CALLED TO SERVE, Part 6

This blog entry is part 6 of the entry of my Mission experiences.

In March I got my notice that I was to be transferred out to Patchogue, Long Island, New York. I arrived at the Mission Home ready for my new assignment. President Eldridge called me into his office for an interview. He said he was calling me to be the District Leader of the Patchogue District. He told me that the area I was going into was a very difficult area. He said that the Church has put so much emphasis on the Worlds Fair that a lot of areas in the Mission had not had many Missionaries for a long time. To make things interesting, Patchogue was a resort town on the Long Island Atlantic coast, and I was a resort kind of guy! A boy from California, raised on the beach was now being sent to the beach. Talk about sending a dog into the butcher shop! I accepted the call and met up with my companion, Elder Stock, and we headed east to Long Island.

Our apartment was a second story walk-up in a private residence in Patchogue. The family downstairs owned the building, and as such were our landlords. They loved us. The lady was 25 years younger than her husband, who was in very poor health. He was a former major league baseball player who had played for the Yankees. I cannot remember his name now, but he was quite famous in his day. Their 17 year old son, Jack, was our permanent investigator, and wanted to join the Church. Because his dad would not give his permission, he had to wait until he was 18. Whenever we needed an investigator to justify something we were doing, we took Jack with us.

One of the first people I met in Patchogue were Brother and Sister Hoyman. She had been a member for 14 years. Their children had been baptized at age 8. Brother Hoyman told me that he was the longest investigator in the Church; he had been investigating the Church for 14 years. When I got there he had been a member for a little over a year. He told me the story of his long process of joining the Church. They had come in contact with the Church many years before and had the discussions. They both loved what they heard and were ready to embrace the restored gospel. Then the Missionaries gave the 6th and final discussion on tithing. Dirk made a good living and earned a lot of money. His response was, “What ever Dirk Hoyman makes, Dirk Hoyman keeps”. Two weeks later he lost his job. Coincidence? You be the judge. He doesn’t think so. But it took him another 14 years to come around. He always attended Church though. And when he traveled with his new job, he found the local Ward and attended. Once he could only find The Church of Christ and thought that must be the place. He introduced himself as Brother Hoyman. They thought he was a CofC preacher and invited him to come up an preach. He declined.

One evening Dirk asked his wife what plans she had on Saturday evening. She said she had none. He said good because he wanted her to be at his baptism Saturday evening. She just stared at him a minute then burst out crying. A short time before I came to Patchogue, they had been sealed as a family in the Salt Lake Temple.

Lake Ronkonkoma, LI, NY was a little town on the banks of Lake Ronkonkoma, a pretty, picturesque lake not far from Patchogue. We had an appointment there one afternoon and we headed out. I was driving and must have been going at a pretty good clip because the police pulled me over. The officer asked for my driver license and registration. I kept my license in the packet I had for my Ministerial Certificate. The car was registered to The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I handed him the documents and he looked them over. He asked if we were ministers, and I told him we were and were on our way to visit with a family in Lake Ronkonkoma. He then handed me back my documents and asked me to slow down and stay within the speed limit. Then he apologized for pulling us over. Maybe he figured that if he gave us a ticket he would offend the Man Upstairs. I never again had a police officer apologize for pulling me over, although I did have one stop me once for doing a wobble, which is another story for another time.

When I arrived in Patchogue, there were several members who knew about a supposed prophesy predicting Long Island would break off and fall into the depths of the sea. (I had always heard that same prediction about California. I keep hoping!) There were families who actually left Long Island for Utah to be safe. One sister took her children and moved to Utah alone because her husband didn’t believe in the pending disaster. He ended up going out the Utah and bringing his family back. The source of this false doctrine was the book by Duane Crowther called “Prophecy, Key to the Future”, a book referred to by President Packer as “Prophecy, the Key to Crowther”. I actually heard Mr. Crowther speak a couple of years later at the Institute at San Jose State where he said everything he wrote was his interpretation and not any way doctrinal. In this book, the author predicted the catastrophe for Long Island. This hysteria migrated into all parts of Long Island and to parts of Manhattan. This would have a direct influence on the future of the New York Stake.

The Patchogue Branch met in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It worked out great because they didn’t use the building on Sunday. And the building was similar to most small LDS buildings and had all the facilities needed. We also had the building on Tuesdays for the auxiliary meetings. The Branch President had his hands full trying to convince the members that it was okay to stay on Long Island!

At Stake Conference, Elder Harold B. Lee came to divide the New York Stake and create the New York East Stake. Instead of taking care of that business, his address was a call to repentance. He addressed the problem caused by the book. He told the members to quit reading that book and spend more time in the scriptures.. He then asked if the members thought the Brethren (First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve) were a bunch of ignoramuses. If Long Island was to fall into the ocean, why would the Church spend millions of dollars on the new chapels now under construction? The meeting concluded without dividing the Stake. Six months later, two weeks before my Mission was finished, the entire attitude of the members of the Stake had changed and you could feel it in the spirit of the Conference when Elder Lee came back and divided the New York Stake and created the New York East Stake.

One of the sets of Elders in our district told me that they had to move out of their apartment for a few days because it was being fumigated. So the Elders moved in with us temporarily. One Elder was new and was a Utah sheep farmer. He was sleeping on the floor in the living room and had an old wind up alarm clock that he put on the stove in the kitchen. At 5:15 AM on P-Day his alarm went off. I shot up out of bed and was in the kitchen turning the alarm off before the new Elder finally stirred. Very loudly, I asked him what he was doing setting his alarm so early for, and especially on P-Day. He said he wanted to get up early and study. (Greenies) I looked at him right in the face and said, “Elder, it’s P-Day and we don’t have to get up early. On any other day we don’t get up until 6:30. If that alarm ever goes off again in this apartment I am going to throw it out the window!” I slammed the alarm down on the kitchen table and went back to bed. That poor Elder didn’t know what to do.

That young Elder has lost an eye in a farm accident when he was a little boy. He had a prosthesis in his right eye. He showed me all the eyes he had collected over the years, different sizes for different ages. He said he wanted to have them made into cufflinks. He would take is eye out and try to get me to look. I wouldn’t look. I don’t know what I thought I would see … some farm kid’s brain, I guess. The story seems much funnier to me now because of my having had my right eye removed and now wear a prosthesis. I think of all the pranks I have pulled with my eye, and I guess no one wants to see my brain either.

One day, following a trip into the Mission Home to drop off Elder Stock, who was going to Pittsfield; and to pick up my new companion, Elder Hill, we made a stop on the way back to Long Island. We stopped in Flushing Meadows at a place called SHEA STADIUM! The Giants were coming to play the Mets. These were the Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda Giants. They were playing on P-Day and the stadium was only 30 miles or so from Patchogue. And it would be a fellowshipping opportunity because Jack was coming with us! Poor Elder Hill. He didn’t know what to think. I hope we didn’t corrupt him too badly. Anyway, we went and the Giants won. And we didn’t get caught. Need I say more?

