FYI:
For Your Information

Turn around and see yourself coming—that’s how fast you move from place to party to conference to campus and back. Home is the place to be fed and comforted, cautioned and quieted, and to get more supplies for the next event!

It’s no news to the friends of Pamela Elrod that she has been selected for listing in 1972 Who’s Who Among Students In American Junior Colleges. She’s a student at Columbia College in Missouri and co-editor of the Latter-day Saint Student Association newspaper.

Sister missionaries wore a new badge during a special pre-mission self-improvement session, and smiles went along with the message: SMAS, which stands for “sister missionaries are special.” Lorraine Keister instructs the class.

Elder Rod Badger writes from Brazil that the miracle the gospel works in the lives of people has been his greatest eye-opener since arriving in the field. “Add that to the real love you feel for people a lot older than you, and you have the essence of missionary joy. We’ve come to love Victor Colletti who is eighty-two and was the third person baptized in his village. Since then he’s learned to read and write and has been instrumental in bringing twenty-seven people into the Church. He still spends two or three days a week doing tracting. He’s a real help to us missionaries”

Shanna Tibbitts is an instructor of flat pattern design and clothing construction at Ricks College. It is interesting that attractive Shanna was a student not so long ago in the class she now teaches to eager students, like Rose Marie Peterson of Nampa, Florida; Carol Wimberley of Okinawa; and Kathy Patterson. Apryle House of Logan fashions ties using a favorite sewing trick that Shanna demonstrated at the Ricks College spring bazaar.

George Dracocardos is head of the M Men and Gleaners in London (England) Stake. There is a real blending of nationalities in the group, and members feel it’s part of their success. The committee in charge of the recent, highly successful weekend of events held with MIA people the region over was made up of Florence Smith, Dawn Harrison, and Chriss Freeman. The weekend included inspiring speakers, sports, testimonies, and a buffet dance where new friends were made, addresses exchanged; and, who knows, a marriage or two might evolve!

Six compositions by Thai student Prach Prachyathammavong, a doctoral candidate in composition at BYU, were presented in concert recently to an impressed audience. When he completes his degree, Prach will return to Thailand where he will head the music department at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Randy McGee has imagination. He’s unintimidated as well. He’s also the cheerleader at Thomas Jefferson High School in Washington who had “lost so many school elections” he decided to run for an office he could win! He invented the office of Archduke, and his campaign included the wearing of a red cap and the handing out of a job description with his picture to student voters. The student council admitted that his speech got the most raves at the election assembly, and Mormons in the area appreciated the good publicity in the local papers. As Archduke, Randy spreads good cheer, stirs up goodwill efforts between schools, and acts as chief pepper-upper at games. “As far as I know,” comments Randy laughingly, “I’m the only Archduke in the USA”.

Sherrie Ann Jones of Kalispell won the title of Junior Miss of Montana. She’s been a real help to her seventeen-year-old brother who is paralyzed from the neck down as the result of an automobile accident and who claims his sister is as good as she is beautiful.

Beehive girls in Falls, Pennsylvania, baked cookies for missionaries and sent them along with poetry to suit each man, according to Gail Coolbaugh. Great treat!

Polynesian Week featured much aloha; and Jack Hao, chairman, saw to it that powder puff rugby was included in the week’s events on BYU campus. Students wore leis and danced the hula and husked coconuts.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was the scene of a Student Association conference with special guest Joe Christensen from Salt Lake City. A special Success Through Service award was presented by Student Association President John Livingston to President Asael E. Palmer, who was counselor to Elder Hugh B. Brown when Lethbridge Stake was first organized. Music was furnished by a girls’ sextette from Lethbridge, where Merlin Litchfield is Student Association president.

MIA girls in Washington, Utah, have been working on a service project for the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake. A quilt and stuffed toys as well as certain clothing items have been made by the girls and were delivered in person. A time to remember for everyone.

Sally Peterson is a music major who topped twenty-three other collegiate pianists to take first place at the National Artists Competition held last month in Midland, Texas. The University of Utah coed started piano studies when she was seven and has performed with the Utah Symphony Orchestra three times, beginning when she was eleven years of age. When Sally graduates, she will have her M.A. and then will perform on the concert circuit as well as teach.

