of me out in the middle of the ocean. They also had a Pirate going around the ship threatening the passengers. He sat down by LaRue, and I had fun taking pictures of her and Black Beard the Pirate. We also toured some of the movie stars homes among them John Wayne had a big home up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Also we were amazed to see several divers put on a cliff jumping show of what they said was 200-foot cliffs that they were diving from. It seemed like they should have had parachutes.

One more story about one night when we were in swimming in the ocean. I was in riding the beautiful waves in and out and LaRue was standing by my clothes and our movie camera was with them. We saw 3 young men running down the beach really fast and as they went by LaRue one of them swooped down and grabbed all of my clothes, camera, and my watch, wallet and cards and Temple recommend and everything in my clothes. I came up yelling and chasing them as fast at I could, but I guess it was good that I didn't catch them as I am sure I would have been no match for them. We went down to the Police department to report what had happened. When we walked in and started to tell them what happened. Right off we knew we were in trouble and we thought we had better get out of there as fast as we could as we felt they were going to keep us and lock us up in their jail and they seemed to think that it was our fault. We found out later that we could have gone to what they call the thieves market, the next day and we could have purchased some of the things back, they had stolen all except the money, and anything else they may have wanted to keep. We were glad we didn't have to take a bus back to Mexico City and we were able to fly home from Acapulco. More life history next month. We love you, Dad & Mom

Life History continued 1-8-9On another day, we had been traveling across Canada and we stopped at a beautiful river and nice wading ponds. We ate our dinner and then we all went wading and swimming as the water was quite warm in the pools. This was one of the most talked of and fun days for the little girls as in these pools were thousands of little poly wags and tadpoles and they were playing with them and filling bottles with them and really couldn't get enough of the fun we were all having, So we just stayed and stayed until we and the girls were tired out and it was getting dark. We were in a beautiful parking place so stayed the night and then on our way again the next day. Sleeping in so late every day it was taking us forever to get across Canada to Montreal. On Sundays we would have our own meetings and attended Sacrament and other meetings when we could. The girls still remember some of our best meetings as the ones we held by ourselves. In Eastern Canada we finally came into Montreal and found the street signs all in French. This was a little confusing for awhile, and many of the people in that area also spoke in the French Language. We were glad there were also some English-speaking people.

It seemed like everywhere we went we were given special attention as the little girls would always ride up in the big window on our bed. They were always waving at people and we couldn't believe how many people were waving and saying hi to us. Mom and I thought they were waving at us, and thought we were real popular, but we finally figured it out that the little girls were waving and smiling at everybody, and they looked so cute up there people were waving and smiling at us during the whole trip. As we were entering Montreal on the beautiful Queens highway, I was driving and LaRue was in back in the camper and we thought how nice it was that she could give all of them showers and comb their hair while we were still traveling, and when we got to our R. V. Park they were all ready for the Worlds Fair.

We surely did enjoy several days going to all of the exhibits, and riding their trains and all of the attention we had from everyone because of our little girls. We all enjoyed the free rides on all of the trains, boats and sky rides. We were treated royally by the English and the French speaking people, and met many nice L. D. S. F\families. I can't remember the name, but one of these families had the little girls stay with them one day and LaRue and I had the day all to ourselves at the Fair.

On our way back across the border we visited Niagara Falls for the first time and that was so wonderful and awesome for all of us. We went up in the high tower and looked down on the massive rivers and the falls and the tremendous amount of water that was roaring down them. Well we were back in the U. S. and we were really enjoying the Beauty of the state of New York. And the Great Lakes which we crossed one of them on a large Ferry Boat. We also enjoyed swimming in just about all of the great lakes. The little girls didn't know how to swim, but they were surely having a lot of fun trying and we were having a lot of fun trying to help them learn. As we stood on the edge of the falls and saw the thousands of tons of water pouring over so fast we were wondering how anyone could possibly think of going over them in some of the barrels we saw in the museum.

Life History continued: l-28-97

I am getting a little behind on my life history schedule as I've been without my computer. It has been down for awhile as we have been trying to get on the inter net program for a few weeks and Rob Gurr had it for awhile trying to get the inter net to working. We found out that the modem isn't working the way it should so Jerry is going to take it and exchange it for a new one. As this one is only a month old, but it still won't work the way it should.

After we left Niagara Falls we headed for the State of Vermont where our wonderful Prophet Joseph Smith was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor County Vermont, Dec. 23. 1805. As I remember, Vermont is mostly hills and vales and up and down, but is so green and beautiful and we just enjoyed that State so much. When we got to Sharon, we found that the log cabin where he was born, had been torn down so we were dissappointed that it was gone. The Church had built a beautiful visitor center and then on top of a mountain just above the visitor center was 39 foot white marble shaft that was very impressive and beautiful. It was 1 foot for each year of his age and he was 39 when he was martyred in the Carthage jail. It seems to me like there must have been several hundred acres of beauty there where he was born as there was a long tree lined road and green lawns and shrubbery that, as I remember must have been over a half of a mile leading to the visitor center and there was a beautiful lake by the visitor center and it had beautiful lillies and a lot of huge frogs which we and the little girls enjoyed a lot as well as going through the visitor center and enjoying the movies and presentations there.

We then headed for New York City as we had never been there before and we wanted to go to the Zoo, the museum and grand central park. It was a long day of traveling through the beauty of Vermont and New York State, so we decided to stop at a park that was on the outskirts of New York City and let the little girls play on the swings and other play ground equipment. We were the only ones in the whole park, and there wasn't another soul in the park. Pretty soon we began to hear whistles and cat calls coming from all directions and then we saw blacks closing in on us and we decided to make a run for our pick up as we certainly did not want any confrontations with all of the men that were surrounding us. They could have cut us off, but when they saw us trying to leave and that we had on Utah license plates they opened up and let us through.

We were coming in to the City on a Sunday and the freeways were so huge and very little traffic so we decided to go on and visit the Empire State building. It was about the middle of the day so we pulled up and parked right in front of the Empire State building and we decided to eat our lunch there. We prepared our dinner and were eating and watching the people hurrying by through our windows and they were looking back in at us and wondering at us eating right on the streets of New York. There was one group of people knocked on our door and said they had never seen anything like this before. At this time I don't think there were very many motor homes and campers and trailers as there are now. So I guess that was kind of a strange sight to a lot of people, seeing a home on wheels and especially eating our dinner in front of the empire state building.

I think going up the elevators in the Empire State building was an experience in itself and the amazing speed in which the floors just whizzed by so fast it was unbelievable. It was a little foggy that day so we couldn't see as well all of the things that we wanted to, but it was awesome what we were able to see from the top of that great building. We talked about the people on the streets looking like a bunch of ants and the cars like toy autos. Also the boats and ships on the river, were so small. Also how so small the other sky scraper buildings seemed as we looked down on them and remembered how huge they were towering above us when we were down looking up.

After that great experience we did go down to Central Park and the zoo and really enjoyed seeing all of the people that go there. Central Park is a huge place covering thousands of acres of choice land right in the middle of the city. We talked of this Park and the Empire State building and a lot of other buildings, roads and streets were all located on land given by King Edward of England to one of our progenitors, an Edwards, as a land grant for some service he did for the King. If the deed to all of these holdings could ever be found there would be quite a bonanza for all of the descendants of this Edwards. We won't hold our breath waiting for this to happen though. There have been some people disappear that have come too close to producing this deed.

I wanted to mention one other little episode while we were in New York City. We were driving down a road and it led us through a black part of the city. The street was narrow and there was no way we could get off of it, or to turn around so the only thing that we could do was to keep going. We realized we were in the worst part of the city as there was garbage piled high in piles all along the side of the road, and the sidewalks were crowded with black people, both sitting on their porches and side walks almost covered to the curbs. We were trapped by cars in head of us and cars behind us and moving so slowly that people were walking along out in the road and seemed to be menacing to us. We then realized that our camper door was not locked and the little girls were back in the back and we were afraid some of the menacing blacks were going to get in the back with our little girls. We were praying hard, but we weren't prepared for what happened next. The car in front of us stopped and just sat there and seemed to be saying. Why don't you blow your horn or come out so we can start something with you. Well we kept our cool and the car in front finally decided we weren't going to start anything and then from a side street we saw a police car pull out in front of him and were we ever glad to see a police car for a change. We gratefully followed that police car out of that part of the city and back to the freeway.

We headed out of the City and the freeway was practically empty, but the other side leading into the city was a solid sea of lights from cars coming back into the city, after the weekend. We traveled for I would guess 50 or 60 miles and that freeway 10 lanes wide was packed solid and were hardly moving. We were so grateful that we were on the side leaving the city rather than trying to get back into it. We about decided that this trip into the largest city in America was about enough. We were really impressed with the beauty of the State and it is also a larger state than we thought.

Life history continued: 2-15-97

We really enjoyed every day of our traveling in the green and beautiful state of New York. We wanted to attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant of l967 so when we arrived in Palmyra we were all excited to be going to the town of Palmyra. We wanted to see where the 4 churches, one on each of 4 corners in the small town where the family of Joseph Smith attended the church of their choice. There was a lot of rivalry and differences between all of the different churches at the time of the family of Joseph in the town of Palmyra. This Prompted Joseph to ask which of the churches were true and resulted in his vision and told that all of the church's were wrong and he was to join none of them. We were very excited that the four churches were still on the same corners and that we were having the privilege of seeing them as Joseph Smith saw them.

We also had the privilege of going through the home where the Smiths lived and the Sacred Grove and walked the same paths that Joseph walked into the Sacred Grove, and stood in the same place where he was when he received his wonderful vision. Then we walked up to the Hill Cumorah and the monument standing where the Gold Plates were found. I don't think any of us will ever forget that beautiful spot. Then for the awesome beauty of the Pageant, as we found our spot to sit and how exciting it was to our little girls, as the Nephite and Lamanite characters and the Indian Chiefs in their colorful costumes and headdresses came among the crowds of people and talked with us individually. It was almost like being among those people, as they were in the days of Moroni and Mormon.

Then the awesome noises, as the earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, mountains lifted up and dropping on the cities of the Nephites and Lamanites. They did a wonderful job of depicting the terrible destruction on the American continent at the crucifixion of the Savior. Then his coming to America after his crucifixion and setting up his church here as he had done in Jerusalem. All of us were delighted at the excitement and beauty of the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

We then headed for Ohio and there visited some of the Church History places there including the Kirtland Temple. One night there was very dark and the fire flies were out by the millions. We were very impressed by the beauty of the myriad lights flashing all around us, and the little girls had a great time catching them. We ended up with a quart bottle full of them. We knew they couldn't live in a bottle so turned them all loose. It was so interesting however to see that bottle filled with all of those little flashing lights.

I think we then went to Jackson County Missouri, and then to Nauvoo and finally to the Carthage jail. In going through there and seeing the blood of the Prophet Joseph that still stains the door and floor of the infamous Carthage jail. That brought to mind the Song and its fulfillment of long shall his blood which was shed by assassins Stain Illinois, while the Earth lauds his fame. I notice now that Stain Illinois has been changed to Plead unto Heaven. But at that time it hadn't been changed and we talked about how it still stained Illinois. I suppose that it would be hard on the Saints in Illinois to accept the first version and that is the reason they changed it to plead unto Heaven. That is a beautiful song and we all know that the earth will have to atone for his blood.

We enjoyed seeing the beautiful town of Nauvoo and the lovely homes that many of the Saints found it hard to say goodbye to and head west across the frozen Mississippi river. We also saw where the Beautiful Nauvoo Temple was built and the terrible sacrifices of building and completing it and then to see it burning down from across the river. What a time of sorrow for the faithful Saints and Pioneers. And the hardships of crossing the plains, to the Salt Lake Valley and one of the first things they did was to start building another beautiful Temple. And now we have more than 50 of these beautiful Temples from one end of the earth to the other.

Well we did take another week or so getting back home and back to work in the lumberyard, and the family back to school. We were always involved in our Grove ward and all of the activities of the Church. After serving in the seventies Presidency for the 3rd or 4th time, Tom Larsen was called to be Bishop and I as his first counselor and Robert Morehead as second counselor. I was ordained a high Priest by Boyd K. Packer Sept. 22nd l963 and I was put into the Bishopric of the Grove ward at that same time. So I must mention that I was serving in the Bishopric from that time until we went on this trip to the Worlds Fair in Montreal Canada in 1967. Lori Sue was born Sept 18th 1962 so she was just a year old when I was put in the Bishopric. Julie was just 5 years old and Leesa just over 2 years old. I was always up on the stand as a member of the Bishopric, which left my sweet wife LaRue to get our 5 older Children and these 3 babies ready for and bring them all to all three meetings every Sunday and to take care of them all by herself for the 5 years we served in the Bishopric in the Grove Ward. I think Heavenly Father gave her a great blessing and reward for all of these sacrifices she had to make. At this writing she and I have 60 wonderful Grandchildren, and the 61st grandchild on the way. Also 16 Great grandchildren and they are just getting started. What a wonderful family and all of them have been married and sealed in the Temples.

Well I will get back to the time Lori Sue was born and about this same time Our son Bob was called on a mission to the Great lakes mission. I think as I remember, Michigan, Indiana, and another state I think. It was while he was on his mission that we had the opportunity of acquiring the Pleasant Grove Lumber and Supply Co. We were still in Contracting and Plastering Business and this is when during the first winter that Bob was on his mission that Jerry's clothes caught fire as we were plastering the Pleasant Grove Armory. This was very sad as he still has some bad scars on his back from that terrible experience. This also helped us to make the decision to purchase the Pleasant Grove Lumber co. Which became a blessing for our family from the time we acquired it. I hope I am remembering all of the parts of my life history in as close a sequence as to the times, they actually happened as possible. I hope I don't repeat my self, but If I do. I hope you will make allowances as my memory at 78 isn't as sharp as it could be. I have been told it is better to make a life history even though there may be a few mistakes than if I didn't write a life history at all. Well with that in mind I will keep going on it and hope that before I run out of time on this earth I will be able to get it finished, even though it may not be as perfect in all respects as I would like it to be. I also want to help LaRue with hers. She is busy trying to get as good a life History of her mother Marthella as she possibly can. She is also working on one for her Dad Mortimer Wallace Willis and also some on her Brother Don if possible. So please have patience with us.

The Pleasant Grove Lumber and supply company, cost Mom and me $85,000.00 dollars and that was a lot of money for us to raise while keeping Bob on his mission. We borrowed $10,000.00 from Mortimer and Margaret Willis. With the promise that we would pay them back within a year.

With the good credit we had built up we were able to from the sale of our Farm and our plastering business, we were able to finally raise the amount we needed to aquire the Lumber Company. We then had to purchase a hyster and truck and pickup to run the business as smoothly as possible . We did do pretty good that first year and by borrowing on the Lumber Company we were able to pay back the Willis's their 10,000.00 and had purchased a pretty big inventory of building materials plus our saws, planers and Hyster and truck, and pickup and we did this from the business and by borrowing 55,000.00 from Lockhart finance, we were able to do all of this while Bob was still on his mission

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Before this time with the money our Mother received from the sale of her home in Orem She was able to purchase a nice lot from Cliff and Mary Lou which was right between Cliff and Mary Lou and Clyde and Thelma. It was a perfect place for our dear Mother to spend the rest of her life. This nice home at 290 N. 3rd E. Dean and I worked on it, and with our labor, plastering etc. She didn't owe anything on it and it was a really nice two bedroom home. She planted and kept her nice yard planted with beautiful garden, Flowers and fruit trees. I'm trying to work some of these details in to my life history not knowing exact dates of their occurrence. Clyde and Thelma, and Cliff and Mary Lou were right there for her to help her with her every need, mowing lawns weeding or help in the home or whatever she needed.

When Bob came home from his mission. He and Jerry were our main workers at the Lumber Yard and they did a great service to us at that time. Bob was dating Lillian West and it wasn't long until they were married and they moved to Ogden and both attended and Graduated from Weber College. I think that I have already told about some of the return missionaries that we hired at the Lumber Yard and how some of them were so good and some of them took advantage of the trust we had for them. We surely are grateful for them however and have only the highest regard for all of them, and would trust them again and have no regrets. Bob and Lillian had our first and number 1 grandson Rob and he was and is a real special grandson to us. The first of 61 and we are not sure this will be all. Rob and Stephanie now have a son Steven, and a daughter Arania.

I have already told about our wonderful trip to the l967 Worlds Fair, and the Hill Cumorah Pageant and the Church History places we went to on that wonderful trip with our new Camper and our three little girls, Julie, Leesa and Lori. I think I already told about some of our Airplane trips to Mexico City, Acapulco, Anchorage Alaska and some other wonderful trips we were able to take while we had Pleasant Grove Lumber Company. We also had some wonderful trips with Bishop and Barbara Larsen. We went to the Sand Dunes in our campers and to the 4 corners area, and also to some of the places on the Green river and also the Colorado River.

We remember riding a self propelled cable car across the green river. We also went to Arches national Park and Monument Valley together on some of our trips.

Their home was right on the direct route of the Strawberry days parade and we were always right there on their front porch or lawn sitting in comfortable chairs watching the beautiful Parade. Also many of the parades included some of our daughters and sons riding on the floats. One year Bob pulled a big trailer with our new Hyster and we had several of our employees building a home on the trailer he was pulling.

When we got back home from our wonderful trip to the worlds fair and the beautiful Hill Cumorah pageant, it seems it was about time for Jerry to go on his mission to Alabama and Florida. We didn't know it at that time, but this would be one of the reasons for our future move to Florida. Jerry was really a great help to us in the Lumber Yard and we had it fixed up and painted really nice and our business was doing pretty well so we were having a comfortable life in Pleasant Grove and the families were all happy and had nice places to live. Bob and Lillian were living in Ogden and had two beautiful children,(Rob and Karen), our first grandchildren. They came down to visit with us a lot and we also went to Ogden to visit with them. We liked Ogden and Sunset which are close together and that is where Mortimer and Margaret Willis, LaRue's parents lived and we wanted to visit with them also as much as possible. Mark and Eilene also lived in Pleasant Grove and they had a wonderful little boy Jared and we had them over to our home many times. Carolyn and Eddie had a little son Judd and when Jared and Judd were together they were the cutest little fellows we could ever imagine. Pat and Curtis were living in Las Vegas and had a wonderful little boy Curtis and we really thought he was a cute little Grandson.

I and Robert Morehead were still counselors to Bishop Larsen and we worked hard to try to take care of all of the needs of our large Grove Ward. We sent out a lot of missionaries and we had a lot of wonderful experiences, we were happy when Jerry received his call to the Alabama Florida Mission, Jerry left for his mission field in January of 1971, and we knew that we would surely miss him a lot, but we were also very happy for this wonderful call and blessing to him and to us. This would leave a very difficult void for us to replace him at the Lumber yard and in our family, but we knew we would all be blessed and we were. The church and the gospel were always first and foremost for all of our family and we were so happy that Bob and Lillian, Eddie and Carolyn, Mark and Eilene were all married and sealed in the Temple. Curtis and Pat were also working toward this blessing also.

During the early part of l972 LaRue and I decided to take a trip to Florida, Our Pleasant Grove lumber company had purchased a brand new G. M. C. 3/4 ton Pickup and we put our camper from the Green Ford pickup to the G. M. C. And it seemed to handle our heavy camper beautifully. Jerry was doing really well on his mission and was in Montgomery Alabama, so we wanted to stop there and see him and also see Pat and Curtis and little Curtis and be there for another Grandchild as Pat was expecting to have her baby, possibly before we would be able to get out to Florida. Carolyn and baby Judd with encouragement from Eddie had decided to go to Florida with us, and then he would fly out to Florida and join us and we would all drive home together. Our new pickup would travel easily at 80 miles per hour even with our heavy camper. Jerry had been on his mission for almost a year. We headed out just a couple of days after Christmas 1971, and it was very cold weather for the first few days of traveling through a lot of snow. We enjoyed our trip very much except we had a problem with our motor which was brand new so should have been perfect, But when we got to Jerry in Montgomery Alabama it was making some funny noises. We really enjoyed seeing Jerry and his companion and we had a good dinner with them as we too were invited to a good dinner.

We stayed in Montgomery for a couple of days and went through their beautiful State capitol building. We then headed for Orange City to spend some time with Pat and Curtis and to be there for the arrival of their new baby. By the time we got to their home we knew we had some real problems with the engine in our new G.M.C. We took it to the Garage in Winter Park and they thought it was just a minor problem. When they finally located the problem It was determined that the motor had the wrong pistons in and that a whole new motor had to be installed. The closest place that a new motor could be located was in Atlanta Georgia. They said they would pay for the motor and for getting it delivered by regular freight which would take a week or we could pay a hundred dollars and they would ship it by air, which they did and when it was unpacked, it was found that water had gotten into it and it was all rusted and frozen up. So then in looking around for another motor we found one with in 10 miles of where we were. It was a real pain and not even our fault, but I mention it because it took us about two weeks of not having our Pickup and camper. We did finally get us a little granddaughter, (Dayna) and we thought she was so beautiful.

LaRue and I had the opportunity of purchasing a nice Winnibego Motor home from Dr. Barrett. We wanted to take another trip to Florida to pick up Jerry from his mission, which would be over sometime in July I believe. So we worked the Motor home over and had it fixed really nice and took our 3 little girls Julie, Leesa and Lori with us on this nice trip to pick up Jerry. All of the others in the family were married. Bob and Lillian still in Ogden, Eddie and Carolyn had moved to Florida as had Curtis and Pat also. Curtis was baptized about this time, and we all felt very good about this. We really enjoyed traveling in the Motor home as we took our time and stopped at many nice places and motor home parks. We stopped at one lake and the little girls came up with their first experience with a water moccasin. He was a very ugly snake and we were glad when he disappeared into the lake. We heard a scary story of a water skier who fell off his water skies screaming that he had hit a barbed wire fence. In reality he had hit a school of these deadly water moccasins. He just lasted for a few minutes and he was dead. We had a lot of experience with these ugly little snakes later after we moved to Sebastian. We will mention more about this later on.

We really loved the green beauty of Florida, but about the time that we got to Milton Fla. We had some very funny noises in our Dodge motor in the Winnebego, so we stopped in Milton and went to a garage there and they informed us, that we would have to have a new motor. Well that was a sad blow to our trip as well as our pocketbook as the last trip we put a new motor into the Pickup, but it was under warranty and didn't cost us too much on that trip. Jerry had many nice friends in Milton and surrounding towns and we enjoyed many of the nice Saints in those places. We finally got the Motor installed and it seemed good to have our own power again. We had permission to bring Jerry to Tallahassee to the mission home where we met with President Hartman Rector. We had a very nice meeting with him and he said he felt impressed that he could release Elder Gurr, (Jerry) into our custody and gave us the assignment of getting Jerry back to his Stake President in Pleasant Grove for his formal release as a missionary. We were very pleased with this responsibility.

Jerry was so fun to travel with and he loved driving the Motor home, so Mom and I just let him do about all of the driving, from then on. We were able to prepare and eat our meals and play games or take naps or what ever we wanted to do while Jerry was driving and making good time. We were heading for Curtis and Pats home in Orange City Florida.

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We were so glad to see Curtis and Pat and little Curtis and Dayna, they were such precious children and we really did enjoy them so much. Jerry wanted to drive down to many of the places that he had never had the opportunity of visiting, such as Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and he wanted to drive over the bridge high way down to the Florida keys. It was finally decided that Pat and the 2 children would go with us. We thought that would be a very fun trip for all of us so we started the long trip down to Ft Lauderdale and on the way we stopped at many of the fun beaches and enjoyed the wonderful blue water and waves of the Atlantic Ocean. When we got to Ft. Lauderdale Pat decided she had better not go on down to the Keys with us, so she called Curtis and he came down that night and took Pat and the children back home leaving us to continue our trip on down to Miami beach and the Florida Keys. We really had a wonderful time and Jerry really enjoyed driving those hundreds of miles out over the emerald green waters of where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans come together.

We enjoyed riding the Key West trolley all around the naval ship yards and the many Lovely homes of the Rich & Famous movie stars and presidents of our country. The highest place on Key West was as our narrator told us was the dizzying height of 6 feet above sea level. It was interesting as we went through their cemetery that all of the caskets and vaults were all above ground as if they started digging they would be immediately in water. It is hard to believe that the highest point on the Island was just 6 feet. It seems like the slightest storm or hurricane would clean off the whole Island. We went swimming in the southern most point in the United states and I think it is just 90 miles to Cuba. We also went on a glass bottom boat and it was so beautiful out over the colorful coral reefs and the thousands of all colors of tropical fish. The glass bottom boat was a fun part of our trip to Key West. On the way back to Miami Beach we stopped at a sandy beach on one of the keys and we pulled up to the edge of the water. Jerry Mom, and I went swimming and we were amazed at the shallowness of the beautiful warm water. We tried to see how far we could walk out, and we just kept going and going and it was still shallow water and we may have been out for possibly a half of a mile. We had a funny feeling though when we got back to the pickup, we found that our pickup was surrounded by water and we were wondering if we had left it out of gear and it had rolled down into the ocean, but then on further examination we found that the tide had come in and we were out in the ocean which was very shallow and we were able to back out with out hardly any problem as the sand when it is wet is firm and easy to drive in. We then drove up to the everglades and they are also very interesting. Hundreds of miles of shallow clear and beautiful water and many alligators visible swimming around seemingly just waiting for one of us to step off the walk ways and into their lunch room. We saw all sizes of them and they were everywhere. The rangers told us however that they were not dangerous, and the only way they would ever bite some one was if they were scared by sudden movements, or if they were teased or threatened by someone. We didn't want to find out for ourselves so stayed on the walkways.

After the Florida Everglades we came to the town of Homestead and there were thousands of acres of farmland growing tomatoes so huge and beautiful. Also Avocados the size large grape fruits. The avocados were 10 cents each and one of them would make a meal for all three of us. The beautiful tomatoes were 10 cents a lb. And were really yummy. We then went over to Miami Beach and went swimming and all of us really enjoyed the beauty of the beaches and the hundreds of people that were enjoying themselves including us. Jerry, after the years of discipline as a missionary was really letting himself go and enjoying every minute. It was fun for Mom and me to just watch him and all the fun he was having. We had a good roast beef and Vegetables meal and as always topping off with Pie and Ice cream or cake. Jerry enjoyed his Mom's cooking so much after his 2 years of missionary meals.

We decided to spend the night in Miami and what a night it was. We parked our motor home where we thought would be a good quiet spot for the night in back of a Police station. We had just got gotten to sleep good when all at once we thought war had been declared as a shoot out was taking place, out in front of the Police station. Sirens were everywhere that night so it was the worst place in the whole world. What we thought would be a nice quiet place, was absolute bedlam all night long. We got up early and were out of there as soon as possible. We as I remember traveled up to Ft. Pierce where we decided to spend another night and this time we parked in the nice parking lot behind the really nice Ft. Pierce chapel, where we could attend our meetings the next day which was Sunday.

I think I would like to mention something here that I have been a little hesitant of mentioning but I think it is an event that would really change the course of all of our lives for the next several years if not our whole future lives. It was a nice quiet place there a big contrast to the night before, and after a nice evening of dinner and playing some games we retired to our beds, to what I thought would be a real good nights sleep. To Jerry and Mom it was, but to me it was a night that I will never forget and was a very long but special night for me. My mind seemed to go back to Pleasant Grove and our beautiful home and comfortable circumstances in which we lived there. I seemed to feel impressions and communication with Heavenly Father and it continued all night. I was impressed with the feeling that we were very complacent and satisfied with our lives in Pleasant Grove, that there were so many good people there that needed to try to share their blessings with others and that Mom and I could really help build the Kingdom in the mission field. I couldn't understand the urgency of the feelings and impressions that seemed to crowd into my mind during the whole night and the next morning when we were attending our meetings, I could begin to understand. There was a great need of leadership and fellow shipping new members etc. We really began to understand this when the next Sunday we went to our meetings in Vero Beach and I could understand the need for strong families to help build up the branches and wards in Florida, We were disappointed to see that Vero Beach branch 10 or 15 members and they were very weak.

We loved the citrus fruits of the Indian River and we loaded up with Oranges, grapefruits and tangerines. We had a nice trip home across Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and then finally Arizona. When we came into Arizona at the border crossing we were shocked to hear we couldn't take any fruit into the state and we would have to leave it with them for disposal. We ate what we could on the spot and put some in our refrigerator and then we still had several bushels to throw away.

We found everything fine at home and it was good to be back home and to have Jerry with us and he was able to go to the Stake President and receive an honorable release from his Missionary service. We were so happy with Mark and Eilene and the good way they cared for our family while we were gone for over a month on our nice trip to Florida. Everything was going well at our Lumber Co and we decided to build a new home up on a nice lot we owned up on Mahogany St. in Pleasant Grove. I decided to be contractor and builder and build it all myself. It was on a hillside lot and we poured a basement and had large patio glass doors open at ground level in the rear of the home. The reason I am mentioning that I built this nice home myself, was to tell an experience I had while I was working on the home. I was building and nailing studs and putting the walls up as I would get them all nailed together. On this day it began to rain and the wind was blowing and it began to thunder and lightning. I was right in the process of standing up one of the stud walls I had nailed together and trying to hold it up against the wind and rain and while trying to get a brace nailed on to the wall and down to the floor I just barely got it secured when all at once I was knocked down by a bolt of lightning and I guess I was so stunned that I didn't know what had happened to me and I just laid there wondering what had happened and then I realized that I had been hit by lightning. At about this same time I remembered the long night and conversing with Heavenly Father when we were parked in the Parking lot of the Ft. Peirce ward in Florida. From this time on I was constantly impressed that we just had to move from Pleasant Grove to Vero Beach Florida. I was very hesitant to tell our family any of this but when I told them the feeling of urgency was getting stronger and stronger with each passing day.

LaRue at this time was suffering with a lot of neck pain and we couldn't get it to stop even all of the doctors we went too couldn't help a bit. LaRue often went to Salt Lake with me to get loads of building materials for the Lumber Yard. On this one particular day I was prompted to make a promise to her that if she would move to Florida that her neck would be healed and we would be blessed with one of the choicest blessings of our lives. To my surprise she had also had some preparation from Heavenly Father and said we had better prepare and make the move to Vero Beach Florida where we were impressed that we were so badly needed. To our surprise our 3 girls also were willing to make this move even though they were so involved in their schools in Pleasant Grove they felt that our reason for moving was for the Lord and they were all very spiritual girls.

