Listed as No. 2761-7 in the John Beckstead book.
Sealed as child to her father Fred Erickson Olund, born as Gottfrid Edvard Leander Alund, and to her father's first wife, Mary Louisa Schwarz (Black).
Fred was also listed as Gottfrid Ericksen because his father's last name was Ericksen prior to going into the Swedish army where they changed his name.Clara Irene Hale
I was born in a log house on my fathers farm, 6 miles Southwest of Grace, Idaho on March 31st, 1913 to Gottfrid Edvard Leander Olund and Klara Kraus. At the time of my birth, my father drove a team of horses and buggy several miles to retrieve Dr. Hubbard, on a night so dark, "you couldn't see your hand in front of your face". My father had said that he would bet that was the fastest ride the doctor had ever had. I was named Clara after my mother, who was of German descent. My father, who used the name Fred E. Olund, immigrated from Sweden when he was approximately 21 years of age with his brother, Julius. They were preceded by their brother, Robert. My father lived at Mink Creek, Idaho, where he worked as a farm worker. Shortly after immigrating to the United States, my father, having not yet mastered the English language, was coerced into marrying a young woman of poor health by the name of Mary Black. They were married in the LDS Temple in Logan, Utah. After a short 14 months, Mary passed away, as had been previously expected. There were no children born of this marriage.
When I was about 3 years of age, my mother left my father. She and I went to Salt Lake City where her mother lived. My father went to Salt Lake City to persuade my mother to return. If she would not return, then he at least wanted me to return with him. He could not bear to live without either of us. My mother allowed my father to take me back to Idaho.
Dad tried, unsuccessfully, to farm in Southern Idaho. He would sit me on a blanket, in the middle of a field, and plow around me with his team of horses. Realizing, that this was not working out, my father arranged for our neighbors, the Trappetts, to care for me, while he worked in the mines in Wyoming. I seldom saw my father and I never saw my mother. Dad would stay in touch by writing to me and sending me gifts at Christmas and special times. It was a very lonely life. I felt sorry for myself, and rightfully so. I cried often, but received no sympathy from my caretakers, who showed obvious favoritism for their children and against me. Their children would often tease me and play mean tricks on me.
I attended grammar school in a two room school house located just across the street from where I lived. There were four grades in each room. I attended primary in the same building which I enjoyed tremendously. The LDS Church was located in town, which was some distance to travel by horse and buggy, and I was therefore unable to attend. The Trappetts were LDS but did not attend Sunday services.
A few times Dad came home and we went to Salt Lake City. We first traveled by stage, pulled by horses, to a town called Alexander, where we boarded the train. It was a lot of fun traveling on the train and I especially enjoyed being with my Dad. Although I was too young to remember, my father told me of my first encounter with a black person. Dad told me I tugged on his sleeve and said, "Daddy, doesn't that man have a wash dish at home"? He thought it was real funny, and of coarse, I was too small to remember. Dad gave me a muff & fur once. A fur fits around ones neck and a muff is for keeping ones hands warm. On one of our trips, I left the muff & fur on the train. A wonderful gift from my father, lost. I felt really bad about that.
I kept going to school and growing. For Christmas one year, Dad got me a sled. Once in a great while, I would go to my girl-friends to spend the night. We would sleigh down the hill near her home. We would go down a hill, through a bunch of cedars, around a curve, and down another hill. What fun!!
