Upon graduation from the San Juan high school, May 25, 1962, I immediately went to work for the United States Forest Service. On May 28, 1962, I went with Paul, my older brother, and Willard Guymon to the Baker Ranger Station. This station was in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, and there we applied for a job. We were all accepted, and there went to work just east of Monticello, Utah, on the Blue Mountain road.
I enjoyed the first few months of work immensely. I worked and camped with Paul during the week. Many times we were left to ourselves to do the work. Paul being older, was the supervisor. On the first day at work, we put up the snow fence around the Buck Board flat area. The next day we stayed close to town as Wednesday was Memorial Day and my first paid holiday. Thursday, Willard, Paul, and I went between the Blue Mountain and North Elk, where we began to put in water troughs for the range cattle.
All the time we were working on the mountain we kept our eyes open, hoping to come across a missing Utah Civil Patrol Plane that had gone down in a search, in January of 1962, for a missing plane flying from California to Colorado. Late in the summer, the California plane was found in the mountains of Colorado. Several attempts to find the missing U.C.P.
When fall came, I started preparing for my mission. At this time, I started my preparation for my mission by studying the scriptures. One day while reading in the Doctrine & Covenants section 100 verses five and six, it read, “Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thought that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea in the very moment, what ye shall say.” These two verses of scripture gave me great comfort, so I chose them to be my missionary scripture.
When the time came, I received my mission call to the Northern States mission on November 14th. December of 1962, I went into the mission home. Aunt Hattie Bell Black was in the mission home, along with Pete Black from Blanding. There were also from Arizona, a few others who were all descendants of William Morely Black. Hattie got us all together for meals so we could get to know each other. There was no cafeteria in the mission home at that time, so we would walk down the hill to Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City by the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. During this time, things were a little bit different for missionaries. Instead of taking out your endowments before you went to the Mission home, the Elders would go to the temple once you got to the mission home, and all the elders would go together. The year I was in the Mission Home, the Salt Lake temple was closed, so we went to the Logan temple to have our endowments taken out. I was in the Mission Home for two weeks. At the end of our training, we had a testimony meeting in the Tabernacle. All the missionaries sat in the choir seats. Their families were welcome and could come to this testimony meeting.
As a missionary, I left the Northern State Mission home at 6011 N. Sheridan Road right on the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago. From here, we took the train north up the lakeshore to Milwaukee. Sister Sheila Anderson and Sister Gail were also going to Milwaukee; they were our competitors, laboring in South Milwaukee. I was to have many fond memories of experiences and people I would shortly encounter.
I still had not gotten over my butterflies, and the large city had me baffled and on edge. I had never seen anything move so fast in my life. Elder House, the mission secretary, was to get us on the train at the Union Station in Chicago. He thought the train left an hour later than it did, so he took us downtown Chicago to see the lights. We missed our train, so we had to wait for the next one. We pulled into the Milwaukee Road Depot at about 6:30. There was Elder Curt L. Keith with Elder Harris to meet me. Elder Keith was a young Elder of six months of experience from Boise, Idaho. They took me straight to the apartment and dropped off my luggage, and then we went to pick up some people, Sister Cabot, a member, and Sister and her boy to baptize them. I was thrilled to the bone to attend a baptism service my first night in Milwaukee. After all, that is why I had accepted my call. The services were beautiful that night; Elder Keith and Harris did the baptizing. After they had dressed and it came time for the confirmation, Elder Keith asked me to come up and stand in the circle. I felt shocked by this request, and this thought came to me like a bolt of lightning. The first thought that came through my mind was, “I can’t do that, only Bishops do that.” Then came the realization, I had the authority. Three weeks before, I had been ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood and had sealed on me all powers and authority pertaining to that priesthood. My testimony of the gospel was strengthened greatly that night as I stood in to help confirm those wonderful people. The veil was drawn from my eyes and I was able to envision the many wonderful experiences that were in store for me.
The next morning, Sat., Dec. 15, 1962, Elder Keith and I went to wedding services that Elder Keith was to perform. The wedding was the son of a recent convert Elder Keith had baptized. On Sunday we had the opportunity of taking some recent converts to the church and mingle with the members. I knew right off the church was the same everywhere one could go. There are many wonderful souls in Milwaukee that I grew to love deeply.
At sacrament meeting that evening, Sister Wessell came up and asked us if we would go to a hospital where her husband was recuperating from a heart attack. Brother and Sister Wessell had been in the church only a short while. They had been members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; they are assets to the church. That night as we administered to Brother Wessill, being the first time I had ever seen anointings and blessings given, I was again strengthened in my testimony, and thankful that I had the authority to act for God. Brother Wessel recuperated very rapidly.
While I was in Milwaukee, they were having some of the coldest temperatures on record. I had many good experiences while I was there, but one of my experiences was not good. My companion and I were involved in a car accident that involved four cars. We both got whiplashes from the accident. We were admitted to a hospital for this and put in traction. During this time, there was an unusual cold spell. It was so cold in the hospital the nurses would come in and put blankets on the window to help keep the rooms a little bit warmer.