From this point on we seemed to all work together in arranging all of our affairs, for the biggest move of our lives. For me my biggest project was in finishing up the new home we were building. We picked out white brick and it turned out to be beautiful. We had two fireplaces in it and the main floor. had a balcony the full length of the house and a wrought iron fence and a nice stairway down to the nice back yard and a beautiful view of Utah Lake and the whole valley. We decided the best thing for us to do would be to sell our home we were living in to Stan West as they wanted it very much. Thanksgiving was coming right up and our plan was to leave with about everything we owned promising to Heavenly Father that we would go and do what we were required to do. It was getting very cold early that year of I believe was 1973 and I was still finishing up the new home on Mahogany and the last day to finish was the day before Thanksgiving and I was painting outside the balcony and stairway. It was so cold my hands were frozen to the paint gun, and I decided I didn't ever want to build another home in the cold weather. We finished loading on thanksgiving and headed for Florida.

This move to Florida was one of the biggest moves we had ever made in our entire lives and was the beginning of one of one of the great miracles of our lives. We as I remember had promised that no matter what happened we wanted to make this move, because of the urgent prompting and what we felt was a call from Heavenly Father and was to us as real as had been any of the previous calls to serve on missions or other callings we had all through our lives. With this in our minds and a lot of helps and miracles, everything seemed to work out for us to leave almost immediately.

We were able to arrange for us to take our G.M.C. pick-up and load it to capacity and two of the largest U-haul trailers we could find and loaded them to their fullest capacity. We also loaded our Winabego to its capacity and our Buick automobile to its capacity. LaRue drove the Winabego and pulled one of the large trailers, I pulled the other large trailer behind our Pickup and Pat who had come out from Florida to help us drove the Buick. Our Julie, Leesa and Lori rode with LaRue in the Winabego and she led the way, and with me following her and Pat following us. We were a very strange caravan as we headed out on what proved to be a great miracle in traveling across the whole United States. So after tearful good byes to all of our families we started out on this long miraculous trip. It was a miracle that LaRue would even go let alone drive a large heavily loaded motor home and pull a large heavily loaded trailer.

All went well until we got to Boulder dam and as I was following the motor home I remembered that I had not told Mom how to change gas tanks in case she ran out of gas in the first tank. We were climbing up out of the Dam area on the really steep roads and I knew if the Winabego ran out of gas she would never be able to hold the motor home so heavily loaded and the heavy trailer. I had the horrible vision of seeing her out of gas and unable to hold all of that weight she would be pulled backward with no control and off those steep cliffs, and our mission would be over right then and there. I was doing some of the most earnest praying that I ever remember before or since that mom wouldn't run out of gas. I pulled up as close to her as I dared hoping that if she did I maybe able to help her from rolling backward too fast and if I couldn't we would all go over. Well my prayers were answered and we made it without running out of gas.

That was our first big scare, and I was not long in showing mom how to change gas tanks if she ever ran out of gas with the first tank. Our next stop was in Mesa Arizona where the weather was warm and beautiful compared to what we had been coming through. Bob and Lillian were living in Mesa and it was so nice to spend a day with them and then we again headed out for New Mexico. We got just a little way out of Mesa and I saw the rear wheel of the Winabego was wobbling terribly. We found out that the heavy load had broken off several lug bolts so we had to crawl slowly back to Mesa where we wasted several hours getting the problem taken care of. It was getting dark and then as if that was not enough It began to snow terribly hard and was hard to keep track of each other. Mom and I pulled off into a rest stop and found that Pat driving the Buick was missing this was very scary as it was hard to see any thing in the hardest snow falling made it hard to even drive. I went to a freeway exit and headed back several miles before I found Pat with a tire that was almost flat. It was too cold and snowy to change the tire so we crawled slowly back to the rest stop where we were grateful to spend the night.

We had a good dinner and it was snowing so hard I decided to wait until morning to change the flat tire. It was also real cold and it seemed good to all of us to go to bed in the nice warm winnebago. I remember that the next morning was still cold but the snow had stopped and it wasn't quite so bad to change the tire on the Buick and then on to Las Cruses which if a very beautifully situated city in some very picturesque Mountain settings. We were able to get our Buick tire fixed so we would have our spare when we needed it. We then headed for El Paso Texas and that is a very interesting place also being built on the Colorado River where it goes into Old Mexico. I usually had one or two of the little girls with me and sometimes they would ride with Mom in the Winnebago and sometimes with Pat in the Buick. Pat also had Curtis and Dayna with her and they all took turns riding with one or the other of the Buick, Motor home or Pickup.

We didn't go too fast so it seemed like it took forever to get across the huge State of Texas. We would always stop quite often in rest stops and ride bikes and throw frisbee or balls and get exercise in other ways. So we made the trip as fun for all as possible and except for one time on the freeways through Dallas or Houston our trip was a very nice experience except for the time we were separated, but we were really blessed to be able to get all of us back together again, and continue on our long move to Florida.

LaRue and Pat did a good job of driving and we finally made our way across the beautiful southern states, which were so green and lush and so different than the snow, ice and cold that we had at the beginning of our trip. We all felt so good except it seemed like we were a long way from home and everything here so unfamiliar and a little scary as to what lay ahead for us. At this time Curtis and Pat and family were living in Orange City and Eddie and Carolyn were living in or near Orlando so we were glad that we had at least two of our families living in Florida. If I remember right Curtis and Pat went on down to Sebastian where we were to move into a nice doublewide mobile home. We had already been introduced to some very hard rainstorms that were almost unbelievable to us back west where it most usually just rained and then would quit. Here we came through rain where it came down in torrents. Sometimes more in an hour than we get in Arizona in a year. We were favorably impressed by the Mobile home we moved into and Curtis & Pat helped us get unloaded and arranging furniture and then they left and we were left alone.

Sebastian was a very nice place to be and we were anxious to get our 3 girls in school. We didn't know what to expect from the schools so we signed up and the girls were not all that impressed with having to start school in an environment entirely foreign to them. I think about 60 percent or more were blacks. In their schools in Pleasant Grove I don't think there were any blacks at all in any of their schools so this was a challenging change for all of them.

We knew their would be some of these challenges but not nearly so much as we found to be the case there in Sebastian. Each of the girls were approached by other students to try doing drugs with them. And boys were quite taken with the beauty of the 3 new girls just moving into their schools. Julie came home crying a short time from school one day and said some boys had wanted her to go with them and they weren't very subtle in the reason they wanted her. They were almost insistent that she go with them and that is the reason she came home crying. Well this just about broke my heart when I saw how hard it was for our girls there in those schools and I told Julie that if she ever felt threatened and came home crying again that we surely would be heading back for Utah. Mom and I just couldn't stand to see our girls unhappy. They fully understood all of the reasons that brought us to Florida in the first place and I think, they all felt that we were called by Heavenly Father and they surely wanted to make this a high priority as we all did.

The very first Sunday we all went into Vero Beach for our meetings we were warmly welcomed there as there were only about 12 or 15 members present and very happy when we told them we were moving into their Branch. There was one couple, the AToppol's@, that seemed especially glad to see us, and they invited us out to their very nice home for dinner after the Sunday meetings. Sister Toppol is a perfectionist and it carries over to her cooking and she really had us to dinner many, many times during the 5 years we were in Florida. John and Agnes Toppol became some of our dearest friends. The next Sunday which was our 2nd week in Florida as we walked into the Womens club building where we were to attend our meetings each Sunday for awhile. We sensed that something was very different and there was a stranger on the Stand that introduced himself as our Stake President. President Winston, he asked us to come to another room as he would like to talk to us.

President Winston told us of his impression of our family as we came into the meeting that Sunday morning. He also explained the reason that he was in Vero Beach that morning. He said that he was there to disband the Vero Beach Branch as the present Branch President Gary Treece and his wife were separated and were getting a divorce and there was no other in the branch that could take his place. He then asked us what we were doing in Florida and we then told him some of the reasons and that the main one was that we had come to Vero Beach a year ago and that we were impressed that we should bring our family there and see if we could help strengthen the Branch as we realized then how badly they needed some strong L.D.S. families to help build the numbers and strengthen the families that were already in the Branch. President Winston then said. I will tell you what my impression was when your little family walked into the meeting. I was prompted to ask you to be Branch President of the Vero Beach Branch and not disband the branch at this time. So Brother Gurr will you accept the calling of Branch President. What a shock that was to both LaRue and me. I replied President Winston you don't know me from Adam, and our memberships won't be here for another month or so. He then answered , Bro. Gurr The Lord knows you and I believe that he is calling you. Will you accept? I looked at LaRue and she seemed to feel good about the call, so I said yes if you feel it is from the Lord we will accept the call and do the very best we can, as that is the only reason we are in Florida, is to do all we can to strengthen and help build the Lords Kingdom here. President Winston then explained to the few members that were present that he had come to Vero Beach to close the Branch and the members there could attend the Ft. Pierce Ward just 15 miles to the South of Vero Beach. My name was presented to the few people there and sustained to be the new branch President.

In the next few days I prayed about the calling and how to proceed and seemed to be impressed to call Brother John Topol as 1st counselor and Birdie Barrett as 2nd counselor. With LaMar Mason as Branch clerk. We held our Presidency meetings each week and it seemed like our existing branch members really supported us and each other and our missionaries. We were assigned a couple of real sharp Elders and we had them over to our home once or twice a week and we worked real closely with them and had many families to our home for meetings and also for baptisms.

I think I would like to mention our struggles in getting financing and some of the problems we had in building our home in Sebastian. The bank was very cooperative and lent us all of the money we needed to build our new home on 268 So. Poinciana St. We had previously purchased a beautiful lot in an abandoned sub. division that covered thousands of acres and there were miles and miles of nicely surfaced roads and the lots were selling for real low prices as there just weren't any buyers at this time in l973. This lot we purchased was almost isolated as there wasn't any homes being built anywhere and ours was several blocks from any other house. It was like a jungle and we had to use our pickup and heavy cables picks shovels and axes to clear that lot and we all worked for weeks just getting it cleared and ready to build our home. Mom and the girls Julie, Leesa and Lori all worked so hard and we finally were ready to dig our footing trenches and Concrete floor. So we finally poured our concrete floor in what was about 2200 sq. Ft. That is a lot of concrete to finish and trowel in one long hard working day. We had rented a power trowel or we could never have done it. We were doing all of the building ourselves so we had all of our plumbing in and we thought how blessed we were and what a good job we had done up to that point now had to think of getting our concrete block laid, we were planning on doing that job as well.. We look back now and just can't think we did all or most all of the work on that beautiful white stucco home in Sebastian.

We had loads and loads of concrete block. We had loads of brick or mortar sand and we had our plaster mixer that we had brought with us from Utah, so we were well prepared in every way except I had laid brick and some concrete block but this was a massive project. LaRue and the girls kept me in mortar and I working 12 hour days had gone up about 4 ft. high in about a week. One day while I was struggling lifting and laying block up and it was getting higher and higher to reach a car stopped out in front and a young man came over and wanted to go to work for us in laying the block. By this time I was ready for some help so we told him sure, we would be glad to have his help at least until the block was laid.

It kind of sounds like all we did was work, work, work, The fact is however that we weren't on any kind of a time schedule so we had a lot of other activities, such as riding our bicycles about every day for miles and miles over the surfaced roads in this huge subdivision and were never bothered with cars as they never or seldom ever traveled there. La Rue and I would ride our bikes about every day and even though it was a little hot, it was always nice and cool as long as we were moving. We were close to the Atlantic ocean, and there was always a prevailing breeze that kept the area a lot cooler than inland and west coast of Florida. When the girls would get home from school we would go swimming in a small lake about a half mile from where we were building. This was a beautiful little lake with a small Island out in the middle of it and it was sandy beaches and bottom and just the right temperature, so we and the girls spent a lot of our time swimming in that very beautiful little lake, which later we used to perform baptisms of some of the converts coming into the Vero Beach branch. The little Lake became known by many as Mormon lake as we had a lot of baptisms there and the services would be held in our home. These were times of great joy to us as we held these wonderful services in our home for these wonderful new converts, joining the church in increasing numbers. Our missionaries were really working hard and enjoying these wonderful times as well. We really appreciated our beautiful daughters and their testimonies that they would bear every chance they could get, in church and in our baptism services. I think their testimonies converted more people than even the missionaries at times. These girls were surely a blessing to a lot of people in Florida.

At this time we were up to the square in building our new home and were ready for our trusses to be put on and our roof was ready to be put on. We wanted to get the roof on as we could never know when a hard rain would come and nearly flood us away. We were able to get the trusses up and fastened down with Hurricane proof steel fasteners. At this time Curtis and Pat were living up in Orange city and were so happy, as Curtis was doing so good in the Church and was such a good home teacher as he would take his lawn mower and Mow the lawns for some of the widows in their ward. He was really into serving in his ward. He even hauled wood and sawed it up as a project for the Elders Quorum and kept the wood on his place and even delivered it when many of the families needed wood and I have never seen Curtis more happy and Pat also. We really appreciated Curtis at this time as he came down to Sebastian, almost a hundred miles and helped us get our plywood and shingles up on the trusses. We enjoyed Curtis and Pat and little Curtis and Dayna. They spent some of their vacation down helping us get our roof on and we were blessed that during this week we were threatened some times but didn't get any rain.

Frank and Carolyn Standage were also living up in Orange City with their little family and we went to visit them every time we had a chance. They would also come down and see us occasionally. There was in their family as we remember Judd and Jenny who were born in Utah and Michelle and Joan born in florida. We also had Curtis and Pat with their little family also. They had little Curtis born in Utah and Dayna and Rachael were born in Florida. It was a lot easier for LaRue and me and our little girls to have them living in Florida with us and we didn't feel so alone there as we would get together as often as we could. We also had a nice family living about a fourth mile from where we were building our new home. Their names were the Winters, as I can't recall their first names. They had a son Bill and they treated us very nice. I think Sister Winters and their son Bill were baptized members but they were very weak and inactive. Mr. Winters was not a member. The reason I mention them was that Mr. Winters had us come down to their place and see a large Rattle snake that was curled up on their porch and one of the largest I had ever seen. It was about as large around as a large cantaloupe. There were more snakes in Florida than any other place we had ever lived and we were able to see them about every time we walked out through the trees or brush. We had to be real careful of snakes in and out of the water. Also we would see alligators occasionally and lots of turtles.

We lived quite close to the Indian River or at least it is called a River, but it is several hundred miles long and averages about 1 to 3 miles across, and it has a narrow piece of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the river itself. There are inlets all along this narrow piece of land and the Ocean and during the incoming and outgoing tides of the ocean this large body of water actually lowers and rises with the ocean tides and some of the inlets during high tides actually have the water just roaring one way or the other through them. Fishing and other boats that are trying to go through the inlets from the ocean to the river or visa versa sometimes have a real hard time going through these inlets and is sometimes really dangerous for them, and they have to sometimes wait until the ocean and the river stabilize, and one is not higher or lower than the other for them to come in more safely.

Being as we lived close to the Indian River we decided to get us a boat as we were very intrigued with the beautiful tree covered Islands that dotted the wide Indian river, some of them a mile or two long and a half mile or more in width. We wanted to visit some of these Islands and explore them as there were no inhabitants on hardly any of them. With this in mind we kept looking for a used boat for sale for a reasonable price. We finally found an inboard motorboat and it was pretty fast and would pull water skiers, something that I liked to do. It turned out to be a good boat and we used and enjoyed it for a few years of the time we were in Florida and really did enjoy visiting dozens of the beautiful Islands all up and down the Indian River. There was one Island in particular that we went out to many times and was our favorite island, as it had really nice sandy beaches and the swimming was fabulous and we always took our lunch and camera and had a lot of great times out on our little favorite Island. I would like to mention that the Indian river was full of dolphins and we loved watching them. One day we were way out in the middle of Indian River and could hardly see the shore on either side and I told Julie to get out of the Boat and see how deep it was way out here, She said no it was probably a mile deep but finally we convinced her that it wasn't a mile deep and she jumped in and it came up just a little above her waist she couldn't believe it and it is hard to believe that except for a shipping channel you might be able to walk 3 miles across the Indian River in just waist high water. It was always so good to swim and have such fun times on the beautiful Indian River.After we finished getting our roof all on and no further chance of raining and getting water inside the house we ordered our sheet rock and it took a big truck load as this home was a large one and when it was all in the house we realized then that we had a big job. We decided to put up the ceilings first so we made some props to help hold up the sheet rock once we got a sheet up. It took all of us to get a sheet up to the ceiling ready to nail and then put the props under it so we could nail it. Julie, Leesa, Lori and LaRue helped get the sheet rock in place so we could nail it. When we first started we didn't think we were going to be able to do it, but we finally worked out a system and I don't remember how long it took us to get all of the sheet rock up but we finally got it all nailed on and then came the big job of taping and finishing and that also seemed like an impossible job. I had done a lot of taping and finishing and it was not the heavy lifting and as hard work as the nailing sheet rock. So this job went pretty well and then we decided to Stucco the Outside walls and ceilings so we had to put a lot of Paper and stucco netting on and that was no small job as we had a large overhang that had to be papered and wired before stucco, That then had to have three coats of scratch, Brown and finish and the block wall had only brown coat and finish. With LaRue and the girls keeping me in mud this job went pretty fast and we got the whitest finish coat stucco that we could get and it really turned out beautiful and we were proud of the beauty of that home surrounded by a forest of pine trees and green St. Augustine sod lawn that we laid our selves and it really was shaping up beautifully. By this time we had our large Garage Sheet rocked and painted and the automatic doors operating and a large storeroom filled with shelves and it was finished. The reason for finishing them first was so we could move out of the double wide trailer we were living in, and move our Winnebago motor home and we could save a lot of travel by living over at the new home and the motor home. We had our own well drilled and had lots of water to water a garden which we planted and our lawns. We planted some sweet potatoes and we could believe how fast the grew to tremendous size. One of them weighed more than 40 lbs and we had enough sweet potato to feed our whole branch with just that one potato at one of our regular once a month dinners we held every month. We held many of these dinners at our home or in our yard.

We finally got all of our painting done on the inside and we they were having the carpet put on the floors, but there was one final big project we wanted to do and that was to build a large rock Fireplace in our living room. We wanted it to cover most of one wall and from hearth to the Ceiling. So that was a very big undertaking for us, as some of the rocks weighed from 20 to 40 lbs and some of them up to a hundred lbs. I still don't know how we did it in so short a time, but the final night we had before the carpet layers showed up the next day we worked all day and then all night and barely finished when the Carpet layers came. We surely would never want to do that again, but the fireplace was a real show place as the large rocks were such beautiful colors and after the carpet was laid we just had to sit and admire what we had done. We had hung all of our kitchen cabinets and they too were beautiful Cherry hardwood and the Formica tops were also very beautiful. We had beautiful light fixtures all through the house and the one in the living room and over the dining room table with the rock fire place behind them, we thought was about the ultimate in beauty. I guess this feeling was partly due to the fact that we had put so much of ourselves in to building that home that we just didn't think that there could be anything so beautiful as this home we had built all by ourselves. We had large green elephant ears and other plants, planted in the 4 large planter areas that were built right into and were part of the home, and they were all of them stuccoed with the dazzling white stucco, which set of the large green elephant ears beautifully. We were able to build this entire beautiful home and furnish it for $38,000,00. Wow what a blessing. Well with our home completed and our Winabago motor home parked in the rear of our large lot we had a lot of time for other things and I will tell a little about the progress of the Vero Beach Branch and some of the experiences we had in the Branch. We were still meeting in the Vero Beach Women's club and it was not with out many problems and drawbacks. For one thing each Sunday morning when we had our Branch Presidency meeting we would find beer cans and bottles and Cigarette butts all over the floors from the Saturday night parties they had there each week. So our first order of business was for the four of us at our early meeting was to clean and sometimes have to mop the floors and then set up the chairs, sacrament table etc. This had been going on for about a year while we were building our home. But at this particular time the Women's club committee had written us a letter saying they would like us to move and not hold our meetings there any more. So we had this problem for us as well as many others. We all took the assignment of looking for a new place to hold our meetings. I think Bro. Toppol came up with about the best place so for the next few months we began holding our services in the Elks Club building in Vero Beach. If we thought the Women's club was a problem, we found out the Elks club was even worse. So we determined to keep looking for something more suitable. Our Branch was growing quite rapidly and our missionaries were very happy with their assignments at Vero Beach Branch.

There was another very important event that I would like to tell about that would be a great blessing to us and to Vero Beach Branch. Jerry and Carolyn Gurr were living in Utah and at our suggestion of our great need for some good families to move to Florida, I think Heavenly Father was working on Jerry and Carolyn, who were still newly weds and no particular roots anywhere pleasantly surprised us when they reacted favorably to this suggestion. LaRue and I decided to go out to Utah and help them move to Florida, which we did. Jerry and Carolyn sold the little apartment they were living in and as part of their payment they took a large Diesel truck as part of their payment. So we loaded all of their furniture and belongings into that huge truck and headed out for Florida. Mom and I and the girls were in a little Datsun Station wagon. We presented quite a sight as our small Datsun looked like an ant following and elephant. We had quite a trip through every state having to buy permits to take that big monster Diesel through all of them.

We finally arrived in Sebastian after a week of problems traveling back to Florida, I will mention one of them was when the big Diesel refused to start as the batteries didn't have enough power to start it one morning. We didn't know what to do, so we hooked up the little Datsun with a big chain and it was about like a tiny bug trying to pull an elephant. We pulled it a little way until the down hill we were on got steeper and the big monster began to roll by itself and finally when the hill was steep enough we stopped and took the little Datsun off and then got the monster rolling down the hill fast enough to finally get it started and then on to Sebastian.

It had taken quite a while for LaRue and me to go to Utah to help Jerry and Carolyn move to Florida, and now we had them here and what a blessing it was to have them there. We stored a lot of their furniture and belongings in our Garage and storeroom. And some of the things they needed to live in our Winabago which we had parked on the back of our large lot and where they could live quite comfortably until they could get a job and find another place to live. They fixed it up so nice inside. We also had electricity and water for them and a deep covered hole for the sewer. They could also come in with us in our new home, so we really enjoyed having them there with us. Our Vero Beach Branch members were also was overjoyed to have them there. The missionaries were also happy to see a new family in our Branch.

As I remember it was just a few months that Jerry and Carolyn were living in the Winnebago and then they had the opportunity to buy a duplex apartment and they rented out one and lived in the other one. It was very nice and at this time Jerry was working for Piper Aircraft Company who manufactured single and twin-engine Piper Cub airplanes. A lot of the people in Vero Beach worked at that large facility. Jerry also was our Branch Mission leader and Carolyn was working with the young ladies in the Mutual and were really a blessing to our Branch which was really beginning to grow and making a lot of progress. Our Missionaries were working with us and they were having a lot of success and some very nice families were being baptized in to the Vero Beach Branch.

At this time we were holding our services in I think the Vero Beach Elks Club building and it was even worse that the Women's club building had been for being a mess and we had to clean it up every Sunday morning before we could have our meetings. It was almost intolerable and we decided to keep looking for a more suitable situation as this building was a disgrace to bring our new converts into. We located a vacant furniture store and found out it was for rent at a fairly reasonable price so we made a proposal to Our Stake President Winston that if they would purchase the materials that were needed to remodel it. That we would do the work in getting it remodeled into a chapel and some classrooms and it would be a great blessing and help to Vero Beach Branch. So that is what we did and I had to do the remodel work as all of the other brethren were working to support their families. So after several months of tearing out old walls and putting in some new petitions we finally were able to move into a really nice facility for us as we had several nice class rooms and a large chapel Area, and we were no longer ashamed at bringing in our new converts into our meeting place.

I think I will explain why I have been so long in getting back to sending out my Journal pages and also a little of my life history each month as I have previously done. I think the first big mistake was that LaRue and I were planning on spending about 3 months up in Utah and I didn't want to be without our computer and printer for all of that time so I spent a lot of time and energy installing a table and set up in our 5th wheel on which I put our nice television, computer, screen, key board, mouse and printer all along one wall and it was if I do say so a very beautiful set up in our 5th wheel and without taking up too much space. It was wonderful for us to be able to work on our computer just as easily as it was at home and we really thought we had the ultimate setup. This at least was what I thought. LaRue was against taking all of this nice equipment with us, and as it turned out she was so very right. Everywhere we stopped all had to do was uncover this beautiful setup on one wall, release a couple of straps and I could go to work. We also had our Digital Satellite receiver dish and could receive several hundred clear beautiful pictures and 38 digital sound music stations and they sounded so good. We had the option of locking out any stations that we did not want so we crossed out all of the R rated and other unwanted stations, which comprised about half of all the stations. So we thought we had the ultimate in travel living. It worked beautifully for about half of the time we were gone. But Utah had about one of the wettest summer and some of the storms were really violent with Thunder and lighting. One of them sent a power surge through our computer and printer and really messed them up. We lost our windows 95, Our Corel 7 word perfect and that put an end to our euphoria we felt in our beautiful set up in our 5th wheel. I kind of explained about all of this in my Journal pages, but wanted to just put a little explanation of this problem in this part of our life history. I want to mention that I have learned my lesson and it has been an expensive one. I promised LaRue that I would never take all of this equipment with us ever again on our trips. I think that one mistake cost us close to 600.00. We were blessed however in selling our old printer and with rebates and what it would have cost us to fix the old printer our actual cost was about half of the 600.00 and with out Jerry's help would have been hundreds of dollar more. What a blessing Jerry has been to us and to many others in our family. Well now I will go back and proceed with our life history.

After working for several months in remodeling the abandoned furniture building in Vero Beach it seemed like we were running out of money. Jerry and Carolyn were living in their new duplex and were doing very well as Jerry was working for Piper aircraft, building airplanes. Mostly Piper Cubs and twin engine Cessna's. Piper Aircraft was about the only industry in Vero Beach, so we thought that we had better try for a job there. They put me right to work as a carpenter with the understanding that I would never be available for Sunday work, to which they agreed and I worked building packing crates for shipping their planes all over the world. They didn't pay much money, but we were getting to the point were we could not be too choosey. LaRue and I had always had our own business and were not used to working for someone else so it was not easy for me to take orders from a boss and we had a lot of problems when he got too puffed up in his being boss. So one day when he was just a little too much for me I told him he could shove it and I quit Piper air craft after just a few months of working for them. Jerry was really enjoying his job there as they really treated him good. He was able to operate and move their planes around their airfield and I don't remember too well, but I think he would test fly some of them.

We still had our nice G.M.C. pickup and our plaster mixer so I decided to go back into plastering as that was something that I had done all my life and I really enjoyed working in plastering. I went to work for a plastering contractor, and having my own truck and mixer he let me kind of be my own boss and would send me on jobs mostly out on Johns Island which was a very exclusive millionaire's Island out in the middle of the three mile wide Indian River. The homes out there were all huge and so elaborate and beautiful and it was really a fun place for me to work. It seems like the people out on Johns Island were mostly nice and seemingly good people, but were very competitive in the building of their homes and it one of the most sought after status symbol was the elaborate chimneys they put all over their roofs. It was not uncommon to see anywhere from 4 to 7 large beautiful chimneys on some of their homes and possibly only two or three fireplaces under them. Some of these Chimneys were high above the roofs and sometimes very large, and had to have a lot of scaffold built around them and then Stuccoed and then elaborate moldings and ornate work on each Chimney. It would sometimes take months just to plaster the chimneys on one home. A regular home could be plastered much more quickly than just one of those chimneys on those Johns Island homes. They were fun though and that was my job for all of the time we were living in beautiful Florida.

Julie, Leesa, and Lori were really doing well in School and that would leave LaRue home alone, which made her feel she wanted to be doing something. So she had an opportunity to take a training course in nursing, and after this training she was employed to help give care to some of the older ladies that needed home care in their homes. This worked out really well for us as she had a job for one of the rich ladies out on Johns Island, where I was working. It was usually hot up on the roofs where I worked so I would always get pretty well soaked with sweat and my clothes would be dirty with plaster etc. So after a days work I would pick up LaRue and we would go over to one of our beautiful beaches on the Atlantic ocean where there was always large beautiful waves and we would spend and hour or so in the warm water and really enjoy ourselves after our days work. I would go in with my plastering clothes on and the large waves stirring me around in the sand would be just like a washing machine for my clothes and they would be clean and ready for the next day of plastering. The cool breezes of the Atlantic would dry my clothes after coming out of the water in just a short time and then we could go home to our girls who would usually be home from school by then. Many times we would all meet at the beach and swim together. I guess we did more swimming in Florida than we have in any other place as it was always so pleasant and warm water. When we were living in California we enjoyed the beaches, but the water was usually colder and it seems like we were always freezing when we would get out. But the beaches in Florida were the nicest white sand in the world and we were always warm and comfortable in or out of the water.

Life history continued in Sebastian Florida

About this time we were living happily in our beautiful new home we had completed in Sebastian and the girls were getting used to and were happy with their schools and friends. We were in our new ward building and were doing beautifully there welcoming many new converts into the Vero Beach Branch about every week. It was a wonderful time for us as a family as we would have our Baptismal services in our lovely new home and then would all get in our cars and head for our little lake where the baptisms would take place. It was such a common occurrence at this beautiful little lake that some of the neighbors began to call it Mormon Lake. At least they knew what we were doing there and this beautiful little Lake could very well have been similar to the Waters of Mormon. It was really a special little lake for us and for the Vero Beach Branch.

Our home in Sebastian even though very beautiful was still a lot of traveling each day from work and also on Sundays was a lot of traveling for us, as at that time we were not on the block plan and we had our meetings of Sunday School, Priesthood and Relief Society meetings on Sunday mornings and then our Sacrament meetings in the evenings. So on one occasion we had an offer to purchase 10 beautiful acres of pine forest and pasture land with a small lake and stream of water running into it and all of this for 85,000.00. It also had a very nice double wide mobile home to live in and there was a foundation and floor for a new home and Garage. As I remember it was for a large home of about 3,000 sq. Ft. And what was even better it was in Winter Beach and just a few minutes from Vero Beach,. We began negotiations as we wanted this 10 acres really bad.

Before we leave Sebastian however I want to mention that we loved it there and we had a really beautiful St. Augustine Lawn and it hardly ever needed water as the rain was about all that was needed. And St. Augustine grass doesn't need mowing very often, so it was very beautiful and easy to take care of. I want to mention also that we had a very nice garden and all of the water we needed as we had our own well which we had drilled before building the home. In our garden we had planted some sweet potatoes and we couldn't keep up with them as they grew too fast and too large. I mentioned once that we used to have ward socials out to our home once each month, and one month we had a social and used Sweet Potato casseroles, and just one of our sweet potatoes fed our whole branch of the 40 or 50 people who attended. This one sweet Potato Weighed in at over 42 lbs. What a monster it was and it was so sweet and tender and a lot of surprised people when they learned that all of the sweet potato they could eat came from one large sweet potato from our garden.

