Marrying your mother. I have told most of this story already, so I'll just tell you about that day. I had driven up to Soda Springs, Idaho the day before. Grandpa drove us from there to Idaho Falls in his camper. I think there had been some car trouble with the vehicle that he had planned to take. Mom and I sat in the back trying hard to remember that we were not married yet.
The following morning we went to the Idaho Falls temple. The wedding was delayed because the Temple had a power outage--on a perfectly clear day. Mother was worried that the car trouble and the power outage all amounted to signs that we weren't supposed to get married. I wasn't having any of that foolish talk, but prayed silently that the Lord would get the power back so that we could proceed.
The Idaho Falls Temple has a very large sealing room that is used when large families come for weddings. We were married in that room, up what seemed to me to be several flights of stairs. Years later, Emily and Andrew would be married in the exact same room.
Aunt Katherine told me later that as the sealer prepared to begin the ceremony she felt a powerful presence enter the room. The Spirit told her that it was our brother (your uncle) Matthew. She had been visited by Matthew previously at times when she needed help/comfort.
My father was asked to say an opening prayer. In the prayer he promised that the Holy Spirit of Promise would Seal our marriage. A temple sealing is not complete until the Holy Ghost performs this function.
I know there was a family meal in Idaho Falls, but I have no memory of that. The reception in Soda Springs was the most lavish affair I have ever seen--carried out under a basketball standard. The room was beautifully decorated in red and white. Mother's wedding dress was wonderful, and she was the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on. Some kind of strawberry dessert was being served.
Everyone who knew Grandpa and/or Grandma Brown came. Every man in town shook my hand and warned me what he would do if I ever.... Jodi was the town sweetheart. I think that had a lot to do with her train accident. The whole town had fasted and prayed for her recovery. So, I was bound be the strongest threats the town could concoct.
David B Height of the Quorum of the Twelve was at the Stake Center for some business or other and was invited to come to the reception, which he did. I couldn't begin to remember who all was there. I remember that your Uncle Sam was my best man.
At the end of the reception, which seemed to last forever, we were shoed on our way. I didn't feel comfortable leaving with so much that needed to be cleaned up. But we started off on our honeymoon, driving as far as Preston, Idaho, that night.
As lavish as the reception was, the most positive moment came in the temple when the words and promises of the wedding ceremony were pronounced upon us. It is painful for me to kneel these days, but I love to participate in temple sealings and hear the promises spoken again.
Following Emily's temple wedding, the sealer invited us to stand together and look into the mirrors of that room. I told Emily that if she would look carefully, she would see Mom and I just a row or two of reflexions back.
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Sunday, September 30, 2018
Sunday, September 16, 2018
What are the five most positive moments in my life, part II
This story has a long build up, but I want you to have the whole story.
Toward the end of my mission I was stationed in Oulu, Finland. My companion, a native Finn named Kimo Reimann, had only two months left on his mission. He had set the goal of having two baptisms on his mission (twice the mission average). With only two months left, he was doing everything he could to meet this goal. I never had a companion who worked as hard. Among other things he went through the area book looking for people that he might contact. We visited everyone who had previously taking lessons from the missionaries but had been dropped for one reason or another. Finally, we knocked on the door of Tuula Säynävirtä.
The area book contained her history. She had been on and off again interested in baptism. Then she and her husband separated. He moved to Helsinki where he hooked up with the Church and started dating a Church member. The divorce was not final, and when Tuula learned of this she became very angry with the missionaries and told them she never wanted to see them again. I had not read this, and if I had, it is likely that I would have tried to talk my companion out of making contact. But we did.
Veli (Elder) Reimann knocked on the door. When it opened, Tuula stood and stared at us for what seemed to me to have been two minutes--an eternity. Finally, she said, "Oh, well. Come in." Two weeks prior she had been at the brink as a single mother raising two rambunctious daughters. On her knees she had plead with the Lord and promised that she would do whatever he asked if he would only help her. When we knocked on her door she knew it was the answer to her prayer, but it still took her a couple of minutes to convince herself to keep her end of the bargain.
She was baptized the day before Veli Reimann got on the plane to fly home to Helsinki.
A day of two after the baptism one of Tuula's friends/co-workers asked, "Have you done something to your hair? You look different." Tuula responded, "I've joined the Mormons." The friend came to church and my companion and I started to teach her. Her name was Helena Paakunainen.
