I was called to serve in the Western Canadian Mission, beginning Oct. of 1962. I entered the Mission home in SLC, an older, yellow building on East Temple at about the middle of the North side of the Conference center is located. I traveled from Idaho on the passenger train from Boise to SLC with Dale Coltrin, a CHS classmate and great guy going to Finland, and close friend, Gary Walker. We stopped in Pocatello for a couple of hours and I was able to get with Randall Ericson, a close friend in HS. He asked why I was going on a Mission and what a Mission entailed. I loved telling him and bearing my testimony to him. I gave him a book of Mormon. He had always said he would like to marry a Mormon girl because they were special. He later joined the Church and was married in the temple. Sadly, they got offended years later and became inactive, but they had their chance.

I received my endowments in the Logan Temple because the SLC Temple was closed. We were taught many times by General Authorities. In those days we were interviewed and set apart by a General Authority. Elder Alvin R. Dyer, an Assistant to the Twelve, interviewed me and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, of the Twelve Apostles set me apart. I felt the mantle come upon me;

We learned a powerful lesson from the photographer of our group. We all sat on the steps of the Church Administration Building and he set up his camera out into So. Temple Street. The street was much lower and the steps much higher in those days. The traffic was also much less than today. There were approximately 500 of us.

The photographer, prior to taking the picture, referenced a recent negative article in Time magazine focused on the Church and, especially on plural marriage. He asked all of the Missionaries that knew that they were direct descendants of Brigham Young to raise their hands. About 100 did so. Then he asked if all those that knew they were of plural marriage ancestry would raise their hands. A total of 400 out of the 500 raised their hands, or about 80%. He then cited Jacob 2:30, For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things. He then pointed out that it looked like the Lord had fulfilled his purpose and had risen up a righteous generation unto him. He pointed out that this was from only about 3% of the men and 18% of the women of the Church that lived plural marriage. That provided me with a special perspective and added love and appreciation for the Saints, and particularly my great grandfather, Isaac John Wardle, on my mother’s side, that suffered so much in complying with his call to live in plural marriage. We are from his third wife, Clara Sophia Elenora Meyer so we must be even more particularly appreciative.

Mom, Dad, Jerry, Nancy and Judy Wells came to see me off, onto the twin engine propeller “airliner” to fly to Calgary, Alberta. It was my first flight in a big plane. I was picked up at the airport by President and Sister Smith and I was fully on my Mission to serve the Lord full time for two years. I was so happy.

I first did training with Elder Morrell and two other Elders. I had a hard time memorizing but made it out on the next transfer in November. My firs area was Medicine Hat, Alberta, located in the southeast corner of the province. The day I arrived on the Grey Goose, a single car electric, rail transit that went 90 MPH. the day before they had a severe storm, up to 100 MPH winds that blew up a silica sand storm that polished off the paint on the windward side of many, exposed cars. It was 40 below and the wind was blowing about 25 MPH giving us a 100 below zero wind chill, (all Fahrenheit).

They told me to look for a fire plug and if it moved, that would be Elder Randall. He was bundled up head to toe, which we needed to survive.

We had a scheduled visit that night to the home of a young woman that sister Waters had asked the “Golden Questions”. The young woman was going to beauty college and did Sister Water’s hair. Ah, my first discussion in my first area! When we arrived, we plugged our car’s block heater into the outlet, (typically provided to guests when parking so their car would restart) in front of the home where she was staying with her sister and brother -in-law.

We removed our coats, etc, in the entry, with Elder Randall removing his scarf with his typical flourish. When we went to the front room, it was just about as cold as it was outside. The brother-in-law was clearly not pleased that we had been invited to his home. So, Elder Randall began to handle the situation in a very charming and persuasive way. I noticed that the B-in-L was staring at Elder R with a derisive look. I looked and saw that Elder R’s clip on tie had come loose when he had whipped off his scarf. I interrupted him and suggested that he fix it. What I did not know, Elder R was prone to huge embarrassment attacks and completely turned bright red and froze up. He couldn’t talk and I had no idea what to say. So, I simply thanked them for the visit, dressed Elder Randall and myself and prepared to leave. I then took note that the B-in-L was giving that ole derisive stare at me and my rubber overshoes. I had put them on the wrong feet. I just said, “oh well….”, and trudged out to the car with my “froze up” companion. So went my first…..

