The 2010 Mission Presidents' Seminar and the M. Russell Ballard Connection

This coming week in the Church News will be the account of the addresses received by the mission presidents and their wives at the 2010 Mission Presidents' Seminar.  I thought it would be interesting though to show a few behind the scene activities to whet your appetite for my post next week. So in this post I am featuring some old dudes I served a mission with back in the mid1970s and their connection to M. Russell Ballard.  The first part of the post shows my old buddy Richard Holzapfel with whom I went to BYU and he gives us an overview of the seminar followed by the M. Russell Ballard connection.

Richard Holzapfel, a former BYU religion professor and newly called mission president to the Alabama Birmingham Mission,  gave a brief  overview of what transpired in his blog:

We entered the MTC on June 23, 2010 for the New Mission Presidents' Seminar (Photograph taken in front of the Wilford Woodruff Administration Building at 9:00 am on June 23). Some 114 new presidents and their wives gathered in Provo for the five day training. They came from across the world, including Europe, Pacific Islands and Pacific Rim, North, Central, and South America. The Missionary Department announced changes in dress for sister missionaries, interview and zone conference schedules, and a new simplified teaching/training plan. It has been a wonderful experience!

M. Russell Ballard has a great influence on the missionary work in the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century.  He has been involved with missionary work full-time going back to 1974 when he was called as mission president in the Canada Toronto Mission.  A few of his missionaries have followed in his footsteps. All of them were mission leaders in the CTM being former zone leaders and mission assistants.

In the Hot Seat

I thought I would share with you a few things that have lingered with me about my mission thirty years later. When I served a mission it was during the time of memorization of the seven rainbow discussions. My mission president M. Russell Ballard was a fire breathing dynamic man who established some hard mission rules. He liked to pride myself on the fact that none of his missionaries went home dishonorably. He had a favorite black leather wing chair that sat in his office in the Toronto Canada Mission home. He called it his hot seat. He liked to have you sit in the seat then he would give you some very straight hard direct advice. He later told us that he was working us over for what we were suppose to be six months in the future but had not yet attained. He prophesied to me that my mission would be a mini-example of what the rest of my life would be like. Since I never quite measured up to his expectations and he was constantly transferring me I imagined that I would be a divorced person with multiple wives.

After about a year I decided to buckle down and learn the discussions. I had passed off three one by one in Italy where I had served prior to being transferred to Toronto. My mission president in Rome Italy claimed I would be his assistant one day but since I was transferred that never happened. For two weeks I buckled down and learned all seven discussions. I went one day to meet with one of the assistant's to the president to pass off my discussions. I breezed through six of the seven discussions. We finished the meeting. He was laughing and having a good time with me. Then as we were walking out he says by the way we missed a discussion give me a certain concept then I will pass you. I knew in that moment that no matter what I did he was going to flunk me. I knew I could be a good missionary and baptize people even if I didn't ever pass off the discussions so I never tried to pass them ever again. I subsequently baptized more people than even that assistant. I taught 25 people who joined the church. True to my mission president's word I remained a junior companion my whole mission. I wondered if I would never hold a significant church calling because my mission was supposed to be indicative of my life.

It wasn't hard for me to baptize people since I used the Spirit in my approach. My best companion was Elder Andy Bavelas who followed a similar approach. We had unbelievable success stopping when ever we felt a strong impression. I prayed every day that the Lord would lead me to the honest in heart. Prior to my mission I covenanted with the Lord that I would be like John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff. I fully intended to baptize hundreds of people. One month I read Alvin R. Dyer's The Challenge. "How wonderful it is to be with you this evening before we leave tonight we would like to set the date for your entrance into Christ's true church." That approach stayed with me my whole life.

I was assigned to a companion who was the ultimate party animal. He had a radio which he listened to every day. He bought the newspaper from the Becker Store in front of our apartment. He would stand outside our apartment and say to any attractive girl who came by, "There is always room for jello." His idea of teaching was playing ping pong with investigator families. He didn't have a clue about how to commit anyone to baptism but he was a nice guy. Any way I decided to try out the challenge as his companion. I issued the challenge to the Burchardt family. All four accepted baptism. Next we went to a Mrs. Lewellwyn and she and her daughter accepted baptism. We even began teaching her husband. Within a couple of weeks I was transferred again down to Royal York with my buddy Harry Lodholm. I challenged a little old white haired man to baptism and he accepted. I ended the month with eight baptisms. I learned that even ping pong could be a valuable missionary tool.

