What made you successful at work?

I could make a very long list of what has made me successful in my work.  Here's the short list:

Work ethic: My father and mother taught me to work.  There were always chores to be done in the house and in the yard.  I started finding employment at as early as age eight when I started picking cherries for Bishop Burt Skinner.  At eleven I began delivering news papers.  At age 14 I worked at a hydroponics farm in which my grandpa Wood had part interest.  At 15 I got a dishwashing job at the Riverside Country Club.  Later I went to work for Marie Calender's Pies.  So all through my youth I worked and earned what I needed/wanted.  It is worth noting that I enjoyed digging in the garden.  I never really liked to weed, but then, who does.

Study of my profession:  My first real profession was in Sales.  When I returned home from my mission I took a job selling Beef Stick and cheese for Vernon Baugh, who owned a Hickory Farms story in the University Mall.  I would go to the Utah State Fair where he had three booths set up to sell his products.  He would move me from booth to booth, but no matter which booth he put me in, that booth had the highest sales for the day.  I was good at because I had enthusiasm.  I was excited to invite people to taste our product and the tasting led to sales.  It was fun and easy.
   Across the way from one of the booths was a Living Scriptures booth.  One of the managers there saw what I was doing and wanted me to come work for them.  I took a sample tape home (the first tape in the Church History series that we used to play when you were little).  My dad liked the tapes and bought the set.  I went to work for living Scriptures where I made my first real money.  My boss, Brent Smith, was a professional salesman and had volumes of motivational and educational tapes on selling.  I listened to some of these because he required it, and other because I wanted to.  I was learning sales from the best of the best: Zig Ziggler, Tom Hopkins...  I started reading every book on sales and selling until I started getting bored by books where I knew more than the author.  All the time I was putting into practice the things I learned.  Key principles that I learned in sales have been also central to succeeding in education.  The more fundamental deals with learning people's needs and meeting those needs.  In sales this means discovering the shopper's needs and presenting the fulfillment of those needs in the products offered.  In education it means that behavioral problems in the classroom happen when the student's needs are not being met.  When the needs are discovered and understood, and the learning is presented in a way that meets those needs, then the behavior problems solve themselves.
   In education I continue to study what I do.  The in-service training, or the ongoing training, is far more important that the pre-service training.  Teaching gets easier and more effective the more one studies and applies.  The major problem with the American Education system is that we do not provide time for teachers to adequately apply what is learned in professional development sessions.  So the learning is lost through lack of immediate application.

Doing what I enjoy doing, and enjoying what I do.  In life we cannot always chose what we are going to do in employment.  It is beyond fundamental to learn to enjoy what we do or to get out of it.  And there is a way with any work that provides service to find joy in that work.  I have to admit that I find little joy in providing service to those who could and should served themselves.  That kind of work can feel demeaning.  But when we can do for others what they can't do for themselves, we gains a sense of personal satisfaction.  The money is good, too, but the personal satisfaction is why we work. When I worked for the Park Lane Nursing Home I was serving people who could not serve themselves; so, thought it was in society's eyes, menial labor, it was enjoyable.

Silencing fear and seeking out challenge:  In every profession there are levels of promotion.  When it comes to seeking those promotions we will run up against our own inadequacy, or our feelings of inadequacy.  There is so much to be learned from new challenges.  When I decided to try to become a principal I had no idea how I would actually break into that profession.  Neither did I have a clue as to how breaking into that profession usually happens.  I was out of my depth, and there has never been a time in my life when I felt more intimidated and more fearful of my own failure.  I had to choke back those fears and more forward.  The reward was learning at a level I could not have imagined.  I was able to break into the profession when Western Plains was left in the lurch by a principal they thought they had hired.  And I learn so much though the mistakes I made.  It makes me wish that I had the health to pursue the principalship again because of what I know now that I learned through hard knocks then.  So, learning from failure is a large part of this issue.  If we fear failure we will not seek challenges, we won't learn and develop, and we won't progress in our profession.  If we see failure as a learning opportunity, as a building block, then we will seek out challenges because failure is a natural part of growth.  We learn from it.  We can often learn more from it than in any other way.  However, I will say that through study we can learn from the mistakes of others, which is a lot more fun than learning from our own.