I guess the baptisms and the socials and the services in this lovely home made it so we really hated to leave and move even though it was so close to the church in Vero Beach. We also loved the miles and miles of surfaced and untraveled roads that we had all over Sebastian for us and our girls to ride our bikes by the hour and through such beauty and every day something different if we wanted to. It was really a happy time for us there in that lovely Sebastian home.

We continued our negotiations for the !0 acres in Winter Beach and we were soon ready to make the move from our beautiful home in Sebastian to a mobile home in Winter Beach. We did know however that we were going to build us another beautiful home on these 10 acres, and this home was built right next to this beautiful little lake It really was not too much of a sacrifice as the Mobile home was a large 3 bedroom and we had all of the room we needed and it was a very nice and comfortable place to live. We had some beautiful white ducks on the little lake and a very nice Mare named Sugar Bear, which didn't always treat every body all that nice. We had a nice barn and a chicken coop and several egg laying hens and a big white rooster who wasn't all that nice either.

Life History continued recording Sat. 9-27-97

I must mention that I am only recording my life history as I remember different parts of it and I will probably miss some important things and possibly as LaRue tells me I may embellish some events a little too much. But I feel that it is important that I try to follow the commandment to record our journals and life Histories. Especially the ones with spiritual experiences and prompting's and testimonies that all of us have. All of this is very important to me, so I will do it according to my best ability at remembering and recording these things and if they are not perfect, I will do all I can to make them factual.

I mentioned a little way back in this History that we had a Mare named Sugar Bear and she was a very beautiful brown and golden color with a white patch on her forehead and white stockings on her legs that came about half way up to her knees as I remember, she was about as beautiful as any horse as could be imagined. She had one bad thing as she didn't seem to be fully trained or broken. Leesa our young daughter loved horses so much and she wouldn't think of us getting rid of her. Well One day Leesa got up on her and she the Mare reared up on her hind legs and tried to throw her off. I wasn't going to have any of our girls getting hurt. So I decided to put a stop to that right now. I picked up a piece of 2 by four about 2 feet in length and I got up on Sugar Bear. She immediately reared up and was trying to dump me. So I raised up the 2 by four and came down as hard as I could right between her ears, boy did that get her attention. She went right down to her knees and wondered what in the world had happened to her. Well when she got back up she hadn't learned a thing and she reared again trying to get me off of her. Well I did the same thing again with my 2 by 4, only this time I really gave her all I had and she went right to the ground again only this time she was very slow getting back up, but when she did I just waved the 2 by 4 where she could see it and this time I think she finally got the message and I don't think we ever had any more problems with her raring, and funny thing she got to loving Leesa about as much as Leesa loved her, and she was a real joy for the girls and for me.

She was definitely the Girls horse and the Missionaries or Boy friends of the girls were really afraid of her as she would start running through the trees and try to drag them off going under low branches or drag them off by going to close to the big pine trees we had all over. Craig a boyfriend of Julie one day was riding her and Mom thought sure he was a goner as Sugar Bear took him on the ride of his life trying to get rid of him running through the trees. Craig never wanted to ride her again. Some of the Missionaries were treated the same way. Sugar Bear definitely didn't like men riding her ever. I don't think she liked me very well either. I think she remembered that I would not take any of her nonsense so she was always pretty careful around me. And I always enjoyed a lot of good rides on her.

While I am talking about some of our animals, I will mention that we had a rooster and he really had some long spurs on his legs. LaRue and the girls were scared to death of him and he knew he could always chase them and he seemed to get a real kick out of sending them scurrying and screaming into the house. Well one day I was walking from the coop towards our house and all at once that rooster hit me in the back with his spurs and boy that hurt. Well I thought it was time he was taught some manners so I turned around and I used him for a football and I kicked him so high and far he went right over the top of our barn. I think he was the most surprised rooster in all of Florida. Whenever he would ever see me coming he would head for cover and he never did bother me again and I would tease him by taking each one of our girls right up to him and let them send him scurrying for cover. He was a pretty good rooster after I made a football of him. This old Rooster was a real fighter and he needed to be many times as we had a lot of Raccoons and these little rascals really loved chickens. We did lose some hens, but we found the old rooster covered with his own blood and also the blood of racoons when ever they came for Chicken they would always get more than they bargained for when the rooster would use his spurs on them and we are sure he saved a lot of our chickens. Well I think I had better tell about our ducks while we are talking about our farm animals. We lost some of the eggs to large rattle snakes as we had plenty of them. Then after the eggs hatched I think we had about 12 cute little fuzzy ducks. There was a male and a Mother duck and they were both kept real busy trying to keep track of that many little ducks. When they went into our lake the mama and papa ducks had a ful time job as there were a lot of snapping turtles in our lake, and these little monsters really enjoyed eating our little ducks. The little ducks would be swimming along and all at once one of them would disappear. These snapping turtles would grab the baby ducks by their legs and pull them under the water until they drowned them and then they would eat them. Usually we would see about one less baby duck every day. We felt bad but we couldn't seem to do anything about those snapping turtles.

We worked hard getting the Stud walls up and the Plate material all around the tops of the Stud walls. We were then ready for the roof trusses to be put up on the House. We were doing all of the building alone, so we were wondering, how in the world we could get those 33 foot trusses up on that roof. Well we solved that problem by buying a large pulley and a hundred foot or so of steel cable and then we tied the Pulley up in the top of a large and sturdy Pine tree and tied one end of the cable to a truss and the other end to the pickup and LaRue would slowly pull one of the trusses up and I would guide it upon the top of the stud walls and then with a rope I would pull and tug until I would get the truss to the other end of the house and we did that until we had all 38 roof trusses up where all we had to do then was stand each one of them up and brace # l and then 2 and then 3 until all 38 of them were up and braced and then came the jog of leveling and plumbing each one of them, and then when they were all up. We were then ready for the roof sheathing. I hauled a bunk of plywood on the top of our pickup side boards which were almost as high as the overhang of the trusses. So I would put a stack of plywood and then I would carry it to all parts of that huge roof. One day as I was nailing sheathing on the roof. We had a little black goat that we called Jezebel and he was always climbing on everything in sight. This day he jumped up on the roof with me, by jumping up on the Pickup first and then on upto the roof. I don't think he knew how slick plywood could be as he was running all over the roof and on one of his runs, he tried to stop, but it was too late he was trying to stop pulling every contortion he could to get stopped. And he was one surprised and it appeared he was really scared as he got closer and closer to the edge of the roof and made a squeal as he went sailing out through empty space and to the ground which was about 9 or 10 feet high at that point. He thought he was a goner but when he hit the ground, it was like he had springs in his legs and he almost bounced back up on the roof. We all loved that little goat Jezebel and he was one of the cutest pets we ever owned. When we were gone and would come home he was always out there to meet us and when we would get out of the car he would actually turn summer salts and do so many cute things just to show us how much he loved us and how glad he was to see us home. Only one bad thing though he would jump upon the car radiator hood and then on up onto the top of the car and dance a jig all over the top of the car which was alright on our cars, but one day one of our friends came out to see us and show us her new car, and imagine our embarrassment when we went out and Jezebel was dancing up on the new car top.

Life History: Approximately l975 in Florida. Recording this 9-30-97

We had a lot of family visit us while we were living in Florida and it was always a joy and very special to us. About the time that we were putting the roofing on our new home we were building in Winter Beach, Bob and Lillian came to stay with us for awhile. They were a big help to us as Bob helped so much in shingling our roof. We wanted to get that done as quickly as possible as we were always having a lot of rain. I already had the home dried in with the black asphalt paper, but the hard winds would sometimes take the paper off. So we really appreciated them being out there at this time. Lillian really enjoyed fishing and really caught a lot of nice fish which we enjoyed as she really knows how to clean them and fry them so they were a real treat. Each time some of our Families would come to Florida we would enjoy taking them to Disney World, Bush Gardens, Cyprus Gardens, the Florida Keys, Florida Everglades and a lot of other places that were always so fun for us and also for them. We also enjoyed boating, and water skiing on the beautiful Indian River. LaRue says I may be off on some of the dates and times that I am telling about so don't be too hard on me if I miss some of the dates which is hard for me to remember all of the things that we did and the right dates for them. I think it is quite important to follow the counsel of our Prophets at least to do the best we can and if parts of them or questionable, at least I am trying.

Mark and Eilene and their family came out with their whole family. They came on the Passenger train and said that it was one of the most miserable trips for Eilene as she was pregnant at the time and she felt every time the train car passed over where the rails came together. They did have a good time when they finally got there as we took them to the usual beautiful places mentioned before. I think that it took them 3 days and nights to get to Florida and the same to get home and it was a real trial to have their family to keep busy all of that time both ways. It was too expensive for flying a large family for that distance. Keith and Delma came out also on another occasion. Dean and Rosa Mae and their family came out in their nice 5th wheel and we enjoyed them. Also Dennis and Ruth Ann and their family came out there and we enjoyed them also. Jerry and Carolyn were there with us also and went many of the places we would take these wonderful families.

Now I think that I will tell some of the things that were happening in our Vero Beach Branch. Sister Jones was our organist and we did appreciate her very much as she was very faithful in her assignment as Branch choir leader and we had a wonderful choir LaRue and our girls and myself and many others that were being baptized into the Branch were really blessed to have a really great sounding choir under the direction of Sister Jones and another two Sisters in the Branch and I can't quite remember their names. Jerry Gurr was our Branch Mission Leader. And Carolyn was Young Women's President and they were both doing so good and helping to build our branch quickly. Brother Topol we doing great and was a faithful 1st Councilor and Bro. Bertie Barrett was also a great support and 2nd Councilor. A newly baptized convert LaMar Mason was our Branch Clerk and we felt like we were really being blessed greatly in building up the Vero Beach Branch. We were now meeting in our newly remodeled building and we had plenty of room and classrooms. We had it all carpeted nicely through out and we could feel good about bringing our new converts into that very nice building.

Life history continued Florida during 1976. Recorded October l997

I hope I can get moving a little faster on my life history as it seems like I try to tell too much of it and it is taking much too long. It seems like there was always so many seemingly important things happening that I get carried away sometimes. Mortimer Willis, LaRues Father died November 23 1974 and she decided to fly home for his Funeral. We sometimes wondered what we were doing so far from our home and families back in the West. Then we would remember that we were as we thought on an errand for Heavenly Father, and we knew why we were out in Florida that was about as far as we could be from our home out West and still be in the United States. We still had Caroline and Eddie and Pat and Curtis and Jerry and Caroline with us out there and that was nearly all of our married families and then the 3 girls Julie, Leesa, and Lori. That was 6 of our 8 children in Florida and only Bob and Lillian and their family in Mesa Arizona and Mark and Eilene in Pleasant Grove Utah. But there was always something happening in Utah that we had to be making a lot of trips out there.

At about this time we had our Datsun Station wagon and the Motor was made out of Cast Aluminum and if it gets hot it can warp easily and cause a lot of problems. Which this one did and rather than get it fixed for 2 or 3 thousand we decided to buy an older model low mileage Cadillac. It was available for a good price so we bought it as we needed to make a quick trip to Utah as the two people we had left in charge of the Lumber Yard had let in some men to help finance the needs of Pleasant Grove Lumber Company, which we later found out to be from the Mafia. LaRue and I made the trip in the Cadillac by driving straight through all of the way. I would drive until I couldn't go any more and then LaRue would take over and drive as long as she could while I would stretch out in the back seat and sleep while she would drive. And she would sleep while I would be driving. The Cadillac had a very large rear seat and we could almost stretch out as if we were in bed. And it was a really nice driving and comfortable automobile. I was amazed at how beautifully we held up during that I think was 2 nights and 2 days of steady driving. I shudder now to even think of trying something like that. It is amazing what we can do when we are younger and still more amazing at what we can't do when we get older such as 79 in two more months. My Brother Dean was trying to get the Mafia out of the Pleasant Grove Lumber Co, but his hands were tied as even the police of Pleasant Grove were afraid of the Mafia men in charge of the lumber company at this time and thankfully they had changed the name of the Corporation to one of their own choosing and that was a blessing or we would have been stuck with about 2 million dollars of debt they had run up in purchases of Diesel Truck and trailers in which they were charging truck loads of materials and then taking them down to Las Vegas and selling their stolen goods at a huge discount as they knew they would never pay for the goods themselves. So anything that they could sell was all 100 percent pure profit for them. They also stripped the Lumberyard of everything that was in it as well. All of the lumber, paints tools even the trucks, and Hyster were gone. The Mafia office not only threatened the Pleasant Grove Police, and told them not to interfere with them or they would be taken care of, Also threatened My brother Dean and told him if he interfered something could happen to some of his family. So when Mom and I got there. The Lumber Co. Was all bare and cleaned right out. We were finally able to get a court order for the Mafia to stay away from the Lumber Yard and let my Brother Dean take over what was left of it.

With the help of the Police Dean was finally able to find where the Mafia had stored the Hyster and one of the trucks and were able to get them back. I think that is about all we were ever able to recover from that horrible experience. We surely appreciate Dean and his help during this time feel that he will try to see that we receive what we agreed on when he took over. It provided for us for a lot of years and now we hope that it provides for Dean and his boys who work there. Our thanks to all of them.

Our three girls back in Florida were being taken care of by Jerry and Carolyn and we really appreciated them at this time as well. We had a good visit with Mark and Eilene and then on our way home with Bob and Lillian in Mesa and then our long trip home which I don't remember how long it took for us to get home. But in the large Cadillac it was a nice trip, and even nicer to get home and find everything well taken care of there. It was a joyful reunion with our 3 little girls as we had both never been away from them before. We can still see how good they looked to us after being gone for a couple of weeks at least.

Our Branch was really growing and I want to tell of some of the problems that Mom and I had to face while we were there. We had one baptism of a Georgia Adams that was to have a very big impact on our lives. We felt she was a fine young lady, and after a year being a good active member we felt she could be a good missionary and after conferring with our Stake President I interviewed her for a full time Mission. I think that I may have had some little reservations, but I dismissed them and felt better when President Winston interviewed her and gave his recommendation for her to go on a mission. She seemed to be very happy and anxious to go on her mission and our whole branch was so happy to have her fill a mission for Jesus Christ, so we had a nice farewell for her and she was on her way to Salt Lake and her Mission training center there. Just a few days after her arrival at the training center I received a very startling and disappointing phone call from Salt Lake saying that our missionary had to clear her conscience and had been involved with our Branch Clerk Brother LaMar Mason. I hesitate to mention names but because of the nature of the offense and unwillingness of Bro. Mason to follow the program of the Church in these matters, it became public knowledge to all members of Vero Beach Branch. When I asked him about the Phone call he became very cold and belligerent, and Said President Gurr even if what she says is true, I will never admit it as it would destroy my whole life and the lives of my family. With that he got on his motorcycle and went down to see the Stake President Winston, thinking that would help his cause.. Later President Winston told me LaMar had been drinking heavily and he told President Winston the same thing he told me. That he would never admit to the charge breaking the law of Chastity with Sister Adams. Well a hearing was arranged and LaMar Agreed to be there. President Winston insisted that I should be there also, even though I desperately didn't want to be there. The night of the hearing I was asked by the Stake Presidency and the High Council to meet with them and tell them about my interview with LaMar and with Georgia Adams. I told them all the facts as they had revealed them to me. Then they wanted me to face LaMar across the table and let him have the opportunity of presenting his side of the affair. He had a lot of difficulty and the decision of the Stake Presidency and the High Council was that LaMar would be excommunicated and given the love and opportunity to come back into the Church by following the procedure of the principle of repentance. Which angered LaMar so much that pointing a finger at me He said your time will come President Gurr. And with that he went stomping out filled with anger and hate, even though we all expressed our love for him.

On the following Sunday following his Excommunication we were in our meetings and someone came and told me that LaMar was out in front of the chapel and wanted to see President Gurr. So with some misgivings I went out to meet him as he was sitting in his car. I could almost hear the last words he said as he was leaving the hearing in Ft. Lauderdale was President Gurr your time is coming. When I came up to the window of his car he was pointing a 45 caliber pistol at me and stated he had come to get me. He said President Gurr where these hollow point bullets go in your chest they leave a very small hole, but where they come out, they will take off your whole back. By that time I was worried and not knowing what to say I said LaMar do you really think that would make you feel better? I surely don't think that it would help me. I have never tried to knowingly hurt you are any other person I have ever known. If you do this you and I both know that you will spend the rest of your life in jail and that really would be you not me that would really destroy your life and the lives of your dear family. Think of how it would be you and not president Gurr destroying your family, maybe forever. I don't know what I said exactly, but he finally rolled up his window and drove away.

We didn't hear from LaMar or his family for a few weeks when, I received a summons to appear in the Vero Beach Civil Court. When I first appeared at the appointed time Martha Mason, LaMar's wife was there and her countenance had taken on a darkness that would compare with a real dark Black person. I was really shocked at her appearance. She told her story about how I had put her husband LaMar out of our church and that he was now in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. And I had destroyed him and about the same thing was happening to the family. The Judge said Mr. Gurr what is your response to these accusations? Did you actually put him out of the Church and then I told him and Martha. I said Martha Mason you know that I cannot put any person out of this Church. You and LaMar your husband are the only ones that can put you out of the Church. You and LaMar both know the standards and commandments of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I can't put you out and not only that I invite your whole family back and will love and fellowship all of you as will all the members in the Branch and you know I am telling you the truth, and you alone know you will always be welcomed back into the Branch and the Church is always there for you. The judge said Mrs Mason is this true? And she had to say yes. To which the Judge said Case dismissed.

This was not the last of our experience with the Masons. It was thought that LaMar was the one who went to Georgia Adam's home and trashed all of the inside and furnishings and then set fire to her house. Everything was heavily damaged, but the house was saved from burning. On another occasion we had rented out our home in Sebastian and it too was damaged and some guns and other things were stolen. We have reason to believe that LaMar was also responsible for this, thinking that we were still living in that home in Sebastian. We were very grateful that he didn't know that we had moved to Winter Beach. We haven't had any word about the Masons since we moved back West, but we have been back to Florida several times and none of our members there seem to know anything about the Masons. We hope where ever they are that they have repented for what they have done in leaving the Church and all of the good friends that loved them in the Vero Beach Branch. That little episode will be one that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. It is a lesson that all of us need to remember, how very valuable our membership is in the Church of Jesus Christ and that we ourselves are the only ones who can separate ourselves from it.

I will mention about the distances that we had to travel to attend our Stake meetings which it seemed like there was a lot of them and we had to travel 120 miles to Fort Lauderdale to our Stake Conferences and also the many other stake meetings we had to attend. Even our Stake General Priesthood meetings and the Priesthood Leadership meetings also. We had to travel sometimes 70 miles to some of our families for home teaching. So it was a lot of traveling for us all the time for the 5 years we were in the Branch Presidency in Florida. We were really proud of the goodness of the girls as they friend shipped and brought many of their friends into the Church. The were also very highly esteemed by their teachers and friends at school. Julie's teacher was cute when she said, I would he willing and happy to teach school and never get paid if I could have a class full of Julies. Leesa's and Lori's teachers were about the same way in their praise for them.

Brother Bertie Barrett 2nd Counselor was such a fine Man. He kind of took it upon himself to keep our new building clean in vacuuming and dusting and the building was always very nice. He and Brother Topol were great counselors and were willing to have meetings any time we felt they were needed and also to visit and welcome new people moving in are being baptized into the Branch. We were so blessed in trying to find a suitable piece of property to build a Chapel of our own. Vero Beach means City of Truth and it is a wonderful and beautiful city and has many good people and many really nice church buildings all over the City. So as we were growing very rapidly we were looking for some property where we could build a chapel and work toward becoming a Ward. President Winston was very impressed by the growth of our branch and gave us the go ahead to pick out some suitable property to build a Chapel. We found a beautiful 10 acres of beautiful trees and a flow well and many other desirable points as it was in a beautiful section of Vero Beach and also easily accessible to most of our Branch members. One of the best things about it was the price at that time very reasonable. If I remember correctly I think it was $40,000.00 . We by Pooling our resources were about to come up with the $5,000.00 down payment and then we kept 3 acres for the Chapel and sold the remaining 7 acres for enough to pay for all of the property and also to begin an account for our building fund. We had a very special day when the Stake Presidency and the High counsel came up to Vero Beach and all of our Branch members were invited over to the new property for the Dedication of it by President Winston. We had a hundred chairs or so set up under the huge trees and had our choir perform and Speeches by the Stake Presidency. It was a beautiful Day not too hot and a large group of our Branch were there for the Dedication of the property for our new chapel to be. We really felt a sweet spirit on that day of dedication. It was something that we as a Branch and all of our families had been looking forward to and praying for acquiring a beautiful new chapel, which now seemed getting closer to fulfillment than ever before.

I think the Flow well was on the 3 acres we kept for the building of the new Chapel and would be the water source for the lawns and gardens and landscaping for the yet in the Future Chapel. This was a very important time in our lives and what we feel was about the most important mission we have had in our lives, sharing our love and helping the good Saints in Vero Beach to feel the love and blessings of this wonderful Gospel in their lives. I hope all of these thoughts of our memories will not be too boring to you dear family and Friends. More next month unless you cut me off. Our love: Mom & Dad. Wilford and LaRue. These happenings were probably during the last part of the Year 1976. Today 11-4-97.

Recorded 12-2-97

In the early part of 1977, we were working hard to build our Branch and keeping the M. I. A, Primary and other meetings going and under good leadership. It was a time of growth and many baptisms and the Branch was really growing. We had also started to have an early Morning seminary class for some of our many teenagers. Mary Foster was a very dedicated instructor for them and was a great blessing to those who took advantage of this great opportunity. All of these Girls including our girls really loved and appreciated Sister Mary Foster. Her husband Don Foster was still a non member even though several sets of Missionaries had worked with him. He was a good man with out any bad habits and finally a pair of our lady missionaries Sister Smith and Sister Steele. They finally convinced Don Foster into joining the Church. He was already attending most of our meetings along with his good wife Mary so all he had to do was be baptized and then continue attending his meetings. Well these were very happy days for all of us as we were having so many baptisms and holding Baptism services in our home and then at this time performing the baptisms in a small lake called Hobart lake there in Winter Beach. Our 3 beautiful daughters were also busy bringing many of their friends into the Church. One of them was a young man Craig Aulick who a little later was called on a mission to the Philippine Islands.

As Branch President I asked some of those being baptized to write down some of their testimony and experiences and conversion to the True Church. I think at this time I would like to include one of these testimonies by Sister Joyce Hemingway. Here it is in her own words.

I was a Presbyterian because my parents had been, and I had married a Presbyterian. In early spring of l975, I became somewhat concerned about tithing, The minister had talked about it, and it seemed to me if God was more important than anything else in our lives, as He should be, we should certainly be willing to sacrifice the tithe. But I knew it was out of the question. What's more my husband would have thought I was crazy if I came home said we should give the church one tenth of his salary. (Later I found I was wrong about this.) Besides most people in our church didn't tithe and most people don't even go to church so I figured we were not so bad. Nevertheless, the idea could not be suppressed that I didn't know how to make God first in my life. Nor was there any real meaning to the greatest commandment, AThou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind.@ This kept haunting me. I knew if I really loved God that much I would be spending tremendously more time in service and prayer and learning. I had not even read the Bible except for selected passages in Sunday school. It seemed that anyone who claimed to be a Christian would desire to know the word of God and the story of the Bible--All of it.

I began to doubt my belief in God. I don't think I ever thought there wasn't GodC I just doubted my belief. This was continuously on my mind. But I kept saying to myself, AWhy am I so frustrated?), It doesn't bother anyone else. Why don't I just go to church and help with things and live a normal life?@ But I knew if I believed in God and Christ, It had to be a total commitment or else I would have to hang it all up and admit that I didn't believe. I decided I couldn't just pretend to believe any longer and not live it--all of it.

It seemed an impossible task in this day and age, in our financial bracket( which is moderate, but not humble) and in our way of life. How could I possibly make the break and live a real Christian? I became extremely frustrated trying to figure out what is expected. Finally the prayer surfaced that was the major turning point in my conversion. I had said it many times but this time I meant it and God knew I meant it and from then on one event let to another until when I had been sufficiently prepared, the missionaries came. The Prayer: Oh, God, please help me. If you will show me the way, I will do anything.@ I wanted desperately to be a servant of God and to love God with all of my heart, and I was willing to do anything to get it. It was because of my real intent and my complete willingness that God led me to the truths that I have found which carries with it a great responsibility, but it's so beautiful.

During this time, I had begun to read the New Testament. Starting with John. I continued this effort through Jude. I decided to teach a Sunday school class (7th and 8th grades), This was a worthy contribution but I still had the yearning that there was more. I had learned such from the New Testament although basically it made me realize how far I was from the teachings in it. My Sunday school class made me realize how little they had learned through their first 12 years of life. I felt strongly that their parents and church(mostly parents) had failed to teach them spiritually. After my having read the New Testament, I felt impelled to search for more. I read another book, (Tell no Man). It was fiction but was extremely inspiring. Afterwards we had a church group over and I gave a book review of it. I had great hopes of inspiring them so that we maybe as a group could become more concerned about ourselves and our children Spiritually. It was not particularly inspiring. I got a lot of praise, but that' not what I wanted.

On went the search. I saw an ad in the newspaper for a free undenominational Bible correspondence course. I enrolled. The lessons were good. About midway there was a lesson on baptism. My own ideas jelled. I knew I was against baptism by sprinkling and vehemently against baptism of infants. To me this denies the whole purpose of baptism for the remission of sins. I could have overlooked this part of the Presbyterian doctrine as I was baptized in the Baptist church several years prior to my family's decision to change to the Presbyterian church. But I became increasingly agitated by the thought of my 2 sons being sprinkled. One son is almost 12 and it is customary to be sprinkled. (If one is not sprinkled as an infant) and confirmed a member of the church at the age of l3. I also was most conscious of the fact that the commandment, AKeep the Sabbath Day Holy@, is almost completely ignored by the Presbyterian church along with most other protestant churches, to my knowledge. It seemed apparent to me that this meant the whole day. Our early service was over at 10:15 A. M. and was the end of the day's holiness for most people. I was finally acutely aware that I didn't have sound reason for being a Presbyterian. I made the decision to investigate other churches and their doctrines to try to find one that practiced the principles taught in the Bible. In doing so, I realized the lessons I had been taking were given by the church of Christ. After reading books about the history of Protestant churches and about the doctrines of them, I realized that each denomination started as an attempt to be like the original church started by Christ. They claim it to be a true restoration after the apostasy in the original church, foretold in the Bible, has taken place. However this restoration was by man, not Christ. But, I was impressed by its basic simplicity and considered it seriously.

All through this period of time I prayed fervently and continuously. The whole time I felt as if I were running down a path to find a prize at the end, not knowing what it would be. But with assured knowledge that I would find it.

I had mistakenly took it for granted that when I found this perfect or near perfect church, my husband would agree with me and we as a family would change. I had to accept the fact that he did not share my feelings and had no intention of changing. As a deacon, he was involved more deeply than a Sunday morning church-goer. Then I thought my changing by myself might deteriorate the family unity and might slow down or stop my husband's spiritual growth. So I abandoned the idea thinking somehow I would find the way to be true to my cause as a Presbyterian.

As time went on, the desire for my sons to be baptized by immersion and also the desire for them to be reared in a more strict religion weighed heavily on my mind. I became excited by the Baptist Church. I had at on time been a Baptist. They baptize by immersion and they also have in this town many more young people in their congregation. I thought this would make the church more appealing to my boys. Also their Sunday school lessons are much more basic and appealing to me. They also have adult Sunday school classes, which our church did not. But then we got new books in our Sunday school department that were nondenominational and I thought quite good, so again I abandoned the idea of being a Baptist. I realize now that my reasoning of changing to a church my children would enjoy more would not necessarily make them better Christians and this should never have been my criteria. I want to stress again my continuous prayer for guidance.

At this point I decided, with conviction, to remain a Presbyterian, to do all I could and all I was asked to do for the church, to try to teach my family the ideals I had realized, and to put these thing first above all else. I had established what I considered at the time a good communication with my Heavenly Father and I knew He would help me to fulfill whatever purpose He had designed for me.

Then came the Missionaries. They were 2 sparkling 18 and 19-year-old boys. However, I told them we were involved church members. They wanted to leave the Book of Mormon. I said I wouldn't have time to read it but if they wanted to leave it I would glance at it. They said they would return in a couple of weeks to see if we had any questions. I had taken the book primarily because I admired them for their efforts and felt sympathetic as I knew most people do not accept literature of that sort. I didn't realize at the time that their effort was a 2 year total donation of themselves without financial help from the church and that there are 18,000 of them all over the world all of the time. My husband made the comment, AI am sure you can think of a couple of questions for them.@ I glanced at the book and with in a few hours became obsessed with reading it. I read at every spare moment, even giving up my golf game. I felt that if I expected God to reveal to me whether the Book of Mormon is true, I had to show my intent and desire to know by reading it all, and I was extremely anxious to find out the truth. Actually I found myself believing it from the very beginning but I tried to remain objective. I felt a tremendous growing bond with the missionaries and was very anxious for them to come back to answer my questions. I had one thought that kept bothering me. I remembered in the Bible reading ABeware of false prophets.@ I kept thinking, AWhat if this is a false church and has a false prophet?@ Finally I looked up that passage in Matt. 7:15-20 to see if there was any enlightenment and I was filled with exhilaration and I knew. I knew I knew. It said ABeware of false Prophets.......By their fruits ye shall know them.@ Afterwards I knew that after all my intense prayers God would never have let me be filled with so much joy and emotion as I had at that moment, if it were not true. When the missionaries came back I did have a lot of questions. They came several times and showed us a series of films. I read the doctrine and Covenants and few books from the library. After all this my conversion wasn't complete. I visited the sacrament meeting and afterwards, much to my surprise, I found I didn't want to join the church. I felt a deep desire to go to church with my family. I wanted to be the typical family that goes to church together. Then I thought maybe I had believed in the whole thing because I wanted to and not because God had answered my prayers. But I knew I had to find out because if it were true I knew that I had to and wanted to go through with it, but I was hoping it wasn't true. Finally the inner conflict of not wanting the church to be true and on the other hand the ringing, Abut what if it is true@ became tremendous I had prayed incessantly and finally said A God, I don't know anything any more, I don't have any preconceptions, I just want to know. I want to know more than anything else in the world and I will act accordingly.@ There was no precise turning point after that. I just knew. And I also knew I needn't worry about my family. I knew if I did the right thing, God would take care of the rest. And I'm more sure of that now than I was then.