After my mission I went to BYU where I occasionally I saw my old mission president when he would speak at the Y. I have worked my whole life to have his acceptance. I even compiled the Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson because I knew it was something he would approve of since it helped build the kingdom. The missionary section was my strongest section because I knew it was something both Elder Ballard and President Benson had a love for.

When I went to work for two years at BYU Hawaii. I was able to become the missionary preparation teacher. I taught over one hundred perspective missionaries. I pushed them hard. I set the bar very high. I taught them how to dress, how to memorize the scriptures. I thought of the hot seat and where I wanted them to be in six months. I told them they would be District Leaders and Zone Leaders and even Mission Assistants. I knew from my failures in the hot seat what they needed to do so they wouldn't end up like me. I even established an island-wide mission fireside inviting seven former mission presidents and the area seventies to come and address hundreds of Polynesians kids. I remember seeing it done in Provo when I worked at the BYU Religion Department by John Fugal and patterned ours after his.

This blog is a life-time work that is mostly motivated by the fact that I am still sitting in that hot seat. I have devoted thirty years to studying this subject. My missionary quote book is dedicated to those men who have made me who I am today. I hope each person who has served a mission has similar tales of sitting in the hot seat. Please feel free to share any you care with the rest of us positive or negative.

Working Smarter Not Harder

One of my mission president's favorite things he liked to tell us was to work smarter not harder. He told us that we wasted a lot of time on nonessential things. That we needed to get the members to give us referrals since tracting wasn't as efficient and effective in terms of convert baptisms.

He continually told us to use our time more wisely that we needed to keep tract of converts more effectively by using our convert checklist. They had developed the early forerunner to the convert form that is now used throughout the world. In a few of my areas we actually had notebooks with tracting records and notes about the person living there. I read a few where they told how unresponsive the person contacted was. I usually disregarded them since I had a different personality from the other elders who made the initial assessment. In fact those were the very people I thought we should follow-up on. Most of my companions disagreed but I felt in these cases since they had such a strong opinion that we shouldn't return that they would want to engage us in conversation.

My mission president discouraged us from working too long with those who weren't progressing since we were there to find the "elect." It took me a while to get over my backward thinking as exhibited above. I learned from Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph Fielding Smith that not only are we sent to gather in the elect but we are sent out to warn the nations. Since my mission president was opposed to contending it was better to keep moving along. We found a lot of receptive people by just following the spirit.

I think if a person has progressed in the past that sometimes it is good to come back to them from time to time to see how they are doing. One of my favorite things to do was to get referrals from them. President Ballard taught us that many times they would refer you to a friend just to get rid of you. So I scrupulously employed this method of referral. I would ask you were interested in the gospel do you have any friends you think might be interested. I improved on the method by asking them to write on a slip a paper the name of the friend. I would then show the slip of paper to the friend and say "Hi, Jeff Jones sent us to see you. I would say you do know Jeff Jones?" They would usually respond Yeah. I would say could we come in and speak to you briefly. Most let us in. A few times we got results.

When I was a ward mission and missionaries would say they didn't have enough referrals. I would say come with me elder. I would take them to a less active family I might be home teaching. I would say Sister Smith do you know any friends or relatives that might be interested in hearing from the missionaries. She would give the name of three or four people. I would say could you write a small note saying I am sending the missionaries to talk to you. Usually she would write a couple lines saying that exact thing. The missionaries would later tell me these were some of their best contacts. I learned it all from M. Russell Ballard on how to work smarter not harder.

Other than this aspect I never could figure out just what he meant. We worked sixty-five hours a week. Some of the things he had us do were to go to grocery stores and offer to take out people's groceries. We had a yellow button with a black question mark we wore. If people saw it and asked us what it meant we would say, What do you know about the Mormon Church and would you like to know more? We only got limited success from the button.

We did enjoy hearing about how Elder Franklin D. Richards would go all over and ask people the questions. I wish we had served in areas with more buses since a bus or subway is a great place for those to work. You need a large mass of people. We were also encouraged to give a few hours a week in service.