Elder Hill, and I went to the Hoyman’s for dinner one Sunday after Church. Sister Hoyman was a good cook and that night made a meatloaf. Her meatloaf was much like the one Jannie makes and was covered with a sauce. Elder Hill’s experience with meatloaf must have been much like mine with my Mother…. all meat and no juice, and covered with ketchup to make it edible. As Elder Hill took a piece of meatloaf from the platter as it was passed around the table, he innocently asked if they had any ketchup. The 13 year old Hoyman daughter was devastated. She stopped what she was doing and, looking hurt, asked my companion, “What’s the matter, Elder Hill, don’t you like it?” We all had a good laugh.

It had been two years since I left on my mission and it was time to go home. I had grown a lot during those two years. I had gone from a green Elder who hoped the Church was true to a servant of the Lord with a strong testimony. I had seen growth in my family at home. My mother had gone from skeptic to believer. She would still have times in her life when she doubted, but at that time she had her own testimony.

On Wednesday, September 20, 1967 I left Patchogue for the last time. We left early because of the time it took to drive into mid-town Manhattan on the Long Island Expressway. I arrived and was interviewed by President Eldridge. He released me to return home, but said my formal release would come from my Stake President when I next met with him. He thanked me and then it was over. Like so many Missionaries who were going home every time we had transfers in Manhattan, we stood around on the steps of the Mission Home glad handing each other as we promised to keep in touch when we got to BYU. The APs took us to JFK and I caught a non stop flight to San Francisco International Airport. I had gone from a nervous Missionary giving the second conclusion of the first discussion in the living room of a row house with no air conditioning to a confident missionary and leader. As I looked back, the change was astonishing.

My family met me at the airport. I came down the ramp wearing my suit and the summer straw business hat I had purchased so many months ago in Hartford. I just knew they wouldn’t recognize me, but Evelyn came running up the ramp and thru her arms around me. We stood and hugged, Evelyn, Mom, Aunt June, Aunt Jean and me. Then we went to baggage claim, picked up my bags and headed down the Bayshore Freeway to San Jose.

When we arrived at the house I went into my bedroom. Mom had gone all out. She had purchased all new furniture for my bedroom and had washed and pressed all my clothes. I remember I was alone in my room, the first time I had been alone in two years. As I stood in front of my dresser, taking off my tie, I felt alone. Uncomfortably alone. I don’t know if I was missing my companion or having the feeling that somehow the Spirit had withdrawn when I no longer had the mantle of a Missionary. The feeling passed in a few minutes. Mom and Evelyn had planned a big Welcome Home party for that evening and were fluttering around getting it ready. I laid down and took a nap.

CALLED TO SERVE, Part 5

This blog entry is part 5 of the entry of my Mission experiences.


I remember well a lesson taught to us at the Mission Home in Salt Lake City all those many months earlier. “Don’t expect that you can sit around your apartment everyday and have the phone ring with a convert baptism on the other end”. Well, that is exactly what happened. Elder Frear and I drove back to Yonkers and he immediately went to bed. He had been sick for quite a while, and at one point had spent a couple of days in the hospital. But as soon as he could get up, he was back out doing missionary work. He apparently did too much too soon and was back in bed. The Mission President told him to stay in bed for a few days, and he stayed for over a week. The DLs came over to visit us often, and to take me to the store to get groceries. But other than that I was in the apartment all day, every day for over a week. I read a lot and slept a lot. I couldn’t even telephone contact because we were on message units and each call cost a nickel per unit. Towards the end of my companion’s confinement to bed, we got a phone call. It was the Bishop of the Westchester Ward, the Ward we served in. He had received a phone call from a man in New Rochelle, NY who wanted to be baptized, so the Bishop called us. I took down all the contact information and we called to make an appointment. Nothing helps a sick missionary recover faster than someone calling on the phone asking for baptism!

When the appointed day and time arrived, we drove to New Rochelle and met Brother and Sister Cohen. Brother Cohen was Jewish and his new bride was an inactive member of the Church. The Cohen’s were in their late 40s or early 50s and both had been married and widowed. Sister Cohen was from Boise, but had lived all of her adult life in New York. She has stopped going to Church before she left Idaho. On their first Christmas together, they went to her parent’s home in Boise. There Brother Cohen picked up a copy of The Book of Mormon. Not having any previous contact with, or knowledge of, the Church, he had no negative opinion of The Book of Mormon. He picked it up and began reading. The spirit of the book touched him and after long conversations with his father-in-law, he knew he needed to join himself to this Church. His father-in-law suggested he contact the Bishop when he got home. He did. And the Bishop contacted us…just sitting around the apartment waiting for the phone to ring with a convert baptism on the other end!

Over the next several weeks we taught the Cohen’s the gospel. On the evening of the sixth discussion, they invited us to dinner before the discussion. The sixth discussion is on tithing and the word of wisdom. At dinner Sister Cohen offered us wine with our meal. Elder Frear and I looked at each other, then I explained briefly the word of wisdom and declined the wine. Sister Cohen, somewhat embarrassed, said she thought the Church had done away with the Word of Wisdom.

Brother Cohen was ready to be baptized, so we baptized him. Sister Cohen was already a member, but was much slower to coming around. Brother Cohen accepted the gospel enthusiastically and told the Bishop to put him to work. And he was put to work. Brother Cohen told us that his goal was to get his wife strong enough in the Church that when he was sick and couldn’t attend that she would want to attend without him. We hadn’t even taught them about the Temple! I am sure that as soon as she was ready, they went.

There was one family in the ward who decided to invite the Westchester Elders over for dinner. There were 4 of us serving in the boundaries of the Ward. The couple was Italian and was famous in the Ward for their homemade spaghetti. They had a quite the system. She made the spaghetti noodles from scratch and he made the sauce from scratch. We looked forward to the dinner. The evening of the dinner we rode together to the appointment. When we sat down they served baked chicken, a veggie and potatoes and gravy. We figured that they decided against the spaghetti. We finished and they took our plates. A few minutes later they came out with plates of spaghetti. So we ate some more. After the spaghetti they brought out dessert. She had made a lemon meringue pie and cut it in fourths and gave us each a piece. I have never been so sick in my life. It turned out that they had never fed the missionaries before and heard that missionaries ate a lot of food. They didn’t want us to go away hungry. We went back to our apartment and just lay on our beds.

Westchester County, New York is an interesting place. Located in the county is the town of Briarcliff Manor. Near the town is the Sleepy Hollow Bridge, made famous by Washington Irving in his story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We knew the story of Sleepy Hollow from Walt Disney feature called The Headless Horseman. Our DL’s lived about a half mile from the bridge. I never saw any horsemen there, headless or other wise. Just north of Westchester County is the location of West Point, although I never got up there. The Westchester Ward was a cross section of the area. There were blue collar types who attended the ward, as well as white collar, professionals, and even members of the entertainment industry. One fellow in the ward was a producer or director for CBS Television in New York. He was in charge of many of the soap operas of the day. In those days it was all broadcast live. Another fellow was a chiropractor and the missionaries had a standing appointment with him every P-day. He had a good testimony, although he didn’t attend regularly. There were several medical doctors in the ward and they would give him a hard time because they thought his medicine was quackery.

