"SECRET LOVE(S)": AN UPDATE

Down three from this is an article entitled: "Secret Loves." This is now four weeks hence and there is some progress to report.

Firstly, the "Joseph/Jenny" Update: Last Monday after Family Home Evening those two "beamers" (note: when together, those two glow!) came up and showed Ranelle and me her brand, new, shiny-bright "engagement string." They are now officially engaged! Celestial Day! (Note: that term "string" is not a typo, it is correct. You see, when they two placed their order with the jewelry store, they ordered their ring via a catalog. Shortly they were notified the ring manufacturer no longer produces the design they requested. So not wanting to delay their announcement, Joseph tied her new ring around the finger of his bride-to-be!) Resourceful, no? As yet they have made no announcement of a wedding date.

Secondly, the "Mitchell/Kelly" Update: As an attorney who daily "tries" legal cases in court rooms across the land, there are times when Kelly's employment is near-by enough that she can drive home before departure again the next day. And since the "Olsens-to-be" savor the Everlasting Things, last night they honored our classroom with their presence. After the lesson, Ranelle and I visited with them awhile. Among the small talk the speculation drifted to: "What will you look like in fifty years?" "Where will you have lived in fifty years?" "What will you have experienced?" "How many children?" etc. etc. Finally, after wearing out that nonsense, our conclusion: we'll all four just get together then and compare notes! I only regret not saying: "Now that you've found each other and get to face life together it'll all be just fine."

Contemplating Richard L. Evans' phrase, "I am impressed with the endlessness of it all," I am reminded of the poem that President Spencer W. Kimball wrote to his wife:

As I look back across our mingled years
I know it is not just the joys we shared
That made our lives one pattern,
But the tears we shed together,
And the rough, wild seas we fared.

Through all the disappointments we have faced.
Through this world's faults and failings,
We have come to heights of understanding that are based
More on the sorrows than the joys of home.

Young love is beautiful to contemplate.
But old love is the finished tapestry--
Stretched from oaken floor to Heaven's gate--
We wove on earth for all eternity,
With threads made stronger by the steady beat
Of hearts that suffered--
Yet knew no defeat.


Addendum: Being sensitive to how dinner guests must feel when their hostess serves chili beans for dessert let me add this:

In April, 1959, I Greyhound-bussed-it into Salt Lake City friendless, and homeless. All I had along was a twenty dollar bill, a change of clothing, a razor, a comb, and my dictionary. I also had within a burning testimony of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Somehow before nightfall, I managed to pay for one weeks' room-and-board (fifteen dollars, can you imagine it, paid for one-week's bed and meals!). Within a couple of days I located some menial employment and before the week was out had earned enough to pay my keep for the week following. Thus gaining a toe-hold, I attended church at the old Seventeenth ward, and in a few weeks was baptized a member of the Lord's Church. Shortly, Bishop Val J. Sheffield ordained me to the priesthood, and called me to work in the Mutual Improvement Association (called then the "M.I.A."). I also became a ward teacher.


Because of my presidency position that year in the "MIA," I met and associated with Doctor Lynn M. Hilton, who was then the Stake MIA president. And my first ''ward teaching" (note: that was the correct term in those days) companion was a Church architect named "Brother Gould." I know it is uncanny, but here it is fifty years later, and since coming to East Lansing Michigan, I have met grandchildren of both of those men! Would you like to know who those grandchildren are? One of them is Jenny, the girl I mentioned above; her grandpa is Lynn Hilton (still living); the other is the grandson of Brother Gould the architect (now deceased). The grandson's name: Joseph Gould, and Joe is Jenny's fiancee! (Can you fathom that????)