Father of the Bride Speech for Miriam

 

l to r. Elder Jones, me, Elder Hatch 8 November 1981

Chapter 3 - Early twenties

I lived in Queensland for quite a few years in my early twenties. My drug use was a problem, but I didn’t particularly want to stop. It was a part of my life, that I strangely thought was a positive influence. But negative experiences can lead to positive outcomes, if you want them to, and you are open to change.

I started to develop health problems which were becoming a bit of a nuisance. I was having problems with digestion, and I sought help with an acupuncturist. A friend of ours was studying acupuncture at a new college in Brisbane, and they had a student clinic, so I went there for help. There was a very experienced Vietnamese fellow named Trinh working there as an instructor for the students and he oversaw my treatment. It seemed his most senior student was a very likeable Australian guy called Peter (I think). He said that I had a “cold stomach” and he used needles and moxibustion to heat it up. It had an almost immediate effect, improving my situation with my digestion, but it had a side effect. It made smoking slightly repulsive to me, but only for a short time. I would push through that and keep smoking. And then my digestive problems would start again.

I was on this merry-go-round of smoking and getting acupuncture treatment for quite a while before Trinh and Peter managed to convince me that smoking was the cause of my problems. But what convinced me more than anything, that my health was not good, was when I went for a surf trip down to Lennox Head, a classic right-hand point break in northern New South Wales. I really struggled to paddle out and catch any waves. I realized that I needed to change my way of life.

I liked reading a lot. I liked to read science fiction, particularly authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and others. Somehow, I came across a book called “The Cosmic Conspiracy” by Stan Deyo. I can’t remember the exact order of everything this far back, but I did read it sometime before I went to Falls Creek for the winter of 1981. I left Queensland, drove to Victoria, and landed a job as a ski lift operator.

Snow skiing had become an alternative to surfing. A few of my friends in Queensland who I surfed with were also into skiing. I had spent the previous winter in Victoria, staying off mountain and working in a hotel in Wangaratta. But for 1981 I was on the mountain and keen as anything to improve my skiing.

One day while working on the Gully chair lift, I had an accident. I lost concentration and while standing on the platform and I was hit by a chair in the side of my right knee and knocked to the ground and dragged halfway around the bull wheel. Not as serious as it sounds, but enough for me to go and lay down for the rest of the day, as walking was extremely painful.

My biggest concern was that my friends from Queensland were coming to ski with me the next day. More than anything, I wanted to go skiing with them! It was at this time that the things I read in the “The Cosmic Conspiracy” came back to me. In this book, Stan Deyo leads one to believe in Christ as being our only Saviour. That struck a chord with me and brought the things that I was taught as a child back to me. I began to think that the only way that I was going to go skiing with my friends the next day was to pray for a miracle. This was the first time in my adult life that I had prayed. I can’t remember if I got down on my knees to pray or not, but thinking about it, I don’t see how I could have. But I did pray and ask that my knee might be made better so that I could go skiing the next day.

The next morning, miracle of miracles, I was better. Got out of bed, walked around no problem. I went skiing with my friends and had a ball! I was so grateful that my Father in Heaven had heard my prayer and made me better!

I can’t remember at what stage through the snow season I had this experience. But all good things come to an end and so did the winter. I stayed at Falls Creek to the end making the most of having a job and being paid. As I didn’t drink or smoke very much at this stage of my life, I actually saved money and by the end of the season I had $600.00 in the bank, which may not sound like much to you reading this now, but back in 1981, this was a nice sum of money!

I went to live with my Mum at her home at 30 Orr St Manifold Heights in Geelong at the end of the snow season. This would have been in early October. Mum was always welcoming, and I knew that I had somewhere to stay there. I also knew that I would probably be able to get work in the warehouse at Winchester in Geelong, where I had worked previously. I was also keen to go surfing so Geelong was a logical place to go. Despite my years in Queensland, I still felt that Geelong was home.

