70's Elder Larry Lawrence, Elder Dance

Monday, 5/16/16, 10:50am, Hello Brandon, We are halfway through May, the best shore fishing month of the year! I went for my first time last week and will probably head out again today or tomorrow. Never seen rainbow trout this big in my life so I just have to take advantage of the opportunity. BradL is my fishing guru. He has been to Ottercreek Reservoir 3 or 4 times already this year. Reading my text messages last week got him all excited about going again Saturday! I have always wanted to find out stuff from him but this time I had written 2 things that he was curious about! He texted me 4 or 5 times on Friday night. I was so proud! Last week I left at 2pm on Tuesday and got home about 11pm on Wednesday. I spent more than 24 hours out in nature. That is therapy time for me. Brad is happy to catch his limit and get home in half a day. I like sleeping over night and seeing all 24-36 hours of the wind the light the storms the temperature the sunburn. I'm not half the fisherman that he is but I make up for it in other ways. A 16-17 inch rainbow is a big trout. They are about 2 lbs. Yes! It gets me all excited just talking about them. I brought home 3 of those last week. Brad showed me a picture of 3 -21 inchers that are 4 and 5 lbs that he brought home last month. I caught one of those last year and I called it my lifetime LUNKER! I brought it home and weighed it on the Harmon's produce department scale. 5 lbs! Awesome. So brad is not satisfied with those 2 pounders and caught and released one of those and a bigger one last Saturday. I asked him why? He said to let them grow larger, and that his freezer is full of trout. So he was enjoying the thrill of catching them. I let one little one 13 go last week and as I cleaned the rest in my sink I wondered why I had done it. Mistake, mistake! An amazing thing to me is to have gone to both Reservoirs last fall and caught the newly planted little 7 and 8 inchers and now to go back and find they have put on a half pound of additional flesh and instead of being white meat from the hatchery pellets they are now pink fleshed from the water shrimp etc. they eat. @ When I am fishing I am standing and bending and climbing around for hours on end. It left my legs sore with charlie horses or cramps Wednesday night. The only way I could sleep was on my recliner which positioned my legs to avoid the cramps. I walked Molly Saturday night and again this morning hoping to maintain a little leg strength. @ I watered the whole yard well last week and cut the lawn so I am caught up with those duties. @ We had stake conference this weekend. I was in the stake choir which was fun and challenging. We had two seventies visiting. Elder Dance and Elder Lawrence from the 5^th quorum of 70's. I sat on the second row Saturday night and got to see and feel of their spirits up close. I have always honored the Apostles and general authorities but never been a groupie. I am surprised to say that I felt the purity of their spirits, the solidity of their testimonies. To have men come and visit and teach our stake like that lends us spiritual strength and relights the vibrancy of our testimonies. They are right there! Pure and clean and loving and caring in real life! @Last week I discovered that Stephen who was stoned was one of the apostles assistants called one of the seven! Sounds strange doesn't it. Sort of like the assistants to the 12 that we had in the 60's and 70's. BRMcConkie was an assistant to the 12 before becoming an apostle. The guys that are chosen older to be apostles don't have to worry about becoming the prophet. They will die before they gain that much seniority. @ In October'72 Lee has just replaced JFS as the president of the church. He is courageous and vibrant as well as humbled and in awe during that conference. He spoke for 30 minutes in Priesthood meeting having so many things he wanted to set straight. I will include that portion of his talk in this post card. @ So Elder Lawrence, the senior 70, conducted a 7 member panel discussion to start the adult Saturday night meeting and his focus was rescuing. Guess what was true about all those on the panel? They had been less active and rescued. I was fascinated that Elder Lawrence would use such an entertaining teaching tool. Panels can get out of hand. And one panel brother did, in my opinion! He wanted the saints to stop asking if the new people in the ward were mormons or not, just call them neighbors, he said about 5 times! In my mind I rebelled at the thought. I don't think he recognizes that if they are mormons then we have all kinds of obligations towards them. Their names are on the Lord's roll/ in his book and primary and everyone else needs to prepare a place for each of the children etc.. It is our obligation to nourish them with the good word of God!! and provide a calling and a friend! @ I did get a kick out of how many tattoos I could see among the 7 panelists! @ So when Elder Lawrence began the meeting my critical-vern was