It's not about the money: Success is never about money.  It is always about serving others, solving their problems, helping them grow and develop, providing things that they cannot provide on their own.  This is the key.  Mother Earth provides more than sufficient for our needs.  There will, on the average, always be "enough and to spare."  So seek the profession where you feel fulfillment.  You will naturally study a profession you enjoy and in which you find fulfillment.  The drudge job will never produce that kind of drive to succeed.  If you hate your work, evaluate how you can change.  Do you need to seek promotion.  Should you step down to a more fulfilling position?  For me this was a key thing.  I sought the principalship because I believed that we could not survive in education without that level of income, and there was some truth in that.  That crisis came at the end of my third year.  The Chemo was draining my energy, except when I was in front of a classroom of students.  Teaching energizes me.  Sitting behind an administrative desk puts me to sleep.  I have no energy for that.  Going back to classroom teaching saved my life professionally.  So, now I look at what I can do to be a better English teacher and how to make the profession better for other teachers.  I love having former students visit me and tell me how grateful they are that I pushed them to do things that they didn't want to do.  In just two years teaching at Wheaton this has already happened several times.  The feeling is life giving.  Jesus spoke of ten lepers and one returning to give thanks.  I think that I get less than 10% return ratio, but those who do return and say think you give meaning to my life that no salary or pay check can equal. I can't say that teaching has provided "sufficient for my needs."  It hasn't.  Were it not for the kindness of your Uncle Sam I would be broken financially.  Those in teaching who are making a "living" are either single and have no familial obligations, or have a spouse who also works full time.  This is a major sin of our times: we no longer provide sufficient for the needs of the laborer.  This has killed many a good teacher--driven them to seek employment elsewhere.  Perhaps we could have done better if we had eaten beans and rice.  Thank Mom and I sometime that we fed you better.  We wanted you to have a moderate childhood.  Things would have worked out had it not been for the cancer.  We were on the path to financial freedom when that hit.  In this sense, it is about the money.  Chose a profession that will provide the basic necessities--and a little more that you can invest, and use to bless others through charitable donation.  If your job/profession does not provide sufficient for your needs, you will always feel the weight of that terrible yolk.  You will feel your work is drudgery.  You will not have the time or the energy to improve yourself in your profession because you will always be working over time in an attempt to keep your nose above water.  In that condition the tiniest wave will swamp your boat.  A large wave could destroy you.  Keep your living simple so that you can easily meet your daily needs; then make sure through budgeting that you are meeting those needs with something to spare.  When you are young it is easy to think that you will just work harder or work more to make up the difference.  Trust me, when you get older you will lose that ability.  Eventually your health will pay a terrible price.  So, simplify what you can and what you should.  That doesn't mean eating beans and rice all the time (just at the end of the month before the next pay check arrives).  Don't overwork yourself to the point that you don't have time or energy to study and improve yourself.
   Never forget why we work.  The job is for the support of the family.  Find a job that understand that the job is there to support the family.  Some companies understand this, and some do not.  The wealth of the world is collecting at the top of an economic "great and spacious building" like a pyramid with a golden cap stone.  As those near the top scramble for a position in the top, the economic realities at the bottom of the pyramid are going to become less and less "sufficient" for anyone's needs.  More and more, humanity will find ways to survive the poverty (by more stringent means than just eating beans and rice).  Protect yourselves and your children from this as much as you can, through education and constant improvement, work ethic, learning to enjoy what you do (or finding something to do that you enjoy), keeping needs simple, and using your surplus to build protection for yourselves and to bless the lives of the less fortunate. Life is good, and Mother Earth is still providing "enough and to spare."  I believe that she always will until and unless the Lord asked her to hold back her blessings until we repent.

How did you choose your career and what was your favorite part about it?

Oh, wow.  Here it comes.