One day while at home I wrote a letter to a friend in Queensland. I decided to walk down to the Shannon Avenue shops to post it. As I was walking down Orr Street, I noticed two young missionaries walking up the street. I thought to myself, “I’m safe, they’ll be gone by the time I’m back home”. I got back home, and I think that I was doing something in the kitchen when I heard a knock on the door. It was the missionaries!

I guess I didn’t know that they were missionaries at the time, and I was not sure what Church they were from. However, I do remember, in past years, getting a knock on the door and turning them away. Prior to going back to Geelong, I had decided that I needed some sort of direction in my life. I had thought about joining a Church. In Stan Deyo’s book, he said that if you wanted to be saved, you needed to believe in Jesus Christ and I think that there was a page in the book that you just had to sign your name in and that was it. You were saved! That seemed a bit too simple to me. I also had an interest in eastern mysticism and I had seriously thought about studying Tai Chi and thought about enrolling in a course.

I needed to belong to a group of good people. I was disillusioned with society after my time in Falls Creek. On the whole, it was just a pleasure-seeking society up there, full of drugs, alcohol and immorality. I didn’t feel like I fitted in that scene anymore and I wanted something better.

I had thought about joining the Roman Catholic Church. For some reason, their claim to have priesthood authority appealed to me. But there was something about it that turned me off. I can’t remember exactly what it was. I had no desire to return to the Presbyterian Church, which by this time had merged in with the Methodists and Congregationalists to becoming the Uniting Church.

I answered the door to see to young men in suits and ties standing there. The shorter one, who probably identified himself as Elder Christman, did most of the talking. Elder Hatch may have spoken, but I don’t remember. Elder Christman asked if I believed in God. Only a month or two back He answered my prayer and my knee was healed and I could go skiing.

“Yes”, was my reply.

“Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”

That’s what I’d been taught all my life. That’s what Stan Deyo said in his book. “Yes.”

“If you found out that the true Church of Jesus Christ had been restored to the earth, would you want to know about it?”

Having just answered the previous two questions in the affirmative, how could I say no to this third question? “I guess so.”

“May we come in to discuss it with you?”

“No, we can talk about it here.”

The Elders held up a flip chart, and told the story of young Joseph Smith, a 14 year old boy living in upstate New York in 1920. He was confused about religion and his status before God. He wanted forgiveness for his sins and he wanted to know which Church he should join. He was told that none of the churches were right and that he should join none of them. The Elders then told me of his subsequent visitations from an angel named Moroni, who told Joseph of an ancient record deposited in a hill under a rock not far from Joseph’s home. They later gave me a translated copy of the Book of Mormon and asked me to read and pray about it, to inquire of God if it is true. They told me of the current President and Prophet, Spence W. Kimball and showed me a picture of him, his counsellors, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I was intrigued. These young Elders claimed that this Church had authority from God and they have twelve apostles? Americans think they have the best of everything and now they think they have the best Church?

They gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon, asking me to read particularly about Christ’s post resurrection visit to the Americas found in 3^rd Nephi and a promise found in Moroni 10:3-5 promising the reader that if he prayed with a sincere heart, really wanting to know if the Book of Mormon and the story of Joseph Smith was true, it would be “manifest … unto him.”

That was the first and last time that I met Elder Van Christman. He was close to the end of serving his mission and he was replaced by Elder Rodney Jones, from Preston, Idaho.

Sometime after the Elders left, I did as they asked. I read and I prayed. I really wanted to know if it was true. I felt that I heard a voice telling me that the Book was true and that I should follow these young men.

Soon after this visit from the Elders, I was offered work at Winchester. Elder Joseph Hatch, who I keep in touch with till this day, often relates how they called past several times and there was no answer at the door. They decided to try one last time. I guess it was a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon, but I can’t remember and I really can’t remember anything of that second meeting, but I must have told them that I knew that what they told me was true.