Helena was a golden investigator. She was ready for baptism in a matter of a few weeks. Her husband was not making progress. We postponed baptizing Helena for about three months hoping that the husband would come along. But in December I felt that we shouldn't wait any longer. That baptism was a fulfillment of one of the promises in my patriarchal blessing that I would see the light of the gospel shining in the faces of those whom I would baptism. This baptism was one of my most positive moments.
But the story doesn't end there. I wrote to her a few times after my mission, but Helena and I have not been good letter writers. I lost contact. Not long after I joined Facebook I got a message from a woman named Marketta Saroma asking if I was the Glynn Bennion who had been in Finland in 1978. I didn't recognize the name. But I pulled out my mission journal and read that we had baptized Tuula's daughter, Marketta, at the same time that we baptized Helena. I had forgotten this, and Marketta has subsequently changed her name from Säynävirtä to Saroma. Marketta helped me to find the people who knew Helena and could help me reconnect.
When I did reconnect, Helena informed me that her youngest son (from a later marriage), Hannu Lampinen, was serving as a missionary in the Provo, Utah mission and was stationed in Vernal. The following summer, Mother and I took a vacation to Utah and stopped through Vernal to meet Elder Lampinen.
This meeting was one of the most positive of my life. But the story doesn't end there. We took Elder Lampinen and his companion to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Over lunch I asked him why he had chosen to serve a mission. He said, "It's true, isn't it?" Of course it's true. My heart was near to bursting that I was seeing the fruit bearing offspring of the seed I had planted years before as a missionary.
Helena informed me that she was planning to visit Utah at the end of Hannu's mission. It had been a dream of hers ever since her conversion to go to Utah and see the historical pioneer sights. So Mom and I planned another vacation to Utah the following summer. We arranged for Helena and Hannu to spend a night with Adam and Brit. That Sunday happened to be Fast Sunday, and we attended a ward in Provo where Hannu had served. I bore my testimony and told of the young mother whom we had baptized almost 40 years prior. I witnessed of the truthfulness of the passage in Doctrine and Covenants section 18, "If ye should labor all your days and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father." Meeting Helena and Hannu and knowing of their faithfulness in the gospel after all these years filled me with great joy.
Helena stood and with the help of her son bore her witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. And expressed that she was the young mother who had joined the church so many years before.
Some days later we had a picnic up at Aspen Grove with Adam and Brit. These stories together are one of the most positive of my life. To plant the seed of the gospel and then to later find that the seed had grown to a tree and bourn more fruit. This is very close to tasting the fruit that Nephi speaks of in his father's dream.
Helena has dropped off of the map for me again. Since her visit to Utah I know that she has remarried, happily this time, I hope. But I have lost contact. I am in regular contact with Marketta. She is no longer connected with the Church. When she was young and messed up and she needed kindness and help, the representatives of the Church turned her away perhaps because she was not living as she should. Nevertheless, Marketta may never return to the Church--which is heart breaking, but a reality of missionary experience. I keep contact, not because I believe Marketta will come back to the Church, but because all those whom I have baptized are precious to me. Marketta has told me that during her darkest times, the memory of a missionary who taught her the gospel helped her to hold on and work though the dark times.
Toward the end of my mission I was stationed in Oulu, Finland. My companion, a native Finn named Kimo Reimann, had only two months left on his mission. He had set the goal of having two baptisms on his mission (twice the mission average). With only two months left, he was doing everything he could to meet this goal. I never had a companion who worked as hard. Among other things he went through the area book looking for people that he might contact. We visited everyone who had previously taking lessons from the missionaries but had been dropped for one reason or another. Finally, we knocked on the door of Tuula Säynävirtä.
The area book contained her history. She had been on and off again interested in baptism. Then she and her husband separated. He moved to Helsinki where he hooked up with the Church and started dating a Church member. The divorce was not final, and when Tuula learned of this she became very angry with the missionaries and told them she never wanted to see them again. I had not read this, and if I had, it is likely that I would have tried to talk my companion out of making contact. But we did.
Veli (Elder) Reimann knocked on the door. When it opened, Tuula stood and stared at us for what seemed to me to have been two minutes--an eternity. Finally, she said, "Oh, well. Come in." Two weeks prior she had been at the brink as a single mother raising two rambunctious daughters. On her knees she had plead with the Lord and promised that she would do whatever he asked if he would only help her. When we knocked on her door she knew it was the answer to her prayer, but it still took her a couple of minutes to convince herself to keep her end of the bargain.
She was baptized the day before Veli Reimann got on the plane to fly home to Helsinki.