If anyone had told me when I was in high school that I would wind up as an English teacher I would have doubled over laughing.  I loved to read when I was in high school.  I was good at diagraming sentences.  In fact, diagraming sentences made me look like an ELA hero.  But I have never been and probably never will be very good at spelling, though I keep working at it.  In the day, BYU had a Senior literacy course that everyone had to pass to graduate.  Spelling was a large part of it.  I was intimidated.
   I have always enjoyed writing.  In elementary school my Second Grade teacher, Mrs. Searle had us write and illustrate our own stories.  I still have the book that we made stashed somewhere in all of the stuff I won't let Mother throw away.
  In Eighth Grade Ms Woodward helped us write and produce the school play.  I think I have mentioned that in another post, so I won't go into detail here.
   In Ninth Grade I started writing poetry for the school creative writing section of the year book.
   In high school I took Mr. Fredreickson's Creative Writing class.  He gave little instruction, but gave points for whatever we produced.  So, I wrote a lot of crap, and a few pieces that I still like.
   Despite all of this, I saw writing as something that I would do as a hobby or leisure activity.  In high school, I expected that I would become an architect.  (We would have been richer if I had.)
   My family has been in Education for many generations now.  My grandmothers were both teachers.  Lenore Cannon Wood was an English teachers.  Joseph Earl Wood was one of her pupils.  Hahaha.  I have some of her English texts.  It is interesting to see what grammar points were emphasized one hundred years ago that are no longer even discussed.  My father and mother were both teachers.  Eight of my parents' children had been teachers or are teachers.  The name Bennion is common in Education in Utah.  So, it was easy for me to envision myself in that calling.
   When I returned from my mission I took a Shakespeare class from Allie Howe, a woman from the stake I grew up in and to whom I had delivered newspapers as a boy.  She was a delightful teacher and knew how to spark insightful discussion.  I loved the class so much that I decided to become an English teacher--Senior proficiency exam be d.....d.
   When I met your mother and we decided to get married she and I decided that we would not make enough money as an English teacher, so I changed my degree to Pre-Physical Therapy.  I would have been a great physical therapist, no question.  And I would have loved doing it.  But we missed one very important thing.  We didn't ask the Lord if that is what he wanted us to do.  I know from experience that it is not easy to get an answer from the Lord to that question.  But, there is a reason for that.
   Nephi tells us in the Book of Mormon that he went and did the thing that the Lord commanded knowing that the Lord would prepare away to complete the task.  The story does not tell that getting the plates was a walk in the park.  It was hard.  But Nephi persisted because he knew that the Lord had commanded it.  In my case, I did not persist in becoming an English teacher at that time because I did not have that knowledge that this was the path the Lord wanted me to follow.  And, I didn't persist in becoming a physical therapist for the same reason.  If you have to fast and pray many times.  If you have to pray all night in a wrestle with the Lord.  If you have to go off on a hunting trip turned all night prayer, do it.  Do it until you get the answer, because whatever you chose to do, there will be obstacles to overcome and you will not have the necessary faith to confront those obstacles if you do not have the assurance that you are doing what the Lord wants you to do.
   I was four credit hours away from my Pre-Therapy degree.  I needed one Organic Chemistry class--a very hard class.  But I was certainly capable of passing it.  We sent out application to a few Therapy schools to no avail.  The field was very difficult, and someone who still had a class to complete was not going to get a look.
   Mom and I were struggling financially.  We were getting some help from Grandma and Grandpa Brown, but I was so prideful that I did not want to ask for it.  There would have been a way to get school loans or other financial aid to attend therapy school, but I didn't seek it out, nor did I really know much about it.  I didn't have the focus of the faith to pursue it.  So I dropped out of school for a while.
   I had been working in the Temple laundry with your Uncle Doug, and working at Burger King trying to get enough to provide.  Mom had a friend in sales (Denise Farnsworth) with a company named SILO.  Without a college degree she was earning what seemed to me to be a lot of money.  So I put in application.
   At first my applications were thrown in the trash, though I didn't know this.  I kept asking and kept applying. Finally there was a change in leadership in SLC.  The new district manager didn't know that the Orem store manager had requested that I not be hired.  I got an interview.  The district manager liked me.  I got the job.  And the Orem store manager was surprised.  My persistence had paid off.
   I could tell you a lot about how difficult it was to learn how to sell electronics, but that is another story.  Initially I believed that I would sell for a few years and then get back to school.  The years passed.  And then more passed.  In my mid 30's working for RC Willey's, I began to think of my alternatives.  I was soon approaching the point of no return--the point at which I could not make any career change.
   A chance to work with Steve Hullinger came up and I took it, but in three months it was evident that Steve's company was not ready for a full time full salaried salesman.  I was in my mid thirties, with a family and a mortgage, and no job.  I experienced more anxiety than at any other time in my life.  My mother (with no contact except from the Spirit) could feel it.  I got a call from Aunt Katherine, whom mother had called and asked to check on me.
   This time you mother and I went to the Temple to ask Heavenly Father what he wanted us to do.  I was a Scout Master at the time and had the most incredible time with the boys at Summer Scout Camp that I thought that I would really enjoy being a school teacher.  I had applied to be readmitted to BYU with a change in major to English Teaching and had been denied, basically because I was four credit hours away from a different degree.  But at the Temple Mom and I both felt that I should try again to be admitted to BYU.
   When we left the Temple that day I found a leaflet tucked under the windshield wiper of our car.  I was angry that someone would try to sell by placing leaflets in the Temple parking lot.  "Money changers in the Temple" was what I thought.  So I took the leaflet to see to whom I would be sending a nasty letter.  It read, "Because you have served in the Temple this day, you will see more clearly.  The American Fork xxth ward Beehives have cleaned your windshield."  Mom and I had a good laugh, but felt that it was true.  We could see more clearly that we had before.