One lady who stands out was Melva Niles Barborka. She was a Broadway performer and was in many plays in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a soprano and sang beautifully. To a 20 year old, she was old, but as I think back, she was in her early 60s. Brother Barborka was a movie producer and I have seen his name in the credits of some church movies over the years. Melva loved the MOTAB and she loved hymns. She made an album of hymns she recorded with Robert Peterson, another Broadway singer and member. They sold the albums as a building fund project, but gave one to me, autographed. See the following website.

http://www.heartrisemusic.com/Artists/PetersonR/ThingsLovely/index.html

We baptized a lady, and for the life of me, I cannot think of her name. She was an older lady and was French, although she was from Belgium and not France. She was a widow and really quite well to do, but she was working as a housekeeper for a family in Scarsdale. After her husband died she went back to Belgium for a visit. While there she got very sick and had to be hospitalized. In the hospital she was treated with morphine for pain and became addicted to it. So they had to leave her in the hospital to get her off the meds. She was in the hospital for several months. While there she ran thru all her available cash as she was there nearly a year longer than she had planned. She had a lot of real estate holdings and other investments in Illinois, her home. Communications being what they were in the 60s, and being an older lady, she was not up on technology, such as it was. She had no idea how to access her money. Wanting to return to the United States, she met a couple form Scarsdale who happened to need a housekeeper. They agreed to pay her passage back to the United States if she would work for them for a year. And since she had worked hard all her young life in Europe, she took the offer. Upon returning to the US, she went to Illinois and got her affairs in order and returned to Scarsdale to work out her contract. The Elders met her and taught her the discussions. I got there in time to baptize her. She loved the Church and the Missionaries and took the Elders to dinner every Thursday night. We always went to a fancy restaurant. Elder Frear and I felt bad that she always paid so much for dinner. So one night we suggested that we go to a Chinese restaurant. We walked in; she walked out and took us to an expensive French restaurant.

After dinner we took her to a new members fireside that was held in a member’s home every Thursday night. After the fireside she took us to Nathan’s World Famous Hot Dogs for a late snack. Usually I had a roast beef sandwich or one of Nathan’s famous hot dogs. She loved Nathan’s hot dogs. It was the only place she would eat that didn’t cost a fortune.

The Stake Mission President was in the Ward and held an investigators fireside at his home every Sunday evening. He had developed a 12 lesson cycle for investigators and new members to be involved in. You could come in anytime and never be behind. There was no starting point, no ending point. It was a pretty effective tool. He wrote it all up and submitted it to the Presiding Bishopric, suggesting that they think of coming up with something like that for the whole Church. Don’t really know if it had anything to do with his proposal, but a couple of years later the Church came out with the new member lessons. The original new member lessons were twelve in number.

Shortly after my arrival in Yonkers there was a blizzard of major proportions. It literally shut New York down for the day. It was also transfer day, but we had been told the day before that we had no new Missionaries coming to our area. A new bunch of Missionaries had arrived and normally would have headed out to their areas of assignment later that day. Our Zone had no transfers, and since we couldn’t do any Missionary work we decided we would go see a movie. We wanted to see “Is Paris Burning”. (We rationalized that it was appropriate because it was about a true event and contained actual news real footage.) In the end, though, only Elder Frear, Elder Riding (DL) and I wanted to go. A phone call told us the theater was open and the start time of the movie. The DL’s junior companion, Elder Webb, didn’t want to go. The other Elders in the district were going over to the Church to play basketball, and he wanted to do that. So the other Elders were going to stop by and pick him up. We waited and waited, but they never came. We finally got a hold of them and they were going to come and pick up Elder Webb, but they had been delayed because they had to dig their car out of the snow before they could go to do their laundry. If we were going to make the start of the movie, we needed to go. So we coordinated with the other Elders to be sure to pick up Elder Webb; and then left Elder Webb at our apartment, waiting for his ride, and went to the movie. When we returned later in the afternoon, Elder Webb was at the apartment waiting for us. What he told us made our blood chill. Right after we left, the Mission President called. He asked for Elder Frear. When Elder Webb told him he wasn’t there, he asked for Elder Pritchard. Not here. Elder Riding. Not here either. Then who is with you Elder? Elder Webb then told the story of our going to the movie. The President praised Elder Webb for upholding his principles and not going to the movie. Then Elder Webb told him he was waiting for the other Elders to go play basket ball. The Mission President had wanted us to come into the Mission Home and pick up some of the new Elders to put them up for the night.

The next day was transfer day and we ended up having to go into the Mission Home and face the music. We got there expecting the worse, but nothing was ever said to us. As it turned out, other Elders had committed a greater infraction of the rules. These Elders, including a former AP, decided to tour the mission and visit members they knew, before they headed home. All were short timers. These Elders were in Connecticut and had left the previous Sunday right after Church. One of the Junior Companions refused to go, so they left him alone, with instructions not to answer the phone. When the phone rang he answered it. It was President Eldridge. He had called to inform the ZL that transfers had been postponed and not to come into the City. The lone Elder spilled his soul to the President. The traveling elders made it to the Mission Home, braving the elements of the blizzard. The former AP told me that when they entered the Mission Home that the staff avoided eye contact with the Elders. He then turned to his fellow travelers and announced, “Brethren, we’ve been found out”. All the missionaries were transferred to New Jersey.

By the time we made it into the Mission Home, our infractions must have seemed minor to what the President was dealing with the preceding day, plus trying to get all these new Missionaries out to the field. I figured I would never be a DL, but time heals all wounds and I was later called to be a District Leader.

CALLED TO SERVE, Part 4

This blog entry is part 4 of the entry of my Mission experiences.


Our transfers came in the mail, usually on Wednesday. Transfer day was Friday or Saturday. That gave us a couple of days to pack, put in a change of address, write our folks and say good-bye to the members. My transfer said I was going to Norway. Norway, Maine that is. I was to catch a bus from Hartford to Boston. Then change busses in Boston for Lewiston-Auburn, Maine. There I would be picked up by my companion and go on to Norway. The District Leaders were in Lewiston-Auburn. I was no stranger to riding the bus as I had ridden the bus from San Jose to San Francisco a few times when I worked for Uncle Lee. I even took a date to San Francisco on the bus once. Real romantic. I only did it once! Anyway, I packed everything I owned in my suit cases and headed for northern New England. It was March and Spring was in the air, but there was still snow on the ground.

My trip to Maine was uneventful, as was my layover in the Boston Bus Terminal. I knew that lots of missionaries were being transferred that day and was surprised that I didn’t see any. I had to go to the restroom and not wanting to leave my bags unattended nor wanting to drag them downstairs to the restroom, I needed an ally. I sat next to a group of Nuns and struck up a conversation. We didn’t wear name tags in those days and I wasn’t about to tip my hand as to whom I was until after I used the restroom. I asked if they would mind watching my stuff. I figured that if I couldn’t trust them, then who could I trust? They graciously said they would watch my things. When I got back, the Nun’s and my things were still there. I thanked them and we exchanged pleasantries, then they got up and went to their bus.