There had been very few convert baptisms in Medicine Hat for years while baptisms were just flowing in most other areas in southern Alberta. Elder Randall was a great missionary; we worked very hard and actually blessed with 4 baptisms in January and 2 in first week of Feb., enough to get to go to Calgary to the Mission top baptizers’ conference.

It was hard to find strong people to teach because of some of the members. We had a very big problem in the Ward. The Medicine Hat Ward met in a small chapel with an isle down the middle. That was OK, except that the ward had a terrible division and one faction sat on one side of the chapel and the other faction on the other side. There were some really great members, but something divisive had happened years before. One Counselor in the Bishopric was from one side, the other from the other side with the poor Bishop, a transplant that had moved from Calgary, in the middle with the other third of the Ward. When and if we brought investigators to church, the divide would soon manifest itself. We felt that the Lord would withhold blessing that Ward with strong converts until they were united.

Elder Randall and I decided to fast and pray for a way that we might help heal the divide, whatever it was, and get them committed to missionary work. We came to know that, if the Ward would get involved in Missionary work and if we could get some new convert energy in the Ward, great healing and blessings would come. We had a meeting with the Bishopric on Sunday morning as we continued our fast. The weather had changed, a beautiful Chinook wind had raised temperatures to the mid-40s so we decided to walk down the hill to the Church for our meeting. To that point, we were really struggling to know what we should tell or ask them. What was the Lord’s plan? As we walked along we suddenly and independently both got the answer. We turned to each other and in pure unity, both said that we should ask them for the most difficult part-member family and if we were successful in baptizing the nonmember spouse and uniting that family, they would give us their full, unmitigated support.

The Bishopric all laughed when these silly Elders made such a proposition. They all agreed that the couple should be David and Joan Goldie. Dave had joined the Church at about 11 years old when his family was investigating. Then the family was discouraged by the word of wisdom and stopped their investigation. Dave never went after that and knew next to nothing about the Church, except that they met in a little stucco building, far below the standards of the Catholic Cathedral and protestant chapels in the area. They refused visits from the Church and Dave had, the week before cussed out one member of the Bishopric on the street in downtown Medicine Hat because he was sent a letter giving him a budget assessment from a Church he never attended.

We had full faith in our inspiration and went about first visiting the members and committing them to giving us, if we were successful, their full faith and support in missionary work and to forgive and come together as a Ward in order to give the sweet feeling anyone should feel coming to meetings there. Leaders of both factions agreed and the others were pleased with the plan and prayed for us.

Elder Randall was transferred and Elder K.B. Harding came as my new companion Jan 28. He was only out 2 months so we were the youngest companionship in the mission. He was not naturally inclined to hard work, so it took some pushing and teaching, but we got going and he learned to like it.

I told him of the Goldies. After about a week later, we felt inspired that it was time for us to visit the Goldies. We went with great prayer and faith to their door and knocked. Dave came to the door and I introduced us in a way we never did. Usually we said, “We are representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints….” This time, I said, “Hello, we are Missionaries from the Mormon Church and would love to visit with you.”

Well, it happened that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had the #1 song in the USA at that time, their fabulous rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Dave and Joan were deeply involved in the arts and were in groups doing theatrical productions, choirs and the like in the community. Thus, he invited us in. He and I really hit it off because of my background in those things, singing, The King and I, etc. He was home watching their baby while Joan was at a play practice so we set an appointment for the next night to show them a record/filmstrip called “Meet the Mormons” accompanied by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Battle Hymn…”

We arrived on time the next night and Dave seemed kind of reticent. Elder Harding sensed some problem and immediately set up our film strip and record player while I tried to see what was bothering him. Joan laughed and said “Ask them Dave, if the Mormon Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same?” Dave only knew what was written above the door of the Chapel and had not connected the two. I said yes but suggested that they still watch the film. Dave said OK and Joan giggled and headed for the kitchen. As the film finished its story of who these Mormons were, and the lights came back on, Joan was there and hit Dave on the arm and said, “Why have you not told me about this. This church is just exactly what we have been looking for.” WOW!