  I looked at what I would need to graduate as an English teacher.  I wrote up a plan that would involve night classes and summer school.  I could take every class that I would need without taking up a regular Fall or Winter classroom seat except for the classes I would need for my teaching certificate.  These I would have to take in the regular classroom.
   BYU accepted this plan and I started my work.  It took me a while to complete the home study courses.  I went back to RC Willey with my hat in hand and begged for my job back, which they were happy to give.  This was a blessing because it meant that I would have health benefits for the family.  I was able to do my home study when time allowed.  But I loved the coursework and advanced with all A's.
   The trial of my faith came when it was time to do my student teaching.  I was working about 30 hours per week at RC Willey's.  My typical day started at 5:00 a.m.  I would get up and shower and prepare for the day so that I could see the family at breakfast.  I had to leave to be at Provo High at 7:30 a.m.  I student taught for Mrs. Merrill, who was at the end of her career and was being treated for cancer.  Consequently, I picked up more than the normal three hours of class time, but taught for her for most of the day.  I had to be at RC Willey's by 5:00 p.m. so would grade papers and write lessons until then.  My shift at RC Willey's went until 10:00 p.m. at which time I would go home, and grade papers/write lesson plans until past midnight, sometimes until 2:00 a.m.  I was averaging about four hours of sleep each night.  I loved Saturday nights because I didn't have to get up so early on Sunday mornings.  Sometimes I worked until 10:00 on Saturdays and sometimes until 6:00 p.m.
  On one particular Saturday I was off at 6:00 p.m.  I was looking forward to the first night with eight hours of sleep that I had seen in more than a month.  John was not home, but I wasn't worried.  At 8:00 John was still not home, but I still wasn't worried.  At 9:00 we started calling the neighbors.  Nobody knew where John was.  At 10:00 p.m. I was livid (turning red with anger).  My eight hours of sleep was starting to diminish.  By 11:00 it became evident that I would not get the sleep I had been savoring.  Mom wanted to call the police.  I wasn't ready to do that.  Mom went to bed.
   I had made the rule for myself a rule from the beginning that I would not go to bed if my children were not at home or otherwise accounted for.  So, while I was waiting up for John I decided to work on my lesson plans.  That way the time would not be wasted.  Around midnight I reviewed an idea I had been presented called "paradoxic logic," which basically says that you should never try to fix something until you have considered ten ways that you could make it worse.  At 12:30 a.m. I realized that I might make my problem with John worse.  If I jumped him when he came through the door and fed him all of my pent up anger, he might not ever want to come home.  The more I thought of ways that I might make things worse, the softer my heart became.  But at 1:00 a.m. he was still not home.  According to my memory it was about 2:00 a.m that John came through our back door smelling of Sen-Sen (usually used by teens to cover up the smell of smoke).  I sat him down and explained how precious an 8 hour night of sleep would have been to me.  (At this point 4 is all I would be getting, once again.) And I explained to him that as precious as that night of sleep would have been, he was more precious.  I knew that he had been out doing what he shouldn't have been doing.  And I hoped that he would not be so careless with my sleep in the future.
   I don't know if that night made the impression on John that I hoped that it would make, but ultimately I think that it did much more good than the hurt I would have done if I had unloaded all of my anger.
   I was able to overcome the difficulties and road blocks and earn my degree because I knew from having prayed, fasted, and visited the Temple, that this was what the Lord wanted me to do.  We did it.  During this time of study, Mom and I attended an evening fireside broadcast by the Church on the topic of missionary work.  L. Aldin Porter was speaking on the topic of Convert Retention.  As he spoke I felt a strong prompting from the Spirit that I should take my family and move to the mission field where we could be involved more directly in missionary work.  But I said within myself, "I can't ask Jodi to leave the nice home her parents have helped us to buy, or the wonderful ward that we have, or the closeness to her family, or the other many blessings that we have in Utah Valley."  And I didn't think more on it.  However, less than a couple of minutes passed when you mother turned to me and said, "I have the strongest feeling that we should move to the mission field.  I would have more opportunities to serve in the Church if we did."  It was as if the Spirit said to me, "Well, you may not feel like you can ask her to leave these nice things, but I can ask her."  I told Mom what I had felt and we both knew that this is what we had to do.  So, we started looking for teaching positions in the mission field.  You know the rest of the story.
   It is important for me to mention a couple of things.  First, my patriarchal blessing tells me that I should take advantage of the wonderful educational opportunities that are ours, that I might call upon that education in my hour of need.  I have always wondered what that hour might be, and it became evident in 2013 when I was diagnosed with cancer.  It is a blessing that I was not a salesman at that time.  My patriarchal blessing also tells me of the many people in whose eyes I would see the light of the gospel shine as they came forth from the waters of baptism.  On my mission I baptized only a couple--not many.  So I have known that there was more missionary work for me to do.  I have been blessed to perform the baptismal covenant in Finnish, in Spanish, and in English.  I have had several opportunities to baptize people into the Church since our move to the mission field.  I believe that there will be more opportunities.  Mother's patriarchal blessing tells her that she will serve in the various organizations of the Church.  In Pleasant Grove the ward was so big and the Saints so active that Mom was not getting the opportunity to serve that her blessing promised.  It is not likely that she would have been given the opportunity had we not moved.  In Scott City, Mom was called as the Young Women's President.  In Missouri she now serves as the Relief Society President.
   Read your patriarchal blessings.  Seek the Lord in fasting and prayer until you know what it is you are to be doing so that you can have the faith and focus needed to overcome life's obstacles--which obstacles always get in our way when we are doing something worthy.
   That's probably enough for now.  Life is good.    