Arriving in Lewiston-Auburn, I was met by the DLs and my companion, Elder Buchanan. I was coming as the newly assigned Senior Companion. I soon found out that Elder Buchanan wasn’t thrilled at the idea of his Senior Companion being out barely 5 months when he had been out almost a year. Our time together went downhill from there. In Maine he was like a fish out of water. He was a city boy and he hated the country…and Norway, Maine was out in the country. The town of Norway and its neighboring town, South Paris, were not quite as large as the Boston Bus Terminal! Well, okay, larger, but not by much. He had come up to Maine from Boston and had loved tracting in the apartment buildings. You could spend an entire day going from door to door until you got kicked out. If you couldn’t tract, you could sit in your apartment and telephone contact…boy that was effective! But in Maine, we had no apartment buildings of any size, and each phone call cost a nickel. I loved the outdoors, so we tracted. The towns of Norway and South Paris had been tracted out entirely several times in the preceding months, so I suggested we go into the country an visit some folks on the farms. We would drive out to the country, park and then walk back to the farms we had passed. Then we walked back to the car. The area was breathtaking, full of white birch trees and pines. The snow was melting, the temperature was mild, and it was like being in a picture postcard.

We stopped at a farm wanting to visit with the people who lived there and teach them the gospel. Elder Buchanan was deathly afraid of dogs. We entered the gate of the farm and were just inside the gate when we were met by a large black dog. My guess is that it was either a Rottweiler or a Lab. The dog came bounding up barking. My companion froze and the dog squared off with him. I told him to ignore the dog and keep walking, but he wasn’t moving. He was frozen with fear…and I think the dog sensed his fear. Then a woman came to the door and asked what we wanted. I told her, and she said she was the babysitter and the family would be home that evening. I asked her about the dog and she said she didn’t know if the dog was vicious or not. I thanked her and looked at my companion, who was still face to face with that dog, about 4 feet apart. Then both the dog and Elder Buchanan flinched at the same time. Elder Buchanan did a 180 degree turn precisely at the moment the dog did the same and the both headed in opposite directions as fast as they could go. The woman on the porch and I laughed so hard my side hurt. That, of course, ended tracting in the country.

The Branch President suggested we might want to try doing work in a neighboring town, Bridgton, as there were some members there. So we went and met the Mayor and a few other people, and decided we could do a lot of work there. We called President Packer and got permission to move to Bridgton. So the next day we went back and found an apartment. We stopped by the newspaper and had our pictures and a story about the missionary efforts run, and then we moved. After moving our stuff in, I figured the best thing to do would be to stop at the local diner, have lunch and ask for directions to somewhere, just to start a conversation. We ended up talking with a couple of folks and then left. When the next edition of the weekly newspaper came out, we were in it. Downtown we were stopped by a shop owner whose shop we had visited the day we moved to Bridgton. . She came out to apologize to us because she had thought we were the con men she had read about in the Boston paper. She had told others to watch out for the two young guys in suits because they were con men. When she read the article in the paper, she was embarrassed. But she became our friend, although she wasn’t interested in hearing the discussions. And nobody else ever mentioned our being con men.

The local branch was in Norway and met in the Grange Hall. The only Priesthood in the Branch was the Branch Presidency and some Aaronic Priesthood holders. One Sunday the Branch Presidency had an early morning meeting in Bangor, Maine with the District President and the Mission President. They expected to be back in time for Church, which started at 10, but didn’t make it. Elder Buchanan and I were the only Melchezidek Priesthood holders, so we decided to go ahead and conduct the meeting. The program was already set, so we went ahead and started. About the end of the meeting the Branch President came in. They thanked us for taking charge.

Maniacs (what people from Maine call themselves), speak with a distinct accent, almost their own dialect. They really emphasize and extend out the “ah” sound in the letter “a”. Father becomes Faaaahhhhhther. The Branch President’s son was a student at BYU and was home for a few days over spring break. He had totally lost his Maine/New England accent and sounded like a westerner. Being a Priest, he was one who administered the Sacrament that Sunday. When he began the blessing on the bread he did fine until he came to father. Then that old Maniac Faaahhhhther came out. I jerked my head up and it was all I could do to keep from laughing. It was the only time I ever heard the faintest accent from him.

Our apartment in Bridgton was right on Long Lake. Bridgton had a population of about 1500 to 2000 in the winter, and nearly 10,000 in the summer. It was an ideal vacation spot. We could go to the backyard of our apartment building and walk right down to the waters edge. I would highly doubt that if we were to go there today that we would find those apartments any more. More likely we would find expensive vacation homes with boat docks. Southern New Englanders spend a lot of summer months in Maine, and Bridgton was a popular spot. But before the influx of summer people came, my transfer notice arrived, and I was on my way to Pittsfield, MA.

What a joyous day it was to leave Maine, or at least my companion. Funny thing, while we came close to fisticuffs one evening, after we parted ways, we became good friends. I left Maine and arrived in Pittsfield on a beautiful spring afternoon one day in May. My companion was Elder Thurman and we would be together for four months. While Pittsfield was a good sized small town, we had lots of opportunities to tract in the country. There were two sets of Elders in Pittsfield and the other Elders, Elders Monson and Orton, had the town in their area. We lived in an apartment on West Houstatonic Street, a couple of doors up form the A and W Root Beer stand. We would drink a lot of root beer in those few months. Lots of empty calories that packed on some weight!

Elder Thurman had a girlfriend, and she wrote to him every day. The mail came at 11 and all he could think or talk about was going to get the mail. Mission rules were 1 letter per week. I told him to write his girlfriend and tell her to only write once a week. He refused at first. So when we would get back to the apartment each afternoon I grabbed the mail and would not give him the letters from his girlfriend. I told him he could have them on P-Day. After a few threats of physical violence, he finally began to settle down. Once he quit worrying about the letters and his girlfriend, he started to enjoy his mission. After a couple of weeks he wrote her and told her to only write once a week. She did and he became an outstanding Missionary. Before he got off his Mission, she sent him a “Dear John”.

One afternoon Elder Thurman and I were tracting in the country and were about a mile from our car. In the distance we heard the rumble of thunder. We looked at the mountains and saw the first white puffs of clouds coming over the range, and we headed hurriedly for our car. It usually took about ten minutes from the first rumble to a full blown afternoon thunderstorm. On that day we barely made it back before the rains came. We remembered we had left the windows in the apartment open, so we headed home. By the time we got there we were engulfed in rain. We ran upstairs to our apartment and the curtains were blowing horizontally to the floor; and the floors were soaking wet. We closed the windows and waited out the storm. Then we opened the windows again and began mopping up the water. All of the water was limited to the kitchen and dining area, so our bedrooms were dry.

The Pittsfield Branch met downtown on the 2nd floor of the YMCA. The Branch President was a professor at one of the colleges in Adams or North Adams, MA. On some Saturday evenings the Y sponsored a dog show. When we got to the Y on Sunday mornings, we would help the Branch Presidency clean up the place for church. Mostly we had to rearrange chairs, put away tables and floor mats. The Branch rented the building, but the Y did nothing to make our use of it easy.

