Now, off to BYU. Dad and Jerry milked the cows for a week, until Dad could get them sold. Those dear cows produced enough surplus money to pay for all of the missions for the three boys and to help us all with our educations. What a blessing those dear animals were. They certainly blessed my life by helping to teach me how to work, how to be happy in the face of fatigue and adversity and to enjoy sunsets, sunrises, early mornings, and bird songs.
Carl Swenson and his parents picked me up and drove us to BYU. Carl was to be my roommate. I had never been to BYU so it was a time of great discovery. I enrolled in the chemical engineering program. There I found 12,000 students and many, many pretty girls. Yahoo! I lived in CR3-third floor, right wing of Chipman, Helaman Halls. Unfortunately, we soon found out that the girls were more interested in the older, returned missionary guys, so we were mostly left to trying to entertain ourselves with pranks, playing games, sports, and the like. They did have some open dances that I loved, but that was about it for social life.
My first semester, I took all of the engineering prerequisites. My second semester I worked in a skiing class for PE. That was a blast. We were bussed to Timp Haven, now called Sundance, twice a week. There I met some great people that loved to ske and climb. We organized the Alpine Club as a club recognized and authorized by BYU. This enabled us to check out vans for ski trips and one excursion to climb the White Throne in Zions. I couldn’t go on that trip but did a lot of skiing and climbing. We loved Alta. We did a lot of climbing and repelling in Rock Canyon. I note that the Alpine Club is still going at BYU. That’s kind of fun.
Not only did I test into A English but also tested our of History. I loved History in HS. Good school and good teachers. I took a boxing class as well and the coach made me his student assistant. I got into such good shape that I could do pushups endlessly and had someone put a 50# bag of sand on my back when I did them. I could do over 50 one handed pushups and over 100 chin ups. I also did a lot of running. I was thinking about training for Golden Gloves competition and worked with the BYU club but eventually decided that it did not make sense to work on developing my brain and then let someone pound on it. So, the next semester I switched to tennis, where I could really hit the ball hard but, unfortunately, not where I wanted it to go. Oh well, it was fun and coed.
By the end of my freshman year, I was beginning to doubt my full interest in engineering. Happily, BYU had announced a new pilot program where engineering students could take a list of business classes to provide an engineer that could communicate with business management. It was a precursor to and spawned the MBA degree. So, I enrolled in that program, and in my first Economics class fell in love with that discipline. I liked all of the engineering classes except the math classes. I loved the theory and sciences. I just did not enjoy mathematics like most of my fellow engineering students. When I returned from my Mission, I became an Econ Major and dropped engineering, for a reason to be discussed later.
Carl Swenson transferred out of BYU his sophomore year and I roomed off campus in an apartment with three roommates. Two were from my floor in Chipman, Dennis Jordan and Lynn Teuscher. During my freshman year I was not very connected with my ward. I went to church only part of the time. I was not very dedicated. I liked my religion classes, but sometimes after a late night studying or messing around, I just slept in. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I soon decided that it was time to get either serious about the Gospel or consider other directions.
I had always planned a mission but realized that I did not have my own testimony. I had not even read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. I determined that I should not go unless I had a true testimony. I actually turned 20 my freshman year and could have left that summer. I did not want to leave until Tom returned from his mission to Brazil, 2.5 years, and room with him a ½ semester. In those days, return missionaries could enroll at BYU for a special ½ semester upon return. On Tuesday afternoons, my roommates were all in classes so I decided to come home to study and read the Book of Mormon. As I read that book, the spirit worked with me. As I completed it, I came to the 10th chapter of the Book of Moroni, which seemed aimed right at me:
2 And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.
7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.
I slipped off the bed to my knees and began to pray for that promised manifestation of truth, and like so many others, after a period, my prayer was profoundly and completely answered. I did receive that manifestation fully and completely. I arose totally filled with joy, testimony and conviction. I knew the Jesus is the Christ and that Restored Gospel was true! I was fully committed to going on a mission for the rest of my life. I am still firmly determined to always honor that commitment. The more I have learned and served, the more absolutely firm is my testimony. To all of my dear family and others that may read this, if you have not yet tested this promise, do it now.
When Tom returned we had a fun month, until I introduced him to Kathy, a girl in our ward and someone I was planning to date. Oh well, love at first sight and that was about the last I saw of Tom. We did go to the prom together in sweat tuxes that Dad insisted on buying us when he brought Tom down. Dad also bought us some other sweet clothes to share. We did have a nice time but I had submitted my papers for a Mission.
I had a very nice girlfriend named Judy that looked much like my dear eternal mate, Judith. She saw me off on my Mission and then married a guy that looked just like me. Cannot say I blame her.