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Memorial Day was a good family time for us, starting Sunday evening after church. Wendy fixed a belated birthday dinner for Emilie and we had the Blakes with us. At about 8 pm, the Soderquists arrived to stay over and we had home-made strawberry ice cream. The Blakes were still here. After eating the ice cream and the kids having a little time to play, we said to each other, “We ought to have a Family Home Evening time. Quin, did you plan a lesson?” Amazingly he said he had one, so we gathered all the kids together, some sitting on the floor, and we started, with no other preparation. We did an opening hymn, had prayer, recited the Lewis Family Creed , sang “We are the Lewis Family”, had several talent numbers, including Garrett touching his nose with his tongue, then Quin gave a good lesson on the Why of the Gospel and Keeping the Spirit, then we had closing prayer. We had lots of participation, all were orderly, the lesson was well-done, and I felt the Spirit present and a great sense of pride in our family for how good the families and grandchildren are.
The Soderquists stayed over to have a start the next day toward Fayette Utah where Quin’s mother has people buried in a little country cemetery and which the family needs to do maintain each year. Some of the boys slept at Blakes. In the morning Wendy had prepared cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then these families had a workday at our place. They helped weed flower beds and put in mulch, did some pruning, and mowed and edged the back lawn. The place sure looks better.
Quin and Alison, along with Amy and Eric, left for the Fayette cemetery mid-morning. In the meantime, at about 11:30 am, we and the Blakes met Kim and the Lewis kids and Nathan and Gloria at the Spanish Fork cemetery to finish decorating. (Wendy and I had cleaned it up last Wednesday.) Then we came back to our place for lunch (Hoagies) and spent some time visiting and more working in the yard. Most of the family left mid-afternoon, except for a bunch of the kids.
The four Soderquists got back from Fayette about 4 pm, eventually all the kids were collected and then were caravanned with them and met the Blakes at little Frederick’s grave-site at the Provo cemetery. We also visited my grandparents’ graves across the cemetery.
We made a fast trip to Idaho this week. We had been hoping to go see Uncle Myron and a couple of temples sometime this year. We looked at our calendar with Dorothy for the next four months and could see no openings when we could go. Then we said, “but we are open this Friday and Saturday.” So we made the commitment and went.
We went to Dorothy’s when we finished the temple shift on Thursday and visited my parents’ graves in North Ogden that evening. Then we, including Dorothy, left for Idaho on Friday morning. We got to Myron’s and Pearl’s about noon and visited for more than two hours. He is 88 years old. They just had their 69th wedding anniversary and are still in love. Both of them get around using walkers. He does not hear at all well, but doesn’t/can’t/won’t wear hearing aids. When we began speak loud enough so he could hear us, he seem alert and lucid. 
Myron was my favorite uncle. He stayed with us for the summer when he was 17 and I was 4, and played with me. I remember his lying on his back on the living room floor, with his knees up, having me sit on his knees then dropping me. I loved the wrestling and the game.
We attended an endowment session in the Idaho Falls temple at four and then went to dinner with Dorothy’s son Scott, his wife Karen, and children at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant near their home in Ammon ID. They live about 10 miles away from Myron and Pearl in Ammon which is a growing suburb just east of Idaho Falls. Dorothy stayed with them for the night, and Wendy and I found a room in a nearby motel.
On Saturday morning, we drove up to Rexb
urg, about 25 miles northeast, with Dorothy, Scott, and Karen, and attended a session at the new Rexburg temple. After dropping them off at their home, we stopped for a minute in Idaho Falls to say “Goodbye” to Myron and Pearl, and then drove home. We dropped Dorothy off at her place about 5 pm and were home by about 7 pm.
We were impressed with the life and home that Scott and Karen have created. There was a good spirit in their home, their family interactions seemed happy and respectful, they have a pretty home in a nice neighborhood, and are active in their ward and in the community. They have four nice children and are expecting their fifth on October 25th. Good job, Scott and Karen!
On the trip, Dorothy had brought along a CD, NASHVILLE TRIBUTE TO THE MISSIONARIES, by Jason Deere and others, which we played for much of the trip northward. Several of the 
pieces struck a chord with me and seemed to be a sensitive and powerful statement about our missionaries, their challenges, their joys, their families’ sacrifices and concerns, etc.. I recommend it.
In my new assignment in the Stake YM presidency, over the past three weeks, I have now visited all seven ward Priest Quorums. Here are some things I have found:
1) The overall quality of the youth seem high. Although I found some difference in the groups depending on how affluent the wards were. There were three or four real sharp groups in newer areas and somewhat more diverse groups in the three “old Spanish Fork” wards.
2) I was impressed that nearly all of the adults working with these young men, were capable and caring men.
3) Three of the seven lessons were taught by the young men; three by adult advisors; and one was a discussion on various topics led by the bishop because the regular instructor was out of town.
4) All of the lessons were effectively done. One of the boy-led lessons, using the PREACH MY GOSPEL manual, was especially good. He had Priest’s read and interpret various well-chosen scriptures, bore his testimony at key times, etc.
5) I observed that none of the seven quorums allowed time to invite members to report on Duty to God project results or scriptural study insights, as encouraged by general authority and general YM Presidency instructions.
6) None of the quorum meetings was conducted using a written outline; rather they seemed to run these quorum meetings “by the seat of their pants.”
7) There was quite a lot of variation across the wards in how much responsibility for conducting the meeting was taken a youth leader as opposed to an adult adviser (give welcome, select persons for prayers, explain coming activities, etc.).
What should I do next?
Well, the jury today returned a verdict of guilty of the voyeurism charges against Stephen Powell, and it looks like he will get a long sentence. Here is a returned LDS missionary and temple-married man, who had a potential to do much good in his life. It is heart-wrenching to consider how far he has fallen. We may not know even a small part of the destruction he has wreaked in the lives of his family and others. We do know that with a family established in the everlasting covenant, he has wrapped himself in immoral behaviors and practices, has destroyed the potential for faith in almost all of his children, turning them against God and the Gospel and certainly contributed mightily to their leading warped and dysfunctional lives. He actions have driven deep wedges in his family. His own dysfunction may have contributed to the suicide of his son Josh and the murder of two grandchildren. He may even be complicit in the murder of his daughter-in-law, or at least have helped in the shielding of the murderer.
Somehow, we are reminded of an incident in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith. According to Daniel Tyler, who recalled a conversation with Joseph and Isaac Behunin, in Nauvoo, after Joseph had arrived from his time in the Liberty jail. Brother Behumin remarked, “If I should leave this Church, I would not do as some others [who have left the the Church] have done [that is, fight against the Church]; I would go to some remote place where Mormonism had never been heard of, settle down and no one would ever learn that I knew anything about it.”
Joseph replied, Brother Behunin, you don’t know what you would do. No doubt these men thought as you do. Before you joined this Church you stood on neutral ground. When the gospel was preached, good and evil were set before you. You could choose either or neither. There were two opposite masters inviting you to serve them. When you joined this Church you enlisted to serve God. When you did that you left neutral ground, and you can never get back on it. Should you forsake the Master you enlisted to serve, it will be by the instigation of the evil one, and you will follow his dictation and be his servant.” (Joseph Smith, TEACHINGS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE CHURCH, 2007, p. 324)