Brother Boland was one of those perennial investigators. He loved discussions with the Missionaries, but never had any intention of joining the Church. He was the drama professor at Berkshire Community College and was a well educated and pleasant man. He was a widower of several years. He invited us to the dress rehearsal of The Fantasticks, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The music was fantastic! However, Brother Boland, as educated as he was, was a UFO freak! He believed in them and knew they were out there. The east coast blackout the previous November was a direct result of UFO’s sucking up power off one of the New England power grids just outside of Pittsfield. We would listen as he would tell us of the UFO sightings that night. One included a farmer’s field right outside of Pittsfield that had a perfect circle burned in the middle of the pasture. By the time he got there the Sheriff’s office had people bulldozing the area. They said they found a body there. No body finding was ever reported in the local paper. Brother Boland was a hoot, very creditable and we loved him and his theories as much as he loved the Missionaries.

Transfers came and I was to get a new companion. Elders Thurman and Monson were going to new areas. One companion of each set of Elders was going and leaving me and Elder Orton as companions. Pittsfield would have only one set of Missionaries. I was not thrilled because he was an extreme introvert and never talked much at all.

I had been in Pittsfield for 4 months and it was time for District Conference. This was a special conference because the Hartford Stake was to be organized. Elder Herald B. Lee of the Quorum of the Twelve was presiding with President Packer assisting. When we got to Hartford for the meeting, the Branch President told me that I was in for a big surprise. I asked him if I was being transferred. When the business portion of the conference was conducted, President Packer, in his role as a General Authority, transacted the business. He announced that the area of the New England Mission comprised of all of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, including all 40 missionaries serving in those areas, was being transferred from the jurisdiction of the New England Mission to that of the Eastern States Mission. The Branch President leaned over to me and said, “You’ve been transferred.”

The Sunday afternoon meeting Missionaries were to have with Elder Lee was postponed until the next morning so that the business of organizing the Stake could take place. Missionaries were farmed out to families to spend the night, although Elder Orton and I went with the West Hartford Elders and stayed in the place I lived on my mission. The next morning at 9 we were in the Hartford Ward building. During this meeting, each missionary had the opportunity to meet personally with an Apostle of the Lord. Elder Lee interviewed each Missionary individually. When it was my turn, I went into the Bishops office and sat across the desk from Elder Lee. He was a very pleasant man and had a warm demeanor about him. He had pictures of me and of my companion. He told me that I had learned a lot from President Packer and would now be able to learn a lot from President Eldridge. He said that most missionaries don’t serve under two different presidents, and it was very rare to serve in two different Missions, and I was doing both. Then the looked at my companion’s picture and told me all about him. He described him to a tee. Then he gave me some ideas on how to help him come out of his shell. Then the interview was over. I don’t remember all that was said, but I can still feel the spirit when I reflect on that meeting.

Elder Orton and I were together in Pittsfield for 4 months. We taught a lot of discussions, but we didn’t baptize. It was a tough area – blue caller mostly, an area highly concentrated with Eastern European immigrants, and very Catholic. The only family baptized while I was there went inactive pretty quickly. We visited with them after they quit coming to Church and they had never taken down symbols of their former religion, including holders for holy water. Thirty years later I visited Pittsfield and the Pittsfield Ward met in a modern building just outside Pittsfield. I didn’t know anyone, but several younger adults told me they were in primary in the days when the branch met in the YMCA.
Transfers were conducted differently in the Eastern States Mission. My transfer notice came by telephone and I was being transferred to Yonkers, NY. I was to be a Zone Leader. In the Eastern States Mission, when the President called Zone Leaders, he called one former District Leader and one who had been a Senior Companion, to gain more leadership experience. That Zone Leader would generally then become a District Leader. In stead of catching a bus, my District Leader, Elder Bunting, came to Pittsfield from Greenfield, MA and drove me to the Mission Home in Manhattan. There we had a short meeting with the Mission President, met the Mission staff, including the APs, and then had a short interview with the Mission President. He told me I was going to Yonkers with Elder Frear. After meeting Elder Frear, we loaded up and we were off to Westchester County.

TO BE CONTINUED

CALLED TO SERVE, Part 3

This blog entry is part 3 of the entry of my Mission experiences.

We arrived in Boston later that afternoon where we were met by the Assistants to the Mission President (APs). We got our bags and trudged to the subway. It was hot and humid. I had never before felt humidity. I was melting. The subway tunnel was cool and I could have served my whole Mission right there! We boarded the subway train and rode to Cambridge and then walked the couple of blocks to the Mission Home. We were greeted by our Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Boyd K. Packer. After a short welcome talk and then an interview with the President, some were assigned rooms for the night in the Mission Home, and others of us were taken to a hotel close by. The next morning we had breakfast at the Mission Home and then we were given our assignments. Mine was Hartford, Connecticut. Bag and baggage we once again boarded the MTA (subway) and rode to the Boston Greyhound Terminal. I purchased a ticket to Hartford and then I was on my way to my first area…as green a missionary as there ever was.

I arrived in Hartford late in the afternoon and was met by the Zone Leaders. My companion, Elder Moon, the District Leader, was with other Elders at an appointment. They would take me to meet my companion later. In the mean time, we had an appointment to teach the first discussion to some investigators. It was my first experience with “row houses” and “walk ups”. The family was probably a nice family, although I have no recollection of them at all. I do very well remember the evening. The house was hot and the air still. This was before everyone had air conditioning. I wanted to rip my suit coat off and run out of the room screaming for cool air! Elder Stiles gave the first conclusion of the discussion. I had been told I would give the second conclusion. PANIC! I couldn’t remember one word that I had learned in the Salt Lake Mission Home. Elder Stiles explained to the family that I was a new missionary and this was my first discussion. After what seemed like forever, but was, in reality, only a moment or two, I recovered enough to stumble thru the conclusion. Thankfully, they didn’t make me give another, although I was asked to bear my testimony.

After the discussion we stopped at Friendly Ice Cream and got some ice cream cones. Then we went to the ZL’s apartment and waited for my companion. Soon he arrived. He was Elder Richard Moon from Vernal, UT. I don’t think he was really happy to see me because he was under 30 days and the last thing he needed was a greenie. But he had me, and to his credit, he began to train me to be a missionary.

We had several discussions those first few days. Brother Giovanni stands out because he had been investigating for a few weeks, and he was my first appointment with my companion. He was a faithful listener to Music and the Spoken Word on the radio. He was really exited about the Church, and even went on Saturdays to help build the building in East Hartford. His wife would not meet with us and in the end his wife and brother prevailed and he broke off the discussions. Our last hurrah with him came on a Sunday evening. We were at Church for Sacrament Meeting and got a call on the phone. It was Brother Giovanni’s brother. They were members of Boulevard Baptist Church and they wanted us to attend their meeting. They wanted us to come right over, or they would come and get us and “escort” us over. We mentioned the phone call to the Branch President and he really didn’t want us to go; but Elder Moon and I felt that we should, if not just for the challenge. So we arrived in time for the meeting to start. The preacher’s sermon was on the anti-Christ. The entire sermon was preached at us. When the offering plate came around, we dropped in our Articles of Faith business cards. Finally the meeting was over and we were immediately surrounded by quite a few members of their church. They successfully separated us and were all talking at once, condemning us and the Church. One lady asked me if I had a copy of The Book of Mormon. I showed it to her and she grabbed it out of my hand. She leafed thru the book quickly and informed me she hadn’t seen the name Jesus Christ once in the book. I assured her it was there and offered to share some passages with her. She wasn’t listening. When I explained about the name of the church, she said we had to change the name to try to look like we were Christians. In the end, the crowd began to leave and we were left alone. It was an experience we would never forget. We didn’t convince anyone, and Brother Giovanni ended up telling us not to come back.