I was baptized on May 25th l974 and confirmed a member on May 26th. My 30th birthday was the next day. I had said for a long time that until a person is 30 he really is still deciding what kind of a life he's going to lead, but that after that he's just about run out of the formative years and his life is set. I know this isn't really true, but it is ironic that I had said it and that I was baptized 2 days before my 30th birthday.

The joys and blessings have been abundant. My thoughts, feelings and attitudes are being changed and shaped every day by the church. The church and its teachings are my life. I know, with all my being, that the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is the true church restored by Jesus Christ himself and that God unwaveringly guided me to it. And I would give my life if it would make my family know these things and if they too could have the joy that I have from this knowledge. Truly, my cup runneth over, there is no greater gift than the knowledge given in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I thought it was impossible for my testimony to become stronger but it grows every day and I pray that I will never cease to feel this inner glow. I know my testimony is true. I say all of this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

These are the exact words of Joyce Hemingway and as her branch President I can testify she is one of the choicest daughters of Father in Heaven to come into the Church. Her two sons and her Husband Paul Hemingway have all come into the Church and one of the sons filled a full time mission and as far as we know the other one may have also. Paul her husband worked in the branch as a scoutmaster even before he was a member of the Church and has been a great blessing to the Vero Beach Branch.

I guess this is getting a little off from my life history, but this was quite a nice part of our lives in the Vero Beach Branch. We have several of these testimonies that some of the new members wrote to us and I hope it will not offend any of you dear family and friends. LaRue says it is too long and may be boring to you. I promise to stick more closely to my life history in future writings.

Have a Gurrrrrrate day, our love and blessings: Mom and Dad, Wilford and LaRue.

Recorded December 9-1997 Life History continues: Time in Florida during l977.

This was a time of many wonderful Baptisms and experiences with these services being held in our home and then to the nearest Lake, Pool or ocean for the baptisms. Our Missionaries were always working hard and visited with us often and they loved to play basket ball at our home. We also had a lot of nice lawn and we had a large riding lawn mower on which to keep our 5 acres mowed it took a lot of doing. Even our daughters took their turns mowing the lawns and some times the missionaries. Also Jerry our son would come out a spend a lot of time with us and would do a lot of the mowing for us. I was so busy building the new home that I was so grateful for those who took care of the lawns and Yard work. I was also kept real busy plastering chimneys out on Johns Island and then home to work plastering the new home we were building. Time surely changes our ability to do a lot of the things we used to do. At that time I could work around the clock and felt good doing it, but now I find it hard to walk out to the Mail box. Our little lake on the North West corner of our 10 acres looked real nice with our snow white ducks swimming around and sometimes they could have some of their little ducks swimming around with them. Between the large rattle snakes and the snapping turtles in the lake it was impossible to keep most of the little ducks, but some of them always came through. We mowed the grass right down to the waters edge so our little lake was beautiful.

Our 3 girls were all getting up to dating age and Julie had graduated from High School and was now attending Brigham Young University in Provo Utah. We knew our Leesa and Lori would also want to go to B. Y. U. When the time of their graduation from their High Schools would be coming along. We had to think of some changes that would have to be made or our Family would be separated, which we didn't want to happen. We were thinking that we would have to move back west if we were to keep our family together and the girls were to date members of their own Church. They didn't want to date out in Florida as there weren't hardly any Members that were their ages, so we did have to do some serious thinking about leaving our beautiful Branch and Florida. We talked with our Stake President and he said he could understand our feelings and would support us in any Decision that seemed best to us. We decided to talk to our Son Bob and Lillian who were in the Plastering business in Mesa Arizona, and they told us that we could work in the Plastering business together and there was a lot of Stucco work, and Arizona was building like crazy and that there was plenty of work for us. Well we decided to take a trip to Arizona and see what we thought of moving there. We knew it was one of the hottest places in the West but was very beautiful in the winter and that was a big plus as we didn't ever want to do plastering in cold weather again.

When we got to Arizona we were impressed that we should try to find us a home that we could afford. We only looked at one home that the real Estate person showed us, but all of us were really taken with this beautiful home on the corner of 1212 E. 1st Street. We all of us decided we had been impressed and led right to that home. We all loved it and wanted to try to buy it. There was only one catch, the real estate agent told us it was already sold, but the people who were trying to buy it hadn't be able to come up with the down payment, and that we still may be able to get it. Lori our youngest daughter told us it would be our future home and for us not to worry. Well it was in a good location and was on a large lot and was just a couple of miles from Bob and Lillian. We decided to leave a small amount of money with the agent and than back home to Florida to try to sell our beautiful uncompleted home there.

Back home in Florida, we decided that the best and quickest way to sell our home and 10 acres would be to have a Real Estate help us sell. We arranged for Doolittle Real Estate to help us so they put up their signs and began to advertise it and I don't think that we had one person come to look at our beautiful 10 acres and home that was stuccoed so nice and painted a light Yellow color and had white fluted stucco corners that were about and inch out beyond the walls and two foot on each side of the corner. Well we were still waiting for word to come from the people in Arizona that we could have the home there we all loved so much. But one sad day the word came that the people had the money and would be buying the home in Arizona and for us to forget about getting it. We all felt real bad except Lori, and she kept right on insisting that we would get that home. We told her no way Lori, it is already sold and the people will be moving in and we would have to accept this. Lori said no we don't as we are still going to get that home. We said how can you know that home will be ours and all she would say was I don't just believe, I know we will get it.

Doolittle really lived up to their name and really did little. We had it listed the whole 10 acres and the home of about 2300 square ft. For 85,000.00 dollars, and we didn't even have one person come by or ask about it in the 2 or three months they had it listed. We told them to come by and take down their signs as their time was up. They did and we put up our own for sale signs by owner and we had people coming in every day and wanting to buy it. We had already told a neighbor Danny Ozark that if they wanted it they could buy it if they could come up with the money. We had to turn down many others that were offering to buy it and seemed we could have sold it many times while we were waiting for Danny Ozark to come up with the money. He finally made us an offer to give us about $10,000.00 down and would pay us so much per month on a mortgage to us. Well we did this and that was one big mistake, as we found out later, our payments were few and far between and we would finally years later release our mortgage to him for another $10,000.00 and he would continue to make payments. Which was wishful thinking on our part.

Well back to the Mesa home as we had been informed that it had been sold for more money than the price of $50,000.00 we had agreed to buy the home for. It was also a wonderful interest rate of 6 percent. Any way we all had given up again for about the 3rd or 4th time and now we all knew it was hopeless. All except Lori that is, and she still kept saying don't worry it is our home and we will live in it soon. Well we all told her that was a nice dream, but that is all it could be as the people were ready to move in. Then came a long distance call from the people in Arizona saying that they had been waiting and wasting so much time that they had made a firm unchangeable decision that the home was ours if we still wanted it. There was a lot of rejoicing in the Gurr home that night and a lot of Gratitude for the divine intervention that finally justified what Lori knew all along that we would be living in that home very soon.

We had a lot of packing and work to do back in Florida, and we had to finalize the sale of our 10 acres and then we had to sell the beautiful doublewide trailer home we were living in. It seemed like our, what we considered to be the best mission of our lives was about to come to an end. It also seemed like Heavenly Father was now guiding us in moving back west, as he had in moving us out to Florida and was now not only releasing us but was making it possible for us in every way to take care of all of our affairs in Florida, and move us back to beautiful Arizona.

This very important time of our lives was about to come to an end in our Beautiful Florida. Our almost daily bike rides were a very fun part of our lives. Our boat rides on the Indian River and pick nicking on the beautiful islands in the middle of the Indian River. Florida was very much an important part of our lives. Jerry and Carolyn were happy there as were we, but it was a shock to them to see that we were moving away and leaving them with out any other families there in that area. Jetty had a good job at Piper Aircraft and he and Carolyn were very involved in the Branch and even though they didn't make any immediate plans to move back West we knew it was only a matter of time until they too would be coming back to their home in the West.

I think at this time I need to mention a matter of great concern to LaRue and me. Our Daughter Carolyn had come down to stay with us as she had filed for a divorce from Eddie, for a very serious Moral transgression , and was even given a Temple divorce. She accepted an invitation from Bob and Lillian to come out to Arizona. Where it was only a short time until she met a really nice young man by the name of Frank Standage. Frank was really taken with our Beautiful Carolyn and really rushed her and it wasn't long until Carolyn called us and told us that she was engaged to be married to Frank. Carolyn had four children and they needed a father and Frank had two sons and they needed a mother as he too was recently divorced from his wife. All of this was about a year before we decided to move to Arizona. When we received the call telling us of her engagement to Frank. LaRue just knew she had to make the trip out to Arizona to meet Frank and see if she approved of him.

LaRue decided to go by bus, and she said that was a big mistake and the most horrible trip she ever went on. It took 2 days and a night to get to Mesa and it was miserable, as the bus stopped every few miles to pick up new passengers or drop them off. She decided that was the last time she ever wanted to ride the bus. When she finally arrived in Mesa she met Frank and fully approved of him and found that he was so good to Carolyn and her children. She enjoyed visiting with them and with Bob and Lillian and then we were able to make arrangements for her to fly home, and she decided that was the only way to travel as it was just a few hours instead of a few days.

About this same time Pat was also filing for a divorce from Curtis Denmark Who also was being excommunicated for a Moral transgression. We had Pat and her family and Carolyn and her family living with us at the same time for awhile. Pat went back to Curtis for awhile deciding she would pack some of their things in their pickup and Pat would travel with us on our move to Arizona. Frank and Carolyn were happily married and things were going nicely for them.

We rented the largest U-haul truck they had and between Jerry and some other help we were able to get all of our belongings in to it in about a week of loading. We put our plaster mixer and all of our tools and filled up our G. M. C. pickup with enough to make it heavily loaded. LaRue was drive it. We also had the U-haul packed to the brim. We had a tow bar on the U-haul and we pulled our Buick automobile behind it as I was to drive the U-haul. Julie was not with us as she was attending college at B. Y. U. We were to pull out on Monday morning. We would first go to Orange City where Pat would join us for the long trip to Arizona. As I remember Pat had already made arrangements and had purchased a home in Mesa, and it was already for her to move into. Our home was also ready for us to move into when we would arrive in Mesa. We were all getting very excited about our move to Arizona, but their was also a lot of mixed emotions about leaving our home and Branch and Friends in Florida.

I will reminisce and go back over a little of the 5 happy and good years we had on that mission in our beautiful Florida. The morning that we walked into the little branch of Vero Beach there were about 12 people in attendance and the Stake President Winston was there to release the Branch President Gary Treece as he and his wife were being divorced. He was also there to disband the Vero Beach Branch and tell the members there that they would be going to Ft. Pierce Ward which was about 15 miles from Vero Beach. When President Winston saw LaRue and me and our three beautiful Daughters in the meeting He asked LaRue and me to meet with him in a small room in the Women's club where we were holding our services. President Winston then told us that he had been impressed to ask me to be Branch President and LaRue if she would support that call. We both said that we would accept the call as we had never in our lives turned down any callings. We told him the story of why we came to Vero Beach as we felt we had a direct call from Heavenly Father, to come to Vero Beach and see if we could help build up the Branch that was really having a struggle. Not knowing that we would be called as Branch President. We then told him that He didn't know us from Adam and how could he be sure as we had only been in the Branch for a few weeks. So when he released President Treece he presented Bro. Gurr as the new Branch President and the Branch would continue as a Branch and not be disbanded. All of this took place a month or so before our memberships ever came to us. I have already mentioned that there were about 12 people to our first meeting and no babies or young people. When we attended our Last Sacrament meeting and were saying our tearful testimonies and saying goodbye, There were just over 120 people, mostly new converts. We had an organized Sunday School and several classes of different ages. An active M. I. A. of boys and Girls, an early Morning seminary with many young people attending, a real good primary organization, and Quorums of Priesthood, and Relief Society organized, a wonderful sounding choir. And best of all there were many babies and crying heard all over the nice chapel part of the building, We h ad remodeled out of an abandoned furniture Store. A Brother Hewitt and his Wife Donna would be taking our place in the Branch Presidency. I think with John Toppol and Bertie Barrett remaining as his counselors. We loved these two people very much as they had been faithful and supportive, and hard workers in building a lot of strength into the Vero Beach Branch. There was a lot of tearful goodbyes and expressions of love and sorrow at our leaving the Branch. And our family too had a lot of Mixed emotions about leaving our beloved Florida.

This last week we still hadn't sold our trailer, but while we were loading our trucks and ready to move there were many miracles, as everything seemed to come together in a most miraculous way. The sale of our home finalized and our animals and chickens taken care of and then the sale of our nice double wide mobile home was sold and money received for it, and several other things sold that we thought we were not going to be able to do in the short time we had left. But on the Saturday before our Farewell Sacrament meeting, everything was finalized and everything loaded on the trucks and car and we were all ready to pull out on Monday.

We said goodbye to our Jerry and Carolyn. We had strong feelings against this as Carolyn was expecting with Joshua and Jason and it was hard for us to say goodbye to them. But Jerry had a good job at Piper Aircraft and they were enjoying their nice home and they were deeply involved in Missionary work. Jerry had been and still was the Branch Mission Leader. Carolyn was our M. I. A. Young Women's president and they were working with several people that they were trying to friendship and baptize into the Church. It was hard to leave our last family in Florida.

Continue Wilford's life History Early April l978:

Our first stop after leaving Vero Beach, was Orange City where we helped Pat with her last minute packing and tied a tarp over her pickup and said goodbye to Curtis, who definitely was not happy or appreciative of us taking Pat and the children to Mesa Az. With us. He never did want for Pat to leave him, but he didn't think of that soon enough. He wanted to be untrue to her and have her accept him no matter what he did. Well we pulled out for Mesa and traveled that day about 2, or 3 hundred miles and we stayed in one of the real nice rest stops that Florida has about the best in the United States. We stopped early enough that the Children could play on the playground equipment and rest from the long day of travel. We could only use the car seats to lay down on with blankets and pillows, but the Buick had 2 good seats to stretch out on and the pickups and truck and we had a good nights sleep. I think it took us about 3 to 4 days to get to Albuquerque, New Mexico and we had a problem with one of the Pickups so we decided for LaRue and Pat to stay together there and take care of the problem and I would keep going on to Mesa and get some of the U-haul truck unloaded before they would get there. This is what we did and I kept going and got to Mesa in pretty good time so Bob and Rob and Mike and Frank, and his boys all came over and we got the big U-haul truck completely empty as we were supposed to turn the Truck to U-haul in Mesa the next morning to avoid extra charges. We didn't do too good of a job putting everything in the house as we just piled everything in the middle of each room to be arranged later when we had more time. When LaRue and Pat pulled in they were amazed that everything was already in the house. We then had to go over to Pat's home and unload for her and get her set up there. There was some furniture in both of our homes so it wasn't a problem getting them livable in short order. We were glad that both homes had good air conditioners plus good evaporative coolers and they seemed to keep us pretty cool, even though this was the last of April and it was getting really hot already that year. And that was just the beginning of a long hot summer that lay ahead of us. We found out that the heat in Arizona was a lot different that it was in Florida, where the Atlantic breezes kept us nice and cool with just any kind of a fan.

Bob put me to work almost immediately using my pickup and Mixer all I needed at that time was a hod carrier and I went on one job and he on another, and that way we could keep 2 or more contractors happy. We had to have our lathing people also, so there was always problems getting the lathing, and then the plastering done fast enough to suit some of the contractors. Bob and I would put on the scratch coat of stucco and they we hired special crews to put the final finish coat over our brown coat. We got along pretty well and we were both working hard and making pretty good money. But boy did we have to work like there was no tomorrow. Both Bob and I were really good plasterers and our work was better than most so we never did have any trouble in keeping in plenty of work. We did have to bid jobs however and we had to have a helper to take of the footage off the plans and then we had to price out the bids and present them to the Contractors. Our bids were always competitive and our better work assured us of plenty of work. As the summer progressed, I began to be up in the low hundreds and the a little later some of the days were up to 111 to 115 degrees that is hot when it comes every day for months and is very uncomfortable, so to get around this problem we would start to work early in the morning and then work our 7 or 8 hours and go home early from 12 noon to 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. and that way miss the extreme temperatures of the afternoons. Some days however would start out being up in the hundreds most of the time no matter what time we started to work. Well both of us always did love the plastering business so we adjusted to these conditions and still enjoyed our work unless it got too extreme as it sometimes did.

Life History continued in Arizona. Recorded as I remember hopefully correct.

When the weather stayed up in the hundreds to 115 degrees for months at a time, it was really a hard thing for me to get adjusted. I remember we used Rubber boots and rubber gloves that came up almost to our elbows and they were loosely fitting and I wouldn't be working too long and I would perspire so profusely that it wouldn't be long until the perspiration would fill up my gloves and run over the top and my boots would be the same. So I would be sloshing around a lot of the day with my gloves and boots overflowing with perspiration and believe me that is getting close to plain misery.

It was always fun to get home and cool off in our nice home that we were enjoying so much. We also enjoyed our 15th ward and about the 1st month we were there I was asked to be High Priest Group Leader in the 15th ward in which job I really did enjoy and the 15th ward was our ward for about 15 years. LaRue and I were really happy there and we were members of the choir and we really loved singing in the choir. I will go back to when we first moved in to the ward. And tell a little bit about our 3 beautiful daughters . Julie was still going to the B.Y.U. in Provo and Leesa and Lori were getting in the last few months of School in the Mountain View High School and they were a sensation in that school. It seems that some of the young men were really taken with the beauty of Leesa and Lori and that caused some of their girl friends to be a little jealous. Well I think before the end of that first year Leesa ran for and was elected Secretary and Treasurer of her class when she had only been in the class for a few weeks and that also caused some jealousy. Leesa and Lori were really popular all during their High School years.

During the years I served as High Priest Group Leader we were putting a lot of emphasis on Temple work and Home teaching. We had an older Brother Lesurer in our Quorum who was in a wheel chair and was blind and we had some of us take him to the Temple and help him by pushing him in his wheel chair and help him dress etc. Well what I wanted to say about this good and faithful servant was that he was doing more temple work than all of the High priests not just in our ward but in the whole Quorum of High priests in our stake combined. We had a brother assigned to take him through each day of the Week and I had one day a week when I would take him and we would do five sessions a day for every day the temple was open. One day of 5 sessions would about do me in and it did the other assigned brethren as well. We all marveled at the faith of this good man and all of the work he did. I don't think I have ever done 5 sessions a day before or since that time. So I will always be grateful for Brother Lesureur. Bob Shell was my good friend and faithful 1st Counselor and also a good Temple worker and he and I went often to the Temple at 5:00 am. He has now passed away and we dearly loved him

In about the first or 2nd Year we were living in Mesa, we received a check from the sale of one of our homes in Florida for 10,000.00 and we decided as a family that we would like to have a swimming pool. So we decided to have a good one. We had a beautiful diving board that was higher than most and we had our pool 10 ft. Deep so it was a good diving pool. It was also large and beautiful. 20' X 40' and we had a good cleaning system so it was always sparkling clear. The hot Arizona sun kept it so warm we could almost use it most of the year. We had a cooler on the pool as they get too warm and some times have to turn on the cooler. It was such an attractive pool it was nearly always full. Wall to wall. We had neighbors and friends of our girls, and our several families here in Mesa were always coming to swim and dive and enjoy the company of each other. I don't think anyone could have enjoyed it as much as LaRue and me. Especially after a hard day of plastering. We could stay out late at nights and just relax in the warm and comfortable water and weather and enjoyed the moonlight nights and beautiful Starry skies. I will tell a little story that happened some time later in our Pool. As I remember we had Parris and Lori and Steve and Julie with us for Christmas and new years. We had a real nice spa in one of our rooms and on this new years night we had just finished our dinner and were sitting around the table playing games. I don't know if it was Parris, Steve or Jerry that was telling how cold it was out and that the pool was also very cold at that time of year. Well one of them challenged the rest of us to dive into the pool and then we would head for the spa and warm up. Well we all got into our swim suits and all lined up on one side of the pool and were supposed to get out the other side and head for the hot spa. Some one said get ready, set, go. We all went in together and it felt like the water was just ready to turn to ice. I think I skimmed over the top of the water as the shock really was almost too much. I think as I remember I was in the Hot spa first, and boy did it feel good. That was the first and the last time we were ever challenged to do such a foolish thing.

Our Plastering business was doing very good and we were living well and had a lot of Plastering equipment and Bob and I each had a nice Pickup truck and LaRue and I had to have us a Motor home as well, as we have had an R.V. of some kind most of our lives. We found a beautiful Pioneer Motor home at Robert Cris Motor homes and we knew when we first saw it that we just had to have it. Well we also had to take a good vacation each year. In one year we got together with Aquila and Mary Robinson, and they at that time had a nice 5th wheel trailer, and a nice pickup truck to pull it. It was really a great time for us as we wanted to see how our Branch in Vero Beach Florida was doing. We had the property for a Chapel before we left and now they were a Ward and had a new Chapel and we wanted to go there and see all of the good things that were happening since we left there, about 3 or 4 years before. A. J. and Mary had never been to Florida, so we thought that would be a lot of fun for all of us. When we got as far as Dallas we decided to go into the huge astrodome for some special occasion, and that was a great experience as the dome was so high and large they told us that clouds would form at times and it would rain and even have thunder and lightning right inside that tremendous large building.

. We also went to some beautiful Flower Gardens on the way and to one of the most gorgeous and most spectacular cave we had ever seen. It was called Crystal Caverns and there were all colors of hanging Crystal draperies and all kind of beautiful formations including huge crystal stalactite and stalagmites. We then got into Alabama and we stopped to see the great large Battleship Alabama and took a tour through it and I think that was one of the high lights of the whole trip for A. J. as he was in the service and the huge guns on that ship really stretched the Imagination. Also the 2' of solid steel that protected them. It was hard to believe that anything like that could float on water. Seemingly Thousands of tons of solid Steel would head right for the Bottom of the ocean as it was being launched. We stopped at Silver springs and really enjoyed a nice boat ride and all of the animals they had on display there, including Alligators etc. We then went across the Florida Panhandle about 300 miles and then down the turnpike to Vero Beach and we pulled in to the nice large parking lot of our Vero Beach Ward Chapel. How beautiful it was. Bishop Beers and Wanda invited LaRue and I to their lovely new home they had just moved into and they really needed it with their family of 11 beautiful children. We had a wonderful meal with them. We remembered the missionaries that were working with Brother and Sister Beers and then we held their Baptism service in our beautiful Sebastian home and then asked if Brother Gurr could baptize them, and that was a wonderful occasion for me. We performed the baptism in our little lake that was close by. We had many services in our home and many baptisms in that beautiful little lake.

We attended our Sacrament and other meetings and we met so many of the wonderful families and people that we had helped to come into the Church and they made LaRue and me feel real special on that first Sunday we attended services in the Beautiful Vero Beach Ward.

While we were on this wonderful trip to Florida we took A. J. and Mary to Disney World and spent a couple of days going to all of the attractions there and on a lot of the rides that were a lot of fun.. Then we also took them to Busch Gardens and that is about as nice as Disney World. The train rides through all of the jungles and the animals of all kinds are really fun. We also went on the gondola cars that traverse most of the park and saw all of the lions Tigers bears, Elephants Giraffes and all kinds of animals in more or less of their natural habitat. We then went also to Cypress Gardens and they are about the most beautiful of all as they have so many beautiful Flowers and vegetation that can be imagined and then they have beautiful girls in gorgeous dresses sitting on the Green lawns and among the beautiful flowers.. Then their water ski show is world famous and some of the skiers go up high in the sky on their gliders and it is a beautiful show and will always be remembered.

As I remember we had our girls on this trip and because of them we had to get back home just a

little quicker than we had planned on. A. J. and Mary wanted to go on into Georgia and see Clyde and Pat. So we decided that we would split up and they could go up there and we came on home. And back to the Old Grind of plastering in the heat of Arizona. We loved our home and our pool and by this time we had most of our families here in Arizona. Jerry and Caroline had moved back to Utah with their family and they had an opportunity to move to Arizona and work for Kathy Haycock in Call America, a Multi-level Long distance phone company and she was getting many new customers who in turn tried to get new customers for them selves and then Kathy would pay them a percentage of the profits of those in their down lines. Jerry worked for Call America for a few years and finally decided to start a Multi Level Long distance company for himself. Not realizing that it would take so much capital for a year or so before the company could carry itself. Bob and I decided to go into this new enterprise with Jerry and provide some of the needed capital. So we, (Gurr Plastering) put in I think 20,000.00 and that helped get N. C. N. Phone Company going.

LaRue and I had a good interest rate on our home we were buying of 6 percent and we had our home paid for by this time and felt very good having it free and clear and were living well on our income from Gurr Plastering. N. C. N. needed to expand and needed more backing so We decided to borrow 65,000.00 which we did, but it was not at 6 per cent but was 13 percent. N. C. N. Began doing pretty well and began selling stock. It wasn't too long and we were able to pay off the 65,000.00, and had our nice home paid off and free and clear again. That was a good feeling. We felt that N. C. N was doing really good as we had a lot of money in the bank, so Jerry, Bob, and I decided to divide up some of it and Jerry decided to buy a lot over in Sunland Village and LaRue and I did the same. They were beautiful large 3 quarter acre lots. I think Jerry's was an acre and really a choice one in the end of a Cul-de-sac on Grove ave. And our lot was on 4645 E. Gable Ave. These lots were both in Sunny Mesa one. And all of the homes in that development, were large and Beautiful homes in the 300,000.00 price range so the Lots were large and ours had about 30 beautiful Navel orange trees that were loaded with the most delicious Oranges we had ever tasted. Because it appeared we had a growing and prosperous business in N. C. N we and Jerry decided to build our dream homes on these beautiful lots in Sunny Mesa One.

I think that I need to back track a little bit as I missed some important and happy times that I would like to mention. One of them was LaRue and I had an opportunity to go to Hawaii with some of our good friends in the 15th Ward. The Whitlocks, the Birds, Corcorans and all of us to spend a month in the B. Y. U. Campus Dormitories in Hawaii. We were almost ready to leave and fly to Los Angeles and we had an Idea or impression that we should call our good friends, Tom and Barbara Larsen in Pleasant Grove Utah. As I remember this was only 2 or three days before we were to leave. To our very pleasant Surprise they were excited with our inviting them to go with us and said they would meet us in Los Angeles and then we would all fly from there to Hawaii. We were amazed at the huge size of the plane we flew in and wondered how that big monster could get off the ground, but it was the smoothest plane ride any of us had ever been on and when we landed in Hawaii it was the smoothest Landing of any plane landing We could ever remember. We were met with beautiful Hawaiian girls who covered many of the Passengers with flower leis. We then got on a bus and went over the Pali where we stopped and where the wind blows so hard coming up the face of the cliff that was several hundred feet high that a Hawaiian girl who was being chased by some men, jumped over the cliff and the wind broke her fall and she survived the fall because of the hard wind. We were all assigned to our rooms in the Dormitories and we spent one of the most delightful months of our lives there. They prepared all of our meals in the cafeteria 3 times a day and they were delicious. Lots of fruits such as Hawaiian Bananas, Pineapple, and my very favorite of all Papayas and we could and did have it almost all of our meals.

There was one requirement we had to meet in staying in the Dorms and that is we all had to take a class for the month that we were there. Some of our friends took their Cooking class, Swimming class and some others. LaRue and I took a Ukelele class which were as I remember 1 hour each day. We could then go to the Beach and enjoy swimming and beach combing or go to the Temple which was a very delightful experience as the film had Hawaiian participants and the beautiful Hawaiian backgrounds which enhanced the Beauty of Adam and Eve. We loved the Hawaiian Temple, the Beaches and I guess most of all the Cultural center which had something going on all day and we could all go over there and be entertained any time we desired. All of these wonderful places were with in short walking distance of the Dorms and we used all of them constantly. There were buses that would take us any where on the Island of Oahu for 50 cents. So some days we went to the Pineapple cannery where they had fountains where you could get as many glasses of delicious Pineapple juice as you wanted and all free. We loved to go there. We attended some of the many free attractions in Honolulu such as the Kodak show which was the most colorful beauty that could be imagined.

Hanama Bay was one of our favorite places where we could snorkel among the colorful tropical fish and feed them bread and they would come swarming all around and would nip at our fingers to get us to feed them. We had goggles and Snorkel tubes so everything was so colorful and more beautiful than can be explained with words. We also had a day at Pearl Harbor and took a boat ride out to the Battleship Arizona which was sunk by the Japanese and as I remember there were still 700 of our young sailors and crew members still in that ship. It still looked so huge and beautiful in the sparkling clear waters of Pearl Harbor. I don't think that LaRue and I have ever spent a more wonderful time in our lives than that month with Tom and Barbara, and other friends in Hawaii. LaRue and I also had a very special day, when we took a 3 mile hike up to Sacred Falls. My 4 pages are full for this month, so I will tell about this experience next month. As I remember this was in June and July of 1985.

Life History Continues 1985 trip to Hawaii. Recorded in January 1998

That is about 13 years ago, so I hope my memory is up to this story I wanted to tell about near the end of our stay in Hawaii. It had been a steady down pour of rain up until noon and then the sun came out and it was so beautiful that La Rue and I remembered seeing a sign that had intrigued us, that read Sacred Falls trail. We had commented several times that we wished we could take that hike up to Sacred falls which the sign indicated as I think 3 miles. This trail was about 10 miles from where we were staying so our friends, not wanting to go, LaRue and I went on the bus to the Sacred Falls trail where

there was a little store just a cross the road and needing some film. We went into that little store and when we asked for film and told them where we were going they warned us to not take any pictures of the Sacred Falls. They told us that several people that had taken pictures there were either killed in the many times they had to cross the river coming down from there or died with in a week of their taking the pictures. Also it had been raining and the trail was very dangerous having to wade through the river many times on the hike, and there would be a lot more water than normal.