We began to teach them and they enthusiastically moved to Joan’s baptism. With joy, we went to the members and told them of our success, and they all made good on their promises and came together, repented of their problems, forgave and welcomed the Goldies in the sweetest way. There was a new feeling in that ward that blessed all.

They also got after the missionary work promises and we had 11 baptisms the next two months and on like that until I was transferred. The Medicine Hat Ward would never be the same again. It was a very happy place. Faith, unity, love–Satan is crushed.

However, he still tries and has some success. Sadly, while Elder Harding (my new Jr Companion after Elder Randall was transferred) and I were out of town to Taber Stake Conference, Joan and Dave had stayed home to fulfil a commitment they had to be in a play before they found the Gospel. Sadly, after the play they had a caste party and Joan fell, she had a friendly drink of an alcoholic beverage. She lost all confidence and faith, in her ability to live the Gospel. When we got home we soon found out and immediately went to see them. Dave cracked open the door and told me that they had discussed it and decided that they could not live the standards of the Church. He had a black look on his face, the light was gone, and as I left their porch, I burst into tears. I felt sadness deeper than any I had ever felt or could imagine. That night, I got up, called the bus depot and ordered a ticket home. I packed and without waking my companion, proceeded to walk up the stairs to leave my mission, to go home. Satan was ecstatic.

However, as I climbed those stairs, I felt a hand pushing me to go to my knees right on those stairs. I did, and I wept and poured out my heart in prayer. I received an amazing inspiration, a promise that the Goldies would be back in the Church before the end of my Mission. I went back to my bed and slept in heavenly peace. The Ward was sad but never turned back.

Before my mission ended, home teaching was implemented and Bro and Sis Hogg, the best fellowshipping couple in the whole Church, became the Goldies home teachers and announced to me at a meeting in the Mission Home that the Goldies had returned to activity and sent me their love. Oh true joy; it was the expected fulfilment of the promise. Heavenly Father always keeps his promises.

BTW, they built a new, large chapel in a few years in Medicine Hat to accommodate the growth. Gotcha again, Satan!

I was transferred to Ft. McCloud, Alberta in the early spring to be companion to Elder Morrell, the District Leader, (who had cut his hair into a crew cut which was opposed to Mission standards). This was a small town, site of an old Mounty Fort, between Lethbridge and Cardston areas where the jack Mormons went to sow their wild oats. Thus, most of the folks in that town usually saw only the worst of Mormons and were negative towards the Church.

There was a small ward there with some great people, mostly farmers and mostly related to the Orr family. We had some success there and had some baptisms. We promoted a youth conference at a member’s ranch near Pincher Creek, where we had elders that was a great success. President and Sister Smith came as speakers at the Youth Conference.

Following the youth conference, Elder Morrell was released as DL and Elder Evans was sent in to be DL and my Companion. He was a wonderful Comp. We spent a lot of time splitting with other Elders to help overcome the negatives of a DL that did not follow Mission Rules. We had some great experiences there.

An engineer from Great Britain, Bro. Walker, lived across the hall from our apt. and we got to know him. He was working on construction of a power plant in the area. We invited him to dinner for some of my famous meatloaf, stew or chili and got to know him. He had a lot of down time and there was little to do in Ft. M. He was puzzled and impressed to find out that we were serving without pay and became curious about what we taught that would instill that much devotion.   Of course, he let us know that his was only scholastic interest, as he was of the sciences. But, by jove, when we taught him, we gave him a Book of Mormon, he read it and loved it and received a powerful testimony. Just as I was about to be transferred, he decided to be baptized and wanted me to baptize him in a river like the Lord was. Because my bus left at 9:00 AM, with many in the ward attending, I baptized him in the Waterton River near town at 5:00 AM the day I was leaving. It was just 40 miles from a glazier and I had paranoia about getting into bitter cold water. However, I prayed and the water was warm unto me.

It was very special and he was so anxious to learn more from the ward, obtain the Priesthood and return to England to teach and baptize his wife and children. I have always wished I had kept in contact with him to follow his life. Truly a great man!