My first baptism came the following weekend. We were teaching a 12 year old girl named Louise Tollifson. Her family had visited the Mormon Pavilion at the New York Worlds Fair and they wanted to know more. The family ended up not joining, but he young daughter did. They lived in a row house and, like the first house I visited, no air and it was hot and humid. We had to wear suit coats and hats. As I was sitting there melting, Louise’s father took compassion on me and turned the box fan directly on me. In a minute I was comfortable. The discussion we gave was the last and we filled out the baptismal recommend and the following Saturday Elder Moon baptized her. On Sunday I confirmed her as a member of the Church. She was active for the remainder of the time I was in Hartford.

Missionaries were known for wearing hats and suits. The first purchase I made after arriving in Hartford was a hat. Elder Moon took me downtown to a department store and I found a hat. It wasn’t particularly stylish, but it was within my budget. I looked more like Elliot Ness of The Untouchables than one of the Lord’s servants. I wore my hat all winter and then when Spring came, we went to buy our Spring hats. They were made of straw and much cooler than the wool hats we wore in the winter. And I even got one that was very stylish. A few days later we got a letter from President Packer advising us that he had ended the requirement for New England Missionaries to wear hats. He figured that he hated wearing them, and didn’t want us having to wear them either. YAHOO!

Twenty eight days after I arrive in Hartford, I took Elder Moon to the bus stop and sent him on his way to Cambridge and Vernal. Then I drove back to the apartment and waited alone for the bus to arrive with my new companion. He was Elder Richard Egan from Washington State. Years later his son would serve in the same district as Brett in the Georgia Macon Mission. I met Elder Egan later that afternoon and we got to know each other pretty well. It was shortly after Elder Egan’s arrival that we got the no hats ruling. Elder Egan probably taught me more about being a missionary than any other companion. I had not learned all the discussions by the time he got there, so he made that our primary goal. Learn the discussions. You cannot be an effective missionary unless you know the discussions. With the concentration on learning the discussions, it took only a short while and I had learned them. Then we practiced discussions every morning … we closed our eyes and then gave our conclusions as fast as we could talk. Theoretically we were not thinking, but speaking out of some inward knowledge of the discussion. That may have been true because I never had trouble with discussions again.

At 5:J5 on the night of November 9, 1965 I was in the basement of a small department store in West Harford with Elder Egan looking for some jeans that were on sale to wear on P-Day. I had just completed the purchase when the lights blinked out and we were in the dark. After a few minutes waiting for the lights to come back on, the owner of the store asked everyone to leave so they could close the doors. I took my jeans and we went upstairs and departed. It was starting to snow when we got to the car. We quickly learned that the entire east coast was blacked out. We drove over to our house to make sure our land lady was okay, and then we went to a member’s home. They had a transistor radio and we listened to the reports of the blackout. Speculations of conspiracies were on the airwaves. Everything from the Russians to spacemen were reported to be the cause. I don’t remember how long the lights were out, but it was for many hours. It would be a topic that would come up time and time again, especially after I was transferred to Pittsfield, MA, a few months later.

Zone Conferences were generally held quarterly. My first was at the Hartford Chapel. President Packer’s background was as an educator and the emphasis of his training was how to teach the gospel, not present a discussion. He taught us how to effectively use the flannel board and how to put the pictures on without looking at them. Pretty neat stuff. . Later I attended a Zone Conference in Bangor, Maine. A few days later I was transferred to Massachusetts. A week after I arrive there we had a Zone Conference in Hartford. President Packer opened the conference; then asked me to stand up. He said that Elder Pritchard had attended Zone Conference a couple of weeks ago in Bangor, “but I had to send him here because he didn’t believe a word I said”.

Over the three months we were together we spent a lot of time looking up referrals from the Worlds Fair and just going out to meet people. We didn’t like to tract, so we found alternative ways to meet people. Some of the tracting we did actually involve just finding people at stores, in their yards, or where ever we could and then engaged them in conversation about the gospel. I remember one family we baptized was a young couple we met from a Worlds Fair referral. We taught them the discussions and they were quick to respond. After 6 weeks they were baptized. Elder Egan got the bright idea of fixing dinner and having them over. This family was easy to talk to and it was easy to forget they had been baptized earlier that day. During dinner, Elder Egan launched into discussion on “as man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become.” They stopped eating and just stared at my companion and me. Dinner was over. They recovered from it, and stayed active in the Church. But the lesson we learned was that we were feeding these new converts strained peaches, and they were not yet ready to T-Bone steaks.

We looked up a Fair referral from a minister. We went to his house an met his wife. She knew her husband would love to meet us, so we went over to the Church. He was very pleasant and after a brief conversation, he invited us to come speak at their weekly prayer breakfast. We accepted. The appointed morning we went to the Church and had breakfast. We were treated courteously and we told about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, and the restoration. We got several invites by people to visit them in their homes, but nothing ever came of it for us. Hopefully the seeds we planted were later harvested.

One Saturday morning the ZLs were at our house and we were finished with whatever it was we were doing and were ready to go work the plan .Just then the doorbell rang. We answered the door and two lovely young ladies were standing there – with Watch Tower magazines in their hands. They had seen the four of us thru the window and thought we must be students from the local theological seminary. We invited them in and explained who we were and that we were just going out. We invited them to come back the following Saturday to have a discussion of the difference of ours and their ideas. We picked a religious subject and we each would have a few minutes to present our views. They were to have the opportunity to choose the first topic. I don’t remember the topic, but the following Saturday they showed up precisely at 9 AM and we spent the next hour sharing our views with each other. Now it was our turn to pick the subject and we would again meet next Saturday to discuss it. We picked First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 29; the scripture on baptism for the dead. The following Saturday morning at 9 they were at the door, but they couldn’t come in as they had another pressing appointment. We fain expressed sorrow, but told them that if they ever wanted to know what Paul meant that we would be happy to teach them. I have used that same set up on other Jehovah’s Witnesses over the years, with similar results.

One lady we visited was a local radio personality and she wanted to interview us on the radio. We were a little skeptical but asked permission from President Packer. He said to do it. We had to provide her some background information so she would know what to ask. We gave her a copy of The Mormon Story, a table book about the history of the Church, and a copy of the Book of Mormon. We went to the studio about a half hour or so before air time. She showed us the questions she was going to ask. As the saying goes, “prepare for the worse, hope for the best”. The worse never came. She was a nice lady and allowed us to give full answers to her questions. We were on the air for 30 minutes. She gave us a copy of the tape, but it is long gone.