thinking: who does he think he is? How presumptious to come in here and think he can guide a panel discussion. He gave the closing talk as well and he acted out an Ensign Story! Yes, he was pretty creative wasn't he! He told us to listen closely to the story and to make observations to ourselves that we would like to share with the whole group afterwards. He gave us an assignment!! How dare he!! That is what I do to you bps, all the time, isn't it? And he had 2 roving microphones so just like the panel people could be heard, so would the voluntary audience contributors. @ You would not have believed his story Brandon! It was about this motorcycle dude living in a trailer court and an overzealous hometeacher/ missionary/ activation brother! I was shocked as the story got started. Joseph Goodman was the motorcycle dude and Brother Vance was the home teacher. @ I have 3 less active brothers I have been assigned as home teacher or companion to. You would not call VarloD less active. But he seldom comes to church unless he is fulfilling an assignment and In 9 months he has only let me come visit him once, alone, no family as his home teacher. Plus I have subbed for him any number of times in EQ when he hasn't showed up to teach his lesson on the 4^th Sunday. Bruce Randall has not been to church in 5 or 10 years. EricY just can't seem to pay his tithing, qualify for a temple recommend or even attend sacrament meeting. He shows up to do his library duty once or twice a month but spends most Sabbath's hiking with his inactive kids or making a buck working on cars in his driveway. My testimony was thriving and strong to end last year. How I encouraged my 3las (3 less actives) to make goals and read scriptures and attend church and become faithful dependable saints this year! My efforts and stimulation and letters seemed to have no effect. I was reaching out uncomfortably far to try to bring them in. 5 months have gone by. After 3 months I prayed a new idea in my talks with HF. “HF it looks like my efforts were fruitless. I don't know what else to do. I am going to leave it in thy hands. When they are ready to become active I will be here for them.” @ When I drove home last Saturday night I was reeling with excitement. “HF, I did not have any clue of what else I could do. But I was blinded. I was stymied. Look how much more is available for me to do! That talk fed me personally and the meeting was an orchestrated masterpiece for an old school teacher like me!” As it turns out Elder Lawrence is a convert at 20yo, fatherless at 18, poor as his mother was, she still decided to be a stay at home mom and raise her 3 sons (3-18) on her SS check, along with EL's income. He got a medical school scholarship and ended up being an eye surgeon. Maybe it was his bedside manner which made his demeanor so Christlike. After acting out the story he took comments and observations. When discussion takes place, applications begin in our hearts. When I got home I searched and found the story and because I did not want it to dead end with me, I wrote all over it and sent it to my 3las. Then I started over and wrote a letter to the Stake President G. Almquist and sent him a copy as well! President Almquist found me after Stake Conference the next day and expressed his personal appreciation for me. I was flattered. @ I have one active family that I bonus home teach because their new ones never come, The Carters. I sent them a copy of the 3las letter and it came back with a “You are awesome!” comment. So Brandon Here comes the true story that E. Lawrence acted out and then had us comment on. What a great way to make something happen in our lives! I am going to send you the copy I made for my 3las:The last talk at Adults Stake Conference tonight.@to Varlo, Eric, Bruce, bcc: QuinnBonnie @Hello my 3 brothers! We had a 7pm stake conference meeting tonight. I usually don't go on Saturday night but I was lonesome so I put on my white shirt and white tie and went. The 70 in charge had a ton of courage! He started the meeting with a panel of 7 previous less actives and asked them questions. They had to sit on stools at the front of the audience and they had 2 microphones to pass around between them. Have you ever seen that before? Not me! @Later this same 70 read us this story and asked us to listen and then be ready to share what we discovered afterwards. Yep, you guessed it. The roving microphones would be on the loose. So do you think I had anything to share in front of the whole stake? @Frank Haney, my new across the street neighbor did too. He made a feeble joke about sitting in the nose-bleed section of stake conference and then shared his two observations. @AUGUST 1996“I’M NOT ‘BROTHER’ ANYBODY!” By Joseph E. Goodman @My home teacher’s love and persistence changed my life. @I was giving my motorcycle a tune-up one Saturday afternoon on the patio when an old car pulled up in front of our mobile home. The driver, a middle-aged man dressed in a white shirt and tie, got out and started toward