 

How did I meet Jodi and know she was the one?

Your mother was my sister Lilian's roommate at BYU.  When I had nothing going on I would stop by Aunt Lillian's apartment to visit.  Six girls lived together, so I had five to pick from.  They were all very sweet, and one had been my next door neighbor (and my best friend's sister) growing up.  That was Terri Donaldson.  I was first attracted to mother because she was so good looking.  I went with the roommates to a movie at the old Sceara theater, and I went with the roommates to devotionals at BYU.  Your mother was on crutches at the time due to a followup surgery on her bad knee.  She took full advantage and took my arm for support up stairs etc.  I don't remember the first actual date that Mom and I went on, but there were a couple of important ones.  I had decided that the deal maker/breaker for me in a spouse was her relationship with the Savior.  Perhaps it was because we went to BYU devotionals together, but Mother's testimony was evident to me.  Something else was at play as well, that I didn't understand at the time.  Mother's disabilities meant that she would rely on my for many things.  She would need me.  I needed someone who would need me.  It made me feel important--it filled a great need of mine.  At the time Mother used to complain that she had no talents: she couldn't sing (like she did before the accident), she couldn't dance, she couldn't do a lot of things. At the time Mother couldn't run, and really couldn't walk a straight line.  Anyway, it was after one of these devotionals held at the top of the Wilkinson building that Mom and sat in my car discussing this, that, and the other, that I first felt the prompting that I should ask her to marry me.  I wanted to wait until Valentine's Day and make it a real special occasion, so I kept the idea to myself for a while.  Mother asked me if I would be her escort at a special dance put on by the dorm, Bowen Hall, I think.  I was away selling Living Scriptures tapes at the time, but said that I would come.  I bought a plane ticket so that I could be there, but the flight was delayed, and since the cell phone had not yet been invented I didn't have a way to get ahold of Mom to let her know.  I raced from the SLC airport to BYU but was too late.  Mom was not about to forgive me, though in reality I had tried as hard as I could to be there.  On another occasion I invited Mom to go with me on a tubing party that her Stake had organized up Provo Canyon.  But when I came to pick Mom up, she had already gone up the canyon with someone else.  So I drove up the canyon only to find Mom coming down the hill on an inner tube in the lap of this guy she had driven up with.  Needless to say, I was not very happy.  In the lodge was a pool table, and I took out my frustration playing billiards.  Then there was a talent show and I played Neil Young's song, "Heart of Gold."  So Mom and I seemed to be patching things up after that, until it was time to head home and she drove home with this other guy.  I was ready to call the whole thing off at that point, and on the following day, Sunday, I visited with her with the intention of telling her that I considered the engagement broken.  She told me about her train accident and the young man who was on his mission when it happened.  When he came home, he went out with Mom one time and that was it.  Of course, at that time (very shortly after the train accident) Mom was not the person you know.  The accident had taken her ability to walk without a cane, her speech was very slurred--everything was messed up at that point.  The young man couldn't handle the changes and sort of abandoned the relationship.  Mom was very broken up by this, and I had the impression (whether true or not) that Mom had sabotaged our relationship that night because she didn't believe that someone could or would actually love her and subconsciously she preferred to break the relationship than to be abandoned again.  Two weeks before this date, I had been praying about what I should do.  I felt a prompting to ask Mom to marry me, but although I thought Mom was the best looking thing I had ever seen, I didn't feel strongly about her.  I was not in love, and I told the Lord that I couldn't marry her until I did love her--with that kind of love that is deep and abiding.  Well, after the snow party fiasco, Mom was talking to me about her accident and about her old boyfriend, the one who dumped her when he returned from his mission, I began to feel how deeply Mom needed someone who would be kind, gentle, and patient.  And as I began to feel that she needed me, that deep and abiding feeling of love came over me and I forgave her the snow party fiasco.
