Sometime during the 1960s, a single awkward night of square dancing for one young man served as a catalyst that helped 10 people make commitments to follow the Savior through baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That's the way my dad tells the story. He was invited by a friend who lived down the street, Jon King, to attend a square dance activity with his family. He went but did not enjoy it.
My father was raised in a home where he was taught that one kind invitation should be followed up with another invitation. The only place he could think to invite his friend was to a Mutual activity at church.
After a period of time, Jon King wanted to have the missionaries in his home for discussions. Jon's mother made the decision to allow it with the condition that she was to sit in. It was her way to make sure that the teaching was appropriate for her son. As an extra security measure, Mrs. King also invited a neighbor, Ava Davis, to attend the discussions.
The King family -- father, mother, Jon and his sister Shelly -- were the first to accept the invitation to be baptized. Around the same time Mrs. Davis, her husband and their twin daughters were baptized.
Imagine the commotion such a turn of events could generate on a single street. A youth named Bob Limkeau noticed the activity and walked up to either the King or Davis home to see if he could find out what was going on. Bob later was baptized.
Another neighbor on the street was also baptized. She was married to a man who was a member of the church, but he had not been attending. Soon they both were active members of the growing congregation.
The five youth who were baptized have now brought forth at least two generations into the church. They have helped fill primary classrooms, ushered their children and grandchildren into the mission field and watched them make covenants to spouses in holy temples.
I wonder if the generations of ancestors know that these events came about because an awkward boy politely accepted an invitation to go square dancing.
2 comments:
My older boys were involved in Odyssey of the Mind in Littleton. The coach of the team, Greg Doizaki, married a woman that was a member of the church, but was inactive. We talked of the church some and they came to church. Through their associations with us and others from the ward they investigated more and the members of the family that were not members were baptized. It was nice to see that happen. We did not aggressively pursue teaching them, but we were just associated and honest.
Another incident was when I worked with a man that had a friend that was trying to get him to investigate the church. He came to our house for supper one night. Not long after he had his visit with us he said that he decided to join because of the spirit he felt in our home. We did not even broach the subject of religion. Go figure.
Only one thing. Ava had twins alright.
Boys though. She lived across the street from them.
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