A day of two after the baptism one of Tuula's friends/co-workers asked, "Have you done something to your hair? You look different." Tuula responded, "I've joined the Mormons." The friend came to church and my companion and I started to teach her. Her name was Helena Paakunainen.
Helena was a golden investigator. She was ready for baptism in a matter of a few weeks. Her husband was not making progress. We postponed baptizing Helena for about three months hoping that the husband would come along. But in December I felt that we shouldn't wait any longer. That baptism was a fulfillment of one of the promises in my patriarchal blessing that I would see the light of the gospel shining in the faces of those whom I would baptism. This baptism was one of my most positive moments.
But the story doesn't end there. I wrote to her a few times after my mission, but Helena and I have not been good letter writers. I lost contact. Not long after I joined Facebook I got a message from a woman named Marketta Saroma asking if I was the Glynn Bennion who had been in Finland in 1978. I didn't recognize the name. But I pulled out my mission journal and read that we had baptized Tuula's daughter, Marketta, at the same time that we baptized Helena. I had forgotten this, and Marketta has subsequently changed her name from Säynävirtä to Saroma. Marketta helped me to find the people who knew Helena and could help me reconnect.
When I did reconnect, Helena informed me that her youngest son (from a later marriage), Hannu Lampinen, was serving as a missionary in the Provo, Utah mission and was stationed in Vernal. The following summer, Mother and I took a vacation to Utah and stopped through Vernal to meet Elder Lampinen.
This meeting was one of the most positive of my life. But the story doesn't end there. We took Elder Lampinen and his companion to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Over lunch I asked him why he had chosen to serve a mission. He said, "It's true, isn't it?" Of course it's true. My heart was near to bursting that I was seeing the fruit bearing offspring of the seed I had planted years before as a missionary.
Helena informed me that she was planning to visit Utah at the end of Hannu's mission. It had been a dream of hers ever since her conversion to go to Utah and see the historical pioneer sights. So Mom and I planned another vacation to Utah the following summer. We arranged for Helena and Hannu to spend a night with Adam and Brit. That Sunday happened to be Fast Sunday, and we attended a ward in Provo where Hannu had served. I bore my testimony and told of the young mother whom we had baptized almost 40 years prior. I witnessed of the truthfulness of the passage in Doctrine and Covenants section 18, "If ye should labor all your days and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father." Meeting Helena and Hannu and knowing of their faithfulness in the gospel after all these years filled me with great joy.
Helena stood and with the help of her son bore her witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. And expressed that she was the young mother who had joined the church so many years before.
Some days later we had a picnic up at Aspen Grove with Adam and Brit. These stories together are one of the most positive of my life. To plant the seed of the gospel and then to later find that the seed had grown to a tree and bourn more fruit. This is very close to tasting the fruit that Nephi speaks of in his father's dream.
Helena has dropped off of the map for me again. Since her visit to Utah I know that she has remarried, happily this time, I hope. But I have lost contact. I am in regular contact with Marketta. She is no longer connected with the Church. When she was young and messed up and she needed kindness and help, the representatives of the Church turned her away perhaps because she was not living as she should. Nevertheless, Marketta may never return to the Church--which is heart breaking, but a reality of missionary experience. I keep contact, not because I believe Marketta will come back to the Church, but because all those whom I have baptized are precious to me. Marketta has told me that during her darkest times, the memory of a missionary who taught her the gospel helped her to hold on and work though the dark times.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
What were five of the most positive moments of your life?
Let's start with just one for now.
I think I may have told this story before, but it is one of the most important moments of my life. When I was a surly fourteen year old I began to feel the Spirit prompting me to repent with a little guilt. (Guilt is good when it prompts us to repent.) I began to feel unworthy to pray. Somehow I knew that wasn't a good idea, but I had a poor understanding of the feelings I was receiving from the Spirit. My mother had taught me to pray and it was a strong bedtime habit. So I decided that I would ask God if it were right for me to pray when I knew I wasn't living the commandments as I should. I made an extra effort to do what was right for a couple of weeks in preparation and then I asked.
My dad had built a triple bunk bed. I had the top, just 2.5 or 3 feet from the ceiling. I sat up in bed and began my prayer in the usual way thanking for my blessings. And then I asked, "Is it right for me to pray when I feel unworthy?" The answer came swiftly, "Yes. I love you." The voice of God pierced me to the very center as often described in the Book of Mormon. I felt the words as much as I heard them. I was astonished that God knew that I needed to hear the second part of his answer. It has been an absolute source of peace throughout my life. I had never before and have never since felt a love stronger than this one. And I know without doubt that God's love for us is more powerful than any other negative.