When I was a library director I would encourage the missionaries to come shelve books. I would tell them you can't actively proselyte but I will let you wear your name tag. A lot of times later when they were contacting a person would say I remember you from the library and let them in. Sometimes little things can return good results. Sometimes we are too impatient to realize we need to try a lot of different approaches.

I think M. Russell Ballard needs to do a talk called working smarter not harder so he can more fully expand what he means. I never fully understood what he meant when I served under him. Most business types are always referring to time management when they use this term. I think he knew from his experience what he meant but I was a little inexperienced at the time to fully understand.

When a person says you should work smarter not harder they usually mean we not waste time. We should keep phone calls or emails short and to the point. That we maximize our time such as staying on task. Missionaries should keep their dinner appointments to the one hour allotted. They should go out on time and go home on time. Their white handbooks outline their activities for the day. Just doing the work doesn't always produce results. Missionaries in order to think smarter need to think outside the box. They should try a few creative approaches. I guess that is why you need the spirit in missionary work. The spirit is the wild card in working smarter.

The biggest thing I came away from Elder Ballard saying this to me was to stay focused on missionary work. When you are young you tend to have attention deficit problems it is hard to sustain your effort because missionary work is hard repetitive work. You are like a mail person whether rain or snow or sleet nor ice you are out there on the streets teaching the gospel.

Nepotism or Family Legacy: LeGrand Richards' Missionary Legacy Lives On in Callister Grandsons

As a young missionary in the Canada Toronto Mission I remember reading my missionary library which consisted of A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (LeGrand Richards), Truth Restored/Gospel Principles (Gordon B. Hinckley),The Articles of Faith (James E. Talmage), and Jesus the Christ (James E. Talmage). LeGrand Richard's book was the basis of my early doctrinal foundation as were the two books by Talmage and to a lesser degree the one by President Hinckley.

LeGrand Richards was very missionary-minded. His talks often included personal experiences of his mission in the Netherlands from 1905 until 1908. He also served a short-term mission to Rhode Island in 1926. He was a mission president in the Southern States Mission in 1934-1937. He was famous for talking from his heart and would often have to be reminded to quit speaking. He would lay his cane up on the podium and many times I remember President Kimball pulling on his coat tail. He would laugh and sometimes go on. As a missionary I dearly enjoyed his talks as he would relate in detail his missionary experiences he had a warm rich and often humorous speaking style that endeared him to young missionaries. Most people don't remember him as well as those older than forty but his was the picture of the ideal grandfather.

LeGrand Richards had a rich tradition in LDS Church leadership. His father was George F. Richards, and his grandfather Franklin D. Richards served as President of the Council of the Twelve. In the last several years two of his grandsons Tad R. Callister and Douglas L. Callister have both been called as members of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. The Second Quorum of Seventy is a limited appointment group that can be released after six to eight years of service, many move up in leadership. Both men were sons of LeGrand's daughter Norinne Richards Callister and Reed who lived in the Glendale, California area.

Both grandsons were tax lawyers by profession. Tad has practiced law for twenty-eight years in a family law firm down in California that was started by his father Reed who was himself also a mission president in the British Mission from 1967 until 1969. He was called to the second quorum of Seventy in the April 2008 General Conference.

Tad published two books — The Infinite Atonement and The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration. The second book was published while he was out as a mission president and I have included the previous link of an interview with KSL Radio talking about his time in the Canada Toronto mission and the book. His church service includes: President of Canada Toronto East Mission (2005-2008), Area Seventy, regional representative, counselor in the California Arcadia Mission, President and a counselor of the Glendale Stake, bishop, temple ordinance worker, mission president's counselor, stake mission president, elders quorum president, seminary teacher and missionary to the Eastern Atlantic States Mission (1965-1967).


Of missionary interest was a letter he sent the parents of Elder Britt Wells included below:



Letter from President Tad Callister


Date: January 17, 2008

Area: York, Ontario

Companion: Elder Deskins


THE CHURCH OFJESUS CHRIST OF LATTER~DAY SAINTS
CANADA TORONTO EAST MISSION
24 FERRAND DRIVE SUITE 300
DON MILLS ON M3C 3V4
Phone 416-490-6869



3 January 2008



Mr. & Mrs. Monty Wells
294 West 1360 North
American Fork, UT 84003 USA



Dear Brother & Sister Wells:



Elder Britt Monroe Wells arrived here in the Canada Toronto East Mission on 1 January 2008. Your son is anxious to begin the work and experience missionary life. His testimony and enthusiasm for the work are fully evident. Sister Callister and I look forward to working with Elder Wells as he serves our Father in Heaven here in the mission.