My good experiences in Milwaukee was, I was able to teach two wonderful families the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then my companion and I were able to baptize them. The family’s names were Zappe, and they came from Germany. The family consisted of the mom, dad, two boys, and a girl who were old enough to be baptized. However, they also had twins, but they were too young at that time to be baptized. The other family’s name was Seitman, my companion and I was able to baptize the dad, the oldest boy, and the two oldest girls. The mom had just had a baby, so she got baptized two weeks later. The biggest challenge for me being in Milwaukee was the temperatures. I had never been to a place that was so cold. During the daytime, the temperatures would warm up to 20 below zero and then get down to 30 below at night. Lake Michigan completely froze over that year.
I transferred out of Milwaukee on May 5th and went to Chicago Heights. My first companion in that area was Kelly Summers from Monticello. I was there only a month when I was transferred to Kankakee, Illinois. This town had a Corn Flake company, the form of heat in Kankakee was coal, the buildings were all black from the suite and the smoke. They would also dump their sewage in the rivers. I was only there a short time. Next, I was transferred to Chillicothe, Illinois, the population of that town was about 2500 people. There was no church in Chillicothe, but members lived there in the town. We used trains as our transportation when it was time to be transferred. When we got to Chillicothe, I met a member who worked on the trains. He introduced me to a very nice man who took me to my apartment. Once I got settled, my companion and I had a referral to a member family that returned to the Lutheran church. Because there was no LDS church in the town, the family always wanted their children to go to MIA, but when the Lutheran Minister found out about this news, he was mad. I felt very blessed in being a part of reactivating this family. One highlight while I was in Chillicothe was a mission conference in Nauvoo and Carthage. The reorganized church-owned that area at the time, but just being there where the church had started strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith, that he truly had restored the true church on this earth. While in Carthage seeing for myself where Joseph sealed his testimony with his blood as he died for this restored gospel deepened my testimony of missionary work. Even after Joseph was martyred, God had a work to do, and the gospel of Jesus Christ still moved forward. After this great experience, we received a referral to a family who lived way out on a farm, their names were Pedrecks, and they lived in a little town named Metamora, Illinios. They ended up joining the church, and after my mission was over, this family was able to go through the temple and were sealed together. I was able to go through with them. What joy you feel when you get to see the fruits of your labor. I will always cherish this time in my life. Later on, when their daughter got married, I was invited to the wedding, so I went out to Metamora one more time.
Next, I was transferred to Wausau, Wisconsin, where I spent my last winter and into the spring. I was then transferred to Southern Illinois, Benton. Last part of my mission I reopened up Clinton, Iowa, it was by Davenport, Iowa, and Moline, Illinois. it had been shut down due to the misconduct of previous missionaries. My mission consisted of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Milwaukee was my favorite place in my mission. I got home off my mission and was released in December 1964.
After my mission, I went to Utah State. I majored in Biology, which was a very tough major for me, and as a result, made such bad grades I lost my deferment. Not long after this, I was called to go to Fort Bliss, Texas, where I had eight weeks of training. At this point, I thought I would go to Vietnam, at the last minute, they changed my orders to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. From there, I went to Irwin. When I got to Irwin, I had no idea where I was supposed to be. Finally, someone came and got me and brought me to the Battalion headquarters where I would be working. Eventually, they changed my job to be an S2 clerk. I had the best job in the battalion. My job was to process everyone and send their information to the FBI. The FBI would then do background checks, and with the information I gave them, they would see if they were reliable to have security clearance. In the office, we also had a CBR and Senior dog handlers, it was all very interesting. I bunked with the typists from the other units. I was one of the top two clerk typists in the whole battalion. It turned out to be a great experience. My tour in Vietnam was 13 months, I kept expecting to be transferred to Vietnam, but I never was. I had high scores in the military and could have become an officer, but I decided not to. While I was in Irwin, I was able to go to church. The missionaries contacted me, and they came and picked me up along with one other gentleman who had joined the church in Korea. He had got a hold of the Book of Mormon, gained a testimony of its truthfulness, and joined the church. Not too long being there, I became the Second Counselor in the Greensburg branch. The branch was in a town next to Irwin, Pennsylvania. At that time we were meeting in a Rec hall. One Sunday, I was waiting to start the meeting, there was an African American lady that came in for church who had joined the church in England, Maryland Yule was her name. She loved Americans, so when she saw missionaries from America, she listened to their message and converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Later on in her life, she was drafted to be a member of the Tabernacle Choir. She ended up marrying a member of the church whose wife had died. I was able to do a lot of work with the missionaries while I was there in the military and spent a lot of time in members’ homes, so I could get away from the base. While I was there, we had a branch picnic on the 4th of July. Mike Young was on a mission there at the time and was from Monticello. I was a team captain for baseball, and Mike was a team captain, so it was Blanding against Monticello. One of the highlights of this period in my life was when President Kimball announced that African Americans could have the priesthood. That was one of the most inspired revelations. I have always felt that the Civil Rights movement prepared the hearts and minds for this revelation to take place. This Gospel is still moving forward through revelation and will continue into the Millenium, I have a testimony of that.