After getting off work, one evening, my father and his friend were taking a short-cut along the railroad track toward town. An approaching train caused them to seek safety on the other side of numerous sets of tracks. Because of an incline, where they were at the time, they tried to advance further up the tracks to avoid going down it. While doing this, my Dad's foot was caught in one of the ties and prevented him from getting off the track. The approaching train ran over him, cutting one of his legs off, just below the knee, and dragged him under the train, for a long distance. Somehow, something caught hod of him and threw him from under the train. Besides his leg being cut off, he suffered eleven cuts on his back and several cuts on his head. They thought he was dead, or at least expected him to die, but he recovered. When he was able to come home, I didn't want to see him. I don't know why, I guess I thought it would be all bloody. I couldn't stand to see my Dad without a leg. I wasn't very old at the time, maybe 9 or 10. Anyway, he finally got better and was able to walk with crutches. I remember going with him to Salt Lake to get fitted for an artificial leg. He didn't receive it right then but later. It was difficult adjusting to the new leg, it caused sores and was uncomfortable. He traveled to Salt Lake City a couple times to get it adjusted before it fit properly. Soon he was able to work alongside the other men, pitching hay on a wagon, or whatever. I remember helping Dad wash the heavy wool socks he wore with his artificial leg. Having no electric washers in those days, we had to wash them by hand. If he didn't have a clean one quite often, his leg would get sore. He would then be forced to go without the artificial leg until his leg healed.
When I was in the 7th grade, my father and I moved to Park City, Utah. Uncle Bob and Aunt Fern lived there and offered to let us stay with them while my Dad worked in the mines. I attended most of the 7th grade there before returning to Grace, Idaho, in the spring, to finish out the year. I graduated from the 8th grade at Grace, Idaho in May of 1929. I wanted to attend high school but was unable to because of the distance to travel into town each day.
I met my husband to be that summer. John T. Harwood was running a farm, below our place, with the assistance of his father and brother. Johnny would come past our place every morning and night. He had a Model A Ford and you could hear that thing coming a couple miles away, it was so noisy. Anyway, we got acquainted and dated all summer. While visiting with his folks one day, I told them I wanted to go to school but was unable to because of the distance from town. They asked me if I would like to stay with them and go to school. The Harwood=s lived just 1 mile from town. We asked my Dad, and he said he guessed it would be alright. I stayed with the Harwood=s and went to school, walking most of the time, 1 mile each way.
In the spring of 1929, Johnny and I were married, June 12th. I was 16 years old. My Dad really felt bad about our marriage. Johnny and I lived in the house on the place he was running, just 2 or 3 miles below Dad's place. He had a bunch of cows to milk and raised hay and a little grain. Two or three years later we moved to Turner, just a few miles from the Harwood place, and Johnny worked for a man named Fred Cooper. The Coopers went to Logan and wanted someone to care for their cows. We lived in their house and Johnny was paid $1.00 per day, free milk, and rent. This was the year wages were so terrible, due to the depression.
I remember Johnny and my Dad going to the canyon together to get wood. In the summer time they would take their teams and wagons and in the winter they took their teams and sleighs. Sometimes it would get so cold, you could hear the sleighs creek. The men's clothes would get so stiff and frozen they could stand up alone. The horses would be white with frost.
My father eventually remarried. After Johnny and I were married, we visited my mother in Salt Lake City. I had not seen her since my I was three years old. She had remarried to a man named Herbert Molyneaux and had 7 more children.
In April of that year, I lost our first baby. I had to go to the Harwood=s and Mrs. Harwood cared for me for about a month. I was in bed a couple weeks before he was born, and a couple weeks after. I had albumin, and had to be in bed with the blinds drawn all the time. I had to eat just certain foods and a lot of juices. Mrs. Harwood took care of me all that time and wouldn't have it any other way. What a wonderful little woman, I loved her so much, as I did Mr. Harwood. She even mixed bread and made butter for me without salt.
Johnny and his Father built us a nice two room house on the place he rented. Johnny had a sister, Lila, and a brother, Devere. Lila had a baby boy who died, and later, a beautiful baby girl, who died at 4 months. The Harwood=s didn't think they were going to have any grandchildren. Then in a couple years, Lila had a baby girl, and 6 months later, I had a baby boy. Were those kids ever spoiled!
Darwin J. was born June 11th, 1935, Farrell Dee, August 8th, 1937, Eldon Ray, April 17, 1939, Neal T., July 21st, 1941, Karen Alice, June 24, 1944, and Dennis Lee, January 17th, 1949. I also lost another boy after Dennis was born.