Another family joined the Church after having visited the Worlds Fair. The newly weds felt they needed a Church. He was a Christian, but of no affiliation. She was agnostic. They felt they wanted to have some sort of religion in their lives because if they were to have children, they wanted to make sure they had a religious background. At least that was his point of view. I am not so sure it was hers, but she did attend the discussions we held in their home. The Spirit was there and before long, she was coming around. We asked her to offer the prayer after the first discussion, but she refused. We sensed a lack of knowledge on her part, so we taught them how to pray. She still refused, so we asked her husband and he prayed. Then we got her to commit to pray on her own about what she had learned. A few days later we taught them the 2nd discussion, The Book of Mormon. They received it gladly it and committed to read the first 50 pages before we returned. We noticed as we visited with them time after time, that she warmed up to the gospel and he cooled down. Then one evening following the discussion she said she wanted to offer the prayer. Her prayer was simple and included the words, “Heavenly Father, if you are there …” She received an answer right then and there. Tears flowed and she had found joy. She was a timid lady and still would not commit to baptism. They attended Church regularly, but felt they were not accepted. Then the miracle happened. The Young Marrieds had a social the following Saturday evening and invited them to come. They accepted. They felt welcome and fit right in. This was the last obstacle in her joining the Church. The next day she couldn’t wait to find us at Church. We could see it in her face. “Elder Egan, Elder Pritchard, I want to be baptized.” The following Saturday morning we baptized her with her husband watching. Her husband, at first wanting to have a common religion in their home, seemed now to be the agnostic. I left the area a short time later and never knew if he ever joined the Church.

Kathy was a joy to teach and just visit with. She was from Scotland, in her 20s and a little overweight. She was a nurse at a local hospital and was anxious to become a US citizen. She had visited the Mormon Pavilion with LDS friends and wanted to learn about the Church. The discussion on The Book of Mormon was the second discussion. When we gave Kathy the second discussion we gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon, for which she paid 50 cents, to cover the cost of the book. We challenged her to read the first 50 pages before our next discussion the following week. She accepted. When we next met with her she proudly told us that she had read the 50 pages. But she thought something must be wrong with the book. Every other page was upside down. She would read a page, turn the book over and read the next page. Then she had to do it again. We were amazed that she had persevered thru the ordeal and finished the assignment. After a good laugh, we gave her another copy of the book and wanted to take her copy. She accepted the new book, but refused to give up her copy. It was her first Book of Mormon and she would treasure it her whole life. A couple of weeks later she was baptized and beamed with joy.

Elder Egan was a straight razor man. Somewhere along the line in his mission he had been converted to using a strait razor to shave. So naturally I had to have one. We went to a cutlery shop in Hartford and I purchased a strait razor, leather strop, a shaving mug and brush and shaving soap. The whole deal cost me about $10 or $15. Elder Egan said I would need a good aftershave, and I used Aqua Velva, so I had one. The first time I shaved I knew what he meant. Elder Egan showed me how to use the strop, and I shaved with a strait razor. Closest shave I ever had. Then I splashed on the aftershave, and ZOWIE, it burned like nothing ever burned before. I soon had the worse rash I ever had. You don’t just start shaving with a strait razor and get away without pain. I learned I had to shave before I took a shower; that way the hot water of the shower cut off the blood flow on my face. It took a good week or so before I no longer bled or burned when I shaved. One morning I guess I was a little too cocky and dropped the razor on the ring finger of my right hand. It took 5 stitches to close it up. I probably would have just put a band – aid on it, but Elder Egan was an Army medic and thought I needed stitches.

CALLED TO SERVE, Part 2

This blog entry is part 2 of the entry of my Mission experiences.


One of the first orders of business after I entered the Salt Lake Mission Home was to apply for my Ministerial Deferment from the draft. Those of us who were 1A could not be promised that the deferments could be obtained and that the possibility existed that we could still be drafted. However, the Chairman of the Military Relations Committee of the Church, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, had a good relationship with Selective Service and the chance was pretty good we would get our 2Y deferments. He handled all the paperwork for everyone. I got mine.

The Salt Lake Mission Home was just west of Temple Square. The location of the Salt Lake Mission Home is now somewhere in the Conference Center. I was met at the airport by the girl in Salt Lake City I had been dating for a couple of summers, whenever she came to California to stay with her Aunt and Uncle. She drove me to the Mission Home and we made a date for her to pick me up on the day we finished as we could visit with family, friends, and yes, even girl friends… although we were expected to maintain Missionary Standards.

I was assigned a room with 3 other New England Mission Missionaries. I found out that there were 28 of us going to New England, the largest group of Missionaries ever sent to New England at one time. Our daily routine involved eating and classes. We had individual classes as well larger classes, and devotionals; being treated to talks by General Authorities and our Mission Home President and his wife. I remember one lesson we had on how to iron a shirt and how to cook a healthy breakfast. I cannot remember who the General Authorities were who spoke to us, but I would imagine that they are all gone now as they were old then. After dinner we had more classes, usually in small groups, working on memorizing the first discussion. Learning the first discussion was our goal while we were in the Salt Lake Mission Home.

In those days we were not set apart as missionaries by our Stake Presidents, but by a General Authority. Because there were only 15 operating Temples worldwide, many young missionaries came to the Mission Home without having been to the Temple. On one of the first days, we went to the Salt Lake Temple. Following the Temple session, we went to the room in the Temple where the General Authorities meet every Thursday and a member of the First Presidency spoke to us. It wasn’t President McKay, so it was either President Hugh B. Brown or President N. Eldon Tanner. Then we went to the Church Office Building where we were set apart as Missionaries by a General Authority. I was set apart by Elder Alma Sonne, an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

One afternoon we went shopping to pick up some of the last minute items we might need. We went to ZCMI downtown. These were the days before the big malls sprung up across from Temple Square. ZCMI was an old store with wooden floors and a musty odor. I didn’t have much money, but I did purchase a camera. I got a Kodak Instamatic for a few dollars. That was all I bought. Over the next two years I took lots of pictures with that little camera. It would later go with me to Vietnam.

Looking out of the window in our room, we had a beautiful view of the Salt Lake Temple and the Angle Moroni. I expect that as a group of 19 and 20 year olds staying together in a room, we were involved in the antics of young men. We all got along well, and we were assigned in companionships. I cannot remember the name of my companion, and I would never see him again during my Mission. I did learn, though, that he spent most of his mission in the maritime provinces of Canada. As we got ready to check out of our rooms, we had to make the beds with clean linins for the next group coming in. We short sheeted all the beds.

At the end of our time we were released to visit with family and friends for a few hours before we had to be back to the Salt Lake Mission Home for transportation to the Union Pacific Depot. My young lady friend picked me up and she took me to the “This Is the Place” Monument. The next time I would go to that historic monument was with Scott, when Jannie and I took him to Missionary Training Center for his Mission.

