My CMS The View from a New City

In my last post I told you of my glorious summer events. I want to re-visit those events now to show you a couple of golden nuggets I recovered from the experience.

On the Alaska trip we met an extended Jewish family from Indiana. On the first night I sat at the dinner table with them and finding that I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of them asked me in jest how many wives I had. At dinner the next night, my grandson told them I had eight, but during the rest of the conversation it was revealed that I only have one and am very happy with that. However, thinking about that conversation now, it occurs to me that I could have told them that my great-great-grandfather had six wives and now has well over fifty-five thousand descendants. My one wife and I had six children and now have seventeen grandchildren, with more possible. We have done our part to counter the current world-wide blight: see The Demographic Drought, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w05QgHwq8Ig.

When my wife and I were on our missions in Manhattan, New York, we heard Gordon Smith, the former two term Senator from Oregon tell this story: While he was still senator, President Uchtdorf of the Churches first presidency called him and asked for his help in getting the Church fully registered in Italy. Senator Smith set up a meeting in Italy with the interior minister that he and President Uchtdorf attended. After President Uchtdorf’s initial presentation, the minister, who appeared somewhat skeptical, asked her assistant what he thought. He said that he had visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah and had been conducted on a tour by two Italian young lady missionaries. Then he said, “if your church can produce young women like that, we want you in Italy, and what’s more, we would like you to build a square like that in Italy” to which president Uchtdorf replied, “We can do that!”

This sounds like a pretty incredible story, but this summer we witnessed the proof of its truth when we visited the breathtaking Rome Temple and walked around the wonderful “temple square” surrounding it.