We thanked the store keeper and were about to not take the hike, but then we decided to just go as far as we thought we could safely. The trail was very slick and covered at times with tunnels of vines and trees we had to sometimes crawl through. About a mile up we met with 4 young men who had gone all of the way and then were on their way back and warned us to not go further as the wading the streams was very treacherous. While we were talking one of the young men slipped off the trail and into a ditch and he couldn't get up. I put my hand out to him to help him and he refused my help saying I can get out myself. He struggled for awhile and said something is holding me down. He finally let us help him out and then LaRue and I thanked them and decided to continue on as we had crossed the stream easily some of the time. The weather was so warm that the water didn't get us cold at all even when it was waist deep. We finally came to one place of such beauty, it was a falls of about a hundred feet high and was shaped in a half circle straight up and down, and symmetrically perfect. I had to have a picture of it so I snapped a picture and as I did so, something pulled my feet out from under me and was pushing my head down against a rock and with my right arm I tried to hold myself up and in doing so my shoulder was injured and I thought I was had. This thing that was pushing me down finally let me up, but I didn't let on to LaRue that I was badly injured, and something just kept pushing us on and being as we could see sacred falls from where we were we both seemed to want to go on so I hung my thumb over my belt and could still walk. We just had one more time to cross the swift running stream so I got out to the mid stream and held out my good arm to LaRue and we could have been swept away by that rain swollen river. Just a short distance up from there we came to Sacred Falls and the lake it was falling into and it was so beautiful, I took another chance and got more pictures. I asked LaRue to give me a blessing that my arm would heal and we could get back down the trail safely. I also asked her to rebuke the evil spirits that seemed to be up there. She gave a beautiful blessing to me and to Sacred Falls and we were able to get back down safely.

I have always have had a weakness to this day in my shoulder from that experience with some unknown force that tried to destroy me that day at Sacred Falls. I have had many experiences with evil spirits and know that they exist, but I also know of the existence of good spirits and the power of Heavenly Father to overcome the evil. I'm sure Sacred Falls is a better place since LaRue's Blessing. Life History continued: Trying to remember and recording 1-29-98

After our very exciting hike up to Sacred Falls, and the lake we still had a wonderful time with our good friends walking on the Beautiful beaches and swimming, and enjoying the Cultural Center and the Laie Temple. Our Dormitories were right in a perfect place to enjoy all of them. Then before ending our stay there, LaRue and I decided to go to the Island of Kauai. I remember it was a small plane and this was before smoking was banned on Airplanes, and there was smoking all around us and there was no way we could get any relief from that horrible smoke. We finally arrived in Kauai however and then had a great day of traveling by boat up a very beautiful river. On my mission to Hawaii I never had the opportunity of visiting this beautiful Island and I always wanted to as I was intrigued by the stories I had heard about how it was the wettest place on earth. I remember 389 inches of rain annually, and that is a lot of rain so Kauai is one of the greenest and most beautiful place in the world. We rented a car and drove all around the Grand Canyon of Kauai. It really is a Grand Canyon with all colors of perpendicular and 2000 foot cliffs and walls down to a beautiful river. We will never forget the beauty of the tremendous water falls and rivers that were every where on Kauai, and the month we spent in the Dorms at the B. Y. U. Campus on the Island of Oahu.

We had a nice flight home as they had a no smoking section on the huge plane we came home on. We said our Goodbyes to Tom and Barbara in Los Angeles and all of our friends felt like that was one of the nicest months of our lives. We found everything fine at home and then back to the old Grind of business as usual, plastering etc. By this time it was getting pretty hot in Mesa so every day after work we would enjoy our new Pool and the dozens of wonderful Grandchildren that we seemed to have about all of the time.

We were doing really well in our Gurr Plastering. I was the High Priest Group Leader and was doing a lot of Temple work, and we had a lot of good faithful Brethren that were also doing a lot of Temple work. Bob Shell was one of my councilors and he and I would go to early morning sessions before he had to be to work. I will tell about one Brother Lesueuer he was quite elderly and in a wheelchair and was blind. He would go to the Temple every day and do 5 sessions each day. We had One Brother assigned to take him each day of the Week. I had one day a week and 5 sessions would about do me in as he needed a lot of help. I did do a lot of Temple sessions that year or so. We had a Large Group of High Priests, all active in Temple work, but this one good Brother did more Temple work than all of the other Brothers in the Quorum put together. He kept doing this right up until the time of his death. I am sure that he would hear the Words, AWell done thou good and Faithful Servant, Enter into thy Joy@. I will mention that I had been President of 3 Elders Quorums, 3 Seventies Quorums, and this was my 3rd High Priests Quorum. How grateful I am for the great privilege of serving in all of these Priesthood Callings. I have also served in two Bishoprics and as a Branch President, It seems like 3 is my special # in Priesthood Callings. I have been on two full time missions and 5 stake missions. I like Alma am so grateful it is hard not to mention them.

LaRue and I have always had an R. V. of some kind and at this time we had sold our Winabago, Motor, Home that we had so we started to looking around for another one to take its place. We were in Robert Christ R. V. Sales and LaRue pointed out one, A Pioneer and when we walked into it we knew that we had to have it so we did and really thought it was the Ultimate. We loved it.

Life History continued February l984.

We had many good memories of our Pioneer Motor home. We had two nice trips to Florida and I will mention a trip to Mexico we took with some of our good friends from the 15th Ward when we lived at 1212 E. 1st street. We caravanned with Art and Bird Corcoron, George and Gladys Whitlock and Howard and Olive Hough. We stayed in some nice resorts for R. Vs. Culiacan was a really nice place with many beautiful Flower gardens, and some of the largest Tigers we had ever seen.

As we continued traveling down through Mexico on some of the narrowest roads and no shoulders on either side of the road. It was surfaced after a fashion, but there was a deep drop off on both sides and they were straight down. I under stand that now they have widened the road and there is plenty of room for passing other cars, but at this time there was barely enough room for two cars to pass each other and our Pioneer Motor home was much wider than a car. We in our Motor home was leading the others, and we had to be more than careful, and on one day as we were traveling a Farm tractor was pulling a large combine coming toward us and it had a long Steel arm sticking out and was traveling fairly slow so we almost stopped going by him and felt that our wheels were barely on the road, and we just barely made it by, but the Houghs right behind us were so afraid to move over for fear of going over the edge of the steep drop off that the long steel arm on the Farm Machinery dug a huge hole all down the side of their New tiny motor home they had purchased for this trip. It ripped the whole length and took out their cupboards inside and had food, dishes and pieces of their Motor home scattered all over. The farmer kept on going and the Road was so narrow we couldn't turn around so we just had to keep going until we came to a pull out several miles down the road. Where we all pulled off the road and proceeded to help Howard and Olive Hough clean up their mess and tape up the huge hole and broken windows so we could keep going to the next R. V. Park and do a better job of making it so they could travel. I happened to have a roll of heavy Plastic and a couple of large rolls of duct tape, and we were able to do a good enough job to last them the rest of the trip. He was surely a more careful driver after this accident. I think all of us were..

I wanted to mention that down in the bottom of both sides of the road there were two to 6 or more little white crosses showing where fatal accidents had occurred and the roads were almost lined with them.

The more affluent had small chapels built about the size of play houses by their fatal accident sites and they had regular grave stones and flowers were placed on many of the crosses and some of the small chapels had little flower gardens well kept and there were many of them. Showing the love and care that they felt for their loved ones killed along that thousands of miles of narrow high way.

At one of our R. V. Stops we all went over to the Beach and they were taking people Para sailing. I decided to try it as it looked like a lot of fun, after watching several Para sailors go up and all of them came back down so they strapped me into a harness and I was off on about the scariest but the most fun I had on the whole trip to Mexico. They took us way up to about 500 ft or more, and it seemed like more as we were being pulled by a very powerful Boat and it went out to an Island about a mile from shore and I sailed over what appeared to be a high mountain. I don't know how high it was, but it took a lot of rope to get me high enough to get over it. LaRue was Videoing me about the whole trip and we had a good zoom lens so she did get some good pictures of my first and last try at Parasailing. It was a lot of fun and I think I remember trying it on a smaller scale up on Canyon lake here in Arizona.

We traveled another couple of days down to Rincon which was our destination and as I remember about 60 miles north of Porta Viarta which is just north of Acapulco and that is a long ways down into Mexico. We were having a great time at Rincon R. V. And we decided to take a long bus trip up into some beautiful mountains. This was one of our biggest mistakes of the whole trip as the bus didn't have any springs and felt like it didn't even have any tires. The road was un surfaced and was one long stretch of the worst wash board road any of us had ever seen except for the potholes which seemed to have no bottom and some of them almost tipped us over. Poor LaRue was already having a lot of trouble with her neck and now this just about finished her off. By the time we got back to our Motor home her neck was in excruciating pain, and we couldn't seem to get it to stop no matter what we did. We did enjoy the warm Pacific waters even in February, also watching the fisherman taking out a net several hundred feet long, and make a big sweep out in the deeper waters, and then about 20 of them bringing it in to shore and there seemed to be hundreds of all kinds of fish, and some of them were really big. They and their families would then divide them up and have all they could carry home. That was a lot of fun watching them. We had a brace on LaRue's neck and a beach chair for her to sit on, and she was able to stand it for a while. The time was coming for us to head for home, and some of the others, wanted to get started knowing it was a long and dangerous road home. There was no way LaRue could travel in all the pain she was in, so we decided to stay for a few more days and see if we could get her enough improved to travel. We said our goodbyes and watched as each one of our Friends pulled out.

We felt like we were all alone which we were and we now didn't have any one who understood the Spanish language so we were really alone. George and Gladys Whitlock could understand and speak the language very well. So we had come to rely on them for our shopping and other things we needed. After staying for another 3 or 4 days, we could see that LaRue was still in too much pain for that long several thousand miles over the narrow and bad roads to get home so we made the decision that we would try to get her down to Porta Viorta and send her home on the Plane. Which we did and when I saw the Airplane taking off with my precious LaRue I really felt abandoned and a long lonely way from home. I sang my song that I have always sung to her, as I was videoing the plane taking off and I sang and recorded her taking off. There goes my reason for living, there goes my everything. I had tears in my eyes and boy did I feel alone.

Well I decided I would head for home as fast as I could. So I started on that long journey kind of worried about what could happen in all that way alone. About the first 500 miles a Big Truck in head of me dropped off a big rock and it bounced up and shattered the window above our bed and there was glass everywhere. The bed was full of it and the whole motor home was covered with glass fragments. It was like it had exploded. Well the next thing that happened was a car stopped on the road in the middle of the night as I was driving, and there were several Mexican men standing around it, waving for me to stop, there weren't any cars traveling in the night so knowing that they meant to stop me, and take everything I had, including me, I laid on my horn for them to get out of the way, and I went around their car and almost off the narrow road, They followed me for a few miles, and I wouldn't let them pass me so they finally gave up, and that was the last experience I had like that. I traveled for two nights and 3 days as fast as I could safely go, and when I got to the border and Crossed over into the United State I felt like kissing the ground. The Freeway was so smooth and safe to drive on, I thought boy that is the last time I want to go to Mexico. From there it was wonderful driving and how grateful I was to be back home safe.

I can surely see why we should be so grateful for the Choice land of America, which is choice above all other lands. I do appreciate the fact that Mexico and all of this continent is a part of this choice land and it is getting more so as Temples are being built through out all of the lands of the America's. On the inter net we find that there are now over 300,000 wonderful and dedicated Latter Day Saints in Mexico, and I am sure if we took another trip down through Mexico we would find it a lot different now than when we went before and when there were fewer members and no Temples. The Gospel does wonderful things for individuals, but also for families, States, Towns and countries. All of the world now is being blessed more and more since President Hinkley's announcement of more members outside of the United States than there are in the United States. I hope I am not confusing my life history by injecting later happenings with the period of time I am trying to remember and writing about.

I just wanted to make an observation about Canada and the difference in our feelings, as we have been up in that beautiful country many times. We felt so good up there where there has been a Temple and for some reason we always felt as good traveling through that beautiful country as we feel in the United States. We took Mortimer and Margaret Willis up to Canada with us on one trip and they loved it up there. We have tried several times to go through the Cardston Temple, but it seems like each time we have been in that area the Temple has always been closed. We took my mother Leatha with us on several trips within the States such as Yosemite, Big Sur, Sequoia, the Red Woods and she dearly loved these trips and the Northwest Oregon and Washington and it seems like we took her up into Canada through the Glacier National Park mountains. I can't be real sure about that one but I think we did get her up into Canada, and she wanted to go down into Mexico when we lived in Pasadena so we did take her to Tijuana which she enjoyed. She wanted to go further into Mexico to the Colonies, but at that time it was impossible for us to take her there. We did take her on a wonderful trip to Florida and she got her wish to put her feet in the Pacific Ocean in California and her feet in the Atlantic down in Florida. We always felt comfortable in traveling in the United States, and Canada, but we were always a little worried about traveling in Mexico. There are a lot of Lamanites in Mexico and they are doing so much better there now than when the Nephites were having to deal with them. Except when Helaman went on a 14-year mission and there were thousands of Lamanites converted by the Lord through him and they became even more righteous than the Nephites.

During July or August Bishop Taylor of our 15th ward called LaRue and me into his office and asked us if we would make ourselves available for a missionary call. We thought that sounded great as we had been considering going on a mission together when we retired. My last fall from off a high roof had prompted me to retire. Maybe I will tell a few of my feelings in this second really serious fall from a high roof. I was using the big heavy hose shooting plaster on the walls, and I guess I was alone up on the roof, and the Hod Carrier was mixing cement plaster. I was spraying and scratching the metal of the building getting it ready for the brown coat as it was called. I remember I was having a lot of trouble with pleurisy in my chest and was hurting pretty bad, but I kept on plastering anyway. I was having a hard time pulling that big heavy hose and was pulling while I was backing up while spraying, and in doing so I stepped over the edge and off the roof. I fell onto a cement curb flat on my back and hitting my head so I was unconscious and the plastering hose was swinging back and forth and covering me over completely with lime and Cement.

My hod carrier wondering why I never turned the gun off came around and found me under a big pile of Cement and lime plaster. I guess he saved my life when he washed my head a face off enough for me to at least be able to breath. I couldn't move and was in the worst pain I had ever felt in my whole life. He called the ambulance and in getting me to the Hospital they about killed me with pain while cleaning all of the cement off from me and then on the x-ray table was pure torture. They found out that when my back hit the cement curb between my shoulders, it broke my chest bone apart and several ribs. I don't think that would have been so bad if it hadn't been for the pleurisy that was already killing me with pain as well, but between both of them I really knew what real suffering was. Pain shots or pills didn't help a bit and for 2 days I didn't think I could stand another minute and was afraid I wasn't going to die. I was almost wishing for it. Then this is what came to my mind. Being able to take this kind of suffering I wish I could have been able to have helped our Savior with his terrible suffering. The point of this whole story however is this, I had been praying all along for some relief and as soon as I had that thought of wishing I could have helped him with his suffering, I received immediately a release from my terrible suffering and I had the most wonderful feeling of healing and peace. And it was a surprise to me and Doctors and everyone else at how quickly I was healing. Well this was the time that Bob and all the rest of the family decided that it was time for me to retire from plastering and not get up on any more roofs. So from this time on I worked in the office and bid jobs for Gurr Plastering.

This was also about the time that Jerry was trying to break away from Call America and starting

up a new business. He wanted Bob and me to back the new company National Communications Network. We decided to all go in together in this new company and I will go into this business in more detail later on. But this also was a help to Gurr plastering in keeping Mom and me on our mission, which at this time I would like to go back to and tell some of our memories of it.

Bishop Taylor gave us papers to fill out and he told us if we had any preference of where we wanted to go that we should also mention that, which we did. I had been on my first mission in the Hawaiian Islands nearly 50 years ago, so we mentioned Hawaii. Sure enough when we received our call from President Ezra Taft Benson it was for a 1 year mission to the Hawaiian Islands. We were excited and overjoyed for the call.

Parris and Lori were living in San Hosea California and LaRue and I decided to go stay with them which we did and Little beautiful Lisel Sue was born August 23rd, 1986. We enjoyed staying with them for a couple of weeks and then just got home in time for the birth of our 40th grandchild, Judith Marian another beautiful little girl for Jerry and Carolyn and I think that was their 8th or ninth in their big family. She was born Sept. 5th l986. La Rue and I then decided to go up to Sandy Utah for the birth of Amy LaRue another beautiful baby girl and Steve and Julies 4th child I believe, and our 42nd grandchild. We helped out with this wonderful little girl and enjoyed our visit there and then decided we had better head for home and see if we had further information concerning our mission call, as we were expecting to receive our date to report into the Mission home. We did have our letter from President Parry of the Hawaiian Mission and he was welcoming us to our new Mission assignment in Hawaii. We were to report into the MTC. In Provo Dec. 10, 1986. He gave us the good news that we could bring our 8mm Camera as I had asked him if we could bring it, and all of the Church videos that we had for it. We had a lot of them, such as the Three Witnesses, and many other tapes and he gave us his permission. to bring it. We were happy for that. As we wanted to be able to take some Video tapes of the beauty of Hawaii as well.

During 1986 we met our friends the Onzlow Nielsons, Allen and Marge Roseland, and Fielding and Mary Rice over at the Colorado River in Laughlin Nevada. Whenever we got together we always had great times together. Tom and Helen Gurr had just bought a new Motor home and they also joined us a day later and they showed off their new Motor home and it was real nice except the bath room and the bedroom were in together and we didn't like that part of it. We had a lot of fun playing games with all of us and we would play outside or else in our Pioneer Motor home as it was about the most room for all of us to play games in. One day as we were riding through the small town of Bullhead City Arizona, and in a Motor home sales lot we saw what we thought was about the most beautiful 5th Wheel Trailer and hooked up to a new and beautiful three quarter ton rear dual wheel Ford pickup. It looked so beautiful together as they matched perfectly and the 5th wheel had a slide out room. We all wanted to stop and go through the trailer which we did and thought it was just too nice to be true. I had been pricing pickups for our Gurr Plastering and found one like that one selling for 39,000.00 and more, as it was custom built with a large rear seat that made into about a full size bed,

A salesman walked in and asked us to make an offer for the Unit the way it was. I knowing the price of a Pickup, and told him we were not looking to buy anything at that time. He insisted we make an offer so I thought well I would make a ridiculously low offer knowing that they could never accept it.So knowing the worth of the Pickup at least 39,000. 00 I came up with a 42,000.00 offer and to our complete amazement the Salesman said they would accept our offer. After talking it over and thinking it was about time to replace our Pioneer R. V. We didn't see how we could pass up the deal, as we would be getting that beautiful 32,000.00 Fifth Wheel for just 3,000.00. Well we signed papers and I remember Tom and Helen let out a moan as they had just paid out so much more for their small Motor Home and they wanted to know if we would trade with them. The Dealer had to do cleaning and servicing so we decided to go home with the Pioneer and see if we could sell it. The Dealer couldn't offer us anything for the Pioneer as they were already losing too much on the 5th wheel. When we got home we were kind of wondering that even as great a deal as that was if we were doing the right thing. Things seemed to work out and I went back over to Bull Head City and Picked up the pickup and 5th wheel and we parked it in our yard by the lemon and orange trees. It really looked nice in our yard and we were proud of it.

At this time we were excited to I don't know what all of that has to do with my life history, but I guess it all has to do the life history of all of us. I think it was in about l994, when LaRue and I started going to Death Valley with Onzlo & Louise Nielson, Allen and Marge Roseland and one other couple, Fielding and Mary Rice. We really did enjoy Death Valley Days. We visited many places and were intrigued by the many places we went to visit, such as Artist's Pallet and other beautiful and colorful mountains all colors of the rainbow. Also the Devils golf course, which was miles and miles, as far as the eye could see of sharp pinnacles of salt sticking up out of a dried up lake. Then the lowest point below sea level in the United State as I remember 1700 feet below sea level. I don't know if that is the lowest in the world or not, but it may be. We spent a wonderful day going to and through Scotty's Castle which is really a marvel as it is so far from anywhere and getting the materials to build such beauty in such a forsaken place as Death Valley was really some accomplishment. It was in quite a beautiful little canyon which was quite green and a lot of trees as there was a good sized stream of water coming out of a spring. The nights were really something else there and the sky just crowded with dazzling bright stars as there is no light in Death Valley. I have seen some beautiful night skies many times up on high mountains etc. but never have we seen so much beauty as the night skies in Death Valley.

There was a lot of things happened to LaRue and me during the last couple of months before our mission, making arrangements for our home and getting our physical examinations, shots and other things we had to do in taking care of our home while we were gone etc. We also had to take care of a lot of details in selling our A. T. S. Phone Co. And getting our new National Communications Network Phone Company going. We at this time had some really good men working for us. We had a good attorney and bookkeeper and it seemed like with his help we set up a good organization and N. C. N. grew very rapidly into a good paying company and Bob, and Jerry thought LaRue and I could go on our mission and not have to worry about finances etc. Our company was greatly blessed and grew and prospered rapidly.

We put blocks under all of the tires and wheels on the pickup and the 5th wheel so they would be up out of the water which covered our whole yard during our irrigation turns. We never did have a trip in them as we didn't have time for a trip before leaving for the Mission home in Provo Utah. Our Mission call from President Benson to the Hawaiian Islands came to us on Sept. 12, 1986.

We were able to sell our Plastering Pickup, our Buick Automobile, and our Honda Motor cycle, all of them within about a month and so we had the money we needed to begin our mission. Kevin and Leesa Sasser Moved into our home and would be taking care of our home while we would be on our mission. It seemed like we had a lot of Help from Heavenly Father in everything going so smoothly. We had our Farewell Sacrament meeting on November 30, l986. Steve and Julie, and Parris and Lori and there families were there with us as they had come to Mesa for Thanksgiving and then spent a fun week or so and then stayed for our Farewell Sacrament meeting. That was wonderful as that made all of our family present at the meeting. LaRue talked on Faith and did a beautiful job on her farewell talk. I talked on The Prophet Joseph Smith, and how grateful We felt for that Greatest man, and Prophet to ever walk on the Earth, With the exception for our Savior Jesus Christ. Also on the blessings of compliance with the law of tithing. After the Sacrament meeting that night all of our Family were gathered at our home and President Hakes came over and Set us apart as Missionaries. It was a very enjoyable experience. This was on Dec. 8th when we were set apart by President Hakes.

On December 9th we put our 6 large suitcases in our Buick and traveled to Las Vegas after a lot of emotional goodbyes to all of our, wonderful family. We spent the night with A. J. and Mary in Las Vegas and for some reason we felt pressured to leave as early as possible for Provo. When we arrived there we found out why we felt so much pressure. We found that my Dear Sister Thelma was in a coma and very near the end for her. She did smile and realized that LaRue and I were there, but couldn't talk to us. We had family prayer and I was asked to give the Prayer and it was a very sacred time for all of us. Thelma had said she wanted to stay until Bud and LaRue came, as she knew we would be there. We released her from this life and then she went peacefully about an hour later. Many of us felt the presence of Dad and Mother in the Room to take Thelma with them. LaRue especially felt the presence of our Dad. Clyde and the family wanted me to be the speaker at Thelma's funeral so I consented as we all thought they would excuse us from the mission home for us to attend the funeral.

LaRue and I spent a wonderful evening at Steve and Julies and their family visiting and talking about everything under the sun, about the good life of Thelma and how precious she and Mary Lou were in taking care of our Mother Letha in the last several years of her life. Clyde and Thelma lived in their home on one side of Mothers home and Cliff and Mary Lou on the other side and one or the other of them would be over helping her to be happy every day. This was a wonderful thing for Mother as she could spend all of her life living in her own home which she enjoyed so much.

Life History continued. Recording April 25th 98. Mission Home in Provo Utah.

On Wednesday Dec. 10, l986, we were entered in to the M.T.C. at 10:30 am. In Provo, Utah. As I remember it was a very nice and beautiful sunny day and some of the families were there to see us as we entered the Mission home. LaRue and I were assigned to our room #M.206 in the Jacob Hamblin building and it is known as the Hilton as it is the only building that has separate bathrooms. All of the other buildings had only shared bathrooms, so we were so happy to have our own Bathroom. LaRue and I put our single beds together and it worked out very nice. She was the first Missionary Companion that I ever slept with. There were 39 couples in our building and many older single sisters. And it seemed like thousands of young Elders and Sisters everywhere at that wonderful M.T.C. in Provo. I was asked to be the District Leader of our Group. So LaRue and I had a busy two weeks taking on the extra responsibilities of the District Leaders. Conducting our classes, distributing mail and a lot of other things. We had to have a song, prayer and Spiritual Thought each morning to open Classes and turn the time over to our class instructor, who was Elder Murphy and he was really an inspiration to all of us.

On our second day I was called out of class to answer a Phone call from Rosemary and she said that their Family wanted me to be one of the speakers at my Sister Thelma's Funeral, and that it was to be held the next day. So the next morning we only had time to open the class and turn the time over to Elder Murphy and then we were excused to go to the funeral. It was a very emotional experience for me as that is my normal feeling, but this for my sister was a very spiritual and emotional experience. Many at her funeral felt the presence of Mother and Dad and others who had gone on before. Some including LaRue, who is very sensitive to the presence of spirits were able to see many of them also. We all went to the Cemetery where we all bid a loving farewell for our dear Sister Thelma. Dean dedicated her grave.

I wanted to mention some of the good friends in our Sioux City District as it was called. We have in our district. Elder and Sister Winn, Elder and Sister Price, Elder and Sister Brown and some others that is hard for me to remember. We had as our instructors Elder Murphy, Elder Valencia, and Elder Wortherspoon. These 3 were so good and helped us so much while we were at the M. T. C. At one of our Devotionals, Elder Worthlin of the Quorum of the 12 was our speaker and afterward when I was shaking hands with him I mentioned that his Father had set me apart as a missionary on my first mission 46 years before in 1940, At that time I think there were approximately 5 to 6 thousand missionaries in the whole world. Then when Mom and I were in the M.T.C. in l986 there were 32,000 missionaries, and one comment that was made by President Spencer W. Kimball was that when we reach 40,000 missionaries in the world that the Berlin Wall would come down. Which prophesy was fulfilled when shortly after we reached the goal of 40,000 missionaries, the Berlin Wall did come down. Well today the worldwide number of missionaries is closing in on 60,000. What a wonderful change in 50 years and the membership of the Church will be more than 11 million by the end of this year.

Two prominent Scholars of evangelical Christianity wrote an article that all of Christianity had better take the L.D.S. Church of Jesus Christ very seriously as the Scholarly research was literally burying the Evangelical Scholars and that it is a fallacy to claim any longer that they do not believe in Christ and that in another 50 years according to them our membership will reach 265,000,000 and will far surpass most of the present day Christian denominations in numbers of members.

I guess I had to insert these last few comments about the recent advances of the Church that are just recently coming out as to Evangelical statements that the Mormons do not believe in Christ will have to be accepted and faced as fallacies and simply not true, and they just as well accept it now or will have the truth forced down their throats later. Now back to Life History in 1986.

Provo at this time Dec 20th 1986 was a fairyland of lights and Christmas lighting at the Temple was so beautiful. LaRue and I really enjoyed our walks through the Temple grounds. Then we still had our nice Buick car and enjoyed some of our spare evenings riding around through the beautifully decorated homes in Provo. Well Christmas came and we were allowed to go to Steve and Julies to spend Christmas with their beautiful family. We were doubly blessed when on Christmas Eve Parris and Lori and their precious family pulled in from their home in San Hosea California. So it was a most joyous Christmas with two of our families. It was to be our last Christmas at home as we would be heading for Hawaii in just a couple of more days.. We all had a wonderful Christmas and had some nice gifts, even for LaRue and me, We were glad there were no large ones as our 7 large Suitcases as I recall were filled to the brim and then we also Called all of our families on our 800 phone line service on our A.T.S. Phone Company and talking to all of our families made it a very memorable Christmas for LaRue and me. We spent a day or two of frantic phone calls trying to locate our air line tickets to Hawaii and then we had our final goodbyes at the Mission home, One of our couples Elder and Sister Price couldn't go on their mission as Elder Price had to be sent home with a serious health condition. We were thrilled when Elder Valencia, one of our instructors brought and introduced his beautiful bride to be. A Very attractive and spiritual young lady instructor he had met while both of them were at the M. T. C. Elder Murphy also introduced us to his young wife and two children. It was a very nice but emotional goodbyes for all of us.

LaRue and I then drove our Buick car home to Mesa where we had a couple of days to finish saying our good byes to all the rest of our families. We were also in the final sale of our A. T. S. phone Company, and we had a lot of papers to sign and over night mail back and forth to California and as I recall all of our Mesa families were at the Phoenix Airport to see us off. We had to get up at 4:30 am. On wed. Dec. 31st 1986. And we were so glad they were all there as they helped a lot with all of our large 7 suitcases. I didn't know if we were going to make our plane or not as LaRue could hardly say goodbye and it was hard for me as well. We had a nice plane ride to San Francisco and there boarded one of the Largest Planes We had ever seen and didn't see how it could ever get off the ground. It had 9 seats wide in the middle and then another 5 seats on each side. There were three theaters with large movie screens. I think there were between 8 and 9 hundred people on that 747 jumbo Jet. It took us just 5 hours to Hawaii. 46 years ago it took our ship 5 and one half days traveling day and night. It was a real contrast and the smoothest and nicest plane we had ever been on.

When we arrived, in Honolulu there were two Missionaries to welcome us with beautiful flower leis and to take us to an interview with President Perry. It was a wonderful interview and he told us our first assignment would be to Hana Maui. We didn't know anything about Hana, but the other missionaries seemed to think it was the best place in the whole world. They then took us to a Beautiful Hotel Bogata on the Beach where we would spend new years eve and Jan. 1st and 2nd and then we would fly to Kahului on Maui where we would rent a car until they could get a new car to us. LaRue and I thought of all that had happened in this one long day and were glad to get to bed in this beautiful room on the 9th floor.

I remember what a beautiful room we were in upon the 9th floor of the Bogata Hotel there over looking the beautiful blue Pacific ocean and there we spent a couple of fun days while waiting for our plane to Hana Maui. We had a fun New Years Party with President Parry and his family and some of the Missionaries and all of them were so jealous of us getting to go to Hana. They all wanted to know how we rated to get to go there. LaRue was feeling good so we spent some of our time walking on the beach, but because of the new rules Missionaries are not allowed to swim while they are on their mission. This was a new rule as when I was here nearly 50 years ago. We could use our preparation days swimming or fishing or other things. After losing a few missionaries during the next few years to swimming and boating accidents, the new no swimming for missionaries rule was given and that put a stop to it except with special permission. We had to have special permission when we went to Florida to pick up Jerry at the conclusion of his Mission so we spent a week or so taking him down to Key West and enjoyed the beauty of swimming in the beaches of Florida which were almost comparable to Beaches in Hawaii, but not quite.