Darwin got whooping cough quite bad when he was small. Mrs. Harwood came and stayed with us for a while until he felt better and then returned home. Mrs. Harwood had a bad heart and once in awhile she would get sick. She would have sinking spells or fainting spells and would have to have ammonia or smelling salts or something for her to breathe along with cold cloths for her head. She used to scare the day lights out of me. I just knew she was going to die when she would do that. I just thought there was no-one like her. Anyway, one or two weeks after she returned home, she died in bed. Lila was spending the night with her mother and was in bed with her when she died on May 4th. Her birthday was May 5th, the next day.
Mr. Harwood was just completely lost after his wife died. It just wasn't home, or just wasn't the same for Mr. Harwood any more. They were so close. He just couldn't live without her. He said many times, he wanted to die. He did die, one year from that November. Devere, his youngest son, was living at home with him at the time, and Johnny and I lived just across the road. Mr. Harwood and Devere would come over to our place and eat quite often. One night, Devere and his cousin heard an odd sound. They rushed into Mr. Harwood=s bedroom to find he had died of a heart attack. Mr. Harwood was born May 22, 1882 and died November 29, 1939.
We moved over onto the Harwood's farm then, to run it. Devere nor Lila wanted anything to do with the place at that time. We stayed there for a few years, then finally gave it up. This was in approximately 1945.
Johnny was a good carpenter, so he went to work for some of the local farmers and also worked construction. During the summer of 1947, Johnnie took a job working for Corbetts on their dry farm north of Soda Springs. There were a lot of dry farms out there. We had no electricity. The place where we lived had good well water that we pumped with a gasoline engine. We also used a washer driven with a gas engine and one lantern that burned gasoline. The rest of the lights in the house were kerosene lamps. All I remember that was good out there was that we had quite a few sage hens. They were really good. We moved out there in the spring and stayed until we moved into the old Beckstead place just south of Grace in November.
The Beckstead place was south of town about 4 miles, where it was the same thing, no electricity. Not even any water. The boys hauled it from the neighbors in milk cans on their red wagon in the summer and on their sled in the winter. We used gas light or coal oil (kerosene), and a gas washer. I couldn't run the washer, so I had to wait to wash when my husband was home.
Johnny left home during the winter of 1948-49 to work on the Hagerman dam, which west of Twin Falls, over 200 miles away. Dennis was born January 17, 1949, the winter I will never forget. There was so much snow, our road was blocked much of the time. We didn't have a car while Johnny was gone and couldn't have gotten out with it if we tried anyway. The children walked to the neighbors to get on the bus to go to school. School was out for about a month that winter because of so much snow. The kids were out of school for so long, they had to make the time up by going to school on Saturdays and part of the next summer. While out of school, the boys spent a great deal of time sledding. Eldon broke his wrist sledding over a ledge at Ice Cave.
Johnny's uncle and aunt, Clyde and Heddie Thompson worried so much about us, they came and got Karen and I, and took us to their place for a couple of days. Then they took me to the hospital when Dennis was born. Johnny's cousin, Tom Harwood and his wife, took the rest of the children to their place while I was in the hospital.
After Dennis was born, Johnny decided to come home to visit us. Johnny was hijacked by two hitch-hikers who forced him from his car at gun point, after he had picked them up. They took him up into some lava rocks, tied his feet and tied his hands behind his back, pulled his hat down over his eyes, left him, and stole his car. Johnny was able to slip his boots off and walk down through the rocks, barefoot, to a farmhouse and call for help. The car was retrieved and the men prosecuted.
We moved from the Beckstead place in the fall of 1949 to Darrell Bennett's house, 2 mile east of Grace. We lived there approximately two years. All the boys delivered papers while living at the Bennett place. In fact, Farrell broke his leg while delivering papers. Farrell was riding his bicycle during the winter and the streets were slick. The heavy bag of papers made it difficult to balance. Farrell shot a .22 rifle bullet through his second toe while resting the barrel of the gun on his foot. He was so sure there were no shells in it. Right through the joint.
We then moved to the Tanner place in downtown Grace, where we stayed for approximately one year. We then spent a summer in the Turner area, west of Grace. Johnny spent that summer working for Roy Corbett. We then moved back to the Tanner place in Grace for approximately one and 2 years.