I can remember them sometime later taking me to the Wade family home, for one of their discussions. Prior to visiting the Wade family, the missionaries asked me if I would be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. Cliff Wade’s youngest daughter Lisa was preparing to be baptised soon, and Cliff asked if I wanted to share in the baptismal service. I agreed to do that. I didn’t have to wait long. Lisa’s baptism was scheduled for Sunday 8^th November and that was the day that my life would start to change, quite radically and for the better!

When the Elders said that they would be having a baptismal service and asked me to be baptized, I had this vision in my mind that there would probably be lots of people lining up to be baptized. My first time to attend Church meetings was on the Sunday that I was to be baptized. I guess I thought, well, if this is true there will be lots of people wanting to join the Church. It turned out that I was to be the only convert being baptized on that day, and that there would not be another convert join the Church for almost twelve months. This was probably a good thing for me, as it meant that I got lots of attention.

The Ward Mission Leader then was Robert George Grant and the investigators class teacher was David Carthew. For much of that year, I was the only student in the class. The Elders were in the class of course, and occasionally they would have an investigator attend, but it was rare. I think David was probably a lifelong member of the Church, and I’m guessing that he was about 40 years old at the time. Bob was a convert of only 5 years, and he had already served as a counsellor in the Bishopric.

I was like a sponge, ready to absorb all the information that I could. I would attend every meeting that I could. I remember several times phoning Bob and asking him if he were going to a fireside meeting that night, and he probably wasn’t going to go, but he would drive me up anyway. I read as many books as I could. And I learned to serve.

I was given a home teaching assignment and one of my early companions was Bill Cook, who later ordained me an Elder. He was a good leader, a very good teacher, and also a dedicated home teacher. It was not long before I was called to serve as a single young adult leader, and later as the Young Men President, and then as a counsellor to the Elders Quorum President. This was all in the first 18 months of my membership in the Church. I was also called as the Stake Young Adult representative, but fortunately Bishop George intervened, and I was put into one of the other positions. I can’t remember the exact order of all this.

I also spent a fair bit of time with the missionaries too. I can remember being in the southern carpark at the meeting house once talking to them and looking at our reflection in the doors. I thought “I look like one of them!” I was a bit scared of that. I started to think of ways that I could get out of going on a mission if someone was to ask me. I thought about joining the armed forces, or getting into debt by buying an expensive car. I just didn’t think I wanted that level of commitment to the Church.

The Geelong Ward meeting house was going through a major refit at this time. For a while we met in the old Railways Institute hall on Latrobe Terrace. And then we started meeting at the library on the Queenscliff Road in Newcomb. I know at this stage I was serving as Young Men President. One Sunday, as I was about to leave, Bishop George had a quick chat with me, pretty much as I was going out the door. He asked me to pray about whether I should go on a mission or not. I agreed to do that and report back to him.

By this stage, I think I was starting to be able to recognize when I was receiving an answer to a prayer or to feel the influence of the Spirit. I realized it could come in a variety of ways. I gave my first Sacrament meeting talk in the Library “chapel”. The Stake Presidency walked in at the start of the meeting and sat on the stand. I really felt the spirit with me as I spoke that day. I think many of the members felt the Spirit too.

I know at one stage, that I had learned about the wearing of sacred garments by some members. This troubled me somewhat, as it just sounded weird to me. One older member of the Church had told me about this on one of my visits to the Stake Welfare Farm with him. I had a dream and woke up with the reference to a chapter and verse in Isaiah, most likely chapter 52 verse 1, which talked about wearing garments. That settled that, without a problem.

I had learned that sometimes a voice would come into my mind, teaching me something that I had not previously known. I knew that God lived and for some reason, he had an interest in me. So, when I prayed about serving a mission, it was really no surprise when the voice came into my mind, suggesting that it would be a good thing to do. The next Sunday when I attended Church, I simply told the Bishop that I knew that I should go on a mission. Some months later, I was on my way to the Missionary Training Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand, for 2-3 weeks prior to going to the New Zealand Christchurch Mission for 18 months.