LaRue and I did talk about the Gospel, with some of the people we met at the Hotel and on the Streets and beaches. We felt good wearing our Missionary badges and we felt we were still doing missionary work during the time we spent at the Hotel and it was fun.

We enjoyed our plane trip to Kahului Maui, and the Beauty of the flight over the Islands and the many water falls visible everywhere on the steep mountain sides on all of the Islands. We were met by two Elders who were supposed to take us to Hana. They took us to a Car Rental place and we rented a Toyota which we would have to use for a week while waiting for our new Toyota Camri which was being shipped to us. The two Elders who were supposed to take us to Hana had us follow them for a ways, but we could tell they would like to get out of going all the way to Hana if they could, so we told them to point us in the right direction and we would try and find it ourselves. They told us it was only about 35 miles and for us to be careful. We soon found out what they meant as a lot of the license plates on many of the cars read. AI survived the Road to Hana, and we learned what that meant as it was a very hazardous narrow and winding Horseshoe curves and as I remember there were 80 bridges in that 35 miles. That wouldn't have been so bad but they were just one way bridges and only one lane for cars going both ways to cross over them, so the first car to be going either way had to stop and wait for the car that got to the bridge first. It took us 2 and one half hours to get to Hana, but it is the most beautiful 2 and a half hours of driving possibly in the whole world. It was beginning to get dark so we were afraid to stop to enjoy the dozens of Water falls and rivers around every curve. We finally came to the Picturesque little town of Hana and we found a Little white L.D.S. Church and a nice little white home where the Missionaries lived while serving in Hana.

The Little white cottage was beautiful to us and the bed felt so good to us after the hard day we had trying to survive the road to Hana. We put the twin beds together and that was my first experience of sleeping with my missionary companion and I found it wonderful. We had papayas growing all around the yard. They are the favorite fruit of both LaRue and me. There were so many of them and they grow all year so they never run out. There were also plenty of bananas and some avocados and some other fruits. So we had a piece of Paradise that completely surrounded us there in Hana. The Ocean was right across the road from us so the waves lulled LaRue to sleep every night. I would turn off my Hearing aids and I never could hear them so they didn't help me one way or another. It would rain almost every day so we never had to water our trees or lawn. We had a lot of lawn and it was beautiful.

La Rue doesn't like the picture of the horse shadow in my Life History, so I will discontinue it until further notice.

I just read our first month of my Missionary journal and both LaRue and I couldn't believe the many things that we did and could accomplish in one month. We practically tracted out the whole town of Hana and some of the near by small villages. We held and gave discussions about every day and had one commitment for a young man to be baptized and along with this we sanded and varnished all of the doors in our little mission home. Some painting and scrubbing of walls and Windows. Put new toilet and sink and shower in our bathroom, and scrubbed all of the kitchen cupboards and the Range and Refrigerator which were covered with grease and grime and we made them look like new. LaRue really made that little cottage into a nice home and we were proud to have people come in for discussions. We started Every Member a Missionary program in the Branch and started a tradition of having a branch potluck dinnereach month. LaRue was feeling a little blue as she didn't think that we had done very much good while on our Mission to Maui, but after reading of some of the things we did do and all of the tracting we did in our first month. We were both amazed at all the things that we did in that one month. All of the tracting we did and the reactivating of several of our Branch Members. We both feel a lot better about the many things we did do while we were there in Hana.

I read about one little experience we had about the first week we were in Hana we had a phone call that our new Toyota had been shipped and would be in Kahului in the afternoon of that day. Our weeks rental on our other Toyota was up on this day so we decided that we had better return the car before we would have to pay another weeks rent. So we headed for Kahului to pick up our new Car. I reported earlier that it was a 2 and a half hour drive, and 80 one way bridges, but in reading my journal I found that it was 52 miles with a hundred one way bridges and a 3 and a half hour trip so I am correcting that error. We left as early as we could and got to the Barge in pretty good time and sure enough our new car was there. This next is one of the scariest times of our Mission. I told LaRue to follow me and I would take her to the Car rental agency and we would drop off the Rental car before heading back home to Hana. I had forgotten to give her the name of the car rental agency or the address or phone # and just knew I would keep her in sight and she could follow me right to the agency. I couldn't believe that what happened next could ever happen but it did. We both lost sight of each other and it was real panic for me to try to find her. Kahului is a large city with dozens of Car Rental places, so for the next 2 to three hours I was busy calling the Police for help and all of the Rental agencies I could find. I even went back to the place where we picked up the new Toyota and thought she may go back there, but she didn't and I was really worried about what I had done to her and was about to call home and see if she had called anyone there. I decided to go back the last place that I had seen her and finally saw her parked off to the side of the road, which I was sure that I had been back over that road several times before and had never seen her, but she said she had been staying right there waiting for me to come back and get her. She was tired of sitting there, but was so much more calm and collected than me. I think that was the hardest time and I was worried more than any other time in my whole life. We took the rental car back and this time I kept my eyes on her every minute. We did our shopping and then headed back to Hana. We really did like the Toyota Corolla, and we enjoyed it all during the time we lived in Hana and the traveling we had to do over the most bumpy road in the whole world. Which was a 20 mile stretch of road that we had to travel to get to part of our district on the north of Hana.

We really enjoyed our Missionary work, and I was amazed at how LaRue was loved by all of the

members in the Hana Branch and not just those only, but she made tracting real easy as we hardly ever were turned away from homes. They would invite us in and welcome us like we were long lost family coming to visit. That was different than the tracting we used to do when on Stake Missions. Our invitations to come in were few and far between and the way we were received was not often very productive. I want to mention that as we returned to some of the homes in Hana, we noticed a little difference in the warm receptions that we were used to and we finally were told that the ministers of the other Churches were following behind us and telling our contacts that we weren't Christians and that they should not listen to anything we said. This was very disappointing and a little discouraging but we were still having some success in convincing some that the Book of Mormon was another witness that Jesus is the Christ. We were still holding meetings with some of our investigators which were always a joy to us.

My 66th birthday came on Jan. 27th and that was a preparation day for us so we did something that we had wanted to do and that was to drive up to the top of the Mountain, Haleakala Volcano, which I believe was over 11,000 ft above sea level. It was raining, but we decided to go anyway. It was 27 miles from the base of Haleakala to the top and it was all pretty steep. When we got a little over half way up we broke through the rain clouds and the sun was shining beautifully, and we found ourselves looking down on the clouds instead of looking up through the rain. The Crater was awesome as I think it covers 112 square miles and is the largest Volcanic crater in the world. We were now over 10,000 ft about sea level and after ooooohing and awwwwwing for a long while we decided to drive up to the Observatory which was on up another 1000 ft or so. They have a beautiful and large complex of Observatory buildings and huge telescopes up there. From this point we were able to see the Big Island of Hawaii and Molokai and Oahu, and also the East side of Maui and the cities down there. We never did get to go clear around the Island as it is very large and the road ended before going all the way around. This was one birthday that I will never forget.

We were wondering at the several large trailers loaded up with bicycles and were told they were for rent for the 27 mile down from top to bottom of Haleakala. The road is crowded with bicycles of people riding in large groups and followed by a scout car to keep people from passing the cyclists riding down that narrow road and all they would have to use is their brakes. We never did see any runaway bicycle off ramps though so I guess they all seemed to make it safely to the bottom. I think they would have to put new brake pads on after each trip however. It sure looked like a lot of fun and a thrilling ride to the bottom. They would be going so fast that there was never a need for a car to try to pass them.

On the way back to Hana we stopped and watched some of the surf board riders trying to master some of the largest waves that could be imagined. There were dozens of surf boarders, and they would do beautifully a lot of the time until a huge wall of foam and water would hit them and I don't think that there was one of them that didn't get wiped out when that big wall would hit them they were gone. I don't see how they could survive, but some how they did. It was really a lot of fun to watch them and we spent a long time watching them. And then we had a long road back to Hana, where we had a very interesting meeting with Michael Ward. He was a lot of fun to teach and was always very attentive and knowledgeable and we committed him to baptism, for Feb. 27th which was on LaRues birthday. We had cake and Ice Cream, played some games and to bed. A very nice 66th birthday.

On one of our days of tracting we found a Young Woman who was house sitting a very large and beautiful home overlooking the ocean and surrounded by flowers and shrubs that it is hard to describe the beauty of it. I wanted to mention that some of the rich people from the United States had homes they built in and around Hana as the name Hana means Heaven. Thus the name Heavenly Hana. There is a sign in some beautiful gardens that covers a hundred acres or so that says this spot is the nearest place to Heaven on the Earth and that God took a little bit of Heaven and dropped it in these gardens. I think one of the interesting homes overlooking all of this beauty is the home of Charles Lindburg, LaRue and I walked through his beautiful home and gardens and had our lunch there. The Lindburgs have their graves there in their lovely flower gardens, over looking the blue waters of the Pacific.

Not too far from this place in what is called The Seven Pools. This is a nice slow running stream of warm water and there are seven nice pools like big dishes scooped out of the stone and people really love swimming in them, and most of them get used by a lot by swimmers, but not missionaries, darn!!!!!

Our Hana Branch met down at the sea shore for the baptism of a really cute little Hawaiian boy Lemuel Diego. His dad and an uncle went out far enough to be beyond the largest waves where they could perform the baptism with out getting swept over by the big waves. They really make a big affair out of birthdays and baptisms. They had a feast all prepared and it was a time of eating and visiting after the baptism.

We had some nice tennis courts in Hana and LaRue and I played a little tennis on some of our preparation days. She was pretty good and we had a lot of fun. She got so she followed through with her strokes pretty good. We made some good friends and some missionary contacts on the tennis courts and were able to have a lot of gospel conversations and held some good cottage meetings with some of the people that we met there. We also held investigator meetings in our Chapel and showed many of our films, such as AChrist in America@, Johnny Lingo and others, we had a lot of these good Church missionary video's . We had them for the members and also for their non member friends. We planted a lot of seeds and had a lot of interesting discussions with many people.

On one of our days of tracting my missionary companion LaRue had a very scary, what we thought could have been a heart attack. We let her rest for a couple of days and then President Parry said we had better fly her over to Honolulu and we could stay with them in their home while we were seeing the Doctor and seeing if we could find something to help her as she was having a lot of angina pain and it was very severe at times. We were grateful for a little Airport that could handle small planes and fly passengers in between all of the Islands. We made arrangements to fly over to Honolulu and it was really a fun day of flying as we passed over the Island of Molokai and I pointed out the trail we used to ride horses down to get to the Leper Colony at Kalaupapa. That was 46 years ago when I was District President of the Island of Molokai. We were staying with President Parry and his family of I think 5 children and they were so fun to visit with. We were very concerned and worried about LaRue and we finally got her to the Doctor and he was very concerned, and gave her a prescription that seemed to be helping, but told her to rest for a few days before flying back to Hana. We really did enjoy President Parry and family and they had a very nice room for us to stay in and Sister Parry fed us really good and made us feel that we were welcome in their home.

We flew back over to Hana determined that after a blessing from President Parry, that we would do our very best to stay on our mission and do all we could for the little Branch in Hana. We continued doing our missionary work, but it was sometimes very hard for us as LaRue continued to have her heart pain and neck problems and at times was really just too bad to hardly leave the Mission home. We did continue to teach and hold cottage meetings in our mission home and were making a lot of progress with some of our contacts. I think I would like to just copy a few things from my actual Journal pages that I was keeping on our mission. This is starting on another page of my Journal and I will just copy some of them.

Mon: 3-9-87/ LaRue and I got up early and as she was feeling a little better after her terrible heart problem we thought that we would at Pres. Parry's inviting us to a Couples conference in Honolulu, try to go. He had mailed us tickets to fly from our small Hana Airport to Honolulu. And he knowing of all of our problems with LaRue's heart wanted LaRue and me to stay with his family in their home until we could get her to a good Doctor and have some tests run on her. So we were at the Airport at 7:30 am. The plane ride took us 12 minutes to Kahului, then another 20 minutes to Molokai. I asked the Pilot to fly as close to the trail that led down to Kalaupapa the Leper colony and let me see it for the first time since I used to ride horses down the trail to Kalaupapa 47 years before when we went to visit the saints down in that isolated place. We arrived in Honolulu at 9:40 am. And sure enough there was Elder Frank Beebe and his wife waiting to take us to President and Sister Parry's. It was fun to see them again as Elder Beebe was also a Missionary with me 47 years before. We enjoyed a wonderful day of sightseeing and picture taking around Honolulu and Oahu with all of the couple missionaries that were arriving for the couple's conference. We visited the Pali where the wind is blowing perpetually and then some lovely Chinese flower gardens, Diamond Head and other fun places. The war memorial of World War 2, Korea and also Vietnam. Also Pearl Harbor and the sunken battle ships. Then to a very large Mall of a large variety of Restaurants. We chose Chinese and it was a very delicious meal.

All of the couples were invited over to President and Sister Parry's for a family home evening. I had an assignment of a ten-minute talk, on the birth, life and ministry of the Savior. I told of his birth in Bethlehem and the signs of his birth in America and how these signs saved the lives of the believers in America. Then his life and ministry and how he taught by parables and told of some of them. Sister Parry had written and composed a beautiful missionary song, and she and one of her sons sang it and it was so beautiful. His voice was a little like Ricky Tanner's voice, and we were all blessed by that beautiful song. We were then taken to the beautiful Pagoda Hotel where we studied and prepared for tomorrow's conference with President Parry at the Mission office building.

Tues 3-10-87. We were up early as LaRue had a bad night, probably from overdoing yesterday. Her heart pains were so severe that I called President Parry, who immediately called a Doctor Lawler (a Japanese Lady Doctor). Who was also a member of the Church and took care of Missionaries who needed help during times of illness. We were really impressed by her efficient and friendly way she treated LaRue. She took an electrocardiogram and some other tests, and wanted to put LaRue in the hospital for a week for further tests and observation. We wanted to get in on some of the Conference being held so we got to the Mission home in time for a good dinner and then to a 3 hour testimony meeting which was really a wonderful and spiritual meeting. President Parry tried unsuccessfully to contact Dr. Lawler, so being as LaRue was feeling a little better, we decided to fly back home to Hana.

It was a big relief for us to be back in our nice mission home in Hana. Though is appears that we will have to go back to Honolulu very soon if LaRue continues to have these terrible pains. Dr. Lawler wants us back for an angiogram, and other tests.

Wed. 3-11-87---- LaRue had a pretty good day today. Dr. Lawler called and told LaRue to stay down and get lots of rest and very light exercises. So today we walked slowly along the Ocean trails at Wainapanapa. It was a gorgeous day and we really enjoyed watching the very large waves exploding in huge clouds of spray and foam. We then came home for a 6:30 pm. Appointment for Discussion #4 with William Tyler and Susie his wife. At about 7:15 He called and said they wouldn't be coming tonight. What a drag. He rescheduled his appointment for tomorrow night at 8 pm. We both mentioned that we were feeling a little uneasy about the Tyler's.

Thurs. 3-12-87: This morning LaRue is sleeping in, after having had a bad night and is not sleeping good at all. We put hot towels on her head and neck and a lot of tender loving care. We see some slow improvement each day and think the lifestream may be working on her heart and we feel she may be healing some and for which we are very grateful as we surely don't know much about what is happening to her. We are surely grateful for the prayers and special fast of all of our family. She seems so much happier now and has a more positive attitude, which is a great blessing to us. We are still doing a lot of phoning and some teaching appointments and we feel good about what we are doing. Especially with the two lovely families Kelieliocumeni's and Kanakaoli's & others. If just these two families or even one of them are baptized, it would be a great blessing to them and to Hana Branch.

At the appointed time of 8 pm, came and passed and the Tylers didn't show by 8:20 I decided to walk down to their trailer home which is parked on the property of one of the largest churches in Hana, called the Grace Community Church. just a short distance from our chapel. There was William our working in the yard. I asked him if he was coming to his appointment and he said no, that his minister had talked him out of it. He asked me to wait for a minute and he went in their house and a lady Minister named Mary came to the door. We talked for nearly an hour, and I felt sorry for her and William as they have so little and we have so much. All they could come up with is the Kingdom of God is with in you, and so many good things came to me to say to them, not in an arguing way, but I was very kind and bore testimony to the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was able to tell them about the Prophet Joseph Smith and his vision and the coming forth of the book of Mormon. While this was going on her Irate Minister Husband came out and joined in the conversation. I let him talk for several minutes until he cooled down and then I again was able to bear my witness of Joseph Smith and my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. How the Apostasy at the time of Christ from what they claimed was an Apostate Catholic Church, could only result in all the apostate churches in breaking away from an apostate Church, could only result in all of them together would all still be apostates, and the True and Living True Gospel would have to be restored. I asked them if they wanted to know of the true and Living Church. It was very apparent that they were wavering and weakened in their thinking of the Kingdom of God is within you. I asked this large and husky Minister if he thought or felt that his Church was perfect and he said emphatically no and said that he didn't think the perfect Church was on the Earth. I assured him that it was. I didn't realize I was talking to the two highest Ministers of the Grace Community Church, or I may not have been so bold in telling them so many good things about the True Church.

Friday 3-13-1987 I think I would like to copy a few more of my journal pages in Hawaii, when LaRue and I were on our mission there.

LaRue had another bad night and this morning we had a call from Dr. Lawler in Honolulu and she was warning us not to let her do anything strenuous even walking while tracting. So we had our study period and worked around the Mission Home. Dr. Lawler called in a new prescription which I picked up at the Health Clinic, and LaRue is now taking this for the first time. Hopefully it will help. I did a lot of calling and prosyliting of some of our neighbors. We also set up another meeting with Michael Ward who is a joy to teach as he always is humble and always gives the right answers. He also told me for the first time that these two Ministers I had talked to were William Tylers Aunt and Uncle. That made it a little Awkward for the Tyler's to be coming to our meetings and taking discussions from us. But they still wanted us to teach them. I'm glad that I didn't know they were such important ministers and the Relatives of William Tyler. It was a wonderful experience for me and one that I was glad that I had. I mention I and not we as my sweet companion is always with me and we are and have been together in all of our missionary labors. We had a wonderful meeting with Michael Ward. He is so humble and teachable that it is always a joy to work with him.. Friday the 13 turned out to be a great missionary day.

Saturday 3-14, We are still taking it pretty easy with Mom. She gets blue and discouraged and that makes me also that same way, so we try to get out by the ocean for at least a part of the day. It is just a short way in our car over some pretty nice roads down to Wainapanapa State Park with miles and miles of nice trails above the beautiful exploding white and foamy waves sending mist and spray sometimes hundreds of feet in the air and creating beautiful rainbows. I just can't say enough about Wainapanapa I don't think anywhere on earth can compare with the awesome power and beauty of water shooting out of many blowholes, many of them hundreds of feet in from the ocean and much higher in elevation. They remind us of many old Faithful Geysers going off all at one time. Today we played games and sat for hours watching the beauty of Wainapanapa.

I am still copying out of my Missionary Journal. Sunday 3-15- 87: This morning was a great one as LaRue was almost her normal sweet self. I went to our 8 am. Branch correlation meeting, and reported on our weeks Missionary activities and our encounter with the ministers. We also arranged our Member friendshipping meeting this coming Wednesday night. We feel these are our most successful ways of proselytizing. We got two beautiful families to teach from our first meeting and this will be our second one and we are showing one of our 8mm video tapes, AFamilies are forever@. We showed AHeavenly Fathers plan@, before and it was very successful. Our small Video camcorder, has really been a great blessing to us during our Mission as we can use it on any television at any time, and we have dozens of the Church video's and use them all of the time in our proselyting.

Brother Pascaia is really a great guy. He just had his Priesthood blessings restored to him after 9 years of repenting and trying to get them back. He and his family are so excited and happy as we worked with them to get his blessings restored. Bro Pascaia thought 9 years was a long time, but I guess it really needs to be impressed on some, of the serious matter of sin. Probably on all of us. I think there is a lot of wisdom and lessons taught not only to the persons themselves, but to every member of the Church. We surely wouldn't want it to be any other way. As it is a labor of love to try to help all back into the Church.

This has been the best day for LaRue for about 3 weeks and how good it is to see her feel even a little better, and to have some encouragement. We have hopes of better and better days for her. They are surely a great blessing to me also, as It is so hard on me to see her in so much pain. I'm sure Heavenly Father is mindful of her and is answering all of the prayers of our marvelous family for her.

Monday: 3-16-87: This morning we decided to write letters to our Families and in our weekly Report to Pres Perry we wanted him to know we are still very concerned about Sister Gurr, and were waiting for a call from him about the findings of Dr. Lawler and his decision for us to come to Honolulu for further testing.

I did some calling by phone and got an appointment with Ben Perry tomorrow at 10:00 am. for discussion #4. He has been hard to catch but promised to be home this time to keep his appointment. We also got an appointment for Wednesday at 11 am. With Wilson and Colleen Kanakaole for Discussion #2 and part of Discussion # 3.

We finished getting our letters out to the family and this evening we went to the home evening at Jerome Diego's, Kent Lewis was there (a non member) and we had a very good conversation and invited him to our Bring a friend meeting Wednesday and he told us he would be there. Also a John ? And A Sophronia? We invited them to our bring a friend meeting and see the video AFamilies are Forever,@ and they said they would be there, but that was their wedding day and they would have to wait for the next meeting. They were really a beautiful young Man and Woman. We were invited to their Wedding and also to their reception to follow. They were so cute when they assured us that if the reception was over early enough they would be to the Bring a Friend meeting. Can you believe that on their Wedding day?

They were later some of our favorite investigators.

Tues 3-17-87 This morning in companion study we went over Discussion 4 and #2 for Wilson and Colleen Kanakaole. Discussion #4 for Ben Perry. We had a good breakfast of whole kernal cooked wheat which we cook over night and it is very good with our delicious papaya's. We had another bomb with Ben Perry at 11 am. So we came back to the Mission home and found a Brother and Sister Andrew's who are visiting Hana. They were missionaries in Hana 2 years before and spent 7 months here and it was a joyful time for them to see Brother Phillips and Brother Pahukoa, as they baptized them when they were here. A year ago the Andrew's came to Hana and went through the Temple when these two brothers and their wives who were sealed for Time and Eternity. Brother Pahukoa is now executive Secretary to the Branch President Bergau, and Brother Phillips is Branch Clerk. We had a nice visit with Brother and Sister Andrew's. They leave for home in Salt Lake City tomorrow from Kahului.

Wednesday 3-18-87. This Morning we studied Discussion #2 For Wilson and Colleen Kanakaole and also for our 6:30 Bring a friend night. We were at the Kanakole's at 11:00 am. And no one home that was a real disappointment. We drove down to the airport and on the way back we saw that Colleen had come home so we gave her discussion #2. She is very cute and gave all the right answers to all of the questions that we asked her. She gave a positive yes when we asked her to commit to Baptism. She is a Catholic and has a lot of hangups and questions, but she wants to be baptized. On the way back home we stopped at Heavenly Hana Inn and Invited Kelly and her husband to Bring a Friend night, tonight. We also invited Kent Lewis and stopped by Keliihoomalu's to confirm our Discussion #4 tomorrow.

Life History Continued recorded 10-31-98

I think I will continue copying from my Missionary Journal to include the last week or two of our mission in the Hawaiian Islands. Some of you will be wondering why I am including day to day, but this was a very important time of our lives and our Mission was rapidly coming to an end and there is only a few more days to our coming home to Mesa. Please bear with me and skip over as much of this as you want to. I am copying from my actual Journal pages as I kept them at that time.

Thursday: 3-19-87: This morning LaRue is not too good so we or I made a few phone calls and talked to William Tyler for over an hour helping him with some of his questions and concerns. I also gave him a letter to give to his Aunt Mary and Mathew the Ministers of his church. He says he feels like he is in a tug of war between the Church of Jesus Christ and his Pentecostal ministers.

We thought of a few things we needed to do and then prepared for Robert and Cynthia discussion

#5: A Living a Christ Like Life.@ They were extra cute and receptive and gave all of the right answers to all of our questions. Sister Gurr gave Lesson 5 and did a good job. All of us felt the Spirit strongly and even Sam Roberts Brother seemed to want to be part of the discussion. It was a very rewarding meeting for all of us. LaRue seems to be feeling a little better, so we are going to try to make her 1st trip to Kahului tomorrow, for the first time for a few weeks. We will also have dinner with the Pahukoa's in Keanai about half way to Kahului.

Friday 3-20- 87------ We got up early, packed a good lunch and headed for Kahului. It was raining for a big part of the day and the weather was so lovely. The worst part of the road is about the 1st 20 miles to Keanai. That is really rough road, narrow and one way bridges. LaRue was amazing and we ate our lunch in a beautiful park and then went shopping. LaRue bought herself 2 nice mumus, and I bought a pair if shoes and a pair of blue pants. We then went grocery shopping as our supplies at our mission home is getting pretty skimpy to say the least. We then went to our Dinner appointment with the Pahukoa's and it was delicious. We then had a cottage meeting with them and showed them our film of Sean and Saphronia's beautiful wedding and they really loved it so much. LaRue rode in the back on some soft pillows and I drove 10 to 15 miles per hour on the last 20 miles home, like I had a case of eggs on the top and driving that slow She almost went to sleep and we were happy that she could make the trip at all and still feel like it wasn't too awfully bad for her.

Sat: 3-21-87 I had an appointment to play tennis with a courteous and nice young man in his late 20's or early 30's. His name John Williams and he was the Chief Engineer of the only hotel in Hana. He wasn't the best tennis player, but I was able to talk with him and plant a few seeds and answer some of his questions and concerns. We made an appointment for more tennis next Saturday. LaRue and I had a 2 hour meeting with Michael and gave him a lot of things to pray about. He is still struggling with a lot of doubts, hangups and probably sins. We also made reservations for our plane trip to Honolulu next Wednesday for more heart tests for LaRue.

3-22-Sun: We had correlation meeting this morning and Brother Keala of the Stake High Council was there. We had a good meeting and he was very impressed by the success of our, weekly bring a friend night and our showing of different Church Videos and the discussions we were having from showing them.

William Tyler came by and got me out of Priesthood meeting and says he wants to take the last two missionary discussions and then make the commitment to be baptized. He is between a rock and a hard place with his Minister Aunt and Uncle trying to get him to stay in his Pentecostal Church. Right now Baker and Swaggart of the Pentecostal Church in America, are really lambasting each other. Swaggart says the whole Christian television ministry is about to collapse, Baker is as adamant that it won't and is hoping it will survive as he gets 57,000.00 a year and his wife gets 20,000.00 per year for a total of 77,000.00 and they surely don't want to lose that. They don't either one want to be excommunicated from their positions. We were just thinking how smoothly an excommunication takes place in the True Church of Jesus Christ. We can surely see the fallacy of preaching for as Paul puts it AFilthy Lucre@, and those who do, are like wolves entering the flock.

3-24-87:Dr. Lawler wants LaRue to come to the Queen's Hospital at ll am Wednesday so we have our plane reservations early so we can be sure and be there at that time. LaRue is in terrible pain and unless we can find some answers quickly we will surely have to be on our way home. We did have a nice discussion with Michael Ward and we think he is making some progress. Then we packed our suitcases for a possible few days stay in Honolulu.

3-25-87: We were up at 5:30 and wondered if we should call off our trip to Honolulu as LaRue was in a lot of pain and a bad headache on top of that. We finally decided we had better get her to the hospital and we drove down to the small airport and it was a beautiful morning and as we flew over Maui and Molokai we were so impressed by their beauty and waterfalls everywhere. The plane was a little rough and seemed to aggravate LaRue's pain in her heart and neck. We were to the hospital on time and Dr. Lawler was so concerned and helpful and spent much of the day running tests and trying to find some answers.

We stayed in President and Sister Perry's nice home while they went on a little vacation, I think to Hilo Hawaii. They had a soft King size bed and a bath by our bedroom so we were very well taken care of for 3 days and two nights in their beautiful home. If my dear sweetheart companion wasn't hurting so bad it would really be a wonderful time for us. We gave her a blessing and asked for relief for her, but it seemed like the answer is sometimes no, and we want to accept Heavenly Fathers wisdom even when it is no. . After the tests in the Hospital, Dr. Lawler suggested that we plan to be released from our mission and go home to Mesa and try to get answers for LaRue's terrible Heart pain and headaches. She told us she would recommend this to President Parry. 3-27-87. We decided we had better get back to Hana, so we kept our 6:30 am flight at the airport. It was a beautiful day, but the flight was hard for LaRue even though she enjoyed the beauty of flying over the Islands. It had been raining hard and the waterfalls were georgeous. Our car was still at the airport for us to drive to our mission home. We both thought it was more beautiful to us than the Mansion of President Parry. We have really enjoyed our beautiful mission home in Heavenly Hana. But because of the test results President Parry has suggested that we prepare to wind up our affairs here in Hana and prepare to leave our mission and head for home. This breaks both of our hearts as we so wanted to finish our Mission. We will surely miss the good people of this lovely mission we have had the privilege of serving in.

Our last 3 days in Hana. Copying from my Missionary Journal.

March 28-87: This morning after a very painful and hard night for my Sweetheart companion, we made our final decision that the Lords answers to our prayers and fasting is sometimes no. But as he closes one door he always apens others. He always has for us and we recognize his hand and blessings to us from day one in our lives, and I don't ever remember one time in my life that I have ever questioned him, even when I fell off the rood and was suffering the worst agony I had ever felt.

I called Pres Parry this morning and explained to us that we had better go right home immediately. He said he would call Murdock Travel and they would call us Monday and for us to be packed and ready to leave Monday or Tuesday. So today I have been busy and tonight we have most of our suitcases all packed and in the car ready to go at a moments notice. LaRue has helped as much as she could, but is so weak from so much pain it was just too much for her. Dr. Lawler was so concerned that she called our little medical center here in Hana and prescribed some different medication. She took some and it seemed to help some. Cynthia Keliihoomalu was at the medical center and I had a nice visit with her. She is so cute. She seems to love this gospel and is so ready for it. Tears ran down her face as she tells me how she is trying to teach and convince her friends of it also. Robert her husband is so nice also and will make a wonderful leader here. He has two brothers Peter and Sam and they too are receptive and seem so ready for the missionaries. Robert is and entertainer and so are his brothers. Cynthia is coming to church tomorrow. It will be kind of a farewell for us. Then at 2pm they are coming over for their last discussion #6. What a choice family, we are feeling bad that we won't be here for their baptism.