I would have to say that this was one of the most positive moments in my life.
I'll write more later.
I think I may have told this story before, but it is one of the most important moments of my life. When I was a surly fourteen year old I began to feel the Spirit prompting me to repent with a little guilt. (Guilt is good when it prompts us to repent.) I began to feel unworthy to pray. Somehow I knew that wasn't a good idea, but I had a poor understanding of the feelings I was receiving from the Spirit. My mother had taught me to pray and it was a strong bedtime habit. So I decided that I would ask God if it were right for me to pray when I knew I wasn't living the commandments as I should. I made an extra effort to do what was right for a couple of weeks in preparation and then I asked.
My dad had built a triple bunk bed. I had the top, just 2.5 or 3 feet from the ceiling. I sat up in bed and began my prayer in the usual way thanking for my blessings. And then I asked, "Is it right for me to pray when I feel unworthy?" The answer came swiftly, "Yes. I love you." The voice of God pierced me to the very center as often described in the Book of Mormon. I felt the words as much as I heard them. I was astonished that God knew that I needed to hear the second part of his answer. It has been an absolute source of peace throughout my life. I had never before and have never since felt a love stronger than this one. And I know without doubt that God's love for us is more powerful than any other negative.
I would have to say that this was one of the most positive moments in my life.
I'll write more later.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
What are you most proud of in life?
I am most proud of my children. You are my greatest achievement. You are my reason to boast. You are my peace in life's storms. You are my happy place. You are my joy in old age. For you I spent the strength of my youth. Each of you is achieving more in life than I did. Each of you is surpassing my mark. Each of you is making the world a better place.
My generation cannot say that it left the world better than we found it. But I can say that I have left the world better children than I was, better citizens, better parents, better in every way.
And each of you is rearing children who love your mother and me and who make us feel like we are all the world. There is no other accomplishment of mine that can come close to this.
The best part of this is that I get to take it with me. Any other thing that I might have striven for I would leave behind.
In second place, I am proud of my missionary service in Finland. Love is an interesting thing. I can leave half of my heart in a foreign land and still have all of my heart to give to my wife and children. I can't really boast of my missionary service, but I can rejoice in it--like Aamon of the Sons of Mosiah. I can't point to the thousands as he could, but the few I can point to mean thousands to me. How great is my joy with these few in the kingdom of our Father! One of the happiest days of my life was to attend Fast and Testimony meeting with the woman I baptized in Dec 1978 and with her son who had just completed his mission to Provo, Utah. To see the fruit of the tree that I had helped to plant was indeed "the most joyous to the soul."
Third, I am proud to be a teacher. I knew, back in another time and another place, that I would not be pleased to have my epitaph read that I had been a good salesman. I think I was good at that. But I can say that I have great joy in seeing the lives of my former students unfold. I'm grateful for Facebook for opening that window for me. There are just a few who have connected with me on Facebook, but happiness in the lives of those few magnifies my joy. I have been a small part of something good.
My generation cannot say that it left the world better than we found it. But I can say that I have left the world better children than I was, better citizens, better parents, better in every way.
And each of you is rearing children who love your mother and me and who make us feel like we are all the world. There is no other accomplishment of mine that can come close to this.
The best part of this is that I get to take it with me. Any other thing that I might have striven for I would leave behind.
In second place, I am proud of my missionary service in Finland. Love is an interesting thing. I can leave half of my heart in a foreign land and still have all of my heart to give to my wife and children. I can't really boast of my missionary service, but I can rejoice in it--like Aamon of the Sons of Mosiah. I can't point to the thousands as he could, but the few I can point to mean thousands to me. How great is my joy with these few in the kingdom of our Father! One of the happiest days of my life was to attend Fast and Testimony meeting with the woman I baptized in Dec 1978 and with her son who had just completed his mission to Provo, Utah. To see the fruit of the tree that I had helped to plant was indeed "the most joyous to the soul."
Third, I am proud to be a teacher. I knew, back in another time and another place, that I would not be pleased to have my epitaph read that I had been a good salesman. I think I was good at that. But I can say that I have great joy in seeing the lives of my former students unfold. I'm grateful for Facebook for opening that window for me. There are just a few who have connected with me on Facebook, but happiness in the lives of those few magnifies my joy. I have been a small part of something good.