After prayerful consideration I have selected Elder Cody Deskins to be your son’s first companion and trainer. I will have a personal interview with your son every six weeks. This enables me to monitor your son’s growth and assess the conditions inherent in his labours. Sister Callister will monitor his health needs and encourage him to take good care of himself.



You are encouraged to write often. My father wrote me each week in the mission field. Sometimes was short (only 3 or 4 sentences), but he always had a message of inspiration. I loved those letters, as they were a great help to me. The mailing address is:



24 Ferrand Drive Suite 300
Don Mills, ON M3C 3V4



Your missionary committed to his bishop and stake president to serve a full term mission of 24 months. Your missionary has also committed to put his personal life on hold. Brigham Young said, “Let you: minds be centered on your mission.



”We expect accomplishments here to involve many growing experiences, which will be a source of pleasure for him and your entire family.



If you need to contact us for any reason, the mission home address is 5 Windom Road, Don Mills, ON M3C 3Z5; phone 416-467-7164


We are grateful for the support you are giving your son, and pray that the Lord’s blessings will attend you. We encourage your missionary to write you each week and share his positive missionary experiences with you. Sister Callister and I pledge to do all we can to make his entire mission successful and rewarding.



Sincerely yours,

Tad R. CallisterMission President



Enclosure P.S. Elder Wells is off to a good start – a fine young man.



In June 2008 Tad R. Callister was made the second counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency working with David S. Baxter, President and Keith K. Hilbig, as first counselor.

Douglas L. Callister was sustained to the Second Quorum of the Seventy April 1, 2000, at age 61. He was a former Area Authority Seventy, regional representative, president of Minnesota Minneapolis Mission, temple sealer, stake president, and bishop. In 2003 he served as the President of the Eastern Europe Area and lived in Moscow.

Both grandsons have served faithfully throughout their lives and are a credit to their grandfather. For information about other general authorities and their relatives you can check out Jeff Spector's post on Mormon Matters.

Irving Wilson and the Canada Toronto Mission: A Personal Reminiscence

When I was a young missionary in the Toronto Canada Mission back in 1976 I ran into a very unusual man, Irving Wilson in one of my first areas. I think he might even have been a counselor to M. Russell Ballard in the mission presidency. My companion Elder Harry Lodholm kept talking about Irving Wilson and what an exceptional man he was and how he was an awesome member missionary. Lodholm was very impressed by him and said Brother Wilson had a lot of Church experience. He talked about him quite a bit. Lodholm told me Wilson's wife had died and he had married a woman about twenty or thirty years younger not much older than Lodholm who was about twenty-five. I wondered why a woman not much older than us would marry a guy in his 50s. I figured he would be pushing daisies in ten or twenty years. I also heard Brother Wilson had a lot of Mormon books and an extensive library of cassette tapes of LDS General Authorities. I was curious to find out about him and buy a few books. Back then I thought anyone over fifty must use Geritol and was ancient. Now that I am that age I find this humorous.

I was able to get a member to take me and Elder Lodholm over to Brother Wilson's house. It was a combination home with an office. Brother Wilson was sitting at his desk taking a call from one of his clients. Apparently Brother Wilson was a very wealthy and successful insurance agent. He as a service to members in area also had a Seventy's bookstore. Seventy's bookstores sold books to members from such publishers as Deseret Book, Bookcraft, and Horizon Publishers to raise money for missionary projects like buying Book of Mormons. I remember later after meeting Brother Wilson he and his wife bought thirty cases of gold-colored Book of Mormons and hired a photographer. Every person including us missionaries put our pictures in five or ten copies with a hand-written testimony. It was impressive to see someone put their money where their mouth was.

I was surprised when I met Brother Wilson because he was very active and charismatic for an old dude. I figured he must be quite a talker to convince a woman half his age to marry him. Being the brash young missionary I was I told him I heard he had married a beautiful young wife and what was that like. He told me how much he loved his first wife and a little bit about his church service and how special his wife had been.