Sunday 3-29-87: We had another bad night for mom. We were up at 3am. Putting hot towels on her heart area to try to help relieve the terrible pain she was having. She is never completely free of this terrible pain, but is able to bear it when it even lets up a little bit. She did receive some help from the hot packs and the new medication. She was able to attend our testimony meeting at 10 a.m. We both bore our testimonies and told the Branch of our having to go home. There are some really special people here in Hana and we will always remember our marvelous experiences here. After Church Pres and Sister Bergau came over to tell us goodbye, and told us they would write to us and tell us of the progress made in getting a satelite receiver for the Hana Branch. This has been a priority for Mom and me as the Hana Saints miss so many of the special firesides and conferences and Church broadcasts and we told them we want to help raise the money for this project. Michael Ward came to church today. At 4 p.m. Robert and Cynthia came over for the 6th and last discussion. Cynthia says she is ready for baptism, but she explained that Robert is not quite ready and she wants to wait so they can be baptized together. They are already keeping all of the commandments, and are such a beautiful couple and their little baby girl is just so beautiful. They put tealeaf leis on Mom and me and gave us long hugs and a big kiss. They make it all worthwhile. We then had a 6:30 P.M. Fireside and showed our video AMorality for Youth@, We had 20 people there and they were very impressed. Then the Diego Family invited us up to their home and wanted us to show our Video of the Wedding of Sean and Sophronia. They were all delighted when they could see themselves on T.V. I had most of the branch people on the video we made of the wedding. The were such a beautiful couple and all the branch members really love both of them. The Diegos gave us beautiful leis and big hugs and kisses and Ice cream and popcorn. Mom did pretty well today and her testimony was beautiful. Thanks Heavenly Father for a marvelous last Sunday in beautiful Heavenly Hana.

Our last day in Hana

Mon: 3-30-87 This morning we finished our packing about 9:30 A.M. William Tyler came to our door and wanted to know if I could baptize him before we leave Hana. Boy what a request. We would have to give him the last two discussions and get his interview and arrange the babtism all in this one day. We told him we didn't think it could be done. All in our last few hours in Hana. He asked us to call President Parry, which we did and he told us to try to arrange and do it. We had a busy 2 hours trying to get an interview for William with the Zone leaders. We could never get in touch with them so we called President Parry again and he said to have President Bergau interviews him. I called Pres. Bergau at his work and was blessed to get through to him. He said he would interview William at 5:P.M. And we could have the service at 5:30. So we called some of our members in the branch to arrange a program and service for the baptism. President Bergau took William into his office at 5 P.M. We had several people come for the service at 5:30, At 6pm they were still in the office. At 6:15 I knocked on the office door, and President Bergau tells me. I don't think there will be a baptism. There was a little disrespect between William and the Branch President and a personality clash. I was invited in and soon things smoothed out and every thing was O. K. So we had our service at 6:30 P. M. and we all drove down to the ocean beach and William and I went out into the big waves and in between waves I was able to baptize him. Pres Bergau confirmed him. It was a nice service and the weather was perfect, but it was getting dark. Well all of this was on our P. day and we still had some last minute packing, and had to clean our apartment before leaving early in the morning. It was after midnight when we finished. What a marvelous and busy last day in Heavenly Hana. Heavenly Father has given us so many blessings it is hard for us to comprehend. We will be home in Mesa at 11:59 P.M. tomorrow night. Thanks forever Our Father in Heaven.

Tues: 3:31-87. This morning we finished packing our car and were on our way to Kahului Where we would board a large D.C.10 at ll-A. M. I fixed LaRue on a bed of pillows in the back of our car for the our last trip over the 600 turns and curves and 54 one way bridges to Kahului. We stopped several times to let LaRue see the Marvels and beauty of the waterfalls and lush green and flowers of the road to Hana. We met the Elders after a hectic hour of our suitcases all opened and inspected and closed again and then checking them into Western Airlines. Today and tomorrow Delta Airlines is aquiring Western Air lines and they merge tomorrow. We left our nice little Toyota Corrola with the zone leaders, and our D.C.10 took off at 11 A.M. Because of the 3 hours time lost, it was dark when we arrived in Los Angeles. Where we waited for another hour before taking off in a D. C. 9 for Phoenix. We arrived right on time and there was most beautiful family in the world waiting with signs and balloons to welcome us home. They had all came over together in Jerry's Motor home and we were all so excited it didn't even matter that it was after midnight. We were excited to see our new little grand daughter Shala Nicole whom we had never seen before what a wonderful and exciting day this has been. Mom seemed to make the trip better than we thought she could and was as excited as any of us to see our wonderful family again. There were welcome home signs to the Worlds greatest Missionaries and colorful paper and balloons in our lovely home and to be with the greatest Family on earth. What a blessed family we are. We had a good night and slept so good on our wonderful soft bed in our own home and it was so much better than our bed in the Mission home in Hana. Our number one Priority now is to get Mom out of her constant pain and we will do anything that we have to until she is.

April 1st: We got the blocks out from under our new fifth wheel and Pickup today and getting it ready to Take LaRue to Las Vegas to a Dr. Vance. We had all of our family over to our home tonight and what a welcome home evening it was for Mom and Me.

After spending a few happy days enjoying our family who welcomed us home from our Mission so wonderfully, we began to pack our 5th wheel and getting ready to go to Las Vegas where a Dr. Vance had given us an appointment to take Chelation treatments. We were about to the end of our wisdom of what to do for Mom as she was still suffering so much pain in her heart, neck and back. We were at this time about ready to try anything. We had a Thousand Trails R.V. Park where we could stay without cost, so we stayed there. I think it was nearly a thousand dollars for those treatments and a shot in her neck cost another 350.00. That was a lot of money for a 3 minute shot. Well we had hopes but found that none of these things were any answer to our needs.

At this same time we decided to spend a week at Warm Springs that is just about 60 miles north of Las Vegas. They have natural warm water in a large pool and warm streams of water running every where and surrounded by beautiful Palm trees. Steve and Julie and Family and Kevin and Leesa and Shala met us there and stayed in our 5th Wheel with us and We really had a week together swimming riding our bicycles, Basket ball, throwing frisbees and playing games in the evening, in what seemed to me to be Paradise. Our 5th wheel had a slide out room and made a large living area and took care of all of us so well that none of us wanted that week to end. Tents, Trailers, Motor homes and 5th wheels have been a way of life for Mom and me, from the very beginning of our lives together and have brought a lot of joy and happiness to us and our family. This Dual rear wheel, one ton Pickup and 5th wheel was the first new R.V. that we had ever that we purchased new. It was a White and Dark brown pickup and the 5th wheel was also white and brown and they were beautiful together. We had a wonderful bed, even better than the one in our home, We had a generator and air conditioning, A large bathroom with a big tub and shower so we were always just about as comfortable traveling as we were at home.

Our home at 1212 E. 1st Street in Mesa was a large, comfortable home which we remodeled with a large Kitchen and new oak cupboards. We had a 9 ft. Satellite dish receiver so we were able to get all of our conferences so beautifully on our 50 inch T.V. screen. We could even get our Saturday night Priesthood session and Mom and some of our family members could also be at the Priesthood meeting for the first time in their lives. We had a large deep diving swimming pool with a higher than normal diving board so we were living very well, and our pool with all of our families using it was usually wall to wall with our wonderful families and Grand children We had irrigation so our Lawns and Garden always had plenty of water which we had all of the time. We had large lawns and there would be about a foot of water in them on irrigation days. I think all of the grandchildren enjoyed running through all of that water on the lawns even more than the swimming pool. We always raised a lot of tomatoes, squash, radishes, beets, beans, carrots, and lots of Swiss chard. We loved our home and so did all of the family. We had a large family room with lots of tables and we had a lot of birthday parties and thanksgivings and Christmas dinners in our lovely home.

Because of Mom and this lovely family, I was a happy man all of my life and so grateful for all of the joy of her and all of our Children. We had been on what we considered our best mission when we spent 5 years in Florida as President of the Vero Beach Branch. We built two lovely homes there and remodeled an empty furniture store in Vero Beach to be used as our Chapel. And I think I have mentioned before that the Sunday we were released and were moving to Mesa, we had over 120 members out to our Sacrament meeting. Many of the new converts have filled full time missions and one of them is Bishop. We really enjoyed our beautiful family when we settled down after our mission and the only thing to dim this joyous time was that Mom was still suffering so much pain that we finally had to do something, so we called a Doctor Vance in Las Vegas and got an appointment for some Chelation treatments that we thought may take away some of the heart pain and which he assured us it would. We spent a lot of time in our beautiful 5th wheel and parked most of the time in a Thousand Trails R. V. Resort in Las Vegas. Aquila a Mary Robinson were there and we visited them a lot while LaRue took her therapy there , and played games many of our evenings. Aquila was showing some signs of memory loss and had some problems, but seemed to really enjoy playing games and he would beat a lot of the time and that made him so happy. We had our home Coast to Coast Resort at Warm Springs resort just a little west of Glendale Nevada and it was a lot like Ash Springs. There was a natural warm water river coming right out of the mountain and ran through a nice really large and beautiful swimming pool and we parked our 5th Wheel trailer right one of the streams of warm water coming out of the mountain and then Parris and Lori and Steve and Julie and their wonderful families came down to Warm springs and we all stayed in our 5th Wheel for a few days and they loved the little warms streams running all over under the beautiful Palm trees. The manager kept the whole park just immaculate and spotlessly clean so it was really like a little Garden of Eden with beautiful plants and acres of lawns. I had to mention this Warm Springs because we spent time there every chance we got and of all of the beautiful Parks that Mom and I have been to. I don't think we ever stayed in any that we enjoyed like we did that wonderful R. V. Park We have had some wonderful trips to Florida before and after the time we lived there. We went on several trips to Mexico, and many trips to Canada and to Van Couver Island We took our Motor home on the Ferry out to Van Couver Island and to the Beautiful Bucharte Gardens About the most beautiful Flower Gardens possibly in the whole world as far as we know.

I would like to include in my History some of the beautiful trips and so memorable to me. On one of our trips to Mexico we went to Mexico City and Acapulco. In Mexico City we went to one of the most delightful, colorful costumes and Mexican dances and Ballet. That was one evening we will never forget. We walked through the City Park on one Sunday and the little Mexican and Indian girls were in fancy and beautiful white dresses and the little boys were dressed so cute. We were really impressed at the beauty of the people and how they dressed for Sundays. I will mention another memory of Mexico City that wasn't too pleasant. The noisy blaring of horns and the cars rushing to get ahead of each other. LaRue and I were walking one evening and I stepped off of a curb with out looking and I think the driver of that car actually tried to hit me and he would have if LaRue hadn't of pulled me back on the side walk just in the nick of time. On this trip we rode a bus down to Acapulco and that was one of the wildest rides we ever had as the driver seemed to think he had to fly low and the winding roads made LaRue so sick and she was just miserable with heart pain and headache. It was an 8 hour trip and he stopped the bus at one place and I thought I had better get Mom something to eat to see if she would feel better. I saw that the only food available at this stop was a large boiling pot of soup and every one was getting it but it was so sickening to me as the top was completely cover with dead boiling flies. The server had to push them aside to get to the soup and knowing Mom had to have something to eat I did get her a bowl without mentioning the flies. She ate it and offered me some, but I declined. She did feel better after the soup however and we were grateful for that. We finally got to Acapulco and it was hot and the first hotel we went to didn't have any air conditioning or screens on the windows and mosquitos everywhere in the room so we checked out of there and went to another nice looking Inn that overlooked the Beach and the Ocean and we checked in to there and it was really nice. And even with a nice swimming pool. We took a nice day aboard a ship that went out in the ocean and some Islands. We stopped at one place and the passengers threw coins in the water and the little Mexican and Indian boys would dive to the bottom and retrieve the coins. That was a lot of fun. We took a lot of pictures out on the ship of divers that would dive off of 200 foot high cliffs and took pictures of John Wayne's mansion upon some high cliffs. They had the ship stop out in the ocean out of sight of land and told us we could dive in the ocean and swim for awhile. I decided to do that and LaRue took pictures. She thought that it was so deep that if she went in she would go straight to the bottom and never come up. She found out later that she could stand in deep water and not only her head but her shoulders as well would be out of the water and she has a hard time getting her head under water. Well we had a great day of picture taking and watching the Pelicans diving all over for their fish dinners. We decided to go swimming at the beach which was just across a sandy beach to the water. We put my clothes and Camera etc. in a pile and I was out riding the waves and LaRue was standing over my clothes. We saw 3 Mexican young men running down the beach and when they passed LaRue they didn't even slow down but one of the swooped down and grabbed the pile of clothes and my camera and my wallet and other things were in my clothes so they got them all. I ran out of the ocean as fast as I could and ran after them and yelled at them to come back. When I was gaining on them I finally decided that I was glad that I didn't catch them or they may have had a gun or a knife and my swim suit would be of no protection what ever. We went to the police station and they told us we have to much and they have so little that they are entitled to whatever they could get from us and then they were really scary and we thought that they were going to put us in their jail. So we got out of there as quickly as we could and felt blessed that they let us get out of that place.

On another trip that we took to Mexico in our Motor home. We went with three other couples in their Motor homes. We spent about a week going down over the little narrow roads and staying in some of their R. V. Parks. We enjoyed that trip very much until we all decided to take one of their bus trips to some of the places of interest up in the Mountains and we found that the roads were un surfaced and if we had ever been on rough washboard roads before, they were smooth compared to this one and the bus felt like it didn't have and springs and the tires like they were made out of hard rubber with no air. That was a big mistake on that trip and that started LaRue's neck to get so bad that we were wondering what to do next. We were all parked on the beach in a nice R. V. Park and in a few more days our 3 friends decided they would be leaving and heading on home. We hated them to leave us, but we knew we couldn't travel with LaRue's severe neck pain so we decided to stay a few days longer and get her neck better. We stayed and tried to get her better but it seemed to be getting worse. So we made the decision to take her down to Puerto Viarta and fly her home to Mesa from there. We did that and when I put her on the plane and saw her taking off I took video of her taking off and that was so hard for me. That is when I sang the song of "There goes my reason for living, there goes my everything"@ I don't think I ever felt more alone in all my life than I did then, two thousand miles down in Mexico and having to go all the way all alone. Well on the way I drove night and day and on one of the nights as I was driving on those little narrow roads I came to a car parked in the middle of the road and a bunch of men waving for me to stop. I thought O boy I've had it, I stepped on the gas and some way got around that car and kept speeding down the road. They followed me for a long ways trying to catch me, but they finally gave up. How grateful I was for that the next day I was following behind a big truck hauling rocks. One of them flew off and hit the road and bounced up and hit the Front window in the Motor home. It was safety glass and it exploded into millions of pieces of glass and completely filled up the whole motor home with glass including the bed and so I just kept traveling until I got out of Mexico and in the good U. S. A where I felt like kissing the Ground. The beautiful smooth roads were about the most welcome as I came into Arizona and was so good to be getting close to Home. I was so grateful to find LaRue feeling better, and knew then that she really was my everything.

I will mention one other trip that we really did enjoy up to Lake Louise and Banff in Canada. This was in our 5th Wheel and Pickup and we went with Dean and Rosa Mae in their new Motor home. We did have some scary times when we hit a terrible hail storm and it sounded like it was tearing our Pickup and 5th wheel to pieces. All traffic had to stop including the large semi trucks. We were stopped for almost an hour before it eased up enough for us to travel again. We followed behind the large trucks and had to go slow through about a foot of Hail stones on the ground. Later we found out that Calgary had over 3 feet of hail and about the size of Golf balls. Destroying many buildings and roofs all over and they claimed that it did 14 billion dollars in damage. One of the worst in history. Well we finally go up to Lake Louise and Banff and we spent a very fun week with Dean and Rosa in a nice R. V. Park and we traveled a lot of miles to beautiful places around the area. The Mountains of Granite were so huge and the towering cliffs were gorgeous and the lakes and streams and towering mountains of ice and glaciers were of such magnitude that we will never forget that wonderful trip with Dean and Rosa Mae. I will mention that all of the skylights in Dean and Rosa's Motor home were destroyed by the hailstorm we came through and some of ours in the 5th wheel were also broken also many of the clearance lights were broken by that terrible hail storm.

I will mention one last trip that we took to Hawaii while we were living in our 1212 E. 1st South St. home in Mesa. LaRue and I decided to go with 3 other couples in our 15th Ward to Hawaii for a month and live in the B. Y.U. Dormitories out by the Cultural Center and the Hawaiian Temple. About 3 days before we were to board our plane in Los Angeles, we decided to call our good friends, Tom and Barbara Larsen in Pleasant Grove, He was our Bishop and I was his first counselor, and we had been on many trips with them, we happened to mention that we were going to Hawaii for a month, and to our Surprise they wanted to know if they could go with us. The next 3 days were hectic, but they did all of their packing and got their tickets and met us at the airport in Los Angeles. We spent a whole month swimming on the beach and going free to the Cultural Center every day and to the Temple often. We enjoyed the Temple as the film was portrayed with the cutest Hawaiian couple who did a wonderful job. The reason that I am telling about this particular trip is the experience that LaRue and I had one day as we wanted to hike up to Sacred Falls with was a few mile north of where we were staying. We rode the bus to where the trail started at a store at the bottom of the trail. It had been raining hard all day up to that time and they warned us of the many dangers of the trail as it had a river that had to be crossed several time to get the 7 miles up to Sacred Falls. We still felt like we wanted to hike up there so they gave us a warning that we should not take any pictures of the falls as there were superstitions of evil spirits that many people that had tried to take pictures had died with in two weeks after. Well we still wanted to go so we started out. We had on old clothes for crossing the rivers several times and the weather and water was warm and not uncomfortable when wading across the waist deep water. We passed some young men who had been up there and on their way back, and they warned us that it was too dangerous and that we should turn around and go back. Something kept pushing for us to go on up so we traveled up to a waterfall coming down about 200 ft. In a half round hollowed out straight up and down walls. It was magnificent and I just had to take some pictures of it. As I took a picture my feet flew out from under me and something pushed my face down on to a large rock and to protect myself I put my right arm under my face to protect my self. I thought of the warnings and then felt that unseen force trying to grind me down into that rock and I began to think of evil spirits. I found my shoulder injured severely and a lot of pain. I still wanted to press on up to the Sacred Falls as there was just one more crossing of the river so I didn't mention it to LaRue and we went on up. As we crossed the river I waded out to the middle and held out my left arm and we made it across the river even though it was very swift there. When we had walked just another short distance we were thrilled by the beauty of Sacred Falls. Then I told Mom of my badly injured arm. I ask her to give me a blessing and at the same time pray for the place to be freed from any evil that may be up there. She gave a beautiful prayer and I would really like to go up there again and I'm sure it is a better place now than it was then. Well out of all of the hundreds of trips and outings we have had that was one of our most memorable and we have had a lot of memorable trips. I think this is all that I will include in my life History of the places we have been.

When I retired from plastering and Bob and I were working for National Communications Network. This was a company that Jerry was just starting and wanted Bob and I to help in. It seemed like it was going real well so we felt it was a good opportunity for us and for Bob as he wanted to quit the Plastering business. It seemed like we did so well as partners that Jerry thought that we could have enough money to start building ourselves new homes. Mom and me decided we liked a lot out in Sunny Mesa one 4645 E. Gable Circle. It was a lovely green lot with about 30 or 35 Navel Orange trees on it. It was two thirds of an acre and in the Sunny Mesa Ward, which is a very beautiful Ward building. Lots were selling for 40,000.00 but we picked out the lot we wanted and we finally got it for 35,000.00. We then picked us out our dream home plan and also had some bids on building it. Including the basement which we have always wanted and the Garage and an indoor spa and a swimming pool just off of our main Bedroom, we ended up with nearly 4000 square feet in our home. It turned out so beautiful with 16 mature Navel orange trees just loaded with beautiful sweet navel oranges, and a nice large drive way back to a concrete pad for our 5th wheel and a 3 car Garage. Mom and I thought that this must be our Celestial Home. We really had a lot of nice family Parties and had some of the family members living with us some of the time and I think about all of them spent some time with us and enjoyed our wonderful indoor pool. It had hard jet streams of water coming out one end of it and not many swimmers could make much headway when swimming against this current that we could make it an easy current or like a rushing river. It was really great. All of the families enjoyed the lush Navel oranges that we always had plenty of.

We were in the Sunny Mesa Ward and we really enjoyed this Ward as Jerry and Caroline were also in the Sunny Mesa Ward and we really enjoyed being with their great family each Sunday. We were all enjoying a wonderful prosperity from our N. C. N. Long distance business, so every thing was looking rosy for us. And we were very happy in our Dream home.

I haven't felt the urge to write in my life history for several months, but for some reason it came to me that I must finish my life history and it has been flooding over me the many events that have shaped my life so much. So I am going to inject some of the many feelings that I have been having even in my dreams. So here goes.

As I have been telling of all of the traveling and fun trips that we have had in our R. V. S. I may have left the impression that we didn't have time for any thing else. So I hope that our family will not think I am boasting when I write down a few of my feelings of the love I have for Heavenly Father, His son Jesus Christ and the Gift of the Holy Ghost which are my very choicest gifts and then my wonderful wife LaRue and then my wonderful Family, all of our Children, 62 Grandchildren according to our last count, and 63 with Parris and Lori and 64 with Kevin and Leesa. I think we have counted 29 Great Grandchildren and know of others on the way and they are just getting started. These are wonderful gifts to Mom and me. We love each and every one so much.

Then with all of our fun things we have done you may think we have neglected the important service in the marvelous Restored Church of Jesus Christ. Again I hope I don't give the impression of boasting but only the Great love and Gratitude I have for my Mother and Dad and Brothers and Sisters for their love for the Gospel and helping make it the most important thing in our lives. I will mention just a few things and callings that we have had in this marvelous work and a wonder. These I mention will be just a few of the callings that we have had. I was president of a deacons Quorum, President of a teachers Quorum and President of a Priests Quorum. I was an Elders Quorum President over 3 different Elders Quorums, I was President over 3 different quorums of Seventies. I was in three High Priests Quorums presidencies and Group Leader of one of them. I have been in three Bishoprics and was Branch president of a Branch for 5 years in Florida. I have been on 2 Full time missions or if we count the 5 years in Florida as a mission it would be 3 Full time missions. I have been on five Stake Missions and have had the privilege of many Baptisms. I have worked in the Temple as a vale worker and was officiator in many sessions. And as a High Priest Group Leader I took my weekly turn of pushing a Blind Brother of five sessions a day. I do have regrets that I have never worked in the Temples as a full time Temple worker. Mom and I have always enjoyed singing in the choirs of the many Wards we have been in. I remember also that I was Sunday School Superintendant that was before they called them President of Sunday Schools. I was also a Scout Master and took my Scouts on many wonderful outings and some of them pretty scary. When my Dad was Bishop of Caliente Ward President Grant Dedicated our Caliente Ward Chapel and he came to our home and also to LaRues home as her dad was a counselor to my Dad who was the Bishop. I remember going to Conferences in the Tabernacle and the first statistics that I remember for the total Church membership was 320,000 members. There are now ten and a half million members.

As I mentioned before memories really come rushing into my mind and I may have mentioned many of these things before in my life History, but I will just give a quick run down of some of these Memories. My life has not been with out many challenges and a lot of pain and hard work. When I was 12 I had Scarlet fever and then turned into Reumatic fever and there was 2 years that I couldn't run or walk and even missed a year of school and had to do my school lessons at home. When my Dad was so ill for a year or two, I had to drive the School bus for him to our High School in Panaca and go to school all day and then drive it home. I enjoyed doing that however. But then I worked several hours at J. C. Penny's store each night when I got home. To take care of the Family needs. During one summer I hauled wood all summer from the Caliente mountains and stacked it higher than the house and about 40 foot long and 20 ft. wide. We were living in a Basement home at the time. We would saw up the wood and sell it during the winter. I remember being soaked with perspiration when I was hauling every day and I was about 16 years of age at this time and not as strong as I should have been because of Scarlet and Reumatic fever. So when the load of wood on the truck was about 10 foot high or so I would strain on those big logs of wood until I would see stars and then black out momentarily until I rested and then tried again. Well what I am getting to was that one day I went to Cedar which is a hundred miles from Caliente and it was very dark and late when I got home and found the Basement in which we lived filled with water and the Refrigerator and beds and furniture floating around in the water. I was very frightened at the sight and also very alarmed when I saw that every stick of my entire summer of hauling wood was gone. They had one of the worst floods in the history of the town of Caliente come through while I was gone to Cedar I was so relieved when I found all of my family were safe and staying with neighbors. Another time when I was on my first mission to Hawaii Missionaries were allowed to swim as this was before Air conditioning and we would ride our bicycles all day and come home after our days missionary work and meetings and then run down the beach and into the ocean to cool off. It was hot all year in Hawaii. On this one night when it was dark we did the same thing and got in a real strong under tow that pulled us out a long way from shore and as the big waves hit us they rolled us up through some real terrible Coral beds and we thought that would be the end for us. In between waves we prayed and finally a huge wave came and pushed us up far enough that we were able to finally get out. We were both cut up pretty bad from the sharp coral beds, but were grateful to be alive. On another occasion we went swimming in some huge waves and they would pick us up and then drive us head first down into the sand and about break all of our bones. We learned later after we got out of there that they had to take two soldiers to the hospital on stretchers with broken backs, just before we came. We wish we had heard that earlier as we almost got our backs broken and we didn't go in that beach again at least on that day. On Dec. 7th l941 the Japanese Bombed Pearl Harbor and that was on a Sunday while we were in Church. The army called on the young men missionaries to help in a lot of guard duty work. We were given Garand rifles and shown how to use them. I and my companion were assigned to night guard duty way up on the Side of Mauna Kea in a little guard shack with a telephone and had to report any lights that appeared on all of the Island that was in our view. When we came home on the U.S.S. Mount Vernon sig sagged all the way to California. Through one of the worst Pacific Storms in memory. It threw overboard more than 40 chained down automobiles and much other equipment. The Ship would be thrown up high on a wave and then come crashing down and sounded like it was ripping apart. There were over 10,000 soldiers on that ship and I think every one of them were all seasick. The first 2 days I thought I would die and the next 3 days I was afraid I wouldn't and most others stayed in our bunks the whole trip, and I have never been that sick before or since. I have had Morning sickness with LaRue and it was a pleasure compared to that. My dad was blessed with strength to work as a fireman on the railroad and he was able to send me 50.00 a month all during my mission for over two years. We had to live on Poi and rice and avacados that grew wild over there and Papayas and Bananas, so 50.00 a month was adequate but none to waste.

My Mission President Waldron told me if I wasn't married with in three months after returning home I would be breaking the commandments. When Mom who was working at Hill Field air Force base in Ogden came to Caliente and I saw her I knew for sure that she was the one so before the 3 months were up My Sweet LaRue and I were Married in the St. George Temple on November 25th l942. The greatest of all my days. She has made me the world's happiest man. Then and all of our 57 years of joy together. In our 1st year we were blessed with Bob born in Salt Lake City and then moved to Caliente where I started to learn the plastering business with Mortimer Willis, LaRue's Dad. My draft board was in Hawaii and they never did bother me, but I felt that I needed to help with the war effort so I went down to Los Angeles to enlist in something, but they told me they needed airplane tires so bad they were wondering if I would build airplane tires instead of go into the service and of course just being married I was so happy I could still be with my family. So I spent the next few years building Airplane and large truck tires at B. B.F. Goodrich tire company in East Los Angeles. We bought a lot in Bandini and we built our first little home there. Patricia was born in Montebello where we rented before building. I was asked to supervise the building of an addition of a Recreation hall and several new classrooms. Mortimer Willis had taught me how to run plaster molds so I run a lot of plaster molds in the new addition on our Chapel. This was the beginning of my life long work as a plasterer and Plastering contractor. One of the High Council members or our Stake, AF. F. Kunz was a plastering Contractor of Commercial Buildings and he was so impressed with my plastering and plaster molds in the new addition to the Montebello Chapel and asked If I would work for him. We worked for him for many years and purchased a nice large two lots with two homes on them and I remodeled them and they were beautiful homes. Soon I was put in as foreman on many of his large buildings, which included the Beverly Hills Hotel about the biggest of all of the Projects I did. The Mount Sianai Hospital, The Los Angeles Post Office, Many large buildings on the U.C.L.A. Campus and the U. S. C. Campus also hundreds of smaller jobs and school buildings all over southern California. We had Howard W. Hunter as our Stake President and he joined us in watching the Rose Parades on platforms with chairs built on top of our plastering trucks and in the middle of the street where we had the best view of the beautiful Rose Parades on each new years day. We helped do some plastering on some of the outside walls of the Los Angeles Temple and all of the plastering on our East Pasadena Ward Chapel. One of the Largest Chapels I think in the Church. It was beautiful. Patricia, Carolyn, Eilene and Jerry were all born in California.

We then moved back to a 65-Acre Farm at the mouth of American Fork Canyon with two nice homes which we remodeled and my Mother lived in the smaller of the homes. She loved turkeys and we had them, Chickens sheep, goats, cows and horses. It was a fun place to be but a lot of hard work. And I had to keep plaster contracting to support the Farm. We had 20 acres of Alfalfa, 20 acres of Peaches, pears, and prunes, apples, and apricots. We also planted 20 acres of peas. It was a full time job of irrigating, picking fruit, and pruning, feeding pigs and livestock and chickens ducks and Turkeys, and milking one or sometimes two cows. We did hire some help on the farm as I couldn't keep up the plastering business and the farm with out help. We had an opportunity to buy the Pleasant Grove Lumber Co. So by selling the farm and borrowing money from LaRue's parents we were able to buy the Lumber Co. The reason I mention the Lumber Co. Was to show that we did have some challenges in our happy lives. One night in the middle of the night we had an urgent call from the Police saying Mr. Gurr come quickly your lumberyard is on fire. Boy what a rude awakening. We found the next day after the fire that all of our Paint and other liquids were down in the basement about ankle deep and what a gooey mess that was. Our floor and roof was gone on the main store building and all of the electric tools. Nails and other hardware were all burned and down in the gooey paint in the basement. It just couldn't have been a more sickening mess. I was sitting on a standing wall with my hands over my face and praying and wondering what to do. Tom and Helen Gurr came and saw me there and they put on their gloves and started to work in helping to clean up the Mess. That got me going and between our family and help from some of our Ward members we finally got it cleaned up and the Insurance we received helped us put on a new Floor and a new roof and we replastered the main building inside and out and that made it a lot nicer than it was before. So there was a silver lining to what was one of the biggest trials of our lives. We built a beautiful 5-bedroom home where our last 3 daughters were born. Julie, Leesa and then our 8th Lori Sue - what a happy Dad and Mom this family have made out of us. Bob was on a mission when we got the Lumber Yard and when it burned down. He and Jerry were such a great help in helping me at the Lumber Yard. We also hired My Brother Dean and he left the Green Grove to work for us at the Lumber Yard. I want to tell a little experience I had when I was delivering a load of materials to Toella out west of Salt Lake. And was one of my great scares.