   In late January, 1980, Mom and I had a fairly passionate kissing spell on the love seat at her apartment.  Mom started to cry because she thought that I would think ill of her because of this and that I wouldn't think of asking a girl who kissed like that to marry.  (It was a safe kiss, by the way.)  But as Mom was feeling so low, and because I had already decided that I would ask her I said, "Let's go for a drive."  Somewhere on I-15 I told Mom that I had already decided to ask her to marry me and made the proposal official.  She was very excited and couldn't wait to call home and tell her mom and dad.
   Partly because I never felt comfortable around Grandma and Grandpa Brown, and partly because Mom had already told her parents that we had decided to get married, I didn't ask Grandpa Brown for his permission to marry his daughter.  I wish that I had, but I was young and didn't understand the importance of the thing.
   We set our plans to get married at the end of May, 1981.  This was also a very exciting time for BYU who won their first ever bowl game with a miraculous come from behind victory in December, and then during the NCAA Basketball playoffs, Danny Ainge led the Cougars to victory over Noter Dame with an amazing cost-to-cost last second play to win the game.  BYU campus erupted with excitement that night.
   Sometime that Spring Mom had gone home.  Under Grandma's influence she started having doubts about marrying me.  Grandma told her (and it has held true), "If you marry that Bennion boy, you'll be poor all your life."  So Mom called me to call off the engagement.  I immediately got in my car and drove to Soda Springs.  Things were looking pretty grim.  That night I stayed in Uncle Royce's old room in the basement.  I didn't sleep, but paced the floor praying for Heavenly Father's help.  I was ready to pray all night if necessary, but somewhere in the early morning hours--maybe one o'clock or two--I changed what I was praying for.  I had a moment in which the Spirit taught me, and instead of asking that Jodi would overcome her doubts and marry me, I began to pray that if I would be a good husband for Jodi, would Heavenly Father please help me make it happen.  Very shortly after this change in my prayer there came a knock at the door.  Mother was there and told me that she had a strong feeling to go ahead with the wedding plans.
   We were married in an upper room at the Idaho Falls Temple--the same room that Emily would be married in years later.  On that occasion Aunt Katherine told me later that she felt a powerful spirit enter the room and she received the understanding that it was our brother, Matthew, who had died two days after his birth.
  OK, this isn't really as sequential as it should be, but it contains the important things that I remember.

If grandma and grandpa had a message to you and their grandchildren, what do you think it is?

This is a fairly easy question to answer.

Grandpa Bennion would bear his testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  He would encourage faithfulness to the commandments and to the teachings of the Prophet and the Twelve Apostles.  He would testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  He would encourage the honest payment of tithes.  His life was an example of the great blessings that come from sacrifice in order to have a family and raise them in righteousness.

Grandma Bennion would tell each of you how much she loves you and how proud she is of the things you do.  Not one of you, child, grand child, or great grand child would be excluded from her love and adoration.  She would bear the same testimony as Grandpa about the Savior, the Church, and the happiness to be had in righteous living.  He life example was the same as Grandpa's: there is greater happiness to be found in sacrificing the things of the world in order to have a family and life the gospel.

What I have learned from them is that the blessings of the earth are given to us on condition of our service and faithfulness to the Lord.  We may be denied the riches of the world, but if we faithfully serve the Lord he will not abandon us or leave us defenseless.  Riches far greater than any this world can offer will be ours.  I count myself among the richest in Time and Eternity because of the wonderful children I have and the precious grand children you have given me.  It is the tragedy of our generation that society is abandoning the greater blessings of eternity to seek after the false riches of the world.  Some are getting it right.  Stay close to them.