Darwin cut the end of his little finger off while working for Sam Smith. He raised the cutter bar up on the mowing machine and I guess it slipped and came down, cutting his finger off. Darwin's good friend, Calvin Smith, Sam's son, took Darwin to the doctor.
In the spring of 1954 we moved to Dick Smith's place, which was one mile south of town. This was the first place we lived that had an indoor bathroom, as well as electricity. It really seemed nice. While living there, Darwin worked for Jerry Rollands on Jerry's dry farm north of Soda Springs. Because of a June frost, the grain froze and ruined the crop, which put Darwin out of a job. This was after Darwin's first year of college. Farrell worked on Howard Thomas' farm that summer, as he had for several summers before. Eldon and Neal moved sprinkler pipe for Dick Smith.
Johnny had been working on the railroad in the winters in Pocatello for several years, and all of a sudden, he decided to move there. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, he had been working there and the family still lived in Grace, about 70 miles away. He would come home on weekends sometimes if the roads weren't too bad, sometimes every weekend. We moved to Pocatello in the fall of 1954, where we spent the first winter in a housing complex called Portneuf Park.
When we left Grace, Farrell stayed behind, living with the Archibald family. Farrell didn't want to go to Pocatello with us. He wanted to stay in Grace and work at the service station, so he did. I think it was early the next spring, Farrell came to Pocatello and wanted to know if his Dad would sign for him to go to the Navy. His Dad said he would, so Farrell went to the Navy at age 17. I didn't want him to go so young but Johnny said if he wasn't going to stay home, he had just as well go. We didn't like him staying in Grace and he didn't want to come to Pocatello. Johnny and Farrell never did get along. Darwin had been going to BYU, so we only had the four kids at home.
In the spring of 1955 we moved to a basement house on Nixon Road just west of the Gun Plant in Pocatello. Dennis started school while living on Nixon Road. Johnny started working for Clair Kracaw, on a farm, irrigating potatoes in the summer and still working for the railroad in the winters.
We then moved onto the Kracaw farm in the spring of 1957, near Fort Hall, Idaho. The house we lived in was situated about a mile from the main road. In order to get to the main road, we had to travel around the field most of the time, on the road that followed the ditches. After the fields were harvested int the fall, we were able to travel directly through he field. Access was a problem for the kids going to school as well as for us getting to work. I worked out of the home during part of this time. I worked at a potato plant one season, then went to work at State Hospital South in Blackfoot. The kids attended church in Fort Hall quite regularly and I taught primary for awhile.
Farrell married Shirley Hambleton October 14th, 1956, while he was in the Navy. Farrell was home ported in San Diego at the time. After getting out of the Navy, Farrell and Shirley moved to Shirley's home town, Jerome, Idaho.
Darwin married Patsy Alexander June 5th, 1957. Johnny and I took the family down to Gunnison, Utah for the reception. Darwin and Patsy had both graduated from BYU that spring. They then moved to Lafayette, Indiana where Darwin attended Purdue University. Darwin completed his PhD in physics.
Eldon lived with my Dad in Pocatello and attended Idaho State College for two years (1957-1958 and 1958 -1959). Eldon transferred to the University of Idaho at Moscow, Idaho, in the fall of 1959 where he completed his bachelors and masters degrees in Chemical Engineering. After graduating, Eldon accepted a job in Willmington, Delaware for DuPont. He met Rosemary Franks there and they married October 3rd, 1964.
Neal came home from college every summer and helped his Dad irrigate potatoes. After he graduated from the University of Idaho with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, he came home but then accepted a job for Boeing in Seattle and moved there.
Karen graduated from High School and got a job at the Arco Test Site in Arco, Idaho. She later married Delynn Russell on April 12, 1953 in the Idaho Falls LDS temple.