We had purchased a large Ford Diesel Truck with a Cab over engine and it was almost new so would travel very fast easily. The road to Toilla was nice smooth surfaced road even though just a narrow two-lane road. There were no speed limits so we were always in a hurry and I was driving home at over 70 miles and hour. It seemed I heard an audible voice saying put on your seat belt. I didn't pay any attention as we never did wear seat belts in those days and they were not required by the law as they are now. Just a moment later the voice was very urgent and saying put on you seat belt. I again said to myself that there was no need for a seat belt, but then the voice came a third time and said put on your seat belt very quickly, so this time I listened and had just barely got it buckled and the right front tire blew out with a loud bang and the terrible jar from the blown tire caused the Cab latch to release and the Cab came forward with such force I would have surely been thrown through the windshield to the road and crushed as the windshield was only about 4 inches from the road surface. It felt like the rear wheels were sticking straight up in the air and I was speeding at 70 miles an hour with my eyes and nose close to the surface of the road. I tried to follow the white line in the center of the two lane road, but the blown out tire pulled me off of the road and here I was going out through the sage brush and over gullies and ditches at about 60 miles and hour at that time. I don't remember some of that rough ride and the first thing I remember I was standing outside of the Truck with the windshield still on the ground. I will never know how I got out of the seat belt because I looked in the truck and the seat belt was still fastened. How in the world I ever got out of that seat belt still closed remains a mystery to me. I do remember how grateful I was that I heeded the third frantic voice to put on your seat belt quickly. I surely had divine help on that one.

When I was building a home up on Mahogany Street in Pleasant Grove. I was putting up walls on the plywood floor that I had already nailed down. It was raining but I kept working and I was just putting a wall of Studs that I had nailed together for a wall and all at once I was struck by lightning and it knocked me down and out for a few minutes, but I was glad I came out of it. So it hasn't been all smooth sailing for me. When we were in Florida we built two beautiful homes, and remodeled a vacant furniture store and made a lot of class rooms and plastered them, and where ever we have lived we have built homes.

Or added on to them all of our lives.

When we moved to Mesa Bob was a plastering contractor and was doing well and had enough work that we joined together in the business of Gurr Plastering and spent a lot of years working together and doing real well. On one occasion I was up on a roof alone spraying stucco with a big heavy hose and I was not very well that day and not as careful as I usually was. I fell off the roof and the big heavy hose caught on the scaffolding and I was laying down by the building unconscious and the big hose was swinging back and forth over me and covering me with the lime and cement plaster. Before my Hod carrier realized their must be something wrong as the gun never did turn off, so he came around and found a big pile of cement mud there with by feet sticking out. He uncovered my head and then called for an ambulance and when I was coming too I found myself covered with lime and cement and in about the most intense pain that I could possibly imagine as I had a bad case of pluracy and the fall had pulled my breast bone apart and broken several ribs. And the lime and cement were burning like fire all over my whole body. I didn't think that I would ever make it through that one and just a little side thought I was thinking of the suffering of our Savior and as I was suffering so much I remember thinking How I wish I could have helped our Savior

with his terrible suffering. Something very strange happened my worst pain was gone and from that time of my wishing I could have helped him I was relieved of my terrible pain and how grateful I was for that merciful relief he gave me. It was nearly 3 weeks before they could get all of the burning lime out of my back, but then I healed rapidly and was soon able to work again, But Bob would never let me plaster again. I had to do office work and figure and bid plans from then on. I was 67 years old at the time of this accident.

And it was about this time that Bob and Jerry and I went in together on National Communications Network. We had a few good years and Jerry reported that we were doing well enough that we could build our selves new homes. We bought a lot and built a nice home in Sunny Mesa and Jerry did the same and built their lovely home on a large lot by the Church. We really enjoyed our home and only had it for about 2 or three years when the bank tied up our bank account of a million and a half Dollars because they said too much of our business was coming in Credit cards and it scared them into freezing our account. That was a terrible shock to us. And from that time we had to mortgage our homes to get going again. We finally sold N. C. N. to some shysters and they quit paying us what they had agreed to and we would have been well taken care of if they had kept paying us. But when they stopped paying us Mom and I could see the writing on the wall and we put our beautiful Sunny Mesa home up for sale and when it sold we had enough to buy us a small home in Sunland Village which we are in at this time and very happy in it. We still took our nice trips and on one of them we Met Steve and Julie and their sweet family out at Niagra Falls in New York and spent a very happy two weeks with them there. We went to Washington D. C. and went through so many of the nice Smithsonian museums and to the Cumorah Pageant. Clyde and Ethel Higginson went with us and paid for a lot of the gas on our way out to New York. They decided not to go back with us as they decided to fly home. We almost wished we had got home that way also as on our way home we were driving in a rain and as we were going down a steep hill we came to a turn in the road and a truck ahead of us had lost some of his load of clay on the wet road and we lost control and slid into a heavy Guard rail and the pickup was damaged but not so much as was the 5th Wheel which came forward with such force it caved in the front of the trailer and about tore the hitch off of it. We were glad for the Guardrail or we would have gone into a river. We were able to pry the bumper and fenders on the Pickup enough to get them off of the front tires and then we were able to back up on to the road. And when we started forward the trailer followed us so we were happy for that. We went across two states and into a R. V. Park in Ohio. We were unhooking the 5th wheel and when we lifted it up the whole front Hitch came off of the 5th wheel and fell down into the pickup. Our 5th Wheel trailer was so badly damaged that when we had the insurance adjuster look at it he gave us a good settlement and with that amount plus a good allowance an R. V. Dealer gave us on our wrecked 5th wheel and by knocking some off of the new 5th wheel, which was so beautiful that both Mom and I loved it and so we hooked up our Damaged pickup to it and pulled it all the way from Ohio to our home in Mesa. Our Pickup barely made it home however and we knew we would have to buy another Pickup to pull it with. So with the insurance we received to fix our old pickup and for what we could sell our Pickup for we ended up getting a new Ford with extended Cab Pickup so we had both of them new for a few years. And had some fabulous trips in them. When we returned from one of our trips. I was called in to meet with President Crimson and Bishop of the Sunland Ward Bishop Taysom and they asked me to be his 2nd counselor in which I served for 5 years until he was released. It was a wonderful experience as we were a ward that had members of 55 and over with 85 widows and three widowers. We had to have our High Priests bless and pass the Sacrament. I think that we were the only ward in the church to have only 55 and over members. Mom and I were over the Singles in our Ward and met with them once a week It was a great assignment and we enjoyed the Monday firesides with them. We had to arrange programs for them each week and that was sometimes a real challenge for us. Then any time there were problems with any of them they would call the Bishop to come and give them comfort or blessings or whatever they would need so he was really a busy Bishop and a very good one. He was greatly loved by the whole ward.

Life History Continued: June, July of 96

We want to mention some of the good times we enjoyed in our new 5th wheel and new l995 Ford Pickup. The 5th wheel had a large double slide out room and it seemed like we had all of the room we needed to take care of all of our family needs.

During June of 1996 Dean and Rosa Mae and LaRue and I decided we wanted to take a trip together. They had just purchased a new 29-foot Cab over Motor home. It was a really nice one so we decided we would like to take a trip to Canada. Lake Louise, Banff and other places in Canada. LaRue and I came home to Mesa and began planning for this trip and preparing and packing our 5th wheel. We wanted to attend our Wilford Gurr Reunion, which we did in Provo with many of our family from Mesa and all of the families from the Provo area being there and It was as always one of the nicest reunions. We have our Reunions every year and this one was really special. After the Reunion we drove up to Sandy where we stayed overnight with Steve and Julie and then early the next Morning we drove our R. V. down to the Freeway where we were glad to see Dean and Rosa in their new motor home and we drove all that day through Utah and Idaho, and into Wyoming. Where we stayed in a nice State Park for the night.

We traveled through the beautiful Canadian Rockies and snowfields and then to Cardston where we wanted to go through the Cardston Temple, but it was closed for renovation. We decided to travel up to Waterton Lake were we had been several times before on our trips to Canada. We wanted to stay for a few days there as we were tired of traveling and wanted to rest up before heading up to Lake Louise as that was a long drive. Waterton was fun as the elk and deer came right down in among the R.V.s to eat and entertain us. They were a lot of fun and beautiful to see. We took some nice hikes up to the waterfalls and took a lot of video pictures. On one of our rest days we decided to take a boat trip, which would take us many, many miles in Canada, and back into the United States. Also we were able to see many huge glaciers and also some mountain Sheep. We really enjoyed that day. They let everyone off at a landing in the United states and it was a great experience.

The day of our departure came and we left Waterton early and really enjoyed the massive Rocky Mountains and their sheer straight u p and down white marble faces. As we were traveling up over a high pass through the mountains, we were hit by a hailstorm the likes of which we had never seen before in our life times. The stones were I would estimate about half the size of golf balls. We had to stop as did all other traffic, including the big trucks as well. It lasted for about an hour and the sound was deafening and really scary. When it finally eased up a little. We talked to Dean and Rosa on the radio and they told us that every one of their ceiling vents were broken and their bed was soaked. Also many of their clearance light covers were destroyed. We fared a little better with no damage except to our large skylight which was damaged, but had let no water in. Finally a large semi truck in front of us began to move and we moved with him and followed closely behind him as there was about 10 inches of Hail on the road. Dean and Rosa followed right be hind us.

We then heard on the news of a Hail Storm that hit Calgary the day before and they had four feet of golf ball size hail. We were amazed at this news and we knew we had never been in anything like that in our lives. The news reported many people injured and many homes and roofs completely destroyed and many businesses flattened to the ground. The estimated cost of the storm. 14 billion dollars. I think it was considered to be one of the worst Hailstorms in recorded history. We were glad we weren't in that one.

We were able to cover the damaged skylights with heavy plastic and duct tape and to continue our way up to Lake Louise and Banff. It was such beautiful country that we were traveling through that we hardly noticed the many long miles it was for us to finally get up to Lake Louise. We weren't disappointed

as the Lake was about the bluest blue we could ever imagine. And way down on the south end of the Lake were huge glaciers and the Ice faces looked so blue they were almost unreal. We had heard of the beauty of Lake Louise, but this was beyond our wildest dreams of beauty. They have a great and large Hotel overlooking all of this beauty for 300.00 and up per room per night. We were glad we had our own beds. While we were oooing and awwwing over all of this beauty the sun had gone down and it was just growing dark and the moon came up from behind one of the high granite mountain cliffs and it was truly a magnificent sight. The air was clear and when the full moon was first coming up it was incredibly huge and brilliant. We all thought that sight was worth the whole trip. We enjoyed playing games that we did about every night and then to our comfortable beds.

The next morning was Sunday so we got up a little early and all went over to the next small town to look for an L. D. S. Chapel. We were blessed to find a nice one and after finding the times of the meetings we had time to return to our R.V. Homes and eat our breakfast and then back to our meetings. I think that we were able to find L.D.S. Chapels and attend our meetings every Sunday of our whole trip. The people were always so nice and friendly that we really appreciated all of our Sunday's. Our Pickup had a seat in the rear of the cab, so we always had room for Dean and Rosa and enjoyed going to many places with them. On one of our fun times we decided to go to the top of the world on a gondola that took us up an incredible almost straight up the granite cliff walls. We had a hard time convincing Rosa to take the trip up, but we finally convinced her to try it and it was really a gorgeous view and we could see for hundreds of miles in all directions. Sparkling, blue and turquoise, rivers and lakes and glaciers everywhere. We had our lunch up there and hiked along the trails on top of the cliffs and had a wonderful day on the top of the world. It was scary for Rosa, but we were all so glad she decided to go.

One Lake I would like to mention, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it, but it was if possible even more beautiful than Lake Louise. The color of its water was indescribable as it was surrounded on all sides by high granite cliffs and glaciers where parts of the deep blue and turquoise ice would slide into the Lake with loud roars. This truly was a lake to remember, but I have forgotten the name of it completely. We enjoyed the little towns and the people in them and the quaint little shops and stores and wandering through them. Our time at Lake Louise seemed to come to an end all too soon and Dean and Rosa wanted to get home for a wedding in their family. So we felt bad to have to say goodbye to them and they headed for home. La Rue and I stayed another day or two and then we also headed for home. We took it easy and had a leisurely trip home and we felt good that we had finally got up to Lake Louise which has been our goal for a long time.

We spent a little time in Utah visiting with our families and enjoyed telling them about our trip. We also attended the wedding of Dennis's Daughter with Dean and Rosa, I can't remember her name. So that ended a dream that we finally made come true on that wonderful trip to Canada. We finally arrived home in Mesa and it was so good to be home again, as it always is when being away from home so long. We found all of our families doing well in Mesa and it was wonderful to see all of them again. Our next few months were really heart breaking for us and we will tell about what was a very sad time for us in some of the following pages of our life history.

After our wonderful trip to Canada with Dean and Rosa, One of the sad things was that LaRue was having a lot more pain from what we thought were her teeth, but what we found out later was really a basal cell cancer on her neck by her right ear, and it has been one of the worst trials of our lives. Also about this time Dean was found to have Prostate cancer and that has also proved to be one of the greatest trials of their families lives as well. Another problem we were having at this time was that in keeping up with the traveling and expenses of our 5th wheel and Pickup we had our Visa cards really way more in debt and high interest than we wanted to put up with so we came to the conclusion that we had better sell our beautiful 5th wheel and pickup and get our house in order financially. Well this was also a sad thing for us as we have always had a motor home or 5th wheel all of our lives and they were one thing that made it possible for us to travel all over the United States and Canada and Mexico and see all of the Beauty in all of our travels during all of our lives. We put them on consignment with R. V. Traders and in 60 days we did not have one phone call from them so we picked them up and brought them home and put and ad in the paper and we sold them both in just 3 days. We paid off all of our bills except our home, and it felt so good to have control of our finances again. Looking back to 1991 we had depended on N. C. N. Long distance Phone Company to provide for us for the rest of our lives. Jerry, Bob and I decided to sell and each of us had enough money coming from the sale of N. C. N. so we were well taken care of as long as they made their payments to us, but the payments stopped, they then declared bankruptcy and this was a very big disappointment and the beginning of a lot of problems for all of us. Well this was a hard thing for Mom and me, and we are still having a struggle after all of this time.

On May 28th l998 we had the saddest news of all. Clifton Asay called and Informed us that our Dear Sister Mary Lou had been released from her pains and sorrows of this life, on. All but two of our families were to the viewing and Funeral of Mary Lou. Most of them from Mesa, so we were greatly blessed that they all made the effort to be there at this very sad time. She looked beautiful and finally at peace. It was a beautiful day for her burial in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, and Dean Dedicated her grave.

LaRue and I had the Month of July 1998 at Ricks college in Rexburg Idaho, in the Breckenridge apartments. That was really the first time in our lives we had ever been without our own little apartment on wheels. We had to load all of the things we would need for two months into our Buick. We even took our 19-inch T. V. We really had our trunk and rear seat stuffed to the ceiling. It was really one of the nicest little apartments and it had 3 bedrooms and a nice living room and kitchen. We were right across the road from the College Football field and the main college buildings. So we could walk everywhere. We really had 2 full months of activities and one of the best was when we drove to Caliente Nevada where our Gurr Reunion was being held. It was one of the nicest Reunions that we have ever had. There were over 120 of our Family members there. We were so grateful to have Cliff and Collete there such a short time after losing Mary Lou. We had all but two of our families there from Mesa and Utah. And also Dean and Rosa had most of their families there as Well. Clyde and Ethel also had many of their families. Sharon and Linda, and Julie did such a beautiful job of welcoming all that attended, and it was just the most delightful 2 or 3 days of our whole summer. We enjoyed caravanning through all of the streets of Caliente and Dean or I would tell of some of the experiences that we had there. We had a wonderful day at Kershaw where each family planted a fruit tree and the care taker of Kershaw promised he would take good care of the trees until in the future there would be a large orchard of fruit trees. The people of the Caliente Ward treated us so well and Dean told how that when they demolished the old Ward chapel, he was there to take the Clock donated by Sears Roebuck to the Caliente Ward at the urging of our Mother. Sears Roebuck to the first new Chapel built in Caliente first donated this Clock and to us it was a very special building and Dedicated as I remember in l934. When my Dad was Bishop and President Grant came to Caliente and dedicated what was to us a very special and beautiful building. Well when this building was to be destroyed and the ward move into their new chapel, Dean told his story in the new ward about how he had made a special trip to Caliente to save the clock and see that it was and is now hanging in the new ward building in Caliente. Also during this wonderful reunion we all took a trip out to our favorite swimming pool at Ash Springs and enjoyed a day of swimming. Also a trip by some of the families to Panaca where we all went to our Lincoln County high school.

It was a beautiful Sunday that all of us went to our meetings and then early the next morning we all said our goodbyes and headed for our homes. LaRue and I headed on the long drive back to Rexburg to complete the rest of our busy 2 months there.

We were surprised on our first morning in Rexburg by a knock on our apartment door and there stood Jim James our next door neighbor in Mesa. He said he recognized our Car. At home we tried many times to talk to them about the Church as they told us they had been going to Rexburg for 9 years. Each time we tried to talk about the Church they would clam right up and not even talk about it. It was strange to see them up there and they said they were renting in the apartments just up the block from us and that they were in the same apartments as our Bishop and Audrey Taysom were renting. Bishop Taysom spent a lot of time at the Church History Library. So LaRue and I also spent some time working in the Library.

It was at this time that we found out that our Family had been erased from the Church records. They told us that they were updating their files and we would probably be back in the future files. We had one of our Family members recently look to see if we were back in the files and evidently we are still not in them so we will have to get busy and see that our Families are put back in as they have always been.

Rexburg College hosts what they call the International Dance Festival every year and we were able to see them beautifully on the Football Field Performance and on the street performance in Rexburg and then they were so beautiful, we purchased ticket for their performing in the large Ricks college Auditorium. They were so good they had sell out crowds every night they performed, and the tickets were very expensive. They were one of the highlights of our two months in Rexburg.

Another very fun time was when we traveled down to Bear Lake where Steve , Julie Parris and Lori and their families, had rented some Condominiums and we spent a few days with them. They're enjoying the nice swimming pool and the beach on the Lake. They had acres of beautiful green lawns and the children just spent their days on the beach and swimming in the pool and flying kites and playing football on the beautiful lawns. Steve and Parris also rented some Jet skis and we all enjoyed them so much, Also one of Steve's friends had a nice boat and we had some nice boat rides all around the beautiful Bear Lake. We even had a hard storm come up while we were on the lake on one trip and it came up so suddenly we were concerned and were glad to get back to the docks safely through the big waves. We really enjoyed the wonderful world famous raspberry shakes, once you have one of them it is hard not to have another and they are huge and sooo good. Mom and I and some of the others really enjoyed their nice miniature golf course there as well. This great time came to an end and Mom and I had a long ride back to Rexburg and some more busy times ahead. More next month. Don't give up I'm almost through with my life history and it could end any time. Durn.

Dearest Family and Friends: I am trying to finish up some of my life History and in order to do so I am including some information that I may have covered before but not in so much detail as I would like and this information Is something that is very important to me. Just discard any that you may feel is too much. I am starting out when Mom and I went up to Utah and stayed with Parris and Lori's family while they took a weeks trip to the Bahamas on a Cruise Ship, and then include other things that I want in my life history.

When we arrived at Parris and Lori's they insisted that we move into their upstairs bedroom which was where we would be while they were on their cruise to the Caribbean. They left on Friday, and LaRue and I were left with their children. Adam, was also there with us. He just returned from a mission from Korea. He was going to school and would be gone during the day and then would come home for the night. Adam and Cameron are Parris's younger Brothers. Cameron left for his mission when Adam got home from Korea. Larre and Jan their parents, Went to Korea on a really nice trip and picked up their son Adam and they had some time to do some sight seeing and traveling in Korea. They have a daughter and about 6 sons I think and they have all been on missions including Parris.

I want to mention that Lisel, the oldest daughter , was really a blessing to us as she was such a cute little mother to baby Haley and would be the one to get up with her during the night when she would wake up and need feeding. She did miss her Mother a lot but was the sweetest little girl and so good we just loved her so much. She really seemed to love us as well and especially LaRue and we just couldn't seem to get enough of her. All of the children were so good and were willing to help and take care of each other. Brandon was the oldest of the 6 children and we really appreciated him a lot also. They were what we thought was extra good to have their Dad and Mom leave them for the first time and be gone for so long. About every day we stopped in to see Mary Lou who was in a convalescent home and we got her some nice flowers and other things for her birthday. We had several nice visits with her and she seemed to be improving all of the time so was planning to be moved back home soon. When the time came for Parris and Lori to come home the family had some nice signs and balloons to welcome their dad and Mom back home, and it was a joyful time for all and especially for Haley to see her Mommy and Daddy again. They were so happy and couldn't thank us enough as they reported that this was the first time they had ever had a vacation without their family and that it was one of the greatest times they had ever had. They were able to get in about 4 hours a day in the warm ocean waters snorkeling and swimming on the beaches of different Islands each day. LaRue and I packed our Suitcases and moved up to enjoy a couple of days with Julie and Steve, and their beautiful family before we headed home.

As LaRue was going through the obituaries in the paper she saw a very startling one that of Mary Edwards funeral was to be held in a few days. Mary was Dons Wife and he just passed away a few months before Mary. We have always loved and been very close to them all of our married lives. So we decided to wait until after her Funeral for us to go home. It was a large funeral and many people we knew were there and we enjoyed seeing them so much and also Don and Mary's family of children and Grandchildren. Funerals are a time of sorrow for the families and loved ones but also a time of rejoicing for the knowledge that they are free of their pain and welcomed by their loved ones on the other side. We enjoyed a few days of Julie and Steve and their beautiful children and then we packed our suitcases and drove to Kanab and enjoyed seeing Bob and Lillian again. Bob took me on an A.T.C. ride up to Peek A Boo canyon and that was a lot of fun for me. I hadn't ridden one of those since I was nearly terminated on one of them when going over a cliff and having it land on top of me. Well I got pretty good and it was a long ride and a lot of fun and I was happy to find that I could still hike as we hiked up the beautifully colored slot Canyon. We enjoyed staying overnight with Bob and Lillian, and then our beautiful trip home through Kiabab forest and the miles of unbelievable beauty of the Grand Canyon and miles of colorful canyons on this high way 89 A. and home to Mesa.

Pages 1 &2 already mailed: Pages 3 & 4 to Mail next week. Mary Lou passed away 5-28-98

After seeing the improvement of Mary Lou we had stopped worrying about her so much, and it was good to be home in Mesa, and we thought that we would have a little more than a month at home before we would have to get ready for July and August up in Rexburg Idaho. This good feeling however was not to last very long as on Thursday 28 l998 we were awakened at 1:00 am and it was Cliff on the Phone telling us that Mary Lou had been released and had passed away quietly and peacefully and was telling us he would give us another call and tell us when the funeral would be held and where.

Cliff did call us again on Friday the 29 and informed us the funeral would be held on Monday June 1st and the Family wanted me to be one of the speakers. I also was one of the speakers at my other Sister Thelma's Funeral in l986. I knew it would be hard for me but it was also something I wanted to do. The viewing would be Sunday evening from 6 pm to 8 pm. So Jerry and Caroline had us over for Sunday Dinner and then Jerry took us over to the Airport and we flew to Salt Lake where Leesa picked us up in their new Toyota Van and took us down to Pleasant Grove where we were in plenty of time for the Viewing at the Olpin Mortuary at 6pm. We were pleasantly surprised to see many of our own family at the viewing as well as many others that we had known for years when we were living in Pleasant Grove ourselves several years ago. Knowing how many hours it takes of fast driving to get from Mesa to Pleasant Grove it never ceases to amaze us at the great power of the Jet Planes getting us there in just a little over an hour. We truly live in a wonderful time.

Mary Lou looked so beautiful and peaceful, it brought tears to our eyes just to look at her and know that she was now free of all the pain and suffering she has had for so many long years. We were so happy that all of our sons and Daughters except Jerry and Pat were there at the viewing. Then the next day Monday we enjoyed the viewing and the beautiful family prayer by David Asay their eldest son. Sharon Higginson gave her life history and then I was one of the speakers and I had prayed that I would be able to give my talk without becoming too emotional. I do believe my prayer was answered and I was able to get through it without blubbering too much. Rosa Mae was also a speaker and she did beautifully in giving a good gospel talk. The Bishop gave a few good thoughts and then to the Pleasant Grove Cemetery where my brother Dean dedicated the grave and blessed her to have peace there and be able to take up her body again during the morning of the first resurrection.

We then spent a couple of enjoyable days with each of our families up there. Steve and Julie and Parris and Lori, and their beautiful children. These two families were so thoughtful and good to Mom and me in taking care of all the arrangements of our plane tickets and we really appreciated all of this so much. Leesa, Lori and Julie were there for us in driving us anywhere we wanted to go. We appreciated our son Bob driving up from Kanab to be at the funeral and also Leesa driving up from Mesa, and Carolyn and Eilene came up on the plane and as I remember Carolyn also returned home on the plane and Eilene drove home with Leesa. I hope I didn't leave any thing or any one out. With half heimers I guess I can only remember half of what I should. And I want all of you to know I am so sorry if I ever make any of you feel bad as I can't think of one of you that I love and appreciate more than any other of you. Mom and I love all of you and want you to know that I or we would never intentionally slight or hurt any one of you.

Dear Family: Latest update on Mom is that she is making progress, but also has backsets as well. So we are not sure when we will be going up to Utah. We will come when she says the word.

Bob we really enjoyed your nice journal telling of all of the good times you are having with all of the families that stop in there for a break. Thanks for all of the good things you are doing for so many of us. Kanab sounds like had a lot of good things going on the 24th of July. I don't think we even heard it mentioned in Mesa or even in our block meetings on the 25th. Can you believe that?

Jerry that was a lot of fun yesterday as some of the families got together at the Country Kitchen Buffet. My two root beer floats would have cost anywhere else as much as our whole dinner was there. That is really the only place to eat. They have the best of everything and their clam chowder was too good to be true. Mom enjoyed it too and no msg in their food is a big help to her and headaches. I think Pat really enjoyed it too. It was so nice to hear from Josh and Jason as well. 19 baptisms for Jason and 11 as I remember for Joshua. I think they both are looking so good and we are glad to hear that they have applied for jobs at Motorola. That would be great for them and they would be good for Motorola.

Pat: It was a big pleasant surprise to get your nice email report on your family. We hope something can help our Rachel. She is a big worry for you and all of us. We are glad you will have a nice rest and a good trip to California for your sun rider convention. Congratulations on getting your lawyer landlord to sign your papers for your home. What we know about him is really a worry however, that it may not be the last you will hear from him.

Mark & Eilene, Frank and Carolyn, Steve and Julie and Parris & Lori, That was such a fun sounding vacation all of you had at Bear Lake. That is a wonderful place and Mom and I wish we could have been with you. Maybe next year. We are glad Steve and Julie had another nice trip and also Parris and Lori at their family reunion. Mom and I are looking forward for our family reunion at Johnson canyon in Kanab in September.

Jake and Jen: We really enjoyed your coming to our home the other night to see Mom and Me. Your new little girl Rebecca Eilene was so beautiful and Samantha was so loving of mom and me that we just couldn't get enough of you. Please come and see us some more.

The Sunday after we came home from Mexico, Frank and Carolyn had us over to a wonderful Dinner and we really enjoyed that good dinner topped off with Butter pecan ice cream. We also enjoyed a good visit. They are getting their home all fixed up so nice. They have two nice new Lazy boy Chairs and new flowered couch and Love seat and a new green carpet. Carolyn sold their mercury and they are looking to get a new Toyota I think. They are doing great.

I wanted to mention a nice visit we had with Judd and Heather and their two precious children, Riley and baby Judd I believe. They are expecting their 3rd and are so happy living in Austin Texas and Judd has a wonderful position with a company that sends him all over the world to install their systems. They have a lovely new home in Austin Texas.

Wally and Cami have their new little baby Girl Hannah Lillian and Mom and I are looking forward to seeing their beautiful Baby when we come up. Wally is still here in Mesa studying Police work and wants to be a police officer in Kanab. We hope that works out for them. Mom and I are so thrilled with all of the new little ones coming to so many of our family. Parris and Lori have their new little Ali baby girl and Juli with Caden Wilford and Kevin and Leesa with their new little Samuel. Our Heavenly Father is really covering us over with so many wonderful blessings we just can't keep up with them and the windows of heaven are truly wide open to all of our families. I just know that in mentioning some names I will not remember all of you and ask you to forgive me. I know that I love each one of you so much and wish I had a better memory.

I will mention a little about our trip to San Diego and Tiuana Mexico. It was really about twice the cost that we thought it would be as we had a lot of radiator problems and the desert mountains between here and San Diego are really with out mercy. We had our taste of real heat. We finally made it to San Diego and had a taste of their street problems and it took us I would guess about an hour and a half to finally get to our trailer park at International Inn. It was very nice and we had full hookups for a week for a hundred dollars. So we made up for some of our losses by saving about 320.00 on Hotel costs and I don't know how much on food. We loved our trailer and having our own bed and good food any time and all of the time. We were in a beautiful park and the perfect weather; we really enjoyed it so much. We were just a couple of hundred feet from where we would catch a free bus right to our Dr. Cosovo the cost of the bus was included in our 100.00 a week park rent. The Dr and prescriptions were way more costly than we planned on, but we feel that it was a wonderful experience and well worth it. The Mexican people were just delightful and we enjoyed and learned to appreciate them so much. Mom and I think the chelation helped both of us with our heart problems. I have a lot more stamina now and don't lose my breath putting on my shoes or walking out to the mail box. What was so amazing, Dr..Casovo put some shots in my knees and in 30 seconds I was completely pain free in my knees. Even more amazing is that it has lasted for weeks and I still play tennis with a lot less pain than I have had for years. These shots in Moms Head have really helped her to have a lot less headaches. And her heart is a lot better. In spite of all of our problems we feel that the trip was really worthwhile and we may go back in 3 months like Dr. Casovo wants us to do. We may be coming up to Utah sometime this next week so will be off email and Journal mail for a few weeks.

Our love and blessings to all of you.

Dad and Mom.

LIFE HISTORY OF WILFORD MARSH GURR JR.