I was very touched as he described the trials he faced as his first wife was dying and the difficulty on him and his family. He then told me of the spiritual experience he had in meeting his second wife. I guess she worked for him in his office. He said at first he never considered her because of the age difference but she convinced him to marry him. I asked him if the difference in age was a problem but he told me that he was vigorous and that he knew the spirit had directed him to his young bride. He told how he loved her a great deal. Looking at the light in his eye and the warmth in his voice I knew he was a lucky man. The guy was really in love. A few minutes later his wife came by and I was able to see how attractive she was and just why he loved her. She was gorgeous woman who was very down to earth and a straight shooter. I always liked go-getters and she was definitely a go-getter just like her husband.

Talking with Brother Wilson was a real adventure. He told me stories about when he was a branch president in St. Thomas and the key to being a successful missionary was to pray to the Lord to be directed to new members and then follow the Spirit.

Brother Wilson told me about his years of church service and the difficulties of building up the church in the 1950s and 1960s. He told me about how he built up the St. Thomas Branch years before. Apparently he had been a branch president back when Thomas S. Monson was mission president in Canada. He talked about how he had to clean out the beer bottles before services as a branch president in a lodge-hall. Apparently they had Saturday night dances and parties every week and they members had to clean out the place that stank of beer and cigarettes.

Thomas S. Monson has used the example of Irving Wilson in a few of his conference addresses and in other church settings. I think he does a better job of relating them since he is a master storyteller.

In a Greater Canada (CTM) missionary reunion in October 2007 Thomas S. Monson told a Deseret News reporter about Brother Irving Wilson's influence in Ontario: "As a measure of success, President Monson reported that in 1959, 57 percent of the branches and districts had missionaries presiding over them. At the end of 1961, all the member units had local leaders.

He spoke of some of those leaders, such as Irving Wilson, president of the St. Thomas Branch, who decided that if the branch were to move from its rented hall to a new chapel, they would need people to help build the meetinghouse. President Monson quoted President Wilson, who said, "We ought to have a building designed by a Mormon architect; and since we don't have an architect who is a member of the branch we need to convert one." President Wilson looked in the Yellow Pages under "Architects," and invited one to learn about the Church. He did the same so that the branch would one day have a Mormon builder, a Mormon mechanic, a Mormon brick mason, "a Mormon this and a Mormon that," President Monson said.

Five or six organists played at the first meeting held in the new chapel, President Monson said. When he asked President Wilson where the organists came from, the branch president replied, "We baptized them." He had done the same thing with musicians as he had with people in the building trade; he found people with musical talent or interest and invited them to Church where they learned of the gospel." (Gerry Avant, Time vanishes: Pres. and Sister Monson reminisce with former Canadian missionaries, Church News [Saturday, October 20, 2007]: 4).

In his address while dedicating the Toronto Canada President Monson related this story about Irving Wilson:

"One story of faith occurred when President Monson visited the St. Thomas Branch of the mission, situated about 120 miles from Toronto. The branch met in the basement of a decrepit lodge hall, and only 12 of about 25 members were in attendance.

The branch president, Irving Wilson, told President Monson the St. Thomas Branch needed a meetinghouse like one built in Australia, pictured in The Improvement Era.

President Monson told him they would have to grow in numbers first.

The branch president responded by requesting six additional missionaries and set out to begin further missionary work.

"President Wilson took the (Yellow Page telephone directory) in hand and observed, 'If we are ever to have our dream building in St. Thomas, we will need a Latter-day Saint to design it. And since we do not have a member who is an architect, we will simply have to convert one.' "

The branch president continued down the list until he stopped at one name. "This is the one we will invite to my home to hear the message of the Restoration," he said. The branch president followed the same procedure for other craftsmen needed to build a meetinghouse.

"The individuals were invited to his home to meet the missionaries, the truth was taught, testimonies were born, conversion resulted,'' President Monson said. "Those newly baptized then repeated the procedure themselves, inviting others to listen. Week after week and month after month the procedure continued.

"The St. Thomas Branch experienced marvelous growth. Within 2 1/2 years, a site was obtained, a beautiful building was constructed and an inspired dream became a reality. That branch is now a thriving ward in a stake of Zion." ('Days Never to Be Forgotten' Recounted Faith, Confidence in the Lord Reflected at Dedication of the Toronto Temple," Church News [ Saturday, October 13, 1990]: 18).