Back at the Mission Home we gathered our bags and were bussed to the Union Pacific Depot. It was a bustling place, filled with Missionaries in dark suits, waiting for trains to take them to their fields of labor. Our train was called and we boarded the train to Chicago. We didn’t have sleeping cars like in the movies, but had seats not unlike busses or airplanes. We had to eat in the dining car, and that was not inexpensive. As I remember, when we stopped at train depots along the way we got off the train and made a dash to a store and got goodies to take on the train. The train pulled out and late the next day we were getting off at a crossing in a rural area outside Chicago. A few minutes later some vans from the Mission in Chicago pulled up and transported us to Chicago O’Hare where we caught a flight to Boston. I remember we flew out on Delta Airlines. The seat I had was broken and would not stay in the upright position. I had to lean a little forward during take-off and landing. (A few years later I would fly Delta again and I swear it was the same airplane because the seat I was assigned had the same defect.) We were 28 Elders going to New England and were told that we were the first group of state-side Missionaries to be flown to our Missions. A pretty historic group, we were.

TO BE CONTINUED

CALLED TO SERVE, Part 1

I didn’t grow up singing I Hope They Call Me on a Mission because it probably hadn’t been written when I was growing up; but if it had, it was a Primary song and I didn’t go to Primary. I really don’t know when I started thinking I wanted to go on a mission. My activity in the Church was sporadic as I grew up. My mother was almost totally in active; we didn’t even go to Church on Easter and Christmas. But we went to Church every so often, and did go to a lot of the Ward Dinners. When we moved to Dallas Mom decided it was time for her to get back to Church, so we went to the Dallas Ward almost every week. I turned 12 and was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. When we moved to Los Angeles I don’t remember ever going to Church. We only lived in the Los Angeles area a short time when my parents divorced and we moved back to San Jose. We began going to Church again, and at age 14, I was ordained a Teacher. At 16 I became a Priest. I still didn’t know much about Missionaries.

I was the oldest Priest in our Ward. All my friends were a year younger than me, and we began talking about missions; we began having lessons in Priesthood Meeting that were designed to prepare us for Missionary service. Soon I graduated high school and started college. I began attending M-Men and Gleaners, although I still attended Priest Quorum as I was still a Priest. In those days you generally remained a Priest until you went on your Mission, or turned 20 (at least in my Ward – but then again, I was the oldest Priest and the first one I knew who actually turned 18). My friends at Church were still in high school and in the Priest Quorum. I continued attending Priest Quorum.

Shortly after I graduated in June 1963, I was approached by my Bishop, Murray Gardner, and asked to visit with him. He offered me a job. Our Ward building was still under construction and the Church used member labor to build the buildings. Part of that effort was calling young men to serve “Building Missions”. It was a way to get young men on missions and Church service who didn’t show interest in going on normal full-time missions. Building Missions usually lasted 18 months. Like full-time Missionaries, Building Missionaries had companions. The Building Missionary assigned to our ward, Elder Richard DeWolf, did not have a companion. I was hired by the Church to be his labor companion, working with him during the day.

I was working at the church building laying floor tile on November 22, 1963. I had the radio on and the music was interrupted with a news bulletin. President Kennedy had been shot while in a motorcade in Dallas. A few minutes later we all went home. I listened to the coverage on TV.
In my first semester of college I didn’t do very well. Spent too much time at the beach! I was put on academic probation and had one semester to bring my grade point average (GPA) back up to 2.0. The next semester I still kept going to the beach and earned a whopping 1.8 GPA, and then had to sit out a semester before I could re-enroll. The summer term did not count as my semester out. So I had the summer and the entire fall semester to do something. I worked at the Church for the end of 1963, and then Elder DeWolf got a companion. I got a job with the Parks and Recreation Department for the City of San Jose.

It was during that time I committed to the Lord, the Bishop, and to me that I was going to go on a Mission, how or when I was not sure. As I look back on my life, I hope that decision came out of a true commitment to serve the Lord and not to avoid the draft! The military draft was in full swing in those days, although Vietnam was some place very few people ever heard of and a story still buried deep in the newspaper. All young men age 18 were eligible to be drafted for two years of active duty service. However, the draft board didn’t usually draft in my area until age 20. I was 19 and easily received a student deferment from the draft. I lost the deferment later that year when the deferment expired. I couldn’t get a renewal because I was not in school. At that point, my draft status became 1A and I was available. If I was going to go on a Mission, I needed to act or the window of opportunity would close. I am going to give myself the benefit of the doubt that I went on a mission to serve the Lord and not to evade the draft.

I now had to convince my Mother that I needed to go because she had not been really supportive of the idea of my leaving home. Divorced and having recently lost 8 year-old Henry James in death after a life long struggle with diabetes and related problems, she seemed to want to keep her other children by her side. But to my surprise, she didn’t object, but did want to talk to Aunt Dee and Uncle Tom. Everyone in the family looked to Uncle Tom as the “Great Sage” in our family. It was Easter time and we were all in Capitola. One evening my mother broached the subject. Aunt Dee thought it a wonderful idea for me to serve a mission, but that I should finish my schooling first. But, I wasn’t in school, and I was draft eligible. Uncle Tom shocked everyone at the table. He thought about it then said he thought it would be a great learning experience for me and that I should go; it was just too bad I was going for the wrong Church. Then he roared with laughter because he said it took a Catholic to get a Mormon on his Mission. And I was going on a Mission!

The very next Sunday after I got home, I met with Bishop Gardner and he gave me the papers and I began the process of filling out the application, getting my physical and my dental work done. A few weeks later, all completed, I turned in the papers to the Bishop. Then I had to have my interview with the Stake President. The night of my interview the Stake President had been called out of town on business, so I had my interview with President Abraham, the First Counselor, and the father of my girlfriend. Talk about a probing interview. But things were in order and he signed the papers and sent them on to Salt Lake City. Then the waiting game began.

It was hard to find a full time job for the unskilled, right out of school, so I got a second part time job. I went to work at the new McDonald’s Hamburgers – “Over 3 Billion Served” – on Highway 9 in the spring of 65. Since the beginning of 64 I had worked for the San Jose Parks and Recreation Department as a playground supervisor. After I was off work at McD’s, I went straight to the playground. I can’t remember what date I put my papers in, but in July of 65 my sister brought an envelope to me at the swimming pool where I was working that day. It was my Mission Call and I was called to the New England Mission, and I had to be in the Salt Lake Mission Home September 22nd.

At my Missionary Farewell the member of the Bishopric conducting the Sacrament Meeting said that Elder Pritchard was “going to Boston and the New England Mission; the only English speaking Mission where one must first attend the Language Training Mission before going”. Of course that brought a good chuckle, but after arriving in Boston I understood what he was talking about. He was a good authority on the subject as he was from Boston.

Two of my best friends in the Priest Quorum Scott Smith and Jamie Ballentine, also received their calls and had to be in the Salt Lake Mission Home the same day. We flew out together, although we didn’t see each other once we were there. They were going on foreign missions (Uruguay and Germany), and I was on a stateside mission. After a couple of days in the Salt Lake Mission Home, they were sent to Provo and the Language Training Mission. These two missionary training facilities would shortly become the Missionary Training Center in Provo. At one point on my Mission there were 5 of us from our Priest Quorum all on missions at the same time. We started a “round-robin” letter so that we could all keep up with each other. We kept it up faithfully until we started going home, then it died out.

TO BE CONTINUED