We lived on the Kracaw farm for about eight years, with the kids going to school in Pocatello. After managing to get through the field, one muddy day, Johnny said that if he could find a place in Pocatello, we would move there for the rest of the winter. We moved in to Pocatello that fall and planned to return to the farm the next spring. Instead of returning to the farm, we purchased the house we were renting and Johnnie commuted to the farm each day to do irrigating. We never went back to the Kracaw farm to live. This was the first and only house we had ever purchased.
I was still working at State Hospital South in Blackfoot during this time, while Johnny worked at the railroad in Pocatello. I rode to work with one of my co-workers each day, Thelma Geyer, who lived next door to us on Taft street. As I left for work one morning, Johnny was sitting at the kitchen table, getting ready to go to work. After working a couple hours, someone called from Pocatello, to tell me my husband was sick and in the hospital. I couldn't imagine that because he was alright when I left home. The head nurse took me to Pocatello. We got within two houses of home and our friend and neighbor, Lucille Capell, was out in her yard. We stopped to speak to Lucille and she told me that Johnny was already dead. He had just dropped over with a heart attack. Johnny died August 18, 1965.
At that time Dennis was the only child still living at home. He and I stayed in the little house on Taft street while he attended High School and I worked at the State Hospital. We went to church at the 5th Ward, not far from our place. Because Johnny had died, Neal decided to return to the Idaho area and accepted a job at the Arco Test site, where Karen was working. He then moved to Idaho Falls where he met his wife to be, Olive Waddoups. They were married in the Idaho Falls temple on November 4th, 1966, and settled in Idaho Falls.
I met my present husband at the State Hospital. He worked there in the laundry department picking up laundry from each floor and delivering it later, cleaned. His wife was sick with cancer and I would ask about her. She passed away eventually and Nathan and I continued to speak to each other on a casual basis. One day he asked if he could take me home. That is how our relationship started.
Our ward at Pocatello would take a bus load of people to the Idaho Falls temple every few weeks and I would go. Nathan found this out and met me just inside the door of the temple one day. He asked if he could take me home. I let someone in the bus know that I wouldn't be going home on the bus and went home with him. Then, we got to going up to the temple together.
One day while up to the temple I asked him where the baptismal font was. I hadn't seen it so we went to the baptismal font room. The door was partly closed but we went in, and that was where Nathan asked me to marry him.
Dennis had graduated from High School and was getting ready to go into the Navy. We thought we would get married after he left but instead it happened the other way around. We got married and then he left. That was the way Dennis wanted it. We were married January 23rd, 1969 and Dennis went on active duty January 31st.
Well here is what happened since the 20th of January, 1969. We had to get our blood test and then we had to wait until the 22nd for the results. Then we rushed to the court house to get the license. From there we went to the mortuary to see Leona Salisbury. She died Sunday and had her funeral Wednesday. She worked as a house keeper at the State Hospital so all the housekeepers were there, about 35 of them, Nathan and I, and the head superintendent and his wife. It made a good crowd besides a few others from the Hospital. From there we had to hurry to Idaho Falls so Karen, my daughter, could fix my hair for the wedding. Nathan had to hurry home to do the chores. Thursday morning, the 23rd, Nathan hurried with the chores and picked me up at Karen=s in Idaho Falls, and drove to the temple at 7:30. They said there would only be one session and we were 20 minutes late for it. By the time we got all the paper work done, our family had arrived, but several of our friends were not there yet but we had to go through anyway. We had just a small session and if it hadn't been for the ones in our wedding it would have been a very small session. When we got through all our friends were there except Rulon and Margaret Callister. So we were married with Horace, Owen and Mary, Joseph and Marie, Olive and Bill, Clara and Sarah, Karen and Delynn, Neal and Olive, my brother, Glenn Molyneaux, Bruce and Marlene, and Irmigard Hale. Most of the group then went back through the temple and my family and Nathan and I went to the West Bank for dinner. Then part of them had to leave. Glenn had to catch the plane for Salt Lake City. We then went back to the temple with Dennis, who had not been able to go with us. Then all our family and friends and Dennis went down to the temple dining room and had another meal. We really had a good time with them all, it was really nice. Rulon and Margaret Callister came while we were at the West Bank. Too late to see us married so they went on up to visit Margaret's father who was ailing.