Open house held on the University of Idaho campus at the institute was themed around Yesterday, Today, and Forever. Guests were conducted through a tour of displays depicting the gospel and the Mormon story. The student ward Relief Society had a fine exhibit that helped the young women to see how fully needs are met in the Church.

Nearly a thousand foreign language students from twenty high schools in southeastern Idaho were guests at Ricks College for the third annual Ricks Language Festival. The students competed in a college bowl type of event in French, German, Spanish, and Latin. Ricks is one of the language training centers for departing missionaries of the Church.

A wedge of young people climbed the last hill looking upward to the first rays of the morning sun. For college students they seemed strangely quiet as they approached the little clearing. It was a time for spiritual rejuvenation and the culmination of the Utah State University student ward reunion, according to Don Thorpe, photographer. First the sacrament was passed to all present. Then the sweet feelings inside became vocal in the testimony meeting as someone said:

“I attended the Palmyra Pageant and a testimony meeting in the Sacred Grove; now I have the same feeling here as I did at that holy place.” Others voiced similar feelings. Tears came gently to the surface. “Somehow now I feel my life hasn’t been all that it should have been. … I want to do better.” Warming smiles were shared, and strangers became close friends in an instant. There was an aura of love all around; no one feared saying what was felt inside; understanding sank deep into full hearts.

Nearly all of the forty students present had stood on their feet to voice their love and dedication when the meeting finished almost two and a half hours later. Again there was a reverent stillness as the group filed down the hill. They were leaving this spot of sacred experience, but the moment would stay in their memories.

Social Services in the Church

Some people call them the good old days. At least things didn’t appear to move quite so fast, and everything may have seemed simpler somehow.

But today our world is changing.

We are now faced with situations more complex than those of our grandparents, and in this turmoil Church members, as well as others, find themselves caught up in social and psychological problems they may not know how to resolve without help.

Ever tried holding family home evening in prison? Don’s folks did.

Or found your funds dwindling and no job in sight? Sandra, alone and away from home for the first time, was getting desperate.

Here’s Frank. Is he lying to himself when he says a drink now and then doesn’t make a man an alcoholic?

And how does his attitude affect his son Ted, who is experimenting with drugs?

These and other dramatized sequences in the film Social Services in the Church illustrate a few ways that volunteers and professional people are working with bishops in resolving social and emotional problems of members.

Because Sandra’s bishop, hundreds of miles away, filled out a simple card, home teachers in the new city answered her prayers for help.

Frank got some straight talk from a former alcoholic and began to lay the foundation for a solid relationship with his son.

And Don—well, Don is a fictional character in the movie. But the convict who volunteered to play the part soon joined in the family home evening program conducted at the prison by the Social Services Department of the Church and was baptized after his release. Now he looks forward to a temple marriage some day.

Social Services in the Church

Produced under the direction of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve, the film Social Services in the Church, color, twenty-six minutes, may be borrowed from your stake or regional library or purchased from the Department of Motion Picture Production, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84601. Price $82.50, plus $2.00 for shipping parcel post (extra for airmail; check rates for your postal zone). Enclose check with order.

Help in Genealogy

The Seventh Annual Priesthood Genealogical Research Seminar will be held on the BYU Campus July 31–August 4, 1972. Instruction will be provided in all phases of genealogical activities, including beginning genealogy, intermediate and advanced research in most geographical areas of the world, priesthood leadership, ward records examiners training, teaching the class Family Exaltation and You, branch genealogical libraries, family organizations, and youth programs in genealogy.

Instructors include a special guest from the national scene, Milton Rubincam, as well as Elder Theodore M. Burton, vice-president and general manager of the Genealogical Society and managing director of the priesthood genealogy committee, with other specialists from the Genealogical Society and from the genealogical faculties of BYU and Ricks. In addition there will be daily devotionals by General Authorities.

Registration, if postmarked before July 14, 1972, is $12.50 (includes course outline and banquet); after that date the cost is $15.50. The seminar may also be attended by the day. Housing is available on the BYU campus.

For more information write Special Courses and Conferences, Herald R. Clark Building, BYU, Provo, Utah 84601.

Church News

The Presiding Bishopric of the Church was reorganized during April general conference in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Bishop John H. Vandenberg and Bishop Robert L. Simpson were named as Assistants to the Council of the Twelve. Bishop Victor L. Brown, former counselor to Bishop Vandenberg was sustained as Presiding Bishop. As counselors he named H. Burke Petersen of Phoenix, Arizona, and Vaughn J. Featherstone of Boise, Idaho.