me. He had “Latter-day Saint” written all over his face, and I knew immediately that the Church had found me. @I hoped that after noticing the beer can sitting beside me and the cigarette smoldering between my fingers that the visitor would decide he had the wrong house and drive on. No such luck. @“Are you Brother Goodman?” he asked, smiling. @“No, I’m not ‘Brother’ anybody!” I replied curtly. “I’m Joe.” @“Well, I’m glad to meet you, Joe,” he said, extending his hand. @I didn’t bother getting up, but noticing I had grease all over my right hand, I offered it to him. To my surprise, he shook it. @“I’m Brother Orwell Vance, and I’m your home teacher,” he said, still smiling. “I want to invite you to come meet with us tomorrow at church.” He rattled off the meeting schedule, then added, “I would like to come by and pick you up for priesthood meeting in the morning.” @Apparently, my home teacher hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t the church-going type. I decided to end our conversation before I lost my temper. I dropped my cigarette, ground it under my shoe, then walked to the end of our mobile home. Pointing to the chapel spire in the distance, I said, “I can see the chapel from here. If I ever decide to go back to church, I won’t need anyone to show me the way.” @“I’m sure you won’t,” he chuckled. “But it’s so much easier to go when you have someone to show you around and introduce you.” @“Listen,” I said sternly, “I’m not interested, and that’s all there is to it.” @“Okay,” he replied. “But I’ll be over at 7:15 tomorrow morning just in case you change your mind.” Still smiling, he got in his car and drove off. @Change my mind? I was 33 years old and hadn’t been active for many years. I wasn’t about to change my mind. @The next morning at exactly 7:15 I was awakened by a solid knock on the door. I stumbled out of bed and looked out the window. Apparently, Brother Vance wasn’t getting the message. I decided I must have been too nice to him. @“Who is it?” my wife, Carlene, asked. @“It’s that crazy old man from the Church,” I said. “Watch this.” @Wearing only a pair of shorts, I went to the door and threw it open. @“Good morning, Brother Goodman,” he said, smiling broadly. “I see you’re not ready, so I’ll just go on. See you later in the week.” @Who was this guy? Any normal person would have taken the hint by now. But sure enough, next Saturday afternoon here he came again. Wearing that same big smile, he stepped from his car and brought me a paper bag filled with “just a little something from my garden.” @He made small talk for a few minutes, asked if my motorcycle was running better, and inquired

about my family. I wasn’t sure why I even bothered listening to him, but he was comfortable to be around—as long as he didn’t bring up the Church. After about 15 minutes, he said, “Brother Goodman, I’d like to come by in the morning and take you to priesthood meeting. I know you would enjoy it, and there are some great brethren who would like to meet you.” @“No,” I said, angry at myself for letting my guard down. “As I told you before, I know where the Church is if I want to go.” @“Well, I’ll be by about 7:15 in case you change your mind.” @He was wasting his time, of course, but at least he was consistent. Sure enough, next morning at 7:15 I heard him knocking. I put some pants on this time and opened the door. @“Oh, I see you’re not ready,” Brother Vance said. “Sunday School begins at 10:30. Maybe you and your family can join us then.” @These same scenes played out each Saturday afternoon and each Sunday morning for the next seven weeks. Brother Vance would drop off vegetables, talk for a few minutes, and offer to pick me up the next morning. I would refuse, but he would show up anyway just in case I changed my mind. @After nearly two months, I began to enjoy his visits and to feel bad about turning him down. But I was not ready to go to church, and I was going to be stubborn about it. I began leaving home on Saturday so that I wouldn’t be there when he came. That turned out to be a mistake, because he began visiting with Carlene. @After another month of visits had passed, I decided the best way to get rid of Brother Vance was to accompany him to priesthood meeting, tell him it did nothing for me, and ask him not to return. The following Sunday morning when he knocked on the door at 7:15, I was wearing a white shirt and tie. @“Good morning, Brother Goodman,” he said, smiling and not looking at all surprised. “I’m glad you’re ready. Shall we go?” @Hoping no one would see me, I got in his old car and we rode to the chapel. Brother Vance talked to me all the way as if we went to church together every Sunday. He was happy that the chapel was paid for and that ward members had played a big part in its construction. He spoke highly of the bishop, telling me I would love him. I wanted to tell Brother Vance to save his praise, as this would be my first and last visit. I didn’t have the heart, though, because he enjoyed so much telling me about the