The whole party who ate with us in the temple came and saw us off on our way. Dennis, Karen, and Neal put toilet paper streamers all over the car, wrote TRUE LOVE, JUST MARRIED, SALT LAKE OR BUST, etc., all over the car, placed paper bells in the window, and filled our suitcases with rice. When we pulled away from the curb, Dennis and Karen threw rice at us, so it was in the car, all over us, and in my hair since Karen did it up nice and high. Bruce and Marlene, Bill and Olive, and some that were going our way, honked their horns for a ways down the road.
We drove to Blackfoot to pick up the camera and get the toilet paper off the car, then we hurried to Pocatello, to my house, to get the paint off the car and got away before anyone caught us.
That night we got a motel room in Salt Lake and rested after the wedding and traveling. Friday we laid around until after noon, then we went around to the sights. Saturday morning we left the motel and started visiting my family. We saw my three brothers and their families, then we went to my Mother's for the night.
Where ever we went, we scattered rice all over as it was in our suit-cases and clothes and my hair was full of it. We received presents everywhere we went and when we got home Sunday night we were still getting presents. All Nathans brothers and sisters went together and got us an electric can opener and knife sharpener. Among other things, we received; a table lamp, a beautiful chandelier, a mattress and cover pad, a blanket, sheets and pillow cases, a table cloth, and all their friendship which was wonderful. One Monday night our Ward members gave us a party in the Relief Society room. It was crowded around the outside and we played games in the middle of the floor. They blind folded me and gave me a cup of water and Nathan was supposed to tell me when to pour it into a cup on his head by looking into a mirror. All he could see me with was a 2 inch mirror so he finally told me to pour it and of course, I missed the cup, but the whole evening was real sport.
Later, we moved my belongings up from Pocatello and tried to make room for all of it in Nathan's house. We had a lot to do to get settled in married life but it was still fun.
Nathan had a small motorcycle and I used to ride on the back with him. One day he said, "Let's get you a motorcycle and then we can ride together". I said, "No way", but he kept on saying I could practice there in the field, so I finally gave in. He got me a little trail bike. I practiced riding in the field until I could handle it pretty good. He said, "Lets go out on the road. We will watch for cars. There aren't any now and we will go slow". So, we did. September, 1970, the first and only time we went out on the road, we went to Nathans sister's place. On the way back we came to a cross road. Nathan was in front of me and passed through the cross road. As I was going through the intersection, a young girl ran a stop sign and knocked me clear across the road. I was knocked out. I heard the sirens and remember opening my eyes and seeing the girl who hit me, Phoebe McBride, standing there, then I passed out and didn't come to for a long time. Nathan said it was for 16 days.
I recovered from the accident but was in a body cast from my chest to the tip of my toes for ten months. Dennis got out of the Navy October 20th, 1970, just after my accident and was able to be home and visit me while I was still in the hospital. After I was released from the hospital, several of our friends helped care for me during the daytime while Nathan was at work. I also stayed at Neal's for a month and Karen's for a month. It was quite an ordeal! I had 3 casts in 10 months. The first one I sweat off in about 8 days because of pneumonia. After I got out of the cast, my knee was stiff. The Dr. told me to go have therapy. I did for some time and it wasn't doing a bit of good. I asked the Dr. if there wasn't anything else that could be done. He ended up braking my knee but not knowingly, also broke my tendons. I went to therapy after this and the therapist tried to bend my leg. I screamed with pain but he bent it anyway. My leg swelled up and even then the therapist thought I was exaggerating the amount of pain and didn't believe it was hurting as bad as I thought it was. I went to the Dr. again, who took x-rays and immediately took me into surgery and screwed my tendon to the bone. I had a stiff leg for several years afterward. Did that therapist ever apologize to me when he found out. He said he was terribly sorry and had no idea what the real circumstances were. I received ongoing care for some time and had a 17 2" stainless steel pin in my leg that was later removed. The accident caused my one knee to not be able to bend which hindered my ability to climb stairs, get in and out of cars, and even walk.