Mothers Are Marvelous

Kent Cornwall, Pasadena, California, thrilled his mother with a message that expresses the way many sons feel about their mothers. Here are some thoughts he included that you might want to clip out and give to your mom—or maybe you’ll be inspired to write your own!

“Mom is the person who’s always there when I need somebody to talk with. She’s the only one who notices me in a crowd of great people. She’s the one who’ll take care of me when I should be watching out for her. She’ll be the one who will cry the hardest and be the saddest and the happiest when I leave on my mission. … She’s the one who’ll keep on doing it when I don’t even say thanks and the one who wants me to be at the top but doesn’t care if I’m not, as long as I tried. She’s the one to whom I owe my life and an understanding of the guiding principles I live by. She’s the first to forget my faults and remember my talents. Happily … she’s going to be my mother for eternity.”

Calisthenics and Music

Some years ago it was found that cows seem more content and give more milk if soothing music is played during milking hours. It would be interesting to learn from dairymen the musical style preferred most by cows—folk, country, rock, jazz, easy-rhythm, or classical. Even though this answer isn’t at our fingertips, another answer is. Shirley Rockwood of Salt Lake City did a masters thesis to find out if members of physical education classes can do more push-ups and sit-ups and run longer when background music is played. She wanted to learn if there is any truth to the idea that music can stir one up to super performance. While students went through the experiments, Shirley played records of a variety of music. The results? Music made no difference in the performance of activities involving strength and muscular and cardiovascular endurance.

Shirley did learn that 81 percent of the students felt that they performed better with music, even though they didn’t. The next research project of interest would be whether music helps, hinders, or is of neutral value in doing one’s homework …

Modern Pioneers

There is the story about a young man who came to the gates of a distant city and asked an old man sitting there, “What kind of people live here?” And the man answered wisely, “The same kind of people who live from whence you came.” This is true with soldiers who leave home to fight battles.

“Being a Latter-day Saint group leader in Bien Hoa, RVN, is thrilling business,” writes Virgil Kovalenko, “because of the kind of men I worship with. You can see anything you want to see in this land of variety. But the Lord’s influence in man’s affairs is very evident here because Mormons have left a great impression on the people they’ve come in contact with. Most impressive are the Vietnamese Saints who meet with their occidental brothers in priesthood, Sunday School, and sacrament meetings. These are modern Mormon pioneers. We think we’re contributing to Church history. Lives are being changed, the gospel is being spread, branches are being set up, and friendships that reach across political involvements are being formed.”

Idea of the Month

How to Have Fun and Influence People

The bishop’s youth committee generates great ideas. Here is one that kept Dallas First Warders happy in the planning stages and laughing for days after the event. At the “Missionary-Member Outing” the admission charge was one nonmember friend brought as a guest. Youth from many other faiths in the area accepted the plan graciously, and a wonderful time was had by all—catching squealing pigs, roping a brahma calf, bulldogging, sack racing, swimming, and ball playing. It was a time of true fellowship. Nonmembers learned that Mormons are friendly. “I think your church offers more for young people to hang onto than any other church,” said one girl, following a deep conversation during refreshments about religious beliefs. Is this an idea you might try in your area? Texans feel that lively activity breaks down the barriers of self-consciousness that nonmembers could have at a Mormon outing.

Getting to Know You

The brothers three who are constantly chalking up new honors in Spokane, Washington, are John, Paul, and Peter Hawkins. John takes over Paul’s place as studentbody president at their high school for next year. They are all Eagle Scouts. They do innovative things such as establishing a job survey that secured jobs for sixty students in the area. Active in the Church, the boys have served as priesthood officers and seminary leaders and have participated in many high school efforts.

Shanna Tibbitts, young designer

Apryle House demonstrates tie making

Double Quartet singing at Canadian Conference

John Livingston greets Mr. and Mrs. Asael E. Palmer in Lethbridge

Merlin Litchfield, LDSSA President

Students walk the meadows for sacred sacrament service in the early morning

Meeting place of the Bien Hoa Branch, Vietnam

John, Paul, and Peter Hawkins (left to right) are the Spokane, Washington, student leaders who have inspired fine feelings about the Mormons in their nonmember friends