Life's Blessings


As a very young man we used to have Priesthood Meeting early in the morning, then go home and come back later in the morning for Sunday School, and then again later at night for Sacrament Meeting. The Sacrament Meeting lasted from one and a half hours to possibly two hours. On a couple of occasions Elder Stephen L. Richards would visit our ward when he was in the area. He usually stayed down at Lake Mead in one of the cabins there just past Boulder Beach. When he came, the meeting could go on for quit a while, but it was interesting to have a General Authority come to our little Ward.
Pump Organ (not BC)
One of the most enjoyable visitors was Ruel Smith from Overton, Nevada. He came once in a while and then would stay after Sacrament Meeting and play the organ for those that wanted to stay and listen. The Organ was an old foot pump instrument which had to be pumped with your feet while you played. I always stayed. I couldn’t play the organ, but I loved to hear it, and I really loved to hear Ruel Smith play it.  He was marvelous. I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what the word marvelous meant at the time, but it was. He could make that old pump organ do anything that he wanted. He would play and play and then he would need to stop, but we begged him to play more. He would usually play a few more songs and then he would have to leave. It was one of my most enjoyable times at church. He later developed some illness that made it hard for him to play. I really missed him coming to our ward to visit.
I have written before that I had real trouble learning to read. One time my dad came home and asked me to go read for an older woman for a little while a couple of times a week. I agreed and then went over to Hattie Musgraves home. It was quite small. It had a couple of chairs in the front room and a small kitchen attached to the front room. There must have been a bathroom and a bedroom, but I never really saw them.
I would go to her house sit and read to her from the Bible. She would sit there and listen. If I made a mistake or couldn’t pronounce a word, she would fill it in. I would read and look over and she appeared to be asleep so I would skip a couple of verses and she would say without opening her eyes go back to verse 8 where you left off.
One time I took a copy of the Book of Mormon and started reading from it. It didn’t faze her. She just said I am not a member of that church so please return to the Bible. She was a very kind woman who I thought that was just trying to help me read. One time as I was getting ready to go over, my mom said that I wouldn’t be reading there anymore, because Hattie had passed away. I was a pall bearer at her funeral which was held at the LDS church even though she wasn’t a member. She was just one lady that my dad had met and befriended who needed a little company during the week. I really liked her.
Catherine Dunn Manning
There was another lady, Catherine Manning, that was on my paper route. Her husband had passed away before I ever knew her. She lived on California St., and as I would come to her home, I would park my bike and walk up the wooden steps to her front porch. I always made as much noise as I possibly could going up making sure that she would know that I was coming up. She would meet me at the door and invite me in. She would tell me how skinny I looked and ask if my parents were even feeding me. Then she would go in and cut me a nice big piece of pie she had made. She was probably the best cook in town. If she could see me now she would know that I have been well-fed. Our friendship started when she saw me on my bike delivering papers and asked if when I was through, I could come back and help her clean her windows by her sink. I told her sure and came back and cleaned the two windows so she could see out when she was cooking. After that we were great friends.

Note: Catherine Dunn Manning and her husband William T. Manning had been some of the early settlers in the area. They are one of the Mormon families that are featured in the book, Mormons in Nevada, by Leonard J Arrington (pages 60-61, originally published in twelve parts by the Las Vegas Sun, 1971-1978).
Other personal involvements I had with this book is the inclusion of my wife’s grandparents. M.J. and Hazel Christensen. Page 63, and the help I gave the author as a graduate student on Chapter X, “Bunkerville and the United Order.” Arrington put me in his bibliography for my paper of the same name.  

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