In September, 1972, Nathan and I went back East. We stopped at Illinois to visit Nathan's daughter, Annette and son David. Then on to Pittsburgh to visit Eldon and his wife Rosemary. Then we went to Washington D.C., New York, Palmyra, and Niagra Falls. We saw all the LDS Church sites. We also flew to California for Thanksgiving at Darwin and Patsy's, that same year. We later traveled to Cardston, in Canada, in September of 1974.
We already had our call to go on a mission, so on January 14th, 1975, we left for Salt Lake City to visit with my Mother for a few days before going into the mission home the 18th. We took our old Cadillac and left for Vancouver Canada on January 23rd. We went to the mission home there. President Preece was the president of the Canada, Vancouver mission at the time. We stayed there Friday night to Monday afternoon. We went to Queen Charlotte Island on a ferry with our car. Here we served most of our mission, in the city of Masset. We stopped at Ocean Falls and Prince Rupert to load and unload supplies. When we got to Masset, the Elders met us and took us to a couples place who were not members of the Church yet. The Elders had been teaching Sandy and Nancy Kechnie and they had waited up for us until we arrived at 2:30 a.m. They were really wonderful to us. We stayed with them until we found a house to live in 3 days later. It was a new house and we held church services in our big living room.
There were Heida Indians to work with there as well as people on a military base. It was quite a small town with only one main street. It rained a lot there and so was very beautiful, so green everywhere. In fact they couldn't raise crops or gardens because of the excessive rain. We loved it there and we loved the people. The few members were Cathy Houston and her little girl, Sister Crawford, Brother Razder, and Rose Robinson at Masset and Sister Barns at Port Clemets. There were two Elders at Masset, on one end of the island, and two at the other end of the island, seventy miles away. The Heida village was three miles away so we took our car out there every day to tract. Most of the Heida Indians were really friendly but they didn't want anything to do with the gospel. We really thought a lot of some of them. The Elders were teaching Sandy and Nancy Kechnie. We also visited with them a lot and answered a lot of their questions. Their baptism in Pure Lake was really wonderful. Gordon Price, who we taught, was baptized in Pure Lake also, as was Rob Robinson, and Veronica Woodfine.
On our days off we would go out on the beach and gather shells and watch the ocean. We got clams quite a few times and cooked them up in chowder. It was really good.
We enjoyed our mission there and really hated to leave. Brother Razdor cried when Nathan announced that we were to leave. He was a man about 75 who was quite sickly. We had often taken him to the store, to the doctor, etc.
From there we went to Prince Rupert where we finished out our mission living under the church. We enjoyed it there also and made a lot of friends.
When we returned home, we went on a few trips. We went to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see my sister-in-law, Lila, then to Arizona, then to see Ed and Pearl in Wyoming. We also traveled to London Bridges, Grand Canyon, and Bryces Canyon.
After being home for 6 months, Nathan and I were called to a stake mission. We usually tracted with the full time missionaries.
In November of 1977, we went on a trip to Israel. We flew from Pocatello to Salt Lake City, and on to Los Angeles where we spent the night. From there we flew to England and on to Tel Aviv, where we stayed five days. We traveled by bus each day to visit old Tel Aviv, the old ruins and buildings that were there in the days of the Romans. We then went to the Mediterranean Sea and saw where the Romans brought in all their supplies for their conquest of Israel. We picked up some shells on the sea shore and saw where Paul boarded a ship and went to Greece to do his preaching. We also traveled up the coast by Tire and Sidon and saw the land of the Philistines and saw many of their ancient buildings, roads, and trails. We went to the Sea of Galilee and sang songs as we crossed on the boat. We then went to Tel Aviv and to Jerusalem and visited the Moslem cathedrals where we had to remove our shoes, all forty-nine of us. We visited the Dead Sea and waded in the water there. We also visited the hill of Masada.Nathan and I served an eighteen month LDS mission in New Mexico in 1978 and 1979. Since then we have done extensive work in the LDS Temple in Idaho Falls and enjoy working in our garden.