1966-1984

In 1966, when we moved to Anaheim Canyon, two good things happened. One we went to a different ward and two I began to teach for Placentia School District.  This made it much easier to turn our lives around.  Many of our old associations were dropped.   We developed many friendships in the ward.  We had many different callings.   One of the callings was the ward activity committee co- chairman.  This was really good for us, especially for Larry.  He was a natural for organizing activities of a great variety.  They were always original and fun.  The committee grew from about 6 members to 16.  Everyone wanted to serve on the committee. 

In 1974 Randy left for his mission to Sydney, Australia.  We hadn’t prepared ourselves to go to the temple with him.  It made me feel sad and I decided that we would get ourselves ready to go by the time he got back. We had begun to pay our tithing.  My parents were coming down to visit shortly after Christmas in 1976.  We were going to surprise them and go to the temple all together.  I am sure they made it a priority in their prayers for us to find our way back to temple attendance.  I received a phone call from my mom Christmas Eve that dad had passed away.  Sadly, I learned what procrastination was in that moment.  Although we went to the temple regularly after that, it was always with sadness that I had missed that opportunity to be in the temple with both of my parents.

1978 was quite a year!!  Debbie married Brian Matthews Mar. 3, Lori married Bobby Jo Rapp Jul 8, and Randy married Jill Sept. 15.  And Steve was endowed Jan 9, 1979.  His mission was to take him to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  That day when Steve had received his endowments and as a family, we all stood in a circle, with our arms around each other, was the happiest day of my life.  I got a tiny glimpse of what heaven would be like with our family all together.  All of these events took place in the Los Angeles Temple.  The sealer for the weddings was Justin Lillywhite.  Interestingly, he had been our bishop during some of our years of inactivity.  Although, my dad wasn’t there in body for any of these proceedings, I felt his spirit there.