ward. @When we arrived, men seemed to be waiting for Brother Vance. Most came up to him and shook his hand. As he introduced me to each one, I felt that these brethren loved this man and that the welcome they extended to me was sincere. Brother Vance was right about the quality of the priesthood brethren. I was especially touched by the bishop, who was warm and down-to-earth. @When we separated for quorum activities, I discovered that Brother Vance’s calling was to work with the ward’s prospective elders. I quickly concluded that he had been so persistent with me because of his calling, not because he was my home teacher. Immediately, I felt ashamed of the thought. Here was someone who had given a lot of his time doing what the Lord asks of his sons, and I was trying to discredit him so I could feel better about not doing what the Lord wanted. @Our class instructor invited me and the other two newcomers to the class to talk about ourselves. I thought that I could probably take the whole class time telling these people why I didn’t belong with them, shock them a little in the process, then not be bothered by them anymore. I couldn’t do it, though, not with kind Brother Vance smiling at me as I talked. @I grudgingly admitted to myself that the meeting was not as bad as I had anticipated—or hoped—it would be. The other two men seemed to have many more problems than I had, and I was by far the most comfortable participating in the class discussion. @“Well, Brother Goodman,” Brother Vance said on the way home, “I guess you’ll want to bring your family back for Sunday School, won’t you? I know Sister Vance would love to have you in her Gospel Essentials class.” This was some years before the consolidated Sunday schedule we now have. @I wasn’t excited by the prospect of having to go another hour and a half without a cigarette or becoming a focus of attention for Sister Vance. I decided that I had to keep him away from my family when he dropped me off, or I would be doomed to another Church meeting. @“See you in about an hour,” he called after me when I hopped out. @Not in your wildest dreams, I thought. I sat down on the patio and lit a cigarette, relieved that I had gone to a meeting and could now refuse other invitations. I wasn’t ready to change my life, even if something did feel right about the priesthood meeting. @Carlene came out a few moments later and asked if we were going to Sunday School. The children were already dressed and looked forward to going. She looked disappointed when I told her no. @I realized that I had to put my foot down before Brother and Sister Vance arrived at 10:15 to ask if we were ready. To make sure that didn’t happen, I gathered up my family and left at 10:10—driving them to Sunday School myself. @The brethren I had met that morning were quick to greet us and introduce their families. Brother and Sister Vance escorted us to opening exercises and to Sister Vance’s Sunday School class. We enjoyed her lesson on Church history, and I was surprised how much I remembered and how many questions I could answer. @Brother Goodman, I know you’ll want to bring your family back forsacrament meeting this evening,” Brother Vance said afterwards. “We’ll look forward to seeing you.” @We didn’t make it to sacrament meeting, and I made sure we were not home the following Saturday. Early Sunday morning I got everyone up for a trip to the desert—something we had always enjoyed in Arizona. Carlene knew what I was doing, and she chastised me. “You know you can’t avoid him for long,” she said. @he was right. Before long, Brother Vance was back. But I was ready. I told him that I really didn’t get much out of the meetings and saw no reason to return. @“Well, Brother Goodman,” he said, “I can’t help but think you felt a little better after those meetings. I’ll be by tomorrow morning in case you change your mind.” @We were ready for him the next morning. We attended all three meetings, and Carlene and the children never seemed happier. The following Saturday, Brother Vance was back with more vegetables. As he approached me, I was overcome by his love. I had no doubt that what he had been doing for me and my family resulted from his honest love for his neighbor. At that moment, I knew that my life had been changed. @As we sat and talked that day, he told me that I was going to have new home teachers who were closer to my age. He would bring them by to meet us, and he promised that we would become friends. I didn’t say anything. I had just decided that this man was going to love me back into the Church, but then I felt that he was abandoning me. Brother Vance then said something I needed to hear. @“Brother Goodman, if you don’t