In his 1990 Conference address Thomas S. Monson said about the growth in the St. Thomas Branch:

"Another evidence of faith took place when I first visited the St. Thomas Branch of the mission, situated about 120 miles from Toronto. My wife and I had been invited to attend the branch sacrament meeting and to speak to the members there. As we drove along a fashionable street, we saw many church buildings and wondered which one was ours. None was. We located the address which had been provided and discovered it to be a decrepit lodge hall. Our branch met in the basement of the lodge hall and was comprised of perhaps twenty-five members, twelve of whom were in attendance. The same individuals conducted the meeting, blessed and passed the sacrament, offered the prayers, and sang the songs.

At the conclusion of the services, the branch president, Irving Wilson, asked if he could meet with me. At this meeting, he handed to me a copy of the Improvement Era, forerunner of today’s Ensign. Pointing to a picture of one of our new chapels in Australia, President Wilson declared, “This is the building we need here in St. Thomas.”

I smiled and responded, “When we have enough members here to justify and to pay for such a building, I am sure we will have one.” At that time, the local members were required to raise 30 percent of the cost of the site and the building, in addition to the payment of tithing and other offerings.

He countered, “Our children are growing to maturity. We need that building, and we need it now!”

I provided encouragement for them to grow in numbers by their personal efforts to fellowship and teach. The outcome is a classic example of faith, coupled with effort and crowned with testimony.

President Wilson requested six additional missionaries to be assigned to St. Thomas. When this was accomplished, he called the missionaries to a meeting in the back room of his small jewelry store, where they knelt in prayer. He then asked one elder to hand to him the yellow-page telephone directory, which was on a nearby table. President Wilson took the book in hand and observed, “If we are ever to have our dream building in St. Thomas, we will need a Latter-day Saint to design it. Since we do not have a member who is an architect, we will simply have to convert one.” With his finger moving down the column of listed architects, he paused at one name and said, “This is the one we will invite to my home to hear the message of the Restoration.”

President Wilson followed the same procedure with regard to plumbers, electricians, and craftsmen of every description. Nor did he neglect other professions, feeling a desire for a well-balanced branch. The individuals were invited to his home to meet the missionaries, the truth was taught, testimonies were borne and conversion resulted. Those newly baptized then repeated the procedure themselves, inviting others to listen, week after week and month after month.

The St. Thomas Branch experienced marvelous growth. Within two and one-half years, a site was obtained, a beautiful building was constructed, and an inspired dream became a living reality. That branch is now a thriving ward in a stake of Zion.

When I reflect on the town of St. Thomas, I dwell not on the ward’s hundreds of members and many dozens of families; rather, in memory I return to that sparse sacrament meeting in the lodge-hall basement and the Lord’s promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20.)" (Thomas S. Monson, “Days Never to Be Forgotten,” Ensign, Nov 1990, 67).

Irving Wilson knew I had a great interest in LDS Church history so he selected a few books from the bookstore and sold them to me at a reduced price. It is interesting that reading those books helped me develop my interest in the Church History as one of them was the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Probably the most important thing that he shared with me was a tape by Spencer W. Kimball talking to the Finnish missionaries that was one of the things I listened to Sunday after Sunday on my mission. It was before President Kimball fell among cut-throats. when he had his voice-box removed and he a melodious voice instead of the harsh rasping one. Irving Wilson provided me with such tapes as Hugh B. Brown's God is a Gardener, Paul Royale, and Matthew Cowley. I really owe Irving Wilson a lot he even taught me about the Mormon underground where you could get such gems as the Kimball tape. The Paul Royale one talked about husbands calling their wives and children out of the grave which is hard to find since so little is found on priesthood holders role in the resurrection.

I tried to keep track of Irving Wilson over the years. His nephew was a Vice President for Dynix Library Automation Systems. When he came to Missouri to help me install the line for my new system when I was working at Central Methodist College I asked him since his last name was Wilson if he ever heard of guy named Irving Wilson. I figured his being a Mormon there was a remote chance. Lo and behold not only did he know Irving Wilson but he was his uncle. He told me a few stories of Irving Wilson and I told him a few of my missionary memories. The nephew was an owner of the company had come out and was wearing a three-piece suit as we worked. The guy later made several million bucks when Dynix was sold. I think Irving was still alive in 1992.

I heard about his demise in the late 1990s. I was sad to hear it because Irving Wilson was an extraordinary man and one of the greatest member missionaries I ever met.