mind, I would still like to come by and have you ride to priesthood meeting with me. I’ve really enjoyed that.” @Brother Vance was right. It didn’t take long before we learned to love our new home teachers. But he still stopped by most Saturdays and continued to pick me up Sunday mornings at 7:15 until he had a new “special” brother who needed him. @Brother and Sister Vance were there to support and love us when Carlene and I were sealed in the Arizona Temple months later. I will never forget his smile and the love that shone from his face as we met in the temple’s celestial room. I could not hold back the tears. @Eighteen months later, in 1971, Brother Vance was called home. I often think of him still and the fruits of his love: the stake mission I served, the full-time missions of five of our children, and the more than 100 people who joined the Church as a result of our labors—all because of one man’s love and faith. I look forward to meeting him again, seeing his loving smile, and thanking him for showing me the way. @Joseph E. Goodman, a member of the Globe Second Ward, serves as a high councilor in the Globe Arizona Stake. @~@


Hey, hey, look at you! You actually skimmed down to the bottom of the page to see if there was anything worthwhile down here. Do I expect you to read the above article? Nope. it is too long. But just remember you did not have to be there the full two hours and reading this would probably only take you 15 minutes!! Are you convinced yet? I hope so. @

Last Sunday HC Mitch Six was sitting right next to me in EQ! After participating about 5 times in the first 8 minutes of class I told him I was going to try to make my goal of being quiet and NOT participating for the next 15 minutes. I failed because Jason Chappell knows he can always call on me to contribute and he did. His fault. So yes, you have probably never known anyone who likes to participate as much as I do. But NO, I did not contribute to the stake discussion. Two different people said portions of what I wanted to say so I was not totally bereft. @

If you have not read the above article which the 70 acted out for us then please do not read my following comments. I am trusting you not to read what comes next until you have read the article for yourself and come up with a few observations of your own. @Number 1- was this article extreme? it sure was. Do you know anyone who would actually do something like this? What would it take for someone to dare to actually do this? Jesus taught with extreme parables and examples. To the rich young man he said, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor and come follow me. That would be the hardest thing in the world for one of you to do. Impossible. And it was impossible for the rich young man as well. So my first observation was that B. Vance had courage coming out his ears! Courage. There is only one person in our stake that I know that would have the courage to do this, our stake president. President Gil Almquist is just strange and unique enough and daring and courageous enough to do this! @Number 2- so when did Brother Vance spend most of his time

with Joseph Goodman? When I was in Guatemala we had a zone conference on preparing the soil. Can the seed grow if the soil is not prepared? Today the missionaries report the number of hours they do s e r v i c e ! We had a devastating earthquake in Guatemala in '76. Our mission president decided we would descend on different indian towns whose adobe houses had crumbled on our Prep day (Monday) and help clean out the broken, dusty dried clay adobe's. We wore white shirts so we could be recognized as the whole zone descended on a city/ town to help clean up. We had dust masks and you should have seen our shirts at the end of the day. Brown clay sticks to where it is wet. Guess where on a shirt a working elder gets the wettest? Did I mind spending my prep day that way? Nope, I thought it was fun. And you should have seen the parties we had at the end of the day as the mission provided water melons or something else to indulge in. But we did not do service as a part of our regular missionary work. We did not even consider helping people do work. As I read my nieces and nephews missionary blogs they do it all the time! So how did Brother Vance prepare the soil? In my opinion he did it on Saturday! Can you imagine sacrificing your Saturday afternoon or evening week after week to show your sincerity to a less active. And then showing up at 7:15 Sunday morning to take him to priesthood whether he said yes or no? And he always said NO! @So those are the two things I really wanted to say. Courage and sacrifice. [ Love overcometh fear. That which we serve and sacrifice for, we love.] @Now how can I disguise those two observations further? I picked the tiniest font to write in. I know what. How about if I type the exact same thing except move over one set of keys. Here goes. One set to the right. @Yjr msom [tpn;r, od hpomh yp nr yjsy zo vsmmpy yr;; ejrm zo s, ,slomh s ,odydyslr/ @zmpe jpe vsm zo dohiodr yjpdr yep pndrtbsyopmd gityjrt? zo [ovlrf yjr yomordy gpmy yp etoyr om/ zo lmpe ejsy/ zjpe snpiy og zo yu[r yjr rcsvy ds,r yjomh rcvr[y ,pbr pbrt pmr dry gp lrud/ zjrtr hprd/ pmrd dry yp yjr tohjy/ @I love you guys. Thanks for putting up with me! @Quinn And Bonnie 8:55 PM (15 hours ago)to me Thank you. You are awesome.